New Farm Food Stories

Spring at Brambledene

December 24, 2012January 7, 2013 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Culture

It doesn’t get any prettier than Spring in the Dandenongs, and after a hard couple of days puzzling my way around constitutional conventions, I spent a weekend with some friends near Olinda. David McClymont and Janet Austin live at Brambledene on the western side of the Dandenongs, about an hour from Melbourne. The property includes the main house, and an historic cottage which has connections back to the Heidleberg painters. The houses sit in a couple of acres of Edna Walling inspired garden. Edna Walling was influenced by the arts and craft movement and her style included dense planting, the use of stone walls and lots of pathways to connect different garden spaces or rooms. Though English, she was one of the first gardeners to incorporate Australian natives into her planting.

Garden 'room' at Brambledene — Garden ‘room’ at Brambledene

Before David and Janet moved there about eight years ago, Brambledene was an old flower farm and in spring all of the bulbs and flowers come back to life. Now, the big dogwood trees are flowering, as are the irises, hydrangeas and roses. Tiny sea-side daisies pop up everywhere among the stonework and overrun the edges of the paths.

As well as the flowers, there is quite a bit of food which can be foraged from the grounds. At the moment the walnuts are coming on as are the nashi pear and crab apple. David has planted out a large herb garden with mint, fennel, thyme, oregano and rosemary. I also saw some lively looking artichokes which seemed ready for the pot.

The Saturday I was there was book club night, so after a mega shop in Melbourne we got into the kitchen. The book was a Salman Rushdie and the theme Indian, and as both David and Janet are vegetarians, a couple of vegetable curry dishes were the go. David is quite, ahem, particular in the kitchen so my duties including chopping pumpkin to two centimeter squares and separating the cauliflower into tiny florets.

The pumpkin went into the pumpkin and ckick pea curry and the cauliflower for pakoras. Neither of us had made pakoras before, but if you get the batter the right coating consistency and the oil at the right temperature, they are not that hard.

The final dish was a fried potato curry, all served with naan bread, rice and raita. To keep it simple, we cut up some mangoes and had them with ice-cream for dessert.

Apparently being part of a book club and not reading the book isn’t a problem. Only one swot wanted to discuss the book over dinner and the rest of the time was spent chatting about the news of the ‘nongs.

Though it is lovely in the mountains it is a lot of hard work. The garden needs constant maintenance and there is the ever-present danger of fire season. David and Janet both work from home and have put a lot of time, effort and money into restoring the gardens and the historic cottage. Walling style gardens are designed to look ‘natural’ and their beauty hides the work that goes into crafting their wild appeal. But for escapees from the Brisbane humidity who wander around taking photos and sit down for delicious meals, spring in the Dandenongs looks pretty good.

What’s for…..breakfast?

November 20, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Recipes

What to have for breakfast? The first decision of the day, unless you are grappling with more existential problems, then it is why am I here and what is the point of getting up? Assuming that is not the case, then, what to have for breakfast? Breakfast is not really a meal most of us spend much time on. It tends to be as assemblage. See what is lurking in the fridge and check the cupboard. You don’t look at a recipe book for breakfast and most people just have three or four favourite meals that they endlessly recycle.

This morning I cooked breakfast. Oat hotcakes and ate them with fresh fruit and yoghurt. There is a wee bit o’ Scots in me so I was looking for a way to eat oats outside of porridge in winter. Here is the recipe.

3/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup of rolled oats

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup of buckwheat flour (or plain flour if you don’t have/like buckwheat)

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

pinch of salt

To make the batter, first soak the oats in the milk for 10 minutes. Then add the sugar, olive oil and egg and mix together. Sift in the dry ingredients and combine. Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add some olive oil and put in a couple of ladlefuls of the batter. Cook each hotcake for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. The mixture should make about 8.

Drizzle with honey and serve with berries, banana or other fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Duck with olives

November 9, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Culture

There are some classic food combinations such as tomato and basil, peaches and cream and, I think, duck with olives. With some friends coming for dinner I cooked Neil Perry’s Honey braised duck with orange and olives . This recipe is a clever mixture of the traditional French duck recipes with a middle eastern touch. Neil Perry’s addition of cinnamon and coriander to the French duck flavours of orange and olives makes for a modern dish which can happily be served with cous cous or more traditional vegetables.

