Issue Nineteen CRAVING
COMFORT The power of nostalgia; the taste of time

Editor’s Letter

Editor’s
Letter

Welcome to Issue 19 where we explore comfort food and its incredible ability to stir up feelings of sentimentality, warmth and happiness. Often associated with emotional stress, comfort food bounced back in a big way during the pandemic where we saw chefs cooking food inspired by their own notions of comfort and designing menus that appealed to their comfort seeking customers.

As we emerge from Covid’s clutches, the good news is, it seems comfort food is here to stay. Be it specific to an individual or a cultural classic; a childhood favourite (hello crumbed lamb cutlets) or a ‘treat yourself’ craving – the transformative power of nostalgia is informing menus across the country.

Pat Nourse catches up with chef Ben Russell at Rothewell’s Bar & Grill – Brisbane’s hottest new destination; an ode to the timelessness of the great bistros of the world and the comforting familiarity of menu classics. Here, it is the revival of the Beef Wellington that has taken diners by the hand and the heart – where the combination of time honoured technique is coupled with quality produce and meticulous preparation. The result is comfort at the highest level.

Mark Best reminisces on the warm feelings evoked on the coldest mornings when his mother served savoury mince on hot buttered toast. Around the world, mince has played a similar role in vastly different settings with dishes that transcend time and place, have a hold in history and are lovingly passed down, reinvented, and given new life. Mark explores memories of mince and the comfort dishes it conjures up for Palisa Anderson, Paul Farag, O’Tama Carey and Enrico Tomelleri.

I spend some cherished time at Baba’s Place where nostalgia drips down the walls and weaves its way into every part of the experience – where a menagerie of memories of growing up in Western Sydney are interpreted and elevated in every bite. Here, Jean-Paul El Tom, along with his mates Alex Kelly and James Bellos, are inviting you to experience their memories of food – while reminiscing on your own cherished experiences of food and family. Baba’s Place radiates warmth and familiarity – where you come to get fed and leave feeling part of something much bigger.

Myffy Rigby experiences the ultimate in Winter comfort with a trip to the balmy 32 degree days on offer in the Top End. What’s Good in Darwin uncovers a burgeoning food scene driven by a melting pot of cultures and hyper local produce. Underpinned by institutions like Jimmy Shu’s Hanuman and accelerated by the palette and passion of former Masterchef contestant Minoli de Silva at her first restaurant Ella – Darwin might just surprise you. If the sun setting into the Timor Sea while you indulge in an array of snacks from the Mindil Beach Sunset Market doesn’t fill you with a sense of happiness – I don’t know what will.

When you take dry aged mince, expertly prepared by Marcus Papadopoulo from Whole Beast Butchery, and put it into the hands of Barzaari’s Darryl Martin and Federico Zanelatto of LuMi, Leo, Ele and Lode – you know you’re going to be rewarded with some mince magic. The boys definitely passed the vibe check on the comfort brief and Cut Two Ways comes alive with Federico’s famed beef pithivier and Darryl’s take on kousa – stuffed Lebanese zucchini.

Finally – is there anyone more deserving of comfort than our loved ones in aged care homes around the country? Estia Health is shaking off the shackles of what we think generally constitutes aged care food with freshly prepared, culturally curated menus that provide residents with comfort and familiarity. Discover an uncompromising level of care for older Australians in this issue’s Big Business section.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

People Places Plates

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Ben Russell

Rothwell’s Bar & Grill

When it comes down to it, a lot of comfort is about familiarity. Dad’s curry. Mum’s soup. The smell of something cooking away on the stove or in the oven at your nan’s house when you’re a kid, or the things you ordered at those first restaurants you visited with the family.

There’s certainly more than a few Australians today who get a bit misty-eyed thinking about the heyday of the prawn cocktail and the steak Diane because they were there for it, living in that time and place. But what about the familiarity of dishes that didn’t get cooked in your house, or the other places your family went to eat? How do you explain their hold on the public imagination?

The Beef Wellington at Rothwell’s Bar & Grill in Brisbane is a case in point. It’s a dish of British/French origin that has been around for at least a hundred years. Why exactly is it enjoying an unlikely renaissance right now at the hottest restaurant in the humid, subtropical climes of the Queensland capital?

For Ben Russell, there’s no mystery to its success: it’s about quality and it’s about deliciousness. A chef who has worked right across the spectrum of the familiar and the unfamiliar in his life in restaurant kitchens, Russell takes the view that the magic of dishes like Beef Wellington lies in taking combinations of ingredients and techniques that have stood the test of time, and honouring them with cooking that is all about quality produce and careful, honest preparation.

The Beef Wellington at Rothwell’s Bar & Grill, Brisbane.

On his menu at Rothwell’s there’s a French onion dip among the appetisers, and an entrée that brings together prawn, avocado, lettuce, and cocktail sauce. There’s Caesar salad blessedly free of grilled chicken. There’s Martinis and Bloody Marys at the bar, there’s a seafood platter to share, and there’s trifle and madelines for dessert. But it’s about timeless elegance and not a retro trip.

