We recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary and took the opportunity to reminisce about our wedding day. There was all that stress in the preceding 3 months, and the Co-pilot is quick to remind me that I did at times transform into a fire breathing nightmare dragon lady.. But all the stress seemed worthwhile when it all miraculously came together on the day.

There were so many fond food memories from our wedding day but the memory of the risotto station is particularly pertinent. By the early evening on our wedding day we were married, had cut our cheese cake, had supped on canapes, charcuterie and pizzas, drunk plenty and supped again. We were well and truly beyond full and I was rather thankful that the corset of my wedding dress had me tightly trussed like a ham. And then at dusk, the risotto station came to life.

The risotto station by day, mysteriously teasing guests of things to come

The risotto station coming alive by night. The mushroom and asparagus risotto spilled onto a waiting table in front of waiting guests and dressed with generous handfuls of slivered asparagus, mushrooms and shaved Parmesan

I remember the ARIA Catering chef suddenly emerging from the kitchen and pouring a hot molten stream of thick risotto onto a waiting board fringed with fresh ingredients and watching it puddle into a perfect circle. Our guests too are still fondly remembering it, with one avid foodie friend happily recalling the moment the risotto was served with the sort of reverence usually reserved for more momentous history making occasions: “I was right there when it happened!”, he still exclaims to me.

Close up of ARIA’s mushroom and asparagus risotto

Despite being horrendously full, I recall it being fragrant, hot and delicious and wishing I weren’t so full, but sadly both the Co-pilot and I could only muster one bowl of the stuff. The legend of the risotto has been a well discussed topic over the last year. Guests that had left our wedding early were sorry they’d missed it and we all wondered what happened to the remaining risotto, not wanting to think any of it had been wasted and still wistfully wishing we’d somehow had the retrospective hindsight to have saved some risotto doggy bags. Could it be that the Co-pilot and I both have glutton’s remorse?

We sorely felt the need to re-create the risotto we wished we’d had more of. I asked the ARIA Catering staff for the recipe, not expecting they’d actually give it to me and to my delight they did! We gathered our family together for the momentous remake of the risotto so we could finally eat our fill of it.

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Reducing the vegetable stock and adding in pungent dried mushroom rehydration stock

Patiently building the foundations of the risotto – adding the arborio rice to sauteed onions, shallots and mushrooms, then slowly adding stock

Adding all the trimmings to the cooked risotto – grated Parmesan, creme fraiche, herbs and chopped asparagus

When all the ingredients are added and stirred through, the plumes of truffle oil aroma mixed with sharp Parmesan and earthy mushrooms were so sensually inviting, but presentation wise, it’s hard to make it look a risotto look good. I developed even more appreciation for the impressive presentation of the risotto at our wedding.

It’s doesn’t look that impressive, but if only you could smell and taste this..

And the verdict? My goodness it was delicious.

I was worried that our hazy, endorphin fuelled memories of our wedding day had permanently painted a subjective slick of overzealous positivity over what the risotto was really like. But it lived up to our high expectations. We savoured the flavours carefully, marvelling that although all the ingredients and even the method didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, the result was truly delicious and had us going back for seconds and thirds.

The finished result – ARIA’s mushroom and asparagus risotto. A keeper.

Prior to tasting this risotto, one risotto alone occupied the top rank and blew away all would be competitors – the Co-pilot’s father’s signature dish, his baked mushroom risotto. But there’s a new kid in town and I have to say, this recipe is a strong contender for that top spot.

Many thanks to ARIA Catering for kindly sharing this risotto recipe.

Some surveys say that the first year of marriage is the hardest.

One such survey came out late last year and it was the type of ‘news’ publishers and broadcasters love and made headlines. Apparently for many, the post wedding, house and honeymoon spending bonanza often leads to financial stress and even a diminished quality of life. We were immediately asked by curious friends and family whether we felt that was the case. We’re relieved that we haven’t added to those statistics and that we’re rather happy. Besides he has proven himself pretty useful. He’s tall so he can reach things on higher shelves, and has better eyesight than me so he can spot mushrooms hiding in the undergrowth so I’ll keep him around for a bit longer. The past year has whizzed by quickly with our wedding, followed by two honeymoons (no, not excessive at all) and capped off with the purchase of our lovely new home. We’re having great fun furnishing and doing up our new place – it’s a blessing of vast space we’re slowly coming to terms with having somehow made do with our tiny 80m² apartment for the previous 4 years. We’ve hosted a dinner party for the first time ever and we feel like we’ve finally graduated to join the ranks of sophisticated entertaining adults.

To celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, we felt it was only fitting to head to ARIA given they’d catered our wedding and was a symbolic full circle to our year.

Unfortunately our desired times were fully booked out but we squeezed into an early pre-theatre sitting, available daily before the 7pm dinner service rush. The pre theatre menu doesn’t offer the gastronomic overload that a tasting menu offers, but does provide the option to choose 1, 2 or the full 3 courses with six well varied dishes to choose from for each course. After some deliberation on what to order (always a good sign when you like the sound of many things on the menu), we sat back to enjoy the view of the harbour and Opera House over chilled glasses of complimentary NV Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition.

Celebratory glasses of NV Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition, Ambonnay, France $30/glasss

A small amuse bouche heralded the start of the meal – an intensely flavoured chilled shot of creamy corn veloute that was gone all too quickly.

Amuse bouche of chilled sweet corn veloute

My scallop entree was one of the more nicely presented dishes I’ve seen in a while. Three plump seared scallops sat in a shallow vinaigrette pool, topped with a delicate morsel of razor clams. The mention of razor clams in the dish had swayed me to this entree choice so I was disappointed that the meagre sliver of razor clams added indiscernible flavour, but the rest of the dish was an umami flavour bomb and more than compensated. The scallops were tender and the vinaigrette reminded me of a delicate, meatier version of dashi.

Scallops: roasted scallops with calamari and razor clams, warm vinaigrette of celery, dulse and hazelnut oil

The Co-pilot chose the ‘safe’ pork belly entree (‘safe’ because let’s face it – you can’t really go wrong with pork belly). A thick slab of succulent belly meat was crowned with crispy crackling that I happily stole from the Co-pilot’s plate. What I initially thought were capers dotted around the plate were actually ‘muntries’, a native Australian bushfood also known as emu apples or native cranberries. They added a sweet fruitiness that complemented the pork nicely.

Pork Belly: Kurobuta pork belly with a pork croquette, muntries and star anise

For my main I’d chosen the lamb, a piece of seared but still thoroughly rare and simply seasoned lamb that seemed to melt away in my mouth. There was a smear of olive paste here and a pool of fennel sauce there, but the lamb really needed no support acts.

Lamb: roasted lamb rump with kipfler potato fondant, fennel and black olive

The Co-pilot’s barramundi main was the real surprise for me, in that, I really liked it. Fish is always the last thing I’m likely to order on any menu. I’m a great lover of all crustaceans, molluscs and raw fish is fine but cooked fish, not so much. Especially large fish – the sort you’d be happy to have caught on a day out fishing. I invariably find it’s always a bit dry and overcooked. I recall the Co-pilot cooking a tuna steak for me for our first date and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I thought it was dry like a chicken breast (something else I steadfastly avoid). He likes to maintain that I picked at his tuna steak because I used to eat like a bird and now I eat like a ravenous crazed beast! Ahem.

But I digress, back to this barramundi – I’m not sure how it was cooked, whether it was confit or sous vide prepared – but I’d love to find out. It was silken smooth, as far from dry as I would want and I found myself wanting more than the Co-pilot would share with me. Hmm.. maybe there is some truth to that ravenous crazed beast title..

Barramundi: roasted fillet of Cone Bay barramundi with pumpkin brandade and a caper and piquillo pepper vinaigrette

Accompanying our mains was a completely moreish truffled mash. I’ve no doubt more butter and cream than I want to envisage went into the making of that unctuous mash but we conveniently put the thought aside and couldn’t help shovelling one spoonful after another.

Glorious truffled potato mash

Absolutely full after our 2 courses (see, I’m not really a crazed ravenous beast), we skipped dessert but were treated to a few petit fours that provided just the right hit of sweetness we wanted.

Petit fours for just the right amount of sweetness

For the quality, attentive service, setting, views and overall experience at a 2 hatted restaurant, the pre theatre meal is a steal in my books with our 2 courses coming to $72pp. In fact, we might just make it an annual treat.

 ARIA

1 Macquarie Street, East Circular Quay, Sydney

Tel: +612 9240 2255; email: m...@ariarestaurant.com

Lunch: Mon – Fri noon – 2:30pm

Pre Theatre: Mon – Fri 5:30 – 7pm; Sat 5 – 7pm; Sun 6 – 7pm

Dinner:  Mon – Sun 7pm – 10pm

Supper: Mon – Sat 10 – 11pm

www.ariarestaurant.com

During his first term as President of France in the early 80′s, François Mitterrand was served by an all-male team of culinary chefs skilled in haute cuisine. Mitterand was a renowned gastronome and had a penchant for ‘simple food’ done superbly so upon his re-election for a second term, he requested a change to his chef line-up, and specifically asked for “a woman of the country side” in his kitchen. A recommendation from famed French chef, Joël Robuchon steered the President’s aides to a farm in the Périgord region of France.

Enter Danièle Delpeuch. When approached by French government officials with the request to move to Paris and become the personal chef of then President François Mitterrand, she was caught off guard and responded that her ewes were ready to give birth. A comical scene that paints a picture of a simple country woman catapulted into the highest echelons on Parisian cuisine, political power and opulence. But Danièle Delpeuch was far from an ordinary woman and was not unknown to the French culinary scene.

In the 1970s she’d campaigned to revive the ailing foie gras industry, started the now famous Foie Gras Weekends at her 700 year old farm, sold her foie gras to the likes of Joël Robuchon and not surprisingly, earned herself the moniker, “Queen of Foie Gras”. In 1980, the French agricultural industry bestowed their highest honour upon her: Chevalier du Mérite Agricole. Now that to me paints a scene of an accomplished, determined woman – one not afraid of a challenge.

