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Photo: Christina Simons
As the legend has it, at least the one I read, lobster a l’armoricaine was originally from the Cotes- d’Armor in Brittany. With time the name was bastardised to from armoricaine to amoricaine and finally americaine. That’s cultural imperialism for you. Now most of us don’t have the pocket for nearly a kilo of lobster in these troubled times. Instead and to celebrate the slow defrosting of the giant celaphapod by some New Zealanders (long term readers will remember that last time I did this was when Japanese scientists caught a giant squid) I thought I’d share my recipe for squid a l’armoricaine.
Remember it is my philosophy not to give long lists of ingredients and detailed quantities. The idea is to cook by taste and feel. For two people about 400kgg of squid is plenty. You’ll also need some good olive oil, an onion, a couple of ripe tomatoes, garlic, tarragon and parsley (fresh, of course), white wine, cayenne pepper, lemon and salt/pepper. If you are a wimp buy squid rings. If you are a real cook, buy a fresh monster from the deep. But you don’t want one that will make rings the size of tractor tyres.
If it’s fresh it should be purple and speckled. And you’ll probably suspect something if it has been lying around for days under a webcam defrosting - it will have a very acrid,fishy ammonia-like smell.
The book I have says to stun it by giving it a sharp blow on the head with a heavy instrument - I hope it’s not a giant. Ah, I see now that was for lobster so quite possibly the squid will already have been dispatched by the fishmonger. She (or he) who may also offer to prepare it for you. If not dispatched, avoid the snappy beak (which makes a great helmet) and I recommend protective glasses to avoid ink squirting into the eyes. As several minutes wrestling a la Jules Vern, strip the insides out of the squid (after ensuring it’s dead, of course). Cut below the eyes to remove the tentacles and remove the beak. Clean out the inside of its “head” and strip off the speckled skin. Wash thoroughly.Finely dice the onion and melt with crushed garlic in the olive oil until sweet and soft. Meanwhile, score the tomatoes at each end and blanche in boiling hot water. Peel, remove the pips and slice finely. Slice the squid into rings and seal in the pan. Add the tomato and finely chopped parsley and tarragon.Add a dash of white wine and a pinch of cayenne. Reduce for a few minutes, add more parsley and serve on a bed of rice. Enjoy with something like a Muscadet or an Anjou Rosé - that’s the stuff we almost always drank in Brittany.

adapted from original post September 2005

Popularity: 7% [?]

Wagyu really is wonderful. It is also expensive and one of the most mistreated meats in Australia.
Possibly the worst way to eat it is an a hunking great steak; possibly the best way is to prepare it with care in small quantities, even as sushi.
Charles Greenfield, the owner and chef at Jamon Sushi in South Yarra, has probably worked with more different types of wagyu than anybody else in Australia. And there are more pure and mixed blood wagyu herds here than you’d believe.
Once or twice a year he holds special wagyu weeks. Next week on Wednesday 30th April there is an opportunity for up to eight bloggers to sample what he does at his bar. Usually the cost is $250 but he is prepared to offer a slightly parred down menu for $120 plus drinks.

This time around it is Sher wagyu with a fat marbling score of 9+.
Although this seems expensive it is a bargain bearing in mind the price of the meat. A while ago I was lucky enough to sample his work with Wagyu. You can see here what I wrote on it for The Australian and the pictures here on this blog.
Sitting at the bar as Greenfield prepares the dishes is an educational experience. I’ve probably learnt more about Japanese food eating here than anyhere else although Greenfield’s approach is not traditional.
You’ll find yourself comparing the textures and tastes of different cuts, cooked and raw. And you’ll get to smell that special unmistakable smell of wagyu cooking.
If you are interested let me know in comments. First come first served. And I’m at the front of the queue, which means there are seven places left. And yes, I am paying my way rather than taking a free meal which brings the price down for you.

Popularity: 13% [?]

To the left are five slices of the jamón ibérico de bellota. They weighed 88 grams and cost a shocking $41.80.To the right are five much larger slices of San Daniele ham from Italy weighing 142 grams and costing $17.04.One sunny afternoon, before I joined Febfast, we sat on the front veranda surveying the 4 sq m of garden that I cultivate while quaffing a crisp white wine and sharing pieces over the fence with my enterprising neighbours.We were split down the middle as to which was best.The jamon was thought to have too strong a flavour by two of us. Personally I was disappointed with the texture of the ham at the edges, tough slices that could have been carved off an old belt. It would be more appropriate to cook with rather than eat unadorned. The Jamon allegedly gets its flavour from feeding on acorns. I doubt this. I find it difficult to believe that the flavour of flesh can be influenced by what one eats. I would imagine, and I can find no science to back this up, that the flavour is created by the bacteria that effect the chemical processes and change the nature of a leg of pork into the ham (similarly, minerality in soil doesn’t create minerality in wines. It’s the yeasts that ferment it that do).In presentation the San Daniele is much better, pinker in colour and softer in texture - as well as flavour.Both hams are good, very good. Personally to eat with melon, figs, in a sandwich or alone the San Daniele wins hands down, especially when price is taken into account.The Jamon tastes good, very good and is best in small doses for more reasons than the price alone.Food fascist- try the Serrano- taste test Audtralian-made proscuitto

Popularity: 15% [?]

This photo really doesn’t do the Billy Hard Cheese from Tasmania justice. In real life I couldn’t describe it. It’s somewhere between a  artisan soap and  fossilisedice hockey puck.

It has a nutty flavour and a nice whiff of goat about it.  This is a welcome change to the pristine cheeses made locally that only really taste creamy. Full marks.

Popularity: 13% [?]

There are two things that I don

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Yabbies: those beady little eyes watched me to the end.

