The Year in Review

It's that time of the year, for saccharine lookings-back to the year that was.

For many, 2009 was the year of the hoax. The screw-up. The year that our confidence in money, luxury, success and all that we hold dear was, if not shattered, then at least shaken very badly.

GFC. Tiger Woods. Balloon Boy. Madoff.

But for me - 2009 was the year of the macaron.
For the uninitiated, let me do the Wikipedia-ing for you. Macarons are a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, sugar and almond powder. Two crunchy meringue like bits, sandwich a layer of ganache. The colours and flavours of the macaron are only limited by your imagination, as Adriano Zumbo rightly showed us on his birthday.

So when did this French piece of puffery become so entrenched in our cheesecake-eating, ice-cream- swilling dessert culture? It seems as if the macaron snuck up on us, and cast a very long shadow on our culinary landscape. So here's a look at some of the masters.

First up is the inventor of the modern macaron, Ladurée, located in Paris, where again, according to Wikipedia, 15,000 of these babies are sold everyday. There is also a shop in Tokyo which, in the name of research, I'll be hitting up in February.

These are the creations of Sadaharu Aoki, a Parisian-trained Japanese patissier, whose matcha opera cake has received huge accolades. I have actually had these before, and the flavour of the ganache is quite intense.

The mighty ispahan

Pierre Hermé's signature creation, the ispahan, is a concotion of rosewater flavoured meringue cookies sandwiching lychee cream and fresh raspberries. Again, I have had the pleasure of tasting this, and the tartness and texture of the raspberries really offsets the sweetness and floral scents in the cookies.
And lastly, our home-grown hero, Adriano Zumbo - who had a macaron bonanza on his birthday this year, making 60 different flavours including cheeseburger, maple syrup, bacon and pancake (that was one flavour), black truffle and beer 'n' peanuts. Alas, I was not able to attend the event, but a more detailed catalogue of the flavours are here, at Grab Your Fork.

So, will the macaron be here to stay in 2010? Only time will tell...

Vegetarians. Dandies. Meggings.

Recently, around the world, we have felt the reverberations of a resurgence of the gentleman, at least in sartorial form. After the intense popularity of 'Mad Men', normal men are starting to wander the streets with bowties and skinny ties, and lo and behold, well-cut suits!

More importantly, men are becoming more conscious of details, of fit. Not that men were not unaware of their appearance - but it used to emphasise other aspects of the male. Comfort, and sometimes, an insouciant indifference to personal hygiene.

For a far more eloquent discussion on the topic in the New York Times.

But the days of baggy Bermuda shorts and sweat-stained t-shirts are over! Women (and gay men) rejoice!

Image courtesy of Close Up and Private

The narrowness of the lapels and the tie makes a man look taller and straighter than he is. And the harkening to vintage fabrics means better quality, and a broader colour pallette for menswear, which has frequently died a slow death from boredom. The addition of accessories, such as scarves, pocket squares, glasses, alternative neckwear (bowties, ascot, Mr. Preston?), has really given men a wealth of choice to individualise. And isn't that the broader trend in fashion, and in almost everything else? In a world where economies of scale and convenience has forced a faster pace of homogenisation, we're all looking for something that will make us stand out. But not too much.

My own lovely friend (please note the espadrilles and cuffs)

On the other end of the scale, we have 'vegetarian males', a social phenomenon in Japan where young men prefer to do housework and raise children, rather than the more stereotypically male roles of bread-winning. And some of these men wear skirts. And meggings. Which are leggings. For men.

Is this shift in the male-female paradigm a backlash from the feminism movement from the 1970s? Personally, leggings are a bit too much - just because I don't think women should be wearing them without anything over them either, unless in a ballet class. But if it means more confident, well-dressed men, then please sir, may I have some more?

Mea culpa. Now how do you say that in Chinese?

Sorry. Really can't seem to get my act together. I had exams and then was in a blogger-censored place (China). But that's really no excuse. Just perennial laziness.

I discovered something while in China though, that I never realised.

It's actually quite beautiful.

My attempt at being artistic.

West Lake, Hangzhou.

If you look past the smog and the spitting people.

Something I knew from before, though, was that food was awesome and cheap.


