intruder

Okay, this isn't really about food. Because neither am I, any more. I'm widening.. er, broadening my horizons...

I love this blog. I wish it were mine. This is blog envy. Am I over a food blog phase?

Am I over a phase in my life where food was The main good thing, the only flame?
Where I had forgotten how to procrastinate, my other favourite thing?

Certainly I still enjoy reading food blogs. I just enjoy other things a lot too.

Such as Gotye. His album is going around and around in my head lately.

I'm feeling pride in my city, my country. Melbourne's cultural hipness and hapness. Fond disdain for the wankery around the arts, which is arrogant of me at 21. Self awareness of privilege too.

Thing is, I'm too lazy to take photos of food all the time. But a food blog without photos just isn't the same to read. And I have this other blog which I could switch back over to, and try to recover. Or should I just keep going at EGWC and write about a variety of things? I'll write the same old crap wherever I'm posting.

Enough of this, silly. Semantics time.

PS We had roast lamb today, with all the goods as done in our family. And steamed a plum pudding I made the other day, and ate it with custard, and of course cream.
I also may have made ginger nuts and digestive biscuits.. thankyou Matthew Evans, writing just for me, the weekend cook (I do miss the old title though. Anyone can cook).
Oh, and carrot and zucchini fritter/patty things, with cumin. They were good.

delicious ginger

This morning I went to a new place at uni whose sign for spicy, gingery chai I have been eyeing for the last couple of weeks. There was a smiling, charismatic person there with a laptop whom I sat next to with my laptop.

He had sitting in front of him a dirty mug and three-quarters of a muffin, and as we sat there tapping the people from behind the counter came over and took away his dirty mug, and smiling, he yelled something out to them as they returned to the coffee machine.

'Here's your change, man.' The coffee student held out more than two dollars, but had to convince him to take it, in the end winning on the grounds that the girl had charged him double for the previous thing.

I worked for a while, and he had gone, but the laptop was still there on the sunken seat. Then he came back, moved it and sat down again. I smiled, without looking up from my (very rudimentary) essay.

He had brought with him a clean mug and a steaming pot, and apologised he was going to stink the place out with ginger. I told him I was having the ginger chai, and it would do me good anyway with sinus issues.
And he poured it, and it smelled so good. It was ginger and lemongrass.
With honey, it's amazing, he told me.

My spicy chai was $4.50 with soy.

It was worth it.

Las Vegan Bakery

Just went there for lunch today.

OH MY WORD it was delicious.

No, I'm not vegan, but I have increasing numbers of friends who are.

My sister went with a vegan friend of hers and told me more than once about the tofu and tempeh with satay sauce, bean shoots and salad ($8.50), which I dutifully ordered, eyeing the rest of the menu with equal longing. I wasn't sure what to expect, having had tempeh only once before at Vegie Bar (I LOVE Vegie Bar, but don't get tempeh there, at least not with the House Salad. It's as dry and boring as 7:30 on a Sunday night with no food in the house). But S1 had said this would be nothing like that.

She Was Right.

My local lunchmate ordered the Rice Balls (also $8.50), also with satay sauce, bean shoots and salad. A girl at the next table had this - I asked about it and she said it was her favourite! - and it was inevitable that one of us was going to order it.
Not everything on the menu has bean shoots, or salad, or satay sauce - in fact, some things have none of them! - but I was exceptionally glad to have all of the above.
The salad was just good old salad, but with little semi-dried olives and this fantastic dressing. I can't quite describe it. Think it had garlic?
The rice balls, 2 plump mounds of rice with a little bit of corn and stuff, encased in a sticky, sweetish batter and deep fried, were gorgeously ugly.
The satay sauce is evil, it's so good.
But I was happy with my tofu, hard on the outside, soft in the middle, and meltingly good tempeh.

The place is really cute. Run, it seems, by this funny straight-faced man.. he was serving and this helpful woman was out the back cooking (to get to the toilet you have to go through the kitchen and they tell you how to use the basin with the foot pedal). I shall check out what has been written about them when I have more time coz I want the story.

Everything is a similarly cheap price. Nothing under $5 except a muffin ($2, today only, according to the sign... they ran out while we were there. They looked great.) or a $3 all-you-can-drink cup of chai with bonsoy, but I don't even care, it's still super value for the best meal I've had in weeks, that's how pleased I am with Las Vegan.

They do takeaway, too. It's worth noting that they're only open 11-3:30, Tues-Fri.

If you're reading my blog and you don't know where Las Vegan is, I am surprised. And pleased. Don't make them too busy to fit me in, but they're on Smith St Collingwood, right near Trippy Taco and Espresso 24 or whatever it's called... between Victoria Pde and Gertrude.

