Japanese Beer Hall (by G)

In my meanderings around Hakodate I had noticed a beer hall - a beer hall that served beer... and sausages.

 

For my last night in Hakodate, and despite the ready availability of fresh seafood, I went to the beer hall.

 

I had my order sorted before I even walked in - the 4 beer sampler and sausages with cheese to finish.

 

I ordered straight away - even before I realised how terrible the place was. The highlight was the young woman, who had obviously only recently taken up music, beating out Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel classics on a crapped out piano. I was distracted, briefly, when my quartet of beers came. They were pretty good - locally brewed, if you believe the literature. The wiesbier was my favourite, so I ordered another half a litre of that, then another. By that point I could not help but notice that my sausages had not arrived. I asked a waitress about them and saw her walk back and talk to the guy who ran the microwave, she came back and said they would be 5 minutes.

 

She did the right thing, assessed the situation and got the order expedited, I would have like her to say that the order was missed, but whatever. The sausages came within 5 minutes so I was happy again. The were great, my favourite was the brown pork one at the bottom. And there was just a snifter of sauerkraut - the perfect amount.

 

After the sausages were bellied I ordered the cheese. It came within about 30 seconds, clearly it had been plated some weeks before I had even arrived in Hakodate, glad wrapped and refrigerated. Only 3 crackers for that amount of cheese?  Actually, it was still good - the blue cheese was excellent.

 

I pushed out of the beer hall as soon as possible (not before having to sit through an amateur version of the theme from Titanic). I was initially disappointed with the whole experience but, on reflection, it was satisfyingly awful.

 



Bacon and Egg Tortillas (by Biggs)

Hmmm......I strayed fairly far from the true meaning of Tortilla Tuesday tonight. In my defense it appears G did too. One of my favourite meals is bacon and eggs, jam them inside pre-made tortillas and you've got yourself bacon and egg tortillas.

I tried to keep a bit of a Tex-Mex theme by adding capsicum and corn to the eggs. All in all, a fairly average dinner.

The TV told me tonight that if you eat 50 grams of bacon a day you have 20% more risk of getting bowel cancer.....the good news is that only bumps you up from 5% to 6% risk of getting bowel cancer (G - can you check my maths on that one?). I think I'm going to stick with the bacon.

Chicken Wings and Crab (by G)

After the excesses of the night before, I was not feeling all that well. Because I am in Japan and because I have to keep eating to take advantage of the situation I went to the seafood market for grilled smoked fish (of some kind). I had not really considered how difficult it would be to pick the meat off the fish frame with chop-sticks in my shaky condition but, like the pro that I am, I struggled through. Even in my impaired state I was able to observe the couple next to me who ordered a whole crab, all the flesh de-shelled and put into the shell - it was a thing of beauty. I made the decision that that is what I wanted for dinner.

 

I hadn't considered the fact that the whole market area closes down at dawn and my choice for restaurants would be limited - to about one.

 

So I went to the one seafood restaurant in the vicinity of my hotel that was open, surveyed the Japanese menu and could not obviously see crab, even though they featured it in the window. 'I want crab', I told the waitress. She showed me a picture of two types of crab and asked me what type I would like - I went with the horse-hair crab (I think). A little while later she came out with my crab and showed it to me and said that it would be $43, would that be okay. I'm in a kind of 'money is no object' situation at the moment so I said, yes.

 

5 minutes later she came back with the crab and asked if I wanted it grilled or steamed, I went with grilled.

 

Some time later she came back with the same crab (by this time I was getting fond of him) and told me the crab could not be grilled so did I want it steamed or... I asked 'or what', 'Sashimi' she said. I was not feeling terribly well, otherwise I would not have passed up the chance of raw crab - I went with steamed.

 

Quite some time later a male waiter came over and told me that what the female waitress should have told me is that the crab would take about 1/2 an hour to steam - did I want something in the meantime. I took a look at the menu and, though I didn't really need anything else, went with chicken wings. They came pretty quickly and, unsure of the convention, I ate them with chop-sticks - try that on an immense hangover.

 

Eventually, by which time I had consumed more beer than is good for me, the crab came. It was in the state shown below. I tried attacking it from a few angles and decided to make a start on the thorax, problem was the 'dead man's fingers' were still attached. While I was trying to pick these off and considering whether to eat them a crowd of waiters and chefs had formed behind me. A waiter took the crab off me and said, 'The chef will do something to make it easier to eat'.

