Craig Macindoe from Mumu Grill

Some restaurateurs are canny. Craig Macindoe from Mumu Grill is one of them. Whilst some restaurants lack even a basic website, some realise that not only is a website crucial, but your presence is also commanded on places such as twitter and facebook as that is where your diners are too. After Good Living printed a list of chefs and people in the food industry (food bloggers were largely absent from this list) chefs scurried online and figured out what twitter was quickly. Craig was there tweeting well before this mass invasion and as someone who sees the potential in food blogging, he invited 10 of us to dine at his Take It Slow Wine Dinner on him.

Craig and one of the Arcadia Saltbush lambs

The Take It Slow movement was started by Italy’s Carlos Petrini in 1989 as a way of consciously combating fast food and life and presumably to preserve La Dolce Vita in response to people’s waning interest in the food they eat and its origins and how our food choices impact the rest of the world. In turn this dinner involves letting us know all about how the food and wine is produced and knowing who and where it comes from. This dinner celebrates the Slow Food Movement in that the produce and cooking time took a total of  18 months (the 18 month jamon), 16 hours (the slow roasted Saltbush lamb and double roasted duck) and 40 minutes (the brown sugar pavlova).

Hanging the meat to tenderise it

Dining with me tonight are: Simon, Howard, Shez. Anna, Arwen, Lisa, Trina, Jennifer and Steph. At 6pm we’ve arrived to have a pre-dinner tour of his kitchens and backstage. Yes for a food blogger, a kitchen visit is like getting a Backstage Pass to meet your favourite artist. He shows us the cool room where they hang their meat for several days to tenderise. He also shows us the whole lamb, about 6 months old and about 12 kilos heavy and proceeds to hang that too. He points out that the space is cleaned and tested every 2 days for bacteria which you need to do if you hang meat. Hanging meat helps to break down the fibres in meat which in turn, makes it more tender and soft.

He also shows us the food preparation for tonight. The catalan bread is topped with tomato oil which is a fantastic and incredibly tasty sauce and it is topped with 18 month Jamon. We also see the duck which has been cooked twice and we take a peek (not too far in) into the purpose built meat oven.

The olives are juicy and spiked with rosemary and are delicious. We’re given a Mr Riggs Viognier 2008 and a Mr Riggs “Yacca Paddock” Tempranillo 2007.

The smell from the kitchen is beckoning but first we hear from Graham Strong, from Arcadia Saltbush Lamb who along with his parents raise the lambs on a diet including that of Old Man Saltbush in the Riverina district of NSW. They are suppliers to not only Mumu Grill but also Becasse and Etch. I wrote earlier about Saltbush lamb and the benefits of raising lamb on this but in short Saltbush is a hardy perennial which helps to reduce the salinity in soil which helps in times of drought which of course we have a lot of in Australia.  They are also part of the WWOOFing movement (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) where in exchange for working on the farm, you get accommodation and food and get to be part of the experience.

Arcadia saltbush lamb roasted for 13 hours served with minted eggplant and white bean paste, green beans, beetroot jus

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The one restaurant, most recommended to me by food loving friends most recently has been Bodega. One of those places that will not take bookings (oh how they make my dining life difficult!), it’s a Tapas place (yes another one for Sydney) that has a lot of buzz. For as it is 5.55pm this Saturday night there are already two patrons outside that have been waiting for 10 minutes. It’s only 5 minutes before they they are technically open so I poke my head in only to be told politely and smilingly that they open at 6pm. Hmm strict little buggers aren’t they!

So we join the two other waiting diners and within seconds are joined soon by a crowd of diners, eager to snag a table at Bodega. There are even the people from Time Out who arrive in a Time Out London cab and tshirts. It’s almost 6pm and they’ve already got a crowd baying to get in. Not exactly baying actually, the crowd is polite, and when 6pm hits and the staff comes out, everyone gets into a queue according to how long people have waited and we are all shown to our tables.

We’re shown to a table in the small restaurant with a colourful mural on one wall and a light lined bar with barstool seating where patrons can have an eagle eyed view of the chefs in action. We order from the menu after consulting our friendly waitress about the signature dishes and for the 3 of us, she recommends getting 5 dishes.

White Anchovies $8

Before we know it the first plate has arrived, the white anchovies. They’re plump, creamy and tangy, less hairy than their brown cousins and delicious. The bread isn’t particularly remarkable and I don’t eat more than a couple of mouthfuls.

