“I want to order the betel leaves, the quail’s eggs and let’s see the wagyu, the fish and the pork belly and let’s also get the whole snapper too” I declare to Mr NQN.

“Is that all? I think you left off one dish” Mr NQN says raising an eyebrow.

“Well we’ll order that too” I say, purposely ignoring his sarcasm. “Have we only just met honey? You know I always want to order everything!”

When one turns up inadvertently early to a restaurant one has little choice but to take a good look at the menu and tick off the menu choices that they want in the hopes that their dining companions want to do the same. We were in luck, Louise and Viggo having dined here before have already honed in on the same things and because of this ordering is done without fuss and within minutes. Tapioca is the newest Thai restaurant in the Cremorne stretch of Military Road. With chefs from Sailors Thai it has become a fast, solid favourite with locals.

Deep fried quail egg and minced prawns wrapped in egg noodle served with tamarind sauce (3 pcs) $14

The deep fried quail’s eggs come out halved so you get six pieces in total although the menu says that there are three pieces. They’re coated in a prawn mince and then rolled in crunchy egg noodles and served with a sweet tamarind sauce which gives it a sweet and sour aspect. They’re addictive with the crunchiness and sweetness and the prawn mince is juicy and packed full of herbs and flavour.

Smoked trout, roasted coconut, peanuts, chilli, lime, ginger and caramel sauce served on betel leaves (4 pcs) (v) $18

The betel leaves are a favourite of practically every one that has visited here. And we can see why. They come out topped with roasted coconut, peanuts and large flakes of smoked trout. On top is a sweet chilli, lime and ginger sauce which runs down hands when you pick up the betel leaves but it’s so lovely and crunchy and zings with flavour that you simply lick your hand clean.

Crispy wafer stuffed with prawn, turmeric, coconut and kaffir lime leaves (4 pcs) $16

The crispy wafers are filled with prawns, turmeric, coconut and kaffir lime leaves and have a fresh quality to them along with a crispy thin wafer and are terrifically moreish if somewhat messy to eat.

Crispy pork belly in a sweet and sour spicy sauce $25

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Hardy Suangin of Harrison’s

It was an offer sent to me via email a few months ago. As soon as I opened it I was instantly intrigued. It involved twenty four meals, six hours and the chance to imitate the daffy judges on Iron Chef Japan. Yes please! Answering the invitation to judge the Taste Paradise Food Fight at the Port Douglas Carnivale, was impossible to resist. I had always wondered what it was like to judge a food event and I was about to see it first hand. Would my fellow judges and I agree? Would there be disagreement arguments about whose cuisine reigned supreme? Would there be vast ratings swings with many of us unable to decide a winner? What about collusion or bias? Well I had to see for myself!

Ricky Jordan of Bucci

The Port Douglas Carnivale is a celebration of the local food industry and the “Taste Paradise Food Fight” is one of the more fun events. It’s part of the local scene and we’ve all made it into today’s paper too and prior to the event I also did some radio interviews.

Evan Seaward of Bistro 3

The brief was simple. I along with my fellow judges wine and food critic Winsor Dobbin and chef Nick Holloway were to sample and judge two dishes made by some of Port Douglas’s leading chefs. There would be three rounds, the first two with four chefs each and the third round the deciding round with the two winners from the first two rounds facing off. Each chef would be challenged to cook in an unfamiliar environment with a surprising list of ingredients and an entree and main must be prepared within the 40 minutes allocated. In a twist, the chefs were given mystery boxes and each box had five ingredients in them. They needed to use at least two ingredients from the mystery box and the more they used the more points they would receive. They would receive ten points for each of these categories.

1. Difficulty of preparation and skill proficiency of each contestant(10 points)
2. The creative use of the ‘mystery’ ingredient and if what was originally planned has been prepared (10 points)
3. The innovativeness of the dish and how it relates to current cuisine trends (10 points)
4. How good the dishes taste and look (20 points)

Along with this we were also given a judging guideline which described what a score of 0-10 would involve and under which circumstances we should award the scores. Still since many of us were new to the whole judging process we were nervous although there was agreement that we wouldn’t discuss scores in case that created bias. We’re given our score card for each round with the chef’s names as we talk as the crowds gather. Each of us has a different background so we were curious to see whether our palates would rate things similarly or not. Only time would tell!

Vikas Chandra of the Sheraton Mirage

Round 1: The Gentlemen

Mystery box ingredients: cream, hard persimmons, cardamom pods, chillies and soft coconut meat.

Jed Sneddon of Nautilus

Enter the four chefs who nervously pace around their station. The crowd is mild mannered, it’s 5:30pm on a Friday and they’re politely awaiting some food fighting action. There are four cooking stations, each with two gas burners and a barbecue and there is a shared deep fat fryer, oven and hand wash facilities. Chefs are allowed to bring in cooking utensils, pots, pans, knives and appliances and any crockery to plate up on but are not allowed to bring any ingredients.

Behind the four cooking stations there is a huge fruit and vegetable display from Blood Orange, a local deli and a fridge full of meat, dairy and other assorted necessities, a pantry and a fish and seafood display by Coles which includes banana prawns, live mud crab (but very sleepy!) and several types of fish like red emperor, trevally and Spanish mackerel. The chefs are allowed to beg or borrow items from each other and they can keep going back to shop for more items after the initial shop. However there may not be enough of an item and it is on a first in first served policy although points are deducted for wastefulness!

