The Carrington $3 pintxos Tuesdays, Surry Hills

It's no coincidence that I seem to have taken up residence at Sydney's pubs of late. Everyone loves a cheap eat and Sydney's watering holes have taken up the challenge with gusto. The Abercrombie offers $10 weekday lunches, The Norfolk has $4 mini burgers on Mondays; and at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel you can score a 1kg steak on Thursdays for only $20.

On Tuesday nights you're best off heading to The Carrington, when head chef Jamie Thomas expands his Iberian-themed tapas menu with a selection of $3 pintxos blackboard specials.



The pintxos specials change every week, but there are usually five in total, available individually or served altogether on a wooden paddle for a fifteen dollar bargain.

While there's the proper restaurant at the back of the pub, the $3 pintxos are only served to the cheap seats in the front bar area. EDIT: Jamie Thomas has clarified that "Pintxos night is for everyone - not just the pub. We have one menu for the whole pub and our specials are available throughout.. I love my Tuesday nights and want people to be able to eat anywhere."  We arrive early enough in the evening to score a table in the alcove between the two areas, a cosy spot with banquette seating and a cluster of round cherry red tables.


Front bar at The Carrington

Pintxos (pronounced PIN-choss) are traditionally bite-sized snacks designed to be enjoyed with wine or beer. In Spain these are usually sitting on the counter of the bar, each snack speared with a toothpick for easy self-service. At the end of the night, patrons are simply charged by the number of toothpicks they have collected throughout the evening.

Ordering pintxos from a menu does break from the original spirit of impromptu snacking, but until Sydney gets its own version of Naked for Satan, we're not complaining.
The Carrington offers seven items on the standard pintxos menu, ranging in price from $4 to $6. Add five blackboard specials and there are twelve to choose from. We debate over which ones to order, and then, in what has become a disturbingly common pattern, order one of everything. No, make that two!


Pintxos for everyone!


Marinated olives

We've barely made a dent in our beers before our order starts arriving thick and fast from the kitchen. It's a chaotic scramble for space as our two tables are soon covered in dishes, much to the bemusement of the couple next to us ("Hey, are you guys like food bloggers or something?").


Chicken liver parfait and pear chutney $4 each 

A terracotta dish holds a bounty of marinated olives, glistening beneath the lights like Mediterranean jewels. However we're soon distracted by the chicken liver parfait, spread thickly on toasted baguette slices but quite mild in flavour, garnished with a chunky and sweet pear chutney.


Chargrilled skirt steak skewer $3 each blackboard special

The chargrilled skirt steak skewers are our first blackboard special, a small metal skewer speared with cubes of flavoursome, if a touch chewy, beef.


Sobrasada and honey $4 each

Sobrasada is a pork and paprika paste that is a Majorcan specialty. It's reminiscent of chorizo, and the addition of honey works well with the natural sweetness of pork, muting a little of the underlying spiciness.


Smoked eggplant and white anchovy tostada $3 each blackboard special

Our second $3 special is the tostada, daubed with a smokey eggplant puree and then topped with a solitary white anchovy and a sliver of chargrilled red capsicum. The white anchovy, staked with a toothpick, is a delight - tangy, salty and delicate on the tongue.

Have I mentioned the toothpicks? I'm enamoured at first sight, sturdy spears set with a carved wooden bead that seem a shame to discard after one use.


Kingfish pastrami on rye $4 each

I savour the wafer-thin slices of kingfish pastrami on their own, separating it from the bed of coleslaw which is a little heavy with mayonnaise for my liking. The pastrami has a yielding softness, firm but still pliable, with a pepper crust accenting its smokey brine flavour.


Tomato bread and Iberico $4 each 

Okay I confess, I do like to eat my food separately sometimes. Case in point: Iberico ham. This sensual shaving of porcine bliss should not be bitten or eaten with other components, in my opinion. I pluck the Iberico off the top and unfold it languidly into the mouth, appreciating its sweet and fatty silkiness uninterrupted. I revel in the way it melts on the tongue as its gentle saltiness swells across the palate. Closing your eyes is entirely optional.

