Posts tagged Dinner

Spain, Japan and..Toothpaste?

podcast November 16, 2012

Picture from rachfrog

This week we take a culinary tour moving from Spain, to Japan and end up in the lab, talking about all things geeky. We chat about a tapas inspired dinner, the new Japanese self-serve joint Hana Hana, and air fryers. We also ask the question: Why does orange juice taste so crap after you brush your teeth?

Download the audio file here (9.9MB, 20:02), or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

here!

From the Frypan – Hola! (1:33)

From the Frypan is where we talk about what we’ve got up to in the kitchen. This week it’s a fiery discussion about a tapas inspired dinner.

Waka Waka – A name so nice you gotta say it twice! (9:46)

This one’s for all the gluttons! This week we review Japanese noodle bar Hana Hana, which translates to “Flower Flower”.

From the Ice Box – Look Jack, I’m flying! (12:59)

We like the geeky and the crazy, especially when we talk about food. This week we talk about the air frying. If you combine the two words, does that make it flying? We also discuss why liquid nitrogen ice cream is amazing!

And don’t forget the Trivia of the Week. Why does orange juice taste bad after you brush your teeth?

Gobble Gobble!

Recipe November 12, 2012 3 Comments

“What happened when the turkey got into a fight?

He got the stuffing knocked out of him!”

I have finally done it – I have actually roasted a turkey.

A turkey to me was always what seemed like the standing symbol of the American holidays. I always envisioned a family, sitting around the table, clad in tacky wool knit jumpers, and a MASSIVE HULKING turkey in the middle of the room. They would get loud and just a little tipsy, and start singing carols as it began to snow outside. That scene was what I would envision every time someone mentioned the term Christmas holidays.

Well, apparently that’s not confined to America anymore! When I told my friends that I was roasting a turkey, their instant response was, “Yum! Christmas has come early this year!”

Christmas or no Christmas, I have never consumed or cooked a turkey before. Which made this seem like a daunting task, because I didn’t even know what I was aiming for. What do I do with it? Where do I start?

The starting point, it seems, is with a brine. I was told that a brine is the first step to a turkey, and because I love LOVE salting my meats, it seemed a good place to start for me too.

The Brine

All the recipes for brine appear to include salt and sugar as the base, and then using other ingredients to build up the flavour and aromatics from there. The recipe that I used is really an amalgamation of everything that I had read, tweaked for the ingredients in my cupboard.

Turkey Brine:

8L of Water
1 cups of Honey
2 cups of Brown sugar
2 cups of Salt
2 Lemons, halved
2 heads of Garlic, halved to expose cloves
3 or 4 Bay leaves
1 tbsp of Mustard Seeds
bunch of Sage
bunch of Lemon Thyme
bunch of Rosemary

Put everything into a pot – I had to do this in 2 batches – and bring to the boil. Let cool, and put brine into the vessel in which you’d like to brine your turkey.

Unwrap your turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Dunk turkey into brine and leave overnight. Personally, I left it in there for 16 or so hours, turning the turkey halfway through because I didn’t have enough brine to cover the turkey completely.

The Stuffing

Stuffing, to me, was just seasoned breadcrumbs there to soak up the juices in the cavity of birds, providing a delicious sort of savoury pudding to be had with the bird. It wasn’t until recently that I found out that stuffing could be a separate entity, and have its own flavours to complement how you decide to season your poultry.

The stuffing recipe I chose was taken off the Ingham website, and was definitely a really good partner to the turkey recipe it accompanied.

Turkey Stuffing

1 large brown onion, diced
3 rashers bacon, rind removed and chopped
8 cups of breadcrumbs
1/2 cup pecan nuts, chopped
1 egg, whisked
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Butter

Sautée the onion and bacon in the melted butter.

If you want, you can also render the fat off the rind that has been removed from the bacon. Then you have little bits of pork crackling to snack on! …Don’t look at me like that, did I say this was a healthy recipe? No. But it’s delicious.

Moving on.

Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

A note about the breadcrumbs: I much prefer fresh-ish breadcrumbs as opposed to the dried breadcrumbs that you get from the supermarket as I like the fluffy texture that you get from fresh breadcrumbs when all the juices have been absorbed. But fresh breadcrumbs usually require some bread, and some processing.

Now if you’d like to make fresh breadcrumbs and do not have a food processor, then you have to resort to other unorthodox methods to get them. Initially, the tip I read online about having a frozen loaf of bread and beating it with a rolling pin seemed really interesting.

