The dishes were served on beautiful huge plates to find portions tiny (smaller than usual degustations). Basically, it was about 2-3 mouth fulls and you’re done! Usually I’m full after the 3rd course that I’m trying to flog my food off to others, but in this case, there wasn’t a standout jaw dropping and orgasmic dish. Don’t get me wrong, the food is nice!

Dessert didn’t reach that nice ending as it always should when closing off a great night. We left quite disappointed (no doubt $500 poorer) and unsatisfied that we almost went to Baskin Robbins.

Oysters with minty jelly (I think)
Seared yellow fin tuna with mustard seeds and soy vinaigrette

Royal globe of artichoke (the best dish of the night) – Mud crab barigoule vinaigrette
Scallops - lemon emulsion, watercress velouté and sterling caviar

Free range chicken with puree and truffles and prawn

Deboned rib eye of tajima wagyu beef (grade 9+) - field mushrooms, merlot sauce and mash
John Dory - Carrot and ginger puree, coriander and pomme allumette

Fresh raspberries - grapefruit sorbet, raspberries, marshmallows and passionfruit
Mille feuille – raspberries, meringue, persian fairy floss, thin pastry discs

Guillaume at Bennelong
Bennelong point
Sydney, NSW
P: (02) 9241 1999

Personally, I like my brownies in between i.e. chewy, light and delicate. I’m not a fan of the brownies that are quite solid that have to be zapped in the microwave so its ‘finally’ becomes edible. I’ve been to cafe’s where I’ve sent brownies back because its impossible to eat and requested it to be heated up for 20seconds.

The brownie recipe below is the type where you can eat it as is (it stays soft and moist for a week), or can be heated up in the microwave for 10 seconds if you like it warm with with vanilla ice-cream. I’ve made this brownie 5 times in the last few months. This recipe was an accident which turned out to be a winner! (Hence its the only thing I’ve been baking repeatedly in the last month)!

Ingredients
200g dark chocolate (I used 70% dark lindt cooking chocolate)
150g milk chocolate (finely chopped)
2/3cups of caster sugar
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cups of plain flour
2 large eggs
40g unsalted butter

Method
1. set oven to 180ºC
2. melt dark chocolate and butter over a hot water bath or over a saucepan then set aside

3. mix caster sugar, vanilla essence and 2 eggs on low speed for approximately 10mins until the mixture is light fluffy and changes colour to pail yellow
4. combine the sifted flour, baking powder, remaining 150grm of chopped chocolate
5. gently fold in the melted dark chocolate (do not over mix)

5. pour brownie mixture in desired tin and bake in the oven for 10-15mins. (for perfect soft moist brownies, test with a poker. Brownies should be between medium / well i.e not too gooey, not too solid).
6. set aside to cool, then serve with dusted icing sugar

To cut things short, below are festival photos I took of some of the food we ordered. Unfortunately I didn’t try all of it but I do know my favourite dessert was A Tavola’s cremino al cioccolato with Italian meringue. – Enjoy!
• Taste of Sydney 2011 (photo post)
• Taste of Sydney 2010 (photo post)
• Taste of Sydney 2009 (photo post)

Charlie & Co (a favourite for the boys! this burger never flies under the raidar its usually the first bite of the day)
1. Wagyu beef and cheese slider

Charlie & Co – Miniature artisan Frankfurt chilli dog (I believe this was much more tastier than the burger!! – Hallelujah to sweet caramalised onion relish)

Flying Fish
1. Seared Petuna ocean trout with ginger, chilli, shallot sauce, served with carrot sambal and basmati rice
2. Prawns served with okra sambal

Longrain Restaurant
1. Yellow curry with beef, cucumber relish
2. Crispy pork belly, pickled daikon and chilli jam in a sweet roll

Quarter Twenty One
1. Slow cooked and caramelised short rib with bone marrow persillade

Saké Restaurant & Bar
1. Pan seared ocean barramundi

The Cut Bar & Grill
1. Sher F1 Wagyu meatball, gremolata and a salad of local and Italian cabbage

