Noosa Food Festival

Last month we visited one of our favourite places, to do one of our favourite things - Noosa (which is sentimental to us because it's where we got married) to go to the Noosa International Food Festival. What a great weekend. We often go up to Brisbane for Mothers Day and I'm always envious when I see the ads for the Food festival the following weekend, so this time, we decided to move Mothers Day and take my Mother in Law for a weekend away. We started off the weekend on Thursday evening with a fun, light hearted, food themed concert. The QLD Virtuosi orchestra, along with special guests were a great source of entertainment, and this was almost the highlight of the weekend. It certainly kicked the festival off to a great start.

On Friday morning we breakfasted at our wedding reception spot, Berardo's on the Beach. It was a great experience as usual with amazing service, delicious food and what a view! It is a fave of ours, but also, being in one of the most stunning locations, a fave of some of the weekend guests to Noosa, the Chefs. Not only did we spot Neil Perry walking into the restaurant and sitting down at a table when we were outside chatting on the boardwalk admiring the beach, but we even featured in his Instagram snap of the occasion! (See us in the foreground with Noosa beach and National Park in the background!)

Saturday was our day to hit the festival and the rain that had sprinkled on Friday afternoon cleared up, leaving the only memory of it as the squelchy mud beneath our feet! We spent a lot of time glued to the main stage with chef after chef showing off their beautiful dishes. David Thompson from Nahm restaurant, which we were lucky enough to visit on our trip last year to Thailand, prepared a spicy stir fry, and Guy Grossi and Jacques Reymond also demonstrated some fascinating techniques.

Another highlight of the festival was High Tea by the River. In a sun drenched marquee with views of the Eric Pernoud (a local patissier) and Adriano Zumbo. What a delicious spread! We had different flavoured eclairs from Pernoud, ranging from traditional flavours to some distinct and unexpected ones; Cheesy bites from Ian Curley and then Zumbo's macarons and a pineapple and popping candy verrine that popped and tingled in our mouths. We certainly enjoyed everything that we were served and the Chefs were very gracious coming round to visit the guests at the table. I think Zumbo probably had his photo taken with every guest that attended!
river, we were treated to some great sweets and savouries from Ian Curley,

All in all, Noosa gave us another fabulous weekend and we left with more memories of a great festival and town!

Tastes on my Travels

As I travel it has started to become clearer what type of restaurants I am drawn to. Of course, I love going to the classics and trying out the acclaimed chefs' places when in their home city, but what I've noticed as I browse through the restaurant recommendations I receive is that I'm drawn to a couple of things: I like quirky buildings or locations - restaurants in buildings converted from another purpose; I love the underdog - not the top restaurant in town, but the best new restaurants, off the beaten track ones; and I love interesting produce that's a bit different to the norm, but where the preparation isn't too out there with gels and soils etc. 

Recently, I've just come back from a few weeks work and play in North America - San Jose and Vancouver to be specific - where I found some restaurants I really enjoyed which fit some or all of the criteria!

Naglee Park Garage, San Jose

This recommendation came from a colleague who thought I'd love it! Of course I did. I watched a YouTube clip of the feature on Diners, Drive In's and Dives and was really excited to try it. Classic American burger and fries but with a twist! Perfect. Even better was the courtyard out to back of the converted garage in San Jose. We sat on long shared tables and relaxed on the summers evening enjoying the food, wine and music from a jazz band playing at the back. It was a great place to kick back and chill!

Wildebeest, Vancouver

I was really excited to go to Wildebeest in Vancouver. The menu looked so interesting when I was scouring websites for where to eat in Vancouver and wow! It delivered. I really enjoy the idea of share plates which are a little bigger than starter size but not as big as a main, so you can try quite a few things. These dishes were delicious with every bite packing a punch. We had a bunch of  things including bison tartare, so interesting and flavoursome; delectable quail with the hay still smoking; tender and melt-in-your-mouth beef shortrib. The restaurant had a great vibe contrasting to the quiet Gastown street outside when we left!

Fable Restaurant, Vancouver

Fable is another Vancouver favourite established a few years ago inspired by Top Chef Canada "restaurant wars." For a Monday night I didn't think we'd have trouble getting a table but this is a popular haunt and we just squeezed in for an early sitting! This was another colleague's recommendation (they really know me!) and it was fabulous. The highlight for me was the "canned tuna" - confit (I think) tuna with preserved lemons served in a "can" but the other dishes were delicious - perfectly cooked duck and lamb; clever potato crusted chicken and good old Steak Frites! 

