Stomachs on legs are proud to present

"we should try one michelin star place while we are here" I said unpacking my suitcase in our tiny hotel room in Paris

Hock proceeds to rattle of a litany of choices and possibilities together with a description of the chef's culinary style as well as stating the impossibility of getting a booking at almost all but Joel Rubuchon's which does not take bookings.

"Ok well what is the number of the first one?" Arpege?" He quotes the number telling me there is no way we will get a table for lunch at the last minute.

I call. They have a table. Tomorrow 1 pm. Hock goes into a quiet stupor. His eye lids flutter while the reality settles. He blushes.

Time to pay tribute to some of the everyday quick bites that are available in this neck of the woods.

Above is the livid pink meat loaf known as 'leberkäse' (literally 'livercheese'). They make the best version of it in southern Germany and Austria. If you can find a bakery or truckstop who'll serve a warm crusty slice of it on a wholegrain bun (ideally with hot mustard instead of the sweet stuff), you'll be in junkfood heaven.



Sauerkraut comes into its own as a side-dish, obviously. But at 25 cents per 100g from the biomarkt delicatessen counter, it could be the healthiest and best value snack ever. And it's good on american-style hotdogs, a worthy late-night indulgence (see photo below).
Yes, I was scared of canned hotdogs in the beginning too.





Sauerkraut has other uses. Like this sourdough bread (from a recipe in Backen Was Allen Schmeckt), which I could eat all day. It's a crunchy-crusted, densely crumbed and moist bread with lots of tang and toastiness. Ingredients include ground caraway and sauerkraut juice, which you can buy bottled at the biomarkt.



A kiwi friend tipped me off to this wasabi-sharp beetroot, sunflower seed and horseradish spread. Apparently it's good on pretzels.

I'm a fan of most foods that come in crazy colours. I also like this spread's red hat logo (the brand name is Zwergenwiese, or 'Dwarf meadows').



'Stuff on bread' is the proverbial German snack. Here is one of my favourite 'stuff on bread' combos. The paté-type spread known as leberwurst, beloved by children, together with electric violet french mustard, with fruity notes of bottom-of-the-wine-bottle-sediment. Sooo good.
This leberwurst is 'Baron Beitzelsche's house-slaughtered' variety, from Manufactum handmade goods emporium.

There is no wine appropriate for salad.

Joël Robuchon goes on to say that chocolate is also hard to match with wine. He suggests a better choice is flat water, fortified wine "with chocolate accents", or perhaps coffee.

In his Complete Robuchon, the yoda-like Frenchman also suggests taking eggs out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before you plan to boil them.

I've been debating what to call this blog post over in my head for a while now, I was thinking about calling it Mae Hong Son, The Other Provence, or Cooking with the Stars.

Let me explain. A couple of weekends ago I headed to Mae Hong Son for the weekend, where my long suffering beloved was taking a week long bromance with Thai food aficionados Austin Bush and Andy of Pok Pok fame. I got to stay for a single weekend, during which it mostly rained. So we decided to stay in and cook. We went to the markets and bought a huge array of not-so-exotic mushrooms other required ingredients for making gaeng hed.



I insisted on buying stink beans.



We also got the ingredients for Burmese pickled tea leaf salad and picked up some larb kuat, larb dip and grilled chicken on the way home.



Cooking got under way.




Some people would and do spend a fair sum of money to cook food with AB and Andy, instead I got bossy and insisted that someone invent a new yummy dish involving stink beans. Andy delivered big time with a dish of stink beans with kapi and mushrooms



Our other favourite Thai food expert was unable to attend the gathering as he was busy in Bangkok promoting his new fish sauce brand Mega Chef and couldn't make it to MHS, he was however present in fishy spirit.



We sat down to an astoundingly good meal





In an outdoor dining room located next to this picturesque rice field



Mae Hong Son is truly beautiful and I wish that I had gotten to spend more time there. Initially my plan was to finish writing my PhD up in MHS but this plan was scrapped after hard words from my supervisor and the realisation that job hunting from the sticks probably wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. Nonetheless I plan to go back. It's not quite Provence however, as it was apparently described to my friend in New York by a hi so Thai acquaintance, but if fish sauce is your balsamic, stink beans your broad beans and larb dip your beef tartar, it could well be even better.

"it is a lot of food huh"

Scroll down and listen

Thanks AB for playing this to me. I have been giggling to myself all week.

Bras bristled at being pressed into the locavore mold. “Look,” he said, “if we ate only what comes from the Aubrac, we’d have nothing but potatoes, pork and cabbage.” He called his famed devotion to local herbs “caricature. It’s only part of what we do.

Thank you to Michael who pointed this out .

What happens when two of Siem Reap's sexiest and hospitable French expats join forces to open a restaurant and bar?

Owners and very good friends of ours, Renaud Fichet (front of house) and Pascal Schmit (chef) are famous in our books for their great wine, excellent food (especially the foie gras), and great service. Most locals and tourists agree.

Menu


Well priced French wines


Amuse Chilled Potato Soup with Salmon Caviar


Foie Gras


My Fresh Sea Bass with vegetable risotto and spinach


yup Siem Reap has come a long way from the days when you couldn't even get fresh cream

Hock's extremely large t-bone steak

note: not all portions are this big Pascal was trying to show off

Le Cheque


After dinner wander over to the garden bar, say hello to Oscar the friendly dog/wolf and have a drink at the bar. Hang around long enough and you'll usually get lots of inside temple tips, generous pours and maybe even a good night kiss.

