Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Gourmet Traveller

CHEESE TOASTIE, Penny’s Cheese Shop Not all cheese toasties are created equal. This golden, grilled masterpiece from Sydney’s friendliest fromagerie is made with no less than eight (eight!) different cheeses, including raclette, Gruyère and cheddar. It comes with your choice of ham or a jalapeño pickle that has just the right amount of spice to temper the richness (top tip: don’t be shy, ask for both). Penny’s Cheese Shop, 4 Roslyn St, Potts Point, NSW, (02) 8591 4754. PRU ENGEL, CONTRIBUTOR FRIED SCARLET PRAWNS, St Isidore It’s not summer without a long (boozy) lunch at Milton’s finest, and their menu always involves a killer prawn dish. This time, the prawns are fried in the shell and drizzled with a vibrant chorizo romesco, all sitting on a slightly sweet pink fir…

Twenty years ago the Buttery family decided to restore 10 hectares of cleared bush along a degraded creek in their McLaren Vale vineyard, planting 50,000 native trees and shrubs in the process. Gemtree Wines now has a thriving wetland at its heart, and winemakers Melissa and Mike Brown have developed three tours – from 90 minutes to five hours – in their vineyard and along a one-kilometre nature trail. They aim to showcase biodynamic winemaking, regional produce and the beauty of their sustainable farm. Gemtree Wines, 167 Elliott Rd, McLaren Flat, SA, gemtreewines.com Need a little backup in the kitchen? Visit Winning Appliances during “Foodie February”, when experts can help home cooks test-drive their wishlist appliances. There are cooking demos, too. winningappliances.com.au…

The first southern sortie for the new polar-class National Geographic Endurance ventures where few have dared. The aptly named “epic” itinerary takes in West Antarctica, the Ross Sea ice shelf and New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic Islands. Lindblad Expeditions’ 34-day Epic Antarctica voyage departs Buenos Aires on 27 December, 2020, and 26 January, 2021, au.expeditions.com Bates Smart designed The Fat Duck and Spice Temple, and its new Salta Walmer residential project in Melbourne keeps diners in mind, too. “The celebration of food and the ritual of cooking was central in designing the apartments,” says studio director Mark Healey. Extraction systems and Bora cooktops are key features. walmer.com.au A collection of body oils originally created for the Chanel spa at the Ritz Paris is now available for use at home or in…

“Italian beach club on the Yarra” sounds like the punchline to a joke or maybe an ironic band name. But it’s also an accurate description of Arbory Afloat: a 69-metre 850-capacity pontoon that’ll be moored beside Flinders Street Station until the weather cools. Decked out with orange-and-white and green-and-white-striped furniture and umbrellas, planters filled with citrus trees, canopied daybeds, a central bar and a constant party soundtrack played at Italian beach club volume, it’s a surprisingly successful facsimile of the sort of place you’d find on the Amalfi Coast. Sure, there’s an absence of spectacular sea cliffs, and the Yarra is not quite the same sparkling turquoise as the Mediterranean, but Arbory Afloat still manages to channel the magic. Respect. The food from chef Nick Bennett plays a major part…

I have been beachcombing my whole life, and by now it has become more like an instinct than a hobby. My feet touch sand, and a moment later I am walking the tideline, head down, picking up the odd shell or stone for a closer look. I have never found a real treasure, but no expectations seems like a plus to me. When I beachcomb, any hard-to-find objects are a long way from my mind, instead of goals to covet or search for. It’s a good way to explore new places, but I prefer familiar bits of coast, especially the South Coast of New South Wales. It isn’t very productive, and that sets the right conditions for luck. Like many beachcombers I don’t bring much home – these years have…

It’s now 25 years since we opened Sean’s, our beachside restaurant and home away from home. Before we opened on the beach, we spent many weekends planting fruit trees, heirloom vegetables and herbs on just a few acres surrounding our cubbyhouse in the Blue Mountains – a nest that made us feel plain good by connecting us to each season – and held a dream that we could one day serve something we had grown at our restaurant table. We’ve since upsized to a larger farm, and just as my van filled with compost buckets makes its twice-weekly trip from the restaurant to the farm, more and more harvests make a return trip back, to become the foundation to our simple, soulful cooking. Like any small business, there have been…

Sarah Oakes, editor; Robertson, NSW Visiting my parents in the beautiful village of Robertson in the Southern Highlands. Known for its Big Potato, it also features a gorgeous country pub and a very pretty rainforest walk. @sarahaliceoakes Pru Engel, contributor; Natadola Bay, Fiji An indulgent, restful week by the beach, with every night spent sipping cocktails on the sand while taking in the kaleidoscope sunsets. @pruengel Matthew Hirsch, contributor; Seoul, South Korea A 24-hour layover in Seoul is the perfect excuse to relish the chaos of Namdaemun Market – the oldest and largest of its kind in South Korea. @il_vagabondo…

