2004 Food Blog Awards

Yay! Grab Your Fork has been nominated for Best Food Blog - City in the 2004 Food Blog Awards kindly organised by The Accidental Hedonist.

Cast your vote for this award and other categories here:
http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/pollbooth/city.php.

Votes are restricted to one per IP address so feel free to vote on as many computers as you can find. Feel free to get your friends to vote too ;-)

VOTING ENDS 12 NOON 31ST DECEMBER 2004 (SYDNEY TIME).
Winners will be announced 8 January 2005.

Thanks for your support and bon appetit!

Takayama photos--Miyagawa market pics are up

Click here for more Takayama pics... the Miyagawa morning markets.

Takayama photos--Jinya-mae market pics are up

Finally finally... the next lot of Japan photos are up.

Click here for photos of the Takayama Jinya-mae morning markets.

I've also revised a number of captions from the Tsukiji fish market photos thanks to fish fish.
Click here to find out what all the strange seafood really was!

Tsunami tragedy

It would be remiss of Grab Your Fork to ignore the current tsunami devastation in south-east Asia. The news footage seems more appropriate for a Hollywood blockbuster than current affairs, as we watch in disbelief. To find out the latest tsunami news from the Sydney Morning Herald click here.

If you want to help, donations for the relief effort may be made through the following:
The Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific
CARE Australia
The Australian Red Cross
Oxfam
World Vision
UNICEF
Caritas Australia
Aid Srilanka

Duc Thanh, Cabramatta

Taking respite from the post-Xmas city sales crush, we took a scenic tour and ended up having lunch in Cabramatta, otherwise known as little Vietnam in Sydney.



We've eaten at Duc Thanh before--the coolest thing we like about this place are the photo album menus. Instead of vague imagined visions of "beef with ginger" or "spicy chicken", these photographic descriptions are your guarantee of minimal disappointment. Don't you hate it when what you end up getting is completely different to what you originally imagined?



We had a variety of dishes all of which were fresh, tasty and down-right bargains.


Cha Gio $6.00
Spring roll


Pho dac biet $7.50
Special beef rice noodle soup with beef meat and tendons and served with bean sprouts, lemon wedges and basil


Com chen suon chen don $9.50
Deep-fried pork rib and fried rice


Bun suon bi $7.50
Pork rib with vermicelli, shredded pork skin covered in sesame seeds and pickled vegetables


Com tam dac biet $7.50
Special three colour rice served with pork chop, fried egg and Vietnamese pie (pork mince, vermicelli and shredded mushrooms).

Personally I think Pasteur in Bankstown probably has the edge in quality, particularly with the spring rolls and cold noodles. However the atmosphere here is a lot more reminiscent of the streetstall-style eating in Vietnam, where the decor is cheerfully plastic, handwritten signs abound, and locals relax and while away the afternoon.

We especially loved our drinks. The soursop shake was thick and creamy with a hint of tanginess. The salty lemon soda was actually cumquat drink, made from pickled cumquats. The taste was sweet, sour and salty--sounds bizarre but surprisingly refreshing and reminiscent of Chinese pickled salty plums.


Soda chanh muoi Salty lemon soda $3.00 and
Sinh to mang cau Custard apple (soursop) shake $3.50


Traditional DIY condiments and cutlery, Vietnamese-cafe style.

The surrounds aren't glamorous, and the restaurant does front onto a council carpark. However this is part of the charm, and with its simple homestyle Vietnamese cuisine, if you wish hard enough you just might be able to whisk yourself back to a cafe in bustling humid dusty Saigon.



Duc Thanh Restaurant
Shop 3, 20-22 Hughes Street, Cabramatta, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9724 0411


Related GrabYourFork posts:
Cabramatta Food Tour in photos
Cabramatta Moon Festival 2006
Cabramatta Chinese New Year Festival 2007

Cabramatta - Hung Vuong
Cabramatta - Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant
Cabramatta - Phu Quoc
Cabramatta - Thanh Binh
Recipe - Avocado shake

Top 10 Sydney Eats for Tourists and Other Rewarding Food Adventures

Corn Exchange, Darling Harbour

It's a tradition of ours that we compound Christmas gluttony with one final blow-out... the Boxing Day Buffet.

