Eat Like Ushi

The staff at the Underwater Centre: Dive Seychelles made daily trips to Sagittaire for lunch - a local cafeteria-style takeaway that cooks fantastic French-Creole dishes for around AUD5. The dishes vary from kari beef, spare ribs, pork and vegetables, sweet chilli chicken and an excellent but spicy fish salad. You can select one or two main dishes to be served with rice, sauce and chilli topped cabbage.

What was more fantastic was the fried banana cake. Although not available every day, the sweet soft rich heavenly taste of overripe bananas was seductive. On healthier days Sagittaire offered a baked version which was less sweet and moist, but still an adequate replacement.

You wouldn't ordinarily expect to eat pizza in Seychelles. Occasionally laziness slips through and your guard is let down.

After arriving into the accommodation at Beau Vallon, the host graciously drove us around the area to point out the roads to the beaches, shops, restaurants. With a dining area that is glorious for facing onto the beach, and also having some nice nonchalant diner-style charm, Baobab was explained to be the best pizzeria on the island and the only one having a true wood-fire pizza oven.

A late evening trek to the outdoor seating surrounded by beach, plants/trees and water on one side was surprisingly free of insects and mosquitoes. Perhaps my 50% DEET played a role, but no diners seemed bothered.

Being an island, my goal was to eat as much seafood (hopefully) local as possible. Unfortunately the limited menu only featured prawns and smoked fish as seafood items for pizza, and both were not available. Great. I instead settled for Proscuitto & Funghi SCR120 which featured some ham, a lack of detected mushrooms, and thick layer of molten cheese and tomato mix. The base had crisp edges and a soft folding core although could have used a more salt in the dough recipe.

A special of the day was Fried Calamari SCR150 which had a nice salty batter and some decent (imported) squid underneath.

Overall the meal was fine. Nothing special, but a good adequate Italian meal.

Next time I would order the Baobab Special pizza (with prawns) if available. The place is near Boat House buffet, which has a mixed review of local seafood and grilled meat dishes. If the thought of pizza won't fill your belly, try the nightly buffet instead.

In my absence, the Melbourne addition to the first world's street food revolution is souvlaki. It comes as no surprise that George Calombaris led the way with Gazi (focus on Greek street food) and Jimmy Grant's (focus specifically on souvlaki).

My cravings for Stalactites lamb gyro souvlaki was put on hold as I made a booking for Gazi as venue for a long overdue catchup.

I didn't take any photos that evening (which is a shame) and in a way it was telling that the food took backseat to the conversation and catchup. This could mean the conversation was all encompassing, but also the food was not particularly special.

For ease, the Doing It Greek Style 10-dish sharing menu was selected. It was a lot of food.

- 3 dips + flat bread - tzatziki, taramosalata (fish roe) with prawn crackers, miso melitzanosalata (eggplant, miso);
- Saganaki, honey, sesame, lemon - delicious fried cheese with a good amount of saltiness, elasticity and a tiny bit of crunch;
- Soft Shell Crab Souvlakakia (mint, coriander, honey, mayonnaise) - very nice soft fried crab;
Duck Souvlakakia (chips, parsley, onion, pear, mustard mayo) - very very crispy strips of duck meat with unmistakable duck flavour, but lacking the succulence the meat usually deserves;
- Wood-Fire Grill Swordfish - sadly was well cooked through and a bit dry;
- Wood-Fire Spit Pork Belly (white beans, apple skordalia) - moist soft chunks of belly meat that I couldn't stop helping myself to;
- Chips of Tiganites Patates (oregano, garlic oil, feta) - reasonably crispy chunky chips, good seasoning, and the feta lifts it to another level of silky unhealthiness;
- Acropolis Now (stawberry mousse, coffee and mastic) - very sweet strawberry dessert;
- Loukomathes (honey nutella, crushed hazelnuts) - excellent warm doughnut balls crispy smothered in honey.

There are two dishes I can't recall - one was probably a street food starter and the other was a salad. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't any lamb, not even available as a souvlakakia.

What I will gripe about is the service. A friend had previously warned me they had several different waiters and a degree of neglect overall. Our experience was again, having 4-5 different servers - I don't tend to mind this much, but when there is no communication between them and every 5 minutes a different waiter comes to ask us how everything is, it starts to really get annoying.

