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Bedlam Bar+Food, Glebe

Review February 5, 2012 4 Comments

Just a quick post because I didn’t have my camera on me that day! iPhone to the rescue!

Working on Glebe Pt Road has it’s perks, and it seems that Bedlam Bar is one of them! The guys from work organized a gathering there, and their $10 menu caught my eye. Theoretically, it’s a great idea and one of the guys I work with said that the food’s been getting good. With a recommendation like that and the words Pork Belly on the menu, I couldn’t resist.

The result? They were moist and tasty, and the cracklin’ was rockin’! Considering that it’s pork belly, the portioning was not too bad. I love that it’s a great sample size – I can imagine a group ordering a variety and getting to try a little bit of everything. Not quite a full meal, but great as bar food.

If you really want to make it a meal, then you can always add this

The Rosemary Fries ($6) were simple, but did the job. Tasty, moreish, great for sharing.

Told you, great bar food.

More next time when I go back with my camera!

We ate at:

Bedlam Bar + Food
(02) 9660 6999
University Hall
2-12 Glebe Point Road
Glebe, NSW 2037

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Chinese New Year 2012, Belmore Park

Review January 30, 2012 1 Comment

Last year I had a look at the Chinese New Year Festival at Belmore Park, and thought I’d go again this year. Even the intermittent and very grouchy weather couldn’t dampen (haha!) my spirits!

Somehow, though, the festival this year didn’t have the same bustling atmosphere. Sure, there were a lot of people, but it felt like there weren’t the same number of stores, or that the stores were wayyy more spread out. And there weren’t the same randoms! Where are the bunny people???

Anyway, entertainers aside, the only interesting stall that I found this year was this one:

I have no idea what the background really is, but anywhere that I can get a serving of noodles for $4 is well worth a shot! (Mappen still has a special place in my heart)

For a grand total of $10 combined, Sean got his dumplings…

…and I got this

This bowl of 凉粉 (cold noodles) was surprisingly good! It suited the warm, humid weather well, and had a refreshing zing to it. A light addition of chilli oil made it interesting, and the jelly-like slippery noodles made the kid in me giggle. Quite fun to eat.

For that matter, it was really fascinating to watch them make! The noodles came off this translucent dome

Some guy with a hand grater carefully grates off a pile of noodles.

When you order, it gets put into a container with the relevant sauces, and you get a noodle dish!

I think part of the reason why I like it so much is the novelty of eating it – I must admit that it’s not something that I’d enjoy a massive bowl of.

Oh and the dumplings? They were ok. Not mind-blowing, but really we didn’t expect it to be. But they were at least better than the random “Dim Sim” *shudders* places that they had there.

I miss spending Chinese New Year at home!!!!!!

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Profit-eroles

Recipe January 28, 2012 4 Comments

Huat ah!

Since it’s Chinese New Year, I thought that I’d make the very auspicious-sounding Profit-eroles. Geddit?

Ok, bad joke.

But anyway, these delicious little morsels are always great as party food, and allows you to have dessert done and dusted in advanced.

First, the Choux pastry. This is basically the same pastry as eclairs, so you can take the recipe and just change the shape if you’re so inclined.

Choux Pastry

I got this off Taste.com.au and it works every time!

80g butter
1 cup water
1 cup flour
3 eggs

Bring the water and butter to a boil.

Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the flour. Vigorously I’ve heard somewhere (don’t quote me, though) that the secret to puffed, gorgeous profiteroles is making sure that the gluten is well-worked.

SO WORK IT! *insert relevant hip-hop song here*

Once the flour is incorporated, work in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each one is mixed in before you add the next.

You’ll end up with a slightly spongy wet-ish batter.

Put aside to cool.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C (fan forced). I’ve found that you can probably afford to turn the heat down slightly from that – the pastry needs to ‘dry out’ slightly inside, and baking it for slightly longer at a slightly lower temperature helps that process along.

