Mexican for the masses

REVIEW: GUZMAN Y GOMEZ

At about noon last Saturday, One Princess and I found ourselves in Newtown after a morning of inspecting properties having both woken up late and missing breakfast. Stumbling hungrily along the sidewalk, the bright yellow and clean lines of Guzman Y Gomez caught our eye. Having never eaten Mexican food before we decided to try something new.

The fact that I have never had Mexican food in Sydney after twenty something years here says a lot about the state of Mexican food in this city. A Californian colleague once remarked that there were no Mexican places in Sydney. She even had tacos shipped to Australia – she backed up her words with action!

OP and I went for the quesadillas. Unfortunately, I thought that one each would be enough, and it didn’t click that I should have ordered two each (they are sold 2 for $7.30). The grilled mushrooms were fleshy and tasty. OP’s chicken zacatecas quesadilla had a bit of a kick and thinking of it is causing me to salivate as I write this. The tortilla was soft and bitey. We wished we went for the hotter Tomatillo Salsa, as the “medium hot” Pico De Gallo salsa barely registered.

The chips and salsa was very good, probably the best corn chips I have had in a fast-food type restaurant, although the small bag comes in at quite a pricey $6.50.

I freely admit that I am very inexperienced when it comes to Mexican food. Next time I am in the neighbourhood, I intend on trying the popular burritos (nearly everyone else in the joint had one) or a couple of the tacos. Guzman Y Gomez have got my taste buds curious about a whole new world of food.

Details:

The Place: Guzman Y Gomez

Where: 175 King Street, Newtown

Food: Mexican (Semi-fast food)

Tip: Try the chips and one of the Mexican drinks

Butcher’s Bill: $18 for two (2 quesadillas, chips and salsa and drinks)

Who should go: people craving for some good Mexican food, or those wanting to try something fresh and new

At Franchise’s End?

MOVIE REVIEW: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – AT WORLD’S END

The charm of Pirates of the Caribbean lay in the fact that it was an action movie that took a humorous view of pirates and that whole genre of movie. The charm of Curse of the Black Pearl was that Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) was cunning and hapless, the audience could understand what motivated the characters of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and the action sequences were memorable.

While Jack Sparrow is still charming in At World’s End, I struggled to follow the individual betrayals, loyalties and motivations of all the characters, and the action scenes, while I am sure cost a large packet of money, were neither memorable nor heart-racingly exciting.

I won’t attempt to unravel the plot, but say that At World’s End picks up where Dead Man’s Chest left off. Jack Sparrow is in Davy Jones’ Locker, and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann lead a mission to save him. Once returned to the world of the living, the rest of the movie concerns the efforts of the East India Trading Company, led by Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) to clean the world’s oceans of piracy and the efforts of the world’s remaining pirates to save themselves from extinction. Sounds simple enough. What complicates it all is the Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Barbossa have their own ends, which involve them in making and breaking too many loyalties to keep track off. And I am still not sure what Keira Knightley’s character is fighting for once Captain Jack has been rescued.

My other complaint with the movie is that there is just not enough of Johnny Depp. His portrayal of the hapless pirate captain is why the first movie was so well received, with the result that Disney decided to make the single film into a franchise. Unfortunately, the script failed to give Johnny Depp another opportunity to charm audiences – and when he did appear on the screen, you are confronted with not just one but many Jack Sparrows. Maybe it would have been better to have Jack battling his inner conscious without resorting to showing his multiple forms.

Finally, an action movie is not an action movie without memorable action sequences. In Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, the action sequences which really stick in my mind all involved battles between two or three characters; or sequences where Jack was escaping from something or someone. In At World’s End, the action sequences are on a much larger scale and do not focus on the conflict between a small handful of characters. There are just too many characters with their own histories and problems to make this practical.

And perhaps that is why the plot is so hard to follow – all the twists and turns occurred as a result of characters talking to one another, and not as a result of some fight or memorable event which upset the balance of power or caused the characters to re-evaluate how they would obtain what they wanted.

By the end, if you are not confused you will surely be disappointed by the ending – it falls fall short of the glorious finale, the desire of which will drive so many people to part with their hard-earned dollars to see this movie. A short scene after all of the end credits is so clichéd and represents much of the blandness which have cursed the scripts of the second and third movies – it just rubs sea salt into wounded expectations.

