The pot is hot: First saw this place walking down Sussex Street and was intrigued by the name — Shancheng Hotpot King — and then by the menu which is crawling with duck’s gizzards and crabs and prawns and didn’t seem to resemble any kind of Chinese food I’ve ever eaten. So off we trot, a group which included a Mandarin-speaking friend who helped us understand how this originally north-western Chinese food works. You sit down and order either half spicy and half chicken or all of one — a big brass tureen full of stock in the middle of the table which has to boil first. Then get the makings, everything from crabs and prawns to duck’s gizzards and mushrooms of all types — a page of them. Throw them in the pot. Fish them out. Eat them with delicious sauces. Drink much cooling wine. Go home happy. It was the best fun I’ve had at a table since reviewing lingerie bars for the SMH in the ‘90s— and better value. 363 Sussex Street, Haymarket, 9267 6366
Slow going. Divine gone: There’s not an awful lot of intelligent writing about food on the planet, and the sad news is that one of the most intelligent publications is about to fold. The final edition of the Slow Food movement’s magazine will appear at the end of the year. This beautifully designed and mainly well-written magazine (well, they let me in too) was published around the world in English, Italian, French, German and, I think, Spanish, and addressed topics as diverse as Mad Cow’s Disease and The Great British Gooseberry. In recent years, Slow Food has become increasingly political, and in the latest issue a plan was outlined to establish an open source data bank for seeds to stop the bio-chemical giants of the world from buying up patents on our food. One of them recently tried to buy Basmati rice — not a kilo but the whole damn genetic box and dice. Slow will be missed. And on a more personal note, I’ll miss Divine Food & Wine, owned, operated, laid out and almost hand delivered by Melbourne-based food and wine crusader Andrew Wood. Woody hung up his shingle earlier on in the year — the last incarnation of the magazine was online — and even that couldn’t raise enough revenue to make a quid. Woody was renowned for paying the best food writers in the country the worst rates, and they didn’t mind because they could let go in the pages of Divine the way they couldn’t in the glossy Loifestoile mags. See you later, Woody — I reckon you’ll be back one way or another (he’s taking time off and working on his little farm outside of Melbourne). Changes and closures: We’re in the thick of getting out Sydney Eats 2008 and reports are flowing in from our spies on the ground about all sorts of doors shutting, a few opening, and chefs shuffling. Over at Randwick, we’ve lost Cassovia, an eastern European place described as a “castle of comfort food” by our reviewer last year (sniff) but gained Elysian on the same site. UK-born chef Micah Rodgers worked a few posh places in London (Chez Nico, The Dorchester) and a couple of good joints here — Otto and La Locanda in Waverley. He and his partner Serina Morehu (front of house) are offering good-value ModOz (aiming for three courses around $50) with a French/Italian flavour. Worth investigating (we are). Gone quickly was L’Ultimo in Crown Street — to be replaced by Ciccio’s Kitchen at Fiva Docka — well, chef Ciccio (ex La Rustica, Lentini) should never have left the inner west … down south, Oatley’s Barolo is “closed temporarily” and not answering the phone — it sold to new owners six months or so ago… Prawn Café at Cronulla closed and Opah (also Cronulla) is undergoing major renovations and a re-think. In Bondi, Gertrude & Alice have moved up the road to 46 Hall Street, same phone, no outside tables but more room inside. Al Aseel, our favourite Lebanese in Greenacre, has added an Italian fish chef to the kitchen and believe it or not, the mix works superbly. And finally, those of you who’ve missed chef Jocelyn Riviere (he was last at the late-lamented Kirketon), he’s turned up at La Grande Bouffe in Rozelle.
| | Festivals & Fairs: You may have noticed the Italian Food Festival happening all around town; it kicked off on May 22nd, goes through to June 11th — still lots of good stuff happening: a La Campania region dinner at Blackwater Ristorante on June 7th: you can discover the gloriously bitter and flavourful aperitivi of Italy at Lo Studio accompanied by spuntini (sort of Italian tapas) every night from 6pm; and on Friday and Saturday you can do an Italian heritage walking tour of Leichhardt with COASIT, the Italian cultural organisation which includes lunch — all details at the website www.sydneyitalianfestival.com.au.  Then there’s the Good Food and Wine Show on 15-17 June at the Sydney Exhibition Centre, which features pots of c’lebrity chefs — you can join Ainsley Harriott! Curtis Stone! Donna Who! and many other high-rolling pan rattlers in the Lifestyle Food Channel Celebrity Theatre. Again, go to the website — www.goodfoodshow.com.au
Meet the provedores: Now if you’d rather meet the people who know about the food the c’lebrity chefs cook, come to lunch at Eat City on Thursday 7th June and eat with Frank Theodore of De Costi Seafood, Clayton Wright of Wright’s Butcher, and David Fesq from Fesq & Co. These guys know more about meat, seafood and wine than Jamie Ramsay has forgotten. And chef Jeff Schroter treats it all pretty well. It’s $120 a head which includes Jeff the Chef’s seven-Course Winter Tasting Journey with matching wines from Fesq Co, along with some great table talk. The only downside is I’ll be chairing. Level 1 City Hotel, 349 Kent Street, 9262 5900
Fiesta in Fairfield: Walk along Spencer Street Fairfield on Saturday around lunchtime and you could be excused for thinking you’re in Uruguay or Paraguay. Outside Martinez Bros Deli Café there’ll be a live band singing songs from South America and, if it’s a good sunny day, outside will also be happy South Americans and Aussies tucking into owner Alvaro Folladosa’s churrasco — barbecue — of ribs and chorizo. This happy joint in the middle of fascinating Fairfield (not far from a Turkish grocer and an Afghan baker) has been round for 10 years or so and is just now being discovered as both deli and café for all lovers of south American food — and some pretty wonderful soft drinks — a range of Maltas, rich brewed non-alcoholic malt drinks, and mote con huesillo — peach juice and barley — in season. 47 Spencer Street, 9724 5509 Provence in Darlo: Highly praised newish joint Forbes & Burton is putting on a five-course Provençal deg in association with champion wine merchant Ultimo Wine Centre. Chef David Pegrum tells us you’ll be degustating on a pistou (a very garlicky basilly veg soup), chef’s own tuna niçoise with raw tuna, kind of Nagasaki meets Nice, and a confit of aubergine with rouget, or red mullet. Sounds supair. Just $99 a mouth. Book by ringing Jason at Ultimo Wines on 9211 2380. The restaurant, as you might imagine, is on the corner of Forbes & Burton in Darlinghurst. Ramsay in Rouse Hill?: It used to be a small pub, sandstone, 19th century, now it’s a suburban booze barn — an interesting suburban booze barn but still designed to shift kegs. Around the side, though, is a really fine restaurant with a serious chef in the kitchen. The pub is The Mean Fiddler, the restaurant is The Royal Oak and the chef is Angelo Velante, an (unbruised) graduate from the Gordon Ramsay organisation in London. The flavours, the produce, the presentation are at least as good, in many cases better than, similar-level restaurants closer to the CBD — but the prices remain in Rouse Hill. Angelo’s braised pig cheeks with crispy pig ear and five spice glazed yabbies, his beetroot gravlax with horseradish cream presented like a flower on the plate, the oxtail raviolo with eschallot, chestnut and brussels sprout leaves were some of the best dishes I’ve had this year. All this with a terrific wine list loaded with Australian, French, Spanish and Portuguese gems. Their beef is aged on site (and in sight through a glass window) and on Sunday there’s a brunch with choices from the rotisserie. You lucky Norwesters. Lot 3 Windsor Road, 9836 5036
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