Tasty beginnings

Welcome to my first-ever post!

To get me into the swing of things, Saltnpepper agreed to meet on the first non-rainy day we had seen for weeks. Destination was set for the midway point between Marrickville and Glebe, at café Barmuda in Newtown (283 Australia Street). I’ll confess, this is not my first visit to Barmuda – I’ve been there a number of times before. Mainly due to their yummy gluten-free potato stack:




















I’ve a bit of thing for potatoes – baked, fried, boiled and mashed, you name it and if it has potato in it, I’ll eat it (well, as long as it's also sans gluten and dairy). Which Saltnpepper has mentioned on a number of occasions that she finds quite funny since I’m also passionate about controlling my weight – but that’s why I can share this passion with my other pursuits, such as cycling.

Back to the task at hand…there are of course many other reasons to go to Barmuda. I'd say this super-special of zucchini fritters that Saltnpepper enjoyed would be a good start:



















I should mention that the gluten-free potato stack comes with scrambled eggs, but since that's made with dairy I have it with poached eggs instead. The crispy potato works well with gooey egg, roasted eggplant and the gourmet tomato sauce on the side. There's peppery rocket, too. Tasty.

Saltnpepper says of her dish: Not your average brekkie fritters, these were four crispy crumbed and deep-fried quenelles of shredded zucchini with gooey feta. With a squeeze of lemon and the intense flavours of the roast tomato and rocket, it was easy to make them disappear. Not hugely filling though, so if you're ravenous you might want to add toast or something. (Hmmm, clearly the food expert on this blog!)

So Barmuda:

A+ for food: breakfast is served all day (yummy potato stack - ANY TIME OF THE DAY!), as well as many other lunch things to feast on. (I'm starting to realise I should have checked out the menu for other options - but this is my first post, so please be nice...).

B- for coffee: just doesn't hit the spot. I was forced to have it black - yes, another grouch of mine, as a person allergic to dairy and gluten, is the popularity of Bonsoy. It's not gluten free, and therefore limits my other passion for barista-made soy flat whites. Understandably I don't like what little food pleasures I have without gluten and dairy to be spoilt! So, if I'm having it black the coffee should really shine. Barmuda's doesn't.

A for service: super efficient and speedy.

Anyway, this has been fun. I'll be back with more, plus I'll remember to do a full menu report for all options, including dairy and gluten next time.

Kelstir xx

Four heels, two wheels and one meal

Where Alexandria

Why Feeling guilty after nearly two weeks of rain-related inactivity, I used a nearby warehouse fashion sale to lure my workmates to lunch at the Simon Johnson café [24A Ralph Street, Alexandria NSW 2015]. As the only one on wheels I had a head start on browsing the racks and braving the lunchtime throng of ladies-who-shop, but the girls soon caught up and before too long the three of us were standing in an indecisive huddle near the cafe counter peering at the small list of specials. Alex asked for the beef pie but it was already sold out, so she settled for the carrot, potato and leek soup. Jacq and I eyed the depleted cabinet of pre-made sandwiches and chose a goats cheese, mushroom and pesto foccaccia and a tandoori chicken wrap.

We took our number and settled at the table furthest from the counter with a ginger, lime and bitters drink to share. This refreshing beverage tasted like Moscow mule without the vodka. Impressed, we waited for our food to arrive. When only two-thirds of it did, the girls waited politely until I urged them not to wait for mine. Then the real disappointments started. The soup, which comes with a big slab of bread, was sadly lukewarm so we sent it back for a blast of heat, and the foccaccia was barely toasted, only a couple of token stripes on top. I tried a bite and it was OK, in a pestoey mushroomy, undertoasted bready way.

Then the soup came back – exactly the same temperature as before. I sampled a spoonful - it tasted fine but fairly bland – thick and carroty without the deep flavour punch of a good leek and potato soup, though I have yet to find one anywhere that’s as good as my mum’s.

While we had a waiter, we asked after the wrap. Some time later it arrived, at which point I had a few regrets about having it toasted – apart from the wait, I could have done without the warm cucumber and the yoghurt dressing dripping onto the plate – oops. But the chicken tasted good, the wilted baby spinach reminded me of happy brunches and the flaky bread benefited from what was in this case a thorough toasting.

Full but unsatisfied, we decided to redeem things by sharing a dessert. And redeem it did, because the olive oil cake was not only a beauty to look at, it was a joy to eat – moist and nutty with a tangy icing on top and a lovely pistachio crust.

• Arrive early to maximise your menu choices and think twice about ordering soup if you like yours hot 'n' steamy. Better still, just come for the cake.

• The regular wares aren’t cheap and the real sales don’t come along very often, but the SJ shop almost always has a central display of gourmet groceries at a good discount – I bagged a couple of treats for a foodie friend’s upcoming birthday (I can’t reveal what though ... she might be reading this!).

