FoodieChat

Reasonably new to the Majors Bay Road cafe/restaurant scene is boutique coffee roaster and cafe, Espresso Organica.  It’s on the quiet side of the strip – opposite Coles – which offers you the added advantage of a greater chance of finding a parking spot!  It’s especially quiet on Sundays when the childrens store next to it is closed.  It’s actually a tiny cafe. More like a shop with a few tables inside plus tables outside – brrr in winter!  If you are lucky enough to get a table inside (the staff are very kind and obliging), you will then have the problem of jostling for space with the person behind you, because both of you, even normal BMI’d people will find it hard to sit comfortably without getting into an airline seat style fight for room. Tip: Go in summer when it’s warm enough to sit outside!  First thing to hit you is the glorious dessert counter.  They don’t sell the usual bulk made ordered-in cakes, I believe they are home made in the premises.  I really really really really really was dying to try the baked cheesecake. But down to business, we are here for breakky and coffee. Since apaprently it’s my pastor’s favourite coffee in Sydney!

Cappuccino – indeed, not bad I’m told.

And the latte.  These come in small and large. Syrup or non syrup. Quite reasonably priced.

Okay, having gained a bit of a spare tyre aka muffin top over winter, I tried to go for something healthy (ie no sausage or bacon).  For me this came in the form of the mushroom, ham and pesto omelette with no cheese.  With a slice of sourdough and some mange-tout as salad, it was very satisfying, and not over cooked at all. Baby Lucas adored it too and helped me polish off a third of it!  The filling was generous but did not overcome the eggs.

Salmon benedict – perfect chubby ooozy eggs and a generous amount of salmon.  But what puzzled me was why it wasn’t served on english muffins, and instead only one piece of toast? Not that much sauce, but oh well, my friends seemed to not care much! (more…)

OK I said I would update on my progress of eating there, I’m sorry I missed bringing my camera on visits number 3 and 4 hehehe.  On visit 3 I had breakfast.  I was really disappointed because I was soo excited about trying the breakfast calzone.  It was pale and dry, and mostly spinach with not much meat or mushrooms or cheese to speak of, and really small.  But I guess I am used to gluttinously huge portions of breakfast, and at only $10, I couldn’t really complain much!  On visit 4, I had a gigantic delicious fluffy pillow of jam donut filled with raspberry deliciousness and calories.  Coffee was hot.  Good, yum.  And all this while, eyeing off people eating wood fired pizzas (for breakfast and afternoon tea??).  So it was finally my turn.  On Saturday night 7pm, I guess the word has spread, because I didn’t book (as I didn’t any other time), and it was full and my companion and I were relegated to a bench counter to eat. Boo  Oh well.  The food came so quickly and it was SO good!!  The wood fired pizza tasted every bit as good as it looked.  And not to mention – huge too!  And it came so quickly.  It’s delivered so dramatically on a wooden pizza paddle and perches on top of a stand.  Careful when fighting to grab the first piece, lest the pizza take a topple! I wonder if that’s happened yet  We loved the crisp base, the generous tomato base and just the right amount of toppings.  The crust had a good bite too. I’m thinking that my trips to Haberfield for good pizza may be limited in future

We also tried the crab linguine, main sized.  I thought it could be a bit bigger, but otherwise it was nice – the pasta cooked al dente, fragrant olive oil and not stingy on the crab.  It was especially nice with the chilli oil that was offered to us.

I’m please to advise that the cool rooms are now filled with all sorts of goodies now.  Great fresh produce – what a colourful display!  I was hoping there would be some exotic goodies like heirloom tomatoes but alas they were just mandarins (more…)

