Food & Drink | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

Feb

Bubba’s happy, mama’s happy, let’s eat!

“Does she like it?” celebrity chef and restauranteur George Calombaris is hovering at our table, hands clasped, face concerned.
The food critic puckers her lips and spits the spoon out, clean. Yes, George. My 10-month-old baby does like your strained pumpkin. Forget about the journalist, the baby is happy. And George is happy.
“I brought some baby food, in keeping with the theme,” I tell George. “It’s lamb with polenta, but it’s not so great. Would you like to try it?”
“Um, no thanks,” he declines politely.

The fab prawn tortellini, $26

“There is no restaurant down this lane,” my taxi driver declared confidently on our way to MamaBaba.
But after opening in South Yarra on 20 January, at 7pm tonight, it’s
three-quarters full. At 8pm it’s packed and roaring, as bronzed Toorak
blondes pick over the menu which features a range of Italian pastas and risotto married with Greek favourites such as stifado and kritharaki.
“My mama is Greek. My baba is Italian. This is my food,” reads a large banner in the newest addition to the Calombaris empire which includes the Press Club, St Katherine’s and the gorgeous Hellenic Republic.
George’s website tells me he’s been voted one of the top 40 most influential chefs in the world, and in the top 100 most influential Australians. The man knows his onions, and, more importantly, he knows what onions we like.

So it should come as no surprise during Australia’s current baby boom that I find that the tv judge’s new menu includes three types of baby food ($3.50), served in little glass jars with a label that reads ‘Just like my mama used to make’.
There were some timing issues (why did the complementary taste, a baby chicken parma topped with an Italian flag, come out at the same time as my main?) but for the record, my prawn tortellini, soft pasta dumplings filled with prawn mousse and prawn meat saganaki with cherry tomatoes and feta, is divine. The service is slick and the international wine list exciting. We’ll be back.

MamaBaba, 21 Daly St South Yarra

Jan

Right wavelength: Heron Island

Turtles viewed from the island’s quasi-submarine

“INFANTS are just hand luggage,” a travel veteran told me before the
arrival of a Jackson jnr. “Take them to all the posh restaurants before
they can walk, and travel.”

“Families should stick to holidays in Queensland and stop
inflicting their kids on the rest of us during long-distance flights,”
sniped a chorus of online travellers. Snipers, we took your advice.

So,
wary of the many evil eyes cast by business travellers on a red-eye up
to Brisbane and onward to Gladstone, the first family holiday is to that
bastion of family holidays, north of the border.

Heron Island is a coral cay 72kilometres off the coast of
Gladstone. It’s a two-hour ferry journey or, if you’re flush, half an
hour in a chopper.

To read more, click here

Jan

Dining high in Hong Kong

The InterContinental Kowloon

IT’S ONE of the world’s eternal stand-offs: Hong Kong Island versus
Kowloon. The two sides of the city face each other over the gorgeous
Victoria Harbour, each with its own personality – HK Island sniffs and
says it’s sophisticated and fun, while Kowloon’s just for the tourists.

Yet Kowloon’s makeover, with the glamorous international
ocean terminal and Elements shopping and lifestyle complex, has sent it
on an interstellar flight far from street markets and dodgy basement
bars.

As Kowloon’s buildings are lower than those on HK Island,
this is the side to watch the nightly light show, Symphony of Lights,
with laser beams shooting out from 44 of the city’s skyscrapers. “It’s a
conversation between Kowloon and HK Island,” says my friend, Hong Kong
girl-about-town Rainbow.

Either way, either side, grab a seat at one of
the best bars and dining rooms on high.

HONG KONG ISLAND
Looking to Kowloon

Felix restaurant and bar.

Hip to the eyeballs, Cafe Gray Deluxe is
on the 49th floor of The Upper House hotel in the Admiralty district.
Stop in to eat Gray Kunz’s celebrated one-Michelin-star fare – ask for a
corner table for the best views – then move to the bar for late-night
cocktails. In fact, go straight from customs to this bar. The harbour
views from the gorgeous loos are jaw-dropping.

