Me wanty piggy!

“‘I’m SO going to steal that pig!” I whisper to Mr NQN. The pig I’m eyeing off is about piglet size and I’m dying to tuck it under my arm and race off. Sure it’s a gold coloured pig and it’s sitting on the table of a restaurant that has invited me to dinner so I’m not exactly going to carry through with my threat. I’ve never really felt the urge to steal before, until I saw this pig that is. “Just take it, I won’t say anything” whispers the Australian waiter to me with an exaggerated wink. Haha, we’re such convicts!

We’re The Salt Tasting Room on intriguingly named Blood Alley in the historical area of Gastown in Vancouver on our last leg of our Canadian trip. I’m fascinated by the name Blood Alley (yes I’m a ghoul) and they mention on the menu that they are not quite sure why it is called Blood Alley although theories suggest that it may be because of a butcher in the alley or the fact that it was a rough and tumble area in the past or the most ghoulish reason – public executions were held here!

Back to the present, less murderous time, they specialise in smoked meats and cheese tasting plates along with wine flight matchings. Diners choose three items from the ten meat or ten cheese selection on the chalkboard, then three condiments from the list of ten. Based on these selections, the staff can select wines to match or you can choose your own. The providence for cheese are marked in parentheses, whilst with meat it’s marked by supplier and with condiments it’s by country.

Beef tongue salad

Our waitress is very helpful and knowledgeable and suggests a couple of items and we leave the rest to her and the chef to choose. We start with the beef tongue salad. I know you may be thinking that tongue can be really thick (well like our tongues) but this is an exercise in lightness. There is a mixed mesclun salad, paper thin and every soft slices of beef tongue and radish and manchego cheese. it sits on a bed of gribiche sauce which is like a tartare sauce made with boiled eggs.

Tasting plate $15

Read More

I am sitting in the Green Room of Quay and a comely dessert winks at me from a plate. A voice to my right says

“Peter Gilmore is my pimp”

The voice belongs to Quay owner John Fink. Apparently this dessert possesses magical powers and he has used it many times to charm a date. But I shan’t get ahead of myself. Allow me to rewind a little.

Earlier that evening, we are seated in front of the upstairs kitchen in the Green Room of Quay restaurant, ranked #27 in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. I am a guest of Electrolux and one of a lucky bunch of people who are privy enough to attend a masterclass with Peter Gilmore. Gilmore is the new ambassador for Electrolux along with long standing ambassador Tetsuya Wakuda. The upstairs kitchen in the Green Room has been fitted out as a domestic kitchen with an Electrolux induction cooktop and steam oven.

Chef Peter Gilmore

This evening we are being shown how to make a dish that will appear on an upcoming menu as well as a dish that he considers one of his signature dishes. He starts by popping a large crab claw in the steam oven which he places in a vacuum sealed bag to keep the juices in and to reduce mess.

Gilmore inhales the aroma of the summer truffle

He then produces a summer truffle-these are usually thought of as lesser truffles with the winter truffles being the prize at $2,000 a kilo. The summer truffles this year though are wonderfully fragrant and much better priced at $800-$900 a kilo. He shaves it into some milk heating in a saucepan and to this he adds to some eggs to make a custard. He then takes a small round dish and pours a little in it and wraps this in some cling wrap and places this in the steam oven to steam it to a wobbly, delicate texture.

White squash grown specially for them in the Blue Mountains

Next up is some white squash. He uses a Japanese mandolin to slice the squash paper thinly and he will then briefly blanch it and brush it with oil. He tells us of how he has a farmer in the Blue Mountains that grows special produce for him. The farmer started off growing things exclusively for Quay but they became so popular they have now expanded to supply to other restaurants. Gilmore uses a fashion analogy and explains that there are some things that for the first season the farmer will grow an item exclusively for Quay but for seasons thereafter they can sell the same item to the other restaurants.

Cracking the crab claw

Prising out all of the meat

It’s time to deal with the large crab claw. To make an amuse bouche for the crowd of seventeen of us, he wraps it in a teatowel and hits it with the knife to crack the shell. He extracts about 100grams of meat from the crab and separates it into small pieces. He separates some eggs and whisks the whites and adds these and the yolks mixed with crab to them and folds the whole mixture so that it retains the fluffiness of the whites while still combining the components.

Adding the crab and egg mixture to the 100C oil

He then takes these to the induction cooktop which is set to setting 2 which takes the saucepans of oil to 100C and gently poaches them in the oil. The oil isn’t crackling or sizzling and he gently turns them over to cook on the other side where they end up a pale yellow shade.

The dish!

Read More

I find that through fate or folly that I am often the person that people ask where to eat. It’s either readers who are looking for a place to eat in Sydney or interstate or friends or family. I don’t mind of course, it is of course yet another chance to talk about food. But when my sister Blythe visisted Sydney from London she and my family asked me to find somewhere. The brief was simple enough yet it was complicated.

It had to have a gorgeous Sydney view to reorient my sister who was used to London views

It had to be impressive enough for my mother

It had to have reasonably priced meals to make Mr NQN happy

It had to have a shop attached to it as I needed to do some gift shopping

It had to have something to amuse my impossible to please father. Hmm ok that’s a hard one. Let’s just cut our losses and go with the first four points.

Burnt Orange is housed in a Federation style mansion, formerly the Mosman golf club in the 1930s. It is a cafe with a lovely view slash boutique slash gallery. We park at the carpark next door ($3-4 an hour!) and take the short walk down the path to the large timber and stone house. There is a wrap around verandah for diners and inside is the retail store. The Burnt Orange concept was from an Irish company called Avoca (they serve Avoca bread).