 Ah, great food really makes a great holiday for me. And really makes me want to return to try some of the other menu items that I didn't pick - makes my travel wishlist that bit longer though!

Fab Crab

Before...

I am not normally a big crab eater. I love the taste, so am happy to use crab meat in recipes and munch on a soft shell crab sushi roll or crab cakes but for a full crab in it's shell I really have to be in the mood for the fuss. Recently when in the US, the Boiling Crab Restaurant came highly recommended, and a bunch of us from work decided to make the trip. The first highlight of the evening was when were picked up from our hotel, not in a Maxi-taxi that we'd ordered, but instead a stretch limo! Oh, the irony! Of all places to be arriving in a limo.....From the sublime to the ridiculous!

Crab in the bag!

After bibbing up with full frontal heavy duty bibs, the food started to arrive. At a restaurant called Boiling Crab, you have to of course have crab. We tried King Crab Claws and Dungeness Crab, as well as Shrimps (commonly known by us Aussies as King Prawns), Corn and Cajun Fries. Rather than plates, they arrive in large plastic bags full of delicious sauce drenched seafood. You dig into the plastic bag and just chuck the shells on the table. Sounds messy? It was!!! I am not shy of getting into a mess in the kitchen, or at the dining table, but this has to be the messiest meal I've ever enjoyed. And enjoy we did!

...After

My colleague, also a foodie, who regularly frequents this restaurant, had a sixth sense of how much to order so the piles of seafood that arrived at the table which seemed like we'd never get through ended up being the perfect quantity! We feasted until we were crabbed and prawned out, cracking open the shells and sucking the juicy flesh from claws! Fabulous crab in a fun place where I didn't mind the fuss!

Eat Drink Blog 2012: My Top 5 Highlights

Last week was the wonderful Eat Drink Blog 2012 Conference in Adelaide organised by a fabulous South Australia based group of bloggers. The bringing together of like minds for a weekend has certainly been one of  the highlights of my blogging career, as it reinspired and energised me to lift my blogging game. Of course, I could walk through the days one by one, but since we'd all be asleep by the time the plane touched down in Adelaide, I thought I'd pick the top 5 learnings to share.

1. Sydney pulled the market short straw
I don't quite know how I've made it to Adelaide on a few occasions but never been to the Adelaide Central Market. It's a bit like Central Station in Sydney, that is, not quite in the centre, but now that I know about it, it will be the centre of my next visits to Adelaide. What happened to Sydney in all of this? We ended up with Paddy's Market, selling cheap souvenirs, while Adelaide has this great hub filled with hundreds of vendors collected under the same roof selling their speciality products at what seemed like reasonable prices, creating a real community feel whilst supporting the farmers and growers.

2. Don't gush
Diane Jacobs, an expert in food writing who has written the food writers/bloggers bible, Will Write for Food, (which I can't wait to get my hands on) was the keynote speaker. As well as many other nuggets, her key advice was: don't gush... It's boring. I guess I knew that already, but do have a tendency to rave about things I love, and it would be very easy for me to gush about the Eat Drink Blog Conference, but I'll keep that in check. When I receive the book I have on order right now, I'll be putting my new found food writing knowledge to the test!

3. Write the recipe ingredients in the order they'll be used
One of the themes running through a variety of presentations was that keeping it simple for readers is the key. Readers and, more importantly, our recipe triers, don't want things to be too complicated, or they'll just go elsewhere. I hadn't really actually thought that people would really be trying my recipes, but in case they are, I'd better make them clear. One of the simplest ways to do that is to list out the recipe ingredients in the order they appear in the recipe. I can put that one into practice straight away!



4. Email subscribers are like gold

Email subscribers are the loyal friends who have requested blog posts straight to their inbox. Instead of having to go seeking through the facebook feed, competing with their friends wedding pics, the next fun event, they have opted to be sent the posts each week to distract them from work, and therefore I might actually get a look in! I had never thought about it like that till Jules from the Stone Soup's presentation. By thinking about what I am wanting my readers to do when they get to my blog, I can hopefully make it a little simpler for readers to engage when they arrive!

