Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Gourmet Traveller

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS Gingerbread granola (RECIPE P36) Liège-style waffles with rhubarb-vanilla jam (RECIPE P106) Green shakshuka (PICTURED; RECIPE P36) Look, champ, it’s breakfast, so you should probably stick to nonalcoholic drinks: a hearty smoothie, perhaps, full of kale and beetroot and chia seeds and stuff. But you should also know that a good moscato would be a delicious match for the waffles; and the shakshuka would be great with a sparkling shiraz. QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY MORNING TEA Danish pastries (RECIPE P83) French crullers (RECIPE P178) Double eggs and soldiers (PICTURED; RECIPE P116) Tea, of course. Couldn’t have a birthday for Her Maj without tea. Perfect match for the pastries, too. And champagne, of course – rosé Champagne to match the salmon roe on the eggs. Or perhaps some English sparkling wine.…

TURKEY BREAKFAST TACOS Served on bright plastic plates, the tacos at this Tulum food stall are a local favourite – they’re almost always sold out by noon. Turkey braised with a mix of charred chillies is shredded and piled with thick slices of boiled egg on tortillas made to order by a trio of abuelas. Taquería Honorio, Satélite Sur y Andromeda Ote, Tulum, QR, Mexico, +52 984 134 8731 SAMANTHA TEAGUE THE ROYALE The Royale, the signature toastie of Great Wheels of Cheese, a newcomer to the Sydney market scene, combines onions with three cheeses for “an intense French onion soup vibe”. The masterstroke? Cheese on top as well as inside. greatwheelsofcheese.com.au PAT NOURSE MEE SIAM Perth’s record with South East Asian food has long been impressive, but the recent…

More and more cafés are serving breakfast ramen to counter the winter chill. For the version at Rising Sun Workshop in Sydney’s Newtown, chef Nick Smith blitzes buttered toast into his pork and chicken broth. “It’s a bit like a traditional cooked breakfast with roasted tomato, bacon and a seared onsen egg,” he says. “It’s a great hangover cure.” In Melbourne, Armadale’s Mammoth café tops its mushroom and smoked bacon broth with a fried egg, and in the Queen Victoria Market at Pickett’s Deli & Rotisserie, bacon bones, plus trimmings from the rôtisserie make for an umami-rich dashi served with pork neck straight off the spit.…

At Sydney’s Spice Temple, Neil Perry’s shrine to regional Chinese cuisine, the bar’s version of the Bloody Mary has an especially fiery kick that’ll blow away the morning cobwebs. The Ox, named after the Chinese zodiac sign, is made with both fresh and dried chilli. “We muddle coriander root with a piece of chilli to give it an extra kick, and rim the glass with a mixture of chilli flakes, salt and Sichuan pepper ground with a mortar and pestle,” says bar manager Dane Reid. Approach with caution (or temper the amount of chilli to your taste – we won’t judge). Spice Temple, 10 Bligh St, Sydney, NSW, (02) 8078 1888, spicetemple.com.au > Pound dried chilli flakes with salt, Sichuan peppercorns and fried garlic to taste with a mortar and…

“I love waffles on the weekend and Cornersmith’s in Marrickville are the best. Could you publish the recipe?” Saskia Woods, Downer, ACT Buttermilk waffles with rhubarb and rose compote Prep time 30 mins, cook 20 mins (plus standing) Makes 8 (pictured p34) 300 gm (2 cups) plain flour 80 gm caster sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 500 ml (2 cups) well-shaken buttermilk 115 gm butter, melted 2 eggs Crème fraîche or ice-cream, to serve Rhubarb and rose compote 500 gm rhubarb, washed, trimmed and cut into 2cm-3cm pieces 110 gm (½ cup) raw sugar Finely grated rind and juice of 1/2 orange 1-2 tsp rosewater Orange syrup 125 ml (½ cup) freshly squeezed orange juice 55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar 1 For compote,…