Hot off the press!!!! Coffee Warehouse Cafe & Deli (CWCD for short) has JUST opened TODAY!!!  Driving by this site formerly a motorcycle shop, I was soooo excited to see that it was a proposed coffee ROASTER, warehouse, cafe and providore – 4 in 1 of my favourite things!!! Many a time I drove by, wistfully waiting for opening day.  I thought that day approached when I saw the ad in Seek for the head chef. But alas, more days passed before the paper went up behind the glass facade and then such a tease – the “opening soon” sign!!  And FINALLY this day has come! I saw movement there last week and called up Caffe di Stefano and said they were opening today. I made sure I was there.  It was definitely a low key opening – only locals in the know would find out about it! Just a bunch of balloons at the entrance, and signs of life, as opposed to most of the surrounding Parramatta Road area which is derelict!  The first sight you see is the pizza bar – wood fired of course.  Serving as a takeaway, and provider of freshly baked super thinly authentic pizzas for the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is a wide open warehouse space on ground level, and a mezzanine level.  A number of very large communal tables made of polished timber are surrounded by trendy stainless steel chairs.  A bar runs along the length of the window for gazing out into the street – or for me to sit and read my paper as I intend to, every single weekend for the rest of my life  There are also tables of four as well.  Well , not time to eat yet – so I browsed around the shop.  It wasn’t so huge, but the offerings were quality.  Fresh italian crusty bread in every shape you would need for your weekend gourmet table, and at VERY reasonable prices.

The deli has a wide variety of salumi and other meats, as well as anti pasti.  Judging by the hooks above it, I am guessing that some lovely legs of proscuitto may soon arrive

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For my birthday this year, I chose Jugemu and Shimbashi, in Neutral Bay.  It’s actually two restaurants. One side specialises in teppanyaki and the other side in traditional Japanese cuisine (aka non teppanyaki in my lay person terms hehehe).  What attracted me to this restaurant was that it is known for its hand made soba. A man sits in a booth at the front every day stretching buckwheat into compliance and forming the day’s noodles.  I haven’t ever been able to witness this, however the room is still there for all to see in its floury authenticity!

The menu is vast, and has everything – you get both the teppanyaki and standard food menu in one.  The best thing is that the dishes are small (with not so small prices in some cases!) so you can order a variety of things to try.  I wanted to try the Japanese egg omelette.  Oops, I didn’t realise it was just the sushi egg – but sliced thicker!  It was served warm, with some grated fresh daikon.  It was $8 for four pieces.

We wanted to try the dragon roll, which was $18.  It consisted of 8 pieces of sushi, freshly fried soft shell crab with roe rolled into the rice.  It was very yummy, but alas, no avocado, and to be honest, we thought the servings were very stingy – given that I could have 3 plates of dragon roll (of 3 pieces) at Umi Kaitzen in Haymarket!  But aside from the price, it was very very nice.  What wasn’t welcome however, was the 50c charge for extra wasabi.  I have never been to a place that charges for that – it would have been appreciated if the waitress would warn us beforehand.

I was very curious to try the rice balls.  They were kinda like Japanese arancini of sticky rice – seasoned rice balls, but disappointingly again, with no filling, just rice balls.  They were $8 for two.

For me, the highlight of the evening was the freshly teppan fried gyoza. You can choose from chicken or pork (we chose pork).  What makes them a cut above the rest is the juicy filling which was wrapped very tightly in the wrapper – not loose clumsy parcels like many other versions. Also, the bases were crunchy and the wrapper just the right thickness.  $10 for 6.  You’ll need maybe two serves they are so good!

Another special of the restaurant is the Japanese pancake (okonomiyaki).  Several versions are on offer. Standard chicken or prawn or wagyu beef ones at $13 each, or “special” ones for around $19 each.  They are served with a little box of the condiments – dehyrated parsley, and very finely sliced bonito flakes, you know, those moving tentacle type things that  are served on top!

I have a confession.  I loathe mayonnaise.  And every sour white creamy type of sauce.  Creme fraiche, sour cream, my worst nightmare!  Yes, even sweet Japanese mayo!  So since it happens to sneak itself onto many Japanese dishes, I requested the pancake sans mayo.  We selected the special one. It had pork and two split prawns on top.  It was quite small. I was actually annoyed at the waitress, because we wanted to order 2 pancakes between 4, but she INSISTED that one would be enough… lo and behold, it wasn’t And then when we wanted to order another one, we were told it would be a 30 minute wait! Not happy Jan!  But hungry!! (more…)