For someone who loved Curse of the Black Pearl and left the cinema after Dead Man’s Chest frustrated but hoping for more (and some sort of resolution), At World’s End left me hugely disappointed. And although the film ends with the possibility that a fourth movie might be added to the franchise, the creators of Pirates of the Caribbean should realise that every good day (and movie franchise) must have a sunset.

One Man’s Rating (out of 5):

A spicy sausage and mushroom pasta sauce

On Saturday, One Princess had a couple of friends over for dinner. For the mains, I was enlisted to prepare a spicy tomato based pasta sauce so that OP would have the opportunity to use (or show-off) her newly acquired pasta machine.

The thing with tomato-based pasta sauces is that not only do they taste a lot better than the bottled stuff (and is probably healthier), but it’s also very easy to create something that suits your tastes with the result that you rarely eat tomato-based pasta in restaurants anymore.

Below is what I prepared on Saturday. The pancetta, mushrooms and sausages are optional. For a vegetarian pasta, prepare the vegetables separately (my favourite is grilled pumpkin, artichokes, zucchini and olives) and add at the same time you would the sausages.

Sauce
1 clove of garlic, crushed or diced finely
1 small red chilli, cut finely (use more chillies if you can handle the heat!)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 fist-sized onion, roughly diced
6 slices pancetta, roughly cut into pieces
150g button mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 cup of dry white wine
400g tin crushed tomatoes (or you can use fresh tomatoes)
1 cup of vegetable stock
3 good sized Italian sausages, something with a bit of a kick
4 basil leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a deep pan or wide-bodied pot
2. Add the garlic and chilli, and wait till garlic changes colour
3. Stir in the onions, keep on stirring so onions cook evenly
4. Mix in pancetta and mushrooms
5. After a couple of minutes, to let the pancetta soften and the mushrooms cook, pour in the white wine.
6. Turn up the heat to let the wine boil off, then reduce to a simmer.
7. Add the stock and the tomatoes (if using fresh tomatoes, you will need to prepare them beforehand, see below)
8. Leave the pot bubbling away for an hour (the longer you leave it, the more “tomatoey” it will taste)

Twenty minutes before you are ready to eat

1. Grill or pan fry the sausages on medium heat, making sure they are cooked through.
2. Slice the sausages and add to the pot, with the basil.
3. Stir through and let cook for a few minutes.
4. If the sauce is too thick, add some water; or if too runny, add some cornflour mixed in cold water.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste then serve!

If you are using fresh tomatoes, you will need to:

1. Drop the whole tomatoes into a pot of boiling water
2. The skins of the tomatoes will start to break, remove the tomatoes from the water before the skin starts to peel off by itself (to conserve water, you can keep the water for the pasta!)
3. The tomatoes will be hot! You need to peel the skins off – if it is easier to run them under a cold tap, then do so.
4. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and remove the stem roots
5. Crush the tomatoes with the back of a fork
6. Marvel at how easy it was to make your home-made tomato sauce!

Because I had a bit of time and was cooking for guests, the recipe below has a few things which I wouldn’t usually include if I was more pressed for time. Typically, I leave out the pancetta and wine. If cooking for kids, I usually leave out the chilli. And if there is no stock in the house, I increase the amount of tomatoes and about half the amount of water instead.

This is quite a rich tomato sauce. If my recipe is too rich, or not rich enough, just play with the tomato/stock ratio.

After a few goes, you will be able to prepare your own tomato-based pasta better than most restaurants can provide!

Taking Sydney cool to a new level

REVIEW: BENTLEY BAR AND RESTAURANT

Despite all the reviews out there about the Bentley Bar and Restaurant, I had not heard of it until last Thursday when One Princess suggest we try it out on Friday night. Having no expectations, I ended the night more than pleasantly surprised.

The first thing that struck me about the Bentley was that the restaurant area seemed quite small compared to the bar area. Had I just stepped into a bar with a dining area, or a restaurant with a bar area? And the cork-board timber shelving behind the bar and around the fireplace didn’t seem to quite go with the funky red and clean white colours of the tables and chairs. My impression was that I had just stepped into just another one of Surry Hills’ many bar and bistros.

But the service and the menu quickly put me in my place. I would talk about the entrees, but the truth is OP and I didn’t have any. An extensive tapas menu stole away our attentions and appetites. The sashimi with sweet wasabi went down smooth and easy, the chorizo in a potato shell was demolished very quickly. Many other tables ordered the salt and pepper chicken, an intriguing “high-cuisine meets KFC”, and OP and I couldn’t help ourselves. The fried chicken side appealed to my most basic tastes and the subtle salt, pepper and sweet lemon flavours appeased my more demanding (and refined, hopefully not pretentious) side.

Harking back to my humbler uni days and $7 dinners at the local RSL, the roast pork with bubble crackling was perhaps a little too sophisticated for me. I couldn’t hide my glee when I saw the plate sized, oh-so-thin for crackling. The home cook inside of me couldn’t help but marvel at how thin and even the crackling was – unfortunately, it tasted nothing like the crackling I love, being neither salty or vinergary. The pork however, was moist and well complemented by the sweet corn sauce. Unluckily for me, One Princess demanded that we swap dishes mid-dinner.

The wagyu with leak was perfectly roasted, the meat just falling away in deliciously large chunks. I think OP expected something more like a traditional steak when she ordered it, or perhaps having the texture of something closer to traditional roast beef. The wagyu was more like braised meat, and OP was a little disappointed. No worries though, as I was more than happy to polish off the succulent wagyu cheeks.

The four-course dessert was both curious and delightful.

The banana gnocchi was curious. We just couldn’t work it out. It was banana syrup inside of a small, clear ball of something that reminded me of a lychee. There were three of the little “gnocchis” sitting in a dish of milk. I repeat, it was very curious.

The chocolate, chocolate, chocolate dish (chocolate cake with milk chocolate gelato, chocolate mousse and chocolate dusting) and the coconut sorbet wrapped in a delicate meringue cylinder with lychee tapioca and olives (yes, olives) were delightful.

The wine list/drinks menu was extensive with literally hundred of choices, and the waitstaff were more than willing to give us a hand in making out selections in a manner that put us at ease. After requesting a Plymouth gin and tonic and being told that they were all out, our ever-helpful waiter brought out a bottle of Hendricks, invited me to whiff the smooth junipers and made add another gin to my ever-growing list of “drinks I need to buy” (incredibly smooth with a crisp citrus and soft cucumber taste – if anyone could tell me where to buy a bottle of either Plymouth or Hendricks I would be very grateful).

The casual passer-by would gain no indication from the modest exterior that the Bentley serves up so many creative (and delicious) dishes which take Sydney dining to a whole new level. I am not sold on the split bar and restaurant as the food is so obviously the Bentley’s strong suite, but then, who really cares so long as the Bentley continues to serve up inventive, and more importantly, great, food. And in some way, the large bar area adds to the whole “cool” of the place, and prevents the Bentley from looking, and sounding, like so many other Sydney fine dining establishments.

Of course the creativity and invention sometimes means that some dishes will not immediately hit you on the right note, but when they do, you will experience at the Bentley a dining adventure which few other places in Sydney even attempt to provide.

Details:

The Place: Bentley Bar and Restaurant (there isn’t much on the website to date)

Where: 320 Crown Street, Surry Hills (Ph: 9332 2344)

Food: Modern Australian

Tip: Book ahead, sample the extensive drinks list, start with the tapas and leave room for dessert

Butcher’s Bill: $170 for two (3 tapas, 2 mains, four course dessert and drinks)

Who should go: those with a curious palate and wanting to experience a completely new Sydney dining experience

Organic and tasty are not mutually exclusive

REVIEW: THE BOOK KITCHEN

My problem is that I don’t yet have a reliable breakfast place. Unlike lunch, where you often eat wherever is close-by, or dinner, where you can afford to plan where to eat, I don’t like to think very much on a Saturday or Sunday morning about where I want to eat. It would be easy to have a breakfast place where I can rock up mid-morning, where the barista knows how I like my coffee and where I can trust that my eggs will always be runny. And that I haven’t yet found that place is my problem.

