Things I would like to see/have in Perth....

But probably won't unless I pay for shipping or make it myself

1. Good Sushi
I should first point out there are quite a few "sushi" places here. My latest sojourn to find sushi last week went like this. I walked up to a typical sushi place, most of which have some of the rolls already prepared for easy grab and go access.
Me: "Do you have any Tuna rolls?"
Clerk: Points to section marked cooked tuna
Me: "Do you have any raw tuna rolls?"
Clerk: Gives me weird look "Uh no, we do not do that here"
Me: "So what kind of cooked tuna is that? Is it Albacore, Ahi...?"
Clerk: "No its tuna from the can"
Me: Steps back unto the foot of the person behind me "So sorry Ma'am" "You mean canned like what you buy at the grocery store?"
Clerk: "Yes"
Me: Horror in my voice "Oh I see, so is the salmon in the salmon rolls raw salmon?"
Clerk: "No its smoked salmom"
Me: "Ah smoked salmon" sigh "Do you have anything else?"
Clerk: "Well we have lots of different chicken rolls, bento boxes, noodles"
Me: sigh "Well I will have the smoke salmon roll and the prawns, and some soy sauce"
Clerk: "Its 20c per pack for the soy sauce"
Me: "Arrrk 20c each? That's ok thanks will get a bottle next door"

2. Turkey Bacon
Turkey anything is a rare commodity in Australia - the Aussies are just not turkey people I have been told they are more chicken people. Unfortunately chicken does not make good bacon, turkey does and I cannot find turkey bacon or turkey pepperoni anywhere in Australia. I suspect there might be possibly 1 speciality food provider that does make it but it will be a hassle to find them and then have to pay for shipping when all I want is a couple of slices.

3. Turkey Pepperoni
See 2 above - how is a non-four legged eating animal girl supposed have pepperoni pizza when there is no two legged pepperoni to be found throughout the land. It is a crying shame I tell you.

4. Stay tuned.........

Fishy Dishy Tales

I trekked over to Leederville on Saturday after my first pilates class since moving to Australia to visit Kailis Bros fish market. The goal going in was to get some Salmon or Snapper to make for Sunday night dinner. The fish market is attached to a restaurant where I image they specialize in seafood dishes - probably worth a visit sometime. I strolled in and looked around - it was much smaller than I expected but so clean, well organized and with a wide variety of seafood ranging from whole fish to fillets to shrimp to squid, octopus and lobsters.

However what caught my attention were the Garfish. They are long narrow sliver fish with pointy mouths and I have not seen them anywhere outside of the Caribbean - not even in frozen form. I was immediately excited and hit with a wave of nostalgia - my mom used to make these fish for us grown up and they were fabulous. Could I recreate her dish - having never made it? So I did what any sensible daughter does - I called her, woke her up at 11pm her time to ask how she did it and armed with a recipe marched back into the store and bought myself some Garfish (and a snapper)

So I would first need to fillet and debone the fish - given their size not an easy task. So armed with 2 sharp knives - the large one to cut the heads and tails off and then to cut the body into 2 pieces and the small sharp knife to fillet and remove the super tiny bones

 Once I had a pile of fillets (not too badly mangled if I say so myself) and a pile of heads, tails and centers here is what would happen to them. The fillets would be seasoned breaded and fried, the fish body parts would be used to make a fish broth/fish soup that would be served with polenta seasoned with onions and chives.

That was exhausting enough but my work was not yet done - I seasoned the fillets

And put the body parts along with onion, garlic, celery, carrot, bell pepper, seasoning and water on the stove to simmer for the broth

I also had to juggle and start the polenta at the same time (How did my mother do it when there were real hungry people depending on her for this meal) I should have just thrown some rice in the rice cooker - one less thing on the stove needing my attention

And oh one of the things I used to love was the lightly fried onions that topped the fish but I do not like the smell of fried food in my house and having the fry the fish was going to be my limit so I decided to broil the onions instead.

