As part of my indulgent series of visits to patisseries around Sydney (i.e. the conspiracy to move me up a jeans size) I decided to visit Pasticceria Papa with the lovely Angela from Creating a Stir who is visiting Sydney from Japan. Angela is a blogger I immediately bonded with as she is a lovely soul who lives in Japan with her husband and three children and who faces many of the challenges I did living there yet still maintains her sense of humour and style. She’s also the wonderful gal who sent me an amazing package of Japanese goodies-full of Japanese Pocky and Kit Kats of which I am totally addicted! So when I heard she was coming to Sydney I knew we had to meet up and I knew that it would have to be somewhere brilliant to impress her and preferably with food she may not be able to get in Japan. So Pasticceria Papa, with the legendary Ricotta Cake it was!
Megumi
Angela has brought along her gorgeous 2 year old daughter Megumi who turns out to be just the kind of daughter I’d want for myself. We take a seat outside in the sunny courtyard as it’s a warm Winter’s day and go inside to order at the counter. When I’d first sent Angela the link to the website with the list of goodies they stock, it was so huge we both wondered whether it was a sample of what they had but judging from the enormous displays with a myriad of goodies, it seems to be what is available all of the time.
Megumi with her chocolate bear lollipops
We choose a couple of necessary savouries but of course the sweets have won our hearts and the aroma of butter wafts past our nose as we walk in from the courtyard outside. We ask the girl behind the counter what is good and she makes a few recommendations and of course we ask for the ricotta cake. We take our number and they tell us they’ll bring us our goodies. The cakes arrive first and there’s a bit of a wait for our savouries which we want to eat first. I go back in and there is some confusion as to where we were sitting and a mix up with the order itself with the counter girl putting the wrong item into the system so after several questions back and forth they assure me that we’ll get our correct order. I bought some organic chocolate bear lollipops from our Canberra trip for Megumi and she managed to eat all three whilst sampling teeny bites of our food – what a good girl and a future food blogger no?
Mushroom Arancini ball (price, no idea as we were incorrectly charged)
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August 20th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
You didn’t think that I abandoned you after posting my Simple Cassoulet recipe using the Pressure Cooker without posting another did you? I am against single use objects merely on principle. I have very little bench and cupboard space so even a waffle iron, no matter how attractive a waffle it produces, doesn’t get a look in to my kitchen as I’d only use it once every 6 months. I was determined to use a Pressure Cooker several times during Winter. I’ve loved everything that I’ve made in it and came across this recipe while trawling the internet late one light. Some people trawl for porn late at night. I trawl for food porn.
Pulled Pork is a relative newcomer to the scene here in Australia over the past few years. Previous to that, you’d hardly see it on restaurant menus. Traditionally made from the fatty part of the pork called the Boston Butt it’s cooked long and slow. With this version, the Pressure Cooker replaces the fat in the Boston Butt so that it remains succulent and tender without an excess of fat. I was also worried that if I asked a butcher for some Boston Butt of Pork that he would think I was a crackpot 
60 minutes after starting, the timer indicated that the Pulled Pork was ready and I apprehensively opened the Pressure Cooker. I always feel as if I won’t know what sight might greet me when peering into the cavernous pot. I was relieved – it looked good. But the true test was the fork test. Was I able to pull it apart easily using two forks? I nudged one piece with a fork and it fell apart. I was ecstatic. I took a photo before I pulled it apart more and then set about pulling the rest of the pork apart.
Setting the shredded pork on top of a toasted hamburger bun with some extra barbecue sauce I sank my teeth in. The bun was crunchy and the pork tender and soft. It was pretty much like a regular Pulled Pork which left me joyous and my husband contentedly munching, blissfully unaware that he was indeed eating a healthy version of Pulled Pork. When I told him he was slightly doubtful, stopped chewing for a moment and decided that it was better not to argue than simply to eat.
And psst! I will be interviewed on North Shore 99.3FM radio tomorrow oops today! I wrote this yesterday! At 10am discussing Not Quite Nigella and Freeganism! You can listen to it online if you visit the 99.3FM website. I’ll upload a recording of this over the next couple of days.
And because it’s Wednesday again (wasn’t it Wednesday just a day or two ago?) here is a new Wallpaper Wednesday – Beef and Olive Briouats!
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you trawl for late at night?
