Bad food vs nasty food II - the food poisoning review

Last week I got the dreaded foodie donkey punch to the stomach - food poisoning. I did learn quite a bit, and have decided to wrap up this saga with a review of the foods that helped.

I am currently pretty much back to normal strength, although I haven't fully transitioned back to my regular diet. I have actually stuck to the overly-healthy bland food diet by choice, and have not yet returned to the mountains of butter, meat, cheese and chocolate I normally consume.

I hesitate as last week was absolutely horrendous, a complete write off, both at work and at home, as literally I could do nothing but curl up into a ball in between my frequent visits to the porcelin throne. I went back to work after day 3, and lasted 2 hours. I ended up losing about 4kgs last week over the first four days, hardly eating anything, with even the BRAT food wanting to come back up. While the BRAT diet was gentle and helped me ween back onto solids, it still occasionally didn't sit right in my stomach.

After feeling worse than the bottom remnants in my toilet bowl, feeling dizzy, lifeless and with no energy, I decided I needed to get serious and eat my way back to strength and health. Struggling, I went on my quest to get back to the road to recovery.

Three hours later, I returned home with my treasures:
I planned on making a beef stock and a white chicken stock, purchasing beef bones from the butcher, chicken carcasses, and various stock vegetables and aromatics. I also bought some premium brown chicken stock to use to cook while my stocks were bubbling away - it was $13 a litre, but worth every cent, as it became a magical wonder-elixir that helped me gain my strength back. Other items included, Mizone, miso powder, organic chicken, and pasta.

Things that I felt worked really well:
- The incredible Essential Cuisine chicken stock. I used it as a base to cook rice and I found it made bland rice taste relatively nice, and at one stage it actually tasted quite creamy as though I mixed in an egg yolk. It contained no added salt, sugar, msg, preservatives, artifical flavouring or colouring, which was important to a poisoned individual such as myself, and was made using a "traditional chef's recipe". The ingredients are listed as "Chicken stock derived from roasted chicken and chicken bones 50%, water". Essential Cuisine chicken stock has become a good friend, although potentially it was the warm bland food byproduct that made me feel better.
- my homemade stocks turned out great - and I also used it as a food base once I finished the Essential Cuisine chicken stock. I gradually infused half with a bulb of garlic and used it to make rice with chicken and peas.
- Mizone and ginger tea always made me feel good - better than powerade in my books.
- Toast with plain Vegemite
- Miso soup - went to the most authentic Japanese shop I could find and tried to find the best miso on offer ($9 for a pack of 6). The owner was Japanese without fantastic English, and the miso I got didn't even have English instructions (can someone please help translate - see below). I just added hot water, and it made me feel better, even if I wasn't sure I was drinking it right

Things that I felt didn't work particular well:
- 7up/sprite didn't sit that great
- Salt and vinegar potato chips. Started off well, but was a bad idea. I think it was a bit too oily and upset my stomach. Resist the temptation
- Starchy bananas - let them ripen

The week that was:
Monday - clear fluids
Tuesday - clear fluids, potato chips
Wednesday - clear fluids, BRAT diet
Thursday - Plain toast, chicken stock and rice. Added small slices of chicken and peas to it for dinner
Friday - Baked beans and toast. Chicken and pea rice. Ate out at a Korean restaurant - their beef casserole was amazingly tasty and made me feel fantastic
Saturday - Baked beans and toast. Terikayi chicken udon. Ate out for dinner at reknowned Auckland seafood restaurant Hammerheads. Once in the restaurant, I felt magically transformed back into my food-loving self, so I went all out and decided to test the stomach. At the same time, I was being conservative after having flashbacks of the food poisoning effects.
My selections:
- Seared scallops, crab and snowpea salad, pea puree, fried shallots - $23.00
- Seared game fish, tempura prawn cutlets, orange slices, julienne cucumber, mint, sprouts, shoots, and a honey mustard dressing - $36.00 (tuna)