However, the bread seemed to thaw wayyy too quickly, and was more likely to turn to mush. So I decided to grate the frozen pieces of bread instead.

And it works! Yes, you’ll end up with some larger pieces that you will have to chop up with a knife, but it’s all still relatively easy and oddly therapeutic.

Also, instead to regular thyme I used lemon thyme, which smells heavenly and looks oh so pretty!

I also made Apple and Raisin stuffing that I put just into loaf tins to bake. You never know when you will run out of stuffing. I just followed this recipe, and adding a splosh more chicken stock because stuffing in a pan will not be able to soak up juices from a roasting bird, and will need more moisture to help it along.

The Roasting

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup maple syrup

This is the simplest step. Preheat your oven to 180C, and take your turkey out of its brine. I didn’t have that much space to work with, so I sanitised a sink and put the turkey in there. Then, carefully separate the skin off the turkey breast with your fingers, and add a layer of butter. (You may or may not use all the butter, but if you don’t, I had an idea that put it to good use.)

Next, stuff the turkey and truss it well. Place turkey on a rack in a roasting tray, and cover just the breast and the leg ends with foil to prevent them from over browning.

How long you roast your turkey for really depends on the size of turkey that you get. There were instructions on the Ingham turkey, but I had actually forgotten to look at them when I was prepping the turkey to brine. I did, however, find a recipe online that told me that my bird – which was 5 kilos and stuffed – required about 4 ish hours to cook. I then proceeded to cook my bird for 3 and a bit hours, then turned the oven off and let the bird rest in the residual heat of the closed oven for another hour or so while my guests arrived.

I know that I said I’ve never had turkey before, but this was delish! It had a deeper flavour – to me – than chicken, and had a denser texture. The skin was my favourite bit – as you do – and I attribute that to the brining. It had a slightly sweet taste to it and a light aroma that it otherwise might not have had.

Ok, so some bits of the bird browned a little bit more than I wanted it to, but I blame that on using a gas oven where the heat came from the bottom of the oven.

Either way, my dinner guests seemed happy with the result, and I packed the leftover turkey away with the juices from the bottom of the pan. Just so you know, it’s definitely something worth doing, because the turkey seemed to taste SO MUCH MORE AWESOME the next day.

Oh, and that left over maple syrup butter? I squeezed out the garlic cloves from the brine, mashed it up, and sautéed it lightly with some regular butter. Then I added the garlic to the maple syrup butter and BAM! One of the more amazing garlic butters I’ve ever had, even if I do say so myself.

Spread that butter on bread, add the turkey, and then top with gravy and cranberry sauce of your choice. Voila! Tasty turkey sandwich! I also had a watermelon and feta salad on the side, which just made everything taste like summer. =)

Was the turkey a lot of effort? Definitely. But was the turkey worth the effort? I’d say yes. A whole turkey is not something that you think of making for dinner while on your way home from work on a weeknight. But it’s definitely something that I would make for a Sunday night dinner with friends to impress.

Besides, the leftovers just sealed the deal for me. If nothing, it was worth it to then be eating the awesome juicy turkey in my meals for the rest of the week.

Note: Tammi from Insatiable Munchies was sent Ingham frozen turkey by the lovely people from Ingham and Beyond the Square Communications.

Twice -cooked Lamb Ribs with Basil Chimmichurri

Recipe July 20, 2012 3 Comments

Lamb ribs are first boiled in a stock, then roasted to a crisp perfection, before being served with a tangy basil chimmichurri.

So. This is one of those stories that just grow and grow, until you get to the end and think to yourself, “How did I get here?”

A friend of mine very kindly gave me big bunches of basil from his garden (as you can probably guess, this post is just slightly overdue). Rather than just do the usual and make pesto, I thought that I’d try something different, and make a Basil Chimmichurri (recipe to follow).

Mary had a little lamb…

Review May 27, 2012 5 Comments

…and I’m sure she wished that she ordered more.

I think we have established that I love being fed. No matter how foul a mood I’m in, I generally get happy when I get fed. So when I received this invite from Subway in my inbox – especially during a difficult week (I got hit by a car, amongst other things) – I was extremely excited to attend.

The dinner was held in Moroccan Feast, a restaurant in Randwick with a great atmosphere and very friendly chef (more about him later). I arrived to long tables laid out with candles and salt and pepper bowls shaped like little tagines (how cute!) and was immediately offered refreshing cocktails to start the evening with. Soon, the all seats were filled, and hungry hungry people eagerly awaited the first round of deliciousness.

A selection of dips were first laid out in front of us – Matbouha, which I understand is a capsicum relish, eggplant and aioli, and marinated green olives. And while the dips were extremely tasty, the standout part of all of it was the bread.

Soft white bread surrounded by a crispy crust with a glass-like crunch was the perfect accompaniment to the dips. Many of us actually had to consciously stop ourselves and remember that this was just the starter, to leave room in out bellies for the rest of the food.

As this dinner was to introduce Subway’s new Moroccan Lamb Sub, there was sure to be lamb in the menu.

And the first manifestation of the lamb theme was in the form of spiced lamb cigars. These were served on a platter with vegetarian pastiles and mint yoghurt. The vegetarian pastiles were okay, but the lamb cigars were curiously addictive. I didn’t detect much spices in the cigars, but I really like the luxuriousness the mint yoghurt added to the dish. Yes, the yoghurt wasn’t particularly minty either, but it’s just really tasty! Besides, I’m not much of a mint person (I really don’t like mint chocolates that are all about the mint and kills most of the chocolate taste), so this combination suited me just fine.

Just as the conversation was buzzing and the food was flowing, lilting music came on and we heard the sound of bells. Just as the thought of reindeer landing on roofs crossed my mind, this lady, resplendent in a blue jeweled and tasseled outfit, came dancing out.

On top of being extremely skilled at what she does – how did she manage all those belly rolls???? – she was extremely HILARIOUS and entertaining. She even got many of us up and dancing with her. Makes me want to take belly dancing lessons – I’ve already got the first bit, right? =)

All this excitement, and that was even before the main.

Betty and I shared the Moroccan Lamb Meatballs and Aubergine Tagine, and the Moroccan-style Barramundi with chickpeas. The lamb meatballs were sandwiched between 2 thick sliced of spiced aubergine. The bed of cous cous that it was served on was lovingly drenched in thick tomato-ey sauce and in turn, mint yoghurt was poured with a generous hand over rich meaty lamb. The barramundi – bottom photo – was nice and flaky, but the best part about it was the generously flavourful chilli and spices reduction. I could have just eaten a bucketful of the the reduction ladled over a bed of cous cous.

The salad was another highlight of my evening. Sometimes, lamb can get a little bit…rich, and the two salads really lifted the tone and colour of the meal. While the rocket with citrus vinaigrette was nice, I absolutely adored the red cabbage with haloumi and pomegranate! Crispy red cabbage was dotted with little jewels that explode with a tart sweetness and was the perfect accompaniment to the hearty lamb.

At this point, I’m sure you – as I was – are wondering what this meal has to do with Subway. Almost the entire evening has passed and there hasn’t been a sandwich in sight. Well, remember how I mentioned the extremely friendly chef? Well, Subway – in the spirit of “doing it your own way” – had asked him to take the new Moroccan Lamb Sub and to make it into a sit down meal. What we had eaten so far contained elements of the lamb sub!

Remember the gorgeous white bread that came with the dip? Well apparently that was Subway‘s white bread that had been toasted and sprinkled with rock salt. The lamb was pretty obvious, and the mint yoghurt is the sauce that would be poured over the meat in the sub! I’m quite excited that the salad will be in the sub as well – I think I’ve found a new love in pomegranate.

But there’s one thing that Subway is famous for that hasn’t made an appearance yet. Something that many people go to Subway for:

The Subway Cookie.

Besides the selection of fresh fruits that arrives – ripe figs with honey anyone? – tall martini glasses with a luscious scoop of pistachio ice cream, raw tahini and subway cookie crumbs come marching out. There’s not much to say about a Subway cookie though, besides OM NOM NOM.

I must say that the nice people of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies really know how to throw a party. By the end of the night I was filled with delicious food, happily nursing a food baby, and my taste buds were tingling. It would be interesting to see how the Sub form of the food will taste, but with so many great elements, surely you can’t go wrong. Added to that the rousing company in the form of Betty, Karen and Shan, good times were had all around.

Tambourine of insatiablemunchies attended The Tastes of Morocco courtesy of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies.

La Premiere, Hoyts Moore Park

Review May 13, 2012 4 Comments

It’s been a great time of eating lately, and it is topped off by – much like the gorgeous chocolate sundae pictured above, but more about that later – a cordial invite by the nice people at Hoyts to try their La Premiere menu!

