A Few of My Favourite Things !

Can you be nostalgic for a time & place that you’ve never known? I’ve heard that Beirut was the ‘Paris’ of the Middle East in its heyday and citizens who have since moved from Lebanon wax lyrical about its beauty and liveliness. Having now made my first (whirlwind) visit to Beirut, I wish I had known her in her prime. I loved the hospitality of the people, the mountain-to-sea aspect, the contrasting fashions of the various religious groups. I would return in a heartbeat.

My first walk was along the promenade to the Raouché (Pigeon Rocks):

The American University of Beirut:

You don’t see female taxi drivers very often there (in fact, she was the only one I saw) and our driver so SO unimpressed that a woman was driving:

The first batch, made with three orange sweet potatoes, were terrible – dense, chewy. All because I followed the recipe from Yoshoku too closely. The recipe called for 300g flour to 1.2kg sweet potato and although I had only used about 220g of flour, the dough was already too dry.

Then, I only had one sweet potato left but I was determined to give it another go. I added one egg yolk, a tablespoon of grated parmesan and a few sprinkles of flour. Voila, lovely, light gnocchi! Pity about the terrible photo though =( My mum reckons that this is similar to Abacus Beads (a la the one Poh made in Masterchef) which is a food of the Hakka people.

An oldie that I’d forgotten about (blush)…

Chickpeas and chorizo are not the most asian of ingredients are they? but they do cook well in the old claypot regardless!

We were facilitating The Marrige Preparation Course a couple of weekends ago which meant that I needed to prepare a quick and easy lunch that could be had between a couple of the sessions that were being held on Sunday. I took inspiration from a recipe Matt posted late last year, one that had been on my mind since that time, and threw together a chickpea and chorizo hotpot.

Using my trusty chinese claypot, I fried the chorizo with some garlic and onion, added some passata, tin of chickpeas and some spices then simmered for 20 minutes. It was as easy as Matt had promised and absolutely delicious with crusty white bread. Best of all, the claypot made it easy to transport.

This place deserves a post of its own. Serving the kind of food that we travel for, Ibu Oka in Ubud is patronized by locals as well as tourists. They do one dish and they do it incredibly well – Babi Guling. You point to what everyone else on the communal table is having and it’s plated and served in about two minutes flat. Help yourself to the prawn crackers in the basket and everything just gets tallied up at the end of your meal.

Too good and had us licking our lips for the rest of the trip. It’s a pity we didn’t get to go back for seconds =(

Breeze: Just stopped for drinks here one evening to see the sunset but too cloudy…

Cafe Warisan: Reputedly the best French and most romantic restaurant in Bali if you believe the Luxe Guide. Go during the day if you want to see the rice paddies although I’m sure the food is great either day or night! Be warned however that the whole crew is moving to Mentis in September 200. Warisan will continue trading under a different owner with different cuisine.

Scallops with seared foie, shimeji, puy lentils and sherry jus – just awesome! Easily the dish of the night.

Crab millefeille, crab emulsion, leek, soft shell crab tempura – pretty good too

Sole Meunière, creamed spinach, potato – hhhmmmmm, I really expected more from this dish.

La Moelluex- okay, I recently made one that beat the pants off this!

Nammos Beach Club at Karma Kandara: Wow, a private beach where you have to pay for entry – that’s something that Aussies are just NOT used to. However, I have to say that the view of the Indian Ocean was stupendous and I would definitely do it again!

Something special…sigh!

Isn’t this photo convincing enough? The ride there is a little bumpy but I’m still wondering how much it costs per night to wake up to this:

Bumbu Bali: The kind of place where they all greet you when you arrive (kinda like the “Irrashaimase” of Japanese restaurants) and place a frangipani behind your ear. Go only if you want to feel like a tourist because the food ain’t worth it.

ONe more post to go after this…

So it’s been a few weeks since our return from a one-week break in Seminyak, Bali but I haven’t posted about any of the food we ate, although there a pictures aplenty. Of course, I know this means I will probably have forgotten the names of most of the dishes, my mind being the sieve that it is. However, I shall do my best to recall them. We based our choice of restaurants/cafes on friends’ recommendations, reviews and the Luxe Guide and there were hits and there were misses and there were dishes in-between. I think I shall just make it a chronological review so here goes:

Made’s Warung: Apparently a visit to one of the two Warung Made (Kuta or Seminyak) is compulsory for all visitors. They serve a mix of international and Indonesian foods. It was more than passable but we tried to pick places that concentrated more specifically on Indonesian food after this.

Nasi Campur

Rujak

Lumpiah

Venue @ the Moon: About three shops up from our hotel, The Kayana, so it was easy to grab takeaway. Their food was some of the best we had in Bali!

Kuta Mall: We just had to take a peek, and really that’s all it was. We dropped by at the mall in Kuta and did a little bit of shopping. Enjoyed the humidity while watching the waves rolling in and enjoying a plate of garlicky prawns.

Grocer & Grind: No food photos but a really cool place to hangout if you’re missing home.

More to come in the next installation…

Okay, maybe I’ve been looking at too many A-frames of late but this one really puzzled me. I initially thought that they had misspelled prosciutto but it seemed TOO wrong to be wrong, if you know what I mean. A quick query to the waitress and we were told “It’s like ham but halal”. I tried googling but to no avail so if anyone can enlighten me as to what ‘pusitto’ is, I’d be much obliged.

I made a batch of pasta sauce for my boys on the weekend and was putting labels on freezer containers when I suddenly stopped writing and wondered, is bolognese spelt ‘bolognese’ or ‘bolognaise’? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen both version and agonized several minutes over which was correct. Now that I’m typing it in, my spell check is indicating that the latter is incorrect.

That reminds me of the many cafe and restaurant chalkboards that misspell menu items. Here’s one from Equinox Cafe/Bar that made me stop short yesterday as I first spotted their version of this tuna salad.

We were standing at the counter of Almost French, ordering hot cross buns and almond croissants when our reveries of afternoon tea were interrupted by the entrance of the unmissable Alannah Hill. After ordering half a dozen hot cross buns, she turned her attention to another version of hot buns – you know the ones that come in a pair of cool blue jeans…

She very casually introduced herself as ‘Alannah…Alannah Hill. I’m a designer’. Then quickly moved into ‘You’re very good-looking. I think I’m going to pick you up’.

Completely distracted by the scene playing out in front of us, I could barely respond to the waitress’ question of ‘Is there anything else?’ until Alannah had left her number with the guy and driven off in her black Merc.

Almost French
138 Swan St, Richmond 3121
Ph: (03) 9429 2080
Open 7am-5pm Mon-Sat