An Goes North of the Border!

Hey everybody!  It's been a while since I last posted but I guarantee it's been worth the wait.  In this edition of An's Country Cooking Misadventures I take a break from the usual collection of disastrous dishes to bring you tales of my journey to Sydney and Canberra, complete with a review of Austalia's premier fine dining establishment Quay, home of the now infamous Snow Egg.  Before I go on, a big shout out to my cousins in Sydney, and to Eddie and Cindy in Canberra for letting me crash at their places.  It was great hanging out with you guys and I'm sorry I haven't been up more often.  But enough with all this sentiment, let's have at them stories!

My Kingdom For A Decent Cup Of Coffee

It is a point of pride for Melbournians that we have the best cafe culture in Australia, and that even a mediocre drip in Melbourne is better than anything on offer in Sydney.  I tease of course, but even my Sydney-sider cousins agree that the their city is lacking in top notch coffee.  Enter AIR, or Australian International Roasters, whose mission it seems is to bring high quality beans to the Sydney scene.  My cousins were big fans, stating that it was probably the only cafe in town comparable to Melbourne standards.  I was curious, and despite the oxymoronic name I was determined to judge this coffee for myself.  Tucked away in the middle of suburbia and housed in a drab-red industrial building that lacked any aesthetics, the approach to AIR was less than inspiring.  A stark interior with black furniture and a roasting table, not even some nice lounge music to help the mood.  But the coffee?  Excellent.  Smooth, fragrant, and a big hit of coffee flavour that I think is lacking from a lot of milk-diluted coffees these days.  These guys are serious roasters interested in distribution, and this pseudo-cafe is really just a front to help promote their product.  Come for the coffee, stay...because you have to.

Even Sydney-siders like to read the Melbourne Coffee Review

Philosiphisationing On Circular Quay

With my cousins busy at work during the day, I was left to explore the big bad city on my own.  Opera House, Harbour Bridge, I had seen it all before.  Instead I chose to hit up the Guylian Cafe in Circular Quay for some chocolate indulgence.  I use to go to the Lindt Cafe but we have one of those in Melbourne now so its not so much of a novelty.  Plus the Guylian Cafe has a great view of the harbour and is a nice place to sip a Belgian chocolate milkshake while being alone with your thoughts.  Here are some things I jotted down in my phone while I was gazing across the water:

"You know who hangs out at chocolate cafes?  Old tourists and asian couples, and old asian tourist couples."

"Cruise ships?"

"There is a ridiculous gay couple here.  Ridiculous not because they're gay, but because they have ridculously skinny jeans."

"When I rest my head on my hand, I'm not sure if I should go with the fist or open palm.  They both feel kinda awkward."

"The waitresses must think I'm a total loner.  I would if I was a waitress.  I mean waiter."

That shit is deep.

The Long Way Round

It had been a long and lonely day in Sydney, and apart from the milkshake things had not been so great, particularly since I couldn't find anything to buy down Pitt St mall.  But things were looking on the up when my cousin said we were going out to dinner at Porteno (pronounced with funny accent of your choosing), the hottest Argentinian restaurant in town.  The plan was to leave from the city early so we wouldn't miss out on the limited quantity 8 hour slow-cooked lamb.  The plan was to be sipping cocktails by sundown while the soft tango beats filled us with South American passion  The plan WAS NOT to drive around for an hour to travel 5km out of the city.  After multiple wrong turns down one-way streets, it was obvious that even local drivers could not contend with the traffic chaos that is the Sydney road ways.  But eventually we made it, we had our lamb and our cocktails too.  The lamb was lovely and succulent, though the serving size not as healthy as the lamb shoulder at Cumulus Inc.  The surprise of the night was the deep fried brussel sprouts.  Normally not a big fan of the sprouts, but these were quite tasty.  It just goes to show that everything tastes better when its deep fried.

Sorry, forgot to take pictures!