L’etoile
1. Murray Valley Pork belly with prunes and char-grilled silver beet

Efendy
1. Kadayif wrapped king prawns, walnut capsicum muhammara

Longrain Bar
1. Ping pong cocktail – lychees, passion-fruit pulp, eristoff vodka, and fresh lime juice

Agapé Organic Restaurant & Bar
1. Chocolate and spelt brownie, almond praline, vanilla cream and chocolate sauce

A Tavola
1. Cremino al cioccolato – Amedei giandula chocolate crema, salty caramel gelato and italian meringue

Quarter Twenty One
1. Hokey pokey ice-cream sandwich

Flying Fish
1.Laveria Fresh coconut & palm treacle pancake with cardamom ice-cream

Efendy
Pistachio dessert trio of baklava dolma and kadayif

Booza
Chocolate & cinnamon dessert delicacy of the Levantine Region (lebanese)

Taste of Sydney is located in the Eastern Suburbs, Centennial Park and has already opened its doors i.e.  Thursday, 8th of March. So if you’re free this weekend, be sure to buy a ticket and make your way there for some delicious food, great atmosphere, wine tasting, cocktails and cooking classes. I’ll be there this weekend so if you spot me, make sure you say “hi” ^_^

Opening times
Session 2:   Friday 9 March: noon – 4.00pm
Session 3:   Friday 9 March: 5.00pm – 10.00pm
Session 4:   Saturday 10 March: 11am – 4.00pm
Session 5:   Saturday 10 March: 5.00pm – 9.30pm
Session 6:   Sunday 11 March: 11am – 5.30pm

1. Saké (12 Argyle Street, the Rocks Sydney NSW 2000)

• Tasty Budo cocktail
• Hiramasa Kingfish Ceviche
• Pan Seared Ocean Barramundi
• Hiramasa Kingfish Double Crunch Sushi.

2. Flying Fish (19-21 Pirrama Road Pyrmont NSW 2009)

• Seared Yellowfin Tuna with ruby red grapefruit and sweet crackling pork & black-pepper caramel

3. Four In Hand (105 Sutherland Street, Paddington,NSW 202)
• Crisp pork belly, pork loin and pork rib was served with cauliflower, cauliflower puree, Eastern Suburbs greens which had been foraged that day from Clovelly, prunes, radicchio & colcannon mash

4. Quarter Twenty One (Level 5, Westfield Sydney, Cnr Pitt St Mall & Market St Sydney)
• Pre-dessert of carob, compressed apple, meringue and a ginger beer sorbet
• Hokey Pokey Ice-cream Sandwich
• Mango and Passion fruit Bombe,
• Macadamia, Yoghurt Sorbet and a 68% Alto .b Beni Zokoko Chocolate Pudding, Cherries & Coconut Ice Cream

5. Longrain (85 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills)
• Acapulco Gold
• Ginger Rogers
• Ping Pong
• Stickmata

* Leona dined as a guest

So where the hell is Essen? UTS and Sydney Uni goers, you’ll know this place pretty well. Back in the broke-ass student days, Essen was an common hang-out when you wanted to chillax with a couple of beers after a long day filled with boring lectures and/or wanted to wag a few classes in between haha!

bier baby bier! - no point going to a German restaurant if you aint gonna have a bier!

Knobli Brot – Swiss style garlic bread with smoked paprika and gruyere cheese

I LURVE SUBER MUSTARDDDD!!!!

Farm fresh duck - Oven roasted overnight, served with braised red cabbage, potato dumpling and marzipan stuffede apple
They accidentally screwed up my order, i initially ordered pork belly turns out I got duck instead. I couldn’t be bothered telling them about the mix-up and I’m actually glad! The duck was soo good! Crispy duck skin, soft and tender duck meat OMG!!! Definitely getting this next time!

Potato dumpling with braised red cabbage
Potato dumpling i found was weird, definitely not my kinda textures and taste. It was really stiff and solid, the braised cabbage was delicious i.e. if you love sauerkraut!!

Marzipan stuffede apple
I’ve never been a fan of cooked fruit so I was a bit hesitant to eat this at first but knowing me, I like to give things a go / chance. Surprisingly the apple worked well with the duck especially with the cinnamon / nutmeg like stuffing.

