Pasta aglio, olio e peperoncino

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Of the many varied ways we use pasta in our home, this is perhaps our favourite.

It’s a spicy, salty, oily flavour explosion.

It’s also quite tricky – the timing is everything.

As with wok cooking, everything – garlic, anchovies, parsley – needs to be ready and chopped well before the pasta is cooked.

And don’t even think about making the “sauce” – if that’s what it is – until the pasta is about 95 per cent done.

I was surprised to find, on checking our various Itralian cookbooks, that none them included the anchovies.

Oh well – we do!

And all those recipes use less parsley than us.

What can I say? We love the green stuff!

I can’t imaging using short pasta with this – though we do when making the closely related version using broccoli.

Because this pasta concoction is not one that holds its heat well at all, we use the pasta water to pre-heat the bowls.

Everyone will have their own comfort levels when it comes to the chilli, garlic and anchovies.

Almost as good as the taste is the way cooking this pongs up the house!

INGREDIENTS

Extra virgin olive oil

Garlic

Anchovies

Chilli flakes

Parsley

Long pasta

METHOD

1. Get the water going in a really big pot.

2. Finely chop garlic and anchovies; leave on chopping board alongside your required level of chilli flakes.

3. On a separate board, chop the parsley.

4. When the pasta is about half way done, gently warm a generous amount of the oil in a pan on a very low heat.

5. When pasta is all but done, turn pan heat up to a low medium.

6. Throw in the garlic, chilli flakes and anchovies.

7. Stir frequently to break up the anchovies. The garlic should get only a light tan so some care and attention is required.

8. Drain pasta, using the water to pre-heat bowls.

9. Turn pan heat to very low and toss drained pasta into the pan, swirling it around so all the good stuff is sticking to it.

10. Throw in the parsley and swirl similarly.

11. Serve in pre-heated bowls and top with another dollop of extra virgin olive oil if desired or needed.

12. Eat.

13. Lick lips and smile.

Dappa Snappa Fish Cafe

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Dappa Snappa Fish Cafe, 203 Nelson Place, Williamstown. Phone: 9943 4109

There are only hazy memories hereabouts of the days when fish and chips resided at the cheaper end of the cheap eats spectrum.

These days a decent F&C feed will always cost you more than a bowl of pho just about anywhere you go.

This situation is exacerbated in my own case because – creature of some habits that I am – ordering F&C without coleslaw is something of which I am simply incapable.

In this case, a minimum serve of coleslaw costing $5.50 nudges the cost of my lunch – including  a can of soft drink – above $16.

I know, I know – $5.50 for coleslaw? Sounds a bit steep, doesn’t it?

But I have a hunch about this salad.

It looks good.

It tastes better.

A whole lot better.

Fact is, this is the best F&C shop coleslaw I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.

It’s stupendous in its perfection.

Perfectly dressed, crunchy but not too crunchy – I’m almost giggling with the sheer enjoyment of it as I slurp up every last shred of cabbage.

The chips are fine in an old-school way and hot, but receive a healthy shake from the salt dispenser.

The fish – blue grenadier – is better again. Of a good size and with a nicely crunchy batter, the fish flesh is juicy and very flavoursome.

The tartare sauce is almost as good as the coleslaw – delicious, fresh and creamy.

This is a winning fish luncheon.

Dappa Snappa boss man Mehmet has been open only a couple of weeks when I visit.

He’s enjoyed a ripper Queen’s Birthday Monday, but is mostly hoping to survive the winter by looking forward to bumper spring and summer crowds.

I reckon he’ll do fine.

There’s F&C alternatives at either end of the Nelson Place food strip, but smack bang in the middle – where he is – there’s much food that is awful, over-priced or both.

Mehmet’a joint is done out in typically breezy fish cafe style, with exposed bricks on one side and a cute seaside scene on the other, and plenty of seating inside and out.

While our immediate neighbourhood continues to lack a sit-down F&C establishment, Dappa Snappa is likely to receive multiple visits from us.

I’ll be interested to hear of Bennie’s verdict on the hamburgers.

Bonus points, too, for the provision of real crockery and metal cutlery!

Dappa Snappa Fish Cafe on Urbanspoon

Meeting Mr Bongiovanni

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Anthony’s grandfather and grandmother flank his then-toddler father in their North Melbourne butcher shop.

There have been many surprises attending the opening of long-awaited food emporium A.Bongiovanni & Son in Seddon – its size, scope, range and pricing just for starters.

What has not been so surprising are the varying levels of negativity that have arisen.

These seem to range from fears for smaller local businesses posed what is seen by some as a predatory carnivore to outright hostility towards what is perceived as an attack on community wellbeing by a moneybags outsider.

Doubtless that will continue to be the case and healthy debate will continue for a long time to come.

But spending time with the man behind the shop and its arrival, Anthony Bongiovanni, it’s impossible to deny the passion he has for Seddon.

He’s a businessman for sure – and a self-confessed ambitious one at that.

But he’s one who I am inclined to take at face value when he makes a determined assertion that he wants to see Seddon bloom.

As he points out, he has been a prominent community member for almost a decade and president of the Seddon Traders Association for the past four.

“I want a better Seddon,” he says. “I have a passion for Seddon. I’m not out to take people’s business away.

“I made a deliberate decision not to stock non-food household good so we wouldn’t be directly competing with the supermarket around the corner.

“With this sort of place, I couldn’t not stock bread – but considering the size of the place, we haven’t gone overboard. We certainly don’t want to hurt Sourdough Kitchen.

“We want to provide more options. I’ve never seen so many people on the street.”

Anthony points out the wooden pannelling above the fruit and vegetable section. It took him and his father-in-law three weeks to install using wood from old fruit boxes of the type just visible bottom right.

Anthony himself is another surprise.

Where I’d had a mental picture of a suave Italian patriarch, I instead meet an enthusiastic young man in his early ’30s.

But he’s packed a lot of living and work experience into those three decades.

He has a long background in the liquor and building industries.

On his mother’s side of the family, there’s a history of fruiterers; on his father’s side is a line of butchers.

His grandfather’s butcher shop in North Melbourne was named C.Bongiovanni & Sons.

Anthony has continued that tradition by including “& Son” in the official name of his new enterprise after his own two-year-old son, Samuel.

At one stage, he ran a joint called Bongiovanni’s Food & Wine Bar in North Fitzroy, but it was too small to make it profitable.

Anthony is happy to see its failure as an outright positive.

“I lost just about everything, but it was the best thing that could have happened,” he says.

Anthony leased the building that these days houses Thirsty Camel – it was Betts Electrical then – in the mid-’90s, eventually buying both that building and the one next door, which housed a furniture store.

He resisted interest from the furniture folk in renewing and extending their lease, and entertained leasing proposals that involved the likes of a gym or yoga centre.

But they didn’t work for him.

“I wanted something that would boost Seddon,” he says.

I suspect the genesis of A.Bongiovanni & Son was long dormant but profoundly present in Anthony’s soul.

But things only really started moving when he was perusing Ebay one night and saw a bunch of good-quality shop fittings for sale. He rang the woman involved the next day, eventually doing a great deal the got him not just shop fittings but a forklift as well.

Then followed more purchases of fittings from Ebay and all of a sudden the plan was up and running.

There were major hiccups along the way, mostly notably with the securing of a strong, reliable electricity source.

Turns out the existing power infrastructure was woefully inadequate to service such a shop, and wasn’t all that flash at doing so for other existing businesses either.

The eventual cost was well above $200,000, with Anthony contributing about a third.

Anthony’s grandfather on the left.

Then followed the long and challenging job of securing products and distributors for them.

“I travelled interstate, I went to food fairs and farms,” Anthony says.

The shop carries more than 20,000 products and deals with more than a 1000 suppliers.

The likes of Raw Materials handle a range of products and producers, but many of the items that line the shelves of A.Bongiovanni & Son come from single-product makers so the work simply has to be done.

While the business does carry some cheaper items – incredibly cheap in some cases – Anthony is unapologetic about mostly following a top-notch philosophy that mirrors his own approach to food.

“Whether it be chips or sausages, I’m happy to pay a dollar more or eat a little less to get that high quality,” he says.

As we wrap up our conversation, we spend some time marvelling over photographs Anthony has of yesteryear scenes of Footscray such as the Western Oval, long-gone tram routes and shops.

Then he lends me a copy of Per L’Australia – The Story Of Italian Migration by Julia Church, a mind-blowing photo history upon which I plan to feast.

He tells me there’s further big plans afoot for A.Bongiovanni & Son, but only smiles when I press him for details.

Cooking classes?

Demonstrations?

Live music?

“There’s more,” he says with a smile.

And finally, he dismisses the moneybags suggestions.

“Everything here … I started from scratch.”

Heading back to my car, I stop by Sourdough Kitchen to inquire about how they feel about the new business just up the road, but they’re too busy to talk.

See earlier post here.

Bennie eats smoothies, pancakes and corn (:

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WORDS, PHOTOS, MUSIC, TAP-DANCING AND HUMOUR BY BENNIE WEIR!

Hola, Bennie here.

This week at my school our class had a low GI week. The idea was to get all of us kiddos into groups and think of some low GI recipes to eat.

Yummy!

First we think of the recipes, which we did on Tuesday.

At first, my group’s (led by my teacher Mrs Clarke) idea was to make garlic and parmesan popcorn, buckwheat pancakes with berry sauce-like stuff and a banana and mango smoothie, and just to make it harder we were only allowed to use $30 everything we wanted.

In the end, we replaced the popcorn with corn on the cob – apart from that everything stayed the same.

On Thursday, we had to walk to Woolworths to do our shopping. I took my dad’s camera with me.

When we got there, we went into our groups and started shopping.

My group had to get skim milk, vegetable oil, vanilla yoghurt, maple syrup, plain flour, bananas, frozen berries, frozen mango, buttermilk, corn, unsalted butter, honey and frozen maggots – just kidding!

When we went to go get the bananas, they were so green. So my group had to go get some bananas from the greengrocer.  Then the whole class got together again and we all went back to school.

When we got back, everyone was really excited about cooking.

One group went to the hall, another group went to the staff room and my group stayed in the classroom. First we started off with making the mango and banana smoothie.

1. We peeled some bananas and put them in the blender with the skim milk and the vanilla yoghurt, put the frozen mango in and blended it.

2. Um … Kind of fitted it all in to step 1.

3. Let’s continue.

Then we did the corn on the cob.

We put the corn in boiling water for 12 minutes. While we were waiting, we started the buckwheat pancakes. We made the batter. The recipe would take to long to write so I made a simpler version.

1. Search it on the internet.

Then the corn was done. YAY!

We got the biggest piece of corn we could get smothered it with butter and ate it.

Then we were making another batch of pancakes.

My friend Gabriel cut up the banana.

While we were eating the corn, Mrs Clarke put the berries in a small pot put with a couple of teaspoons of sugar and water on top, then she went off and put them in the microwave.

She came with this really nice berry sauce like stuff.

We finished making the pancakes, put the berry sauce on, the yoghurt on, ate it all.

There was no more pancakes so we all pigged out on the berry sauce.

While we were, the bell rang for snack break and we all went outside with the berry sauce still on our plates with us trying to eat it with forks.

Confucius say man who eat soup with fork starve.

We went outside and ate it while being watched by jealous the 3/4 class.

Then I had an idea put some berry sauce on my finger and pretend I was bleeding, yelling at everyone: “I CUT MYSELF AHHH! THE PAIN!”

They actually believed me and all ran up to me, then I told them it was a joke.

LA FIN!

A.Bongiovanni & Son

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See profile of Anthony Bongiovanni here.

A.Bongiovanni & Son, 176-178 Victoria St, Seddon. Phone: 9689 8669

Our first visit to the flash new Seddon food emporium is in the early evening of opening day.

We only need a few things and are not intent on doing a serious shop, but are intrigued to have a good look around.

First impressions:

Having long been familiar with the furniture store that preceded it, we find it a little smaller than we expect.

But factoring in storage and refrigeration requirements, it all adds up.

The word we’d heard that this was going to be like a smaller version of La Manna at Essendon Airport has only partly eventuated.

On the one hand, this business is not going to put the supermarket around the corner out of business for the simple reason that – unlike La Manna – there is no loo paper or laundry powder or paper towels or … you get the picture.

Nope, here it’s strictly food and drink all the way.

On the other hand, like La Manna everything except the fruit and vegetables is packaged and packed and packaged again.

There’s a lot of plastic going on here.

There’s also a strong Italian factor, but they cover a lot of other bases, too.

At first blush, and with some notable exceptions mentioned below, this seems a pricey place.

Pricey, but top line just about all the way.

Whether it be ice cream, chocolate, pasta, antipasti, juices, ready-made curries or biscotti and much, much more, overwhelmingly most of the stock effortlessly falls into the “deluxe” category.

Finally, there is an undeniable “wow” factor.

Given the nature of the prices and the lines carried, it seems unlikely A.Bongiovanni & Son will be a staple of ordinary household shopping for us or just about anyone else.

But I reckon there’s little doubt it’ll become a regular stop when we want just the right kind of quality ingredients or just the right kind of treat we so often deserve.

Now that’s some really cheap pasta and tinned toms – although they have deluxe versions of both, especially the pasta.

The oil line-up looks pretty solid, although we didn’t stop long enough to get into specifics.

They have their own line of frozen stuffed pasta at a really good $3.49 – ravioli, tortellini and gnocchi.

It being the kind of night on which dad has nothing planned for dinner and we’re tired and uninspired, we grab a bag of the ravioli and a tub of Element bolognese sauce.

The beef ravioli we have a little later on are the best store-bought filled pasta I’ve ever had – no kidding!

Really, really tender with a nice nutmeg-infused flavour.

We’ll be having them again for sure, and trying the other two formats as well.

When it comes to the nuts and lollies, I think it’ll be a case of “prefer others” for us.

We’re really keen on hearing what other folks think of this long-awaited establishment!

Ms Baklover has got a more detailed post up at Footscray Food Blog.

She’s right to be in a celebratory mood – in our rush on a long and tiring week day, we didn’t even stop to marvel that such a place has opened up right in our neighbourhood!

Someone?

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A few years back, I regaled – hopefully not too longwindedly – a new friend with a rundown of my exploits through the years.

Hitchhiking all over the US on first leaving NZ; many subsequent visits to New Orleans and South Louisiana to dig on the music and food; eventually interviewing many musicians and cooks; toting old stoves from Copenhagen to London, renovating them and setting up shop in Camden Market to flog them; working on newspapers all over New Zealand and, more latterly, Melbourne; a half-dozen heady years as Entertainment Editor and Jazz Writer with the Sunday Herald Sun; 20 years doing a weekly radio show on PBS-FM.

My friend said: “You’ve led an interesting life!”

He was right – I have.

But much to my surprise, and dadhood aside, doing Consider The Sauce has topped everything before it.

The past two years have been a fulfilling and thrilling adventure.

The downsides have been zero; the upsides more plentiful than can be enumerated here – although many of them have been referred to in reviews and stories along the way.

But I have always seen Consider The Sauce as also playing a role in my more professional career.

Not in the “monetised” sense – more along the lines of “a blog is the new resume”.

In that, it has done its job.

The word is out, friends and contacts have been made, CTS has become integral to both who I am and what I do.

There’s has even been some gratefully accepted direct income – thanks mostly to the fine folks at GRAM magazine.

But it’s not enough to pay the bills.

***

The newspaper industry that has been a part of my life for so long is being overwhelmed by hurricanes of change that are sweeping over the media industry in general and, indeed, the world at large.

While I’ve always written at the various newspapers for which I have worked, my principle role has been as what’s called these days a production journalist or, often still, a sub-editor.

Our ranks are being ruthlessly thinned.

Of necessity, those who specialise in the design and construction of pages are being retained.

I have much experience under my belt in that regard, but more by happenstance than anything else have found myself these days pursuing – and greatly enjoying – what I think of as “word wrangling”.

Untangling scrambled syntax so that writers say what they mean and mean what they say; making sure someone’s name is not spelt two or three different ways in a single story; getting the tenses right; punctuation, too; dreaming up ripper headlines and captions; making sure there’s no loose ends; making reporters, writers, columnists, reviewers – and the publications (and, these days, websites) in which their words are appearing – look great and sparkle.

The various media proprietors continue to say they value these attributes in the pursuit of “quality journalism”.

But actions speak louder than words.

Having found what I thought was a home of sorts at the Geelong Advertiser, where the journalism has been of a high standard and the product one of integrity, things have become shaky with blinding speed.

The looming pear-shaped scenario is not without hope.

But it behooves me to explore all other options.

***

I believe Consider The Sauce shows what I know to be true about myself – I am hard-working, dedicated, honest, passionate, reliable, imaginative, professional and trustworthy.

And not without talent.

Talent just waiting to be utilised in a righteous cause.

My CV can be examined here.

The email address – all one word – is kenny cts blog at g mail dot com

Third Wave Cafe

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Third Wave Cafe, 189 Rouse St, Port Melbourne. Phone: 9676 2399

Earlier this year I had a nice lunch at Third Wave Cafe, loved the meat-filled blintzes, wrote it up for Consider the Sauce – and even saw that piece get a run in GRAM Magazine.

In the normal course of events, that may’ve been the end of it – Third Wave being close-by but nevertheless a little out of our normal way, over in Port Melbourne – until next time, someday, maybe, never.

Except for one thing – the Russian salad with chicken and bread mentioned in that story stuck in my mind.

So when gleefully debating the subject of location for catch-up with Catty from Fresh Bread, this seems like a natural spot midway between her South Melbourne base and ours in Yarraville.

I’m awful keen to try that Russian salad and I reckon Bennie’ll love those blintzes, especially after I describe them to him as being like “bolognese wrapped in pancakes”.

Catty, too, is sufficiently intrigued and up for it.

Unfortunately, in the interim months the prices have risen by a not insignificant amount.

They’re not now exorbitant at all, but we feel bound to have our opinions of our lunch choices coloured by them.

Bennie’s meat blintzes – the ones I had for $16.50 but which now cost $17.90 – struggle to impress him, though I suspect some of his apathy is induced by the eye-rolling tedium of having to listen to his two adult companions bang on about stupid blogger stuff.

He eats it all anyway, sour cream, everything.

Catty likes her mushroom blintzes well enough – though they’re heavy on the cream – but seems a little underwhelmed.

My Russian salad is rather good – quite a good-size serving and much less heavy on the dressing than I expected, to the extent it is quite a crumbly mixture.

The chicken is tasty mixed in among the regulation peas, carrot, pickled cucumber, eggs and potato.

But the “artisan bread” turns out to be two very meager semi-slices.

This perhaps would’ve been all good and well at the old price of $13 – but at the tag of $14.90 it’s seeming a bit of a stretch.

Look, it’s not often we talk about prices at any length here at Consider The Sauce.

We generally either cop them or not.

And it gives us no pleasure to be discussing them right here, as it’s obvious the Third Wave Cafe really are into their food and coffee and no doubt instituted these changes because they felt they had no choice.

But to us, they have indeed changed our perspective – a few dollars here and there has made a difference.

Out three light meals, a coffee and a hot chocolate see us paying a bill of $59.30.

I dug the hell out of talking blogger shop with Catty, though!

Third Wave Cafe on Urbanspoon

Java

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Java, 12 Ballarat St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 7508

We’ve been long enough in the west by now to feel entitled about claiming nostalgia rights.

Well, if not nostalgia, at least the reflective gift to long-time residents of being able raise a wry smile about “the way things used to be” or to simply marvel at the changes taking place around us.

My own first visits to Yarraville involved train journeys from St Kilda or the CBD to the Sun Theatre, which in those days still screened black-and-white and noir classics from decades long gone, as the Astor does still.

Oh, how I wish the Sun continued to do likewise!

I know it’s lovely having our cinema set-up a few minutes’ walk away, but its line-up hardly varies at all from those available elsewhere.

We remember, on moving west, that Java was a simple and funky cafe that sometimes did service for coffee and babycinos but was also often erratic and frustrating.

That IS nostalgia, for Java has been a different operation – and different style of operation – for many years.

Whenever we’re in the vicinity, Java seems to be going great guns, selling all the usual breakfasts and meals of a kind that don’t seemed to be offered specifically by many of its competitors but which we suspect lack any kind of focus at all.

Could it be that Java’s “popularity” is a chimera fostered by overflow from the more loved options nearby?

On the basis of a long overdue Consider The Sauce meal, we’re inclined to think so.

Being neither of us hearty of appetite, we agree to share the beef burger ($16.50), which turns out to be an affordable light meal for us pair.

The chips are adequate in number but are not hot enough and not crunchy enough. They all disappear fast anyway.

The burger patty is nice and fat, leavened with some carrot and onion, and best thing going on our plate.

The trimmings do not inspire.

The salad, tomato and onion bits are OK, but the egg and bacon fail to provide any flavour lift or contrast at all.

On the specials board when we visit are Thai chicken curry ($16.50), beef stroganoff with jasmine rice ($14.50), beer-battered fish, chips and salad ($14.50), and roast beef, salad and chips ($200.50).

Java Mfg on Urbanspoon

Tasman Market Fresh Meats

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Tasman Market Fresh Meats, 26-30 McDonald Rd, Brooklyn. Phone: 9318 9077

The last time we hit Tasman Market Fresh Meats in Brooklyn, it was a warm/hot summer day and we pretty much froze in the chilly interior.

It was just like shopping in a freezer.

In fact, doing business here IS shopping in a freezer, such is the quantity of chilled and frozen produce on hand.

On that day, we couldn’t muster enough of a shopping list to breach the $20 EFTPOS limit, so left empty-handed.

We suspect this is the sort of place more suited to larger family units than our two-person show.

Nevertheless, today Tasman happens to be on our route home from that morning’s rugby match and we are happy to stop and shop.

As well, the snag stand outside does fine duty in providing Bennie’s post-match snag – with onions, BBQ sauce, $2.50, thank you very much.

It’s a sunny Saturday morning but still very chilly, so the temperature seems the same inside and out!

We wonder if we’ll see any meat derived from the notorious “it’s raining sheep” incident of a day or so earlier and a few kilometres up the road!

Our meat-eating tends to be a matter of moderation and spontaneity inspired by both temperament and restricted fridge and freezer space.

So unlike most Tasman customers, we’re not here for the meat – though there is a whole lot of it.

There’s even a fairly extensive range of offal, but how the prices compare overall to other outlets and markets is difficult to gauge.

The lamb shanks, for instance, don’t seem any cheaper than anywhere else.

While there is a vast amount of plastic used in packaging here, the signage and the butchers on hand make it clear the service can be more customised and flexible than may at first appear to be the case.

We know someone who loves this stuff, and we no doubt eat enough of it ourselves on our periodic visits to charcoal chicken shops, fish and chip joints and the like.

But ours is not a mindset that would see us actually toting bags of the stuff home.

The best bargains we spy – and those that go in our basket – are of the dry goods variety.

Three cans of Mediterranea canned tomatoes for $2.

The big 700g bag of Le Serenate biscotti provides low-rent crumbly cookies, but still fine for school/work lunches.

Two packs of pasta for 88 cents each; some cheap olive oil for cooking so we don’t use the good stuff for same; some hot chilli pate just for fun.

Bennie and I have struck deal about the breakfast standoff – he’ll give the bought cereals away and eat the same as dad, just so long as dad does away with the white sultanas (“white maggots”) and uses other dried fruit instead for the muesli.

So we grab almonds, dried apricots and dates to join the oats already waiting at home.

We don’t recall – from previous visits – there being fresh produce here.

Truth be told, the Tasman range is not much more than basic, but does the trick I dare say for those wanting to cover their bases without making another stop on the way home.

We pick up an armful of bananas, some sweet potatoes, a $1 bag of mandarins.

It’s a little out of the way for us, so Tasman is unlikely to become a regular haunt.

But it’s been just the ticket today for us in a $37 shop that has set us up for the rest of the week.

As we leave, Bennie opines that it still seems more like a butcher than a supermarket.

And they don’t stock coffee.

Chick pea salad

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Like most folks, I’d normally use chorizo sausage when making this sort of salad.

But I just happened to have a segment of the superb Polish sausage available at Slavonija Continental Butchers in St Albans, so …

As with so many dishes, this can be made ahead of time. In fact, it needs some time – a few hours at least – for the flavours to combine properly.

But avoid refrigerating unless saving leftovers for the next day.

INGREDIENTS

About half a cup of dried chick peas, soaked overnight

Sausage – chorizo or Polish

Two small tomatoes

Small Lebanese cucumber

About a quarter of a small red onion

Flat-leaf parsley

Small amount of lemon zest

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

METHOD

1. Boil chick peas until soft; drain and let cool at least a bit.

2. Slice and fry sausage in a little olive oil. Later use pan juices to fry pita bread for eating with salad.

3. Put sausage in with chick peas in a bowl.

4. Slice and chop cucumber, chop tomatoes, add both to the salad. Best to find a balance in which the pieces are a bit bigger than the chick peas – but not too much bigger.

5. Slice slivers of red onion and place in salad.

6. Roughly chop about a quarter of a cup of parsley and throw in salad.

7. Season with salt, pepper, lemon zest.

8. Dress with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. This salad requires a lot of dressing.

9. Let stand for at least a couple of hours.

10. Eat with pan-fried pita bread.

11. Try to avoid getting sausage grease on computer keyboard.

Amasya Kebab

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Amasya Kebab, 134 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 7032

So enamoured have we been with Footscray Best Kebab House that it has taken more than a decade for me to take its competition, Amasya Kebab, around the block for a spin.

It proves to be a good move on a day when I feel like a change from habitual patterns and routines.

Amasya may still stand in the shadow of its near-neighbour just up the road apiece, but it’s swell to know there’s a handy alternative nearby for when the crowds at FBKH are too intense.

Amasya is shiny, white and bright – but nevertheless welcoming and a nice place to stop for a while.

It has much in common with FBKH – a lunchtime crowd that encompasses the widely diverse hues and style habits of Rainbow Footscray, the happy buzz of being a family-run business and the Turkish travel posters among them.

As well, the menus are pretty much interchangeable, and there seems to be only minor differences in the pricing.

My small meal of the day ($12), lamb only, does indeed look on the modest side.

But it fills me up plenty and the quality is there.

There’s no rice, but that’s more than compensated for by the large serving of lamb.

This is not crispy, crunchy, salty as I dig it, seeming to have come from a part of the spit recently carved for another customer. It’s still fine, though, being tender and tasty.

The salad bits and leaves with a lemony dressing are good but without much distinction.

The yogurt/cucumber dip is stiffer than normal but does the job.

The chilli dip is the big hit – it’s every bit as good in terms of lip-smacking tang and crunchy delight as that found up the road.

Excellent!

The bread is fresh, warm and typically wonderful.

We have tried the Amasya pies before – and they’re recommended, seeming to have more filling and less bread than those found in other Turkish places.

Amasya Kebab on Urbanspoon

Sunshine Charcoal Chicken

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Sunshine Charcoal Chicken, 3 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone: 9364 5310

Now look here, I’d be rather cross if you folks started believing there’s some sort of group-think going on with food bloggers.

Well, believing there is more of it than is found in all sorts of endeavours involving the inter-action of human beings.

Reading other blogs is supposedly part of blogging itself.

Truth is, though, I love checking out what other people are up to.

Sometimes – when I’ve nothing to gasbag about myself – I spend a whole evening reading other blogs, leaving a few comments along the way.

One thing that has struck in becoming familiar with this wonderful new world is the rampant individuality and the personality that blogs generate.

This seems especially so of the 20 or so Mellbourne food blogs I admire most and follow the most religiously.

More specifically, I’m quite amazed about how little overlap there is between Consider The Sauce and the blog and blogger with whom we have most in common – Footscray Food Blog and its boss, Ms Baklover, whose work we adore.

Considering myriad mutual interests, including but not restricted to geography, this seems rather miraculous.

The number of places both blogs have covered would be well into double figures but equally well short of three figures.

I reckon that says a lot about the foodie riches of Melbourne’s western suburbs, don’t you?

But sometimes the obviousness and rightness of something cannot be denied.

So …

The very day Footscray Food Blog writes about the Sunshine branch of an outfit called Sunshine Charcoal Chicken happens to be a day off for yours truly.

Lunch is not only on, it’s mandatory – and preferably one I can bang on about.

The St Albans’ outlet of the same outfit has long been on the CTS wishlist.

And I need to harvest some photos for Snap West …

So … a meandering drive to St Albans and back is just the ticket!

And thus, for the first time ever, CTS and FBB write on the same organisation on the same day, albeit about different shops.

(Editor’s note: As Ms Baklava herself point out below, this was actually the second time … but still. For such sloppy attention to detail, the author has been docked a week’s pay!)

I really like this Alfrieda St chook emporium – it has a lovely lived-in feel and four tables.

During my lunch visit, the place is pretty damn busy with chicken-loving regulars and locals.

They sell two kinds of chicken – regular Aussie-style charcoal chook and what they refer to as Spanish chicken, which means Filipino style.

The latter are butterflied and marinated, and a whole flock of them have just entered the in-house tanning salon as I arrive.

A quarter bird of either will cost you $4 and a half, $6.

I go Filipino-style, of course, that being the whole purpose of my visit.

Bonus points to this joint for providing real cutlery and crockery, which according to Ms Baklover is not the case at the Sunshine food court outlet.

The chips are fresh out of the frier but a little disappointing – I’m not quite sure what the problem is, as they’re hot and nicely salted. Maybe the problem is all mine.

The breast meat is too dry, but not disastrously so.

The meat around the various bones is much, much better – top class, in fact.

The flavour is rather mild. There’s an expected sweetness and my tastebuds tell me there’s a significant garlic component as well.

The coleslaw is heavy on the gloop factor but the cabbage and carrot ingredients are fresh and crunchy.

It’s a really good chicken lunch I enjoy, so this place is likely to be the subject of return visits by father and son.

I’m partial to regular charcoal chicken, but it’s cool that there’s this tasty alternative in St Albans AND Sunshine.

And on the way back home, doing the CTS Westie Prowl, I discover an Argentine bakery in Derrimut! It’s closed but I’ll be there the next day for sure.

Sunshine Charcoal Chicken on Urbanspoon

A working week of meals

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DAY 1 (DINNER)

Tub Oraganic Indulgence hommus

Pan-browned pita bread from Gerry’s Pittes

Kalamata olives

Pickled cucumber, sliced

biscotti from Pace Biscuits

Banana

Apple

Mandarin

DAY 2 (DINNER)

Roll with pastrami, red capsicum, dijon mustard

Chocolate/almond nougat from Pace Biscuits

Banana

Apple

Mandarin

DAY 3 (LUNCH)

Lunch pack from Khan Curry Hut in Ryrie St – chicken, vegetables, rice and a can of that Coca Cola stuff ($7)

(In Geelong this scores a 5. If it was being scored in the western suburbs it would be a 2  – or 3 with the lamb curry.)

Serve of papadams ($1)

Apple

Banana

Mandarin

DAY 4 (DINNER)

Minestrone

Irrewarra sourdough ciabatta roll

Banana

Mandarin

Biscotti from Pace Biscuits

Minestrone

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It’s winter for sure.

The freezer is more or less empty.

It’s time for a great big pot of goodness called minestrone.

Bennie’s not a fan, but I sure am.

Oddly, this Italian soup’s ingredients overlap with a variety of other dishes we make at home, but it is quite different from them all.

Minestrone is minestrone and they’re not.

I’m sometimes tempted to order minestrone when out and about.

But mine is better.

If there’s one Italian dish I do that could be called authentic, this is it.

Anyone who makes this soup knows that it’s better allowed to cool and then reheated. It’s even better the next day.

And, somewhat surprisingly, it does freeze well. Just leave out the pasta and be gentle in the reheating and it’s fine.

Many recipes tell cooks to use stock. Go ahead. I don’t bother with it these days – unless there’s some already at hand. Certainly, don’t buy stock. Water is fine!

Flicking through the various Italian cookbooks I use, pondering which minestrone recipe to follow, I finally say to myself: “This is ridiculous – I know how to cook this!”

So I do!

INGREDIENTS

Olive oil

1 large onion

1 large carrot

2 celery sticks, leaves and all

flat-leaf parsley for cooking

2 courgettes (I have decided to use this term from here on in, because I can never remember how to spell zuch … whatever …)

1 good handful of green beans

1/2 small savoy cabbage

2 medium spuds

1/2 can cannellini beans, or 1/2 cup dry beans soaked overnight.

1 can tinned tomatoes

1 stubby dried-up heel of grana padano or parmesan

Salt

Pepper

1 small handful of short pasta or broken up bits of long pasta

Parsley for serving

Extra virgin olive oil for serving

Padano/parmesan cheese for serving

Good bread for serving

METHOD

1. Chop onion, carrot, celery and parsley – not too big, not too small. Throw in pot with plenty of olive oil and cook on medium heat until wilted.

2. Add spuds, courgettes, green beans – chopped likewise.

3. Add beans and chopped up tin tomatoes and their juices. These beans had been soaked overnight but not cooked before being added to the soup. They cook fine and tender in the time it takes for the whole soup to come together.

4. Add cheese heel.

5. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Add enough water/stock to cover by about an inch.

7. Cover and cook on a slow simmer for about an hour or an hour and a half.

8. Turn heat off and let soup cool for several hours if you have them available.

9. Reheat gently.

10. Add pasta 10 minutes or so before serving.

11. When pasta is cooked, ladle into bowls.

12. Garnish with more chopped parsley, drizzle with virgin olive oil and grate cheese over all if using.

13. Serve with some great bread on the side, grilled/toasted if you prefer.

Would you like a serve of hypocrisy with your burger?

10 Comments

So Grill’d doesn’t like, among other things, blogging, facebooking and tweeting.

But … wait a minute … let me check.

Why, yes – Grill’d does indeed have a Facebook page and a Twitter account!

Hey, this is pretty lame.

Always liked the product, but maybe not so much any more.

(Yes, I know it’s a joke and that by posting it here I am a witting participant in their sneaky PR exercise, but still it’s a bit rich! I’ve posted a link on their FB page, so will be interested to see what – if anything – they say!)

Indi Hots

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Indi Hots, 82 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 4626

Indi Hots has moved house – but only a few doors up Hopkins St to No.82.

The new place has more of a restaurant feel to it, as opposed to the utilitarian canteen vibe of the previous one.

All else seems to have remained the same – food, clientele, service and welcome.

In my first test drive of the new premises, I do what all my fellow patrons are doing and order a biryani.

My understanding is that biryani is a special occasion, celebratory rice dish that is extremely unlikely to be found in its full-blown glory in restaurants regardless of any price scale.

Maybe one day I’ll be invited to a Hyderabad wedding …

In the meantime, and within the confines of commercial realities, my Indi Hots biryani is as good as I can recall enjoying.

It may not have all the bells and whistles of the “real thing”, but it at least conveys the impression of being a close, if slightly impoverished, relative.

My Special Hyderabadi Goat Dhum Biryani costs $13.50 and comes with curry gravy, runny raita that I have come to love, half a hard-boiled egg and a can of soft drink.

The plentiful goat meat is not really tender but easily edible. Surprisingly, and happily, only about half of it is on the bone, the rest being just meat.

The spice level is sneaky.

What at first seems quite benign mounts steadily as I eat so my brow is sweating by the end.

It’s a fine thing because I am not only robust of appetite but also in one of those moods when some kick-arse spicy food is just the ticket.

The rice is oily in a nice way and interspersed with fresh coriander and lovely strands of fried brown onion.

With the egg, gravy, raita providing variety of flavours and textures, this is a beaut feast.

As ever when I order biryani, I find there’s simply too much rice for me to eat – but I’m surprised nonetheless how much of it I tuck away.

Indi Hots remains a cool and reliable place for a cheap, quick and tasty Indian feed.

Indi Hots on Urbanspoon

An old argument …

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Meet Peter and Annette.

These lovely folks service my coffee needs when I’m working in Geelong.

Their old-school coffee shop is situated in the equally old-school Centrepoint Arcade.

The arcade, like so many of its kind, is a little dowdy these days, forced to stand in the metaphorical shadows of two nearby shopping centres.

It has a beauty salon (of course), a frock shop, a loan merchant, while quite a few of the shop fronts and other spaces are used by Diversitat for training purposes.

No surprise there are few empty shops as well, while at one end is a beaut barber emporium staffed entirely by also-lovely gals of a certain age.

Peter and Annette serve up sangers and a range of homemade goodies to customers almost all of whom seem to be long-standing regulars.

They display a generosity of spirit and patience with the dears who expect a bit of a natter as they mull over the choice schnitzel or meatloaf.

I’ve learned to depart and return in 10 minutes or so when there are more than a couple of customers waiting to be served.

I’d always had them pegged as a retired couple who were using their business as a way of staying active and topping up the super a bit.

So I was delightedly surprised to discover they have been doing business in the same premises for 25 years.

I doubt Peter and Annette consider themselves baristas, but nevertheless they consistently turn out affordable coffee ($3) that tastes like coffee – something that cannot be said of their various competitors a block or so in any direction.

The whole vibe could not be of a contrast to that of Padre Coffee at South Melbourne Market.

On a recent visit to the market, I enjoyed a superb coffee at the Padre out let there.

Writing about it, I tossed in the casual observation that Padre seemed to to be “one of those new-school cool coffee chains staffed exclusively by young hipsters”.

Later that night, I thought to myself: “Am I really OK with that?”

To tell you the truth, I’m still not really sure.

But giving free rein to some good-natured curiosity, I emailed the company asking about its policy regarding mature-age workers and whether only young staff were employed.

The company did reply, the gist of it being:

In response to your query – you can rest assured our company is not one ‘in
pursuit of a certain look and image’.

As you would have seen – we’re all about coffee, our customers and a great
space to relax and enjoy a coffee (although South Melbourne can be very
hectic on the weekends).

Kudos for actually replying to my inquiry, except for the fact it did not address my main question.

In fact, it’s pretty much a gold-plated fob-off!

And had it not been for the nature of the reply, I most likely would’ve let the matter drop.

But, instead, it spurred me top check out one of the company’s other outlets – the Brunswick East Project in upper Lygon St.

There, by contrast with the South Melbourne Market shop, the coffee was barely average.

The fittings, furnishings, the whole vibe were pure-bred inner-city hip to an almost painful degree.

And the half-dozen or so staff had many, many years – decades, in fact – to travel in life before anyone would think of calling them mature age.

Padre Coffee seems in many way admirable endeavour – passionate about its product, professionally run and so on.

But …

Like so many employers, Padre would no doubt claim it does not discriminate on the basis of age – that those employed are chosen simply on the basis of merit.

Such may even be the case.

Equally obviously, though, there are cases in which discrimination is at work.

Proving so, of course, is well nigh impossible.

Commenting on my thoughts on this topic, a friend said:

And anyway, if I owned an inner city cafe, I probably wouldn’t employ anyone over the age of 25 anyway. I suspect that younger people could be more easily trained, they would have the stamina to do the job, and as a group, it is far easier to get a team to bond when they’re all in the same age bracket. And younger people are more likely to accept the pitiful wages they would be earning and be more flexible with the working hours required.

My reply to that is simple: Piffle!

As this is a subject of personal significance to me, I have read much about it.

I cannot recall reading about a single instance in which these hoary old (!) arguments have been substantiated or quantified in any way.

Indeed, the available research seems to overwhelmingly indicate the exact opposite – that mature-age workers are rich assets on almost every level.

And anyone who thinks I’m raking in the dough working as a part-time sub-editor for the Geelong Advertiser is utterly deluded.

Besides, at the risk of sounding precious, I’m interested in work that is an enriching, creative part of life; the money side of it is very negotiable depending on the circumstances.

In terms of the hospitality industry, there are many grey areas when exploring this issue.

All power, for instance, to the self-employed of all ages who run owner-operated businesses.

A sub-set of that are the many great family-run businesses that provide so much of our eating-out pleasure.

That’s some real hard yards right there, too, spread right through whole extended families – from toddlers to venerable elders.

But presumably the benefits, investment and security derived are likewise spread.

But when it comes to an employer like Padre, it seems fair enough to ask the question.

Getting a straight answer, of course, is another issue entirely.

In the meantime, I plan to make it my business to direct my business – and my mature-age-dollars – wherever possible towards food and coffee outlets and employers that obviously do NOT discriminate on the basis of age.

