Hyde Park Barracks Cafe, Sydney

As much as I love the Crave Sydney International Food Festival month, uni work tends to always get in the way of me going to all the events I want to. Last year it was my thesis, and this year I was inundated with assignments because the lecturers thought it would be fun for us to have them all due in the same week. I was glad to have the final week of Crave to go to the events that I wanted to and Sir D and I decide to head out to a nice brunch at Hyde Park Barracks Cafe one weekend.

Home-made granola, natural yoghurt and poached fruit

Brunch is a three-course affair here, priced at $25pp and served with English Breakfast tea or filtered coffee. We start with some granola with yoghurt, berry compote and poached pear. The granola is crunchy and I love finding big chunks of granola stuck together. It's a little dry and could have done with a bit more yoghurt but it's a good start to the meal and the poached pear provides a nice sweetness to the dish.

Eggs three ways

Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness

Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness just after opening

October is one of my favourite months. Not only because it seems to be full of birthdays, and is only 2 months away from Christmas, but because every year in October the Crave Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) is on and it's a month of eating, eating and more eating. This year, SIFF kicked off with a series of BBQ madness events, where themed BBQ events were held all around Sydney to celebrate the barbecue grill. I was up early on Saturday morning to go to the Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness event, held in Church St Mall, Parramatta.

The Love Goddess - Wanitha Tanasingam

The event began at 9am and was an early start for me on a Saturday morning, but Malaysia Kitchen's ambassador, Wanitha Tanasingam (aka the "Love Goddess"), was there to wake everyone up with her enthusiasm and sheer passion for Malaysian food. Apart from expounding the wonders of sambal belacan, she also demonstrated two dishes with the help of Sara from Belly Rumbles and Lorraine Wearne, the Lord Mayor of Parramatta.

Wanitha and her two helpers: Sara and Lorraine

Wanitha cooked up some sotong bakar, a marinated and barbecued squid, and ayam panggang, a spicy grilled chicken. Some samples of the squid were passed around and this was the perfect thing to wake up my stomach, with the sweet, tender squid being barbecued to a nice char on the outside, and a spicy flavour coming through from the marinade.

Sotong Bakar on the grill

Next up in the demonstration kitchen was the ever delightful Florence Tan, who travelled from Malaysia to attend this event. I've seen her on Poh's Kitchen before and she is just as a lively and bubbly in real life as she is on TV.

Florence Tan beginning her cooking demonstration

Spain Meets Japan @ Japaz, Neutral Bay

I've always been fascinated by fusion food and how you can take two seemingly distant cuisines and merge them together into one. Japaz is a place that cleverly fuses Spanish and Japanese cuisines by creating small tapas or izakaya style dishes using both Japanese and Spanish ingredients and techniques. Tonight we're dining at the SIFF Drink and Dine event held at Japaz (at a discounted rate thanks to a hungry.digital.elf!)

It seems like we were not the only ones to take up the offer since we see other tables taking photos of their food too, including the awesome Mademoiselle Delicièuse and Monsieur Poisson from spoon, fork and chopsticks. The dinner consists of eight courses paired with matching sake. As soon as we're seated, we're given the first sake of the night which is served as a sangria with lemonade and little cubes of apple and orange.

Gaspacho with Soumen Noodle

The cloudy sake sangria is paired with the first course of the night, a gaspacho with soumen noodles. The dish is cool and refreshing, with the acidity of the gaspacho and soft slipperyness of the soumen noodles. There are a few drops of herb oil on top of the gaspacho as well as a clove of black garlic, which is surprisingly mild and doesn't have the bite of normal garlic.

Sashimi of Lobster with Crushed Spanish Gordal Olives and Tomato Seed Dressing

Sydney Food and Wine Fair 2010

The Sydney Food and Wine Fair is an event which marks the end of the Sydney International Food Festival for another year and is also for a great cause, with proceeds of the event going towards the Aids Trust of Australia. It was a great event last year with high-end restaurants like Quay and Guillaume at Bennelong offering up some of their signature dishes as well as lots of freebies, so I was definitely looking forward to it this year.