Happily enough, this pintxos combination is easily converted into a two-course affair. The hunks of bread have been toasted on the grill, giving an incredible charcoal flavour that I relish, moistened by fat slices of juicy ripe tomato and a caper berry to finish.

 
Manchego and rosemary tortilla $3 each blackboard special

And if you're the kind of person who eats wafers by the layer, then the manchego and rosemary tortilla is your kind of bliss. It's a impressive construction of microscopically thin potato slices, baked to a creamy softness. This is the kind of dish I want to spend quality time with, peeling back each layer one slice at a time.


Meatball slider $6 each; calamari slider $6 each  
Classic beef cheek slider $3 each blackboard special

A wooden board of sliders can't fail to raise a round of smiles, the perky bricohe buns brushed with glaze and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

We start with the meatball slider --distinct with herbs -- before moving onto the beef cheek slider, filled with shreds of slow cooked beef that are rich and gelatinous. The blackboard special calamari slider is my favourite, a simple affair of tender deep-fried calamari married with buttery soft bun, squiggles of mayonnaise and peppery rocket leaves.


Paella ball with calamari $3 each blackboard special

Perhaps I squealed like a Japanese teenager when I clapped eyes on the pair of paella balls. How could I not when it looks like a baby octopus has been tipped upside down, its tentacles flailing mid-air?


Inside the paella ball

The paella ball is a variation on The Carrington's paella onigiri, the same squid ink rice formed into a ball and made into a mini arancini. The squid ink rice has the sweetness of the sea, the soft grains contrasted with a protecting orb of panko crunch. There's much to like, a mix of textures and flavours, crowned with the gently fried tentacles that we dip into the smooth puddle of spicy tomato sauce.


Carrington Mess $14 

There's no dessert on the bar menu, but staff are happy to let us order from the Beba Y Cena restaurant menu. We finish with the Carrington Mess, an impressive construction of cream, berries, brown sugar meringue and passionfruit sorbet layered into a glass. The sorbet is tart enough to make you wink, but eaten together with the meringue, fruit and cream, it's a refreshing end to the meal.


Chef Jamie Thomas at the pass

Chef Jamie Thomas will usually tweet preview pics of the weekly specials every Tuesday afternoon. Follow him @jamiecarrington and @carringtonhotel.


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The Carrington
565 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9360 4714

Opening hours:
Pub open Monday to Saturday 12pm-12am; Sunday 12pm-10pm
Restaurant open 7 days 12pm-10pm
Tuesday $3 pintxos specials available 6pm-10pm (as at 29/04/12)

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Surry Hills - The Carrington
Surry Hills - El Loco
Surry Hills - The Norfolk on Cleveland

Pub grub - The Abercrombie, Chippendale

Cheap Eats 2012

Life has a way of coming full circle. Exactly two years ago I landed a regular column with Time Out Sydney covering suburban eats. My first review appeared in the May 2010 Cheap Eats issue - a fitting theme for this cheap 'n' cheerful fan. Now I'm pleased to reveal that the latest Time Out Sydney 2012 Cheap Eats feature was curated and written by yours truly - my first ever cover story!



The brief from Food & Drink editor, Myffy Rigby, seemed simple enough: come up with 25 eats under $15 that covered a broad spectrum of cuisines and suburbs across all of Sydney. The catch?  These had to be spots not already reviewed by Time Out Sydney. Not so easy!

Writing 25 snappy blurbs so they all sounded different was quite the challenge. So was coming up with descriptors that weren't just "tasty" and "delicious". Distilling the essence of each restaurant into a few sentences is an underrated artform, especially when you're also trying to include just enough detail on standout dishes.



But hey, it was an assignment I relished, resulting in a five-page spread of some fantastic budget eats around Sydney, with awesome photos from Daniel Boud and Dave Cheng.