After the dinner, a friend sent me the link to restaurant Allard in the rue St-Andre-des-Arts in Paris. Their reputation is built on their Canard de Chellans aux olives (though apparently not on their service, if you read the reviews on Trip Adviser). The French recipes tend to roast the duck first and when plating it up, pour the sauce and olives over. All of the recipes agree that the olives must be green, which also means being careful not to over-salt. The olives by themselves add enough additional salt.

Duck with olives is perfect dinner party fare. You can organise most of it beforehand, the meal is not too heavy and duck always imbues a sense of festivity. Then, as Brillat-Savarin says, the true pleasures of the table can be enjoyed where ‘at the end of a well-savoured meal both soul and body enjoy an especial well-being’.

Sincerely Sourced

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Reviews

The Sourced Grocer in Florence Street Teneriffe is an inner city oasis of seasonal food and good eating. Opened by owner Jerome Batten in June 2011, the grocery and cafe quickly became central to the life of many locals. There are many ways to approach the Sourced Grocer. For regulars, the cafe is the first stop of the morning, where after ordering at the counter, you can squeeze in at the communal table or find a spot out the front or on the stairs. The cafe is set up to assemble a range of fresh meals but it is not a full kitchen.

The Sourced Grocer specialises in fresh, quality produce and this flow through to the food prepared. For breakfast there is a choice of Farmer Jo’s muesli ($11), a breakfast trifle, Chouquette croissants or my favourite, the smashed avocado on Levain sourdough with labne ($11). For lunch, choose from a couple of healthy sounding salads made with freekah and quinoa, upmarket sandwiches ($12.50) full of Bangalow ham and mixed leaves as well as handmade falafel with a Moroccan dip, piles of baby spinach and cherry tomatoes ($12.50). Service can be slow on the weekends when the crowd builds before the doors are open, so if you are the impatient type, get down there early or go during the week.

After eating, it is time to cruise the shelves and see what has come in. Sourced Grocer Manager Willow Humphreys said they source as much produce from southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales as possible. This means there is a range of high quality meat including Bendale Farm organic chickens, Bangalow pork and Eumundi Smokehouse sausages. A whole fridge is taken up with Gundowring ice cream, which may seem a little excessive until you get your own flavour addiction going. Willow swears by the lemon curd.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Willow Humphreys

The deli range has really grown over the past 12 months. Like a middle eastern bazaar, shelves heave with grains, spices, nuts, artisan pasta, oils, jams, exotic chocolate, dried figs and persimmons. Boxes of locally sourced produce take up the back part of the shop and to the right is the cold room with more fresh produce, cheese and dips.

Willow believed the Sourced Grocer has attracted so many regular customers through consistency and keeping the produce interesting. “There are people who only shop here”, she said. “As I say to the staff, work with love in your heart”. The team at the Sourced Grocer are young, friendly and professional. After you turn up a couple of times they are pretty good at remembering your name, which all adds to the sincerity of the experience at the Sourced Grocer.

Sourced Grocer

11 Florence Street, Teneriffe Q 3006

07 3852 6734

Hours

Mon to Thurs 7am to 8pm

Fri 7am to 7pm

Sat 7am to 5pm

Sun 8am to 4pm

James Street Food Trail

October 18, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Culture

New Farm Food Stories has been dedicated to some more, er, mundane writing jobs and has been remiss in filling in readers about this week’s James Street Food and Lifestyle Trail. Events started Monday but the big day is Saturday 20th October. All day events include a Vietnamese street stall set up at kitchen shop Taste (behind Space) and Bucci will transform its restaurant into a side street with producers and suppliers offering samples of wine, olive oil and other treats. As well the Cru Bar will set up a Veuve Clicquot Bar in James Lane.

There are also many scheduled and ticketed events all day Saturday. Free events include sample breakfast bites from Gerard’s Bistro at 10am and the launch of The Foodies Guide to Brisbane at Scrumptious Reads at 2pm. If you don’t mind paying a bit there is a tasting of high end Italian wines at Taste at 1pm ($10) and for the enthusiastic, a five course degustation menu with wine at Gerard’s Bistro for $80 per person.