“It’s not about trickery here,” says Russell, “you know what you’re in for.” There’s no side-eye, no riff or remix – the bat is played straight, and the result is dishes that surprise and delight with their freshness and immediacy.

A beautifully lit room, with lots of marble, big chandeliers, dark-green leather booths and well-chosen jazz, makes for a fitting backdrop. With Dan Clark, the operator behind 1889 Enoteca and one of Australia’s savviest wine importers, backing the place, the food is complemented by a list rich in treasures – 18-year-old Krug and JJ Prum riesling on by the glass, magnums and jeroboams of Gravner and Cornelissen, and a sea of Burgundy.

The thing about classics is that they’re classics for a reason. “They may not always be prepared in the best possible way from the finest possible ingredients but it’s easy to understand their appeal,” write Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham in their book, The Prawn Cocktail Years. “If one bothers to prepare these and other dishes that predate the whim of fashion in food then it is a revelation how good they can be.”

Rothwell’s Dining Room: a big-city restaurant replete with marble, chandeliers, dark green leather and jazz on the stereo.

Which brings us, of course, to Ben Russell’s Beef Wellington. Here’s how he does it.

First, the beef fillet. Russell goes grain-fed because he thinks it’s firmer and holds up a little better in the way it cooks in the Wellington, which essentially steams inside the pastry. He sears the beef in a hot pan, brushing it liberally with Dijon mustard.

Next comes the mushroom duxelles – rather than slicing and pan-frying the mushrooms in batches, Russell roasts them off whole in a pot to cook all the water out of them and to intensify their flavour, then blends them and presses them for a couple of hours to squeeze out any remaining moisture.

Then the crêpes: flour, eggs, milk and a little bit of beurre noisette. He lays a crêpe out on the bench, layers on about a centimetre of the mushrooms, then the beef fillet. It’s rolled, wrapped in clingfilm and goes into the fridge for a couple of hours to set before he wraps it in a layer of butter puff pastry, egg-washes it, and then adds another layer of lattice pastry, and more egg wash.

Then it goes into the Rational at 200 degrees till it hits an internal temperature of 35 degrees. Wrapped as it is in pastry, the meat comes up to a nice medium rare as it rests. The thickness of the pastry is the tricky part, Russell says: if it’s too thick, it won’t cook through before the beef is done.

Step by step Rothwell’s Beef Wellington

Step by step Rothwell’s Beef Wellington

Step by step Rothwell’s Beef Wellington

Step by step Rothwell’s Beef Wellington

Step by step Rothwell’s Beef Wellington

It’s served with a red wine sauce – red wine and port reduced with lots of shallots and thyme on a veal-stock base.

“We carve it in half in the kitchen, and it goes out on a large oval plate looking very decadent with an antique silver jug of the sauce on the side – it smells rich and warm with the puff pastry and the mushrooms and the red wine sauce.”

“When you’re eating it, even though that layer of Dijon is just brushed on, it’s something that I think is a pleasant surprise. Fillet steak, mushrooms and pastry are not necessarily hero ingredients on their own but together they’re sensational. It’s an experience to savour. It’s a good time.”

To drink? Dan Clark imports some pretty radical wines but he says he likes to pour classics with classics. “Top-end Yarra Valley and Margaret River cabernet work really well with the Wellington. Cullen, Moss Wood, Wantirna. Or brighter shiraz – Dune in McLaren Vale and Izway from the Barossa Valley do the job nicely as well.”

To game it out even further, Russell suggests Martinis at the bar beforehand, then settling into a booth for some raw seafood and oysters or a crab salad, maybe the tagliatelle with sea urchin, then your Wellington and sides to share, maybe a tarte tatin or a crème brulée afterwards. “And then we have an Armagnac trolley, so if you want to get really comfortable, we’ve got bottles there dating back to the 1920s. And that’s your Rothwell’s experience.”

Ben Russell grew up in Burnie in the northwest of Tasmania. His first cooking job was at 18 at the fabled Jimmy Watson’s on Lygon Street in Melbourne, a third-generation business with a focus on wine. It was his next job, though, that made him the chef he is today.

Run by British chef Donovan Cooke and Melbourne chef Philippa Sibley, Est Est Est was famously uncompromising. Cooke was a protégé of Marco Pierre White, and he and Sibley shared a vision for a restaurant that hewed firmly to the traditions of the French restaurants where they’d worked in Europe.

They made pot-au-feu of beef, oxtail terrines with root vegetables and grain mustard. There was always a pigeon dish on the menu, alongside stuffed and braised pig’s trotters à la Pierre Koffmann, and Pithiviers of quail and foie gras, and every scrap of it was made by hand, from the puff pastry down.

“Six double shifts a week was our roster, so 14 hours a day, six days a week,” says Russell. The kitchen was not well equipped – at first it didn’t even have a coolroom. “We’d buy in everything every day, get there in the morning and crack on, making everything fresh every day from scratch, no room for error. If something went wrong, there was no back-up plan.” As intense as it was, he says, it was also what he’d been searching for.

