Monthly Archives: March 2011

March 30, 2011 · 8:54 pm

Leatherjacket jackpot

Leatherjacket_Oven-Roasted_with_Lemongrass_&_Garlic

Leatherjacket Oven-Roasted with Lemongrass & Garlic, photographer Cath Muscat

Bingo! The Food Sage’s Sustainable Seafood Challenge has got off to a cracking start. I was browsing the latest issue of Delicious when i spotted a recipe for Leatherjacket Oven-Roasted with Lemongrass & Garlic, by head chef at Sydney’s Red Lantern restaurant, Mark Jensen. It’s from his new cookbook The Urban Cook: Cooking and Eating for a Sustainable Future (published by Murdoch Books).

The photograph (above) looked amazing, the ingredients were relatively few and some of my favourites (lemongrass, garlic, bird’s-eye chillies) and i knew my local fishmonger sold leatherjacket – in all their shimmering, silvery, yellow-tipped splendour. I’d admired, but never dared purchase, them in the past. I decided to take the plunge. Continue reading →

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March 26, 2011 · 2:04 pm

A taste of Thailand: what Sydney has to offer

Revisiting a favourite cuisine can spark memories and reignite a passion for flavours first devoured a long way from home.

The Food Sage went in search of Thai restaurants that deliver the real deal. Pleasant surprises and disappointments were par for the course.  Continue reading →

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March 22, 2011 · 6:03 am

Sustainable seafood: a load of old codswallop?

Fish on ice

Fish on ice (iStockphoto)

Sourcing sustainable seafood, it sounds pretty simple right? You find out which species are over-fished and don’t buy them. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. As The Food Sage’s investigation of sustainable seafood discovered, it’s one hell of a murky fish pond. Continue reading →

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March 9, 2011 · 10:26 pm

Milk: you get what you pay for

Jersey_Cows

Jersey cows (iStockphoto)

Over the Moon milk is about as close to straight from the cow that you will get. “We milk on Friday and sell on Saturday,”  says Karl Johnson, owner of Johnson’s Farmgate which supplies the milk to farmers markets and speciality stores and cafes in New South Wales.

Johnson, an ex-publican from Sydney who has been in the milk trade for about six years, drives this liquid gold to Sydney himself. Then he mans the market stall and sells his wares himself. That’s about as hands-on as you will get. Continue reading →

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March 6, 2011 · 6:53 pm

Bistro Dom: a singular experience

Bistro_Dom_Adelaide

Bistro Dom, Nigel Parsons

Ever been in a public place and caught a waft of smelly feet and hoped, for the love of God, it wasn’t your own?

This happened to me in a Bistro Dom, a smart restaurant in Adelaide. I happened to be dining alone – that is, alone in the whole restaurant (it was very early evening). It was a mortifying moment. Convinced I couldn’t be the culprit it didn’t take long to sniff out the source: a saucer of complementary saucisson before me.

Continue reading →

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