cuisine

Hako

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I’m one of those people who like lists. I like writing them, and ticking items gives me a little frisson of satisfaction. I’ll even add completed items to my lists so I get the pleasure of marking them off!

So it’s no surprise that I have a list of restaurants that I’d like to eat at. Due to lack of time, money, and lack of energy to organise a meal out, I tend to add more and hardly ever cross ones off! The fact that I don’t have strict criteria for places to make The List doesn’t help. Do other people like it? On The List. Does the food sound interesting? On The List. Do I like the name? On The List.

Okay, so that last statement isn’t true, but you get the general idea.

Hako was one of the restaurants on The List, and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to tick it off! Alastair and I went for dinner several weeks ago, after a few hours wandering around a home ideas show (how terribly domestic and rather tragic for a Friday night!).

It was a rather chilly evening, and I was happy to see that there were free tables. The split-level premises is quite impressive, being a rather large and roomy space. The room’s white walls are offset with a very high matte black ceiling and dark floorboards. It all seems rather simple, but very cool.

Hako
(Terrible photos courtesy of my mobile, as my Bro borrowed my little camera when he went to Vegas!)

We started off with a plate of sashimi ($17.80 entrée size, $27.80 main size). We received salmon belly, tuna and some white fish…. We weren’t told what the fish was, and I neglected to ask! Nevertheless, the mystery fish, as well as the salmon and tuna was lovely and fresh. We could’ve happily eaten the main size (even with more food to come).

Hako

Our other starter was a plate of chargrilled chicken wings with plum paste ($10.88). The plate of 3 juicy wings were perfectly grilled and had a hint of sweetness along with a lot of smokiness. In fact, they had quite a distinctive taste…. Think smokey, sweet and grassy…..

Hako

For mains, Alastair had the ebi tempura ($17.80) which was soba buckwheat noodles in soup served with prawn tempura. The prawns had been stretched out before being battered and deep fried, which I thought made them resemble worms! They were served separately to the soup, which kept them crisp. However, Alastair dunked them in his soup as he ate them – heathen!

Hako

I had the unagi don – char grilled eel with rice and miso soup ($22.80). A generous portion of eel came to the table on top of rice. The eel was rich and tasty, with the fillets glazed in a sticky, sweet, dark sauce. I was rather satisfied with my meal and hunted down every last piece of rice and eel.

Service was charming. It wasn’t perfect, but the wait staff were likable and eager to please. We had such a pleasant evening that it made me wonder why it took me so long to get there. Hopefully I won’t wait so long to go back!

Hako
310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne,
Phone: (03) 9620 1881

De Bortoli

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Last week was a busy one – work was unusually silly and my mother-in-law, Annette, was visiting.

De Bortoli

On Monday, Alastair and I took the day off and the three of us headed out to the Yarra Valley for a long lunch. Alastair had a new GPS unit to play with, so we entered a random road in the Yarra Valley to test it out. The GPS unit got us there – eventually – via the scenic route. Instead of taking the Eastern Freeway, we ended up driving through the windy, hilly roads behind the Valley.

De Bortoli

We decided to have lunch at De Bortoli, one of the prettiest wineries out in the Yarra Valley (in my opinion!). Our table was right by the window, giving us a beautiful view of the Great Dividing Range and the vines.

De Bortoli

After we had a chance to look at the menu, we were bought some bread and white bean puree. The bread was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. It was seriously amazing! The bread had been baked on the premises that morning, and the inside was moist and spongy. The crust was topped with crystals of rock salt, which crunched and gave off little bursts of saltiness. The bean puree was a nice complement, with a lovely fruity olive oil. We were given six generously sized slices of bread, and were offered more, which we had to regretfully decline due to lack of stomach space. It was a very regretful decline on my part. A week later and I’m still lusting after that bread!

De Bortoli

Annette’s starter was the pumpkin risotto – a risotto of carnaroli rice with pumpkin and pancetta ($17). Annette had been wavering between this and another starter, and asked the waiter what he thought of her two choices. He said the risotto without a second thought, and it was easy to see why. The dish was magnificent, intensely flavoured with pumpkin but also very creamy.