We headed to the Corn Exchange Restaurant at the Sheraton Four Points for all-you-can-eat seafood, sushi, hot dishes, salads and yes, plenty of desserts.



Options here were endless: Soup of the day, fresh breads, pappadums to start or should you head straight for the seafood?

Seafood on offer here included smoked salmon with capers, oysters, prawns, balmain bugs, blue swimmer crab, calamari salad and mussels with salsa. They also had sashimi salmon, tuna and kingfish not to mention nigiri sushi with prawns, eel, salmon and tamago.




Balmain bugs

Hot dishes included baby veal, steamed salmon, vegetable lasagna, satay chicken, roast potatoes and vegetable ratatouille. The cold selection included cold deli meats, char-grilled vegetables, blanched asparagus, quiche, pickled sardines, potato salads, green bean salads, pasta salads and green leafy salads.





Phew! A few minutes to loosen the belt and catch your breath before you head for the grand finale...a diabetic's nightmare of cream, chocolate and sugar glorious sugar. Chocolate cakes, tiramisu, warm Christmas pud with custard, cheesecakes, roulades, white christmas, lamingtons...*sigh* It was heaven...

For those with less of a sweet tooth (unfathomable!), there was plenty of fresh fruit, nuts, dried fruit, crackers and a cheese platter to pick from.













We resisted the urge to sneak this giant gingerbread house into our handbags...


And so as well rolled out the door on distended bellies, we leave the marzipan Santa convention to discuss the feast-fest for next year (and yes, that is sugar packet snow).




The Corn Exchange offers a regular buffet as well as an a-la-carte menu. We paid $55 for lunch for all-you-can-eat decadent goodness.

Corn Exchange Restaurant
Four Points by Sheraton, Darling Harbour
161 Sussex Street, Sydney
Tel: 02 9290 4000

Christmas--Sydney style

I've spent a few Christmases in London before and sure, the snow, the roasting chestnuts and cold-weather-appetite all make for memorable festive feasting, just like it was always told in the storybooks of our childhood.

However in the heart of each and every true-blue Aussie, it really ain't Christmas unless it involves blistering 30C+ heat, plenty of fresh seafood and the incessant sound of cicadas chirping at dusk.

This year was one of the coolest Christmas Days we've had in a long time, and though the beaches may have been devoid of its usual crowds, Aussies still stocked up on traditional prawns, oysters and shellfish. The Sydney Fish Market opened at 5am on Thursday and traded for 36 hours straight until 5pm Friday. One fishmonger estimated 10,000kg of prawns sold over 36 hours!

Divided opinions on the meaning and relevance of "Christmas" aside, any excuse for a guilt-free nosh-up is good enough for me.

How did you spend December 25 in your part of the world? And more importantly... what did you eat?


Fresh-cooked crab


Prawns for sale at the Sydney Fish Markets


Summer in Sydney means fresh, juicy and sweet mangoes, preferably out of the fridge, even better with a dollop of icecream.


Harking back to English traditions, Christmas in Sydney is also about nuts. Macadamias are always a firm favourite and at Paddy's Markets they even come in wasabi, cheese, abalone, spicy and honey-roasted flavours.


Our Christmas dinner involved oysters, prawns, smoked salmon and caperberries...


plenty of antipasto nibblies...


roast turkey with all the trimmings...


and of course a glazed leg ham.

Sapphire Princess--she's big and proud of it

We couldn't resist heading down to Circular Quay at lunchtime today to check out the Sapphire Princess which docked in Sydney briefly on its way to New Zealand.



Yes this Princess is definitely... errr... a little "hefty". She's the largest Princess vessel in its fleet and and is the younger but bigger sister to the Diamond Princess. Other jaw-dropping stats include:

• She carries 2,670 passengers in 750 cabins with private balconies.
• She has 5 swimming pools, nine restaurants and cafes, two nightclubs, eight spas, 13 bars and lounges, a hair salon, a wedding chapel and a nine-hole minigolf course.
• She weighs 116,000-tonnes and measures 290-metres long and 63-metres high. She is more than twice the size of the Titanic, and about as big as 102 Manly ferries or 300 jumbo jets.
• She is thought to be the largest-ever cruise ship to visit Australia.
• About 80 per cent of passengers on the Sydney to New Zealand cruise are Americans, with the remainder made up by mainly Australians.
• You can view live satellite images from the Sapphire Princess "bridge-cam" here.