The Wacky World of Zumbo

Coming to Sydney I only had two major goals: buy macarons from Zumbo's and dine at Quay.  Part one was fulfilled when my cousin took me to a very unassuming little shop in a very unassuming little suburb in Sydney, which was home to probably Australia's most famous pastry chef.  For Masterchef fans Zumbo hardly needs any introduction.  But for those not in the know, or any overseas readers out there, Zumbo is known for creating diabolically complex desserts like the V8 cake and the Crockenbush (a tower of profiteroles covered in spun sugar), which unwitting amateur chefs then have to recreate under the intense pressure of a reality television audience.  He also likes to experiment with macarons, creating wild and crazy flavours much like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.  I bought myself a collection of all the macarons available on the day.  I can't remember all of them, but off the top of my head they included Smartie flavour, Cinnamon, something with pistachios and maybe something with rose-water.  We also bought a couple of cakes, which again I can't remember but I think one was an aerated chilli-chocolate cake and the other was a mango cake with various mango toppings.  We enjoyed our cakes by the water on Darling Harbour, and the macarons we saved for later at Dan's Cafe, a local favourite in 'The Hills' regions of Sydney.  Not remembering the flavours is sometimes a bonus, because it then allows us to play the Macoron Guessing Game, a fun and delicious past time of all Zumbo fans.

Just one of three Zumbo shops in Sydney

Our cakes got knocked around a bit en route to Darling Harbour.  Still delicious!

Happiness is enjoying a cup of coffee with macorons while reading the Sydney Morning Herald

This dog was just chillin' outside Zumbo's.  He is totally cool

An Le Versus The Matching Wine List

After a few days farting around town (often literally), the time had finally come to fulfill the long-awaited highlight of my Sydney trip.  Peter Gilmore's Quay restaurant is Australia's highest ranked restaurant, and only one of two Australian restaurants to make San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list.  When I told my cousin that I was coming up to Sydney, the first thing we did was confirm a booking.  And so, on a crisp and clear Thursday evening, my cousins and I headed to Circular Quay to and sit down to this country's greatest dining experience.  It was a rough beginning, as we found it difficult to find the inconspicuous little elevator that would take us to the restaurant floor (I suspect this was a back way, because I can't believe Quay wouldn't have a more grand entrance).  However once we found our way in, our jaws were dropping from the moment we stepped into the restaurant.  Situated on the water between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, Quay boasts a view that is as stunning as its tasting menu.  And we were lucky enough to experience both, along with a matching wine list that was a struggle to get through.  In fact I barely made it to the last dish because I had to step out onto the balcony for some fresh air to stop the room from spinning.  Anyway, in the interest of saving time I won't go through each individual dish like my last review of The Royal Mail Hotel.  Instead I'll just put up all the pictures with some captions and let you know my thoughts at the end.  Enjoy!

This was just a little amuse of caviar and some sort of puree.  It looks like a tiny bunch of grapes!

Sashimi Hiramasa kingfish, pickled kohlrabi, octopus, nasturtiums, white dashi jelly - with Vegneti Massa 'Pietra del Gallo' Vin Rosso

Baby white heirloom cucumber gently braised in oyster and wakame juices, shaved black lipped abalone, oyster cream - with 2009 Falesco 'Poggio dei Gelsi'

Native freshwater marron, rose salt, organic pink turnips, jamon de bellota cream, oloroso caramel, green almonds, society garlic flowers - with 2010 Jauma Grauburgunder

Me enjoying some broth between the seafood starters and protein mains - through my nose

Butter poached coturnix quail breast, pumpernickel, morel and ethical foie gras pudding, walnuts, quinoa, truffle custard, milk skin - with 2008 TerraVin Pinot Noir

Slow braised Berkshire pig jowl, maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil - with 2009 William Downie Petit Manseng

Glenloth squab breast, roasted cherries, banyuls, almond cream bitter chocolate black pudding crumbs tonka, beetroot chard - with 2007 Tapanappa Shiraz

White nectarine snow egg - with 2009 Cascinetta Vietti Moscato D'Asti

My cousin Nathan eagerly awaiting to dig into the Snow Egg

Preserved wild cherries, coconut cream, chuao chocolate crumble, cherry juice and chocolate sorbet - with Claude Courtois 'Les Cailloux-du-Paradis' Vin de Mistelle

So that makes a grand total of 8 dishes along with a couple of mini-bites and coffee with petits fours.  It really was an incredible meal.  Unlike The Royal Mail which focused on very simple home grown ingredients, Quay goes out of its way to bring you some of the finest and most interesting food you will ever eat.  The seafood courses, with all their little embellishments, provided a wonderfully tasty and textured start to the meal.  In particular, I loved the cucumber that looks like a little watermelon.  And I don't care how you feel about micro-herbs, I think they're fun-tastic.