In search of flavour

Where Marrickville

Why After a Saturday morning session at Yogas'cool, Gusto and I were looking forward to a hot lunch of homemade soup when disaster struck. Suspicion should have set in when neither of us could remember cooking or freezing the otherwise unidentified watery mixture of chicken, pumpkin, rice and peas but when piping-hot, the soup tasted of ... nothing. We tried a few things to salvage it – parmesan, pesto and worcestershire sauce – but the flavour remained elusive. Baffled at what possessed us to cook let alone freeze it, we abandoned bowls and hopped on our bikes towards a much better option: Let's Eat Thai [352 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville (02) 9558 9508]. OK, so it was only a few blocks down the road, but it was already 2pm and we were hungry.



This wasn't our first Let's Eat Thai experience – not long after it opened last year we ate a lovely lunch of fishcakes and a deep-fried whiting special. Later, a home delivery confirmed that their tom yum is, well, yum. With a run of rave reviews recently, most centred around the owners Spice I Am pedigree, the place is probably heaving with happy diners at night but late on this Saturday lunchtime it was blissfully quiet.



The sensible option would have been to take advantage of the generously priced lunch deals, but we couldn't go past the blackboard offerings – in particular, the ped ma kham and banana blossom salad. With steamed rice for two and fishcakes to start, our order was complete and we were raring to go.



The fishcakes disappeared as quickly as they arrived – they have the authentic firm, almost rubbery texture and a fresh curry flavour that's sensational with the sweet dipping sauce.



Despite being Thai salad lovers, we'd never tried banana flowers so the next dish was an entirely new experience. Glistening with the chilli jam dressing, it looked gorgeous and we couldn't wait to dig in. It was creamy and crunchy, with hints of coconut, lemongrass, coriander and chilli and a slightly bitter flavour that worked well with the sweetness of the prawns.



As lively as the salad was, the dish that drew the most sighs of pleasure was the perfectly cooked duck breast with its crispy crust and mouth-watering meat. The tamarind sauce was fine-dining standard, a beautiful balance of sweet and sour, and everything else on the plate just added to the general deliciousness. It looked and tasted like it should have cost a lot more than $18.

How Head to Marrickville station and you're almost there – we only had to ride down Petersham Road, then over the hill to the other side of Illawarra Rd.

Distance A mere kilometre from home, and downhill at that. Shame on me.

Damage About $45 for two, but had there been a Wafu-style discount for eating everything on our plates we'd have paid $30.

Tips

• If you don't fancy the Thai desserts on offer, there are plenty of treats to be had at the Greek bakery across the road.



• If you're not into chilli, order carefully – this is authentic Thai and that means hot. Judging by my own frantic napkin-grabbing mid-salad, I'd go so far as to say it's less "Let's Eat Thai" and more "Let's Sweat & Cry", but I loved every minute of it.

Shanghai surprise

Where Marrickville to Ashfield

Why Back when I started plotting this food/cycling blog hybrid, one of the first destinations that sprang to mind was Ashfield for Chinese – shamefully, despite six years as an inner-west resident, I'd only been there as a shopper not a diner. So I cheered when Gusto suggested a Saturday night dumpling dinner. The obvious choice was Shanghai Dumpling [337 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield 9797 6999] – a few doors down from Ashfield Cycles – as it's listed in the 2010 SMH Good Food Guide, even though walking our bikes along the main strip we saw plenty of other places to come back for (and soon). Settled in our window seat in this modern, bright and clean eatery, however, we were happy, hungry and ready to devour a dozen or two.


The dumplings menu offered a choice of soup or dry, and we thought we'd prefer them by the plateful. Our waitress suggested we try the special of prawn dumplings, so we went for that along with our usual pork & chive and a side dish of shredded chicken.




The chicken arrived first, a beautiful stack of shredded bird well seasoned with szechuan pepper, dried chilli and sugar, plus shredded shallot, sliced fresh chilli, coriander sprigs and mixed salad leaves. Dipped in Chinese black vinegar, it was a tastebud-tingling hit.


Then the dumplings arrived ... in soup. Not what we thought we'd ordered, but probably what the doctor ordered and so delicious we were grateful they'd got it wrong. They came in a very clear broth with seaweed, preserved vegies, shallot and some salted black beans hiding in the depths.


The mild-tasting soup is a blank canvas – we daubed ours with droplets of sesame oil and some soy sauce mixed with oily roasted chilli flakes, but later we spied some lemon wedges on the condiments trolley which would be great to squeeze over too.

Swapping dumplings between bowls and slurping them up with the vinegar between chopstickfuls of chicken, we couldn't decide which we liked more - the classic pork (above) or the juicy prawn specials (below). As for the broth, well, to Gusto's surprise, I ate the lot.