What is it? Despite its name, buckwheat isn’t a wheat at all. It’s the seed of a flowering fruit related to sorrel and rhubarb. This little triangular seed is rich in nutrients and very high in fibre, and has a strong, somewhat bitter flavour. Buckwheat sold as kasha has been toasted, which brings a toasty, hoppy flavour to proceedings. Activated dehydrated buckwheat is sold as buckinis in health-food shops. Why do we care? Buckwheat has come to prominence of late thanks to its nutritional qualities and gluten-free status, but we love it for its nutty flavour and texture – when cooked it still retains a little bite, which works well in porridge and risotto. It cooks quickly and also adds bulk to a roast vegetable salad or hearty winter soup.…

Hop to it A more permanant site may be imminent, but if you can’t wait that long for your next fix of former Berta chef O Tama Carey’s Sri Lankan eats, hit the food-stall version of her Lankan Filling Station at the Carriageworks Farmers Market on Saturdays (8am-1pm) for crisp and airy hoppers and the likes of lamb curried with roasted black pepper and fennel seed. And pick up a slice of love cake while you’re at it. lankanfillingstation.com.au Spring breaker Yunnanese food is rare enough in Sydney. But Yunnanese fusion? Such is the splendid idiosyncrasy of Chinatown newcomer Spring Yunnan, which offers cold rice noodles (pictured), spicy(ish) rice noodle soup, steam-pot chicken and other southern Chinese classics alongside the less expected likes of Buffalo wings, prosciutto stir-fried with tofu…

It’s a happy coincidence that we launched our Australian Hotel Guide three years ago on the crest of a wave of hotel investment. Last year, the national inventory hit a record 100,000 hotel rooms, and industry body Tourism Accommodation Australia has forecast a further 30 per cent growth by 2021. That’s when the 120 hotel projects currently on drawing boards will reach completion (see Stay Tuned on page 16 of our hotel guide for the highlights). This unprecedented investment in accommodation has produced some standout new properties among the top 50 hotels we’ve reviewed in this year’s Gourmet Traveller Australian Hotel Guide. Victoria leads the pack with two remarkable new addresses: QT Melbourne in the city and Jackalope on the Mornington Peninsula. Brisbane has upped its cool factor with the…

Pork Bolognese on brioche GAUGE, BRISBANE Served on toasted house-baked brioche and topped with a buttery fried egg, this is definitely not your nanna’s savoury mince on toast. Sobrasada and ’nduja give grunt to a rich, slow-cooked Bolognese-style pork sauce which is loaded with a little extra chilli for good measure. Fermented red cabbage brings a burst of sweetness to balance the spice. Gauge, 77 Grey St, South Brisbane, Qld, (07) 3638 0431 Za’atar manoush with labne and pickles GERARD’S BISTRO, BRISBANE Sure, you could opt for the shakshuka, the celebrated cumin-spiced Baghdad eggs, or even the smoky egg with ful medames – but then you’d miss chef Ben Williamson’s version of a traditional Lebanese breakfast where manoush flatbread, still warm from the oven, is served with a za’atar fragrant…

“ Drinking vodka before midday is bad for you; mix it with tomato juice and Tabasco and suddenly it's bloody good for you.” It’s eight o’clock on Christmas morning and we’re already onto our second bottle of Champagne. It’s a family ritual. Opening presents, scoffing panettone, guzzling the bubbly. Happens every year. And because it’s Christmas, and because it’s a family ritual, none of us thinks twice about the fact we’re drinking at dawn. Funny, isn’t it? If I popped the cork on a bottle of fizz at 7.30am at any other time of year, my wife would accuse me of being a hopeless alcoholic. Again. And she’d probably be right. But somehow our family – and many others I know – have decided that boozing at breakfast is perfectly…

Dosas with coconut lentil curry Dosas are made from rice and lentils soaked overnight and blended into a batter, then left to ferment. The longer you leave the batter to ferment, the more intense the flavour (this step can also be left out). Dosas are cooked as you would a crêpe, and we serve them here with a simple lentil curry. Use a non-stick frying pan or a crêpe pan; cook a couple of small ones first – as with pancakes, the first ones tend to stick. The key to success is to be patient and wait until the base is golden and set well before turning. Prep time 10 mins, cook 1 hr 40 mins (plus soaking, fermenting) Makes 8-10 100 gm urid dhal (see note) 40 gm basmati…

