Food and the pursuit of life’s great pleasures

“I used to have an appetite for life and now it is gone. I want to marvel at things again” – Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love

If you asked an Italian what the most important things in life are, they would probably reply ...family, love and food… This is because to most Italians, asking if you’ve eaten is the same as asking how you are. To Italians, eating, or rather, eating well, is a way of life. Food is an emotive experience. It's sensual, it's visceral, it tripwires all our senses. Think about some of the best moments in your life and I guarantee you they probably involve food in some way. The intention of this blog is to share my passionate relationship with food and zest for life and love with you. I hope that in the pages you find sources of inspiration, great information and a sense of wonderment at all that life has to offer through the stories I will share with you. These stories are raw and about real people and real life experiences. I have used fictitious names for the wonderful people whose lives I celebrate on this blog.

My relationship with food can be traced back to the womb. Raised by two extraordinary Greek-Italian women, I learnt very early on that food was my second religion and began to worship it. It is an interesting time for a child growing up in a household where English was the third language and the idea of bringing an Australian school friend home was a foreign concept. Particularly challenging was in the school yard during lunch. The differences between me and the Aussie kids stood out like a neon sign particularly when it came to what we were having for lunch. While the Aussie kids were eating their vegemite-cheese sandwiches and tim tams, I sat on my red and white chequered tablecloth and chowed down on home-made ravioli with spinach and ricotta, slices of crispy ‘porchetta’ (a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast) and a black olive and blood orange salad.

My love of food, fresh produce and cooking took on new dimensions when I moved to Italy with my mother and grandparents as a young child. The colours, sights and sounds of the fresh produce markets was a wonderland to me. Pyramids of primary coloured fruits and vegetables of every variety laden to the sky, furry rabbits and brilliantly plumed pheasants suspended from the market umbrellas, a kaleidoscope of gelato revealed a mystical, new world. Even at 7, I couldn't wait to make magic in my grandmother’s kitchen. What an adventure it was to make fresh pasta dough, boil kilos of plump roma tomatoes to make homemade 'sugo' in the copper boiler in the backyard and have to cover my ears to stifle the sounds of our next door neighbours killing the pig to make our signature pork and fennel sausages.

Here’s one of all-time family favourites and is even more delicious accompanied by a nice glass of pinot grigio. Salute!

Coniglio al Agrodolce (Sweet and Sour Rabbit) serves 6

Ingredients

1kg farmhouse rabbit
2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
½ cup plain flour
½ onion (leave whole)
½ lemon (leave whole)
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon white vinegar white wine (approx. ¾ cup)
1 litre chicken stock
2 bay leaves

Heat a medium sized casserole dish, add olive oil. Cut rabbit into small pieces and coat in flour. Pan fry rabbit until golden brown, adding salt and pepper to taste. Cover for a few minutes until the rabbit releases its own water. Strain juice. In a little extra olive oil, return rabbit to pan adding capers, vinegar and enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan. Reduce the liquid and add chicken stock. Cover the casserole with a lid and cook the rabbit in the oven for a further ½ to ¾ hour at approximately 180 degrees Celsius. Serve with roasted potatoes, boiled first and then fry up with a little garlic, olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Ideal to serve with cold boiled spinach drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Get a Taste of the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous in Bali

Twenty eight seconds is all it takes to make a lasting

impression. If you judged Bali by Kuta you would

probably never go back. No doubt that Bintang- singlet clad Australian hoons yelling profanity stumbling around Kuta’s filthy side walks hardly offers a welcoming cry. Yet, while our compadre yobbos still abound, a sophisticated and opulent Bali is emerging for the more discerning crowd. Bali has become a fashionable tourist destination that offers a taste of the lifestyle of the rich and famous on a shoestring budget. It’s one of the world’s best kept secrets.

Restaurants in Bali are a foodie haven. The influx of European expats mixed with the existing local cuisine provides the best local and fusion cuisine that rivals anywhere in the world. You eat better French food here than you do in Paris. Head to über chic Seminyak, Ubud or any of the glamorous hotels like the St. Regis, Bulgari, Legian or Ayana and have your tastebuds tantalised.

We began our culinary adventure based on advice from our friend Ketut, a local business man who owns a chain of wellbeing spas (also big business in Bali) and a self-confessed food snob. If you’re looking for a fantasy wellness experience head to Ketut’s Wellbeing Spa in Seminyak and have the full treatment including spiritual healing. The spa's interior looks like the inside of Bilbo Baggins hobbit house in Lord of the Rings and is truly a mystical experience from beginning to end (wellbeingspabali.com).

Our first fine dining experience began at Hu’ u in Seminyak (huubali.com). One thing you must know about Bali is that dining out is best done at sunset and into the early evening. Magic is created by the millions of candles that light up up the luxurious eating establishments all over the island.