Parking will be atrocious though the 470 bus goes down James Street. The full itinerary is at jamesst.com.au

Feasting with the Classics

October 5, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Culture

There are many writers who celebrate the pleasures of the table, but few who do so with the elan of the original gourmand Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and his 20th century disciple MFK Fisher. Both authors genre hop between memoir, social history of food, anecdote, travel and preparation techniques. They remain immensely readable and inspiring today.

3813_Brillat-Savarin-Anthelme — Brillat-Savarin

Writing in the early 19th century in France, Brillat-Savarin had a distinguished career as a judge and a man about town. He was reluctant to publish his collection of thoughts about food, The Physiology of Taste or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, while alive because he thought it would detract from his serious professional career. Though loath to be remembered as a writer of ‘fiddle-faddle’, this fiddle-faddle has enriched our thinking about food for the past 190 years and his many musings about food continue to inspire food writing today.

The Physiology of Taste is an eccentric and post modern bricolage of personal anecdote, theories about food and meditations on issues such as obesity and thinness, or the enervating dangers of too much fish in the diet (leading to the observation that fish eating people are less brave than those who live on meat). Brillat-Savarin lived during the dawn of the scientific age, and in common with educated men at that time, was as interested in the new scientific findings as he was in arts and culture. The book encompasses both grand theories on taste and the senses as well as specific instructions on who should or should not drink coffee or in the difficulties in making good chocolate. He also coined many aphorisms about food including ‘tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are’ and ‘the most indispensable quality of a cook is promptness and it should be that of the diner as well’.

Much of the joy in The Physiology is in knowing the book is Brillat-Savarin at play. He sometimes writes about himself as a third person character called the Professor. It is the Professor, ensconced in his easy chair, who calls in his cook to chastise him for a flabby sole, poorly prepared because of the cook’s neglect of the theory of frying. The book is both eccentric and enlightening and resonates anew with each generation.

MFK Fisher is an avowed fan of the Professors and her homages to him are many and heartfelt. She named her book The Art of Eating after one of his aphorisms, wrote about her ‘man crush’ on him in A Few of the Men and spent two years in the later 1940s translating the The Physiology of Taste. In a writing career of over 30 books, MFK picks up and amplifies many of the preoccupations of Brillat-Savarin.

MFK was born in the United States in 1908 to a newspaper family who soon relocated to the new growth area of California. As a newly wed, she lived with her husband in Dijon as he studied for his doctorate. Here, for the first time, she learnt the principles of fine dining and the joys of seasonal food, simply prepared. MFK’s experiences of France during the 1930s influenced her approach to life and she revisited Dijon and Provence for extended periods for the rest of her life. MFK’s books are a mixture of memoir and the social history of food. The Gastronomical Me is a memoir of her early married life in France and later Switzerland and pinpoints her moments of food awakening from her California childhood through to her experiences in France and Switzerland. In the 1940s she wrote a book dedicated to the oyster Consider the Oyster and in the 1960s specialised in writing about French food and Provence in particular.

MFK’s writing seeks to find the poetic in the everyday and her evocative stories stay with you. Vignettes such as her description of her first restaurant experience in Dijon, eating fresh peas cooked over a pinewood fire in Switzerland and of visiting her brother in Mexico and the female mariachi singer, disguised as a boy, who serenaded him, linger with you as if you too had shared the dish of peas or listened to the singing. It is easy to see why John Updike called her the ‘poet of the appetites’.

Both Fisher and Brillat-Savarin share the desire to elevate the experience of eating to one that is both transcendent and poetic and as Brillat-Savarin points out ‘the pleasures of the table are only known to the human race’. Both writers seek to improve our historic understanding of food as well as draw us into the universal understanding that food can be both indulgent and necessary to enhancing our everyday wellbeing.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin 2009. The Physiology of Taste or, Meditations on Transcendental Gatronomy (ed MFK Fisher). Everyman’s Library, New York.

Joan Reardon 2004. Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of MFK Fisher. North Point Press, New York.

Battle of the Bowlies

September 24, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Reviews

IMAG0146 — Friday night pokies at the Merthyr Bowls

Friday night in early spring and thoughts turn to a Chicken Parmigiana eaten overlooking half an acre of rolled, green lawn. Time to go to the bowlie. The two Bowls clubs in New Farm crank up over summer surge through Christmas and New Year, to slow down again into winter. They both offer cheap social memberships of a dollar a year and similar menus of club grub with a couple of higher end specials. In this time of public service cuts and financial austerity, which one should get your patronage over the summer months?