Whizz bangers Bangers and mash, a spicy sanga, Southern-style sawmill gravy – if there’s a sausage in the house, there’s a meal. Sweet deal Taste your way through New York’s most impressive desserts? It’s a tough job, but Yasmin Newman tackled it with aplomb – and brought back plenty of tasty ideas to show for it.…

Cuba libre The Oriente and its stridently Afro-Cuban capital, Santiago de Cuba, remain largely untouched by the wave of change sweeping the island. On the high road There’s change in the air with a new generation of entrepreneurs reinvigorating Victoria’s High Country. Points of views In his new book, The Pleasures of Leisure, Robert Dessaix contemplates the singular power of panoramas.…

 Victoria’s High Country was long regarded as a scenic stretch of the drive from Melbourne to the snowfields – a sleepy region of farms and fortified wine. Then along came a new generation of farmers, winemakers and thinkers. A decade later, their energy and confidence has turned the region into a destination buoyed by new businesses, new wine varieties, new produce and new ideas. Bright attracts as many people for its coffee, chocolate, beer and gin as it does for its showy autumn leaves. Rutherglen winemakers are challenging the notion that fortified wine is the region’s only strength. Yackandandah’s energy is on track to be 100 per cent renewable by 2022. And destination diners flock to one of Australia’s best restaurants in Beechworth. At the vast Brown Brothers winery in…

GO WEST The waterfalls along Western Australia’s Kimberley coast are more impressive than ever after the region experienced one of the wettest wet seasons on record. Luxury French line Ponant is heading there for the first time this season. Its 264-passenger L’Austral is the youngest ship in the region and, the line claims, the most environmentally sustainable ship operating in the Kimberley. It will sail between Darwin and Broome on four, 10-night cruises from July to September. Expedition teams of marine biologists and conservationists will lead guests on Zodiac forays to sites including King George Falls, Swift Bay, Montgomery Reef and Horizontal Falls, highlights of a region spanning more than 2,600 islands. ponant.com ISLAND ENCOUNTERS There are even more chances to see the wildlife of the Galápagos Islands on two…

1 APT Enjoy the ultimate South American experience on a luxurious and adventure-filled journey with APT. 27 Day Best of South America with Galápagos Islands from $22,995* pp twin share. Visit aptouring.com.au or call 1300 335 714. 2 Smeg’s new 90cm Thermoseal Freestanding Cookers feature Thermoseal engineering, Venturi atmospheric control and dynamic airflow for unrivalled performance – chef-quality dishes cook just as intended and tastes better. smeg.com.au 3 Japan Golden Route From Osaka, Nara and Kyoto in the south-west to Tokyo and Mount Fuji in the north-east, this tour touches Japan’s sweetest spots. Enticing optional programs available. $3,299 from Nexus Holidays. nexusholidays.com.au 4 Domayne Shoot some light into your home with a Bullet Floor Lamp boasting antique brass wire shades in two different shapes and colours that ignite an industrial…

FOOD Soups plus Make a meal of soup with heart-warming winter accessories. Break out the cheddar jaffles with a classic pea and ham. Orange is the new black Brighten winter meals with the season’s sweet and fragrant mandarins. Australian-Chinese with Kylie Kwong Say hello to finger-lime lemon chicken. Kylie Kwong swaps Chinese-Australian for classic dishes that lean more Australian-Chinese. Golden brown Your secret weapon in the flavour stakes, brown butter enriches everything from cakes to gnocchi. Masterclass: coq au vin Nail coq au vin with step-by-step advice from our resident French classicist, Damien Pignolet. TRAVEL Reasons to go Get planning with our cutting-edge guide to essential dining, wining and sleeping in the world’s culture capitals. Whether it’s breakfast in London, drinks in Paris, lunch in Rome or dinner in Los…

