Culinary Carnivale, Fairfield 2015

First it was the smell of charcoal. Then it was the heart-stopping sound of drumming. There was no doubt we'd found Culinary Carnivale, the annual Fairfield festival celebrating Spanish and Latin American cuisine. We stopped by last Saturday for the event, lured by the promise of an 8.2m-long parilla or South American barbecue complete with asado beef ribs. The air was thick with the smoky sizzle of barbecue meats.


Comparsa Yauguru Uruguayan cultural group

But first there were dancers and drummers, part of the Comparsa Yauguru Uruguayan cultural group, making more noise than any Chinese lion dance. It was hard not to get caught up in the hip-shaking sounds of the candombe, a Uruguayan music and dance rhythm that has roots in African slaves from more than 200 years ago.

The parade of drummers and dancers of all ages may have been in a Sydney suburban shopping centre, but if you closed your eyes, you could have convinced yourself you were on the streets of Montevideo.




Kids playing chico candombe drums (the smallest size in the range)




Piano candombe drummers 


Dancing keeps you young at heart! 


Seafood paella

And then there was the food. Much of Smart Street was closed to traffic, the road lined with food stalls selling everything from paella to giant churros to yerba mate, a type of tea popular across South America.


Paella foundations of rice and sofrito


Pastel de choclo from South American Flavour $5 
Minced beef and corn casserole

We call in at the South American Flavour stall, a takeaway shop that has a Chilean focus in its offerings. Ask any Chilean and they'll probably nominate pastel de choclo as their favourite dish. Often translated as corn pie, this tastes similar to a shepherd's pie with the mashed potato on top replaced with creamed corn. The corn adds a pervading sense of sweetness to the casserole, but I find it strangely addictive against the melange of minced beef, tender chicken, raisins, black olives and slices of boiled egg.

Humitas creamed corn in corn husks  $8
and sopaipillas pumpkin bread $1 from South American Flavour

And I'll take anything if it's wrapped in a corn husk. Humitas are the Chilean version of tamales.


Steamed creamed corn (humitas)

We peel back the corn husks to find a piping hot pillow of creamed corn seasoned with onion, basil and lashings of butter. This one is super sweet too but it goes together beautifully with the heavily salted sopaipillas pumpkin bread rounds.


Asado beef ribs on the barbecue at Parilla Argenchino

We're inevitably drawn to the barbecue action of Parilla Argenchino, a line of four barbecues piled up with asado beef ribs, chicken wings, pork belly and blood sausages.


Smoky goodness

The smoke is thick and heavy but the barbecue guys battle on regardless.


Porky bits from Parilla Argenchino $14.50

We hoe into the porky bits, hot and juicy slices of pork belly that come with a side of chimichurri sauce.


Asado beef spare ribs $14.50
and chimi wings $6.50 from Parilla Argenchino 

The chicken wings, cooked to a golden char, are tossed through with chimichurri but it's the asado beef spare ribs that make us stop, pause and look at each other with our eyes wide open. It's not easy to cook beef ribs on the barbecue but these slabs of beef are impressively tender, hidden with bonus pockets of fat that make my heart shudder.

Culinary Carnivale might be over for this year, but you can get yourself to South American Flavour in Fairfield for your own Chilean feast. Keep an eye out for Parilla Argenchino at other festivals - they're also available to hire for catering gigs.

Culinary Carnivale was held on Saturday 24 October 2015. Grab Your Fork attended anonymously and independently paid for all meals in this post.



Parrilla Argenchino Catering
Tel: +61 (0)408 783 688

South American Flavour
34/35 Smart Street, Fairfield, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9723 4700
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 10am-5pm
Saturday 10am-4pm

The Two Wolves Community Cantina, Chippendale

Eating in the name of helping others? It puts a whole new spin on putting your money where your mouth is. Eat and drink at The Two Wolves in Chippendale, and all profits from this social enterprise go toward disadvantaged communities around the world. At the moment, these include providing education and building assistance to primary schools in Huay Tong, Northern Thailand near Myanmar, improving the nutrition and education of pre-school children in the remote village of Tipling, Nepal, and helping the Saint Vincent Diem orphanage for disabled children in Huong Phuong, Central Thailand.


The alleyway entrance to The Two Wolves

The Two Wolves has taken up residence on the corner of Broadway and City Road, a space that was once home to the English, Scottish and Australasian Bank. There's a massive doorway on the Broadway side but Two Wolves makes you enter via the dodgy alleyway next to the Lansdowne Hotel. Maybe it's a nod to hip Melbourne laneways but it also gives you about 60 seconds to clear your head, reset your mind and mull over your life choices until now.


Bright and colourful flags and travel trinkets inside The Two Wolves

And lo and behold, The Two Wolves is not the dodgy crack den you may have envisaged but a bright and colourful space that feels halfway between a youth hostel and a university bar.

This is the latest initiative by The Cardoner Project, a not-for-profit program founded by Father David Braithwaite that offers volunteer opportunities for students in Australia and around the world.


Food menu

The food menu is short and sweet, running from a Vietnamese pork noodle salad to vegetarian dahl to what is allegedly the recipe for Pope Francis' favourite empanadas. Many of the dishes drawn from the people they have encountered in their volunteer projects - Sister Hien works at the orphanage in Hanoi - and with nothing over $11, the prices are ideal for the uni student neighbourhood.


Drinks menu

Beer and cocktails come at uni student special prices too. They also do smoothies, shakes and juices.


Cider and the $14 student jug of beer 

You should be able to get three or four beers out of the student jug of beer. If you look young and scruffy enough, they'll presume you're a student and won't even ask for a student ID.


Mango dacquiri $10

Cocktails range from $10-$15. The mango dacquiri is a budget-friendly number at $10 but it's a little light on the alcohol.