Haute Cuisine is a movie based on Danièle Delpeuch’s real life experiences and follows Hortense Laborie who moves to Paris in her mid 40′s as the President’s personal chef. The movie is laden with lovingly shot, mouthwatering scenes of the authentic traditional French dishes Laborie creates in the Élysée Palace and her clashes with the egos of an all-male haute cuisine kitchen as she tries to win over the President. Haute Cuisine is showing as part of the 2013 Alliance French Film Festival and opens in cinemas on April 25.

The good news is that thanks to Transmission Films, I’m giving away 10 double passes to see the film!

And it couldn’t be easier to win one of 10 double passes, simply:

1. Send an email to forager [@] thegourmetforager [.] com
2. Use the subject line “Haute Cuisine Competition” and
3. Don’t forget to include your name and postal address

The competition is only open to Australian residents, limited to one double pass per email address and the competition closes 11:59pm AEST Monday 22nd of April 2013. Winners will be selected randomly and all winners will be contacted and their passes posted out on Tuesday 23rd of April.

Bon chance!

The competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winners of the 10 double passes

We’d first dined at House, sister restaurant to Spice I Am, just after it opened in 2010 and having just returned from a summer holiday in Thailand and desperately missing the excellent cheap Thai street food, daily massages and generous cocktails, the Co-pilot and I together with our travel companions DanW and Katie booked ourselves in, eager to reminisce on Thai flavours and tropical holidays. We’re all avid fans of Isaan Thai flavours, the unapologetically pungent, robust spicy and often fishy flavours typical of north eastern Thailand and hearing that House specialised in Isaan Thai dishes made us all the more excited.

I recall that the menu had more than enough tasty, interesting temptations to keep us occupied and perusing back and forth, slowly deliberating on this dish or that. When time came to make our orders we listened as the waitress politely informed us that 1). it was recommended that we order a serving of rice per person 2). that it was $5 per serving and 3). the servings were about the size of a small mug. Pandemonium ensued and we independently erupted noisily with indignant disbelief. You see, the Co-pilot and I often joke about my mother’s love affair with rice and how disturbingly, every couple of weeks she requests our assistance in delivering her a bag of rice. Not one of those small 1 or 2kg supermarket bags, but a 25kg industrial bag of rice. “The dog eats most of it!”, she insists as we judged her rice guzzling habits with unbridled horror. The point of that story is that we know how much 25kg of rice is worth and for the 4 of us at House that day, how much rice $20 should buy you. We all (in retrospect unfairly) cross examined the poor waitress as she shifted around awkwardly trying to defend the price. The other dishes were ordered that night we felt were similarly miserly portioned, but to be fair our views might have been biased and tainted with small-rice-portion-affliction. We left that night more than a little disappointed and that was the last time any of our company dined at House.

Maybe we unfairly judged them, maybe they had an off night, or maybe they were still getting into the rhythm of their business -  as time passed, we all found ourselves wanting to return and give them another chance. An opportune invitation to dine again at House thus proved irresistible. I was curious to see whether I’d unfairly judged or whether things had changed at House and I extended the invitation to the Co-pilot who immediately stated his desire to investigate the infamous “rice situation”.

Alfresco dining area with chilli and Thai herb hedges

A great view of all the action in the open kitchen

Upon arrival we noticed that the layout was largely the same as we remembered, but now there was prominent use of chilli trees and lush Thai herb plants as hedging between dining areas. An excellent idea combining utilitarian landscaping and welcome privacy screens – and as the Co-pilot and I are thinking of re-designing our little backyard garden, it was food for thought that I duly noted. Given it was a warm and humid summer’s night, we chose a number of lighter dishes and erred heavily on salads.

Kor Moo Yang – Char grilled marinated pork neck served with Jim-Jaew dipping sauce $10.00

We started with juicy grilled pieces of pork neck with just the right amount barbecue char flavour. The Jim-Jaew sauce is unexpected – not powerfully pungent, aromatic and spicy as I’ve come to expect of Isaan flavours, but relatively subtle, mildly spicy and more salty and sweet.

Tum Mua Pla Krob – Green papaya salad with crispy anchovies, dried shrimp, beans, Thai eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peanuts, garlic, lime and chilli $8.00; in the background steamed sticky rice $5.00

We were tempted to order our standard favourite Thai salad, the som tum or green papaya salad, but given there were so many tempting salad options on the menu, we decided a little bit of variation was warranted. The salad we chose was essentially som tum with anchovies. A texturally enhanced som tum! The anchovies were petrified fishy morsels that retained their crispiness despite being soaked in the garlic laden dressing.

Nam Tok Moo – traditional Isaan salad of thick sliced pork with eschalots, shallots, vietnamese coriander, mint, ground chilli, ground roasted rice and lime $14.00

Larb Ped – traditional Isaan salad of minced duck with eschalots, shallots, vietnamese coriander, mint, ground roasted rice, ground chilli and lime $18.00

The next two salads we ordered were very similar in flavour – not surprisingly as differed only in the main ingredient – pork and duck respectively. Spicy heat tempered with fresh herbs and the roasted rice adds extra grit and complexity to both flavour and texture. The overall saltiness begs for dumplings of the sticky rice to be dunked in the juice.

Speaking of which, we’d duly noted that side servings of rice, both jasmine and sticky rice, or noodles were still $5 a serve. We were however heartened to see that sticky rice servings were a wee bit more generous now. The one serving of rice was just a comfortable amount for the two of us.

Mok Gai Hua Plee – Steamed curry chicken with banana flower, eschalots, lemon grass, galangal and chilli $12.00

Despite having read the description before I ordered the steamed curry chicken, I was still surprised to see the curry arrive in a tightly wrapped banana leaf, steamed solid into a parcel. The lemongrass and galangal flavours are aromatic, with the chilli giving it just enough perky heat but not quite enough to break out a chilli induced sweat. The solid steamed curry might not be synonymous with what many envisage with the term “curry” as coconut milk and gravy rich dishes aren’t common to Isaan Thai cuisine. Call me a ludite, but I personally prefer the thick viscous curries.

We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves and though the servings were probably still a bit smaller than I’d like for a “Best Bang for Buck” ambassador, the food was indeed very tasty. Perhaps that had been part of our own problem – we’d judged them by our unfair expectations. House have never themselves claimed their menu is cheap (relative to budget Chinatown standards say), an independent entertainment publication crowned them winners of “Best Bang for Buck”, which in my mind portrays not just value – but cheap. They’re certainly not expensive by any stretch, but as our total meal came to just over $40 per head it’s not your quick and dirty bang for buck dumpling joint either. Customer satisfaction 101: ensure the customer’s expectations are met.

Old demons slayed, House is back in our good books. Of course, had my mother been there (or for that matter, most of my Chinese-side family), she would have needed 2 servings of rice just for herself which still seems a pretty steep price to pay, but that’s just my rice-o-philic mum and hardly a normal scenario that the average diner needs to contend with. The dishes were different to what you’d find in the vast majority of Thai eateries around Sydney. Sure other Thai eateries offer som tums and larbs but most stick to the safety of milder Thai flavours. We didn’t order some of their most pungent offerings this time, but on the last occasion, we recalled having tried some of House’s Isaan specials – most memorably an incredibly smoky dip and polarisingly fishy fermented fish dip. Not flavours that everyone will gravitate towards but so bravely differentiated. That point of the meal marked a turning point for us. It’s applaudable that House provides a point of interest for diners in the Thai food scene. Sydney-siders are seeing more and more differentiation in Chinese cuisine, where once only bad Australianised Chinese takeaway food could be had, now Cantonese eateries sit alongside eateries specialising in food from Shanghai, Beijing, Xian Jiang, Hunan, Tian Jian Sze Chuan and more. It’s high time that we see more regional variation in Thai and for that matter, other cuisines – I’m sure Sydney palates could cope.

Bts (Better Than Sex) – Toasted brioche served with pandan coconut gelato topped with Thai caramel sauce and sprinkled with roasted black & white sesame seeds $15.00

To finish our meal we perused the dessert and couldn’t quite go past the provocatively named, BTS dessert. A fluffy sweet toasted brioche adorned with a very tasty, strongly flavoured and utterly moreish pandan coconut gelato. The palm sugar used in the Thai caramel sauce gives it a much richer, more complex and slightly bittersweet flavour and deep brown colour compared to normal caramel sauce and goes nicely as a topping. So, the obvious question: was it better than sex? The Co-pilot and I looked at each other as I mused this question out loud. Our eyes met. There was a moment of awkwardness. “No” we both said in unison and with resolute clarity. And the unspoken rule of course is that you should not ask your spouse such a question in the first place.

.The Gourmet Forager and Co-pilot dined as guests of House.

.

 House

202 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW

Tel: +61 29280 0364; Open daily from 11:30 to late

Note: House is a cash-only establishment, no cards accepted; no BYO and no reservations

www.spiceiam.com/house-surry-hills

Sometimes sifting through the motony of emails, wading through the newsletters, spam and group deals, will yield rewarding little nuggets of pure gold – a golden ticket as it were. Was I interested in a masterclass with 3 Michelin starred chef, Heinz Beck? I replied with lightning speed to the invitation – you betcha I’m keen!

So last month I had the absolute pleasure of attending a Heinz Beck masterclass with a small group of Sydney foodbloggers. The masterclass was to be held at Caffe Sicilia, the exclusive Surry Hills venue where Chef Heinz Beck held two extravagant 8 course dinners for the public.

Caffe Sicilia

Beyond the doors of Caffe Sicilia a large dining room greeted us, flanked by a well stocked bar full of interesting wines and liqueur bottles. The glass cabinet in front of the bar is normally laden with sweet treats and goodies – a familiar sight that greets guests but on this occasion it is conspicuously absent as are all the customers. The restaurant has been emptied for the masterclass.

A large dining room flanked by wine and liqueur bottles, emptied for the Heinz Beck masterclass

We’re soon greeted by the chef himself. In an age where television has popularised the fiery tempers of celebrity chefs and military bootcamp style kitchens have become folklore, you’d be forgiven for expecting that a 3 Michelin starred chef might carry an air of regal arrogance or unapproachability, but refreshingly this chef is quite the opposite. He is friendly and affable, all smiles and encouragement, patiently answering our every probing question.