“I was looking for something that was all-consuming. There was no time for anything outside that job.” It was unbelievably gruelling, but, looking back, he says, it crammed 10 years’ worth of learning into just three years.

Ben Russell at Rothwell’s Bar & Grill.

After he left Melbourne, Russell bought a one-way ticket to Paris. He went south, immersing himself in the culture of southern France, and cooking on yachts on the Mediterranean. Here he reacquainted himself with daylight, joined the dots with the produce he saw in the markets, and cured himself of the urge to push everything through a chinois.

Coming back to Australia three years later, Russell approached Matt Moran for a role at Aria in Sydney. At Aria, he found scope, support and structure. A place with both coolrooms and back-up plans, and somewhere a young chef could learn about the business of running restaurants beyond the knives-and-fire side of the operation. He flourished under Moran’s mentorship, and Moran in turn tapped him to lead the company’s expansion into Queensland, with Russell opening Aria Brisbane for them in 2009.

Under his care, the restaurant ran for 10 successful years, and signalled a watershed moment in Brisbane for finer dining. It also gave Russell the opportunity to find his own sound. Having opened leaning heavily on the dishes for which Matt Moran was known – confit pork belly with apples, Peking duck consommé – it shifted over the years to less butter and more tomatoes and olive oil, an affinity with the flavours of the Mediterranean that can be seen in Russell’s cooking to this day.

Classics for a reason – the steak tartare at Rothwell’s Bar & Grill.

Our times shape our restaurants. For Ben Russell and Dan Clark, the Rothwell’s conversation began during the pandemic, and this shaped its direction. “Dan and I have both been in the game long enough that we wanted to make sure we were going to be commercially viable in the long term,” Russell says. They were talking about a big-city restaurant, and about longevity. All the places they shared as points of reference – The Savoy Grill and The Wolseley in London, Balthazar in Manhattan among them – had all been running for many years.

Then there was the site. Thomas Rothwell hung out his shingle as a tailor here on Edward Street in the heart of Brisbane in 1885. When Clark and Russell looked to register “Rothwell’s” as the name of the restaurant, they found it was already registered by another business. Just adding “Bar & Grill” to get it over the line, Russell says, brought a lot of what he and Clark had been discussing into crisper focus, and the menu and wine list followed suit.

“We wanted the food offering to be really classic, to focus on execution, and on having dishes that people recognise,” Russell says.

He’s not really the sort of chef who looks to cut corners, so while he’s not looking to reinvent the wheel with the menu, he still puts in an awful lot of work under the hood making sure everything’s as good as it can be, whether it’s enriching the ragù for his rigatoni with beef cheeks or sourcing rolled saddles from Margra for the roast lamb served with braised peas with bacon and shallot.

On the grill, Russell prefers anything dry-aged to be grass-fed and on the bone. When he buys wagyu from 2GR or Westholme he likes the less obvious cuts – chuck tail flap, tri-tip. “And those cuts sell,” he says. “I think sometimes people make the mistake of underestimating customers in Brisbane and what they want, somehow thinking all we want to eat up here is a fillet steak with a lobster on it or something.”

After cooking in Queensland for more than a decade, he says it’s just not how things are. “We sell a really good cross-section from the grill of everything from the high-marble wagyu to the dry-aged grass-fed meat.”

Roast lamb with braised peas, bacon and shallot at Rothwell’s Bar & Grill.

And the runaway success of the Beef Wellington? “It’s ended up more of a feature than we initially intended,” Russell laughs. “I certainly didn’t think I’d be making Wellingtons all day every day, but it’s strangely a dish that everyone seems familiar with.” Familiar, and comforting, he says, even though it’s not a dish common to home kitchens or even that many other restaurants. He estimates that half the people walking through the door ordering a Beef Wellington at Rothwell’s have never tried one before.

It’s a situation that Russell finds rewarding. Taking the focus on reinvention, he says, allows him to put the execution and delivery of the food first. “I’m really happy that everything we do is classical; maybe 15 years ago I wouldn’t have been. But for me at this point in my cooking career and my life, I really like doing this – it’s very satisfying.”

The pleasure and pride in the kitchen at Rothwell’s are felt in the dining room. If the first Beef Wellington of your life is here, with Ben Russell running things chances are it won’t be your last. And hey: the Wellington you order today might end up your go-to comfort dish of tomorrow.

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MEMORIES OF MINCE

As the days become shorter and the nights turn three dog cold, I have traded shorts for longs and hunted out the beanie. Having long ago given up even the idea of a summer bod (some would say this is a public service), I am happy to roll into winter clobber. Winter brings changes in the kitchen too with all the carbs and slow cooked dishes bringing the requisite degree of physical and emotional comfort.

Shopping becomes more perfunctory in winter and I find myself cooking with a certain degree of economy – one pot dishes that improve on a second helping and are even better the next day. I find myself eschewing the new and craving the simple dishes I loved as a kid.

Classic spag bol’ – the simplicity of mince, onion, bay leaf, pepper, salt and a tin of soup, served on top of spaghetti with a good shake of Kraft chunder cheese. Shepherd’s pie, basically mince with mash on top, made a bit fancy from the pattern of the fork making those crunchy bits that were the best. Shepherd’s is lamb, cottage is beef (that may also contain peas) – these are the rules, I didn’t make them.

