I always have an eye or ear out for blogging opportunities. With an ear to the ground and a loyal readership that generously share their recommendations with me, I love seeking out new places that I haven’t tried before. So this evening when we drive past Wilsons we see a cafe on the opposite side of the road which has a large crowd gathered around it. I get excited and say “Oooh let’s check that place out!” to Queen Viv and Miss America, my intrepid dining pals and we head towards Cafe Cana. Getting closer, we encounter some curious looks and it suddenly dawns on us that we’ve almost gatecrashed a dinner session feeding dinner to the homeless. Yes, embarrassing but true.
Sheepishly, we head off to Wilson’s, a Lebanese restaurant which opened over 30 years ago and is said to be Sydney’s oldest Lebanese restaurant. And why the rather un-Lebanese sounding name of Wilson’s? Apparently “Wilson” was the anglicised version of the original Lebanese chef’s name.
The sign is cracked and repaired but when we step in, it’s all retro but charmingly so. With a parachute ceiling and what we can assume to be the original fixtures and decor, it’s like a step back in time. Queen Viv recalls seeing older Lebanese men sitting outside on crates on a hot Summer’s night although this cold, wet rainy Winter’s night there are none.
Cinnamon tea $3
There are two other tables but things are quiet here. We order a range of dishes from the menu and they come out in quick succession. Meanwhile I warm myself with the cinnamon tea which is sweet and heady in cinnamon.
Mixed dips $16
We start with the Mixed dips which is not a huge serve but has babaganoush, hommous, tabouli, two crispy felafel and a pile of soft bread. It’s delicious and we learn the standout dish of the night, particularly when you mix the dips and tabouli and a bit of felafel and pile it on top of the bread.
Kibbeh $10
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July 2nd, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
I have a long history with Cherry Jam. A long and sordid one if I am to be truthful. I probably shouldn’t tell you this in case you turn away in disgust but I have been known to eat it by the spoonful. And I suspect trying to qualify it by saying it’s a teaspoon rather than a tablespoonful won’t impress you much.
We never had Cherry Jam when I was growing up. It was strawberry jam or marmalade. But when I was at university and seeking a late night form of sugary sustenance, I found my friend – I like to call her Cherry Jam. I remember being hypnotised by a Monbulk ad when young where the whole fruit would drop into the jar (and holy crap! It’s on Youtube!). I still recall the distinctive music to this day and ever since then I associated whole fruit in jam as desirable.
With my favourite brand of Cherry Jam (Andrésy) at $10 a jar it is not exactly cost effective when you eat it by the spoonful. So I thought that with this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge, I’d take the chance to make my own cherry jam but add vanilla to it which I always think adds so much depth to cherry.
The resulting jam is gorgeous. Chunky with whole cherries, it’s just the way I like it. The Jamsetta makes it set well so there’s no nervousness about a non setting jam although the zest and seeds do provide quite a bit of pectin which aids in that respect. I got four lovely jars of this out of it. Which is about 4 day’s supply wouldn’t you say?
So tell me Dear Reader, which ad from childhood or adulthood made the most impact on you and why?
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July 1st, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
There’s nothing more painful than ill conceived or contrived beachside chic and conversely there’s nothing better than welcoming true beachside chic. Sydney does it so well and so badly at times. Badly is when the view speaks or shouts louder than the food which is a scant afterthought and prices rival that of a 5 star restaurant just because you happen to be sitting across from the ocean. Vespacific cafe is of the other ilk, a little retro style beachside cafe with a Vespa theme running through it in Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Service is said to be friendly, servings tasty and huge and they also happen to be very vegetarian friendly (and incidentally we see that they also compost but not in that in your face kind of way that shouts “I’m fashionably green!”). It’s a beautiful sunny Winter’s day in Sydney so what better way to spend it than to be beachside. I confess it’s a compulsion of mine whenever we get a nice sunny weekend day in Winter.
Vespacific is relaxed – when I call them to see if I need a booking the woman says “Oh ok sure, for how many people?” and when I answer “Two” I hear her tell the staff “Hey guys there’ll be a table of two at two o’clock, just keep a table for them”. When we arrive, we see that the cafe is located across from the water where there is a raised wooden viewing platform. And what’s this for? For checking out the surf of course. Canny locals get their sustenance to take away from Vespacific and watch the waves breaking.
When we arrive we nab a table near the window. It’s not quite an ocean view, more a grassy view but there is some comfort to know that the ocean is past the grass. I breathe a sigh of relief to find that the menu features all day breakfast items. That means that their famous Mega Bacon and Egg roll is available and it’s got my name on it. We order the Punjabi Eggs for my husband and a croissant with banana and a liquid chocolate shot to share. The menu has a wide range of vegetarian options including some that have me switching allegiences from omnivore to vegetarian such as the “Gourmet toast with roasted capsicum, eggplant, caramelised onion, capsicum and olive tapenade topped with fried halloumi and fresh herbs”. Prices are extremely reasonable with most items under $10. I kid you not.
