Pho Pasteur, Haymarket, Sydney

Bánh hỏi chả giò seafood spring roll with steamed rice noodle $9.00

How can you not love a dish involving spring rolls? I'm a sucker for bánh hỏi chả giò at Vietnamese restaurants, the perfect excuse to crunch into spring rolls under the guise of eating a salad.

We've stopped in at Pho Pasteur on George Street several times lately, always filled with a gaggle of office workers, uni students, Vietnamese families and curious tourists. The dining room is tightly packed with chairs and tables, but it's a cosy squish, filled with a merry chatter.  Down the back is a roomier but more dilapidated section. You'll get a view of the action in the kitchen, but you'll also see the dirty dishes too.


Inside Pho Pasteur

Menus are handed out but the brief list of choices are also printed on the wall. Most dishes are single-serve and not designed for sharing, probably a good thing considering the lack of space on the tables.


Porcine treasure

Spring rolls with steamed rice vermicelli noodles are a glorious compromise between deep-fried indulgence and the virtue of salad. You can order them in a bowl of vermicelli noodles, but I prefer the hands-on version, wrapping the spring roll in a lettuce leaf with a soft mat of vermicelli noodles and bright leaves of Vietnamese mint and purple shiso. Dip the parcel in a bowl of nước chấm -- a sweet dressing made from fish sauce, lemon juice and sugar -- and savour the crunch of spring roll pastry shards against crisp lettuce and the dribble of sauce down your chin.

As I piled the vermicelli into my lettuce cup, I stopped short when I found a cube of pork. This was why I had tasted such deliciousness, a dice of pork belly deep-fried so the layer of fat was rendered to a crouton-like crunch.


Grilled pork and spring roll with tomato rice $10.00

What we have noticed at Pho Pasteur is the easy accommodation of most requests. Swapping of components can usually be done. The grilled pork and spring roll above was supposed to come to vermicelli, but it was served with tomato rice on request. The only hurdle we have encountered is with vegetarian food, of which there are no options. Miss Veg asked for summer rolls without pork, but was told to 'just take the meat out yourself and eat it'.


Sugar cane prawns with vermicelli $11.00

We've eaten our way through much of the menu. Sugar cane prawns are always a hit, a huddle of sweet soft prawn paste grilled on skewers of sugar cane which you can chew on when you're finished.


Grilled pork with vermicelli $9.00

Grilled pork was a little disappointing, devoid of the usual lemongrass marinade that caramelises to a charcoaled sweetness.


Deep-fried chicken with vermiclli $9.00

I find it hard to go past deep-fried, and the deep-fried chicken delivered - succulent flesh beneath a shattering crackle of skin, and bones you can crunch on with pleasure.


Seafood noodle soup $10.50

If deep-fried isn't your thing (apparently these people do exist), you can slurp down a cavernous bowl of seafood noodles, slippery rice strands huddled in a clear sweet soup and topped with peeled prawns, curls of squid and squeaky sprigs of fresh coriander.


Fresh rice noodles


Phở gà  chicken noodle soup $9.00

Phở is always popular, available in the standard beef and chicken variations, with optional upgrades to "special" that generally involve tripe and tendons. Clear stock, silky noodles and a side plate of bean sprouts, fresh lemon and Vietnamese basil, are ideal for when you're feeling under the weather.

But I also find spring rolls and crispy skin chicken put in a spring back in my step too.




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Pho Pasteur

709 George Street, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9212 5622

Opening hours:
Monday to Sunday 10am-9.30pm

Also at:

Bankstown - 295 Chapel Road, Tel: +61 (02) 9790 2900

Parramatta - 137 Church St, Tel: +61 (02) 9635 0782

Balkan Oven Burek Bakery Cafe, Rockdale

Rockdale is worth exploring on foot, a fascinating blend of cultures that sprawls across both sides of the Princes Highway. You'll find Halal butchers next to Asian grocery stores, and restaurants that specialise in Chinese, Thai, Bangladeshi, Greek and Himalayan cuisine. There's a giant used furniture shop on the corner, a supermarket selling Pakistani groceries in bulk, and Lebanese bakeries fragrant with oregano and thyme from za'atar-topped manoosh pizzas.

