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A rant about the internet

Attempting a "rant" for a few reasons. The two main reasons are: practising actually writing things, and because I've been reading articles about influencers and "Instagram-worthy" cafes/restaurants.Today I read an article about how chefs feel about Instagram, and how a fair few actually now have presentation at the forefront of their minds when creating menus.  They commented that they've received feedback that customers would see their dish online and that's how they chose whether or not to go to a restaurant, or, upon receiving a menu, would check Instagram for how the dishes looked, before deciding what to eat. Then I stumbled across a post where a cafe had a tagline of having "Instagrammable interiors". Then there's also a restaurant critic's humorous posts about "influencers who ask for free stuff".Really?I love being a hypocrite. I really do, and I think it's human nature. I love sometimes feeling superficial and ordering a milk coffee simply because I want some pretty latte art. I like seeing pretty food at cafes and restaurants. I like making stupidly pretty food too.I also avoid spoilers (I didn't actively look for reviews and pictures in anticipation of Noma Australia, or Attica. I'm also not researching the big-name restaurants I've planned to book this year) where I can because I want to be surprised and really get to know a place by living it instead of just seeing it. I still love talking to waitstaff and baristas because you get great info that way. I love reading menus and imagining what the flavours and textures look like. I don't want to know what it looks like most of the time. I just hope it's nicely presented.There's always going to be a group of influencers who get stuff for free, and maybe even get special plating for their food. But for chefs to almost need to make their dishes instagrammable just so that their restaurants can fill tables? I appreciate that it's a good move for restaurants to stay alive, but it sounds more and more like restaurants are being pressured to make pretty food or no one will go. That's kind of sad.Maybe I should start up an exercise in writing about stuff instead of taking pictures. I guess that's what restaurant critics do, and sounds like a major challenge, especially in this day and age! But I like taking pictures. Maybe that's why magazines like Drift exist? Recipe books are pretty picture-heavy too, but the last one I read, A Very Serious Cookbook, was super enjoyable because it talked about the history of the chefs of Contra/Wildair and how they interacted with each other, and how their restaurants evolved. That was the really exciting stuff!I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing, enjoying the best of both the digital and non digital worlds :DYAY rant over

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Reine's Xmas 2018 cooking

So I just looked back at my 2017 post, and it was so detailed! My 2018 post will have considerably less content, but I think that's because a lot of it is really the same food, just slightly different.I spent heavily on non-food activities in 2018 and I've got some very extravagant travel plans for 2019, so I tried to stick to a small, sensible budget of $200 on top of my normal weekly food spend. Me being me though, I ended up spending about $400... whooops!So where did all that money go?I only bought one marron this time, and named her Henrietta. I'd learned from my previous year that the pan grilled version tasted better than the soup version, so this time I went for the grilled method again! However, instead of the pan, I tried using the oven in an attempt to make the entire shell red, but it still didn't work - I had a half red, half black shell by the time the meat was cooked. I guess I really do need just a firepit in my dream kitchen!I actually got the idea of the witlof salad when I randomly stumbled across a site (maybe BBC Food? I can't remember) that had crab, roe and witlof canapes, so I decided to try my own!The garnish here was micro ice plant that I'd found at the shops. Pretty cute! I liked the presentation of this better than my previous year's attempt. The marron kind of reminded me a bit of Attica's marron presentation.Throughout 2018, I've had a fascination with insanely sharp knives that can slide across a tomato effortlessly. I really wanted to get my flatmate's Wusthof knife sharpened, but she's really not that great at taking care of kitchen stuff whereas I worship every tool, so instead, I decided to get my already sharp Global, sharpened a bit more. I think even the knife sharpener was a bit puzzled as to why I wanted it sharpened, but he did so regardless.This was an experiment from the night before my actual dish, to see how thin I could get the slices. These were squishy, overripe tomatoes, so I guess it was a good effort?YAY plates of sliced tomatoes! While it was easier to work with not overripe tomatoes, it was still a challenge because the waterier the tomato, the harder it was to keep the "insides" intact. But I love the colours and how they all overlap! It's like jewels!And the finished result, my perennial caprese salad! This time though, there wasn't any moneybag burrata at the shops, so I settled for fiore di burrata instead. I kinda miss the big ones because these little ones didn't ooze as much cream. I loved the presentation though, I feel that this one was a fun exercise considering the last two years have all been "normal" looking!There was no quail this year. Instead, there were some duck ballotines for sale, but when I asked how much they were, a 2kg duck-chicken-cranberry stuffing portion cost $110! That was a bit much for me, so I opted for just duck pieces instead. This was a fennel and garlic grilled duck breast with charred witlof and roast carrots. Yeah!! The duck was delicious, I actually surprised myself! I really loved my duck dishes this year!This was a fun one to make! I'd seen pictures of this being served at The Dolphin Hotel in Sydney, and I always wondered how much it would cost, because it looks simple. Avocados are now a running hipster joke about not being able to afford a house, so this dish was also humorous in that regard - pairing an "expensive" avocado with expensive Yarra Valley Caviar salmon roe! What you can't see here is that there's creme fraiche underneath the roe. I'd never read the restaurant's official description of their version, but I'd happened to see some Meander Valley creme fraiche at the shops, and bought it on impulse, and decided it'd go well in this dish.I wasn't wrong! This tasted way better than I thought it would! After adding some salt, olive oil, and a dash of lemon juice (I forgot to add pepper, whoops!), this dish became more than the parts. I think the creme fraiche has to be there, because it made it more than just roe and avocado. The tanginess that came from the cream was perfect for the roe!! It works WAY better than sour cream. It just... made the roe pop while the avocado flavour and texture were there and surprisingly, didn't add any heaviness to the dish! It was as if it made the avocado itself taste better too!What was just a "for fun" dish actually ended up being really impressive!I actually made a few more roe and avocado dishes, since I'd bought 100g of salmon roe and 100g of golden trout roe. I didn't realise how tedious it was to try and stay awake till midnight for New Year's, since I hadn't done that the last few years (or if I did, it didn't feel like that much of a struggle). Because I was feeling peckish, I sliced up some potato and made chips. I'd run out of creme fraiche, so I bought some cheap Woolworths sour cream (don't do this - it doesnt even come close to creme fraiche!), and added some golden trout roe, then overkilled it with gold foil! Always gotta send off the old year with excess :)Yay for knife skills!Isn't it so pretty?I also made some more sea salt and fennel crackers. These ones actually didn't turn out half as good as the last attempt at all! For some reason the fennel flavour wasn't as prominent. I'd also changed the recipe and the texture just wasn't right and it was too buttery. But that's learning for you; it makes me want to experiment more to find out how to consistently make these tasty!Garlic, honey and mustard duck maryland with porcini rice. The rice here is a couple of days old which is why it didn't stick together, but hey, it's not all just for photos - this is the reality of cooking for one. I plan out photogenic dishes when I can, but what people usually don't see is the "normal" stuff where leftovers are used. A good tip for this is saving the duck fat, because it makes the rice so tasty when it's all mixed in!!And final picture is how I usually prepare meals. Work meals are generally one pot wonders now (being time poor made me super efficient in 2018 and I bet it saved me money! I just can't see those savings cause I used them elsewhere!) and look like one big heap of stuff.I wonder what I'll do this year since I don't expect to have a lot of money left at the end...YAY EXCITING 2019 AHEAD

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