Got my egg mixed with water garlic and dijon mustard to dip the fish and my gluten free bread crumbs for the dipping - my mom always used flour but I do not have flour and I was not dragging home a 5lb sack of flour on the bus just for this.

Then into the skillet for a shallow pan fry. I was reminded why I never fry anything. Oil splatters and it stings when it hits you and then it gets on the stove and other pots and ugh then I had to clean it all up

Well I finally got the fish done, by then I had racked up an impressive mess in my kitchen - (thank heavens for a dish washer) and really needed nap to recover.

Verdict - Not Bad! But still not as good as Mom's and not worth the time and effort for just me, plus the effort after to remove all smells of any thing fried from the house. (Forgot to take picture of everything plated)

However, it was quite fun to do once the kitchen was clean and I could step back and admire my handy work. The remainder  of the fish and onions with get smothered in a spicy sauce (escovitch fish) - because I do not like day old fried fish by itself and as everyone knows the best part of frying fish is what you do with it the day after.

Later in the week the snapper will be simply broiled in the oven with some asparagus for supper - this will take one dish and some foil - easy peasy on the clean up

Sunday Paella

I have not been my usual creative self when it comes to cooking since I have moved down under. In fact cooking has become a down right struggle and I have had several pounds/kg of chicken go bad as I would buy it on the weekend with a plan, then fail to execute on it but not wanting to admit failure and feeling the need to make myself healthy meals I would leave it in the fridge (not freezer) for the entire week each day thinking "today I will come home from work and cook something". But then the week would go by and the chicken starts to smell and I have to toss it out.

However, this weekend I felt inspired to make Paella - Seafood paella to be specific so I set off to Woolworths with my list. Unfortunately after two days and two stores I could not get any squid (they had it two weeks ago when I didn't need it) or mussels. I recalled a similar dish we made back home called Pilau in which you could put any thing you wanted so I decided I would use chicken thighs and shrimp and make the dish the traditional Spanish way which calls for not stirring the rice so that you get a crust on the bottom in addition to having saffron.

Ingredients:
Shrimp - they came with heads, tails and feet I had to peel, clean and devein
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Onion
Tomatoes
Garlic
Saffron
Chicken Broth
Arborio Rice
Olive Oil

 

 

Only needed 3 cloves of the garlic  

 Some day I will get a real Paella pan but for a dish I make only occasionally I use just a good skillet. If there was a pan out there that was both a paella pan and a risotto pan I would get one as it would get used 2x as often  

Finished Product

Made a pitcher of Sangria to go along with the Paella - I used a sparkling shiraz for the red wine because bubbles make me happy

Slow Moving Cabs Make Me Crazy

Do you know why this is there? Prominently displayed in every cab in Perth?

It is so that reasonably sane people like myself when sitting in a cab that is going no where fast can look at their hands, then at their watches/clock on cell phone (or both because sometimes they are different), then back at their hands then at the cab drivers neck then back at the sign again and decide to forgo launching your body over the front seat to wrap your hands around his neck and shake him and say "GET A PAIR AND STOP DRIVING LIKE A LITTLE OLD LADY!!" More specifically a little old lady in a large Oldsmobile or Cadillac, only the blue tinges of her hair showing on the Sunday afternoon after a rather filling lunch with the children and grandchildren. Because as anyone who has ever witnessed a little old lady tearing down the highway can attest those ladies when it suits them can move and you better get out of the way because they cannot see you.

Of all the places I have lived so far Perth (Melbourne a little bit) is the one place where taking the bus or train (and walking to and from) is faster and less emotionally stressful (i.e. cheaper mentally) than taking a cab. It is mind boggling, mind boggling to me how a 20min bus ride becomes a 20-30 mins cab ride and it is not that the bus has a special lane. The cab drivers lack creativity, initiative, street smarts and just follow the rest of traffic like sheep and oh they ask you repeatedly for directions.