 

The crab came back with the legs detached and split and the meaty bit had also been halved. I spent about 10 minutes picking the meat out of the various bits with the meal tool provided before another hand reached in and took the crab off me again. 'The chef will do something to make it a bit easier to eat', I was told.

 

The chef picked all the meat out for me and personally delivered it to the table. The crab, when I finally got to eat it, was very good. Only towards the end did I decide to add some of the soy and chilli flakes provided. Those few condiments boosted something good  up to something phenomenal - those last few bites were spectacular.

 

Verdict - totally worth it.

Pork and Noodles (by Biggs)

Part of my recent freezer find was a small pork loin (I was VERY happy when this went down) so I decided I was going to make it into a Thai Red Curry with it. All of a sudden, it was Monday, I was frazzled from work and I hadn't bothered going to the grocery store. As a result I didn't have any Thai, any Red or any Curry to make a Thai Red Curry.

I was a little worried that I didn't even have any vegetables but found some dried shiitake mushrooms in the pantry and started gathering things that could make some sort of a stir-fry. I found noodles, seaweed, fried shallots and all sorts of sauces.

I mixed them all together and came up with some savoury inoffensive something. It was pretty average.

The Bar and a Ball (by G)

I got into Hakodate in the mid-afternoon and took a walk across the peninsula to check things out. One thing was clear - seafood is high on the menu here. Just about every restaurant in the fish market area sells seafood. Knowing I would likely be eating a lot of seafood over the next couple of days I decided to try for something a bit different.

 

Other than a KFC, the only other place within easy walking distance was a tiny place in a small complex of tiny places that served oden. Oden, to the best of my knowledge, is a bunch of tasties in dashi broth. I've seen at the counter in convenience stores but have never tried it.

 

At the appropriate dinner hour I went back to the oden place to find it was packed out - so I went a couple of restaurants down to have a beer or two before trying again.

 

That was the plan - I failed in the execution. I discovered the bar had an international beer menu and decided to try and drink all the beers I hadn't tried before. I was more successful in my new plan (you may notice Bintang in the photo below - I've had that before, it was the beer I ordered before embarking on the new plan).

 

After a while a local business man came in with his wife. He was very nice - the Executive Director of a building company who is building the second tower in Hakodate (his grandfather had worked on the first one 50 years ago). Despite being a pack a day smoker he and his wife had completed a half marathon earlier in the day. He asked me how old I was and told me, 'Start running now'. I promised I would, and made a vague plan to come back in 2015 when there is a special marathon to mark the arrival of the Shinkansen line in Hakodate.

 

Those are the kind of commitments you make after you have drunk a bunch of beers, then someone buys you a whiskey, then you buy them one to be polite, then some random turns up and then someone decides to buy another round...

 

In short, the only thing I ate this night was a meatball in sauce that came complimentary with my first drink - I recall it being very good, though I can't quite remember the flavour or what kind of meat it was.



Welsh Rarebit (by Biggs)

What's Welsh Rarebit you may ask? 

Michael Quinion writes: "Welsh rabbit is basically cheese on toast (the word is not 'rarebit' by the way, that's the result of false etymology; 'rabbit' is here being used in the same way as 'turtle' in 'mock-turtle soup', which has never been near a turtle, or 'duck' in 'Bombay duck', which was actually a dried fish called bummalo)".

There are many variations on Welsh Rarebit but this is the one from my youth - toast, sweet mustard pickles and cheese. I heard a guy on Food Safari make a great statement the other day that applies well to dinner tonight "This is not an acquired taste because whoever tastes it will love it".

Party Pies and Sausages Rolls (by Biggs)

It's not with much pride that I post this but it is what it is. I had beers in the afternoon with some friends so hadn't made a plan for dinner. Because I hadn't planned anything there wasn't much in the way of ingredients available. Then I remembered.....for reasons that sharnt be disclosed, we have 2.5 kilograms of party pies and sausage rolls in the freezer.

So, zip zap, dinner was done.

Oh, by the way, it's probably worth mentioning I didn't eat the whole 2.5 kilograms tonight.....just a handful!

Sapporo Autumn Fest 2 (by G)



Back to the park for Autumn Fest take two. Only a half hearted effort this time because I had spent most of the day eating (huge oyster, scallop sashimi, live shrimp at the fish market - chicken and pork on rice and fried chicken at the Sapporo Autumn Fest set up by the station).

