Cambridge Beer Festival, Jesus Green

Last week we visited the Cambridge Beer Festival, the 3rd biggest beer festival in the UK where over 35000 people drank over 90000 pints of real ale, cider and mead. It's altogether an incredible collection of local brewers with a myriad of unique brews, and a testament to how much the British love their drink.

Coming from Australia where the beers are generally quite light, I'm still getting used to the whole obsession with heavy, low-fizz, strongly-flavoured British ales. However, the beers at the festival were definitely tastier and more interesting than the regular sometimes muddy-water stuff you get off the tap in the pubs around Cambridge.

Some of the more interestingly-named beers we tried included Golden Pippin, Beijing Black, and my favourite: "Comrade Bill Bartram's Egalitarian Anti-Imperialist Soviet Stout". Trust the Russians... well, they produce bird-eating pelicans and all, so nothing surprises me now...

Except this:

I have only one acronym for this. It begins with a W and ends with "TF".

Yes, it's an egg, wrapped in "meat", coated in batter and fried. Oh my damn... apparently they call it a scotch egg, and it is a common picnic food in the UK.
Mind you, I did eat it all. Well I guess you should always be open minded when trying new foods! And at the beer festival, the glass is always more than half full. Cheers everyone!

Beer festival tip: Buy half pints. 1) You get more. 2) You try more types. 3) You win.

The Red Lion, Grantchester

There are a million things we've meant to blog but just haven't had the time! Super-epic sushi, a trip to Alimentum, my Hong Kong trip, homemade smbc pizza... just to name a few. But I realised we hadn't done a restaurant review in a while (since this one), so...

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Nothing says an English summer quite like sitting out in a beer garden with a cold refreshing jug of Pimm's.

Gosh that sounded like an ad... but Pimm's tastes incredibly good after two hours of serious punting all the way from the Trinity punt shed to Grantchester.

Swans outside the Trinity punt shed.

Is it the Amazon? No, just a shady segment of the River Cam...

It is a beautiful Saturday in Cambridge when Uncle Tobys, Peen and I decide to make the trek to Grantchester (apparently home to the highest concentration of Nobel prize winners) by possibly the most inefficient form of transport known to man.
A tip: If you ever find yourself trying to escape from water-based ninjas, a punt is not a wise choice. This is purely hypothetical of course, as you'll never see them coming.

After soaking in the sun and pushing a large stick against a riverbed for two hours, we moor alongside the Grantchester Meadows and head to the nearest pub we find: The Red Lion.

Pimm's is a gin-based liqueur which is typically mixed with lemonade and topped with fresh ingredients such as strawberries, oranges, lime, cucumber and mint. Tastes and looks a bit like lemon, lime and bitters. So refreshing!

Artsy shot. Glass of Pimm's, top view.

The three of us just about manage to polish off the whole pitcher before our food arrives, which is testament to how thirsty we are, or perhaps the speed of the service... always good to know the food is being cooked fresh though!

About the food, I'm always a little sceptical about pub food in the UK. I think I was scarred the first time I sat down in a pub, looked at the menu and realised that it was exactly the same as the last pub I'd been to. The only thing different was the pub's name! This was before I realised that most UK pubs are franchises owned by large companies like Greene King. Sad but true.

Avocado and crayfish with a marie-rose dressing, salad, brown bread and butter (£5.75)

I am so ravaged that I decided to go for a starter and main. The avocado and crayfish is pretty much as described I guess? Marie-rose dressing is a fancy way of saying ketchup + mayo! You learn something new everyday...

Steak strip, mushroom and onion baguette (£5.75)

The steak baguette is actually really well toasted, nice and crisp on the outside but soft and warm on the inside. Contents were an old favourite, steak and mushroom - perhaps a touch greasy on the whole but I have to say I did enjoy this one.

Farm assured 'smothered' chicken breast with grilled bacon, goat's cheese and a tomato Provencal sauce (£9.29)

What on earth is farm-assured chicken? Uncle Tobys asks the waitress, who tells us something that sounds like free-range chickens to me, although she is also unsure why they can't just call it "Chicken, chips and salad". Agreed.

