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

Snacking in Hong Kong

Shopping all day can work up an appetite, but luckily in Hong Kong there are places to eat around every corner. Here are just some of the snacks that I ate along the way...

Hong Kong Egg waffles - HK$15 (about AU$2)

You can't go to Hong Kong without trying egg waffles, or gai daan jai (鷄蛋仔). Every time I go to Hong Kong, I try to eat as many of these as possible because they're so good! They are made by pouring a batter made from eggs, flour, sugar and evaporated milk onto a hot waffle iron with round indentations. Each egg-shaped bubble is filled with a soft cakey centre but the rest of the waffle is wonderfully crispy. They come in a range of different flavours nowadays, but I almost always get the original "egg" flavour. My favourite vendor is North Point Egg Waffle which has several locations around Hong Kong.

Wonton noodles including a side dish - HK$42

Essen, Ultimo

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the snow for the first time since I was a kid and I got hooked. We went two weekends in a row, and because we couldn't stop thinking about it, we are planning to go again before the season ends. I am officially a snow addict. So an alpine lodge setting for dinner at Essen seemed perfect for our snow-addled brains (there was a ski on the wall which I got stupidly excited about!).

Essen - the home of bier and the Schnitzilla challenge

Essen provides loads of bier and hearty food in a homely setting which was the perfect start to our non-skiing weekend. I'm not usually a bier drinker but the Mango Weizen bier provided enough sweetness for me to down the whole thing. Sir D went for the the more traditional Rodeberger Pilsner Saxony bier, available on tap at Essen. Also featured at Essen is the Schnitzilla challenge - a whopping 3.5kg mountain of schnitzel, sauerkraut and potato roesti to be finished by one person in one sitting!

Pilze - $8.50

We're not game enough to face the Schnitzilla so we take the easy way out with a few entrees. The crumbed button mushrooms are deliciously crunchy on the outside but with meaty, juicy innards. The saffron aioli is a sunny yellow blob on the side, and is a nice creamy accompaniment to the mushrooms.

Knobli Brot - $5

I'm intrigued by the Knobli Brot - a Swiss garlic bread with Gruyère and paprika. I was imagining a piece of garlic bread oozing with melty gruyere on top, but instead its just a bit of grated Gruyère that garnishes the bread. It is garlicky though, and the smokiness of the paprika is a unique twist on your standard garlic bread.

Camembert - $10

Fairy Wand Cookies

It's been a while since I've done a cookie post so here are some fairy wand cookies I made a while back for a girly afternoon tea birthday celebration. The cookies are just my usual plain sugar cookies glazed with royal icing and sprinkled with tinted caster sugar.

Getting the cookies onto the lollipop stick was the hardest part. I hunted around for some non-plastic lollipop sticks and ended up buying these paper Wilton lollipop sticks from a cake decorating store, though I also saw them later in an arts and crafts shop. I inserted the lollipop stick into the cookies before baking (I realised just now that it actually says "not for oven use" on the website but too late... I had them in the oven for about 10 minutes and they were fine). I found that I had to roll the cookies out a little thicker than usual to make sure that the stick was fully covered by the cookie dough. The lollipop stick also made some of the cookies go a bit out of shape or caused them to crack so a little patching up and reshaping was required.

I wanted to make the cookies have a little bit of glitter on them like a real fairy wand, so I made some pink tinted caster sugar and dusted the still-wet icing with it. In hindsight, I think it would have been better to press the wet icing into a plate of tinted sugar for a more even colour over the whole cookie. We wrapped them up in some clear cellophane and attached a pink ribbon around the stick, and the guests took them home as cute and edible party favours!