2012 Roundup

First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I mentioned in my previous post that I was hosting a Christmas meal at my place, so here's a few snaps of some of the food that was devoured.

Clockwise from top left: Prawn, mango and avocado salad (made by mother dearest); Roast prime rib of beef with glazed carrots and beans; Chocolate cherry pavlova; Strawberry and mint tiramisu

It's hard to believe that we're already at the end of another year. At the start of 2012, I remember thinking how long this year was going to be, but looking back now, it feels like it's flown by. I've finished off my Masters degree, learned to ski and fell in love with it, and bought our first car (and learned to drive manual!). It's been a busy year so at times this blog got a little neglected, but that doesn't mean there wasn't plenty of delicious food!

Christmas Shortbread

Only 4 more sleeps til Christmas! The lead up to Christmas can be stressful and crazy - especially when shopping centres are packed and it takes half an hour to even get into the carpark - but I think it makes me appreciate Christmas even more, since it's usually quite a relaxing time for me.

The thing I love most about Christmas is the gathering of family and friends to share a meal and exchange gifts. This year, I'm hosting a Christmas Eve dinner at my place, which is sure to involve lots of mayhem in the kitchen! I've tried to be organised though by making some things in advance, like this Christmas shortbread.

This recipe is super easy to make, and are perfect as little treats to go with a tea or coffee after a meal, or wrapped up as take-home gifts for guests. I took a regular shortbread recipe and injected some festive cheer into it by turning half of the dough into cranberry and white chocolate shortbread, and the other half into green tea shortbread.

I love the contrasting colours of the two shortbreads together. They also have quite different flavours with the cranberry and white chocolate being sweeter with pops of tartness from the cranberry, and the green tea shortbread being ever so slightly bitter. Regardless, they are both delicious, and I think they will become part of my regular Christmas baking routine from now on!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas! May you stuff your bellies full of tasty food and may Santa make all your Christmas wishes come true :)

Dulce Luna Viennoiserie, Sydney

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Pastries. Delicious, buttery pastries. I have this dream of going to Paris and eating a freshly baked pastry from a different patisserie every day. I don't think my waistline and arteries would approve, but I'm sure my tastebuds would! Until I can make it to France, I'll have to seek out pastries and croissants in Sydney.

Dulce Luna, a hole-in-the-wall store on York St definitely fits the bill, dishing out thousands of gorgeous, glistening pastries every day - just like the ones above. I attended the launch of Dulce Luna, where we were able to find out more about the pastries on offer, and do a bit of taste test as well.

So what is a Dulce Luna? Gus Mendez, founder of Dulce Luna, explains that they are a product influenced by many different parts of the world, including the French croissant, the Italian cornetti and the Argentinean media luna (half moon) from where the product gets its name.

Clockwise from top left: creme patisserie - $3; raspberry - $3; ham, cheese and bechamel - $3.50; dulce de leche - $3

Ippudo, Sydney

The latest global phenomenon to hit the shores of Sydney is Ippudo, located on level 5 of Westfield Sydney. Before, Sydneysiders were queueing up for Laduree's pretty macarons, but now it's all about the ramen. We visited on a weeknight but still had to wait for around 30 minutes. Thankfully, there is a bar out the front and the bartenders are more than happy for you to order drinks and bar snacks while you wait.

Ippudo pork bun - $4

Puntino Trattoria, Woolloomooloo

If you're a cheese lover and you haven't tried burrata yet, you are seriously missing out. Inside this plump, knotted ball of cheese is cream and soft mozzarella that oozes out once it is cut into. It is rich, creamy and oh so delicious! The promise of burrata and wood-fired oven pizza is what drew us to Puntino Trattoria, which is hidden away on the Woolloomooloo side of Crown Street.

Cacio di cavallo - $16.90

We're being treated tonight with a multitude of cheeses and treats from the wood-fired oven, starting with the smoked provolone that is baked in the wood-fired oven with shaved black truffle. The truffle aroma hits as soon as it lands on the table, and we use the tongs to take a piece of the melty, stretchy cheese and eat it with the accompanying bread.

Calzone ai formaggi - $10 (left) and calamari in padella - $16 (right)

Other entrees that we sample also include the calzone ai formaggi - a wood-fired pizza folded over with mozzarella, parmesan and garlic - and a simple but delicious flash friend calamari with lemon and garlic. The calamari pieces are especially good as they are slightly tangy from the lemon and very tender.