Beck is of German heritage, began his chef training at 17 and gained experience in award winning kitchens around Germany and Spain. In 1994 he joined La Pergola in Rome, the restaurant he is most synonymously associated with, and his first Michelin star was award by 1997, the second by 2000 and in 1996 he gained the coveted 3 Michelin stars rating and has been the only 3 Michelin starred restaurant in Italy for a number of years. Chef Beck can now boast 5 restaurants to his name, 2 others which are also Michelin starred including the 1 Michelin starred Apsleys in London, and Café Les Paillottes in Pescara, Italy.

Meeting his Sicilian wife has ensured there is always a generous dose of Sicilian flavours peppered throughout his menus. In fact in numerous responses he candidly mentions his mother-in-law’s cooking as being a prime influence on him. When asked what his favourite dish is, he immediately rattles off one of his mother in law’s dishes: pasta con i tenerumi - a summer minestrone-style soup and typical Sicilian regional speciality with pasta and young leaves and tendrils of the local marrow, cucuzza. Close affinity with one’s mother-in-law is no mean feat so I questioned him further on this and whether his own mother resents the supposed favouritism he shows his mother-in-law. His answer was quick and to the point: “No, why would my mother worry? She can’t cook.”

When asked whether he has had a chance to sample any local Sydney restaurants, he offers a resigned shake of the head and confesses he doesn’t know much about the local Sydney food scene nor has he heard much about our top chefs. Almost sheepishly he admits he’s not a user of social media, nor does he watch TV – a surprising admission coming from a man who has his own highly rated television cooking show in Italy, one that pits housewives against professional chefs! Beck explains that a housewife will send in one of their recipes which he reviews, then secretly adds in a mystery ingredient that both the housewife and the chef they’re competing against must use and create the recipe in 15 minutes.

He goes on to explain that his whirlwind tour to Sydney has been regrettably brief and other than a tour of the fish markets and surveying some local produce for the menu, this trip hasn’t allowed him any time to visit any restaurants – it’s all been about prepping for his 8 course dinners. And prepping there has been in spades. For this special showcase dinner, Beck has brought with him a small entourage of 4 supporting staff – 3 chefs from his restaurants and a sommelier. Then in a slightly conspiratorial manner, we’re told that Caffe Sicilia went to great lengths to ensure that every whim Beck requested for the 8 course dinner was catered for – including but not limited to specific De Cecco pasta, Becks’ favoured brand; Valrhona Jivara chocolate; custom grown batches of edible flowers and a mammoth $14,000 worth of custom designed crockery and glassware purchased just for this event! In some circles, such demands might confer one a less than pleasant “diva” label, but you could consider it the mark of a perfectionist, where only the best will do. From that perspective, I can empathize entirely – Beck is associated with specific standards of excellence worthy of his coveted 3 Michelin stars and I understand his reluctance to rent out and sully his name with anything less than perfection.

An intimate audience with Heinz Beck, 3 Michelin starred Chef

Introductions and niceties done we were whisked into the small back kitchen where both Beck’s imported specialist chefs and Caffe Sicilia’s own chefs were all busily prepping for that night’s meal. We crowded around the chef in the hot kitchen, flames licking the pots and pans as Beck shows us the steps required to create his sedanini pasta with red shrimps dish – yet another dish inspired by his mother-in-law! A decadent crab bisque with lots of aromatics, tomatoes and thyme oil is created and reduced down to intensify flavours.  With a familiar flick of the wrist, the assisting chef tosses the pasta, sending them into impressive acrobatic displays. The bisque is used to lubricate the pasta and to help highlight the shrimp component in the pasta dish, then the finished pasta is served on a smoky eggplant puree and topped with herbed breadcrumb croutons.

High action in the kitchen making the Sedanini pasta dish

Heinz Beck’s Sedanini pasta with red shrimps, smoked aubergine coulis with croutons

The pasta dish is sublime – the pasta silky and perfectly al dente, the prawns poppingly juicy and the crustacean flavours powerful throughout the dish. The addition of orange zest adds a really interesting flavour edge and I wanted so much more than the sample served to me. The herbed breadcrumbs instantly transported me back to my own travels in Sicily where I fondly remembered dishes like pasta con le sarde sprinkled with those herbed breadcrumbs. It’s a typical ingredient found in many Sicilian pasta dishes as Parmesan was considered a luxury item yet bread was an abundant staple, hence heavily flavoured herbed and spiced breadcrumbs became the poor Sicilian’s substitute for Parmesan.

Once we’d scraped away the last morsels of the pasta, we’re led back to the kitchen to watch the making of Becks’s orange jelly dessert. Sweetened orange juice is set into jelly, topped with dollops of vanilla custard and basil cream, sprinkled with orange granita and edible flower petals, then finally finished with a perfect quenelle of bergamot icecream placed ever so gently on the dessert as the crowning touch.

Heinz Beck’s orange jelly with bergamot ice cream and edible flowers

The bergamot ice cream has been created from fresh bergamot orange, a type of citrus with a grapefruit-like yellow peel and not as I’d always mistakenly assumed, a flower. The basil cream, though I was dubious when about how it would work in the dessert, complements the myriad of citrus flavours surprisingly well. As I eagerly sampled spoonful after spoonful, I found it a light and delicate dessert, an intriguing interplay between citrus and floral flavours with the granita crystals and cool ice cream ensuring it was an appropriately light end to any meal.

I was very impressed by our teaser taste of Beck’s legacy dishes during the masterclass and couldn’t wait to return to Caffe Sicilia and try the rest of the dishes. On a lovely warm summer night we did just that, sitting outside in the restaurant’s al fresco dining area, watching Surry Hills life amble by. I’d returned with the Co-pilot to sample the full Heinz Beck “Legacy Degustation” menu featuring four original Heinz Beck recipes bequeathed by the chef to Caffe Sicilia. The big surprise are the prices – they were hardly what I’ve come to expect of 3 Michelin starred establishments. The 4 courses are a mere $65 and with matched wines, a steal at $85!

Caffe Sicilia on a warm summer’s night

The first course is a breaded cannoli of Palmer’s Island mulloway and is delightfully light. Delicate diced fish encased in a fluffy breaded cannoli on a bed of ripe, finely diced rockmelon and celery – the latter providing a refreshing occasional crunch. It is one of the most original and enjoyable dishes I’ve tasted in a long time. The matching wine is a superb pairing – at first sharp and acidic but with a mellow tail that strongly accentuates and brings to the fore the toasty flavours in the breaded cannoli. My favourite wine degustations are always those that don’t just match the food but bring some transformative element as they did here and I savoured every sip and mouthful. I later learned that the matched wines were all specially selected by Beck’s sommelier from Apsleys in London, one of the team members to have accompanied Beck on his brief tour here.

1st course: Crispy bread cannolo with Palmer’s Island mulloway and a brunoise of melon and celery

1st course wine pairing: 10 Ca Dei Frati “I Frati” Lugana D.O.C Lombardy

The sedanini pasta dish was one of the two I’d tried at the masterclass. The Caffe Sicilia iteration was more generous in portion, slightly more flavourful and, dare I say it, more enjoyable than the one I remembered. The herbed and anchovy laden breadcrumbs combined with the tomatoey, crustacean sauce base made for a strong flavour hit. As my palette errs towards stronger flavours, I relished the flavours. The pasta was as perfectly al dente as I remembered, the orange rind notes and smoky eggplant just as distinctive. The paired prosecco pinot noir blend was an unusual pairing as sparkling wines normally precede white wines, but the orange rind notes in the dish matched extraordinarily well with the floral fruity notes in the bubbly.

The 2nd course of pasta paired with a NV Berlucchi ‘Cuvee Storica61 Rose’ Franciacorta Lombardy

2nd course: Sedanini pasta with red shrimps, smoked aubergine coulis and croutons

For those worried that small degustations won’t be filling, the veal and mortadella main dish that came next will allay any of those fears. A very generous roulade of veal and mortadella rolled in a pistachio crust with dollops of celeriac and edible flowers. The roulade was incredibly good, tender and very succulent. It was matched with an interesting nebbiolo which when tasted alone was slightly savoury and slightly smoky with subtle tequila-like flavours.  The smokey notes in the mortadella married very nicely with the nebbiolo seemed to mellow and round out its flavours when paired with the dish.

3rd course wine pairing: ’10 Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe Nebbiolo Piedmont

3rd course: veal in pistachio crust with mortadella and topinambur puree

Lastly we had that orange jelly dessert with bergamot icecream. Sadly, the quenelle of bergamot ice cream wasn’t nearly as perfectly formed as the dish we’d sampled during the masterclass, so the presentation didn’t quite live up to expectations. But the flavours were all there – the orange jelly, herbaceous basil and intensely aromatic perfumed bergamot still all mixed together in an explosion of citrus and flowers. The paired dessert wine on it own was nectar sweet with a strong bouquet of rockmelon, peach and mandarin on the nose. On pairing with the dessert, the Co-pilot found it not only complemented but added a whole new flavour profile. I on the other hand found it inexplicably accentuated the hitherto unnoticed bitter notes in the dessert and brought them sharply to the forefront. Personally I wasn’t a fan of the bitter notes, but the Co-pilot found this quite sophisticated and likened the flavour to some of his favourite drinks, Chinotto and Negroni.

Dessert wine: NV Rallo ‘Normanno’ Zibbibo Sicily

Dessert: Orange jelly with bergamot ice cream and edible flowers

Overall we found it a very interesting, unique meal and importantly very good value. Original ideas, forms and textures that were all intriguing and not just variations of the same run of the mill Italian dishes or modern fads. The matched wine pairing was an absolute winner in my eyes – at a mere $20 extra, I really felt it showed some commitment on Caffe Sicilia’s part in having the dishes enjoyed as they should be. The glasses of wine weren’t overly generous, but were sufficient and they could have easily charged more for those matched wine (as everybody else does). To price it so affordably really allows diners to have a more complete experience and that’s pretty commendable. I should disclose here that the Co-pilot and I both dined as guests but we were genuinely so impressed with both the experience and the value, we’re more than happy to return with the family and spread the word of mouth – something we’ll be doing very soon! Afterall, it’s a very small price to pay for Michelin-grade dining in Sydney!

