There are meals, and then there are meals. And just like the hobbits had second breakfast, I think there’s plenty of room for more meals in the day.
Which is why, after a somewhat unsatisfying dinner the other night, we stopped by an old favourite for a drive-by meal: Doughbox diner in Enmore.
I think I have food ADD. I love food, but I crave the variety. Maybe it’s from growing up in an Asian culture – once you have dinners that involve a smorgasbord of different platters from which you can pick, you’ll never truly go back to single plate dining.
But I digress.
Ever since the Beak and Sons launch I attended the other week, I had sausages sitting in my fridge, and really, we all know I don’t just eat them straight if I had a choice. =)
Inspired by one of the canapés we had that night, I decided scotch eggs were in order.
After months of being tempted by countless Instagram photos of mouthwatering foods coming out of the kitchens at Drink and Dine’s (the same people who brought you The Oxford Tavern, the House of Crabs and others) latest offering – Chica Linda – I finally got the chance to taste some of this goodness myself.
After all, when a restaurant menu says “Latino specialities”, I imagine someone’s abuela puttering about behind a stove, loading up plates full of fragrant, punchy food.
You know those days when you just have to grab food on the run? Where you’re walking while you’re eating, trying not to spill random bits of a sandwich down your shirt? Those are the days that I call Drive-by eating, where the ol’ grab-and-run is the order of the day. I find that Vietnamese pork rolls are one of the best options for this: it’s compact, flavourful, filling, and served in a paper bag that catches all the errant sandwich fall-outs. Which is why I always find myself at my local bakery, en route to my weekly grocery shop.
Winter is the season for noodle soups, and I don’t discriminate! From chicken noodle soups, to one-pot man soups, and everything in-between, noodle soups are the perfect all-in-one dish to soothe a cold and rejuvenate a tired body.
So why not expand your noodle soup horizons with this version of a Persian classic?
Ahh the (not so) humble burger. Ranging from the gourmet to the downright coronary-inducing, the traditional beef burger and all it’s variations have become the comfort food of many, and is a symbol of Western culture.
To celebrate National Burger Day, Chur Burger is giving away 800 burgers today, starting at 11am.
And for those of us who can’t make it, here are 6 ways to get more burger in your life.
Sausages have been underestimated, I think. Relegated to Sunday sausage sizzles, and often served up smothered with ketchup, the humble sausage is often associated with “kid food” and “mystery meat”.
But really, not all sausages are created equal.
A basic red sauce is so versatile. Just tweaking aromatics and spices can turn it into a sauce from almost any culture. And it’s not only a culinary chameleon, it’s also freezer friendly!
So when I had a tub of red sauce defrosting in my fridge, I just knew that I had to do something different with it – I had already made lasagne and spaghetti bolognese, so what about meatballs?
Given that we had been eating a lot of pasta, I knew that I didn’t want to have meatballs over more pasta. So, inspired by the smells coming from the local bakery, we decided that meatball subs were in order!
But before that, the food.
I first visited Chi and Co as part of a Canley Height Food Crawl organised by Thang from Noodlies and the Fairfield City Council. We tried their signature tapas dishes – from pulled beef sliders to spanner crab on betel leaf – and were plied with expertly mixed cocktails.
So when they offered another chance to dine with them, I said
“HELLS YEAH!”
We knew that we wanted to order different dishes to what we had tried previously – can the rest of the menu stand up to the high standard that was set before?
Well the Son-in-Law Eggs (pictured above) were very cute, and very flavourful. I loved the savoury sauce on the top of the egg that lent a smoky spiciness to the deep fried eggs. What I wasn’t so crazy about, however, was the hard boiled egg yolk. Yes, I know that traditionally the eggs are hard boiled before they’re deep fried, and for these eggs not to have the grey ring of overcooked yolks shows finesse in execution. But really, I’m not a hard boiled egg person ordinarily, and I was really hoping to have a gold liquid centre.
Yolk porn man, YOLK PORN!
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We also ordered the Duck Spring Rolls. Pieces of savoury duck and juicy shiitake mushrooms are wrapped in an egg wrapper, then deep fried to crispy perfection. Now it might just be that I’ve got low expectations – I’ve never had spring rolls blow my mind before – but these were really good. It almost didn’t need the sweet syrupy plum sauce that it came with – there was a complexity and just pure yumminess that left me speechless.