5. There really is too much of a good thing

Who says you can't get enough of a good thing? I love food and tasting everything I can! The Eat Drink Blog Conference 2012, however, actually pushed me to the limit! There were so many tasty offerings provided for us to feast upon by the generous sponsors: Breakfast from Red Door Bakery, Lunch from the market producers who came in on their day off to feed us at Adelaide Central Market, Coffee from Breville, A Mexican feast from the Hilton, Chocolate fountains from Providore, cheese from Barossa Cheese Company, cakes from the Cupcake Table to mention a few that I can remember! I think it's clear that I'll not make the grade as a competitive eater, but I had a great time trying!

Thanks again to Lambs Ears and Honey; The Hungry Australian; Eating Adelaide; Travelling in MaryJanes; She Cooks, She Gardens; The Natural Foodie; Playing House for organising a memorable, insightful but also fun weekend! And the South Australian Tourist Board for showcasing their beautiful state!

Mountain Range

Grilled Chicken Skewers

This weekend we went camping out in the Watagan Mountain Range, to try out a few new purchases of ours. The first was our new Jeep "Nancy," a fun 4WD soft top, which we were keen to try on a quick weekend away to see how much she holds. The second was our new camping stove (or range!) which we'd purchased at the camping show earlier this year but hadn't used it yet. Our previous camping cooking appliance was a fabulous "Fire and Ice" BBQ/Esky combo which served us so well for many years. Last year in Darwin whilst camping though, we experienced the convenience and compactness of the gas camping stoves and decided to upgrade. We got ourselves a fabulous Colemans 3 Burner range.

Veg, potatoes and patties (for the kids)

We are known for our gourmet camping menus and this one was no different. We started off with some honey soy chicken skewers. Normally on the BBQ it would take about 20 mins to warm up and then about 30 mins to cook chicken but these were cooked through in about 15 mins. Our main was sirloin steaks with veg stir fry and potatoes. Again the stove did a great job. We had the grill plate over half for the steaks and used a fry pan for the stir fry on one of the other burners. What a great dinner to christen the stove for many more excursions to come!

Gourmet Campers

Although I love my kitchen comforts, when we have an opportunity, we enjoy being out in the bush in our 4WD, camping in the middle of nowhere. I'm not the "walk-in" camping kind of girl, as I would need a pack horse to carry my high end camping requirements, and we're known for being "Gourmet Campers," not settling for cans of beans heated up on a fire, or dehydrated camping meals!

Our Easter camping trip was no exception and we had a menu rivalling any Easter Sunday roast! Marinated butterflied lamb on the BBQ was the main dish, accompanied by BBQed corn, stir fried veg and Tuscan potatoes. 

This camping trip, inspired by the MKR challenge, we also gave a go at making the Aussie bush tucker favourite, Damper. Damper is a bread made without yeast and baked over the campfire. We added sugar and sultanas to ours and tried cooking it two ways - the traditional: wrapped around the stick and cooked over the heat, and wrapped in foil and pushed into the embers. Both were relatively successful and we enjoyed the fun of making and eating our afternoon snack!

Sultana Damper

Ingredients

4 cups of Self Raising Flour

1 heaped spoon of Brown Sugar

A large pinch of salt

175g of sultanas

2 spoons butter

200ml milk

1 egg

Lots of foil

Method

1. Build you campfire and get some embers glowing!

2. Add the dry ingredients (including the sultanas) to a large bowl. Melt the butter over the campfire (a little foil basket works a treat!)

3. Pour the melted butter into the dry ingredients and mix in

4. Break an egg into a mug and lightly beat, add to the milk

5. Mix the egg and milk mixture into the dry ingredients till all combined

6. Knead till reaches a smooth dough consistency and it holds together without crumbling

To cook wrapped around the stick: Roll out a long sausage using 1/4 of the mixture and wrap around a long stick. Hold over the campfire turning till firm and cooked.

To cook in the embers: Wrap the dough in foil (so there are 5 or 6 layers) and place the parcel in the hot embers. Takes about 30 mins, depending on the heat!

Whilst not as comfortable not convenient as our own kitchen, there's a lot more space and it's a lot more adventurous to cook our camping meals under the stars in the vast open bush of Australia!

These little piggies went to Market!

I was lucky enough to have read It Happened In Florence, while I was in the early planning (read thinking) of a trip to Italy! It totally sold me that Italy was a must-see destination and booked my trip straight away. Despite being a self confessed non-foodie as far as preparation and even eating goes, Nita loves everything about the accompaniment to good food - being a fabulous hostess, the company, the fun and the buzz of shopping at the market. 



