Pinbone degustation

From the first time I read about Pinbone, I wanted to go there to eat the breakfast corn with fregola dish. Then a few months ago I somehow got the idea that it should be a celebration dinner after exams finish – and what a great instinct it was. The chef’s selection (small for $65, large for $85) is a fantastic way to try a range of dishes, and I relished the opportunity to try a “small” vegetarian selection (which turned out to be a lot of food).

  Snacks

The mushroom popper was the vegetarian alternative to the chicken popper. It looked so simple – a butter lettuce leaf, some shredded carrot, a fried mushroom, a bit of sauce – but the flavours just explode in the mouth. The miso & corn grugere was like a savoury profiterole with an interesting interplay of the most unlikely flavours. Smoky, cheesy thing was absolutely the perfect snack, a little jacket potato filled with heavenly smoky cheese.

Avocado with olive tapenade

This was a simple dish, a row of avocado slices topped with a green olive tapenade and some sort of herby leaf I didn’t recognise. The whole thing tasted light green.

Roasted carrots with macadamia puree

These impossibly cute tiny carrots were well caramelised and perfectly sweet. It was well paired with a rich earthy macadamia puree, which was so good we licked the rest off the plate.

 Asparagus, toasted sesame

The asparagus was char grilled with a strong smoky flavour, then rolled in a mix of black & white sesame seeds, again an interesting combination. 

 Tofu with heirloom tomato salad  

This felt inspired by agedashi tofu with a light crispy batter and a soft, almost gelatinous interior. The baby heirloom tomatoes were intense bursts of tomato flavours, leading one to ask – where do you source such amazing tomatoes!!

 Mushroom, kale, red cabbage, sichuan pepper

The flavours and textural contrasts in this dish were quite intense – a mix of wild mushrooms, shredded red cabbage and torn up bitter kale. If anything, it was over seasoned and less soy sauce would have allowed the mushrooms to sing more. 

 Raw zucchini, lemon, pecorino

I’m not a huge fan of raw things, but this was just awesome. Such a simple dish with grated zucchini perfectly seasoned and balanced with a hint of lemon, resting under a blanket of fine pecorino. I could have eaten a whole plate of this.

 Roasted eggplant, caramelised yoghurt, leeks

This was probably my favourite dish of the night. The eggplant was deeply roasted, velvety smooth and full of smoky flavour. The accompaniments of braised baby leeks and thick caramelised yoghurt with an almost pungent flavour were simply perfect. 

 Pumpkin, pepitas, silverbeet

Again a very simple but well executed dish. The toasted pepitas lifted this dish to another level. 

 Pasta special with taleggio, cavolo nero and edamame

I was told a few times (but still forgot) what this actual pasta was called – it is like gnocchi but made from whole wheat flour and has a much firmer texture. It is also pressed from a wooden board to create the ridges. It arrived at our table slightly stuck together – the cheese had melted and held everything together in one clump. A little mix though and this dish really sang with the hearty pasta, strong (stinky) flavours from the cheese and the sweetness of edamame. Who would have thought edamame would be a tasty addition to pasta?

Blueberry granita, white pepper parfait & pinenut brittle

We were groaning by this stage but dessert beckoned. This was a huge plate that looked somewhat like a mess when it was set at our table, but we quickly fell in love. The three elements of this dish are quite intriguing – the blueberry granita was so clean tasting that at times it resembled ice (except much softer), yet it balanced perfectly the rich creaminess of the parfait, and the pinenut brittle gave bursts of crunch and sweetness. Altogether the flavours dance in the mouth, and though we were totally stuffed, we managed to finish this entire plate.

Overall Pinbone was a lovely experience. The atmosphere is fine dining but relaxed enough for a weekday dinner, and the staff were quite friendly and helpful. The food is well designed, well prepared and had interesting variety for a vegetarian. The degustation is amazing value and I am surprised it is not more popular! 

Dreams: a train ride to a parallel world, and a strange breakfast

A train ride to a parallel world

This dream starts with an awareness that I am going to catch a train.

I see that my companion for the journey is T, one of the SRMOs that I worked with previously. We are walking along a road lined by old tall houses that look like the Dutch houses lining the canals of Amsterdam. The time is early evening, and the light is gentle but steadily fading.

We come to an unmarked entrance to a train station and look at the noticeboards but it's not clear which platform our train is on. We already have tickets in our pockets, so we ride on the first escalator down, which then leads to another and another and another. It seems like the escalators are never ending, and the train station must be at the centre of the earth. As we descend the air feels increasingly stale, and the atmosphere becomes somewhat claustrophobic.

