B-Kyu Newsletter - 2 November 2020
Going down to Liverpool, kimchi, future of food delivery, Indian truck stop food, Japanese staff cafeterias, regional fish 'n' chips, spin for a free honey wafer.
Hi folks
Welcome to the B-Kyuniverse for 2 November 2020. Feel free to share the B-Kyu love by sending to all your good eating and reading friends and get them to subscribe for themselves. You can read past copies of the newsletter here and our blog here.
In each newsletter we search out articles for you the curious reader to broaden your eating adventures. We collect a broad menu of stories, blogs (including our own) or other media for you to digest, consume and hopefully, get out and feast on the wonderful world of food in Sydney and beyond. Links in the title, a $ sign after a story means you may have to go through a payment firewall if you’ve used up all your free hits.
Lately we’ve been hiding in a south coast tiny house (i.e a caravan park) with no wifi (the horror) so apologies for the delay on the newsletter this week.
Liverpool
27 October 2020: A local's guide to Liverpool (Divya Venkataraman, Time Out) The delights of the south west open up in this excellent review of the suburb. Features some of our favourites, Hammoud 1 and Al Barakeh as well as plenty more places we have chalked up on our eating board for the future, especially La Selecta Bakery, Nefiz and Liverpool Supreme.
The spread at Hammoud 1 (B-Kyu)
Food delivery
26 October 2020: 'Getting burgers delivered generally sucks': Adam Liaw rates the best and worst food to order in (Adam Liaw, The Guardian) Taken from the point of view of food quality after delivery, this guide gives a low down on what food travels best. Pizzas are rated surprisingly low, sushi rated high, although I can’t image why you would get sushi home delivered.
The whole big scary ‘brave new world’ business of on line food and the future of delivery gets a thorough working out on Food On Demand, a dedicated website featuring news on the delivery industry. Latest is the rise of convenience store deliveries and the entry of big new players like Japan’s Softbank, funding development of platforms in the US.
Meanwhile in Australia, here’s the flip side of the delivery world for the drivers - 23 October 2020: Gig economy under the microscope as former Deliveroo driver takes company to Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal (Rachel Clayton, ABC News)
1 November 2020: 'By Tuesday I'm sitting on $31.08': a week in the life of a Melbourne food delivery worker (Anonymous, The Guardian)
Chinese
31 October 2020: The legacy of Cecilia Chiang, the 'Mother of Chinese food in America,' who died at 100 (Scott Stump, NBC) Opening her first restaurant in San Francisco in 1961, Cecilia Chang was not only one of the first female restaurant owners but also expanded the styles of Chinese food served in the US.
30 October 2020: How to make Chinese glutinous rice balls, aka tong yuen – a warming dish for when the weather cools (Susan Jung, South China Morning Post, $) These little sweets have a texture like mochi, served up in a ginger laden broth.
Japanese
Tokyo Metropolitan Building Staff Cafeteria (Anne Ewbank, Gastro Obscura) High up on the 32nd floor is a cafeteria for government workers, but it is open to the public. Go for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Ramen or Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bento and grab a seat with a view.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Spot the ramen. (B-Kyu)
Korean
26 October 2020: Feels like home: Kimchi shaped by four generations of a Korean family (Sarina Kamini , SBS Food) From the wine region of Margaret River in WA, this one time chef is producing kimchi from his great-grandmothers recipe. Complete with recipe that we will happily use to tweak our own version.
Chopping cabbage for our homemade kimchi. Chopper from the excellent Leung Tim Choppers Co in Burwood. (B-Kyu)
Indonesian
Death Noodles (Gastro Obscura) This is really taking extreme chilli eating to a whole bigger level. Served at Abang Adek in Jakarta, Mie Goreng Pedas Mampus is made up of 100 to 150 ground-up bird’s eye chilies that coat the noodles. Oooff that’s hot.
Malaysian
28 October 2020: Haymarket Malaysian Diner Ho Jiak Has Been Robbed – And It’s Asking for Your Help (Che-Marie Trigg, Broadsheet) A chance to get all Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew and solve the case of the missing cash and tip jar. As if this year hasn’t been enough for restaurants, now they’re dealing with brazen theft.
