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Avio-sitophobic?*
Hodo-sitophobic?**
Fear not.
This Mobile Foodie Survival Kit from Flight 001 is just what the doctor ordered.
It's stocked up with a number of handy herbs and spices as well as Tabasco and wasabi for those more extreme emergencies.
* Fear of airplane food ** Fear of road travel food
(via Josh Rubin Cool Hunting)
Ok, so we'll be the first to admit that we've been a bit obsessed with this dish.
In fact we probably stop in to Than Binh for their version (also pictured) at least once a fortnight.
But after an excellent cooking class with Mark Jensen (from Red Lantern) at the Sydney Seafood School we think we've been able to sort out a pretty reasonable home version. The recipe is mostly his, but adjusted to our taste and with a few Than Binh flourishes.
What you need:
Big hunk of ling fillet (1kg)
1 bunch of green onion (ok shallots if you insist on calling them that)
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp curry powder*
6 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp sugar
200ml canola oil
300g bean sprouts
1/2 bunch of dill
A fistful of mint
A mittful of coriander
A wack of Asian mint
1 package of vermicelli noodles
500ml fish stock
1-2 Red chillis
About half of a red onion
Some unsalted peanuts
1 lemon
What to do:
Cut the ling into strips about two finger widths apart.
Put white ends of green onion and garlic in a mortar and pestle and smash it up until anger subsides. Add turmeric, curry powder, fish sauce, sugar, some oil and about a third of the dill. Mix the fish pieces in cover and refrigerate for about an hour.
Cook vermicelli. Dice the chilli then place in a small condiment dish. Slice the red onion thinly and set aside.
Slice up half of the green ends of the green onion into 5cm lengths. Chop the remaining green onion finely.
Heat a wok to medium-high heat. Fry the fish fillet for 30 seconds. Turn the fish and add half of the fish stock, raising the heat until the stock boils. Continue to cook until the fish is firm.
Serve fish, with a side plate of all the remaining herbs, sliced red onion and the bean sprouts, and of course a big bowl of vermicelli.
How to eat it:
Put some vermicelli for each person in a small bowl.
Take a mixture of the herbs and onion.
Scoop some fish and sauce over the top.
Top with a few peanuts and some chilli.
Finish with a squeeze of lemon.
Make noises such as mmmm and ooooh.
*we recommend the curry powder at Island Foods which is packed with fresh curry leaves to maintain flavour
Well, you've seen our favorite dishes of the 2004 but now you can get the dish from Sydney's top food writer, Matthew Evans on the year that was - Menus of moment from SMH Good Living.
We've recently discovered that the chilli heat we all know and (most) love has a measurement called Scoville heat units.
The heat comes from a substance called capsaicin found mainly in the white ribs of the chilli and only to a lesser extent in the seeds (despite popular mythology).
So where do most common chillis rank?
Unsurprisingly, you'll find capsicum on one end of the spectrum at 0 Scoville and the red caribbean chilli on the other end at 300,000-577,000 (ouch).
In between you'll find the approachable jalepeno (2500-5000), the common cayenne and prik khee nu (between 30,000 and 50,000). Slightly more powerful is the thai and chipotle weighing in at 50,000-100,000 just below the mighty habanero and the fearful scotch bonnet (100,000-300,000).*
We aren't sure how available scotch bonnets are in Australia but have seen most of the other varieties we mentioned above in your finer food outlets.
* The Kitchen Hand - Anthony Telford
As traffic screams along the semi-lit cross street darkness of Cleveland St, diners sit happily at wooden tables in this cozy favorite.
The menu tells us that a dhaba is a roadside truckstop cafe in the Punjab North of India. We can safely say if we stopped for food this tasty, we might find it quite difficult to get back on the road.
The mixed entree plate is the right place to start sampling (even the samosas are a cut above). A special of curried goat (falling off the bone) is richly aromatic in its' tomato based sauce and goan fish curry is alive with whole cardamom and cumin seed in it's creamy sweetness. (sorry phone pics only this time around).
With mains ranging from about $8- 14.90 and BYO corkage of a mere $2, it's also a pretty affordable stop on your travels.
Word also has it that Maya Da Dhaba excels in Indian sweets, but we were too full to dabble on this visit. There is always next time and we (for two) can't wait.
Rating: 13/20
Maya Da Dhaba is at 431 Cleveland St. Surry Hills Phone: 8399 3785
Didn't get what you really wanted this Xmas? Stop jiggling the joystick on your *ahem* playstation and start baking.
This site provides a quick and easy way (including templates) to bake away any season affectations and get you ready for corks a poppin' on NYE.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports at the Sydney Fish Market the prawn war is heating up.
**Related: Facts: The Imported Prawn Ripoff from the Australian Prawn Farmers Association
**Pretty much unrelated (and a bit crazee): Locusts rebranded as 'sky prawns'
...I probably think this site is about me.
Ok, I know it's a tad sad but please help a brotha out and vote for Sydney Food
Diary in the "Best Food Blog - City" category over
here....you know you want to...
Go directly to my category here
Thanking you.
Summertime and the livin' is sweaty.
Berries at this time of year, on the other hand are ripe, succulent and alive with colour that begs you to pick them (even if you are merely picking them from a shelf at Harris Farm.
Strawberries, Raspberries, Mulberries, Blueberries, Blackberries are at the ready now and largely available until autumn.
Most berries are high in vitamin C and a great way to get your daily dose of regularity. As it turns out, blueberries and strawberries (to a lesser extent) are some sort of super-foods action packed with antioxidants and phytochemicals.
So enjoy the summer harvest and eat 'em up. Here are two suggested starting points - one, two.