Finally we come to the bottom of the escalators and emerge onto a platform. There are dozens of platforms stretching as far as we can see, but we cannot see any sign showing which platform we are actually standing on. 

All around us are crowds of people, carrying all sorts of luggage from fancy suitcases to big rice sacks. T and I discuss where to go for a while, and we decide that we must need to catch a train to the correct platform. At that moment an ancient looking train pulls up - it has only two carriages so we assume that must be the inter-platform train.

Inside the carriage it is almost completely dark. The overwhelming smell of humans, animals and excrement hits us like a wave. So many people are packed into the carriage that I lose T immediately, and I scramble amongst the people trying to find her, but it is so dark I cannot make out any faces. I think suddenly that we must be on a third class carriage in India, and so we must be going somewhere in India?

The train stops at several places but the mass of humanity prevents me from seeing what platform it is. I get the ticket out of my pocket and struggle to read it in the dark. The price is "134,00R" and the platform on it is 17, but still there's no way for me to tell where that might be.

I stumble off the train at a random stop and stand, blinking in a completely different type of light. T is not here, and the platform is almost completely deserted. I walk up and down the platform looking for her, but I see only a few solo travellers and a family with several small children. I realise that perhaps the train has gone and T has already gone on the train thinking I might be on it. I sit down on a bench and contemplate what to do next.

Suddenly, Elsie comes up to me and says what are you doing here? I am elated to see her and ask what she is doing here. She grabs my hand and says - let's take a photo together, so we can remember we were here! I tell her that I am looking for my friend and ask her if she has seen anyone that looks like her. She ignores me and asks an old lady nearby to take a photo of us.

We are standing under a dull lamppost, emitting a weak pool of orange light. The photo is snapped and we thank the old lady. Elsie looks at the photo and exclaims look!

In the photo Elsie and I are standing amidst a lush green field, which stretches as far as we can see. I struggle to put together the reality of the train station and the photograph of the beautiful field.

Then the alarm wakes me, and the dream is no more.


A strange breakfast
This dream starts in my living room. The time is early morning, perhaps around 7am. A few friends are lazing around on the couches and another few are seated at the round glass dining table. As far as I can see, it is really my living room from real life.

I have forgotten the topic of discussion at the beginning, but we soon start talking about breakfast. I open the fridge and there are random bits of food stuffed inside. I take out a box of leftover noodles, then some cold rice and pickles, then bread. People rise from their random places of lounging and take food to eat. I open the weet-bix and take the muesli out of the cupboard. The halwa and honey are liberally spread on toast.

I look over at my friends and everyone is nibbling on something except for CC. She sits on the chair closest to the fridge, legs crossed, a vacant expression on her face.

What would you like to eat? I ask her.
I don't know, she replies.

I open the fridge again and inside there is almost nothing left. There is an onion in the vegetable crisper, an assortment of sauces, and a single ruby grapefruit on the top shelf. I take out the grapefruit and inspect it - it is an excellent specimen with an exuberant skin and a deep fragrant smell. I hand it to her and she hands it back without saying anything.

I start to peel the grapefruit and cut it into segments on a plate. Then suddenly she says - don't you know? I have an eating disorder where I cannot take big bites of anything.

I look down at the segments and think for a moment whether she is saying they are too large to eat. 

She says, more emphatically, C has the same eating disorder, you know, what do you think she is going to eat now?

Then I wake up.

Amsterdam food

Before J and I headed to Amsterdam, we had no idea what we were going to do there. Never fear, Google helped me hastily patch together a list of things we wanted to eat and all the other "touristy stuff" just fit in between the food bits.

Stop 1. Fries 

The Dutch love fries!! Chip shops are all over town everywhere you turn, served in cute little paper cones and topped with a range of sauces. One shop we went to had about 20 sauces on offer - standard and gourmet! The classic is mayo though, and we had some damn good fries from this shop in the old town.

Nothing like a bit of queuing in freezing weather to stimulate appetite!

The fries were so good everyone just ate them opposite the queue. The father on the left feeding his baby son in the bicycle basket was particularly cute. Obviously Dutch people grow up with fry memories!

Another fries van. Cute but not as tasty fries.