The Gourmet Forager dined as a guest of Caffe Sicilia and Wasamedia.

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Address:

628 Crown Street, Surry Hills, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9699 8787; enqu...@caffesicilia.com.au

Open: Mon 5.30pm till late (dinner); Tues – Fri 5pm till late; Sat – Sun 8am till late

www.caffesicilia.com.au

Happy New Year! Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’re celebrating in style!

We’re celebrating down the south coast of NSW in Tuross Heads with family, friends and plenty of good food and wine; fishing, foraging, sun and sand. There have been feasts galore and on new year’s eve last night, between mouthfuls of briny fresh local oysters and foraged black mussels, we reflected on the year that was 2012 and I remembered having written a post on new year’s day last year reflecting on 2011. I’d mentioned then in that post that the highlights of 2011 for us was the Co-pilot and me getting engaged in New York and having our Chinese tea ceremony. Lowlights were my lung collapse episode and subsequent hospitalisation and now, after a year’s mourning to heal wounds I can admit that my father passed away at the end of 2011 after a long and protracted battle with cancer. It was a very difficult time for me this same time last year with so so much grief and raw emotion to contend with and any mention of him, or well meaning attempts to ask of my well being would rip open wounds and start a fresh cascade of tears. So as a not expressively emotional person, I dealt with it the only way I knew how: very quietly. I wished then for a better 2012 and now upon reflection on the first day of 2013, I can safely say, it’s definitely been a much better year!

For a start, the Co-pilot and I got married in February with close family and friends around us indulging in delicious food – and we now know our unique wedding has inspired others to replicate it in its entirety(!); we had 2 honeymoons – the first, a teaser in Thailand and more recently an entire month away travelling through London, France and Spain; and finally just this month, after two years of searching, we closed out 2012 by finally buying a house! I’ve found that buying a house has been far more sobering and transformative than marriage. I recall turning to the Co-pilot, after the euphoria of the auction had died down and the dawning realisation that we’d bought a house settled in, and saying “I feel like an adult now”. Marriage made me feel young and joyous and in love. Buying a house and now, for the first time being in debt has been more of an aging process. So yes, it’s been a pretty big year for us in major life events.

The food fair that doubled as our wedding

Thai honeymoon sessions

A brief 48 hour stopover in London

A sojourn in Paris

Feasting and foraging in the south of France

Gorging on tapas in San Sebastian

Lazing on the beach and exploring the streets of Barcelona

So, to round out the year of holidays, as mentioned earlier we’re currently spending our holiday break in Tuross Heads and we still have a glorious week ahead of us before we need to return to work. I’ve exulted in the luxury of doing not much but cooking and eating with our friend and family contingent down here, fishing on some days and poking around the seashore and exploring rockpools on others. We’ve foraged oysters and mussels; samphire and pigface off the rocky shoreline, but my favourite find so far is this delightful creature – a blue nudibranch (Glaucus atlanticus), a type of sea slug that floats on the ocean preying on nasty blue bottles. It was small, only about 3cm in length and was waving its arms around languidly in the most mesmerising fashion. In retrospect I’m glad I resisted the urge to touch it with my bare hands as, despite being so delicate and fragile in appearance, it stores the toxin from the blue bottles it preys on in its finger like fronds and can deliver a wallop nastier than blue bottles! I’m fascinated by them now and find myself scanning the sand and rockpools for more specimens.

A blue nudibranch we spotted washed up in a rock pool

And last night we kicked off 2013 with fireworks at the local country club, with cheap booze, bleating bad music, heaving sweaty big bodies and far too much unsightly drunken flesh. To cap it off a seriously bloody brawl between the locals (men and women alike) that started next to us and I mean right next to us. We had to quickly scoot out of the way to avoid being collateral damage! So we’ve had a stylish start to the new year already – surely it can only get better from here!

But seriously, I’m very much looking forward to the coming year – we’ll be settling into our new house at the end of this month and I can’t wait to go shopping for furnishings! We’ve been making do with a small apartment and a coffee table cum dining table for years! So we’ll finally have a dining table and have guests over – imagine that!

Thank goodness that 2012 was kinder to us than 2011 and I sincerely hope it was the same for you. Wherever you are, wishing you a fantastic, healthy, happy 2013 with of course, plenty of good food, good wine and interesting travels!

Our experience at Yotam Ottolenghi’s Nopi in London left quite the lasting impression on us. The combination of fresh vibrant flavours and exotic spices so foreign and tantalising to my palette that we reminisced about the details of that meal fondly. Below are a few of the photos from our lunch at Nopi and you can read the full review on my last post in value dining in London.

Top to bottom: A selection of Nopi’s small plates to share; mixed heritage tomato and basil salad; roasted red pepper, onion, goat’s cheese, hazelnut pesto; burrata, yellow nectarine, coriander seeds

Over lunch we’d spotted a small pyramid of the Jerusalem cookbooks piled high behind the counter and pawed through them voraciously, drinking in the beautiful photos and salivating at the recipes within.

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are two professional London based chefs, friends and since 2002, have been business partners when they opened the original Ottolenghi restaurant in Notting Hill. Jerusalem is their co-authored work reminiscing about the flavours of their childhoods in Jerusalem, but from different perspectives and drawing on their early influences: Ottolenghi grew up on Jewish side whilst Tamimi, a Palestinian, grew up on the Arab east part of Jerusalem. Their partnership has been a huge success as another 3 Ottolenghi restaurants have opened in London and most recently, Nopi as well. We wanted that cookbook then and there so much but alas, a heavy hardcover cookbook wouldn’t have been welcomed within our already straining luggage.

Once we were back home, I bought the Jerusalem cookbook promptly – but instead of keeping it for myself, I gave it to the Co-pilot’s mother for Christmas. (It’s not a selfless plan mind you, as the Co-pilot’s mum is a brilliant cook and with some strategic enthusiastic finger pointing and page tapping, I’ll be leaving less than subtle hints on the recipes I’d like to see recreated for family dinners). Evil genius, I know.

Mouthwatering photos from the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

From the Co-pilot’s mum’s expression on Christmas day, I gathered she was rather happy with her copy of Jerusalem. Packed with mouthwatering recipes and excellent, this very attractive cloth bound cookbook would be a welcome addition to any kitchen and no doubt was a popular gift this past Christmas for many as it was darn hard for me to track down in book stores.

Didn’t find it under your Christmas tree this year? Got a dud Christmas present from Auntie Beatrice again? Another pair of socks or a CD boxset of rage inducing off-key Christmas carols when what you really wanted was a copy of Jerusalem? Well, thanks to Random House, readers of The Gourmet Forager can win one of two copies of Jerusalem! To win, all you need to do is to leave a comment on this post about a dud present you got for Christmas and why you would have preferred a copy of Jerusalem instead.

And now for the fine print:

• Entry is open to all readers of The Gourmet Forager, entry is via the commenting field and entries will be judged on creative merit.
• The winning two entries will be those deemed most creative. To eliminate bias, judging will not be done by me but by via a neutral third party judge (probably the Co-pilot since he never reads my blog and has no idea who the commenters are)
• Each individual reader is only eligible to win one copy of the Jerusalem cookbook but readers are permitted multiple entries as long as as entries are different
• Entry is only open to Australian residents (to save me from posting the books overseas)
• Entries must include a valid email address to enable contact for prize and posting details (entry into the email field of the comment box is suffice, no need to put it in the comment itself)
• Entries close midnight AEST on 31st of January 2013 and winners will be separately notified by email and announced in the next post thereafter

Simple! Just comment away and good luck to all entrants!

The Jerusalem Cookbook is published through Random House publishing and is available at all good bookstores, $49.95 RRP.

The competition is now closed and thanks to everyone that entered this competition – I’m chuffed that it even got re-tweeted by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi! The Co-pilot has completed his judging duties and… a big congratulations to Lizzy and Denise on winning the two Jerusalem cookbooks!

With so many amazing places to eat Londoners and by extension, us tourists, were really spoilt for choice. I’d never been to London before so given we had a mere 48 hours or 6 precious meals to have in London, we’d amassed a great spreadsheet list and slowly whittled it down to a shortlist of contenders for those 6 meals. One often equates London with exorbitant prices but I was keen to seek out the establishments that offered amazing food with great value, those usually overlooked by tourists. So we ended up eschewing expensive, high calibre fine dining establishments for more casual but no less impressive places. Places where amazing flavours, ingenuity and value are in the same sentence. And on such occasions spontaneous snacking needs to be reigned in so you don’t jeopardise any of these meals and get the most out of each establishment.

These were the rules we originally set out but immediately set about sabotaging our own plans from the outset. It was our honeymoon, so we decided to treat ourselves with business class flights on Singapore Airlines from Sydney to London via Singapore – a treat that comes with not just plenty of legroom and creature comforts but copious amounts of good food for those that have no self control (i.e. me). Of course I’ll have the bread, entree, main, dessert, cheese and repeated helpings of champagne and dessert wine. Of course I will still investigate the offerings in the business class lounge during our stopover in Singapore and for due diligence, sample a few choice morsels. And then, although I was desperately full by the time we boarded for the Singapore to London leg and once timezones are accounted for, despite it being the equivalent of 3am in Sydney and I should be sleeping not settling in for yet another meal, of course, I couldn’t help myself and had a unneeded light snack. Our excessive snacking made us desperately full (and I’m convinced snacking at strange hours affected our circadian rhythms) so we really didn’t need the extra honeymoon cakes that the very sweet Singapore Airlines staff gave us. Not one, but two cakes! A dense mudcake for the Sydney to Singapore flight and a heavy cheesecake for the Singapore to London flight. (Upon learning that yet another two cakes awaited us on our return trip we panicked and asked the staff to spare our bellies and immediately cancelled those cakes.)