 

I was pretty full after the sausage lollypop and bacon on sticks shown below - the were both excellent, but I decided I could probably fit a burger in as well. The burger was okay - the cheese got lost a bit, which is a shame.  After the burger it started to sprinkle with rain and my Gazzy senses told me it was going to pour with rain at any moment and being stuck in the rain with a crowd of several hundred people was not ideal - so I retired to a bar a couple of blocks away and had a couple of beers and some not very good whiskey.

 

It didn't end up raining in the end but I was content after a belly full of meat and booze.



Autumn Fest Sapporo 1 (by G)

It's Autumn Fest in Sapporo, a time when Odori park becomes (I don't know the exact stats but about) 10 blocks of wall-to-wall food and booze from the local area.

Being the savvy little rat that I am I had checked out the food options earlier in the day. Below are not necessarily the best options, but they were the ones that appealed to me the most.

First up Snow Crab - broiled in it's own shell. Mental note, don't grow a carapace that facilitates your own tasty consumption. This was great:

 

The next two bites came from the same lovely old couple. The sausage was a pleasingly squirty pork sausage (I'm a sucker for any sausage and this was a good one).



 

Next up a lamb chop - Biggs would go nuts for this. Not so much the cook on it, which was amazing, but the flavour. Great lamb cooked to perfection.

 

This is basically bacon on a stick - how could I pass on it and how could it be bad?

In my head the sweet shrimp would be awesome, it turned out they were dry and overcooked. I can empathise, I did exactly the same thing a couple of months ago. This was a real disappointment though:

 

 Damn you tiny stomach, there are so many things I would like to try but I don't have the gastro-capacity. For dessert I wanted to get a cheese pie - from what I could tell it is a short pastry filled with melty cheese. I couldn't find it though, so I went with the below beef rib, cheese steam bun.  I've included the image they sold it to me with rather than the actual image because that is one of the most tempting images I've seen (while mine is not, take in the dark and with reality against it). Okay, the bun didn't quite deliver what was promised in the photo, it was pretty good though - there was a kind of corn puree in there as well. What with the other food and the beer and the whiskey this=>bun=>nearly=>finished=>me - like in a death way.

 

I would love to have eaten more but, alas, I am but one skinny (but rapidly expanding) man.

Gyoza, Poached Chicken and Soba Noodles (by Biggs)

G is in Japan. 

I'm not coping well with the fact that I'm not in Japan. I thought making a faux Japanese dinner might make me feel better. It sort of did.

I've progressed from using up leftovers to just eating anything I can find in the house. I told G I'd clean out the freezer while he was away. I don't know if that agreement extends to me eating his groceries but I've found some tasty treats (and unidentifiable treats) and have decided to help myself.

Tonight's treats, that I felt could be tied into a faux Japanese dinner, include sausages (surely G wouldn't have let them slip....perhaps they're mine?) and a chicken breast (I know for a fact this is his because I recently sold it to him for a princely sum).

The sausages were used in the gyoza....painful little things to make! With the sausage mince I included some ginger, garlic, soy and sesame oil. Once wrestled inside the dumpling wrappers I fried them then steamed them. I was quite chuffed with the end result....they look pretty good right? They tasted just as good.  

After the gyoza entree I poached the chicken in a chicken stock, mirin, ginger, and spring onions from the garden.

All round quite satisfying.

Barbecue Bits Sapporo (by G)

I got into Sapporo in the late evening and, as soon as I'd dropped off my bags, went for a wander.  I love Sapporo - I don't know what it is exactly - something about it being a bit isolated from the rest of Japan, it has it's own defiant identity... also, it was not so long ago that I was sweltering in the humid heat of Singapore, so the cool temperature is a relief.

After strolling aimlessly for ages ogling the noodles and crabs, seafood and meats I got irrevocably lost again... once I had sorted out my locality again I decided to eat at one of the most tempting places I had seen and, ironically, the one right next to my hotel.  How could you not be tempted by a storefront like this:

 

I didn't know it going in, but it turned out to be a cook-it-yourself barbecue place - which suited me because I haven't cooked for myself in a little while. To start I got some pig thorax and super fatty beef.  The pork was hard to cook because it was basically just cartilage with little bits of meat between. I did my best. Check out the cook I got on the beef though:

 

 

Actually the beef was a bit too rich for my blood - hard to cook because the fat dripped into the coals and caught fire almost immediately and had quite a subtle flavour, so not great to eat. I mean, it was awesome - but not super awesome.

