Ragamuffin - Local Favourites

You know that Ice Cream advertisement tag line "No boring bits"? Precisely the same thing can be said for these little Ragamuffins. Having lived in Leichhardt for the past few years, I've been meaning to blog about these guys for some time. Selfishly, I've been keeping them all to myself but am now ready to share with the rest of the Sydney. 

Steamed and then baked, these muffins a quite different to the ones you're used to. Not overly cakey, the steaming gives the slightest skin which the baking then crisps up. The steaming helps to keep the muffins nice and moist without having to go overboard with butter or oil. The other feature that separates these from other muffins is that each one harbours a savoury or sweet filling. Soft centred muffins - a masterstroke that ensures that the muffin tops will never overshadow the much maligned muffin stumps. 

Onion Jam Centre (front) and Chocolate Ganache (back)

 

With over 30 flavours, there is an abundance of choice. In fact, the hardest task is choosing your flavours as they all look and sound so tempting. Baked throughout the day, I enjoy the 'lucky dip' factor and unpredictability of what is coming fresh out of the tins and ususally base my decision on this. In fact, I usually go for a half dozen to ensure good coverage. As with anything, come early to ensure the best variety. 

Then there are a few odd flavours which have a foot in both sweet and savoury such as the pumpkin cheesecake and mandarin marmalade. How about a USA sweet pumpkin style muffin now that they are coming into season?  

 

Smoked Salmon

The savoury muffins (which include smoked salmon with a cream cheese/dill centre, 4 cheese with rhubarb and onion jam, sun dried tomato and fetta) combined with a coffee, make for a satisfying 'light' breakfast. My next request for a new flavour would be a 'Croque Madame' (cheese, egg, ham/bacon) - oh yeah...... 

The sweet muffin range will satisfy all tastes from chocolate lovers (double chocolate ganache, lamington with blackberry jam) to fruit fanatics (lychee, lime and coconut, passionfruit and orange/poppy). There are also clever plays on classic desserts like Spotted Dick, Raspberry Jam Doughnut and Banana Sundae. Flavours do change and new ones are added. To check the flavours of the day, go to: https://www.facebook.com/steamedmuffins or https://twitter.com/_ragamuffin 

Raspberry Jam Doughnut

Because they are not buried under a mountain of butter cream or icing, they are not overly sweet and arguably 'kinder' to your waistline than the all style, no substance cupcake. The best bit of course, is getting to the good stuff in the middle. 

  

Originally set up facing the dining area, the La San Marco lever action coffee machine now operates from the kitchen for practicality's sake. Like the lever action machines of the 19th and 20th centuries, it's great to see this machine in action and have someone actually pull an espresso. Coffee is sourced locally from the excellent 'Little Marionette' roasters just a few blocks away in Annandale. Other beverage options include milkshakes which I have not yet sampled.

La San Marco Lever Coffee Machine

My only other wish is that they offer a muffin and coffee 'package' so we could save a little bit of 'dough' if we bought them together.  

 

Ragamuffin

157 Norton St, Leichhardt NSW 2040

(02) 9568 1806

Sushia Izakaya and Bar - Bond Street, Sydney

For those lucky enough to have spent some time in Japan, they will have undoubtedly come across Izakayas (casual watering holes that also serve food).

Now nestled deep in between two office blocks in Bond Street, is Sushia Izakaya and Bar. Already popular in North Sydney and other locations, Sushia is a hit with the lunch time crowd. With this new premises, Sushia also takes aim at evening diners and drinkers alike.

A narrow entrance reveals a sleek interior with a sushi train leading to additional tables and bar seats.

Thirsty? Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo too mainstream for you? Here you will find a range of Japanese beers (from ales to stouts) brewed by Ise Kadoya, Ocean Kujukuri and Ishikawa. I ordered the Ise Kadoya Pale Ale and was pleasantly surprised by its full flavour and fruity overtones.

 

Also available is a range of sakes. All the sake on the wine list is 'Junmai' which means that it is made with only rice, water and koji (no brewer's alcohol or additives). Available by the 'glass' is Nihon Sakari which is described as light soft semi dry. I have to agree that the soft sweet initial taste gives way to a drier finish which reveals the additional subtle flavours. I'm beginning to see what all the fuss is about. Other varieties include those with a roasted rice flavour as well as 'very dry with a fruity hint'.