Merthyr Bowls Club

The Merthyr Bowls Club was the first in Brisbane to open its door to the ‘youngies’ and offer barefoot bowling and a relaxed social atmosphere. It has the advantage of outlook, being right on the Brisbane River and has slowly improved facilities over the years to cater for the Club’s surge in popularity. For a cool drink on a hot afternoon, it is hard to beat. But what about the food?

The New Farm Food Stories team visited on a quiet Friday night where playing the pokies was the focus of patron’s attention rather than eating. The menu starts with casual club food such as dips, nachos and dips. There are a couple of burgers ($14.90), pasta, fish and chips ($17.50) and Rayners bangers with mash ($19.90). We ordered the special of pan-fired barramundi with chips and salad ($26.90) and the Atlantic salmon, wilted spinach and mash ($23.90), lubricated by a bottle of Tim Adams Riesling ($25.00).

The food was OK but expensive for what it was. The salmon was properly cooked and still pink in the middle but the mashed potato was a bit ‘wet’ and there was a lot of it. It all looked messy on the plate. The barramundi wasn’t bad and the chips were from the corporate catering truck. My main concern was with the cost. There is not a lot of thought in the menu and the club probably dishes up the kind of food people want to soak up a few drinks by the Brisbane River. If the meals were under $20 I would probably treat it in that spirit, but when they creep up to the mid-twenties, then I am looking for a bit more in flavour and presentation.

New Farm Bowls Club

The New Farm Bowls Club was later to the barefoot bowling scene and still retains more of that 1970s traditional ambiance. It feels more ‘clubby’ with a large, brightly lit dining room and some table and chairs on the front veranda for a Friday night drink. There is a separate room for pokies off to the left of the entrance and a long bar near the dining room. The dining room was pretty empty when we arrived on a Thursday night but soon filled up with groups of people eating before the Trivia Night. The menu was similar to that of Merthyr Bowls – dips and nachos for snacking, a wagyu burger ($16.90), fish and chips ($16.90), and a bistro salad with rocket and prosciutto ($15.00).

For consistency, I ordered the Atlantic salmon with mashed potato, wilted spinach and salsa verde and the review team club connoisseur went for the special of Thai beef salad ($15.00). We also ordered a side of chips. The food came out smartly and the serves were very generous. The Thai beef salad had a respectable chilli hit and the salmon fine, though the large amount of salsa verde , tasty as it was, overpowered the dish. There were enough chips for a table of six and we could only make a small dent in them.

The New Farm Bowls club feels more member focused than Merthyr. There is discounts on food and drink for members and the prices are much more reasonable. It is the sort of place you could hang out a couple of nights a week and not feel the pang in the pocket too much. The club is attracting different crowds with music and trivia nights. After dinner, we stayed for the first round of trivia but with the question ‘what is the name of the second contestant kicked out of the Big Brother house?’ knew we were out of our depth and vacated the competition.

The Winner Is….

So who won the Battle of the Bowlies? For my dollar a year, I’d happily become a habitue at the New Farm Bowls Club. I like the 1970s feel of a real club for locals and their understanding that a cheap drink and a meal is at the heart of any bowls club.

Five foods that don’t work

August 31, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Culture

There are many foods out there that just don’t work or are misapplied. Here is my personal list which shows up all of my food prejudices. All correspondence will be entered into.

