I like to keep my issues drawn; it's always darkest before the dawn.

“..and pretty much zip [Project Management] experience? Yep, I would have probably put you on a half to one million dollar project to start off with.” (as opposed to the current five million plus project?)

Dining at Azuma's in Chifley Tower is always fantastic. The service is consistently great with their attention to detail which marries well with the same high standard of food each time. This event was no different. Upon arrival, we were offered water and a glass of white or red to be paired with a couple of starter courses to stave off any sugar overloads in launching straight into a sugar hit. The first course was skewered grilled duck breast and chicken meatballs. They went down well.

Attention to detail and consideration for the customer is paramount in coming to an establishment such as Azuma's. The next course was inside out tempura roll and seared salmon sushi paired with a Brown Brothers Cienna Russo. It was approaching dessert wine territory but is light enough to be enjoyed much earlier on it's own as it isn't as syrupy. These starters were delicious in flavours, freshness and textures and it was quickly starting to fill us up like a full dinner.

Now for the main event, the East meets West – Dessert Bento box:

Kawaii Panna Cotta, Home made Yuzu Sorbet, Marble Gateux Cookies, Gateux Chocolate and a sake sample of Plum, Yuzu Nigori or Nigori Sake (if you go to the Sugar Hit, you'll have to pick one of the three). I won't spoil the flavours for you but it's pretty decadent. General consensus on the table loved the pannacotta and my favourite was the yuzu sorbet.

At the event, it was announced that the locations at Regent Place would be closing whilst renegotiation on new leases was in progress. No news yet on what would be opening next and where, only that it'd be dependent on the size of the kitchen. It seems concerning yet another restaurant is closing but to date I have truly enjoyed the Azuma brand and eagerly await their next venture.

“..you know, even though it was hard, one of the great things in that session was the level of support everyone was offering – what can they do to help to get [the project] back on track?”

Standing at the edge of a bridge, will you fall or take a leap?

I have to confess the irony of the day certainly was not lost on me to support Diabetes on the day – attempting to fund raise at work for Diabetes Australia with a cake sale followed by a sugar-hit alongside a steady stream of alcohol, the things one must do!

I'm on the right track baby, I was born this way, hey.

On a train. Her dream:
Friend throws a fish in a bun,
shouts, "You've betrayed me!"

A happy birthday,
to you and you. Oh, and you!
At Universal,

where spice rainbows form.
Three savouries and one sweet.
Select a la carte.

Quail, pork sausages;
Angry limes flip us the bird
to three out of four

Bland cheese fog descends,
on rabbits in deconstructed forests
A light cloud no more.

Flathead comes for air,
Black pepper pool stings with salt
Time to trek on.

I normally hear,
"ooh, I want what she's having"
Sigh, that's now my line.

Ooh, "gaytime goes nuts"
childhood memories invoked.
Pot of gold at last?

Seek redemption of
past indiscretions I pray.
A perfect balance.

Crisp choc fortress,
parf-hazln-salt-carmel...
What honeycomb guard?

Wonderful mocktails,
Secrets hold out till the end..
Adventure complete.

Some other dishes,
More favourable than mine,
Caption comp time - GO!

I just can't shake it, shake it, shake it.. No...

What does a $55 mocktail consist of these days?

1 shot of watermelon juice
1 shot of cucumber juice
1 shot of beetroot juice
1 shot of carrot juice
1 shot of red currant juice
1 shot of something (it'll come back to me eventually)
1/2 shot of parsnip juice
A splash of apple juice
1 shot of passionfruit juice (seeds removed)
Finished off with a decadent layer of taking the piss foam.

Do you ever know when a child lies?

He looks up and asks her, "Have you been following the diet I sent to you?"
"Erm, maybe 50%?"
"You know, you really should. It really does get results."

Yeah, alright, it probably does help to follow a diet if one actually opens and reads attached diet plans within sent emails. Sigh. Admittedly I do eat out more than the average person, but surely one can make exceptions.... Particularly when it's Seiobo!



Another tree in the garden of the recently refurbished The Star comes along Seiobo, from the makers who brought you Momofuku. The deets - 15 course degustation for $175. I forget the additional alcohol add-on since I don't usually drink (or eat chocolate...). Bookings are taken via the web whether in NY or Sydney, so when a friend offered a spare place, I can't be so rude as to turn them down just to follow a diet!

