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Ginger and Shallot, Eastwood

Review October 8, 2013 2 Comments

Sometimes you want a change. Sometimes you want something new. And sometimes, you want familiar, comforting food in a new environment.

And that’s how we ended up at Ginger & Shallots. Every time I passed by this bustling, always-busy restaurant, I see fresh hot food getting brought out to tables of happy families and friends. Safe choice right?

More than safe, it turns out. The food was indeed hot, fresh, and incredibly tasty.

Salt and Pepper Squid, $17.90

After reading a few reviews, I ordered the salt and pepper squid as a base comparison. It was fresh and crispy, but just very slightly under salted when you compare it to places like golden century.

What was really nice though, was the Soft Shell Crab Vermicelli with X.O. Sauce.

Soft shell crab, $24.90

When I first saw this dish, I thought that it would be overpriced and not as satisfying. Boy, was I wrong. The portion is massive, and would have been more than enough for the both of us for lunch, without the salt and pepper squid. It was flavourful, crispy and well seasoned. I love the springy texture of the stir fried vermicelli, and it brought back old food memories in all the best ways.

Service-wise, the staff can get bowled over by the sheer amount of customers, but they are quite efficient once you get their attention, and there’s a very no-nonsense attitude to it. It was a really enjoyable lunch, and their specials look worth trying out the next time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

We ate at:
Ginger and Shallots Chinese Cuisine
02 9874 8066
Shop 25/1 Lakeside Rd Eastwood, NSW

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Will you waste food to prove a point?

Food For Thought October 7, 2013 1 Comment

I am an absolute advocate of reducing food waste. Not only is it bad for the wallet – you wouldn’t throw money into the bin would you? – I also find it incredibly disrespectful of people’s hard work in producing the food for you to buy.

But what happens when you don’t believe in the food producer?

I went to SMH’s Pyrmont Growers Markets and bought tickets to the breakfast talk by Matthew Evans.

As part of the admission, I got given a bag of goodies from the sponsors of the event. As you know, I absolutely getting new things to try, but then I saw Barilla products in the bag.

The CEO of Barilla, Guido Barilla, recently made some comments on Italian radio about how he didn’t support gay couples adopting, and how he wouldn’t use gay families in Barilla marketing because they aren’t a “sacred family”.

OH NO HE DIDN’T.

This then led to huge international furore and a boycott fuelled by outrage. I stopped buying Barilla, but the reactions of others were more extreme, and I saw many posted pictures of Barilla products in the bin.

Barilla has since apologised, but it almost seems like a case of too little too late. I still have an aversion to buying their products, and I’m sure it’s pretty obvious to them what a PR nightmare they’ve created. The only thing that would really redeem them in my eyes is the resignation of the CEO, but that’s another story for another day.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a quandary: do I throw away perfectly useable product that was given to me, just to prove a point? I very nearly did: I was quite blinded by the instant distaste the moment I saw their products in the bag. Then I stopped. I feel equally strongly about not wasting food, and I didn’t shell out my money buying their products, but I still refuse to have that in my kitchen.

So what to do?

I finally decided to donate them to Oz Harvest. They were there, and thankfully accepting food donations, so I dropped it off. I think that taking a stand is a luxury that thankfully I can afford, but if my kids hungry and I was given Barilla products, I’d be hard pressed to say no. So while I’ll not be using it, I’d rather help feed the hungry than to put it to waste.

What would you have done in this situation?

My Chocolate Shoppe, Kiama

Review October 5, 2013

I think high tea has somehow fallen out of popularity. I wonder why, because I’ve had fond memories of high tea from when I was a kid. My parents would bring me to high tea at a hotel, where everything was shiny and dainty and…mini! As a kid, I thought that high tea was about kids, because everything seemed to be kid sized – itty bitty cucumber sandwiches anyone? – but now I know better.

High tea – in my opinion – isn’t so much about the food, it’s about the experience. It’s about the dainty. It’s about the sipping tea and lunching with your friends.

My Chocolate Shoppe is one of the many shops along the main street of Terralong. It’s quaint exterior suggested a much more homely feel than the big chocolate shop boys like Max Brenner and San Churros, and the staff were warm and friendly. When I ordered the High Tea, $22, the staff seemed a little confused, so I guess it might not be often ordered, but it was brought out promptly, with minimal fuss, which restored my faith.