Bircher muesli. I love a bowl of porridge in the morning with some poached fruit. I even like uncooked oats in muesli. But I don’t understand bircher muesli. It is a soggy, mess with the consistency of puppy’s vomit. The texture is soft and cold and it adds nothing to starting the day on a good footing. In the spirit of ‘never waste a meal’, let us never waste another breakfast on bircher muesli.
Shop bought pesto . Pesto is easy to make. Whiz up some fresh basil, toasted pine nuts, parmesan and garlic with olive oil. It is the taste of summer. It is meant to come from the garden to the plate. All of the life goes from pesto as soon as it is bottled. It is not a food that keeps so is not suitable for commercial production and must be laden with preservatives to give it a shelf life. Avoid that bottle and make your own.
Pesto ingredients
Soft shell crabs. My friends assure me they are delicious and I just haven’t a good one. If that is the case, there are a lot of bad ones out there. My first concern is provenance. As far as I can see they are imported from developing countries with no food regulation and appear to be harvested from lagoons flowing with raw sewage and industrial waste. My second concern is taste. When I bite in, all I get is a mouthful of crab gunk. Is there no meat in these things? And what about those icky, little legs. Until provenance is clarified, I recommend sticking to locally harvested seafood.
Aoli. Aoli falls into the misapplied category. It is everywhere and way too much of it. I am always trying to scape it off my lunchtime sandwich. The place I go to has a particularly nasty anchovy version which does nothing to enhance the flavour of a ham and salad roll. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and accept it may work on the end of a hot chip. A lot of people seem to like that, though a sprinkling of salt does it for me. Hopefully the aoli mania is peaking and we can go back to a nice mayonnaise.
Brawn. And really I mean anything gelatinous, but brawn can stand for the genus. Meat and jellyness don’t go together. It is the slippery and cold elements which don’t work for me as well as the indistinguishably of the meat used. Meat is best, grilled, baked or casseroled. Suspending shreds of pig’s ears in jelly is way too Depression-era for me.

Down at Gerard’s Place

August 28, 2012August 28, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Reviews

Gerard’s Bistro is my new favourite place. Tucked in off James Street it is a lovely textured space put together with a mixture of arched wooden battening, cream bricks and Moroccan tiles. The room is divided into different eating areas. There is a formal dining area down one end, a long bar and communal table near the kitchen and outside more casual seating. Whatever your mood, Gerard caters for it. And the food is pretty good as well.

My first visit was on a Sunday night, and the restaurant was quiet. My friends ordered lambs brains crusted in spice with tahini and yoghurt ($18) and the free range quail with honey, lavender, pomegranate and sage ($26) for entree. They both looked pretty good and disappeared without too much pain. For the main, I had the best bit if beef I have had for some time. The wagyu with smoked eggplant, wilted leaves and black cardamom ($34) was not a large serving but all the elements pulled together on the plate. The charcoal wagyu sang to the smoked eggplant and with the wilted leaves, I felt my iron levels soaring. We shared a side of heirloom tomatoes, shanklish (don’t ask …oh OK – it’s a middle eastern sheep’s milk cheese) and onion crisps ($12).

For dessert we shared the blood orange creme catalan ($10) and the pistachio financier, charred quince and halva ice cream ($16). Shared is probably nor the right word. After the first mouthful, I pulled the pistachio cake closer and growled at all comers. I did get my spoon into the blood orange catalan and that was pretty damned good as well.

I have since slipped back to Gerard’s for a quick lunch just to make sure it works for lunch as well as dinner. I ordered the quail with wilted greens and again all the flavours were there. The four little quail legs sat on rice with pomegranate mixed through with citrus zest. I cleaned off the plate in under a minute and was looking for more at the end.

I do like Gerard’s Bistro. The space works for both formal dining and a casual meal. The menu is well thought out and the produce used is of a high quality. But, for me, the servings are on the small side and the prices just high enough for it to be an issue. When the two meet up, Gerard’s will cement its place as my new favourite bistro.

Address: 14/15 James Street, Fortitude Valley

Phone: (07) 3852 3822

Hours: Tues – Sun. Midday to late.

Glass Half Full Award

August 20, 2012 by New Farm Food Stories, posted in Food Innovation

Those avid followers of New Farm Food Stories will know we are running a campaign to cement the service of half glasses of wine in all our favourite restaurants. It is civilised, allows you to stay under the limit and gives greater choice in matching wines with courses. However, this simple adjustment to pouring has not caught on with the majority of restaurants. Recent refusniks include ecco, The Survey Co and Bucci. All fine restaurants which could be just that little bit finer if they offered half glasses of wine.

However, there is a new star in our half glass firmament. This week’s glass half full award goes to Gerard’s Bistro. The bistro is all class with knowledgeable wait staff and great service. Our waiter not only provided half glasses when requested but also asked who was driving so she wouldn’t do a top up.

The Glass Half full campaign continues, so send in any restaurant you think is deserving of the Glass Half Full Award.