One night on twitter I wrote the following sentence “I need a tshirt that reads: ‘I survived an Elliott family dinner’”

It was a simple enough request. Find a restaurant for Mr NQN and his brother for their joint birthday. Make it vegetarian/vegan friendly. “Oh and I don’t want to pay over $15 a person” the Assman said. Hmmm even fast food restaurants are about that much nowadays so having to ignore the last request I found Vina, a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant in Newtown that specialised in vegetarian dishes. We have about 8-10 of these family birthdays a year and they usually start and end in drama, confusion, endless repeated questions, more drama and hysteria. And that’s mostly from Mr NQN’s parents!

We arrive at Vina and it’s a very casual looking restaurant. There’s a display of food just past the door and some painted bamboo and butterflies on the wall. There are two waitstaff and we’ve taken up the large table in the centre. Some of the Elliotts are late but then the food starts coming out. Then others that had RSVPd only that morning and who had turned up half an hour late needed to order. Mr NQN leaned over and whispered to me “You can see how we never ate out right?”

Steamed mock BBQ buns (2) $4.50

The steamed mock BBQ pork buns actually do a very good job of simulating real meat with a sweet Chinese barbecue sauce in the small, fluffy buns.

Steamed curry bun (2) $4.50

The curry buns are stuffed with a sweet vegetable curry with a sesame seed studded pastry and although nice enough, I prefer the bbq pork buns.

Fried Spring rolls $6.00

After everyone saw Sam’s order for the crunchy spring rolls, several more orders were put in for them. They were long, crunchy and packed with a flavoursome filling. They were served with the cabbage, pickles and fresh mint salad although I enjoyed these on their own with the nuoc cham dipping sauce.

Crispy mock fish nuggets (10) $6

We were curious to see what these were like. They came out as 10 pieces of crumbed squares and I take one and dip it into the viscous sauce. It’s actually not too bad at all, quite good really and with somewhat of a fish type of texture as distinct from the other mock meats. And well you know how they say that nuggets aren’t made from real meat here there is no doubt about that!

Savoury Vina Pancake $14

We always adore the Vietnamese pancakes which apart from having prawns and pork are filled with mung beans and fresh salad. It’s crunchy although not quite as crunchy as I’ve had it at other places. However the fresh, crunchy salad redolent with mint hits the spot.

Fresh rolls (3) $6.00

I didn’t try these as there was a bit of a kerfuffle down the other end of the table with people saying that they hadn’t had enough food and there was a small but explosive hissy fit from a couple of people at the other end (one was in fact a parent). Let’s move on shall we?

Mock beef noodle soup $12

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Welcome to the second and final part of our visit to Norfolk Island where I’ll share with you some more secret treasures of living on this fascinating island. And first of all you should believe them when they tell you that Norfolk Island’s Farmers Market are “wee” – they really do mean it. In fact it’s about three stalls big. Perhaps the lightly falling rain has something to do with it but we nevertheless proceed to visit the three stands. First up is a stall manned by three young local boys selling little fudges and chocolate cups for 50c all made by one boy’s mum. When we ask the boy if he minds if we take a photo of the fudge he says no problems “It’s not trademarked.” Brilliant!

The second stall sells local pork which is bred on their 25 acre farm near pictureque Anson Bay. Among the many cuts, there are ham steaks and pork smoked over pine wood. If only we had time to buy and cook some!

Matt Bigg

Our third stop is the stall owned by fruit and vegetable grower Matt Bigg who supplies to most of the restaurants on the island and also to the consumer trade. There are only four fruit and vegetable items imported into Norfolk Island and these are only brought in because the growing conditions aren’t quite right for them and they use so many of them that they couldn’t produce enough.

Matt, along with a few other producers supply the entire island with fruit and vegetable produce and he tells us that the key for a grower on Norfolk Island is variety. He has to virtually stock a greengrocer’s selection for the public, many of whom already have gardens but perhaps don’t grow enough to eat.

There are bowls of orange and purple beetroot, cucumbers, enormous zucchini, several types of hydroponically grown soft lettuce, cauliflower and it looks like the type of produce that you might find in a home garden rather than with the uniformity of supermarket specimens. None of his produce is ever sprayed. He works to maintain a healthy soil so that the crops don’t become susceptible to pests. And did you know that  here on Norfolk Island butcher  shops actually sell fruit and vegetables in the store?

Butcher shop selling fruit and vegetables

We follow Matt back to one of his two farms. He is a Pittcarin/Bounty descendent and the operation has four staff in total to meet the demand for supply. There are many hydroponic trays of red oak and butter lettuce which flourish when grown this way. “It’s either feast or famine here” he says and when a crop is in season it is absolutely abundant and if the weather conditions change which is their biggest challenge then things can become a challenge. He points at the row of bananas “We use bananas as a windbreaker. We are a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we are open to the elements” he says.

