busy Buzy Bakehouse ...too buzy !!

BUZY BAKEHOUSE  ... a real letdown

Just disorganized ... had to edit my earlier post on this place  ...their last panzerotti was ok .. I mean I love these puppies no matter what but much to my surprise this time it was very creamy, very sweet and had lost that wonderful ricotta texture.  And did it take time to get served??? They were just fluffing around behind the counter as if they were chickens about to be beheaded.
No wonder the place looks busy ... they are so slow serving that a crowd develops quickly.  I watched them in action with hardly any customers there and learnt how to make a place look busy even if it is not.  
What irks me more though is people who get served ahead of others waiting ..they know when they came in ... maybe the staff should simply ask "who's next" instead of taking an order from the loudest and rudest entitled Eastern Suburbite. 
Now for the coffee ... this time it came fifteen minutes after I ordered it and the place was not even a third full.  The coffee was not worth the wait.  I hate to watch a barista butchering a coffee.
Hate to bitch more, but this place has a door and on a freezing cold morning they keep it open and you have to wear your ski gear in there. In summer they keep it closed.  Why? 

Mont Blanc,..the chestnut puree dessert in Cafe Angelina

Did I mention foie gras? That is how you feel after a hot chocolate and the Mont Blanc at Cafe Angelina.

I wrote about Dulce de Leche earlier on. An easy to make to-die-for spread or filling.  Well,  crème de marrons or chestnut puree is just as easy and also one of my desserts from childhood that has stayed well into adulthood as a top favourite. 

This is chestnut puree passed through a ricer and mixed with sugar and either rum or brandy and then folded with Cream Chantilly (cream whipped with sugar and vanilla) and then passed through the ricer again to serve it nicely piled up like little streams of pure unadulterated heavenly moments in your mouth. This is all on top of an optional base of meringue. Or just use it to fill your favourite pastry cases.  I eat it as it is ...spoonfuls of smooth layered flavours.

Rather than going to the trouble of buying chestnuts, roasting them peeling them bla bla bla just buy a can of chestnut puree ..comes from France but good food stores and even some supermarkets stock it.

Make sure you pass through the ricer a few times to break it up and aerate it.

Hot chocolate and of course Cafe Angelina in Paris

This place makes hot chocolate so thick that you can it eat it with a spoon  ..yes I said eat it.  Cafe Angelina has been around a long time, located at 226 Rue Rivoli, in the first arrondisement ..also in the  Bois de Boulogne and a couple of other places (see http://www.angelina-paris.fr/en/ ). If you love chocolate and you can afford the calories this is a must stop in Paris.  For a while they had an outpost in Galeries Lafayette so you could shop and then indulge the desire but alas it went. 

If you really want to feel like a stuffed goose also have the Mont Blanc dessert but then do not expect to be able to move.

Now how to make one of these hot chocolates? The hot chocolate in Cafe Angelina is made to a secret recipe  (a bit like Coke!!! ...not sure how I can consider a comparison)

Sometimes in Italy they serve hot chocolate like this.  There are many recipes for hot chocolate, with many including cinnamon, vanilla, salt, Mexican chocolate, dark chocolate, liqueurs, etc etc.  Some say the thickness comes from using high quality chocolate.  That is pure rubbish.  In Italy they will add corn starch to the chocolate and milk as they heat it to make it into a custard like consistency.  To get that rich mouth feel you need to add some thickener and I am sure that Angelina uses xantham gum, as this does not add the flavour that corn starch gives to the hot chocolate.

Get yourself some of your favourite chocolate, whole cream milk and melt it slowly over a slow flame.  Try adding a small amount of roux made from corn starch already diluted with hot milk and mix it into the chocolate milk and cook it till you get the thickness you like. Or try the same trick with the gum.

Casa Angelina

This is a place in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast. It is a "design" hotel.  In an area full of tourists and restaurants made for the lowest common denominator this place is a welcome respite.
Unfortunately I stayed at the Hotel Tritone, an Italian hotel around the bend and whilst it sits on a beautiful cliff and looks beautiful from the water, the rooms are full of 1950s outdated furniture which should be "out of use" and the services are less than that offered in the YMCA   eg there is soap in the bathroom but that is it ...not even tissues or a pad of paper in the room.  I do not even want to be reminded of the resturant food at the Tritone.
Over at Casa Angelina the restaurant is called Un Piano nel Cielo. A suitable name, because after the Tritone this place is really heavenly.  A fantastic Negroni served on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean accompanied by little appetisers and then down a lift to the restaurant dining room or eat out on the restaurant's terrace.
The menu is full of interesting food and it is well executed.  Even the wine list is reasonable ..and includes Australian wines at prices below restaurant prices in Australia !!!  
Stay here if you are ever on the Amalfi Coast, hire a motor scooter from the friendly guy in Praiano and zip around to your heart's content, returning to Casa Angelina for a great meal.

Taking the Crown ....street route ..where babies were born

Used to be that Crown Street in Sydney was known for the Women's Hospital, where babies were made by the half dozen (the six babies in the photo were born there in 1936).  Then came Bill's 2, Kylie Kwong, Marque and even the Dolphin Hotel had a good restaurant. But that was the 90s and they went.