So it was off to the book kitchen (they write it in lower case) this morning with One Princess and some friends to try the much talked about organic food which the book kitchen specialises in. the book kitchen is on the corner of Devonshire and Bourke Streets. On the opposite corner is the Bourke Street Bakery. And the queues for both spill on to the street, between the milk crates and parked Vespas.

Needless to say, after a 20 minute wait for a table, my expectations (and appetite) were running high.

My poached eggs on sourdough with smoked salmon and mushrooms failed to live up to expectations. The yolks of the eggs were not runny and the salmon had no taste. The texture was near perfect but good texture does not make up for imperceptible taste. (The best smoked salmon I have ever had was at Poacher’s Pantry on the outskirts of Canberra. It was both sweet and salty, was firm yet didn’t require a knife to cut. The smoked salmon that I get from most supermarkets and delis is typically too salty and sometimes too fishy, but at least it tastes like smoked salmon. Unfortunately, this morning’s smoked salmon was neither sweet, salty or fishy.)

One Princess ordered the bacon and egg roll with roast tomato chutney. Again, there was no taste. The bacon and egg felt like bacon and egg but tasted completely unremarkable. The tomato chutney similarly was not sweet or spicy, and apart from the fact that you could see it, you would hardly know it was there.

The coffee was good however, and the berry cocktail is a must-try. On a plus side, the service remained efficient and friendly despite the obvious pressures they were under from waiting customers and a more than full dining room.

By the end of breakfast, I struggled to understand why there was a queue for the book kitchen. I doubt that this is the best that Sydney organic food gets. Organic food is meant to taste fresher, better and more intense, not just give you warm and fuzzies that you are supporting sustainable farming practices.

My other issues with the book kitchen is that a friend was told that they do not do fried eggs, only to find out that the bacon and egg roll is served with fried eggs (if it can go in a roll, why can’t in be served separately on some toast?); and the prices seemed much too high – my poached eggs with smoked salmon and mushroom on toast was about $18! Although with the obvious demand from customers, I can semi-understand the high prices.

There are a lot of other dishes on the menu (they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner) which we didn’t try so it would be unfair to judge the full repertoire of the book kitchen based on a single breakfast (but, of course, you all know that).

So would I return to the book kitchen for breakfast? Probably not – Surry Hills is full of cafes to have breakfast in that I am sure there is one out there just waiting to become my breakfast place.

Details:

The Place: the book kitchen

Where: 255 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills (Ph: 9310 1003)

Food: Organic, cafe food

Tip: Get there early, or be prepared to wait

Butcher’s Bill: About $22 each (breakfast, coffee and juice)

Who should go: people who think that when it comes to food, organic and tasty are mutually exclusive concepts

Too many drinks before dinner

REVIEW: MALABAR SOUTH INDIAN RESTAURANT

This will be a quick and dirty review of my belated birthday dinner at Malabar in Crows Nest. I say this because my memory of the dinner is a little clouded by the drinks (3 of a delicious little boutique beer whose name escapes me) I had at the Art House beforehand with One Princess and a couple of friends.

Malabar puts itself out as a specialising in South Indian cuisine. From my experience, having traveled through the south and north of India, south Indian food is generally spicier and creamier (coconut). So stay away if you do not eat spice – it’s a bit like being a vegetarian in a steak house, there will be food you can eat, but you miss out on enjoying the house specialties.

The Goan fish curry was just spicy enough for me and oh-so-creamy. I will definitely be ordering it on my return. I honestly can’t remember much of the other dishes (Mysore chilli chops, lamb korma and butter chicken), but they must have been good because we polished everything off.

One Princess and I will have to return to more properly take in the tastes, and I already know what I want to get – the lamb saag, mushroom and spinach (perhaps I can request a mushroom mutta) and if I am feeling special, a dosai.

Details:

The Place: Malabar South Indian Restaurant

Where: 334 Pacific Hwy Crows Nest (Ph: 9906 7343)

Food: South Indian

Tip: Goan fish curry is a must-try.

Butcher’s Bill: About $90 for four (1 entrée, 3 mains, rice and breads).

Who should go: those who like a bit of a spice kick with their food.