ragingyoghurt » adventures in good eating etc.

some nights what you want to do is sit, legs up, lengthways on the couch, reading “vogue”. eating an ice cream sundae. see? it’s even a suitably gaunt ice cream sundae. (i’ve actually only done this the once, last week, but it was so pleasant i will do it again.)

[ in response to your question from the other month, hikaru-san, i don’t subscribe to any magazines — call it a lack of faith: maybe next month will suck — but if someone were to bestow a subscription on me, “vogue” would be on the wishlist. whoulda thunk? and then would it be the US, UK or um, Australian edition? one day i will buy myself a subscription to “the new yorker”. when i was younger, i subscribed to “new internationalist”, and then younger still, the “lucasfilm fanclub newsletter”, and further way back, “stickers and stuff”. in between i was also given subscriptions to “readers digest” and “national geographic”. i know. ]

the morning after the ice cream sundae, i was cold sweating and blacking out in a photo gallery, vomiting a bottle of fizzy apple juice into a gutter, entangled in stomach cramps and dizziness, and seeing through the weekend on all of two cups of sweet black tea and three slices of buttered toast. no doubt some strain of monster flu to herald in the spring. however by sunday night i decided that the dizziness and pangs were by now actually caused by hunger, so i cooked up a pot of spag bol (but with curly fettucine. have you seen it? it’s like normal fettucine except one edge of it is ruffled! oh the mouth feel!) and staggered down the road to recovery.

is this what blogging is? i can’t quite remember. a couple weeks away becomes a month, and then another month of being without the internet as the ISP passes you on to the phone company and the phone company returns the volley… to another phone company. ch. and so a new season, and a new suburb…

…and this morning at the supermarket there was a new product, i think a cross-promotion with the willy wonka movie: bite-sized chocolate pikelets — “eat them straight out of the bag!” said the bag. i just did, and i think the people who wrote the bag were being optimistic. the pikelets were chocolatey, but somewhat flaccid, and cold. yes, i ate the second one to be sure, and then the third because hey, they had grown on me. the thing is, don’t eat them out of the bag, but toast them lightly and then put ice cream on them, and berries, and chocolate sauce.

you see? always it comes back to the sundaes.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 6 September 2005 at 4:25 pm

permalink | filed under bookshelf, snacks, something new

fueled by two slices of pumpkin sourdough toast and a cup of milky tea, i am in the throes of… throwing out magazines. again. long-time readers may recall an episode — more of a mini series really — almost a year ago, when gripped by the fervour of impending baby, i shifted a pile of old magazines as tall as myself (ok, so that’s not so tall) out of my wardrobe and into the recycling bin. at the time, i was like, what am i doing?? there’s history here!!” but of course, aside from the odd early twinge of loss of my complete collection of “juice” magazines, i haven’t longed for a single issue.

today i find myself much less traumatised as i attack a stack of “details” from the mid-to-late nineties. this was my favourite magazine from the era, and thus survived the previous cull. as i flip through them before casting them on the recycling bin pile, i am taken aback by how much i absorbed at the time. no, not just the chris heath celebrity stories or the articles addressing issues pertinent to brash young men (despite so not being a brash young man); looking at the pages now, it appears that every single design element (especially picture boxes with rounded corners sitting on coloured slabs) and typographic trick (testosteronic sans serif type forced into a slant, maybe even set on an angle!) in “details” filtered through my impressionable young brain and ended up on the pages of the magazines i was designing at the time.

i remember a reader’s letter from 1995 or 1996, saying that i should stop copying “spin” magazine, but clearly they were mistaken. i should have stopped aping “details”. in my defense, i would like to think that i inherited the practice from my predecessor… but now that both my collections of “details” and “juice” are n’more, who can really tell? well, ben. ben could probably tell.

anyway. there is no point to this story. i just wanted to remind myself that i threw out all my “details” magazines today. and found appreciative new homes for half my “new yorkers”. it’s all a lead-up to when i tell you that i’m gonna be offline for a little while: first to go overseas, and then to move house.

be seein’ ya.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 28 June 2005 at 10:14 am

permalink | filed under bookshelf, snacks, werk

i found myself in campsie the other day, gaping at a shop across the main road. it was called “cake world” but somehow i managed to not go inside. sure, i eventually crossed the road and stood for some time looking through the front windows at a bizarre selection of theme cakes, including a couple that could fit the category “mmm… erotic cakes…”… but i did not actually go inside.

because already i had a banh mi pork roll in my bag — five kinds of pork by-products in the one sandwich! — and the enticing delight you see here: red bean ice sandwich. like those japanese fish-shaped red bean pancakes, except this one was korean fish-shaped wafers filled with vanilla ice cream and red bean syrup. wondrous!

the pork roll i ate sitting on the train platform. the fish ice cream sandwich was slurped up on the train, whizzing through the inner west back towards the city.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 22 June 2005 at 9:10 pm

permalink | filed under around town, ice cream, snacks

if you read saffron‘s much better and more indepth account of the excursion of the previous post, you would know that we ended up at lucky thai sweets and video shop, perusing the sticky, ricey, sticky ricey delights.

and then there was this:

clusters of vermicelli-thin threads of sweet potato and taro, deep fried and coated in sugar. thai people sure have a way with sweet. thinking up good names is a different matter though; these are called “crispy balls”.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 22 June 2005 at 8:55 pm

permalink | filed under around town, snacks

what better way to make up for the virtuousness of a morning of yoga than to sit down to a cup of tea… and an ice cream sundae. no matter that it was a morning so chilly that the brisk fifteen minute walk between house and yoga class was time enough for the skin on my face to break out in cold-induced welts. a morning so nippy that my brain function slowed, and it was only halfway up the street when i remembered that i had forgotten to pack my camera.

so hurrah for saffron at writing on a paper napkin, for being the documentarian that she is, for it was she that sat waiting for me at passionflower yesterday lunchtime, and she who whipped out the camera when the ice creams arrived at the table. to make up for forsaking it the last time around, i had the rather unfortunately named “black and white seduction” — a tall glass of black ~~sticky rice~~ [edit: indeed, as saffron points out in her comment, it was actually black sesame ice cream, rich and nutty like a hilton sister] ice cream, coconut ice cream, black grass jelly and evaporated milk, which you can see left-most in saffron’s photographs. if i didn’t feel so bad about saying the name out loud, i would have it again without hesitation.

saffron has been leaving friendly comments here for ages, and it was pleasing to finally meet the lovely lass in person. there are real people on the internet! and they will bring you cupcakes!

posted by ragingyoghurt on 19 June 2005 at 9:02 pm

permalink | filed under around town, ice cream

there are days where you just don’t want to have ice cream or chocolate or cake (or leftover pizza) for breakfast. sometimes only a simple and pleasing cluster of circles will do. a toasted crumpet. a cup of milky tea. a new dish.

some of you may remember the post from earlier in the year, about my fourteen jams. i am slowly making my way through them, and have so far resisted the temptation to buy any more… um, except for that one time, in an italian grocery, with the peach jams in silver tins… gracing this crumpet is some very tasty st dalfour pear jam. it almost makes up for that trick the jam makers do where they put a layer of fruity bits right at the top to impress you when you first open the bottle, and then two bits of toast later it’s just normal jammy jam down below.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 13 June 2005 at 11:35 am

permalink | filed under breakfast

i’d been meaning to make spanakopita for ages. what’s not to like? all crunchy pastry and salty fetta and dilly spinach. it seemed like the time was nigh when i walked past my local fruit shop and a table was piled high with $1.99 bunches of spinach. a week, two weeks, i walked by, always thinking, hmm… must get some filo pastry and then i’ll be set. already there was a block of fetta in my fridge.

so, wednesday i finally remembered to get a packet of filo at the supermarket, and went by the fruit shop, and the spinach was back up to $2.49. but it didn’t matter — i was on a mission! when i got home, with my filo and two bunches of spinach and a bunch each of dill and spring onion, i was quite unthrilled to read the side of the pastry packaging, which said: thaw completely at room temperature for at least four hours, or overnight in the fridge and then two hours at room temperature. hrm.

so, thursday, i googled “spanakopita recipe” and spent an hour or so walking in between the kitchen and the computer, being methodical. and then there it was: spanakopita. yummy, crunchy, salty, dilly spanakopita.

the dinner was made all the more pleasant by the prospect of cakes for dessert. mmm… plural cake. these were purpose-bought that afternoon at christopher’s cake shop, a tiny greek bakery behind taylor square. the evening’s selection included something which was a chocolate rum ball mixture coated in ground almond cake coated in dark chocolate, a cherry strudel, and a couple of things involving cake and ground almonds and filo. as you can see, there is no such thing as too much filo (or too much cake).

posted by ragingyoghurt on 11 June 2005 at 5:05 pm

permalink | filed under around town, cake, dinner, kitchen

i don’t suppose it would surprise you that i signed up to the friends of krispy kreme mailing list. every now and again they send me some junk email telling me about a new limited edition doughnut. this month it is the caramel crunch doughnut.

i found myself in the city again today, due to my mobile phone jumping out of my bag while we were at david jones yesterday; someone nicely handed it in at the cashier’s desk. of course had they decided to take the phone and ring up a great whopping bill, they would have discovered that i had all of $2.70 credits left. so, bah, there was no reason for me to upgrade to a shiny new phone with a colour screen and a camera. anyway, it’s not like i have a spare $500 lying around.

fortunately, this afternoon i had a spare $8.80, which is what four krispy kreme doughnuts — including a caramel crunch doughnut — cost. and suddenly there i was at the store, trying to wrestle the urban warrior pram up to the counter.

i’m not a fan of caramel, but i thought it was necessary to have one for research and documentation purposes. so. this is a yeasty doughnut filled with rather less caramel kreme than you’d hope for even if you weren’t a fan of caramel. the top is glazed with chocolate, and then sprinkled with crunchy bits. it was not as sweet as other kk doughnuts i’ve had (i usually go for the sugar glazed variety: the other three i got today were glazed sour cream, glazed devil’s food and glazed blueberry), and in fact it was a pleasant doughnut experience that i would repeat, especially with a cup of unsweetened black tea. perhaps next time i will try not to crumb all over my desk.

in short, it was rather like eating a golden gaytime, in doughnut form.

which reminds me, you can now get a tim tam cornetto, but having only seen billboards for this new product, i can only imagine that it would be somewhat less good than a tim tam, and possibly a little better than a regular cornetto. has anyone encountered one?

posted by ragingyoghurt on 2 June 2005 at 4:29 pm

permalink | filed under around town, snacks, something new

this morning, the first day of winter, i found myself in the city, walking briskly up the blustery corridor that is martin place. it wasn’t just the need to get out of the cold that spurred me on; specifically it was the need to get out of the cold and into the lindt shop. i believe the full and proper name for this establishment is “lindt concept store and café“.

[ the phrase “concept store” irritates me, alongside “free gift”, “authentic recipe”, “special collector’s issue” and “actual photos!”. the other month i saw a sign in a window amidst a fancy apartment complex, which said “concept store opening soon”, as though it didn’t matter what the store was selling. i suppose it is possible that they actually would be selling concepts. but i mean, a store that sells the stuff whose logo is out front! what a concept! rrrr. ]

the lindt shop’s been in business for months and months, but every time i’ve been past, it’s been closed. this would be acceptable if i showed up every tuesday at midnight, but i’ve only ever pressed my nose up to the cold and dark glass doors on weekend teatimes. today, aladdin’s cave finally opened. there were display cases along three walls (and a display island in the middle) and they all held chocolatey treasures that i wanted, all gloomy bear claws. in the end i showed moderate restraint, and when i stepped back out onto the street, i had a couple of madagascar dark chocolate truffles, a couple of pistachio truffles, a couple of 70% cocoa dark chocolate macaron, and a chocolate orange macaron. and a vanilla champagne macaron. and a dark hot chocolate, which was like drinking a hot lindor ball, mmm. like i said, moderate restraint.

what i left behind glass were: a raspberry-dark chocolate lindor ball, a creme brulee chocolate bar, an eclair, and a 70% cocoa dark chocolate tart adorned with a royal blue sash, like miss universe.

they will be mine, oh yes.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 1 June 2005 at 3:56 pm

permalink | filed under around town, chocolate, drink, grumble

you know that row of thai grocery shops near central? there’s one whose name is something like “lucky sweets and video”. i was lucky to find myself there on friday afternoon.

in the refrigerated shelf by the door there are boxes upon boxes of grilled pork on rice, or curried chicken on rice, or mixed vegetables and egg on rice, or fried fish on rice, or… anything and everything on rice. it’s like a magical wall made of plastic takeaway container bricks filled with exciting tasty treats. the thing is, if you make your way past this wanton (not wonton) display and get to the counter at the opposite end of the store, there is another magical wall, and this one is maybe even more magical because the takeaway containers are filled with desserts!

it is always so hard to choose: the coconut milk jellies? the steamed semolina cake? the black sticky rice topped with custard? the white sticky rice topped with a tantalising sprinkle of crushed up dried prawns and sugar? in fact, if you cannot decide between those last two, there is a box containing both, as well as a third yellow sticky rice covered in another dried prawn-sugar mixture. this one is orange, and spicy.

and so, the triple whammy sticky rice extravaganza was mine. mine on friday, saturday, sunday, and finally, today, monday, when the last slightly chewy grains were reluctantly and joyfully devoured.

i also had to try this: a wedge of pumpkin stuffed with eggy custard. i guess it was constructed by cleaning out the seeds of the pumpkin, filling it with custard and then steaming steaming steaming until the whole thing was soft. the custard, the pumpkin flesh, the pumpkin skin — all scoopable yum.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 30 May 2005 at 7:12 pm

permalink | filed under around town, cake, snacks

Click

Search

Categories

Archives