Hand-battered cod and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce (£8.39)

 Peen's fish and chips look decent, at least from across the table, although he reports that it is a little disappointing. I've also yet to find a place for fish and chips in the UK where I've been really satisfied afterwards...

Whilst the food was average, The Red Lion does have a great beer garden and quite a nice pub feel overall, perfect for a summer's day.

The Red Lion
33 High Street
Grantchester CB3 9NF
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 840121


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Ice-cream updates...

The green tea ice cream I made a couple of weeks back was such a success, I had to try making more... but this time chocolate! Yum.

Basically just substituting the matcha powder with cocoa seemed to do the trick, although the ice-cream texture turned out a little more dense, rich and icy than the green tea version. Not sure if it's because you need to add more powder-flavoury-stuff (cocoa/matcha), or if it's because I didn't stir it enough whilst it was freezing because I fell asleep...

Cocoa and Walnut Ice Cream (with a splash of brandy)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup cocoa 1/2 cup sugar 300 mL milk 300 mL cream	capful of brandy 4 egg yolks handful of walnut pieces pinch of salt

Pretty much the same as the previous green tea recipe. Warm milk (don't boil) and dissolve the cocoa. Mix egg yolks and sugar and then add to the warm cocoa milk until dissolved, followed by salt and brandy.  Strain through a sieve and let cool to room temp.

Someone told me once that salt draws out the full flavour of chocolate. Surprising but true!

Lightly whip cream and add to the chocolate mixture. Cool in fridge for a couple of hours then put in freezer. Stir the mix vigorously every hour, scraping down the frozen sides as you go. When it gets to a slushie stage, add the walnuts.

I googled salt and chocolate, and what did I find? This. OMGBACONYUM.

Around the World in 7 Posts: Part I - Africa (SMBC #5)

Welcome back to another post in the SMBC series. This time we thought we'd try something a little different, so we've started an SMBC subseries: Around the World in 7 Posts! Each post will feature a dish from one of the seven continents. And starting from our evolutionary beginnings, our first post features Africa.

The dish chosen was Chicken Yassa. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about it:

Yassa is a spicy marinated dish prepared with poultry or fish. Originally Senegambian , yassa has become popular throughout West Africa.

And if that explanation was too vague, here is a photo of the dish:

We started with these ingredients:

Ingredients:
7 Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks
3 lemons
6 cloves of garlic
4 onions
black pepper
white pepper
dried chilli flakes
2 tablespoons of mustard
groundnut/peanut oil
nutmeg
vegetable stock
couscous


To prepare the chicken:

• We marinated the chicken for 1.5 hours first before frying. Pretty much all the ingredients went into the marinade: onions (coarsely chopped), garlic (crushed), lemon juice, black pepper, white pepper, dried chilli flakes, 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, and a generous drizzle of groundnut oil.
• Oh, we also added some nutmeg and a cube of vegetable stock.
• Mix everything thoroughly with the chicken.
• Fry the chicken until golden brown. Also fry/cook the onion-marinade-mixture in a separate pan until the sauce has been sufficiently reduced. Finally, combine both the chicken and the onion mixture into one pan and heat for a while. Here's the story in photos:
• We served the chicken yassa with couscous, which was incredibly easy to prepare:
• And there you have it! Stay tuned for the next post in this subseries where we sample the cuisine from another (as of yet, undecided) continent!
  

Homemade Green Tea Ice Cream (no machine)

When I found this recipe on Sabra's amazing food blog Spoonful, it sounded way too good not to try. I'm a real sucker for good green tea ice cream, and surely the idea of being able to generate your own ice cream at will is the sweet-tooth equivalent of being able to grow money on trees, or turning water into wine...

Somehow here the lighting balance dulled the green a little - it looks more vibrant green in real life!

Poor similes aside, I've had this recipe stuck on the brain for a while now, and so I bought some Matcha during my recent trip to Hong Kong. Matcha is amazing stuff. Delicious with sweet red bean paste in cake, strangely concentrated and foamy when served in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and killer as an ice cream flavour.

