Good Morning Dear Readers!  How are you faring this lovely Saturday morning? If you’ve got some lazy, leisurely weekends planned ahead then I might have the book for you Mezza Italiana by Australian writer Zoe Boccabella is a biography of an Aussie-Italian girl who grew up in Brisbane and went on a voyage to her ancestral village in Italy. She talks about growing up in Australia and how she tried to fit into society even dying her dark hair blonde and her sense of feeling “half and Half” and there are recipes interspersed throughout the book which I loved because it sounded very similar to my experiences (and perhaps yours too!) and my upcoming book.

Here is a description of Mezza Italiana: “Growing up in Brisbane in the 1970s and 80s, Zoë Boccabella knew if you wanted to fit in, you did not bottle tomatoes, have plastic on the hallway carpet or a glory box of Italian linens. Though she tried to be like ′everyone else′, refusing to learn Italian… Zoë couldn′t shake the unsettling sense of feeling ′half-and-half′ – half Australian, mezza italiana – unable to fit fully into either culture, or merge the two.

Years later, she travels to her family′s ancestral village of Fossa in Abruzzo and discovers a place that is the stuff of fairytales – medieval castles, mystics, dark forests, serpent charmers and witches. As Zoë stays in the house that has belonged to her family for centuries, the village casts its spell. She begins to realise the preciousness of her heritage and the stories, recipes and traditions of her extended Italian family become a treasured part of her life. Then the earthquake hits…”

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“This is very surreal” Selma who is sitting next to me says “I mean Marco Pierre White is making us pumpkin soup” she whispers.

We’re in a house in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and the sparkling waterfront is the backdrop. I walk in and Marco Pierre White is chatting to the others on the couch and is sporting a tea towel wrapped around his head hiding his trademark dark curls. Marco Pierre White really needs no introduction to the foodstruck fooderati among us. He is of course the man that trained Gordon Ramsay (and reportedly made him cry), Heston Blumenthal and Mario Batali in his kitchen. He was the first, youngest chef to have been awarded three Michelin stars at age 33. Now 49 years old, he grew up with an Italian mother and English father in the town of Leeds.

Photo from marcopierrewhite.org

Cooking during the Golden Age of Cooking he was devilishly handsome, smoked like a chimney and has been married three times, once to a model who he separated within weeks or the marriage. He has also been called tyrannical, brilliant and egotistical and famously stopped an interview with journalist Jenny Eden from the Radio Times taking offence at her question “Do you have high standards” saying “You’re the worst journalist I’ve ever met. Go. The interview is over. You are insulting me. I wish you luck with your career with the Radio Times but sometimes northerners should stay in the north.”

So you can see why I was very nervous when the car was running late and I was going to interview him after a cooking demonstration. Would he object to any of my questions? Would he object to me taking photos (I didn’t dare bring a flash just in case). I’ve only interviewed someone once that I thought was so awful to interview that I never published a word that they said. I didn’t want another to add to my list.

We move into the kitchen where there are seats set up for the five of us and we settle in. “How are you?” he says to me as we are sitting down and we quickly chat about when he arrived in Sydney and how he only just got his first night of sleep the other night. He speaks softly and looks us all in the eye and holds our gaze as he speaks. I sneak out my camera and take a cautious shot ready for something to happen. Nothing…he carries on. Relief!

Photo from marcopierrewhite.org

He is the most famous and a long time proponent of Knorr stock powder (Continental here in Australia, NZ and the US)and he is in Sydney for the launch of Continental’s Stock Pot product which is a jellied concentrated stock. Marco explains that he will be demonstrating two recipes for us. He starts to make the first dish, a pumpkin soup, a recipe that he only became familiar with 2 days ago. In England pumpkin is “cattle food” and certainly nothing that you would aspire to have at your table. And in the process of formulating this recipe he discovered that the Japanese pumpkin gives off a lovely amount of pumpkin water which actually tastes like melon water which he will use instead of water in the soup.

The soup is simple and with three ingredients: pumpkin, carrot juice (which he uses to top up the pumpkin water) and the Continental stock pot pod. He proceeds to cook down the pumpkin with a little oil and then add the vivid orange pumpkin and carrot juice. During the demonstration he tells us that the best corn soup is made with tinned corn. Are there many similar short cuts in a commercial kitchen? The answer is an emphatic yes from him. He tells us of how he makes a ketchup vinaigrette at home and how he used to serve diners a kidney dish cooked in a sauce made predominantly from HP sauce yet it didn’t taste like HP sauce.

Within twenty minutes (and he knows everything down to the minute) the soup is done and he asks us if we would like some cream or parmesan cheese with it. “Both!” everyone answers and before long he is ladling us up some soup with some parmesan and freshly ground black pepper. The soup is creamy and rich but not too thick and quite remarkably he tells us that he doesn’t need to season it. His reasoning for preferring to use Knorr and Continental seasonings is that they are more forgiving when it comes to overseasoning.

