Let’s do a last Lunch

Is it possible that a month of food obsession has nearly passed? Are there really just a few days left to experience what the Crave Sydney International Food Festival has to offer for 2010? My tummy feels sad and empty at the thought. A Let’s Do Lunch event should cheer it up.

Window seats at Selah, Loftus Street, Sydney

Rather less involved than my last visit to Selah, Let’s Do Lunch here was a Friday lunch affair – a rather lovely sunny Friday at that. The dining room was bustling, as was the small and familiar open kitchen. With a table by the window, it was a nice way to start the end of the week, although a view of buses is nothing too exciting.

Organic sourdough bread with herb and parmesan oil

We have complimentary bread to start; soft, brown slices of sourdough with a flavoured oil for dipping. At first taste, I thought there was something truffle-oil-ish about it, but it turned out to be parmesan oil. Seems the tastebuds are off, unless it was a particularly earthy, mushroom-y parmesan cheese.

Glass of Traminer

Or perhaps it was the taste of wine in my mouth. Offered Brown Brothers Merlot, a Coopers Original Pale Ale or San Pellegrino sparkling water with the Let’s Do Lunch at Selah, my questioning of a white wine was easily accommodated by proprietor Sam Pask who provided me with a Traminer for a tasting.

Going by the wine list, it may have been the 2007 Blackets Gerwurztraminer from Adelaide Hills, which was light and crisp, and simply perfect for the nice spring day outside.

Roast lamb back strap with pea puree, broad bean and mint salad,
goat's cheese stuffed zucchini flower, confit tomato

Our Let’s Do Lunch order arrived with haste, which was rather appreciated given it was a workday lunch. And it was an impressively heft serve, with seemingly endless slices of the lamb backstrap dominoed across what looked like cous cous but rather was cracked wheat.

There was a lot happening on the busy plate, starting with the roast lamb backstrap – mine closer to medium than my neighbour’s medium-rare. Nonetheless, it was almost completely tender and helped along with an abundance of jus.

The jus was also soaking and flavouring the cracked wheat, which seemed to have a touch of vanilla about it (although maybe off tastebuds again). The cracked wheat was very similar to cous cous, though probably distinguishable by shape of the small grains.

View from the other side - see the pea puree?

The vegies on the side in the form of the pea puree and a broad bean, pea and mint salad contrasted vibrantly with the confit grape tomatoes, fantastically, if not dangerously, juicy.

However, the highlight (vegetable and probably overall) was the zucchini flower, filled with a herbed, soft, white goat’s cheese, battered and deep fried to a golden crisp. The goat’s cheese smacked with flavour while the crunchy coating was a pleasant textural diversion from the tender lamb.

Inside Selah

While we ate, it certainly seemed that the lunch crowd was lapping it up too, with barely an empty table in the small-ish venue. It was a little on the noisy side, but to expected with all the hard surfaces and of course, the chattery CBD mob. Selah’s got a really warm and intimate feel to it, and it was really a nice way to spend an hour away from the office, and indeed, a final Let’s Do Lunch.