la cita: latin restaurant

I am currently in Sydney for a 2 day work conference and will be staying in town for the weekend! Coming from Canberra, I was glad to leave the grey jungle of my office and my repetitive lifestyle. When I landed in Sydney, I didn't feel much probably because I was exhausted. But then the traffic built up, rain got heavier and people got ruder. The buildings were unfamiliar and I had no idea where I was. I felt like I was in a foreign city. Welcome to Sydney.

I walked along the wet promenade of King Street Wharf with my supervisor. I have limited memories of this area as it's difficult to walk here wearing high heels during a big night and there's cosier bars in other areas of Sydney which I'd prefer.

Nevertheless, I wanted to eat at a restaurant you wouldn't get in Canberra so we went to La Cita, a Latin restaurant. I hear this has a good atmosphere/music for Latin dancing late at night. Even at the time of dinner, the atmosphere was welcoming, funky and cool.

Fortunately, the food was on the same par. I got a vegetarian dish - polenta with a mild tomato puree, wilted spinach and other veges. It was just what I needed after all the oily, saucy and meaty stuff I've eaten recently. But the dish in itself was a great comforting dish. The polenta was pan-fried well (I still need to practice this) and the veges were crisp and fresh. My supervisor got a mixed tapas plate. She loved it as it had a bit of everything and was tasty.

La Cita Restaurant, Bar and Club
9 Lime Street
Sydney
http://www.lacita.com.au/

lazy food

Ah, im tired but feel like i should update this blog with visual prettiness. Below, you can see soft cheesy polenta topped with sliced zuchinni and mushrooms. Yum lazy food. Inspired by the book 'Lighten Up' by Jill Dupleix.

Chicken, chickpeas and carrots cooked in a homemade madras curry paste and tomato paste etc

charity bake

On some Mondays at work, my colleagues would bake some delicious treats to raise money for a chosen cause. I promised that I would participate in at least one baking Monday before my I move Sections.

So I had a crazy baking weekend and made:

*Chickpea, polenta and herb muffins

*Flourless chocolate cake with white chocolate bits and a whipped cream topping

The chickpea muffins were a bit dry - I should have predicted this as the raw mixture lacked moisture. However, the chickpeas added a nice wholesome, satisfying and even creamy texture to the muffins. If I were to cook them again, I'd definitely add some more olive oil or butter. Another issue was that the recipe didn't specify whether it needed cooked or raw polenta. The cooked muffins were a bit crunchy, so I assume I should have cooked the polenta beforehand. Luckily, it was possible to mask the crunchiness but asking my colleagues to heat the muffins up in the microwave before they ate them :)

The flourless chocolate muffins were rich and like little bites of chocolate heaven. Only problem was that because they had no flour, there was not much to 'hold up' the actual cupcake - so they deflated and looked dead 5 minutes after coming out of the oven. Thank goodness for whipped cream! I must admit, I opened the oven door a few too many times during the baking process because they were going to be burnt (we've got a weird oven), so this is a lesson learnt!

urban pantry

My flatmate has a Entertainment Book for Canberra - the entertainment book has heaps of vouchers on restaurants, take away joints, leisure activities, hotels etc. You can save a whole lot of money with the book (but you have to pay money to get the book itself). Anyway, her book had a voucher for Urban Pantry in Manuka, so we went there and got almost 50% off our dishes. The restaurant/cafe is trendy and casual. Going to the place, I loved the feel of it - the decor reminded me of times in Germany when I explored an underground wine cellar (altho urban pantry is ground level and very open/airy) or what it'd be like to explore a huge pantry. It'd definitely be a trendy place for lunch... or a cafe style dinner.

 

I got braised chickpeas and seasonal vegetables with Moroccan spices & a side of polenta chips and my flatmate got a special, which was spinach and ricotta cannelloni. The chickpeas were heaps spicy, and they were clearly different from the chickpea salads you'd get as takeaway - the flavour was more bodied and spices were more fresh. but there was nothing spectacular about it that would make me pay the full price for the meal. The polenta chips, on the other hand, were amazing and I wish I could snack on them constantly. My flatmate's meal was okay too... I'd have to commend them on making cannelloni in a way that wasn't too messy and could actually be picked up with a fork. However, we both knew that we could replicate and improve on this dish at home.

Urban Pantry

5 Bougainville St

Manuka ACT

vege polenta bake

Today, I’m going to try to call Milly from home (hi Milly!!). I feel like I’m lacking frequent conversation with people from Sydney and I could really use some constant support structures right now… However, I’m glad that I can bring some of my happier Sydney memories with me, namely via food.

If I remember correctly, Milly told me that she once made a vegetarian shephard’s pie – the thought of not gagging over too much meat in a pie, but still having a wholesome pie excited me. What I made in Canberra was less like a pie but a vege bake. Whoops. But it was delicious and colourful:

The base had zucchini, eggplant etc with a tomato pasta sauce. The topping was polenta, olive oil and ricotta…

After baking it, the polenta got really dry and nasty so if I did this again, I’d cover it with al-foil or put Parmesan cheese in the polenta.