Cheryl Henderson spent every summer on the Gold Coast when she was a child, and she’s now turned dreaming about the beach into her job. With Seascape Prints, she creates vintage-style prints depicting Australia’s shorelines “I got married in Newport, NSW, so the Newport print is a favourite of mine.” seascapeprints.com.au Toby Angstmann, an IVF specialist and robotics surgeon, isn’t your typical distiller. His scientific mind was right at home, though, when creating the cryofiltration process behind the award-winning Underground Spirits he makes in Canberra. The label’s design is a nod to the city’s orderly nature, and it’s an ethos consistent with his methods, although caramel vodka, and a shiraz and pepperberry gin point to a fun side. Underground Spirits Canberra Gin, $80 for 700ml.undergroundspirits.com.au…

Club Med Kani All comers are welcome, of course, but Club Med Kani is a firm favourite for families, attracted by a well-run children’s club for four- to 10-year-olds and scores of all-inclusive activities for four- to 17-year-olds. Children from two years are welcome, and those under four stay free. Little adventurers can join coral propagation sessions, cooking lessons, face painting and a flying trapeze school; children aged eight and older can take lessons in sailing, snorkelling, wakeboarding and kayaking. travel-associates.com.au Soneva Jani The night skies here are some of the most dazzling on Earth, and this year-old resort in Noonu Atoll makes them a starring attraction. Each of Soneva Jani’s 24 villas, arrayed around a five-island lagoon, feature retractable roofs to encourage heavenly contemplation. For more serious stargazing, there’s…

You lived in Brazil and Japan as a child. How did you find the food? I was quite young when I lived in Brazil, but my family ate at a churrascaria almost every weekend and I fell in love with Brazilian food. In Japan, I would take the train to school and would eat the udon and ramen at the train station most days. I loved living in Tokyo and getting to experience life in the big city. My family ate Japanese food as often as possible and it remains one of my favourites. In your book, Yes We (Still) Can , you said you planned to “go to law school, become a lawyer, probably hate my life”. Why the move into politics? I kept signing up…

The key to making a delicious fruit sorbet is using fresh fruit at its peak. Summer is the perfect time to experiment – there’s plenty of fruit in season to play with, and a bowl of sorbet is always welcome on a hot day. It’s super easy to make your own at home, and so much more rewarding than hitting up the local ice-cream parlour. It’s all about choosing fruit that’s ripe and fragrant, and balancing the quantities of sugar and water: if there’s too much sugar, the sorbet will be too soft and sweet; if there’s too much water, it’ll freeze solid. The rest? Simply blend a fruit purée, churn, freeze, scoop and serve. Toolkit The Breville ice-cream maker ($399.95) churns according to the texture of the purée, resulting…

Also known as New Zealand spinach or Botany Bay greens (it was one of the first native plants eaten by Captain Cook’s crew to ward off scurvy), warrigal greens can be found along Australia’s coastline where it grows best in saline soil. An incredibly versatile, easy-to-grow vegetable, warrigal greens has a fresh, grassy flavour with a slightly bitter finish. It can be substituted in any recipe that uses spinach, chard or Asian greens – the sturdy, fleshy leaves handle heat well, making warrigal greens ideal for stir-fries. NATIVE FLAVOUR Larger leaves should typically be blanched or steamed before eating, but smaller young leaves are great eaten raw. It’s easy to grow at home, or it can be foraged from coastal areas, where permitted. Find warrigal greens at farmer’s markets, specialist…

White wine with fish. It’s one of the first rules all hungry grape geeks learn when they start to think about matching wine and food. And on the whole, it’s a very reliable rule: nobody would disagree that a nice glass of crisp, cold Chablis is going to taste better with a platter of oysters than a full-bodied, oaky shiraz. But that doesn’t mean you should only reach for a chardonnay or savvy blanc when fish is on the menu. I have found, over decades of careful research (yes, mostly in the form of eating and drinking to joyous excess in exotic locations around the world) that there are plenty of other, less-obvious liquid matches that work just as well, if not better. Take that platter of plump oysters. Sure,…