For exciting contemporary Spanish, FoFo is
a tapas bar at the back of Central. Sadly, the rooftop bar is only for
private parties. But the views of HK Island’s Mid-Levels from the dining
room are expansive. Snack on 36-month-old Iberian ham, beef cheek
cooked with banana and passionfruit, or crispy suckling pig dished up by
Barcelona’s Alex Martinez Fargas and married with one of FoFo’s many
marvellous tempranillos or the house’s Sexy Sangrias. Open for almost
two years, it’s already a Bib Gourmand – meaning you can score a quality
three-course meal for less than $HK300 ($37) – in the HK Michelin
guide.

Isola, in the IFC Mall in Central,
doesn’t have to be a night-time gig. In fact, we’d recommend slipping
into its little rooftop terrace bar for a lunchtime pizza, as Maria
Sharapova has been known to do. Set right on the harbourside, it’s the
spot to watch the Star Ferry slosh by.

For a late-night option with the same views, head to the glass-cube G Bar (Podium Level 4, IFC Mall).
Super-chic Sevva has a “lazy type of
glamour”, somewhere to have your divine cake and eat it in divine
surroundings presided over by HK-Australian fashion and cake maestro
Bonnie Gokson. Get the elbows and knees out to bag a terrace sofa and
gaze at the best of Hong Kong architecture, from the old Legislative
Council to the Norman Foster-designed HSBC Building. The clientele
ranges from Hong Kong tai-tais (ladies who lunch) to cigar-chewing VIPs
(complete with bodyguards). An arty party set descends at sundown and
Fridays are deservedly manic. Dress code: fabulous.

You wouldn’t think Hotel LKF would have any decent views
but the little boutique hotel set in the Mid-Levels is built up the
hillside leading to the Peak. So when you ascend to Azure restaurant on the 29th and 30th floors, you’ll also find the swankiest, most secretive little bar with the worst name – Slash.
Pitched at the indie-design set, it doles out cocktails until 1am most
nights and 3am on Thursdays to Saturdays, with a daily three-hour happy
hour from 5.30pm.

ToTT’s is on the 34th floor of the four-star business hotel The Excelsior, in Causeway Bay.
It’s easy on the wallet, with cocktails below $HK90, but
uneasy positioning means it’s not the best place for the Symphony of
Lights. However, the revamped rooftop bar is the place for a
post-shopping restorative bevvy – the hotel is just minutes from the
late-closing Causeway Bay shops. Ask for the Moonlight Lychee Blossom, mixing Aviation gin
from Oregon in the US with rose water, green lychee liquor and brut
sparkling wine.

The Harbour Grand is breaking new ground in the eastern HK Island locale North Point. The five-star hotel’s cheesily named Le 188°
indicates just how far the views span, encompassing both harbour
entrances. BBQ in the Sky starts in September, with seafood barbecues
every weekend until 1am. The best way to get there is via Exit A of the
Fortress Hill MTR station.

Wooloomooloo is best known for its
steakhouses but the Wan Chai branch includes a chic rooftop 32 floors
high, plus 360-degree views. You can just about stretch out and touch
the Peak up above. The meat here is 120-day Australian Black Angus, with
set lunches from $HK138. Beloved by meat lovers and naughty Hong Kong
ladies whose husbands don’t like heights.

M bar at the Mandarin Oriental does dark
and moody to a T. Renovated last year, the 25th-floor bar whispers the
secrets of molecular cocktails but the staff still remember how to do a
good old-fashioned one. Hot tips: wrap your lips around a Hong Kong Legend, a mix
of vodka, lychee liqueur and kuei hua chen chiew, a Chinese wine that’s
almost a health drink, dammit. We also love the elegance of the Earl
Grey Mar-tea-ni (geddit?). And if you’re hunting for a HK banker, this
is definitely the place to prowl.

Of course, there’s a pool at the Grand Hyatt’s open-air Waterfall Bar,
a teensy 36-seater in the heart of Wan Chai, by the convention centre.
Cuban-cigar lovers will relish the alfresco puffing and city views and
the rack of booze is as smart as the dress code (which reads “smart”,
not “smart casual”).