They do not honk their horns, they do not cut people off, they do not go over the speed limit, they do not even go the speed limit, they do not use side streets/back streets, they exhibit no sense of urgency - its like out for a Sunday afternoon drive through the gentle countryside.

I am rapidly becoming the most road ragey passenger ever! I said to a cabbie the other day "Do you plan to stay behind this car all day, don't you have a high way, a free way, a side street or something you can get on?" He muttered something, I said "What?" he muttered something I said "What?" again he muttered something again. I sighed and gave a good long island girl struups, closed my eyes and tried to pray for a better attitude.

I loved it when I would get in a cab give my destination and say I had to be there in 10mins and made it in 5, now I give my destination, explain how to get there, say I have to be there in 10mins and get there in 25 how thrilling!!!

So I have decided it is time to learn to drive and buy a car.

Mail Mail everywhere and not even the kind I can take home to Mother

It seems these days I am surrounded by junk mail appearing in huge piles in my physical mail box at home

Or 50+ pieces of email per day in my other email inbox

It is insane - I have unsubscribed repeatedly to many of the emails I get at this address and yet they keep on coming. What does a girl have to do to get off an email list?

At least for the physical junk mail I do have some recourse - I can get one of the handy (free or purchased) NO JUNK MAIL stickers like the one below to place on my letter box

And it actually works the rules are as follows as per the Australian Post:

"Simply put a "No Junk Mail" or "Addressed Mail Only" sign or sticker on your letterbox if you don't wish to receive unaddressed mail items including catalogues. These signs are available from most hardware stores and post offices. "

Gluten Free Down Under

One of the things I have come to appreciate and love about living in Australia is their approach to food allergies in particular Gluten/Wheat allergies.

It is so nice to walk into a coffee shop and be able to order a pastry with coffee and have the option of at least 2 gluten free options to choose from – not all coffee shops have that option but the bigger ones in more populated areas do. You are not going to get a GF croissant or any really popular pastry and it will probably cost you a $1 more than the other pastry but you will have a choice and sometimes that’s all that matters.

I also had a burger the other day – in a restaurant – like a normal person; well as normal as a person who does not eat four legged animals is. The choices were Fish and Chicken. Kangaroo was also on the menu but the verdict is still out on whether or not a kangaroo is a four legged or 2 legged animal plus it looks like it would smell and taste gamey so maybe if offered for free I would contemplate sampling it but not at $15 of my own money when I am starving.

I saw the other day from the pile of junk mail in my mail box that the Dominos and the other local pizza place in my neighborhood also provide gluten free crust pizzas and they deliver – something to keep in mind for one of those I do not feel like cooking nights. Pizza delivery is one of those things I gave up on a long time ago – it just was not worth the time I would spend doubled over in pain and in the bathroom the next day.

You also do not have to go to a specialty grocery store to get things like GF bread, cereal, pasta etc they are found in your regular grocery store Woolworths and Coles have great selections of GF items. When I was living in San Francisco I used to have to go to Whole Foods for my Gluten Free items (Udi’s and Kinnikinnick bread from Canada/USA were really the best so I hardly eat bread here now but at least it’s there) and then to Safeway for some things and then to Trader Joes for a few other things and oh to the farmers market for the fresh fruit and vegs. I am living proof that the paradox of choice is completely true – I have to admit that having ONE grocery store in my immediate neighborhood, coupled with a lack of other shopping choices has greatly simplified my weekends. I might complain about the Woolworth prices and the fact that I can spend $100 in groceries and still have absolutely nothing in the house to eat but what are you going to do – there is nowhere else to go.

There is however a huge gap just waiting to be filled in the Gluten Free English Muffin niche, as they do not currently exist - do you hear that Food for Life? I invite you to come on down and bring your delicious Gluten free English Muffins; I have rather fond breakfast memories of them crispy toasted for breakfast and topped with an egg white, cheese and sliced turkey (my version of the fast food breakfast muffin). I also used them to make Turkey burgers, garlic “bread”, toasted and cut into little pieces for fondue etc