once upon a time long long ago there was a feast of tasty pork at restaurant atelier and in our goodie bag was a whopping 1.2kg Murray Valley moisture infused rack of pork! oh the possibilities! but dilemma ive never cooked with pork before let alone roasted one. oh yes i am a complete n00b in the kitchen. and so after a quick google search here we go!


first. preheat oven to 220°C. then whack the rack onto a lined baking tray. dont do what i did and cut it perfectly to fit the tray- make the baking paper go up the edges cos it’ll be easier to clean later.


grab a heap of paper towels and pat the skin super dry. just the skin part tho not the meat. then grab a knife and score the skin. rub in about 2 tablespoons of coarse salt and olive oil on the skin and in the scored marks. grab your kitchen twine and tie across the rack in the scored lines. while you’ve got your knife out chop up some potatoes and carrots and shove em and some sprigs of rosemary under your porky and then into the oven he goes for 30mins


ooh the beginnings of crackle! now lower the oven temp to 180°C and back in he goes for 1hour


MAH BAABEEEEYYY!!! so so pretty! and it smells soooo tasty but wait! mr porky is not quite done yet! turn up the oven temp to 240°C and watch your porky or he’ll burn!


see? like this… it’s crackling teevee! noods found me like this when he got home while i was chanting “crackle crackle crackle!”


and tadah! 10mins later and you’ll have crackle perfection!


perfection i say!


aw pretty slice! crispy crackle and soft juicy innards mmm nom nom ahhh super happy that it turned out and that i didnt kill it haha much thanks to australian pork for the awesome rack!

and for all you masterchef fanatics i have been hosting a live masterchef chat every night for the past coupla months along with the fabulous helen from grab your fork and billy from a table for two along with a whole lotta foodbloggers so if you’re not doing anything tonite (7pm) and/or sunday night (7.30pm) do swing by! just click here or go to http://www.lhcw.net/chocolatesuze enter a username (but leave password blank) and join our chat! it may take a while to load so be patient!

EDIT: CLOSED. after the merivale winter feasts launch party which was filled with lots of tasty noms, our, little group of food bloggers dashed across town to see the fabulous billy at his exhibition see the red balloon. after hearing our reports on the food he asked the question that we were waiting for: whats for dinner?


and so after debating the pros and cons we found ourselves at super meal (39 Goulburn St, Haymarket)


my drinkie! coffee + tea + condensed milk + ice mmm helen calls it my crazy drink but i super love it because well, it’s sweet. helen ordered the pearl sago drink with cereal and the ‘cereal’ tastes/feels like a cross between horlicks and uh sawdust but a quick stir and the powdery substance dissolves leaving a malty milky drink


billy is nominated our food orderer and first to hit our table is the deep-fried squid with spicy salt ($16.50). piping hot, salty and crispy chewey it’s perfect for a cold winters night. and because im sneakily writing this post at work ill leave you to some pics


stir fried french beans in fine shrimp sauce ($15.50)


deep-fried shredded beef with peking sauce ($17.80)


deep-fried spare ribs with spicy salt ($16.50)


fried handmade noodles shanghainese style in XO chilli ($12.80)


deep fried crisy skin chicken (half) ($17.50)


fried pippis in XO chilli sauce ($26.40 market price)


sampan congee (tang jai jook) ($26.80). dude the bowl of congee was huge! it was massive! like a cauldron! of neverending congee!


deep fried fritter ($2.40 per stick) we uh over ordered and a giant platter bigger than my head came out…


mmm noms. surprisingly we finished pretty much everything. except that neverending bowl of congee.

during the craziness that was the good food and wine show, places to eat in the vicinity of darling harbour/chinatown was high on our priority list and so i managed to convince the father unit to try Ramen Gumshara (25-29 Dixon St, Haymarket) in the eating world harbour plaza food court. for those of you following me on twitter there has been much talk on the ‘chronic ramen’ especially from the awesome dan hong from lotus. he found out that it takes 7days to make their super thick stock and goes through a whopping 120kg of pork bones each day


heh heh the warning sign


i choose the bbq pork noodle ($12) for the fathership and after a photo or two i look up and he’s completely devoured the whole bowl and has started slurping down all the soup haha i think it’s a winner.


i have ordered the tonkotsu ramen ($8.50) plus an egg ($1.50). the egg is so freaking awesome with its melty gooey yolky innards oh baby. the soup is thick and and so very rich with its collageny goodness. chronic indeed. of course i am fail and unable to finish my bowl and the father unit is eyeing my bowl so i pass it to him and he manages to finish it. 0_0


the next day during a break from the gf&w i have dragged the boy to share the love that is gumshara. i ordered the pork spare rib noodle ($13) where apparently only 10bowls are made each day. the pork was meltingly soft and so very tender. and encased in fat. oh the fat. be still my heart.


day 3 of the gf&ws and shez is brought to gumshara for her initiation. she orders the garlic tonkotsu ramen ($9.50) plus egg ($1.50) and it arrives in a cloud of fragrant garlickyness and i start suffering from food envy. she managed to finish her bowl while i of course stare sadly at my wastage. maybe next time ill ask for half a bowl or a ‘kidsized’ portion


oh and if you eat too slowly a skin will form on your soup heh heh


entrance into eating world. the chef dude logo freaks me out with his giant eyes. its looking at me.

it seems burgers are all the rage nowadays. Grill’d (57 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest) is the new kid on the block with shiny red signs and crazy murals on the wall. helen and i have received free vouchers from the lovely amanda from undertow media and after a morning at the sydney winter festival we arrive at the crows nest store and glance at the menu on the tables. not that we hadnt already studied the menu online already. nope.

tomato bottles! so cute! the deal with grill’d is you order and pay at the counter and they’ll bring your burgers to your table. the burgers are made to order and you get to pick what kinda bun you’d like from the basket display. we’d managed to score a table right by the semi open ‘kitchen’ and loved watching the grill’d boys shape and mould each pattie. but not so much the stabbing of the chicken on the grill. so we opted for burgers that weren’t from the chicken family.

MAH BURGAH! i ordered the baa baa lamb burger ($11.90)- Grilled lean lamb pattie with avocado, tasty cheese, salad, relish and herbed mayo. erm and then i decided my burger was a little too healthy and added extra pineapple. and egg. and brie which was $1.30 each. and yup it was super tasty!

helen ordered the almighty grill’d beef burger ($12.50)- Grilled 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, crispy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo.

hee om nom nom. oh so you see my bottle of sky vodka? grill’d is licensed and I GOT CARDED! ugh i understand they need to check everyones id but seriously? i look under 18?!

burgah innards! my burger was such a beast with all the added extras i had to chop him in half

Hot chips ($4.30)- Thick chips with Grill’d herb mix. the hot chips arrive in a paper bag and disappointingly the salsa comes in a plastic tub. dudes really? plastic?

i loved the drawings on the wall and if im in there area i would prolly return. oh and shame they dont have a dessert section on the menu!

chocolatesuze dined courtesy of Grill’d with thanks to Amanda from Undertow Media.