My bucket list is a pretty ambitious thing I must confess. Oh there are the usual things, visit certain countries and eat or do certain things. However on the list is to be a guest at one of Heston Blumenthal’s Fantastical Feast dinner parties as well as eat at The Fat Duck and Dinner. The latter two are much more achievable but I’d love to actually meet him and find out what makes him do the creative things that he does. Because if anyone melds imagination, science and food perfectly it is Heston Blumenthal.

The last book I received of his was Fantastical Feasts which was a fairy tale type of book with how he made the items that he did for the show. His graveyard inspired me to make my Halloween party graveyard. This year however sees the release of quite a different offering from Heston, a tome on how to cook at home titled “Heston Blumenthal at Home” with a picture of Heston taking out some goodies from the fridge on the front.

In the book there are classic dishes like onion soup, roast chicken, prawn cocktail, Scotch eggs, shepherd’s pies and lemon tart but there are also dishes that come from Fat Duck, albeit the simplified at home version, including scallop tartare with white chocolate, his famous bacon and egg ice cream as well as a salad that resembles a garden and an intriguing cinnamon and vanilla ice cream that can switch from one flavour to the other. His tips are invaluable along the way-after all this is a scientist that experiments and shares with you the results of his experiments.

He starts with the basics of taste and explains that salt is actually the best item to counter bitterness, not sugar, then discusses the fifth taste of umami and then launches into the recipes with each chapter starting with an in depth explanation on the item. There are basic stock recipes like white chicken and brown chicken stock (not the actual colour of the chicken but rather the brown uses browned vegetables and meat). There are also very doable salads, sauces, mains and side dishes (and most recipes are about a page long) from the Italian Bagna Cauda vegetable dip, chicken and ham pies, tea smoked salmon, the cleverly presented scotch egg picture above, slow roasted rib of beef with bone marrow sauce and a very simple but effective liquorice poached salmon. Desserts range from a tiramisu, banana Eton mess and a delectable golden syrup creme brulee. Not every recipe has a picture but the ones that do you may find yourself automatically bookmarking.

Read More

I was so excited I could hardly dial the phone. I’m usually an email person, if the phone rings I stare at it for a good few seconds before realising that it is an object that I need to pick up and speak to (how I became such a natural at it during my teenage years is a mystery). But this question wasn’t one that I was prepared to wait for an answer for. I wanted to hear the answer yes immediately so I picked up the phone.

You see Dear Reader, I had found a restaurant that I was dying to try. It was in the new Cheap Eats book which I received a few weeks ago from the publisher. I was leafing through it in bed and one restaurant stood out to me: Al Dhiaffah Al Iraqi. Said to be the sole Iraqi restaurant in Sydney I knew my adventure loving friends Queen Viv and Miss America would also be intrigued to go on a trip out to Fairfield to give this little known cuisine a try. They answered a quick yes and I tempted Mr NQN with the knowledge that this would be a hearty meal for less than $20 a person and so a couple of days later we found ourselves driving towards Fairfield having picked up Miss America and Queen Viv on the way.

“Are we there yet? Surely we are!” Miss America said. He was hungry and admittedly so was I. It was 2:15pm on a Sunday afternoon and I had deliberately eaten a light breakfast. It was a hot day and we were hungry and thirsty.

“Ooh is that where we are going?” Queen Viv asked peering at the palm trees and the signage for Al Dhiaffah Al Iraqi. Inside about half of the tables are full and the staff are friendly and welcoming. We take a table for four and are given menus. It’s a short and sweet menu with twelve items including a yogurt drink and a tea and we take recommendations from our friendly waiter who tells us the most popular dishes.

And it’s true platter after colourful platter of two dishes in particular whizz past us while gigantic rounds of risen puffed bread and laid out on tables, one per person which is more than enough. A young girl dining with her family spoons rice into her mouth studiously trying not to spill a grain. We order three yogurt drinks before spotting the drinks fridge-a treasure trove of Iraqi soft drinks and pops. I go up and pick a couple of drinks including one called Pampa which the waiter who opens the bottle for me says is his favourite. The other drink I bought purely for the packaging, a Fez wearing gentleman for Abu Abed energy drink.

Pampa and Abu Abed $2

The Pampa is sweet and fizzy and refreshing with a quality somewhere between Coke and sarsaparilla with a slight fruitiness to it. The energy drink reminds me instantly of those sugary sweet medicines from childhood-nothing really natural and Mr NQN points out that it tastes in the same genre as Red Bull, a drink I only drank once several years ago and couldn’t sleep for 3 days so I’ve never touched a sip since.

Yogurt drink $2

The yogurt drink is similar to the Turkish ayran although less foamy. It has more of a home made yogurt taste or a goat’s yogurt taste and is salty and slightly thicker than ayran.

Read More

“Dressing up is encouraged” I read. I bite my lip. I was destined to attend an Alice in Wonderland themed event and I looked at my Alice costume hanging up, bought on ebay a few weeks before. It barely skimmed my buttocks as most of the costumes available here seem to be of the cleavage baring and derriere showing variety. I had decided not to wear it for this Halloween as I thought that I really didn’t need to moon my guests. But inspiration struck, well actually a pair of white stockings struck-items I had no recollection of ever buying (does that ever happen to you?) and suddenly I had a very plausible, non butt baring Alice in Wonderland outfit.

I’m all for dress ups but with strangers, sometimes there’s the very real chance of you being the only one dressed up. And I told this to Studio Neon’s owner Matt Lee who has hosted these pop up dinners during October’s Crave food festival. He tells us of a time that he turned up at a dress up party wearing a nappy and he was the only one-surely a cue for one to turn around and high tail their nappy wrapped bottom out of there. Looking around me I see various Mad Hatters, Alices, Tweedledees and Tweedledums and rabbits. It’s not so bad.

Beetroot and wasabi macarons

Tonight’s dinner is one of Studio Neon’s themed dinner for Crave (the previous one we attended was A Viking Feast) but this time they’ve really brought the theme to the fore which I am ecstatic about. At each of our settings is a pretty china tea cup, a sign saying “Eat Me” and a perfectly textured and intriguingly flavoured beetroot and wasabi macaron.

Bec Chippington

Chef Bec Chippington is behind the pass in their purpose built kitchen and bubbles are flowing. An Alice gets chased around by a man in a bunny outfit. We are running late and there are only two seats left. I take the velvet “Queen’s chair” and sink down a few centimetres shorter than everyone else and feel just like Alice. Things are getting quite trippy indeed!

“Eat Me” sandwiches

I got a bit excited about the “Eat Me” sandwiches. Long time readers may know of my slight obsession with Swedish sandwich cakes. They’re the perfect idea for an Alice in Wonderland party or dinner because they look like they belong at a tea party but they’re savoury. Filled with white bread and slatherings of a creme fraiche filling, dill, capsicum and smoked trout they’re soft and very creamy I like the ocean trout in particular. They’re a bit difficult to cut with the cake cutter being that the bottom layers are made up of the bread ends but once a knife is given, it is easy to divide.

“Drink me” Hare tea

Next a rabbit consomme is offered in a silver teapot. Bec explains later that it was extraordinarily difficult to get rabbit carcasses to make the consomme with and so a little is poured in our tea cups to whet the appetite for the next course.

Dutch carrot,  zucchini flower, candied walnut and buckwheat salad

Read More