Sydney Food International Food Festival 2011 Part 1

In recent years Good Food Month now know as Sydney Food International Food Festival has evolved from Lets do Lunch and Sugar hits to Pop Up Dinners and Barbecue Madness. This year there were no less than six pop up dinners listed in secret locations which were not disclosed until at least 24 hours beforehand. This concept  has been around for a while but exists in different forms in differ parts of the world such as in Hong Kong some of you might know the concept as 私房菜 ( which roughly translates to home cooked cuisine or private kitchen correct me if I'm wrong).

SIFF month started with a pop up dinner experiences at Minus 8 by Chef Anton Verplak ( ex Nobu Chef in London) and one hosted by Fouad from the foodblog. 

All I would say about the location of Minus 8 as to not spoil it for the people who is yet to go is that it was a perfect atmosphere for it. As the door opened we were ushered to how seats through a narrow doorway lit with candles. 

The first dish was a Rice Crisps with Wasabi Salt. At first glance it appear to be similar to the Rice Crackers with Salt and Vinegar at Tomilsav which I had at Sweets degusation last year. The taste of  wasabi is not instant but appears after the third of fourth bite.

There were two menus one written in mostly Kanji and one in English. I don't know if my fellow guests noticed this. I know its a bit cliche but its true its the small touches which makes the experience unique.

 The next course was Hiramasa Kingfish Sashimi, Cured Japanese Apricot , Baby Cucumber & Shiso Shoots. Fresh crisp cucumber and the sweetness of the Apricot complements the Kingfish perfectly.

Will discuss more about rest of dishes later. I've put up the pictures for the other courses so there is a  glimpse of the rest of the night.

Handmade Silken Tofu Asparagus,Spring Beans  Buds , White Sesame Toasted Sesame.
The contrast of the pure soybean taste with the withe sesame reminded of the first tofu when I was young. 

Scattered Sushi' Confit Ocean Trout, Ikura, Tasmanian Wasabi, Freeze Dried Shoyu. 

Tatsu Burrawong Chicken Oysters Yellow Yuzu Pepper,Oroshi Ponzu, Coriander Sprouts. 

Tea Time
'Shaved Squid,Fukushima Koshihikari Toasted Seaweed,Tasmanian Wasabi Mitsuba Shoots , Ichiban Dashi Tea. 

Spring Forest
Frozen Green Tea & Toasted Rice Pannacotta, Shortbread, Strawberry , White Chocolate Snow.

Will discuss more about rest of dishes later. I've put up the pictures so at least there is glimpse of the rest of the courses

Spring Food Adventures

Eating started early in September ! Only One month to go to SIFF booked three events already all under $100. Spent enough on food in Melbourne it was more than the air fare and accommodation combined!

Clock wise :
Langham High Tea highlight: The Hazelnut souffle was just right not too sweet.

Jacques Raymond highlight :  Vegetarian degustation looked  exactly the same as the normal degustation


Vue de Monde  Highlight : Spectacular way food was presented with a syphon filter.


Journal Cafe Highlight : One of the best Chocolate Cake ever not too dry just right!

 

September eating started early !More to come later :)

Missing Canada

 Wished I could have stayed longer.

Round 1: 3 michelin stars vs 3 hats Dish 1

 Entree : Alaskan King Crab with Scallops, Vegetable Jelly, Cocktail Sauce and Avocado Coulis @ Caprice

Sashimi of sea scallops,
smoked eel flowers, apple, organic crosnes, horseradish, sorrel shoots, virgin pine kernel oil

@ Quay



Presentation of both dishes are spectacular.You do eat with your eyes but then again this was really tested tonight at Bistrode CBD. That is another story for another time. 


One bite of the seafood reminds you seaside but a little salty. Combination of the crisp fresh vegetables against the softness of scallop create different textures that the seafood jelly lacks. 


Round 1 
3 hats win.

Genie's Bakery

Breakfast for this week ,homemade sausage buns!
Thanks mum :)

My three weeks of October

 

 BBQ Madness Saturday @ Wooloomooloo

Comfort food demonstration@ Chef's Armoury

Sugar Hit @ Grace Hotel

Goodies Bag from Noma Talk

 Food Blogger's picnic

 

Just desserts degustation @ Tomislav 

 Tokyo food trends - molecular and more @ Chef's Armoury

 Will update all in more detail later.

Dining by the seaside

As I was reflecting on the food outings for August I realised our dining experiences have been mostly not by the water except for Pilu at Freshwater and Guillaume at Bennelong so for YY's  birthday lunch I wanted somewhere by the water like Ormeggio.