I thought it odd that they brought a glass of ice cubes with my beer - later, when my whole cooking station was blazing like a forest fire and a guy stepped in an doused it with ice the purpose became clear. I had been trying, to that point successfully, dampening the flames with cabbage.

Yes, I did order vegetables. The corn and onions were good but charring cabbage in animal fat is the shit.  Biggs is not a huge fan of cabbage so I will definitely introduce her.

 

By my second round of ordering I had worked a few things out so I ordered the lean beef and some chicken necks.

 

I hit pay dirt with this combo - the beef was super flavourful and the chicken necks, I shit you not, are some of the best things I've eaten in a long, long time. Salt, pepper, heat and you've got the perfect bit right there.

 

If I can ever be assed - and this is unlikely because it seems like a super fiddly job, I will definitely debone us a couple of dozen chicken necks, barbecue them up, and introduce Biggs to the flavour sensation.

 



Calamari (by Biggs)

Well, this was not the plan.

Bonnie and I had the idea to head to the 'Thank Truck it's Thursday" food truck markets down in Fish Lane tonight alas just before our meeting time the sky exploded, the streets started flooding and outdoor eating suddenly didn't seem too appealing. The plan was swiftly canned and instead we both stayed firmly planted on our respective couches.

Because I hadn't planned to cook tonight I certainly wasn't in the mood so instead I ordered some calamari and pita bread from my local Greek Taverna.

IT. WAS. EXCELLENT. 

The only unfortunately thing is this was going to be my post-boozy-Saturday-afternoon dinner plan so I'll have to come up with a new take away idea for Saturday night.....perhaps Indian?

Sushi Yasuda (by G)

On this visit to Japan I wanted to have some good sushi in Tokyo. The internet can be helpful and unhelpful when researching such a thing.  Helpful in that it can provide you with a lot of options, unhelpful in that each article or blog brings a lot of wildly contradictory comments. After watching 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' I was determined to eat there, but it appeared - like a lot of good sushi restaurants - that you had to book by phone and not speaking Japanese could be a barrier (not an insurmountable problem), also it seems they hustle you in and out in less than half an hour. That was my biggest concern because I just wanted to sit and eat and eat until I was done.

I remembered Bourdain had eaten at a sushi restaurant in his Parts Unknown Tokyo episode, so I re-watched it and discovered it was Sushi Yasuda. You can book via e-mail, which was a plus, so I e-mailed them a month in advance and got a very nice reply back to say that they had availability and all I had to do was reply to a confirmation e-mail on the day.

I was surprised to find the restaurant is not in central Tokyo but a few stops from Ginza near Gaienmae station. I was also surprised to find that the surrounding area is packed with very high end fashion stores.

Anyway, I got there about 5 minutes early and was seated at the counter straight away between a Japanese/American business woman who was an old friend of Yasuda's in New York and a young Australian couple who had come after seeing Yasuda's Vice video on how to eat sushi. Later two middle-aged American couples turned up on the recommendation of one of their sons who had attended the wedding of one of Yasuda's relatives. In time more Yasuda regulars and young couples turned up.

The American couples were a bit overbearing, not having used chopsticks or eaten sushi before. Here, I think, Yasuda was in his element - initiating people to the world of sushi. Explaining the importance of the rice, going through the dos and don'ts. I'm not very vocal when there is a crowd of people about so I was happy just to drink my beer and sake and eat what-ever was put in front of me.

A lot of it was excellent - stand outs were the oyster, the otoro and, surprisingly, some really delicate Japanese chives.  At one point the Australian couple asked Yasuda why salmon is an uncommon sushi ingredient in Tokyo. 'Tokyo people are like buffalo', he said, 'following the herd'... then he served us up a lightly smoked salmon, then some of the raw stuff - which makes me happy because Salmon belly is the thing I want to eat last before I die.

In time there were less customers and I got the chance to talk to Yasuda a bit. I was interested to know why the restaurant was located where it was. Apparently the area was, until recently, a rough area and rent was low - so that explains that. I asked what his ambition was with regards to sushi making. He told me he stays in shape and should be able to continue on for another 50 years or so - to be making sushi at 110 years old is his goal.