Next time I would order the a la carte instead of tasting menu. I'd be quite happy to eat the Saganaki, Pork Belly and Loukomathes again. I'd be willing to give the Crab and Duck Souvlakakias another try with more of my mind's focus, but am also tempted by the rumours about the Beef Brisket one. Off the dishes not yet tried, the most enticingly worded are Crispy Lamb Brains, Wood-Fire Grill Lamb Cutlets and what would likely be the piece de resistance, the Koondrook Braise of Kid Goat for 2.

After returning from London, one of my most missed foods for either late night (post-alcohol) snacking or a really lazy unhealthy dinner at home was the fried chicken from Royal PFC 2 in Whitechapel. Needless to say KFC never stacked up against it (although the opposition from the KFC backers was strong).

Combining this with what appears to be Melbourne's arrival of Korean food, I ended up at 10pm going to Gami. I thought it was a new place arriving in my absence, but was told it had been around at least since 2011. Who knew?

In traditional Korean meal fashion, a few freebies were thrown to start off as drink snacks - Calbee prawn crackers and some pickled cubes of white radish. I didn't realise these would soon be used to offset the chicken.

- Half Chicken with Spicy Sauce - a large half of fried chicken cut into palm sized pieces and smothered in a thick, red, burning chilli sauce. It brought tears to my eyes and a sting to my tongue, but only a little too hot for enjoyment. It didn't stop it from being finished by 2 of us;
- Chicken pieces (wings) - original fried chicken drumsticks and wings with a nice crunchy batter.

Both came with a cabbage salad with mayonnaise to appease the heat. The chicken was well cooked, not dry, but not particularly moist either. It hit a spot and I would go back if I was craving it, although probably not too far out of my way. The Gami house lager was the first beer I've finished voluntarily (maybe the heat numbed and burnt my tongue enough to tolerate the lighter beer taste),

Next time I would order the fried chicken either sweet chilli or sweet soy garlic sauce to try the different versions. I like the meat on these larger pieces better than the wings, and the wings don't come with the sauce options. There are other light meals listed, but why would you get them at this place?

10-2014

A recent (month long) craving for fried chicken brought me back to Gami. Reading through my last entry (one of the great things about having a food journal) guided me into ordering a whole fried chicken - half sweet chilli and half sweet soy garlic sauce. The sweet soy garlic sauce is a milder flavour, light on garlic that is rather pleasant. The sweet chilli is a milder form of the spicy sauce with a very minor amount of burn. Both are good and recommended. Funnily enough I preferred the soy garlic sauce on the night I ate it, and the sweet chilli on the subsequent two nights after microwaving. Odd. 

Once again the cabbage salad was simple enough to break up the chicken taste and I particularly liked the pickled radish cubes too. Takeaway took 20-30mins, so I'd advise to phone order in advance if you have enough forward planning skills.

Another trip to my favourite food destination in Spain. I ended up in Valencia mainly because I hadn't been before and the birthplace of paella lured me in. Ryanair had a nice fare returning from Alicante and so it was only natural to pass through the small town of Denia along the way.

Of course the only reason to stop in Denia itself was to visit this restaurant. I was in two minds about whether spending €135 on a set menu would be worth it, given my funds were limited and that I tended to prefer less fancy/fine and more base food. Nonetheless the recent elevation to #26 in San Pellegrino and more persuasively #1 in Opinionated About Dining ratings (putting it higher than Noma and El Celler) forced my hand. A few online reads suggested a menu experience equivalent to El Bulli. How could I resist...

After an hour bus from Valencia followed by a 30min walk from the bus station, I arrived at the restaurant in a reasonably quiet part of town to a rather unassuming building. Upon arrival you first are seated in the outdoor area for starters. They also present you with a nice little booklet with the menu, information about QD and also a notepad and pencil for you to jot notes, doodle, or whatever else you feel like. It's a nice touch in the modern foodie world of taking notes and savouring the experience.

The menu has two options - Universo Local (tradition, classic and historic) and Made in the Moon (modern Spanish cooking). Given it was my first visit, my waiter recommended sampling the Universo Local collection which brought the restaurant its reputation and fame.

