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.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Primo Italiano

Last Sunday, City of Sydney Council held the Primo Italiano festival, celebrating all things Italy. The theme was of course, amore. A wedding was held on the day, and although I wasn't there to see the ceremony, the entire thing was great fun, with stalls of food, entertainment and a beautiful fountain. The convivial community atmosphere was really wonderful - with heaps of dogs and kids running about.

Three coins in a fountain?

Rocket and proscuitto pizza from Wood Fired Pizza Co.

The terrace houses lining Stanley, Riley and Yurong Streets were a perfectly picturesque background for the festival, with the streets cordoned off for the day. There was a huge stall by Formaggi Ocello, the Italian purveyors of cheese located in Surry Hills, as well as Beppi's Restaurant and Sonoma Baking Company.

Punters lining up for the delicious cheeses from Formaggi Ocello

And who can forget the iconic Vespa when thinking about Italian cliches? Sable and Argent, a stylish 'premium store for two-wheeled things' were displaying some fantasico goods with truly fantastic price tags.

This bicycle costs $27800. Let's hope it can fly. Or at least change into a robot.
Italian flower man looking cool

All in all, a lovely, relaxing Sunday. Thank God for the beautiful weather, and please, when will the sunshine grace our city again?

Indulgences of a private schoolgirl...

As any self-respecting private schoolgirl ought to know, choir is a large part of school life. Or at least for those who needed to escape the drudgery and praying that was Assembly.

And now we have a television show that celebrates show choir! Glee is a new series from FOX (oh, hush) that aired after the American Idol finale over there. The second episode and beyond will start airing in the American fall lineup.


Glee is a show that plays up all the high school stereotypes - jocks, cheerleaders, idealistic teacher, sensitive emo/gay boy - I loved the scene where he's about to be thrown in the dumpster, but protests because he's wearing the new season Marc Jacobs jacket, which is then taken off and held by the quarterback before the boy is unceremoniously dumped.

It's popcorn tv - full of big musical numbers, American brashness, and mildly good looking people. But there is a hint of a subversive tone, rather like the satire in Election, although of course without as much bite. And Glee labours to be in the zeitgeist - one of the numbers sung was Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab', although what school in its right mind would allow their choir to sing a song condoning substance abuse is beyond me.
So if you like singing but couldn't stand the saccharine sweetness of High School Musical, this might be a show you should check out - particularly since exam season is bearing down upon us, and I know you'll be in need of serious procrastinatory material.

Stepford Wives - techie style

Recently my parents went to the Home and Design Show and two weeks later - voila! A two thousand dollar iron is delivered to our home. Yes, audience playing at home, two thousand bucks for an iron! In the midst of a GFC! I hope my inheritance doesn't suffer from this folly (just kidding, mum, I love you!)

But from a design standpoint, this bells-and-whistles iron is pretty cool.

Short of ironing the thing for you itself - when will they invent that, by the way? - the iron produces ultra fine steam that smooths out the most stubborn of wrinkles, as well as having an ironing board that can suck and blow (yes, I know). By using the vacuum function, clothes don't move around so you can make the perfect seam, and by creating air under the fabric, no wrinkles are added by moving the iron around.

It has some pretty awesome boiler technology, although it was quite difficult to decipher the instructions. It's made ironing in our house if not fun, then at least an interesting activity. And I reckon that's probably worth two thousand dollars.

Supporting the Arts

To Boldly Go - a newbie's guide to Star Trek

So I watched the new Star Trek film. First, a disclaimer - I have exactly zero knowledge of Star Trek, except for the funny hand sign and William Shatner.

I admit, Chris Pine was very endearing as the brash young Captain Kirk - but isn't this a film stereotype we've had enough of? Arrogant, good-looking guy, good with his fists and (secretly) good with his brain. Off the top of my head, that description includes Indiana Jones, James Bond, Wolverine (okay, maybe not the brain part there).

But I must say, I have developed a bit of a geek-crush on Spock, although since Sylar from Heroes plays him, all I could think of for the first ten minutes was "...brains!"

Overall, it wasn't too bad an origin movie since total newcomers could follow the story and were too distracted by the large explosions and pointy ears to feel left out by the in-joke.

...and who knew Eric Bana could look like this?

Eek!

On days like these...

On days of torrential rain, don't you just want to snuggle up and.... play retro video games?

Well, since I don't have a super nintendo anymore, and am too lazy to get an emulator, I found something to sate my nostalgia.

Super Mario cupcakes!

Aren't these the most awesome things you've ever seen? All credit goes to hello naomi, a baker in Newcastle, which means, Sydneysiders like me, can actually partake in one of these beauties!

If Super Mario is not your thing (although how can it not?), here is a Pac-man wedding cake...

I truly applaud those who are geek-chic enough to get a Pac-man wedding cake.

Or how about...

Space Invaders!

I think rain makes me geeky. That's going to be my excuse. But these seriously are the cutest things ever, and looking at them makes me feel less gloomy about the miserable weather. For more baked-goods fun, visit Cakewrecks.

World of Golden Eggs

Now, I don't know how popular this hilarious show is outside of Japan, but World of Golden Eggs is a short cartoon series depicting the lives of the denizens of Turkey Hill.



Crudely drawn 2-D animation somewhat in the style of South Park, Golden Eggs features:

Kevin the turkey who escapes the slaughterhouse to pick up some chicks

Turkey Ranger

and a myriad of other characters. If you have a few minutes or are procrastinating at work or at school, YouTube the cartoon - now most of them are in Japanese, but there are some that are subtitled, I am sure.

Happy viewing!