sushi e, Sydney (March Into Merivale)

There really is such thing as a free meal! Thanks to the Tweet to Eat competition as part of March Into Merivale, I was lucky enough to score a free voucher to eat at one of nine Merivale restaurants offering $33 lunches and dinners, which include a main meal and a glass of wine or beer.

Deciding which restaurant to go was probably the hardest part, even with the help of the $33 menus available for viewing on the website. We ended up at sushi e, located in the Establishment building of the Merivale empire, and were seated on stools at a marble bar surrounding the sushi chefs, which allowed us to watch head chef Nobuyuki Ura in action.

We started off with a steaming bowl of miso soup (included in the $33 menu), which was very welcome on this dreary, rainy evening. The broth was more bland than I'm used to, and in the soup was deep fried tofu, spring onions and mitsuba leaf.

All You Can Eat Ribs at Waterfront Grill, Darling Harbour

When planning a birthday celebration with food bloggers, one always needs to consider the food. Will it taste good? Will there be enough? Thankfully this was not an issue when I celebrated my 21st birthday with a giant horde of super hungry food bloggers craving for ribs at Waterfront Grill.

Raspberry iced tea cocktail (Thanks Leona!)

The amount of food was never going to be a problem since what we were there for was the All You Can Eat Ribs for $29pp, available on Tuesday nights from 5pm. And although there were some inconsistencies with some ribs being a bit drier than others, when they did arrive smothered in BBQ sauce they were delicious!

Bills, Surry Hills

Bills is somewhat of a breakfast institution in Sydney, and it shames me to admit that, even though I am a born and bred Sydneysider, it was only a few weeks ago that I first visited Bills for brunch. We arrived at 12 so they had already progressed onto their lunch menu, but luckily for me all of Bills classic breakfast dishes were also offered for lunch :)

Sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon - $18.50

To be honest, no matter how much hype I hear about the scrambled eggs, I simply can not bring myself to pay $13.50 for scrambled eggs and toast (especially when I know the secret ingredient is lots of cream!). Instead, I opt for the sweet corn fritters, which are two lovely crisp patties of pop-in-your-mouth corn held together by an eggy batter. Sandwiched between these tasty fritters are pieces of juicy roasted roma tomatoes, baby spinach leaves and the best bacon I have tasted to date! The bacon wasn't particularly crispy but it just had the most amazing smokey bacony flavour. I don't know what kind of bacon I've been eating in the past but this is what REAL bacon should taste like! Needless to say I ate every last bit of this dish.

Semolina-crusted calamari with lemon, parsely, green beans and fennel - $19.50

Taste of Sydney 2010

I'm sure this is the millionth blog post about Taste of Sydney, but don't worry, I'll keep it short and sweet :) This is mainly a photo post, with the exception of when I simply have to rave on about how good something tastes. But we'll get to that later.

5.30pm, and the gates are opened!

The currency of Taste of Sydney is Crowns, where 1 Crown = $1.

Aria: Cured ocean trout with cucumber and horseradish - 10 crowns

Restaurant Balzac: Crispy wagyu beef with wild mushroom and truffle foam - 10 crowns

If you're wondering where the beef is, it's inside the 'spring roll' type thing. The pastry was super crunchy and the wagyu beef was nice and tender.

Restaurant Balzac: Saddle of suckling pig with garden peas and smoked bacon jus - 12 crowns

Quay, The Rocks

With unparalleled views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, along with some of Sydney's best food by head chef Peter Gilmore, Quay is definitely a place best reserved for a special occasion.

View from the restaurant

This is exactly what Sir D and I did one weekday lunchtime, when we headed to Quay to celebrate our anniversary. We were greeted by friendly waitstaff who took us through the spacious dining area, where the afternoon sunlight beamed through the glass walls of the restaurant, revealing a clear blue sky and stunning views of Sydney Harbour. Whilst settling in at our table, who should I spot but the lovely Ellie from Almost Bourdain! If you haven't already, check out her spectacular tiramisu inspired by one of Quay's signature desserts :)

Although it is definitely not cheap, Quay offers what is said to be one of the best value lunches in Sydney, with 2 courses for $75 or 3 courses for $95. We opted for the 3 course lunch and as we made our choices from the menu, my stomach was already quivering in excitement for the gustatory pleasures to come.

Amuse bouche - Tuna tartare with smoked eel tapioca and horseradish cream

Placecard Cookies

As I mentioned in my previous post about Après restaurant, I made sure that I sat next to people who would be willing to share their food with me so I could try all the dishes on the menu. In order to do this, I had to make place cards.

Since I wasn't having a cake, I also wanted people to have a little something to take home so I decided to kill two birds with one stone by making placecard cookies.

These cookies were just basic sugar cookies glazed with purple royal icing and white royal icing used to pipe on the names. It was my first time piping out letters and I was really worried that they would turn out a big mess but thanks to Queen Chu who let me borrow her piping set, and a bit of patience on my part, they turned out beautifully.

Photo courtesy of BLT

I wrapped them up in some plastic gift bags, tied some purple ribbon around the top and placed them on the table setting when we arrived at the restaurant. Everyone loved the cookies which were crumbly and buttery, with BLT and Captain Awesome polishing off their cookies before dinner had even begun!