While I appreciated that it was a good selection of what this little cafe had to offer, somehow I expected a little bit more from it. The savoury selection was average at best – the sandwiches and tarts were a touch dry – and the chocolates were incredibly rich.

Which made them good chocolates, but also made them difficult to finish without something between to cleanse the palette.

But the piece the resistance…

This place has got some rockin’ scones. Soft and crumbly, and smothered in clotted cream and jam. Sometimes scones do leave you with a dry feeling rolling around in your mouth, but this had a fantastic bite and did not leave a chalky aftertaste at all!

If anything else, I would suggest just ordering the scones. From what I understand, the scones are made fresh daily, and at $3.50 a pop, I think it’s well worth the visit.

We ate at:

My Chocolate Shoppe
106 Terralong St
Kiama NSW 2533

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What kind of low life steals plants?

Food For Thought October 2, 2013 3 Comments

Some people have pets, I have plants. There is nothing more rewarding to me than to be able to feed my family and friends not only a meal I’ve cooked from scratch, but a meal made with ingredients that I’ve nurtured from a little seed.

So imagine my shock and horror to wake up and discover that in the dead of the night, my plants have been stolen.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Unlike my mother, I’m not the most natural gardener around. I tend to forget – often – to tend to them, sometimes finding them on the edge of peril before I remember to water them. I think it’s more to do with me spreading them at all available places of sun around the apartment, so much so that I forget where they actually are at home. But anyway.

So last year – near the end of summer – I received a basil growing kit as a present. It would be my first time germinating seeds, and I eagerly checked the little pot every day until I saw new sprouts poking shyly through the earth. Much like this.

This gave me so much joy that I started planting chilli as well – from seed – in a soup mug. Tacky, I know, but I thought it was cute. Both the plants looked a bit malnourished to start off with – it was getting cold and they were going into hibernation.

But I persevered. They were lovingly kept alive through winter, and kept warm where I could. At one point I even kept a place for them on our heated clothes airer when we had it out. Then the heat hit and my plants restarted, with the basil clearly outgrowing the pot that I had it in. I had no balcony, so I had to find a way to move them outside to get some fresh air and sun. That, and my windowsill was getting really crowded with all the seedlings I managed to grow.

A little research online turned me on to milk crate gardening, and a quick ask-around from shopkeepers near my apartment got me a couple of milk crates to grow my plants in. (By the way, shopkeepers tend to be quite happy to help out. Don’t just take milk crates, ask for them.) I was going to have my very own milk crate garden in my car space.

I filled up a crate with soil, and thought to put my basil in one corner and my chilli in the other. What I didn’t realise was that the basil was so overgrown that I couldn’t plant the chilli too, but I could place the little soup mug on a corner, so it could get some sun.

A month or so passed and my birthday rolled around. On my way out to dinner, I stopped by to water the plants. Lo and behold, my chilli plant in its cute soup mug was gone. STOLEN. Needless to say I was upset enough to lose my appetite – and that takes a lot – but I thought that some kid might have thought it was cute and taken the plant.

So I put up a sign asking people not to steal my plants and tried to let it go.

Fast forward to today, and my plants are growing at a rate I’m incredibly proud of (as a non-gardener). I had expanded my little garden to 6 crates, with dill, lettuce, beetroot, tomatoes, thyme, chives, mint and the original basil. I water them daily, and harvest enough to send around jars of pesto to my friends and throw dinner parties.

Imagine then, my surprise when I got downstairs and found this:

Gaping holes where my plants were, and the cable ties holding my crates together ruthlessly cut. Not content with stealing my little mug of chilli, they decided to uproot entire plants, and even tried to remove an entire milk crate, with the sign on. Now I won’t even get to taste the beetroot from my garden, and the one tomato plant that was left behind – they took the larger plant – is relegated to a tiny pot back on the windowsill, where it doesn’t have space to reach its full potential. The dill, chives and lettuce have just been hacked off for dinner, and I don’t think I’ll be expanding my garden any further.