A significant local Macedonian community means you'll stumble upon plenty of burek too: flaky pastries sold in cafes for breakfast, lunch or a leisurely snack. There are several in the area but I was drawn to Balkan Oven Burek as soon as I saw all the old men in shirts and cardigans sitting out the front. The men here are in no hurry, nursing coffee and cigarettes as they catch up on all the news in a constant stream of Macedonian and Croatian chatter.



Balkan Oven Burek

WHAT IS BALKAN OVEN BUREK?
A bakery cafe serving Macedonian burek and breads.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?
There’s always a queue for takeaway, but it’s much more fun to eat in, joining the hordes of locals sitting at the shaded café tables on this cosy pedestrian strip.


Spinach and cheese burek

WHAT SHOULD I ORDER
Burek is the specialty here: flaky baked pies made with multiple layers of paper-thin pastry. The burek are baked all day, tipped out piping hot from their tins and sold as family-sized whole pies ($18) or cut into quarters ($5).

The pastry layers progress from crisp and golden shards to soft waves before hitting a filling of either beef mince, cheese, or cheese and spinach. The cheese is a housemade mixture of Bulgarian and Australian fetta combined with ricotta cheese.


Cheese burek


Meat burek with buttermilk

WHAT SHOULD I DRINK
You can jump-start your system with a cup of Macedonian coffee, boiled in a long-handled copper pot directly over flame, but the traditional drink to have with burek is buttermilk, served cold by the glass.


Kifli so sirenje


WHAT ELSE?
The crescent-shaped bread rolls on the counter top are kifli so sirenje, a soft yeast roll filled with a crumble of brined cheese that makes a perfect takeaway snack.

For dessert, move onto strudli so jabolko, or apple strudel: squat pastry rolls of cinnamon-spiced apples and sultanas, dusted with icing sugar and served with cream.




Strudli so jabolko apple strudel

Macedonian creaming soda

Slatki or traditional sweets [clockwise from bottom left]:

Chocolate fig wafer; fruit slice; date almond roll; tulumbi and coconut roll

- The chocolate fig wafer was my favourite by far

Pogacha traditional wedding bread

- My visit was anonymous but my camera was enough to grant me access into the kitchen. "You want a nice picture? Come look! Special bread for wedding!"


Pogacha traditional wedding bread
- Two birds represent the bride and groom

Burek baking in the oven

- Only six trays fit in the oven, so the oven works non-stop to keep up with demand


Freshly baked burek


Macedonian coffee is brewed by hand over a gas flame

Macedonian coffee

- Strong but with minimal bitterness, boasting a deep richness and pleasing finish




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Balkan Oven Burek Bakery Café

Shop 2, 1-3 King Street, Rockdale, Sydney

Tel: (02) 9567 1102

Opening hours:

Monday to Saturday 6am-5pm

Sunday 6am-3pm

This article appears in the March 2011 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This!


More Time Out Sydney reviews:
ATL Marantha, Kensington (Indonesian fried chicken with edible bones)
Durban Dish, Baulkham Hills (South African bunny chow)
Hijazi's Falafel, Arncliffe (Lebanese breakfast)
Island Dreams Cafe, Lakemba (Christmas Islands cuisine)
La Paula, Fairfield (Chilean empanadas, lomitos and sweets)
Sea Sweet, Parramatta (Lebanese sweet kashta cheese burger)
Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe (Filipino pork hock crackling)
Tehran, Granville (Persian cuisine)
Tuong Lai, Cabramatta (Vietnamese sugar cane prawns)

Sydney Seafood School: Mark Best

"Noone ever died from good food," says Mark Best, as he adds another generous handful of salt to a pot of boiling water.

The crowd laughs with relief. I'm at the Sydney Seafood School and tonight's class is being led by Mark, chef and owner of three-hatted restaurant Marque.

The Sydney Seafood School underwent a major facelift in 2009, led by hospitality design specialist Michael McCann. The glass door entrance -- opposite Doyles on the ground floor of Sydney Fish Market -- gives nothing away about the state-of-the-art cooking facilities upstairs.


Sydney Seafood School tiered auditorium

Most classes at the Sydney Seafood School commence in the auditorium, a slick design of semi-circular tiered seating facing a demonstration kitchen. Each seat comes with the flip-up side table you remember from uni (designed for right-handers, of course), but what's most impressive is the four camera set-up, positioned so key elements of the kitchen bench are projected onto giant plasma screens above.

