Down Under in the Land of Olives

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VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA — Kangaroos, koalas, award-winning wines, and the breathtaking Sydney Opera House. That’s usually what comes to mind when we think of Australia.

Extra virgin olive oil?

Not so much.

Yet an olive oil revolution is taking place Down Under. In much the same way that Australia turned the wine world upside-down with its outstanding, New World Shiraz wines, it is now doing the same with New World extra virgin olive oils.

Boundary Bend Ltd., Australia’s leading vertically integrated olive company, which controls every production process from growing its own olives to pressing the oil to bottling, has been a pioneer in this new industry Down Under. It is now the largest olive oil producer in Australia, and the top-selling brand there.

This spring, I had a chance to see first-hand how it all came to be, when Boundary Bend flew me and a couple of other journalists to north Victoria state in southern Australia to tour its facilities and expansive groves planted with an astounding 2.5 million olive trees.

It is those trees, bearing 14 different olive varieties, which form the foundation for Boundary Bend’s award-winning Cobram Estate extra virgin olive oils. The brand, launched in 2001, is now exported worldwide. The olive oils can be found on supermarket shelves in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and yes, the United States, where they are sold at Nob Hill, Raley’s, Bel-Air, Lucky, Andronico’s, Winn-Dixie, Fairway Markets and SaveMart (starting at the end of July) for about $6.99 per 375ml bottle.

Boundary Bend hopes to distinguish its Cobram Estate extra virgin olive oils in two ways. First, it touts its freshness. After its olives are harvested, they are pressed in less than six hours. The resulting oil makes it to market only two to 12 months later.

Second, it stresses the strict testing its oils go through. At a time when fraud is reportedly rife in the olive oil industry — as documented in a superb 2007 New Yorker piece detailing how a significant percentage of Italian so-called “extra virgin” olive oil is actually adulterated with cheaper oils such as canola –- Boundary Bend is working with Australian government officials to strengthen standards for extra virgin olive oil made both domestically and imported into its country.

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Special Tomato, New Indian Sweets, Piggy Event & More

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Tomato Time:

Are these gorgeous tomatoes or what?

These lovelies, known as “Taste Tomatoes,” were created especially for Taste Catering of San Francisco. The tomatoes, a cross between the Maglia Rosa and Zucchero varieties, is the brainchild of Baia Nicchia Farm & Nursery in Sunol.

With their sweet flavor and unique look, the tomatoes proved such a hit in hors d’oeuvres and salads with customers that the catering company wanted to make them available to the general public.

Starting July 19, you’ll be able to buy your own “Taste Tomatoes” at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market at Allstar Organics’ booth on Saturdays; Menlo Park Farmers Market at Baia Nicchia’s booth on Sundays; Berkeley’s Tokyo Fish Market, Mondays through Saturdays; and Baia Nicchia’s farm stand in Sunol on Friday afternoons.

Sweets with Indian Flair:

That’s just what you’ll find at the new Bengali Sweets, which just opened at 783 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.

Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, the 50-seat cafe serves up sweets and chaat (snacks) made by chefs Sohan Bhatt and Bajrang Bhamu, both of Sakoon restaurant in Mountain View. This is the newest venture of the Bombay Garden Group, which also owns Sakoon.

The Bengali region of Eastern India is known for milk-based sweets, including “Chenna Jelabi”, a cottage cheese-style milk-based dough piped in coils, deep fried and soaked in a spice-infused sugar syrup.

On the savory side, enjoy entrees such as “Chole Bhatury”, a rich chickpea stew served with fried bread dumplings and curries such as lamb Roganjosh. For more information, call (408) 736-4000.

For Carnivores:

Lamb lovers will want to head to the “American Lamb Jam,” 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. July 18 at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco.

Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR in San Francisco hosts this meaty affair that brings together dozens of top San Francisco chefs who will create succulent lamb dishes paired with local wines.

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Ahoy, Lafitte

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Named after an 18th century French pirate, San Francisco’s three-month-old Lafitte restaurant has generated so much buzz lately that you’d think a battle had erupted on the high seas at its Pier 5 location.

It reached a frenzy last month when a certain high-powered San Francisco restaurant critic bestowed all of one and a half stars on the restaurant (ouch!).

Not surprisingly, Chef-Proprietor Russell Jackson, known as the “Dissident Chef,” took umbrage at that. While he acknowledges that some of the criticisms are valid ones that he was already working to correct, what really riled him were the sarcastic comments about the mohawk he and his cooks sport, a ‘do that he considers a symbol of solidarity in his kitchen.

Into these turbulent waters, I waded recently to check out the place for myself at lunch-time. To be fair, lunch is much tamer than the more ambitious fare offered at dinner, with a menu that changes every single night. Also to be fair, even though we paid the tab, one of two friends I was with was an old friend of Jackson’s. So, the chef stopped by to chat regularly, and threw in the free cookies at the end of the meal.

Lafitte has a cool, industrial vibe with exposed pipes, lots of wood, and a profusion of natural light from walls of windows. The kitchen is not only open, it’s on the Web. Thanks to a tiny camera perched on a beam, you can get a real-time look at what’s going on in the kitchen 24/7 by going to the “menu page” of the Lafitte Web site. Jackson says he installed the camera to be transparent, to “show what we do here and to show that I am here in the kitchen.”

You may remember Jackson from his time cooking at the now-shuttered Black Cat in San Francisco. He also was a private chef for the Counting Crows, and created a sensation for his underground dinners, where people would meet at surreptitious spots for his prix-fixe dinners done on the sly.

There’s still a rogue quality to the food. You feel that Jackson’s doing his own thing here, making food he wants to play around with.

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New Use For Bagels

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I’ve toasted them.

I’ve smeared them with cream cheese and jam.

I’ve piled slices of silky smoked salmon on them.

But until now, I had never stir-fried a bagel.

Yes, you read that right.

Of all the recipes in award-winning cookbook writer Grace Young’s new book, “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge” (Simon & Schuster) that had me running to grab my wok — and there are many — the one that most intrigued me was this unusual one for “Stir-Fried Bagels with Cabbage and Bacon.”

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Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake

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May Day, May Day, come in…

Blueberries in trouble…

Need life-raft to keep them afloat…

Do you copy?

Indeed, this simple cake bears the name of “Uncomplicated Fruit-Topped Yellow Cake.” But I had a slight, uh, complication.

Oh, nothing major. Just a case of sinking blueberries. Not as dire as what happened to the Titanic, that’s for sure. But still, a little annoying.

After all, when the cake is described as “fruit-topped,” you figure the fruit will stay, well, on top.

Not in the case of these berries. But next time, I’ll just be sure to toss them in a little flour before adding them to the batter, even if the original recipe didn’t call for that step. And there will be a next time. Aside for the berries’ losing struggle to stay afloat, this cake was perfect. Tender, moist, like a giant blueberry muffin, actually.

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