Page 42 - Phonebox Magazine February 2014

ASIAN DELIGHTS
Taking inspiration from a quirky Christmas
A work assignment saw Christmas dinner this year served on orange plastic plates, sat around a formica table with red plastic chairs, in a traditional Chinese village off the coast of Malaysia. Steamed fish with vegetables in a soy sauce (1). It was good.
All the food in Malaysia was good. Take your pick of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Thai and Malay. And take your pick of styles too. Smart restaurants in cool air- conditioned shopping malls. Open-air, searingly hot food courts where your nose and eyes are met by a feast of smell and colour. Grab your starter from the Indian on the corner whose simple Roti Canai is maybe the best you’ve ever tasted. Then head to China for braised greens and pork belly (2). Or rock up at a street cafe - rough and ready, cheap as chips and surely a better answer to fast food than McDonalds.
Meals of note? Maybe not for its gourmet appeal, otak-otak (3) is a traditional Malay fish cake. Quite the ugliest piece of food I’ve seen in a while, with the texture of toothpaste, but surprisingly moreish. And a glorious Thai Steamboat (4). A stockpot is placed on your table filled with spicy broth. In this bubbling pot you cook your own prawns, chicken, and pork. Once you have had your fill of meat, throw in vegetables and noodles and finish up with delicious vegetable soup. Ours came with a range of aromatic fresh herbs to drop in the pot and a blow your head off dipping sauce. It also came with a huge rainstorm, which meant we just had to stay for a few more beers!
5
Inspired by this surfeit of asian delights, we cooked Red Duck Thai curry (5) this
weekend with quite some success. If you haven’t yet come across thespicery.
com they are worth checking out. They will send you through the post a little box 41 full of freshly ground and blended herbs and spices, ready for you to add to your
dinner. You still have to do a hell of a lot of cooking, so it doesn’t feel like cheating
and the resulting taste is always gorgeous. This duck curry was accompanied by
a gorgeous and unusual peanut brittle salad and a lemony rice. Yum.
FRENCH FANCIES
All things French on Cameron’s Menu
A friend moving to Stony Stratford opens up a whole new world of opportunity. And when a week later an email landed in my inbox advertising a French themed three course meal for £20 at Camerons Brasserie, it just had to be done. Pictured is Confit of Duck, beautiful. Followed by rich and tasty Boeuf Bourguignon and a selection of French cheeses. Nice start. Will be back.
ALL CHANGE
New management at the Bull, Olney
It was a sad day when Mark and James said they were handing over the reins of the Bull. But a girl has to eat. So we were soon in the bar checking out their new bar menu (bite sized all day snacks). Our choice, the pork and black pudding scotch egg served with homemade ketchup was just £6, absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked. So it may be different, but maybe it’s just as good...
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