Some of the offerings on Singapore Airlines’ Business Class (clockwise from top left): more legroom than a shortie like me really needed; duck breast with foie gras; chocolate icecream and a cheese platter

Honeymoon cake number 1: a dense chocolate mud cake with a side of Champagne and bubbling dry ice. Clearly more than the two of us could eat!

Honeymoon cake 2: the cheesecake gift that was a lovely gesture, but really the last thing I wanted on our overnight flight from Singapore to London

We landed in London bleary eyed but well sated at 6am, dropped our luggage off at our hotel and wandered off into the steady grey London drizzle to seek out some coffee. Not just any coffee mind you, a 6am start after a long haul flight deserved very good coffee.

Day One

1. Workshop Clerkenwell

Thankfully, we had great local insider advice to lean on – our friend Ben is a longtime obsessed coffee geek and after years of making and teaching coffee appreciation professionally for a major coffee brand in Australia, he now runs the Tate’s coffee roastery in London so we gather he knows a thing or two about coffee. On his recommendation, we found ourselves at Workshop Clerkenwell, a cafe cum coffee roastery which until recently, was called St Ali, a reference to their origins that can be traced back to St Ali in Melbourne. Workshop gets the coffee lovers’ nod for being one of only a few that roast their coffee on-site – in fact, The Workshop Coffee Co source, roast and supply their own coffee and for additional sustenance, the cafe offers food, wine and beer on the side too. Somehow we found the appetite to sample their breakfast offerings and found both the corn fritters with haloumi very rich and tasty, and the smoked salmon and poached eggs on corn bread delicious and surprisingly substantial.

It was the coffee we were here for and we’re relieved to report it was very good. Creamy and full bodied. I hadn’t realised I was desperately willing it to be good until my entire body relaxed with utter relief on that first glorious sip. I also hadn’t realised that Australians (particularly Melbournians) have a international reputation of being coffee obsessed and have been known to complain bitterly about the sub-par coffee we find elsewhere around the world. Well, I was soon to join those complaining ranks as this was the first and last good cup of coffee we had for the next month as I really didn’t develop an appreciation for those ashy burnt watery characteristics typical of a French roast. Any old coffee for £2.80 is steep; but when you tend to only have one a day, and like this situation, it really needs to count – then for brilliant salvation coffee it’s good value in my books.

Workshop Coffee on Clerkenwell Road for caffeine salvation; excellent cappucino £2.80

The Workshop Coffee Co’s on-site coffee roaster; corn fritters, baby spinach, grilled haloumi, kasundi, poached egg £9.25; asparagus, smoked salmon, poached egg, truffled mascarpone, toasted corn bread £10.50

To amuse ourselves between meals, the Co-pilot and I hit the high street shops near Oxford Circus but a few hours plodding around in the light but annoyingly persistent London drizzle managed to soak us pretty thoroughly. Wet and bedraggled we were glad to walk into Nopi for lunch and for relief from the ubiquitous rain.

2. Nopi

To complement his four popular Ottolenghi restaurants around London, the newest establishment from Yotam Ottolenghi is Nopi, a more casual establishment offering shared plates, perfect for the occasion as the Co-pilot and I were meeting my friend KK there for lunch, a dear friend and a newly relocated Melbournian. I was very much looking forward to this meal as I’m unlikely fan of the Ottolenghi cookbooks. Not because I expected his cookbooks to be anything short of impressive, but because I’m probably the last person that will convert to vegetarianism and yet the Plenty cookbook gets a good workout in our kitchen.

The interior of Nopi is understated glamour, white tiled and white marbled surfaces with pale wooden furniture and swathes of warm brass and gold fittings. A simple neutral colour palette that is an excellent showcase of the impressive riot of colour in the salad bar.

Nopi’s ground floor dining room. The basement space beneath have more long tables that provide a view of the action in the open kitchen

The colourful fresh salads on display – a riot of warm colours

For a light lunch, we order a few small plates and a couple of mains to share from the seasonal menu. The dishes that came out were vibrant with fresh colours, simply dressed and adorned, assembled with care but not pomp and theatre. And that’s where we were completely caught off guard – it looked simple but offered so much more than mere tasty comfort food – the flavour profiles were so robust, brave and in some cases foreign to our palettes. The red pepper salad with feta was simply done but so very flavourful; the tomato and basil side seemed to be made with tomatoes that had been super concentrated with sweet tomato essence and the burrata – that was a breathtaking stunner. Deliciously soft and creamy burrata sweetened by the nectarine and livened by the aromatic nutty toasted coriander seeds. So simple but it had us all excitedly pointing at it after a bite – it was one of the most memorable dishes from our London rendezvous.

Of the mains, the prawns were fragrant with that distinctive char grilled flavour  and spiced up with fresh jalapeño paste; the dry aged sirloin was unfussed and unfettered – simply grilled and allowing its flavour to speak volumes; the twice cooked baby chicken succulent; but the surprise was the simple potato side made with capers, garlic and I’m convinced some other secret ingredient because it was addictively good.

Top to bottom: A selection of Nopi’s small plates to share; mixed heritage tomato and basil salad £4.50; roasted red pepper, onion, goat’s cheese, hazelnut pesto £9.50; burrata, yellow nectarine, coriander seeds £12

Top to bottom: organic prawns, kohlrabi, bacon, sauerkraut, jalapeno £12.50; 28 day dry aged sirloin, watercress, ginger £26.50; whole twice cooked baby chicken, lemon myrtle salt, chilli sauce £16; crushed new potatoes, capers, garlic £4.50

It was easily the most surprising meal we had in London – we had good expectations and they were exceeded here with a few key dishes that left a long lasting impression. So much so that we recounted meal in detail to fellow travellers we were meeting with in London and urged them to make Nopi a stop on their London itinerary. Our light lunch came to just £28.50 per person, which whilst not outrageous, isn’t a steal – what is though is their 3 course pre-theatre set menu at £25.50 food this good is genuinely a real steal at those prices. It’s food made with the emphasis on flavour and enjoyment – the way it should be.

More shopping was our plan to working up a healthy appetite for dinner, but squelching about in the rain with inadequate shoes is no winning formula for happy travellers. In fact, a little jet lag, frazzled nerves, wet shoes and persistent drizzle is the winning formula to transform us into cranky belligerent whinging two year olds. We conceded defeat to the infamous London weather and stomped back to our hotel for refuge. Thankfully, we found an accessible London drizzle antidote in a hot shower and change of dry clothes.

3. Medlar

Dinner was a family reunion of sorts. A few weeks before our trip to Europe, the Co-pilot’s parents embarked on their month long trip around France. Work circumstances had meant we couldn’t time our trips to coincide, but happily, our first night in London happened to be the one night when all the stars aligned and we would be in the same city at the same time. To make it a bonafide family reunion, we were also meeting with The Surgeon and his Muse. The Surgeon is the Co-pilot’s cousin once removed, and a new relation we’d met for the first time at a wedding earlier in the year. And since meeting him, I have discovered this humble softly spoken yet energetic man is an award winning writer of some impressively critically acclaimed books and he has a wiki entry!

Medlar seemed like the perfect choice for this reunion. Nestled in the affluent stylish London suburb of Chelsea, it offers French-influenced British food in an unassuming local neighbourhood location. However it, like The Surgeon’s works, comes critically acclaimed and highly praised and mere weeks before we arrived in London for this meal, it scooped up its first Michelin star! But in keeping with our intended value-packed theme, it wasn’t an exorbitantly priced Michelin starred established – it offered a set menu: a mere £39.50 for three courses.

Given our early start that day, we booked an early dinner and were the first to arrive at the restaurant giving us an opportunity to take in the quasi industrial masculine interior details and matching colour scheme with a palette of greys, greens and blues. As clientele flitted in, we noted the mid week dinner crowd was mostly business suits, all speaking in reserved tones that slowly amounted to a comfortable, hushed background chatter.

Chef Joe Mercer Nairne offers a menu with a variety of influences – from French inspired rustic offal dishes, Mediterrean ingredients, even South American touches – but all with a touch of British heartiness befitting the cool autumn weather. The entrees and mains both offered 7 varied choices to choose from, ensuring something for every palate. For our entrees, the Co-pilot and I shared the ceviche and crab raviolo (my insatiable weakness for crab causes me to inevitably gravitate towards it if it’s offered on a menu). The halibut ceviche was quite thickly cut, making it less delicate than we were used to but still light and pleasingly tangy, the crispy baby squid tempura, radish and salmon roe giving it contrasting crunch and pop, the chilli providing just the right level of spice. The crab raviolo was really delicious and stole the show for me – a brimming single parcel generously packed with crab meat swimming in an aromatic pool of creamy bisque. Completing the seaside scene were brown shrimps and crunchy squeaky strands of samphire, a salt loving succulent that I’d seen on seashores and know graces menus from time to time, but have never tasted myself. It had a taste and texture halfway between a string bean and asparagus.

For our mains we erred towards the more distinctly British choices that we wouldn’t find commonly in Australia, opting for the roast grouse (a partridge-like game bird) and on our waiter’s recommendation, the roast middle white pork dish, a rare but distinctive breed of large white pig native to the UK as well known for its excellent eating qualities as it is its sharply upturned snub nose. The grouse was very lean and as it can easily be overcooked and dry, this was served quite pink and succulent, paired with sweet damson plums and balanced with bread sauce and crunchy potato chips. It also came with a quenelle of pâté, a really punchy, potent, livery thing that the Co-pilot pushed away and I relished with joy. The middle white pork turned out to be a great recommendation. We tucked into super juicy slabs of sweet pork loin that came with an ultrasmooth, rich and buttery celeriac puree and a side of baby vegetables. And then there was the crackling – oh the crackling. It was so amazingly crisp it crunched at deafening decibel shattering levels. That’s not a hyperbole – I tried to muffle each crunchy mouthful but would draw amused looks from the rest of the table.