ROBERT DESSAIX After finally admitting that he was hopeless at all forms of leisure except siestas and cooking soup, travel writer and memoirist Robert Dessaix decided to write a book about the importance of leisure. “You should always write about things you’re in the middle of discovering if you want your readers to stay with you,” he says, “not things you know all about.” He claims to have now mastered travelling in India, having coffee with friends and doing absolutely nothing at all. See page 158. KENDALL HILL Senior writer Kendall Hill has overseen our hotel guide since its inception three years ago, and the novelty of discovering great new hotels still excites him. “Jackalope was the standout new property for me this year.” Even before it was finished, he…

Melbourne might have the best croissants in the world (hello, Lune) – now Newcastle could also be a star contender in the pastry stakes. Nicolas Poelaert, the French chef who won praise at Brooks and Embrasse restaurants in Melbourne, moved to New South Wales’ second-largest city two years ago and is now making waves with his choux-pastry smarts. Soon after arriving in Newcastle, Poelaert, who has worked with Michelin-awarded French chefs including Sébastien and Michel Bras of the revered Laguiole restaurant Bras, and Alain Gelle of La Meunerie, turned his attention (and all those years of training and technique) to sweets. “I knew I could bring something new,” he says. “Something new but Old World, and give it a bit of a twist.” In January, Poelaert and his wife, Tara,…

It wouldn’t be the breakfast issue without bacon – and there’s plenty of smoky, salty goodness during Australian Bacon Week (25 June to 1 July). The annual celebration shines a light on Australian pork and its producers. “Close to 70 per cent of the bacon and ham produced in this country is still made from imported pork,” says Mitch Edwards, marketing manager at Australian Pork. “The majority of us would prefer to have fresh Australian bacon, but people just don’t know how to find it.” Kicking off the week of pork-proud festivities is the announcement of the winners in the Australian Bacon Awards, where around 130 bacons from across the country are judged on everything from balance of flavour, smell and texture to juiciness, appearance and fat-to-meat ratio. Before the…

MELBOURNE The team behind Tipo 00 has opened Osteria Ilaria next door to their popular pasta bar. Like Tipo, Ilaria is Italian focused, just with less pasta and more space. The 90-seater has a central marble pass where chef and owner Andreas Papadakis plates up the likes of whole boned duck with vin santo and hazelnut sauce, butterflied whiting with clams and sea-herb salad, and liver sausage with pan-fried bread stuffing. There’s also an enormous basement cellar that co-owner Luke Skidmore has filled with wine from “all over the place”, says Papadakis. SYDNEY Bacco, the latest osteria from chef and restaurateur Andrew Cibej (Vini, Berta, 121BC) is here. Cibej secured the 80-seater, on the corner of Ash Street and Angel Place, with the help of China Doll restaurateurs Steve and…

1 Spiced lamb chops with silverbeet, chickpeas and yoghurt 2 T-bone steaks with garlic buttered mushrooms and mash 3 Big pork and prosciutto meatballs with polenta 4 Harissa chicken, carrot, rice and quinoa pilaf 5 Linguine with walnut-parsley pesto 6 Cauliflower, leek and cheddar soup 7 Roast mulloway with white beans, fennel and lemon 8 Lime and buttermilk sponge pudding 1 Spiced lamb chops with silverbeet, chickpeas and yoghurt Serves 4 ½ tsp ground turmeric ½ tsp ground coriander ½ tsp garam masala 8 lamb cutlets 1 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil 1 tbsp finely grated ginger 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 1 long green chilli, thinly sliced 400 (about ½ bunch) silverbeet, half the stalks thinly sliced, leaves coarsely chopped 1 tsp brown mustard seeds 400 gm canned chickpeas,…

“ Camembert de Normandie was at the centre of a legal battle, dubbed the ‘Camembert wars’, over the raw-milk requirement for AOC status.” Imagine a future where the only breed of milking cow is the “factory” Friesian, and low-cost industrial production overrides animal welfare. A world in which robots milk cows on demand, “fresh” milk costs less than water, and traditional soft and blue raw-milk cheeses have disappeared. We can tick at least some of these boxes right now. Take Italy for example. Over the past 50 years, it has lost five cattle breeds and about half its traditional regional cheeses. Drive through the countryside where Parmigiano-Reggiano is made and it’s possible you won’t see a single cow. This is because the milk for this benchmark cheese is now sourced…