Now in the twenty tens we have an eat street.  If you want Japanese you have some choice. I have been at Toko several times and I do not wait for a table, as I am more than happy to eat in the bar area, which is more comfortable.  The service is fantastic.  The rolls are good, the edamame is nicely salted. And they have single malts (ok ok scotch does not gowith sushi ...just drink it before!!). 
What more can you ask for? Next door is its offspring Tokonama ..not tried yet.  Toko started life as a sushi train in Paddington. Went there the other day and it seemed to me that they were putting the left overs from the restaurant on the train.  It used to be good.
Up along Crown Street is Monkey Magic.  Great NYC atmo : their website says: Monkey Magic in Surry Hills dishes up impressive Asian fusion fare and funky cocktails in a chilaxed New York loft style setting.  This place is a bit hit and miss for the food.  Had some good rolls but also mixed up confused sushi that thought it was Central American or even Mexican (there is a Mexican place below it!!).  Not sure I would eat there again. Maybe if all the other places arefull.
Further up is Zushi .. nice outside eating area.  Good sushi, though not excellent.  Eat there because you want to sit outside and watch the passing trade. 

Nougat ..and Turkish Delight

The Turks love their sweets ... and so do some of my friends.  So here is a selection to make your mouth water. 

Almond, pistacchio, sesame seed, chocolate, pomegranate, cherry,and dozens of others. So many that I cannot sample them all without gaining another 10 kg !!! 
The shops selling sweets in Istanbul are a work of art!!  These pics came from a couple of shops on Divanyolu Avenue in the Sultanahmet area. After a long walk, the sugar invigorates one and you are ready to head out back into the sea of people.

The Japanese Invasion continues ..Masuya

MASUYA This is in O'Connell Street in the city  ..a hidden door that leads to a large basement restaurant bustling with people.  
Got in: 
me: no I do not have a reservation
waitress: sorry no table
..oops wait ...the supervisor tells the waitress there is an empty table just in front of her.
Lots of choice from hot pots to sushi a la carte or collections of sushi.  Got the edamame ..no ..no we did not ask for two plates  ...hmm no salt on the edamame ..well, not every one does them with salt .... hmm no glass of water ....hmmmm... the miso had to be asked for  ...hmmm ...a large plate of eel nigiri was eight pieces of eel on rice, no nori wrap but the nori was inserted between the rice and the eel  ...it was very good, thank you ($17.80).  
Plate full of good assorted nigiri sushi ... but had to ask for the soy sauce ....followed by tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) served with egg and onion ...that was succulent and tasty and not greasy at all ...oooooooh so full
.... btw good choice of different sakes, in normal or large.  Sushi by the piece is somewhat exxy ($3 for one piece of salmon, $5.50 for one eel .. yes one piece, not one pair).
Worth eating here, just hope they were having a bad service day.

Coffee from a Nespresso???

NESPRESSO ?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!!!!!

The office I work in is one of those serviced numbers ... we have a lounge area that is like an airline business class lounge, you know ...large plasma screen, teas in a wooden box, soft drinks, coffee machine. The latter is a large commercial Saeco thing that grinds, frothes automatically, pours awful coffee into a cup ....no matter which button you press. The service guy was there the other day and I asked him to check if it was putting out 30ml and putting in enough coffee because it was very weak and had no crema.  All to no avail.  

A friend has another Saeco commercial machine in his business.  The coffee is dreadful.  My accountant has a domestic Nespresso and if I ask him to curtail the amount of water the coffee is quite drinkable.

On the office floor above me (same serviced office company) there is a small coffee area with a commercial Nespresso machine.  This is a double sided affair that takes not the usual domestic Nespresso plastic cones but circular metallic pods that insert dvd-like into a slot.  The coffee comes out with a crema and tastes excellent.  Maybe not quite as good as my Bezzera at home, but that could be the result of using Toby's coffee.
Jeffrey Steingarten, the US food critic tested a number of machines and found that a well calibrated Saeco made decent coffee 30% of the time.  He found the Nespresso to have a good crema but dilute flavour due to only having 5gm of coffee in the pods. But he was testing domestic units.  Not this wonderful commercial double thing.
Anyway these automatic machines ensure that getting a good cup of coffee is possible without the need to train as a barista.  But you have to choose the right machine!!!
More on coffee later ....I am about to help a friend choose a new brand of coffee for his restaurant so I will have a good range of coffees to report on in about four weeks. 

Fruit ...frutta ...fruttier ...

This is a white fig ..and it was fantastic.  Why is the fruit so good in Italy, or France?  The growers sell it at the local market or directly to the local shops.  It is ripe and does not have to be picked before it reaches a ripe stage because it does not sit around at distribution centres.  The fruit in Australian supermarkets is called "anniversary fruit" by a friend of mine because it does not get there until it has reached a significant anniversary, thanks to transportation and storage.

The fruit in shops in Italy looks like it should ...ripe!!!!

Pasta pasta pasta ...for breakfast fry it up

Ok ..this fritatta is made of pasta .. you have to love the Italians.  They can have pasta for lunch, dinner and breakfast.  And of course they also eat cake for breakfast.  People get so funny when you suggest left over pasta for breakfast ..it is ok to eat bacon and sausages and eggs ...so why not pasta?
You cook the whole packet of pasta and whatever you have not eaten you can put in the refrigerator.  The next morning beat some eggs and add whatever you desire in the way of flavourings (eg sautee some onions) or just salt and pepper and coat the pasta with the mixture.  Put it in a frypan with some hot oil, cover it loosely to speed up the cooking and turn it over when the bottom is nice and brown (this is the tricky bit and requires a deft hand and a plate so that you do not end up with it all over your kitchen floor!!!).  Make sure you do not overcook it so that it is nice and moist in the centre.  Cut some slices off and enjoy.   And whatever you do not eat you can put away and take on a picnic. 
This wonderful example was served up at the Hotel Tritone in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast.