On the Foodie Trail

By Jackie McMillan

My quest for good food this month has taken me a little further a field. It has reminded me that there are food adventures to be had in the least likely places, and all it takes is a little research, a good nose, and a passion for great food. Read on for a contender for Sydney’s best gelato, award winning coffee and a side-trip to Taree that had surprising results!

You might think my timing is a bit off, being that the weather is cooling, but one of the great things about gelato is that there are multitudes of winter-friendly ways to enjoy it too. The staff at Gelato Messina in Darlinghurst are trained to help match one of their forty flavours to your dinner party dessert. So why not jazz up that warm chocolate pudding with a contrasting scoop of Raspberry Sorbet; or combine a caramel dessert with a scoop of the delicious Pear and Rhubarb for a taste sensation’

Whilst owner Nick Palumbo clearly felt it was a little pretentious to say so, he told me that there is a scientific methodology to good gelato. He believes it’s a combination of quality ingredients and getting the percentages of fat, protein and sugar exactly right. His own particular blend (made fresh on the premises daily) uses the lowest possible percentage of sugar, and is designed to give a lighter, fluffier product. His ingredients are mostly sourced locally; and in the case of the wonderful Apple Pie flavour, he poaches the chunks of apple you find within it himself.

When you take a taste of his sorbets, you’re eating between forty and fifty percent fruit content ‘ as Nick puts it ‘nearly half of what you’re eating is macerated raspberry.’ This of course helps keeps the fat content quite low ‘ on my favourite flavour, Coconut and Pandan, it was only three percent, a far cry from the whopping fourteen-sixteen percent in standard ice-cream. If that doesn’t encourage you to make the switch, his amazing flavours like Lime Cheesecake (where the flavour is created by a natural curdling of milk when you add fresh lime juice) or Coconut Lychee (Darlinghurst’s favourite flavour) certainly should!

While you’re there, take a sip on an award winning cup of Karmee Coffee. They just scored one silver and two bronze awards at the prestigious 2008 Sydney Royal Easter Show, making it the second year in a row that they have won accolades. Their Premium Blend took out the silver for Class 1: Espresso Short Black and the Karmee Classic took a bronze in the same category. The Velocity Blend won a bronze award in the esteemed Class 2: Cappuccino category. I had a quick chat with owner Paul Wilmot about his recent success, and we got onto the topic of fair prices. He assured me that ‘Karmee is a high quality speciality roaster and all of the coffees [they] use are either estate coffees or high grade speciality beans. These are grown on plantations or farms often run by cooperatives of educated farmers who grow a high quality product and charge accordingly. We buy at prices well above the fair trade benchmark price, therefore giving the grower a good return for their product.‘ So it’s both an award winning and an ethical cup, and one I urge you to seek out at locations like Café Morso in Pyrmont, Peas Please in Alexandria and of course Gelato Messina in Darlinghurst.

Whilst I am well versed in where to go in Sydney for a great cup of coffee or a good meal, when we drive up north to visit my partner’s parents in Taree, I am often filled with trepidation. Not about the visit ‘ the folks are lovely ‘ but eating in a regional centre like Taree can be a scary business. However with the arrival of James and Lisa Hendry, and their new venture Y.not, trips to Taree will be much nicer. They’ve recently returned to Australia to bring good food to a deserving regional centre. Their menu is broadly European, with a lot of South-East Asian influences, and included great local seafood in dishes like the Oysters Y.not Trio ($28.00 / dozen) ‘ a delightful mix of tasty Manning River oysters with three types of dressings. For a main, it’s be hard to go past the substantial serve of Venison ($33.50) ‘ a mound of lovely venison grilled and served on a bed of roast chat potatoes, finished with a rich, creamy beef and wild mushroom sauce.

Speaking of great restaurants, I’d like to say a big happy fifth birthday to Restaurant Atelier in Glebe. Instead of buying themselves a well-deserved bottle of bubby, talented chef Darren Templeman, and his wife Bernadette (who has a rather extraordinary skill with wine-matching) teamed up to present a wonderful birthday degustation menu for their lucky patrons. If we’re all very lucky, the ‘Tartare’ of House-Smoked New Zealand King Salmon, Crisp Zucchini Blossom & a Fennel & Goat Curd Ice Cream might even appear on their regular menu when the weather warms back up!

If all this talk about food leaves you wanting to begin documenting your own adventures, who better to guide you than freelance writer, journalist and novelist John Newton‘ He’s talking a UTS-accredited course called Writing About Food at the NSW Writers’ Centre during May. Newton’s impressive food-writing resume includes being the co-editor of the popular Sydney Eats restaurant guide, and The Foodies Guide to Sydney ‘ a text I highly recommend as further reading if my own food writing has inspired you to embark on a foodie trail.

Karmee Coffee
www.karmee.com

Gelato Messina
1/241 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst (02) 8354 1223 www.gelatomessina.com

Y.not
18b Pulteney Street, Taree (02) 6552 4700 www.ynotintaree.com.au

Restaurant Atelier
22 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (02) 9566 2112 www.restaurantatelier.com.au

Writing About Food
The Writer’s Centre (02) 9555 9757 www.nswwriterscentre.org.au