After an hour and a half, two beers, three flasks of sake and I couldn't begin to guess how many pieces of sushi I begged forgiveness for being annoying but asked that my last piece of sushi be salmon belly. That started a slightly heated discussion - perhaps it was something about salmon belly being mis-named or his assertion that salmon should be snap frozen to kill off parasites then defrosted and how other sushi restaurants were putting you at risk by not doing so.  I don't know why I was arguing given that I didn't know what we were talking about.  Anyway, I got some part of the salmon - snap frozen for my protection and it was awesome.  The reservation e-mail asserted that photography was banned but everyone had been taking photographs of everything up to that point - never-the-less I asked Yasuda's permission to photograph my last bite.

I don't really know what I think about Sushi Yasuda. Yasuda himself is personable and helpful, his staff are excellent, his forming of the rice is a bit erratic (but I don't think that is too important). I've had better rice before and more consistently good sushi but end-to-end but this is certainly the best sushi experience I've had so far.

Moroccan Meatballs (by Biggs)

One of the things I had stored in the freezer for this period of cooking for one was a small amount of minced beef. I originally thought of a burger or some spaghetti but was keen for something less standard so decided on making some Moroccan meatballs.

I knew there was some couscous in the cupboard which would go well with dinner too.

The mince had fresh coriander as well as dried coriander, then some turmeric and paprika added before being fried off in balls and oven baked. The sauce was started with some patiently made confit garlic then had a tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper added.

Served with yoghurt and a sprinkling of coriander.... it was pretty good. I'm glad G wasn't home because I did a fairly piss-poor job of the couscous and he wouldn't be able to stop himself mocking me.

Readers Quiz: If you can name all the ingredients that were 'left-overs' I will come to your house one day soon and make you dinner (or you can trade the prize in for cold hard cash......would be worth a good $4 I reckon)

Tempura Royal Sampler (by G)

I had a bit of a trying day - I was hoping to go to the baseball but got to the stadium and found the game was sold out... who knew the Swallows were so popular - to sell out a game, on a Tuesday, before midday.

No matter, I checked out my dinner location for tomorrow, which happened to be nearby, drank a lot of coffee, then did some shopping, then got totally lost trying to get back to my hotel - I mean totally lost on the streets of Tokyo - I made it back after about 2 hours of wandering.  After a wee nap I woke re-energised but determined to find somewhere for dinner that didn't involve turning more than one corner. I was hoping for yakatori - unfortunately all the places I passed were closing for the day. Other than Ronald McSombody's restaurant I couldn't find any place that looked promising. I ended up at this place - it looked to be a family restaurant, mercifully free of families and served beer. I got a kind of tempura royal sampler - there was a prawn, a cross section of a mackerel with parsley, a clump of enoki mushrooms, a sort of hashbrown of vegetables and some other things on top of rice. The rice was great, as were the pickles and the prawn and the mushrooms and the mackerel. I got a side of karage chicken, which was pretty good.

After I had finished I decided to get a dessert of tempura cheese. I know I wouldn't have forgiven myself, and Biggs may not have either, if I hadn't tried it. It was shit - cold in the middle, unflavourable mozzarella. Dinner overall was adequate and cheapish and not more than one corner from my hotel. I dropped about fifty bucks on sushi breakfast at tsukiji market and I have a costly, but awesome, dinner plan for dinner tomorrow so I don't feel too bad - also, I resisted buying the $110 bunch of grapes I saw earlier in the day so I will probably come out ahead.

Roast Beef Tortillas (by Biggs)

More using up leftovers tonight. In my sights was the left over roast beef from Sunday and half a cucumber. So dinner was, of course, roast beef tortillas with cucumber salsa.

To avoid creating more leftovers I decided to hand-make the tortillas so I could just have four small ones. The bonus here was that it turns out G had only one spoonful of duck fat left so I used that up too.

Added to the cucumber was a small capsicum, a small cob of corn, a small onion and some coriander. I'll be using the rest of the coriander tomorrow.

I also jazzed dinner up with a little yoghurt and some diced tomatoes with sriracha. Fear not, the rest of the sauces will be used tomorrow too.

I'm getting a little addicted to both using leftovers and only creating leftovers I plan to use in the near future. Stay tuned for more.

Curry Egg Rice (by G)

I kind of though I would have myself sorted earlier after flying from Singapore to Tokyo - I forgot that Narita airport is miles out of the city and it would take ages to get to the city, then to my hotel.