Best matcha ice cream experience? Soft serve matcha ice cream from a shop on the walk up to Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. Tangents aside, here's the recipe, and it works so well that I've almost directly copied it straight from Sabra's blog (hope it's ok, thanks!):

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)
2/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream (aka whipping cream)

1. In a small bowl, mix the green tea powder with 2 tablespoons sugar.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks and remaining sugar.

3. Pour the milk into a small pan and gently heat taking care not to let it boil. Remove the from the heat and mix a few spoonfuls of the warm milk with the matcha/sugar combination. When you have a smooth paste, add it to the remaining milk in the pan, then gradually stir in the egg yolk/sugar mixture.

4. Return mixture to the stove and heat slowly over low heat (taking care to not let the mixture boil), until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, strain through a fine sieve, and allow to cool completely.

5. Lightly whip the cream and then add it to the cold green tea-milk mixture.

6. Chill mixture for an hour or two in the refrigerator and then put it in the freezer. As ice crystals start to form, remove, and mix vigorously and thoroughly with a fork to break them up and return the mixture to the freezer. Repeat this a few times as it freezes to ensure that the ice cream is smooth.

Tips:
- As a few people have commented on Sabra's blog, I'd recommend adding a little more matcha and less sugar to bring out the green tea taste more.

QED: Bill's Famous Scrambled Eggs

I got so excited about Bill's scrambled eggs that I'm writing this as the title dish is slowly digesting in mah belly. Or perhaps I need to get this out before I die of a heart attack thanks to 80 mL of heavy cream.

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Fate is a funny thing. Take Bill Granger, an art student/part-time waiter who chanced his arm by opening a restaurant in Darlinghurst in Sydney at the age of 22. Now he's an internationally renowned chef with three Sydney cafes, two in Japan and very soon a new joint in London.

And all because of scrambled eggs. I'll leave you to read up on his story.

The new Bill's gourmet food shop in Cambridge, right outside my house. But it's not Bill Granger, but some other Bill it seems.

As fate would have it for me,
1) I recently noticed that a new Bill's shop is opening up just outside the bike store gate on Green St, right next to where we live (I thought it was the same Bill but actually it isn't);
2) I had 80 mL of spare cream in the fridge thanks to yesterday's Matcha ice-cream exploits;
3) Sunday morning.
---> Perfect time to make Bill's famous scrambled eggs.

Bill's scrambled eggs (with blue cheese wilted spinach)

I couldn't resist putting up another photo of the same thing.

Ingredients:
2 eggs 80 mL cream pinch of salt a sliver of butter	100-150 g baby spinach small wedge of soft blue cheese black pepper

It's all too easy, 5 minutes is all it takes.

Starting with the spinach, throw a chunk of blue cheese (I use Castello Blue, mmm creamy goodness) and a lot of spinach into a pan over medium heat. When the cheese has melted and the spinach has just wilted, add some cracked black pepper and set aside.

For the eggs, mix with cream and salt until just combined. Melt butter in the pan, and when it bubbles, add the eggs and let the bottom cook for 20 secs. Using a wooden spoon, draw in the edges to the centre and let the eggs cook for another 10 secs. Draw the edges in again, take pan off the heat and serve immediately. The eggs will continue to cook with the residual heat, so be careful not to overcook them.

Toast some bagels, get some parma ham. Mentally prepare for deceptively light but seriously artery clogging deliciousness.

All I need now is a good coffee...

Tips:
- I read somewhere Bill says it works best with a non-stick pan (that's the only one I own...)
- I also read don't do more than 2 eggs at a time otherwise it won't cook properly

Sydney, Australia - the Good, the Fat and the Uhhh... (Part 2)

Following on from Part 1...

The Uhhh...

Cafe Ish, Surry Hills

I'm going to have to choose my words carefully here. Cafe Ish is one of those places that has been hyped up by so so so so so so so so so so so so many food blogs, but at the same time causing a minor foodblog controversy regarding taking photos and such. I don't really want to weigh in about this issue, but I do want to talk about the food!
At the risk of triggering major anger here, I have to say the food was... confounding? Let me explain...

