galician summer (IV)

Monday turned out to be another great sunny day, perhaps even better than the previous 48 hours. We unilaterally decided to extend our weekend mind frame, and one more time we ended up hanging around the pool and the marble table under the centenary oak tree.

I guess this was our quintessential summer diet: pimientos de Padron, jamon and chorizo iberico de bellota, anchoas del Cantabrico, tomato and lettuce salad, Arzua and Cebreiro cheeses, Cea bread, plus a great albarino. 

Also coming from Meano, this wine is becoming our summer greatest hit, together with all the Pedralongas and their Vendetta in particular. The 2008 Leirana, together with the barrica one have been majestically maximizing our fantastic summer mood.

Generally speaking I adore anchovies, especially the ones coming from the Cantabric sea, like the heavenly ones we had the privilege to digest on Monday.

galician summer (III)

The weekend finished in a quite similar tune, so we revisited the easy going formula of cooking at home, after a nice morning in the pool.

The local mub crab has a beige and red tone, and it doesn't really come with any mud around it. The best way to enjoy it for me ends with the unique flavour and texture of the corals, together with all the elements around them. So far, Lyn seems not to be the biggest fan of this specific part of the crab.

This time we had an albarino I brought last May from Meano. A 2009 Cepas Vellas (old vines) from the Do Ferreiro winery.

"Merluza a la gallega" was our fish of the day: Galician style hake. Probably the fish I could eat every day. I've never seen in back in Syd City, but somehow it could compare to jewfish.

galician summer (II)

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day, so we decided to lay low. 

We cooked at home a crab, here know as "centolla", and some small "necoras". Very different flavours and textures, but certainly compatible ones.

Another albarino would have been a perfect choice, but Lyn felt like bubbles, so we added an interesting bottle of cava: a 2006 Raventos i Blanc gran reserva de La Finca.

We continued with a semi vegetarian home grown cabbage with home grown leaks, red capsicum, onion and fresh shrimp.

Dessert was a cross over between a local home baked apples with honey from the property, plus some Canadian influenced chocolate (90%) cake. The outcome was brilliant.

galician summer (I)

While in Galicia we always visit Sada, just like Franco used to do every summer, but definitely not because of this reason.

We do love "camarones", a perfect starter.

Albarinos are ideal for seafood, so it had to be one of them: in this ocassion it was a 2007 Veigadares, from Salvaterra.

The fish I chose was "lubina a la espalda", although the sardines in this little town are usually over the top.

And we concluded the ceremonies with a flan "de la casa": pure and simple.

mex mix

Our last trip to Texas has developed a renovated admiration towards Mexican and Tex Mex gastronomy. We are not fully into it, but we can certainly enjoy a few characteristic elements, which this weekend was going to bring back to the table. 

Earlier this month we tried a riesling beyond our previous encounters with this type of wine, which never made it for me. However this was a total surprise, and we decided to repeat. The result of drinking this second bottle of 2010 Crawford River riesling was a confirmation of the initial positive impression. Again, this new discovery is made in Victoria, coming from a place called Condah, not too far from the border with SA.

Considering this was supposed to be nothing else than an easy lunch, we added one of our adored fruits, which while displaying a full on intense flavour it is very light. I bet we could have kilos of passion fruit without a single complain.

At this point we deserved something special to conclude our midday meal, and we kept the fruity approach, even if not as full of fruit. As announced last Friday,  Kakawa's banana caramel striked back, so we decided it was fair to support this noble re-release gravitating around a magical combination of banana, caramel, roasted coconut and milk chocolate.

heads up

Craving for seafood is not an ideal situation when there is no such thing around. That's why the art of keeping some interesting leftovers in the refrigerator, can turn things around in unimaginable rewarding ways. 

My refrigerator incursion started with a portion of mud crab head, which made a tremendous tapa. It came from that edgy front part of the shell, not far from the eyes, which basically is the soft shell right before it becomes the real new shell. 


Dinner was unintentionally meant to be a heads promenade, so the following move took me to a juicy mulloway head. I simply boiled it for no more than five minutes, together with onion, peas and a fresh tomato to be decorated with extra virgin olive oil. In order to execute this kind of operation I always need plenty of time, and I literally mean it, to go through every single bone and cavity. I can't afford to do it if I happen to be starving, but otherwise it is a highly inspiring process. 

The menu was ideal for an albariño. There was one only bottle left, a 2010 Leirana, which I picked up in the small town of Meaño last May. That day I was going to meet Rodri, the young brain behind the winery. He had suddenly left somewhere else two hours away, so he called his father, who I ended up meeting together with his gracious mother. They showed me all around, and I even got a free bag of lemons, as well as lettuce they grow right close to one of their vineyards.

My weekly pilgrimage to the temple of chocolate in Syd City had its reward: the  cardamom ginger bon bon, which Jin Sun offered last Friday. I don't think it was anything new, but apparently it had been out of the menu for a while. The flavour was genuinely exciting. I could easily eat a full box of them.

light lunch by ear(s)

Having a perfect flat white at Single Origin Roasters last June I got to discover a work by Dan O'Toole (aka EARS), which covers one of the walls on the Reservoir cafe. Danish cook mega star Rene Dedzepi was there last month, twitting about  their exceptional espresso. I usually go for their flat white.

A few days later I was able to track him down, and last week we met at his studio in Leichhardt. His work on canvas seems to have developed quite a bit from his wall painting, which as he described is more of an opportunity to have a really good time. The "Bee Keeper", above, was probably the painting I liked the most.

We met quite early in the afternoon, so I didn't have much time to even consider a good lunch. It was more of a thought about how to fuel my system with potentially light but tasty food. Fruit, salad and bread was kind of an instant solution, which I actually very much enjoy, as long as it is all really fresh.