Food and Drink Newsby John Newton Confessions of an addict
Is there a Bourke Street Bakery Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls Anonymous? Am I the only person in Sydney who can’t drive past without having to stop, jump out and buy one (only one, mind — two would be gross)? If there is, I don’t want to hear about it. I love my addiction. What the clever blokes who run this place, David McGuinness and Paul Allam (chefs both), have done is rescue the humble sausage roll from disrepute and place it in the Hall of Food Fame. According to David, it was Paul who actually deconstructed the pork & fennel sausage and rolled it in puff pastry.
But that’s not all they do at Bourke Street Bakery. There are fine breads, both sourdough and yeasted, a gorgeous white olive oil loaf and other bakery snacks like schiaciatta — a sort of an open pastry with grapes on it — and another item for future addiction, the gorgeous ginger crème brulee.
And now there’s a third location to add to the original in Surry Hills (633 Bourke Street) and Chippendale (130 Broadway) at 474 Gardeners Road Alexandria (on the corner of Ellis Avenue, Ph 8399 1001, open Mon-Fri 7am-4pm, Sat 8am-4pm and maybe Sunday soon) where they bake all their sourdough.
There they have an expanded (25 seats) bakery café and do the kind of slab pizzas you might remember from Italy, folded and toasted in a panini toaster; some of the toppings include salami and oregano, and the classic margarita — with coffee from Belcaffe in Cleveland Street.
Another place for me to come to a skidding halt as I pass. Damn.
Sour on sweet?
We do have a lot of restaurants calling themselves Thai, but how many of them really serve Thai food? You might remember my whinge a couple of newsletters back about the plaster-cast salt and pepper squid and the deepfried battered duck in a nameless suburban so-called Thai restaurant. A lot of these places think coconut milk and sugar makes it Thai. It doesn’t. But help appears to be at hand.
The Thai government has initiated a program they call Thai Select. Here’s how it works. Restaurants who apply to win the Thai Select seal of approval are visited anonymously by a panel of judges that includes Thai nationals. They’re judged on authenticity of food (including ingredients), service and hygiene.
It’s a scheme that already operates in the US and Europe. So far, 19 restaurants have been accepted for inclusion in Sydney. You can see the list at www.bestthairestaurants.com as well as other good information about Thai restaurants and food generally.
And remember, when you see the list and you don’t see some of your favourites, restaurants have to nominate. Urge them to.
If you see restaurants on the list that you think shouldn’t be (I spotted one), let them know — with reasons.
Sydney farmers come to town
How many farmers are there in the Sydney Basin? One? Two? Three? Nope — 8000 people make their living from Sydney agriculture.
How much are these farmers worth to the state economy every year? $25.50? $5000? Try $1 billion.
How important are they to our city? Well, a couple of years ago, the President of the Free Growers Horticulture Council said: “If it were not for the Hawkesbury, there would be very little in the way of leafy vegetables on the Sydney market.” This was due to the drought west of the Divide and the unseasonably hot weather in Queensland that was “stewing” the crops up there. And remember that 100 per cent of those luscious Asian greens we all love are grown in the Basin.
But aside from the reduction in greenhouse gases and fuel costs in eating fresh, local and seasonal food, think of the taste. The other day, my daughter pulled some strawberries from the fridge and said, “Where did you get strawberries this good?” The answer was easy. I bought them straight from the farmer.
And now you can buy direct from Sydney farmers every Friday morning from 10am to 3pm at the Sydney Farmers Market at EQ (the old Fox Studios) in Lang Road Moore Park.
Asian greens from the south, stone fruit, duck, freerange chicken, herbs tomatoes and cucumbers from the Hawkesbury, pecans from Richmond — in fact, everything in season in Sydney straight from the ground or grown right near where we live.