Using two teaspoons, spoon heaped amounts of the pastry mixture onto a lined baking tray.

Using wet fingers, pat down any peaks that can end up burning in the oven.

Bake till puffed and golden brown.

Armed with a sharp knife and a pair of tongs, carefully pierce the bottom of the profiteroles and place back on the tray, pierced side up, and put back into the oven with the door ajar. MAKE SURE THAT THE OVEN IS TURNED OFF! You don’t want burned pastry. This will help it finish drying out.

Then, move on to the custard.

Custard

3 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 3/4 cup milk
Vanilla bean or vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, whisk the egg yolks with sugar.

The mixture will turn a very pale yellow, and although the original recipe says to use caster sugar, I wouldn’t worry too much about it – it ends up being dissolved anyway. Also, I used a mixing bowl to start off with, but really, you could do this in a saucepan. Less washing up is always good.

Whisk in the flour, and when that’s incorporated, add the milk and vanilla and place the saucepan on VERY LOW HEAT. Trust me.

Keep whisking. This is not a good time to walk away, be distracted by the TV, or do the dishes. WATCH THAT SAUCEPAN LIKE A HAWK.

And keep stirring!!!

Very soon, you’ll see the mixture begin to thicken.

At this point, burning will follow quickly. I think what happens here is a little bit like the Tangzhong method in baking. For the science behind it, click here. Basically the starch (flour) will thicken in the process of water and heat and will so contribute to the texture of the custard.

Still, I’m not too crazy about this particular recipe as I find the custard a touch too runny, but feel free to use any piping custard recipe you’d like.

The profiteroles can last about a week when stored in an airtight container, in the fridge.

The Christmas 2011 Recap

Food For Thought January 5, 2012 4 Comments

I have committed food blogger FAIL. Usually, when there are occasions like Christmas that have lots and lots of delicious food, I am extremely snap-happy. This year though, I was *ahem* distracted by babies, and so you have seen the only food shot that I managed to get.

So much for being a food blogger first haha.

Anyway, back to the Christmas recap.

As usual, there are presents spilling out from under the tree. While looking at it, I did briefly have a thought that in the Christmas fairytales, that’s probably how Christmas trees come about. They are borne, fully decorated, out of a sea of presents.

Of course, Christmas isn’t Christmas without a bit of DIY, which Sean decided to sit out and let his mother handle, haha.

Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but you can’t have too many spectators, it seems.

And….

Here’s what I got distracted from the food by:

We got Sean’s nephew a tuxedo bib to match Sean’s tux tee! :D:D

I know it’s cheesy, but I love the whole matchy matchy thing with babies.

HOW CUTE IS HE???????

And although I was quite fixated on taking photos of the cute baby, I did participate in other Christmas activities too.

Boulé, or Pentaque, or Bocce or whatever you like to call it, is very much like lawn bowling to me.

Basically what you do is throw this little wooden ball thing, and then try to bowl your metal ones as close to it as you can. You can do all sorts of things like knock your team mates’ balls closer, or knock the opposing team members’ balls away. That sort of thing. It was my first time playing, and I found it really close to ten-pin bowling. It seems that the lower you can go, the better the movement because there’s no bouncing off the grass getting in your way.

Anyway, that was the very quick Christmas recap of 2011! I had a very relaxing Christmas, which was great since I’ve had a stressful year.

How about you? How was your holidays?

Flavoured Salts

Recipe December 20, 2011 2 Comments

What do you do when beautiful ruby red plump juicy truss tomatoes are in season and on sale? Inspired by both Chow.com’s bloody mary salt recipe and that tomatoes are in season, I decided to try making Bloody Mary Salt.

This salt is great for finishing a steak, rimming the glass of your favourite cocktail, or on your eggs in the morning! Or a medley of other ideas that your hunger can come up with.

You’ll need:

For the dried tomatoes (the original recipe just calls for sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in oil)
3 ripe truss tomatoes
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Other ingredients:
Tobasco Sauce
Worchestershire Sauce
Sea Salt Flakes

First the tomatoes. Feel free to use bought dried tomatoes and skip this step – I just felt that it was such a waste of such marvelous produce!