Side note: Hammerheads is fantastic for seafood, just as everyone says! The tuna looked undercooked but was in fact cooked skilfully as the fish tore tenderly and beautifully. I also thought my mate's Kingfish looked underdone, and as a result expected a chewy texture, but again, it was indeed skilfully cooked, and tasted as a game fish should - delicious and meaty.
Sunday - The stomach was not very happy on Sunday morning, and grumbled in revenge. I proceeded to have a very light breakfast of Vegemite toast. For lunch I had a beautifully fresh vegetarian muffin, which has since then inspired me to recreate it. For afternoon tea, I stopped over for a pie at Angelo's (of the on-sold "The Fridge" and "The Chiller" fame) latest venture, The Food Room in Ponsonby. In my opinion, Angelo maintains his crown of arguably some of Auckland's best pies, and has even started the trend of reversing rising coffee prices, by dropping all of his coffee (which in my humble Melbourne-coffee-snob opinion is fantastic) to $3. Dinner was a variation to Top Chef's Broccoli Coucous, using chicken instead of duck.

I have since eaten chicken and vegetable pasta, vegetarian couscous, along with the standard baked beans/vegemite toast combination. Today marked a milestone with my first coffee since the incident, and after feeling confident of no consequences, I had a full milk protein shake after hitting the gym for the first time in two weeks.

I'm back baby! Happy eating.

Bad food vs nasty food

I feel like I've been beaten up. My back aches, I'm sore all over, exhausted and I can't eat or drink. Most importantly, my former best mate, Mr Stomach has been recently misbehaving.

A new milestone. Not a good milestone, but a memorable one nonetheless. Last night (and all of today as a matter of fact), I suffered from my first severe bout of food poisoning.

I have been hung over many times this year, and the worst hang over I've ever had doesn't come close to the experience I had last night. I won't go into the gruesome specifics too much, but I will say the culprit was a well known franchise in the Newmarket area.

Sunday night - A dozen pork ribs, a Jack Daniels chocolate pudding and two or so hours later, my stomach complains, and I am disappointed that once again my eyes have been bigger than my stomach.

11pm - About three hours later, I think "I'm never going to be able to go to sleep with this full of a stomach... do some exercise." So I focused my attention on productive domestics, cleaning my kitchen, taking the garbage out and doing some washing. Anything to get myself moving and digesting this heavy load of food cement in my stomach.

12am - Four hours later, I am being entertained by a blog detailing some humourous adventures of cooking every recipe from the The French Laundry Cookbook, the book by three michelin starred Thomas Keller, who’s restaurant now sits at #32 in the best 50 restaurants in the world. The post was about lobster jelly, and half way through it, I felt the urge to throw up. Lucky I made it to the bathroom, as when it came up, it did so with some impressive force.

Over the next 7 hours, I saw my entire dinner come up, to the point where the vomiting was so strong, my stomach muscles were contracting the hardest they've ever worked. I felt like an almost empty toothpaste tube, and my body was trying to squeeze out every last ounce of toothpaste out until there was absolutely nothing left.

I tried every trick I knew of to get myself right. Cold water, warm water, salted coke, manuka 20+ honey, green and ginger tea, aloe vera drink, Mizone sports drink, preserved plums. The problem was I couldn't keep any fluids down - everything that went down, came back up. I was even trying to watch Russell Brand’s Scandalous to make myself laugh and trick my body into forgetting. But I was fighting a losing battle. I just had to simply strap myself in for the bumpy ride.

I will leave out any other details, and paint the picture another way. Through the torturous experience, I did some research and self diagnosis through the reliable Dr Google, and have found others have aptly described their food poisoning experience, so I will quote them verbatim:

• - I got food poisoning a few months ago from my favorite local sub shop. I puked, I shat, I cried
• - I got some eggs, bacon and a chicken sandwich at a Waffle House last night, and about an hour after I got home I started getting cramps like I had omfg horrible gas. I spent the next hour and a half or so on the toilet feeling like I was going to shit and puke at the same time.
• - I had steak and crab legs at some mom and pop shop last night and have been having the worst day ever today.... I WANNA SUE
• - Last night I bought some chicken and rice from a local food stall. Around 3:00AM I woke up and was violently sick, vomiting like crazy. Today I feel slightly nauseous, I've got the chills and my whole body is sore.

Now the point of my post - what I learnt from this experience. As foodies, I think it is inevitable to get food poisoning at least once as part of our quest to taste the amazing food this planet has to offer, so hopefully this post can help you survive the horrible experience, although I do not wish it on my worst enemies. It was interesting to know, similar to the "RICE" (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) method to treat an injury, there is a "BRAT" diet to recover from food poisoning.

