The Age Good Food Night Noodle Market

I really love Melbourne in summer.  

I made it to the Night Noodle Market in the knick of time.   I was too busy last weekend and the weather wasn't great during the week and suddenly good food month was over.  Melbourne hit 35 degrees but I dragged a toddler into town.  And it was worth it.  I didn't get to try as many dishes as I had hoped but there's always next year.  It was a lovely way to spend an early evening.

Chin Chin Pork Slider ($9)

Gelato Messina goodness ($9).  There was biscuit, meringue, 3 scoops of ice cream AND custard.  Amazing! 

Grilled haloumi and caramelised apple salad

I could actually eat this for every meal for the rest of my life.  The saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the apple are the ultimate combination.  A sprinkle of cinnamon and a couple of walnuts tops it off.

I grill the haloumi in coconut oil and then caramelise the apple in the juices.  It beats chocolate for a snack any day of the week.

“But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.” ― Stephen R. Covey,

I am often tired.  So tired.  My autoimmume disease can wreck havoc with me.  My moods and energy levels.  My digestion.  It can all be a complete mess.  And just as often I feel perfectly fine.  Happy. Content.  Full of energy.  It's the low energy times that destroy me.  I begin to feel guilty about the way I feel and it all turns into one vicious cycle.  I've been burning myself into the ground of late with the occasional poor choices.  Having a child has made me realise that these small people learn the best by following your example.  So what I do has to change.

If you've read my blog before you'd know that about 2 years ago I decided to cut refined sugar out of my life.  I didn't eat sugar for ages.  Many, many months. And then recently chocolate and ice cream became my friends who quickly turned into enemies.  They taught me that I just cannot tolerate eating them and that they make me feel like a drum of toxic chemicals.  So last night I binned any trace of processed food from my fridge/freezer/pantry.  No more chocolate covered macademia nuts. I am sick of waste.  I am now embarking on a clean life for a little while.  Simple, simple food free of sugar.  Free of cake.  No fad diet.  No weight loss.  Just the right choices and the right example for my little girl. 

Postcards from Mornington

I'm sure I'm not the only one overwhelmed and stressed with daily life.  Yet I still throw myself into a million side projects, too.  Since scaling back and virtually taking a year off from most of my myriad of commitments, it's been a real revelation having spare time to wile away.  Reading, watching shows piling up on my IQ, napping, taking long walks, doing pilates or simply doing nothing.  Everything is either an essential, or unnecessary.  I'm simplifying my life and my to do lists.  I don't have to have it all and I don't have to have it all now.

Part of not having much planned was impromptu afternoon drive to Mornington for some wine and cheese.  Just over an hour away from home and so slow paced and relaxing.  It was a freezing day, but the sun broke through and made the sunny deck an ideal place to ponder.

View from Arthur's Seat.

View from the deck and a bottle of wine at Morning Sun Winery.

Tasting plate of Main Ridge Dairy cheeses - $10.  I went home for a jar of marinated chevre and some caprinella.

On my plate

Part of getting back on track is eating breakfast. In my previous life almost every meal involved sugar and unfortunately breakfast was skipped. I was much too tired to wake up any sooner than 5 minutes before I had to leave the house so I was a walking, disheveled, hungry mess most days.

I am not eating dairy in the morning, which causes a huge problem. No yoghurt or cheese is hard. Muesli and cereal with a milk replacement is also out as its loaded with sugar. Not much choice, is there?

On my plate today is an egg white omlette/scrambled mess. Toast with avocado and a giant pot of T2 French Earl Grey.

Maggie Beer's Farmshop

This year seems to be passing me by way too quickly.  I am so confused about what's next for me.  I've had so many commitments of late that I have had very little free time to enjoy life and thus little to blog about.  Food and cooking however have been a huge passion.  I am loving my kitchen and am spending hours experimenting with recipes, digging up old magazine cut outs and tweaking some of my favourites.

I also took a little break and headed to South Australia.  A change of pace and plenty of fresh produce and wineries to explore.

Maggie Beer has done wonderful things for the food industry in Australia - from restaurants to cook books and her own authentic produce.  Her farmshop in Barossa Valley was a little difficult to find, but so very charming.  It was the perfect pit stop on a bitterly cold and wet late autumn Sunday afternoon.  The open fire in the corner hit the spot (as did the cheese picnic basket and glass of red wine).

I came home with some delicious quince paste, a bottle of verjuice for cooking as well as some of Maggie's olive oil and dukkah.  The dukkah is incredible.  The different nuts and seeds create the most intense flavour and surprise to the taste buds.  Can't wait to use it as a coating for lamb.

Cheese picnic basket {$15}

Vegan delights...

With Christmas lent well and truly underway, I am feeling fantastic.  No animal product consumption agrees with me and I'm waking up in the morning without an alarm clock.  My favourites to cook and eat...

Vegetable relish.. Brown an onion and some garlic in vegetable oil and add finely diced capsicum, tomato, eggplant, mushroom.. anything you like and reduce it with some salk, pepper, vegeta and paprika on medium heat for around 20 minutes.  Served hot with mash potato or rice...  I virtually eat variations of it daily!

Corn bread.  2 cups polenta, 1 cup plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder  Combined with 2 cups of soy milk and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.  I like to add a teaspoon of tea and 3 table spoons of sugar.

Salad Monday

While making my way home this evening, inappropriately dressed for how cold it was upon my return to Melbourne, I made a quick stop over at the grocery store.  As evidenced by my previous post, the weekend was very gluttonous with many desserts consumed! (and I didn't even post a photo of mum's birthday cake)


I am a big believer in the blood type diet (I'm not into diets in the weight loss sense of the word, but a way of life).  My blood type calls for a near vegetarian diet (and I swear when I follow it, even loosely, I feel a million dollars).  With unpacking, washing and catching up on emails ahead of me tonight, salad was on the menu for dinner - a rocket, pear and feta salad.  Two minutes to make and one of my favourites.  Sometimes I use vinegar or some lemon with the olive oil for a bit of bite..

Dad's French Toast

My dad was and still is, a sports nut and as I was growing up, while it snowed outside, we spent many days and many nights watching football matches, ski jumping and Cowboy and Indian films.  They were my favourite.  I loved spending time with dad.  We did exactly what I wanted to do and that suited me just fine ;)


Dad also always cooked my favourite food - French Toast being one of them.  I do enjoy going out for breakfast a lot, but I also love making FT and reminiscing about my childhood.

4 eggs make about 8 slices.  I like to make the mixture on a flat plate - a bowl is too difficult to dip bread into.

Throw in a pinch of salt, a couple of tea spoons of flour and about 1/4 of milk and beat with a fork until mixed.

Dip both sides of the bread into the mixture.  I do it quickly, as I don't like my FT too soggy.

Throw into a hot frying pan with some melted butter

And enjoy!  My favourite FT is drizzled with honey with a dollop of sour cream.

Served with herbal tea and a chocolate (I rest the chocolate on the hot tea cup, so it's nice and soft and beginning to melt)

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie - Darling Street, Balmain, Sydney

The clock on my MacBook is about to strike 8pm and I am already tucked into bed with the newest issue of US Vogue that's just arrived in my letterbox, as well as a mug of green and pear organic tea in my favourite oversized red mug that I lugged across America with me after I purchased it on my first night in NYC at the M&M's store in Times Square.  I couldn't resist - it was red and had my initial on it! 

Never mind that there are 3 loads of washing overtaking my bathroom/laundry room.  Plus a bunch of delicates that require hand washing.  No really, never mind.  I just have to write about Adriano Zumbo's Patisserie!

You may be thinking to yourself "hang on, isn't this the girl who put herself through the torture of a juice detox to kick her sugar addiction????".  Yes you're right, it's the same girl.  But the girl just couldn't help herself!

Now Adriano Zumbo's patisserie has featured in every one of Sydney's "best patisserie" lists for years and there were always 20 minute lines to sample his creations.  Since the Massive Mayham AKA Masterchef, Adriano's business has doubled in turnover.  And if you've lived under a rock or outside of Australia and you don't know what Masterchef is, well it's a reality television show that puts 24 ordinary people (this year it was majority lawyers) through the wringer to kick start their culinary career, even though these people have zero idea about what it is actually like to work in a commercial kitchen, have next to no life outside of work as you're too knackered while you're awake to do anything... Yep, they all have a passion for cooking and CANNOT wait to open their own restaurant and publish a cookbook.... or their 15 minutes of fame.  Sunday's finale was the 3rd most watched TV event in 10 years in Australia (behind a tennis and football match).  Adriano was a celebrity chef that afforded the contestants the most difficult challenges, that's for sure! 

I spent a few days in Sydney over the past week, namely for a friends wedding.  But I also wanted to enjoy some of my favourite things in Sydney - the harbour, the shopping (which I think is better than Melbourne (!!!)) and visit a few of my favourite neighbourhoods (and a particular patisserie).  Each previous time I've been to Sydney I've never had the opportunity to cross town to Balmain to visit Adriano's and try his goodies.  Things always got in the way.

So on Saturday afternoon I made my way to Darling Street, only to hit the end of the queue, which was about 60 people deep and over 2 hours long!  Sorry Adriano, I needed a stiff drink rather than a macaroon after hearing that. Surely it's not worth 200+ minutes of my life I thought.  And I left.

Since I was spending Monday in Sydney too, I thought surely the crowds would die down being a weekday and all (work, anyone?)

So I made the trek back over across Anzac Bridge and joined the queue at around lunch time.  I wasn't missing an opportunity, especially when the line this time was only 20 people deep.  I thought, I'd be done and sugared up within 15 minutes.  Boy was I wrong.  The line didn't move during the first 15 minutes in stood in it!  Which left me even more puzzled as to what the heck was taking so long and why I was standing outside a patisserie with a bunch of other lunatics in an unmoving line.

But the sweet smell whiffing out the door and through the breeze made me want to stay, as did my quest to find out why the line wasn't moving!

Once inside I was overwhelmed by the sheer tiny-ness of the place!  It is literally about 10m deep and 3m wide, no more!  If a staff member wanted to leave from behind the counter, the 7-8 people that could fit inside would have to squash up in a corner, so the staff member could slide the glass cabinet across the room and squeeze out!

At any given time, there is about 10 types of cakes and tarts for sale and they often sell out within hours with only 2 people working behind the counter serving customers!!!! (and one person is solely answering the phone!  Wielding calls about the address, which Masterchef challenge cake is for sale today, which flavour maracoon is on offer, what the closest side street is to the patisserie, what time they close... how long the queue is..................)

And the person left serving is forced to answer millions of questions about each individual creation, with everyone who was in the queue ahead of me purchasing at least one of everything - and nobody spending less than $150!  My new, sugar control self had a budget of $20.

The sweets were all such amazing pieces of art.  The tarts are known to be his specialty, so I walked out $19 poorer with 6 macaroons (the flavours of the day were the vanilla and pear & vanilla) and an "Aye Bro Chocolate Munt" which I decided to get at the last moment instead of the lemon tart.

The macaroons were absolute perfection.  Best I've ever had. The biscuits were lovely and crunchy and thin and the filling ample, yet light and absolutely delicious.

And the chocolate munt was out of this world!  I didn't really read the description while at the patisserie so I was pleasantly surprised to discover a lovely, gooey minty caramel filling.  Biting into the tart, the chocolate shortbread was thin and crunchy, while the caramel was liquid gold, it oozed down the shortbread crust, without actually spilling or dripping out.  It was magic.  The chocolate ganache was the most perfect consistency.  Smooth and perfect and just sweet enough.  I have honestly never tasted anything like it in my life.  I wish I had purchased $150 worth like the others and hoarded it in my luggage and eaten it for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days.  Forget the detox, you don't often get to eat something this amazing. I was left absolutely speechless by what I had just eaten.  Perfection in a pink box.  Worth a trip to Sydney alone.