BEER TASTING DINNER AT MUMU GRILL

MUMU Grill
70 Alexander St
Crows Nest
NSW 2065
Ph : (02) 9460 6877

Some of the best things in life start with the letter B.  Bars, Bugatti, botox and Bono come to mind. So when the invitation came to attend a Beer Tasting Dinner, all other appointments were immediately cancelled.

Head chef Craig Macindoe of MUMU Grill in Crows Nest is a man with a vision and a mission. A great believer in sustainability and caring for the environment, MUMU is the only steakhouse in town that serves only grass-fed beef. Compared to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef leaves a much smaller carbon footprint and is more sustainable.

Craig held a dinner for a group of social media friends to be his guests for the introduction of his new private dining room, and to announce a new monthly beer dinner. The new private room is a lovely room next to the main restaurant with a singular long rectangular table that can seat 20 comfortably.

Ju-Rin Japanese Restaurant

Ju-Rin
316 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest
Ph : (02) 9966 5811
Open : 7 days a week, lunch and dinner.

Having not grown up in Sydney, and despite now having lived here for a decade, I am still bemused by the "Bridge Issue". For all its fame etc, now and then I seem to encounter some sort of a strange sort of "bridge block" when it comes to crossing over and heading North.

It's a shame, as there are good places to visit "over the bridge", less than ten minutes from the CBD.

One of these is Ju-Rin.

I arrived first, so as I waited I did what watchnuts like to do - take photos of their watches! In this case, a vintage watch of unknown brand, with a "red 12".

The arrival of P naturally meant a further "table shot". As opposed to more modern watches than this, the hands on the vintage red 12 are moved after the small "button" beneath the crown is depressed.

The other watch is a Hamilton "Starburst" (as in the dial design is akin to a starburst). Hamilton is an watch brand with a long and illustrious history in the US, especially relating to pocket watches, but which is currently owned by the Swatch Group.

First up we have my order - the Ju-Rin Special Lunch Box ($18.50).

Tempura, Sashimi and Teriyaki Dish

(choose from salmon, Kingfish, chicken or beef)

Plus rice, miso soup and a dessert

This lunch bento was uniformly good. The quality and taste of the beef in particular, was something that struck me immediately.  The sashimi was very fresh, the potato salad (small foil patty case in the first photo) was better than many I have tasted, and the tempura was executed nicely, the batter neither too heavy nor oily. 

I admit to not being a miso soup connoisseur; though I know bad miso soup, I haven't yet developed the experience in being able to discern the attributes of the highest quality miso. What I can say about Ju-Rin's, however, was that I noticed that its taste was, again, above the average standard of the Japanese restaurants which I tend to haunt in Sydney.  That all being said, I have been to the rightly lauded Sakana-Ya, which is less than a minute away from Ju-Rin, a few times before, and though I have definitely had and enjoyed their miso soup, I don't remember it having made as distinct an impression for some reason!

P's choice was the Assorted Sushi Set ($18.50)

A beautiful assortment of nigiri sushi and (cucumber) hosomaki sushi, the fish tender, succulent and fresh.

The proportion of fish to rice in sushi is one of its most important aspects (the others being related to the fish/ filling and the rice : vinegar ratio); there needs to be a balance in proportion between the two.

In investigating what this proportion should be, I came across various schools of thought, ranging from a proportion of about 4 to 1, a weight of exactly 3/4 of an ounce of fish, and dispute about whether the the fish should extend beyond the size of the rice. One Hiroko Shimbo, author of "The Sushi Experience", believes a piece of fish measuring 1.25 by 2.75 inches is recommended.

At the moment I'm reading "The Ramen King and I" by Andy Raskin. Prior to his Ramen Awakening, he had a minor sushi obsession. During this, he became fixated on a book called Kanda Tsuruhachi Sushi Stories, a memoir by a renowned sushi chef called Yukio Morooka. Chef Morooka believes that a customer should be able to eat the sushi (by hand) in one bite, and that the fish should be sliced so that, when viewed from the side, the cut resembles an unfurled paper fan.

Not being yet well equipped to voice a firm opinion on this matter beyond a personal view that the fish to rice proportion should definitely be as such that the fish overhangs over the edge of the rice, I will restrict myself to saying that P's sushi looked good (fish hanging over the rice or no fish hanging over the rice) and he enjoyed it.