This has been an incredibly heartbreaking experience, and I thought I’d share the pain of fellow growers out there who have had their plants unceremoniously nicked from their garden. This invasion of trust now makes me feel like the neighbourhood is no longer safe, and that people aren’t as gracious as they used to be.

I had even thought of throwing a dinner party for my neighbours out of my produce to share the love, but that won’t be an option anymore. I don’t know what kind of low life steals plants – I would have been happy to give away seedlings and produce – but these scumbags exist, and we can only try our best.

Jean’s Chilli Chicken, Eastwood

Review October 1, 2013 3 Comments

There has been a lot of brouhaha revolving around Korean Fried Chicken, but I think that there hasn’t been nearly enough recognition for it’s fiestier cousin – the chilli chicken.
I first had chilli chicken in Strathfield, after a night out at the bar with a few friends. The slow burn from the Korean Kochujang really hit the spot, and pieces of juicy chicken created an incredibly moreish and addictive mouthful, and left me loving that burn.

So I absolutely had to try the chilli chicken in Eastwood, after my Korean friend recommended it as being “very chilli, but very good”.

And it did not disappoint.

I ordered the chilli chicken with cheese, and it arrived in a sizzling hot plate with oozing, melted cheese draped over the top like a trophy wife. Fiery and decadent, the combination of punchy chilli sauce with chicken and cheese is surprisingly filling, even before you consider the sides.

It came with a lightly oiled rice that was dotted with various flavours like sesame seed, seaweed flakes and flakes of fish. The plastic gloves meant that you were meant to roll your own rice balls, which added to a sort of ‘hands-on’ element to the meal, though you could just as well eat it out of the bowl.

Creamy pasta salad and crunchy pickled radish both soothed and cleanse the palate from the relatively heavy – and heavenly – chicken. I wish there was more radish, but I’m really a pickle sort of girl.

In all, it was a very satisfying and filling dinner. The chilli chicken, which cost $38 at the time that we went, is really a meal for at least two people, but could easily feed 3-4. The staff are friendly and not in-your-face, which means that you’re left to enjoy your food in peace. There isn’t eftpos at the counter, but you can choose to pay at the bar of the hotel that the eatery is located in – which is where you’d have to order your drinks anyway.

Great for dinner, but better in a large group. Jean’s Chilli chicken is also open to the wee hours of the night, making it a perfect way to end a rousing evening out.

We at at:

Jeans Chilli Chicken
02 9874 1100
115 Rowe Street Eastwood, NSW

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Lychee and Lemon Sorbet

Recipe September 27, 2013 2 Comments

It’s hot. It’s really hot. I know, I’m from Singapore and I should be used to heat worse than this right? And I should stop my whinging? Well whether I whinge or not, IT’S STILL HOT. And having been in Sydney for a few years now, I know that the hottest is still to come. So I think that it’s a good time to start making fruity frozen treats that will get us through to hot chocolate weather again.

As when I made my blood orange sorbet, the basic ratio is simple: for every cup of liquid, you add a quarter cup of sugar. So for this mixture, I used:

2 3/4 cups lychee juice**
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar

**Not lychees in syrup. I bought unsweetened lychee juice in at a small green grocer, and it was a blend of lychee and grape.

Simply mix the lychee juice and sugar in a saucepan over low heat just till the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice, then chill in the fridge overnight and churn according to your ice cream maker instructions.

What I got was an incredibly refreshing sorbet that wasn’t too sweet because of the addition of the lemon. If you feel like the mixture is not tart enough for you, feel free to adjust it to your taste. As long as the basic ratio of liquid (unsweetened) to sugar is correct, you will still get a smooth, almost juicy frozen treat.

Just a little something to ease the summer heat to come. =)

Sea Urchin Chawanmushi

Recipe September 25, 2013

I’m starting to think that I’m a complete Japanophile. Japanese food is one of my go-to comfort foods, and many of the ideas that come to me in the middle of the night – yes I’m that obsessive about food – seem to revolve around Japanese flavours and ideas.

So when it came to coming up with canapé ideas for my little dinner party, the classic Japanese chawanmushi came to mind, but I was going to serve them in sake cups! Aren’t they cute??