In the queue for free Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

It was a hot day so we were so glad to see the colourful Ben and Jerry's van parked inside Hyde Park, with people scooping up some Ben and Jerry's ice cream for the masses. The queue was pretty long but it was worth the wait :)

Strawberry cheesecake Ben and Jerry's ice cream

Cafe Ish, Surry Hills

Something that caught my eye in the 2010 Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) lineup was the new addition of "Let's do Brunch". I noticed that Cafe Ish was participating in Let's do Brunch, offering a breakfast trifle, soft-shell crab omelette and a coffee for $25, and since I've always wanted to try their soft-shell crab omelette it was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Josh, the owner and chef of Cafe Ish, gives us a friendly wave as we walk in and I make sure to ask the waitress if it's ok to take photos. Asking politely goes a long way here, and the waitress kindly thanks me for asking and gives me the thumbs up :)

Wattle Macca-cino

It's definitely a good thing that I can take photos since it would be a shame not to be able to share the awesome food that they serve at Cafe Ish. We start off with their signature Wattle Macca-cino which is a nutty concoction of wattleseed, macadamia and coffee. It arrives with pretty coffee art on the top and the tiniest, cutest little cookie ever on the teaspoon. The coffee itself is smooth and with just the right amount of sweetness that I don't have to add any sugar. If I could have this every morning to start my day I would!

Sugar Hit @ Azuma Kushiyaki Bar and Grill

Azuma Kushiyaki was one of the SIFF Sugar Hits I most wanted to go to last year, but by the time I got around to booking they were already full up! I was quite disappointed but this made me want to go even more this year and I made sure I booked nice and early to avoid missing out again.

Azuma Kushiyaki Bar and Grill 2010 Sugar Hit - $20 (including dessert wine, cognac or green tea)

The SIFF Sugar Hits are available througout October from 9pm onwards for $20 which includes a dsesert as well as a glass of Brown Brothers dessert wine or Hennessy cognac. The dessert offered at Azuma arrived in two cute little black boxes. The container on the left had a matcha green tea ganache tart, a wasabi chocolate ganache tart, a petit almond financier and a macaron. The macaron had a face piped onto it which was a very cute touch, and the flavour and texture were spot on as well. I wasn't a big fan of the financier or the wasabi chocolate tart. The wasabi and chocolate combination just didn't do it for me, but it did leave my tongue tingling! The green tea ganache tart had a nice strong green tea flavour and the ganache was super smooth as well - this was my favourite out of all the parts of the Sugar Hit.

SIFF Night Noodle Markets, 2010

I'm baaack! Yes that's right my thesis is finally finished! And since we're right in the middle of the Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) what better way to kickstart my newly-found freedom than by trying to go to as many events as possible.

The queue at Jackie M Malaysian Cuisine

The Night Noodle Markets started on Monday this week and I may have picked the worst possible day to go. Though it started out as a nice balmy evening, the rain started pouring down about an hour into the markets and people took cover under the trees in Hyde Park. Nevertheless, we still got a chance to check out all the stalls which consisted of mostly Thai, Malaysian and dumpling/dim sum places, a sprinkling of Japanese stalls and the ever present Turkish gozleme and poffertjes (which had been renamed 'mini pancakes' with an Asian font haha). The Jackie M Malaysian Cuisine stall was just as popular as last year, with lots of people queueing up for the made-to-order noodles.

Both Din Tai Fung and New Shanghai had dumpling makers on site which was quite cool. They stood behind plastic screens with their mouth guards and folded dumplings in front of the waiting queues - it was like dumpling TV! The dumpling-makers at Din Tai Fung looked especially professional, they folded those dumpling skins so expertly and so quickly.

4 assorted skewers from Mizuya: (left to right) prawn kushiyaki, chicken yakitori, Japanese cheese sausage and beef kushiyaki - $13.00

Sydney Food & Wine Fair 2009

The end of October also marked the end of the Sydney International Food Festival 2009, but what better way to send it off than with the Sydney Food and Wine Fair in Hyde Park on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. With around 80 food and wine stalls including the likes of Quay, Bourke Street Bakery and Flying Fish, what's not to love about it?

Sundried tomato chicken with pasta and vegetables

Sir D and I bought $30 worth of coupons and started wandering around checking out what each stall had to offer. We passed the Lean Cuisine stall which was giving out plates of Lean Cuisine food with a glass of wine to match, all for free! I had the sundried tomato chicken with pasta with a matching chardonnay. The pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce was very flavoursome.

Beef in red wine casserole with herbed mashed potato

Sir D had the beef in red wine casserole which was served with mashed potato and a glass of shiraz. The beef was very tender and there was a definite red wine taste in the sauce. The mash wasn't as creamy as I would have liked but then again, it is Lean Cuisine, right? Pretty good for a free meal!

