After a week of having moved into my new house I still haven't gotten to the supermarket to stock up on the essentials, like food. Sure I've got four boxes full of food that I bought with me, but twelve types of vinegars some dried peas and some cannelloni a meal does not make. So, I took the plunge and went for a walk up to King Street, straight past the supermarket and into a café. Grub and Tucker to be precise. It's in the site where Circul8 used to be, now renovated with an awkward 2" raised area to one side of the dining room, complete with a little wire fence around it. The oversized furniture and plants that lean into the walkways in this space aren't helping either. I eventually get to a seat with a view out the window with out making an absolute arse of myself and sit down.

Eventually I get a menu, eventually the waitress comes back to take my order, eventually I get my drinks, eventually I get my food. Saying that though, if I'd gotten the braised beef cheek ($18.50) that I ordered any faster I might have had to send it back. To a chef that has a large menu full of relatively quick dishes, like the asian inspired duck salad that I almost went for, having a couple of slow food items can really throw you. If you slow cook something and hold it in a perpetual state of almost finished like you have to in a restaurant - heating it and getting it on a plate too fast will cease the meat, make it tough ruining hours worth of braising.

Braised Beef Cheek from Grub & Tucker, Newtown

If you haven't had beef cheek but like lamb shanks, I'd suggest giving it a try. Like shanks, cheek is a very well used muscle group so it's hard and tough and needs long slow cooking to make it tender and even more than a shank, you get that wonderful gelatinous mouth feel that just means winter for any self respecting carnivore. This dish was served on a bed of potato purée, sliced green beans and broccoli, unfortunately the greens were a little over done and even with the flourish of fresh parsley over the top it still lacked both the freshness and the body you'd expect for a dish that's obviously meant to warm you from the inside. The beef cheek itself was excellent mind, but the jus lacked body, a handful of black peppercorns in the jus while it was simmering would have fixed it.

On the plus side, a walk down King Street on a Saturday night is really what this neighbourhood is all about. Instead of having to deal with drunks and drug addicts along Oxford Street, I found street performers and artists and a happy active crowd of onlookers enjoying the spectacle. Best of all, I met the group of artists that put together Oh Really Magazine, picked up a piece of their artwork (free with a donation!) and commissioned them to do some work for me. I love Newotwn.

Oh Really Pig

Tags:Restaurant, Newtown, Beef, Beef Cheek, Review