KOWLOON
Looking to Hong Kong Island
“Hong Kong Island’s skyline at night yanks New York’s
shorts down and whups its butt, hard,” say the saucy scribblers of Luxe
Guides.

The biggest news on the Kowloon side of town is the opening of the Ritz-Carlton and its OZONE bar on the 118th floor, which it claims is the highest bar in the world. You can eat and dance here and, of course, there’s a
signature cocktail, the Senses, which blends Hennessy VSOP with vanilla
syrup and blackberries.

There are no reservations, so get in early to
grab a prime table by the windows. Without a swanky name, the Lobby Lounge
at the Intercontinental could be dismissed as another dreary hotel bar
but it’s not. And Kowlooners agree it has the best views of the light
show. This great HK staple is also blessed with a gorgeous Mariage
Freres afternoon tea, jazz at 6pm and crooners at 9pm. The drinks to
drink are the Nine Dragon cocktails (all $HK120), ranging from the
Dragontini (kuei hau chen and Jagermeister) to the non-alcoholic Green
Dragon.

We suggest you wear white when you visit Aqua Spirit
so your friends can see you in the sultry darkness. Key spots are the
glam curtained alcoves and the drink de jour is the Aquatini, which
swirls Ketel One Dutch vodka, Chambord, lychee liqueur and, because it’s
Hong Kong, gold leaves. Otherwise, order a One Peking, which blends
jasmine tea, peach schnapps, saffron and elderflower cordial.

Felix is the restaurant atop Tsim Sha
Tsui’s iconic Peninsula Hong Kong and atop the restaurant is a little
bar designed by Mr Fabulous, Philippe Starck. Take your drink to the
window and look across to Victoria Peak, HK Island and down on Victoria
Harbour. Otherwise, men can head to the glass urinals to wow while they
wizz. Avoid if your wallet is dieting: this is one to visit if you’re
hell-bent on impressing.

There are plenty of bars we haven’t got to yet: RED bar and Barcepage wine terrace on HK Island; Living Room in Kowloon’s W Hotel; the Sheraton’s Sky Lounge in Tsim Sha Tsui …

We’ll leave you to it.

Address book

Aqua, 30/F, 1 Peking Rd,
Tsim Sha Tsui, +852 3427 2288, aqua.com.hk.
Cafe Gray Deluxe, Upper House, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, upperhouse.com.
Felix, The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2315 3188, peninsula.com.
FoFo, 20/F, M88 Building, 2-8 Wellington St, Central, 2900 2009, fofo.hk.
Harbour Grand Hong Kong, 23 Oil St, North Point, 2121 2688, www.harbour-grand.com.
Isola, Level 3, IFC Mall, Central, 2383 8765, isolabarandgrill.com.
Hotel LKF, 33 Wyndham St, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, 3518 9688, hotel-LKF.com.hk.
M bar, Mandarin Oriental, 5 Connaught Rd,
Central, 2522 0111, mandarinoriental.com.
Lobby Bar, Intercontinental Hotel, 18 Salisbury Rd,
Tsim Sha Tsui, 2721 1211, intercontinental.com.
OZONE, ICC, 1 Austin Road West, Kowloon, 2263 2263, ritzcarlton.com.
Sevva, 25/F, Prince’s Building, 10 Chater Rd, Central, 2537 1388, sevva.hk.
ToTT’s, The Excelsior, 281 Gloucester Rd,
Causeway Bay, 2894 8888, mandarinoriental.com.
Waterfall Bar, Grand Hyatt, 1 Harbour Rd, Central, 2588 1234, hongkong.grand.hyatt.com.
Wooloomooloo, 31/F & Rooftop, 256 Hennessy Rd, Wan Chai, 2893 6960, wooloo-mooloo.com.

Nov

Cairns pulls at the heartstrings

Cairns lagoon. Skin cancer central, but does have some shade!