From the mains, the stand-out dish for me has to be the pig jowl.  A disgustingly soft and fatty morsel of pork, wrapped in a genius sugar 'crackling' that adds an amazing sweetness to the savoury meat.  I also have to mention the quail breast, cooked to perfection and served with a generous helping of foie gras and truffle.  Oh and the squab breast with all those wonderfully crunchy little chards of beetroot.  Ah who am I kidding, they were all amazing.

And then we come to the Snow Egg, which stands up to its reputation as Australia's most famous dessert.  While the flavours may change with the seasons, the wow factor remains every time you crack into that egg to get to all that yummy goodness inside.  The super-sweetness of the egg centre is balanced out by the coolness of the nectarine sorbet, which is a delight in itself.  I envy all those Masterchef contestants who now know how to make this for themselves.  I suppose I could give it a try one day.

I only managed a few bites of the final dessert before my Asian sensitivities got the better of me, which is a shame because I always like a good chocolate dessert.  But it was better perhaps that I recovered because after Quay we hit up a salsa club in town, where those 3 salsa lessons I took 4 years ago did not help me in the slightest.  But we still had a great night listening to the music and watching the guys fling the girls around with sexy precision.  That was my last night in Sydney, and it had definitely been an almost perfect ending to my excursion up north.  The next morning, it was downwards to our nation's capital to catch up with friends, buy porn and play with fireworks.


A Condensed Summary Of My Trip To Canberra

This blog is becoming a lot more wordy than I had initially hoped, so to end things I'll quickly go through my goings-on in Canberra.  This is no offense to Canberra, but let's face it, there's not too much I can talk about.  I think I'll just recap a few of the highlights with dot points:

• Missing a turn after driving into town, then realising I could just keep going around the round-about until I hit my street again.  How convenient!
• Steak dinner with Canberrian friends Cindy and Eddie.  Actually, not so much a highlight because the place wasn't that great.  But it was nice to catch up with my buddies again.
• Clubbing in Canberra on a Friday night.  Yes, it does exist, and yes, it probably is everything you imagine it to be.  Which is not much.
• My friend Cindy getting absolutely pissed, and blaming me for letting her get so drunk.  Apparently I am a bad influence.
• The view from my friend's apartment balcony.  I cannot believe he lucked out with such a great place.  I should have visited more often.

And, in the two days I was there I ran into FOUR other people I knew.  One who kind of knew me through my ex, one who was in the year below me at school, and a couple of friends of mine who were recently wed.  What the hell were they all doing up there?  And how small a town is it that you can run into all these random people?

That't the end guys!  Phew, it was a tough slog writing all that up, especially since most of it was written during another week of night shifts.  That may explain all the spelling mistakes, poor grammar and disjointed phrases, but hopefully it hasn't been too bad of a read.  I've got a week off work now so I should have time to put up another blog very soon.  There has been heaps of cooking happening so stay tuned as we return to our regularly scheduled program whereby I make an absolute fool of myself in the kitchen.  It's reality programming at it's best.

Late Night Ramblings from the Emergency Department

Night #2

It's 4:30am.  That alone should give you an idea of the state I'm in.  Imagine if you will me typing this up in a slow, slurred drawl, eyes closing lazily, the slightest hint of drool out the corner of my mouth.  It's my second night in this seven night stretch in ED, and all in all it's been (let's not jinx it now) pretty quiet.  There's only two patients in the department and no one in the waiting room.  The nurses are looking at trashy online gossip, the med reg is working on yet another admission, and me, well I've decided to keep a running commentary on all these crazy happenings in blog form.

With all this spare time on my hands, and because I care about you all so very very much, I thought I would try to squeeze in another post before my trip up to Sydney.  Please don't be expecting anything too brilliant.  Like I said, I will be hard pressed to cook up a decent meal this week.  No matter how well adjusted you are, nights will always throw you off kilter.  When do you sleep, when do you wake up?  When do you eat, and what meal should you have?  Is it breakfast at 8pm?  Or should I be eating cereal before I go to sleep?  And yes, all of my dilemmas are centred around the base functions of eating and sleeping.  I would throw sex in there too, but we all know that's not happening.

So I awoke at 6pm yesterday evening to discover that my flat was completely devoid of any food.  I didn't even have any of the basics like milk, bread, cereal, BBQ shapes or chocolate.  I made a quick run to the local Woolies where I ran into my night reg, who presumably was also doing a last minute diner dash.  It was late, I was lazy.  I picked up the basics and a few other ingredients to throw a sneaky dinner/breakfast together.