The four chefs look nervous. We are sitting on the left hand side to them and after introducing them and us  to the audience the two hosts, radio MCs Sal and Roy let them go for a shop. They’re surprisingly restrained and not in a hurry at all given the time constraints. They bring around their goodies to the station and we walk around and take a look and see how they are doing, what their knife skills are like, how messy and how ordered they are.

We note that one chef Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton has even written up plating instructions. Last year’s champion Tommy Young is on hand to defend the title in this round. Sal and Roy encourage the chefs as the crowd and we the judges look on. Any gaps in silence are punctuated by some bizarre Jamie Oliver sound bytes.

Dom Uhlig from Salsa

The 40 minutes goes surprisingly quickly for us and we’re just the judges – imagine how quickly this would go for the chefs! Before we know it, chef Dom Uhlig from Salsa is standing in front of us telling us about his two dishes.

Noodle salad

The three of us crowd around the dishes and we take some and put them on our plates to try them. The noodle salad was good although there was a bit of a presentation glitch when the lemon segment still had the sticker on it which prompted judge chef Nick to explain that if details like that are forgotten in his kitchen then one may wonder what else may have been forgotten. I found this a bit on the sweet side. With Thai and Asian style salads, there is that balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty and this was a bit too sweet for me.

Lamb chops

The lamb chops are very well cooked and seasoned and come with a delicious mash, flaked almonds and greens. But no time to dawdle, we are tapping our pens onto the clipboard and writing down our scores before the second chef comes up to give us his dishes.

Jed Sneddon from Nautilus

Fritter

Chef Jed Sneddon of Nautilus is up next and he presents us with his two dishes. The first is a fritter and the texture is very soft and not crispy which is a surprise for us. It is paired with creamy exotic mushrooms.

Fish with salad

The fish is nicely cooked although Winsor finds the centre too raw for his liking but I do like the seasoning and the searing on the outside. It is paired with a salad which is a little tart for my liking and a creamy sauce as well as a couple of prawns.

Vikas Chandra from Sheraton Mirage

Grilled prawns served with salad of pomerieno, raw papaya and pomegranate with cream and green cardamom sauce

The third chef is Chef Vikas Chandra from the Sheraton Mirage and he presents us with a prawn dish. As soon as we all taste it we are in agreement, the seasoning for this is just right and the balance of flavour is great. The herbs used in it were very well balanced and the prawns had a good texture. There’s much scribbling and I’m curious to know how the other judges rated it but resist from peeking!

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“I think life is essentially chaotic and meaningless” Queen Viv said to me one day.

“I disagree, I think everything happens for a reason. Like today!” I exclaimed gaily.

“OK Pollyanna” Queen Viv said with mirth.

You see it’s true. Only that morning Mr NQN had thieved my keys to our precious Purdie the Prius car on loan from Toyota (inadvertently, he had them in his jacket pocket) and I was left hailing a taxi to a facial appointment (hot wiring a Prius is way beyond my skill level). Mr NQN couldn’t grumble about the $80 taxi bill this time. While occupied taxi after taxi whizzed past I got a text message from Queen Viv asking me if I would like to have lunch with her as she was going stir crazy at home.

I rang her at home and explained my dilemma. Would she be able to pick me up after the facial and then we could have lunch and I could get dropped home? Turns out she was more than happy to do that given the relatively short distances between the activities and that’s how we found ourselves standing outside of Clipper Cafe in Glebe. We were tossing up between visiting the buttery goodness of La Banette or the eclectic charm of Clipper Cafe but as Queen Viv pointed out there was only one table available and it happened to be at Clipper Cafe. It’s that fate I tell ya Plus I was testing out my fellow blogger Sally at Toffee Tomatoes’ new Sydney Cafe Culture iPad application which for $3.99 gives you an outline of 200 of Sydney’s cafes along with a brief outline and some images and can also search for results depending on your current location). When she picked me up I searched for any cute cafes nearby and this came up!

Despite the name and photos of Clipper ships, the theme inside is bicycles. Bikes on walls, bikes shaped out of wire, bikes in many, many forms. It’s after 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon and the place is brimming with university students from nearby Sydney University. Laptops are out taking advantage of the free wifi and it is bustling.

Now Clipper Cafe seems to divide people and it seems much of the divide is with the service. For us today the service is fine, friendly enough and we never have to wait very long but perhaps that depends on when you go. The menu runs all day which means you know what I love. All. Day. Breakfast. Oh joy!

Which  means that when Queen Viv suggests the Eggy Crumpets with bacon we both coo that it sounds like a good idea. The baked eggs were also a contender for tummy space but some reports had them as overcooked. For good measure we also try another breakfast item and a salad as it is all about balance.

Chai Latte $4

The chai blend we are told is actually made by the owner’s mum who is Indian and we are pleased to find that it is steeped in the milk rather than in water giving it a rich texture and a full flavour. The chai blend is intoxicatingly fragrant.

Iced Chai $5

I felt like something chai flavoured but wanted to order something else so the Iced chai was my choice. The chai flavour is lighter and sweeter than the chai latte and yet we both enjoyed both of these.

Arabian bircher muesli $8

The bircher muesli is said to be Arabian style so it features the pistachios and a dollop of yogurt and honey on top. It’s filling and not too sweet despite the honey and the pistachios give it a nice crunch.

Eggy crumpets with bacon $12

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