Personally I don't see the appeal of paying exhorbitant money to holiday on an 18-storey Las-Vegas-at-sea. But ask me again in 50 years, and I'll probably (scarily) change my tune. *shudder*

Unfortunately it was a bit of a miserable grey-skied day in Sydney so the pics aren't particularly glamorous. And apologies for the poor-quality birds-eye shot, but it gives you a general idea of her significant expanse (but I believe she has a lovely personality).

Mountbatten Hotel, Haymarket

I've reviewed the Mountbatten Hotel before, but today we had the famous fish and chips, of which I've raved on about so many times before.


Fish and chips $7.00 (on Tuesdays with drink purchase)
Fresh fish fillet with chips and tartare sauce


Fish with salad (by request)

Unfortunately the fish and chips are definitely not as good as they used to be. I remember the fish used to be two huge fillets--now you seem to get three small baby pieces, which makes the fish a little greasier with more batter by proportion.

However the batter is still fairly light, and you can still taste the beer in the batter. The tartare sauce is still good but not as garlicky as it used to be (which is probably a good thing for non-garlic lovers).

At a mere $7.00 though, who's being picky. The place is light and airy, service is friendly and they have Coopers and James Squire ales on tap. A fair wine list too, imported beers and ales by the bottle as well.

Still one of our favourite watering holes down this end of town.

Click here to read an earlier review on the Mountbatten's $7 King Island rump.

Mountbatten Hotel
701 George St Haymarket, Sydney
Tel: +61 02 9280 4700

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Mountbatten Hotel, Dec 2007
Mountbatten Hotel, Dec 2004
Mountbatten Hotel, Oct 2004

Gingerbread Men Recipe

In a fit of festive baking domesticity, we decided to make gingerbread men. They're cute, they're sweet and yes, they're decidedly fiddly!



GINGERBREAD MEN
(from Australian Women's Weekly Beautiful Biscuits)
Makes about 20 medium-sized gingerbread men.

Gingerbread dough
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2.5 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp bicarb
3 tsps ground ginger
2.5 Tbsp golden syrup

Royal Icing
1.5 cups pure icing sugar
1 egg white
4 drops lemon juice
food colouring and sprinkles/sweets to decorate

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add egg yolk and mix in remaining gingerbread ingredients.
3. Combine and knead with hands until a dough forms. Separate into six balls.
4. Roll out one ball of dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper.
5. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters; stencil and knife; or by cutting free-hand. Remove excess dough from paper (for re-use) and then gently slide off/transfer shapes to a well-greased baking tray.
6. Continue rolling and cutting dough until all dough has been used (including re-rolled dough scraps).
7. Bake in moderate oven (180C) for 10 minutes.
8. Remove immediately from tray and allow to cool on a flat surface.
9. Now the fun part...Lightly whisk the egg white with a fork, then gradually add the icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, mixing vigorously to remove lumps.
10. Add lemon juice.
11. Tint as required with food colouring.
12. Spread icing thinly on cool shapes, then decorate with sprinkles and/or sweets..

Lessons learned:

1. Measure the dough ingredients carefully, otherwise the mixture will be too dry or too wet.
2. The dough does crack when you first start to roll it out, but will soon "mend" as you keep rolling.
3. Change the greaseproof paper regularly--otherwise the folds and creases will end up cracking your gingerbread shapes and cause you no end of grief.
4. Use a flexible piece of thin plastic, or even cardboard, to help you leverage and transport the shapes from paper to tray. Otherwise they will crack and cause you no end of grief.
5. Remove the gingerbread from the tray as soon as they come out of the oven. When they cool they will not come off without cracking, and will cause you no end of grief.
6. Hide the empty bottles of "stress-relief wine" before you present your home-made treasures with pride--they will taste delightfully delicious because you made them yourself (with blood, sweat, and oh the tears).
7. Consider checking out gourmet shops for ready-made gingerbread men which are sooo much easier to procure.
8. Console the sobbing broken gingerbread man in the corner and realise that yes, you really do love your home-made gingerbread men the best.