Trout and daikon rice bowl SERVES 4 Falling somewhere between chirashizushi and poke, this rice bowl, made with seasoned sushi rice, marinated trout, daikon and nori is as easy to whip up as it is delicious to eat. Add extra Japanese pickles for added colour and crunch. 400 gm (2 cups) sushi rice 60 ml (1/4 cup) rice wine vinegar 2 tsp caster sugar 400 gm sashimi-grade ocean trout, diced 2 tbsp coarsely chopped coriander 100 gm daikon, cut into julienne Pickled ginger, shredded nori and roasted sesame seeds, to serve SOY-GINGER DRESSING 80 ml (1/3 cup) light soy sauce 2 tbsp sesame oil 20 gm (4cm piece) ginger, finely grated on a microplane 1 Bring rice to the boil in 750ml water in a saucepan, stir once, cover and…

NSW Cirrus It’s a bones-out and head-on affair for the fish part of the fish and chips at Cirrus. Whole flathead is crumbed with a mixture of seeds and grains (black rice, amaranth, puffed sorghum) and panko, before it’s deep-fried and plated with charred lemon and tartare sauce. And the chips? A beer batter make them moreish, that and a seasoning of kombu and mushroom powder. Pro tip: the head is left on the fish for a reason – eat the cheek. 23 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo, (02) 9220 0111, cirrusdining.com.au Saint Peter The key to killer fish and chips? Getting the fish right. It seems like a no-brainer, but as chef-owner Josh Niland points out, it’s too often overlooked. According to Niland the ideal fish is pink ling, which is…

Anchovies, tomatoes and bread SERVES 6 // PREP TIME 10 MINS Good bread. Tomatoes at their peak. Top-quality anchovies. Sometimes, simplicity is everything, especially when it’s a scorcher. 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 3 tsp red wine vinegar ¼ white onion, thinly sliced 2 heirloom tomatoes, thickly sliced 6 fresh or grilled sourdough bread slices 12 anchovy fillets 1 Combine oil and vinegar in a bowl, add onion and tomato, toss to coat and season to taste. Serve on sourdough bread, topped with anchovy fillets and drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. Pineapple-Assam agua fresca SERVES 8 // PREP TIME 15 MINS (PLUS CHILLING) Fresh pineapple juice with lime and Assam-tea syrup makes for a super-refreshing summer drink, and once happy hour hits, a dash of rum…

Heirloom recipes tell a story about family through food – the sort of food that, ironically, doesn’t come out of a cookbook. Many recipes are learned through tasting and watching, usually from the kitchen table, and through repetition (and a lot of it, because an unchanging dinner repertoire is comforting and easy). Mine and my husband Marco’s families could not be more different. I grew up in a multiracial family – a Japanese mother and an Australian father – in suburban Australia, before my diplomat father took us back and forth to China for eight years. I grew up always loving food; I was an adventurous eater, a keen baker and was always curious about the kitchen. Marco, on the other hand, grew up in a small town in Tuscany,…

SEE Chihuly Garden and Glass Otherworldly, kaleidoscopic works by pioneering glass artist Dale Chihuly now embellish public spaces all over the world, but there’s no better place to see them than this complex at the Seattle Center, where an exceptionally well-curated collection of his vibrant sculptures dazzles in a range of contexts. 305 Harrison St, chihulygardenandglass.com Don’t miss DRINK Seattle has more breweries than most other cities in America, so a taproom visit is almost inevitable. A punchy gose is a solid introduction to the seasonal selection of two dozen beers being poured at Reuben’s Brews (5010 14th Ave NW). And though the best cup of coffee in this caffeine mecca is fiercely contested, Milstead & Co (754 N 34th St) is an enduring favourite. STAY Thompson Seattle Midcentury modern…

Ancient Greek Sandals ancient-greek-sandals.com Basil Bangs basilbangs.com.au Batch Ceramics batchceramics.com.au Brett Stone utopiaartsydney.com.au Burgg Furniture burgg.com.au Chanel 1300 242 635, chanel.com Chef and The Cook (02) 8004 6085, chefandthecook.com.au Chef vs Clay djm.ceramics@gmail.com Chinaclay chinaclay.com.au Claypool claypool.com.au Country Road 1800 801 911, countryroad.com.au David Jones davidjones.com Hale Mercantile Co (03) 9939 1267, halemercantileco.com Inartisan inartisan.com Jac + Jack (02) 9380 6630, jacandjack.com Kristin Moore kristinmoorepottery.com Lee Matthews (02) 9997 3787, leemathews.com.au Little White Dish littlewhitedish.com.au Marimekko marimekko.com Milly Dent millydent.com.au Montmartre Concept Store (02) 9969 5456 Mud Australia (02) 9569 8181, mudaustralia.com Net-a-Porter net-a-porter.com Papaya (02) 9386 9980, papaya.com.au Parlour X (02) 9331 0999, parlourx.com.au Prop Co-op @gd_clay Provider Store providerstore.com.au Splendid Wren Ceramics 0410 662 703, splendidwrenceramics.com Sunny Life sunnylife.com.au The Bay Tree (02) 9328 1101, thebaytree.com.au The Beach People thebeachpeople.com.au The DEA Store (02) 9698 8150, thedeastore.com The Potter B 0434 358 812 Third Drawer Down (03) 9534 4088, thirddrawerdown.com Tiffany & Co 1800 829 152, tiffany.com.au Top3 by…

