aids trust food and wine fair

 

It's almost the end of the Sydney International Food Festival, which means one last hurrah of food and wine, for a great cause. The AIDS Trust Food and Wine Fair is the largest fundraising effort for the charity each year. So dig deep, eat up and show your support tomorrow.

Drop by the MSC Sustainable Seafood stand and say hi - I'll be flipping fish with Tom Kime from the Sustainable Seafood Cafe and his team. Look forward to meeting you!

There'll also be stalls by Guillaume at Bennelong, Longrain, Lucio's, Otto, Catalina, Quay, Café Sydney, Buon Ricardo, Wildfire and Icebergs nestled up beside Bourke St Bakery, Brasserie Bread, Lisa McGuigan, Allpress Espresso, Parker’s Organic Juices, Ben & Jerry’s, Abbott Village Bakery, Australian Mushroom Growers, Batlow Apples, Yellow Tail Wines, the Wine Society, Tempus Two, Scarborough Wine Co., James Squire, De Bertolli Wines, David Hook Wines, Brown Bros. Wines, Adina Vineyards, the Midnight Shift and Ferrero Roche...just to name a couple. 

EVENT: SYDNEY FOOD & WINE FAIR 2010 – celebrating 20 years of giving
DATE: Saturday 30 October 2010
FOOD: 12pm – 2pm
ENTERTAINMENT: 12pm – 5pm
WHERE: HYDE PARK NORTH, SYDNEY
COST: FREE ENTRY TO THE PARK

Find out more here. 

top 5 cookbooks you should get this season

It's fast approaching Christmas and for foodies, there humble cookbook makes a pretty perfect gift to receive. With literally dozens of new cookbooks flooding the bookshelves in stores at the moment, here's the fooderati pick of the bunch, for the cookbook collector in your life:

1. Noma, Rene Redzepi (Phaidon Press)

#1 restaurant in the world, Noma's owner/head chef Rene Redzepi is responsible for pushing Nordic cuisine into the spotlight on the world food stage. At the age of 32, Redzepi is one of the most influential chefs in the world - his first book showcases the inspiration, creativity and how the concept of 'time and place' is central to the way this man works. Beautiful photography, too.

2. Quay, Peter Gilmour (Murdoch Books)

In Australia's own stable of top chefs, Peter Gilmour sits pretty at the top. Here's another stunning example of nature-based philosophy and organic presentation that echoes in modern haute cuisine. For sweet lovers, there's incredible eight-textured chocolate cake as well as a few signature dishes that the restaurant is known for. There's lots to build on here - from simple to show stopping.


3. Bentley, Brent Savage (Murdoch Books)

The skills behind Surry Hill's own Bentley Restaurant & Bar, for your take-home pleasure. Dropping the curtain on Savage's kitchen secrets, this book is as good for at-home masterchefs, through to bonafide professionals. There's handy step-by-step photography and instructions on modern cooking techniques used in Brent's kitchen, including sous vide, as well as food and wine flavour pairings. 

4. Rockpool, Neil Perry (New Holland)

Our very own Iron Chef, Neil Perry opened his award-winning restaurant "The Rockpool" in 1989. This collection of over 100 recipes covers everything from canapes to desserts and includes some of Rockpool's signature dishes. The book is a collection of simplified-for-home recipes that encapsulate Neil's east/west style, technique and understanding of balance and flavour.

5. 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down and Eat, Stephane Renaud (Murdoch Books)

Wordy titles aside, this book from Stéphane Reynaud is based on a recipe for every day of the year, including breakfasts, one-pan wonders, succulent roasts,  salads, cocktails and everything in between. It's an irreverent selection of dishes to inspire every meal. There's also a handy seasonal calendar and a series of time-saving cooking tip, making this book a home-kitchen staple.


Read on..Mitch Orr's tip on one of the best cookbook sites for aspiring chefs and those who have already arrived.

bentley book launch

One of the most hotly anticpated cookbooks of the season, The Bentley Bar's book is finally upon us.

To celebrate the launch of the book, The Bentley Bar is hosting a launch event at the restaurant, with a dinner featuring dishes from the book, matched with wines by Sydney uber sommelier and other half of The Bentley Bar, Nick Hilderbrant.

