Simple: Salt and pepper pepper squid

Today's little experiment was a red and yellow pepper sauce.

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 eschallot
50mL heavy cream
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 cup sherry

For documentation purposes:

1. Slice peppers into thin strips and dice eschalot. Adding 2 teaspoons of salt, sautee until soft - add water if required.
2. Add sherry and deglaise the pan, add the sugar and cook for a short while until the deglaise coats the peppers
3. Reserving 1/4 of the peppers (optional), blend the rest with the cream, vinegar and the remaining sugar

The squid was fried for 2 minutes. Seasoned in Cayenne, salt and pepper with a cornflour base.

The first taste of summer

Tonights' steak dinner is another simple one. The refreshing combination of mint and cucumber is reminiscent of an icecream on a hot summers day.

$10 + for a hot dog!? Outrageous!

Now in the recently finished Pitt St. Westfields you can grab a mouth watering posh hot dog! The dogs here are definitely top tier but is the massive price tag attached justified? I sure think it is. They also sell some nice chips that go great with their sauces, but don't expect a cheap meal!


I have to say the bread is quite incredible.

Beef Horseradish - Grilled Wagyu sausage, caramelised onions, horseradish mayo on a soft poppy seed roll

Toulouse - Bungalow Pork sausage with sauteed onions, rosemary mushrooms and truffle aioli on a beautiful Brioche roll

New mushroom steak

For my dad's birthday I experimented a little with a new dish that combines several techniques I've learned over the year. Happy Birthday Dad :) Here are the results:

This was the first stage of the meat preparation. The steak was perforated with a chopstick to allow for an increased infusion rate of mushroom flavours which were to be introduced in the sous vide process.

Button mushrooms were marinated in butter, thyme and sage overnight. The butter was then used for infusion in sous vide. Mushrooms were pureed with cream and beef stock to make a sauce.

(Clockwise from back) Three textures of potato, Steak and mushrooms and creamed spinach

Ramen in Sydney

It is important to always keep in mind that food should always be evaluated for what it is and not what it should be.

Ramen is becoming increasingly popular along with the growth of Japanese in the restaurant industry. Is its popularity simply due to the hype of Japanese culture or is the food itself actually good?

In my short experience of all the popular ramen hotspots in Sydney I have to say I'm quite disappointed. I understand that the dish has undergone its transformations as it made its way across the waters to suit the tastes of Sydneysiders, but compared to the ramen in Japan the quality difference is as great as the Pacific Ocean. Most of these shops would look like instant noodle bars in Japan.

The means of comparison has been Chashuu ramen and Tonkotsu ramen (Pork ramen). I won't go into much detail as there are some not worth mentioning. 

Soup lacks some depth of flavour but overall decent

Menya ramen - Average in all aspects

Ramen Kan - Lean pork

Ramen Kan - Soup lacks flavour

Ichiban Boshi - Nice pork but the soup is really lacking viscosity and flavour

The ramen shown above hold their worth in Sydney and are a decent fast meal for under $15.

Then there is Ajisen Ramen. Which is basically a shop that sells overpriced instant noodles.

It isn't all bad here in Sydney, you can usually find something redeeming. In a dirty food court on Dixon St. there is some a shop that stands out from the rest.

Gumshara: A humble little kitchen. The chef tastes your order before service.

Dingy genuine sign for genuine food

Preference!

The fat glistens. The soup is unnaturally thick with flavour.

The soup clings to the noodles. The flavour clings to the noodles.

 Watching the Chef taste each and every bowl of soup before its' service every minute was one of the most reassuring signs that I had finally found a shop that would perhaps end my search. After having this ramen I had to take a step and re-evaluate everything.

This soup of this ramen has a lot to say. The flavour profile is absolutely incredible and perhaps overwhelming for the faint hearted.  By packing the soup with pig bone marrow the soup becomes thick with collagen and pungent with pork flavours, but this is done with far greater success than any other ramen shop.