"Buying food at the market always led to a barrage of questions,
How many people are you serving? When are you eating this? What are you serving to accompany it? What wine are you drinking with it? How are you cooking it? 


Purchasing a piece of meat from the butcher is kindred to adopting a pet from the Humane Society; until he is assured that you will be taking proper care of the purchase, he isn’t going to let you have it. And with fruit, buying a melon for example, the first question would be,
When are you eating it - today, tomorrow?
And depending on my answer, the vendor would make a selection and hand me over a fruit of the appropriate ripeness. If my answer gave a date three days out or more, she’d look at me like I was joking,
Why would you come to the market today? Come back when you actually need it.


In addition to getting the meat, fruit and vegetables that exactly met my needs, my responses to other interrogations would ensure that I got the right kind of pesto to have with the bruschetta I was serving, and not the one more suited to eat with pasta; the correct amount of sauce to accompany the fresh linguine I’d chosen; and the best advice on the way to prepare, cook and serve all the things I’d purchased on any given day."

With this experience in mind we were excited to visit the markets in Italy for ourselves. They looked like a work of art! So many fresh vegetables: zucchini flowers, mini pumpkin, mushrooms, chillis, trays and trays of tomatoes adorned the vegetable stands; the aroma of herbs - dried and fresh - filled the air; cured meats and prosciutto stalls were piled with ready to slice hams and salamis; and fresh pasta was artistically curled up in the enclosed stalls. The fish markets had all types of sea creatures - some we had never seen before! We wished we had access to a kitchen so we could take home a bag of fresh groceries to cook, but alas, we had to make do with the fabulous Italian restaurants and wish that one day we will find markets like these in Sydney!


Reprinted by kind permission of the authors Nita Tucker and Christa McDermott

The steaks are big in Florence

Trattoria Marione, Via della Spada 27, Florence, Italy

In our recent trip to Italy, my husband requested I wasn't an embarrassing tourist every meal, snapping multiple pictures of every morsel that we put into our mouths for the 8 days we were there. However, my biggest regret is that I didn't get a picture of us with our Bistecca Fiorentina!

It was a special birthday dinner and when in Florence, we couldn't miss their steak that takes the name of the historic city! The minimum order of the huge T-bone steak was 700g, and we were surprised at Trattoria Marione to see a couple with one each! We also saw a huge piece of steak on a plate going out to a table, obviously being divided between multiple guests, so didn't feel out of place ordering one to share. They cook it medium rare and serve it seasoned, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a glug of olive oil: Italian simplicity! So simple that Cam was informed in no uncertain terms there was no mustard to accompany it!

It was in Nita Tucker's book, It Happened in Florence (just out highly recommended!) that I learnt a little more about this Tuscan traditional dish, the Italian food culture, and where I should go for my Bistecca Fiorentina photo opportunity next time in Italy!

(A) must-visit food venue can be found halfway between Florence and Siena in the Chianti countryside at Panzano. Martica Marcelleria Cecchini is argued, by many in the know, to be the best butchery in the world, presided over by the larger than life Dario Cecchini. He is a man passionate about all things Tuscan including the cured and fresh meats that he sells in his enchanting shop, along with the likes of his home produced salt and own-recipe mustard, more like a sweet and sour sauce, that tastes scrumptious on anything from cheese to ice cream! A Sunday visit is less grocery shopping, and more a celebration of Tuscan life and history. Enjoy the tastings, flowing wine and occasional snatches of Dante recited by Cechinni as he serves his many customers. The party spills out of the shop and onto the ancient streets of Panzano.


Cechinni is the champion of the famous bistecca fiorentina, a T-bone steak, traditionally cut from the Chianina or Maremmana breeds of cattle. The steak is grilled over a wood or charcoal fire and then seasoned with salt, black pepper, and olive oil. At a party hosted by JK Place (an award-winning boutique hotel), I witnessed the Tuscan butcher make his grand entrance, accompanied by burly bodyguards and holding a violin case handcuffed to his wrist. Opening the case with obvious relish, and to rousing cheers, he revealed the very reason for the party: the return to Florence of the bistecca fiorentina after its years in exile as a result of mad cows’ disease. This drama encapsulated the passion, fun, and complete seriousness, with which the Tuscan’s take their heritage - and food.

Reprinted by kind permission of the authors Nita Tucker and Christa McDermott