Cucumbers

One of the advantages to the island microsystem is that they are absent of many pests like fireblight, boil smut disease and fruitfly. Before we go, he comes out showing a pineapple which another grower has just started growing. He’s excited at the quality of the pineapple and it is a new item for the island-it has been about 20 years since pineapples were grown on Norfolk Island.

Sublime

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There are certain challenges when trying to introduce a cuisine into a country especially one largely unsampled and unheard of. And for years native Peruvian chef Alejandro Saravia has toiled trying to introduce his country’s cuisine to Australia through his Taste of Peru dinners and cooking classes. There is the struggle against using ingredients like guinea pig which many people associate with Peruvian cuisine, lest it become a gimmicky cuisine. There is also the wider misconception that Peruvian food is just like Mexican food or Spanish food.

Fast forward to a few years later and after working in kitchens across Sydney (Pier, Sails and El Bulli) and biding his time, Alejandro has finally stepped out into the spotlight with a restaurant of his own making the food that he wants to, with Morena serving modern Latin American cuisine.

Chef Alejandro Saravia

What does Morena mean? Alejandro explains that Morena is a Latin American woman, brunette specifically, and a woman that can fill up a room with her presence. She is sexy, fun but  elegant. And this is the sensibility that he is trying to impress upon us-it’s Peruvian fine dining but with a Latin American warmth to it. Part of the St Margaret’s development it sits where Guru and The Battery used to.

The front entrance is an eye catching verdant scene glowing with hydroponic lights. The scene is a joint venture between Morena and Queensland’s Kendall Farms. They grow them the very important “Aji Amarillo” or the Peruvian yellow chile pepper which up until now, they had to use dried or in a paste form. It took the farm just two crops to get it just right.

Morena has Australia’s first pisco bar, pisco being that eminently drinkable grape brandy that lends itself to sour flavours without being too mouth puckeringly sour. Here they experiment with many different cocktails including Pisco infused with coca leaves (the leaves that are used to make cocaine but have actually been part of the Inca and Andean diet for many years-and no the end result bears no resemblance to cocaine! ).

Pisco Sour $17

The Pisco sour is a frothy foamy drink made with Santiago Queirolo Pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white shaken vigorously and served in a wine taster with a couple of dashes of bitters and has a distinct aniseedy taste to it. It is finished off with some finely grated kaffir lime zest. Limes are sweeter in Peru while they are more acidic here so to compensate they also use some lemon juice.

Morena Chilcano $18

The Morena Chilcano is Alejandro’s favourite. He predicts that when the Summer weather hits and they open up to the courtyard outside in February this refreshing cocktail with Pisco infused cucumber, lime juice and ginger ale will be the hit.

The bread is baked on the premises daily and is a lovely, warm round roll with quinoa and it comes to life when paired with the coriander seed and black pepper infused Italian olive oil. Service is sweet and they explain things to us. However as we’re dining early (way too early for the Surry Hills crowd) and are the only customers, we feel a little claustrophobic as two wait staff hover over us.

Peruvian ceviche with kingfish, cancha and caramelised sweet potato and seaweed $20

There’s a degustation menu with 6 courses for $105 or with matching wines for $135 but we went a la carte as we wanted to try some other dishes. We start with what has to be the signature dish, a Peruvian ceviche. Although ceviche is a dish that spans many countries, the difference between others and Peruvian ceviche is the use of aji amarillo and it is not considered a Peruvian ceviche without it. The waiter tells us that the fish today is kingfish instead of the pink snapper on the menu and it comes in even sized cubes dressed with lime and lemon juice, balls of sweet, caramelised sweet potato and cancha which are crunchy, dry roasted Andean corn-corn being another item that is used extensively.

The flavours are tart, moreish and the texture of the kingfish is sublime. There was some brown seaweed at the bottom which was quite strong in flavour and I didn’t really go for this as I preferred the fresh flavour of the kingfish and I felt that the seaweed detracted from the fish. They key to good ceviche apart from fresh fish is using freshly squeezed juice as storing lemon and lime juices overnight can turn them bitter.

Causas 3 $18

Causas 3 is actually based on the historical dish of causa. When Peru was fighting for independence they used to feed the troops on what they could get their hands on which was potatoes. It is a dish based on mashed potato and historically they mixed with aji and lime and as named Causa as it would sustain the troops to fight for the “cause”. The causa here consists of three quennelles of mashed potato and each is flavoured with a different ingredient.

The top one is flavoured with parsley and other herbs and is topped with a creamy avocado and tiny, crunchy cubes of fish (and is my favourite of the causas). The yellow causa is the original causa and is desiree potato mixed with aji amarillo to give it a more golden colour and topped with large kernels of Andean corn. The third orange causa is given blush with roasted capsicum and topped with tender, braised octopus. And all of these dishes are plated very prettily and as per my resolution after the photography class last year I love playing around with the manual settings on the camera and using  my favourite Sigma lenses to try and capture these.

Andean Garden $18

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