How can you help save Sydney’s farms from being turned into real estate? Easy. Make sure as much as possible of the food you buy is fresh, local and seasonal. And the best way to do that is to buy from the Sydney Farmers Market at EQ every Friday until the end of the growing season (April 20).
| | Manly hauls in two more fish
A ‘Manlified’ branch of the ever popular Garfish restaurant mini chain
(there are now three — the others are at Kirribilli and Crows Nest) opened recently on the smooth side of Manly opposite the Manly Wharf hotel. Designer Mark Landini has given it floor-to-ceiling stack-back windows — for the inside-outside feel — and a mix of wood and stone finishes. The food is much the same formula — you choose your fish from the blackboard then decide how you want it cooked and what you want with it — plus there are other fishy delights like a snappy snapper pie. And they’ve added a woodfired oven for popping in Eastern rock lobsters, Spencer Gulf prawns and bugs — you can even have a sirloin steak or a spatchcock. BLD 7 days a week at 1/39 East Esplanade, Ph 9977 0707
And from Byron Bay comes another Fishmongers, this one run by English-born Diana Alkin, who left Manly for Queensland some 10 years ago. The simple formula has been imported intact from the funny-cigarette capital of NSW — fresh fish simply cooked, eat-in or takeaway — and here’s the thing: hand-cut Sebago chips. “The lads cut them every morning,” Diana told me. Good on them. Nothing like a hand-cut chip. Midday till 9pm 7 days Rialto Square Shop 4/11 Wentworth Avenue, Ph 9977 1777
Moving on Margaret
Rumours and reality about the old St Margaret’s site and surrounds at the Oggsford Street end of Bourke
True: David Cowdrill of Pizza Mario has applied to put a new, bigger place in at the site. “It’ll be a 100-seater,” said David, “the usual pizzas (good news ED) and a complete antipasto bar — not just a few slices of cold meat but the full monty. And a few fried dishes but no pasta.” The project awaits council approval, but David sees no problems.
Rumour: At the other end of the site (towards Albion), there’s a hot Singapore chef going in — financed by the Singapore government. Kway teow and how. Let’s hope it’s true.
Rumour busted (maybe): The buzz on Bourke has seen the Icebergs’ Maurice Terzini/Robert Marchetti team moving into the Beresford. “Jerry (Nesibbian, the owner of the Beresford) and his family have been friends for years,” Maurice told me, “I’ve given him a bit of a hand with the design and finding people — we did try to get involved in the food end, but we’ve got a bid in for a hotel in Melbourne and right now, Robert and I have our hands full. But if he needs a hand down the road, we might be able to help.”
Stay tuned.
Where to go when you’re hungry for good food writing
Australian food journalism is often more like rice bubbles than muesli: a bit of noise but not much substance. But there is a place to go for solid, witty, informative and — gosh, do we really like to read? — looong stories on food and food issues. It’s the Observer Food Monthly, and the entire content is free online at observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly
A couple of samples from the latest issue dated October 22. Mimi Spencer offers a few tips to restaurants when writing menus for girls (A girl’s guide to eating and drinking). Ms Spencer (or is that Miss or Mrs Spencer?) reckons we blokes want a concise menu — bacon and eggs; sausages and mash; hog in a bun etc — while you girls like “a slow dance through the dishes in a manner similar to the way in which we buy shoes”.
But they don’t like fussy: the Home-Made Hungarian Elk Salumi, Crostini, Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns and Cured Olives blah blah blah’ makes your poor little heads spin. Hmm. I would have thought a propos the first piece of advice it might give you a bit of a waltz. And restaurateurs take note. “If a pudding involves ‘churros’ or ‘beignets’, we’ll order it. If you call them doughnuts, we won’t.” And further, “We don’t want stuff that squirts or dribbles or anything that requires us to tuck a napkin into our bra…”
Second, a new cookbook from a pommy sheila chef by the name of Allegra McEvedy. We’ve never heard of her but she sounds like a barrel — of laughs. The book is called Allegra McEvedy’s Colour Cookbook (published in England by Kyle Cathie) and one of its recipes is a reprise on the Alice B Toklas recipe for hash fudge. You don’t know the Alice B Toklas cookbook? Alice was almost impenetrable writer Gertrude Stein’s girlfriend and a super cook and her cookbook will probably outlast Gertie’s work. According to McEvedy, you can make it without the hash “because it’s a fantastic fudge … spicy, sticking. Cracking.”
Allegra is a bit of a goer — chucked out of school for behaving “unspeakably” (her word) and fired from London’s famed Groucho Club for “shagging in the shower” (a girl). She wins me because she reckons Michelin stars (or chef’s hats ED) are bollocks because “…it’s not what people want to eat. All that pomp and ceremony. All those reduction sauces. You feel sick. You feel guilty. It’s a waste of time and money.”
And no hash in the crème brulee. The story has recipes — including the fudge.
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