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August 19th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
It’s been years and I do mean years since Rose, Ronald and I visited Kobe Jones. When it first arrived on the scene many moons ago in 2003, the sushi was an instant hit with Sydney siders and the Volcano Roll and Number 1 special were items that we craved. Then other restaurants opened doing similar things and we moved on, urged by reported shrinking portion sizes and the fact that Sydney siders are spoilt for choice and we love the next, new shiny thing.
One thing that lured us back was the $25 all you can eat sushi lunch special making the rounds. For $25 you could have a platter including the famous volcano roll and an assortment of sushi. Only available on Monday to Friday for lunch it sounded almost too good to be true. So on a sunny Friday we find ourselves circling around Kobe Jones looking for a park which proves a fruitless task. There are only 4 car spaces on Lime Street that aren’t loading zones so if you find yourselves in the same situation as us, parking is available at the nearby Secure Parking at a special rate of $10 (much better than the $35 we would have been charged otherwise).
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August 18th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Whilst I’d love to say that “No koalas were harmed in the making of these cupcakes” I’m afraid I have to reveal the grisly truth. That in fact two of these furry creatures came crashing to the ground from the trees above when it came to capturing these images. This is possibly not what the RSPCA had in mind when they devised the RSPCA cupcake day
For those overseas readers, the RSPCA is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and they also have a television show which will make an animal lover out of the the most hardened individual. It even got me feeling warm and fuzzy towards a family of bats. Today is the RSPCA’s Cupcake Day where keen bakers all over Australia bake cupcakes and raise money for the RSPCA. I decided on koalas a while back and thought that instead of a plain vanilla cupcake I’d use Lemon Myrtle just to upp the Australian-ness of it. The idea for these came from Clare Crespo’s Hey There, Cupcake! from which I’ve used many of her decorating suggestions for example, the panda and bear cupcakes.
I was also give an Beaterblade to test out which is an attachment suitable for Tilt Head Kitchenaid mixers. It’s similar to a paddle attachment but in a plastic cast with rubber scrapers attached to the end to help scrape the bowl more effectively and to help lessen the amount of times you need to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl. I figured this cupcake would be the ideal test and used it for both the cupcake batter and the buttercream. It did just as it was supposed to and I didn’t have to stop at all and scrape down the sides once and it was a dream to help beat the buttercream without having to stop, scrape and keep going again. I did think that it made the head of the Kitchenaid vibrate a bit more than a normal attachment so it would be interesting to see whether it has any long term effects on the Kitchenaid. Kim from Full Baked, the distributor of Beaterblade suggested adjusted the hinge pin like this.
Back to the Koalas. You’ll have to excuse the startled “Oh HAI!” expressions of the koalas. When sitting them up in the tree I needed to press in the eyes, noses and ears deep to prevent them from falling off. The cupcakes themselves are deliciously lemony with that distinctly gorgeous lemon myrtle flavour to them. The buttercream is soft and if you wanted to, you could add lemon myrtle to the buttercream too. My koalas are admittedly not quite as grey as I wanted but the black food colouring is somewhere in a box packed away. And yes I’m completely aware that they’re not sitting in gum trees. Once I was ready to take the photos, I started frantically running around like a diva saying “Where are the damn gum trees people? Someone I need gum trees!” to an empty house.
So tell me Dear Reader, if you could save one animal from extinction, which would it be and why?
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August 17th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
When I was in Primary School we were asked to design a name and logo for an airline. I chose mine to be: “TBAITW” which stood for “The Best Airline in the World”. You see I was going for the luxury market. However the girl next to me chose a clever tactic and chose “Aardvark airlines” because she would be the first listing in the phone book and therefore easy to find. And I think when they were thinking of names for this particular restaurant, they rejected all the usual names for Chinese restaurants including “Golden”, “Lotus”, “Jade”, “Kingdom”, “Palace” or “Dragon”. I think they just though sod it, let’s just use Kingsford Chinese restaurant. People who are looking for a Kingsford Chinese eat will find us easily.
Complimentary soup
I’d heard about Kingsford Chinese restaurant by many. Mostly for the brusque service but delicious food. And despite the fact that we had almost dined here several times we were always lured somewhere else. And if you’ve been to Anzac Pardae in Kingsford, there is no shortage of somewhere elses with so many restaurants within the 2-3 block area it makes deciding hard. Tonight we’re dining with Rose and Ronald and lucky that we’ve chosen to eat early as it means that there is no problem getting a table. We choose 4 dishes that we’ve heard that they do well. Prices are fabulously cheap and you can get a rice or noodle and meat dish for $6.60. The complimentary soup is delicious.
Sang tung Chicken $11
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August 16th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
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