How We did the usual cut-through by Henson Park, walked along Addison Rd, rode up Audley St to Petersham and turned left onto Trafalgar St, then went all the way along the train line through Summer Hill to Ashfield. At Liverpool Rd we got off and walked all the way to the restaurant. While parts of this direct route were bike-friendly, it got a little scary in the single lane traffic at times, so I wouldn't recommend it; next time I'll find an easier trip along quieter streets.

Distance About 6km or a 20-minute ride (one way).

Damage About $35 for two including soft drinks

Tips
• They don't have a takeaway menu, although the lovely waitress offered to write one out for us. The best thing to take away though would be frozen or better yet fresh dumplings to cook at home. We'll be back for these for sure.



• If you have enough room in your bike bags, stop off at the amazing Ashfield Fruit World for some serious edible bargains - we rode off with a load including bananas for 89 cents a kilo, a huge bunch of lovely leeks for $3 and a $1.99 bag of mandarins. Come back in a car to pick up cheap boxes of oranges, tomatoes and eggplants, too.

Lunch with a view ... of the bike shop

Where Marrickville to Newtown

Why After a two week hiatus from blog-related bike riding I was feeling pretty guilty, and while the one-and-a-half-hour return trip to my pal Jacq’s dinner party on Saturday night soothed that a little, I still had to go somewhere I could write about. Luckily a lunch date with my mother in law was set for Sunday, so I picked a new café I wanted to try - 2042 Cafe and Deli (403-405 King Street, Newtown, 9550 2500). Just across the road from King Street Cyclery it seems tailor-made for two-wheeled foodies so it was no surprise to see a couple of bikes already parked outside the wide open frontage.

Being open for breakfast and dinner, 2042 has plenty of choice on its menu for the hungry midday diner, even without the possibilities opened up by the well-stocked deli counter. To maximise options, eye up the multiple blackboard menus on the walls. We snapped up a special of chicken, pork and pistachio terrine along with a standard salad of roasted pumpkin, haloumi and rocket with pine nuts balsamic dressing.

The terrine looked and tasted worthy of a French bistro and came with slabs of Sonoma soy and linseed bread, while the salad was a satisfying mound of sweet pumpkin dice, tangled with rocket and crumbled lumps of salty haloumi.

It’s worth a visit just to browse the deli shelves. OK, it’s no Essential Ingredient but there are gourmet pantry items here you won’t find elsewhere in Newtown. I had my eye on these savoury jams from Spoonfed Foods, but I managed to get away empty-handed except for a brown paper bag containing a soft slab of chocolate and pecan brownie for afternoon tea.

How To get to Newtown station, from Sydenham Rd, follow the same route as for Addison Rd markets, but go straight on rather than turning left onto Addison. Cut through the little park (steep hill alert!) to get onto Stanmore Rd, cross at the lights and turn right onto Cavendish Lane. From there, it's laneways all the way to the top of Enmore Road.

Distance About 3.5km (one way)

Damage Salad $14.95, terrine $10.90, brownie $3

Tip

• Don’t BYO reading material – food-mag fiends can choose from a whole shelf full, including old issues of Cuisine, delicious. and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Saturday cycle social

Where Annandale to Rozelle

Why My first blog-inspired cycle date was set with K and her brand-new, wasp yellow Cell bike. We thought we’d explore the new Essential Ingredient in Rozelle, eat something in the adjoining café then finish with a nice cold cider in a pub. It seemed silly to set off for this one-stop foodie shop without being in search of one essential ingredient from its shelves, so first I had to find something to cook for dinner. Two cookbooks later, it was found – a recipe for beef stew in Clarissa’s Comfort Food, into which the “fat lady” throws onions, bacon, cider, anchovies and – well I never – pickled walnuts. Hurrah!

The store [731-735 Darling Street, Rozelle NSW 2039] is lovely and light, and filled with the kind of beautiful and useful cookware, books and edibles coveted by amateur and professional cooks as well as style-hungry people, so it’s well-suited to hours of browsing. We peeked in at the on-site cooking school, where TV chef Tom Kime seemed to be showing some foodies how to cut up raw chickens.

The best bit for me is the food section, where temptation lies at every turn and you’re bound to see things you never knew existed. Whether you want to part with the money is another matter, but there’s something comforting about knowing where they are should you ever desperately need, say, ready-rolled sour cream shortcrust pastry ...

or eight-colour trofie pasta ...

... oh yeah, and pickled walnuts.

The cafe looks great, too, with a small blackboard menu and good-looking sandwiches on display, but as K is gluten and lactose intolerant and there didn’t seem to be anything she could eat except a cupcake, I left the pissaladière special behind the counter and we settled for mugs of good flat white which came with dark chocolate coated coffee beans.