On a busy corner of tropical Cairns, I could see OK Souvenirs, Koaland and Louis Vuitton. Then I got trampled by a Japanese tourist group. A woman outside my hotel window smoked rolled cigarettes and spat tobacco and invectives at passers-by, the hotel concierge went AWOL while I was trying to haul baby, pram and bags up the front stairs, and it was hot, humid and heavy. Cairns, I was quite prepared to hate you.

But the next morning, I’d softened. The concierge had materialised at the Cairns Hilton, which has just had a $6 million renovation. The streets were full of cute open-air cafes and restaurants and locals and travellers were splashing happily in the lagoon, a clear water pool in the middle of town. I liked the notices pinned telling you where to take baby flying foxes that have fallen out of the trees above, and the primal squeak of a hundred furry little bodies hanging from the branches like over-excited black fruit.

Flying foxes, just hanging out in Cairns.

Then, there was the discovery that the Hanuman restaurant in the Hilton is of the same family as the legendary Darwin Hanuman, and I was unnaturally thrilled to learn they even do bento, basically upmarket take-away, comprising two perfect curries, rice and some rather exciting pickles.

Pulling out of the harbour on a boat turned toward Fitzroy Island, I could smell the massaman curry and jasmine rice, and the prospect of enjoying it on a tropical island seemed pretty damned good. Cairns, welcome back into the heart.

Oct

Luke, Luke, Luke. It’s all about you. Even before you waltzed up to my table last night in the new Hilton on the Gold Coast, in your chef’s whites advertising airlines and restaurants, it was all about you.

I thoroughly enjoyed (and how often can you say this of cheap airline food) the tortilla with roast beef, vintage cheese and mesclun leaves as we flew up from Melbourne to the Gold Coast. There was the branding: Food by Luke Mangan. It was a deliciously far cry from your beef pie I ate with the same airline enroute to Fiji recently. Luke, leave rustic alone, please. It was so rustic, it comprised three enormous chunks of cow, so big that the wibbly plastic airline knife had no impact on it, leaving a plane of diners chewing like the animal they were consuming.

Then, last night, as we tossed over the difference between striploin, fillet and tenderloin, you schmoozed the room, smiling and shaking hands like the best-trained celebrity chef. Your name was on every plate that was laid on our table (and let me admit, there were many plates laid on our table).

Oh, how we ate. We ate the kingfish sashimi, with the most divine crust of ginger, eschallot and Persian feta. We at chargrilled quail on shredded zuchinni studded with pine nuts and currants. We at the tenderloin, we at the striploin. God help us, we went back for desert: chocolate three ways (which does sound a bit pervy) and a strip of sunshine-orange cheesecake.

I need to lie down. I need to run a marathon, or whatever the people of the Gold Coast do each morning. I need restraint, I need to avoid you, Luke.

Oct

More icing on the cake: Daylesford

Australia’s premier spa town just keeps getting better – and tastier. Discovers what’s new in Daylesford.

“PLEASE, no mobile phones,” requests the Lake House’s restaurant
menu. And, “Please, no thongs.” Oh, only because you ask so nicely, I
won’t wear my thongs into your two-hatted restaurant for the first
showing of its spring table.

They like to keep themselves nice in Daylesford.

Click here to read more/

Sep

Spring in the city: good reasons to visit Melbourne

Newmarket Hotel.

Today, I was led astray, into the fabulous Melbourne Middle Eastern restaurant Maha. Little did I know that they are happy to serve up coffee to passers by, and to dish up the most divine donuts that ever wobbled on the face of the earth. They’re not even on the menu, they’re that good.

As we were mainlining the dough balls, crushed pistachios and white chocolate spill (a serve consists of five donuts – five – when inevitably two people are sharing?), I was reminded that Taste of Melbourne starts tomorrow. No time to crash diet before cruising the halls of the Royal Exhibition Building to taste dishes from some of the city’s top restaurants.

There are eight great reasons to visit Melbourne at the moment:
Fringe Festival September 21 — October 9
Melbourne Festival October 6-22
Art deco walking tours
Madonna & Child by Correggio
The Art of Brick LEGO exhibition, until October 9
New bars
Food meets design
and Taste of Melbourne September 15-18

Click here to read more.