In Portugal, canned fish is far more than a standby staple, but it still doesn’t hold the same storied reputation as the tins from its Iberian neighbour. When José first launched its range (above), it was in a wave of companies looking to change that. For them, that also meant commissioning illustrators to design labels that could put the packaging on equal footing with the quality of the preserves. The range, which includes the likes of spiced octopus in olive oil, and sardine pâté, will be on show when Miss Wolf, a new bar with a focus on canned seafood, opens in Sydney’s Marrickville this month: the team is decorating a wall with the cans and they’ll be serving fish straight from the tin. A collaboration between chef Max Malcolm,…

What’s your favourite bottle of wine to bring to the beach? 2015 Gatti Bolle Bandite from Veneto. It’s cheap, easy and fun. For a late-night tipple down on the water: NV Vouette and Sorbée Fidèle from Champagne. I also can’t go past a nice sour beer from Two Metre Tall. The best ice-cream to eat by the water? It’s hard to beat Frosty Fruits or an almond Magnum. Which seaside ingredient are you looking forward to using at Totti’s? I love coastal celery. Anise and sea purslane are great as well. We’re lucky enough to have Bruce Collis supplying our seafood – I’m really excited to just let him send us everything he has. What’s the best meal you’ve had by the beach? I was fortunate to spend some time…

“I started to taste coffee at four years old, which would probably horrify a lot of people today,” says Les Schirato. For the Vittoria Coffee CEO, who’s recently overseen the brand’s 60th anniversary, coffee has always been part of his life. Even the family car smelt of it, a scent that lingered after his father delivered beans to clients. Yes, Schirato’s father worked at Vittoria Coffee, too, and Les himself began his first proper stint at the company a week after finishing school. He recalls buying “a very flashy suit” from Sydney menswear store, Mr John, for his first day at work in 1971. “Many years later, Mr John [Hemmes] from the Merivale Group ended up becoming a close friend and client of mine. And today, of course, we deal…

1 Cut 1kg nectarines in half, discarding stones. 2 Combine nectarines with a bruised, halved lemongrass stick, 280gm caster sugar, 80gm liquid glucose and 150ml water in a large saucepan (see note). 3 Bring nectarine mixture to a simmer over medium heat and simmer until fruit is softened (5-10 minutes), then cool briefly. 4 Purée nectarine mixture in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve. 5 Churn purée in an ice-cream machine in batches, according to machine instructions, until a soft sorbet consistency, then transfer to a container and freeze until firm (1-2 hours). For the best results, churn sorbet around 2 hours before serving, so it’s ready to go in the freezer ahead of time. If it gets too firm, soften it in the refrigerator a little. Note…

“You know who fuck up burgers more than anyone else in the world? Australians.” David Chang didn’t mince his words when he ranted against the great Australian burger in his magazine, Lucky Peach, in 2009. He mostly took exception to the addition of a fried egg and a circle of tinned beetroot: controversial components, maybe, but ones close to our hearts. The sensation of wandering up from the beach, sun-kissed and salty, ordering from the kiosk, and having beetroot juice run down both arms is as familiar as the buzz of flies or the crash of waves on the shoreline. Here’s to a burger with the lot. THE EXTRAS For a burger to have “the lot” it has to have beetroot, egg, pineapple and bacon. The egg should be fried…

CELLARWORTHY 2015 Terre à Terre Crayères Reserve, Wrattonbully, $110 This blend of cabernet and shiraz is lovely now – rich black fruit wrapped in savoury, almost saline tannins – but five to ten years in the cellar will bring out its character. terreaterre.com.au REMARKABLE RIESLING 2017 Von Hövel Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese, Mosel, $137 Glorious auslese made from later-harvested riesling: mouthwatering grapey fruit, scintillating sun-shower acidity. Imported by heartandsoil.com.au NAKED SEMILLON 2018 Hungerford Hill Preservative Free Semillon, Hunter Valley, $27 Made with no SO2, this is a glimpse of what Hunter semillon might have tasted like in the past: scents of apple and pear, textural, grape-pulpy, delicious. hungerfordhill.com.au SUPER-FRESH RED 2018 Giant Steps LDR, Yarra Valley, $35 The inaugural 2017 vintage of this pinot/shiraz blend was good, but the 2018 is…

Speaking as someone who never went to the Grand Pacific Blue Room, all I have is questions. Were there always this many stairs when it was a club? Flights and flights of them, turning up and around past what should surely be a whole other level. Did the neon always pulse so hypnotically? Was the cappuccino of white beans with truffle oil on the restaurant menu any good, or was that just a ’90s thing? Full Circle, the collective that, in its current form, comprises floor manager Tom Merryweather and chefs Daniel Johnston and Harry Levy, are running the place – and they sure know how to pick a venue. For Don Peppino’s, they’ve scraped the patina of cigarette smoke and spilt Daiquiris off the walls of the old Oxford…

QUEENSLAND Rickys River Bar and Restaurant Nowhere conjures riverside chic more effortlessly than Noosa stalwart, Rickys. Interiors channel an upscale houseboat vibe, with boards underfoot, a mix of louvres and floor-to-ceiling bi-folds angled to capture every riparian ripple, reflection and breeze. There’s a “source local” ethos here, and the menu leans Mediterranean with a focus on pristine seafood: spanner crab tossed through spaghettini, say, or pepper-cured swordfish with finger lime and cucumber salt. 2 Quamby Pl, Noosa Heads, (07) 5447 2455, rickys.com.au Stokehouse Q Opt for an icy glass and a chilli prawn sanga at the bar, or fish and triple-cooked chips with seaweed salt on the deck – either way those impressive widescreen panoramas of the Brisbane River and city’s skyline are omnipresent at Stokehouse Q. Like its Melbourne…

Ben Shewry grew up in an incredibly remote part of New Zealand: there were only seven students in his school – and two were his sisters. Nearby was the rugged and dangerous Whareorino coastline. “A lot of people have drowned there – a lot, given that there’s nobody there,” says Shewry, chef and owner of Attica in Melbourne. Shewry nearly died there himself, aged 10, and the memory is still sharp more than 30 years later. He was standing on a reef, gathering seafood. His family was a few hundred metres away. “I had my back to the sea when I was collecting mussels, which is foolish,” he says. “A large set of waves came in. The first one hit me without me realising and it dragged me across the…

Tyrrell’s Wines Hunter Valley Shiraz With the barbecue season upon us, what better wine to serve than Tyrrell’s Hunter Valley Shiraz. It’s perfect on a balmy summer evening. $25. tyrrells.com.au Accor Hotels Luxury hotel SO/ Auckland has opened in the heart of the city. With cocktails at the HI-SO rooftop bar and French dining at Harbour Society, it’s set to be the new hotspot for guests and locals alike. accorhotels.com AGHA Retail buyers and traders can source the latest fashion, gift, interior and homewares collections at the AGHA Sydney Gift Fair from 23-26 February. Entry is free for industry professionals. sydneygift.com.au ANZ Own a business? ANZ could help ease any cash flow pressures with flexible solutions such as overdrafts. Applications for credit are subject to credit approval criteria.anz.com.au/business Les Deux…

Relax. Byron is still Byron. True, house prices have headed well north of a million bucks, a cottage industry has sprung up around Chris Hemsworth, and the density of shops that sell floaty linen and gussied-up camping gear is greater here than anywhere else in the southern hemisphere. But new Benzes and Beamers rolling through town carry surfboards and NO COAL SEAM GAS stickers. And the good news for visitors is that this influx of money has lifted standards, especially where food, drink and hotels are concerned. At the top end of the business, there’s excellent service, beds draped in French linen from Hale Mercantile and well-crafted lists of drinks taking in everything from the outré aromatic blends made by Jared Dixon at Jilly Wines in nearby Clunes to cool…

Fish and chips SERVES 4 // PREP TIME 20 MINS // COOK 35 MINS (PLUS COOLING, DRYING) Pickled onions add bite here, whether they’re homemade or not. Gherkins or pickled Greek peppers make a nice alternative. 1 kg starchy potatoes, such as russet Burbank, cut into 1cm-thick chips Cottonseed or vegetable oil, for deep-frying 4 rock ling fillets (about 150gm each; see note) AÏoli and lemon wedges, to serve PICKLED ONIONS 300 ml white wine vinegar 100 ml malt vinegar 100 gm brown sugar 4 allspice berries 4 whole cloves 4 dried bay leaves 6-8 pickling onions, peeled BATTER 350 ml soda water 20 ml vodka (optional; see note) 100 gm plain flour, plus extra, seasoned, for dusting 100 gm rice flour 1 For pickled onions, combine vinegars, sugar, allspice,…