Here’s The Recreation’s take on a tarte Tatin. It’s pears that are poached in cider with cardamom and star anise, then doused in balsamic vinegar caramel. Spicy black pudding glistens on top, keeping the tarte’s sweetness in check. A little hazelnut, watercress and celery salad brings refreshing crunch. It’s rich for an entrée, so you might consider sharing it. Until you tuck in and decide there’s not enough to go round. A meal at The Recreation might have you reconsidering your devotion to the whole share-plates thing more than once. Spätzle sautéed with broccoli charred on a wood-fired grill and cabbage, topped with a salty, magnificently retro Gruyère fondue sauce – like a mac and cheese that’s done time in a Swiss finishing school – will also test your resolve.…

 I’ve made a habit of collecting rare and elaborate cocktail shakers. Visit any of the bars I’ve opened and you’ll see the evidence in action. At Eau De Vie in Melbourne and Sydney you’ll likely witness cocktails being poured out of fanciful shakers – shaped like blimps, teapots or bells. At The Roosevelt, in Sydney, you may also spot shakers in the form of penguins, golf bags, hourglasses and dumb-bells displayed in the glass cabinets. “When Customs threatened to destroy the shaker I went through the process of becoming an arms dealer.” To me, these shakers hark back to a time when the art of the cocktail was practised in every home (especially in the United States), and your merit as a host was judged as much on your ability…

ALL-IN-ONE WONDER A full breakfast is a no-brainer when you’re equipped with the right appliances. There’s no need to rattle the pans like a short-order cook when your Combi-Steam oven can cover all the cooking modes you need for a hearty and healthy take on the full Aussie breakfast. Crispy bacon? Coming right up, grilled to perfection with no oil needed and the drippings caught in the tray beneath. Asparagus and mushrooms, meanwhile, can be steamed or roasted below, while the baked eggs keep toasty in the warming drawer. All that’s left to do is push the button on the coffee machine and order up your favourite form of caffeine hit. So easy you could do it in your sleep. Full cooked breakfast? With smart appliances you could do it…

There’s nothing like a crisp, buttery pastry with a cup of coffee for breakfast. I favour fruit-filled pastries, and Danishes are among my favourites. While cooked or dried fruit is easy to use and tastes great, I sometimes substitute fresh fruit. Lightly caramelised apples are delicious in winter, as are chopped stone fruit or blueberries in summer. Using good butter in the pastry is the key to achieving airy, crisp results. I prefer butter with a fat content (listed in the nutritional information on the packet) of about 82 per cent. The fat makes the pastry crisp and adds a rich flavour, and low-fat butter won’t produce that flaky effect. A bit of moisture from the water content in the butter, meanwhile, creates the steam that separates layers in the…

“For the most part a flat white and a latte are the exact same drink, made the same way.” Paris. Tokyo. London. Santiago. The humble flat white now appears on café menus around the globe. The precise birthplace of this Antipodean creation, however, is a point of contention in the coffee world. “There have been a lot of claims to who invented the flat white,” says Hazel de los Reyes, owner of Sydney’s Coffee Alchemy. “It’s a bit of a trans-Tasman feud.” Some say it was invented by New Zealand coffee pioneer Jeff Kennedy at Wellington’s Caffè L’affare, which he founded in 1990. Others say it grew from Australia’s love of instant coffee. “Instant coffee was the dominant coffee in Australia,” says Les Schirato, CEO of Vittoria Coffee. “Then in…

SHIMMERING SHIRAZ 2015 Wild Duck Creek Estate Springflat Shiraz, Heathcote, Vic, $55 Wild Duck Creek has a cult reputation for super-rich, super-dark, powerful reds, but this shiraz, from a great vintage, is showing beautiful subtleties, too: fragrant, peppery spice and shimmering tannin and masses of bold black fruit. wildduckcreekestate.com.au BOLD BAROSSA 2012 Yalumba The Tri-Centenary Grenache, Barossa Valley, SA, $55 A lot of grenache you'll find is medium-bodied, bouncy, spicy and best drunk young. But this, sourced from really old, low-yielding vines planted in 1889, is deliciously dark, dense, firm and cellar-worthy. yalumba.com LIFT THE VEIL 2013 Crittenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile, Mornington Peninsula, Vic, $80 The second release of this vin jaune-inspired white wine – savagnin aged for years in barrel under a layer of flor yeast…

