Good Food Show 2006

There is only one thing that drives most attendees of the Good Food Show: FREE SAMPLES.

The Sydney Exhibition Centre. 23-25 June 2006. Silent witness to the nature of human condition at its most brutal. Forget about physical violence on the football field. There is no louder crunch of shoulders slamming than the mad desperate scramble for the last sample serving of King Island Beef pie.



Okay so perhaps people weren’t quite crash tackling one another, but there was plenty of jostling, some sneaky back passes and certainly a rugby-like scrum or too. We joined the scuffle, and more often than not, emerged victorious. The Good Food Show is not about fine food, market growers or Perigord truffle shavings. It's all about the samples, and we were armed appropriately with backpack, water bottle and plenty of stamina. Let the feasting begin!


Naked Organics dips

We'd sampled Naked Organics' garlic aioli before from the supermarket, and after tasting all their flavour variants, the garlic aioli remained the firm favourite. It's creamy, smooth and packs a decent garlic wallop.


St Dalfour Gourmet to Go

St Dalfour, purveyor of fine jams packed with fruit (their strawberry jam is one of my favourites), surprised me with this left-field offering of a meal-in-a-can.


St Dalfour duck salad sample

Make that a "meal" in quotation marks. What on earth were they thinking?


King Island Dairy Honey & Cinnamon Yoghurt

I've been eyeing off the honey and cinnamon yoghurt from King Island Dairy at my local supermarket for some time now. Its packaging in a butter-like tub screams decadence, but calorific willpower begged me not to give in. A free sample on the other hand whispered ever so softly I could barely hear it.


Honey and cinnamon yoghurt sample

Rich. Silky. Decadent. The honey and cinnamon were mild nuances that tantalised the tastebuds and urged on my desperately seeking spoon.


Passionfruit-topped yoghurt from Envy


Mango sauce topped yoghurt sample


Cheesecake samples from Nanna's


Herbert Adams meat pie sample

We also tried Herbert Adams' new King Island Beef Premium Pie which had chunks of real beef, nay, King Island Beef, in a very flaky pastry. It was goooooood.


Balsamic vinegar and olive oil tastings


More yoghurt samples - from Evia Yoghurt


Lindt chocolate stand

We scoffed tasty squares of Lindt Dark Intense Orange and the poor girl with the basket of free Fiorettos never stood a chance really.


Fresh fruit hamper with pineapple flowers

Wow factor was definitely high at the stand held by Edible Blooms. A bouquet of strawberries, alternate ones dipped in milk chocolate and swirled with white, had all the girls oohing over the prettiness of it all. And it's fruit too. So it must be healthy.


Strawberry bouquet from Edible Blooms


Chocolate fountain with free chocolate-dipped strawberries

The queue was constant. We couldn't be bothered.


Bill Granger in the Celebrity Theatre

We chose to watch Bill Granger's cooking demonstration in the Celebrity Theatre. As always, the constant gags by the cheeky subtitler kept the audience entertained. Bill demonstrated braised chicken with lemon and honey, a simple dish of browned chicken pieces simmered with garlic, onion, a small vat of honey and a generous squeeze of lemon.


Good Food Show crowds

By the time we re-emerged into the pavillion, the lunchtime crush was claustrophobic.


Mascot for Nissin instant noodles

But luckily we found some respite an the Nissin stall where not only did they have an ultra-cute pokies machine:


Nissin pokies machine

but we were encouraged to pull the lever in an attempt to win either a packet of noodles or a Nissin car shade.


Nissin car shade and noodles

Of course I took the car shade, and I won first go too!


Iced coffee frappe


Cranberry juice from Ocean Spray


Oxygenated water from OGO

Apparently OGO contains 35 times as much oxygen as ordinary water. Natural oxygen, says its website, which, due to a "technological breakthrough" remains in the bottle even after you open it. Any doubts about the necessity of this product in your otherwise deprived life are suitably countered by this website quote which seals the deal by saying "Oxygenwater is a great fashion accessory; our sexy round bottle blends in with the coolest of outfits and venues". Obviously.


Sanitarium demonstration


Sanitarium salad sample

Baby spinach leaves, rocket, sun-dried tomato, bocconcini and borlotti beans dressed with olive oil and balsamic.


Bill Granger

An hour after his demonstration, Bill was still signing cookbooks for devoted fans.


Rosita guacamole (green) and sweet chilli (red) corn chips


Chicken wraps from Rosita


Rosita wrap sample


Hayden Wood (right) cranks up the audience

Hayden Wood, cocktail master of The Liquid Kitchen, is always a crowd pleaser at the Good Food Show. We nabbed seats at the front and thoroughly enjoyed his energetic pumping performance. World Flair Bartending Champion in 1996/97, Hayden definitely knows how to work an audience. In the absence of the irresistible Ainsley Harriott, Hayden is Ainsley Harriott.

Hayden catches a cocktail on the back of his hand
after flipping it in the air

Freebie highlights:

• Boxed espresso cup and saucer in black from Mazda and Intrepid
• Ceramic jam spoon and mini jam jar sample from St Dalfour
• and of course the very cute Nissin car shade.