I remember those mornings as a country kid when the grass was white with frost and the hose frozen solid, we would have savoury mince for breakfast. Mum would cook enough for days with the last of it usually ending up in the jaffle iron for Sunday night tea.

Coarse beef mince cooked in dripping with a tablespoon of flour, onion, salt and white pepper – the great Margaret Fulton would allow the addition of “a spoon of tomato paste and chopped parsley” but my father would have considered this an adulteration while enjoying his on hot buttered toast with a liberal dash of Worcestershire.

And there lies the comfort of my memories of mince.

At its most basic, mince is the result of waste reduction and whole carcase utlilisation – taking unused cuts and fat to create an extremely usable source of protein and bring value to the carcase. Yet around the world, mince has played a key role in the development of dishes of culinary renown and cultural significance – dishes that transcend time and place, have a hold in history and are lovingly passed down, reinvented, and given new life.

Paul Farag at Aalia Restaurant, Martin Place.

Paul Farag is the executive chef of newly opened Aalia Restaurant in Sydney’s CBD where he aims to create a unique offering of the Middle East through its diverse peoples and landscape.

“Most of us [chefs] think of French cooking as being sort of the pinnacle. Through my research, I found out that the oldest cookbook known to man is a Middle Eastern cookbook from ancient Mesopotamia [modern day Iraq]. It is incredibly interesting in that it is written more as a way of life and focuses on sustainability and the use of the entire animal,” he said.

Farag is well placed to break away from the standard Middle Eastern restaurant fare – his family emigrated to Australia from the culinary crossroads of Egypt and through Aalia, he wants to demonstrate the diversity of the Middle East with dishes ranging from Mauritania on the west coast of Africa, all the way into Iran.

“A lot of the Middle East is economically poor so when you go to the markets you will see whole carcases hanging and being butchered in front of you. Like everywhere else in the world, the premium cuts go to those that can afford them and the rest goes to mince. Not everyone can afford the primal cuts so mince is a way that everyone can have meat in their diet,” Farag said.

Paul’s Goat Merguez with pistachio tahini, sumac onion and khorasan bread.

Farag demonstrates his approach with a dish of goat merguez.

“It sort of takes on elements of a North African merguez in terms of its spicing and I have added bone marrow for fat and flavour with plenty of garlic, and heavily spiced with harissa. Cooked cous-cous gives it volume and a lighter texture. This is a variation on my family’s recipe and it changes from Auntie to Auntie, some wrap in caul fat, others whip in extra fat and have their own recipe for the spices.”

“I love the fact that we are able to utilise the entire carcase. I can’t imagine any celebratory family meal where we wouldn’t have kofta in some form or another,” Farag said.

O’Tama Carey is chef and owner of the popular Lankan Filling Station in East Sydney. Originally envisaged as “a hopper shop” (after the traditional Sri Lankan street snack) she soon found herself running one of Sydney’s best Sri Lankan Restaurants. Its authenticity was something that Carey struggled with as she rediscovered her culture through the lens of a restaurant space.

O’Tama Carey at Lankan Filling Station, East Sydney.

“There’s that whole thing about feeling fraudulent about Sri Lankan food because I didn’t grow up there. So, in some ways, I feel like I’m not Sri Lankan enough to be having a Sri Lankan restaurant. Since I’ve opened Lankan Filling Station, I’ve had criticism about being authentic, which is weird – because I am actually Sri Lankan,” Carey said.

Growing up mostly in Adelaide her Sri Lankan born mother “didn’t cook curry and rice for dinner every day because it is labour intensive and she was a single mother with a full time job” says Carey “but Mum would have dinner parties, really excellent dinner parties and that’s when the Sri Lankan food would come out.”

This meeting of cultures is evident in her hybrid version of Lamb Biryani.

“Biryani is a dish that originated in Persia or India, depending on who you speak to. Everyone’s got a version of it and of course there’s a Sri Lankan version of it as well.”

“Traditionally it is a celebratory dish of spiced goat or lamb baked under rice that is served at weddings or to ‘break the fast’ of Ramadan. My version uses lamb mince and spices with the rice served on the side. It’s basically a Sri Lankan version of spag bol. You start with ginger, garlic, onion and curry leaves, and then add cloves, cinnamon and cardamom which is kind of the base the base for a lot of curries, it’s actually kind of comforting,” Carey said.

O’Tama’s Sri Lankan version of Lamb Biryani.

Chef Enrico Tomelleri is a native of the Alps north of Venice and made his name in Sydney putting out delicious regional Italian plates at Ragazzi, Alberto’s Lounge and 10 William Street.

Now, in partnership with Giorgio De Maria and Mattia Dicati, he is cooking under his own shingle at Paski Vineria Popolare on the Taylor Square end of Oxford St, Sydney.

Tomelleri chats to me as he rolls and cuts fresh tajarin – the Piedmontese dialect word for tagliolini or tagliarini.