I've seen all the pictures of the wattleseed cappucino and it does look fantastic. Also the breakfasts do look awesome. But we were there for dinner, after finding some internet offer thingy which was for a $30/pp degustation.

Top: Cabbage with wattleseed miso mayo ; Bottom Left: Cucumber salad with chilli, soy, garlic ; Bottom Right: Edamame with Murray river pink salt

Surprise is an understatement for what we thought when the first plate came out - a large pile of raw chopped cabbage with a pot of mayo. Unconventional? I was plenty skeptical until I had snacked my way through most of it without realising. The cabbage was fresh, crunchy and sweet, and this perhaps was my favourite dish of the evening.
The cucumber salad was a little reminiscent of chinese-style pickle, whilst we weren't able to finish the veritable mountain of edamame on offer.

Left: Two types of sake ; Top Right:  Miso soup ; Bottom Right: Potato and feta mochi with Davidson plum sauce

The potato mochi were a great idea, kind of like a cross between regular mochi and tater tots with a cheesy centre except a little classier.

I couldn't really pin down what it was about the miso soup - it was rather light in flavour and had a different taste to usual. Only after coming back home and looking at the menu, it seems to be that the stock is made from mushroom (+ konbu) rather than bonito.

Skewer plate (foreground to background): Crocodile tail panko crumbed with Japanese curry sauce ; Tofu, shittake mushrooms & spring onions with wattleseed teriyaki ; Grass fed “Mirragong” waygu with wasabi and soy

Up next were three different kinds of skewers. The crocodile tail tasted pretty much like chicken (everything tastes like chicken right?), so to me the whole thing was basically like chicken katsu curry on a stick! I have to say the wagyu was pretty tough and there were no clues as to the wagyuness of it all. Didn't really make sense with soy and wasabi either. I have to say I just don't get all the wagyu stuff you find these days - I never see a single bit of marbled fat?

 Left: Okonomiyaki with pumpkin, spinach, wasabi mayo and melted cheese ; Right: Karaage crab and avocado omelette with garlic, chilli, soy, ginger dressing

It was at this stage that the knockout blow was delivered. To our stomach capacity. Having already dealt with surprisingly large portion sizes (the photos show the serving size for two people), the super-rich mayo + cheese + gooeyness of okonomiyaki absolutely sank the ship. I do like melted cheese though.

By this stage, we used up our napkins, finished out drinks, packed our things ready to leave, but alas we were mistaken! One more dish swiftly arrived on our table - the oft-raved about soft shell crab omelette. It was seriously massive, bulging full of super-generous chunks of crab and avocado, garnished with a fantastic almost sambal-like sauce. The photo simply does not show how huge it was. Stomach pains ensued.

Verdict? Let me get this straight. I have plenty of respect for the boldness in combining native Australian ingredients with Japanese influences. Also some of the flavours were great, if not particularly refined. Part of me says "Hey, this is a cafe, so for cafe food it's pretty different and awesome, plus seriously good value". But at the same time, I must say I left slightly dissatisfied with the experience. It just felt as though whilst each dish was interesting on its own, the flow of the degustation was kinda wrong.

Perhaps if I haven't offended too many people, I ought to go again for breakfast and coffee instead?

Shady Pines Saloon, Darlinghurst

Left: Trumer Pils ; Right: Lord Nelson Brewery 'Three Sheets' Pale Ale

Looks are deceiving. From the outside, the unremarkable lane on which this bar is situated appears little more than the back alley of some dodgy rundown student apartments. No signs, no posters, nothing... except a line growing outside an unmarked door.
Inside is what I'm told is currently one of Surry Hills' trendy spots - a Western themed bar which tonight (a regular weeknight) is full to capacity. They do a range of interesting beers, as well as wine and a bunch of cocktails. Pretty nice spot, although I'm not entirely convinced by the decor...