And in discriminating against those I suspect of doing otherwise, I won’t be breaking the law.

Besides, in the case of Padre and its Brunswick outlet, the welcome mat is not out anyway:

Rockfish

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Rockfish, 3/46-48 Edgewater Blvd, Maribyrnong. Phone: 9317 3474

We feel quite well served when it comes to hamburgers OR fish and chips.

When it comes to hamburger AND fish and chips – that is, our preferred combo of the former for him and the latter for me – things are not so rosy.

Ripples is fine but Moonee Ponds is a bit of stretch for the spontaneity and instant gratification that seems to go with this kind of food.

Could be then that Rockfish could become our regular haunt when the mood is upon us.

It’s part of a food precinct that has sprung at Edgewater, about midway between Highpoint and Footscray. There’s also Thai and Malaysian eateries and a specialist dessert place joining other outlets that have been there a while.

Happily, there seems to be heaps of parking.

Rockfish is a straight-up fast food joint that’s clean and sparkling and has two tables inside and outside facilities, too.

We order, for our Sunday lunch, our “usual” – burger with the lot for Bennie, fried fish of the day and coleslaw for me, chips to share and a can of soft drink.

Our chips are thoroughly excellent – salted just right, unoily, crisp, perfect.

There’s far too many of them, though.

We got a medium order ($4.50) when a small ($3) would’ve done. We wish we had been asked.

Bennie is entirely happy with his burger lot ($7.50).

He tells me he really likes the fact his meat pattie has a crispy exterior.

He also later, when pressed, says it’s a “10 out of 10” job.

His more hard-nosed dad advises taking that assessment on board with caution, but still …

The coleslaw ($3.50) is quite unusual by the usual standards of such places.

The vegetable components are fresh and crunchy.

The mayo dressing is neither too gloopy and gluggy or too runny, one of which is almost always the case.

In fact, the dressing is quite sticky and adheres to the vegetables really well.

I find it a bit on the dry side, though, but Bennie like it, which is a plus.

My fish ($6), flake, is of modest proportions, but the batter is fine and sticks to the fish.

The fish itself is divine – lovely and juicy and flavoursome.

In terms of containers and implements, we are provided a mix of real crockery, plastic and cardboard.

On the one hand, we envy the locals here having such a competent fish and chip shop close at hand.

On the other, it’s no bad thing we have to think about such fodder and then drive to obtain it, lest such fare become more than just an occasional treat.

Rockfish on Urbanspoon

Dolcetti

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Dolcetti, 223 Victoria St, West Melbourne. Phone: 9328 1688

Despite having a deep fondness for Dolcetti we don’t visit as often as we would like.

Perhaps that’s because when we’re in the West Melbourne/Victoria Market neighbourhood we are, more often than not, seeking something savoury and substantial.

Dolcetti is not big on the savouries, although on our latest visit we note there are some good-looking pizzas on display.

When we do visit, what we do get are superbly authentic Sicilian-style sweet treats.

Moreover, they’re delivered here with a lightness of touch and delicacy and refinement of flavours we rarely encounter elsewhere.

Happily, this day’s lunchtime chores have been well taken care of by the simple expedient of doing the Bratwurst Boogie down the road at the market.

So we are most certainly up for a heaping serve of sweet satisfaction of the more aesthetic variety.

Bennie stays true to form by requesting a simple old-school canoli of the chocolate/vanilla persuasion ($3.20).

Quizzed by his dad, he is a little noncommital about its merits.

Maybe because he does get tired of being required to pass judgment on what, after all, is mere food … to be enjoyed, or not, as the case may be.

He does, however, seem well pleased.

Based on my sneak taste of the two custards, such an outlook is spot on.

I go for one each of  ciascuni ($2.20) and buccelatti ($2.40) .

The former has fig, walnut, orange and honey wrapped in an open snake of superb short pastry.

It’s rather plain, only mildly sweet and entirely delicious.

The buccelatti also has fig, orange, honey and walnut, along with chocolate and raisins, but the end result is substantially different, with a more chunky filling.

The citrus component is much more pronounced and does an erotic belly dance with the chocolate.

This is so good, so outrageously perfect, I buy two to take home just so Bennie can enjoy the same taste hit later in the evening.

Bennie says his hot chocolate is good; my cafe latte is better than good.

As ever at Dolcetti, we leave with food senses utterly romanced but tummies and purses in no way tested.

Visit the Dolcetti website here.

And read a cool story about Dolcetti and Marianna DiBartolo in the magazine Italianicious here.

Dolcetti on Urbanspoon

Sushi boat docking at Yarraville

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LATEST UP DATE (JUNE 7) HERE.

Picking up dinner makings, Bennie and I spy activity in one of the shops at the slightly dowdy end of Anderson St in Yarraville.

What was once a furniture store now has a papered-over window above which we see paper lanterns of Asian derivation.

Of course, we enter to get the low down.

Inside, we meet Lucy, one half of the couple that will soon be opening a restaurant called Little Tokyo.

Scheduled for a June 21 opening, it’ll have all the usual Japanese stuff like miso soup and tempura.

But it’ll also have a grill station turning out yakitori-style goodies.

And – get this! – the central feature of the joint, which will seat about 40 people inside, will be a sushi boat we see taking shape before us as we talk.

Lucy and her family live locally.

She tells me that despite the fact they’re Vietnamese, they’ve all had a long-standing love of Japanese food.

“We just want people to really enjoy the healthy food here,” she says.

Expect a pricing range that’ll go from about $4 for the cheapest entrée up to about $22 for the most expensive meal.

Lucy tells us their Japanese chef has come from Germany and that we should expect sushi that is “different” in a very good way.

And she says she and her husband have put a lot of time and heaps love into seeking out just the right furniture, fittings and decorations.

We’re so excited that June 21 seems like a long way away.

We tell Lucy to expect us hungry lads on opening night.

Who’s up for joining us?