“Of course, this isn’t from my region, it’s from Bra where my partners come from. I’m going to emulsify some house made butter with blue cheese from the same area and then on top, some Salsiccia di Bra.”

Enrico Tomelleri at Paski Vineria Popolare, Darlinghurst.

Salsiccia di Bra or Bra Sausage may be the only Italian food to have ever been protected by a Royal decree.

Essentially a cylinder of seasoned veal meat, its origins date back to the 16th century when local butchers in Bra started using veal scraps to make a spiraling sausage that was typically eaten raw. Far from being considered a leftover food, the pork-free sausage was popular, especially with the Jewish community living in the nearby city of Cherasco.

Tomelleri goes to great lengths to explain to me that he isn’t contravening any law. “This one I had made at Emilio’s Specialty Butcher in Rozelle, so I can’t call it Bra Sausage – but really, it is the same,” he said.

Tomelleri enthuses about the frugal nature of his regional cuisine, where using everything is a way of life.

“We really waste nothing. We don’t buy mince, we make it for all sorts of preparations like ragu or stuffing for tortellini. You say mince is the last cheap cut left, but I don’t think of it that way, it is an essential part of the way I cook, it is the way of using everything.”

Enrico’s hand rolled tajarin with Bra Sausage.

At her restaurant Chat Thai overlooking the bustle of Circular Quay, Palisa Anderson serves me Padt Grapao – a dish of stir-fried beef mince, redolent with the deep perfume of holy basil.

“For me this is emotive food – like any dish that is culturally important to people. This is a very simple dish, but it is a dish that every household, every parent cooks slightly differently, it’s one of those dishes that crosses boundaries.”

“While it’s served in the home you can also find it in any street store or any rice and curry shop, or in fine dining restaurants – all serving a variation because it really has the key ingredients that most Thais eat in some form every single day. Garlic, chili and holy basil, it’s almost like it’s a trinity.”

Palisa Anderson at Chat Thai, Circular Quay.

“Thai cuisine has a deep connection to the land because at its root it came from the things that farmers could grow or would find growing wild. Even the working animals had a final part to play as food for the people that had worked alongside it.”

“Thai people don’t really use prime cuts in the same way Western cuisine does. This dish was developed from working animals, so most cuts were probably tough, the beef ‘mince’ is hand cut by knife and I prefer the texture. Thai cuisine is basically a vegetable based cuisine so using meat in this way allowed it to go further and to be shared in a more communal way. This dish is a way of life and a dish that is accessible to everyone,” Anderson said.

Palisa’s Padt Grapao – stir-fried beef with holy basil.

What’s Good in the Hood

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DARWIN

Low hanging sky, perfect warm days during the dry season, crocs for miles. Welcome to the Top End, where the dirt is red, the beers are ice cold and the fans undulate slowly overhead.

Specifically, welcome to Darwin, where the cuisine is electric, eclectic and built for the heat.

Here’s what’s good in the Darwin hood.

Take a walk through Darwin with Myffy to see What’s Good in the Hood.

HANUMAN

93 Mitchell Street
hanuman.com.au

Born in Sri Lanka to Chinese parents, chef Jimmy Shu is arguably the city’s best known food personality. He’s been delivering deliciousness to the Top End since 1992.

Named for the Hindu monkey god of wisdom, strength, courage, devotion and self-discipline, the Darwin arm of Hanuman restaurant (the other is in Alice Springs) offers a refined menu of Thai, Nonya and Tamil dishes within breezy comfortable surroundings. It’s all about punched up flavours executed with care, here.

Ashok Kharat – Chef de Cuisine for Indian food at Hanuman – plates up a South Indian Goat Curry.

Check out Masala lamb cutlets marinated overnight in cumin-fragrant hung yoghurt, and cooked till pink and smoky in the restaurant’s tandoor oven. A deeply savoury south Indian goat curry combines spice-warmth and sweet, dry heat thanks to the likes of cinnamon, star anise, fennel and cumin, and the lightness of fresh tomato and coriander.

Masala lamb cutlets cooking in the tandoor oven.

SNAPPER ROCKS

B2/7 Kitchener Drive
snapper.rocks

Come for the vibe and the cool breezes, stay for a beer and consider sharing the lamb shoulder with spiced cauliflower couscous with charred cos lettuce, feta and a squeeze of lemon.

Lamb shoulder enjoyed with a sea breeze on the Darwin Waterfront.

Old-school Aussie charm is the appeal here, with its sunny beach house layout and focus on local produce. Located smack bang on the Darwin Waterfront (the Territory’s answer to Brissie’s Southbank or Sydney’s Darling Harbour), it delivers an ideal position to while away an afternoon, and possibly an evening.

While you’re in the area, check out sister venue, Northern Distilling – a micro-distillery specialising in spirits flavoured with ingredients from the Top End.

Darwin Waterfront.

PHAT MANGO

56 Smith Street, corner of Knuckey & Austin Lane
phatmango.com.au

Chef Martin Bouchier is the man with the pans behind one of Darwin’s newer restaurant additions. 35 years of working in predominantly euro-centric kitchens now sees him turn his hand to contemporary Australian cuisine, with a strong focus on Top End ingredients.