Note: This is not a medically proven assessment – it is purely based on internet research and going through FP – please consult a doctor if you need medical fact. Also, this only refers to natural foods, rather than medications

Food poisoning - The road to recovery

by TP Big Bro

Basically with food poisoning, there is not much you can do but let it pass. But there is an accepted method of recovery.

The recovery procedure appears to be 24 hours of clear liquids to prevent dehydration and replace electrolytes (eg sodium, potassium, and calcium), that are being depleted through the diarrhea and vomiting. Clear liquids include apple juice, 7up/sprite, Gatorade and ginger drinks to soothe the stomach (flat ginger ale, ginger tea). Avoid caffeinated beverages which are too dehydrating, dairy, carbonated drinks and citrus juices.

You can then progress to the BRAT diet for a couple of days, followed by bland, low fat, non-dairy, easy-to-digest foods like plain chicken, as tolerable. If you advance too quickly, you may aggravate your symptoms, so take it easy. You can then slowly transition back to your normal diet if things are going well, reintroducing spicy or fatty/oily foods with caution.

Recovery food notes:

• - Small portions, more often
• - BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Apples/Applesauce, Tea/Toast) - these foods are tolerated by the tender gastrointestinal system. No butter
• - Some medical researchers recommend a diet that includes complex carbohydrates (e.g rice, wheat, potatoes, bread, and cereal), lean meats, fruit, and vegetables
• - Another argument says that fiber is also a complex carbohydrate, and it should be avoided if you have gastroenteritis. So, putting some noodles in your broth will be okay, but avoid cooked vegetables at an early stage, and raw crunchy fruits and vegetables should be avoided at the start
• - Chicken broth with noodles/rice/couscous/pasta
• - Chinese rice porridge (jook) - Season with soy sauce or salt
• - Plain crackers
• - Plain baked potato (no sour cream)
• - Ginger, garlic
• - Miso soup
• - Low sodium tomato juice apparently has as many electrolytes as Gatorade
• - Avoid fish, milk products, fatty foods and foods with a lot of sugar
• - One poster said doctors in India advised them to eat plenty of fresh curd and pineapples

Everyone is different, so we will react differently to different foods. I think the main thing is to listen to your body, be patient and let your body recover. All the best and safe eating!

My step into the world of Macarons - part III

by TP Big Brother

Attempt number 3 to gain membership into the macaron making club.

Round 1 and Round 2 have been a great learning experience about these mysterious little french cookies, but I have yet to produce a recognisable macaron I am proud of. Yet.

After watching my favourite episodes of Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection, I decided to forego this round, and take a step back in order to go a few forward. So, in the name of research, part III was dedicated to macaron experiments.

After another failed attempt, I did some research to strategize on how grow some feet on my macarons. The two most common reoccuring themes involved the egg whites and the consistency of the mix before piping. I used these as the foundation for my experiment.

A minor tip I picked up in London, was that there are two main types of baking paper, which can produce differing results. It seems like most baking paper I see in the supermarkets in Melbourne are the "silicon" based ones, which is waxy on the touch (in fact, silicon paper can handle temperatures up to 200 degrees celcius - perfect for making caramel tuiles). There is also the greaseproof paper, of tracing paper texture, which can prevent bottoms of cakes from getting soggy. Curious to see if this could spawn some feet, I used this as a third and final variable for my experiment.

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TEST CASES
So the aim of this baking round was to see what impact different factors along different stages of the process had on the final macaron product. As a simple experiment, I had 3 test factors:

1. Egg whites
a. Beating to soft to medium peaks
b. Beating to stiff peaks

2. Folding
a. Underfolding (soft fold for a short duration)
b. Overfolding (harsher fold for a longer duration)

3. Baking paper
a. Silicon paper
b. Greaseproof (tracing paper)

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RESULTS
Checkpoint 1 - Post piping
- Test case 1 (Egg whites) vs Test case 2 (Folding)
Using two equal batches of egg whites, I whisked away until I achieved soft to medium peaks in one batch and stiff peaks in the other. Then I simply added equal proportions of dry ingredients to each batch and mixed with a spatula with varying intensity and duration, with the aim of eventually ending up with four different batches of macaron mixture.
Using macaron mixture from each of the four different batches, I piped each into groups on the same baking tray. Can you spot which macaron is from which batch?
Now, time for the judges to do their job. Which do you think wins this round?

