Mascot, Sydney. Home of the airport and errrmmm…let me think what else. Oh yes, Vietnamese rolls! On the same stretch of street, a few doors down from each other are two Vietnamese roll bakeries, Hong Ha and Vee Vee. Hong Ha is the one whose queues are stretching out onto the street, VeeVee by comparison does a more modest trade but has been there for years so it can’t be doing too badly.
The selection at Hong Ha
The selection at VeeVee
We decide to do a blindfold taste testing challenge to see who does the best a) pork roll and B) meatball roll. There are also chicken and salad and cheese rolls but pork is the traditional one and meatball is the preferred one from the tasters. We dutifully wait in line for 5 minutes at Hong Ha where the rolls are $4.50 each while there isn’t a wait at VeeVee where the rolls are $3.50.
Hong Ha rolls
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January 9th, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Once I have a new cookbook, it doesn’t take me long to get out my pad of post it note tags and mark recipes that I want to make. Christmas this year was particularly good for me cookbook-wise with my sister giving me Nigella Express, Deceptively Delicious, Pork & Sons and The Borough Market book. Nigella Express is of course the one that I am most likely to cook out of, the others providing fabulous recipes and gastronomic porn.
I was given a fabulous set of gourmet curry pastes from a friend last Christmas by Serious Salsa and I was eager to use them. They are a vast improvement on other pastes that I have used and lovely and fiery with a complex blend of flavours.
Christmas also gave us a huge tray of lovely mangoes from my sister in law and her husband. My husband can usually polish off a tray quickly but with all of the good food around, eating them has been a little slower. I secured a mango for this recipe from his prodigious and well guarded stockpile and the lovely woman behind the fish counter gave me three times the amount of prawns for the price of one so it felt like the stars and planets and culinary cosmos were aligned to make this curry. You believe in karma, fate or whatever you will, I subscribe to Culinary Cosmos.
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January 8th, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
In a lucky stroke of fate, Blythe and I were able to get a last minute booking to Altitude on a busy holiday season Saturday night. It meant dining at 6pm and leaving by 8.15pm but we didn’t mind, we were just glad to get a booking at a day’s notice. Blythe is leaving tomorrow for London so she wanted to make her last night in Sydney count food-wise. I can relate to that.
The view from the restaurant
In the lobby the Shangri-la hotel is full of people eager to get up to the 36th floor, including a large and seemingly already tipsy hen’s night party. Most turn left and go to the Blu Horizon’s bar. We turn right and go towards the calm serenity of the Altitude restaurant. Cream alicebanded staff in brown and black dresses take us to the table, as we’re the first, we take some pictures of the view before its obscured by diners. There’s a stunning direct view of the Opera House as well as the Harbour Bridge.
Blue cheese and sun dried tomato bread with herb butter and pink salt
We’re asking to break the rules here tonight, as I want to order the 7 course degustation menu $135 with extra cheese plate $15 while Blythe wants to order the 4 course menu $110. The kitchen recommend against this but as we are intending to do a plate swap for each dish, we don’t mind at all so they oblige. A waiter appears with a selection of bread: blue cheese, 11 grain or sun dried tomato. During the course of the night, we try all 3 types, the Milawa Blue cheese being the clear favourite for both of us. The table next to us clearly likes the bread too, continuously having their bread supply replenished much to the detriment of their appetite.
Amuse Bouche: Celeriac veloute with truffle oil
Blythe’s Amuse Bouche arrives, a celeriac veloute with white truffle oil. Its lovely, perfectly seasoned, rich and flavoursome. A perfect soup. I hold up the cup to my mouth to receive every drop.
Degustation item 1 : Herb crusted yellow fin tuna with blue swimmer crab
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January 7th, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Car engine packed with foil packets of food
The problem with becoming obsessed with your own food blog is finding and using any opportunity to cook or eat food. Not that this particularly troubles me but it may trouble those around me who I forcibly hijack along for the ride. My husband is a very good natured man who goes along with most things and he, used to my inopportune flashes of inspiration, simply rolled with the punches so to speak on this idea.
Foil packets of prawns and potatoes ready for the car
Some men would never consider the idea of cooking in their car. My father being one of them. He won’t even let my sister or I drive his car and he grits his teeth when we open the door lest we scratch it so cooking in his precious baby is most definitely out of the question. However my husband and I agreed, that with the proper research and an abundance of foil, that this wouldn’t hurt the car a bit and planned our Manifold-ish Destiny. I say Manifold-ish as getting a copy of this rare out of print book can set you back $200US on ebay and whilst I’d have loved to buy a copy, I resisted.
There was an invaluable website that showed step by step instructions on how and when and the risks of cooking in your car http://www.instructables.com/id/Cooking…-with-your-car/
I found some hilarious comments on this site such as one from poor Rhoula:
“I tried to cook some chicken the first time, i was driving from oklahoma city to tulsa, when i arrived to tulsa, i looked for my meal but never found it.
I think i lost it somewhere on my way there. I was both hungry and broke, thanks god i had some more raw chicken and vegetables left. on my way back i put everything as suggested in an aluminum foil and covered it with a towel so it woudn’t slip it was about 2 am next thing i know my old chevy truck caught on fire. To tell you the truth i was more worid about the chicken that i was about the truck.
thank god the food was just fine. my truck was still burning when i was enjoying the great chicken and vegetables. I even let my kids roast some marchmellows on the fire. To tell you the truth their marshmellows tasted more like gasoline but I had to keep my kids busy so they wouldn’t eat my a la car te meal or should i say a la burnt truck meal.”
Thinly sliced potatoes with salt and grapeseed oil ready for the car
Garlic prawns ready for the car
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January 6th, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
Bill’s is an easy choice when it comes to going out for breakfast. When my sister Blythe comes to visit, she always insist on a visit to a Bill’s, her desire partly fueled by Bill Granger’s reputation in London. Since her last visit, there has been a new addition to the Bill’s empire, a new location in Woollahra.
I’ve been to all three locations and out of the three, Woollahra is my favourite, not just for the gorgeous nearby boutiques to visit pre and post breakfast. Housed in the courtyard in Queens Court, it offers al fresco umbrella shaded tables or an indoor section. The courtyard, set back from busy, leafy Queen Street means that its a lovely respite from the hustle and bustle of the traffic. Sydney’s weather is putting on a good show so its outdoors, in front of the nearby bookshop that we sit. We feel that we must order the dishes for which Bill is famous. Blythe orders his toasted coconut bread ($5.80) and Ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter ($16.60). Rose orders organic scrambled eggs and toast ($12.80) with extras of Avocado ($3.90), bacon ($4.50), chicken chipolatas ($5.00) and mushrooms (for me $3.80). I order the grilled chicken salad with pistachios, pink grapefruit and sumac yogurt ($22.50).
Grilled chicken salad with pistachios, pink grapefruit and sumac yogurt $22.50
Its scarcely 5 minutes before our food arrives, a minor miracle given how busy it is but for which we are grateful as the sight of the food at other tables makes us even hungrier. My grilled chicken salad arrives hidden under a bough of continental parsley, rocket and thinly sliced fennel with smashed pistachios sprinkled on top and a dollop of sumac yogurt which resembles blueberry yogurt. Overall its a rather bitter salad with the pink grapefruit, fennel and yogurt which some may not mind, but the chicken is char grilled and moist still. The much needed yogurt is a piquant complement to the salad leaves and when I help myself to the mushrooms that Rose has ordered for me, its perfect. It needs that bit of juicy moisture as it is a touch dry without it.
Organic scrambled eggs and toast with extras of Avocado, bacon, chicken chipolatas and mushrooms $30
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January 5th, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
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