These dumplings are a must-have in Shanghai. I'll just go out and say that they are probably the best fried dumplings in the world. These are '生煎包'(shengjianbao), which means they are fried from their raw state, not steamed prior. They are a cousin of xiaolongbao, those of Dintaifung fame, but better - because they're fried! Still retaining a hot burst of meaty soup on the first bite, but with the contrasting texture of the crispy pan-fried bottom and the silky non-fried top of the dumpling, with the juicy meat fragrant with ginger. Perfect brunch at only 4.5RMB (approx 75cAUD for 4)!

High-tea, Chinese style.

A tradition of Hangzhou, an area about 4 hours drive from Shanghai, is tea. Although not confined to the afternoon, tea consists of Dragon Well tea grown locally, accompanied with a never-ending stream of snacks, usually nuts and candied fruits. We also had lotus soup, a subtle floral but thickly gelatinous gloop, which was surprisingly soothing.

Shanghai was also uber-trendy. Amazing shops, from super-brands (all the ones you could think of, including the whole LVMH family and some I had never heard of). There's even a Super Brand Mall. Also - pop-up stores are really popping up everywhere. Here's the Vitamin Water store. Where you got -free- vitamin water!

Pretty awesome, huh? And I promise I won't stay away so long this time.

Odyssey Across USA (Part I)

Hi. You may remember me, I used to blog, once upon a time, until real life intervened.

LA. City of Angels (and apparently, many, many tattooed people). It was a blast, it was sun-drenched, it was full of amazing food and people. Here, I'll just give you the culinary highlights.

Rodeo Drive

Fresh off the plane, we entered a very LA cafe on Rodeo. The waiters had shiny white teeth, and wore lilac polo t-shirts. I was too jetlagged to take pictures, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was that for people wearing black trousers, they had black napkins so that the annoying white lint coming from white napkins wouldn't stick on said trousers. That was pretty cool.

We also did the obligatory sighseeing rounds. We were there for the aftermath of Michael Jackson's death (RIP, MJ!). The crowds and tributes around his star were crazy.



Steak BLT. This is a bistro concept started in New York (of course) by Laurent Tourondel that had a branch on Sunset Strip. Amazingly, this was the only pretty cool restaurant on that part of the strip that we saw. The photos turned out too blurry, but I did snap a clear shot of this:



The complimentary cheese popovers! They were huge! And it was one each. And this was on top of the complimentary pate and bread. Ah, I love free stuff. Especially when it tasted this good. It was cheesy and eggy and steaming hot inside. However, eating this meant less room for the steak. I had ordered braised short ribs, which is not a cut I see often in Australia. These were definitely melt-in-your-mouth and packed with punch and flavour. The steaks all came in cast iron pots/skillets and were all superb. The only gripe I had was that everything was 'a la carte', meaning there were no sides accompanying the steak unless you ordered it. But all in all, a great experience and a solid representation of modern American dining.

More to come later!

Apologies

I'm in exam hell. Not very excusable - I know. The world indeed would be a better place without administrative law and with more blog posts about souffles.

But rest assured - procrastination has allowed me to make some cool recipes. To whit, baked orange and chocolate souffle, lobster linguine (no pics - sorry), tarte tatin and creme brulee!

I will post as soon as I slay the exam dragon! In the meantime, stay cool.

Wintry Sunday nights

So, it's Sunday night, and this is my designated night of cooking - although I have been cooking more than my share lately, this being my third night in a row.

I made a great winter comfort dish tonight - hamburg steak. This is a Japanese-style Western dish, and the tomato sauce reduction is really a lovely warming dish.

Japanese-style Western cuisine, or 洋食、started in Japan since the Meiji Restoration of 1868. One of the first so-called Western cuisine dishes was sukiyaki, now a quintessential Japanese meal. This is because Japanese people, when first introduced to beef, were so aghast at the taste of it, cooks seasoned it with soy sauce so that there was some familiar flavour to grasp onto. To this day, the most famous sukiyaki restaurants in Japan are found in the Asakusa area, where the dish is said to have its origin.

Other Japanese takes on Western cuisine include 'omurice', which is bascally rice (usually in a sauce of some kind, tomato or demiglace) wrapped in a fluffy omelette. This may sound simple, but is no mean feat. The act of wrapping a soft, billowy egg cover over a lump of saucy, satiny rice, is one that requires technique, timing and precision. None of which I can be bothered to attempt.

