Archive for May, 2007There’s a really interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald today about a lunch between Margaret Fulton and Tim Flannery (Australian of the Year). To celebrate the re-release of the Margaret Fulton Cookbook, Good Living asked Margaret to invite someone to lunch, and she chose Tim. Looks like they got on a treat. The conversation naturally turned to the environment and the role that diet and food production plays in exaggerating, or minimising, environmental impact. Both Margaret and Tim were supporters of organic food, and argued that the Government and public need to support more sustainable forms of food production. Of course that led to the perennial question of whether that is an elitist attitude, given organic food is more expensive. I’ve often had this same debate with friends. Tim’s answer was that people should be encouraged to eat higher quality organic meat, but less often. Margaret argued that the Government has a role to play in improving living conditions and standards for food production, especially livestock and poultry, because that would wipe out some of the ‘bad’ but cheaper options on the market. I guess that is the old externalities chestnut (maybe one for oikos)? Another interesting angle to the story was the use of organic food in restaurants (the lunch was at Becasse where Justin North came up with a wholly organic meal). This seems to be becoming more popular in Australia, especially with the support of prominent chefs like Bill Grainger, Sean Moran and Kylie Kwong, but it’s not that widespread. Interestingly, when we were in the US the bulk of vegetarian restaurants that we tried used organic food - I think there is a stronger link there between vegetarianism and healthy eating.
V Rating: VVV No matter where I’ve lived, I’ve always had an ol’ faithful local restaurant. It’s the place I suggest when we’re going out with newbie friends, or I’m in a group and want a fun, cheap dinner without politely pointless deliberation about which restaurant to try. Well, Thai Terrific in Bondi is that restaurant for me (even though it’s not quite my local). When I first moved to Bondi, Thai Terrific’s Curlewis Street setting was a little more humble. A couple of redecorations later, it’s bright swankier restaurant with a large courtyard out the back. The one constant is that whenever I go there it’s always packed. So why is that? Truthfully, I don’t think it’s the quality of the food. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not bad food, but it’s not exceptional Thai (and if anything has become a little blander over the years). I think it’s more likely because the Bondi Beach food scene has a gaping hole where some great Asian restaurants should be. There are some good small places (better suited to takeaway) and some ritzier, expensive restaurants but not so much of the variety or experience that you find in other parts of Sydney. So while inner westies might puzzle at Thai Terrific’s success, if you live in Bondi, it’s one of the best no-fuss, great fun restaurants and one of the few ways to get a Thai fix. Like most Thai restaurants, there are ostensibly loads of vegetarian choices because you can order different curries and stir-frys with your choice of sauce and vegetable and tofu. I didn’t do the ordering so I’m not sure if there was fish sauces in any of the eight veggie entrees, or around 30 mains - I recommend you ask.
We tried the entree deep fried tofu with sweet chili and peanut satay sauce, green curry with vegetables and tofu, Pad Thai, and the pumpkin and snow pea stir fry. These last two dishes were my favourites. In particular, the sweetness of the pumpkin and snow peas worked nicely with the soy based stir fry sauce and soft and oily egg. Like every visit to Thai Terrific, the food was just one part of the experience. Combined with the fun, lively atmosphere and flowing wine, we had a typically great night. A couple of weeks ago Andy and I decided to do something really exciting. Something we’ve been dreaming about, and saving for, since 2003. Something we can’t keep putting off due to work, moving cities, Federal elections, apathy… We decided to take 6 months off and travel overseas. The itinerary goes something like Norway, London, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, India, Nepal, China and Thailand. I’m calling it the ‘cool things to see before we die tour’ (a work colleague suggested ‘cool things to see before you have children’ would be equally apt. Slightly depressing thought). We leave on 24 June, so I’ll l try to squeeze in plenty of reviews of good Sydney restaurants beforehand. While I’m away I’ll blog about our food experiences. You can read about the general journey at Poundster.com. If there any keen beans who want to keep up the Sydney / Australia reviews while I’m away get in touch at veggiefriendly[at]gmail[dot]com. V Rating: VV This September my Mum and Dad are off to travel the world, including trekking in Mali, gallivanting in New York and dancing in Cuba. Talk about being 60 years young! Their 60th birthday celebration this Easter was a great reminder of the fun you can have in your own backyard. After a day at the races, we went on a wine tour in the gorgeous Adelaide Hills region.
Less famous than the Barossa, Clare and McLaren Valleys, the Adelaide Hills region is really charming, with the vineyards set amongst rolling hills and peacefully swaying gum trees. We called on Nepenthe, Bird in the Hand (my favourite), Abbey Rock and the specialist microbrewery pub, Grumpy’s Brewhaus.