The 411:

When: Monday 1st November, 7pm
Where: The Bentley Bar, 320 Crown Street, Darlinghurst
What: 5 courses plus matched wines and a copy of Bentley cookbook

Ticket options:

Single ticket: $180 including a copy of the book
Double ticket: $300 including a copy of the book per couple
Food and wine: $130 (still an bargain!)

Book via Arial Bookstore: (92) 9332 4581 by 6pm Friday October 29.

upstairs downstairs

Pubs in Sydney have made an art out of becoming a little more than waterholes for post-work refreshment. We've talked about gastropubs before, but there's also a collection of Sydney pubs that offer not just great pub fare, but a more dressed-up option should you decide to go (dare I say it) a little bit fancy. Either way you look at it, ze food? Is good.

The Woollahra Hotel/Bistro Moncur
116 Queen St
Woollahra NSW 2025
(02) 9363 2519

A Sydney institution, The Woollahra Hotel is perfect for catching up with mates for an afternoon gin and tonics or tucking into substantial salads and crisp fries, while overlooking the well-heeled shopping precinct. Since the pub opened in 1993, Bistro Moncur - shaped and overseen by executive chef and Australian food industry icon Damien Pignolet -  has paid homage to chic Parisian bistro atmosphere and great food. Back with one-hat status in the SMH Good Food Guide 2011, expect classic modern French bistro eats like Yellow fin tuna carpaccio and scallop tartare with avocado cream, baby coriander and chives, served with a seaweed and eschalot vinegarette or a classic sirloin, Cafe de Paris style.

The Four in Hand Pub/Bistro
105 Sutherland St
Paddington NSW 2021
(02) 9326 2254

Ex-Banc enfant terrible Colin Fassnidge's little slice of Paddington pub gold continues to be a winner, whether you're in the bar to watch the game and a few beers with the boys or styling it up in the bistro. The pub itself is a historic gem, tucked away a the bottom end of Paddo. There's plenty of original charm left in this old gal and you'll continue to be impressed by the bar menu. There's black pudding with apple sauce (trust him, he's Irish) to share, as well as corn beef (Wagyu) and tempura scallop balls with aioli. The only pub in Sydney to have a 2 hat restaurant - you can be sure that while the pub food is good, the dining room is great. You can order a whole suckling pig for 9 of your best mates (a snip at $80 per head including accompaniments), but if you're after ala carte, give the sashimi bonito and tuna with pickled cucumber and snow or spring lamb two ways, with herb gnocchi and braised baby fennel a go.

The Central Hotel/District Dining
358 Elizabeth St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9212 1068

Warren Turnbull is best known for his fine-diner Assiette in Sydney's Surry Hills, but further down the road, on Randle Street you'll find his newest project District Dining. Opening this week the marble-topped tables and sleep dark wood interior make a great place to have share plates of crispy quail eggs with tarragon and anchovy mayonaise, veal tongue with pickled turnip, salsa verde with almonds or the cracking fried chicken with coleslaw and lime aioli. There's a brilliant wine list, interesting presentation (jam jars, mini paella dishes and chopping boards) and of course, great produce on show.
Downstairs at The Central Hotel, you can expect great pizzas and other, more casual fare - but when you know it's been made by Turnbull, value-for-money doesn't even begin to cover it.

grow your own

If the intermittent rain, sun and pollen-fuelled wind is anything to go by, Spring has definitely sprung in Sydney. Everywhere you go, whether it's supermarkets, hardware stores or florists, it seems everyone is in the business of the garden right now...so why not try growing some of your own food?

There's a heap of vegetables and fruit that grows really quickly and without much help in our temperate weather and not living in a house with a backyard isn't an excuse. There are plenty of ways to grow herbs, fruit and veg on your balcony or on a window sill, so unless you live in a shoebox (and even then, you can grow mushrooms from DIY kits), there's really no excuse.




Salad greens

Rather than buying plastic bags of gourmet leaves from the supermarket (packaging = bad), why not grow a few salad greens, so you can snip what you need to and when.

You can buy lettuce seedlings from most garden shops at this time of the year, but they're completely foolproof for first time growers to do it from seed. Just follow the instructions on the back of the seed packet, water regularly and keep out of constant, direct sunlight.

Sorrell and rocket are also really easy to grow and even respond well to getting a regular haircut to keep them healthy.

Red stuff

Radishes are again, a no brainer seed-to-harvest vegetable. Simply go to your local garden shop or hardware store and buy a packet of seedling trays, some organic soil and off you go.