The interior of the newly Michelin starred Medlar in London. Middle row (L-R): Halibut ceviche with avocado, keta, tempura baby squid and radish; Crab raviolo with samphire, brown shrimps, fondue of leeks and bisque sauce. Bottom row (L-R): Roast middle white pork with celeriac puree, cabbage, baby carrots and crackling; Roast grouse with game chips, bread sauce, pate and damsons

Dessert was such an impressive visual spread I had to ask the others to indulge me and have me photograph their choices. Unusually for me, the 7 choices on the dessert menu offered so many enticing options it was hard to settle on our eventual dessert choices. We chose the cannele, a pastry local to Bordeaux and a favourite sweet treat for the Co-pilot who delights in its unique crunchy chewy texture. It came with candied walnuts, honey icecream and the sweetest, juiciest ripe figs. These were the first of many figs we would enjoy on our European jaunt, and we were delighted to discover that common European figs were far superior to the common Australian variety we’re used to. They had a much higher pink to white flesh ratio which meant sweeter juicer figs with a noticeable reduction in grassy herbaceous flavours. Our other choice was a splendid blackberry mille feuille with crisp layers of pastry separating dollops of cream and very plump and sweet in-season blackberries.

It was a fitting end to a really nice meal with our family and as we’d hoped – the perfect venue for a more sophisticated yet not pretentious gathering with excellent, attentive service; a taste of good British cuisine at £39.50 for 3 courses and for the fare and experience, just ridiculously good value for money. Want more value than that? Check out their three course lunch – astounding value at just £26 for 3 courses.

Medlar dessert medley (top): redcurrant sorbet with freshly baked lemon madeleines, plum beignets with ginger icecream and custard, chocolate torte with praline parfait, coconut and salted caramel; (bottom): cannele with black figs, walnuts and honey icecream,blackberry mille-feuille with lemon curd

Day Two

4. La Fromagerie

Given our culinary indulgences on our first day in London we awoke on our second day still contentedly sated and decided we needed a light start to allow our appetites to recover. Grey dreary skies threatened but blessedly there was no rain so we enjoyed a long leisurely stroll through leafy parks. Whilst we paused to admire the first signs of autumn all around us London awoke from its slumber and commuters streamed by at a hurried determined trot. I think there’s nothing more pleasing than the knowledge I’m on holiday whilst the rest of the world slavenly trudges to work.

We wandered down a street packed with impressive butchers and delis – the type to cause me to stop and press my nose to the glass – to La Fromagerie, which as the name might suggest is a cheese monger, a most glamorous cheese monger cum gourmet deli where all the produce beckons invitingly. From the vibrant display of autumn squash greeting me at the door to adorably packaged biodynamic yoghurt in half quart glass bottles, from the bejewelled candied violet clusters to mouthwatering legs of jamon – we wanted it all and zipped about the store like excited kids. Breakfast then was an exercise in self restraint. With difficulty we bypassed the abundant rustic farmer’s plate packed with rustic slabs of cheese, cold cuts, yoghurt and freshly baked bread to settle on coffee and a cheese toastie. To be fair, this was the Co-pilot’s doing. I tried to reason that a Farmer’s plate shared amongst 2 wasn’t going to hurt our appetites (it was of course, which I inherently knew but I have zero self restraint) but he wouldn’t have a bar of it. But he quieted my grumblings with a reminder that the cheese room awaited us. It was no run of the mill cheese room as La Fromagerie owner Patricia Michelson has authored several books on cheese – it was a cheese fanatic’s cheese room.

La Fromagerie’s Marylebone shop in London: exploring their gloriously smelly cheese room

The heady stewing aroma of wall to wall cheeses was a formidable assailant: grassy, barnyard pongs; pungent smelly socks; ripe odours – we sucked them all into our lungs greedily and set about happily sampling judiciously. But given the next phase of our trip was to France, we consciously stuck to the best of British cheeses and bought small wedges to sample. These beauties were to be saved for a later indulgence…

For one of the most impressive varied selection and displays of cheese in London, the attentive service, generous sampling and the sheer joy that a little morsel of good cheese can bring – value plus and a must for cheese lovers!

With our own personal cloud of smelly cheese whiff now in tow, we wandered lazily through high street shops and artisan produce stores on our way to lunch.

5. Pollen Street Social

This was my most anticipated meal in London. Chef Jason Atherton previously wowed diners as the Executive Chef of Gordon Ramsey’s Maze and opened his own venture in April 2011. The abundance of glowing reviews, a coveted one Michelin star awarded in its first year of service and recently retaining that Michelin star for the second year running, is it any wonder that I was excited about Pollen St Social? The format is relaxed and flexible, with separate bar and restaurant dining spaces and offering diners a myriad of options to sate their fancies: tapas style bar snacks, à la carte, set courses, a tasting menu and a dedicated dessert menu – the last of which was only fitting given it was London’s first dessert bar, a nod to the American tradition of retiring to a different space for dessert.

Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social. (Bottom right): a view of the bar.

We were yet again meeting KK for lunch and of course, to meet the conditions of our value-hunting London tour, it too was great value, the set lunch menu was £24 for 2 courses or £27.50 for 3 courses. The lunch menu offered diners a choice of three dishes each for the starter, main and dessert courses and fortuitously given we were three, we decided on sharing the entire menu.

No sooner than we’d ordered some complimentary snacks came our way and as far as complimentary nibbles go, this was a pretty exciting offering and introduction to the things to come. Golden puffed and crispy scrolls of pork scratchings accompanied by a sweet and tangy apple mustard purée; the nicest, meatiest Sicilian olives we’ve ever had (and we’ve had a few) and a smooth buttery salt cod brandade that we attacked viciously, spreading thickly over our bread.

A delicious appetiser to start: Pork crackling with apple mustard puree, Sicilian olives and salt cod brandade

We were sat in the far end of the bar area a perfect vantage point to see the comings and goings of the bar as we devoured our appetiser. The crowd is a mix of suits and gatherings of friends. Sat immediately next to us were some girlfriends catching up over lunch on one side, a young couple on a lunch date on the other. It’s brightly lit, with an excited chatty,  buzz in the air. The service is fast and polished, the waitstaff knowledgeable and friendly, without pretentiousness. It feels like they’ve gotten the perfect balance between casual and slick – a great place to subtly, effortlessly impress without looking like you’ve pulled out all the stops and emptied your bank account in the process.

The entrees that arrived lived up to expectations and sure did impress us – each was beautifully presented, popping with vibrant colours and flavours. The mackerel was incredibly tender and succulent, the rich oily flavours cut with the subtle citrus flavours and horseradish – my favourite of the entrees; the tête du porc flaked apart with a slight nudge, paired with different types of beetroot that even KK, traditionally a beetroot hater begrudgingly enjoyed and the watercress soup with peppery and spicy, the truffled hens egg adding to the richness.

Entrees (Clockwise from top): lime cured Cornish mackerel, BBQ cucumber, horseradish cream; autumn salt baked beetroot, escarole, tete du porc, roasted juice vinaigrette; truffled hen’s egg, London cured salmon, smoked salmon, watercress soup

The mains had less colour and flair and erred more on the hearty side. The lamb rump was excellent, very tender and flavourful. It needed no more than a sprinkling of salt to adorn it but went nicely with the minted burnt cabbage and rich onion puree. The sweet halibut was equally impressive, supported by two very thick sauces – an intensely aromatic bouillabaisse and an aptly named liquid potato sauce that was just the tastiest concentrated potato essence. The 18 hour braised Angus was surprisingly the least impressive of the three, and although it was very tender and rich in flavour, I found it a tad bit too salty and not unlike dishes I’ve had elsewhere.

Mains (Clockwise from top): Romney marsh lamb rump, braised mutton, minted burnt cabbage, onion juices; roasted Scottish halibut, shellfish salad, bouillabaisse dressing, liquid potato; 18 hour braised Angus feather blade, baked celeriac, marrow crumbs

As the generous mains settled in our stomachs, willing a warm comfortable food coma to take a hold of us, it didn’t seem to leave much room for dessert but a timely palate cleanser rectified that – a zingy tart raspberry sorbet tempered by a cloud of whipped cream foam and frozen raspberry cubes was positively brightening. Just in time to tackle the slow cooked apples swimming in a really delicious stout sauce and stout sabayon – the sweetness of the apples pairing wonderfully with the bitter notes in the stout. The chilly sorbets and icecreams were equally welcome – it seems no matter how full one gets, you can always make a little room for a spoonful of sorbet.

Desserts (clockwise from left): palate cleanser of raspberry sorbet, whipped cream foam and frozen raspberries; autumn Kent apples cooked slow in stout beer caramel, stout sabayon, vanilla ice cream; selection of ice cream and sorbet: raspberry yuzu, vanilla and salted caramel sorbet

The dessert I most enjoyed was the rice pudding – served at the table in a copper pot. It was creamy and unctuous flavoured liberally with vanilla. The accompanying side was a bit odd, the mango and ginger both tasty on their own by the little quenelles of lemon were so puckeringly sour my lips took to hiding. Call me boring, but I preferred the rice pudding unadorned, it tasted amazing enough the traditional way.

Desserts (clockwise from top left): rice pudding served in a copper pot at the table; English rice pudding cooked with goat’s milk, mango and ginger; side accompanying rice pudding: mango with lemon gelee; freshly baked financiers

As we prepared to leave checking the tube map before we embarked on our next adventure, we tucked into hot, crumbly financiers. A generous ending to cap off a really stunning meal – inventive, impressive food at applaudingly good prices.

Our trip to London wasn’t all about food interspersed with shopping, KK the Co-pilot and I headed off to the Tate Modern for a bit of culture. Remember our friend Ben who gave us the coffee advice earlier on? Well, luckily for us, he works at the Tate which allows us to simultaneously tick the tourist and good friend boxes in one – and of course, general admission to the Tate is free! But perhaps I’d best stick to scoffing down food and leave the art appreciation to others. At one point I was looking at an empty, lonely misplaced chair and wondering whether I should be contemplating at the profound post modern existential message inherent in the empty chair. Then the guard came back and sat in it.

Between exhibitions, considered musing and quizzical chin grasping, an afternoon coffee at the Tate Modern’s cafe is a must! We met Ben there to sample his hand picked coffee blends and to soak in the glorious views. The cafe offers one of the best expansive, uninterrupted, high views over the Thames – that was something I could appreciate!