Let's start. 

Seven days in sunny Sept[ember] - Day 5

She says to me "Whilst you're over there, can you look for a picture? That wall's looking bare and when people walk in they need a picture to grab their eye."
And I said "Yeah, sure thing. What kind of picture are you after?"
And so she says "Something colourful, like you know, like those abstract paintings with splats of colour all over."
And so I said "Umm okay. I mean, it's not Montmarte with painters on the side of the road, but MoMA's probably my best shot."
And then she said "Yeah, just lie it flat in the bottom of your suitcase like I did in Paris. It'll be fine."

In short, never made it to MoMA. Now, whilst the food blogger's code of conduct dictates the taking and displaying of photos on absolutely everything plated in front of them, it wouldn't have mattered since Dovetail (and possibly all of NYC fine dining) enjoys mood lighting, thus killing any food shots. Fail.

Here's one I prepared earlier (but still post-meal)...

click on for the real pictures of food...

And so they say "But what abt the fooooood??"
And so I say, on the other hand, highlights included the foie gras - much much better than any canned-mushed-cardboard-pate, melt on the tongue, no chewing - guaranteed!; the warmed cornbread-as-a-dinner-roll was a nice change - yes refills are allowed; however, the pièce de résistance for me was the sparkling apple cider - Duche de Longueville. Nevermind the $18USD per glass pricetag. Easily the most brilliant tasting, alcoholic-looking non-alcoholic drink I've ever had! Darn you Sainsbury's for the £1.99 pricetag! Where can I get this in/to Sydney?! Time for another jet set off to London methinks....

well i just blog the way i feel

stop breathing!
imagine none of this is real...

Standing in the way of [self] control

	Saturday. Shop. Boon. Chocolates. Belgian. Hand-made. Handbag. Clutch. Gold clasp. Unbranded. Orange. Packaging. Screen printed. Chocolate. Made of. Pencil. Plaque. Letter. Customisation. Hole. Heart-bites. Chocolate. Made of. Marrakesh. Violetta. Janne. Truffles. Ganache. Squares. Buttons. Screen printed. Glossy. Pretty but pass. White. Euww. Milk. Meh. Dark. Ooh. Almond. And? Rocher. Gasp! 100 grams. $9.95?! Still sold.
	Monday. Open. Taste test. Bite. Dark. Yum. Bite. Crunch. Tiny bubbles like Aero bars. Hmm. Wafer? Macaroon? Wow. Unsweetened. Smooth and no tongue coating. More. Excellent chocolate to filling ratio. Still no coating. Impressed. Much. Observe. Last one. What is that crunch? Passer-by. Offer? Motion denied. Packet closed.
	Tuesday. Work. Tough meeting. 4pm. Hungry. Just one. Mmm. Not enough. Stop. Stop!!!
	Wednesday. Finished. One fell swoop. Tongue still no more coated or sweetened than a Lindt ball. Crunch even in crumbs. Almonds eliminated. Almond rocher goodbye. Boon Dark Almond Rocher chocolate. Converted. Addicted? Like someone who has made a choice.

I got 99 problems, but a b!tch [session] ain't one. Hit me!

When it's now 5:50, you're 30 mins away with seatings only available at 6 or 9 pm and the latest your party will accept is 7pm, what would you do?

a) Try locate another restaurant open this long weekend.
b) Book the 9pm service and have a snack in the meantime.
c) Book the 6pm service and turn up anytime after 6:30.
d) Stay home and eat baked beans instead.

As the 9pm session was out of the question, the troupe end up heading to one of the locals - hesitantly I might add since on my previous and first visit, it took a solid 2 hours before mains arrived (with no starters either!). Oh well, they were open during Easter weekend and had a table before 9pm.

Having had a seafood box at the fish markets a mere 4 hours beforehand, it had to be light. Starters consisted of:

• tasting platter of swordfish, kingfish and salmon
• garlic and herb pizza
• cured tuna and basil oil
• octopus carpaccio

If you can't do what you imagine, then what is imagination to you?