La Premiere was described to me as their ‘business class’ offering – a more relaxed feel than ‘first class’, but more sophisticated and swanky than just a movie. Good food at the movies provide a multitude of possibilities: Let’s say you’re on a first date and you’re nervous. Well, no awkward pre-movie dinner conversation! Just order the food at the movies, and then you have something to talk about afterwards to break the ice! Or let’s say you want to meet up with a couple of girlfriends after work to catch some food and a movie. Sometimes dinner can run long, causing you to be late for the movie. Well, this solves that problem too.

The problem used to be, though, that the food at the cinema was crap. I’m sorry, I know that there’s a place for cheesy nachos and popcorn, but it does not make for a great food experience if you want a ‘nice night out’. When I think ‘nice night out’ I tend to think about decent food that’s relatively light, that I can pick at with my friends. Nothing too heavy, but a nice variety.

And the heaviness was something that Hoyts wanted to address. Before this change, the menu was dominated by deep-fried food that wasn’t particularly inspiring. So they partnered with Lotus & Ming and 2 newly-hired chefs to come up with something better for movie-goers to enjoy.

I like to identify myself as a rabid fan of movies – at one point I was going once a week, scary I know – so I’m very lucky to have been invited by the lovely people at Hoyts to try out this new menu!

Let’s get down and yummy shall we? 😉

First up was the Peking Duck Pancakes ($17 for 4).

As someone who’s grown up with these pancakes, I always get really wary of the ones offered in Australia. Sometimes it’s overtly sweet, sometimes there’s a bad balance of fresh veg (cucumber and spring onion) to duck, and sometimes there’s so much sauce that it just gets soggy and hard to eat.

But these were genuinely a joy. You could definitely tell that the focus was on food that you could handle easily in the cinema. The duck was shredded, meaning that you didn’t need to be chewing through skin – come on, we’ve all had those moments where we’re trying to bite through duck and we’ve just pulled whole pieces out, leaving the rest of the roll empty. These spring rolls are definitely the type that you can pick up and eat in the dark safely, without worrying about having filling all over your clothes. The plum dipping sauce was also a nice addition, as it meant that the rolls weren’t overly soggy with sauce and you had the option if you wanted more.

In following with the roll theme, the Farm Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls ($12 for 3) were up next. Filled with a variety of ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, these spring rolls were tasty and comforting. It was served with a soy infusion sauce – I have no idea what the term means, but to me it tasted more like a dressing with a touch of tanginess than the salty hit of just soy sauce. Simple and comforting, these rolls are easy to share with friends on a girls’ night out.

The Yum Cha Combo ($17 for 6) caught me a little bit off guard. As a general rule, I don’t eat dumplings unless I am going to yum cha or at a reputable chinese restaurant. There was a mixture of shrimp dumplings and chicken ones, they were decent, but not quite my thing. Especially after the first two dishes which were pleasantly surprising, these fell just a bit short for me. The bite size pieces were still great to eat in the dark, but after growing up with home-made dumplings, my personal bias just got the best of me in this one.

If you’re a fan of the crunchy fried option, then you’ll like this one. The Salt and Pepper Seafood Medley ($22) consisted of crumbed prawn, calamari and whiting served on a bed of fries. The seafood was good and I love how the crumbing was not saturated and dripping with oil, but I think the unsung heroes of this dish were the chips. Paired with the garlic and chive aioli, those chips were amazingly moorish, leading us to keep picking at them throughout. The amazing part? Even after almost an hour of being on the table, the chips kept their crisp!!! There was a satisfying crunch even when many other chips would have been stale, and even when they were at room temperature, they still hit the spot texturally. LOVE THOSE CHIPS.

When I think of chips, I somehow think of burgers, so how appropriate was it that the next thing that we got to try was the La Premiere Burger Trio ($17)?

Three mini burgers were served with a palette cleansing cranberry and raspberry juice shot. The Wagyu Beef Slider (top photo, left) consisted of a patty made with grass fed beef, cheddar cheese and tomato relish. The Grilled Chicken slider (top photo, right) consisted of marinated grilled chicken, cheese and creamy creamy avocado. And finally, the Gourmet Turkey Slider (bottom photo, top) had turkey with melted cheese and a lovely dollop of cranberry sauce.