6. Hereford Road

Originally we’d planned on dining at St John Bread and Wine, but on Ben’s recommendation, we spent our last meal in London at Hereford Road, a small neighbourhood restaurant that was one of his local go-to favourites that espouses some of that nose-to-tail ethos. That’s no coincidence as the Chef and co-founder, Tom Pemberton, was formerly head chef of St John Bread and Wine and trained under Fergus Henderson.

I’ve grown up eating offal as a normal part of my diet and am impartial to a dabble in offal every now and then (curiously my dalliances always seem to coincide with the Co-pilot being away). So gearing up for a good re-acquaintance with offal we went to Hereford Road to meet with Ben and his very heavily pregnant partner Jen.

Heat from the flaming stoves blasts us as we trot past the commotion in the open kitchen on route to our table. The decor is a cool, modern red, white and black palette: shiny white tiled surfaces, red upholstered leather booths contrasted with dark finishes. We inspected the menu and I was surprised to not find it bursting at the seams with offal laden dishes. In fact, on the night we dined, we only had two offal dishes on the menu – sweetbreads and kidneys. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed – I find more offal and more variety of offal in my local yum cha!

Still, the menu offered many appealing dishes, but as the starters seemed to be universally appealing, we opted for all the starters offered on the menu (sans the green salad) and just one main, the pork belly, for good measure.

(Clockwise from top): Hereford Road’s open kitchen; lamb sweetbreads, pearl barley, mint and parsley £7.40; ham hock, radishes and chervil £5.80; marinated smoked haddock, sweetcorn and pea shoots £7.40; warm globe artichoke and melted butter £7.50

The starters came in thick and fast – the biggest globe artichoke I’ve ever seen was delivered to our table, each of its petals offering a meaty mouthful. It came paired with melted butter, which was fine for a few petals but quickly became a little bland and we all agreed a bright zingy vinaigrette would have been a more welcome accompaniment. Smoky, salty big flakes of ham hock married lovingly with crunchy kolhrabi and peppery radish in a creamy dressing and the smoked haddock was just divine, the salt offset with a very tangy young pea shoot salad. The lamb sweetbreads was the token offal dish we ordered and they were very tasty, not gamey, cooked until it was soft on the inside with a just crispy exterior. Neither Jen nor the Co-pilot are fans of offal and chose to concentrate on the other dishes whilst Ben and I tucked in, indulging in classic offal eater behaviour: bullying, chiding and goading non-offal eaters for being culinary wusses. Guilty as charged.

(Clockwise from top): girolles and sorrel on toast £6.20; Blythburgh pork belly, celeriac and mustard £14.50; steamed mussels, cider and thyme £7.50; roast quail and aioli £7.50; beetroot, cobnuts and goat’s curd £5.80

There was a heaped mound of  meaty wild sauteed girolles, tossed with sorrel and served on soft gravy-drowned toast – my first taste of many wild mushrooms on this trip and I really relished the firm texture and lightly perfumed taste as I hadn’t had girolles before whether fresh or dried. The beetroot salad with oozing soft goat’s curd, and cobnuts (a type of hazelnut) was simple but very tasty; the steamed black mussels were small for their big shells, but were delightfully sweet and drenched in cider and thyme broth we scooped greedily using the mussel shells; and we tore at the crispy roasted quail, its flesh still very moist and enjoyed with the accompanying aioli and a drizzle of lemon. With all these generous starters, we were happily sated and didn’t really need the main but welcomed it all the same. A Flintstones-sized chunk of rib-in pork belly was brought to us – a sweet, dribblingly juicy and perfectly pink roasted piece that was gobsmackingly tasty.

It was a deliciously satisfying meal which including a bottle of wine came to a mere £25 per person! Proving yet again, remarkably good, no, rave-worthy food, can be found in London without leaving you wincing. As we paid the bill happily and started waddling out, the maître d’ asked whether we were all chefs. We shook our heads at his odd question and looked at him quizzically, and he explained that it was unusual to see people just order all the starters, but visiting chefs have been known to and it would be the way he’d order too. We took that as a complement and left Hereford Road patting our bellies contentedly, the restaurant still lively and heaving despite being a early midweek night.

And that was our epic 48 hours of eating our way around London, seeking out the best value meals that provided truly memorable gastronomic experiences that I’d be happy to repeat again and again without any heart skipping, teeth gnashing moments when you see the bill.

BYO cheese and baguette! Enjoying our oozy smelly collection of cheeses from La Fromagerie on the Eurostar to Paris

Our next stop was Paris and to get there we got the Eurostar from London to Paris the next morning. We could have gotten the standard half limp, unappetising pre-packaged sandwich to whet our appetite, but we had a better plan – we bought a fresh crusty baguette and broke out those glorious cheeses from La Fromagerie to kick off the next phase of rich and tasty indulgence in style.

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Addresses:

1. Workshop Coffee at Clerkenwell

27 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5RN

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 5754.

Open Mon 7:30am – 6pm; Tues – Fri 7:30am – 10pm; Sat – Sun 8am – 6pm

www.workshopcoffee.com

 2. Nopi

21-22 Warwick Street, London W1B 5NE

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7494 9584

Open Mon – Fri Breakfast 8am – noon; Lunch noon – 2:45pm; Dinner 5:30pm – 10:15pm

Sat Breakfast 8am – noon; Lunch noon – 5:30pm; Dinner 5:30 – 10:15pm

Sun Breakfast 10am – 1pm; Lunch noon – 4pm

www.nopi-restaurant.com

3. Medlar

438 Kings Road, Chelsea, London SW10 0LJ

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7349 1900

Open Mon – Sun 12pm – 3pm; 6:30pm – 10:30pm

www.medlarrestaurant.co.uk

4. La Fromagerie

4-6 Moxon Street, Marylebone, London W1U 4EW (they also have a store in Highbury)

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7935 0341

Open Mon – Fri 8:00am – 7:30pm; Sat 9:00am – 7:00pm; Sun 10:00am – 6:00pm

www.lafromagerie.co.uk

5. Pollen Street Social

8-10 Pollen Street, Mayfair, London W1S 1NQ

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 7600

Open Mon – Sat  Lunch noon – 2:45pm, Dinner 6pm – 10:45pm

www.pollenstreetsocial.com

6. Hereford Road

3 Hereford Road, Bayswater, London W2 4AB

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7727 1144

Open daily for lunch and dinner

www.herefordroad.org

I find myself at Bayside Lounge and for once, I’m here in a fairly calm and lucid state – not sleep-deprived, not delirious from excessive consumption of sugar, and not wide-eyed and supercharged with adrenalin. From my description, you’d be forgiven in thinking that I’m talking about a seedy Saturday night out in The Cross, but no, the very respectable Bayside Lounge hugs the external fringe of the enormous Darling Harbour complex that is the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre (SCEC).

Over the years, I’ve attended many a conference at the SCEC and the last few have seen me trade in my usual passive participant role for a far more active organising one. Inevitably, I can be found stressed and running around trying to herd speakers and fix crises. To fuel the madness I end up eating self-loathing inducing amounts of the ubiquitous free trade stall sugary junk and collecting far too much gimmicky plastic branded junk that I’ll never use. Once, I drank so many fruit smoothies from our own trade stand that I gave myself a blinding fructose-migraine. I hadn’t even realised that was possible until it happened.

Bayside Lounge at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour

Bayside Lounge was the reliable time out place for me when conferences became all too much – a blessed quiet escape bathed in natural light and serving more than lollies and ashen swill passing as conference coffee. The lounge has sweeping panoramic views of Darling Harbour, a perfect vantage point for zoning out and watching the crowds of mainly tourists idly strolling by. From the clientele present it’s a clear favourite not just tourists but with other conference attendees too, tucking into their meals, their lanyards still hanging around their necks.

Dining room flooded with plenty of light and panoramic views of Darling Harbour

For a refreshing change, I’ve come on a hot sunny spring day to experience dining here leisurely and have more than a coffee and small snack. I’ve opted for the tea-smoked lamb as my own attempts at tea smoking duck at home wasn’t what you’d call a culinary feat and since then I’ve found it difficult to resist ordering tea-smoked items from the menu – if just to sample what successful tea smoking tastes like and speculate what I did wrong. The lamb is served cold and subtly smoked, firm but not tough. It is accompanied with a typical French combo of creamy, crunchy celeriac rémoulade and lightly dressed mâche, a common French salad leaf slowly populating our markets here. The flavours are delicate and subtle with the side of char grilled sweet corn salad complementing with some robust punchy char flavours. For $24 it’s a tad on the small side – more an entree than a main size, but I was well warned before I ordered it (in my defence, please see the passage above about tea smoking obsessions).

Apple tea-smoked lamb loin with sweet corn salsa, celeriac remoulade, mache and lemon vincotto; $24

The dessert is the main game I’m here for – specifically, the avocado panna cotta. I’m certainly no stranger to avocado based desserts and I’m particularly addicted to the delicious avocado shake favoured by the Vietnamese – an ice cold creamy concoction sweetened with condensed milk that is just pure bliss on a hot summery day. With it’s creamy texture and high monounsaturated fat content, it’s not surprising that avocado lends itself so well to creamy desserts, in fact its Chinese name literally translates to “butter fruit”. This avocado dessert special is only being served during the month of November to celebrate the current seasonal bumper crop of avocados and reportedly took Chef Claudine Balderstone weeks to develop the recipe so I was excited to see the result and just snuck in before the end of the November to sample it.

Lightly sweetened avocado panna cotta with coriander laced avocado gelato and chilli avocado marshmallow; $12.95

It’s an unctuously rich and creamy panna cotta, the smooth texture contrasted with ground nuts and crunchy toffee pebbles. It’s finished with a light and airy avocado gelato and a sweet pink tangle of Persian fairy floss.

I find the accompanying marshmallow intriguing – a cube of cloud soft sweetness presented in a violent swirl of vivid colour that commanded my attention. The sweetness of the avocado flavour plays second fiddle to the chilli, a mild heat that slowly intensifies but easily doused with a spoonful of the creamy panna cotta.