As a result, it was pretty late by the time I got settled. For convenience I found a place nearby that served food and booze. The fried rice was made with sushi rice, which was unusual but good. The curry sauce had ground meat in it, beef if I had to guess.

The best thing, if only for the visual appeal, was the egg. It's a whole egg dyed to the colour of an egg yolk - I'm not sure how that was done.

I had a beer with dinner, afterwards I ordered a gin tonic. It was unusual to say the least - I think they had used a packet of lemon fizz or something in place of the tonic. It was not unpleasant, but it was enough to send me to bed to watch Japanese television.

Pasta with Leftovers (by Biggs)

Tonight I was determined to get rid of a bunch of things from the fridge by mixing them through a pasta and putting them in my stomach.

The list of things I got rid of is:

• onion
• jarred capsicum oil
• cherry tomatoes
• spinach
• parsley
• parmesan cheese
• olives
• bow tie pasta
• macaroni 
• salami (if I'm entirely honest I bought the salami to add to dinner but, I did then get rid of it)

I was pretty proud of my effort. Unfortunately I've now created the issue of 'pasta with leftovers' leftovers but that's now a tomorrow problem.

The idea to use the left over oil from a jar of oven-roasted capsicum was inspired by one of my favourite chefs Hugue Dufour (pronounced "hUrGHHGffs DuGHHffsest"). I read an interview of his once when he suggested the best bang-for-buck ingredient is "Leftover brine from jarred pickles or olives. People throw it away, but it’s amazing in a simple dressing or sauce or mayonnaise". Genius!

Also, just because the the photo makes it look like I served dinner in a giant fry pan that may not be entirely accurate....or maybe it is.  

Wagu Burger with Fries (by G)

Sorry I don't have the photo for this one yet - I could get it, but I'm too lazy.

Between the driver's parade and the actual race at the Singapore formula one grand prix I got dinner. My experience from the day before had scarred me a little so I stayed closer to home and got a wagu burger from a concession stand in the pit straight grandstand.

I've got to say, the burger was pretty good - I forgot to get condiments so it was just the beef patty, onion, lettuce and tomato on a bun.  The meat patty had an impressive and tasty char on it given that it came out of a makeshift kitchen - the fries were much better than many you would get from a proper burger place.

There's not much else to say other than that I tried a lot of the concession stand food at the formula one over 3 days and this was about the best thing. I ate at Jamie's Italian a couple of times - the spicy chicken wings were relatively good vale (5 for $10) but lacked any flavour, except for crushed tomatoes. As for his pulled pork burger, the slaw was good - the pork was watery and flavourless. The equal best thing was the bratwurst I had on day one.

Photo added 2/9/15.

Roast Beef with Roast Onion Salad (by Biggs)

It's Sunday so I thought a beef roast was in order.

Instead of cooking the traditional vegetables I went with a roast onion salad with rocket, spinach and parmesan. It was nice and fresh with a lime and garlic dressing added.

I also used the garlic dressing to moisten up the beef a little. It was super flavorful.

The genius twist was serving the beef with the leftover smoked trout cream cheese. You see, half way though dinner last night I realised I'd forgotten to add horseradish. Since horseradish goes so well with beef I mixed some through the leftovers and it made dinner extra special tonight.

If this is what surf and turf is all about, count me in!

F1 Chicken Burrito (by G)

Biggs seems to be smashing it out of the park lately, while my dinners are going downhill somewhat. Not that there are limited options at the formula one - they just mostly suck.

There was a 2 hour break in the action prior to the F1 qualifying so I decided journey to another part of the track to try something that had caught my eye - pies by Squires and Scoundrels - it was mostly the name of the place that appealed to me.  It was out by one of the stages where the Pet Shop Boys were about to play so there was a bit of a line-up - by the time I got close to the front of the queue I discovered that they had Pure Blond and Victoria Bitter on tap, not an inspiring discovery. When I got to the front of the line it turned out they had run out of pies and there would be a 30 minute wait. I like pies, but I was not willing to miss the start of qualifying for one, so I got an overpriced Cairns Gold Lager and went to a nearby food stand that had virtually no queue - a Mexican place - and got a chicken burrito, then found an empty place, by the riverbank away from the blue rinse rave that was going on for the Boys, and ate it. 

The burrito was not great - easily digestible would be the best thing I could say about it. It was creamy and pretty flavourless, not objectionable but not great.