NT Brahman Hump Silverside served on damper toasts.

See crisp damper toastlets with a lick of pickled bush tomato, the sweetness of date vinaigrette, finished with a thin slice of Brahaman hump silverside. Gunbalanya skirt steak, charred and rosy and finished with chimichurri, is served with a buttery potato galette.

And if it’s been a spell between baked bananas, consider this your lucky day – here, served with Roaring 40s blue cheese and cream. Yowza.

Myffy tucking in to some Northern Territory beef produced in Arnhem Land and expertly prepared at Phat Mango.

MINDIL BEACH SUNSET MARKETS

Maria Liveris Drive
mindil.com.au

A vital experience when eating your way across town, you’ll need to time this one semi-carefully. Join the hordes of Darwin families and tourists alike enjoying this twice-weekly (Thursday and Sunday evenings) happening.

Myffy soaking up the sunset at Mindil Beach in Darwin.

Food trucks park up serving everything from roast lamb rolls from the Roast Shack (chips and gravy optional but obviously essential) to Loukas Souvlaki’s juicy lamb wraps – here, the lamb is marinated for three days in lemon and oregano and then cooked over the spit perfuming the air with the rich and juicy smell of well-seasoned barbecued meat.

Market must try – the spit roasted lamb souvla from Loukas Souvlaki.

The beautiful thing about the Mindil markets (apart from the utterly breath-taking sunset that slowly morphs from deep burning orange to a sort of musky Kakadu plum) is the combination of cultures, from Greek, Anglo (the Roadkill Cafe’s catchphrase “you kill it, we grill it” might just be the most Darwin Thing Ever) and Thai to Malaysian and Indonesian.

Check out Sari Rasa for lamb and beef skewers cooked over charcoal and napped in peanut sauce, all served over soft little rice cakes. Finish with a rainbow snow cone for full festival vibes.

Sunset snacks on sticks – Sari Rasa’s lamb and beef skewers cooked over charcoal and dredged in addictive peanut sauce.

CHOW

D1 & D2/19 Kitchener Drive
chowdarwin.com.au

Punchy, bright, fun and fast – that’s Chow. Modern Vietnamese food in a breezy outdoor setting. Start with a sweet, Vietnamese iced coffee and for the full southeast Asian experience, chase it with a bowl of beef pho and treat yourself to a soup facial. Just staying for snacks?

You can’t go past a coconut crushie (spike it with a shot of rum for extra points) and a round of bo la lot – little beef mince flavour bombs destined to be wrapped in rice noodle cakes and plenty of herbs. There’s always the tried and true banh mi if you want to keep lunch lo fi.

Bo La Lot – marinated beef wrapped in betel leaf and washed down with a coconut crushie.

CHAR STEAKHOUSE

70 Esplanade
admiraltyhouse.com.au

Darwin’s most bomb-proof venue has withstood more than most weatherboard cottages deserve to be put through. Admiralty House, occupied for 20 years by postal official and botanist Florenz August Karl Bleeser, has seen out the Darwin bombings during World War II, stood strong post-Cyclone Tracy and now houses the city’s most established steak restaurant.

Myffy chats with executive chef Richard Brown about historic Admiralty House.

It’s here that you can order a soft, silky fillet of Rangers Valley Black Onyx with chestnut puree and potato fondant. Or a t-bone to share with all the trimmings you’ve come to know and love from a classic steak restaurant.

There’s a wedge of iceberg with bacon bits and blue cheese dressing. Crisp onion rings with barbecue sauce. Chunks of potato fried in wagyu fat and finished with confit garlic. Textbook green beans. There’s even a side listed as ‘two fried eggs with salt and pepper.’ If that’s not the perfect example of classic steak cooking, I don’t know what is.

Eye fillet with chestnut puree and potato fondant at Char Steakhouse.

ELLA BY MINOLI

20 West Lane
ellabyminoli.au

Probably the most exciting thing to happen to the Darwin dining scene since the legalisation of fireworks. And not just because it’s the only place in the city where you can order a bottle of pet nat with a side of roti.

Open only for the blink of an eye, this is the handiwork of Minoli de Silva (ex-Masterchef) who cashed in her chips and moved from Melbourne to Darwin to open a Sri Lankan restaurant in an area better known for its all-day parking.

Ex Masterchef contestant Minoli de Silva is bringing the tastes of Sri Lanka to Darwin – and possibly its first Pet Nat.

It’s early days yet, but expect maximum concentration of flavour in slow-cooked dishes such as eggplant, gently roasted until gooey and silky, dressed with coconut and date sauce. Or swift and hot with the likes of tamarind and tomato-rich meatballs flash-fried till crunchy. Nevermind the stir-fried roti.

We’ll be back, and we want more.

Cutlis Balls – a Sri Lankan street food specialty of ground beef, carrot and leeks with a tomato and tamarind sauce – just try and stop at one.