Cheater's Pasta

I feel extra naughty about this dish.  It's basically instant spaghetti with Leggo's stir-through sauce, and the only thing I did was throw in some mushrooms, capsicums and chilli flakes.  I wouldn't normally put a dish like this up here, but I'm a bit short on options this week.  The photo looks pretty good though.  I took a leaf out of the ol' Donna Hay presentation files and did the whole twisty pasta thingy.  Anyway, it was good.  But next time I promise I'll make my pasta sauce from scratch.

Night #3

6:00am.  Another good night.  There is only one patient in the department who I'm a bit stumped on, and will have to wait until morning to get some advice.  Nurses are doing their thing.  Miss Night Meg Reg is off seeing some sick patients on the ward.  She is a looker that one.  I wonder if she's single.  Unlikely, the good ones never are.  Don't worry, she doesn't have my facebook so she will never read this blog.

There has been no cooking tonight/last night.  I got invited over to a BBQ at the medical students' place where there was backyard cricket and rissoles a plenty.  Is it wrong that a 2nd year resident feels more comfortable hanging out with the medical students than his colleagues?  Maybe all those women were right, maybe I am immature.  Or maybe they're just stupid-heads.

I have arranged to have breakfast with Matt the resident this morning after my shift.  We are totally gonna bro it out over poached eggs and wilted spinach.  No coffee for me, I need to sleep today.  Maybe I will invite Miss Night Med Reg to join us.  It will be fun times.  I'll take photos just so I can have something to put up here.

Night #4

Over the hump.  Any motivation I had to do something productive during the day is rapidly declining.  I forgot to take photos at breakfast, but look at what I ate after I woke up!

It has been a while since I've devoured a good Whopper.  Normally I'm a KFC Zinger fan, but Hungry Jacks was on the same side of the street on the way home from the shops.  Yes, I am even too lazy to cross the street to go to KFC.

There is a new med reg on tonight.  Mr Night Med Reg is not as attractive as Miss Night Med Reg, but he is quite lovely and helpful.  Still, I miss having something pretty around to look at.  It just makes for a more pleasant working environment.

I have been eating left over pasta for ?lunch for the last couple of nights, but tonight I am having Campbell's Country Ladle canned soup.  All the staff here agree that Country Ladle is the canned soup of choice for canned soup connessieurs.  Although I quite like the Chunky Fully Loaded soup.  Afterall, this fully loaded man needs a fully loaded can.

Night #6

The last couple of nights have been fairly hectic.  Walking into a packed emergency department at the beginning of your night shift gives you a sinking feeling unlike any other, except maybe a post-take patient list the length of your arm.

There is finally a bit of down time in the department.  The nurses are sitting around chatting about their kids, about houses, about recipes.  I keep myself occupied by checking facebook on my Android and playing late night 'Words with Friends'.  I'm getting absolutely slaughtered in most of my games, though surprisingly I'm beating my ex (that doesn't sound right) who is a whiz with the words.  I'm guessing lucky letters has a lot to do with success in that game rather than actual knowledge of words.  Give me a good game of Scrabble any day.

Night #7

IT'S THE LAST NIGHT!!!  And it really couldn't have come soon enough.  The last few nights have been hellish, and I've realised I've made quite a few errors.  Nothing that will turn out too serious I hope, but it's still a horrible feeling knowing you've made mistakes with people's health.  This job can be quite taxing physically and emotionally.

I think that may be all I have to say for now.  Thank you for reading all these crazy late night thoughts of mine.  Looking back at what I've written, my mind appears to be quite disjointed and unstable, but I guess we already knew that.  And it hasn't been a great week for food.  Cooking was relatively non-existent, and my meals, well let's just say that Hungry Jack's had a few friends over.  However now I can look forward to a week of deliciousness in Sydney.  Photos, reviews, and more general randomness to come soon!


Addit.

So I woke up late before leaving for Sydney and had to rush out of the flat.  After getting lost a couple of times (stupid Google Maps) I finally arrived, only to find out I did the whole 7 hour trip with two odd socks and my underwear inside out.  On the up side, I did end up beating my ex in Words with Friends.  Suck it Addy!  (Still sounds wrong)