Mozzarella degustazione platter - $15.50pp (min 2 ppl)

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

You know that Christmas is here when there is the unmistakeable aroma of gingerbread wafting through the kitchen. It's become somewhat of a tradition of mine to make gingerbread for the holiday season, and since I've done gingerbread men and gingerbread houses before, I thought it was time for something new.

I received a Gingerbread Tree kit as a gift and decided to put it to use. It came with a base and two different sized wooden dowels for the interior stem of the tree, as well as a set of five graduated star cookie cutters and a circle cutter. Everything I needed to make my very own Gingerbread Christmas Tree.

Making the gingerbread was easy enough. I just used my usual recipe and cut out about 5 stars of each size using the five graduated star cutters. If you are going to thread it through a wooden dowel, don't forget to also cut out a hole in the centre of the stars. I cut an extra small star for the top of the tree as a topper as well.

I decorated each star with royal icing before assembling the tree, which just involved placing the stars in order of size on top of each other, so that the base of the tree has the biggest stars going to the top of the tree with the smallest. If you don't have a stand, you can also use the icing to glue the stars on top of each other, which will create the same effect. And that's all it takes to make a Christmas tree of the edible variety! Half the fun is actually taking it apart and eating it :)

Mino Sushi & Sake, Willoughby

Although there's no shortage of Japanese restaurants around my area, I still love finding out about new ones. I'd been meaning to try out Mino in Mosman for a while, which offers a very affordable kaiseki 6-course dinner. When I found out that Mino had also opened a restaurant in Willoughby, I went to try it out ASAP.

Mino Sushi and Sake in Willoughby focuses more on a la carte dishes than the multi-course menu that is offered by its sister restaurant. This gave us more choice when ordering, almost too much choice, especially when there were several tapas-style offerings that were available per piece, like a grilled scallop with garlic soy butter ($4), or a yakitori chicken skewer ($3.50).

Large assorted sushi (12pc) - $26

Peter Gilmore's Festive Season Menu @ Quay

Christmas madness has officially begun! My Christmas tree is up, I've started my Christmas baking (more about that in another post) and I wish I could say that I've finished my Christmas shopping but I've only just begun that...

At least I've pretty much got the Christmas meal sorted since I got some great ideas from a recent masterclass I attended, where Peter Gilmore (of Quay Restaurant fame) shared his Christmas menu. We sat on the upper level of Quay, which is reserved for functions with a spectacular backdrop of Sydney Harbour and its landmarks, and also has an Electrolux kitchen installed at one end.

We sat around the kitchen and watched as Peter Gilmore cooked and plated up his three-course Christmas menu. The dishes were simple to prepare and most of the work can be done ahead of time to minimise the chances of you running around like a headless chicken after the guests have arrived!

Steamed freshwater marron with herb butter, young leaf and flower salad

MCA Cafe, The Rocks

Sydney has been showing off it's beautiful summer weather lately with blue skies and the sun shining down. It makes me want to come out of hibernation and head outside to enjoy the sun. Charm and I did exactly that when we headed out one weekend to check out the Little Black Jacket exhibition, and we grabbed a bite to eat beforehand at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Cafe.

Cafe interior

We arrived quite late in the day and many of the menu items had already sold out. There were still some tempting dishes though, like the carb-on-carb Oven-baked mac & cheese with bread and the Pea & fontina arancini (which we immediately regretted not ordering when we saw it come out in an egg carton!). In the end, we decided to get two dishes to share which was the perfect amount for a light lunch.

Crispy salt and pepper cuttlefish with garlic aioli - $16

Honeymoon Dessert, Hong Kong

I don't generally like Asian desserts - the beans and the soupy things don't do it for me. But, I do have a soft spot for glutinous rice and mochi desserts so everytime I'm in Hong Kong, I head to Honeymoon Dessert for a sugar hit.

We arrive around 11pm on a Friday night and it is packed... so packed that there are people spilling out of the shopfront waiting for a table. The branch that we go to has limited seating (as with most of the other ones that I've been to) but the turnover is fast so it's not too long before we have a table.

Papaya and white fungus soup

Mango glutinous dumplings

Tokonoma, Surry Hills

Walking into Tokonoma is a bit like walking into a club. You push open the heavy, wooden front door and you enter a room full of darkness and funky music. It doesn't make for great photos or seeing what you're actually eating, but the atmosphere is intimate and moody. We're here at Tokonoma on a coincidental double date, as we found out that we both purchased the group-buy voucher for a degustation for two for $99. We were also able to swap out our complimentary bottle of wine for glasses of sake instead, which was more to our liking.