Bread with oil

Argentinean style beef empanadas with salsa criolla $10 for 3

Our Argentinean style beef empanadas with salsa criolla arrives next and it fresh and hot smell entices us to transport one of these babies onto our plate pronto and dissect. Inside there are olives, like an empanada should have. They’re smaller than the ones I’ve eaten at La Paula, more of a curry puff size but they’re absolutely delicious. My sister goes on about Argentinian beef and if this is an indication, I want to try more. The salsa criolla is a perfect piquant accompaniment to it with onion, tomato and capsicum and a strong red wine vinegar flavour .

“Fish fingers”: sashimi Kingfish on garlic toast with celeriac$16

The “Fish fingers”: sashimi Kingfish on garlic toast with thinly sliced celeriac, is a dish we were intrigued by because of its name. We certainly didn’t expect fish fingers of the normal frozen variety, especially since our waitress recommended it, and what we get is four deliciously oil laden garlic bread fingers overlayed with kingfish sashimi. There’s a little too much diced raw onion on top for me but I do love the sashimi and crunchy, garlicky oily bread fingers. Gina finds it too salted for her so I dutifully eat her remaining slice (poor Teena can’t partake as she is pregnant).

Zucchini flowers stuffed with corn paella wtih manchego cheese$20

The colourful Zucchini flowers are one of my favourite ingredients when stuffed, battered and deep fried. In this case they’re not and the corn paella filling which is actually sauteed corn (no paella rice) is interesting although I can taste a vague bitter taste in it. I don’t hate it but as I eschew bitter tastes (something my father in law, a naturopath says isn’t good for me) I leave my second one for Teena or Gina.

Seared scallops with pickled Wagyu tongue,cabbage & celeriac salad $20

The Seared scallops with pickled Wagyu tongue,cabbage & celeriac salad appears next, three fat thick scallops seared on one side only and laid on top of thinly shaved Wagyu tongue. To the side is the cabbage and celeriac salad dressed with a light mayonnaise emulsion. The three together are delicious, the Wagyu tongue just lovely and delicate combined with the texture of the fat juicy scallops and tendrils of salad.

Spring Chicken with lentils $28

Our last dish, the Spring Chicken with green lentils is one that we ordered both on the recommendation of the waitress and the delicious smell emanating from the kitchen. The chicken is tender and very juicy and comes with a slight swirl of creamy potato puree.

The dessert menu looks enticing, particularly the Banana Split: Cream flan, dulce de leche ice cream, ginger biscuit and banana but as we’re going to a Sugar Hit afterwards we beg off. Although thinking back on it, I’m sure if I had put in a bit of effort I could have had two. Regrets regrets…

Bodega Tapas

216 Commonwealth St Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone: +61 2 9212 7766
Lunch: Thursday & Friday from 12pm
Dinner: Monday – Saturday from 6pm
Email: bodega.restaurant@gmail.com
No Reservations, all members of a party must be present before being seated
http://bodegatapas.com/

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a Kirrbilli markets fan and every month I make my way there to buy whatever takes my fancy. And since November last year, every month I’ve walked past Catalonia, stopped by the menu and wistfully gazed inside. Call it an infrequent OCD ritual. This month, I’ve booked it for a birthday dinner, my second of three.

With a successful pedigree (the two owners are ex Salt Yard in London and Victoria Rooms in Darlinghurst) they serve not your run of the mill Spanish Tapas but a more modern, exotic and sumptuous version with ingredients like Wagyu, Zucchini Flowers and Truffle shavings. It seems that servings are a little bigger than the Tapas I’ve had in Liverpool Street although of course as they’re Tapas they’re not large by any definition.

We’re seated on a Saturday night upstairs in a rather cozy, very dimly lit, warm sunset shaded room with a lovely Pomegranate coloured wallpaper on one wall. Tables are a little small but given that the plates of tapas aren’t that big, it’s not so much of an issue. I wish some restaurants would give bigger tables, indeed a friend of mine always books for 1-2 more people than are coming as she hates being squished. And as the light was so low, I must apologise for the pictures, we did our best but didn’t want to use the flash too much so as to disturb other patrons.

There are 5 vegetarian Tapas meals and a good selection of meats including delectable sounding seafood. Indeed one of the vegetarian meals sounds so lovely that it makes it way onto the meat eaters order: the Zucchini Flowers with blue cheese mousse and honey.

Zucchini Flowers with blue cheese mousse and honey $14.50

Being tapas, the food arrives pretty quickly and in a timely fashion, with waves of 3 dishes so that it doesn’t overcrowd the table. The Zucchini flowers, 4 per plate with batons of deep fried zucchini underneath are as good as they sound. Actually, scratch that, they’re even better. Crunchy with tempura batter on the outside they are fried to perfection with an oozing mousse of blue cheese inside. If any dish could convince someone to turn vegetarian, it’s this.

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