Shhh!

blueberries

go with cream, and are good for your brain. Good to know at this time of year, when assignments are due and there's reading and work to be done.
Incidentally, I read an article the other day about blueberry's lesser-known cousin, the bilberry. Apparently it can help with Raynaud's syndrome, which I hadn't realised officially existed, but which bothers me sometimes, like in winter. Perhaps baking tarts will keep the cold at bay this year.
We don't normally have blueberries, but someone at Mum's work had a relative with a berry farm who when the fires came, grabbed what they could and ran. So we were lucky enough to be able to relieve them of a kilo of blueberries... plump, sweet and bubbling with juice when you bake them in a tart and rescue it from the oven, albethey blanketed under a buttery, subtle almond filling.
I'd been eyeing off Clotilde's recipe in my beloved Chocolate & Zucchini book for some time now. Almonds, blueberries, butter and delicious shortbready pastry. What more could you want? Apart from some cream to go with it, of course.

birthday

Yes, it's been a while, that's true. But I have 2000 words due tomorrow, so what better time to blog?

A lot has happened since last I wrote.. including a birthday dinner of mine at BCoz, Riversdale Road, Hawthorn (here). It's a certified organic, completely ready-to-comply-to-whatever-dietary-requirement-you-can-throw-at-us 'fine dining' restaurant (we threw nothing, and they actually seemed quite disappointed).
I was 21.

I was having an anxiety problem, and shouldn't have had more than a sip of the delicious organic rose-tinted sparkling wine we started with, because after the lovely tomato salad...no photos of this, alas, but Bcoz's description: yarra valley heirloom tomato, pickled cucumber, feta, basil & spinach salad... who knew there were so many kinds of tomato?
The Black Russian ones tasted like baked beans. Yes, sophisticated lady am I...

Anyway, after some different zucchini flowers (with half-zucchini attached!) - rice battered, with quinoa, pickled vegetable and brazil nut salad - I felt wrong by the time the soup appeared, and I don't generally care much for soup. This was fine, but it was just soup. How cute the bowls were, though! (Photos très artistiques par ma plus 'tite soeur.) And the bread that came with tasted just like out of Mum's bread machine, but they'd stuck white to wholemeal dough, which was just as cute as the bowls, and we had butter. Mmm. Anyhow, the soup was a ducky broth with sweetcorn and pasta. So when the Moreton Bay bugs arrived, beautifully done (wok tossed queensland bug meat, leaves, macadamias, spanish onion,
chilli salad passionfruit dressing), it was all I could do, once I got back from the Ladies, to look sadly on and try to tell myself I'd feel better once I'd swallowed some food.

Didn't work for the chicken with cashew and coconut, albeit this was tastable art, and it was gorgeous. Okay, a description is called for. It was amazing. Menu said: crisped milawa free range chicken, leaves, wonton wafer, dried mango, cashew nuts, coconut dressing. OH the coconut dressing, woe to be without appetite.

Wondering if I felt better after another trip to the loo, I didn't even try for more than a taste of the lamb (on sweet potato mash with mustard seed sauce), though I did get a photo.
But! Appetite somehow reappeared in time for dessert. Funny, that.
Dessert platters were good. My favourite was possibly the warm banana soufflé - inspired! Apple and pear 'bread pudding' was very good with an interesting sugary crumb. It was nice with the toffee icecream, which they had told us was vanilla bean, but the pudding was a bit too much sugar, which makes my throat hurt. Needed cream. 'Bread' here wasn't referring to actual bread, but a cakey entity.
What else... the coconut and lime tart was great, went beaut with pineapple sorbet. Fun, fun. The chocolate hazelnut marshmallow was funny but good. I liked it. But the whole dessert platter needed some cream accompanying.. the sweet needed diluting!

Next birthday, either something spontaneous or nothing. No more stress.
If anyone sprang a surprise posh dinner, or lunch on me, I wouldn't mind, though. That wouldn't be stress.

Genius, daringly simple Febbaking

This is what I was waiting for, the reason - without knowing it - that I joined the Daring Bakers. Not for the endless rolling and resting of pastry, not for fiddling, getting out and putting back in the fridge, not for beating curdly buttercream icing and making toffee to pralinate in the food processor, or in fact for icing of any kind. Especially not for piping bags.

Genius.

Three ingredients. Chocolate, butter, eggs.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
(Never mind the ice cream. I made pistachio and served it another time. But it turned out such an ugly colour that I haven't got a good photo yet! so you won't see it in this post.)