Strawberries love heaps of sun and are super hardy plants to grow, too.


Tomatoes: here's the thing. You don't need to grow them in the ground and tie them to stakes. Try planting them in hanging baskets, either by punching a hole in the bottom and threading the seedling through the bottom. That way you can grow a companion plant on the top soil and both share the water.

Companion plants and organic pest control

With plants come pests, but they're not hard to control. Plants like marigolds are not only pretty, but hated by aphids and other mites and pests that live in the soil. Plant them near crops like chives to deter aphids from sucking the life out of your delicious herbs.



If you do feel the need to spray, you can buy organic neem oil, which is non-toxic and fine to use on edible gardens. The oil come from pressing the seeds of the Neem tree - native to India and the rest of the subcontinent, it's been used for thousands of years as an ayurvedic medicine and is also a natural insecticide. Put a few drops in a spray gun with water, shake it up and spray every second or third day to get rid of everything from leaf mites on citrus trees to aphids and other tiny beasties.

Read on

Here's a great article about setting up your own self-sustainable balcony garden.
A list of plants that make great mates in the garden (companion planting 101)

And another thing: 

Tomorrow, Saturday, 16 October marks the 30th annual World Food Day. This
year’s theme, ‘United against Hunger’, recognises global efforts in the fight against hunger and emphasises that the task of achieving food security is something everyone can, and should, be involved in.

Click here to find out how you can help.

foraging

In case you hadn't heard, in the culinary world, foraging is the new black. With internationally acclaimed rockstars chefs like Rene Redzepi bringing the trend into the spotlight, it seems every chef is digging, bush-bashing and weeding high and low for local edible leaves, flowers, funghi and berries to add onto their menus.

What is foraging? Essentially, it's the act of looking or searching for food– in the way humans used to do to survive before agriculture was introduced. “Searching the woods or parks or even cracks in the pavement for edible plants has become the latest culinary obsession,” according to  Time magazine.

In Australia, chefs like Ben Shrewy from Attica in Melbourne and Daniel Pepperell from Oscillate Wildly and more, have practically made foraging into an artform, sourcing local produce like nasturtiums, elk, sea succulents and salt berries for their menus.

Here are a chefs who champion the art and their restaurants.

Oscillate Wildly
275 Australia St Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9517 4700
oscillatewildly.com.au

It's been Newtown's favourite fine diner since 2003, and with gun chefs like Karl Furla (head chef) and Daniel Pepperell (sous chef) on the burners, things are showing no signs of slowing. Going off the beaten track, you'll find plenty of interesting locally sourced produce to included in the menu. The eight course, $100 extravaganza showcases seasonal ingredients and foraged favourites like Beef, Burnt Cassava, Wood Sorrel (sourced from the Georges River area) and Alaskan King Crab, Horseradish, Seaweed (picked up from Sydney's northern beaches). 

Sous chef Dan Pepperell's aunty, author Jennifer Isaacs is a pioneer in moves to gain respect for Aboriginal culture, and has written several books including Bush Food which explores "50, 000 years of trial and error" when it comes to native Australian food....so you could say that foraging is a family pursuit.

Billy Kwong
355 Crown St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9332 3300

Mike Eggert, chef at Billy Kwong is a known entity among Sydney chefs for his foraging behaviour, most recently seen in a SMH article written about edible bush bashing during Rene Redzepi's recent trip to Sydney. Although there's a lot that is edible out there - native violets and celery, dianella flowers, blueberry ash and smilax leaves, chickweed - it's also a fair point that there's plenty that isn't, so if in doubt, ask an expert before you chow down. At Billy Kwong, you can find soursop flowers, presented on their sashimi platter. More than just decoration, the lemony acidity cuts through the fattiness of the fish. Soursop flowers, or yellow oxalis is a  common weed, found pretty much everywhere in Sydney and Billy Kwong sources theirs from a dog-free park in the North shore (and we know why that's important).

The Codfather
83 Percival Rd Stanmore NSW 2048
(02) 9568 3355

Inner west bistro The Codfather is known for it's friendly, bustling neighbourhood vibe, where everything, not just the fish, is fresh, fun and yes, filling. Seafood lovers will appreciate dishes like seared ocean trout with shaved fennel, oyster mushrooms, charred shallots and dashi tea, but we're told you can also find foraged ingredients like samphire, a native succulent found in mangrove areas.   Samphire is considered best for use in summer when the fleshy leaves are bright green and aromatic.