1st Act: Snacks
- Gin Tonic of Apple - refreshing fizzy apple drink on a warm afternoon;
- Petals of Roses - tart edible "rose petals" of apple-strawberry flavour;

- Roots of Boletus
- Dry Leaf of Sweet Corn - a leaf flake that tastes like sweet corn...;
- Leaf of Herbs in Vinegar - tangy herb flavour I couldn't put my finger on;
- Kalanchoe Leaf with Pearls of Passion Fruit - crunchy herby tangy leaf with a slight sour passionfruit balls;
- Endive's Leaf with Muslin of Orange - shredded orange on top of herbed mayo;
- Stones of Parmesan Cheese - cold liquid of strong parmesan;

- Tomato in Vinegar - sour tangy vinegar coating a crunchy fleshy tomato;
- Tomato in Dry Vinegar - dehydrated tomato that collapsed in the mouth, with powerful tomato/thyme flavour;
- Raim del Pastor - tasted like an Asian herb algae with a slight bitterness and drying texture;
- Lichen - seaweed and little mushrooms on top of mushroom mayo, placed on a light airy crisp which had a slight burnt flavour;

2nd Act: Table of Delicatessens
- Delicatessens (Tuna, Mussel, Dry Octopus) - heavily smoked samples painted with olive oil. The mussel texture was paste-like and the tuna was more subtle smokiness;
- Paper of Cereals - crispy flake of cereal and seeds. Couldn't tell whether I liked this or not;
- Onion in Vinegar - raw pieces in balsamic vinegar;
- Fig - disolvable plastic encasing dried chewy fig powder;

3rd Act: Tapas
- Mary 2012 - take on a bloody mary, tomato disc filled tomato juice;
- Pepperwort 2012 - tuna sashimi licked with soy on a pepperwort leaf with the most lovely natural mustard/wasabi flavour;
- Dove Nest 2010 - salty cheese-like substance (spherified egg yolk I later discovered) on crispy kataifi nest;
(- Pesto) - blue cheese pesto with whole pine nuts at the bottom and parmesan paper;
(- Crepe of Strawberries) - stiff strawberry paper and castor sugar and hint of rose with fresh fruit pieces;
(- Razor Clam) - razor clam with chicken stock jelly cubes;
- Apple Tart 2012 - collapsing apple cake with alcoholic campari & orange peel ice;
- Ravioli of Beetroot & Crab 2013 - beetroot, lovely sweet crab meat and roe in a happy ravioli;
- Mediterranean Taco 2013 - strong monkfish with coriander;
- Coca of Sweet Corn - sweet sugar corn cracker, mayo that looked like grated cheese on top of dried crispy corn kernels;

4th Act: Our Table
- The Water of Dry Tomatoes 2011 - tomato pieces stirred with tomato mayo topped with creamy tomato ice, served with breadsticks;
- Cubalibre de Foie Gras with Lemon Granite and Rocket - rum & coke cubalibre with creamy rich foie gras served with a warm soft brioche bun and lemon granita;
- The Haze 2003 - jellied pea floor, salty grilled mushrooms & pork cubes, peas, crisp corn, microherbs & leaves and a misty forest aroma;
- Red King Prawns from Denia, just boiled. Tea of Chards - seawater-boiled prawns for a few seconds with the sweetest most delicately soft amazing texture, almost like being raw. Served with the most potent prawn head bisque;
- Red Mullet with Incrustation of its Guts and Eucalyptus 2011 - firm textured mullet painted with light urchin & mullet sauce with crunchy weeds and cooked on a eucalyptus leaf;
- Rice "Senia" Ashes 2008 - rice, rice dust ashes, black truffle, mushrooms and mushroom jus;

5th Act: Desserts
- Citrus Field 2005 - orange & sugar dust, mandarin peel and slices, orange cream and a sponge-looking thing that may have been bread?,
- Milk 2009 - milk crisp, vanilla pod icecream and another sponge-looking thing that may have been bread pudding?,

6th Act: The Magic Box
- Crocante of Almonds, Trufle of Rum, Gold Stones - gold chocolate with crunchy wafer interior, rum truffles and almond milk chocolate.

A very extensive dining experience which was helped by the addition of a few complemtary tapas from the Modern menu. I'm not sure what El Bulli was like, but if this is anything to draw by then the experience and excitement is what it is all about. There are stand-out dishes that work purely on flavour (although not many) and the best prawns that I will never find cooked the same way anywhere in the world. But it's more about the collection of dishes, the progression of the meal and the knowledge you won't find this cooking anywhere else in the world.

I'd consider going one more time (if in the area) for the Made in the Moon menu, but couldn't see myself going back again and again. That's probably a reflection of my changing food preferences rather than anything else. It's an experience worth having nonetheless.

Spain still has my food heart.

