What’s hot for summer? Here’s 7 trends for summer
Foodies take note. Here are seven hot trends for summer.
Manly
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ARTY ARTISAN
Tom Eadie and his good mate Matt Durrant opted to do things the old- fashioned way when they opened Berkelo in July 2016.
The former chef from The Boathouse Group, who turned baker, now churns his own cultured butter and ferments seasonal veg as accompaniments, including kimchi shots and hibiscus and honeybush kombucha in Brookvale.
The William St bakery’s first bread-making class next month is already fully booked. Eadie and staff will take 15 bakers through the art of making naturally leavened sourdough without commercial yeast or additives.
“We’ll be talking about the importance of grains and how to make a sourdough starter at home, it’s not that easy,” he said.
The next workshop will be on November 18.
Or try: Palm Beach chef and author Holly Davis is cooking a dinner with recipes from her book, Ferment, A Guide To The Ancient Art Of Culturing Foods, at Moby Dicks, Whale Beach on October 31. Details: Bookoccino 9973 1244.
ROLL PLAY
Hold the beetroot. Pub burgers have become much more sophisticated. And so have the buns. The humble bread roll has been transformed into something lighter and fluffier. Dee Why Hotel has joined the current trend for Japanese milk buns. The Hawaiian chicken burger, the classic cheeseburger and the signature Trufflenator burger all come in milk buns.
Buns have also gone black. Activated charcoal buns are another trend. It is amazing what a quarter of a teaspoon of carbonised coconut husk can do.
Rukus in Newport does a black egg and bacon roll, aptly called a lump of coal roll (pictured top right).
Or try: For another take on a bread roll, Asian steamed buns, or bao, are becomingly popular. Wonderful Viet Street Food in Manly has a $5.90 Vietnamese pork belly bao.
VEG IN, NOT OUT
Aussies aren’t big consumers of vegetables. The most recent ABS stats show that only seven per cent of over 18s eat the recommended five servings of vegetables a day.
However, a new Manly restaurant could encourage the vegie-shy to be more experimental.
Doug Fraser’s restaurant, Suburbia, will be big on vegetables without being vegetarian.
The veg focus trend came from a recent trip to LA with wife, Kylie.
“We were in Santa Monica in March. We were really blown away by the produce and the interesting dishes — we’ve never seen anything like it before,” he said.
Fraser came home singing the praises of Gjelina and its rustic produce to plate food. The 4.5-star rated Zagat eatery in Venice Beach has roasted Japanese eggplant with tahini, za’atar and mint.
Fraser is working on a spicy eggplant main featuring Korean miso paste. Suburbia will be open six days from mid-October.
Or try: There’s nothing that quite comes close. Emilia’s in Curl Curl is a vegetarian restaurant.
OK, POKE
Food trends don’t get much hotter than the current hankering for bowls of raw fish called poke.
Manly cafe Showbox was one of the first peninsula eateries to have this Hawaiian dish on the menu. Poke (pronounced poh-kay) means to slice or cut.
Fishbowl Sashimi Bar is an Asian-style poke and salad bar in Manly. The brand is co-founder Nic Pestalozzi’s fourth venue. Bondi Beach came first, in July 2016, followed by stores in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills.
The UTS business graduate said that inspiration for the concept came from an overseas trip to Los Angeles with partner Nathan Dalah.
“There has been a huge trend for poke, which really means diced not flat sashimi. I love Japanese flavours,” Pestalozzi said.
Or try: Poke bowls from Momo Bar in Manly (pictured left).
INFLUENTIAL ITALIAN
Northern beaches Italian food is worth a shout out at the moment. Pilu at Freshwater was named Sydney’s best formal Italian restaurant at the Restaurant and Catering Awards this month.
Ormeggio opened its Newport wood-fired trattoria, Sotto Sopra, in February and Jonah’s has a new executive chef.
Matteo Zamboni came on board in August and has already introduced a new contemporary menu. The Italian-born chef has worked at Pilu, Ormeggio, Quay and had his own restaurant, Zambo, in Surry Hills.
Or try: Manly Pavilion also has a Pilu graduate. Executive chef Andrea Corsi has worked with Raymond Blanc in the UK and brings Italian and Mediterranean food to the iconic waterside venue.
WINE SLUSHIES
Rose, riesling and prosecco have all had the frozen treatment. From Manly to Newport, last summer’s trendiest drink was frose. This frozen wine-based drink, which debuted at Bar Primi in New York, took London by storm before hitting our shores.
Manly Wine found the cocktail on Instagram. The beachfront venue mixes it up with a secret liquor and fresh strawberry. Swap rose for riesling and it’s a “friesling”, while “frosecco”, a prosecco with fruit, citrus or fancy elderflower liqueur (St Germain) adds a sparkle to summer.
Or try: Make one yourself. For a simple frosecco, blend a cup of frozen strawberries with 1/3 cup of prosecco and a tablespoon of orange juice. Pour in a glass and enjoy.
HEALTHY TREATS
Young beaches entrepreneur Abbey Unger has started a business focused on two foodie fads — a love of doughnuts and raw sweet treats. Houghnuts — the H stands for healthy, she says — makes a range of gluten-free, refined sugar- free, vegan baked doughnuts.
The 30-plus range of doughnuts is made with pumpkin, maple syrup and coconut oil and flavoured with a variety of ingredients. Find her at Frenchs Forest Organic Food Market on Sundays. Even with the healthy tag, Alan Barclay, spokesman for the Dietitians Association of Australia, said these doughnuts were still high in kilojoules and should only be eaten on special occasions.
Or try: THR1VE at Warringah Mall. This paleo cafe has a selection of raw treats, cakes and slices.