Intriguing samples:

• Acai juice, a fruit native to the Amazon rainforest from NuFruit
• Quinoa bread from Deeks Bakery

Purchases:

• The Wiltshire showbag containing a silicone round cake pan, spatula, egg flip and two magazines for a bargain $10
• six 300ml bottles of The Grove avocado oil reduced to only $20 (it tastes fabulous on salad)
• a glut of Masterfood spices which were reduced to $1 each.

Total weight of samples and shopping: 14kg (I checked on the scales when I got home) eclipsing last year's record by half a kilo.



The Good Food & Wine Show takes place in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane every year.

The Show visits Brisbane 10-12 November 2006.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Good Food Show 2005
Good Food Show 2004

In the Kitchen: Sushi Spectacular

Nigiri with prawns and kingfish sashimi

The last time we made sushi was in January 2005. I know this because that's the last time I blogged about it. Who said foodblogging didn't come in handy? =)

It was a long time between sushi rolls, which necessitated an even greater leap to bigger and better creations. As always, my kitchen partner-in-crime was the ever-resourceful and gastronomically energetic Veruca Salt. She did much of the initial legwork for our sushi preparations, doing much of the ingredient shopping and heading to the fish markets earlier that morning.

Making sushi isn't particularly difficult, but it's definitely messy, and rice-covered fingers do not mix well with digital camera. Here are a couple of pics from our sushi journey of sumo-sized proportions:


Skewered prawns

We skewered raw prawns before boiling them until cooked in hot water. The skewering is essential to ensure they are cooked straight for use atop rice pillows of nigiri.


Cooked prawns being chilled

Once cooked, the prawns are immediately placed in chilled water with plenty of ice cubes. This cools them quickly so they remain straight, and prevents them cooking any further.


Tamago nigiri

I finally used the tamago pan I purchased in Japan and made my first-ever attempt at tamago. It turned out fairly well and I've posting a separate brief entry on how to make tamago for those who are curious.


Prawn nigiri, kingfish nigiri and salmon nigiri

After five hours of intensive prep and frantic rolling, our final Sushi Spectacular menu included:

• sashimi of salmon and kingfish;
  
• nigiri topped with prawns, salmon, kingfish, tamago and seafood extender;
  
• deep-fried crispy salmon skin;
  
• hoso-maki sushi with kingfish, kampyo, and salmon and avocado;
  
• inside-out kawara-maki California rolls coated in tobiko (flying fish roe);
  
• maki sushi with teriyaki chicken and avocado, tuna and avocado, and salmon skin and takuan (pickled daikon);
  
• omusubi with tuna, mayonnaise and finely diced red onion rolled in seaweed furikake;
  
• and side dishes of shredded carrot and white radish, takuan pickles and gari pickled ginger.

We had more stuff planned but ran out of time (and stomach)... we had a whole bag of inari pockets we didn't even get to open!

Admittedly we are far from being sushi masters, but here are a couple of tips and tricks we like to employ in our sushi-making endeavours:

• Use the freshest fish you can find. We always get ours from the fish markets that day;
  
• Veruca always gets her salmon from Claudio's at the fish markets, who will kindly skin and fillet your whole salmon if you ask nicely. This is way cheaper than buying sashimi grade salmon, as you can easily use your sashimi "scraps" to make salmon sushi. Make sure you ask to keep both the skin (fry it up like the Japanese do) and the fish head (great simply pan-fried or use for a tasty soup or stock);
  
• Investigate the nifty sushi moulds you can buy from select Asian grocers. These plastic moulds with flip-out tabs enable you to make speedy nigiri or compressed rice in the shape of stars, circles, logs or even Hello Kitty faces. Thai Kee in Market City, Chinatown, have a small selection;
  
• Be stingy with the rice and super generous with the filling. Rice is far too filling to eat much of it, and half the fun of home-made is the utter decadence of the good stuff.

I've previously written tips on how to roll sushi here. To make inside out rolls, simply pat rice down on your nori, then cover with clingfilm and flip over. Place filling on the nori side and using the clingfilm as well as your sushi mat, roll up tightly.

And of course, practice makes perfect. What better incentive to break out the sushi mats again!



Related GrabYourFork posts:
Tamago: My First Attempt
Home-made sushi - Tetsuya's salmon sushi, Feb 05
Home-made sushi - Sushi mania, Jan 05
Home-made sushi - Sushi frenzy, Nov 04
Home-made sushi - Sushi extravanaga, Sep 04

La Guillotine, Sydney

Escargots cuits dans leurs coquilles avec un beurre a l' ail $12.00
Snails cooked in their shells with garlic and parsley butter (1/2 dozen)

I never made it to La Guillotine when it was in its original location in Albion Place. Back then, I'm told, it was housed in a dungeon-like basement, and the decor, in a gloomy atmosphere befitting its name, was dominated by its prison-like steel bars, rough hewn benches and thickly-painted red walls reminiscent of dripping blood.