“These hash browns are the perfect combination of crisp exterior and soft inside.” Hash browns with eggs fried in olive oil and herb salad “These hash browns are the perfect combination of crisp exterior and soft inside, and can mostly be prepared a day ahead,” says Curtis Stone. “After being seared to crunchy crispness, they’re topped with eggs fried in olive oil and served with a herb salad spiked with a little sherry vinegar to cut through the richness.” Prep time 15 mins, cook 35 mins (plus chilling) Serves 4 2 tbsp olive oil 4 eggs Hash browns 2 sebago potatoes (about 250gm each), scrubbed 1 tbsp cornflour 1 tsp thyme 1½ tbsp olive oil 20 gm unsalted butter, diced Herb salad ½ cup (loosely packed) bite-sized watercress sprigs ½…

Toulouse sausages with potato purée and onion gravy This luxed-up version of bangers and mash has an extra-rich potato purée with a good whack of butter. We’ve used Toulouse sausages, which are usually a little aromatic with added garlic, and sometimes herbs. Prep time 15 mins, cook 3 hrs 40 mins Serves 4 3 tsp grapeseed oil 8 Toulouse sausages (about 150gm each) Potato purée 1 kg Sebago potatoes (about 4), peeled and quartered 60 ml ( 1/4 cup) pouring cream 250 gm butter, diced, at room temperature Onion gravy 2 onions, thinly sliced 1 tsp thyme 1 tbsp plain flour 60 ml ( 1/4 cup) dry red wine 350 ml brown chicken stock, or veal stock 1 For potato purée, place potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water…

 There are times when it feels as though the entire city of Santiago de Cuba has congregated in Parque Céspedes. It’s a square hemmed in by faded colonial-era piles, and tonight, as a humid dusk falls, it’s full of folk promenading and gossiping and flirting. Even more are huddled over their phones hoping to log in to the overloaded public WiFi. From the rooftop of the Casa Grande, the most emblematic hotel in the city, I watch the pageant below: children playing football, hustlers staking territory, lovers circling slowly beneath the bronze bust of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who freed his slaves and declared war on the Spanish in 1868. Up here on the terrace a salsa party is in full swing, fuelled by Mojitos and led by Grammy-winning local…

“Doing food and bev with equal excellence is a fairly new phenomenon for LA.” LOS ANGELES RUSSELL BEARD Café owner Los Angeles is often misunderstood, but I think it just takes time to reveal itself. We’ve always used it as a halfway stop when travelling from Australia to buy coffee in Central or South America. We like it so much we’re opening our second LA Paramount Coffee Project in September. A hike is a very LA thing to do, even if it’s just for some celebspotting or to work off last night’s In-N-Out cheeseburger with “animal” fries (extra sauce and grilled onions mixed with your cheese; it’s off-menu – do it). The Runyon Canyon is our version of the Bondi to Bronte walk; from the top you can…

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MEASURES & EQUIPMENT * All cup and spoon measures are level and based on Australian metric measures. * Eggs have an average weight of 59gm unless otherwise specified. * Fruit and vegetables are washed, peeled and medium-sized unless otherwise specified. * Oven temperatures are for conventional ovens and need to be adjusted for fan-forced ovens. * Pans are medium-sized and heavy-based; cake tins are stainless steel, unless otherwise specified. COOKING TIPS * When seasoning food to taste, we use sea salt and freshly ground pepper unless otherwise specified. * To blanch an ingredient, cook it briefly in boiling water, then drain. To refresh it, plunge it in a large bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process, then drain it. * We recommend using free-range eggs, chicken and pork.…