Stop 2. Cheese

We ran into the first cheese shop we saw and stuffed our faces on cheese samples. There were so many types of cheese from cow's, sheep's, goat's milk.. all kinds of gourmet flavours like chilli, cumin, coriander, pesto, garlic.. and best of all, smoked cheeses. There were also stroopwafel samples which served as our introduction to the sticky syrupy wafer biscuits (though we never bought any touristy stroopwafel only from a supermarket). I am ashamed to say I think we may have had lunch in the cheese shop on samples alone.

 Gourmet cheese on display in front of a mural of where it came from

 

Cheese glorious cheese! at a cheese factory in Zaanse Schans

Stop 3. Poffertjes

I used to eat these in Darwin with Seetha - the Dutch man selling these at Mindil got to know us! These little pancakes are springy and light, dusted with icing sugar and served with a cupful of rum. We ate some dipped in rum, then I realised that you can leave it to soak in rum - how tipsy J got after that!

Stop 4. A traditional Dutch meal

Night had fallen over the canals, and we had no place in mind for dinner. We wandered aimlessly around the red light district, away from the cheap eats of Chinatown, and finally ended up at Cafe Tomaz which ended up being a TripAdvisor favourite! What a stumble. On the last day we even figured out it's right next to Begjinhof, but we didn't realise it was so close in the dark.

The inside of this place was warm and comforting, full of dark wood, dim lighting and old books on shelves. I read Babar in Dutch (a man came up to me and helpfully said - it's in Dutch) and marvelled at how similar the words looked to German but how incomprehensible it all was. Yes I am pouring beer but it's non alcoholic - Amstel 0%, surprisingly good.

J had mussels and I had this vegetarian mashpot - a mountain of mashed potato mixed in with roast pumpkin, zucchini and leek, topped by a dollop of cream and a couple of nude asparagus. It was perfect for a winter's night - like a hug from the inside, though I did get terribly sleepy afterwards and almost fell asleep on the tram. 

Stop 5. DIY breakfast, Dutch style

Despite my protests that breakfast should involve soft food, J talked me into buying these amazing Robben crackers which were made of some wholesome whole wheat and studded with pepitas. They had the most amazing crunch factor and the earthy taste when the thing shatters in your mouth is just amazing. We had some smoked cheese from the cheese shop, and also got some olive tapenade. And mini stroop wafel for dessert, because how can you have breakfast without dessert?

Here we are in the queue outside the van Gogh museum. We had an hour to have breakfast!

Stop 6. Where is Suriname?

Now I thought I knew where Suriname was - but we got mightily confused when we finally went into a Suriname restaurant called Warung Mini and it served Indonesian food. Afterwards we asked the lady (who really looked Turkish or middle Eastern) and indeed Suriname is a tiny country in the northern end of South America. It was colonised by the Dutch and after independence, many Surinamese chose to move to the Netherlands. She told us that the food is often Indo like because Suriname is so multicultural. J had a smoked meat rice combo, I had this gado gado which was pretty good.

Stop 7. Apple pie

We literally walked halfway across town to go to the most famous place for apple pie - Cafe Winkel. It was totally packed and people were hanging off the edge of the bars just to have pie. I don't know if it was the anticipation buildup but it was a bit disappointing for me.  

The crust is nice, slightly caramelised and just a little crunchy. The apple pieces are thick and relatively firm, heavily spiced with cinnamon with plump sultanas mixed through. All the elements of the dish were there.. but it was missing magic!

I liked the one we had at the bestest cafe ever de laatste kruimel better. Though the crust was more soggy, the apple was velvet like and the whole cake felt light and more alive in the mouth.

Stop 8. Space cake

 What can I say? I think they forgot to put the space in our cake. 

Stop 9. I love supermarkets

One of the best things about travelling is going to the supermarket and seeing what locals buy.

 Say cheese!

The Dutch obviously love sausages.

Intricate speculaas (ginger cookie) moulds

My favourite find. Fried rice in a can?

I think this little piggy is made of some sort of marzipan and has since been chopped up for sale except for his head, fake apple still inside his mouth. Stuff of nightmares! Later in another bakery we saw a whole pig made of marzipan - it must be a Dutch tradition.

Stop 10. the last crumb 

We spied this lovely cafe de Laatste kruimel on the first day and thought everything looked just delectable from the window.  

We returned for a very last minute afternoon tea just before going to the airport. It didn't disappoint - if I had stayed in Amsterdam longer, I would have liked to return to try something different everyday.

The inside was cosy and full of knickknacks. An industrial mixer sat next to a huge oven, filling the cafe with all sorts of delicious smells.

