I must go down to the sea again – Sailor’s Thai Canteen still cooking

Here we are – driven down from Canberra to say a final farewell in Sydney to someone from Adelaide. Someone who was good at steering yachts – and guiding people. When it was all over I had to go down to the sea again. We were staying at Cremorne Point, one of those fabulous spits that stick out like a finger into Sydney Harbour, so we jumped on the ferry.

We went to a favourite spot, Sailors Thai Canteen, established by renowned chef David Thompson who has now long relocated to Bangkok, where it all originates. When he was writing his first famous cookbook he drew on the ‘memory books’ handed out at Thai cremations. These contained all the things important to the deceased, and since food is often important to Thais, frequently included a recipe or so ­– and often many. Highly appropriate, given the circumstances of our visit.

I must go down to the sea again

There were just the two of us so we kept it simple. We could hardly hear seated across from each other at the long metal bench that serves as a single table for everyone in the central corridor-like room.

Corned beef and quinces

Last Thursday we went to Bistrode to eat. I love the location and the ambience of the place. It feels like the old butchers shop it once was – and so it should. I had a silverbeet and parmesan tart, with unctuous and finely crumbling pastry, designed to halve the size of your arteries on the spot. The sour taste of the silverbeet was properly offset by the richness of the cheese. This dish needs a strong, definite vegetable to pair with the Parmesan – it was comforting to see an ingredient like silverbeet which had long crept out of favour and fashion used well. I get a very slight sense that silverbeet may be in the process of being discovered again – when of course it has been here all the time, just neglected and unused. Perhaps silverbeet will become the new pork belly. Perhaps not.

Then for my main course I had to have the corned wagyu beef I ate here last time. This time it came with dense cornmeal dumplings and heirloom carrots. My partner in crime had grass-fed Scotch fillet with roasted bone marrow and we had excellent Roman beans on the side. I stuck to the mineral water and she had a shiraz from the Barossa. Beforehand we stopped at Toko and I had another mineral water in a rather funky bottle and she had a German riesling which tasted excellent – very dry but complex and lavish. For dessert we shared a cows milk yoghurt cheesecake with poached quinces.