Judging based on shape, body and most likely to succeed, the stiff peak egg white with under-folded macaron mix proved to be the front runner.

Checkpoint 2 - Post-oven
- Test case 1 (Egg whites) vs Test case 2 (Folding)
Twelve minutes later, the macarons came out of the oven. Fingers crossed, I searched for feet. Unfortunately, yet again, I was left bitter at my lack of ability to grow any feet. But with the task in focus, I consoled the perfectionist in me that this was indeed an experiment, and I was aiming to extract lessons from this batch.

Time for the second round of judging. Which was the best macaron, and which method created it?
I was tempted to say "none" because they were sad little macarons, surely offensive to many, and a crime punishable by the French culinary police. With similar criteria to the previous judging round, being - body, shape and "success of passing as a macaron", the round had to be given to one batch, and in this case, it was again, the stiff peaked under-folded mix.- Test case 3 (Baking paper)
This is a no brainer, so will get straigh to the point. Greaseproof (tracing paper) alone does not work for macarons (perhaps you can try greasing it with butter or oil first). The below pictures should tell you why. Silicon paper is the way to go.
How embarrassing! I again console myself with the thought that this is an experiment. Like the saying goes "an idiot never learns from their mistakes, a smart person learns from their mistakes but a genius learns from the mistakes of others". So I hope you are paying attention!

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CONCLUSION
And the winner is ...
1. Egg whites - b. Stiff peaks
2. Folding - a. Underfolding (soft fold for a short duration)
3. Baking paper - a. Silicon paper

I'm still not an expert, but slowly, I'm getting closer to getting my macarons being platable. Watch this space...

Charmy Food Icey Ice Snow Ice

by TP Little bro

On the prowl for dessert one night, I catch wind of an interesting and unique creation. It's sold at Ajisen Ramen, a national japanese franchise better known for it's ramen, I arrive late but just in time for last orders.

They sell "Charmy Food Icey Ice Snow Ice" touted as "the world best Snow Ice dessert never seen before in Sydney". I think they meant ever seen before in Sydney.

The basic concept is simple. Creating a mixture, freezing it, then putting it through a cute blue penguin machine (pictured below). The penguin shaves the ice in a particular way which works, resulting in light texture and a very creamy taste.

Among the handful of flavours on offer, we choose a large green tea with additional topping of aloe vera pieces. It tastes much better than it looks and sounds. Trust me.

They claim, an average scoop of ice cream has 22.9g of fat and 418.5 kJ compared to an average scoop of snow ice which has 2.8g of fat and 128.5 kJ. A much healthy alternative by the sounds of it.

Gotta love their marketing and cross selling skills on the menu....

"Snow Ice can be enjoyed at any time but the pleasure of tasting Snow Ice is most enhanced after enjoying your favourite Ajisen Ramen meal or other dishes"

Thumbs up for this dessert. Worthwhile to try just for the novelty.

Ajisen Ramen, 85 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000. Ph (02) 9267 8816 (among other locations)

Food pic from NZ

Today I was introduced to my very first Kiwiberry! As you can see, my friend looks exactly like a kiwi, and in fact tastes exactly like one too, with a slight floral taste, all in the size slightly bigger than an Aussie $2 coin. Now if I can just get my hands on a grape the size of a kiwi.....

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Edit: Also on my berry wishlist is the South American pineberry, recently stocked by the UK supermarket chain Waitrose. It is said to "combine the shape and texture of a strawberry with a flavour and smell closer to that of a pineapple". The berries were almost extinct at one stage, and now retail for £3.99 for a 125g punnet, thanks to the Dutch. Anyone keen to import to NZ?

Big Bite for Lunch

By TP Little bro

A new entry to the Twin Palates world is the highly competitive lunchtime menu.

Jumping on board the sandwich/burger trend, I decided to try a sandwich bar called “Big Bite on Pitt” which has received some serious street cred in the lunchtime yuppie crowd. Hearing of it's popularity, we pre empt the lunch time rush and head over early. We arrive around 12.15pm to a line at least 20 people deep.