Slicing the pastrami kingfish

Fresh from his trip to New York (oh look, who's that on the Martha Stewart Show?), Mark explained his first dish was inspired by the city's famous pastrami on rye. In his healthier and lighter version, he substituted beef with the loin of a sashimi-grade yellowtail kingfish, first curing it in brown sugar, salt, lemon zest and thyme leaves.

The fish is rinsed then rubbed in a ground-up mixture of freshly roasted spices, including coriander seeds, white peppercorns, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and Spanish smoked paprika. At least 30 minutes is recommended for the spice mix to permeate the fish, creating a darker tinge on the edges that is so reminiscent of pastrami.

Pastrami of kingfish on rye

The kingfish is sliced and plated on salted cabbage leaves (like a mild version of sauerkraut) and garnished with rye crumbs, a genius idea of Ryvita cracker crumbs pan-fried in butter.

Kingfish belly with spice rub

Mark recommends the leftover kingfish belly be rubbed with the excess spice mix and then barbecued skin-side down for maximum crispness. A green tomato gazpacho is recommended and demonstrated as an accompaniment.


Grilled loligo squid with spinach and anchovy

Mark's final dish is a grilled loligo squid, gutted but left with the skin on, that is marinated simply in garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper before the tubes are finished on the grill.

Spinach and anchovy puree is a simple blitz of wilted spinach leaves with Ortiz anchovies. Too many household cooks don't use enough when cooking, he'd bemoaned, resulting in food that is under-seasoned. Mark believes there is a noticeable difference in taste between adding salt during the cooking process, and adding it at the table. When cooking vegetables in boiling water, he says, the water should be as salty as sea water. Plunging the spinach leaves in iced water will stop the cooking process, and help retain vibrancy of colour.

The spinach and anchovy puree is moistened with a splash of olive oil in the food processor. In his signature deadpan voice he reminds the audience that "you're playing with a feather, not a fire hose".

Cooking the squid on the grill

We migrate next door to the hands-on kitchen and break up into groups of five to cook. The island bench tops are impressive, fully equipped work stations with refrigerated drawers, a fancy ceramic cooktop with pop-up gas burners, and pre-stocked with all our necessary ingredients, crockery, tools and utensils. Lined up on the side the room are the barbecue grills.

It feels a bit like MasterChef with each person quickly volunteering to take responsibility for a dish. Two staff members float through the room, making sure everyone is prepping in the recommended order. Mark ambles across to each station for a quick one-on-one chat with everyone (the highlight of his US trip was visiting Blue Hill Stone Barns which he says has a very similar philosophy to Noma).


Barbecued squid

It doesn't take for everything to come together, and we plate up and head next door. We even have pre-allocated tables which we have to set with crockery, glassware and cutlery. I volunteer to set our  table, feeling a bit like one of the trainees in the recent BBC series Michel Roux's Service (if you haven't watched it, get onto it asap!).


A drop of white wine with dinner

We eat dinner together, and it's no surprise that everyone is a food lover and keen amateur cook. Our food all tastes fantastic, especially the squid. I'm a huge fan of the barbecued kingfish belly too. The pastrami of kingfish would be an ideal entree to prepare ahead for a dinner party. 



Grilled loligo squid with spinach and anchovy


Green tomato gazpacho


Pastrami of kingfish on rye

Kingfish belly with spice rub

There's plenty of leftovers to take home, packed away in takeaway containers that magically appear. The best part? There's no washing up to do - we simply stack our dishes into basins just like school camp.

The classes are well-organised and do a great job of illustrating the importance of obtaining quality and fresh seafood, and how it can be used for a range of delicious meals. Other classes include Singapore chilli crab, tapas, sashimi, seafood barbecue and a range of special guest chefs. A list of upcoming classes at the Sydney Seafood School can be found here.

Grab Your Fork attended the Mark Best cooking class as a guest of the Sydney Seafood School.


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Sydney Seafood School

First floor of the Waterfront Arcade

Sydney Fish Market

Bank Street, Pyrmont, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9004 1111

Related Grab Your Fork posts:

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Cooking class - Chocolate Workshop at Kimberley Chocolates, Leichhardt
Cooking class - Kaiseki Class at Kei's Kitchen, Sydney
Cooking class - Macaron Masterclass at Baroque Patisserie, Sydney
Cooking class - Modern Mexican at Victors Food, Waterloo
Cooking class - Molecular Gastronomy at Chef's Armoury, Rosebery

Greenhouse by Joost, Sydney

Greenhouse by Joost has now closed

Greenhouse by Joost is the latest pop-up restaurant to hit Sydney, an eco-friendly vision that doubles as a unique interactive art installation.

