eating & drinking sydney - the guide!

Eating & Drinking Sydney
In stores 1st September 2011
RRP $29.95

FIVE COPIES TO GIVE AWAY!

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This is a momentous milestone for me. I am now a published writer!

Although I’ve been published online before, there’s something very fulfilling about a tactile, physical book that has your name scrawled across the cover.

This is Hardie Grant’s new guide to Sydney’s restaurant and bar scene, and I was cast in the role of Chief Contributor, Bars.

The goal of the guide was to capture a cross-section of venues in each of Sydney’s distinct locales and to demonstrate the unique reasons that making any given venue worth a visit. I’m pretty proud with what we achieved.

What does a chief contributor do?

My job was to compile a list of the 200 bars to be reviewed as well as some top 10 and top 5 lists and a few break out boxes on topics like NSW wines and cider. It was tough selecting only 200 bars for inclusion, especially when we had to cover off such a huge geography across Sydney. Some very worthy venues just couldn’t fit in.

Although I wrote many of the bar reviews too, there was an army of other writers out there, drinking and boozing away to give my poor liver some time to recover .

Besides bars, the guide covers restaurants and a cheap eats too. Professional journalist Lizzie Meryment, food critic at The Sunday Telegraph and The Weekend Australian, managed the 330-strong restaurant section and suburban dining expert Helen Yee, blogger of the much celebrated Grab Your Fork, came up with 170 cheap-eats.

Guiding us throughout the creation of this guide was the talented and incredibly supportive Clare Brundle. She was the project manager and editor, flying solo without a sub-editor and doing a marvellous job at getting the content ship-shape and off the publisher. We'd have nothing without her!

Being part of this project was a wonderful experience and I’m so pleased with the final product: this shiny, ultra-professional guide book.

The true test is whether I’d buy it myself and, yes folks, I would!


What were my favourite cocktails?

Having quaffed my way through a myriad of Sydney bars, apart from borderline alcohol dependence, I’ve built myself a list of favourite cocktails. My all time favourite is a well prepared Charlie Chaplin, made from sloe gin, but of the unique inventions I came across, these are the ones that resonate in my memory and draw me back for seconds, thirds and tenths.

NUMBER TEN
The Winery
Rosé Sangria
Rosé wine, Martini Bianco, lemon, strawberries

NUMBER NINE
Bloodwood
Grandfather Gus
Chivas Regal 12yr, Disaronno Amaretto and a slice of dried fig

NUMBER EIGHT
Madame Fling Flong
Madame Coco
Creme de Cacao, Frangelico and Baileys blended with milk. Poured gently into a chocolate sauce coated glass & topped with a light dusting of chocolate powder

NUMBER SEVEN
Eau de Vie
Smoky Rob Roy
10yr Talisker and 16yr Lagavulin Scotch whiskies, sweet vermouth, Olivia #5 cigar infused Zacapa 23 rum, Laphroaig quartercask rinse, orange bitters and a bourbon infused cherry

NUMBER SIX
Lotus
Celestial
Plymouth gin, lime juice, elderflower cordial, apple juice, kaffir lime leaf

NUMBER FIVE
Ms G’s
Yuzu Slushie
Limoncello, Russian Standard Vodka, shochu, yuzu juice, yuzu curd and Regans’ orange bitters

NUMBER FOUR
The Loft
Baghdad Iced Tea
Cucumber infused vodka shaken with fresh apple, mint, apple liqueur and rose syrup served tall, topped with chilled jasmine tea

NUMBER THREE
Tokonoma
Saru Caprioska
Monkey Shoulder Whisky muddled with pineapple, lemon and house-made vanilla & ginger sugar


NUMBER TWO
Gardel’s Bar at Porteño
Banana Old Fashioned
Banana infused Jack Daniels shaken with smoked maple syrup and served on hand-hewn rock ice

NUMBER ONE
Stitch
Grandma’s Addiction
Clement Creole shrub liqueur shaken with Mandarine Napoleon, Tiki spice syrup, balanced out with fresh lime juice & orange bitters.