Other forager chefs to look out for:

Dan Puskas at Sepia Restaurant
Darren Robertson, ex-head chef Tetsuya's, who runs events and pop-up dinners as The Table Sessions
Luke Powell, current head chef at Tetsuya's

egg and bacon rolls

Do you call it a sarnie or a sambo? Tomato or barbeque sauce? Fancy bread or old-school refined white stuff? A quick Twitter poll conducted earlier today shows that Sydney-siders..or at least the ones using social media, feel quite strongly about what makes a good egg and bacon roll and where to get one.

Breaking it down: anatomy of a good egg (and bacon roll)

The elements are simple; bread, egg, bacon, sauce - but it's how it's done that makes a world of difference...

-The egg: Must be soft on the inside, but not so runny that it oozes all over your hands when you take a bite. (Eating With Hands 101)

- The bacon: Smallgoods are the new black. Given the popularity of good quality smoked goods in Sydney, there's no excuse for bad bacon. There should be a healthy amount of fat on the bacon in order to keep the entire production from being dry, so no extra lean bits here. Rinds can be an issue, so if they're left on, they should be crisp enough to crunch, not rubbery.

- The bread: It doesn't have to be fancy. In fact, some of the best examples of this hangover breakfast of champions, can be seen on old-fashioned bread rolls with super refined, fluffy, white centres.

-The sauce: Are you a tomato or barbeque person? Is caramelised onion and tomato chutney taking it too far? There are an overwhelming amount of people who prefer the barbeque sauce option, reasoning that the smokiness lends itself better to the meaty bacony goodness and I, for one, tend to be one of them. Either way, there's a fine line between not enough (dry) and too much (squishy) to tread when considering how much sauce should be on the roll.

- Additionals: Cheese, chorizo or other kinds of sausage are perfectly acceptable. But salad? I don't think so, Tim.

Sorting the amateurs from the professionals, here's a list of pork and egg purveyors:

The markets: Week in, week out, these weekenders know how to conduct a proper fry up.

Everleigh Farmers Markets
243 Wilson St
Darlington NSW 2010
(02) 9209 4220

Make a bee-line straight for the Eumundi Smokehouse. They rock the classic egg and bacon roll with plenty of Eumundi smoked bacon and homemade BBQ sauce to keep hungover punters happy and there are also chorizo rolls with tomato and basil salsa, if you feel like shaking it up.

Sydney Sustainable Markets
Taylor Square, Oxford Street (at corner Flinders & Bourke Streets)
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Good Living writer Carli Ratcliff swears by the Farmfresh Organic Breaky Barn stand for their sourdough bacon egg sandwiches. Such a glowing endorsement is enough, but what makes these great are the glowing orange-yolked organic eggs and the myriad of sauce options you can choose from. The pork and fennel baguette is also a winner.



Honorable mentions: Orange grove organic markets, Kings Cross markets.


Monday to Friday


...because hangovers don't just happen on weekends.


Varga Bar
10 Wilson Street
Newtown, New South Wales 2042
0424 617 944

Firstly, you have to love a place where you can text through your order the second you roll out of bed...only to walk up to the cafe and have your breakfast waiting for you. Secondly, about these egg and bacon rolls. They're BIY (build it yourself). Start with the basics, or add spiced pear chutney, avocado, extra bacon, chilli pumpkin or mushrooms if you dare.


Malena Cafe
2/32 Perouse Rd
Randwick New South Wales 2031
(02) 9398 4871

Elmer can do no wrong when it comes to cooking eggs. Fried, scrambled, poached, they're always perfect and the egg and bacon roll here is no exception. Favoured by Eastern suburbs chefs and restauteurs alike, it's a great little place to pull up a pew, grab a crackin' coffee and tuck into your sarnie. Simple, and delicious.

Honorable mentions:

McDonalds bacon and egg English muffin with hashbrown and ketchup stuffed in the middle (thank you Dan Hong)

Baffi &; Mo, 94 Redfern St Redfern NSW 2016 - (02) 8065 3294

The Commons, 32 Burton St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 (02) 9358 1487. Homemade bbq sauce..props.

2042, 4/257A King St Newtown NSW 2042 (02) 9557 3476. On Turkish, with cheese, plenty of bacon and a default setting switched to bbq sauce.