What's your favourite cheap eat? Let me know if I missed something! Meanwhile I'm excited to be heading to Adelaide for Tasting Australia 2012. Posts will continue, but you can follow 'grabyourfork' on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram for live pics of my adventures around South Australia.

The May 2012 special Cheap Eats edition of Time Out Sydney is out now. You can check out an excerpt from the full Cheap Eats feature online here. 

Read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews

The Norfolk, Surry Hills

If life is marked by epiphanies, then this is one of mine. The deep-fried pickle. Oh god yes. It's the glorious combination of crunchy batter wrapped around a pickled gherkin. Ingenious. Why? Because even as an aficionado of all things deep-fried, there is only so much greasy batter my war-torn arteries can take. And that's when the pickle comes in - a sweet and acidic bullet that doubles as both a palate cleanser and digestive aide. Hello deep-fried pickle. I'll have more of you.


Deep-fried pickles with ranch dipping sauce $7.50

The deep-fried pickles are easily my favourite menu item of the night, although we reckon that a dash of chilli in the ranch dipping sauce would have made this even better.

We're at the Norfolk Hotel on a Monday night, here to check out their $4 mini burger bar. The specials don't start until 6pm, giving us a great excuse to 'research' more of their snack menu.


Mac n cheese poppers $11.50

The mac n cheese poppers are just what we expect - large red peppers stuffed with macaroni and cheese and then battered and deep-fried. There's a welcome chilli kick to these but the puddle of aioli only adds to the deep-fried richness, and the macaroni and cheese mix seems a little lacking in cheesiness and general seasoning too.


Avocado bomb $11.50
Fried avocado, corn salsa, sweet potato crisps, corn tostadas

On the other hand, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the avocado bomb. How do you deep-fry avocado? You cut it in half, batter it, and deep-fry it of course.


Deep fried avocado

It's a hand-grenade of gluttonous excess, the creamy avocado retaining its shape despite the baptism in hot oil. The panfried corn salsa is a little oily, especially when you have deep-fried avocado, sweet potato strings and deep-fried tostadas to contend with, and I'm left wanting for a squeeze of lime, some fresh pico de gallo salsa or hey there deep-fried pickle, you'll do!


$4 mini burgers on Mondays 6pm-10pm

There are seven mini burgers on the Monday $4 menu, and we spend a little time narrowing down our options.


When burgers attack

Who are we kidding. We order them all!


Mac n cheese burger $4

The mac n cheese makes an encore appearance in a burger, a patty of pasta and cheese sauce crumbed and deep-fried to create Suze's clear favourite. This is pure carb-on-carb action, with a little extra cheese for good measure. It's not as heavy as you'd think, but I am pining for extra salt.


Fried chicken burger $4

The fried chicken burger looks eerily similar to the version at The Abercrombie, combining fried chicken with a red cabbage slaw. There's quite a bit of spice in the batter here, and a slice of gooey cheese doesn't go astray.



Clockwise from top left: Feelin o fish burger $4; Beef cheeseburger $4;
Pork belly burger $4 and El Nino burger $4

The burger parade continues thick and fast as we make our way through the remaining cavalcade. We plough our way through the cheeseburger with pickles, the pork belly burger with hidden bits of crackling, the El Nino burger with shredded slow-cooked beef, and the cutely named Feelin o fish burger.


Chicken katsu burger $4

My pick of the lot is the chicken katsu burger, a fillet of crumbed chicken sandwiched with wasabi mayo, a little cheese and wispy shreds of nori seaweed sheets.

On tap they have Monteith's cider and Kosciuszko pale ale and they even have Patron XO Cafe behind the bar. But that's another story. Tequila later.