Do you want to WIN a copy?

Then tell me, what’s your favourite cocktail?

GIVEAWAY:
For Morsels & Musings readers, Hardie Grant is giving away five copies of the Eating & Drinking Sydney!

HOW TO ENTER:

Tell me, what’s your favourite cocktail or drink?

Leave your answer
1) As a comment on this post (AND email morselsandmusings AT yahoo DOT com DOT au so I can get in touch with you if you win)
2) As a comment on the Morsels & Musing’s Facebook page

Entries close Friday 16th September when five lucky winners will be picked and a guide mailed their way courtesy of publishers Hardie Grant!

Eating & Drinking Sydney
In stores 1st September 2011
RRP $29.95


An iPhone app is on it's way too!

tuscan chicken

Audrey Gordon’s Tuscan Summer

This cookbook is a riot.

A group of Aussie comedians, known as Working Dog, have invented this hilarious celebrity chef Audrey Gordon to take the piss out of our obsession with chefs, cooking and all things food!

There have been so many cooking shows, cookbooks and reality rat races on TV these days. People are a little cooked out.

Now there’s Audrey Gordon, an invented caricature combining the funniest aspects of Nigella, Gordon, Delia and Jamie into one delicious satire.

They’ve created a resume and accolades for Audrey, including her time as lifestyles editor of Implausible Homes magazine or her three year reign as “Britain’s Sternest Chef”. She’s even got her own website.

They have really lavished a lot of time and attention into this book with daily diary entries by Audrey, quotes, tips on etiquette and cultural reflections. It chock-full of content to laugh over.


And the 60 recipes are real, and tasty.

I came home from work and Jonas, who had been chuckling away at the book during his day off, had decided to give it a test run.

The results were superb.

Pollo alla Toscana (Tuscan Chicken)

Recipe from Audrey Gordon’s Tuscan Summer. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
1 x 900g chicken, preferably corn fed
1 large lemon
60ml EVOO
8 sliced prosciutto, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 good handfuls fresh thyme leaves, coarsely chopped
4 large potatoes, quarteed
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven and a roasting tray to 220’C. Wash the chicken inside and out and pat dry with kitchen towel.

2. Using your fingers, separate the skin from the breast meat, being careful not to rip the skin. Slice the lemon and work the slices under the skin over each breast. Smooth the skin back in place and wipe the chicken dry.

3. Rub 2 tablespoons of olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper over the bird. Really massage it in, paying particular attention to the back, shoulders and other common areas of tension.

4. Push the prosciutto, garlic and thyme into the cavity and put your chicken on the hot roasting tray and into the oven for 20 minutes.

5. While the chicken is cooking, parboil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes and drain. Add the potatoes to the roasting tray and continue to roast for 40 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200’C and cook for a further 15 minutes.

6. To tell whether the chicken is done, insert a skewer into one of the thighs. If the juices run clear, then it’s ready to eat. If you detect blood either the chicken is under-cooked or you’ve stabbed yourself.

7. Remove the chicken to a heated platter and cover loosely with foil. The potatoes may require a further 10 minutes in the oven for crisping.

Audrey’s tip: If you can’t find proper prosciutto at your local shops. You can use ordinary bacon or perhaps consider moving to a better suburb.

Anna’s tip: If you don’t want to do a whole chicken, choose drumsticks or thighs with the skin still attached.

The book is published by Hardie Grant (who sent me a copy to check out, thanks!) and Australians will know Working Dog as the people behind classic Aussie films like The Dish and The Castle, or the TV shows Thank God You’re Here and The Panel.

If you want a little taste of the tongue in cheek humour this book delivers, you can watch YouTube clips of the lady herself whipping up a tiramisu (below) or cooking pasta with prosciutto.

