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Malaysia Festival, Darling Harbour 2008

Posted in Eating, Sydney - CBD and inner city

I tend to keep my head in the sand about festivals. Don’t get me wrong, I love them but I often miss them, too busy working or scouting out restaurants, cooking or entertaining. But when a NQN reader Doro emailed me a month ago saying that she was part of the committee organising the Malaysian Festival I could hardly plead ignorance. And I was only too pleased to have a look see as I love Malaysian food.

Today, the weather is quietly foreboding with a forecast saying “Clearing showers” but with that impending rain scent pervading the atmosphere. Still I am looking forward to a family outing with my in laws and getting to sample some of the Malaysian goodies on offer.

We arrive in the afternoon and there are several stalls offering food as well as a marquee where we witness an array of dancers and singers from all over the world. There are people in Malaysian dress and there is a convivial and friendly atmosphere. The lines are long at some stands and we notice Mamak and Sydney Kopitiam Asian Cafe have a stall, two places I’ve yet to eat at but I’ve always meant to. Prices are reasonable with items starting at $2 to $10, a steal really.

Tuulikki, Cuddlepie and I have a look at our food options. We like to have a look at everything before we make a purchase and we always figure that the long queues mean that the food is better. We line up at the long queue at Mamak and I buy a Nasi Lemak $6.50, Anneli buys a Roti Telur with a vegetarian curry $6 and Tuulikki buys a Roti Canai without egg $5.00.

The long queue at Mamak

17 comments | September 10, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Pancake Soup

My friend M is a fantastic cook. Every time I go to her place for a meal, I know I’ll be treated to something delicious and often it will be a dish from her homeland of Austria. When we visited the Austrian Club with her, my eyes wandered to an item on the menu that sounded like something I just had to try: Pancake Soup. M insisted that it was so easy to make and promised to make it for me the next time we came over. And because she’s Austrian, she’s reliable and doesn’t forget promises and a few weeks later, we found ourselves being invited over to have some Pancake soup.

Apparently Pancake Soup (or “Frittaten Suppe”) is just made from leftover pancakes from dessert the night before. Austrian pancakes are thinner than American pancakes or flapjacks, they’re more like an ever so slightly thicker crepe and are served for dessert spread with jam and rolled up. The next day, they have the added advantage in that they are also easier to slice.

The soup itself can be any clear broth, but she insists that it should not be a creamy soup. And indeed when I taste it, I think it’s just perfect the way it is. It’s reminiscent of pasta in a soup but with that added unmistakable pancake flavour and you may find yourself making batches of this when a simple yet fulfilling light meal is required. And you know that kids will love it, just add pancake into the title of anything and they’ll swarm. Which is why you should most certainly keep a stash of it for yourself.

10 comments | September 5, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Perfect roast chicken

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Dinner recipes, Lunch recipes

For all of my semi high falutin’ tastes, I admit that one of my favourite meals, the one that has me fork and knife at the table ready, is the humble roast chicken. I have a visceral reaction whenever I see a gloriously bronzed bird at the table and along with bread baking, I believe there is no smell better than a roasting chicken. And because I can’t help but fiddle, I made a stuffing with apricot and onion, a slight twist on the traditional sage and onion.

An item that makes another appearance in the recipe is Duck Fat. I had a little left over from cooking a duck stashed in the deep freeze. I never used it as I only had left such a small amount. But luckily only a small amount is needed here. If you can’t be bothered, and the whole point is that this is an easy dinner where the oven does all the work, just use butter. And prepare to swoon, this method ensures that there’s no dry breast meat at all, just succulence and bliss.

18 comments | August 20, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

The Coach House, Tumut, The Snowy Mountains

Posted in Eating, Outside of Sydney

On our drive back to Sydney, exhausted but blissfully happy at having a great time at the Snow, we sought out a great place to have breakfast. The little country style shop near the house was closed this Monday morning so we drove towards Sydney through Tumut to find a bigger town. I was looking for something cute and blog worthy whilst everyone else was looking for a meal to fill their growling stomachs. Luckily we happened upon the Coach House.

Housed in a sandstone building, there is a front counter with hot pastries, pies and sausage rolls and walking through, an eating area with handy monogrammed green blankets to help ward off the cold. We grab a blanket each and settle in to examine the menu. Ordering and paying at the front I ask about certain items and choose the home made raisin bread and pancakes (told you I was hungry!). The breads, pies, sausage rolls and quiches are all made there daily.

Poached eggs and toast $9

It takes a while for our food and drinks to arrive and when they do, they arrive one by one. Anneli’s poached eggs arrives first. The wholemeal bread is delicious, with a lovely crunch to it- Anneli loves it so much that she enquires as to whether they sell it by the loaf. They do, but require a day’s notice. After a few more queries they offer her a frozen wholemeal loaf which she happily purchases ($4).

The Hot Chocolate with marshmallow, one of those items that the cold weather enhances so superbly is not very impressive, tasting like the base is made up of water and chocolate instead of milk and chocolate - weak and watery.

Cappucino $3.00

The cappucino suffers a similar fate, very weak and not particularly full flavoured.

Raisin toast $3.70

My fruit toast arrives, with that lovely crunch and full with plump raisins. I slather it with the butter and crunch away happily.

Pancakes with syrup (or honey) $6.80

9 comments | August 17, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Poilâne bakery, Paris

Posted in Eating, Outside of Sydney

When I come to France, all I want to do is eat pastry. Should an immigration officer ask me my reason for entering France, I’ll simply say “To eat pastry”. Forget chocolate, I can always get good chocolate in Sydney, Tokyo, London or anywhere else I travel. However pastries like this are much harder to find. Poilâne is an institution, their sourdough bread of miche is said to be legendary. Using stone-ground flour, sea salt from Guérande and a wood-fired oven they set about conquering the world, one loaf at a time.

So a visit to Paris isn’t complete with a visit to their flagship store on the rue de cherche Midi. I have tried Poilâne bread before as it is available in London so we visited just to “take a perv” at the store and buy some pastries and some other breads. It’s an unusual set up. The shopfront is in a small street and hints not at the auspiciousness of the bakery. A stern looking unsmiling woman sits at the counter taking money while a group of older and younger woman flutter about backs to the wall watching customers and straightening displays of bread.

There is a small selection of breads and pastries and a sample box of their flower petal shaped butter cookies. The miche is sold by the weight and you can choose the amount of thinly sliced bread that you want. One woman offers me a sable biscuit from the box while I am browsing and a friendly young woman, a dead ringer for Natalie Portman offers her help. They package up the items for you, you don’t help yourself, and they wrap it and write the price on the paper bag and hand it to you and you then pay the stern madam behind the counter.