French crullers These fluted French doughnuts are made from a choux-like pastry dough, giving them a light, airy texture. Prep time 20 mins, cook 15 mins (plus cooling, setting) Makes 10-12 100 gm butter, coarsely chopped 170 gm plain flour, sieved 3 eggs Sunflower oil, for frying Ground cinnamon and icing sugar, for dusting Sugar glaze 160 gm pure icing sugar, sieved 1 Cut out 10cm-square-pieces of baking paper. Place butter and 250ml water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. When all the butter is melted, add flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the pan (1-2 minutes). Remove from heat and transfer dough to an electric mixer fitted with a paddle and beat, adding eggs one at a time…

“It is an epitome – not, indeed, of English food, but of the forces that drag it into the dirt. It voices the true spirit of gastronomic joylessness. Porridge fills the Englishman up, prunes clear him out, so their functions are opposed. But their spirit is the same: they eschew pleasure and consider delicacy immoral... “Everything was grey. The porridge was in grey lumps, the prunes swam in grey sauce... Then I had a haddock. It was covered in a sort of hard, yellow oilskin, as if it had been in a lifeboat, and its inside gushed salt water when pricked. Sausages and bacon followed this disgusting fish. They, too, had been up all night. Toast like steel: marmalade a scented jelly. I paid the bill dumbly, wondering again why…

Muesli laden with spice and grain puts flavour and flair back into breakfast. WHO When they couldn’t find the right muesli in their local stores, partners Peter Deering and Sunday Barca-Irving began making their own. Two years later, they started the Sunday Muesli Company, which now operates out of a small commercial kitchen in south-east Melbourne. “It all started with Sunday,” says Deering. “She had a large number of recipes that naturally aligned with a number of dietary requirements, and focused on holistic whole-food principles.” WHAT There are currently four styles of toasted muesli in the range made with 100 per cent organic ingredients, such as pepita, mulberry, quinoa, amaranth, puffed millet, cacao and coconut. “We’ve created one for every kind of morning,” says Deering. The pair use a variety…

Ryan Foote draws inspiration from the culinary experience for his bold, playful porcelain tableware. Artist and designer Ryan Foote, who divides his time between Melbourne and Hong Kong, works with an almost scientific rigour. “I like to imagine how food is served, eaten – even played with – along with what it is before I start creating my ceramics,” he says. Foote, who is also a cook, founded RL Foote Design Studio in 2016 after his creative work in events and staging led him to porcelain. Since then, his bold and playful tableware has featured at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and is also displayed at the Craft Victoria gallery shop. While Foote’s ceramics are always conceptual, they’re also designed with practicality and longevity in mind. How does your…

What’s Blue Nile all about, Fatuma? The food is pan-African, although more heavily influenced by Ethiopian and Sudanese flavours. We keep the menu seasonal, so towards winter we do spicier dishes for people to share, like our yetakelt beainetu – a combination of Ethiopian vegetarian dishes served with house-made injera bread. How do you guys do breakfast? The Blacktown locals can’t get enough of our Sudanese-style ful, which is spicy broad beans with eggs and peppers, and the enqulal firfir (aka scrambled eggs) that I do with Spanish onion, garlic, green chilli and niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter. Any personal favourites? Genfo – a simple porridge made from flour and hot water, with cassava bread topped with melted kibbeh in the middle of the bowl. Where do you find…

Rare is the restaurant where ’ll find you the toilet paper folded to a point like you’re in a hotel. But then there’s lots about Sasaki that’s not quite usual. There’s its size (or lack thereof), its air of hushed reverence, the fractal obscurity of its inner-inner-city address. And there’s an obsession with detail that’s striking. Not every detail gets the attention it deserves, but when it works it’s really something. The texture of crab custard, for instance, has the poise of a haiku. Steamed in a tea bowl – the bowl is called a chawan, and this dish is known as a chawanmushi in Japan – it’s a silken thing, and the sensation of slipping a hand-finished spoon through its surface may well tingle your spine. The custard is…