Agave, Surry Hills

Clockwise from Top Left: Frijoles refritos ($13) ; Queso fundido ($15) ; Croquetas de pollo ($16) ; Enpanadas ($14) ; Pulpos al ajillo ($16) ; Flautas de pollo ($14)

When you're out with some mates from uni and you need a place for 20 people at short notice, you'll take whatever you get. Luckily we managed to find Agave, a Mexican restaurant on the popular eat street Crown St.
We ordered a bunch of tapas (do they even do tapas in Mexico?), all of which were very visually appealing, taste satisfying but nothing special, and a little steep given the small size... but remember we're in Surry Hills here.

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So ends my Sydney food rant. Actually there were plenty of other places I went but didn't bring my camera to. Of particular interest was the food level in the flashy new Westfield Town Hall, where they've brought together some pretty happening restaurants and let them set up shop in the food court. Exciting! Although $9 or something along those lines for a cheese and ham croissant, Becasse or not, is highway robbery.

Anywho, next stop Hong Kong!

Sydney, Australia - the Good, the Fat and the Uhhh... (Part 1)

There are plenty of fantastic places to eat and drink in Sydney. And thankfully there are plenty of fantastic posts by Sydney food bloggers to tell us where to find them!

This blog post is not one of them.

Ok that was a little self-deprecating, but what I really meant was that during my recent all-too-short trip back to Sydney, I kinda got lazy and didn't really do my usual foodie thing. That is, I didn't trawl through all the food blogs to hunt down the latest funky cafes and trendy restaurants, nor did I find my way into any of the one, two or three-hatted institutions littered throughout the CBD.

The result? Judge for yourself!

The Good

A Little on the Side, Darlington

Left: Mushroom, feta, kumara and dukka open omlette with sourdough toast ($12.50) ; Right: A proper cappucino ($3)

I would never have known about this cafe if it weren't for my good friend the Wangka who seems to be utterly devoted to this place. And for very good reason. Dukka goes great on omelette... gotta try to do this myself sometime.
And after getting off a plane at 6 am, nothing really beats a good cup of Campos coffee. Hooray for real coffee! Oh plus they have free wi-fi too.

(An aside: There are so many good cafes near Sydney Uni... let's see... Cafe Ella, Tripod, The Shortlist all in Redfern, then there's Badde Manors and Clipper Cafe in Glebe. For coffee, there's Toby's Estate on City Rd, but the best is the original Campos on Missinden Rd in Newtown.)

The Red Door @ Foveaux, Surry Hills

Red: 'Foveaux Cosmo' vodka, gewurtztraminer, hibiscus syrup, lime ($17) ; Orange: 'Old Cuban' rum, lime, sugar, mint, bitters, champagne ($16)

Whilst I'd heard of Foveaux (one of the increasing number of fancy degustation restaurants in Sydney), I didn't know they also operated a cosy little underground bar next door. Really nice place. Thanks YY!

The Fat

Kentucky Fried Chicken, Town Hall

The Double: Two Zinger chicken fillets, two slices of cheese, bacon, SUPERCHARGED sauce ($7.95).

"OH NOES!" I hear you say. I would too, but at midnight on a end-of-week-night, that 'oh noes' becomes a 'hell yeah'.

Caution: May cause salivation, hallucinations, bowel irritations and/or death.

I still do not know what "supercharged" tastes like.

JJ's @ the Mouth of the Hawkesbury, Brooklyn, Central Coast

Family Pack Thingy: 2 x Fish, Calamari, Prawns, Potato Scallops, Chips

Greasy. Heart-stopping. But what would you do if you weren't able to catch a single fish after half a day on the Hawkesbury river?

Central Coast humour.

Landsdowne Hotel, Broadway

Steak and chips with pepper sauce ($7)

Student hangout. (In)Famous for their $5 $6 $7 meal deals. The steak was much better than I expected/remembered. And actually medium rare! I suspect I got lucky with the cut of meat, as everyone seemed to have a rather different looking piece... no complaints from me!

The Uhhh...

Cafe Ish, Surry Hills

Hmm, I sense this next bit might be long. So you'll find out the rest... after this commercial break.
I'll post the rest tomorrow as Part 2! Muhahaha...