Spiced chicken and slaw soft shell tacos $10

A tenner scores you two spiced chicken and slaw soft shell tacos, crammed into a clever taco holder contraption. It's a no-nonsense affair of grilled chicken, shredded cabbage and lashings of mildly spiced mayonnaise.


Korean fried chicken $11

Korean fried chicken offers up a serve of crunchy wingettes glazed with sweet chilli alongside a huge mound of rice. The carbs and deep-fried protein combo definitely has a uni student vibe, designed to fill hungry stomachs.


Wedges $5

Wedges, the national uni student staple, are yours for five bucks. It's a simple bowl of fried potatoes, without the fuss of sweet chilli sauce or sour cream.


Sister Hien's bun thit nuong pork and rice noodle salad $10

The connection to Sister Hien's bun thit nuong pork and rice noodle salad may be sentimental, but there's probably a few ingredient swaps here. There's not nearly enough nuoc cham fish sauce dressing, and the rice noodles are cold and hard clumps at the bottom of the too-small bowl, but there's still plenty of bright and zingy salad and herbs to put a smile on your face. A few tweaks on this dish could easily make this a crowd favourite.


Dahl with roasted cauliflower and eggplant $10

But when it comes to humble simplicity, the vegetarian dahl plate wins every time. It's one of the most filling dishes on the menu, a huge ladle of spiced dahl, deep fried cauliflower florets, sticky deep fried eggplant and a small onion bhaji surrounding a dome of basmati rice. The green lentil dahl is terrifically good, the lentils just cooked so they still have some bite, and spiced with an expert hand so you get multiple layerings of flavour that ebb and swell with every mouthful.


Bellarmine mess $6

We find room for dessert and are glad we did. The Bellarmine mess (named after Bellarmine House, the Jesuit uni student accommodation house above the cantina) is a whopper, especially at only $6. It's a huge meringue quenelle that's been cracked open, filled with cream and then covered in what tastes like chai spice marinated berries.

There's also a rhubarb fool (stewed rhubarb with honey yoghurt) and affogato (vanilla, chocolate or coffee gelato with Single Origin espresso), each costing a mere $5.


Menus


And the meaning behind the name The Two Wolves? It's reputed that the Jesuit forefathers not only provided for their own, but had enough to feed the wild wolves as well.

In the long term, The Two Wolves hopes to offer employment and training for long-term unemployed, open to all ages and faiths. They also plan to expand their opening hours to breakfasts as well as weekends. 

The Two Wolves Community Cantina Bar and Restaurant
202 Broadway, Chippendale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8039 3595

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 11am–11pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts

Chippendale - Brickfields

Chippendale - Ester

Chippendale - LP's Quality Meats

Chippendale - Mr Bing

Jang Tur Charcoal BBQ Restaurant, Canterbury

First let’s talk about the egg soup. All the regulars rave about it. There’s a good reason. The gyeranjjim looks ominous at first, a bubbling mass of pale yellow that arrives in a ttukbaegi, a traditional Korean earthenware bowl. This Korean favourite is made by steaming eggs with seasoned stock so the egg puffs up like a mattress. As it rises, the egg soaks up the stock resulting in a kind of soupy soufflé deliciousness with every spoonful. What’s even more amazing about the egg soup here? It’s free.


Gyeranjjim egg soup


Dining room at Jang Tur

The dinner crowd at Jang Tur, a Korean barbecue house hidden on a bleak stretch of Canterbury Road, is almost always completely Korean. Some nights the place is heaving with big groups and cheerful family gatherings that span several generations. Other times it’s a lonely set of couples huddled over the grill. Décor is minimal. In fact the best things in the room are the red metal drum tables with stainless steel tabletops, a charcoal grill recessed in the middle.


Charcoal barbecue


Marinated squid $15

The one-page menu doesn’t muck around, reading more like a shopping list with minimal descriptions. Garlic tiger prawns, chilli marinated squid and marinated scotch fillet are all $15 for a plate. You’ll have to cook your own on the thick wire grill, set over slabs of charcoal that add an unbeatable smokiness to each protein.


Jebichuri thin skirt $15


Jebichuri on the charcoal bbq grill

Jebichuri ($15) is translated as “inner part of beef” but really it’s thin skirt, part of the diaphragm muscle that’s much loved because of its intensity of flavour.


Beef intercostals $15

“Meats between spare ribs” ($15) is the literal explanation of intercostals, sometimes known as rib fingers.


Complimentary lettuce cups, garlic, chilli, cucumber and carrot


Complimentary garden salad

Wrap up the cooked meat in the free lettuce cups provided and dunk them into the dipping sauce. A free salad (ours even came with avocado) will help delay the meat sweats. Wash it all down with Korean beer or sake. They do BYO for $3 a head too.


Ox tongue $15

Delve into the ox tongue, small beef intestine or chilli marinated giblets (each $15) if you’re game.


Marinated beef rib $20

Whatever you do, make sure you order the marinated beef rib ($20). Unwrap the scroll of thinly sliced meat from around the rib bone and slap it on the grill. You’ll have to arm wrestle for the ultimate trophy: rights to gnaw the fatty bits straight off the bone.


Marinated beef rib on the charcoal bbq


Barbecued dinner, Korean-style


Korean barbecue meats 


The rear entrance via the Aldi carpark




Jang Tur Charcoal BBQ Restaurant
169 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9787 4561

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 5pm-10pm

Parking available in the Aldi carpark behind the restaurant 
(entry via Aldi Street or Jeffrey Street)


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Canterbury - Charlie's Pizza
Korean BBQ - Wagyu House, Croydon


This article appeared in the August 2015 issue of Time Out Sydney [Read online] 
Read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews