eating challenges

As heard on @fbiradio

It takes a special sort of person to take up an extreme eating challege. Stomach size, determination and supreme discomfort thresholds are clearly important gifts to have, if you are one of these chose few. After our humble host Shag's question about preparing for eating competitions (don't starve yourself, drink water slowly), I've done some digging to find Sydney's most infamous extreme eating challenges. Knives, forks and chopsticks at the ready...

Ramen

There are two ramen rather well known ramen challenges in Sydney, one belonging to Surry Hill's Komachi and the other to the Menya chain of ramen joints.

While there are no stats to be found on exactly how much Komachi thows at punters, the one fact that remains is that over 128 people have attempted it and only 12 have succeeded.

The challenge: Finish the huge bowl of pork broth ramen within 60 minutes and you not only get the meal for free, but you also receive a $50 voucher to spend at the restaurant (probably another time, though..). You lose, you pay $50 for the honor of attempting the challenge.

Komachi
1/426 Cleveland St
Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia
(02) 9319 6554

Over at Menya:

The Menya Ramen Godzilla Challenge is four times the regular serving of a bowl of Menya ramen, meaning that if you succeed, you'll be consuming around 2kg of noodles and soup. If you win, you eat for free and if you lose, you cough up $29.90.

Menya
Shop TG8, 8 Quay Street, Haymarket NSW 2000
(02) 9212 1020

If huge slabs of meat are more your speed, then you're only 1kg of meat and 1L away from Austrian Schnitzelhaus glory.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it:

Finish 1kg of schnitzel, chips and sauce, washed down with 1L of Erdinger weissbier or Stiegl beer within 1 hour. Cost $50. Finish under the record time of 17 minutes: Winner.

And what do you get if you finish?

- Free dessert (because you'll need it after that ordeal)
- A t-shirt (XL and XXL sizes available only?)
- A shot of schnapps (to re-start your heart)
- Your mug on the wall of fame and on the website (so everyone will know what a truly fabulous specimin of humanity you really are).

Contestants must:

- Consume the food on the plate, except garnish is to be eaten (yes, but do you lose points if you eat the garnish?)
- Finish the meal on your own. No sharing.
- Finish without throwing up.
- Finish the beer

Austrian Schnitzelhaus
www.austrianschnitzelhaus.com.au
163 Victoria Rd
Gladesville NSW 2111
(02) 9816 1036

The Fooderati Challenge: The first person to prove they achieved complete food domination over one of the above challenges within the next 7 days will win an awesome Fooderati prize from the foodie cupboard! Email your proof to info@fooderati.com.au.

2010 electrolux appetite for excellence finalists announced

Fostering young talent in any industry is an important initiative. It cultivates innovation, enthusiasm and motivation and that can only be a good thing.

The Electrolux Appetite for Excellence program recognises not only young chefs, but waiters and entrepreneurs who show the most promise within the Australian industry each year.

The finalists have just been announced, among them, our very own [TOYS] member Louise Tamayo from Becasse.

Chef finalists include Soren Lascelles, sous chef from Sydney's Assiette, Emma Shearer from Adelaide's The Manse and Danika Heslop from Quay.

Read up on the full list of finalists here.

taste of young sydney [TOYS]: Issue #2 Skin & Bones

[TOYS] took just 3 hours to sell out two evenings of serious food love, set for June 20 and 21.

Thank you to all who supported the collective by calling to book - we're looking at expanding our program in the future so that more people can be a part of the fun.

For more information, head to tasteofyoungsydney.com.au

sbs featured foodie

The nice guys at SBS Food asked me to be this week's SBS Featured Foodie. How nice of them!

Read my interview here, to find out more about my family food background, my favourite foods too cook and eat and more. Hope you like it!

open sesame

As heard on FBi Radio (click here for the podcast)
Winter certainly seems to be the time to open restaurants in Sydney. We've seen a spate of Italian flavoured restaurants of late, with Manly Pavillion, The Corner House and La Scala, but here are a few whispers in the industry for you to keep an eye on.

Cotton Duck
50 Holt Street, Surry Hills

Opening: Early July 2010

Jared Ingersoll is best known for being 'that crazy kiwi' on Ready, Steady, Cook, as well as for his chic urban eatery Dank Street Depot, which started in Waterloo when Dank Street wasn't the foodie mecca it is today.

8 years on, he's self admittedly "sick of toasting sandwiches and poaching eggs", so he's opening a new restaurant on Surry Hill's Holt Street, just up from Italian favourite Vini. Named after the building's textile heritage and the fact that the ducks on the rooftop pond used to routinely get blown off and land on people down in the street during high winds, Cotton Duck will have the same sustainable, ethical produce focus, but the cuisine will be the kind that shows what Ingersoll is truly capable of, outside of the cafe environment.

Berta
17-19 Alberta Street, Surry Hills

Opening: Mid June, 2010

Speaking of Vini, owner Andrew Cibej is expanding his Italian empire, with the entrance of a new Italian wine shop in the same building as Jared Ingersoll's new Cotton Duck (just across the alley way from Vini), but the team are also opening a new wine bar up the way, at the bottom of Oxford Street. Berta will serve some of the incredible wines that front of house maestro Georgio sources from the mother country, as well as salumi and cheese plates and other small dishes to nibble on.

Say hi to Kristen - Vini's cheese-making, guerilla dinner-throwing manager is heading over to Berta to steer the ship.

Ms G's
155 Victoria Street, Potts Point
Opening: July/August 2010

Merivale has purchased the Victoria Street site that once was Italian restaurant, Ego and before that, Neil Perry's domain. After March's David Chang explosion of Momofuku rage in Melbourne and Sydney, Merivale's new restaurant will be headed up by Lotus' Dan Hong and will feature Asian-style 'tapas', in a similar style to Chang's New York empires momofuku noodle bar, ssäm bar, ko, milk bar & má pêche.

After Hong's triumphant David Chang dinner in March, where our local boy cooked the American Korean man mountain's food, this will be one to watch. Get in before the masses go gaga. In the meantime, check out Hong's food at Lotus, around the corner.

taste of young sydney [TOYS]: Issue #2 Skin & Bones

www.tasteofyoungsydney.com.au

[TOYS] Issue #2 has finally landed, with dates being announced for late June.

New on the line up this time around is Yu-ching Lee and Marque Restaurant's Pasi Petanen - both have been creating buzz in the industry of late with their deft approach to their own style of culinary creativity and we're very excited to have them on board. The front of house team has also expanded to include Luke Ashton from Ivy Pool Bar and Mitchel O. Bushell from newly opened The Corner House.



Tickets will go on sale at 9.00am Wednesday the 26th of May

Where: Flinders Inn, 160a Flinders Street, Paddington, Sydney 2021
When: June 20, 21 2010, 6.30pm- 10.30pm
Cost: $170pp. Includes canapes, cocktails, 6 courses and matched wines
How to book: Check the [TOYS] website at 9.00am on Wednesday the 26th of May for the TOYS hotline number.

Read more here

help an heirloom

As heard on FBi Radio (click here to listen)

The United Nations has declared May 22 International Day for Biological Diversity. While it goes broader and deeper than just what we eat, it's time to stop and think for a sec, about the last time you saw an heirloom vegetable. It's even possible that you've never seen one.

The simplest definition of heirloom varieties are that they are varieties that were commonly grown generations ago, but aren't used in commercial cultivation. Passed on from generation to generation via seed and graft, there's a huge range of fruit and vegetables that fall into this category.

Call it the advent of supermarket culture, but the reason we're familiar with certain species of tomatoes - roma, cherry, for example, as opposed to Wapsipinicon peach, green zebra or black Russians is simply because supermarket varieties are generally:

- faster to cultivate
- transport well without bruising
- keep longer without spoiling

Note the absence of any points referring to taste, texture or aroma in the list above.

Heirloom vegetables may be a hot topic for chefs at the moment, and while fashion trends in any industry can help or hinder a cause, the reason the hottest retaurants in town are using them - (Dan Hunter's Royal Mail Hotel, Matt Kemp's Restaurant Balzac, and Jared Ingersoll's new resto Cotton Duck, for instance) - is because they taste better.

Shocking, but true. Another truth of the matter is that if we stop consuming rarer species of fruit, vegetables and animals (think Berkshire pig, not whale), then sooner or later, we shouldn't be surprised that we no longer have the choice to consume them.

Some places to find heirloom vegetables:

Buy them: Farmers Markets - Everleigh, the new Taylor Square and regional markets are great places to look.

Grow them: The Digger's Club (the guys involved in Melbourne Food & Wine's awesome Edible Garden) is a great place to start, if you're looking for seeds or seedlings to get your own garden started.

Read on: International Day for Biological Diversity, Carli Ratcliff's Hunter Gatherer blog for SBS

best city in the world

I was recently asked by Tourism NSW to write about my favourite Sydney food moment for their blog The Best City in the World. Tough call! Here's what I said:

(those are fried lamb's testicles, btw)

To be asked to whittle down many brilliant Sydney food moments to just one, is a tough call for a voracious eater. In the past twelve months, I’ve had wild boar prosciutto, crumbed lambs testicles, spicy sofrito of pig heart, liver and lungs, crunchy pigs ear salads, sweetbreads, watched an entire tuna broken down and cut into sashimi (gotta love that toro – tuna belly), experienced the best wurst, cvarci, bacalao and more.

