Dilly Diner of the Week

If there’s one thing worse than a restaurant for for dogs then I reckon it’s got to be an organic restaurant for dogs! This week’s Dilly Diner is Chew Chew, in Wollstonecraft on Sydney's lower north shore and it specialises in organic pet food for cats and dogs. Organic chicken risotto and bolognese are popular dishes at the restaurant, and patrons can't get enough of the frothed goats milk cappuccino sprinkled with dried liver treats. It's run by pet nutritionist Naoko Okamoto, who also offers a home delivery service for pampered pets.
Okamoto opened Chew Chew, which she says is Sydney's first pet restaurant, in June. She launched it three and a half years after starting a small business selling small organic treats at markets to "introduce Japanese healthy foods for pets". Chew Chew now has a broad menu where pet owners can order dishes including chicken mince with coleslaw salad and beef steak with mushrooms, as well as the ever-popular doggie-cinos. The pet's "humans" can spend their time enjoying coffee next door and chatting to other pet owners while the animals tuck into their meals. Okamoto admits that business at Chew Chew has been slow since it opened – I wonder why?

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That Was The Week That Was

The word on the street this week is that as Gordo is turfed out of Cape Town he is planning to team up with David Beckham to open an English pub in Los Angeles. Just the place where you can knock back a few pints, talk some soccer, maybe listen to some of the Spice Girls' greatest hits and, if you're lucky, witness a belligerent chef verbally abusing pretty much everyone. The establishment -- which they reportedly plan to name The Queen Vic, after Beckham's wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham -- will feature traditional English food and drink. It seems that Beckham wants pie and mash, fish and chips and even chicken in a basket on the menu, just like the meals he eats when he’s in the UK. Maybe Beckham should exercise a little caution as His Gordoness seems to be closing down more restaurants and pubs these days than running successful ones.


Meanwhile back in the UK a report issued this week claimed that the pubs in Lancashire have been caught making misleading claims about the description and provenance of their food. An investigation by trading standards officers found that 32 of the 41 randomly-selected premises they visited made claims that turned out to be misleading. At least 25% of claims made by 11 of the outlets visited were found to be either incorrect or could not be backed up when trading standards asked for verification.
Misleading menu claims included:
● "Local" samphire actually imported from Israel.
● "Freshly made" meatballs which were bought in from a wholesaler
● "Smoked" chicken breast wasn't smoked or even smoked flavoured.
● "British Farm Assured" apple pie wasn't British Farm Assured.
● "Morecambe Bay" shrimps actually from the much wider NE/NW Atlantic.
● "Wild mushroom" - from farmed sources.
Other descriptions such as "organic", "hand picked" and "fresh" were also applied to some foods without justification. Let’s hope they don’t come snooping around our eating places!


One menu item gaining popularity in the gastropubs is correctly named so if you see it featured as Dish of the Day don’t be surprised – it’s grey squirrel and this week Budgens, a popular UK supermarket, started selling squirrel meat nationwide. Animal rights groups have called it "wildlife massacre." Already there has been outcry from Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (Viva) who have called out Budgens "barbaric and inhumane" and said they are supporting a "needles cull" of grey squirrels. The popular woodland creatures were once popular as a UK meat and made into soups, pies and casseroles. Andrew Barron, amateur hunter, can't see what the fuss is about: "Squirrels are a pest so why not eat them? The flavour of a squirrel is nutty flavour and tastes similar to rabbit." And rabbit? Why that tastes just like chicken but then doesn’t everything?

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Coffee anyone?

I like a good cup of coffee, in fact I’m so fond of a good brew that I get my coffee beans green and roast them myself. Now that might sound a little bit obsessive but who cares, I know what I like. Of course having taken this much trouble I really want to taste the coffee so no milk, cream or other mellowing agents and definitely no sugar – if you’re going to drink coffee then drink coffee is my motto. So I am a bit surprised that one of the hot issues of the day amongst coffee drinkers is raw or white, brown sugar or refined white sugar? I’ve never really given it much thought before but it is strange that you are automatically offered brown sugar in most establishments with your coffee and yet in Italy, one of the strongholds of the coffee religion, you never see brown or raw sugar but plenty of white sugar! Some people argue that since brown sugar is unrefined it is the lesser of the two evils whilst others complain that the toffeeish flavour can upset the balance of flavours in the coffee. Then of course there are the diplomats who say offer white and brown (‘‘you have to give the consumer what they want’’). Let’s not even get started on sweeteners ! For the record I find it bizarre that anyone who extols the virtues of larny branded coffee and secret roasting methods would want to bugger up the taste by adding anything to the delicious brew.