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.

Slosh a few glugs of olive oil (don’t over do it, trust me) over tomato halves in a roasting tray.

Liberally sprinkle sea salt over the tomatoes. Don’t worry about over-salting – this is the basis for a flavoured salt, so having the tomatoes on the salty side to start off with is not going to matter much.

Roast the tomatoes till they are nice and juicy, with a slightly charred edge. Take the tomatoes out of the oven and leave to cool.

Now for the tricky part. If you have a dehydrator (like I do – it was a moment of weakness!), use it. Otherwise, set your fan forced oven on the lowest heat setting, and arrange the tomato halves on a cake rake that’s placed over a roasting tray. Leave the tomatoes till they are dried out – they should still be slightly pliable, but dry to the touch. If you used too much oil when roasting the tomatoes, then they’ll be slightly oily to the touch as well.

***If you’re using store bought dried tomatoes, start reading here***

With your fan-forced oven still on the lowest heat setting, drizzle some Tobasco sauce and Worchestershire sauce on the dried tomatoes. Leave in the oven to dry out completely. The original recipe called for the tomatoes to be first cut into strips, but I quite like the pooling of the sauce in some parts of the tomatoes, giving a stronger flavour.

Either way, the tomatoes do have to end up in strips.

Then place the tomato strips in a food processor or spice grinder with some sea salt – don’t plonk the whole packet in! – and start pulsing. The initial salt will help stop the tomato from sticking together. Then just add salt till you’re happy with it. I kinda wished that I’d added a little less salt so you get more of the tomato, but at the end of the day, it’s a finishing salt, so how wrong can you go? =)

Also, salt recipe not complicated enough for you? YOU WANT MORE???!!!!

*evil laugh*

Excuse the bad picture.

Some time ago, I had this idea in my head that I wanted to make a clear bloody mary. I was experimenting with gazpacho recipes, and realised that fresh tomato juice is actually…clear.

So.

I pureed the extra truss tomatoes, a couple of sticks of celery, part of a clove of garlic, and strained the lot in a clean piece of muslin.

Then, just rim a shot glass with the bloody mary salt by going round the edge with a wedge of lemon, then dipping it in the salt.

Add a touch of vodka into the shotglass, and then top up with the tomato/vegetable juice.

Et voila!!!! A clear interpretation of a bloody mary. =)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my interpretation of this recipe, and if you’ve read this far, I thank you muchly!!

I’ll try to squeeze in another post before Christmas, but if I don’t, Happy Holidays everyone!!!

LOVE

Food For Thought November 30, 2011

CAKE. | events + design: Fresh Beats + DiY Record Cakestands:

I LOVE this cupcake stand!!!!!!!! Besides food, I have a thing for really creative things to do with food, and this is da shiznit!!

Also, I think it’s fate that I come across this just as I’m watching a Queen Documentary.

tee hee!

IKEA, Tempe

Review November 27, 2011 3 Comments

Image by yassan-yukky

I have a confession to make: I am a big IKEA fan. I once was in a discussion with an Art History teacher about the scariness of being able to walk out with an entire environment, but I still love it. I like the funky colours and the nifty ideas and the showrooms. LOVE the showrooms. And if that makes me a slave to pop culture and convenience, then so be it.

Part of the convenience that is associated with IKEA is that you can get practically anything there, including food! I’ve already done a post on their cheap breakfasts, and since Sean and I decided to make a day trip out of visiting the brand-spanking-new IKEA Tempe store, we sat down and ate a proper meal while we were there.

I decided to try the Shrimp with Wheatcorn Pilaf while I was there. Sure, the shrimp was not near the usual Sydney standards (I must say that Sydney does prawns surprisingly well), and it had been left in that bain marie for a touch too long, but it was actually really enjoyable. I guess part of it was that it was relatively cheap (the whole meal cost us under $25) and it was a quick and easy stop in the middle of our big IKEA trek.

