Memory is a funny thing. There was a restaurant that I visited about a decade ago called Bel Mondo. It was owned by Stefano Manfredi, one of the biggest chefs in Sydney and we had a wonderful meal there. It was hidden in a little lane way up a flight of steps out of the way in The Rocks area, a stairway that you may not know was there as there isn’t much else up there. The foot traffic that passes is often tourists wandering around our fair city. And as a result of this hidden away location, when Manfredi left and the business was sold, people didn’t know that it was still there.
Bel Mondo’s chef Andy Ball is from London, ex Claridges and The Ritz and has been cooking here for about two years. His menu is different from Manfredi’s Italian cuisine, it is more Modern Australian. Today they have opened up Bel Mondo just for Ed and I which feels all rather Hollywood! We are trying the degustation menu which for the modest price of $77 you get five courses of food which has got to be one of the best value degustations going on in Sydney at the moment (and the price is valid even on Friday and Saturday nights).
We start with the bread rolls which are filled with swirls of sun dried tomato pesto and coated in herbs. They’re delicious and warm which is just how I like the bread to be.
Amuse Bouche: Potato and leek soup with creamed leeks and saute scallop
Click here to read the full story
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
February 9, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
“What do you call that, darl?”
“Sponge caaake”*
Sponge cake. Fiercely battled among cooks, temperamental and laden with many superstitions, the sponge is one of those cakes that had completely eluded me. This was not for lack of trying. I’ve tried to make a sponge four times exactly and even one was a variation on failure. They were flat and tough (and the macaron has got to be the modern day sponge cake with its many superstitions).The most spectacular fail was one where my friend gave me a recipe copied from a friend who doesn’t cook. I was suspicious, it seemed to defy gravity and logic: hot milk is poured into the rest of the ingredients. Still my friend raved about her friend’s sponge and I was convinced that it would work. What happened was a disaster of epic proportions. I even took a photo of it (which I have since sadly lost) as evidence of a spectacular fail – the sponge was tough and with an enormous crater on the centre.
Legend has it that duck eggs produce the best sponges as they can whip up voluminously and the taste is richer and yet it rises much lighter. However this legend didn’t take into account how hard they are to get a hold of. There was a while last year where I’d ask confused egg sellers at markets and farmers markets whether they had any duck eggs. Kath from Field to Feast would try to give me some duck eggs but as she lives so far away it proved a logistical impossibility. Don’t do as I did and buy the duck eggs in Asian grocery shops, they are salted duck eggs and are in no shape to be used in a sponge.
Click here to read the full story
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
February 8, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
Before I received a copy of The Fat Duck cookbook by Heston Blumenthal, I (somewhat foolishly) envisaged doing the usual treatment, a review accompanied by a recipe. A little part of me, a devil on my shoulder did whisper “What do you have to do with molecular gastronomy exactly? You barely know your way around a bunsen burner!” and soon after I received it, I realised that making a recipe for Fat Duck wasn’t quite on the cards.
Sounds of the Sea
Although it does provide plenty of recipes, the pleasure I got out of it was getting a glimpse into Blumenthal’s mind. He shows us recipes such as Snail Porridge, Apple Pie Caramels with an edible wrapper and his famous “Sounds of the Sea” where he provides diners with Ipods to listen to the sound of the sea while eating a dish with oysters, sea urchin, seaweed and faux sand. The book is full of illustrations by Dave McKean which lend it an almost whimsical children’s book quality and is broken up into three parts. Part one is the history of the restaurant, part two is all about his signature recipes and part three is devoted to the scientific aspect of the food that he makes.
Snail porridge
Click here to read the full story
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
February 7, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
There are some things that I never really thought to include on my site. Poaching eggs was one of those things that I presumed everyone knew how to do although it was something that I hadn’t done very much until recently. All of this anticlockwise or clockwise water swirling action put me off and the idea of wasting several eggs in the pursuit of doing one perfectly poached egg was something I thought was best left to the professionals.
Then on my story about Whisk & Pin a reader commented about the difficulty in poaching eggs so I realised that there may be more out there that have wasted countless eggs, swirled vinegared water, prayed and crossed fingers. This method is a foolproof one and one that has been successful for me ever since I came across it in the new Masterchef cookbook and they have noted that this is how the professionals do it.
Click here to read the full story
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
February 6, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
Christmas got in the way of a few things. A visit to the Berkelouw Wine Bar was one of them. It’s a wine bar with a twist though. Every season they source wines from a different area throughout Australia to promote them and to bring them to the attention of wine loving Sydney siders. This Summer it’s wines from Orange and in Autumn they will feature wines from the Murray region and in Winter, the Hilltops region.
The room is a good sized rectangular space lined with bookshelves. At one end is the bar area and dotted throughout are various types of comfortable chairs. We like the look of the elegant Louis XIVth style chaises and Christie and I park ourselves there. There are tasting plates as well as wines to try as a good range of wines. The tables have custom built thermals sleeves to help keep bottles of wine at an optimum temperature.
Small Acres Norfolk Still Cyder
We take their recommendation for wines and they show us the Small Acres Still Cyder which I recall driving past on our trip to Orange. Now I haven’t had much cider in my life but Christie is a fan so I take a sip. It’s delicious and ideal for those that don’t really like a strong bitter tasting alcoholic drinks. I down the whole glass in no time (and I rarely finish glasses of wine).
2008. Gewürztraminer: ‘Wine Maker’s Daughter’ $11.00 by the glass in front of one of the table’s thermal metal sleeves
Our next wine is the Gewürztraminer from Borrodel Winery. I’ll admit now I’m not one to be able to smell obscure things in wine and I’m really bad at that whole “I can smell tobacco and a left handed man in this wine” but I can say that I really enjoyed it and it is said to have a baked apple aroma which I could see as I found it quite similar to the cyder which is apple flavoured.
Two cheese platter $16.00
Click here to read the full story
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
February 5, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS
