Something sweet…

0

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 24-05-2009

Today I met up with a bunch of other Sydney food bloggers at Adriano Zumbo to sample his new collection of cakes.  Yummo! They set out for us essentially four of each delicacy for us to purchase and try. Just looking at the dazzling array gave you a sugar rush.

Lots of cakes for everyone!

Lots of cakes for everyone!

Chocolate cheesecake... I will return for you!

Chocolate cheesecake... I will return for you!

In  keeping with my obsession with cheese I should have selected the amazing looking chocolate cheesecake but I couldn’t resist the cola can shaped cake. It was filled with a slurpable cherry cola jelly.

Cherry Cola

That little baby had to come home with me!

I also couldn’t resist these two cakes as well. I have brought them all safely home and plan to consume them tomorrow. I just can’t fit any more in today!

IMG_0831IMG_0852

In totally gluttony I also bought some of his chocolates. The one I am keen to try is Raspberry and Parmesan (yup back to cheese 🙂 !)

Brazilian style cheese?

0

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 23-05-2009

Last weekend my friends and I went to Churrasco in Coogee. It is a Brazilian style BBQ restaurant.

All you can eat meat.

Which for us turned out not to be too much! We had stuffed ourselves silly within half an hour.

Note to others thinking of going…. go early. We were there at 6:30pm and had lots and lots of choices served really quickly. The people who came later into the sitting had long waits and often watched food go by and come back past them again empty.

The food was great. Tasty and flavourful and lots of choices. Beef, chicken, Chorizo, sausages, lamb, pork, ham and even chicken hearts.  Another favourite, which my friend swears will ensure no ill effects from eating your body weight in meat, is the grilled pineapple.  The pineapple is dusted in cinnamon and grilled until caramelised. Yum! I could eat my body weight in that except my tongue started to get shredded. 🙁

But of course the one choice that had to be made was the barbecued bocconcini balls. Luckily small and “wafer thin”, they could easily be squeezed in with all the meat.

Herbed Bocconcini

Herbed Bocconcini

Tales of the Quick Trip to Paris (TQTP) – Day 1

0

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 13-05-2009

I arrived in Paris early on Saturday morning.  I was picked up from the airport and then immediately tagged along on the weekly shop to the markets. Pontoise is a little village at the edge of Paris (really a suburb) and it has a fresh market every Saturday in the square and parking lot in front of the town hall.

Although there were a couple of stalls selling cheese I was determined to visit the Fromagerie proper. As soon as we had the normal weekly shop done I dragged them to the cheese shop ready to buy the lot (especially raw cheeses!).

I made sure I bought a Camembert and Brie de Meaux for my little test but I also bought my friend’s favourite Saint Nectaire and a raw ewes milk called Cant’Auriol (I think).

That night, as one does in France, when we had dinner we had cheese before dessert and tried the cheeses I had bought. (Well I tried and they enjoyed again. For them it’s no big deal!)

The verdict on Camembert versus Brie:

OMG they are totally different cheeses!!! True raw milk Camembert is very strong and almost meaty. Brie de Meaux is creamy and mushroomy.  I liken them to a pampered Siamese cat and feral cat – both are cats but their temperaments are totally different!

Cant’Auriol (Bergerie de Cazes-Haut):

This was beautiful cheese. Strong with a hint of lanolin often in sheep milk cheeses. It was so runny. As it came to room temperature it melted like the Wicked Witch of the West, leaving a pool of goo and the paper label. Yum – I would eat this cheese again.

Saint Nectaire:

A new favourite to add to the very long list of favourite cheeses. How does one choose just one cheese to pronounce favourite? I just can’t do it.

Day 1 got off to a great cheesy start!

TQTP – A nibble of Day 1

0

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 13-05-2009

A quick trip to Paris

2

Posted by Nibbler | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 05-05-2009

One of my best friends (I was going to say oldest but I didn’t think she’d appreciate it! And I am actually older than her by a year) turned 40 this year. Her dream was to celebrate her 40th in the Champagne region in France with her friends. Unable to be there for the actually day in Champagne, we compromised and I met her in Paris the week before her birthday.

When we planned this I was unsure what I would be doing at my day job and not able to commit to much more than a week. So I flew from Sydney, Australia to Paris, France for a 7 day trip. The jet lag was killer!

Being the cheese fiend that I am I was determined that I would use this trip to my best cheese advantage. I was determined to haunt the village fromagerie to try all the beautiful raw milk cheeses banned from Australia.

I spent hours on the internet looking for cheese tours. Bugged friends and fellow cheese comrades for cheese stores to visit. I carefully logged it into a google map and printed it out ready for my trip.
I was prepared!

Another cheese related goal for the trip was to answer the question that burns in the mind of most Australians (OK maybe not most but at least a couple!) – are Camembert and Brie really different. I am sure the more experienced cheese readers are gasping at this question but here in Australia, with the cheeses the average person has access to, this is a legitimate question!

It was going to be tight but I was sure I could manage it all and see my friend. It was a plan, a good plan.
Stay tuned dear reader for the tales of the Quick Trip to Paris….