Having past the Spit a few times on the way to Manly and Avalon but not actually stopped there so I had to do a little research to see which side of the spit Ormeggio was on and where the entrance actually was. At the end it was relatively easy to find just make sure you exit before the bridge. The parking is limited so I suggest you the the exit before and park there to walk to the restaurant.

Lunch was choice of set menu of 2 or 3 choices.

Sardines pan-fried, wrapped in prosciutto, pine nuts, sultanas, marsala reduction

The saltiness of the sardines complemented the sweetness from the marsala reduction.

Lamb scotch fillet, celeriac; crispy, confit, purée  Pineapple carpaccio, marinated in moscato, cinnamon gelato

Bankstown Bites 2010

After tasting generous proportions of sampling by each of places on the three guided tours I could eat no more. The highlight being a just a little bit basis towards sweets was the Euro Sweet Treats tour.

Hunter Valley Trip 1

Having no expectations seems to work perfectly for this trip. Having a GPS in the car for first time wasn't too distracting until you are over the speed limit. Little did I know I will be going for another trip to same place only a few months later.

      A  flower blooming in Hunter Valley Gardens

                                    

Sunset at Audrey Wilkinson

SIFF

After attending over 10 events in Sydney International Food Festival it wasn't the food that stood out it was more about seeing people's passion for food.

The secret food bloggers dinner was special in that they showed a part of themselves in their dishes. Thank you Trish for helping out settings on my new Canon. 

I think some people would like the this month to be over since I have been more food mad than usual!

Thank you J for accompanying to all the events !

Two of Sydney's prominet chefs in the news

Two pieces of news caught my attention. Marque being booked out for the rest of year for lunch and another article about Luke Mangan's reflection on his own restaurants.

Marque being booked out till November not at all surprised. Was lucky enough to be there with my family for a early mother's day lunch. Three course lunch with lovely light flavors and beautifully presented.

Both the 3 course $45 lunch special at Marque and the 2 and 3 course at Glass is smart way to do business. It draws me in for starters where can you have such high quality for under $70 a head. Hard to find in world, let alone Sydney.

Last year have been full of foodie adventures , finally went to one Japaneses restaurant I want to go for years at Paddington. There were highlights at the simplest places such as chat thai and mamak. GFM coming up again soon!

Good Food Month comes to an end for another year

Last stop was Intercontinental 's sugar hit which was quite good considering the my friend's comments were all that flash. There was suggestions it was too similar to last year's. The place was still under renovation at the start of the good food month so some people was having their sugar hit upstairs.

a longer update later.

Noodle Markets @ Hyde Park plus Chocolate workshop at Essential Ingredient and Westin Sugar hit !

The Noddle Markets features Banana Blossom , Zilver , East Ocean ,Wagamama , Cargo Bar , Serependity Ice-cream , Dutch Pancakes ( can't remember the name of it) and more.

I still remember the first time I experience Noddle Markets where they had Sailors Thai and other famous restaurants offering overall more variety but unfortunately in the past few years the variety of food has declined ( correct me if I'm wrong) since I remember more than 3 outlets serving satays.

This year I got that just on time just as the market started luckily managing to find a parking spot next to St Marys Cathedral. Had a walk around the stalls before meeting with J.


Eventually decided to start off with the rice balls $9 from Banana Blossom. It was covered minced pork and vegetables , had to dig one out for the photo.

Next was dutch pancakes which charged extra 50c for fruit and other extras unlike last year fruit was included in the price. For $9 you get a plate of dutch pancakes and choice of 2 toppings.


Wagamama offered 2 sides and 3 noodles. Sweet potato kusabi for $4 was the good value for money. The sauce ( basil and wasbi mayonnaise) complemented the potatoes quite well but lack the taste of wasabi.

Last but not least Serependity ice-cream tried the fig and vanilla and chocolate . Chocolate was better than the fig and vanilla since really couldn't taste the fig.







Quickly off to the next Good Food Month event Chocolate workshop with Thomas Schnetzler at Essential Ingredient at Crows Nest. The night composed of a explanation of how chocolate behaviours at various temperatures and tempering chocolate. There were 6 tables but 2 was doing the same thing. Thomas showed us how to make 3 types of truffles dark , mocca and earl grey. The remain table was making almond crunch.


The 2 hours flew by so quick. Everyone was waiting for the chocolates to set since some of them needed to be in the fridge. There some left to take home.

Next stop sugar hit at Westin since we were so close to city about 8kms I think. Not as value for money as the sampler plates at the other hotels but banana mousse on top of the aloe vera jelly offered something different.

