March 31, 2007: Saturday night improv

As is often the case, Saturday yielded some food wanderings: first a trip round the Queen Vic Markets on my own and then a browse through Casa Iberica with Michael, lunch at Ici, and a quick pick-up of a few remaining essentials at Safeway. Even with all this new food to enjoy, a fairly large and full tray of tandoori veges and rice was taking up space in our fridge and on my conscience. So I blended the old with the new in an omlette/frittata-type improvisation, combining the rice and veges with market-fresh eggs and serving them with some organic rosemary olive oil toast. Some fresh greens really would have brightened this very yellow meal (in texture and nutritional value as well as colour) but unfortunately my planning didn't stretch that far.

As always, dessert was far more about novelty and self-indulgence than about obligation. I picked up a cheap kilo-and-a-bit of apples at the markets and vaguely plotted some little apple crumbles - there's typically oats, butter and brown sugar stashed away at home. But Casa Iberica had other plans: one of the first items that jumped off the shelf and into my hands was this can of caramel. Canned caramel isn't big on my list of weaknesses, but Kitchen Wench's recent post on dulce de leche made me think it should be! Within an hour or two my mental apple crumble looked more like candied apple pie.

I made a half-batch of the pie crust I used on my last apple pie and filled it with four sliced apples, soaked in lemon juice. I anticipated pouring over the caramel but this wasn't pouring material! Thick, sweet, gelatinous goop. (Gelatinous in a vegetarian way - agar is the setting agent.) I did my best to evenly distribute spoonfuls of the caramel across the top of the apples, but had to take it out of the oven after a few melting minutes to do a better job. The result was at least as sickeningly sweet as you would imagine! Michael and I both enjoyed it, but it's probably not a dish I'll repeat. I'm a dessert lover than doesn't actually crave the super-sweet, and I think the caramel is probably at its best without this post-can heat treatment.

March 31, 2007: Ici II

Update, June 15, 2023: Ici has been replaced by Napier Quarter.

Update, August 1 2013: More news from Fitzroyalty! Looks like Ici is reopening very soon. 

Update, July 5 2013: As reported by Fitzroyalty, Cafe Ici has closed down.

Saturday found us in Fitzroy for a visit to Casa Iberica and thoughts quickly turned to some sort of lunch while we were out and about. Our first attempt was Babka, but the queue was almost out the door, so we decided to escape the crowds of Brunswick Street to the quieter backstreets and Ici. Unfortunately, Ici's reputation ensures that even tucked away on Napier Street, there's seldom a spare table to be had. Despite being told we were next in line for a table, we ended up waiting for twenty minutes or so to be seated. I'm not entirely sure if this was just down to people lingering over their coffees or if the staff forgot about us a few times, but with the cold wind picking up we took matters into our own hands and pounced when we saw a vacancy near the door.

The last time we'd visited Ici I'd had an immensely satisfying breakfast, and I was interested to see if their lunch menu measured up. It turns out that they really are a breakfast focussed establishment. The brekkie options take up at least three-quarters of the blackboard menu. Still, there was a small range of foccacias, a salad or two and some soups to choose from, so there was enough to work with. Cindy agonised for about ten minutes before resisting the temptation of the French toast and ordering the noodle salad. Alas, they'd just run out of noodles, so she could order the French toast free of guilt. It came piled high with figs, blackberries and slathered with cured orange mascarpone and looked almost too delicious to be true. Cindy tells me that, despite the mascarpone lacking much of an orange flavour, the whole concoction was divine. It certainly showed, with her lunch disappearing faster than mine, a very rare event.

I had ordered the vegetable dumpling broth with shiitake mushrooms and coriander and my awkwardness with chopsticks combined with the slipperiness of the dumplings had slowed me down somewhat. The broth was strong and peppery, and filled liberally with green vegetables (broccoli, coriander, bean sprouts) and a handful of tasty mushroom dumplings. It suited my mood, without being a particularly memorable meal. In future, Ici will strictly be a place to visit for breakfast - especially on days when we're not in a rush to eat.

You can read about our previous visit to Ici here.

March 29, 2007: Tandoori veges with lemon rice

The last installment in SBS's Hooray for Bollywood movie series was the fabulous Kuch Naa Kaho. It's a fine example of a modern Bollywood romance and includes one of my favourite musical numbers, where a traditional engagement party in a lavish setting is transformed into a battle-of-the-sexes dance-off: how frustrating that subtitles for the lyrics disappear half-way through!

To accompany the movie, we prepared tandoori veges and lemon rice. Since sampling the delicious tandoori cauliflower at Tandoori Times, I've been re-inspired by the marinade that is so often only seen on chicken. Michael noticed a pouch of tandoori spices at Spice Bazaar last weekend and immediately I had to own it, I had to try my own hand at tandoori veges! After looking at one or two recipes on the internet, it was Michael who adlibbed his own marinade and it turned out very well. The resulting veges didn't closely resemble their TT inspiration, but a lack of oil and fake colouring can only be a good thing. A hot oven doesn't give as much charring as I like, but we did pack the veges in pretty tightly together. A barbeque would probably be an effective alternative cooking method.