Having the Swedish meatballs was a really easy choice for Sean. He always gets it and it’s always consistently enjoyable and again, relatively cheap. The creamy gravy is always nicely set off by the lingonberry sauce, which, by the way, is superb on a smoked salmon sandwich.

And because we had worked up an appetite walking around this furniture superstore, we decided to order some sides. The mashed potatoes come with the meatballs, and Sean and I decided on Veggie Pasta and Chips and Gravy. The Veggie Pasta was surprisingly creamy and well seasoned, and the chips and mash, were, well chips and mash. Nothing particularly special, but they both really hit the spot in terms of mid-shopping food.

It’s food that I like to term pseudo-gourmet – it can be gourmet if executed differently, but at least it’s interesting and really enjoyable for a really affordable price ($25 for the lot). Isn’t that like its furniture though? Affordable, reliable and consistent, that’s IKEA (for me) in a nutshell.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there, but if I’m in the shopping in or in the vicinity of an IKEA, it’ll definitely be on my list.

Oh, and for those of you wondering about the Tempe part of this IKEA post – sure it’s large, but that’s kind of what IKEA always has been. It may be larger than the Rhodes store, but I really don’t feel like there’s that much of a difference in terms of the feel of the store. As an avid IKEA fan, I still don’t think there are enough differences to make me want to travel all the way out to the Tempe store unless I’m maybe visiting someone in the area.

We ate at:

IKEA Tempe
634-726 Princes Highway
Tempe NSW 2044
(02) 8020 6641

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Surprises

Review November 22, 2011 3 Comments

It seems to be a week for pizzas. We had a very lovely drop-off at work today, from the café down the street. Teru Café and Pizza is a relatively new addition to the food wonders in Glebe, and I’ve heard that pizzas and coffee have been the owner’s life leading up to this café. I’ve also heard that there’s someone from Rome involved in the café, which ups the chances of authenticity if you are after that sort of thing.

I’ve never been to Rome, so I can’t comment on authenticity. But really. Who cares when it’s so yummy!

We had the two-face of pizzas arrive today – one side covered in moist, smoky roast veggies, and the other topped with slices of salami and mushroom.

The roasted veggies were sweet and caramelized with a hint of char. A tomato paste covered base was generously smothered with zucchini, sweet red peppers and Spanish onion. The crust had a nice crunch, but was not overly tough. A great support to the medley of ingredients that lovingly cling to it.

The seemingly simple meat half of the pizza had slivers of salami and mushroom, which created light bursts of flavour with the tomato base and melted cheese. Contrary to the stereotype of a typical salami/meat-lovers pizza, this pizza did not leave me feeling heavy and sleepy. I strongly believe that the tomato paste has sun-dried tomatoes in it. There is a strong hit of rich tomato flavour, and I can taste the sunshine in it. The near paper-thin slices of meat created a cloud of tangy spicy flavour in my mouth, and together with the sun in the tomato paste, this pizza tastes like a beautiful day in Sydney.

In all, the pieces of pizza transported me to a sun-drenched farm, with sweet vegetables and a philosophy toward food that is far away from the overly carnivorous tendencies of many pizza joints that saturate the market at the moment. Definitely somewhere to try with your nearest and dearest, for what is a better side to good food than great company?

Food from:
Teru Cafe and Pizza
02 9566 4949
33 Glebe Point Road
Glebe, NSW 2037

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Snapshot

Food For Thought November 19, 2011 2 Comments

I just thought that I’d share what I’m having for dinner – homemade pizza piled high with salami, kransky, ham, onion, garlic, cheese, cheese, capsicum and olives.

Yum.