So, hamburg steak. It is essentially a meat patty, which I have stewed in a tomato sauce. The other kind of sauce it is usually served with, is the demiglace, but that requires stock and a lot of time, so I've done a simple recipe. For those playing at home, here goes:

Ingredients (serves 2-3):
Hamburg Patty:
Mixed mince (I used a mix of pork and veal, but it's up to you) 300g
2 onions
Half a cup of breadcrumbs
3-5 tablespoons of milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons of plain flour
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of nutmeg
butter

For the tomato sauce
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons red wine
1 cube of chicken stock
2 cups water
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste


First, finely dice your onions:

Saute the onions in a bit of butter until soft and translucent. Remove from the pan to cool. You can do this part a couple of hours earlier than when you are making the hamburg. If your onions are too hot, it cooks the meat when you mix them together and also makes it hard to handle the patty mixture.
Add the milk to the breadcrumbs to soften and set aside

Next, in a large bowl, mix the minced meat, breadcrumbs, cold onions, salt and pepper, nutmeg, egg and flour and with your hands mix this around 50 times. This will make the meat tender and juicy.

Oil your hands and get a snooker-ball size bit of the mixture and throw it between each hand to take the air out of the patty. This is an important step of making hamburg steak.
You should have something looking like this after playing catch with the patties.

Saute these in a bit of oil until they have a bit of colour on both sides, and then add all the ingredients for the sauce in the pan.
Bring the sauce to the boil, and then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes with the lid on. If it looks too watery by 15 minutes, take the lid off for the last 5 minutes. It should reduce nicely!

And...tada!

(there is some pumpkin puree at the back of the dish as well)

Looks good, right? It tasted pretty good as well, even if I say so myself. I'm not a big fan of rice, but I hear the sauce is pretty good with it.

Give it a try, it's a pretty easy recipe and the results are worth it, especially since good, juicy hamburg is pretty hard to find in Sydney.

Latest Distractions (Part 1)

Sorry about the lack of new posts. Pesky real life actually intervened, can you believe it?
So, just wanted to share a few of my latest obsessions with you tonight.

Firstly, my biggest new obsession - Masterchef! This actually blindsinded me. Although I saw all the ads, my huge reluctance to actually turn on the living room TV (apart from the occasional spot of Border Security) made me a relatively late jumper onto this bandwagon. But I totally love the combination of competition, drama and useful food knowledge that I'm gaining through the show. A few things I've noticed though:

1. Why does George Calombaris pronounce all his Es as As? As in element turns into alament, celery is salary... I think he is a great chef and he has amazing technique, but this is a particular pet peeve of mine.

2. Matt Preston uses ties as pocket squares! If you look closely at his jacket pocket, you will see that sometimes, instead of a hankerchief, Matt Preston uses a rolled up necktie for a spot of colour. This is certainly very high-level sartorial technique shown here.

3. The supermarket used in the Team Challenge was my local IGA! This was a very proud moment for me. Actually, the IGA is a great supermarket, with Whisk and Pin, Sonoma Baking Co, Maggie Beer, Parker Organic Juices and Lilydale chickens on offer, so they should have gotten some good quality produce.

4. Australian contestants on reality TV shows are so much tamer than their American counterparts. Having recently watched the US version of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, it really was a bit of shock to see the contestants actually supporting each other during the Celebrity Chef challenge, instead of spitting bile.

5. I want to congratulate Ten for making a pretty good website for Masterchef. I was able to catch up on all the episodes I had missed to feed my addiction and for the most part, it was pretty quick and easy to access the site.

6. Tom Mosby was a Sparke & Helmore lawyer who was made redundant.

I have actually made the pan roasted lamb rack that was shown on Masterclass tonight, but instead of mashed potato, I made a pumpkin puree. The lamb rack was quite lovely, the flavours sealed in by the inital pan sear.

As for picking winners, I really can't tell, and for me, the show isn't really about that. It's about how much I can learn from the show, and how many celebrity chefs I can spot. Also, I got my first glimpse of Simon Thomsen, the Good Food Guide critic, which was pretty cool. And it's a good daily dose of food porn. Most importantly, it's replaced that infernal Big Brother.