Etta be good Clean-lined good looks, charming, efficient service and a short, finely tuned wine list are all part of the equation at East Brunswick’s Etta. The menu seamlessly slots vegan and vegetarian dishes (mozzarella pasta with zucchini and black olives, eggplant schnitzel with spiced tomatoes and soft polenta) alongside a pretty sea bream ceviche or ethically sourced Western Plains pork and Milawa chicken. Etta, 60 Lygon St, East Brunswick, (03) 9448 8233 Call of the south Pure South Dining is the Southbank stalwart that loves all things Tassie. Reopening late last year after renovation, the casual downstairs dining space now opens from breakfast to nightcap with a menu that includes scallop pie and braised Flinders Island lamb, chicken wings and Tasmanian apple pie. In the upscale upstairs dining room,…

Champions of breakfast Put the avocado toast aside and take a fork to a new wave of breakfast classics in our cafés. Masterclass: Danish pastries These flaky pastries are one of the world’s favourite ways to start the day. Southern charm Dawn comes blissfully late in Tasmania in winter – even the plants are having a lie-in. The café circa 2017 If your local café looks like a designer lab for stylish scientists, this cheat sheet explains everything from the grinder to the juggler. The milky way What is a flat white exactly? The Italian paradox Breakfast could be seen as Italy’s culinary weak spot; or is there more to the story? Tippling point Campari with your cornflakes? Booze at breakfast is a…

WINE INSIDER: RACHAEL NIALL, BUDBURST, PERTH What’s on your list? I champion local winemakers, and local spirits, such as Hippocampus vodka. Match of the moment? Pan-fried duck with buckwheat and a beautiful pinot noir from Journey Wines. Winemakers to watch? Sam Jorgensen from Old Mate Wines. Each year he makes a different riesling from Frankland River grapes; 2016’s is a skin-contact riesling called It’s Lit. What’s in your cellar? I’m obsessed with chenin blanc – Domaine de Bellivière Jasnières Prémices for one. Breakfast wine? Pet-nat or a vintage blanc de blancs. I love BK Wines’ chardonnay pétillant-naturel and the 2008 Pol Roger blanc de blancs. Budburst, 406 Oxford St, Mt Hawthorn, WA, (08) 9444 3406, budburstsmallbar.com.au…

Egg sandwich This ultra-simple sandwich is our take on the signature served at Hong Kong’s Australia Dairy Company. Shaved leg ham would add another dimension, as would toasting one side of the bread slices, but we love the simplicity of this straight-up version. It’s definitely a case of a dish being greater than the sum of its parts. Prep time 10 mins, cook 5 mins Makes 4 8 eggs 300 ml pouring cream 2 tsp light soy sauce 30 gm butter, diced, plus extra, softened for spreading 8 thick slices soft white bread from a square loaf, crusts trimmed 1 Whisk eggs, cream and soy sauce in a bowl to combine and season to taste. Melt butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add egg mixture and…

Yasmin Newman calls her time spent eating dessert in New York City the most “delicious mess” she’s ever been in. Newman, a cookbook author and presenter, set herself a challenge: eat close to 400 of the city’s desserts in just three months. “We’re all so busy,” she says. “It’s wonderful to allow yourself the complete freedom to savour whatever comes across your path.” During the entire saccharine sabbatical, Newman, who was pregnant at the time, ate exactly 373 desserts – around four each day. In between feasting on doughnuts, crack pies, layer cakes, snickerdoodles, sticky buns and anything else sugar-dusted she could track down between Manhattan and Brooklyn, Newman discovered that the Big Apple now rivals Paris in the sweets stakes. “There’s a new wave of pastry chefs reimagining dessert…

“I rarely use the laptop on a flight but I think of it as a security blanket for adults.” JASON HELD CEO, Saber Astronautics Where do you travel to regularly for work? “We have labs in Chippendale, Sydney, and Boulder, Colorado, and I tend to bounce between the two. And San Francisco to see clients. Boulder is my favourite city – I love the mountain culture and laid-back, slightly eccentric attitude.” Suitcase of choice? “Anything with wheels.” Pre-flight routine? “It’s mostly a process of packing everything the night before and panicking unnecessarily halfway to the airport because I can’t find my passport. Which is always, every time, in my backpack where I left it in the first place.” Essential cabin baggage items? “In order of importance: a good book of…