Lobster finally affordable as pandemic shuts down exports
With China stopping the export of all live lobsters, Australian fishermen are desperate to sell their catch, putting lobster back on the menu for average Aussies at an affordable price.
Sydney Taste
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It’s the unintended consequence of the deadly coronavirus — lobster and champagne for the price of a good steak.
With Australia’s biggest seafood fan China — the epicentre of the coronavirus — shut off to our lobster supplies, it means they can be had locally at an affordable price.
Merivale executive chef Dan Hong said seafood bargains are “the only good thing to come out of the coronavirus”.
“China has stopped the export of all live lobsters into their country so our fisherman really need to sell their catch,” Hong told Delicious, as the restaurant chain launches a lobster special.
China makes up about half of Australia’s seafood economy but lobster exports have been dwindling since late January.
It’s been particularly damaging for the South Australian industry, with 95 per cent of its produce including the bright red southern rock lobster going to China.
“Each of the restaurants have their own unique taste on it,” Hong said.
“At Mr Wong and Queen Chow you can get it steamed or deep fried. My favourite is a garlic butter lobster on a bed of egg noodles.
“At Ms G’s they do salted egg brown butter on a whole live lobster and at Lotus it’s seasoned with a fish sauce chilli butter.
“We really want to give our customers something that they would not normally order.”
“We caught up with our local seafood supplier last week and she said she hadn’t been this busy in so long,” he said.
“We don’t want to buy a little here and there. We want to buy a lot and really back the seafood community.”
Merivale’s Delicious Month Out deal will be at its restaurants including Bert’s, Mimi’s, Fred’s, Mr Wong, sushi e, Felix, Queen Chow Enmore and Manly, Ms G’s, Lotus, Hotel Centennial and Uccello
ECLAIRZILLA ARRIVES
Does size really matter? When it comes to eclairs, one Sydney pastry chef certainly thinks so.
Yves Scherrer has dubbed his latest creation the Eclairzilla — a giant eclair, four times the length and twice the width of the usual ones sold at his Clovelly patisserie Madame & Yves.
“It’s fun, it’s different — it gets me and the team to have a bit of fun,” he told Delicious.
This monster-sized treat is just the latest in a trend towards fun alternatives to a standard cake.
There are the giant doughnuts from My Sweet Box, the giant cannoli cake from Mezzapica, a profiterole tower from La Royale patisserie, and now the Eclairzilla.
Scherrer came up with the idea six years ago at the swanky Ananas Bar and Brasserie in the Rocks.
“I started playing around with the eclairs and I wanted to do something a bit more extravagant so I did a giant eclair but (the bosses) weren’t too happy with the idea so they asked me to stop doing it,” he laughs.
But now that Scherrer — who has also worked at Sokyo, Kisume, Sake and est. — runs his own eatery, there is no stopping his imagination.
Or the size of his desserts.
“The thing with eclairs is that you can give any flavour you really want,” he said.
“We are going to do a bit of everything. We are now doing Snickers eclairs, with milk chocolate, salted caramel and peanuts.”
The biggest challenge for Scherrer was finding alternatives to artificial colours and additives.
“Seeing what they put in those colouring and fake additives made me want to do all natural colours and no fake flavouring,” he said.
Scherrer is also focused on sustainable and local sourcing for his mega-dessert.
The chocolate comes from a sustainable distributer which educates growers on environmentally friendly practices, and all the dairy is from local NSW farmers.
“It’s a massive challenge to keep up with the others and keep things looking appetising and beautiful while also making them totally natural,” he said.
Priced between $25-$35 the dessert is available on weekends only.
SUSTAINABLE SHIFT IN OUR DAILY DINING
A decade ago it was all about molecular gastronomy but in 2020 diners care not so much about what’s on their plate as where it came from.
Kitchen By Mike chef Mike McEnearney said people are more focused on the produce and sustainability and less on the pomp of dining.
“People are embracing small farming, people want to know the postcode of their asparagus,” the former Rockpool chef said.
Delicious editor Samantha Jones said there has been a consistent shift to sustainable eating, and now in 2020 Aussies are also taking up responsible drinking.
“Looking back to 2018 we started with a vegetarian move, then veganism and plant-based food and now it’s gone to the next level with faux meat,” she said.
“And with Millennials no alcohol is a big thing. There are now some really grown-up non-alcoholic drinks … so you can go alcohol-free without feeling like you have to have a coke or an orange juice.”
Jones said the biggest trend in 2020 was the idea of guilt-free eating.
“There is so much press around health and diet and people are obviously doing their research,” she said.
“Fake meat and alcohol-free drinks are an easy way to feel like they are part of the party but without any of the associated guilt.
“Some of our biggest drink writers are giving this a push and giving this a voice.”
The Daily Telegraph readers can enjoy many of the 2020 trends at the American Express Delicious Month Out events this month, starting tonight at Pitt St Mall.
THE MOUTH: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PANDEMIC PREPPING
So here’s a little fun fact for when we’re all videoconferencing into our local pub’s trivia night and competing for the first prize of a 12-pack of dunny roll to be delivered by drone to our front door: The word quarantine comes from the Italian phrase for “40 days”.
The story goes that back during the 14th century there was an outbreak of the Black Plague across Europe.
Venice, which was then a major trading hub, was keen to keep the bug out of town.
Thus to keep everyone from getting infected, the Venetian government made ships coming in from suspect ports weigh anchor at the island of Lazaretto for 40 days — or as they say in Italian, “quaranta giorni”.
And, just as our term “plonk” came from Diggers coming back from France talking about the “vin blanc”, “quaranta giorni” became, through a few linguistic twists and turns, “quarantine”.
You’re welcome for that, and hopefully you won the quilted two-ply stuff.
And The Mouth, putting aside the sneers of those who’ve put their faith in food delivery apps to provide in a crisis, hauled himself out to Costco in Lidcombe — not just to stock up on about $1000 worth of tinned goods and gin, but also see what the options are if you get peckish during your shop.
Costco’s cafe, if you can call it that, is, more for lack of a better term, an area.
They call it a food court but even that’s generous.
Seating is communal (very trendy, or at least it was since we all started sharing communal viruses around) on plastic and steel picnic tables.
Diners must find a spot for themselves in a sort of an open-air concrete bunker that looks across a main road, like the recreation yard of a foreign prison where you might find the occasional hapless Australian unwittingly having his picture taken for the papers back home by a photographer with a long lens parked across the highway.
But how’s the food? Well, the hot dog is not bad in a sort of country show sort of way.
Large triangles of pizza are more promising but, after the first not-unpleasant mouthful of volcanic artificial cheese, as it cools the dominant experience is one of thick, soggy crust and a too-sweet pizza sauce.
It feels like something you’d order on a first date with a member of the Honey Boo Boo clan.
The meat pie, meanwhile, is an IED that explodes on first bite and leaves its victim covered in molten filling.
Maybe the point is to make customers look forward to how good those sides of beef are going to be when they’re defrosted three years from now.
Or perhaps it’s that, if worst comes to worst and you find yourself bunkered in at home scooping tinned chilli or instant pho or ready-to-eat waffles into your quarantined gob, you can turn to your family and say, “How good is this? Much better than those pies we had to eat at Costco!”
Costco Lidcombe Food Court
17-21 Parramatta Rd
Lidcombe
LICENSED No
CARDS MC, Visa
OPEN 10am-8.30pm (closes 6pm weekends)
PRICES Ridiculously low
VEGETARIAN Cheese pizza
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Yes
NOISE Hectic