Hu’u is named after a magical toll off Sumbawa, known by surfers for some of the best waves in the world. Hu’u is set on a 20,000 square foot area of sprawling “eden”, complete with 14 meter lap pool, and expansive wooden lounge decks. You cannot begin dinner in Bali without sampling one of the delicious cocktails every restaurant offers for no more than 120,000 rupiah ($13). I had a lychee blast – a frozen pyramid of tangy lime, fresh ginger with the delicate fragrance of lychee muddled with apple mint. It was sensational.

For entrées, we ordered seared scallops with tom yum risotto. The scallops were plump, chargrilled perfectly and partnered perfectly with the tangy flavour of the tom yum risotto. For mains we ordered a 400g Waygu T-bone and a grain-fed Australian veal chop. Both dishes came with sides of truffled mash potato, grilled mixed mushrooms and a leafy green salad. Hearty and fresh, both dishes packed great flavours. The T-bone was disappointingly chewy making the veal chop the clear winner of the evening.

Overall, desserts in Bali are not done all that well.

At Hu’u we ordered a chef’s tasting

plate – it came with an underwhelming selection of sorbet, chocolate brownie, carrot and banana cake. The plate was visually spectacular but tasted like it had come straight out of a packet. Overall, Hu’u was a visually stunning dining experience, with some great food moments and definitely worth a visit. 3.5 out of 5.

Bali is peppered with a number of sensational beachside hot spots. I had already been ‘wowed’ by La Lucciola in Seminyak last time I visited and was keen to find a similar gem.

Chez Gado-Gado is a traditional style Balinese open air restaurant right on the beach front. The moment you enter the impressive foyer you are transported to a romantic fairyland on paradise island.

The menu at Chez Gado-Gado is international with some traditional Balinese favourites. We began with chilled foie-gras and a salad of goat’s cheese, candied walnuts, arugula and beets. The home baked red rice rolls were a welcome addition to our entrées. For mains we had seared lamb rump with wilted spinach and potato gratin and a roast duck breast with baked prunes and truffled mash. Both dishes were delicious. The skin on the duck was crispy, the inside melted like butter in our mouths.

For dessert we ordered the free form black forest cake. Each element of the dessert was served individually on a long white serving dish. This confused, lack lustre dessert was a disappointing finale to an otherwise sensational meal. Overall, Chez Gado-Gado gets a 3.5 out of 5

Joining the ranks of Bali’s finest is a new Turkish restaurant guaranteed to delight – Tulip (tulipbali.com). Tulip’s chef Fahri Karatas comes with quite the pedigree, former Executive Chef at the Hilton Istanbul who has cooked for prime ministers, royalty and celebs. Tulip is a stylish, modern looking restaurant with tables set up to overlook the restaurant's very own rice paddy – a must have for any restaurant of high standing in Bali. Our host Dani, a Romanian expat welcomed us into the restaurant and explained the history of the restaurant and how to best order from the extensive menu.

To begin, we ordered one of the fresh mango daiquiris which at 50,000 rupiah a pop ($6AUD) was a treacherously boozy path we ventured down. Sweet and pulpy the daiquiris are the best I have ever had. We couldn’t just stop at one. The daiquiris were accompanied by a basket of fresh hot Turkish bread and oven baked pide. We then sampled a platter of cold Turkish mezes which included stuffed, baked zucchini, hummus, muamurra (baked red capsicum, walnut and garlic) and muttabal (roasted eggplant, yoghurt and tahini) amongst other dishes. Cold and delicious all the mezes were nothing short of more-ish.

For mains we ordered Tulip’s signature 7-hour braised lamb shoulder and marinated, herbed lamb cutlets. Served with simple mashed potatoes and roasted tomatoes, the lamb was so tender is fell off our forks. It was sublime.

For dessert we could not resist the home-made profiteroles filled with crème patisserie and smothered in melted dark chocolate.Food at Tulip was scrumptious and at a fraction of the cost of other high end restaurants in the area. Our only critique was the selection of dinner music – a Japanese father and daughter-looking team who squealed operatic arias through the loud speakers and gave us migraines. We’d go for Turkish tunes and hot belly dancers any day. We gave Tulip a 4 out of 5 rating.

Like a phoenix rising from the bomb debris, Bali has emerged from a marred reputation to become an affordable holiday destination of platinum quality. It’s survival of the fittest here, so if restauranteurs want to stay around the pressure is on to take food to new epicurean heights. Bali, in my opinion, is leading the way gastronomically to world class standards .

Other great restaurant discoveries include Sarong for South-East Asian fare (sarongbali.com) Sardine for great fish and seafood (sardinebali.com) and Métis for fabulous French cuisine – try their famous fresh seared foie-gras served with toasted brioche and warm, stewed morello cherries (metisbali.com). You can also sample some of Asia’s finest at Mozaic in Ubud (mozaic-bali.com). Mozaic has been awarded the prize of being one of the top fifty restaurants in Asia. It is a beautiful restaurant, with meticulous attention to detail, good food but be prepared for your wallet to take a hammering – I’m not sure with all the choices of fabulous restaurants in Bali it was worth the trek nor the money.