Wurst teller – Swiss cervelat, Thuringer Bratwurst and grilled speck served with sauer kraut and bread dumpling
A safe dish if your chicken! Sausages (BANGAZ) are the bomb especially when its topped with crispy bacon!

Apple and pear strudel – served with vanilla ice cream and sauce
This dessert is a 20 minute wait and its WORTH IT!!! Ive never like apple pies and that includes the ones from maccas. Once again cooked fruit makes my face cringe however, its German and I gotta give it a crack so once again I actually enjoyed this! It wasn’t sour as I expected.. the cinnamon and vanilla bean custard worked like a charm with the crunchy flaky pastry.

White chocolate mousse with cherries
mmm whats not to love?

Essen Restaurant & Beer Cafe
135 Broadway
Sydney, NSW
P: 02 9211 3805

One of the things I like to do is talk to the cab drivers and ask them – “Where the best Indian food is..” As expected, our taxi driver took us to a local Indian curry place that looks extremely dark dingy / dodgy with quite a few people dining in there. Our cabbie parks in-front of the restaurant, screams out to the owner of the restaurant -“Aye.. Aye, Oi…- These are my friends! take care of them as they will come and eat curry after they shop”. buhahaha…

Anyways, Indigo isn’t a dingy restaurant, its actually located inside Denarau port so foreigners wont have to worry about shitting their pants for the next couple of days. It’s pricier than the local rate of ($5 for curry & rice) but I assure you’ll be satisfied! - (Chilli whimps – if you can’t handle the heat, remember tell them your heat intensity as curries here are usually served with a bite).

Butter chicken
I always love a good butter chicken especially when the balance is perfect (not to sweet not to heavy but with a little bit of heat)

Lamb Biriyani
This biriyani was absolutely delicious. My sister came here previously and she kept raving on about their Lamb biriyani. It was really delicious and probably my favourite for the night. The spices were amazing, colour was rich in yellow and different to most biriyanis i’ve tried

Goat curry
My sister has been raving about the goat curry and it was absolutely divine. The goat was soft and tender and pulled off the bone (there’s bones in this dish). If you’ve never had goat before, it tastes like lamb! If its not cooked correctly, goat can be quite tragic and tough.

Lamb Korma
Can’t go wrong with a ‘spicy’ lamb korma =P

Fish Curry
Because Fiji is the country where fish is at its best, I just had to try a fish curry. The flavours were brilliant unfortunately the fish felt dry as though it was over cooked :( Definitely not a favourite for the night.

Wholemeal roti and garlic naans

Indigo Indian Restauraunt
Port Denarau Marina,
Denarau Island,
Viti Levu! Fiji

If you thought the war was over… your wrong because after the gym, I have to walk past this god damn place to get to my god damn car and chances are, I’m freaking starving I could eat my own shoe as its late at night and I haven’t had dinner yet. I get tempted to buy a few macarons (and never do) which makes me annoyed as everyone knows how much I love those fragile babies.

Finally, decided to end this misery by bringing a few people down with me as we ate in complete guilt..

Roll the dice, is it naughty or nice ($18)
Chocolate creme brulee, cinnamon ice cream and cherry gel w/ pistachio, sesame crumble

When this first came out, we were shocked as we weren’t expecting it to be a creative piece of work.. we expected it to be the traditional creme brulee – but anyway we enjoyed it from an artsy perspective. The caramel crunch on the top (I assume) represented the light-thin toffee on a crème brulee, however overall elements of creme brulee weren’t there in the dish as we hoped for. I can imagine some customers wouldn’t have felt satisfied if they were really craving a brulee and in return got a slab of delicious cinnamon chocolate ice-cream.

This is how we roll
Profiteroles filled with chocolate ice-cream and cheeky chocolate sauce

I ordered this because it seemed to be the flavour for the night. I figured, if everyone’s ordering it.. it must be freaking good!!! When the lady brought my dessert, I laughed at at the group saying: “haha my dessert looks pimped in comparison to yours…muhahaha *evil grin*. Surprisingly, it was different and i’ve never eaten a profiterole like this before. I expected the usual kinda profiterole casings (soft) and these were quite crunchy which I assume was meant to help absorb the ice-cream into it??

