FoodieChat

When asked what is my favourite restaurant, there’s so many categories - favourite what - casual? Formal? Quick dinner?  Outdoor? Cheap?  Well, Bennelong is definitely one of my favourites in the fine dining category.  OK, so it’s not the type of restaurant you can go to everyday, but with their pre-theatre menu, you certainly can go more often than otherwise. It’s $75 for 3 courses, or $65 for two.  Well my sister was generous enough to take me for my birthday (well, I kinda asked if she could hehehe ) as I’d only eaten there once before (work paid) and I LOVED it. I’m also a big fan of Guillaume and his classic French, his precision cooking and just general yumminess (that’s a technical blogger’s term ).  OK, so sometimes it’s really embarrassing to take photos at a posh restaurant, so I did my best with my meal.  First of the rank - the scallops with jerusalem artichoke puree and fried garlic.   Pause.  Relishing the memory. AMAZING. Melt in your mouth scallops, creamy rich puree, delicious sauce.  This entree was certainly generous in proportion and even more fabulous in flavour.

Feeling almost full, I chose the crispy skinned barramundi for my main. It was VERY generous proportion as well (see - the $75 is SO worth it!), and topped with fried leeks, and Guillaume’s famous mash, with fresh peas and exotic mushrooms. 

Dessert was either sorbets, or warm apple crumble - served in its copper baking dish topped with vanilla bean ice cream,

or my choice - the trio of creme brulees (I found the coffee one seriously strong though) with 3 petite madelines for dunking.

One of my most favourite things about Bennelong is the petit fours that come with coffee.  As if you could squeeze in another bite, you get to squeeze in four bites:  Dark chocolate tart, grapefruit jelly, salted caramel and pistachio macaron.  Topped with a sensational harbourview, there really is no better way to enjoy a Sydney evening.

These restaurant deals are one of the best things about the credit crunch. Take advantage of them while they last!

There is SO much happening this month for foodies in Sydney! This Saturday as usual the first weekend in October is the Good Living Growers Market - but beefed up, or should I say porked up! Some of Sydney’s best chefs will be participating in a nose to tail BBQ there, and it’s also open until 12pm for those of you can’t manage to make it by 11am

This is part of Crave Sydney, a month long festival of art, food, music and outdoor events hosted by the City of Sydney Council.  And it co-incides with the first ever Sydney International Food Festival www.siff.com.au, which is the old Good Food Month ramped up to make Sydney a serious global foodie destination.

The usual suspects are back - the $20 Sugar Hits, the $35 let’s do lunches, and the Chefs Showcase dinners.  Highlights this year include a whole new set of hands on cooking classes, as well as some new outdoor events to add to the always popular Sydney Food and Wine fair and the Danks Street Festival.  Let’s hope the festival is a great success and something to continue to wait 11 months for during the year!  See you at one of the events!

I must admit I’ve heard mixed reviews about Hurricanes, and hence it’s taken me so long to get there.  Mostly bad wraps about the service. But the only reason I can think of why that is, is that this place is SO POPULAR!!  Several times we’ve tried to rock up on various nights, only to find already big crowds waiting over drinks for a table, no doubt working up a huge appetite in the meantime!  Hurricanes is best known for its ribs, and they did not disappoint.  At only $33 for a full rack of pork ribs with your choice of baked potato or chips,

or the same price for lamb ribs:

you are guaranteed a long silence over dinner as your party licks their fingers and sucks the juicy saucy goodness out of those ribs.  Bibs are free of course! And so were the fireworks that night as we sat on the balcony overlooking Cockle Bay at the Darling Harbour restaurant - warm with the outdoor heaters enough for winter!   For those who can’t decide, the ribs and steak combo ($39) offers a 250g steak and a half rack.

For the accountants among us, we decided that it was actually better value if you wanted the chicken and ribs combo, to order a half chicken ($26) as well as a full rack ($33) and share between two than to order the combo for $39! (more…)

Every year for the Sydney Festival, I like to try one of the Fast Festival Feasts where you get a main course and a glass of wine for $25.  This year, Wildfire, at the Overseas Passenger Terminal was the choice; where we had kingfish, with one scallop tortellini and romesco sauce. Great sauce, but sadly I think the fish had seen better days and was ready before our 6pm arrival.  Nevermind, we moved onto dessert.  A very interesting looking dessert menu, we decided upon the doughnut box, and the nougatine souffle, both $18.  The donut box was in fact 6 mini donut holes, which come with 3 test tubes and pipettes of sauce - raspberry, white chocolate, and chocolate, which you squeeze and inject into the donuts!  The donuts are covered in sugar and cinnamon and set in a pretty box with a shot glass of caramel and chocolate mousse.  Not too sweet which was good.

The souffle was the chef’s choice and was a good balance of light and airy whilst actually having a bit of substance - usually I find souffles like eating a cloud of nothing.  It came with a chocolate crackle type thing on top of an ice cream segment; and the same shot glass with a chocolate cigar in it. (more…)

Well it’s that time of year again when Sydney foodies descend upon top restaurants, hotels, bars and even parks to eat and drink their way around town for the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month.  And top of the list for the evenings is the Sugar Hit - the $20 plate of dessert and glass of dessert wine (up from $15 in previous years).  We went to the elegant Cafe Opera at the intercontinental, fully intending to have the Sugar Hit, but instead captivated by the dessert trolley before us, which offered an array of beautiful irresistable patisserie at only $8 each.  Well, there’s the bird in the hand theory - we could see before our eyes what we were going to get (and save $4 each too - since dessert wine is $8 a glass), or get the sugar hit. Well - bird’s good for me.

I’m quite familiar with the quality of the desserts at the Inter Cont as I had done a Hands On cooking class five years back, and returned frequently to have the cakes take away.

A favourite is the tear drop shaped black forest cake - chocolate sponge topped with sour cherry compote, whipped cream and finished off with a layer of cherry jelly.  Tempting tiramisu manifested as a cake - sponge fingers top, bottom and side, and a smooth thick layer of coffee liqueur flavoured marscarpone - and topped with a delicate rolled tuile.

The pavlova slice is deceptively light - filled with raspberries, mango and whipped cream - soft and fluffy with a slightly crispy meringue top.  And… DIY sugar hit hahaha.

But my absolute favourite of all time is the passionfruit mousse cake, which for me takes the cake (literally) for its tangy passionfruit that cuts through the sweetness in a light mousse; wrapped with a dotted sponge collar and a layer of jelly on top.  Butterflies or leaves of chocolate spiked on top, and a shard of speckled white chocolate for good measure.  The staff could have been a bit more generous with the dessert wine, but when you could catch them were attentive and polite.  The large couches are a comfortable way to rest and soak up the atmosphere - but be quick as there are no bookings on a Friday night - and the queue starts well before the 9pm starting time.

www.gfm.smh.com.au for more events.  Sydney Intercontinental Hotel  117 Macquarie Street Sydney 9240 1369