A Mother’s Milk

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date of visit: Thursday 22 March 2012

A Mother’s Milk has been on my radar for a while (not that long as it did only open in January) but dragging myself out to Unley for a coffee has seemed like just a bit too much hard work. Certainly not the type of thing I’d manage on the spur of the moment.

But a bit of planning saw me finally make it to A Mother’s Milk – even if I ended up parking miles away (thank YOU, Parkside, and your warren of one way and blocked off street madness) and arriving for my coffee date late.

It’s a tiny café and when I arrived (baby and stroller in tow) I could hardly get into the front room. Fortunately, a kind patron opened the door for me and we squeezed in. Also, very fortunately, there are a couple of small rooms out the back – so don’t be put off if you turn up and it looks full. There might be a spot for you yet!

I headed out to the back room and we got ourselves settled in. Baby ensconced in high chair it was time to think about me. Unfortunately, they had run out sweet things – apparently they had had cakes, friands, muffins … and they were all sold out. Oh no! It was only half past 2, too! I was saved by the fact that, on the menu, they had sourdough served with goat’s curd and fig jam. That would more than do! As I hadn’t had lunch, I was not prepared to share (a serve is two chunky slices)!

The sourdough was great – it hit the spot, the jam, from Dirty Girl, had massive chunks of fig in it. It was very good – the type of thing you could eat out of the jar and justify as healthy because of the fruit content. The tiny bits of crust I gave to the baby were very much appreciated – so definitely pan-generational appeal there.*

The coffee is pretty good. To be honest, I found my cafe latte a little on the strong side (more milk please!) and I did order a second, requesting a weak one, but there was no difference which was a shame. However, that doesn’t mean the coffees weren’t good – they were, and if I’d been ordering long blacks I probably would have been really happy. I just like my cafe lattes really milky.

What marked out this visit was the fact that the staff were incredibly chilled out and accommodating. We were two adults and two babies and one of the babies was having something of an issue with being dragged out for coffee. The little chap was inconsolable unless he was trying to run out the door onto Unley Road but the staff remained even tempered, and attempted to chat to him, distract him and generally make it a good experience for everyone. No parent enjoys their baby being so distressed, and disapproving looks really don’t help the situation, so it was lovely to be made to feel welcome despite the rather large amount of noise our little group was making at various times!

Absolute top marks for service. I thought perhaps the food was a little expensive ($9 for the sourdough) but the coffees, at $3.30, were reasonable.

I’d definitely be happy to head back.

* The babycino also received the seal of approval.

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Coffee Ice Cream

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Of course, ice cream photographs badly … but I’m sure you get the idea!

A seriously underused cookbook in my collection is The Silver Spoon. This is the Italian cooking bible and covers absolutely everything. If you want to cook it and it’s vaguely Italian … you should find it in The Silver Spoon.

We were having some friends to lunch and, due to a hectic work/life schedule, we needed to choose a menu that could be prepared as much in advance as possible. As it was going to be warm, and our main course was going to be substantial, ice cream sounded like the perfect dessert.

I’m not sure how we decided on coffee ice cream but … decision made The Silver Spoon offered up a simple recipe so I borrowed the ice cream maker from mum and set about it.

Since my family discovered ice cream makers, almost 20 years ago, I haven’t bought commercial ice cream so I can’t be too sure on this point … but I’m willing to bet that a coffee ice cream from the shop will have a lot more than 6 ingredients.

The recipe says this will serve 6 people – in our case, it managed a lot more serves than 6, but in case you have voracious ice cream eaters to hand, let me tell you that it makes about 1L of the finished product.

Begin by scalding* 200mL milk (full fat, of course!) with the seeds that have been scraped from a vanilla pod. Or, if you have a pod left over from last time, just use the pod. Don’t be using vanilla extract/essence or the vanilla bean paste stuff. This is one time where you have to use the real deal.

Allow the milk to cool.

Beat 2 whole eggs with 150g of caster sugar until the mixture is light, fluffy and has expanded. You’re best off doing this with a stand mixer with the whisking attachment – it’ll be quicker and your arm won’t get tired! While beating, add 175mL of cooled extra strong coffee, followed by 200mL of cream (make sure you use pure cream, not the ‘thickened’ stuff) and finally the vanilla milk.

Ensure that everything is well combined and then pour into an ice cream maker and follow the machine’s instructions.

This ice cream doesn’t set super hard which is great because there is no stuffing around when you want to eat some. You can, literally, eat it straight from the container, straight from the freezer (er, we only did that when finishing it off … I promise!). I was a little unsure as to whether or not it was too sweet but everyone else assured me it was fine as it was. And indeed, there is a lovely balance between the bitterness of the coffee, the creaminess of the ice cream and the sweetness.

There are many different ways to put together an ice cream and what impressed me most about this recipe was the speed at which it can be made (I scalded the milk the morning and made the ice cream in the afternoon) and the fact that you’re not making a traditional custard, so you don’t have to worry about anything splitting. If you’ve ever thought about making your own ice cream and been scared for whatever reason: try this recipe!

* Bring the milk to the boil and remove from the heat immediately.

Dumplings R Us

- Alex 1 Comment

date of visit: Tuesday 13 March 2012

We ducked into Dumplings R Us for a quick (and extremely cheap) takeaway lunch. It sits on Rundle Street, near Brunelli and Red Rock Noodle bar, on the site of several ‘former’ venues. Before dumplings, it was a Japanese restaurant/café.

The menu is very reminiscent of Dumpling King and for around $9 you can bag yourself 15 fried pork dumplings. That’s enough to split between 2 people, unless you’re a very greedy chappy. There are a quite a few other dishes available but, given the emphasis on dumplings in the name I expect dumplings to be the star dish.

We turned up around half past 12 and the restaurant was quite busy but definitely not full. Placing our order took a little while and then we sat at a table to wait. This gave me a good chance to observe both the kitchen and waiting staff in action.

Waiting wise, things seemed pretty busy and I think if they’d had on one or two more staff then they’d have all looked a lot less harried. In the kitchen, things seemed under control. The dumplings do all seem to be frozen in bags of 10 or 15 (the two portion sizes) – and as they’re ordered they’re just dumped into pans for cooking. The restaurant also features an ‘Express Bar’ which had a few dumplings under a heat lamp but didn’t seem to be being used.

Back at work the dumplings were unpacked and shared out. We’d ordered fried and they were quite nice and crispy. In our bag we also had some sauces (including the really tasty chilli and onion sauce) so you’re not missing out on too much by opting for takeaway.

Flavour wise, the dumplings are nothing exciting. There’s nothing offensive or wrong with them, but there’s also nothing to make you sit up and take notice. Personally, if I were closer to Bank Street I’d be heading to Mandoo over Dumplings R Us. But if you’re around Rundle Street and you want dumplings in a hurry then Dumplings R Us will sort you out.

Perfectly decent for a quick, cheap lunch on a work day.

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