De Bortoli

Alastair had the wagyu bresaola which was thinly sliced and served with rocket, black pepper and shavings of parmesan ($18). The dried meat was sweet and tender.

De Bortoli

As for me, I ordered the insalata di gamberi which were char grilled prawns with Sardinian pasta ($19). The four prawns were large and juicy and generously dressed with olive oil. The pasta was a touch salty, but otherwise nicely flavoured with lemon and herbs.

De Bortoli
De Bortoli

For mains, Annette had the veal rib eye with green beans and salsa d’erbe ($34). Alastair had the duck – which was steamed and roasted in balsamic and pinot noir, then stuffed with lemon and sage and served with swiss chard, muscatels and pan juices ($34). Both looked really good and there were no complaints about either dish!

De Bortoli

My main was the ocean trout – the fillet was pan fried and served on top of a castelluccio lentil, roast vine tomato and herb salad ($32). The lentils were dressed with an anchovy and rosemary dressing. They had managed to crisp the skin without overcooking the fish and it was moist and tender. The lentils were perfectly cooked and the dressing complemented the fish well. As a bonus, the little tomatoes were a little burst of intense tomato flavour – yum!

De Bortoli

We also ordered a side of Italian fried potatoes with rosemary and garlic ($7). The potatoes were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside – perfect and very moreish.

De Bortoli

Afterwards we finished, we had a look at the dessert menu but soon realised there was no chance of fitting it in. We ordered coffees instead, and along with the coffees we received some biscotti and little cake things.

De Bortoli

After a quick walk around the winery, we headed back the long way to Melbourne. Yep, we tried the GPS unit again! Despite the extra travelling time, it was one of the most pleasurable lunches I’ve had in a while. The location, food and wine were wonderful, but as always with meals out, it was the company that was the best thing.

To visit the Yarra Valley & De Bortoli check out Wine Compass.

De Bortoli Winery & Restaurant
Pinnacle Lane, Dixons Creek
Yarra Valley, Victoria 3775
Telephone (03) 5965 2271

Hien Vuong Pasteur

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Whenever we have visitors, we mostly let them sort out their own sightseeing. I love this city, but I find it hard to think of interesting “touristy” things to do. Unlike other cities that have several must-see sights, Melbourne has charms that grow on you over time.

While we’re not good with the sightseeing agenda, we do have a food agenda. This is a list of must-eat items that our visitors need to experience. On the list are things like: dumplings at Camy, a hot chocolate at Koko Black, perhaps a claypot at EC pot (I need to go back and write a post on this place!), a parma, and a big bowl of pho.

pho

On a recent visit to Footscray, we decided to try a different pho restaurant. We walked past one that was packed with customers, always a good sign, so we took our chances and went in. The restaurant was decked out in the usual style – brightly lit with mirrored walls, menu written on the wall, and inexpensive tables and chairs. There’s also two large plasma TVs mounted on the walls, providing something else to focus on apart from your reflection (which was a tad distracting).

pho

The bowls of pho come in three different sizes – small for $6.50, medium for $7.50 and large for $8.50. The rice noodles and meat come swimming in a beef soup that has so much flavour, this is now our pho restaurant of choice. The one pictured here is a large – the Boys were hungry that night!

verms

Apart from the 20 different styles of noodle soup, there’s also the usual spring rolls and pork chops on rice and vermicelli. I believe this bowl of vermicelli was $8 (the price isn’t written on the walls). It was a huge bowl of noodle, and while the sauce wasn’t as tasty as in other places, it wasn’t bad.

verms

I had actually ordered it because I had a hankering for some crunchy spring rolls – and didn’t spot the springs rolls on the menu until after I ordered. I was a tad envious of the Boys with their bowls of pho.

four colour drink

The one disappointment is the tea tastes a bit strange. It may be due what they use to clean the thermoses. Both times we visited, the tea had an overwhelming taste and smell of detergent. But with three colour drinks cheaply priced at $2, and a big bowl of soup to drink after you’ve finished scavenging every last meat and noodle scrap from the bowl, who needs tea?

Update: they seem to have fixed the strange tasting tea! It has been fine in subsequent visits.