Watch out Nigella!

noma: time & place in nordic cuisine

Crave Sydney International Food Festival will launch on Friday 1st October, and first up they will be firing the big guns with René Redzepi, Head Chef at Copenhagen restaurant Noma, the recent winner of Restaurant Magazine’s prestigious Restaurant of the Year award.

Redzepi is an international ambassador for Nordic produce and has had a Michelin-starred career working at Pierre André in Denmark, Le Jardin des Sens in France, elBulli in Spain and The French Laundry in California before opening Noma.

From the harbour-side converted warehouse in the bohemian Copenhagen suburb of Christianshavn, Redzepi and the Noma team are pumping out some awe-inspiring dishes with native ingredients and unique presentations.

Having watched Redzepi and Noma’s popularity grow online, he has truly helped revive Nordic ingredients both in their native countries and abroad.

Think birch, wood sorrel, sea buckthorn, horse mussels, musk ox, lichen, curds and cloudberries.

I could go on and on and on. I really could.

The thought of these exciting ingredients conjures up memories of my husband’s Swedish homeland: the crisp air, pure drinking water, green herbs, flavoursome potatoes, powdery snow, rich moose meat, gentle sunlight, sweet crayfish, sparkling harbours, dappled forest light and bountiful tart berries.

Again, I could go on and on and on.

I am remarkably privileged to get a sneak peak into Redzepi’s new cookbook Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine.

The book begins with the evolution of Noma from widely-scorned concept to globally-adored gastro temple as well as an interesting diary excerpt from Redzepi’s produce-sourcing quest across Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Everything I see and read about Noma echoes my own memories and sensations of Sweden.

Reading how the launch of Noma was met with disdain by other Scandinavian chefs (it was nicknamed Blubber Restaurant, Whale Penis and Seal F**ker by non-believers) reminds me that very few Australian chefs take inspiration from local Australian produce.

To date, most native Australian products have been siphoned off as “something for the tourists” and tarnished by the stigma of the crassly named “bush tucker”. It’s almost as if there’s been some sort of shame surrounding native ingredients and no one has dared take up the challenge to produce world-class cuisine that happens to focus around our native produce.

It’s such a shame, because there is a wealth of truly amazing flavour sensations in native Australian spices, fruits, vegetables and meats. My favourites are wattleseed, finger lime, quandong, akudjura and mountain pepperberry, as well as kangaroo meat, Balmain & Moreton Bay bugs (crustaceans), and the luscious native rock oysters.

Just in case you were wondering!

The Noma cookbook is more inspirational than home cooking, although some of the more sophisticated and well-tooled home cooks will no doubt give the recipes a whirl.

There are some truly magical creations such as:

• fried potato crisps frozen in liquid nitrogen then sprayed with a yoghurt and buttermilk glaze;

• fresh radishes planted into cream herb flavoured cheese then topping with “soil” made from dark malted crumbs

• slices of oyster served with wafer-thin pickled apple, cream infused tapioca and malt oil;

• cucumber balls sprinkled with cucumber peel ash and served with raw sea urchin, dill granita and frozen milk foam

• shards of dark birch meringue, pale birch sorbet, mead & honey jelly and fresh chervil

• lingonberry sorbet, hay-flavoured cream and crispy carrot cake crumbs
• a floral dessert of rose hip meringue, elderflower mousse, violet sauce, thyme gel and Icelandic skyr sorbet

Just to list a few!

As Noma has put Nordic cuisine on the “must-taste” list of every foodie around the world, here’s hoping that Australia can learn from Redzepi’s experience and cook up our own inspirational temple of native wonders, with an equally sophisticated and elegant approach that shakes off the “bush tucker” cringe.

Now we just need to get a copy of this cookbook into every Aussie kitchen!

Photo credits:

http://verygoodfood.dk/2009/03/15/noma-rising-third-star/

http://thefabday.blogspot.com/2010/04/copenhagen-noma-worlds-best-restaurant.html