Mesmerising chilli avocado marshmallow

It’s the first time I’ve had more than a coffee at Bayside Lounge and enjoying a calm, unhurried and civilised meal was a very welcome change. The lanyard toting clientele around me quickly up-end their coffees and gather their belongings to rush back to an afternoon of conference sessions as I prepared to step out into the sunshine for a leisurely stroll and somehow that made the experience all that more enjoyable.

Bayside Lounge

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre

Darling Drive, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Tel: +612 9282 5000

www.scec.com.au/The-Centre/Bayside-Lounge

A month can fly by with barely a change in routine. Most of my waking life is spent staring at a computer screen, tap tapping away on my keyboard. Inevitably when I surface for air, rubbing my eyes and glancing at the time, I can be found loudly and indignantly exclaiming “Oh. My. God. It’s Easter! How did that happen?”, followed in the very next breath by “Can you believe it’s Christmas?!”. But leaving the rigmarole of daily life, I’m reminded that quite a lot can happen in a month.

During the month of October, the Co-pilot and I traversed the equator across into the northern hemisphere for our belated honeymoon. Yes, that’s right, honeymoon. If you have a vague sense of déjà vu, you’re not going mad, I did post about our Thai honeymoon back in August, but er.. that was our teaser honeymoon – let’s call it Honeymoon Mark 1 and more of a necessary escape to regain our wits post wedding than a nourishing holiday. October was Honeymoon Mark 2, our Europe Honeymoon, the holiday I’d been looking forward to all year. Our itinerary spanned London – Paris – Dordogne – Pyrenees – San Sebastian – Barcelona – Singapore, but we spent the vast majority of the time in France and Spain eating copious amounts of amazing food and dutifully ignoring our ever expanding waistbands. There will be posts coming soon about our best finds including the Michelin stars that we collected along our travels and excitingly (for me at least), tales of intrepid foraging.

But more of that later. The first weekend I returned from Europe, ludicrously jetlagged and before I had a chance to see my family, I was on a plane to Adelaide for the 3rd instalment of the Eat Drink Blog, the annual national Australian Foodblogger Conference. Last year I, along with 2 others: Jen and Simon, was one of the organisers of East Drink Blog 2, Sydney’s turn to host the conference. As I’d mentioned in this post from last year, I’m not a relaxed organiser and far from sitting back and enjoying the day’s proceedings, behind my seemingly calm mask listening to the conference panels and keynote speakers, I was going through my mental checklist ensuring the next speaker was present and prepared, ensuring everything was in place. I didn’t do a dedicated post on last year’s conference because quite simply, I couldn’t tell you what happened. I could tell you what our run sheet for the day looked like, but other than that I truly zoned out and I’m just glad it happened and from the feedback from attending bloggers, it seemed to go well. Bonus! Amongst some of the complementary bloggers at last year’s conference were Christina from The Hungry Australian and Amanda from Lambs’ Ears and Honey. Buoyed from the excitement from the day, they both independently enthused and mused about how good it would be to have the conference in Adelaide and both were so genuine, it left a lasting impression on me (perhaps to their detriment). Many months later, I’m not sure either of them quite expected me to contact them and ask them if they’d like to officially take the reins and move the conference to Adelaide. A few emails and conference calls later, the handover was complete and the beginnings of the EDB3 Organising Committee was born, co-chaired by Christina and Amanda. Given I absorbed nothing from the Sydney conference, I certainly wasn’t going to miss out on the Adelaide conference! Jetlagged or not, I was going to Adelaide.

Besides, I’ve never been to Adelaide before – come to think of it, I haven’t ventured past the Australian Eastern Seaboard.. Hmm.. It really was high time I visited and maybe saw a bit more of this country!

The conference was organised over an entire content-packed weekend. There were 80 lucky delegates in attendance (the event was oversubscribed), with representation from almost all the states and territories with the exception of the Northern Territory and Tasmania – a phenomenal feat! The Saturday kicked off with a tour of the Adelaide Central Markets where we perused the stalls and met with some of the producers that would be contributing to a special pop up lunch for us the next day.

Touring and tasting the diverse fresh produce at Adelaide Central Market

Fresh from our foraging adventures in Europe, I was excited to see some familiar French wild mushrooms at the Mushroom Man’s Mushroom Shop – morels, chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms! They also had black garlic – white garlic that has been aged under specific conditions to produce a wonderful, savoury, umami-packed aroma – they smelt like they had been marinated in an amazing soya sauce bath.

Admiring the French wild mushrooms and black garlic at the Mushroom Man’s Shop

Following on from the tour, we split up into different groups. Some attended the writing workshop with the conference keynote speaker, Dianne Jacob. Others went to the Barossa Valley and had wine and food pairing tastings. I’d opted for the McLaren Vale tour and hopped on the bus for the 40 minute odd trip to d’Arenberg Winery. It was certainly a picturesque setting fringed with grand old iron bark trees, docile curious sheep tending to the dry grass and just beyond them, the luscious green vineyards beckoned. Not a bad setting for a drop of wine or two.

We were welcomed by the winery owner, d’Arry Osborn who despite his robust frame was a fairly softly spoken man, quietly recounting the history of the family winery. Formalities aside we were instructed in the art of wine tasting and encouraged to make notes of the characteristics of each before making a custom blend of the three to make our own wine.

A picturesque Australian setting at d’Arenberg winery complete with docile sheep milling nearby.

With the guidance of senior winemaker Jack, we were given three shiraz wines to taste – each of a different age, from different soil environments and oak barrel aging conditions – factors that contributed to their remarkably different flavour profiles. The first (a 2010 Blewitt Springs shiraz) was young, sweet and thin with a short palate; the second (a 2010 Beautiful View shiraz) was more acidic and robust with tannins; the third (a 2010 McLaren Flat shiraz) had stronger rounded berry flavours but tasted inexplicably like salami or pork terrine. We all generally agreed the wines weren’t our first choice for drinking, but blending them together made a magical transformation with each of the previously assertive flavour profiles muted into the background in the blends.

With measuring cylinders and pipettes, we made a few blends of the three before settling on our final combination to bottle and take home as a souvenir. But not before siphoning off a cheeky glass for the blending competition. As oxygen is the enemy of wine preservation, small chunk of dry ice were placed into the jug to suck away marauding oxygen molecules.

After thorough tasting and re-tasting, we all settled on our masterpiece blend ratios. A knob of dry ice was dropped into the blend to expel oxygen which made for a spectacular show

With my wine tasting partner, the always vibrant Peter G from Souvlaki for The Soul, naturally then our partnership was the P & T Estate and our masterpiece blend “Foraging for The Soul” (a blend of our two blog names of course).

Capping off our own custom blend shiraz souvenir – the very limited edition P and T Estate, Foraging for The Soul Shiraz, 2012 and putting it before the judges.

Blending wine is hard and thirsty work, but luckily some tasty canapes and sparkling wine awaited us outside. The oysters were particularly memorable, freshly shucked Claire de Lune oysters topped with Japanese wakame seaweed salad, wasabi flying fish roe (tobiko) and dressed with a squeeze of lime. Delicious, simple and definitely something I intend to recreate this summer.  So tasty, I headed back for seconds for a better taste.

Some of the tasty canapes whilst we waited for the wine blending results – oysters with wakame seaweed salad, toasted crispy rice squares topped with ceviche paired with generous flowing sparkling wine.

In the end, we didn’t win but given we weren’t expecting anything we were pretty chuffed with the runner up accolade. “Will cellar well for up to 5 years”, said Jack in his deliberation, “Will be a corker of a wine then – which is why they called it ‘Foraging for the Soul’ I’d imagine”. Yes, sure, that was the deliberate thinking behind the name…

A short refresher break and it was off to dinner. From my photos, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we were just served copious amounts of behemothly large cuts of meat. We weren’t, I recall salads, desserts and er.. stuff, I just got a little excited by the ribs and steaks and evidently failed to take photos of much else.

Stuffing myself silly at the generous conference dinner held at The Hilton, Adelaide

Bright and early the next day we all met again at the Adelaide markets for the full day conference. Not that I needed more food, but with foodbloggers around, more food there was. Between breakfast, morning tea, a pop up lunch and afternoon tea we heard from speakers about writing, community building, food styling, food photography, blog design, SEO, legal considerations, ethics, local and seasonal sustainability and opportunities from blogging.

Clockwise from top left: Generous breakfast treats; a food styling hands-on session in progress and Breville baristas deliver all-day lifesaving coffee.

An impressive pop up lunch put on by some of the Adelaide Central Market producers: a enormous seafood paella, artisan bread, charcuterie, cheese, marinated Thai chicken, vegetarian bites, and that chocolate fountain dessert extravaganza

Scenes from the EDB3 conference: Simon Bryant and Tammi Jonas talk about local and seasonal produce, sustainability  issues; food bloggers swarming around afternoon tea dessert treats and the co chairs closing the conference

The conference was very informative, engaging, entertaining (particularly Simon Bryant’s panel session!) and very valuable. Above all though, for me the conference a much needed inspiration boost, a much needed virtual kick up the backside reminder that there are so many things that I could do to improve my blog, and so many opportunities I could make if I actually invested the time and effort into it. The increasing levels of energy and positivity throughout the day from the other bloggers was palpable. I think the organising committee should be so very proud for putting on such an excellent conference, and for undoubtedly sending off 80 bloggers inspired each in their own way to be better bloggers. In fact, the conference was so inspiring, we may have witnessed the birth of a blogger on the day. I noticed one of the Breville baristas was absolutely engrossed in the conference content, listening intently in on the sessions, and later learned that he had always wanted to start a coffee blog and the conference had inspired him to turn those thoughts into action.

That’s a big thank you to the organising committee consisting of Amanda, Christina, Celeste, Kirsty, Erin, Alex and Natasha for the excellent conference, and to all the generous sponsors who donated to make it possible and entirely free to all the attendees. This year’s team delivered a very slick, very well organised and very professional event. The bar and expectations for next year have truly been raised.

And what did I think of Adelaide? It was very welcoming and friendly, cozy and sleepy – like a comfortable warm hug – one I could get used to and one I can’t believe I took this long to meet.