Sticky date pudding
Creamy butterscotch sauce and vanilla bean ice-cream

We have a sticky-date pudding fanatic, so this was one of the incentives for him to come with us. Apparently it was soo good he became a (SCABB!) haha

Will you pash or dash
Chocolate fondant with passion fruit centre, toasted white chocolate & orange soaked pineapple

Fondant addict had  his eyes on this from the moment we sat down. I laughed when it came out cos I thought they screwed up on the design.  After goolgling around, I think it’s actually meant to look like a plate of mess… nevertheless a lesson learnt (don’t judge a book by its cover)!

Assorted macarons

At the time, bananas were the price of gold so I made sure I got myself a banana macarons (nom nom nom). Was it the best macarons? These days, there’s so many macarons around that I don’t know what the best macaron is anymore! This is a  fix if your a local like me and who doesn’t know how to make macarons HAHAHA!!!

Would I return? not sure as I found the desserts quite expensive ($18 a pop) so i’m not sure if i’ll be back. Maybe for a coffee perhaps and some cake?!

Cheeky Chocolate
11 George St, North Strathfield
P: (02) 9764-5966
W: www.cheekychocolate.com.a

Moving along, The Armory Wharf Cafe is one of the local cafes in my hood. The area used to be an old military training base and these days, its now reformed into a massive park and escape for the locals who love long walks by river and those who play a visit via the ferry / river-cat. They make pretty good local breakfasts and lunch and is extremely busy! – I highly recommend making a booking or else you’ll be waiting quite a while for a seat.

Baked eggs with chorizo and caramelised balsamic

Big breakfast – sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, eggs cooked to your liking, sourdough bread

Corn cakes served with avocado and tomato salsa with smoked salmon, dill and yoghurt sauce

Eggs benne’ with Tasmanian salmon and spinach on a toasted casa panotte

Armory Wharf Cafe
Blaxland Riverside Park
Jamieson Street,
Newington NSW 2127

P: (02) 9714 7513
W: http://www.armorywharfcafe.com

In with the new..

Out with the old..

What I admire the most is the way Berowra Waters Inn capture every moment making it an enjoyable experience from start to finish. From the unforgettable pre-dining experience i.e. from watching the locals transport their goods via the river, to the motionless still water, through to the whole dining experience and right until it’s time to say good bye. They’ve really touched on the feel from beginning to end which is what i’ll never forget – THanks for making my birthday awesome!  (see photos below)

Chilled vichyssoise
Oscietra and salmon caviar and beignets of Hawkesbury oysters

Salmon & egg

beurre echire butter
THE BEST BUTER EVER!!! If anyone knows where I can buy or import this, I wanna know!

Sauteed prawn tails, oxtail and native pepper croustillant celeriac sheeps milk yoghut and lemon beurre noisette 

Steamed razor clam – local mud crab meat, spaghettini, garlic, chilli, lemon and parsley

snowy mountain freshwater trout leek hearts cooked in ash, smoked cream

roast white  veal rack, onion soubise, green asparagus and wood mushrooms

coconut pannacotta new season mango, passionfruit and candied orange meringue

white chocolate mousse – black pepper softcake, salted caramel and raspberry sorbet
(as much as the dessert was delicious, I was quite disappointed as I was expecting something grand and work of art) 

Petite fours – Lemon tart, dark and white chocolates and chocolate macarons
Petite fours are not served at the restaurant instead it is given to you as a gift pack to take home

How to get to get there? - Berowra Waters Inn  takes you on a memorable journey by sweeping you off your feet as you board their complementary boat transfer to the restaurant (keep in mind there are only 3 other ways to get to the restaurant i.e. sea plane, swim across or water taxi). 

So how does this compare to other fancy hatted restaurants.. I’ve been to many fancy restaurants during my life time and none of them go to great lengths to create the ultimate experience (Boys this is a great place to impress a girl!!).

Berowra Waters Inn
Via bay road
Berowra Waters, NSW 2082
P: (02) 9456 1027