I don’t think my love for Japan, it’s people and especially the food is a secret.  Many years ago when I started to pursue my love of Japanese food, by learning how to prepare it for myself at home, it was a struggle to find the appropriate ingredients.  Luckily, there are now many Japanese grocery shops around Sydney and many basic staples are available in your local supermarket.  How far we have come.

Many years ago when I would originally see the word ‘sake’ in the ingredient list of recipes, I would run out and try and source a bottle of drinking sake (Nihonshu).  Then one day, in my lounge room, Tetsuya Wakuda shared something with me.  “This is cooking sake, you don’t use the sake you drink when cooking’.   Maeve O’Meara then turned to him, nodded her head, and said she didn’t realise there was a difference.  I do love Food Safari.   Like Maeve, I had no idea there was a difference until that moment either.

Ryorishu is the Japanese word for cooking sake and literally means ‘cuisine alcohol’.  You generally don’t drink ryorishu straight, it isn’t enjoyable as a drink.  It is milled differently to drinking sake, there is a lower milling rate of around  80-90%.  Milling removes fats, proteins and amino acids that lead to unwanted flavours and aromas in the brewing process.  A lower milling rate means it isn’t as refined in taste as a drinking sake, but the bolder flavour lends itself much better to cooking.  It doesn’t get lost amongst other ingredients like soy sauce, sugar etc.  Ryorishu does have an alcohol content, the one in my cupboard is rated at  14-15% alcohol.  Therefore salt is added to the ryorishu (usually about 2% to render it just undrinkable), which allows supermarkets to sell it. Read more →

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Just Pure Bistro, or just Jpb for those in the know, is Swissôtel Sydney’s signature restaurant.  Executive Chef Tseng has created something a little special in the heart of Sydney.  A restaurant that is both sustainable and reasonably priced.  Well, I think that’s special for a ‘hotel’ restaurant.

Tseng has a ‘straight from the farm to hotel’ attitude with his menu.  Ingredients are organic, locally grown and sourced in NSW as much as possible.  Pork from Byron Bay, extra virgin olive oil for the Megalong Valley and organic honey straight from their roof top.

Honey from the roof top?  Yes, Swissôtel Sydney has their own bee hives, which they lovingly call ‘The Buzz Factory’.  There are four hives which are home to 200,000 bees.  The bees spend Spring and Summer feeding on the nectar and pollen in Sydney’s Hyde Park.  To ensure the bees don’t go without, bee-friendly plants such as lavender, rosemary and basil are positioned close the hives at other times of the year.  The honey produced is used in daily in the food and beverage menu, breakfast, honey inspired desserts and cocktails. Read more →

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I will admit I am not into the commercialism of Valentine’s Day.  If you want to buy me roses, then please do any other day of the year, don’t waste your money on the 14th February.  Even though I don’t celebrate in a commercial way, in other words, paying big bucks for flowers, chocolates etc, I do like to play with the ‘Valentine’ concept in the kitchen.

Last year I made Robots bearing hearts biscuits.  So cute and quirky, who doesn’t love a robot with a love heart, all together now, aawwwwe.

This year I wanted to play with my new small love hearts cake tin.  Very cute and picked up at a steal.  With a nice supply of green tea powder from a recent visit to Tokyo Mart, left over almond meal from Christmas baking, financiers (or friands) seemed a logical baking move on my part. Read more →

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When I received an invite from GLAD to attend a sandwich masterclass with my ‘little one’, I initially thought ‘but my little one isn’t so little!’.  Then amusing visions of my 6’2″ ‘little one’ attending a sandwich masterclass with hip high kids filled my head.  The thought appealed to me no end, so much so I put it out there on my private Facebook profile to see what friends thought of the idea.  I received many a ‘LOL’ and ‘Do It!’ responses.  Which resulted in a ‘yes’ RSVP to GLAD’s kind invitation.

This is how my ‘little one’, Josh, and I ended up at Food, Wine & Dine surrounded by real little ones and a bunch of mummy bloggers.  Actually a first time experience for me with mummy bloggers and I was quite glad to have my 6’2″ security blanket with me for company, they all seemed to know each other, we were definitely the odd ones out. Read more →

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Zucchini is one of my favourite vegetables.  Actually, even though you will find the humble zucchini in the vegetable department of your green grocer, it is indeed a fruit.  Such a versatile fruit it is too.  It lends itself so easily to both savoury and sweet dishes.  Is used perfectly in a range of cuisines and you can even use the flowers.

I cook with zucchini quite a bit in my kitchen.  It always seems to make its way into a stir-fry, my green curry wouldn’t be the same without it and flowers are stuffed with cheeses or crab then deep fried.  Zucchini fitters with tzatziki and salad are the perfect summer dish.  I love them even just simply steamed.

I recently came across some old home economic notes from back in high school.  A big smile crossed my face when I spied the recipe for my first baking effort in class.  It was also the first time I had used a ‘vegetable’ in a sweet capacity.  The other dish being cooked on the day was carrot cake, but I wanted to do something I had never attempted before and chose the zucchini loaf. Read more →

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Sydney Rumbles?  My regular readers would be very familiar with Weekly Rumbles, Sydney food event roundup, published on a weekly basis in 2012.  Weekly Rumbles is gone and is being replaced by Sydney Rumbles.  Sydney Rumbles is still a roundup of what is happening around town, but will be on a monthly basis instead of weekly.  Look out for it on the 1st Monday of the month with an update on anything else that comes to hand on the 3rd Monday of the month.  I hope you like the new format.

Sydney is well and truly back in to full swing for 2013, everywhere you  turn your appetite is being satisfied. For the shortest month of the year, February is packed full of deliciousness.

It is the Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year this month and this year it is the year of the snake.  A month of activities are happening around Sydney, cooking classes, temple tours, tours of China Town, special dinners, tea appreciation sessions, it’s endless.  For more information head to the City of Sydney CNY website.

Summer of Reisling is in full swing.  A festival celebrating the world’s only turly noble grape variety, Riesling.  A great laneway tasting on Sunday 10h February  and a few other tastings and dinners happening as well. For more information head to Summer of Reiesling

March into Merivale starts this month and continues through March.  The favourites are back Raid the Cellar , $33 meal deals , a couple of months of Merivale munching and slurpling madness.  Check out details here.

Don’t forget to check out your local Farmers’ Market here. Read more →

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