These mini burgers were the size of a Mini-Disc (anyone remember those) and were trés cute! The beef was my absolute favourite, with heaps of gorgeous umami flavours bursting forth with every bite. It was the heaviest of the three, but the small size prevented it from being too much and weighing you down. The chicken was my next favourite, with the creamy avocado adding a touch of luxury to an otherwise light and healthy-tasting burger. I felt that the turkey was festive, and a great idea, but the turkey piece itself just was a touch dry for me. Speaking with Chris – the man who is leading the charge in the full revamp of the menu – he mentioned that the turkey burger was the trickiest because of the nature of turkey meat being quite lean. Full disclosure, though, I’m really picky about such things. Sam, whom I went with, didn’t feel that it was dry at all, and loved it.

Something else that Sam and I both love is cheese – both the dairy and Disney sort – and the Cheese Board ($24) did not disappoint.

The cheeses on the board consisted of a creamy Adelaide hill Brie and Goats Cheese Curd (top left and right, respectively), Blue Cow Country Cheddar (middle, left) and and mild Hysen Blue Cheese (bottom, left), with quince paste and lavosh. A cheese board can be pretty simple, and sometimes leaves people to think that for the price they pay they can just buy the cheeses themselves and create the board. Chris had thought about this and told me that the conscious decision was made to use cheeses from suppliers that are not as commonly found so that there was something different, a point of difference from the rest. Something for people to come back for.

Well, this is something that I would definitely get again and again. I love how the Goat’s Cheese Curd wasn’t quite as strong on the aftertaste like many goat’s cheeses I’ve tried. The brie melted luxuriously in my mouth, and the blue cheese was not as sharp as some of the others, making it a great beginner’s blue for people who are hesitant in ordering and trying blues. I’m not a great cheddar eater, but Sam was, and this reiterated the sharing concept of the menu. There is something for everyone.

But with almost every eating experience, there is the pièce de résistance. Let me present to you the La Premiere Chocolate Fudge Brownie Sundae ($24).

As modeled by Sam, this ginormous sundae is close to the size of her face.A 1.8L glass bowl is filled with generous scoops of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, fudgy chocolate brownie cubes, whipped cream, wafers and nuts. Holding this bowl made me want to replace (in my dream wedding) a wedding bouquet with a gargantuan ice cream sundae. Whether it’s a breakup, celebration or just because, this sundae is a definite sharing favourite! There is even a strawberry version which has an entire punnet of strawberries emptied into its creamy depths. LOVE IT.

In all, I felt that the amount of effort and thought that went into the revamp – considering how people would eat the food in the dark and how they would feel after eating the food – deserves lots of praise. Considering that there are limited facilities in the kitchen, the team has done a fantastic job in presenting more than decent food with great variety. Sure, I’m not crazy about absolutely everything, but the whole point of the variety is that there is something for everyone to try.

At the moment the La Premiere menu is available in NSW at Moore Park and Chatswood, but they are expanding it in more locations soon.

Note: Tammi and guest of Insatiable Munchies were invited as guests of Hoyts Australia.

Unleashing the Quiche!

Recipe March 22, 2012 3 Comments

Quiche was first introduced to me in more or less the following words:

Leftover pie

And I can understand where it’s coming from – it’s a very economical way to use up leftover ingredients…provided you have spare pastry and spare dairy (read: cream) lying around. After making my favourite pastry recipe at the moment, I’ve been on a quiche bend, meaning that Sean and I have plenty of quick breakfasts that we can grab on the way to work! Happiness all around.

I guess the idea is that you can fill a quiche with pretty much anything you like – I always feel like if you like the combination, who’s to judge? (I do have a rant about that, but more about it later) There are also many different quiche mixes on the net, but I’ll just share what I use and just feel free to mix and match!

Quiche Mix
4 eggs
400g pure cream
50g milk
pinch of salt

Preheat 165C.

Line 12 muffin tins with pastry.

For this lot, I filled the quiche with leftover spinach, cream cheese, bacon, and then thoroughly mixed up the eggs, cream and salt and pour it over the filling till 1/2 mm from the top of the pastry.

Bake till the tops are brown.

Let cool on a cooling rack, and then upend the tray onto a cookie sheet.

I find that if you tip it out while it’s too warm, there is some warping in the shape of the mini-quiches. But it’s still cute! And your tummy won’t know what shape it’s in. 😉

Meanwhile, I’ve got some leftover pastry that I’m not sure what to do with. Any ideas?

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.