Now I know that by definition chawanmushi should be steamed in tea cups, but sake cups are just the perfect size for canapés, and allows your guests to try a variety of things without getting too full!

If you’ve never tried chawanmushi, it is a light, moreish, delicate Japanese steamed savoury egg custard that can have a variety of ‘toppings’, from chicken, to gingko nuts, to mushrooms, to fish cakes…whatever floats your boat.

I happened to get given extremely fresh sea urchin from Cando Fishing – who also gave me lots of information about when’s a good time to buy sea urchin – and I thought that I should keep the actual egg custard simple.

I used:

3 large eggs (60g)
2 cups of dashi (500ml)
2 tsp of light soy sauce
2 tsp of mirin
Baby shimeiji mushrooms

The important ratio here is that of the eggs to the dashi. You can use some other stock, if you’d like, but I find it simpler to make my own dashi by softening some konbu (kelp) in water, bringing the water up to about 60C, removing the kelp after about 10-20 minutes and adding dried bonito flakes. Simply bring the water up to a simmer, and simmer it till you like the flavour (about 10 minutes for a small batch). Strain, and you’ve got your dashi!

Let the dashi cool before you add them to your beaten eggs and strain. Then pour them into your prepared containers, add your ‘toppings’ (not the sea urchin, though) and steam. Because the egg mixture is so delicate, it’s a good idea to par-cook or fully cook your toppings before adding them into the raw egg mixture. I just lightly simmer the shimeiji mushrooms in some stock or salted water before adding them to the bottom of the cups. Remember to keep the mushroom water though – it’s incredibly tasty and ends up being like a mushroom stock that you can use somewhere else.

Then cover your little cups of goodness with some foil and steam them till they are just set. They will never really stop wobbling till they’re pretty much overcooked, so I find that turning off the heat when they’re at the stage of the softest silken tofu, the mixture changes to an off-white, opaque colour, and leaving it to finish in its residual heat is the most effective.

Then carefully lift them out and using a tea spoon, gently top them with sea urchin – if you’re using any. You can also just serve them straight out of the steamer as is – I know that it’s a breakfast favourite for me. I find that it’s a great starting canapé because it really whets the appetite, and prepares your guests for more.

If you like my sea urchin ideas, why not try my oysters with sea urchin butter, and sea urchin shooters!

Oysters with Sea Urchin Butter

Recipe September 23, 2013 1 Comment

As much as I love to eat sea urchin straight out of the sea, I also can restrain myself from popping these sweet morsels in my mouth long enough to know that it is also a versatile and delicious ingredient. So how better to top delicate pacific oysters than with a luxurious sea urchin butter?

Inspired by Tetsuya’s sea urchin butter that he puts on veal, I decided to play up a slightly more citrusy note because I’m serving these oysters as canapes and I don’t want something too rich weighing my guests down. The trick to this is to use the freshest ingredients, and thankfully I got given some amazing sea urchin from Cando Fishing.

I used:

Sea Urchin
Butter, softened
Sea Salt
Wasabi (just a teeny tiny bit!)
Lemon Juice

I placed everything in a blender – quantities to taste – then rolled it up in some baking paper to harden in the fridge. When it came time to serve the oysters, I cranked up the grill to its highest setting, and topped each oyster with half a teaspoon of butter – just a pat. Grill till the oysters are warmed through and the butter is melted and toasty brown, then finish with grated orange zest, to lighten it up.

I love how the sea urchin just boosts the ‘seafood-ness’ of the oysters, with the butter providing a luxuriousness, and the suggestion of wasabi and lemon in the background to cleanse the palate. You can, of course, add a choice of herbs like chives if you’d like a little green, but I like this mouthful as it is. Juicy, plump, and decadent. I had a couple of friends who weren’t too crazy about the fresh sea urchin – nothing’s ever a hundred percent – and they loved the oysters.

Such a simple recipe, and a crowd pleaser every time.

If you are thinking of trying sea urchin but not quite sure how to get a good fresh one, you can read about my chat with John of Cando Fishing here to find out more.