Grilled ocean trout with avocado, capers, kipfler potato salad, baby leaves and coddled egg dressing - 4 coupons ($12)

Sugar Hit @ Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

With the SIFF drawing to a close, I decided that I should at least try one of the Sugar Hits since I've never been to one. There were so many to choose from, but thanks to the Eat Show & Tell crew, choosing which one to attend became a lot easier from their extensive reviews! I initially wanted to go to Glass Brasserie and Azuma Kushiyaki, but they were both booked out on the night, so I settled for Sheraton on the Park.

A candy creation of chocolate and sugar in the Gallery Tea Lounge - it smelt delicious!

Almost as soon as we sat down, we were presented with our Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora. Not long after that, a waitress came over with 2 Sugar Hits. The service was very efficient, almost too efficient. It made me feel a bit rushed which was strange considering that more than half the tables were still empty. But maybe that was just me.

Warm chocolate pudding sprinkled with golden almond splinters, honeycomb ice cream and a drop of chantilly cream, served with a glass of Brown Brothers dessert wine - $20

Let's Do Lunch @ Foveaux Restaurant and Bar, Surry Hills

After looking at all the Let's Do Lunch options on offer for this year's SIFF, Foveaux Restaurant and Bar stood out to us as the one that we definitely had to attend. They certainly didn't disappoint, offering two options for their Let's Do Lunch, meaning that we got to sample 2 of their delicious mains.

Let's Do Lunch Menu

Foveaux is located (surprise surprise) on Foveaux Street, not far from Central Station. We entered the restaurant and were greeted by friendly waitstaff and a nice warm ambiance. We started off with the wine which were matched to the two different dishes, and hot sourdough rolls with a generous slab of butter.

Amuse bouche

The lovely waitress brought us the complimentary amuse bouche, which was a warm smoked eggplant veloute with white sesame and cumin. It had a distinct eggplant flavour and biting into the cumin seeds released a spicy flavour which complimented the smoky eggplant. Sir D doesn't like eggplant so he left half of his veloute to me, which I more than happily finished off.

Baked rainbow trout with Victorian morel mushrooms, clams, mache sugar snaps and sweet corn puree

Night Noodle Markets 2009, Sydney

Sir D and I headed to the Night Noodle Markets last night on the prowl for some yummy food. Having been there in previous years, we went early to avoid the horrendous crowds that build up through the night, and also to redeem our SMH subscriber free drinks vouchers from the SMH stand! We got there at exactly 5pm and had time to walk around all the stalls to see what was on offer before there were too many people.

The early bird catches the worm... people at the Noodle Markets at 5pm
 

There were all the usual Malaysian and Thai places selling noodles and curries as well as a few yum cha stalls selling dim sum. Notable newcomers included Din Tai Fung who were offering dumplings such as their famous pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) and also some mini dessert buns like red bean. 

Offerings at Jackie M

We decided to grab the char kway teow from Jackie M since we could see them frying each batch of noodles separately to order. The smell wafting from their stall was mouth-watering, and we could see that it was already drawing some early noodle-market goers to their stall.

Chicken Char Kway Teow - $12.00

Let's Do Lunch @ Sean's Kitchen, Pyrmont

October has got to be every Sydney foodie's favourite month because it's the month of the Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF)! Having trawled the SIFF website for all the fantastic food-related events on this year, Sir D and I kick-started the SIFF with a visit to Sean's Kitchen for Let's Do Lunch.

Interior of Sean's Kitchen

With a name like Seven Deadly Sins, I could not resist finding out just how deadly the Let's Do Lunch offering was at Sean's Kitchen. It was quite hard to navigate ourselves to the 2nd floor of Star City where the restaurant was located since they were renovating sections of the casino and many of the escalators were closed off - so frustrating because I was hungry! We got there eventually and we requested the Let's Do Lunch offer, and our friendly waitress promptly offered us a choice of a Brown Brothers red wine or a Coopers pale ale.



We also got a slice of bread which was warmed up but the crust was a bit too chewy as though it had been out for a while. I was hungry so I ate most of mine with the lovely creamy butter (which was covered with a cute cow print!) but Sir D left his behind.

Seven Deadly Sins - $35 including a glass of wine, beer or mineral water