Check out the photos on Flickr. Tasting wines can really give you an appetite, so to top off our lovely day we made a bee-line for Maximillian’s, a well-known Austrian restaurant adjoining a winery. I was apprehensive about the vegetarian selection given Austrians are not the natural friend of the herbivore and winery restaurants tend more to hale and hearty menu. However, Maximillian’s had a decent selection. For entree, I tried the rocket, pear and parmesan salad.
Andy tried the baked mushrooms (sans worcestershire sauce) with lemon juice and garlic.
For mains, my Dad ordered the spinach and cottage pancake from the menu. This was deliciously soft and creamy, with each layer of cheese and pancake gently falling into each other.
Andy and I asked the waitress if there were any other vegetarian options. After consulting with the kitchen, she offered to bring us a vegetarian tasting plate for two. It had sauteed vegetables, potato rosti, the pancakes and grilled tomato. How could we refuse?
Our table also shared some beans in bernaise sauce as a side…
…and some asparagus with bernaise sauce for good measure.
Maximillian’s is reminiscent of a grand old farmhouse, with whitewashed stone walls and deep red tablecloths. I can recommend the front room, which has large windows on all sides overlooking a small lake and plenty of natural light (the food blogger’s friend). It was the perfect place for a celebratory family lunch, and a lovely end to a day of wine tasting.
V Rating: VVV Last year, a Veggie Friendly reader tipped me off to the Nepalese Kitchen on Crown Street. I’ve been looking for an excuse to go there ever since. Compared to your average ultra hip Crown Street restaurant, Nepalese Kitchen feels time-honoured and intellectual, the kind of place where conversation could turn to the politics of Nepal’s neighbours China and Tibet, as easily as complaints about the state of the Sydney.
We tried it on a Friday night, where our reserved table was the only free one amongst the busy, noisy crowd. The excitement was palpable as we checked out the yummy steamed momo dumplings (two out of the three types were vegetarian), but we also ordered the eggplant stuffed with onion and served with a yoghurt sauce. As much as I love momos, the eggplant entree was a highlight. The eggplant was soft but kept its shape, while the onion stuffing was light, and sweetly flavoured with cumin. There were five different vegetarian mains so our group of six tried them all. At my end of the table the favourite was the Bhanta, an eggplant and potato curry with cherry tomatoes, sauteed with cumin, garlic , ginger and chili. The eggplant was melt-in-your-mouth good.
I also liked the mushroom curry with potatoes, sauteed in a spicy tomato sauce with cinnamon and black cardamom. There’s nothing like sinking your teeth into a whole button mushroom slathered in curry sauce.
The tama was a hot and sour curry with potato, pickled bamboo shoots and black-eyed beans.
The kwali, a nine bean curry cooked with chili, parsley seeds and traditional spices had me at hello.
We also ordered the bandakopi, a vibrant green dish of peas and snowpeas stir fried with shallots, coconut, coriander, green chilies and spices. A sweeter dish, it made a nice contrast to the heavier potato-based curries. To balance out the meal we also shared a light, watery dal.
At the end of the meal we were greeted with a very reasonable bill and a shiny plate of candied fennel seeds to freshen our breath.
A quick poll of the table voted the food as pleasant but not special. I felt more kindly towards Nepalese Kitchen. I enjoyed all the dishes, liked the vegetarian variety, and loved the atmosphere. A fun VVV experience. Adelaide is a funny city. Its a long way from most other places in Australia, and not on the road to anywhere. But as a capital city a lot of people feel obliged to visit, and I’m often asked by interstaters what they should do when they’re in my hometown. It’s a hard question to answer. Adelaide doesn’t have obvious tourist attractions like Sydney, so if you’re looking for a guide book experience you’ll be disappointed. I’ve spent time wandering around the city centre with Europeans bemused that it’s known as the city of Churches, or watching friends’ faces drop when they realise that the long line of Adelaide beach front is surf-less. Yet, I think Adelaide is a lovely place to visit if you can find a way to immerse yourself in the lifestyle. Two of the best ways to do this is to visit during one of Adelaide’s many events, such as the bi-annual Arts Festival, or the now annual Fringe Festival and Womad, or to visit some of the gorgeous wine regions near Adelaide, such as McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills, or the Barossa or Clare Valleys. On a recent trip back at Easter to celebrate my parents’ 60th birthdays we did both, starting with a visit to the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival. Oakbank is the (self-described) largest picnic race day on earth, thanks to the 70,000 strong crowd that turns up on Easter Monday. It’s Adelaide’s equivalent of the Melbourne Cup, but held at a country race track about 40 minutes from Adelaide.
The inside perimeter of the racetrack is filled with bookies, marquees, food stalls, amusement park rides and PEOPLE. We were there on the quieter day, Easter Saturday, along with 45,000 others. The crowd is really diverse. Young fashionistas swan around in cocktail dresses, high heels and adorably uncomfortable looking suits, rubbing shoulders with sunburnt country types in faded blue jeans and desert boots.