“Would you like another cup?” he asks and I can’t help it and have a second and a third. I mean really, how often is it that Marco Pierre White makes soup for you?

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I once considered moving to Miami. The reasons will no doubt make you look at me quite strangely. You see one of my favourite television shows Dexter is set there and I told Mr NQN that we needed to move there so that I could work at the Miami Dade Police station and help Dexter and Deb with catching criminals. “But they aren’t real mon cheri” he told me patiently. “Yes but have you seen the Cuban sandwiches that they have for lunch? They are real!” I exclaimed excitedly.

So when I was asked where I would like to go for my birthday with my two friends Gina and Teena it was this Cuban influenced restaurant. Cuban food? Yes that’s enough reason to want to visit as we don’t seem to have much of it on offer here in Sydney. It’s a Friday night and we make our way there. Just opposite the Queen Victoria Building the building is enormous and makes us ponder what used to be there (apparently an unmemorable computer store). Three months of construction on the heritage listed building later and it’s now a thriving, buzzing place. “How did everyone find out about it?” Gina asks looking around at the packed in crowds.

The left entrance is the restaurant and the right restaurant gets you into the upstairs and downstairs bar area where there is a live Cuban band leader Armandito and his band Trovason playing seven nights a week. Perhaps it’s the night, it’s an after work crowd after all and the atmosphere reminds us of the Bavarian Bier Cafe. The cocktail menu has some interesting specimens such as Cuban President, the Hemmingway Special, Canchánchara and Mary Pickford.

La Bodeguita Del Medio or LBDM is a chain of Cuban restaurants that have branches throughout the world inclduing Mexico, US, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Venezuela, Germany, England and Argentina among others. One of the main drawcards is that the legendary writer Ernest Hemmingway used to drink mojitos in the original Havana location along with Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda. In fact Hemmingway so famously dedicated a scrawl on the wall saying “My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita” and an imprint of the writer and his scrawl features on a wall here. Other scrawlings from customers litter the walls along with photographs.

We are all quite curious about Cuban food so we ask what is good and Cuban on the menu. They hesitate and explain that the menu is more South American with Cuban influences and recommend their steaks and a few items. We try these although I was hoping for more Cuban items and we imagine being an island and having no imports must have an impact on the cuisine.

Classic mojito $10

It seems silly to go to a place where a famous writer has written about one of their drinks and not try it so we try their mojito. It comes out with requisite greenery intact and we all agree that at $10 it is a very decent price for a cocktail. We ask for Gina’s verdict as she is a Canadian and Cuba is to a Candian what Bali is to an Australian as a holiday destination. It has the lime and mint although Teena finds that it needs more rum while Gina finds that it needs more sugar syrup.

There is also debate about the type of sugar used (we later learn that it is caster which is what they use in their Cuban branch) and Gina prefers it with sugar cane juice and whether the lime is muddled enough. The mojito should have a good balance of sweetness and refreshment but I do find the sweetness and the lime lacking so that they’re not quite balanced.

The sourdough bread is served warm and the pick out of the whole wheat and the olive is the olive.

Croquetas de malanga Taro croquettes served with aji de gallina sauce $15

I don’t think you’ll find a croquette hater amongst the three of us and the taro croquettes served with a spicy mayonnaise type dressing are a hit. They’re hot and crunchy with a soft, moreish filling and they come paired with a refreshing pickled cucumber noodle salad for respite should the aji chilli sauce, which is like a spicy mayonnaise, become too spicy.

Ropa vieja Tomato & yoghurt braised lamb neck, Cuban rice with black bean vinaigrette $24

I was determined to have something Cuban and this dish fit the bill. It is also a very generous size and more a main size than an entree size. The lamb neck is gorgeously soft and is paired with tangy black bean vinaigrette flavoured with garlic, onion and thyme and paired with a saffron Cuban rice. Although slightly underseasoned this is my favourite entree and keeps me going back for more.

Empanadas de conejo con pebre Slow braised rabbit with tomato salsa $17

The empanadas are filled with slow braised rabbit and a tomato salsa which is different from Mexican salsa. The salsa is clear with herbs and diced tomato. The empanadas are encased in a thin pastry and we note that the white rabbit meat isn’t very discernible as rabbit and it is a touch watery.

There’s a little break between the entrees and mains. I take a look at the bathroom which gets me all kinds of confused as I see a hand drawn sign that says “Mens” but it actually says that it’s the ladies too in a hand drawn scrawl. The two doors to enter the bathroom aren’t quite wide enough and I find myself trapped between the two momentarily before I enter the unisex bathrooms (these kinds of things always happen to me). On the way back to the table I spot a room which is full of lockers. These are rum lockers which will hold bottles of rum for members so that they can drink from them whenever they visit.

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