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| Salt and Pepper Squid |
If a restaurant tells you that something is a signature dish, then you just gotta order it. And well, we just have a weakness for Salt and Pepper Squid. Our first impression was that the squid could be a touch crispier – yes it was a nice light coating, but there was a distinct lack of crunch – but the balance of seasoning was actually really sophisticated. Too often we’ve had this same dish in other eateries that have left us grasping for water, or popping a mint because of all the garlic, but this one was light enough on the salt that we were very happy demolishing the whole plate and fighting for the last piece.
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| Braised Beef Short Ribs |
Besides all the share plates, we thought we might have enough space to squeeze in one more main. I’ve got a thing for beef anything lately, and these Braised Beef Short Ribs with pickles just called my name. We also ordered rice and roti to accompany it – and to mop up the sweet sticky glaze – and sat confident in our ability to be little piggies and eat all the food.
Well, no. The beef was rich, and which was artfully balanced by the pickles (we would have appreciated a larger serving of pickles though), but we really shouldn’t have ordered both rice and roti. I much preferred the rice to go with the beef, but the roti was quite pleasant on its own – those crispy buttery layers make this the puff pastry of South East Asia.
As always, it was a lovely experience, and we were well taken care of. If you drop by, be sure to try something off their tapas menu – you can read more about that in this post.
And now, for the best bit. If you’ve read this long, I applaud and thank you. And if you’ve just scrolled to the bottom because you WANT THAT VOUCHER, I respect that too. Either way, you can enter below – leave a comment, tweet this post, or SHOW ME SOME LUUURRRRVE.
Good luck!
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| Source: Daremoshiranai |
Nothing in this world is original anymore, so they say. Well, who needs originality when you can just combine things that already exist! It’s called building on previous knowledge right? So here are 5 delicious food love-childs that have made the world a better place.
LET’S EAT ALL THE FOOD!!
1. Waffle Sandwiches
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| Source: odonata98 |
Sandwiches are awesome because they are so easy to eat and waffles are awesome because they are fluffy clouds of happiness with a crisp exterior and the perfect surface area to soak up sauce. And we already know that waffles aren’t just a sweet food – chicken and waffles anyone? So delicious is this love-child that The Huffington Post did a round up! Read all about it here.
2. Cronuts
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| Source: ccho |
Created by Dominque Ansel at his bakery in New York, the Cronut is basically croissant dough that has been shaped into a doughnut, then deep fried, filled with custard and iced, just like a doughnut. Now I don’t know what kind of late night munchies created this artery clogging dessert, but it’s one magnificent piece of work. So magnificent, in fact, that imitations have popped up all over the world. People are still queueing up round the block at Dominique Ansel’s bakery, and scalpers are selling these babies at about $100 a pop! So rich I would suggest sharing, you can try a version of it in Sydney at Adriano Zumbo’s patisseries.
3. Ramen Burger
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| Source: ManEatManila |
I’m still not sure what kind of college late night memories inspired ramen burger creator Keizo Shimamoto, but I think that this is a delicious win either way. Many recipes and imitations have popped up around the world, and some of them include involved steps like including egg whites, to freezing the ramen ‘buns’, to other more elaborate steps to ensure a compact bun that can support the patty but still have a nice tender bite to it. In Sydney, On-Ramen has debuted their own version of the ramen burger, to mixed reviews.
4. Chicken Fried Steak
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| Source: Jeff |
So this is not exactly new, but delicious nonetheless. Steak is coated just like southern fried chicken, and fried in chicken oil. Paired with a hearty gravy, this dish to me screams comfort. Kinda like a schnitzel, but not! Try making your own with Alton Brown’s recipe, here.
5. Wafflegato
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| Source: Hungry Go Where |
Dominique Ansel has been at it again, this time creating a Belgian Waffle flavoured ice cream, to replace the traditional ice cream in an affogato. While it might not be as big a leap as some of the other food love-childs, this is definitely adding the sense of theatre back into dining, something which I think that we’re sorely lacking. And I can appreciate a little bit of drama. 😉
So have you tried any of these food mashups? What do you think? Let me know about any of your favourites that I’ve missed out!
