At breakfast at Villa Sungai Made presented me with three perfect mangosteen specimens which I gratefully and happily gobbled down (I did give one to Mr NQN). He also gave me a tip about mangosteen and how to buy them since I seem to have rotten luck with buying them in Sydney. Choose the mangosteen with a lighter colour as the darker black ones are older ones. Choose ones that are spongy to the touch and not hard-and very cutely, at the bottom of a mangosteen is a star shape. The number of points in the star reflects the number of segments that there are in the fruit inside! How cool is nature?

Banana smoothie

Sticky rice, coconut and mango

Mr NQN and I splashed a little in the pool. Many years ago he bet me that if I could swim 50 metres then I would receive the Prada bag that I had been lusting after. I tried and tried but the most I could swim was 12 metres and the bag became something that was a “never discussed” item. And then my friend Teena bought the same bag and that pretty much killed the urge to get it (you can’t have two friends with the same bag right?). But here I manage to swim laps! Sadly the Prada bag offer is no longer…

Betel leaves with salmon, galangal and salmon roe

At 12:30pm we had lunch. As we had a big dinner that night we’ve been asking for salads for lunch. Now one of the best things about Bali is if you’re a seafood fiend like me, you can easily get seafood. Items like beef and lamb are expensive but seafood, chicken and duck are easy to get and half the price. So I did what any food miles aware person might and ordered the seafood (haha and because I am a seafood monster, who am I kidding?). We start with the betel leaves with moist cooked salmon, galangal which is like a citrusy ginger and little pearls of salmon roe. You roll up the sides of the betel leaf and pop it in your mouth. A betel leaf is a tiny bit spicy and with an earthiness to it and an almost medicinal quality but mild enough so that it doesn’t offend at all and just adds a hint of flavour.

Lime and chilli chicken dumplings with dipping sauce

The lime and chilli chicken dumplings were quite different to what we were expecting as we were expecting a traditional dumpling skin. These were chicken mince with lime and chilli specks rolled up and deep fried. Not bad at all but not quite what we were expecting.

Scallop salad with chilli paste and coconut

What we’re learning is that the Thai food served at Villa Sungai is excellent and as good as the best Thai meals you’ll find in Sydney or Thailand and you would think that there’s a top Thai chef working there in the kitchen. This generous serve of twelve juicy scallops is divine and it comes with a kaffir lime, coriander, lemongrass and spanish onion sauce that makes you want to lick the plate. I don’t. Just in case…

Spicy beef salad

Our last dish for lunch is the spicy beef salad which comes with thick, tender slices of beef on a salad of sweet and crunchy yellow and red capsicum, soft lettuce leaves and mint and coriander giving it a freshness to the pungent, welcome spiciness.

Rice paddies

Our day’s activity was a last minute request made with Made. He was kind enough to take us to a local market which is where most Balinese would buy the food. For hygiene reasons the food for the villa isn’t purchased here, but we were eager to have a look and see how a Balinese family shops and eats.

Religious offerings

Chillies and eschallots

We make our way to the nearby market which is about five minute’s drive from the villa. There are numerous food stalls on our way to the market that dot the main road, some even selling fresh meat. Made doesn’t recommend that we eat from here so we refrain although the food does look very tasty.

Made the villa manager and our guide

Scale

If you’ve ever walked down the streets of Bali you will, apart from dodging large crater sized holes in the street, you will also have stepped over small, colourful squares with flowers and small biscuits in them. These are offerings to the gods. One member of a family will buy an offering for the whole family and get it blessed by the gods at a temple and then bring it home as nothing is wasted. A simple four component offering typically costs 1000 rupiah (about 10 cents).

Snakefruit with their snakeskin like skin!

There are huge baskets full of snakefruit (salak) which is a tree that is close to the ground. The fruit comes as large clusters which are sold as whole clusters or broken down into single pieces. Items are bought by the kilo using old fashioned scales.

Making Tipat Cantok

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“I’m going to pinch that light!” I whisper to Queen Viv.

“What, the gigantic one that is bigger than you?” she asks.

“Well … ermm yes I may need your help!” I say looking around furtively.

Oops allow me to rewind a little, I was too busy chattering on for a moment. We’ve just entered the Pender Lea Post Office, a converted post office in Jindabyne. It is owned and renovated by husband and wife team Warren Hickey and Sonja Schatzle. And I’ve fallen in love with a light…

Warren (left) and Sonja (right)

The sink cupboard which Sonja rescued and restored

Queen Viv and I are staying here for the evening during our trip to the Snowy Mountains and we are also having our very own meal prepared by chef Warren. His wife Sonja’s experience in merchandising at Harrods and Marks and Spencer shows in the details and she is also an avid fan of the internet. “I love the internet” she says smiling. She points to a board that has come from ebay. The rafters are from ebay and they also love reclaiming and reusing items buying a 150 year old woolshed in nearby Braidwood and using that in the renovation.

I just love details like this!

Darlings, you know I am a devil about the details and I notice that there is a Diptyque candle, room temperature Evian, organic milk, Welsh blankets on the beds, old fashioned light switches, French soap and decorating touches include old lasts, vintage tart molds & pine cones. The properties are powered by their very own windfarm too.