Hien Vuong Pasteur
144 Hopkins Street
Melbourne , VIC 3011
Phone: 03 9687 9698

Hainanese Chicken Rice

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Has anyone been watching Food Safari on SBS? I’m really enjoying the series, and have found most episodes fascinating, with the exception of at least one cuisine that didn’t seem very exciting – schnitzel. I love the run down of the common ingredients used in each cuisine, and the segments with the home cooks.

Chicken

The episode on Singaporean cuisine inspired me to make Hainanese chicken rice. If you’ve never had the pleasure, Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that originated in Hainan, China. An entire chicken is poached, and served with rice that has been fried with garlic and ginger (and chicken fat if you want to be really unhealthy), and then cooked in chicken stock. Alongside the rice and chicken are a couple of dipping sauces – normally a ginger and garlic sauce and a chilli one. Often there’ll also be a bowl of soup. It’s nothing fancy, but oh so good.

I have seen recipes where the chicken is simmered in the water, and I liked this one from Food Safari because you just leave the chicken in the hot water for an hour without simmering. For the rice, it’s important to have a well flavoured chicken stock, otherwise it’s just normal rice! The cooking liquid from the chicken doesn’t have enough flavour, unless you want to add more bones after cooking the chicken and simmer for a couple of hours. I had made a big pot of stock in the weekend, so I used that, but of course you could just buy some liquid stock. I wouldn’t bother with powdered stock though.

I made the ginger and garlic sauce, but didn’t like the result, so I’ve taken that off the recipe (check out the link to the Food Safari recipe below if you’re interested). I wanted to make the chilli sauce too, but I ran out of steam. I’m kind of glad though, because looking at the recipe I’m not sure about it. I ended up simply eating the chicken with some extra soy sauce and sesame oil.

So the result – was it good? It was great! The chicken was moist and full of flavour, and the rice was super tasty without being too oily. And another bonus, because I had made it myself, there was no MSG thirst afterwards, which seems to plague bought versions.

Writing this post is making me want chicken rice. Perhaps it’ll be an outside kitchen night!

Rice

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Hainanese chicken rice

From Food Safari

Chicken
1 fresh, free range chicken (mine was 1.3kg, which should serve 3-4 people)
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
6 slices fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, slightly bruised
2 shallots, chopped in a few pieces
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp salt

Chicken Rice
3 cups long grain rice
2 tbsp chicken or pork fat (this tastes great, but peanut oil can be used instead)
2-3cm ginger, grated
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped very finely or grated
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
3 ½ cups chicken stock
2 pandan leaves (optional)

For the chicken:
1. Bring a pot (large enough to fit the whole chicken) of water to the boil. While the water is heating, rub chicken inside with rice wine and soy sauce. Roughly chop three pieces of ginger, garlic and one shallot and then blend in a food processor. Place mixture inside chicken.
2. When the water boils, turn heat off and place the chicken, and the remaining three pieces of ginger and shallot in the water. Stand for five minutes, then lift up the chicken, draining the water from the stomach cavity. After the water has drained, put the chicken back in the water and cover with the lid. Repeat this process two or three times during the cooking period to make sure the chicken cooks inside as well as outside. The chicken will stand in the water for a total of one hour.
3. After 30 minutes, turn on the heat to bring the water back to almost boiling point, then turn the heat off (don’t let the water boil so the chicken stays tender and juicy). At the end of the hour, remove the chicken and brush the surface with the remaining soy sauce combined with sesame oil and salt. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces with a sharp cleaver.

For the rice:
5. Wash the rice and drain well. In a wok, fry chicken fat (or peanut oil) until oil is released and then add the ginger and garlic and fry well.
6. Remove from heat and discard the chicken fat and skin. Add the rice and salt and stir fry briskly for about 1-2 minutes. Transfer rice into an electric rice cooker or pot and add the chicken stock and pandan leaves. Follow normal instructions for cooking rice. If you’re using a pot, put the rice on a high heat until it comes to the boil. Then lower the heat until it becomes a gentle simmer. Let it cook until all the water has been absorbed, and you can see steam holes in the rice. Take it off the heat and let the rice sit for 10 minutes to finish absorbing the rest of the liquid before eating.