Despite the crowds, Oakbank is a real country racing experience. The race track is surrounded by low-lying hills, scattered gum trees, and paddocks. There’s an old wooden grandstand just by the finishing line, which is a great way to cheer on the houses in the shade. Behind the wooden grandstand is another area with food, bookies and a horse inspection area.
In between races the stewards let people walk across the track and kids hit the grass to kick the footy. Bet you can’t do that at the Melbourne Cup. The horse races are serious business at Oakbank, but equally important is the food, wine and general ambiance.
Within the circle of the racecourse, and in paddock after paddock outside it, there are rows of cars. Having anchored a spot, their passengers set up complex arrangements of fold-up chairs, portable tables, BBQs, eskies, picnic rugs and shade tents. Out comes the bottles of wine and gourmet food, and everyone is set to enjoy the races, interrupted only with occasional sojourns down to the bookies tent to lay a bet, or to mingle at the rails to watch the horses thunder past.
Because Oakbank is a bring-your-own picnic race day, it’s fine for vegetarians and vegans. My family were spoiled by Mum’s lovely picnic lunch. There was falafel, pumpkin and chickpea salad, potato salad, lemon pepper bread, spinach salad, cake for dessert, and of course champagne and wine galore. I’ve never been to horse races before, and despite a careful study of the form guide I was totally fleeced by the bookies, but I thought Oakbank was a lot of fun and a neat way to have a country experience so close to a capital city. I was really disappointed to miss weekend herb blogging last week, especially as it was hosted by Kalyn, the founder of the event. But this week I swung back into the saddle, hefting a trusty daikon with me. Daikon is a white radish. Its Japanese name means big (’dai’) root (’kon’) which pretty much sums it up. I’ve often had it pickled or shredded raw in Japanese food and Asian-flavoured salads, where I’ve suspected it’s been the ingredient that makes the dish memorable. But I’ve never cooked with it before. About a month or two ago I decided to give it a try. I couldn’t find it anywhere. More embarrassingly, I had no idea what it looked liked as I’d only ever had it in a prepared form. Then, last weekend I was rushing through the specialty grocery store, Norton St Grocer, when I saw a giant, starkly white vegetable. It looked like an overgrown carrot with its V-shape body and spurt of green foliage, only with old-man wiry facial hairs poking out every now and then. I checked the sign above it: I had found my first daikon. Although I’d been hankering to buy a daikon for awhile, once I took it home I realised I didn’t know what to do with it. Since I’d also bought some enoki mushrooms, I decided to make a loosely-Japanese themed soup using miso paste. Dutifully, I searched google for “miso daikon.” Immediately, it came back with a link to a recipe, which I broadly followed. You know what, I was disappointed. The daikon (which I probably didn’t cut finely enough) took a long time to cook, but didn’t absorb the flavour of the miso. Instead, it just stayed stubbornly radish-like. So now I only had half a daikon. I’d read in World Vegetarian Classics that daikon is also used in the Middle East. I figured that perhaps I should try it in a non-Japanese setting. Opening the fridge I saw potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots, and I couldn’t help but wish for pasties. With some puff pastry lying idly in the freezer, I decided to give them a whirl.
Ingredients Half a daikon (about 10 cm in length) Method Peel and chop all the vegetables into 1cm sized cubes. It’s important that the cubes are all the same size so that they cook evenly. Lightly oil a baking dish (I use a spray) and add the vegetables so that they are not covering each other too much. Drizzle some good quality olive oil on to them and sprinkle with sea salt. Toss to cover all the vegetables in the mix. Bake at 180 degrees for 50 minutes, occasionally tossing the vegetables. Remove from the oven and mix in a bowl with the rosemary. Take a sheet of puff pastry and cut it into quarters. This should leave you with four 15cm x 15cm pieces. Add a spoonful of the vegetable mixture to the centre of the first quarter. Carefully lift up two corners of the square that are diagonally opposite and press them together, pinching the sides together on either side. Make sure the point is clear of the vegetable mixture - you may need to give the pastry a very gentle tug to do this. Take the remaining two corners and press them together so that they join with the existing point, again pressing along the sides so that the mixture is secured. Put the pastie onto a pre-greased oven tray. Separate the egg yolk into a small bowl and add the milk. Mix together. Carefully brush the pastie with the mixture. Complete the rest of the pasties. Sprinkle the pasties with some sea salt and sesame seeds. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and has turned golden brown. Notes on the recipe
About Daikon
For more information see Wikipedia, Charmaine Solomon’s Encyclopedia of Asian Food, and World Vegetarian Classics. To read the full recap, visit this week’s host, Pat, at Up a Creek without a Patl. |
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