For our cider’n’ice, we picked the Three Weeds on Evans St, and as gastropubs go it didn’t disappoint even if the options for K were again fairly limited – she couldn’t join me in enjoying the goats cheese stuffed zucchini flower on special, though she did use some of the rocket pesto oil for dipping her share of the crispy smashed chats with rosemary salt. The bowl of marinated olives was o-lovely, with great big green ones and tiny little black ones and lots in between.

How From Albion St in Annandale, take Whites Creek Lane all the way to Rozelle Bay, then continue along the shared footpath over the bridge and up Victoria Rd to Darling St.

Damage Large coffees $4 each; Zucchini flower $3; smashed chats $9, mixed olives $7.

Distance About 4km (one way)

Tip

• No trip to Rozelle is complete without a visit to Herbie’s Spices, another shop where it’s extremely hard not to spend money – we bagged exciting Mexican and Indonesian spice mixes, plus a pack of filé powder so I’ll be prepared for any unforeseen gumbo-making urges. K also had an interesting chat about gluten-free labelling with “Herbie” himself.

Brekkie by bike

Where Marrickville

Why On the morning after two social engagements 70km apart
– a beautiful afternoon wedding at the Norman Lindsay gallery in Faulconbridge followed by an indulgent inner west dinner party
– I didn’t exactly feel like another mammoth bike-food mission.
But five minutes uphill is still something, so I set off solo for
a greedy, feel-good tour of my local organic and farmers market (Addison Road Community Centre, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville – open Sundays 8:30am-3pm).


What began as a humble, ramshackle collection of stalls has become a thriving inner westie destination. At 11.30am the car park was already full and the main thoroughfare was packed with people. I found a place to park the bike and made my way back past the secondhand stalls to peruse the produce on offer.

First up, a Bilpin grower selling unwaxed new-season Fuji and Jonagold apples. He said the Jonagold were his favourite and a quick tasting confirmed how good they were – crisp, tangy-sweet and refreshing. With my bike bag two kilos heavier, I spied a stall selling exotic mushrooms, including some hard-to-find varieties that are cultivated in former railway tunnels. My mixed bag included nameko, wood ear and chestnut mushrooms, so I’m all set for some Sunday night pasta.



Onto the real agenda: breakfast. A tidy stall caught my eye promising “steam-baked muffins” fresh from a pair of on-site steam ovens. Sceptical, I surveyed the interesting flavours on display – for the sweet of tooth, chocolate muffin with chocolate ganache, pumpkin cheesecake with pink lady marmalade; or cinnamon with applescotch jam; for savoury types, spinach & ricotta with basil pesto, smoked salmon with dill cream cheese, bacon & zucchini with tomato relish or the very tempting four cheese with onion & rhubarb jam. The apple wedge had woken up my tastebuds so a cinnamon-sugar hit was the logical next step.


Brown paper bag in hand, I wandered further, grabbing a tray of flawless-looking figs to go with the half-eaten wedge of gorgonzola in my fridge, and a giant bunch of rhubarb to roast for dessert. Something else had caught my eye on the way in – a Malaysian stall selling “breakfast roti” – homemade roti canai filled with kaya (coconut & pandan jam).


The area is temporarily home to an award-winning art installation by my cousin Ed Horne – a 3m-long tank sculpted from old filing cabinets and other office junk – so I chose a comfy bench behind it as my picnic spot.

Sadly, in the baking autumn sun my breakfast roti didn’t live up to expectations – it was a little too greasy and chewy, the kaya too eggy for my taste, like the filling in a yum cha custard tart – so halfway through I abandoned it and dived into the paper bag. Surprise! With a crisp crust and soft, bouncy crumb, gooey jam centre and cinnamon-dusted top, it was muffin heaven.


The smiling stallholder said they’ve been going for only eight months, but it looks like she’s onto a winner. You’ll find the stall at Orange Grove and Fox Studios farmers markets, too.

How From Marrickville station, turn right onto Illawarra Rd then left onto Petersham Rd. Continue across Marrickville Rd past the library, following the road onto Centennial St. Cross Sydenham Rd and take the path alongside the tennis courts and Henson Park.


At the top, go straight then turn right onto Charles Street. Turn left at Illawarra Rd and ride one block up to Addison Rd, then hop off and walk along the footpath to the markets.

Damage 2kg Jonathon apples, $7; mushrooms $5 for 100g; breakfast roti $4; Ragamuffin muffins $2.50 each or 6 for $12; rhubarb $4 bunch.

Distance About 2km (one way)

Tips
• Walking your bike through the market on a busy day like I did is a recipe for disaster – don’t do it. If you can’t park near the entrance, turn right and find something near the car park instead.
• Don’t forget to browse for bargains at the Bower Re-use & Repair Centre. http://www.bower.org.au/
• Bread lovers beware – the shelves at the Brasserie Bread stall were bare when I arrived there, but one smart shopper had a loaf of the gorgeous caramelised garlic bread put aside for her before it sold out.