Sydney food highlights and Zumbo macarons

Recently Mr B and I made a quick trip to Sydney. I didn't take many photos of all the glorious food we ate (too busy eating it!), but here are some food highlights:

Ms G.'s - Potts Point http://www.merivale.com/#/msgs/msgs

Coming from the Merivale crowd, you'd expect nothing but the beautiful people. It's also located in a funky renovated terrace smack bang behind the heart of  Kingscross. Be prepared to wait for a table. We amused ourselves with cocktails in the bar upstairs (drank out of bubble tea cups) until they called us for the table. Ms G.'s has been blogged and loved by many but highlights for me, OJ and Brades included:

Mini bahn mi: chicken katsu mini burgers - we could have dropped anchor on them and ate 20 - so good!
Jow's sweet and sour lamb ribs: finger lickn' good! Crispy skin with tender soft lamby goodness
Stoner's Delight: two words - doughnut ice-cream. Yep, tastes just like a doughnut. Awesome.

Bill's - Woollahra http://www.bills.com.au/

It was a solo breakfast for me without Mr B. I found myself in Woollahra with more of the fabulous people, waiting patiently for the Donna Hay General Store to open at 10am. It was a 'quiet' Friday morning service apparently, but with only 3 or so tables free, I saw nothing quiet about this. That said, staff were efficient, friendly and the food was quality as always. I wasn't keen on a big cooked breakfast as I knew where I was going later (Zumbo!) so I opted for the 5 grain porridge with stewed fruit and brown sugar, along with house blended chai tea made on soy milk (the only way!). The serving of porridge was HUGE - it would have fed four people, so I barely scraped the top and ate the fruit. It was lovely and the chai came with a little glass of warmed honey, just the way I like it.

Spice Temple - Sydney http://www.rockpool.com.au/sydney/spice-temple/

Last visit, Mr B and I ate upstairs from the Spice Temple in Neil Perry's other restaurant in the area, the Rockpool Bar and Grill. While going upstairs to Rockpool B & G, I saw a door with a strange video screen on it. This time we decided to find out what was behind the video door. We had an early booking (6pm) as that was all that was left a week out from the day we wanted to eat. We arrived and were seated at the bar until the restaurant floor opened. We had some drinks and some spiced popcorn and then were shown our seats, right by the much talked about portraits of beautiful Asian women. The interior is incredibly dark and sexy at dinner time and we did notice the cool soundtrack, apparently mixed especially by a DJ (no iPod mix 'tapes' here!). The highlights here for us:

The non-alcoholic soda's: Surprisingly these were amazing. I'm still dreaming of the refreshing apple and jasmine soda. Fresh apple juice blended with delicate jasmine tea with a hint of cucumber. I also tried the lavender and mint soda and the lemongrass and rose. All go well with the spicier dishes.
Steamed eggplant with three flavours: this was sweet and salty and a great start to the meal.
Stir fried cumin lamb with steamed bread pockets: The steamed bread pockets were very curious but extremely tasty. They reminded me of a more sturdy dough used for BBQ pork buns, in a rectangular shape with an opening to stuff them full of the tasty lamb stir fry. Thankfully the chef's cut the meat small so you can get more lamb in the pockets!

Hugo's - Manly Wharf  http://www.hugos.com.au/

It wasn't our intention to end up at Hugo's when we decided to go to Manly for the day. The quintessential Manly setting where Hugo's is situated however (water, Manly ferry etc) sold us. We were lucky to get in for Sunday lunch, competing with lots of larger groups of families and friends having a lazy Sunday lunch. We settled on a simple pepperoni pizza and a pear, parmesan and rocket salad (I may have eaten Ben and Jerry's before this meal!). If you do make the trip to Manly, call ahead to Hugo's for a booking, it is totally worth the view, the food and the atmosphere.

Zumbo

Last but not least, let me share these little gleaming Zumbo jewels with you. I decided to buy one of each of the flavours on sale on the day (I visited the Rozelle store). The lady who served me asked "Are these for tonight? Do you want to write the flavours down so you can tell everyone?". I of course agreed, but did not let on that the 'everyone' she thought they were for was just Mr B and I. Yep, we ate the lot. I ate three before I'd driven away from the shop so alas for Mr B, he only got to taste 9 of the flavours.

One word: SENSATIONAL!



Can you tell I took this in the car before eating the three? :-)

The flavours from bottom to top:

Musk
Salted Butter Caramel
Chocolate
Choc-Orange
Pancakes with Maple Syrup (My absolute favourite! So good!)
Peach and Lime
Blackberry
Passionfruit
Banana
Lime and Pineapple
Raspberry and Licorice
Honey, Apricot and Yoghurt

Enjoy!

Bx

Ricardoe's Tomatoes, Port Macquarie and a simple Bill Granger tomato salad

Recently on a road trip to Sydney, Mr B and I stopped in at Ricardoe's Tomatoes (http://www.ricardoes.com/) - just outside of Port Macquarie. By the way Port Macquarie was a beautiful town itself, well worth a stop in overnight (or more!) like we did. Found some lovely little restaurants and with the water as a backdrop, it was a perfect way to spend a stopover on the drive between Brisbane and Sydney.

Anyway, I digress! Ricardoe's grow hydroponic tomatoes and strawberries - with what seems like acres of distinct tall strawberry 'walls' designed for easy picking. So easy that they invite you to do this yourself and well, we didn't mind if we did! You are given some little scissors to assist in the picking and don't damage their plants too much. So off we went and what a haul!! Two big bags full of luscious red strawberries (the strawberries you see on the M and B blog are Ricardoe's!).

I guess it would also seems strange if we visited a farm known for tomatoes and not get anything remotely tomato-ey. We tasted some delicious home made spreads and returned home with their Green Tomato Pickles and Tomato Relish. Both very tasty on sandwiches, roast meats and with cheese. The Green Pickles a little more tangy and less sweet than the Relish.

I also scored two bags of the little gems below - cherry tomatoes just bursting with flavour and just begging for basil and olive oil. So what did I do? Went in search of a zinging salad to make the most of these little babies. Bill Granger came to my rescue with his Tomato Salad with Burrata and Basil Oil - straight from his beautiful book Bill's Basics. It's light, fresh and super easy to make - the stars are the tomatoes though, so use the best you can find.

Bill Granger's Tomato Salad with Burrata and Basil Oil
(from Bill's Basics p98)

2 slices of good bread (I used some olive sourdough from Banneton Bakery, Balaclava St - the Gabba), torn into small pieces
Extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
300g ripe tomatoes, cut into small wedges (or in the case of the cherry tom's - halved)
basil oil (recipe follows)
125g ball burrata or mozzarella cheese (I used bocconcini)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Lay the bread pieces on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and scatter with crushed garlic. Season with sea salt and ground pepper and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Arrange tomatoes on a serving platter. Season with sea salt and pepper, drizzle with the basil oil and top with torn burrata (or mozzarella) and the toasted bread. Scatter with basil leaves to serve. (serves 4 or 2 hungry people like Mr and Mrs B!).

Basil Oil
Handful of basil leaves
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Blanch the basil leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds and then rinse under cold running water. Drain and squeeze as dry as you can. Pulse in a blender or processor with the pil and a pinch of sea salt until well mixed.

Finished salad with bread and torn basil leaves

Enjoy!

Bxx