Sep

Saturday night in Daylesford

On Saturday night, I
was in Kazuki, the newest restaurant in delicious Daylesford, about 90 minutes
north of Melbourne. Daylesford is, of course, hip to the eyeballs. Only a
population of 7000 people, yet it has art galleries, cafes, restaurants and
beautiful villas wriggling out of every pore.

Kazuki is a Japanese
restaurant on up and coming Howe St, and while I was snacking on tiny plates of
smoked eel ravioli and Japanese mushroom and celery soup, I looked across at
the next table, to see a couple enjoying a romantic evening: the wine, the
food, the view of the darkened street. The only odd note was that they were both about 20. Was I so
composed that at 20, I was taking dates out to swanky restaurants full of
ingredients I couldn’t pronounce? I can quite safely admit that no, I was far
too busy skulking around looking for low-budget entertainment in band pubs,
existing on a diet of unflavoured boiled rice, to even contemplate such
refinement.

“These kids of
Daylesford,” I thought, “they’re in a class of their own.”

Mind you, several
hours later into the evening, a band of the buggers ripped the two wing mirrors
off my daggy old, hardworking car. They’re not so bloody different, after all.

Aug

A different direction: Lovin’ Lorne

My drive from Melbourne to Lorne, on the Victorian coastline, is not quite Hunter S. Thompson’s iconic road journey, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where he packs his attorney, two bags of grass, mescaline, acid and a salt shaker half full of cocaine: I’m packin’ my mum, some nice nectarines and a swimsuit in the hope that the water in Lorne’s Loutit Bay, aka Bass Strait, isn’t going to freeze my blood.

Click here to read more.

Jul

Rest and recuperate: Singapore

Seven stopover cities where you can stretch your legs and beat the humdrum of a long-haul flight

Click here to read more of this story from The Age.

Why I love Changi airport: simply because I can get my luggage trolley into the loo – a bonus for solo travellers with no mate to stand guard.

The beauty of stopping in transit in countries as tiny as Singapore is that you’re smack in the city in the flutter of a fake eyelash; it’s just half an hour from the airport to whatever nirvana you’re looking for: theme park junkies head to Universal Studios, nostalgia buffs grab Singapore Slings at Raffles Hotel and label freaks gravitate to Orchard Road.

Want a bowl of steaming laksa? Head to Katong, where a battalion of Nonyas (Malay mammas) fight it out in a long-standing battle for the best laksa in town. There are mosques for Muslims and boutiques for Indo-fashionistas in Kampong Glam and in chaotic Little India, I watch an old fortune teller use a green parrot to pull numbers from a deck of cards. It’s $S5 ($3.80) a number for a series that might win you the lottery. The parrot is working like a demon as punters stop by the little table on the footpath to try their luck.

In the waterside bar quarter of Clark Quay, tiny Singaporean princesses totter into Shanghai Dolly, a Mando-pop bar. We say: avoid if you’ve just staggered off a long-haul flight with shiny skin and less-than-luscious locks.

Singapore caters to all comers. And come they do, to a country masquerading as one of the world’s great transit lounges, open 24/7/365.

Flight time About 8hr from Melbourne and Sydney.
Who stops over? Singapore Airlines, Qantas, British Airways, Jetstar and Emirates are among the major airlines to go there.
Taxi from airport to city Metered taxis from $S18 ($14), double from midnight to 6am plus a surcharge of $S3 to $S5. The journey takes about 30 minutes. Singapore Airlines has a free service between the airport, city centre and Sentosa Island for transit passengers, from $S6 for Singapore Airlines/SilkAir passengers and $S12 for others. See siahopon.com.
Where to stay The Crowne Plaza Changi Airport is linked to the airport terminals via walkways and people movers, from $S320. See cpchangiairport.com. The Ambassador Transit Hotel in the airport’s transit lounge (therefore no need to clear immigration) sells rooms in six-hour blocks from $S76/double or has single-person rooms with shared bathrooms from $S41. See athmg.com.
Visa Not required for Australian passport holders for a stay of up to 30 days.

Click here to read more of this story from The Age.

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