Man, just look at that apple pie... 

London food

Londoners called it a mild autumn, but coming from 35deg+ Myanmar, I felt like I arrived in an ice box. I had done some last minute shopping in Singapore in an attempt to rug up, but I still shuddered every time the wind came (when there were locals in shorts!!) To be fair the weather was mild from 5 - 10 degrees each day, and I was thankful for the lack of rain till my very last day.

The first day in London I suffered from acute disorientation syndrome, as most travellers will experience on arrival to a completely new country. After spending $1-2 per meal in Myanmar, I really didn't know where I was when a coffee cost nearly 3 pounds. There were a bunch of people at the Freestate cafe near Holborn so I thought that may be a goer - but the coffee was too acidic for my taste and I was somewhat disappointed.

I kept walking around the streets looking for somewhere to eat, and in the end the cold got the better of me when I saw the warm and welcoming Chez Mamie  https://www.facebook.com/chezmamielondon. Bright and airy at the front with lots of deli like foods, the old chairs out the back looked just the perfect place to rest my jetlagged weary soul.

I loved the little touches around the place, including an adorable menu and fresh roses on the table. 




This was one of the lunch specials for the day - vegetarian lasagne with roasted eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms. The peppery rocket and sharp parmesan on top brought me back to the western world after eating rice and curry everyday in Myanmar.

London is a strange place in terms of food. I was surprised to see so many chains for food & drink, not just big global fast food chains but also lots of healthy eatery chains such as Pret a Manger and Itsu which always seemed so busy. I adored this Christmas decoration at a popular sushi chain but the menu seemed strangely unJapanese.

Chain store food aside, there are plenty of small hole in the wall poky places to find, and lots of pretty window displays too.

On some street near Bayswater

Delicious meringues near Notting Hill

 Cupcakes in some random shop in soho. 

One day I went to Harrod's food hall which was a somewhat out of this world experience. The tea hall had an insane selection of teas, all packaged beautifully. The fresh produce was so perfect it felt like everything had gone through a beauty pageant. I particularly liked this cute gingerbread house.

Another day I went to Borough market which is touristy but not particularly large compared to fresh food markets back home. I'd snapped a few photos but this was my absolute favourite - a bakery selling a jenga of olive & cheese sticks. This was clearly the favourite item so I had to get one too - had a nice chewy texture

There are so many coffee chains in London (Starbucks, Nero, Costa must be the top 3) and most coffee I had was pretty average, but there were so many people queueing outside Monmouth coffee http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk  I had to pause and get something. I ended up with a single origin filter coffee from Nicaragua on suggestion of the lady who came to take order in the queue, which was punchy and fruity - probably the best I had in London.

Crowds at Monmouth. The communal table also had a serve yourself as much crusty bread as possible option which everyone seemed to be happily digging into. The vibe at this cafe was... Sydneyesque. 

I went to East End to wander around Brick Lane. There were so many Indian restaurants here that it was overwhelming - lots of people stood on the street and tried to beckon passerbys into their restaurants - something that many people expressed obvious discomfort at. Most restaurants had printed in their window "voted no. 1 by xxx magazine (or website)" or worse, whole extracts of TripAdvisor reviews. I set out to find a restaurant that didn't have anything like that, and ended up at Dosa World http://www.dosa-world.com/ which was surprisingly good.

 

 A vegetarian wrap at the Southbank winter festival - the friendly lady told me I managed to get there on the very first day of the festival (also my last day in London) - lucky me for trying her chickpea tagine wraps which were made with Himalayan salt and lots of love. 

I walked past Orchard cafe in Holborn a few times and wanted to go in every time, but lamented my lack of stomachs. On my last day I was determined to make it there and had this toasted oat porridge with seeds and blueberry conserve - who knew such a simple combination could be so delicious? They also do lots of inventive sandwiches including a vegan one which sounded intriguing with squash pate. 

My final food destination for London was Ottolenghi. I'd started reading his vegetarian recipes on Guardian but didn't realise how much of a food idol he was in London. Rightly so - his cafe in Islington is light and airy, feels like health embodied. The salads were worthy of food porn and the sweets were so delectable. Who could say no? As soon as I got home I bought an Ottolenghi cookbook. I want to have that wild rice salad with puy lentils and currants.. and the roast cauliflower salad with ginger pickle.. and the grilled aubergine with spiced yoghurt.. and every other thing I saw that day!

 

London street art