Late and not so great:If I tell you I’m late with copy for the January column, I hope you’ll understand: turkeys to cook, relatives to negotiate, presents to wrap – but all in all, as my fine female companion noted with a sigh of relief after Christmas lunch, “a relatively stress free day.”
And it being January, not a lot to offer (we gave you all the holiday eating suggestions in December, look ‘em up.) but here goes anyway.
Fine dining or not?:
One trend we should mention before leaving January is the one that many commentators have noted away from ‘fine dining’ in Sydney. Evidence? Usually cited is Rockpool’s ‘dumbing down’, Omega and Three Clicks West – among others – closing. Such a discussion usually ends up with an argument over what is fine dining. We had such an argument at SE. Is Buon Ricordo FD? Pilu at Freshwater? Is, as I find myself believing, FD only possible in a French based restaurant? In spite of the raising of room and food standards at Sydney’s Indian restaurants, could an Indian restaurant ever be classed as FD?
Even with all these question marks, we’re not doing too badly in Sydney at the top end. As mentioned in the intro to the 2008 edition of SE (buy it if you haven’t already) the middle is very strong in Sydney at the moment – by which we mean anything up to entree and main for under $45. But so is the top – we’ve got Marque, EST, Pier, Bilson’s, Forty One, Jonah’s (and now Berowra Waters is back), Aria, Guillaume at Bennelong – and more.
Some hot, some not:
In the May column last year, we told you about those little peppers from Spain, pimientos de padron. Now that was a little late, indeed towards the end of the season. But growers Richard and Margie Mohan have just advised me the new crop is up and he’s taking orders. If you need reminding, these little guys are green, about the size of a small fat chilli, and you fry them in olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and eat them with beer - delicious. There’s a catch. Some of them are really hot, some aren’t – and you can’t tell by just looking. If you want to know some of the theories why this is so, go back to past May’s column. If you want to buy some ($35 a kg, or $30 a kg for 1-2 kgs, $25 for 3 and over), call Richard or Margie on 07 5435 2605 or 0415 151 229 or email on mtcc@ozemail.com.au. And restaurateurs take note – a good item for your tapas menu.
What's going down in New York:
For some time now we’ve been subscribers to the New York magazine’s Grub Digest, a blissfully irreverent food newsletter (like this but with an army of writers and budget to match. A recent posting offered this (in part) under the heading ‘2007 Restaurant Trends Even More Boring Than Last Year:
We just had a look at the National Restaurant Association's top-ten food trends for 2007, and our immediate response? Thank God it’s almost 2008. The list, drawn from a broad national chef survey, is as follows:
1. Bite-size desserts 2. Locally grown produce 3. Organic produce 4. Small plates/tapas/mezze 5. Specialty sandwiches 6. Craft/artisan/microbrew beer 7. Sustainable seafood 8. Grass-fed items 9. Energy drink cocktails 10. Salts (e.g. sea, smoked, colored, kosher)
Are you still awake? Has a business that spawned Asian fusion, celebrity chefs, big-box restaurants, cooks covered in meringue body-stockings, nude sushi, boutique meat, and secret supper clubs really come to this? A list where salt is the most interesting thing?
Now a couple of comments about that. Firstly, with the exception of Salts (the Americans are currently having a love affair with kosher salt) it’s not that much different from what’s going on here. Maybe ‘Locally grown produce and ‘Organic produce’ and ‘Grass-fed items’ and ‘sustainable seafood’ have yet to swim into the main stream in Sydney, but there’s enough of it about to notice. And you know what? I’d rather notice that than ‘cooks covered in meringue body stockings’- eeeeuuh! – or ‘nude sushi’ (is there any other kind?) or any of the other items listed by NY as not boring.
Here at SE we don’t get why chefs are still serving beef that comes from cattle that are force fed for up to two years on something they don’t like and which often makes them sick (we’re talking Wagyu) and why they wouldn’t at least look locally for fruit and veg before flying it in from Mexico or Armenia. Firstly it tastes better – the grass fed beef and the local fruit and veg – and secondly it doesn’t add to the problems. Jees – if organic and sustainable is boring, hey, we’re proud to be boring.
More from Grubby New York:
But the newsletter is, otherwise, amusing, sassy full of fascinating tales and absolutely essential reading if you’re heading for New York and you plan to eat – example – it gives you a list of hot restaurants with tables available for booking that week. A few sample headlines from recent editions:
Gordon Ramsay Even a Jerk on Other People’s TV Shows: Any publication that bags the odious angry cook is alright by us
The Case of the Accused Prostitutes at Maze: A restaurant in the swish London Hotel appears to have young ladies soliciting from the bar – or are they?