In a bizarre moment, just after I had finished my burrito, a golf cart convoy led by a segue with police lights and sirens passed directly behind me ferrying the president of Singapore from one part of the track to another - he smiled at me. I think he knew he was off to eat something much nicer that I had just stomached.

The pie people turned out to be more Scoundrels than Squires this night.

Yorkshire Puddings with Smoked Trout Cream Cheese (by Biggs)

I saw Jamie make these during his trundle around Britain in his mobile pub and thought they looked pretty crackin;.

The puddings are just eggs, flour and milk poured into a muffin tray and cooked in a super hot oven for 10 minutes. They didn't look quite right when I first took them out but they  were quick to collapse in the middle as per the plan.

The topping for the puddings was smoked trout in cream cheese with lemon juice, salt, pepper and parsley. It was meant to be chives but I'm trying to be diligent with my leftovers so went with the parsley I had in the fridge.

I think there are going to be many more Yorkshire Puddings in my future. Boy, they were rich though. Lucky I had a glass of wine to cut through the richness.

Bratwurst with Sundried Tomato (by G)

Friday at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix - I went with the sausage option. I kind of though the sundried tomato would be in the bun with the bratwurst on top but the tomato was in the sausage itself. Just a sausage on a bread roll for S$12.00 - great!

The sausage was nice - after one bite though I wanted a bit more something so I added mustard and ketchup. Honestly, it was a good sausage - I could have eaten 12 of them, but I didn't have S$144.00 handy so I just had the one.

Small Birds in Lentil Stew (by Biggs)

I was sooooo looking forward to tonight. Tonight, dinner at Fi's place meant three things:

1) It's Friday evening and therefore the weekend,
2) I got to appreciate Fi and Dan's new kitchen, and
3) It's the weekend.....did I mention that already?

So, Fi and Dan in no kitchen was pretty good but put them in a fancy brand new kitchen and they can produce some magic things.. They didn't even know that quail is my default celebratory meal, they must have just sensed it.

The small birds were stuffed with couscous, almonds, apples, bacon and some other treats then served on a bed of lentils and vegetables. I was pretty happy. There was a dedicated bone discard bowl which was satisfying.

Then this happened.....awesome, awesome kitchen.

Left-over Lasagna (by Biggs)

I did a little bit of planning in advance of G going overseas and froze some left-overs knowing I wouldn't be in the mood to cook every night. Tonight was one of those nights. All I did to prepare dinner was zap up some left over lasagna from a while back and slice up some salad.

You might notice I've used a small plate. I thought some portion control was in order. Portion control is important when you're eating salad. Take note.

The lasagna wasn't as tasty as I remembered.

5 Spice Beef with a Side of Fried Rice (by G)

I arrived in Singapore early this morning and had to hang around for hours waiting 'til I could check in to the hotel and take a nap - consequently  I spent most of today drinking and eating. Despite this, after a quick nap I was ready for something more to eat (and drink) but reluctant to go to too much effort with choice. This meal came from a place just around the corner from where I'm staying.

The beef was a bit of a surprise - not spicy and served cold, it was okay. The rice was really good, cooked will and subtly flavourful. It came with cubed steamed chicken on top so it was basically chicken rice - which is always a good thing.

Airport Black Bean Char Beef (by G)

I have a tradition of eating at a particular chicken place whenever I'm flying out of Brisbane airport at night time but, possibly due to ongoing renovations to the terminal - or perhaps because it was too crappy to stay open - the chicken place has gone.

The crappy food options (and the point is to have something crappy before flying out to somewhere where excellent food abounds) were limited to wilted overpriced sandwiches or noodles. The noodle place has the tempting slogan 'We're still open', so how could I go past it.

This meal started off promisingly - cooked to order in a real wok, but was ultimately and satisfyingly disappointing. The beef was almost like ground beef rather than strips and the flavour was virtually non-existent. It managed to be both watery and salty and the noodles were pretty raw.

I could have had (probably) a decent meal at the pub there (I think it must be new - I don't recall having seen it before), but that would defeat the purpose of having a crappy airport meal.

I'm meant to be saving G a spot on the blog every night so he can catch up on the blog any time he finds some internet overseas. I of course immediately forgot. I think this was his Wednesday night dinner.
 