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The Norfolk on Cleveland
305 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9699 3177

Opening hours:
Bistro open Monday to Sunday 12pm-10pm

Daily specials (as at 23 April 2012)
Monday $4 mini burger bar
Tuesday $3 tacos all night
Wednesday $10 steak
Thursday $12 rib night
Friday $10 margaritas and $5 tequila shots 6pm-8pm
Saturday free bar snack with every cocktail jug
Sunday $10 Bloody Marys


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Surry Hills - The Carrington
Surry Hills - El Loco
Pub grub - The Abercrombie, Chippendale

Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, Pyrmont

They didn't require much convincing. The boys were in. The Man or Mouse challenge at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel was in their sights. All that stood between them and chest-thumping glory was a plate of chips, salad and one kilo of rump steak.

How much steak do you get for one kilo? We debate its size while we wait for it to arrive. The steak is part of their regular bistro menu, a one kilo "prime grain fed rump" that is normally priced at $36 with a recommendation that "we suggest you share".

The steak comes with either chips and salad or mash and vegetables. Your choice of sauce - pepper, mushroom, red wine or bearnaise - is also included.


Man or Mouse challenge: 1kg of rump steak, chips and salad $20 on Thursdays

The Man or Mouse challenge is available every Thursday night. The bar isn't terribly busy tonight, but most diners seem to prefer to head upstairs to the bistro. We're content to set up camp with beers on the ground floor, keeping company with a handful of international backpackers and several disinterested locals as we watch the steady stream of office workers, residents and casino-goers passing by.


Wading in

You can hear the gulps of nervousness when the steaks finally land at our table. One kilo of steak is evidently a generous slab of cow. Lady Gaga could have fashioned a dress out of it and still had leftovers for a handbag.

The steak may be hefty, but it's the mountain range of chips beneath it that seems to strike the greater fear.


Richard is ready

We're convinced that Richard has what it takes as he wields his steak knife with youthful glee. Minh and I, meanwhile, happily concede there's no way we can complete the challenge. Bar staff happily let us share the $20 steak between two as long as we agree we are opting out of the challenge. They even provide us with an extra plate.

Let's be honest. One kilo of meat is a lot of protein. The steak is cooked surprisingly well - a touch gristly in parts, but there's a delicious smoky char from the grill marks, and ours is served at medium rare as requested. Even between two people, we struggle, getting through most of the meat but only eating half of the chips. I reckon this could easily feed three people.


Richard 0 Food 1

And so despite our cajoling and earnest cheering from the sidelines, both Richard and Irish eventually, painfully and dolefully wave the white flag of defeat. Richard was so close! Irish - not so much.

Is it possible? Yes it is. We witnessed a few victories, humbly worn with no Adam Richman fist-pumping or Man vs Food style post-match press conferences. If you do manage to clear the plate, you won't receive a t-shirt, or get your photo on the wall, but you will get your $20 back. And maybe a night of indigestion for your troubles.

Man or Mouse? You decide.

The Man or Mouse challenge is available Thursdays 6pm-9pm. 1kg rump steak, chips and salad - clear your plate and the meal is free. Meal must be consumed in front a service area to the satisfaction of an authorised team member. No sharing is allowed.




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Pyrmont Bridge Hotel
96 Union Street, Pyrmont, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9660 6996

Bistro opening hours:
9am - 10pm 7days


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Eating Challenge - Giant schnitzel and schnapps at Bavarian Bier Cafe (every Tues)
Eating Challenge - Hot wings competition at Northbridge Hotel (first Wed of month)

Pyrmont - 1945
Pyrmont - Black by Ezard
Pyrmont - Signorelli Gastronomia

Mushroom picking in Oberon

Mushroom picking. For years I'd wanted to indulge in this foraging fantasy, my mind filled with romanticised visions of skipping in a cool dark forest with a wicker basket tucked under my arm, stopping every now and then to pluck a large waiting mushroom to add to my spoils.

The reality, of course, was markedly different. For us, it began with a 5.30am wake-up call so we could be on the road by 6.00am 6.30am last weekend - early enough to beat the Easter Sunday traffic for a clear run through the Blue Mountains.