The Chef Comic We’ve Been Waiting For!: Well no, we haven’t, but now it’s here we love it. It’s called Wonton Soup and it’s described as ‘ a manga meets Gahan Wilson meets Iron Chef space-trucker opera’
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| |  Don’t forget after enjoying your wonderful dining experience at any of the restaurants below you will receive a complimentary copy of the 2008 Sydney Eats restaurant guide - courtesy of Sydney Eats. Just see the restaurant maitre d' on completion of your meal.
 | Ciel Rouge
Darlinghurst
Sydney Eats readers who dine in December can try the mouth-watering main course special | |
 | Liquidity
Rozelle Bay
Indulge in the freshest Australian seafood and atmosphere of Sydney's Superyacht Marina | |  | Mrs Top
Neutral Bay
Entertain your tastebuds with the finest of regional French cuisine, then catch a free movie | |  | Zaaffran
Darling Harbour
Experience the magic of spectacular views and five-star Indian for a generously reduced price | |  | Bistro Lilly
Sydney
So French! So Chic! Modern Australian in the heart of Sydney - check out this degustation deal | |  | Raquel's Spanish
Darlinghurst
Be spoilt by some of the best Spanish cooking in Sydney - and this special offer | |
Pendolino pending:
It sounds pretty interesting, and it’s the biggest thing to come across the desk in January – but all we’ve got is names and a vague date, but here goes anyway.
Nino Zoccali you might remember was opening exec chef at Otto and Nove. Turns out he also did a double major in economics and Italian before turning to the pots and pans. This will stand him in good stead at Pendolino which is (or will be sometime in early ’08) a restaurant, caffe, and an olive oil shop L’Olioteca in The Strand Arcade with the help of head chef Alfie Spina (last at L’Unico in Balmain) and architect Dominic Alvaro (he worked on the Ivy Hotel development).
Caffe Pendolino will be an early starter in the new European style bars we’ll hopefully be getting a lot more of: slip down a ristretto on the way to work, stop for a Campari on the way home. And it’s about time we had a proper olive oil shop too. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.
Books we've loved this year:
Nowhere near a complete list but a whip round in the office yielded these:
Where The Heart Is by Karen Martini (Penguin RRP $59.95) Ms Martini is not one of those cooks who pulls their punches or their flavours: she gives you the big bang, the full measure – we still remember her anchovy tart at the Melbourne Wine Room. Food to eat with gusto
The Food I Love by Neil Perry (Murdoch Books RRP $85.00): Big price but it’s a monster of a book weighing in at 440 pages. It’s the simple and the bleeding obvious that Perry is doing here – and showing you how to get it right every time. Two pages on tomatoes on toast is not a waste – it’s a thesis.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Bloomsbury RRP $35.00): If you’re puzzled and confused by all the problems that face you choosing food - this book will first make it worse, then make it better. Pollan takes you on as food journey through hunting and gathering and beyond organic and out through the other side as wiser and more informed eater. Then you should read his others.
Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuschia Dunlop (Ebury Press RRP $65.00): Confession time. When first shown this book by my sainted Executive Editor, I sneered and said ‘what would anyone called Fuschia know about Hunanese cooking?” Boy, was I wrong. Not only does Ms Dunlop know here Hunanese food, she knows the culture and has obviously travelled widely and deeply. Be warned, the Hunanese are addicted to chilli in all its forms – raw, as past, powder, flakes – I’ve just opened a page at random and the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of chilli bean paste and a ‘small handful of dried chillis. But the recipes are superb. This is where Mao Tse Tung was born, and his favourite recipe is here. And if you ant to try the food before you buy the book, go to the remarkable Sydney Xiang restaurant in Burwood (details in Sydney Eats).
Becasse – Inspirations and Flavours by Justin North (Hardie Grant RRP $69.95): North is one of those rare chefs who thinks carefully about his food, where it comes from and then how he’s going to cook it. He manages to blend awareness of the environmental aspects of the produce he uses with a really intense understanding of gastronomy – French gastronomy – from the plate up. A more than usually interesting book .
Truffles by Elisabeth Luard (Frances Lincoln RRP $49.95): Elisabeth Luard is one of those Englishwomen, like Patience Gray, who worry a subject to death like a terrier with a bone. Luard decided to do truffles those smelly black underground fungi which have foodlovers drooling and willing to pay $2000 a kilogram, and did she do them. This is the best book on the topic in English (the others are in French) and if you have any curiosity about the topic, this is your book. Beautifully photographed by John Heseltine, who followed in Luard’s footsteps as she tramped around the forests hunting truffles.
Anyway, a belated happy new year from the mob at Sydney Eats, may you eat well, drink moderately and back up for more in 2008.
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