 Now that we have a drink, it's time to line the stomach. Our friendly waiter John first presents us with the Sushi and Sashimi Platter. A great way to start the meal and the measuring stick to indicate the quality of any Japanese restaurant. The presentation is immaculate and the quality did not disappoint. The tuna, salmon but especially the kingfish today was fantastically fresh. The fish has an al dente firmness that only super fresh fish can. The nigiri sushi was also excellent. The rice wasn't too compressed or gluggy as you find with lesser quality sushi. 

Super fresh salmon

Sushi Sashimi Platter

 

Agedashi Tofu

Next came the ubiquitous Agedashi Tofu. This dish was anything but standard and was a highlight for me. It a clear example of how it should be done. A crisp crunchy exterior reveals smooth and silky tofu. Bathed in dashi stock with a nice balance of sweet and savoury. One surprising addition was in the form of toasted almond slivers. This added an interesting textural element and the nutty flavour was a welcome inclusion.

 

Seafood Kushiyaki

Rounding out the 'starters' was the Seafood Kushiyaki w. Chilli Balsamic Sauce. A skewer with a salmon, scallop and prawn, this seem to come from leftfield and had a south east Asian vibe rather than Japanese. A good combination of elements that I enjoyed, however my scallop was a bit well done. A small blip in an otherwise excellent meal.

 

Wagyu beef steak

For main we were treated with the Wagyu Beef Steak. 9+ marbling ensures that as the steak is cooked, it bastes itself with it's own fat. That might not sound all that appetising, but the sliced steak on sesame demi sauce was mouth wateringly juicy and rich. Yum.

 

Unagi sushi

My stomach was already at capacity but I felt like more of my favourites: eel and salmon roe sushi. So out came unagi and ikura sushi. The eel was excellent but the ikura did not quite live up to the standard of the other sushi served on the night.

 

The final act of gluttony was a serve of house-made Green Tea and Black sesame Ice cream. The green tea ice cream was much more intense in flavour than others I had tried. There was the unmistakable earthiness of the matcha but also a slight bitterness which help to cut the sweetness. The black sesame was also a slight departure from what I was used to. Instead of perfectly smooth ice cream, this one had small chunks of black sesame seeds throughout adding a nice textural element to the ice cream. A great end to the meal.
 

Green tea and black sesame ice cream

Sushia Izakaya and Bar 

Ground Floor, Shop 4 
20 Bond Street, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9247 9911
 

YaYa's dined as guests of Sushia Izakaya and Bar

 

Food tour of Japan

14 days isn't a lot of time. When you break it down, that's roughly 42 meals excluding snacks. My goal for this holiday, as it is with any holiday, is to sample as much of the local food as my digestive system will allow. When you find yourself in Japan, you realise you have a formidable challenge before you.

Tokyo

Fugu

Potentially deadly unless prepared by a trained chef, many people wonder what all the fuss is about. I had a fugu course consisting of sashimi, fried fugu and fugu hot pot. The flesh is quite firm so the sashimi had to be sliced very thin. The texture that made the sashimi underwhelming in first course, really shone in the second. Fried fugu was a revelation! Firm and juicy, this fish was made for frying. The final course was a hot pot with mixed vegetables. The firm flesh was again very tasty and easy to pick from the bones. Looks like my chef passed his/her fugu preparation exams!

Home cured olives

Have you ever wandered through a market and come across an overflowing tray of green olives? Did you then wonder how you might prepare them? Until that moment, olive preparation was a mystery to me. They always came in a little bowl at a restaurant or out of a jar.

After some research, I bought a kilo of the glossy green fruits ready for curing. Green olives are the unripened fruit and black olives are the ripened versions that are allowed to stay on the tree that bit longer. Olives contain the bitter compound oleuropein. This gives raw olives an extremely bitter taste which is a bit like rubbing panadol tablets on your tongue bound in rubber bands. Hence, birds tend to leave the olives alone and seek other tastier stone fruits. In order to make them edible, the oleuropein must be leached out from the fruits.

Sweet Belem - Portuguese Egg Tarts

Since moving to nearby Leichhardt, I was given a 'seek and digest' mission in Petersham to find the local Portuguese community's favourite local cake shop and eliminate a Portuguese egg tart with extreme prejudice.

Sweet Belem, named after the 'suburb' of Lisbon where these tasty treats originated, produces an array of pastries and cakes, but it is the traditional egg tarts that has everyone flocking here. Inside the shop, reminders of the motherland are abundant, including photos and paintings of Belem tower. I instantly recognise the tower, and to my horror, realise that on a trip to Lisbon years before, I had failed to locate and sample a tart from its original source.

