WLG Wellington Pop-Up Restaurant, Kings Cross

Yes I'm a bit late to the party but I was really excited to be able to make it to WLG on its last weekend open in Sydney! We arrived at the old Bayswater Brasserie site and the place was buzzing with the tables full of people enjoying their meals. The place was decked out in all sorts of New Zealand products, including fresh produce, Whittaker's chocolates and NZ wine.

Since we hadn't made a booking, we were ushered to the bar area to wait for a table. We got two glasses of wine to pass the time and munched on some Whittaker's chocolate samples at the bar. The vibe in the restaurant was really lively and even the bar area was packed with people waiting for a seat. It was also great to see Rex Morgan, chef of Boulcott St Bistro doing his thing in the kitchen, and later on in the evening he went around to each table asking people if they enjoyed their meal, which was really nice.

(left): Wither hills Malborough Pinot Noir 2008 (L) and Spy Valley Pinot Gris Marlborough 2010 (R); (right) menu for 24 Sep to 26 Sep

After a short wait someone came to get us and took us to our seats which was in the darkest room possible, much to my dismay. So apologies in advance for the dodgy photos!

(clockwise from top left): Crispy west coast NZ white bait and grilled asparagus with chopped egg and caper mayo; Fried goat's cheese balls with Manuka honey and kiwi chutney; Venison rillettes with spiced pear and watercress; Lot Eight spiced olives. Citrus cured Regal King Salmon gravlax with wasabi panna cotta (not pictured)

Strawberry Tarts

Just a quick post today. My poor blog has been neglected lately but with good reason - I'm in the process of writing my honours thesis which is due in exactly 3 weeks! What with all the statistics analysis and writing everything up for my supervisor, it's been a hectic two weeks and I can only imagine it wil only get worse until October 13th when it will all be over. Luckily thanks to a few people I have plenty of fun things lined up for after I finish which gives me something to look forward to while I'm staring at a screen full of words for hours on end.

Sometimes when life gets crazy busy it makes me appreciate the simple things in life, like this strawberry tart. There's no fancy brulee and no fancy decorating. It's just pastry, creme patissiere and strawberries, with a light dusting of icing sugar. No more, no less. 

And while it may not have the delicacy of a macaron, or the richness of a chocolate brownie, it tastes just as good, if not better. I can say with certainty that it tastes a thousand times better than thesis-writing.

Pilu Kiosk, Freshwater

It's Springtime! And although the weather lately hasn't always been reflective of that, we have had a few beautiful sunny days in Sydney that remind us to pack away the heaters and big heavy coats and trade them in for air conditioners and pretty summer dresses.

The beautiful Freshwater Beach

On one of these days Sir D and I decided to go to Freshwater beach to check out Pilu Kiosk, a little cafe offshoot of the restaurant Pilu at Freshwater that serves panini, coffee and pastries.

It seemed like every man, woman and dog had ventured out today to enjoy the weather so when we entered the kiosk all the seats were taken! We headed over to the counter to place our orders while keeping our eyes peeled for anyone leaving.

Suckling pig panini - $9.50

Blanco Restaurant, Potts Point

I love finishing off the working week with a nice drink, and luckily on this dreary, rainy Friday night as we headed to Potts Point for dinner at Blanco Restaurant, we were presented with page of refreshing sounding cocktails to kick-start the weekend as we were seated in the restaurant.

Bloody Passion: blood orange, 42 Below passionfruit vodka, lime, sugar - $12

Blanco is situated in a stark white building studded with mosaic tiles off the main street in Potts Point and is run by Damien Pignolet and Ron White, formerly of Bistro Moncur. Pushing open the door, we're greeted with a bar at the front and a sparsely decorated restaurant bathed in red light, with a little bookcase and reading area at the back of the room. It's still early so we're the only ones there and have the full attention of the waitstaff who help us choose some drinks from the cocktail list which prominently features blood oranges.

Bloody Stringer Bellini: Paul Louis French sparkling, blood orange juice, peach liqueur - $10 (left); Crispy Portuguese chicken wings - $15 (right)

We start off with the crispy Portuguese chicken wings which actually turned out to be little drummettes of chicken but were tasty nonetheless. These were coated in a salty, slightly spicy batter and were crunchy on the outside with juicy, tender chicken on the inside. Perfect with a squeeze of lime.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

If there's anything I love more than receiving foodie gifts, it's giving them. One of my best friends from high school S was leaving the sunny shores of Sydney for the rainy ones of London to study music (and become a famous violinist) so I tried to think of an appropriate going away gift for her.

I knew she loved chocolate and I know on those cold, gloomy days, nothing cheers me up more than a steaming mug of hot chocolate. So after doing some research on the internet about how to make a hot chocolate able to be transported internationally, I came across this brilliant idea on the Giver's Log - hot chocolate on a stick.

It was easy and simple to make - the key to getting a luscious, chocolatey hot chocolate is making sure you use good quality ingredients. This means using real chocolate that is high in cocoa butter and using good quality cocoa powder. The hardest part of this recipe was melting the chocolate at a low enough temperature to keep it 'in temper'; it's tempting to want to crank up the heat to melt it quicker but a bit of patience will give you smooth, shiny chocolate.

I made my hot chocolates on a stick in the shape of strawberries and penguins thanks to the silicon ice cube moulds that I received from Billy, Karen and Steph for my birthday earlier this year. I couldn't resist trying one and it was great - the chocolate melted nicely in the hot milk and it tasted like real chocolate, not that overly sweet powdered stuff. Since I used dark chocolate and S likes it sweet, I dipped some of them in white chocolate as well to make it a bit sweeter and wrapped them up individually for her to take to the UK. Hope you like them S!