Swine & Co, Sydney

It's been a bit quiet on here but with good reason. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that I've been eating myself silly in Japan for the past 2 weeks! Now that I'm back, we'll be returning to regular broadcasting but keep an eye out for some Japan posts coming soon!

But first, let's talk about pig. With a name like Swine & Co, you'd expect this restaurant to serve pork, pork and more pork - and you'd be right. Set in the space of what used to be Bavarian Bier Cafe on O'Connell St, the area has been revamped to a bar on the ground floor, and a dark, cavernous restaurant below ground, complete with swine decor and punny welcoming signs.

While we wait for our food, we're treated to a bread basket which has slices of white and rye bread, paper thin flatbread and the best grissini I've ever eaten! They're all swaddled with a small dish of butter in a cloth basket.

Complimentary bread basket

Complimentary amuse bouche

We're also surprised with a complimentary amuse bouche to start the night which was a small piece of seared tuna on a cucumber jelly with creme fraiche and dill.

Crisp pigs tail - $19

It wouldn't be right to not have a pork starter at a place called Swine & Co, so we chose the crispy pigs tail to kick off our porcine journey. The pigs tail was flattened and crisped up on one side, and paired with some pine puree, pickled mushrooms, grapes and pistachio.

Tuna crudo - $17

Khao Pla, Chatswood

I've mentioned before how Thai is not one of my favourite cuisines, but I'm willing to give anything a try if someone tells me it's good. I'd heard good things about Khao Pla in Chatswood, so we visited one Thursday night on the recommendation of Electjai.

Isaan steak tartare - $13

We let Electjai take care of the ordering since he'd been before, and the first thing we ate was this Isaan steak tartare. Raw beef was mixed with roasted rice, chilli flakes and lime juice. I don't do well with too much chilli and while this steak tartare was absolutely delicious, oh man did it burn!

Thai milk tea - $4

The problem with having a low chilli tolerance is that a lot of the time the food is still tasty so you just kind of have to put up with the burning. Luckily there was the perfect foil to all the hot Thai food with this iced Thai milk tea. Sweet, cold and milky, it did the trick in cooling some of the chilli heat, especially from that steak tartare.

Yum mango - $18

Just Desserts, March into Merivale

Having just dessert for dinner sounds like one of the greatest things ever so I was super excited to go to "Just Desserts" - a March into Merivale event where a handful of Merivale restaurants showcase some of their finest desserts for the sweet-tooths in Sydney. Entry ($45) also includes 6 tokens, which you can redeem for desserts and/or drinks within the event.

Mini fried ice cream, butterscotch

I'd sussed out what some of the offerings were prior to the event so when we arrived, we made a beeline straight for the mini fried ice creams at the Mr Wong stand. The fried ice cream was super popular (no surprise there!) so there was a short wait while batches upon batches of ice cream were fried to order. We eventually made our way out of the throng with our prize in hand, and dug in past the crispy batter to reveal a vanilla ice cream centre. I found some parts of the fried ice cream a little too cakey from the coating, but I think I could just about drink that amazing butterscotch sauce!

Hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll, freeze dried raspberry powder

Another popular item was the hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll from Ms G's. Again, this was fried to order in batches but it meant we got a freshly fried spring roll scattered with the red raspberry powder. This was a surprise favourite of mine as it wasn't too sweet and the banana, nutella and salted caramel flavours worked really well together.

White peach, black figs, yellow box honey, orange caramel sauce

The Armchair Collective, Mona Vale

I had full intentions of writing this post while summer was still going strong and the weather was still beach-worthy, but it seems like I've blinked my eyes and February has gone and Autumn has arrived.

Don't let that stop you from visiting the Armchair Collective though. Even though it's conveniently located next to Mona Vale beach, the food, atmosphere and beautiful homewares available for purchase in the store will keep you coming back for more, as we certainly did when we visited them two weekends in a row!

Traditional iced coffee - $7

We started with a couple of drinks and I couldn't go past getting this traditional iced coffee. I'm a bit of a sucker for DIY things so this was right up my alley with each iced coffee component separated so you can mix your own. There's a shot of coffee, milk, sugar and ice cream and it's up to you to balance out the flavours as you please.

Iced chocolate - $6.50

The iced chocolate is also pretty mammoth sized and is generous on the chocolate syrup.

Armchair Big Breakfast - $19.50

Chiswick, Woollahra

Chiswick has been on my go-to list for a long time, so I was glad to finally try it out one warm summer night. Going on a weeknight meant that we weren't able to admire the beautiful gardens around the glass-panelled restaurant, but that certainly doesn't deter people, as the restaurant was packed on a Tuesday night.

Snow crab slider, lettuce, keypie, gherkins - $9 each

I'd heard people rave about the snow crab sliders so it was pretty much a no-brainer when it came to ordering these. I wasn't expecting the snow crab to come out as a crab cake but it worked with the soft slider buns. These are a little steep at $9 each but they were well worth it and I was left craving for more!

Crisp buttermilk chicken, cabbage, chilli mayonnaise - $20

The buttermilk fried chicken was a deep golden brown with a crispy coating that reminded me of KFC. The chicken was succulent and the chilli mayonnaise was particularly addictive with the crunchy coating.

Chiswick steak tartare - $22