I LOVE... A BRIGHT OUTLOOK

Matt Preston looks back at a challenging year and sets his sights on a sunnier 2021.

MY NUMBER ONE hope for the year is that we’ll be able to freely and safely travel from state to state, to see friends and enjoy all the dizzying diversity that this country has to offer. Paris can wait. I’ll happily go to Kata Tjuta, Katherine and Fraser Island. Or even just Subiaco and Woolloongabba.

Absence hasn’t just made the heart grow fonder, it has given all my memories a rosier glow. Or at least those memories that I can remember, given how long the break from normal life has been.

So, here are the rest of my hopes for 2021.

CAFES The morning coffee ritual was one of the few threads of normality that survived lockdown but now I want more. A return to a packed brunch service. The excitement of eyeing off interesting salads or some new cake sensation across the tables. The sense of being bathed in the warm glow of ridiculous stories, deliciously tasty gossip from the night before, or just a little patch of calm with the ‘paper as 37 other breakfasts swirl around me; a cyclone of flat whites, smashed avo, sunny-side ups, and “morning darl”s. RESTAURANTS I just hope when you read this that your favourites have survived. The end of government support and the lingering of profit-killing restrictions will mean many will close. I hope we can find a way back to the vibrant restaurant culture that was praised by international visitors and locals alike. Some international visitors would be nice, too. I also hope that we can still afford to eat out. PRODUCERS Seriously, could last year have been any worse for so many of Australia’s small producers? Even if you forget the virus, and the disastrous impact that it had on everyone who was buying their products, they had to deal with a cocktail of bushfires, droughts, floods and zero regional tourism. Throw in a plague of crickets and tap water running blood-red and you’d have a year that only a particularly mean Old Testament God could think up. LIVE SPORT AND MUSIC There is a thrill watching a blockbuster like the latest Avengers or Bond movie with a packed cinema of fellow fans yet it still can’t match the communal joy of live sport or music. The moment when the packed club or a full stadium lifts at that tell-tale bass rift of the big hit, or a really big hit.

FRIENDS While I love the excitement of visiting some gastro temple, and the precious occasions when you eat something so delicious it makes everything in the world seem right, the best things about cafes and restaurants aren’t the chefs, the floor staff or the food – precious though they are – but the people you go there with. It really doesn’t matter if it’s at home or out, breaking bread with friends, laughing, and leaving with a buzz from the conversation. Serve this super-easy peanut butter and hoisin banh mi next time your crew comes around and let the good times roll.

Above all, I hope this year, with your resilience, finely honed at an all-time high, we will all find some unbridled joy and a few more of those moments when you taste something so beautiful that it makes the rest of your problems and worries fade away – and it won’t be your latest loaf of banana bread.

PEANUT BUTTER & HOISIN BANH MI SERVES 6

8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 4 pieces each, room temperature 6 white long crusty (but fluffy) bread rolls

1/2 cup (150g) Kewpie mayonnaise

2 small Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced

2 cups loosely packed mixed Vietnamese mint, regular mint,

Thai basil and coriander leaves

12 small baby gem lettuce leaves

Sriracha, and quickles (recipe below), to serve

MARINADE

160g salted peanuts

1 cup (250ml) hoisin sauce

1/4 cup (60ml) rice wine vinegar

QUICKLES

200g carrot, cut into 8cm batons 200g daikon radish, cut into 8cm batons 1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar

1 tbs sea salt flakes

1/2 cup (125ml) rice wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 220°C. Line a large tray with baking paper.

For the marinade, place peanuts, hoisin and rice wine vinegar with 2 tbs water and 2 tsp salt in a food processor and whiz until combined. The marinade needs to be thick and saucy. Add more water if needed. Transfer to a bowl, add chicken, season to taste and toss to combine. Marinate for 30 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to prepared tray and roast for

20-25 minutes until cooked and caramelised. Set aside.

For the quickles, toss the carrot and radish in a bowl with the sugar and salt. Stand for a minimum 10-12 minutes, then pour over rice wine vinegar and set aside until needed. (Quickles can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.)

Slice the bread rolls in half lengthwise, making sure to not slice all the way through. Pick out the soft middle of the top half of each bun and spread the inside with mayonnaise. Think of this like butter so be generous. Press three or four lettuce leaves into the mayo. Follow with pieces of the hoisin chicken, a squeeze of Sriracha or other chilli sauce, then some cucumber slices, herbs and finally a layer of the well-drained quickles to add texture and some sweet-sour hit. Press together and enjoy.