Zondar! Nerds in Food Land

The National Restaurants Association have an annual Hot Chef competition on YouTube. This year’s winner was Keith Snow’s ‘Wild Caught Fire Margarita Shrimp‘. But! The most viewed video was Rob Barrett’s Date Night Dinner, romantic coconut shrimp.

Chairman Kaga would love it, Shrimp Battle!

Deeper in Rob Barrett’s library is the reason for his fame. How to cook Coke or beer marinated steak has 190,000 views in a few months.

‘you can also use beer’ - awesome. Coke marinade arrives in the first minute… unless you want to wait until 1:40 there’s a wierd bit about a rub that ‘make bigger’ like msg.

Cookingfordad gets controversial with his banned vid where he makes yellow snow pops (out of lemonade).

Good to see the boys over at Mecca on King St, Sydney have kicked off their blog.

As part of good food month they are holdings Sat cuppings at their Roastworrks …

Check it: meccaespresso.com

The Iron Apprentice is run each year by Holmesglen TAFE at their restaurant Cilantro. Fourth year apprentices battle it out for… honor.  Meh, what about striving for a battle against their Executive Chef? Another cooking show… but which host could possibly match Master bell pepper biter Chairman Kaga?

Iron Chef Chairman Takashi Kaga

More info on the battle

All over the press, Single Origin took number one in a Time Out Sydney top 10 cafes and have just snared the SMH Good Food Guide Favorite Cafe.

Kind of weird Single Origin didn’t get a mention in local industry awards… Did they ignore it? How was this decided, industry people patting themselves on the back..?

The NSW Catering and Restaurant Assc gave All Press Best Coffee House.

Under catering they gave the Australian Jockey Club Caterer of the Year.

Other happy winners:

COFFEE SHOP / TEA HOUSE
Winner: Allpress Espresso, Zetland
Electric Bean, North Sydney
Speedo’s Café, North Bondi
The Chelsea Tea House, Avalon
The Tearoom Gunners Barracks, Mosman
The Tearoom QVB, Sydney

BOARDROOM CATERER
Sponsored by Dairy Farmers
Winner: JP Morgan Administrative Services, Sydney
Gastronomy, the Art & Science of Food, Kensington

CORPORATE CATERER
Sponsored by Dairy Farmers
Winner: Avocado Group, Chatswood
As You Like It Catering, North Narrabeen
Flavours Catering & Events, Eastwood
Fresh Catering, St Peters
Stix Catering, Marrickville

Zondar Award for Best Cafe website goes to Single Origin.

Where to for birthday breakfast in Sydney? A good thing about Single Origin is the rich smell, great is the menu, awesome the gluwein, beyond that the coffee.

At 07:20, steaming gluwein landed on the table. Easily sipping myself into a morning euphoria and my big American friend pulled up bellowing “Happy Birthday man!” The staff now knew it was my birthday which secured a second gluwein and a complimentary ristretto. After that poached eggs, mushrooms, homemade beans and spinach…

The ristretto made the aroma festival feel like a waste of time, the gluwein transported me effortlessly into the first meeting of the day.

Toby’s Estate was 2007s winner of the ‘how long is my $1 coffee queue competition’ but they had their ass kicked this year by Cafe Hernandez, enhorabuena! Why do people wait 20 mins for a coffee? Addiction? Not really it was everywhere… Good coffee? Yeah and coolness.

Not big brand hype. Word of mouth & coolness have worked for the Hernandez family and their 24 hour coffee shop… Gentrification of the Potts Point location has helped.

Build a brand in the cafe industry, on cool, quality & word of mouth. Certainly not on glamorous logos, I struggled to find an example at the stall to take a photo & snapped this from the top of a menu card.

The coffee scene is like clubbing. Make yourself cool by having a long queue of agitated customers full of buzz, someone out of the scene won’t know what it’s about and is likely to queue up. And like the Hernandez queue, when you get to the front you must be rewarded.

The buzz you’d expect at a caffine party, big buzz, not so much hype though… Why would people get out there & spread their gear without giving their brand any… ‘jujjjjj’?

The Rocks was decked out with stalls all shaded with the same tacky plastic non-descript white blankness. From a distance they looked the same. Punters have to walk right up to a tent to work out what it was for. Isn’t this the big event for the year, the big chance to big-up your crew’s brew?

Is it an all pull marketing industry? Craft a delicious product then hang out and wait til its demanded? We know that’s not true although brands that play like that were noticeably absent (Starbucks and McCafe come to mind) .

Mission: dig up some kind of visual representation of the brands hidden under those white plastic generic display tents, take a snap and stick on flickr.

Finally some photos of the Brazilian trip… The Moqueca de camarao. Ahh the tastiest meal on Praia Joaquina in Florianopolis. Big hearty prawn stew. Get one.

So a couple of people commented that $3.00 is a bit much for a coffee in the city although i’m sticking by that call for Annandale. Quick scout around cafe’s at Ultimo and agree that $2.50 is closer to the mark.

Cafe Columbia: $2.20
Corner Cafe: $2.50
Cafe Fusion: $2.20
Cafe Q: $2.80
Bourke St Bakery: $3.00

Cafe Fusion do four different sizes of coffee add an extra shot as you go up - all the way to a ‘Quad’, four shots in an extra large.

Three bucks seems to be the norm for most reputable places, although break the $3.00 mark we’ll start asking questions. Gallery Cafe in Annandale have just put the price up to $3.20. Just down the road, Hopscotch cafe tried raising their price to to $3.20 only to find it killed their business, it’s back down to $3.00 now. Not to far away at Bar Sirocco you pay $2.50 for an average coffee. Round the corner Vicini do a bonza coffee for the right price - $3.oo.

The best value (price & quality) cup of coffee is served up by a Bulgarian, Australian operator at the Cockle Bay Kiosk on the City side of the Pyrmont Bridge walkway. He’ll do you up a hit for $2.20 (takeaway only). Some of his more close-fisted clients will still share a long black.

The best value (price & quality) cup of coffee is served up by a Bulgarian, Australian operator at the Cockle Bay Kiosk on the City side of the Pyrmont Bridge walkway. He’ll do you up a hit for $2.20 (takeaway only). Some of his more close-fisted clients will still share a long black.