Portuguese-style chicken curry, daal and cabbage slaw

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I’m having difficulty with food blogging at the moment. It’s not due to lack of time or energy. It isn’t because I’m not eating well, or not cooking good food, or not photographing meals. My issue is with the whole stringing words into coherent sentences thing. It seems that food blogging involves more than just food, it also involves writing. I know. Who’d thought!

However, I am pushing through and making an effort.!

The other week, I cooked a meal from a Indian cookbook I had received over Christmas. I made a chicken curry, a daal, and an interesting cabbage slaw that I’d never tried before.

The Portuguese-style chicken curry (aka mungh vindaloo) wasn’t as spicy as it usually is in restaurants, although I did try to up the heat factor. Originally, vindaloo wasn’t particularly spicy and the cookbook tells me that vindaloo actually means “vinegary”. Other sources (internets!) say that vindaloo is a derivative of the Portuguese “vinho de alho” which literally means wine (vinho) and garlic (alho). Vindaloo was bought to Goa by the Portuguese and was traditionally cooked with pork. I used chicken drumsticks in my version. They took ages to cook, but were very succulent.

The daal was good, but a bit overshadowed by the vindaloo and the cabbage. My daal was quite soupy at first, but after standing for a while (I had to wait for the curry to finish cooking) it thickened up. I was rather heavy handed with the ginger!

But on to the cabbage. The cabbage slaw was a real surprise. The coconut gave it a lovely fragrance, and the cabbage was sweet, slightly nutty and spicy. If you like coconut (and cabbage) give it a try. It was very different from how I normally cook cabbage and we really enjoyed it.

Cabbage

Gujarati Cabbage Slaw

From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking

Serves 6

1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
1 cup dry-roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 medium head green cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), finely shredded (8 cups)
1 cup shredded fresh coconut or 1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
3 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chillies, finely chopped
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
Juice of 1 medium lime (2 tablespoons)

Heat oil in wok or pan over medium-high heat. Add asafetida and peanuts; sizzle 30 seconds.

Add remaining ingredients except lime juice, stir fry about 5 minutes or until cabbage is hot; remove from heat. Stir in lime juice.

Daal

Moong daal

From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking

Serves 6

1 cup dried whole green lentils (sabud mung), sorted, rinsed and drained
4 cups water
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon ghee or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing) or garlic powder
1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
1 medium tomato, finely chopped (3/4 cup)
2 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chillies, cut lengthwise in half
1 teaspoon salt

Place lentils, water and turmeric in a saucepan. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Partially cover and simmer 30 to 35 minutes or until lentils are tender.

While lentils are simmering, heat ghee/oil and mustard seed in a a pan over medium-high heat. Once seed begins to pop, cover skillet and wait until popping stops.

Add asafetida and ginger to mustard seed; stir fry about 30 seconds or until ginger is partially brown. Add tomato and chillies, stir fry 3-5 minutes or until tomato is softened.

Stir tomato mixture and salt into lentils. Partially cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Chicken


Portuguese-style chicken curry / Mungh vindaloo

From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped ginger
5 medium cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup tomato sauce (I think this is tomato puree, I used a can of whole tomatoes)
1 tablespoon coriander seed, ground
1 teaspoon cumin seed, ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips (I used drumsticks instead)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup plain yoghurt

Heat in a pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, ginger and garlic; stir fry about 5 minutes or until onions and garlic are golden brown.

Stir in tomato sauce, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt, cayenne pepper and turmeric, reduce heat. Partially cover and simmer around 5 minutes or until a thin film of oil starts to form on surface of sauce. Remove from heat; cool 3 to 4 minutes.

Place sauce in blender (or use a stick blender). Cover and blend on medium speed until smooth. Return sauce to saucepan.

Stir chicken into sauce. Simmer uncovered 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is partially cooked.

Stir in vinegar and coconut milk. Simmer uncovered 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink in centre.

Beat yoghurt with wire whisk until smooth; stir into chicken mixture. Cook uncovered for 1 minute, stirring occasionally, just until yoghurt is warm. Serve with rice.

The Abyssinian

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Platter

Recently, to celebrate a friend getting older and wiser, we had a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant located in Flemington, the Abyssinian.