Costa Do Sol, Petersham

Affectionately known as Sydney's Little Portugal, the Petersham strip of New Canterbury Road is bustling with restaurants, cafes, delis and butchers. As we approach we cannot help but be enveloped by the heady intoxifying aromas of roasting charcoal chickens, split down the middle Portuguese-style and roasted flat, basted with plenty of piri piri.

We walk past the charcoal chicken temples, manouvering around the clunky pot plants (recently installed by the council as part of a footpath revamp) as heavy traffic thunders past us. I gaze wistfully at the drawn curtains of Sweet Belem, home of what I consider the best Portuguese custards tarts in Sydney--but it is after dark, the shop is closed for the day, the tarts have long been eaten... Past the old rollerskating rink--still abandoned and forlorn--until we find ourselves at the buzzy yet cosy Costa Do Sol on the corner.


Camarao com alho e piri piri $12.00
Garlic prawns in hot chilli sauce


Bife a Portuguesa $18.00
Pan-fried marinated lean beef steak served with golden fried potato slices, lean ham and egg


Bitoque $16.00
Pan-fried marinated thin beef steak served with French fries, egg and salad $16.00


Polvinhos na grelha $18.00
Char-grilled baby octopus served with garden vegetables

This was my second time to Costa Do Sol and on this occasion I went for the simplicity of the baby octopus. I was pleasantly surprised by the tenderness of the octopus, even though my main did arrive 5 minutes after everyone else's. We were a little disappointed with the garlic prawns though, which weren't as garlicky or tasty as we would have liked.

The Portuguese steak never fails to boggle me with its overload of pure protein and Atkins-nightmare carbs. This is food with a capital F, not a whimsical journey of flavoursome frou-frou, I hear its fans roaring. Still, I can't even begin to contemplate wading through a terracotta dish of steak, ham, fried egg, fried potato slices and olives sitting on a lake of dark brown gravy.

The bitoque is probably a little more manageable for the protein/carb moderate and the chips were golden brown and crunchy. There is also a whole range of seafood options including jewfish, snapper, salmon and of course bacalhau.

Service does seem to be remiss at times although the place does seem to be filled with locals--maybe Little Portugal is so authentic we're forced to step back into Portuguese-style time. We've never been tempted much by the desserts (which is really saying something for this sweet tooth), mainly because of their depressing-looking state in the display cabinet at the front counter.

However Costa Do Sol is all about simplicity. Chunky, hearty and generously portioned, this is paradise for the ravenous without ceremony.

Costa Do Sol
77 New Canterbury Road, Petersham
Tel: 02 9569 2319

DJs Cheese and Antipasto Bar

You've been shopping all day in town. The Christmas rush is getting you frazzled. The bags are cutting into your fingers. You need sustenance but substance and style too.

Thank goodness for the oases of food counters at David Jones. Oyster Bar? Noodle Bar? Chocolate counter? Just let me sit down and have someone pour me wine!

We ended up at the DJs Cheese and Antipasto Bar, drawn by the allure of crusty breads, oozing cheeses and fat juicy olives.


Woodside Brie, vine ripened tomato and basil on wholemeal sourdough $9.50

The wholemeal sourdough was delightfully fresh and crusty, although you definitely needed all original teeth intact to chew through this one! But that's what makes sourdough so good... bread with substance! The basil, tomato and brie provided simple, classic flavours.


Ploughman's Lunch $12.50

A banquet of nibbles to pick at, including a funky pickled brown onion. I was particularly impressed with the pate which was jam-packed with liver-y goodness. The texture and density was consistent with the usage of plenty of liver. The pate was definitely the real McCoy. The cheese was nice and sharp too.





There's something delicously decadent about eating at the various food counters at David Jones. Maybe it's because you feel like you're eating in a giant gourmet larder. Maybe it's because you get to swing your legs on the high stools and feel like a kid in a lolly shop. More likely it's because you get to sit, sip and sup whilst exhausted shoppers glance on in envy.

Cheese and Antipasto Bar
David Jones Food Hall
65-77 Market Street, Sydney
Tel: 02 9266 5544