The converted shipping container looks right at home in Campbell Cove, its facade painted with butterflies and children. The entrance on the side is covered with miniature strawberry pots.




Melbourned-based Dutch artist Joost Bakker had always dreamed of creating a waste-free restaurant. The Greenhouse Sydney follows on from earlier prototypes in Melbourne and Perth.

The commitment to waste-free commences with suppliers. All fresh produce and milk must be delivered in returnable containers. Wheat bags are opened with care so they can be sent back to the local farmer for re-use. An onsite flour mill is used to grind the wheat into flour for bread and pizza. Every scrap from the kitchen is composted and used on the rooftop herb garden.

The building was completed in just three weeks, using a $300,000 funding grant by the NSW Government.


Inside the Greenhouse by Joost

The chairs - designed by Joost - have been constructed from aluminium irrigation pipes covered in leather offcuts from a saddle-maker in Ballarat, Victoria. Old conveyor belts were recycled to make the floor.

Magnesium oxide board

Sheets of magnesium oxide board have been used for the interior walls, soaked with Bio-Char so carbon is absorbed by the walls themselves. Every surface of the wall has been scrawled over with key words and catchphrases in black paint, a little confronting at first, but deliberately thought-provoking.



The dining room is designed primarily for pairs, so our group of five ended up waiting forty minutes for a table on Friday evening.


Chorizo, fried bread, roasted peppers and egg $17

The food is not cheap but then again, your conscience says, neither is the environment. Young gun Matt Stone, winner of the 2011 Gourmet Traveller Award for Best New Talent, heads the kitchen. His menu is brief and simple, arriving in glass jars or on thin planks of plywood.


Pizza $15

Illuminated only by a frail tealight and the street lights outside, dinner is a romantic affair,  particularly with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House showcased through the open cut walls. It's hard enough to see what we're eating, let alone photograph it. Ahh thank you for the torch setting on iPhone 4.

Clockwise from top left:
Fried spiced cauliflower $9; Wood roasted baby carrots, beetroots, pistachio $16;

Seared mullet and mixed tomato salad $26; Wagyu beef gerello, romesco and baby leeks $25

The pizza is light and airy, stretchy with molten cheese and liberally dusted with semolina. We find the wagyu disappointingly overcooked and chewy, although the baby leek on the bottom is deliciously sweet and caramelised.

Seared mullet is a surprise highlight, soft and flavoursome with a skin that has been pan-fried until deliciously crisp. We forage through a forest of coriander leaves to find exquisite wood-roasted baby carrots, chunks of beetroot and crunchy pistachio kernels.

Fried spiced cauliflower is deliriously addictive, wrapped in a cone of newspaper and wedged into a jar. As we dig our plantation timber forks into a jar of seared chorizo, croutons and runny egg, I admit I do have a Zoolander flashback to Derelicte.


Plantation timber cutlery that will be composted after use



Roof top bar

Earlier on, we'd climbed the two flights of stairs to the roof top bar, offering one of Sydney's best drinking views of the harbour.

All drinks are delivered in kegs, with beer poured on tap into glasses made from old wine bottles; even the moscato comes in hot pink barrels, served in glass jars that have become de rigeur.


Pipsqueak cider $6 and moscato $9

Rooftop herb garden

A mandatory toilet stop will lead you into the unisex bathrooms. When the toilet is flushed, the water first flows through a tap and sink on top of the cistern, a set-up you'll sometimes find in Japan. The water continues flowing until the cistern is full for the next flush, quite a long length of time that reminds you how much water is used in modern toilets.


View of the Opera House from the Greenhouse rooftop bar

Inspiring, thought-provoking and ingenious, get to the Greenhouse before it closes at the end of March 2011.


Natural Selection Theory live natural wine

Flour grinding mill

The dining room


View of the Sydney Harbour Bridge




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Greenhouse by Joost (CLOSED)

Campbells Cove, Sydney

(next to Peter Doyle at the Quay)

Opening hours:

Monday to Saturday9am-midnight

Sunday 10am-10pm

Rooftop bar open daily 2pm-midnight

Check Greenhouse by Joost for latest opening times and any closures due to private functions.

Greenhouse by Joost will be open in Sydney until the end of March 2011. It will then be packed up and relocated on an international tour.