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 Jan 2004
G'day cobbers.

Actually, you don't hear this too much, maybe too many poms taking the wotsit. Anyway, much to catch up on due to a delay getting the computer over from blighty and my general laziness, oh yes and the loss of my camera. However, everything is on paper and ready to be transcibed, here we go then.

I had a few days to settle into our temporary residence, a block on campus in Liverpool hospital which is a modern but very busy hospital 30km out of the city centre. The flat was so, so, quite cool and with aircon, pretty good for $120 a week. However, there was no kitchen equipment and my endorsement of Trangia stoves once again shines forth. Unfortunately due to our paranoia about our luggage weight we only put in the small stove. So out of this we did eat for a number of weeks until we moved into a beautifully furnished and equipped flat in the city. I think we did rather well considering.
Actually, our very first meal was some chinese roast duck from a stall in the local Westfield Mall, a lurid over-airconditioned greenhouse heaving with multicoloured obesity. The duck wasn't bad considering, and it was a taster for the superb multiethnic eating experience that is Sydney.
 

 

9th Island Fizz- can't remember too much, but it went well

 I think our first meal at home was of some cooked prawns. They are big on prawns in this place, and the prawns are themselves big and of many a different shades.
Thornbury Pinot gris, Marlborough 2001 First meal actually cooked was veal steaks with risotto milanese, and topped with gremolata, that pungent mix of chopped parsley, lemon peel and garlic. Although the saffron was real, the rice was a bit dodge. I am all for local produce and avoiding the idiotic transport, at great environmental impact, of things that do not need to be, but if it doesn't taste then I will just have to hope it was shipped and not flown. Next day some excess veal was very pleasant with some pickled roast pepper. There seems to be a lot of this around thanks to the East European contingent in the area, thanks.
A wander around the city led us to Chinatown where numerous crackling-skinned beasties line up in the windows all calling out to me for their immediate devourment. A few months later and I still have problems walking past empty stomached. Anyway, this first visit was to BBQ King (18-20 Goulburn St), it looked plain and there was a huge photo of an oven housing hundreds of ducks suspended from the ceiling- I'm susceptible to food porn. A kilo of crackling pork later, we stumble out. Shona is still resistant to Chinese roasts, but every now and then I twist her arm.
Skippy gets it Roo rump is a fairly resilient cut it seems, a bit like beef skirt but the flavour certainly reminiscent of venison. Next time I think slice thinner or mince for burgers. We had it with some mango chutney from the Fijian Indian store, damned hot, which was annoying because chili is a wine wrecker, however, it tastes bloody lovely. Incidentally, according to my bosses, Fijian Indians have an extremely high rate of ischaemic heart disease, thought to be due to the high intake of coconut.
To me Heidi means a soft focus girl prancing through Alpine meadows, with badly dubbed dialogue. Christ, I can even hear the theme tune, but here it is a cheese farm. Maybe the link was intentional as they make some great Alpine style cheeses including Raclette which really is a fine copy and made a rather delicious omelette, especially in the trangia lid/ frying pan.
Another Sydney seafood staple is the oyster, and apparently it has been for many thousands of years, the evidence being large piles of opened shells around the harbour. Well I am keen to maintain this state of affairs. As well as anxiety re the cheese situation we were pretty concerned about the beer. However, although there is not the range that we are used to there are some superb beers around and some particularly good porters and stouts which as I have discussed before are the best drink to have with raw oysters. On this occasion I think this was Coopers, whose range of beers is wonderful.
The chutney reappeared this time as a condiment to a slab of quick fried tuna. It must be said that there is a wealth of fishmongers in all parts of Sydney that would shame Bristol if a 'monger per 10000 population' were done, I'm sure. Even in the dodgy Mall there was at least one with crawling crabs and whole fish.
Another lunchtime excursion this time through Ashfield and we came across a few authentic looking Chinese restaurants. Shona did better than my sticky rice Lotus leaf bun with a soup topped with fried elvers, superb.
Now I'm really cheating, takeaway food wouldn't normally be worth writing up but this was 'BBQ' chicken from the Vietnamese (et al) quarter of Sydney that is Cabramatta. Most of my colleagues at work seem to think you will only come out of this place with blood gushing from your throat, however I feel safer there than Liverpool, where the white china clientele seem to reside rather than their Cabramatian suppliers. Oh yes the chicken. I think it had been roasted with a soy/ honey glaze. When we got it home I squeezed some lemon and topped it with spring onion and served it with bok choi and rice.
Continuing a South East Asia vibe I decided to make an aubergine sandwich (i.e. cut in half) containing a forcemeat mixture of pork mince, onion, garlic, ginger and soy sauce, baked in foil for a couple of hours so that the exuded juices would concentrate. I think this was a bit of ready steady cooking, but it worked.
Finally, a barbie A trip to Kanangra Boyd national park was our first  Aussie encounter with that superb concept, the camping firepit with barbecue, which we had previously seen in California. It really must be said that the Aussies do like theirs, you see them in the most bizarre places particularly in lay bys on roads that would plainly be quite unpleasant for the effort required. There are also public electric powered grill-plates around the place, usually in more sensible and aesthetically pleasing surrounds. Just great.  Anyway, first night we had some veal and parsley sausages which were pretty good, acquired from Harris Farm Market, Parramatta. Next night was the turn of the steak, cooked on a rack constructed of tent pegs across the edge of the pit and resting on a log, the fire between the two. This is a fairly precarious position to be in for a fine bit of rump, but it survived and was necessary as this pit had a plate and billy can suspender but no rack.
Mullyan chardonnay- a lovely restrained and even better local (Mudgee) wine On return the cupboards were bare but we had bought some proper arborio rice and my smuggled ceps stash was there for the using, so, cep risotto once more.