Feral Brewing Company Smoked Porter

Smoking stuff is cool. Not the cigarette kind but the food kind. Last year my partner Erin gifted me a smoker and since then many sides of salmon and the lone trout have magically been transformed. And it is that smoked trout that was evident when Jeremy and I tasted this beer at work. I swear there was a smoked trout in this bottle. Maybe not everything was made to be smoked I'm tipping. But hey, whatever floats your boat I guess.

Tscharke Barossa Valley Appellation Shiraz 2012

In another Fonzy moment, I was w-w-w-w-w-rong about JABS. The Tscharke Barossa Valley Appellation Shiraz 2012 may be soaking in 15.5%v/v but by golly, you don't see it, rather you see seamless fruit and oak integration with plenty of savoury black olive and blackberry compote all held together fine a fine line of acid and soft chewy tannins. Wow. Who'd have thunk it?

Drink with chargrilled beef, such as image below - a definite Susan
Drink till 2016
96
Screwcap 15.5%v/v $25 Seddon Wine Store

Gorgeous rib-eye over hot coals

Sunday anticipation

2.5kg leg of lamb. Almost done...Cinnamon, fennel seed and coriander seed rub. In frifge over night. In the oven at 11am today. 150°C. Almost done...

Yves Cuilleron à Chavanay Rhône Valley Les Vignes d'à Côté Roussanne 2011 and my French Onion Soup

Sometimes things just work together. Simple ideas that make it obvious. The Yves Cuilleron à Chavanay Rhône Valley Les Vignes d'à Côté Roussanne 2011 and French onion soup work together. Well. Simple. Not together and the Roussanne is just another aromatic wine and the French onion soup is just a viscous and winter warming soup. Together they shine with the wine full of rich honey suckle and soft candied peaches and pears on the nose, the palate continues on this way with touches of prickly stewed pineapple, ginger and plenty of finesse.

I think I have called the end of Summer at least a dozen times. I'm going to call it again because right now it is hailing and 13°C here in downtown Brunswickistan, so this wine and this soup need your attention people. Alone good, together stunning. Simple and delicious pleasures.

My French onion Soup

1 kg brown onions  - sliced

100 grams butter

1 tablespoon of flour

1 litre of water

200 grams Gruyere cheese

1 baguette

salt and pepper

Melt 150grams of butter in a big pot. Slice all onions and add to pot. This needs plenty of stirring and should take up to 20-30 minutes to colour. When you have a decent colour, add flour and continue to stir for a couple of minutes. Add water and 100 grams of Gruyere to melt in soup. Bring to the boil and and reduce to simmer for 30 minutes. Cut up baguette on an angle and lightly toast. Cover with grated Gruyere cheese and stick under grill and place on top off soup when cheese melted. Bon.

Drink with my French onion soup

Drink till 2015

96

Diam cork 13%v/v $30 Seddon Wine Store

 

Home pleasure

It takes just 15 minutes to prepare, 5 minutes to cut and 60 minutes or so to dry. Home made pasta, made with the kids. Happy days!!

Bia Hoi pop-up Vietnamese @ Small Block, Brunswick

After reading the tongue-in-cheek blog post tweeted by @JohnandNecia on Twitter this morning, and seeing timing is of the essence, I thought I would wax lyrical about the Cohen's of Brunswickistan impromptu dinner last night at the über schick pop-up eatery at Small Block Café on Lygon - Bia Hoi.

You see, 18 months ago, the Cohen's ventured off to Vietnam for a month long trip south to north, eating everything from crickets to rats to little un-born ducks still in their  egg - thank God I ticked that off my bucket list!! Yes, Vietnam, seems so long ago.

So, to last night. I only really found out about the joint yesterday afternoon, and seeing it is located at Small Block, owned by the always busy Mr Brunswick himself, Michael Hole, I thought the only thing to do was drag the family down for some flavour. And seeing the restaurant is called Bia Hoi, what else would a world famous blogger wear to said eatery then their very own 'Bia Hoi' t-shirt all the way from downtown Hanoi. Classy hey?

We walk through the door and the place is full. And walking out of the kitchen resplendent in her Vietnamese flag t-shirt is the all round good chick Chantelle, formerly of Vue de monde (along with me), Cutler & Co. and numerous other fine eateries. After a big old bear hug in the middle of the place and ruffling of hair by said Chantelle to the little Cohen's, we were seated out back with three lemonades and a glass of Brunswick's finest Thunder Road Brewery Kolsch;  so Vietnamese and so Brunswick.

So, the food. It's a short menu. It's actually a shortish piece of brown paper with menu items scribbled on. Remember, it's a pop-up restaurant. With a confident 'yes' from Erin, we ordered everything on the menu; Roast Pork Rolls, Prawn rice paper rolls, steamed eggplant, Green papaya salad and chicken ribs (chicken wings?) with sponge laffa. And only one photo of the dishes all splayed around the table. I cannot stand the incessant shutter bugs constantly trying to get the best angle of a lamb shank - its food people.

The pork buns were more like pork sliders, but even so they were awesome. oursum. 'Tastes yum' quote unquote from my almost 8 year old daughter Imogen. So yum in fact that I had to go and pay a visit to the always smiling Tommy in the kitchen; Tommy of St. Judes, Albert Street Food & Wine (with me again) and recently The Middle Park Hotel where he was charring meat fame. After a few minutes of blah blahs it was back to the table to take Henry to the toilet for the 3rd time and continue on with dinner.

The green papaya salad was as authentic as I remember from the numerous times ordered on our trip to Vietnam. Crunch and heat and crunch; that's what you want. That's what we got. The rice paper rolls, well I'm not sure. These were hoovered up - two plates worth (three per serve) by Imogen and her brother Henry. They looked great so you'll have to take my word for it, or ask the kids; just don't freak them out is all.

The steamed eggplant for me was the most surprising. On the plate it looked just like eggplant; poor eggplant. But when you stuff it in your gob and get the texture of the fried bits of prawn and a touch of heat it turns in to this flavour mash and explosion that quite rightly sexes up the appearance of it on the plate. You get that?

Bia Hoi is the brainchild of Peter - your amiable host -  and I assume others who are working there too. I don't have the chutzpah like other bloggers to corner the proprietor and ask them 20 questions ranging from where'd you get your inspiration to where'd you get your fabulous pants??!! So get on down I say. Bia Hoi is only open on Thursday and Sunday nights from about 6ish running till March 24th - perfect timing for all the food sycophants coming for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. And they only accept the folding stuff - no cards people. (All food and bevvies were duly paid for by and on behalf of the Cohen's of Brunswickistan.)

So seeing I'm blogging about Bia Hoi, I think I have to give it a gold birk.

Sunday Tortilla

So easy to make and so much better than the store bought crap, and now a Sunday night special in downtown Brunswick.

Fathers Day Reuben sandwich

The start of the greatest sandwich in the history of mankind - The Reuben.

• lots of corned beef
• lots of Swiss cheese, or Jarlsberg for the politically correct
• lots of Noisette multi grain bread
• lots of my Russian dressing - home made mayo, mustard, tomato sauce, horseradish cream and Worcestershire sauce
• lots of Sauerkraut
• lots of paper towel to wipe sauce from running down arm
• a good Chardonnay

The wine today is Sinapius Tasmanian Chardonnay 2010 from Pipers Brook; pretty much cos there was a glass left-over from last night, but also cos it has just enough acid to cut through the sauerkraut and corned beef. Not that I am proposing this is a great match to sauerkraut - don't think any wine would be, just cos once again it was convenient.

Happy Fathers day boys!!!!

Red chillie's from my garden

"Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever... Colour and I are one. I am a painter"
Paul Klee

The last tomatoes of summer

I think there is some buffalo mozzarella in the fridge ...

A Must!

Two weeks ago I flew to Perth for an in and outer – sounds lewd I know – for a mate's 40th. So there I was on the Saturday afternoon with 5 hours to kill and wearing my best Hawaiian shirt and effectively nowhere to go. Staying in the CBD I ventured down to Balthazar, but alas, they were shut. After this I shifted up to St Georges Terrace to Greenhouse, but that was too noisy (and I was the only person there without ink or piercings) with some douff douff or whatever blaring out of the speakers. Fortunately all was not lost and a quick taxi ride (Perth’s traffic lights are possibly the slowest in the free world!!) I was at Must Wine Bar & Restaurant in air conditioned comfort and in the company of the very erstwhile Stefano, Tim and Aaron. Here is where my 5 hour lunch started.


There was so much good stuff that those boys put in front of me; steak tartare, oysters, parfait, pork belly and more stuff and more.... There was also a lot of wine and cider, and it was this gem that was the standout; Piero Mancini Cucaione Vermentino di Gallura from Sardinia. Very Vermentino in the glass with a mature Chardonnay look about it. The nose was a mix of brine and custard; sounds odd but it was all working really well, so well that I reckon I was sniffing it for a good 5 minutes before it past the laughing gear! Like the nose, the mouth was a combination of brine and acid and burnt cream, or crème brulee, and once again it worked and was pretty spot on with the tartare. An awesome day fella's. Thanks for everything!

I made sure before I left the boys that they give me the details of the importer, so expect to see this gooden’ beauty down at Albert Street Food & Wine sometime in the New Year.

Tim made pork and pistachio sausages

My first batch of Brunswick-made sausages. And they tasted better than they look....

Pork and pistacio mix
1.5 kg pork neck
300 grams pork fat
80 grams pistachio's, blanched then skinned
20 grams salt
15 grams black pepper
pork casing
1/2 glass white wine

Sunday Bliss

Its pretty simple really. Gooey chocolate brownie's on a lazy Sunday afternoon made by Erin ....

The Brix Café & Bistrot, Fitzroy

This is going to be a small and quick post because I have to go and pick my daughter up from her mates place. The Brix Café & Bistrot in Fitzroy is The Dope. Its The Shit. Its The Place. Its The Place Right Now. NOW!!! And it will be the place that will be responsible for me putting all that weight back on that I lost last summer. Beautiful oysters - $10 for 4 thankyou very much! Beautiful black pudding. Beautiful little wine list. Thats all I have. Just go. Beautiful!

The Brix Café & Bistrot
Rear 412 Brunswick Street,
Fizroy VIC 3065

(03) 9417 6114

Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010

This for mind is the perfect pizza wine. The Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Sangiovese 2010 contains all the elements of a Friday night footy wine with pizza - cherry ripe fruit without the ripeness, grainy chocolate and a hint of green vegetalness (yes, I made that word up)- a good thing I reckon, along with super chewy tannins which were, and are, perfect with a homemade prosciutto and mozzarella pizza. Cracking stuff Jonno!

Drink with pizza.... der!
Drink till 2015
95
Screwcap 13%v/v http://www.mitchellharris.com.au/
NB not sure on the $$; wine obtained when I won a round through the 'Mitchell Harris' footy tipping comp. And it was when I was in Vietnam!!

Convenience?

While picking up some bacon from the Sydney Rd IGA for my 'home cooked' meal a few hours ago, I came across this take-home meal; I seriously think Ken Bruce had gone completely mad, again!!!

Scones and cream

Scones and cream. What else are you going to do when your plane is cancelled because of a volcano!

Saturday bliss

Marintaed white anchovies from Gervasi on Sydney Rd. From the pen of Jon Bon Jovi, they are slippery when wet and washed down with a beer too boot! Just bliss.

Hào Phong, 136 Hopkins St Footscray

Its 7.30ish on Monday night. So of course I’m in the study typing out a post. Not only is ‘Glee’ on, but it’s on Oprah; Glee and Oprah – TV gold, yeah-nah!

So as I said, I’m in the study and writing a post. Something about wine; like before – yeah-nah. Instead of wine I think, how about food. In just 94 days, me and the family will be heading north to sweaty Vietnam for a 22 day trek from south-to-north. To get everyone ‘tummy-ready’ we have decided to go nuts on Vietnamese food. So first stop Footscray!



With a recommendation we head to Hào Phong on Hopkins Street -136 to be precise. On our way there we see another Vietnamese restaurant that has a few people inside (no Vietnamese – what was I thinking) so we chanced our arm. Big mistake. Looking down the menu read of the best from the 70’s & 80’s – beef and black bean, sweet and sour pork, Mongolian beef. Just to be safe we thought we’d order some rice paper rolls. The reply, ‘sorry, they have not defrosted yet’. You can imagine the awkward silence. With our apologies we bidded our farewell and legged it to Hào Phong. It was only 5.45pm.


We arrive for the second time and manage to get a table for 4. Ten minutes later there is a line at the door – good timing. The menu’s come and it looks awesome – AWESOMELY AWESOME!!!! And if you’re wondering, there are no photos of food, just us eating it!

We order in 10minutes and it as follows:

• 1. Prawn and chicken rice paper rolls $7.00 for 4
• 10. Satay chicken on skewers, or chicken on a stick for my 2 year old son Henry - $4.50 for 2
• 99. BBQ pork with vegetables with plum sauce - $13.80
• 141. Scallops with ginger and shallots - $19.80
• 1. Prawn and chicken rice paper rolls $7.00 for 4 …. again
• Special - Shallow fried soft shelled crab - $18.80 for 4. That’s right, 4!!!!

Not a rice dish in sight I tell ya! All this and a bottle of Tsing Tao beer. The bill arrives and we are $88 lighter – plus tip.



There’s only 94 days to go but I can bet you we will be back a few times before we head off. And I would book. As I said, by 6pm there was a line. What a place!!

Hào Phong is my 1st ‘Hooters chicks with Birks’ rating


Where – 136 Hopkins Street Footscray 9689-8373

By the way, thanks Ronnie for the recommendation. Bisou Bisou!

Jalapeño

Just got these beauties from the back yard before we get hit with more rain.