Today La Guillotine resides in a much classier building, with lovely windows, warm wooden fittings and romantic candles on every table. It's a world apart from its former incarnation, even though (ironically) it's only geographically around the corner (the old site was overtaken by developers).

The staff remain the same though, and my dining companions, regular visitors to the La Guillotine of old, remark that the staff don't look as if they've aged a bit. "They look younger, in fact", I'm told in a shocked whisper.


Crevettes marinées a l' ail et cuites dans un poelon d'huile $18.00
Prawns marinated in garlic and cooked in a sizzling pot of oil

We start with a serve of garlic prawns, whose sticky sweet aromas waft over us beguilingly. The prawns are super fresh and the oil is pure bliss... a mass of caramelised garlicky goodness awaits on the bottom, quickly mopped up dry with freshly carved slices of warm and crusty artisan bread.

The utensil for the escargots flummoxes me at first as I fumble with it clumsily. "Don't you remember that scene from Pretty Woman?" I am chided. Obviously not. Eventually they are lifted and the garlic butter drenched snails are carefully prised free before disappearing with rapidity into my vampire-safe stomach.


Les omelettes foie de volaille $11.00
Omelette with chicken liver (3 eggs)

Our omelette arrives in a beautiful golden colour, a series of soft cooked liver treasures hiding underneath.



The omelette is light but a little flatter than I had expected. For some reason we had all anticipated that it would come filled and folded over in half.


Tournedo Rossini servi sur un lit de pomme lyonnaise $41.00
Beef fillet topped with a slice of Foie Gras, port wine sauce
and sauté potatoes with onions

The tournedo rossini is a decadent meal which suits the voracious appetite of its intended recipient. The meat is tender, the potatoes are tasty and the foie gras adds another level of superior indulgence.


Cotelettes d'agneau grilles aux herbes de provence,
beurre a la moutarde a l' ancienne, ratatoville et pomme purée $30.00
Char-grilled lamb cutlets with herbs. Whole grain mustard butter,
ratatouille and mash potatoes

The lamb cutlets usually come with mash but a request for frites is happily conceded. Four juicy lamb cutlets arrive well-done but still tender.


Chateaubriand béarnaise et pomme frites $32.00
Char-grilled fillet of beef served with a shallot and tarragon sauce
served with fries

I have the chateaubriand which is deceptively substantial, especially given the rich bearnaise sauce which I find a little tangy on the tongue. I'm not a bearnaise sauce fan though, and I cannot but feel some resentment at the way the sauce overtakes the strong meaty flavours inherent in the beef.

The meat is on the rarer side of medium rare, but it is soft, well-rested and a joy to cut. The frites are crunchy elegant straws albeit a little oily, but the accompanying salad helps cut through the grease, especially with the sweet almost honey-like balsamic dressing on top.

Downstairs we can't resist peeking into the open kitchen, admiring the cosy banquette seating and peering at the Parisian-themed etchings along one wall.

Back upstairs a pair of regulars rest on stools at the bar and chat in French with an air of relaxed familiarity. It makes me smile as I head towards them, weaving my way through couples at narrow tables, in order to reach for a business card. As I head back to my table with card in hand, I look down and realise that all their cards have been guillotined at the bottom edge. It's simple but elegant. Serious but charming. The French have that knack for winning you over.


La Guillotine
518 Kent Street Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9264 1487

Lunch Monday to Friday
Dinner Monday to Saturday (5.30pm till late)

Rose Turkish Gozleme House, Drummoyne

Cheese and spinach gozleme $7.00

Embracing life as a manic foodblogger has flow-on habits which are hard to break. My little digital camera gets carried around in my handbag everywhere. All handbag purchases are now carefully scrutinised to make sure it meets one major criteria--that it is big enough to fit wallet, phone, keys and camera.

As I raced out the door for a girlie day out of factory outlet shopping at Birkenhead Point, I did wonder whether to leave the camera at home. Shopping, trying on clothes, checking the sales racks... did I really need to bring the camera?

Thank goodness common sense prevailed... and into the handbag it went. After an intense morning of hardcore shopping we eased into the foodcourt for lunch. And there, in one corner, was a gozleme takeaway, just as Bex had mentioned in a previous comment.



I recognised the staff from a previous visit over a year ago, when the space seemed very makeshift and the menu was handwritten on sheets of paper. But now it appears a somewhat permanent feature, a novelty in itself given that I'd only ever seen gozleme stalls at festivals and fairs. Given their immense popularity, I'd always wondered why noone had ever set up a gozleme shop, problems of the labour intensive production process aside.



The folk here have an excellent system devised though. As we joined the constant queue of a dozen people, we soon realised that every gozleme was filled and cooked as a cheese and spinach version. When faced with a request for a beef, potato or chicken version, the pocket was carefully prised open, warm filling added, and then pressed onto the grill again for a quick reheat.

We stuck with our traditional cheese and spinach version, a crisp pocket of bright green spinach oozing with mild cheese and spritzed with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Gozleme on demand. It's a dream come true...


Rose Turkish Gozleme House
Level 1 (foodcourt)
Birkenhead Point
Roseby Street, Drummoyne, Sydney