The Opportunity: Bring in a plate of food at work in celebration of Chinese New Year.
The most prominent thing for me about Chinese New Year is colour. From red envelopes to red dates, the tear-jerking gold joss sticks, the reddish brown suckling pig, the loud fireworks and elaborate costumes of the prancing lions bursting the senses with vibrant sights, tastes and sounds. So red and gold it is.
The Evaluation: Proceeding with Mah Lai Go which is an Asian version of a sponge cake but steamed and golden. My friend's recipe's pictures looked good, but I am missing ingredients. A couple of hours were then wasted trawling through the Internet for easier recipes, even stumbling upon some aproned woman on YouTube. But seriously, who's got 2 oz of lard lying around?
Finally stumbled onto a recipe with only 3 ingredients - authored by none other than Poh from Masterchef. Her grandmother's recipe consists of self raising flour, eggs and sugar, in equal amounts. The pictures presented a snow-white cake with a bread-like texture. Am slightly worried but appearance is secondary and Poh always messes around with recipes anyway.

The Execution: The recipe was simple enough, 1 cup of each: eggs (~5), self raising flour and sugar. Probably best not to experiment with 5 eggs at a time...

Batch 1: To try achieve a more darker/golden coloured cake, I substituted with dark brown sugar first. Using an electric blender, once the sugar was added, it went everywhere. Which of course, lead to the discovery of an ant posse invasion, taking another 15 mins for them to vacate the premises.

Back to baking, home made self raising flour (also documented in the recipe) was added along with red dye then poured into silicon moulds and into the steamer with fingers crossed.

Batch 1 Result: Definitely red in colour, except they're dense... like rubbery dense...? Fail.

Batch 2: Now using caster sugar as stated from the original recipe. Also changed over to a whisk. Simon on The Cook and The Chef made stiff peaks by hand so it's definitely possible (one imagines)!

20 mins later, the eggs have multiplied in volume; more than Batch 1. Mixed in remaining ingredients and added dye to the bottom of the moulds for a change. Stick the next batch in to be steamed.



Batch 2 Result: Urgh, STILL too rubbery and wow, even uglier than before. Epic fail. It's time to admit defeat.
The Post Implementation Review:

1. Silicon moulds don't work for steaming, the moisture stays with the cake.
2. 1 egg probably doesn't equate to 1/5 cup of sugar...
3. The iPhone camera under this lighting sucks.
4. If these for whatever reason happen to fall on the floor, how high will they bounce?
5. Have never witnessed people jumping from their seats demanding Mah Lai Go at Yum Cha, why would colleagues be any more interested now?
6. Bakeries selling fresh egg tarts open early enough before work starts.

The conclusion: I imagined there was a genius baker lurking within. Failing that, following a recipe seemed simple enough. Even though what we dream and what actually eventuates may not always align, keep on experimenting.

Congratulations on the first 100 posts and here's to many hundreds more!

Alternative ways to have fun with food: part 46

go on, i dare y.a.... Tastebuddies

Re-re-wind, when the crowd say Ko-pi Lu-lu-lu-wak-wak...

Defecation is not a term commonly associated with food and one should probably avoid incorporating such practices anywhere near foodstuffs. Yet whilst the thought of consuming brown products formerly encased within fecal matter is inconceivable to most, could regurgitation produce a warmer response?

Weasel coffee, similar to Indonesian civet coffee, is derived from Vietnamese civets regurgitating remnants of ingested red coffee berries which are considered to be superior due to reductions in bitterness. The resulting beans are sterilised then lightly roasted for retaining flavour.

So, how to approach this? If one can consider the beans as merely reversing out of the civet's gastric garage then regurgitation is clearly the lesser of two evils. No bowel movements necessary!

On this occasion the Weasel coffee made was produced by Edible. Whiffs from an opened packet revealed rich chocolate and caramel notes which was promising; a very different aroma compared with Arabica beans. One cup of long black (americano) was brewed using an Aeropress.

The drink itself was smooth with zero acidity, bitterness and aftertaste. However, it was disappointing that the chocolate-caramel tones never reappeared in either taste or smell unless they were just that subtle. Sugar was added for the decaf drinkers; the sweetness overpowering any original flavour.

Several espresso shots made from regular Arabica beans were added to the remaining cup and then churned to make coffee ice cream. Yum.

So.. civet coffee. Reject it, embrace it, either way there'll always be some nutter willing to try something not quite right. Your immune system may eventually thank you for it.