Ok, it's safe to go back into the water

While I was in Melbourne last week I bought the December Saveur magazine at Borders (a year ago I didn't renew my mail subscription and wrote about that in a blog here.)

Well, you can relax, it appears the Saveur magic is back (I knew you were tensed up) and I'm not sure why just yet. I doubt it's because co-founder and editor Colman Andrews has left to join Ruth Reichl at Gourmet magazine (a subject of some gossip). In an incredibly shifting staff list over the last few years they've stabilised for a few issues and it show. 

James Oseland (MP3 interview) is Editor-in-Chief, the new Managing Editor is Lily Binns (she was a a cookbook editor at Ten Speed press) and the art director I bagged, David Weaver is still there and he (or someone) is delivering some really good spreads, typography and the covers. The child face down with the offering of food is a food magazine cover cliché but it works here (in a nice photograph from New Yorker André Baranowski).

Ok that's enough background, have a look at an issue or two and see if you want to subscribe. Then do it, judging from the weight of advertising they will still be there to send you your issues (unlike some other publication I shan't mention.)

Links

I've wasted enough time Googling this entry, but in the process I can save you some time, or waste it, have a look at a food blog I haven't seen before from the Philippines called Market Manila.

The Edible publishers (as in Edible Ojai then Edible Everywhere) who got a kick start from a Saveur 100 entry some years back and have now taken over the world, have a collected blog called Edible Nation.

As I write this the current entry is by Bruce Cole whose blog I mentioned here, and who edits Edible SF (as in San Francisco not Phillip Dick et al)What We Eat - Am I Chicken (Pt 1)

Fred Harden 6 January 07

Lunching on The Terrace

While we headed down to Broadford to have New Year's eve with the Snaith's (more of that soon), we planned a stop over lunch in Rutherglen (actually Wahgunyah) at The Terrace, the restaurant that executive Chef Sean Duggan bought from All Saints a year or so ago. Sean had an Age Good Food Guide Chef's Hat two years running while working at Salix, in the Willow Creek Vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula.

The Good Food Guide rating for The Terrace is 14/20 and I bet it gets a hat in the next round. The food was well presented, tasty and good value for money and the location just perfect for a warm Sunday afternoon.

The dining area is in a substantial tented annexe on the terrace, beside the winery cellar door. It might be a bit wild on a wet winter's day, but seeing out to the pond and vines is very pleasant. 

The staff were attractive and attentive but obviously busy and I had to ask for a second glass of wine for my main course (from a good by-the-glass list of the All Saints wines, and bottles at reasonable prices).

The Terrace website has the current menu, and while the Degustation menu looked tempting, Jan convinced me that preparing for New Year's Eve was more sensible.  We shared some breaded olives and a small spoonful of shredded duck and Asian greens on a betel leaf. Very tasty.

I decided to try an entree from the specials menu, and even though the soft shell crab was hardly regional and must have travelled a long way, it arrived happily sitting on soft wide rice noodle in an agadashi broth with three perfect smoky oysters. Beautifully balanced crunchiness from the tempura battered crab and the delicate broth. Jan had the sweet and sour roasted pork cheek on a cucumber and rocket salad. It was great as well.

For mains Jan's order of slow cooked Rutherglen suckling lamb, with eggplant and nettles and a glowing saffron potato puree arrived in an earthen ware casserole.  had the Twice cooked duckling in hoi sin sauce that came with stir fried Asian vegetables and the same rice noodle as my entree. Both meals were delicious, my hoi sin glazed duck was crisp on the top and inside fell apart on the fork. The only criticism was the overpowering hoi sin sauce that smothered the flavour of the fresh greens. I happily left the puddle.

For wine - we had, by the glass, a robust 2006 All Saints Estate Chenin Blanc, the lighter 2006 St Leonards Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and I had a lovely peppery 2004 St Leonards Pinot Noir which went well with the duck. There were obviously some Sunday lunch regulars at the tables, and I recognised some local wine makers eating with their families. There were a couple of (new baby boom) young babies and prams, and it all felt family, country and right. Outside, groups strolled around the old buildings, or picnicked on the lawns.

Before we left, we walked into The Indigo Cheese company (named from the region's shire which is Indigo). This is co-owned by Paula Jenkin who was an early innovator in artisan cheeses  with the Woodside Cheesewrights in South Australia. She was originally from Wangaratta and has returned to the area to open an artisan cheese factory.

The ivy covered brick building has a shiny, modern spotless interior, with a big walk in glass fronted cheese store in the corner. The space filled with winery visitors and a patient staff member offered us tasting slices from a chilled humidified cabinet, sitting on the counter. None of the cheeses looked soft/ripe when we were there, so after trying a small slice of the Aged Gracefully I decided to wait for a better opportunity to sample them with some age and at room temperature. The matured goats milk cheese was firm, fine textured and left a pleasant after taste that only came after we'd walked to the car park. I'll obviously have to re-visit the factory and the cheeses. 

The Indigo Cheese Co. website has some of the background to Paula and the building, and a list of all Paula's cheeses. They have a mail-order cheese club that sounds like a good way to try the produce. The
All Saints website lists events and has an online purchasing facility.

Fred Harden 6 January 07

This book kills food fascists

Yep I reckon it could. I've just finished a piece on the Terra Madre event last (gasp) October that I'd been promising to Fiona Chambers to say thanks for the place on the Rare Breeds team which was invited to Turin for the big Slow Food event.

You can read the piece here, and while it's a personal account I think you'll see the grander agenda. Somehow it doesn't show how good the food at the Salone del Gusto was, so I'll have to do that elsewhere.

Fred Harden 28 December 06