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Ag shame, he's doing his best

That seems to be the ultimate absolution in South Africa especially when it comes to waiters. We aren't actually concerned that the service we are receiving and paying handsomely for, is in fact appalling, we are more concerned with feeling pity for the service staff - isn't that a little bit crazy? For a long time now I have taken the line of least resistance. If anyone asks me to recommend a restaurant, my response is : " I never eat out, it's so much easier to do something at home " And if by some devious means they extract the information that last week I visited "The Rumbling Tum " and enquire about the food or service, then all they'll get out of me is ....fine....fine....fine ....
It's sad that I have been reduced to this level of culinary discussion with my friends and colleagues but our service levels in restaurants just beggars belief. Forget about bloody TV programmes with celebrity chefs, lets have some programmes with celebrity waiters, lets attach the same level of notoriety, celebrity and financial reward to the plate carriers. Maybe by making them the new rock stars more youngsters will want to hitch up their wagon to the Great Gourmet Trek and we'll get the trickledown into our favourite restaurants. Everyone wants to be the next Jamie Oliver maybe we should choose a different icon for the industry than poor old Manuel fom Fawlty Towers. Ag shame, he's from Barcelona you know!

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Making a gouda living

For the last few years the big thing in the Big Apple has been underground or pop up restaurants operating by stealth and avoiding the unwelcome attention of the authorities especially the Health Dept but this is a city that never stays still and so the latest black market sensation is the toasted cheese sandwich. It’s not exactly the most difficult thing to find in the city’s diners and delis but one savvy New Yorker, known only as Ronnie, is making a killing.The underground chef takes orders by text message, cooks his sandwiches on the stove in his brother's East Village apartment, and then meets his customers on street corners. (He does have a Facebook page.)
"I feel like a drug dealer because I'm handing people a paper bag and they're handing me cash," said the unlicensed cheese pusher, who, fearing reprisals from the Health Department, asked to be identified only as "Ronnie," . You’ve got to be in the know to taste this sandwich guru’s crispy cheesy delights but now Ronnie is grilling 40 sandwiches a day, he said -- a volume he can barely keep up with.
"I'm worried that I'm getting too busy. I'm instituting a friends and friends-of-friends policy," he said. "I kind of want to quit, it's getting too big, but I want to feed these people." His customers said they never knew they needed a cheese dealer until they took the first bite.

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Lettuce rip you off

Sometimes you think the big retailers really care and other times you know they’re taking the piss! Look at this tiny iceberg lettuce from Marks & Spencer, it's designed specially for singles eating alone. The fully-grown mini salad staple is only a quarter the size of the standard variety. Now isn’t that very considerate of them. It was developed by M&S after complaints from lone diners fed-up with binning leftovers. So it’s much smaller, obviously takes less time to grow and is cheaper to transport – what great guys! However there’s just one slight problem, while you might save waste by buying it you WON'T save much cash 'cos the compact lettuce, at 75% less bulk costs 75p, just 10p less than its big brother. Confused? Don’t be! Here’s the perfectly logical explanation from the retailer - M & S salad buyer Simon Coupe said: "This is as much about cutting down on food waste as saving money. The iceberg's been a favourite for 30 years and this baby version has all the same sweetness, crispiness and crunch - ideal for one-person households." Lettuce join hands and give thanks to these people who speak in strange tongues.

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Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

Some of my best friends are vegetarians as the story goes but sometimes they can be a tad irritating.Here's Mitchell and Webb's take on the subject. FeedBlitz subscribers should visit the site to view

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