Sea Urchin Shooters

Recipe September 21, 2013 2 Comments

I ADORE sea urchin. Well, I adore all seafood, but sea urchin has a delicate creaminess that sends me to the moon and back. There is just something about the way that it melts on my tongue, coating my palate with the sweetness of fresh seafood before fading away, leaving me with a craving for more. But sometimes when you want to serve urchin at a party, you want to dress it up just a little – maybe a simple dressing to enhance the flavour perhaps?

Well thanks to Cando Fishing, I had some really fresh sea urchin to play with.

For the dressing, I used

Soy
Ginger
Mirin
Yuzu Juice
Sesame Oil
A touch of sugar

I first placed the soy, miring and slices of ginger into a pot, and heated it gently to infuse. I added just a touch of sugar to balance the saltiness, and the yuzu to provide a light citrusy flavour. Then I remove the ginger slices, and let the dressing cool.

Then place your pieces of sea urchin in your shot glasses, drizzle the cooled dressing over the top, and top with finely diced seeded chilli – I didn’t cause my guests were not chilli eaters – and a light grating of ginger. I find that if I keep my ginger in the freezer, it gives me feathery shavings that just add a light zing to the sea urchin. If you like a little booze in your shooters, might I suggest a tiny splash of sake.

This is a slightly different angle to shooters – if you like oyster shooters you should absolutely try sea urchin shooters – and this allows you to enjoy the natural sea flavour of the urchin. So tasty.

The most important thing is to get super fresh urchin, and I very luckily got given mine by Cando Fishing that I met at the Fine Food Australia Trade Show. I had a chat to John, who was from Cando fishing and very patient in answering my questions. You can read about my chat with John – and all about the best season for urchin and how to pick the best urchin – here.

Sea Urchin: My chat with John from Cando Fishing

Food For Thought September 18, 2013 1 Comment

Meet John Shea. I met him as I was walking along an aisle at the Fine Food Australia trade fair, absolutely starving. John offered a friendly smile and some fabulous mussels, and then as we got chatting, he offered me some sea urchin. SEA URCHIN. Some of the freshest, plumpest, most delicious sea urchin I’ve ever had. So of course I had to find out more.

Photo by Tokyo Foodcast

From my chat with John, I learnt that the Sea Urchin has five tongues, which are hold the ~~tasty bits~~ roe of the urchin. Each urchin has about three million eggs, spread out over the five tongues. They eat kelp, and pretty much all of their energy is diverted to reproducing.

And as with any living produce, there is most definitely a season to sea urchin. According to John, there is a saying in New Zealand, which is that the sea urchin is ‘ripe’ when the pohutukawa (a plant) is in bloom. This means that the sea urchin harvesting season corresponds to summer, which is when this particular plant is in bloom.

So what is a ‘ripe’ sea urchin? And why harvest in summer?

Well, it turns out that when the water is cold (during winter), it’s not a good time to spawn. And since we’re basically eating the reproductive organs of the sea urchin, that means that not a good time for spawning = no roe. But in the lead up to the warmer months, the sea urchin start gearing up for reproduction, meaning that the tongues start getting plump and firm, and swelling up, ready to ‘give birth’. This is the best time to harvest and eat sea urchin, because you end up with an amazing, fresh, plump product.

If you harvest them too late, then well…we all know that birthing can be a traumatic event.

The colour of the sea urchin also varies. Some are a light yellow, and varies right into a dark brown. All of that just really has to do with the fact that mother nature doesn’t quite make everything consistent, and the dark brown sea urchin, while not as pretty in presentation, is still just as yummy. Trust me, I’ve tried.

If you want to go out and get some of this deliciousness for yourself, then be sure to pick urchin that is plump and firm – not watery – and smells like the sea. If it smells fishy, then it’s no good – sea urchin has a pretty short shelf life. Even better when you can see the little roe – it should look rough like the surface of your tongue. If you were eating it straight, I would definitely suggest that you can get them plump if you can – it’s so worthwhile for the texture and flavour that they provide.

The urchin that I’ve tried from Cando fishing is MASSIVE by the standards that I’ve seen in most reputable Japanese restaurants. I’ve never had urchin as satisfying and decadent, and I’m not saying this because John was lovely enough to give me product to sample. They are really quite versatile, and delicious, and it’s inspired me to come up with a few recipes with sea urchin.

How do you like to enjoy your sea urchin?