FoodieChat

Sydney’s little Portugal is located in Petersham.  Good food, great prices and friendly (often family run) services!  I’ve been to Sweet Belem for apparently the best (and freshest) Portugese tarts in Sydney.   There’s also a food festival annually where the streets are closed and stall holders sell all manners of food including the specialty, salt cod cakes.    Costa Do Sol was the first restaurant I tried.  We had: Lulas Panadas (Calamari Rings) $9; Ameijoas a bolhao pato (Clams in Olive Oil, garlic & Coriander) $15, Chourico Assado (Chargrilled portuguese sausage) $11.  

For mains – Espetada De Frango (chicken skewer) $17 and Espeta a costa do sol (char grilled lean beef skewer) $19 – both served with salad, rice and fried potato cubes. 

And to finish – Creme Caramel. They ran out of portugese tarts again so be sure to order ahead (despite my doing so anyway!). 

The clams were tasty, with the fresh bread great for mopping up the juices. A tad on the salty side, it was a generous sized serve.  The Portugese sausage is like chorizo sausage – however, instead of lumps of fat – instead there were lumps of ham! Delicious and nutritious!  The skewers are an impressive main – coming out on sword like sticks, hung up on a stand at your table, with butter dripping down onto the plate at the bottom.  This is a fantastic venue for a group dinner – with plenty of street parking, and lively enough to still be intimate.

77 New Canterbury Road, Petersham, NSW (02) 9569-2319 *also in the entertainment book!

Kicking off a very long 3 days of various birthday celebrations – and the highlight – was this calzone from La Grotta in Haberfield.  Being another of Sydney’s “Little Italies”, Haberfield’s Ramsay Street is lined with delis, pizza shops, bakeries, and bread and pasta suppliers, so the competition is tough.  I actually wanted to try La Disfida, (which was said by Luciana of Cucina Italiana to be her favourite over rival Napoli Im Bocca), but alas it was closed.  So then Dolcissimo looked quite packed, but also didn’t seem to have more than pasta and pizza on offer, we walked to next door La Grotta, which seemed alot quieter but had a more diverse menu.  GREAT choice, because not only was the service an outstanding differentiator from its Haberfield cousins, but this calzone was wood fired perfection.  The waiters had no problem whatsover turning any of the other pizzas on the menu into the calzone, so I chose the Special, with ham, salami, mushrooms, olives (and hold the pineapple).  This gigantic crescent arrived which was bigger than the plate – crust was risen to perfection, and cooked the way I like it – crunchy as it can be without burning.  It was not oily at all, and well I could have stopped eating after 4 slices, but hey since I’m there…. let the pants loose. It was $19.90 which is around the same as all the other shops in the area – but go there also for the outstanding attentive service that really aims to please in a really genuine way.  The place is also HUGE, so also consider it for functions!

La Grotta 104 Ramsay Street Haberfield (02) 9799 0100

I finally got to try this Sydney icon Italian Restaurant idyllically located a stone’s throw from Russell Crowe’s apartment on Cowper Wharf Road (a.k.a. the finger wharf) in Woolloomooloo (bonus points if you can spell it without looking!).  It’s a Sydney institution and a highly sought after booking - evidenced by the hoards of good looking people dining there at the same time as us.   (Former) owner Alan Jones cruised in halfway through our meal somewhat unnoticed – I’m afraid he’s going to take a back seat to the food.  I had the scallops for my entree – four plump scallops, seared and served on a bed of white asparagus puree, with fennel and blood oranges scattered across, drizzled with a Campari and blood orange dressing.  The wagyu carpaccio with truffle dressing, baby capers and rocket looked a work of art too good to eat – wafer thin slicse of tender beef spread over the plate with maximum visual appeal. 

I have learned my lesson not to do entree and main with pasta as my entree, so I had an entree sized pasta as my main in order to fit in dessert. Again my favourite scallops spaghettini, spanner crab meat, lemon in a sauce of shellfish tomato brodo.  Personally I would have preferred a sauce that was either more saucy or more dressing like. This was in between like a broth, which certainly was tasty though!  I didn’t try the duck breast stuffed with apple, walnuts and wrapped in proscuitto came also with the leg – fall off the bone meat, in a rich jus on a bed of sauteed red cabbage.

I can’t decide what was the highlight – my entree or my dessert!  I couldn’t go past the warm Valrohna chocolate pudding with honey comb ice cream – a cakey crust that oozed the liquid gold – into the other gold – the shards of honeycomb and the (slightly melted) scoop of honey comb ice cream – amazing. Not good for the diet, cholesterol, blood sugar or any other health indicator!

The rustic looking rhubarb crumble tart was served on its own with your waiter dramatically drizzling the syrup on top to finish – well neither of us could finish our desserts due to their huge servings, but contentedly sat back to enjoy the people watching which comes for free.

 Otto Ristorante, Area 8, 6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo

www.otto.net.au

My friend Annie highly recommends this restaurant and I have been wanting to try it for ages.  A quick check of restaurant review websites came back with surprisingly mostly good reports – and I am pleased to add my own to them!  It’s on the main street at Victoria Road, on the corner, and the ambience would be romantic and cosy – well that is, if we weren’t banished to the neon-lit, cold back tables near the kitchen!   Danny the host came and apologised that it was because we’re young and not whingy that he had to give the better tables in the heated front section to the oldies… not that we were given a choice, and we had also booked too!  Suspiciously, later tables were also escorted to the front when challenging the back tables!  Anyway – now to the food. Great value!! We had the garlic prawns ($17) – fresh king prawns in a thick sauce of tomatoes, basil, white wine and plenty of garlic.  I was upset that I wasn’t told that the pastas are in fact HUGE and main sized – so I ended up having the equivalent of two mains and therefore missed out on dessert! But hey. I’m not one to criticise value for money.  

The penne with calamari was a huge serve – tangy with capers, cubed potatoes and tender calamari strips – sssoooooo filling at $19 – warning: do not order pastas as entrees unless you are sharing!!

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