The dessert that came with the Assorted Sushi was a pudding of coffee flavour. As I did not taste any, unfortunately I can't offer an opinion....

As always, a final "watch shot", this time of a beautifully photographed book that is an essential for any watch lover, and which was our companion during lunch.

Masters of Contemporary Watchmaking contains photographs of the work of renowned watchmakers such as George Daniels, Roger Smith, Svend Andersen, Vincent Calabrese, Philippe Dufour, Antoine Preziuso, Aniceto Jiménez Pita, Alain Silberstein, Marco Lang, Vianney Halter and Peter Speake-Marin. A nice heavy tome, it is pure watch lust!

As well as Sakana-Ya, The Burlington and MuMu Grill are worth crossing bridge and heading into Crows Nest for!  Last but not least, between Ju-Rin and Sakana-Ya you will find Antique Bookshop & Curios, where you can get some brain food after having satiated yourself with the other type.

[AP]

Sunday Roast at Burlington Bar and Dining - SIFF

Burlington Bar & Dining
6 Burlington St
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Ph : (02) 9439 7888

No it's not the child of some celebrity with a pointy nose, in case you were wondering. Sunday lunch is part of the SMH Sydney International Food Festival in the month of October. It is a new addition to what used to be known as the SMH Good Food Month. Different restaurants around Sydney participated and all involves the hero of good old fashioned Sunday lunch - the roast. The concept is simple, the perfect roast with all its trimmings. The emphasis is on family and sharing. As I have been blessed with a new addition to our small family recently, it is the perfect opportunity for our first family outing.  Bundle of Joy (BoJ) arrived only 6 weeks ago and we have been stuck at home trying to fit in with his routine. It is time to show him one of daddy’s passion - good food!

Burlington Bar and Dining was our chosen venue to relive the good old fashioned Sunday roast. Burlington is the casual version of its big brother south of the bridge Restaurant Balzac. Overseen by Matthew Kemp and team, this casual eatery has received very good reviews and even received a Chef’s Hat in 2008. 

Taking BoJ out requires preparation to rival the landing on the Moon. A transporter, backpack larger than a rocket propellent, more toys than ToysRUs and enough blankets to cover a football field. For the family’s first outing, the weather certainly tried to spoil things. The heaviest downpour in Sydney for the past 8 months in 1 hour tried to flush us away.

Negotiating the transporter up the steps into the restaurant in pouring rain is not mean feat and to their credit, the staff were extremely helpful in getting us in the door. Given the size of the transporter, the staff were very considerate to give us a table by the corner. Water was offered immediately and menu provided. The menu is simple. To continue the theme of family event, entree and desserts are meant to be shared and then a choice of mains are offered. The choice of mains includes roast leg of suckling pig, shoulder of Saltbush lamb “Sept Heures”, line caught braised snapper and cockles or whole roast fore rib of Charolais Beef.

We sip our Gosset Brut Excellence NV while we debated over the advantages of the different proteins. The Gosset was lovely with a nice toasty fine beads. Looking around the restaurant, I didn’t see many fish been served. After much deliberation, the waitress convinced me that the little piggy lived a good life and I can have steak any other day. Being a sheep farmer’s daughter, my wife chose the lamb. 

The bread basket included a single slice of sourdough and linseed served with butter. It’s good to see butter making a comeback as I can not stand the olive oil and balsamic combination.

We both preferred the sourdough over the seed.

The shared entree included Tuna Nicoise salad, fried prawns with aioli and foie gras and chicken liver parfait. The nicoise salad was  a nice pile of salad leaves, radish, olives, cherry tomato, beans, soft boiled egg and what appear to be tinned tuna. I am not a fan of tinned tuna but this one wasn’t that bad at all. It was deftly dressed and very refreshing. A very classic dish.

Fried prawns were simple but absolutely delicious. The garlicky aioli had a spike of paprika which complimented the fresh prawns. The only downside was that there wasn’t more of it. I want more!

The parfait was textbook perfect. Velvety rich and smooth. It was accompanied by lavosh and the same excellent sourdough we had earlier, but grilled. The sourdough had spent a little too much time on the grill but the richness of the parfait more than compensated for any shortcomings. A small pile of tomato relish provided contrast and quite an earthy note to the dish.

Searching for the right wine to accompany the roast, we diverted our attention from BoJ to the wine list.

It is a not a very long wine list but studded with international gems. Someone has done some homework scouting wines from around the globe, including Argentina, Spain, France and of course Australia.

The best feature about the wine list is that 90% of the wines can be bought, not just as bottle or glass, but in 250ml and 375ml carafes. I love the shape of the carafes. This allows you to try different types of wine without committing to buying a bottle. I wish more restaurants would do this.

We ordered a half bottle of 2004 Chateau Sainte Barbe from Bordeaux. It is a little known estate situated on the peninsular of Ambes 20km from Bordeaux. It was first built in 1760s and enjoyed many glory years making wines to rival the best of Bordeaux, especially in the 18th and 19th century. However, since then, it has been neglected for many years until it was bought by Antoine and Lucy Touton in 1999. It is 70% merlot with cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc making up the rest. It is rich in red fruit, vanilla and it is starting to show signs of secondary characters such as leather and cedar box. It is very good value for its price.

It is hard to make a pile of meat look pretty on the plate but both the lamb and pork looked delicious. To be honest, I can not resist a good roast. When done right, something magical happens to a nice piece of protein when its been roasted that transforms it from simple to sublime.

When you roast a whole piece of meat however, there will always bits that are better than others. I love the moist tender meat around the bone or around some juicy fat, usually just under the skin. The big meaty bit can dry out quite easily and this is what happened to my suckling pig. Those meaty bits with a little bit of fat were beautifully tender and moist and full of flavour. Most of it however, was simply too dry for me. The meat was crying out for a gravy of some form. It was only after they took the plate away that I looked over to see the other tables being offered apple sauce and gravy with their suckling pig!!

The crackling on top however, was one of the best I’ve had. It was crispy and light, almost like eating potato chips. My wife’s shoulder of lamb was a little better than mine. The lamb was more fatty and hence avoided the dryness. It sure tasted like spring lamb should be.

The mains were accompanied by steamed broccoli with roast almonds, roasted potatoes and green salad. The broccoli was very lightly cooked and maintained a good bite. The roast almonds provided contrast and interest. The potato was fantastically rich and creamy. I can’t think of a better way to eat potatoes. Maybe dead heat with thick hand-cut chips cooked in duck fat. The green salad was deftly dressed but fairly routine.

Desserts returned to the theme of sharing with a trio of desserts. Bitter chocolate hot pudding with Jaffa ice cream came in a earthy shallow pot. I love a good pudding and this one strikes all the right notes. Sweet with dark chocolate, but not too sweet. Slightly crunchy and caramalised on the outside, but gooey soft in the middle. Jaffa ice cream is distinctively recognisable and goes well with the rich pudding.

 

Camarosa strawberries and cream is the classic British dessert. Camarosa is a variety of strawberries from California introduced in Australia in the 90s. Compared to other varieties, it produces a larger fruit with few deformities and consistently good flavour throughout the season. Other varieties tend to change flavours from beginning to end of the season but the Camarosa is consistent all season long. In short, a good looking strawberry that tastes as good as it looks all year round.

Again the chefs have done well to keep the sweetness of this lovely dessert down so its not too overwhelming. The cream is light without losing any of its loving creaminess. The toffee on top is no more than a decoration for me as I am not a fan of toffee in general.

I am not a fan of affogato as a dessert either. For me, affogato is just coffee with a scoop of ice cream. It is NOT a dessert! The espresso is well made and the ice cream has a good vanilla flavour, but it is nothing to write home about. The pudding was certainly our favourite and we demolished it in an instant.

Almost forgot, the watch to accompany this delicious meal was an IWC Portuguese automatic with 7 day power reserve in stainless steel. The legend of the Portuguese started in 1936 when two Portuguese traders, Rodrigues and Teixeira, arrived in Schaffhausen to order a wristwatch that would incorporate the qualities of an on-board chronometer. The International Watch Company obliged and a legend was born.

The current version is based on caliber 50010, the largest automatic movement in the world. The transparent sapphire caseback allows perfect view of this beautiful automatic movement.

The Pellaton winding system actually provides enough energy to run the movement for 8 days but the gearing stops at 7 days, avoiding the risk of diminished precision due to reduced spring tension. The white dial is contrasted by blued hands and numbers. It also comes in a black dial but I fell in love with the blued hands contrasting the while dial. It’s 42mm case gives it a nice presence but yet so elegant. The black alligator bracelet completes the package. Like the perfect Sunday roast lunch with the family. Timeless.

Note:  While taking the photo of the watch, the adjoined table was asking “Why?”  Some people just don’t get it!

For another review of the Burlington, see this post.

[DY]

MUMU Grill

70 Alexander St.

Crows Nest

Ph: (02) 9460 6877

Craig Macindoe is a chef, blogger, tweeter, and passionate supporter of sutainable farming and produce.  His MUMU Grill, as well as serving organic produce, also regularly hosts dinners highlighting this passion.

I had been visiting P, who unfortunately was too busy for lunch, so I decided to satiate my steak sandwich craving at MUMU.

Steak Sandwich ($16.90)

from the Express Lunch Menu

Described thus : Prime Rib, Rocket, Tomato, Manchego, caramelised onions on house made bread served with chips.

The thing that was immediately distinctive about this sandwich was the presence of cheese, which I only infrequently encounter in steak sandwiches.

Manchego cheese has a long historic and literary tradition, including a mention by Cervantes in "Don Quixote of La Mancha".

The Denomination of Origin (Denominación de Origen Protegida) Ruling defines the area where Manchego cheese can be produced : the Castile-La Mancha Autonomous Region, within which the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real and Cuenca y Albacete lie.  Manchego cheese has been protected by the Denomination of Origin since 1984, and it stipulates the exclusive use of milk from manchega sheep breed, as well as an ageing period of a minimum of 60 days.

This is a hefty generous specimen of a steak sandwich which I decided to eat (after having cut it in half) with my hands. This was probably the wrong decision, as the onions and juice of the steak ended up almost as much on my hands as in my mouth. I guess the cutlery was provided with good reason.

As a steak sandwich lover, I am always curious as to whether I will be asked for how I wish the steak to be cooked or whether, because of the cut of the steak, I am presented with it in whatever fashion they cook it. This tends to happen with those places that use minute steak. 

At MUMU, the steak is king, and in my sandwich, it was cooked to perfection.

The steak was mouthfuls of joy. Juice, tender and flavoursome. Ironically, perhaps, the one distinctive feature of the sandwich, the Manchego, is probably the thing that I would have preferred to have been left out!  The was both because of its strong taste, which was competing with that of the meat, and because the steak was so good that the mere presence of the cheese took my attention away from the taste of the meat. 

A quarter of my way into the sandwich, I realised that what I really wanted to do was to just eat the meat and nothing else, it was that good. 

Chef MUMU, that steak rocked.

[AP]

The Burlington

The Burlington

6 Burlington St

Crows Nest NSW 2065
Ph : (02) 9439 7888

Monday to Friday for lunch from 12.00pm
Monday to Saturday for dinner from 6.00pm

For the dual reasons of proximity (time constraints) and for-some-unknown-reason-I've-not-made-it-there, we found ourselves finally at The Burlington.  I have absolutely no excuse for not having made it there until this late point. It also took me eons to get to Balzac, but my excuse there was that Randwick just seemed far away.

As is my wont, I'd been obsessing over the menu and wondering how many dishes I could persuade Himself to agree to sharing but when the time came, the dishes on the $35 three course lunch special (no choices) appealed to us.

Croquettes of King Salmon w Garlic Aioli

I am never sure whether I prefer the filling of my salmon croquettes to be smooth or still with some flaky texture. These were of the former variety, with the exterior beautifully thin and crunchy. I am a bit of a lemon fan so my personal preference was for lemon over the aioli to accompany the croquettes.  The aioli was mild, and I suspect that my lemon preference was partly because I wanted a bit of a kick to the delicacy of the salmon filling. 

Sweet Corn & Lemon Thyme Risotto with Sauteed Prawn Tails

Oh this was good....risotto as comfort food that made us both very happy indeed.  Soothing, creamy but light, the prawn sweet and firm, the lemon thyme a hint in the background. I could have eaten a double serve of this quite happily out of sheer desire for more.

