FoodieChat

I’m intrigued - what is claypot rice?  Well I sort of knew, but how could you have a whole restaurant based solely around this one style of cooking?   Well, the queues outside the shop indicated that it is possible, and highly desirable!  First Taste is a chain of small family very casual restaurants that serves rice topped with all sorts of different meats and toppings that is baked in a claypot as its name implies. The rice forms a delicious crust on the pot, much in the same way that paella has one, and is brought to your table on your personal wooden board.  First Taste is also a specialist in soups.  For $4.50, try the wintermelon and pork soup to whet your appetite, as the rice takes 20 minutes to cook. 

Soups range up to $38 per serve that includes shark fins, fish maw and other specialties that may be new to the Australian palate.  But we’re here for the rice!  Delicious black pepper beef tenderloin rice is so tender, just the right amount of spice, and very saucy to mix through your rice.  At $7.50, you’d think yo ureally are eating in China!

Very popular is the chicken and mushroom rice ($7.80), it’s chicken thighs steamed with mushrooms and also chinese sausage.

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This is my interpretation of a pumpkin and leek lasagna from Australian Good Taste magazine.  I never would have thought that something with no meat could be SO tasty, such that I even relished leftovers!  It makes a great work lunch too.

Ingredients

• A wedge of pumpkin, chopped into 1.5cm cubes
• 250g of baby spinach
• Clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 6 free range eggs
• 200g sliced mushrooms.
• 1/3 cup of cream
• 1 handful of chopped mixed fresh herbs (I used parsley, basil and oregano)
• A handful of vintage cheddar cheese, grated

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Now it’s not often that Nigella Lawson, domestic goddess, creates a low fat version of something. Not that she called this lower fat, but I certainly think it is, by virtue of being based on condensed milk, rather than cream, as most fudge sauces are. And it can’t be any easier:

1. 200g condensed milk (I even used skim)
2. 100g chocolate
3. 100g peanut butter (Again I used lite).

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan, and warm gently until melted together into a lusciously viscous rich sauce.  Add a couple of tablespoons of water to prevent from setting too hard.

Pour over ice cream, sprinkle with chopped nuts, and enjoy - blissful in the knowledge that it’s not as bad as it could have been for you!

 It certainly is a demonstration of a chef’s humility when they open a lower priced offshoot and make their top cuisine affordable for all. Think Becasse and Plan B (with its $10 Wagyu burger and $2 lemon tarts); Fifteen Restaurant and Canteen, and in Leura: Solitary Restaurant and Kiosk.  Whilst the restaurant offers 5 courses for $95, a mere $10 will get you a hearty gourment brunch or lunch in its kiosk located on the same premises, same sweeping views over the blue mountains.   A charming weatherboard hut perched atop a ledge midway between Katoomba and Leura, set in a garden filled with blooms.  I started off with a tangy, tart and perfectly sweet home made lemonade ($3.50). 

The lemon zest added even greater depth of flavour; and the sourness of the lemon was balanced with the sweetness of the sugar syrup.   Equally delicious was the coke spider (my first taste can you believe it!).  Our group was pretty evenly split between the steak sandwich, caponata salad and chicken sandwich. So you would have thought that the kitch would find it easy to fill the order for 8.  Sadly I think they weren’t accustomed to the influx of Sydney siders for APEC long weekend holiday, so the food took forever to come - I felt sorry for the couple that came after us! But lucky there is the view, and well when you go to the country you’re not in much of a rush anyway!  The open steak sandwich ($15.50) was a good sized minute steak cooked medium well, served between two delicious thick slices of wood fired bread - the crumb dense enough to hold in the home made tomato relish, sweet delicious caramelised onion, lettuce, and grilled tomato.  The caponata salad ($15.50) captivated us when we saw another patron (we assumed regular) order it.  A warm salad piled on top of the same bread (which I am so glad is not sourdough) - comprising diced zucchini, eggplant, tomato, onion, celery, pinenuts and olive oil - hearty vegetarian feast that created added interest through the listing of dark chocolate on the menu!

The humble chicken sandwich was given a gourmet style makeover and still priced only marginally above a Sydney CBD cousin at $9.90!  Thick slicse of poached chicken breast mixed with home made mayonnaise and herbs.  I was told that the bread had a lemony twist - not sourdough I was told by two sources.  The cress was on the side rather than in the sandwich - meaty enough to last well into your hike!  As we left filled with full stomachs and even better, full wallets, we passed the sweet offerings of the day - basket of fresh baked scones, dense sinful looking brownies and huge florentines.  

Does bushwalking get any better than this? haha.

90 Cliff Drive, Leura Falls www.solitary.com.au

You’ve got to be an early riser or a very dedicated foodie to make the monthly Good Living Grower’s Market.  It’s only open from 7 to 11am on the first Saturday of every month. Our efforts were well worth it as it was a sunny and unseasonally warm August morning, and the glimmer of the sun on the ocean front spot in front of the casino provided the perfect setting to spend the morning.  There are around 85 stalls with fresh produce straight from the growers; artisan bakeries selling their wares;

Even herbs and plants available - I bought a 50cm chilli plant for only $7 - brimming with baby chillis ready to be nurtured.

A honey stand provided some sweet tastings for the morning - but the main reason why I was here was to eat breakky.  Popular stands include fresh (huge) pancakes cooked to order; wagyu beef steaks; indian samosas, and for me today - “confused eggs with bacon” - that is, BBQ cooked scrambled egg omelette served with crispy bacon, caramelised onions on a roll with rocket and the secret creole BBQ sauce ($5).

OMG it was so good - I didn’t even pick off the fat as I would normally - the sticky sweet BBQ sauce providing a pleasing tangy sweet finish.  No wonder why the queue is always so long!! Some freshly squeezed organic blood orange juice ($4) to wash it all down.

Or, if you’re in a rush, buy some fizzy organic juice to go.  And of course, organic vege stalls (such as the one selling freshly picked parsnips) about.  Also popular is Toby’s Estate coffee - but I’m not a coffee drinker.  See you there next month?