Cared I that it was Valentine's Day? I wouldn't have noticed except for a certain teenager I know feeling the aloneness of couples all over the world doing coupley things (as far as she knew.. or defying the contrivedness of such a Hallmark holiday.. or not even caring enough to defy).

Chocolate is the answer!

It was a good distraction for my teenage friend, anyway. And an excellent one for me.
And an even better dessert the next day.

Who needs flour, honestly. The TEXTURE.

Chocolate Valentino (Australian adaptation)
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
454 g chocolate, roughly chopped (I just used 450. Aka 16 ounces)
146 g unsalted butter (Imperialists! Just measure it. Or use 125 g like me, quarter of a block.)
5 large eggs, separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While the choc-butter mixture is cooling, butter the pan and line with baking paper.
2a. Put on Ray LaMontagne, Bob Dylan, or whatever music you feel like. Dance around.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. (Hooray! same beater. Clever 'un who wrote this owns the key to my own chocolate heart. Hear me Daring Bakers, our usual recipes use far too many dishes. Don't you have something better to do than wash up?)
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmould..

It needs a good chocolate, because with no added sugar, nuts, flour or that, this cake tastes exactly like the chocolate you use. But even better, because it's cake.

breakfast around town

Though you wouldn't know it from the number of posts around here, I've been busy, using my abundant holiday time wisely.
Maybe it's a holiday thing too, that I've discovered the joy of making breakfast an event in the day. I used to hate the fact that a big breakfast out would take away the point of lunch, because lunch is one of my favourite meals, along with breaky. and tea.

The breakfast that changed my mind was nowhere less worthy than Dench Bakers, North Fitzroy. Right at the start of my holidays, i.e. November.. it was a cool morning. We sat inside, feeling a little bit cold, tired and under the weather, and between two of us ordered hot chai, bircher muesli with berries and French toast with cooked pear. We couldn't finish the muesli, and don't I wish I'd had a picture... that French toast changed my life. I didn't care about lunch. I wanted it to be breakfast time again.
Breakfast for lunch also made me pretty happy when I tried the award-winning corn fritters at Mart 130, Middle Park. I'd read about them on Claire's blog a while before and was blown away. Sweet corn, smooth sour cream, coriander, salty snappy bacon and tomato relish. It's not very me, and oh how that just didn't matter.

Another cool morning in the city found me loving a nice warm coffee from next door and a savoury mushroom crepe at Concorde Crepes, GPO, as reviewed at possibly my favourite blog WTB. I don't think they do buckwheat crepes, it's all the same batter, so my mind told me it was probably unauthentic but my mouth made me unable to care. (Bonus if you care about lunch - this left enough room for another meal later.. or an immediate sweet crepe. I thought about it, because my friend's banana, ricotta and almond looked so good. Next time.)

Oh! pictures! Please forgive my tangents. In accordance with my enjoyment of corn fritters, I was told I'd love the breakfast stack at the Green Refectory, Brunswick. That's it you see far, far above, complete with potato thingie (a lot of), bacon, grilled tomato, haloumi, spinach, a poached egg, and encircled by some good tomato relish. It's a good concept but this time, it seemed to matter that it wasn't my thing.
Here on the right is their French toast with poached pear. It was quite nice.. a bit meh. Maybe I'd been spoilt by Dench.

The BEST EVER breakfast out I have had, a couple of Tuesdays ago when I headed to the Jam Factory to see the dwindling Twilight. Chapel St is a long way for me, so I don't get there very often, and I made sure to visit my favourite bakery Amici after the movie. But for breakfast beforehand, we went to Babble (can't find a review I like), Izett St, Prahran. It was 11:30 by the time we got there and we had to be out by 12:10. Could we do it?
Happily, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Split two ways, we got to have both:
1. Polenta vegetarian breakfast - words, used by me, cannot describe how good this was. Why oh why did I not have my camera? Triangles of the best, crunchy, creamy but still light, polenta with some hint of chopped green herb, grilled field mushroom with rosemary, tomatoes, just-enough-seasoned spinach and a little pot of plain yoghurt on the side.
My friend K, this is waiting for you. I am almost scared to go there again in case it isn't as good.
2. the French fruit toast! with mascarpone, banana and strawberries, and some subtle syrupy strawberryish sauce. The Best. Delicious. There was some coconut in there too somewhere. Ohhhh, the French fruit toast.

While I research and wait for the perfect French toast technique to show itself through my hands, it must be pancake time. Breakfast at home is also very good.


And not least of all when it's Bill's blueberry buckwheat pancakes.

PS Shrove Tuesday! Crepes tonight, perhaps.