Eton Mess

Eton mess, as its name indicates, is a dessert originating from Eton College.  Historically served at the College's annual prize giving picnic on "the Fourth of June" which is apparently actually the last Wednesday in May, it is traditionally made with strawberries or bananas and cream, with meringue being a relatively modern addition.  

This example, as can be seen, contained meringue, some raspberries and a nice bit of crunchy toffee. Summery, and somehow making perfect sense as a dessert to follow the risotto.  He, convinced that 3 courses would be too much for him, had initially asked me to help him eat his dessert.

Needless to say, my assistance as not required.

A final photo of an unexpected thing which though perhaps unimportant and small in the greater scheme of things, was nonetheless a pleasant surprise.

There are a lot of very good value lunch deals around town at the moment and I would definitely rate The Burlington's as one that is worth trying.

[AP]

NOT BREAD ALONE & COUNTER BURGER

(aka “Ryo’s Noodles is closed”)

Not Bread Alone
Shop 2
376 Pacific Highway
(Cnr of Hume St)
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Ph: (02) 9966 9788

The Counter Custom Built Burgers
118 Willoughby Road
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Ph : (02) 9436 2700


17 July 2009

We were meant to be having lunch at Ryo's, @antiquebookshop and I, only it didn’t turn out that way, as Ryo’s is closed until sometime next week (I think it was 22 July). It already being quite late in the lunch hour (2.15pm), and Antique Bookshop being more pressed for time than he had anticipated, we headed off down the road to Not Bread Alone instead.

Having ordered, it was naturally time for we Tarts to get some tableshots of whatever happened to be on our wrists that day.

Left - Daniel JeanRichard Bressel chronograph
Right – Panerai PAM 250 “Daylight”

The DJR Bressel has a Dubois-Depraz 2020 module riveted onto a refinished ETA 2824-2 movement. As this blog is a food & watch blog, for those who don’t know and who wish to, a “télémètre” scale measures the distance between (in this case a watch wearer) based on the speed of sound. That is, the distance between a wearer and an object that generates a visible signal and a loud noise such as an electrical storm. I’ve never actually used it and to be honest am not entirely sure how to...

The PAM250 “Daylight” is named after the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name. Stallone purchased his first Panerai in Rome whilst filming “Daylight”, and there are some good screenshots of him wearing the watch here, as well as other “Panerai moments” in the movies. He liked the Panerai that he purchased so much that he had the company make 200 more of them (“Slytech”) with his signature on the back, which he handed out as gifts.

Having a watch named after a Stallone film is either a plus or a minus, depending on your own personal preferences, but the watch itself has to a large extent transcended its naming origins. Stallone has joked about Panerais being “perfect for people over 45 years old”, because of the ease of reading the time on large watches.

The brand of “Daniel Jeanrichard”, now simply JeanRichard, is named after the man considered as the father of the Jura watchmakers. It is believed that the then fifteen year old Daniel, a blacksmith’s apprentice, was given the opportunity to see his very first watch. It was a broken timepiece brought back from England by a horse dealer. Daniel studied and mended it, then made a copy. One year later, he created his very own watch, the first ever manufactured in the region.

PAM250 Wearing Person chose the Not Bread Alone Club Sandwich ($10.50).

which consisted of “chicken, avocado, bacon, mixed leaf [sic], cucumber, Spanish onion on Turkish”, whilst DJR Wearing Person chose the Salt & Pepper Squid with mixed leaf salad and lemon aioli ($17.90 for main size).

The club sandwich was suitably satisfactory to its eater, but the Salt & Pepper Squid was actually a bit on the salty side, even for S&P squid. This saltiness lead to a somewhat regrettable decision.

The decision was that I really needed something sweet.

Perhaps the Apple Pie milkshake that I’d seen on NotQuiteNigella would be the perfect neutraliser?

Why just have a milkshake, I thought? I should have something else, given that I was there, after all.....

Mini Cheeseburgers ($11) – Plate of four topped with Cheddar, Red Onions, Pickles and Red relish.

Mistake.

Total mistake.

Couldn’t finish Apple Pie shake, which was like trying to drink (or rather spoon) crushed up apple pie, ice cream and perhaps a token ml or two of milk.

Couldn’t finish the miniburgers, which I had actually assumed were going to be small two-bite sized ones.

Dinner that night = nothing.