Australian Meat!
I look around. It’s almost like a set of Home and Away it’s so beachy and laidback. There’s plenty to see including a bookshelf with a book “How to do sex properly” and a battered but well loved 1869 edition of “Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management” simply propped up on the shelf without ceremony. I enjoy flipping through it and reading about the “Mulligatwany Soup made with Australian Meat” and the wages awarded to male and female household servants with different wages suggested for those that receive sugar, tea and beer.
Also true to the name, there’s a red Vespa adorning one wall behind a print of a surfer midflight (we spy a mini Vespa keyring on the owner’s key chain too), paintings from local artists and Barbie, Skipper and Ken in a red convertible on the countertop. Perhaps I’ve been too absorbed in my copy of Mrs Beeton’s Guide to Household Management but the food arrives quickly. It’s freshly made and hot and smells inviting so I dig in eagerly.
Cappucino in a Mug $3.50
Mega Bacon and Egg Roll $12
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June 30th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Definition of a fool: 4. an ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm (usually prec. by a present participle)
Definition of obsessed: adjective of verb obsessed. 1. to dominate or preoccupy the thoughts, feelings, or desires of (a person); beset, trouble, or haunt persistently or abnormally: Suspicion obsessed him.
It was clear, I was a fool and I was obsessed with macarons. The proof was in the pudding or the baking as it was. My obsession with baking macarons was getting out of hand. It was the idea of taming these temperamental sweet little French creatures had me making lot after lot of these. Sure they tasted fantastic, but they were missing the foot. Why oh why, or where oh where were the feet, my tortured mind asked? My very first batch making them with this oven worked just fine. But for the last few batches I had literally lost my footing, the prized frill at the bottom of the macaron that bakers seek. I tried a few recipes that I found on various blogs and none of them worked and neither did the Nigella recipe that had always worked for me.
Then It came to me when I was thinking about it (and remember that I was obsessed so I was thinking about it a lot). I kept my almond meal in the fridge. Was this the culprit? I tried having all my ingredients at room temperature and a new recipe from the blog A La Cuisine which seemed to produce some great frilly feet and lo and behold, after much nervousness and pacing back and forth in front of the oven, my feet came back! I was no longer footless! There were some things, some may call them superstitions, that I feel helped.
- Use good quality baking trays, double them up if you need to
- Draw circles in pencil on parchment but flip it over, don’t pipe directly onto the pencil
- Separate and age your egg whites. That is, separate the eggs the day before and allow them to thicken at room temperature. I covered them with a sieve so that bugs couldn’t get in. It is also Winter here so it doesn’t get very warm.
- Use everything at room temperature.
- Be sure not to over or under mix. OK that could be a stupid thing to say but I suspect I was undermixing, stopping when they were just combined and I think I should have kept mixing a bit more.
The reason why I wanted to make these was to practice this technique of paintbrushing a pattern on top. It’s always best to try this out on a piece of paper before embarking on painting your precious macarons. I found it easiest to dip the tip of the paintbrush into the colouring, then blot it on the side of the bowl and then place it on the left side of the macaron holding it for a second or two before whipping it lightly across. It’s all trial and error though and no doubt you’ll end up with your own beautifully artistic version of a sweep. And with that I’ll book myself back into macaron rehab. I thought I had kicked the habit but it appears the urge is as strong as ever.
Tell me Dear Reader, what obsessions or foolishness have you had? And are you cured? Or are you happy not being cured?
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June 29th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Fresh lemon juice with soda water and sugar $3.50
I’ve always thought that you can always tell how much fun you’re having at dinner by the number of times a waiter has to come back for your order. Going out with The Second Wife and Gravy Beard is a good example of this. There are always funny stories to catch up on and our poor waiter comes back several times to get our order but we are busy catching up on things to decide what to order. It doesn’t help that everything sounds delicious on the menu.
We’ve been coming to Bay Tinh for years – my parents love it so there’s always a trip with them and now that it has been bought by Harry Hoang and renovated, it has been spruced up. Gone are the High School essay plastic folders for menus which were not without their charm – there’s now a proper menu.
Young Coconut Juice $3.50
We start off with drinks, young coconut drinks for some and a fresh lemon juice with soda water and sugar for me. The Young Coconut drink is refreshing and sweet (although a long spoon would have helped in the quest to eat the deliciously slippery young coconut). The lemon drink is very tart with more emphasis on lemon than lemonade.
Crab Pate 6 for $7
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June 28th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
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