Vietnamese
20 October 2020: Feels like home: This fried egg banh mi inspires courage (Lee Tran Lam, SBS Food) Lovely, simple recipe filled with memory and meaning. The way the story of this chef is told really keeps you strung along until the end, so much determination to get to where she is today. And a fried egg banh mi is really a fine thing, we love the ones from Naughty Chef in Martin Place with a splash of salty seasoning sauce and a gooey yolk.
Fried egg banh mi from The Naughty Chef (B-Kyu)
Filipino
28 October 2020: Passing down love-filled Filipino noodles through the generations (Melissa Fox, SBS Food) More wonderful recipes linked to family, especially grandparents and the love passed down through food. Pancit Bihon is an easy to make dish, it makes good use of left over vegetables from the bottom of the fridge.
Indian
12 October 2020: The Truckers’ Food That became an Indian Culinary Style (Kalpana Sunder, W Journal) Forget the street, this is road food! Butter chicken (the real deal), flatbreads, curries and masala chai. No exotic marinades and sauces, smokey wood fires and seasonal menus.
Dhabas, supposed to be derived from the Hindi word ‘dabba,’ meaning lunch box, are rustic, no-frills roadside shacks, usually found close to petrol stations, on the highway or on the outskirts of towns that began in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, as pit stops for truck drivers. Most dhabas are named after the owners like Sharma Dhaba, Sunny da dhaba, etc., and are usually open 24/7 and play loud film music.
29 October 2020:Roadside Revolution: The Deep Fried Snacks of Calcutta and Panjim (Supriya Roychoudhury, Vittles) Political self expression through deep fried snacks - this is the type of revolution we support! From the adaptation of British colonial tea time dainties to open kitchens and the rise of the cafe to talk, debate and foment dissent, things coated in spices and batter have never been so radical.
26 October 2020: Sauces, Spices and Immigration: The Genesis of Kolkata’s Chinese Cuisine (Toonika Guha, W Journal) Chinese migration to Kolkata has meant a thriving diaspora and food culture that mixes Chinese and Indian flavours and cooking techniques sometimes referred to as Chinjabi. What results is a unique cuisine of its own, with green chilli sauces, chutneys, fried dishes that even has regional differences in different Indian city Chinatowns.
Venezuelan
21 October 2020: Venezuelan Cuisine Finds Rebirth in Diaspora (Kevin Vaughn, W Journal) A large Venezuelan community in Argentina is creating a revival of old recipes, moving beyond arepas, tequeños and empanadas to make the indigenous and rural dishes lost through rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. This is a long read, but the interest here is really how displacement can enable a new lens on culture and seek to restore vanished or threatened traditions.
British / Irish
30 October 2020: The Hyper-Regional Chippy Traditions of Britain and Ireland (various writers, Vittles) From the sauces and vinegars on hot potato chips to the deep fried ‘things’ that go with them, the regionality of chips is amazing. I wonder how regional things get in Australia? Our current favourite is the hot chips from The Yeeros Shop in Marrickville.
“Like other national dishes ─ ramen, pho, pizza, barbecue ─ fish and chips is hyper-regional ─ the fact that it’s just different things deep fried in batter doesn’t change this.”
Croatian
27 October 2020: The egg and tomato recipe that resurfaced a forgotten Croatian heritage (Sarina Kamini, SBS Food) Imagine flipping through a cookbook and recognising a dish as something your mother made, but you never knew that was your heritage. This is the story of Cree Monaghan, whose family played down their Croation heritage until the connection of food and the style of cooking, even the use of dried herbs or a peeled tomato, brought her mother back.
Spanish
22 October 2020: Barquillos: Spain’s Unique Street Food Roulette (Jessica Vincent, BBC Travel) Along Salinas Beach on the Asturian coast, a barquillo vendor walks with a 100 year old tin strapped to his back and a roulette wheel, passed down through four generations. Spin the wheel and see if you win three, or none, of the sweet honey filled wafers.
It’s a B-Kyu world
Give these people in Enmore first prize for the best b-kyu Halloween decoration.
As always, get out and explore the beautiful world we live in.
Alison and Shawn, B-Kyu