I scan the cake display for the tarts and there is only two left on display. There is a lady in front of me and I start to get anxious. Will I miss out again? Thankfully, she is a regular and knows that there are still plenty more cooking out the back. She orders a dozen! The new batch arrives with the top layer of tarts stacked face down on top of the bottom layer.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Hong Kong

A year of procrastination had to end some time and that time is now! Seeing how busy you bloggers have been (to the point of necessitating a cyber version of crowd control), I thought I'd grab my 3-4day posting window.

At the end of my 2008-2009 South American trip, I was heading back home via Hong Kong and decided to stop in and sample the cooking of Monsieur Robuchon. After years of educating friends and acquaintances of his place in the culinary pantheon, I was eager to sit down to a meal that was in some part, created by the acclaimed 'chef of the century'.

Entry to the restaurant did not give a great first impression as we made our way through a multi-story shopping mall, it felt more like I was walking towards a Westfield food court. However, once at our destination, the black and crimson interior, accented with bowls of brightly coloured fruits/vegetables made for a very sleek and sophisticated atmosphere.

Eyeing the menu made my hands tremble as I'd never seen the words truffle, foie gras appear so many times on a single menu. Deciding on what to eat what difficult given the choice of so many wonderful sounding dishes.

To start, we were presented with a basket of house baked breads which consisted of mini sourdough and brioche rolls (with a thick slab of butter of course!).

Next was a complimentary starter of white asparagus mousse with tomato gazpacho. Dotted with slivers of almonds and asparagus, the mousse was silken and melted in your mouth to reveal a subtle, but not overpowering taste of the slender vegetable. The gazpacho, was the yin to the asparagus' yang in every sense. An intense tomato flavour grabbed your taste buds and gave them a good throttle.

Iggy's Bread - Bronte

Given the sorry state of bakery section in most super-markets, artisan bakeries have been gaining more popularity over the past few years. Not soon enough I'd say. I've had enough of the rectangular blocks of air and sugar that they label 'bread' and charge exorbitant prices for. With prices for supermarket bread around $5 a loaf, it has never made more sense in spending your hard earned cash on a freshly baked loaf that is just a few hours old and not laced with vegetable emulsifiers (481, 471).

The latest in the list of bakeries is Iggy's in Bronte. Not remotely close to the beach, it can be found back up the hill, deep in suburbia at 49 Belgrave St. Operating out of a non-descript shop front, you won't have a problem finding it - just look for the queue of locals. With no 'shop' to step into, this is a working bakery. If you peek inside you will see the bakers dusted with flour and commercial ovens hard at work. On the left of the shop front is a multi level rack stacked with the baked treasures and on the right the counter.

They offer huge rounds of sourdough, baguettes, bagels and specialty breads. The rounds of sourdough can be halved or quartered depending on your appetite. I just wish they had some labels so you could browse without having to point to each item to ask what it is. Having said this, there is a good amount of turnover as bread flies of the rack to be replenished with other varieties.

So what about the bread? My mission was to buy a loaf of their pecan and raisin bread which they only bake on Sundays. I got in the line which stretched for about 5 meters and as I got closer to the front counter, I scanned the rack looking for anything that resembled a fruit loaf. All I could spot was sourdough, bread with grains and bagels. This was looking like a failed attempt in the making. When it was my turn, I asked if they had any raisin and pecan bread and held my breath anticipating disappointment. "6 minutes" the lady said. I would have to wait only 6 minutes! It was almost like they were baking this bread especially for my visit. Then the price came.......... $12.00. Did I mention exorbitant prices before? I know, I know. I'm more than willing to pay good money for the real deal but $12 seemed a bit much, even for specialty bread.

Undeterred, I scrounged up the extra dollars and handed it over. After a short wait, a warm and heavy loaf was handed to me in a brown paper bag. The aromas of the fresh bread, fruit and nuts teased my nostrils as I inspected the deep brown loaf. Raisins studded the exterior with some blackened, frozen in their expanded state from the intense heat.

Racing home, I cut into the crusty exterior to reveal a rich dense loaf packed full of pecans and raisins. OK, now I see where my money has gone. The crust was crunchy to the bite, resisting my teeth and jaw muscles all the way until it yielded to the sweet and moist interior. What a fantastic combination! The sweetness from the raisins, the body and texture from the nuts. All brought together by a elastic, full bodied bread. This was meal in itself. At $12 for a 30cm long loaf, it's not something I'd buy everyday. It's a special occasion bread and one to treat yourself with. For the everyday, I will be back soon to sample their sourdough and bagels.