8. Restaurants Cafes & Fast Food
8. Restaurants Cafes & Fast Food
Food, Ambience and…
Customer Service (or lack thereof)
Fast food and obesity just trailing behind
Good regional and fine city fare
My first forays into fine and fast food were rather disconcerting if not disheartening. As a restaurant reviewer for several years on both coasts of America, I was eagerly looking forward to new culinary experiences. Living on the border of Rosalie and Paddington in Brisbane, with an un-renovated squalor kitchen in a big Queenslander, gave me other choices within a good walk.
Rather like London, the Indian food is authentic and delicious. A mom and pop shop had the tandoori oven putting out the tasty flavoured nans and tandoori chicken. The raita had fresh mint and there were many varied chutneys and sauces with friendly staff and reasonable take-away prices.
Like many cities there are a handful of “celebrity chefs” with trendy chic and quite expensive restaurants; the oversized plate, the small portion the great egos. On the other hand, many of the young and talented chefs are taking off and seeing success overseas because they’re not stymied by hide-bound tradition. Each large city in Australia does have a few stellar if expensive restaurants; Mondo Organics in Brisbane, Wildfire in Sydney, Star Anise in Perth etc making the occasional fine dining experience a fully faceted extravagance.
One waiter insisted their olive oil was light and low-fat, another assured me the coconut cream sauce on the curry was light. It actually was overwhelming the dish with a greasy motor oil mouth feel.
Other servers might say there was no alcohol in a dish that was laden with it, never mind that for some it might be deathly allergic. Once a chef followed me into the grocery store yelling at me because I returned an inedible, incorrectly described dish and the staff wouldn’t substitute another. Methinks the Aussies don’t take exception or take a stand as the English reticence still kicks in.
Unfortunately, one un-named local Brissie café had a huge case display of magnificent over-sized desserts. There was seating out side, nice jazz playing but their wait staff were sauntering re: “swanning” about with surly attitudes.
I ordered a carrot cake and cappuccino and was under whelmed. The cake was dry and crumbly, worse the frosting was tasteless with phony cheap ingredients. I use fresh pineapple, toasted walnut for textural crunch and cream cheese with lemon, orange and lime zest for bits of colour and a symphony of flavours beyond the shredded carrots. The only cacophony in my mouth was a chemical mine field of preservatives and additives and too much powdered (okay-icing) sugar. All this for $6.95!
After living in Seattle for years as well as a full member of California café society I am a hound (ok an aficionado) for a good strong cappuccino. This was a cup of insipid froth, over-heated milk, weak espresso and a huge dump of chocolate sprinkles when I asked to leave it off -- an over-all travesty.
That I dared ask them to make it again garnered me a snarl, and a sniff. “This is how we make them here”, I was told in a gruff huff. I reminded this gay gourmet and with the sweetest smile I could muster, that I asked for no chocolate on top as I am one of the few who like the cappuccino purist plain. He was profoundly unimpressed in any event and set the next one down in the middle of the table with a resounding thump and sashayed off before I could ask for more water. Rarely has a waiter ever checked back to ask if everything was alright. Even rarer is to scan the tables noting refills needed etc and doing the right thing without asking.
I don’t know anymore about now, but when I was taught as a wait staff personage, we were meant to put the cup gently near the right side of the guest with the handle turned 2/3rds down to make it easy to reach. For every time I have ordered “cuppas” with friends or solo and anywhere in Australia, 8 times out of ten the cups are slammed in the middle of the table with the guests left to figure out which is theirs.
And this segues nicely into customer service, not so nice in hospitality or anywhere actually when dealing with staff. It perhaps comes from the earlier convict mentality and dislike for authority coupled with an aversion to being of service in the service industry. The ongoing joke is that Aussies are well-balanced; they have a chip on each shoulder.
I once took a great Irish friend, Andy Vaughn, another foodservice consultant to lunch in the West End of Brissie. He had me laughing off my chair with his incisive perceptions of staff, hygiene and plate presentations. The first question he wanted to ask the server was if he or she (we weren’t sure) had sanitized their body rings that morning. Sitting at the table we were right at eye level to the navel ring and low slung dirty apron.
From the dirty fingernails to the chewing gum we wondered if we could slink out but most of the other cafes were similar in the West End. Girding our loins we ordered a simple sandwich each.
My BLT came on Kleenex bread with too much mayonnaise, the thinnest end bits of a sliced under ripe tomato, a tiny sprinkling of shredded lettuce and the soggiest of uncooked bacon. Can anyone cook bacon crisp in this country? All this for $13.95! I have to remember they don’t get tips here thus the higher prices and the truculent table hoppers with any added incentive to be civilized. Andy was equally profoundly unimpressed with his order and asked me not to ask him out to lunch here again. At least we laughed about it then and after.
Now as for the fast food market I was and am appalled at how the insidious American fast food chains have crept through both city and country towns. As a food writer interviewing myself for a Simply Light article, I formally apologised for them sending over their horrific fast food outlets. Unfortunately again that very fine publication went under!
The chips that Aussies eat are remarkable! Even the trendy churches have rancid oil wafting over the congregation as they sing hymns or rock and roll for Jesus songs. Afterwards there is a mad rush for the chips (not fries please) and horrid little meat pies and pasties. Yes, the meat pies are still somehow alive in Oz served with tomato sauce (not ketchup) and a great part of Blokey bloke cuisine….another chapter. Hmm, so much for treating our temple with respect. And if we don’t take care of our body where are we going to live?
Between the fast food and chips, lollies and chewies, Tim Tams and choccies obesity is fast catching up with America, especially in children.
Peter Dingle a famed nutritional and environmental toxicologist, environmentalist and International speaker based in Perth says it succinctly, “We are killing our kids!” He has a philosophy and book entitled Dingle’s Deal: Diet Environment Attitude and Life style.
We started a Kid’s Alliance to remove soft drinks and lollies from schools but the changes are challenging.
As a longtime proponent of this message of healthy living I am bringing a program this year to a dozen Perth schools. Finally the government is scratching the surface with a $1500.00 grant for Healthy Eating. Canteens and boarding school foodservice needs to rid themselves of all junk foods so the choice is simply not there. It directly affects learning behaviours as well as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and propensity to cancer even in young children now.
At least I can point to my home state of California where Arnie baby has signed a bill to remove all soft drinks and candy from both primary and secondary schools. Of course, Jamie Oliver and movements in the U.K. are returning to local live foods too, lower on the food chain, natural and unprocessed, hopefully organic.
Okay to end this chapter on a positive note, I found the bush foods, fishing, local stone fruits and bananas the best! It was great to learn all about the new (for me) fish to catch and test recipes with; spangled and red emperor, sweet lip, Taylor, whiting, flounder, pink snapper and of course barramundi. The nomenclature in either country has never been standardized so it’s often a confusing but colourful and flavourful array of warmer water fish.
My research into the native bush foods uncovered lemon myrtle and paper bark trees, bush tomatoes, native plums, finger limes and other fine tropical and tasty stone fruits. It was a fine thing to take my foiled fish formula and wrap a fresh fillet with paper bark after topping it with fresh fruit chutney. The juices of the poaching fish mingled with the fruit create a self-made sauce.
However, if I created a new recipe I had to change all my measurements to metric and learn the local names for cilantro—coriander, capsicum for peppers and chile spelled incorrectly. And what is with the sweet chili sauce on so many foods? Candied fish, mussels, dressings, appetizers all with way too high of a brix level overwhelming the natural good flavours of whatever it is dumped on! My sparkling roasted red pepper puree just doesn’t sound as good with the word capsicum. Another nice alliteration bites the Pindan dust.