The food is based on recipes from the Horn of Africa. The menu was rather long, so we took the easy option and ordered the meat combination platter. The platter comes with slow cooked stews: chicken, lamb, fish and vegetables, on a large enamel tray lined with injera bread. The cost is $25 for one person, $45 for two and then $22 for each additional person. There is also a wholly vegetarian platter.

Goat

Injera is a spongy, sour flatbread. Traditionally, it is made with a small round grain called teff. The flour is mixed with water and left to ferment for a few days, which gives it a slight sourness and an airy, bubbly texture. At the Abynissian, the bread is made with self raising rice and corn flours. You rip off a piece of injera, roll it around a bit of stew and eat.

Ripping injera

We’ve been to a different Ethiopian restaurant before, and found that the injera was too sour for our tastes. The injera at the Abyssinian was much nicer – very soft and not too sour. However, the parts of the injera that sat under the stews soaked up the sauces and became too soggy to pick up. Thankfully, even though cutlery isn’t traditional, we had also been given spoons, which helped us scoop up every last bit of stew and injera.

Chicken

Dotted around the tray on the injera were several different stews. There were several diffferent vegetable stews: lentils cooked in a light sauce, cabbage and carrots, spinach and beans, and pumpkin. They were all pretty tasty. For the meat stews, we had some lovely tender goat, a rather spicy (and therefore awesome!) lamb, a chicken stew and the last was a mixture shrimp and nile perch in a slightly spicy and tangy sauce.

Being a little group of gluttons, we polished off the lot and really could have eaten more. There were five of us, and I think that if there had been one more person, we might’ve gotten another platter (I was eyeing up other tables to see what they got).

It was a good place to celebrate a birthday. The atmosphere is casual and lively, and the service is friendly, although a little sporadic.

The Abyssinian
277 Racecourse Road, Flemington
Phone: (03) 9376 8754

Spicy eggplant and garlic shoots

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Eggplant

Remember encyclopedias? Do you remember how those big books took up several shelves? This is a very nerdy thing to admit, but when my parents bought us a set of encyclopedias, I read most of the volumes. Nowadays, with Wikigoogle at our fingertips, who needs encyclopedias filling up the bookshelf?

Wikipedia in particular is great. Now, I know there are problems with it: anyone can edit it (gasp), plus it’s on the internets and we all know that everything on the internet is a lie. But since I don’t look at it when I need 100% accuracy, I reckon it’s fab!

For example, if it wasn’t for Wiki, I never would have known that:

“Eggplant is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01mg/100g). However, the amount of nicotine from eggplant or any other food is negligible compared to passive smoking.”

Put that in your aubergine and smoke it…..!

Righto, enough of the bad puns and useless trivia, how about a recipe? I made this dish to use up the second half of the bunch of garlic shoots that I cooked previously. I think that the eggplant worked nicely with the garlic shoots – they were soft against the crunchy shoots and the eggplant also absorbed some of the flavour.

Despite the amount of chilli in the recipe, and the extremely hot vapours that will come out of the wok, the end result isn’t actually that spicy. But you’re not supposed to eat the chillis. Those little babies will be hot!

Eggplant

Spicy eggplant and garlic shoots

Serves 4 as part of a multi dish meal

4-5 small eggplants (or a couple of large ones)
1/2 bunch garlic shoots, sliced into 3cm lengths
150g bean sprouts
1 tablespoon peanut oil
A handful of dried whole chillis
Soy sauce

Slice the eggplants into 2-3cm pieces. Steam over a pot of boiling water for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are tender.

Give the garlic shoots and bean sprouts a good rinse, and drain well.

Heat the oil in a hot wok. When the oil is hot, throw in the chillis. They will darken quickly, so watch them! Add the garlic shoots and stir fry for a couple of minutes, until they are tender and start to darken in spots.

Add the bean sprouts and eggplant and swish around for another minute.

Add a splash of soy sauce and mix well to coat the vegetables. Taste – you may want to add more seasoning, but I found that the soy sauce was enough.

Serve with rice.

Bottega: Ladies who Lunch

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My friend Emily and I just managed to sneak the next instalment of Ladies who Lunch into January. The restaurant of choice this time was Bottega, which is located at the top end of Bourke Street, not too far from Parliament.

We were offered bread to begin. Really Good Bread. Sometimes it’s the very simple things that make me happy and the bread certainly did! The bread had a lovely chewy crust and moist, soft centre. The friendly and professional waiter came back later to offer us another piece, which I gratefully took because the bread was divine. (Another simple thing at Bottega that made me happy? Good quality wine glasses.)

Starter

We started off with the Silician sugar cured kingfish carpaccio with lemon, sherry, currants, radicchio and
pinenuts ($18). Look at it. It was so beautiful it was a shame to eat it.

Fish Nettle

My main was the romesco crusted barramundi fillet with roasted eggplant shown on the left ($31.50). My dish was stunning. It seems like such a simple dish, but it was totally amazing. The fish was cooked perfectly – moist and just flaking under my fork. The eggplant was meltingly tender (and y’know how much I love eggplant). The romesco was full of flavour and garlic. The garlic didn’t totally dominate though, and I didn’t really notice the amount of garlic until I realised I was sucking down glasses of water like crazy.

Em had the nettle tagliatelle with fresh spanner crab ($21). I’m told that it was delicious and rather filling.

Side

We shared a side of broccolini with lemon anchovy dressing ($6). Again, something relatively simple, but done so well. The still slightly crunchy broccolini was dressed in a salty, buttery, lemon dressing. Breadcrumbs provided a bit of textural difference to the dressing. So freaking gorgeous.

Cannoli

We didn’t leave without having dessert. I had the cannoli filled with ricotta, hazelnut and chocolate candied orange with bitter chocolate icecream ($14.50).

The cannoli was a good way to finish off the lunch – not too rich or too sweet. The pastry tubes were slightly crunchy and firm, providing a nice contrast to the soft filling. I did find it a bit hard to eat with a spoon and a fork – too bad it wasn’t the kind of place where I could just pick it up with my hands!. While I’m not that into candied orange or orange flavours (I have no problems with the fruit or juice though) I still found myself gobbling the little chocolate candied pieces up. They gave a little zing to the creamy ricotta. The ice cream was a deep, dark chocolate and my only complaint is that it melted too quickly!

Chocolate tart

Em had the bittersweet chocolate tart with morello cherries and creme fraiche ($15). It looked very decadent!

Bottega is comfy and stylish, and on the day we were there, much quieter than I was expecting (perhaps the rain that day had kept people in their offices).

It was a wonderful lunch to finish off January. The next restaurant in the Ladies who Lunch series will have to be pretty good to compete with this meal!

Bottega
74 Bourke St, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9654 2252

Garlic shoots and steamed tofu

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Garlic shoots and mushrooms

Firstly, happy Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year! I’ve always liked Chinese New Year, mostly because of the red envelopes that are given out (who doesn’t love a bit of extra pocket money?). Now that I live in a different country to my family, I don’t get many red envelopes anymore. However, a phone call to my parents revealed that Grandma had given our red envelopes to mum. So there are some traditions that you can always rely on Grandma for!

The last couple of nights I’ve been cooking some rather Chinese inspired meals. I was doing some random food shopping and came across a bunch of garlic shoots. I first read about garlic shoots in someone’s blog (can’t remember which one now) so I bought some to try out. Garlic shoots are the young shoots that come off a garlic plant, prior to the bulb maturing. They look similar to spring onions, except that they’re not hollow. They have a gentle, sweet, garlic flavour.

The garlic shoots went into a stir fry with shimeji and oyster mushrooms plus some bean sprouts. Yummo.

Steamed tofu

We also had some steamed tofu with the stir fry. There are lots of different kinds of tofu available but my favourite is silken firm tofu. It has a wonderful silky texture that shines when it’s prepared very simply.

Garlic shoots and mushrooms closer

Stir-fried mushrooms and garlic shoots

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin matchsticks
1 fresh chilli, seeds removed (if desired) and sliced thinly
½ bunch garlic shoots, roughly chopped into 3cm lengths
150 g shimeji mushrooms, separated or cut into small clumps
150 g oyster mushrooms
150 g bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Salt and sugar

(I know that generally mushrooms don’t need to be washed, but I think there are some kinds that do need a rinse. I don’t know if shimeji and oyster mushrooms need it but I gave them a quick dunking anyway.)