Good Food Month

GFM is on again.
Sugar hits I would recommend Intercon as its nearly the best one every year.
http://gfm.smh.com.au/
Wouldn't mind trying a few of the special lunches for $35 since $35 at Aria one of top restaurants inSydney ain;t bad.

Hats on Hats off

Sydney Morning Hearld rates restaurants each year
So for 2008


3 hats
Bilson's
Bilson's Restaurant
Radisson Plaza Hotel Sydney
27 O'Connell Street
Sydney NSW 2000
+61 (0) 2 8214 0496


Claude's
10 Oxford Street Woollahra, NSW 2025
Phone: +61 -2-9331 2325

est.
est. restaurant
Level 1, 252 George Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
02 9240 3010

Marque
355 Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Ph : +61 2 9332 2225 Fax : +61 2 9332 3090

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal,
The Rocks, Sydney 2000
Tel: (61 2) 9251 5600
Fax:(61 2) 9251 5609

Tetsuya's
TETSUYA'S RESTAURANT NSW
529 KENT STREET SYDNEY
Telephone : +61 2 9267 2900
Fax : +61 2 9262 7099



2Hats
Aria
ARIA Restaurant
1 Macquarie Street
East Circular Quay
Sydney 2000
Tel: +61 2 9252 2555


Becasse
Bentley Restaurant & Bar
Bisto Moncur
Buon Ricordo
Forty One
Guillaume at Bennelong
Icebergs Dining Room & Bar
Lucio's, Pilu at Freshwater
Restaurant Balzac
Rockpool
Sean's Panaroma
Yoshii



1 Hats

Assiette

Astral
Level 17
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont Sydney
1800 700 700
or international + 61 2 9777 9000.

Azuma
Level 1, Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square
(Cnr. of Phillip & Hunter Street)
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel : (02) 9222 9960


Billy Kwong

355 Crown Street

Surry Hills NSW 2010

02 9332 3300

Bird Cow Fish

Bistro CBD


Bistro Ortolan
Bistrode
The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay
buzo
Catalina,
Fish Face
Flying Fish
Forbes & Burton
Four in Hand Dining Room
Foveaux Restaurant + Bar
Galileo
glass
Glebe Point Diner
Grand National
il piave
Longrain
Lotus
Milsons
Oscillate Wildly
Otto
Pello
Perama
Pier Tasting Room
Restaurant Atelier
Salon Banc
Restuarant Soujourn
Sailors Thai Restaurant
The Wharf
Three Clicks West
Yings

More links to come.

Fink Cafe

Apart from lindt and max breener there is Fink Chocolate Cafe in Lane Cove. It only opens till 5:30pm on weekdays and weekends 3pm. Its next to main road Burns Bay Road so it might be a bit noisy with traffic. There is both indoor and outdoor seating. The sampler for $15 is worth trying to share between two even though is quite hard to share since there are chocolates and crepes in it.





Sampler : ice-cream, crepe, brownie and more $15


Hot chocolate $4

Fink Chocolate Cafe
225 Burns Bay Road
Lane Cove

Homemade meal

The easiest way to combine vegetables and meat into some what healthy dish is to either to cook it with noddles or rice. Latter option seems to be the norm. Ingredients were red /green capsicum , onion , shiitake mushrooms , tofu fish balls , pork, carrot ,broccoli stalks and chinese meat mushroom balls. It tasted a little bland without much sauce. Tp be healthy you meant to eat 30 different food which must include fruit , meat and vegeatbles. I heard that on the radio which was meant to be a view taken by Japanese researchers.

Mickey's @ Paddington

After golf at Moore Park , lindt was meant to be our next stop but by that time Lindt was closed. I suggested Mickey's. Was a bit dissapointing since the cookies and cream cheesecake was bit hard since I think I had the last piece of day. For the Turkish delight sundae my friend expected there to be wrapped with the chocolate not just the filling he was pretty dissapointed with that.





268 Oxford Street
Paddington
9361 5157

Homemade desserts

This was third time I made creme brulee but this time for one batch I didn't put them in ramekins. Instead I put it in a baking square dish. Use a cartoon of eggs all in one day to make it. I don't think I ever will use so many eggs in a day.

Creme Brulee in progrees in the oven Was a bit worried if was going to be cooked evenly.

After around 35mins in the oven it was cooked but somehow I ended up with cracks.

The end result was good except someone had already took chunks out of it before I put the sugar in top. It doesn't look as professional at the restaurant ones since I don't have one of those guns to put a nice solid suagry top so putting in the oven was the best I could do.

Green tea ice-cream sundae with red bean. Credit to my family friend who loves baking cakes :p.The green team ice-cream was homemade while there was a break in playing poker :P.