Edamame; Salmon tartare

We start with a few appetisers, which include some edamame and salmon tartare. The salmon tartare is delicious mouthful of chopped raw salmon, melded together with a mild wasabi miso and topped with salmon roe which pop in the mouth.

Beef tataki

Best Ever Choc Chip Cookies

I take no credit for these cookies. I seem to be fine with rolled cookies (like sugar cookies and gingerbread), but when I try to make chocolate chip cookies, they always seem to turn as hard as rocks by the next day. So these choc chip cookies here are entirely the work of Sir D, who ended up having to bake these because he lost a bet with me (ha!).

I'm lucky to have a boy who can bake, because these were the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. Were they the result of the awesome recipe by Jacques Torres (aka Mr Chocolate) or due to Sir D's hidden baking talents? We'll never know, but I do know that they were soft, with slightly crisp edges, incredibly chocolatey and so addictive. I swear that Sir D had scoffed down about 4 of them within 5 minutes of them being ready. The best thing about these cookies though is that if you can stop yourself eating them all straight out of the oven, they're just as good the day after.

The original recipe makes large (around 12cm wide) cookies, but we wanted normal sized cookies (and also the quantities seemed rather large) so we decided to halve the recipe. Once we bit into the cookies though, we were sorry that we made half the dough, because it meant fewer cookies for us to eat! You can keep this dough refrigerated for up to 3 days or roll the dough into balls and freeze them. But trust me, you won't have to do that because the cookies will be gone before you know it.

O Bar & Dining, Sydney

It's been a bit quiet on the blog lately but I assure you all is well. Actually, it's even better than well, because as of tomorrow, I will be free of uni assignments, theses and lectures! But I have developed quite a substantial backlog of photos and yet-to-be-written posts so expect to see more of these in the coming weeks.

Views from O Bar & Dining

We recently dined at the new O Bar and Dining, which is located in what used to be Summit Restaurant. O Bar and Dining retains the chef (Michael Moore), the stunning views over Sydney and the revolving restaurant, but has undergone a revamp to make it a little more hip and casual.

Market Fresh cocktails

What makes it different from Summit in that it has a new lounge section which offers bar snacks and delicious cocktails for those who like their drinks with a view. As well as the traditional cocktail list, O Bar and Dining have Market Fresh cocktails which are made from seasonal fruits and so change very frequently. On the day we visited, we were treated to a rockmelon and mint daiquiri and a blood orange cocktail with yuzu - both of which were easy to drink (we liked them so much we ended up having another!)

Mixed Tacos (tuna, soy, chilli; kingfish, coriander, avocado; sticky beef rib; prawn mayo) - $22

The menu at O Bar and Dining is based on Michael Moore's healthy eating philosophy and the recipes from his book, Blood Sugar. This isn't immediately obvious to us as we munch on some assorted corn tacos from the bar menu, but when we peruse the main restaurant menu, we see that it's full of healthy low GI grains, vegetables and quinoa.

Salmon tataki - $26

High Street Bistro, Willoughby

It's hard not to be immediately charmed by a local restaurant that has a wheelbarrow full of fresh produce out the front, as well as a 'doggy parking' area complete with water bowls for our four-legged friends. Sir D and I are lunching at High Street Bistro which is packed on a Sunday. A voucher deal for 3 courses for two for only $39 keeps our wallets happy, but the normal prices aren't too steep, with around a $30 average for main courses.

Pancetta wrapped scallops with black pudding and horseradish broth

Pancetta wrapped scallops combines two of my favourite things - scallops and cured pork. The black pudding is a nice dash of saltiness while the horseradish broth (which is actually more like a cream-based sauce) adds some zing to the dish. The scallops are cooked perfectly and the pancetta is wonderfully crisp, so it's great start to the meal.

Pan fried handmade ricotta and basil gnocchi with burnt sage butter and parmesan

It's hard not to like this light-as-air ricotta gnocchi, especially when it's being bathed in a burnt butter and sage sauce. The gnocchi is topped with baby asparagus spears, crispy fried sage leaves and shavings of parmesan.

Fish and chips with tartare sauce

Ramen Zundo, Sydney

Move over Gumshara, there's a new ramen place in town! Ramen Zundo is located in the World Square shopping precinct - not in the underground shopping area where Coles is but on the ground floor level in one of the corridors that connects to Liverpool Street.

Menu

The menu is relatively short and sweet, with a few different broths and flavours for ramen, as well as Japanese curry and sides. Order and pay at the counter, before taking a number and a seat. It's not too long before a steaming hot bowl of ramen is placed in front of you.

Zundo black - $11.80