Abacus
Garden Restaurant and Bar
BP 93108, Route 6 to the Airport
1st Turn after Angkor Hotel (near western union sign)
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Phone 012644 286
cafeabacus.com

Bracu's menu begins with some wafty, self-aggrandising and cliched quotes and desciptions designed to inform the diner of the chef's unwaivering dedication to excellence and great produce....words like "handcrafted" and "sophistication with a twist" are employed and sentimental stories are told about warm jelly as a child and cooking being a journey .

I'm always a bit suspicious of restaurants that feel the need to explicitly spell out the merits of the chef, and overall atmosphere they are trying to achieve at the beginnning of the menu. It seemed patently obvious from the moment I entered Bracu, situated on the outskirts of Auckland in the rolling hills of the Simunovich olive estate in an old country house exactly what they are aiming at. The setting and decor immediately convey everything that they so annoyingly spell out on the the menu. Except perhaps I would have thrown in the word "mumsy"

Seated in the restaurant when we arrived were ladies who lunch, daughters taking out their mothers to a special lunch and a few patrons who looked as though they'd found the place by mistake. The white veranda seating and modern floral wallpaper gives Bracu a very la-de-da feeling that seemed to have middle class NZ mothers fawning. The place just screams "heirloom organic tomatos picked straight from the kitchen garden".

Anyway, once we finally sat down after the late members of our ensemble arrived after taking a wrong turn on their "journey" off the wrong motorway exit, our journey through lunch began.

First they served what you'd expect to be really great olives...and they were, really really great

OLIVES



ENTREE

After a week of far too much gluttony and a new found obsession with watercress, I opted for the:

WILD WATERCRESS & WHITLOF SALAD
roasted local hazelnuts, pedro ximenez vinegar dressing ...$8.50


Others around the table had the following:

TORTELLINI ‘BUBBLE & SQUEAK’
soft agria potato tortellini, poached quail eggs, sweet heart cabbage, parma ham $18.00



CARAMELISED FRESH GOATS CHEESE FILLED
WHITLOF ‘PACKETS’
beurre bosc pear salad, candied almonds $18.00



AKAROA SALMON
marinated in tea petals confi t, rhubarb and orange salad, toasted walnut
and mirin dressing $19.50


SEARED DEEP SEA SCALLOPS
toasted wheat and cranberry ‘muesli’ coconut and lime leaf ‘zepher’, curry oil...which was changed to potato and proccuitto
$19.80


Oooohhh and aaahhhs were exclaimed and Hock didn't complain.


MAINS

As with the French Cafe the mains were enormous. Even after eating just a salad I couldn't finish my salmon which arrived with not one but two fillets. One would have sufficed. Again, I would have prefered half the amount and to have paid half the price and it seemed odd that such manly proportions would prevail in a restaurant filled mainly with women.


TOM BATES PAN ROASTED AKAROA SALMON IN PAPER
rolled crab and ginger kedgeree, celery branch fondue...$37.00


Hock had the duck, even though it wasn't on the standard menu. He fell in love with the pastilla

BREAST OF LOCAL CRISP SKIN KING COLE DUCK
pastilla, pistachio, cocoa, caramelised mango, quatre épices



JOHN FLYNN, SOUTHLAND HEREFORD
PRIME BEEF FILLET
béarnaise reduction, salsify ‘étuvée’, freshly shelled broad beans...$38.00



KIDS STEAK AND CHIPS


Dessert was definitely the highlight. We ate it in the garden and swapped mouthfuls of sweetness.

DESSERT

CALVADOS & RAISIN PARFAIT ‘pain d’epice’, thyme poached apple, almond financier, granny smith sorbet, caramel foam $16.50



‘FOURME D’AMBERT BEIGNET’ seven spice breton biscuit, walnut and szechuan croquant, beetroot and pear sorbet, baby watercress $16.50


CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
fluid rose water stones, orange fl owers crème brûlée, pink grapefruit gelato, chocolate soil $17.50


LOCAL ICED STRAWBERRY & YOGHURT ‘SANDWICH’ meyer lemon curd, italian meringue, strawberry and elder flower caviar
$16.00


A final note on the overly descriptive menu. I noticed when I downloaded the pdf of the summer menu there was also this piece of text on the third page of the menu.

"It is not just about how the food is created and served,
it is about the food itself and this menu celebrates just that.
Our wine director, Josselin de Gésincourt, will help untangle
the mystery of pairing wine and food and recommend wines
to accompany each course."

The problem with this is that, unless they actually deliver on their promises all it does it serve to highlight...in writing, their shortcomings. I didn't see Josselin anywhere 'untangling wine mysteries', instead the service was sloppy and slow and on several occasions I had to get up from the table and get the waitress myself. At the prices they charged the service was pretty appalling. Hock's parents paid the bill so I rounded up the tip. The others in our party nominated to pay a measly $10 each. And so I bumped up the tip myself. It seems to be a common occurrence with kiwis. It's hard to complain about the service when you only tip $10.