The Bellevue Hotel, Paddington

Review November 13, 2011 5 Comments

The lovely people from the Trish Nichol Agency and The Bellevue Hotel invited myself and a couple of other bloggers for a tasting session after the big revamp of the upstairs bar. It’s really nice in a gentlemen’s club sort of way. Luxurious leather armchairs, dark wood shutters, and lots of old world charm. The whole setting made me feel like dressing up in a 20’s flapper dress and wear my hair in a short dutch bob – not that it’s flattering on me, but you get the idea. I immediately got the impression that it would be great for a murder-mystery party. It is really unfortunate that the pictures I took of the interior really didn’t do the venue any justice, but the photos on their website gives a great idea of the feel of it.

What I did get photos of though, is the food – what kind of food blogger fail would it be if I didn’t?

We had the Meat Short Board, $35, the Mixed Short Board, $35 and the Mixed Long Board, $45, for maximum variety.

The Meat Short Board had Little Pig Sliders, Veal, Pork and Sage Meatballs, and Lamb Cutlets with Salsa Agresto.

There seems to be quite a lot of debate online as to what a “slider” actually is, but from what I can gather it’s firstly a burger. Many say that it’s a mini-burger, and some disagree, but I haven’t seen a slider that wasn’t some form of burger-type food, so let’s go with that.

The meatballs and lamb completed the line up, with the meatballs carrying a light spice and the lamb nicely pink on the inside.

The Mixed Short Board had Patata’s Bravas, Salt Cod Brandade with Anchovies, Capers & Toasted Sourdough and more Little Pig Sliders.

The Salt Cod Brandade with Anchovies was my favourite of the lot – this is my first time eating a Brandade – it being basically an emulsion of fish and oil – but I’m pretty sure that as a lover of fish, it’s something that I’d be quite happy to try more of in future. And for those who are afraid of anchovies, rest assured that this is not the fishy, overly-oily cheap tinned versions that you find in inconspicuous corners of bad supermarkets. Yes, the dish is still relatively fish-y, but nothing as bad as the rep that anchovy seems to have.

And finally, the Mixed Long Board had Stuffed Mushrooms, Veal, Pork & Sage Meatballs, Garlic Prawns & Tomato Hot Pot and Salt & Pepper Squid with Fennel Aioli

The Salt and Pepper squid was the favourite at the table, and was nicely cooked, with a nice crunch on the batter without the squid being overcooked.

Now, if you’re familiar with the blog you’d be wondering why I’m not going into detail about each dish and how it made me feel. The thing is, the food was…okay. Besides the squid and the brandade, everything else felt slightly under-seasoned. Now I’m a big lover of salt, so take from that what you will, but besides the seasoning, I felt that the food was just a touch..empty. It felt to me like whoever made those platters had a broken heart. Maybe he/she was having a bad day? The sliders – which we heard so much about – seemed to lack a wink in its eye, and the garlic prawns seemed to lack…the garlic. It was nice enough, but not something that would make me walk away planning the next trip.

What would make me want to plan the next trip back, though, was the ever-helpful Ian-the-bartender. I must admit that it might be a slightly biased experience since we dined as guests, but he seemed to be like a genuinely nice guy. He even proffered a great food idea – smoked salmon and baked beans. On a side tangent, it really works! And now you know where that idea came from.

But back to the topic at hand. The conclusion that we had come to at the end of the day was that – in all fairness – we food bloggers are quite a picky lot. We spend so much time dreaming about fabulous food that have been augmented by fabulous memories, that anything short of that does disappoint us slightly. To a regular pub-going public though, it’s got great execution and is great food to pick at with a beer (I’m paraphrasing from Sara since I don’t really drink). Most of our respective partners would be quite happily munching away and polishing off the platters, so maybe it’s just us.

Either way, it’s good to-share food, and the venue’s great for a cozy party. Has anyone else been? What did you think?

We ate at:
The Bellevue Hotel
159 Hargrave St Map
Paddington, NSW 2021
(02)9363 2293

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Tambourine of Insatiable Munchies and the other bloggers mentioned in this post dined as guests of The Bellevue Hotel and the Trish Nichols Agency.