If you are lucky enough to have awesome friends like Veruca Salt (who packed the boot with fried eggs, crispy bacon, grilled sausages, caramelised onions, soft buns, tomato sauce and barbecue sauce for breakfast) then a rest stop at the Glenbrook Visitor Information Centre provides picnic tables and clean bathrooms before the mountainous ascent.

Oberon Visitor Information Centre

We were headed to Oberon today, a 180km trip from Sydney that takes about 2 hours and 45min in good traffic.Our first port of call was the Oberon Visitor Information Centre - essential for anyone looking to pick mushrooms. Here you can watch an informational video (a recent Sydney Weekender episode with Mike Whitney picking mushrooms in the forest), pick up information leaflets and get free maps showing you all the pine forests in the region (there are several).


Mushroom picking leaflets in English, Chinese and Korean

There are only two mushrooms that visitors are recommended to pick:

1. the saffron milk cap (lactarius delicosus), commonly known as the pine mushroom; and
2. the slippery jack (suillus luteus or boletus luteus).

Pine mushroom samples

There are over 40,000 hectares of State-owned pine forests in the Oberon area. We elected to head to the Vulcan State Forest, one of the oldest pine forests in the area. The older the pine forest is, the more likely it is to have sufficient pine needle matter to cultivate mushrooms. Mushroom spores arrived here via the original pine seedlings imported from Europe for commercial plantations.


Vulcan State Forest

The pine forests are divided by dirt roads, and logging trucks are a common sight. All that is forgotten when you enter the cool depths of the forest, an eerily quiet sanctuary broken only by the snap and crack of twigs and branches underfoot. The forest floor is covered in a blanket of dry pine needles, and as you move further into the wilderness, you really could imagine suddenly encountering a gingerbread house, just like the fairytale.


Hello mushrooms!

But there's magic to be found in the form of mushrooms, and it's hard not to shriek a little when we find the first pine mushrooms. It's like a real life Easter egg hunt, except mushrooms are our gustatory treasures.


Slippery jacks (suillus luteus or boletus luteus)

We find plenty of slippery jacks, known for its distinctive sticky and slightly slimy caps.These are quite mild in flavour, heralding from the same family as the porcini mushroom.


Spongy gills underneath the slippery jack (suillus luteus or boletus luteus)

The slippery jack has spongy gills underneath. To prepare slippery jacks for eating, pull away and remove the sponge, discard the stem and peel the top skin. The slimy cap may cause stomach upsets if not peeled. You will be left with a thin white "fillet" which can then be sliced and pan-fried with butter and garlic.

Slippery jacks tend to absorb a lot of moisture so can be difficult to pick just after the rain when they become soggy and rot easily. Slippery jacks need to be cooked within a few days after picking, as they do not keep well. They can also be pickled or dried.


Cutting a pine mushroom (saffron milk cap or lactarius deliciosus)

Finding quality pine mushrooms (saffron milk caps or lactarius deliciosus) is less easy. There are plenty of large older pine mushrooms, but these tend to be dry or damaged. The best eating ones are young - smaller in size and vibrant in colour.


Distinctive orange gills of the pine mushroom (saffron milk cap or lactarius deliciosus)

The orange gills of the pine mushroom are extremely sensitive - any bruising will quickly result in a green discoloration.


Pine mushrooms and slippery jacks

To minimise damage to the mushrooms, we've brought along plenty of shallow boxes to prevent them crushing each other. We make regular trips back to the car to deposit our haul.


We heart mushrooms!

A giant heart-shaped pine mushroom warrants a photo, as do the myriad of fly agaric mushrooms we encounter.


Fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria)

The fly agaric mushroom is the exact replica of every toadstool mushroom you've ever seen illustrated in children's story books. In fact this *is* the original toadstool mushroom, except toadstool is the anglicisation of its Germanic origin - toad-stuhl or seat of death! 

The toad-stuhl gets its name from its use as a common household killer for flies. The toad-stuhl or fly agaric is poisonous, and can cause hallucinations, delirium, severe stomach upsets, seizures, muscle spasms, and in some cases, death.