Add the oil to a wok on high heat. When the oil is hot, throw in the chilli and ginger and swish around for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic shoots and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, until they start to become tender and brown in spots. Keep the garlic shoots moving.

Add the shimeji and oyster mushrooms as well as the bean sprouts and stir-fry for another minute. Add the oyster sauce and mix well to coat all the vegetables. Taste before deciding whether you need to add more salt and perhaps a touch of sugar (I added about ½ teaspoon of each). Serve with rice.

Steamed tofu


Steamed silken tofu with ginger and chilli

1 block silken firm tofu
2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin matchsticks
1 fresh chilli, seeds removed (if desired) and sliced thinly
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon peanut oil

Carefully pop the block of tofu out of its container and on to a heatproof plate/bowl.
Bring a wok or saucepan of water to the boil. Put the plate of tofu in a bamboo steamer.
Place the sliced chilli and ginger on top and pour over the soy sauce and peanut oil.
Place a lid on the bamboo steamer and steam the tofu over boiling water for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the hot plate from the steamer and serve immediately.

Delizia Cucina (closed)

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Parcel

To kick off the Australia Day weekend, Alastair and I had dinner at Delizia Cucina in Seddon.

While the food was good, there were a few things that marred my enjoyment. Let me get the complaints out of the way first. Being a small restaurant, the tables are packed very closely. How close were the tables? Well, whenever the skinny waiter bent over slightly to pour water or wine for the table next to us, his butt would bump our glasses. My other main annoyance was the noise. The restaurant is quite smartly decked out and we particularly admired the usage of the bottoms of plastic milk crates that lined the walls. But all the hard surfaces – hard floors, hard concrete-finish tables, hard wooden chairs, hard walls, everything hard hard hard, all reflected sound. With the restaurant full, the noise levels were very high. I’m being a bit of a granny complaining about the noise, but it was so loud that conversation over the table was difficult.

But on to the food. Once seated, a waiter uncorked the small bottle of olive oil sitting on the table, and poured some into a dish for us. Also on the table was a small dish of Murray River salt flakes, (with a spoon – hooray for places that care about hygiene). A basket of bread rolls was bought to the table, and it was hard not to fill up on bread. The olive oil was delicious and when sprinkled with a bit of salt – yum!

We skipped starters and went straight into the mains. I only took photos and notes of what I ate as it was very dark inside (another annoyance of mine…) plus the menu descriptions were rather long.

Quail

The quail, looking rather blurry.

My main was a partially boned quail filled with burghal, pistachios, pinenuts and currants, roasted and served with a quail and dual liver bisteeya and a carmelised pumpkin, grape and herb salad ($29). This was a dish that really emphasised the contrast of sweet and savoury. The quail was cooked nicely, and the stuffing was rather sweet. I would have liked the quail to have been slightly saltier (perhaps I should’ve used some of that salt on the table – duur). The flakey and sweet bisteeya was filled with a soft, creamy liver mixture. My favourite thing on the plate though, was the pumpkin and grape salad. It was brilliant, a bit sweet, a bit salty, a bit tangy. I loved it.

We also shared two sides – one was roast beetroot and other vegetables with pomegranate molasses (if I remember the menu correctly). The vegetables were cooked well, and the molasses gave them a sweet and sour edge. The other side was green beans with sumac (again, if I recall correctly). Oh, the green beans. I LOVED the beans! They were perfect – still slightly crunchy, and buttery with a slight lemon tang. I ate quite a lot of the beans and I could’ve finished the rest if I didn’t have dessert in mind. The sides were around $7 and they were both generous serves.

Fondant

My dessert was the rich chocolate fondant cake topped with a white chocolate and pistachio mousse and served with cherries poached in a spiced red wine syrup ($12). It was lovely – rich and dark, with the cherries providing a bit of boozy tartness. The mousse helped provide a bit of lightness to the dark chocolate cake.

Given the quality of the food, prices were reasonable. On a quieter night, perhaps sitting at one of the high-backed leather banquettes lining the wall, I would have loved eating at Delizia. I think it would be worth another look, perhaps on a weeknight.


Delizia Cucina
160 Victoria Street, Seddon
Phone: (03) 9687 9397

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