Children, the elderly and the emotionally unstable should stop reading now as this is about the death and destruction I have brought upon the animal world, sometimes with my bare hands (in the case of game).
I am a fan of my produce being fresh (but dead) and if I can get hold of certain live ingredients I will. I

Popularity: 22% [?]

Italian buffalo mozzarella

I’m not going to even go there and tell you about the agro I’ve been giving a friend for entering our house and taking the remainder of the last cheese I posted here. It turned out my neighbours were coveting it too and were contemplating breaking and entering.
Anyway Steve at Kirkfood, who got wind of my missing cheese, and by way of thanks for mentioning him in my Herald Sun column raced around in his souped up ute and delivered the superb mozzarella above and a replacement for my missing La Clarines.

When not revving his engine outside my house, it turns our Steve is a keen cyclist and is attempting a brave Le Tour de Fromage on his own blog to celebrate the upcoming Tour de France. He kicks off with Stinking Bishop.

When I write about people I don’t usually expect gifts but thanks mate. Much appreciated.

Popularity: 13% [?]

I know I’m only meant to have one idea in each sentence. but can I have two ideas in a blog post.

The common thread is Clotilde Dusoulier’s Chocolate & Zucchini where she brings a French perspective to the salty marsh crop. Known as salicornia she first ate it on family holidays to Brittany, a spot where i spent a lot of my childhood too.
In May local food blog Confessions of a Food Nazi found some at Victoria market for $30/kg. Meanwhile, at Cook Sister, a whole load of samphire action was rounded up. The most interesting thing on this post was:

“…at Ras al-Zawr on the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, some enterprising folk have started the first commercial scale cultivation of samphire. As the plant contains edible proteins and more vegetable oils than soya beans, and can be irrigated entirely with seawater, it is a miracle crop for countries like Saudi Arabia where water is scarce. Once processed it can be used to feed livestock, but plans are afoot to export the succulent tips to Europe as a gourmet ingredient.”

Seeing as water is now so scarce in Australia it seems that samphire,although it does have a short season, would be the ideal drought resistant crop. In fact it thrives on one thing we do have plenty of – salt water. Now it is up to some enterprising farmer to cultivate I and export it.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Oh yes, bring on the runny Camembert LaClarines and stinky blue Roquefort.

As steve says below it’s a bit like vacherin although a bit more creamy. Somebody sold me this while using Camerbert in the same breath. Hmmmm.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Worth it: the $15 wagyu burger.

Now that’s what I call a burger. A Wagyu burger to be precise from Rockpool Bar & Grill at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The bun was more like a brioche in texture. The whole construction is designed to be eaten rather than slip out down my front. There was a thin slice of cheese inside but the real star is the meat, prime wagyu spiked with what can only be wagyu fat packed with all those greate omega 3 oils..

Fat as we all know is the solution that transfers the flavour from the meat to the palate. And boy what flavour that was, the unmistakable flavour of wagyu, creamy, meaty, mouth melting… I whimpered.

At $15 it is an absolute bargain and worth a visit to the the bar or wine bar section (you can’t buy the burger in the restaurant) alone. To even mention any burger joint in the same blog post of this masterpiece would be sacrilege. But hey, I sold my soul to the devil years ago; the burgers from Grill’d are shit in comparison (probably because they are healthy burgers) despite being half the price.

We arrived at Rockpool at 10.45 at night after a very poor and longwinded staging of Othello and this burger uplifted my whole evening.

Of course, by the time we’d ordered chips and three glasses of red the bill was $71 for about 45 minutes time in the restaurant. For burgers alone that’s about 66 cents a minute but with chips and wine that’s $1.57. Considering I had to wait five minutes in line in McDonald’s last week simply to buy a $4 and quite nasty takeaway to deliver to a very hungover friend (seriously it wasn’t me or Jak) the Rockpool burger is great value.

Last night was my second visit to Rockpool. I’d resisted for six months purely because of my own prejudices about casino eating. How wrong I was.

All is calm but busy in the open kitchen.

Inside the restaurant: some of the customers who know how to hold their cutlery.

It has a great cosmopolitan feel like something from New York. Or on more familar territory from Conran in London. The service was friendly on my first visit, if not a little overstretched at some points.

The seafood here is fresh out of the acquarium. At first I was shocked at how quickly the live scallops arrived all the way from the Melbourne Acquarium on the other side of the Yarra. How many divers did the restaurant employ I asked. Was there any chance you’d get some of the giant squid once it thaws out?

But no, Rockpool has it’s own acquarium. Although the scallops were described as live they were very docile. I was worried they may hop onto the carpet which is awful because these shell fish really pick up the hairs.

Live, possibly dying or already dead scallops.

Next we each had steak tartare. Although spicy and tasty, it was of the ugly variety, the size of a small liquidized rodent nestling in a lettuce leaf (which is a lot better than France-Soir where it is the size of a domestic cat nestling in something near the size of a whole lettuce).

Steak tartare – tasty but of the ugly variety

To be quite honest I’ve only popped in for two quick meals and haven’t gone for the full blown experience but from what I’ve experienced and tasted so far I like Rockpool very much. It is a very different experience to my last pre-blogging visit to its Sydney sister I really did feel like I’d been treated like shit.

Finally it is time for the bill. Simon our sommelier who took us towards some excellent wines takes my card. And I am recognised. I’m not recognised for my column on the Herald Sun, for writing in The Australian or any of the reviewing I’ve done for restaurant guides.

I’m recognised for my blog. It turns out his girlfriend is Jackie from Eating with Jack who also works in hospitality.

One month from my second blog anniversary I now reflect how blogging has evolved in Melbourne, to the point that bloggers are recognised, regularly reviewing and discovering new restaurants before the main media. Many restaurants such as Interlude and Fenix are even courting bloggers. But as I often say that’s another story and coming soon.

Popularity: 54% [?]