It is recommended to avoid touching any mushrooms that are clearly not pine mushrooms (saffron milk caps) nor slippery jacks, particularly to prevent contaminating your hands, knives or edible mushrooms with potentially dangerous spores.

They are fascinating, but the closest I got to these specimens was admiring them through a lens!

Fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria)


Fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria var. guessowii)


Button fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria)


Mature fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria)


More fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria)


Unidentified mushroom (that looks rather ominous!)

We found wombat burrows, fox dens and even a shy local who wasn't keen on entertaining visitors...


I spy with my little eye...


Echidna hiding in a burrow (if I can't see you, you can't see me!)

It was quite amazing to see this little echidna, its quills quivering as it breathed heavily in its hidey hole. We left it alone of course, quietly retreating back out of the forest with our mushroom pillage.


Our mushroom haul

After a long day we came away with an impressive stash of mushrooms, dispensed to a network of family and friends. I cooked mine simply, pan-fried at high heat with a little butter and a sprinkle of salt. You can also add garlic, parsley and/or bacon if you prefer.

The mushroom season in Oberon usually runs from late January until late April/early May depending on the weather. The optimal time for finding mushroom is a few days after rain. If you are interested in mushrooming, here are a couple of tips that may help!

10 Tips for Mushroom Picking in Oberon

1. Visit the Oberon Visitor Information Centre for maps on where to go, mushroom-picking leaflets and advice and tips on how to correctly identify and pick pine mushrooms and slippery jacks. Permits are not required for mushrooming but removing timber, firewood or bush rocks is strictly forbidden.
2. Clothes: Wear bright clothing so others can see you if you get lost. Wear long pants and long sleeves to ward off mosquitos and leeches. The forests can also be quite cool, especially in the morning and late afternoon. Bring a pair of gum boots or spare shoes - this will save you trekking dirt and mud in and out of your car, particularly if it has recently rained. 
3. Tools: Pack a small sharp knife, baskets for collecting mushrooms and boxes for transporting them home. Shallow stackable boxes will minimise bruising. 
4. Keep an eye out for trucks and timber harvesting, and stay clear of any areas where logging is taking place. Logging takes place every day of the week. Park your car well clear of the road to avoid damage by passing timber trucks.
5. Always pick mushrooms with a partner and make sure you consistently stay in sight of each other. Walk in a straight line into the forest from where you have parked your car and don't deviate too far from this line. It's easy to lose your sense of direction once you're deep in the forest. If you want to move into another area, head back to your car and walk back in again. Bring a compass and a whistle for extra precaution.
6. Pine mushrooms are often hidden under pine needles so look carefully. When you have correctly identified a safe mushroom, cut them gently at the stem - don't pull the roots out of the soil. This will allow more mushrooms to grow, and also minimises the risk of you infecting your picked mushrooms with soil and spores. Cover the exposed stem with pine needles to encourage future growth.
7. Choose young pine mushrooms that are bright in colour. Larger older ones tend to be dry and woody.
8. Only pick the mushrooms you need. Leave the rest for the next person to enjoy. Respect the forests and wildlife by minimising disturbance and taking all litter with you. 
9. If in doubt, throw it out. Don't touch any mushrooms that are obviously not pine mushrooms or slippery jacks - their spores can be highly toxic. Even travelling with poisonous mushrooms in a car can lead to people becoming dizzy from the fumes.
10. At the end of the day, get all your mushrooms checked by experts. The staff at the Oberon Visitor Information Centre will happily check your stash and confirm that the mushrooms you have picked are safe to eat. 

Happy hunting!


Vulcan State Forest



Oberon Visitor Information Centre
Corner of Ross Street and Edith Road, Oberon, New South Wales
Tel: +61 (02) 6329 8210

Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 10am-4pm
Sunday 10am-3pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Mushroom picking in Belanglo State Forest

More info:
Mushrooming in Forests NSW pine plantations (info sheet)