Jug of homemade lemonade $8

While we’re browsing the menu we order a large jug of still homemade lemonade which comes out in a pitcher with a wooden spoon, cut strawberries and mint leaves. It’s slightly bitter as of course it is lemonade, too lemony for my mother and Blythe who are not really into home made lemonades but I find it quite pleasant.

Elderflower pressé $6

The Elderflower presse is gorgeously refreshing and floral with the aroma of Elderflower from the first sip and delicate bubbles.

Australian Antipasti platter: Princi prosciutto, Affineur truffle salami and bresaola with mixed olives, dips and house chutney $26

Service is sweet and friendly and from reading reviews it has improved vastly. A very generous serve which could feed at least three for an entree, the antipasti platters comes out with some heavenly bresaola (smoked beef), prosciutto and Affineur truffle salami which is heady in fennel seed. It also comes with the Avoca walnut bread and a sourdough rye both thinly sliced, the Avoca walnut bread the clear favourite with it’s rich nuttiness and almost cake-like texture. There were also two dips in a shared container: hommous and baba gannoush as well as a tomato relish and a pear chutney which were all made on the premises. To finish it off are black and green olives and cornichons.

Tasmanian salmon cake served on a crisp salad of baby cress & granny smith apple with a lemon mayonnaise $21

The mains come out together and we start with the Tasmanian salmon cake which is a nice surprise. We had expected a fried cake (for my mother) but instead we get fresh, well cooked poached salmon, potato, herbs and baby capers with salad. The salmon is fresh and singing with dill and it’s a very generous sized portion and excellent value.

Burnt Orange fish pie with a selection of fresh fish fillets in a creamy leek & white wine sauce topped with fluffy potato mash and a side of green leaves $24

One of the most popular items on the menu is the fish pie which is filled with large, tender chunks of white fish and salmon (not at all watery as some fish pies can be) and a creamy sauce flavoured with fennel and celery which gives some mouthfuls an ever so slightly bitter taste to an otherwise creamy sauce. it’s topped with mashed potato and then baked until it has slightly crispy edges on top and is paired with a large green salad. I did like this dish although I did find some mouthfuls had that ever so slight bitterness to them.

Moroccan-spiced lamb with fig & almond cous cous $25

The moroccan spiced lamb is cooked until soft and falls apart. It was a hit with everyone, especially when we paired it with the tomato relish which we still had from the antipasti plate. The lamb was well flavoured and matched with a fruity sweet couscous which had Turksih apricots and currants in it.

Chicken pie with preserved lemon & rosemary, spring vegetables and flaky puff pastry $24

This one was quite a favourite with everyone-Mr NQN was appreciating the serving sizes here and even he couldn’t finish everything on the plates. The chicken pie is filled with a tomato based sauce, chicken thigh pieces, chickpeas, carrots, peas, preserved lemon and rosemary and topped with a layer of home made buttery puff pastry. The sauce was rich and given a lift from the preserved lemon and the buttery puff was good indeed.

Pumpkin, goat’s cheese & walnut tart with Melissa’s carrot jam and fresh herb greens $18

With the sizeable portions of the other dishes, the pumpkin, goat’s cheese and walnut tart was noticeably smaller by comparison. It was an interesting tart though with a crumbly base almost like a sweet tart base which my mother adored. It was filled with pumpkin and rich goat’s cheese and a spoonful of the carrot jam which was slightly sweet grated carrots and mustard seeds. The walnuts were hidden under the salad which we didn’t quite discover until the tart was finished and we wondered where the walnuts were and it might have been better to put the walnuts on the tart as they would have provided a nice, toasty crunch.

Bilpin apple crumble served with vanilla bean ice cream $10

We had saved room for dessert of course! Blythe has had her eye on the salty peanut slice and reasons that a slice is “like half a dessert so we could have two slices and that could count as one person’s dessert”! We start with the Bilpin apple crumble which is strong in clove rather than cinnamon and is served with little plums or dates and apple pieces and a butter crumble top.

Basil pannacotta with vanilla roasted peaches and almond crisp $12

Mr NQN and I first tried basil panna cotta a while back and I always liked the flavour of a creamy panna cotta with basil. This one has an appealing wobble and a true basil flavour to it. The vanilla roasted peach is an ideal sweetness and the almond biscotti is divine.

Salty Peanut Caramel Slice $4

The salty peanut caramel slice is just that. A thick, slightly chewy slice with roasted, caramelised peanuts with a light saltiness to it. I find myself wondering how to make this as I would like to reproduce it at home.

Mars Bar Slice $4

I’m less besotted by the Mars Bar slice which has a thick layer of super sweet milk chocolate on top and very uncrunchy almost soggy rice bubbles on the bottom. We enquire with the waiter if this is indeed how it should taste and he brings a fresh one from the fridge which is markedly better although not as nice as the salty peanut caramel slice.

Our two hours almost up with the parking Mr NQN and my father go off to take care of the car while I do a bit of shopping including some gorgeous vintage Christmas cards and some invitation sets.

Downstairs there is the newly minted kiosk which sells Muffins, toasites, Daylesford and Hepburn flavoured sparkling mineral waters and Serendipity ice creams as well as picnic fare such as sandwich or salad picnic boxes ($40 for 2) or platters for $20.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you often the ones that is asked to choose where to dine?

Burnt Orange

1108/1109 Middle Head Road, Mosman NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9969 1020
Burnt Orange at The Club House is located at the end of Middle Head Road opposite HMAS Penguin,
with a sign-posted car park before the building.