Working in the food industry as a writer and marketing consultant, I feel fortunate to have been cooked for and eaten with some of Sydney’s best and finest – but the further in this food journey I get, I keep going back to the notion of ‘soul food’ – not in the 70’s United States blacksploitation sense, but closer to home – it’s the stuff you grew up with: The familiar, comforting foods of your family, ethnicity and experience. For me, that’s Chinese cuisine, and the array of wonderful regionally specific cuisines we get to call our own.

The combination of great Chinese food, friends and buzzing atmosphere is no better encapsulated than by eating at Golden Century Seafood Restaurant in Sydney’s Haymarket, late at night (often after midnight), with a bunch of chef, wine and front-of-house mates from some of Sydney’s best restaurants. After everyone has finished work, it’s a chance to hang up the apron and catch up on the news of the day.

Our group, including pastry enfant terrible Adriano Zumbo, Bentley Bar's Kylie Javier, are happy to leave the ordering duties to Lotus’ Dan Hong, who doesn’t need a menu at this much-loved Sydney establishment, we’re quickly served up a huge platter of pippies, stir-fried in XO sauce, salt pepper and chilli fried whitebait and squid, ‘special roasted’ duck, fried rice and an emerald-hued plate of wok-tossed greens. A light supper, if you will.

It’s such a pleasure to eat any Asian food with a huge table of hungry friends – there’s delight in making a mess, fighting for the last piece of duck, with it’s crisp skin and sweet sour dipping sauce, sucking the aromatic, spicy sauce from the pippie shells and slopping tea on the table cloth while pouring each other tea.

Long after the dishes are cleared away, it’s these kinds of food moments that stick with you (and sometimes to the arteries) – it isn’t always the most haute, expensive or obscure regional cuisine that creates the best experiences – if there’s good produce on the table and good friends around it, it’s all you need, really.

fbi radio's favourite local feeds

Grabbing a bite to eat on the way to the FBI studios is a daily challenge for some FBI kids - with a host of interesting places to eat, in this eclectic part of the world. The landscape is changing, as a new wave of people move into the area, bringing an urgent requirement for good coffee and, according to some shop owners, feta cheese...

Baffi and Mo
94 Redfern St, Redfern
8065 3294
Mon-Sat 7am-3pm, Sun 7am-2pm

In line with the rising housing prices and general gentrification by young, cool things, buying up and moving into this part of the world. Like it or lump it, Baffi & Mo's represents the new wave of awesome cafes in Redfern - offering a solid cafe menu of soon-to-be-favourites including stellar sambos and killer coffee. If you're super hungry, the signature brekkie here is the Eggs Baffi with roasted mushrooms, feta, spinach and hollandaise will quell the hunger, worked up from your bike ride through the park. Great for people watching and a solid caffeine IV.

Yen's Vietnamese Restaurant
29 Botany Rd
Sydney, 2017
(02) 8399 0598

Pho. We go on about it for good reason: it's a fragrant, flavour packed bowl of nutritious broth, filling rice noodles, fresh veggies and tender beef. And for just $8, all this joy can be yours, at Yen's. The servings are generous enough for most hungry locals to feel satisfied. And if you really want to make a meal of it, the fresh spring rolls, filled with vermicelli noodles, vegetables, chicken and prawns or the chim cut chien (marinated, grilled quails) make great entrée dishes.

This much loved establishment is frequented by such FBI celebrity djs as Tyson Koh from Loose Joints and our very own Sweetie.

St Germain Patisserie
88 Rosehill Street (cnr Boundary Street)
9319 7161

Where radio people are concerned, it's always a case of a little 'more' conversation, a little more action and it's the case for St Germain Patisserie. Their 'conversations' come in the form of a pastry made for sharing - made with almond meal, puff pastry and blueberries. They also make a pretty mean peanut butter macaroon, too. If savoury is more your thing, order a classic quiche Lorraine or a beef bourginon pie, to eat in, or on the run.

If you're into fancy French things, owner Gwenael also makes an impressive croquembouche, to order.

Honorable mentions

Wilsons Lebanese Restaurant

91 Pitt St, Redfern NSW 2016
(02) 9319 6775

Wah Fung Chinese BBQ Restaurant

64 Regent st Redfern, 2016
(02) 9698 2898