12^th of January 2005, the time is 6:45 in the morning.

I have just landed in Sydney airport. I remember the fresh air, and the warm sun, that would soon be considered hot and dangerous, hitting my face. All I had is a backpack full of clothes and a business card of a local hostel in Glebe, which I had no idea where it was.

My friend Mark (who had joined me on my new Australian adventure) and I jumped in a taxi and handed the driver the business card with the hostel address, hoping that they could accommodate us.

Guess what?? They couldn’t.

So here I am, 3 hours in Sydney, mid January, 35 degrees in the shade, with a 30 kg backpack, lost in Glebe, and the only shoulder I could cry on is my mate Mark, who by the way suffers from diabetes, which means that he needs to eat a balanced, healthy meal soon, and cannot be walking around searching for a hotel that could spare our lives and give us a room.

I left Mark in a ‘safe zone’ under a tree with all the luggage and proceeded on my adventure.

I remember walking in the streets thinking to myself, OH MY GOD!!! What have I done?? How did I copy paste my whole life in to this foreign country with these MASSIVE ugly mo@#$$ F#@#$$ spiders?? (Yes, that was the first time I was introduced to your unusual wildlife that you have here in Australia). Don’t get me wrong; we also have some weird animals in Israel, but spiders like that, and in the middle of the streets, in their massive webs, I have never seen.

I found a room, and we are “safe” now.

A week after, me and Mark rented our first place in Sydney. A two bedroom apartment in Pyrmont, partly furnished. We did not know that Pyrmont is considered one of the “good” suburbs in Sydney, but was just luck, and the 501 bus that will take us to college for the next 9 months is passing just under our front door.

Days go by, and so a couple of months, and I’m running out of money very quickly.

Mark, I need to get a job. “But how?” he asks. “We don’t know anyone, we just a fresh basic cuisine student that English is just a faded memory from watching Seinfeld on TV back home. Who is going to give you a job??”

I’ll be ok, I got my motivation and irresistible smile that could get me any job I want. (So I thought…)

I improvised a decent CV and walked off to Darling Harbour, on a mission. Like a hungry lion, that has no choice, in the African savanna, using his survival skills to hunt his prey, I was hunting for a job.

After not long, I got in to Cockle bay Wharf, and met my future Head chef, having his five minutes break, like all chefs, sucking on a cigarette, and trying to forget the long day that just started for him.

“Hey, my name is Ezy, I’m a Le Cordon Blue student and I’m looking for a casual job. Can you help?”   Using the irresistible smile of mine. By the way, I named my self Ezy, since my real name is Itzhak, and I assumed that it will be too hard for the English palette to pronounce, and might come against me in my job hunt. So Ezy, can’t get easier than that.  And guess what? I got the job. Weekend Casual chef that will work on the cold larder section.

I was pumped!!! Can’t get better then that. Working in a real kitchen, huge restaurant that can seats up to 250 people at once, surrounded by the amazing views of Darling Harbour.

Yap!! I nailed it.

One of the dishes I had to cook in my section was a beautiful, delicious baby squid marinated in lots of herbs and olive oil, topped with a Mediterranean pine nut dressing.

Want to know how it’s done?

Let me tell you.

Ingredients for 4 serves:

4 baby squids cleaned and cut in to rings.

1 bunch of Parsley.

1 bunch of coriander

3 garlic cloves chopped.

One small onion diced.

2 red chilies chopped.

400ml of olive oil.

For the dressing:

100 g of roast pine nuts.

1 Lebanese cucumber deseeded and diced finely.

1 Roma tomato deseeded and diced finely.

1 small spinach onion diced finely.

100 ml of olive oil.

30 ml of balsamic vinegar.

Ok, let’s start.

In a food processor blend all squid marinating ingredients – except the squid, obviously – until it forms a paste.

Mix in the squid and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

In the meantime, mix all dressing condiments and season.

Tick tock, 2 hours passed.

Heat a pan, prefer a non stick, with a bit of oil. Wait until the pan is smoking hot.

Quickly pour the squid in to the pan and toss repeatedly. Be careful not to over cook. The squid will be hard as a shoe soul if you do. It should take you about 3-4 minutes.

Remove from the pan, and dress. I guarantee you that on a sunny day, with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, there will be no competitors on the family BBQ.

Hope you’ll find this recipe helpful in the coming summer.

Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under My Life in a Takeaway Box (Itzhak Zoaretz). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.