I went to several B&L chains. The first was the original in Mayfair when during a quiet weekday lunchtime I sampled the lobseter roll, chips and salad. It was definitely good although I did feel having a whole lobster to yourself would be more exciting than a roll. This was slightly put askew when I tried the whole lobster the first time and it wasn't so succulent as hoped.

After a few more I came around. In particular, I sought out the branches that had the massive sharing lobsters (Soho and Bank). 8-10 lb lobsters are an expensive delight, but chewing through the enormous claw and tails was such a happy experience. The unlimited supply of fries and salad is a bonus too.

Grab some friends, select the biggest lobster available, enjoy.

PS. I still can't figure out why you'd come here for a burger, even if it is Goodman steak...

My friends and I had spent a good part of our two years in London trying nearly all the available burger places. We'd have discussions over our favourites and disagreements. It started off with the grimey MEATliquor, had extended to Honest Burgers in Brixton, Lucky Chip in Broadway Market, various Byron Burgers, an unexciting visit to GBK (other than the free peanuts), the new Shake Shack, the rumours of Five Guys, my own experience near Shoreditch with a pop-up of Burger Bear, and most recently my friends' recommendations of Patty & Bun, and the one I never managed to get to in Dirty Burger. Gee that's a lot.

On our final burger expedition before they left London, we decided to try Tommi's which was reputed to be Icelandic burgers. None of us knew what that meant, but my friends who had been to Iceland said it was the home of their favourite hot dog. So how bad could the burgers be?

There was a short queue for seats in the tiny place where the food is visibly cooked from the ordering counter. The menu is short, very short and there's no need to ponder too long on the items that they must therefore do easily and well.

The cheeseburger amended to an "Epic Double Decker" £10 is outstanding. I wouldn't normally order a plain cheeseburger as I like other fillings for contrast but the beautiful beef patties where the beef is the prime ingredient and flavour is something that sounds silly but is extraordinary. 

It's a different type of enjoyment to the green chilli cheeseburger at MEATliquor but something great on its own. Maybe cheeseburgers are my way of the future, but tasting the pure beef patty in a burger really came alive that evening and it became my favourite in London.

The downstairs bar area is chic with electric graphics to keep you interested whilst ordering pre-drinks. The upstairs has a more refined atmosphere but still exudes cool and sophistication.

Nikkei tasting menu II
- Taco selection (tuna spicy miso, snow crab yuzu, miso vegetables);
- Scallop tiradito (scallop sashimi, coriander, jalapeno, black salt, lemon & lime juice);
- Seafood ceviche (prawn, scallop, seabass, sweet potato, peruvian corn, coriander, chive oil, citrus sauce);
- Ebi harumaki ponzu salsa (prawn spring roll, shiitake, yuzu, shiso, ponzu salsa);
- Bacalao negro aji miso (black cod, yellow chilli miso);
- Chuleta de cordero ahumada (lamb chops, quinoa, coriander, peruvian chilli miso);
- Maki rolls (lomo saltado);
- Sushi (tuna, salmon, yellowtail);
- Salted caramel chocolate fondant (with orange compote, vanilla ice cream).

Of all the dishes, the most memorable for me was the spring roll. It sounds unbelievable considering I never order them and find them quite ordinary but it was universally agreed that these were the best we've eaten. And we have some aunties who make excellent spring rolls.

I actually had a bit of difficulty finding this place. But the allure of a 20" pizza all to myself from (yet another) recently converted food van made the searching worth it.

I had a half-half - Pork belly, chimichurri, smoked onions vs. Caprese, bone marrow with spring onion & watercress. The base is thin and crisp and the pizza toppings are unusual (to say the least) but nice and creative.

Somedays are personal pizza days.

The Ferry Building in San Francisco seems to be where all the city's best food congregates under one roof. In only a few days, I spent time at the regular store inside (think bakery, mushrooms & truffles, fruit & vegetables, meat, coffee), the restaurants (Hog Island Oysters, The Slanted Door), and also excitedly the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market.

Occurring every Tuesday & Thursday (1000-1400) and Saturday (0800-1400). Tuesday is supposedly quite limited, Thursday has the addition of hot street food vendors, Saturday is the biggest with restaurants also attending to serve food.

A lucky Thursday allowed us to sample Korean tacos, pizza and the most wonderful food van called RoliRoti. After a short queue, a RoliRoti sandwich with rotisserie chicken or pork with cooking meat juices soaking into the bread was incredible. The rich strong flavours enticed us to consider joining the now-immense queue of about 45mins just to have another one... maybe next time.