Fifteen minutes later, we make it to the inner sanctum, a tiny hole in the wall venue which strangely felt reminiscent of the soup kitchen from Seinfield (not sure why given the staff here are warm and friendly).

I heard from fellow connoisseurs that the Chicken Schnitzel and the Grilled Chicken varieties are popular choices but because I love lamb and because it was a ‘special of the day’, I chose to go with the Grilled Lamb Sandwich.

By simply looking around, I knew I was in for something BIG. People were walking out with giant packages of foil and when my order came out, it was so big I felt like cradling it in my arms back to the office (due to limited seating, the small tables out front are pretty much it).

Staff working hard in a sea of giant bread slices and countless kilometres of aluminium foil.


In an attempt to portray just how big it was, I took off my size 40 Oxford shoes (roughly 31cms long) to use as a benchmark.


Grilled chicken sandwich depicted below. I was just too excited and devoured the lamb before remembering to take a picture.

At $9 a pop, Big Bite definitely delivers on both quantity and quality. The sheer size of the bread slices made me a little worried that would be all I would taste. But I was very wrong. It was the exact opposite of a stereotypical bad lunchtime sandwich. It wasn’t too salty, it wasn’t overcooked and the salads didn’t look or taste like anything that would make Gordon Ramsay start cursing profusely. The lamb was delicious – seasoned well, cut into small and manageable bite size pieces with just the right amount of chilli to give it a kick. And the bread added a nice texture, especially when you got to the crunchy crusts. My lunch buddies agreed and judging from the silence when eating followed by a wave of mmmm's and ahhh’s, it was definitely a winner.

Portion wise, half a sandwich should be enough to fill the average Joe. And if you want to line up a quick dinner or afternoon snack, save the other half for later.

Will definitely be returning for more soon.

Big Bite on Pitt
Shop 3, 250 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
Ph: 02 9283 4700

Good to be home

Highlight of the 2010 MFWS - Massimo Bottura & Matt Preston

Hello friends,

Spent the past couple of weeks back home in Melbourne. As soon as the wheels landed on the Melbourne tarmac, I had a great sense of feeling it is great to be home.

Food wise, it was fantastic to be home. To provide a summary of my last 2 weeks in Melbourne, I will recollect my trip by order of my top 10 food experiences:

1. Melbourne Food and Wine show masterclass weekend
2. Private room at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in Melbourne
3. Red Spice Road experience with fantastic curry, good entrees and the lamb shoulder!
4. Banquet at Gingerboy
5. Memorable breakfast at Birdie Num Nums
6. Tjanabi - Indigenous cuisine
7. Kim Chi Lunchbox - surprisingly good and cheap
8. Han Guuk Guan Korean and Chinese restauarant (also happened to be half price BBQ Monday)
9. Los Amates Mexican Kitchen
10. Tied with revamped Oriental Spoon and tapas at One Fitzroy St

I would probably squeeze the dinner party night (Chilli con carne with mango bacon salad, Mary Berry's Chocolate traybake with ganache) and homemade sausage roll night in between #5 and #6

My Melbourne trip was finished off by a lovely young thing with an amazing nose. I arrived in New Zealand, collecting my bags at the airport, when a beagle decided to endlessly jump on me. I began to panic when after a firm and repetitive "put your bag on the ground, put your bag on the ground", the harmless looking mutt decided to sit. Having watched Channel 7's border security, I knew I was likely to be in trouble when an airport hound sat down, as it is a subtle way of the dog indicating he has detected the scent of the substance he is sniffing for. After sniffing around every single inch of my bag, multiple times, I found out it was a meat sniffing dog, and he had detected the chicken curry puffs that were packed for consumption at the Melbourne airport. Good for me my stomach beat the dog to it. When I got the all clear, I packed up my innocent bag, and I discovered the food products I brought back to NZ (like dark brown sugar I can't seem to find anywhere, and various spices and food products - which were all declared thank you) had now picked up a scent which smelt awfully similiar to my late dog's rarely-ever-washed dog bowl in summer. I was strangely angry at the dog, but have now come to the more calm realisation that this beagle was a talented customs official that would have to exercise huge self control in having to do all the ground work of sniffing out meat and not eating it. Well done dog!

More detail to come in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!