car·pet·bag [kahr-pit-bag] noun: A travelling bag made of carpet, commonly from an oriental rug...i.e – not something you would uncontrollably drool over when spotted on the menu of one of Sydney’s top restaurants.
However, it’s CERTAINLY something glutton & nuts would order. Curiosity after all did kill the cat… and if we’re willing to chow-down on a nasty old oriental sac then we may actually be coming closer to death than we think…
While wondering if we’re soon to be reporting on weaving patterns and thread counts while simultaneously picking cotton from our teeth, we’re informed that a carpet bag is actually a uniquely Australian dish and has nothing to do with travelling holdalls whatsoever.
And much to our surprise what Australia loses in the ‘naming of top dishes’ field, they gain in the flavour and creativity of the actual dish itself.
This creation gained popularity in the 50s and is actually a fillet steak (served standing quite tall) stuffed with crab meat & tarragon butter. The idea is that the fish (doesn’t necessarily have to be crab) permeates the meat of the steak and the juices of both blend together to create a combo with much more of intense flavour than you would associate with Surf and Turf. In fact, simply speaking, a carpet bag is like taking the Surf and hiding it inside the Turf.
It’s certainly more interesting to eat than its Surf and Turf cousin as you have to cut right the way through the steak to discover what lies inside...
Now, we’re not going to give away where we tried this dish - we can’t reveal all of our secrets* but we’ll definitely be going back for more. The terrible naming of this dish is directionally proportional to how good it tastes, which should give you some indication of why we’ll be returning.
*Ok, ok, you can email us if you really want to know…
gluttonandnuts@gmail.com
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