Cut Two Ways

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THE BUTCHER

Marcus Papadopoulo

– Whole Beast Butchery

Founded in 2017 by Marcus Papadopoulo and partner Amina Latypova, Whole Beast Butchery works directly with producers to source whole animals then ages the whole carcases in a custom-built room developed for dry ageing.

Marcus Papadopoulo in the dry age room at Whole Beast Butchery.

“At Whole Beast Butchery we are not only sourcing and using the whole animal from nose to tail, we are also dry ageing the whole animal from nose to tail. We believe that dry ageing is the optimum method for developing the flavour and texture of meat,” Papadopoulo said.

Whilst there was vast inspiration in developing the Whole Beast Butchery Concept, the fascination and move towards dry ageing came from Papadopoulo’s experience working at Victor Churchill.

“At Victor Churchill I was exposed to the highest quality of dry aged meat, but their dry ageing program was only based around the primals, which is generally the industry standard for dry ageing meat. I decided to take that concept and apply it to whole animals and to dry age the whole carcase instead.”

For Papadopoulo, the hard work begins on the farm and having a direct relationship with the farmers is essential to the success of his business. Opening up communication and understanding each other’s businesses ensures the quality and suitability of the carcases coming into the shop.

Papadopoulo breaking down a beef carcase.

“We want to have a relationship with the farmers we work with because we are sourcing whole animals and need to ensure that they are being raised to suit our business. We look for certain methods of pasture raising as well as specific breeds with the required muscle conformation – generally a stocky, heavy built animal with a good fat cap and a longer, slower growing life that leads to rich muscle development. Essentially, we are sourcing carcases that are going to best suit our dry ageing process,” Papadopoulo said.

Originally opening within Fourth Village Providor at Waterloo in 2017, Marcus and Amina relocated to Potts Point in 2018 before relocating again to their permanent home in Marrickville at the beginning of 2020. Wherever its location, Whole Beast Butchery has aspired to service the local community with the highest quality of dry aged meat – and now counts some of Sydney’s leading restaurants and cafes amongst its customers.

“We have always been a family run butcher shop and the two of us do everything together. I process all the meat and Amina produces all the preserves, pickles and jarred goods that we retail here. We have a very small team that we consider our family and most of them have been with us since the beginning of Whole Beast Butchery here in Marrickville including our second in charge Daniel Rosher – formerly a Sydney chef who is now becoming one of Sydney’s leading butchers.”

Fridges stocked with nose to tail dry aged produce at Whole Beast Butchery.

“Our business is based around two aspects. Our retail shop here in Marrickville serves the local community as well as those that travel across Sydney to source our meat. We also have a very affluent wholesale business that has been servicing Sydney hospitality for just over three years now. We have a lot of high-profile restaurants looking to source the highest quality meat and they are coming to us to do that; it’s something we are very proud of.”

If you’re looking to sample one of the best burgers currently being served up in Sydney – Whole Beast Butchery’s Saturday Burgers are the ultimate in paddock to plate indulgence.

“Our burger patties are very popular and are made using the optimum fat to meat ratio of dry aged beef, we wholesale a lot of them to hospitality venues across Sydney. Saturday Burgers is something that we started up again recently – we cook them to order on a flat top, put them into a freshly baked milk bun, pair with our house made pickles and some burger sauce made from scratch. We make it simple, we make it easy and the flavour is in the simplicity,” Papodopoulo said.

The Whole Beast Butchery Burger – Saturday’s only at Whole Beast Butchery.

Currently Whole Beast Butchery is sourcing around two bodies of beef, 6-8 bodies of lamb and 7-10 pigs each week – along with additional beef rumps, loins and rib sets to keep up with their dry ageing program.

“I like to think that our future is expanding on the existing concept – based on sourcing more whole bodies, ageing more whole bodies and supplying more people but not compromising on any of our values or ethos in the way that we supply meat. I believe many people don’t understand or have never been exposed to dry aged meat on the scale and capacity we are fore-fronting here.”

“I am very proud of the fact that we work directly with whole animals and practice a very A-Z form of traditional butchery. There is nowhere to hide, you have a whole animal, and you need to break it down and turn it into retail cuts of the highest quality. From that meat we also make all our own products from scratch with our own original recipes using traditional and artisan methods of developing charcuterie, salumi and small goods products.”

“I think we do a very old, slow form of butchery here, which I don’t think needs to change. The craftmanship and cutting practice is reflected in the quality of the meat. That’s how we look at our meat and that’s how we source our meat and that’s how we’re going to continue doing it,” Papodopoulo said.

Second in charge Daniel Rosher – a former Sydney chef now becoming one of Sydney’s leading butchers.

THE CUT

Mince

Whilst mince is often seen as a value add to the whole carcase by utilising unused cuts, trim and fat – like pretty much everything at Whole Beast Butchery, the approach to mince is a little different.

“The norm for mince is to use only specific cuts with the presumption that they have a certain flavour or texture profile that is ideal for mincing. I think it’s a fallacy. Our approach to mince is centred on the need for a certain fat to meat ratio made up using the highest quality fat and lean muscle. We utilise all different cuts across the carcase to generate a fat to meat ratio of 25/75 and up to 30/70. We’re not using any ‘offcuts’ and we’re not using any trim – we are utilising whole primals to make mince, taking aged meat directly off the bone,” Papadopoulo said.

Whole Beast Butchery produces 300-500kg of mince a week using an optimum fat to meat ratio from dry aged meat from the whole carcase.

Whole Beast Butchery produces 300-500kg of mince a week using an optimum fat to meat ratio from dry aged meat from the whole carcase.

Whole Beast Butchery produces 300-500kg of mince a week using an optimum fat to meat ratio from dry aged meat from the whole carcase.

Whole Beast Butchery produces 300-500kg of mince a week using an optimum fat to meat ratio from dry aged meat from the whole carcase.

Whole Beast Butchery produces 300-500kg of mince a week using an optimum fat to meat ratio from dry aged meat from the whole carcase.

CHEF ONE

Darryl Martin – Chef & Owner

Barzaari

Kousa Bil Laban

Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban – lamb mince, rice and tomato stuffed zucchini baked in yoghurt sauce.

Inner West gem Barzaari has been serving some of Sydney’s best Eastern Mediterranean and Cypriot food since 2016. Chef and owner Darryl Martin uses ingredients and inspiration from Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel/Palestine and Syria to create delicious mezze ranging from housemade dips and pickles; haloumi, feta and saganaki; to falafel, koubes and lountza to name a few.

If you manage to save room from the mezze, you will find yourself in a happy place confronted with the choice of succulent woodfired meats from the rotisserie. Tender, juicy, smoke kissed meats and sausages await – three types of souvlaki and souvla; sheftalies, pastourma and loukaniko; or the famous kleftiko – slow cooked lamb shoulder. And don’t forget the sides.

Darryl Martin chef and owner of Barzaari.

For this shoot, Darryl used lamb mince from Whole Beast Butchery to make Kousa Bil Laban – stuffed Lebanese zucchini. Darryl said that these days Kousa is a little friendlier to the modern palate – generally stuffed zucchini in tomato – but has a rich history.

“Kousa Bil Laban is a greatly appreciated, laborious and often special occasion dish. Kousa in general terms is a dish familiar to so many with infinite interpretations from kitchen to kitchen. Differing meats and rice, sometimes nuts, cooked in fermented sheep, lamb or goat yoghurts or even in olive oil.”

Comfort food at its finest – Darryl plating his Kousa Bil Laban.

“Dating back to the Ottoman Empire, the dish has been varied and developed, perfected and claimed throughout the Former empire and the entire region, from the Balkans and throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.”

“This variation, cooked in yoghurt and using a coarse lamb mince of belly and shoulder, is said to have been developed long before tomatoes were introduced to the region.”

“Marrying into a Lebanese family almost 20 years ago exposed me to the warmth, hospitality and all the incredible possibilities within the food and culture of the region. Both Barzaari and this dish are a reflection of that” Darryl said.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

The making of Darryl’s Kousa Bil Laban.

CHEF TWO

Federico Zanellato – Chef & Owner

LuMi, Lode, Ele, Leo

Beef Pithivier

Federico’s Beef Pithivier.

Chef Federico Zanellato has been indulging diners since 2014 with his refined modern Italian food with a Japanese twist at his two-hatted venue LuMi on the waterfront in Pyrmont.

This year, Zanellato also opened Ele in the old Momofuku Seiobo site at the Star – a sensory dining experience expressed by the elements of fire, water, earth and air.

During lockdown, Federico switched LuMi operations to a pop-up bakery, selling a range of pastries to a swathe of Sydneysiders looking for comfort.

Following its popularity, Federico made the move to open Lode – a high end bakery in Surry Hills where only the most premium ingredients are used including imported European butter, organic flour and David Blackmore Wagyu. The painstakingly labour intensive goods are things of beauty and the lines outside the bakery every day are testament to their popularity.

Federico preparing ingredients for his pithivier.

For this shoot, Federico recreated the pithivier that was originally on the LuMi degustation menu and now takes pride of place at Lode. The pithivier is an extremely difficult to execute French version of a pie made entirely from puff pastry rather than shortcrust – at Lode, the pithivier is so intricate it takes one person 12 hours to make 50 pies.

“A pie is the ultimate in comfort food and at Lode our wagyu pithivier is the best selling Winter item. It is extremely labour intensive and uses premium produce – only the best makes it into our pithivier, which is reflected in the price. At $20, it is not a cheap pie by any means – but it is reflective of its quality and once you try it you realise why,” Federico said.

Pouring the chicken and cream glaze into the pithivier via the bone chimney.

The pithivier is shaped from two discs of pastry so it bakes freestanding – it is intricately scored and has a bone chimney inserted that allows the steam to rise from the case. The filling is a combination of David Blackmore Wagyu brisket and shiitake – and to serve, a decadent chicken and cream glaze is poured into the pithivier via the chimney.

Here, Federico used freshly ground dry aged beef mince from Whole Beast Butchery to recreate his famed pithivier.