His and her shower heads-win win!

Lovage and forgotten herbs

In the herb garden outside they grow lovage, tomatoes (ox heart, black Russians), salad burnet (celery) and in weeks to come they will install a wood fired oven.

Warren cooks

Spatchcocks ready for roasting

Warren formerly from Level 41 and Bathers Pavilion is also a former private chef. They also owned Merritt’s Mountain House and after tiring of working with food for 17 hours a day they decided to cater for friends that were formerly clients from the restaurant. Suddenly what was supposed to be a move into reducing their working hours became an even bigger job and they were booking out three weeks in advance. They were both flown over to Aspen and then to London to cook for wealthy clientele.

Sonja brings over the appetiser and they are rice paper rolls filled with local prawns from Merimbula with sesame, herbs and topped with mustard cress. They’re a perfect balance of flavours and sweetness and freshness.

Hervey bay scallops with basil, leek & chilli fritters

Our starter is a lighter than air leek fritter topped with basil puree and seared Hervey Bay scallops. The scallops are plump and the heady basil puree and fluffy fritters are a lovely match.

Most. Gorgeous. Light. Ever.

You know I have a thing about lighting fixtures and when I’m working on the main table in the fireplace room, Queen Viv suddenly says “Look up” and I see the most gorgeous lamp shade ever. I want to run away with it. It’s from London and the decorating for the house was not done by an interior decorator but by Sonja who clearly has an eye for it and a bit of an obsession with reclaiming items like the stone and timber which is all reclaimed.

Bread: Brasserie Bread caramelised garlic loaf and rye bread with butter and truffle butter

Sashimi yellowfin tuna, snapper crab and avocado tartare & pomegranate balsamic

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Asian Mothers Are The Best Mothers?

Ms G’s is also not your mum’s regular local Chinese restaurant.

There’s a cryptic glowing “six two one” scrawled pink neon sign on a wall. Some among us would know that with those three numbers the name Ms G’s is a pun on the notorious flavour enhancer MSG. Ms G’s is a pan Asian eatery where the menu proudly proclaims ”Asian mums are the best mums” and it’s no coincidence that I’ve brought my mother here this evening. The decor is semi rustic and there are four floors. There are booths in the lower floor and tables on the upper floor and the middle floor in which you enter on has some tables and a bar and on the bottom level is the kitchen.

As I mentioned, this is also not your mum’s regular local Chinese restaurant.

Actually it is Lotus chef’s Dan Hong’s new restaurant and there he is in the kitchen flipping pans and bringing up plates. The staff are  are numerous with svelte young girls and guys. During the night we spot Flying Fish chef Peter Kuruvita dining there with his brood and is that Elvis Abrahanowicz from Porteno that whizzes past down the stairs into the kitchen? Matchbox cars line the tops of booths, a dinosaur sits in front of the speakers and at each table there is a stainless steel cutlery and sauce holder (we’re just missing the tissue boxes!). Amongst the chopsticks and forks and spoons there are colourful thick bubble tea straws so we take the cue and order a bubble tea cocktail.

Pina ‘Pearls’ Colada $14

We asked the waitress whether there were bubble tea drinks and she tells us that the cocktails fall into two categories: packaged (that is in a plastic cup with the Ms G logo on the sealed plastic cover) and the unpackaged which we presume to be cocktails of the more regular variety. She tells is that the Pine Pearls Colada has pearl bubbles in it. It arrives with a cute Ms G cartoon figure on top and features Appleton VX & Havana Club Blanco rum, pineapple, coconut, yogurt sorbet, green pearls and a lot of crushed ice. It’s pleasant with overtones of coconut, rum and pineapple although we were hoping for the fat tapioca pearl balls that you suck up the straw with a suction sound that echoes through your ears. These were the small sago balls and didn’t really require the large bubble tea straws.

Mini bánh mì- crisp pork belly or chicken katsu $6 each ($24 total)

We ordered a couple of each of the bánh mì. They’re small dinner roll sized rolls filled with a crispy chicken katsu or a pork belly with the requisite pate, cucumber slices, carrot shreds, herbs and onion. I particularly like the crisp and crunchy chicken katsu one although there were the inevitable price and size comparisons between these bánh mì and the ones at a takeaway shop which happens if you bring you Asian mother and family to dinner. You can get a much bigger bánh mì for the same price but they won’t of course have chicken katsu or crisp pork belly inside.

Vietnamese steak tartare, prawn crackers $18

Mr NQN loves steak tartare and this Vietnamese version comes with prawn crackers instead of the thin crunchy crouton pieces. We break the yolk around it which gives the steak a creaminess and the strong seasoning here is of fried eschallots.

Prawn toast, yuzu aioli, herbs $14

The prawn toast was my mother’s favourite with an earth shattering crunchiness from the buttery toasted sourdough. It is generously topped with mint, spring onions and coriander and a distinct yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit that is a cross between a mandarin and lemon) mayonnaise. And although this is usually served in four pieces we appreciated the fact that the kitchen took note that there were five of us and cut this into five pieces.

Fried baby chicken, kimchi mayonnaise whole $30

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