What I particularly enjoyed about the Tandoori Times cauliflower was the distinct lemon tang, and this was what had me chasing up a lemon rice recipe as an accompaniment. It's another gem from Mridular Baljekar's Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook - the mustard seeds and cashews are a real treat, and the luminous colouring comes not from scary fake lemon, but from ground turmeric.

Tandoori veges

Ingredients:

Lots of peeled and diced veges: we used 5 medium potatoes, a huge carrot, a head of cauliflower, 2 red capsicums and 8-10 large white mushrooms

For the marinade:
1 1/2 cups yoghurt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tandoori spice mix (a quick internet search will give you an idea of what ground spices to combine if you don't have a pre-mixed combination like ours)
juice of one lemon
1/3 cup water

Whisk together the marinade ingredients and a bowl. Arrange the veges in a couple of baking dishes and pour the marinade over. Gently stir the veges around so that they're evenly coated in the yoghurt mix. Let the trays sit for half an hour so that the flavours develop, then bake at 200 degrees for about half an hour. Stir the veges occasionally to recoat with the settled marinade.

Lemon rice

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
a handful of cashews, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Wash the rice in cold water and leave it to soak for 15-20 minutes. Drain.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and then add the mustard seeds and cashews. Let them sizzle for no more half a minute, then remove the cashews (it doesn't matter if some of the mustard seeds come out too).

Add the rice, turmeric and salt to the saucepan and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Pour in 2 cups of hot water and the lemon juice. Bring the rice to the boil and continue to boil for two minutes.

Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let the rice stand for 6-7 minutes. Only now should fluff up the rice with a fork.

Serve the rice, garnished with the cashews.

March 29, 2007: Gertrude Street Grub - Radio Bar & Cafe

The only downside to swanning about town on Wednesday night is that lack of leftovers for Thursday lunch. Still, it's the excuse I need to run down another Gertrude Street lunch review. Today's lucky venue was Radio, a cosy bar almost directly across from work. I've not been there for an evening out, but the Kirin on tap and the old soul, reggae or funk tunes that are always spinning on the record player make me think it would be a nice place for some post-work drinks.

During the day they do a bit of food and some very nice Brazilian coffee. The food menu is pretty limited: cereal, muesli or toasties for breakfast and a selection of about 5 baguettes for lunch. The $6 baguettes all come with rocket, tomato, avocado, swiss cheese, a divine homemade mayonaise and your choice of 'meat'. The only vegetarian option is grilled eggplant, but it works pretty well with the rest of the fillings, so I was fairly content. The baguettes are fresh and crunchy and all the fillings are great, but it's really all about the mayo - it could make any sandwich a winner.

Update: Things have changed a little at Radio since this review. They've added a selection of outstanding pizzas to the lunch menu, a daily soup special and they've broadened out the brekkie options. Everything's a little more expensive, but it's still my favourite lunch place up my end of Gertrude.

Address: 79 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Ph: 9417 4723
Licensed
Price: Baguettes $6, Breakfast $3-$6

March 28, 2007: Breizoz

Update 15/06/2023: Breizoz is now closed.

Michael and I finished our dinner at Umi Nomiya quite early, and I wasn't feeling completely full. And yeah, OK, I had my eye on a dessert venue on Gertrude St too! It didn't take too much persuasion to get Michael to Breizoz, the local creperie. Compared to the coolly airconditioned and reasonably minimalist vibe of Ume, Breizoz was warmer and had a homely clutter, scattered with fragments of its culinary inspiration of Brittany.

Breizoz offers a long list of savoury and sweet crepes. The savouries tend to include a maximum of three ingredients, and if you're going to be bypassing the ham and the lamb sausage you'll generally be choosing between different combinations of cheese, egg and mushroom (you can see the full menu here). The blackboard special of cheese and leek sounded pretty good too!

But enough of that, let's get to the sweet ones! There are plenty of fruity, alcoholic and otherwise naughty options. I initially chose the rhubarb one with pistachio ice-cream from the specials board, but our waitress apologised that it was no longer available. My second choice, the jaffa crepe ($9), didn't taste at all second class. The crepe was a good measure of crunchy and chewy, the chocolate sauce was of an acceptable quality, but the highlight for me was the candied orange peel: sweet, sour and a little bitter with lots of syrup to spread around. Michael had something with apple, but I barely even glanced at is as I rationed out my orange slivers across the expanse of thin folded batter.

On a quiet Wednesday night a customer might expect a little more attention that usual, but I would still like to commend the service at Breizoz. Our jug of water arrived within seconds of us sitting down, and a nearby table of French visitors were served completely in their mother tongue. Another customer, when his EFTPOS bill was mucked up, received a compensatory packet of meringues to take home, even though he hadn't raised a complaint.

This would have been a sweet and satisfying end to our evening, but we had only completed the edible part. The next few hours were spent at the Forum Theatre under the spell of Jarvis Cocker's charms. A decade after I discovered his band Pulp, I finally had a chance to witness his theatrics in person and it more than lived up my expectations. It will burn brighter in my memory than our dinner or dessert venues but they were worthy support acts. Even better, they're far more accessible for multiple visits!

Address: Cnr of Gertrude and Brunswick Sts, Fitzroy
Ph: 9415 7588
Licensed
Price: sweet crepes $5-$13
Website: www.breizoz.com.au