I'll try to do better - Biggs

Sausage Roll (by Biggs)

I came home without much of a plan for dinner beyond 'something delivered to my house by someone'. Just as I was short-listing options G walked through the door with celebratory sausage rolls for us. He was celebrating the fact he's on holidays for the next month and I was celebrating not having to make a dinner decision or go to any effort for a bit of sustenance to get me through the night. The good news is that the sausage roll didn't taste as shiny as it looks in this photo.

He also left me with a big bag of pistachio nuts, not quite a months worth but I'm sure I'll be fine.

Party Pies (by Biggs)

Tonight was our annual Art With Benefits charity exhibition so it's been a big few days. Anita, G and I got home quite late, quite exhausted and very hungry. The good news is there was left over event catering and beer available for dinner. Now, bed.  

Gyoza and Karage Chicken (by G)

Biggs had roped me in to help out at her charity thing and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get to eat until much later so I had a quick early dinner on the way.

The West End Japanese place I ate at is not actually very good but they have an Asahi sign on the footpath that tempts me very time I pass it.  The Asahi was great. The food, while looking very nice, did not have too much flavour. The chicken was better than the gyoza - they were watery.

Fiery Black Pepper Chicken Recipe (by Biggs)

G recently introduced me to Stevie and Emma from the Spice Trip (via the television, not actually in person regardless of how much we'd both enjoy that) and last week they featured my favourite spice - black pepper. They made a few cracking dishes but the best looking one was a Cambodian chicken curry with peppercorns. 

The chicken was briefly marinated in ground black pepper, turmeric, lemon juice and salt while I made a paste from onion, ginger and garlic. Then all of that was dumped in a pot with some fried onion, toasted black pepper and water. 

While the chicken curry was simmering I cooked some rice and made up a quick salad of tomato, red onion, coriander and lime. The curry was then topped with more toasted black pepper. 

Not quite as satisfying as it looked on TV but it was nice and warmly peppery.

Ribs and Wings and Bread (by G)

The fact that Biggs tried to kill us with vegetables the day before and that it was my last actual cooking night before heading overseas had an influence on what I made for dinner. Ribs and wing are pretty easy and usually a crowd pleaser.

One set of wings and also the ribs were marinated in a combo of garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander, brown sugar and oyster sauce. The wing marinade had the addition of fish sauce and a bit more sugar, while the ribs had the addition of Korean barbecue sauce.  The other set of chicken wings was simply brined then sprinkled with salt and white pepper before roasting. I was organised - for once - and managed to marinade/brine the meats for a full 24 hours. The brine penetrated pretty well, the marinades were a little less successful I thing.

No vegetables - just a bread roll on the side.

Harira Lamb Soup (by Biggs)

I found this recipe in the newspaper I bought for our first shrimp boil about two months ago so it's been kicking about in my mind for quite a while. It's a Pete Evan's special and he's a bit of a health nut so I was a little dubious. But, the required four lamb shanks kept me positive about the situation.

Harira Soup is a Moroccan stew. I really like Moroccan flavours and this mix did not disappoint. The base of the soup was chicken stock, onion, celery, cumin, turmeric, ginger, tomatoes and "saffron". When I say "saffron" I mean some lurid orange powder of food colouring. Usually the supermarket has some affordable saffron but this week I could only find two options. One was $13 and the other was.....not saffron. I got the 'imitation saffron powder' just because I was so amused with how bright orange it was and that it's even actually on the market. Bizarre.

The soup also had zucchini, pumpkin, sweet potato and silver-beet as well as the previously mentioned lamb shanks. I freshened it up at the end with some coriander, parsley and lemon.

Well done Pete Evans. Well done.

Rice With the Lot (by G)

I was looking to do something simple and tasty for dinner - nothing says tasty like Chinese barbequed pork so I picked some of that up from the Asian butcher down the road.

Once I'd chopped that up and fried the only thing left to do was add everything else.

I had cooked up some extra rice the day before and frozen it to get it a bit dry - to get it extra dry I spread it on an oven tray and baked it on a low heat for a while.  Along with the pork I fried some defrosted green prawns from the supermarket (those guys really know how to defrost a prawn), some garlic, deseeded red chilli and pea pods.

In a separate pan I fried the rice until it looked good then added a couple of eggs and stirred that through - in hindsight I wish I had made an omelette separately and mixed that through because the rice got a bit dirty with the egg coating. Next thing, I added the flavour components to the rice base and mixed it through. Last step - add some MSG, soy sauce and oyster sauce.

The rice didn't quite meet up to my expectations but with barbequed pork you can't got too far wrong flavour wise.