crave sydney intl food festival - week 4

Food, Booze & Shoes

This is the final round-up of Sydney food bloggers and their Crave Sydney International Food Festival activities.

It's been a great four weeks that have just flown by!

The Way It Crumbles

Let's Do Brunch

Café Ish by Chris & Tim (The Way It Crumbles)

Let's Do Lunch

Fouad (The Food Blog) tried out three lunch specials at Azuma Kushiyaki, Becasse and Glass Brasserie while Tina (Food, Booze and Shoes) visited Bistro Fax and Selah; LateralEating (Lateral Eating) ate at Fix St James; BiteMe (Bite Size Review) had lunch at the QVB Tea Rooms and Sailors Thai at Ivy and I ate stingray at Number One Wine Bar.

Gourmantic

Markets & Precinct Promotions

Tina (Food, Booze and Shoes) was at the Night Noodle Markets, the unique Ashfield Festival and the Primavera Festival in Haberfield; while Gourmantic (Gourmantic) was busy at the Sydney Food & Wine Fair, an interesting Blessing of the Fleets at the Sydney Fish Markets and the Norton Street Festival.

Food, Booze & Shoes

Special Dinners

There are still a few Tomislav Just Desserts posts rolling in from Helen (Grab Your Fork) and Phuoc (Phuoc'n Delicious) - this was a popular event!

Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar) went green and sustainable with a 100 Mile Dinner at Bistrode CBD while Fouad (The Food Blog) shared is murky family history in a post about the Dagdeviren and Sivrioglu Dinner at Efendy.

Gourmantic

Sugar Hits

Wowzers, Sydney bloggers love their desserts:

Azuma Kushiyaki and Old Sydney Holiday Inn by JNYW (The Food Zoo);
Bistrode CBD and Sheraton on the Park by Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar);
Guylian Café, Radisson, Sheraton on the Park  and Old Sydney Holiday Inn by Mademoiselle Délicieuse (Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks).

Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks

Talk & Taste

Helen (Grab Your Fork) learnt all about Molecular Gastronomy at the Chef's Armoury educational event.

Love My Foods & Sugars

I am sure there are loads and loads of events and posts that I didn't manage to find for these round-ups, but based on the ones I did get hold of I think we can enjoy some fund facts.

This year 46 food bloggers have blogged about their involvement in 124 events including:
• 10 brunches
• 14 precinct festivals and markets
• 15 hats off, drink & dine and special dinners
• 20 lunches
• 29 sugar hits

All that was worth around A$5,500 in spend (not including all the $$$ potentially spent at the markets, festivals and precinct events). And I'm sure some of you took part in events you didn't blog about (I did).

We're no small army of customers, promoters and broadcasters!

Here are the other weeks for your reading pleasure:
• Sun 10-Oct-2010 (Week 1)
• Sun 17-Oct-2010 (Week 2)
• Sun 24-Oct-2010 (Week 3)

Until 2011!

let's do lunch at number one wine bar

It was the last of my Let’s Do Lunch occasions for this year’s Crave Sydney International Food Festival and I headed down to Circular Quay’s Number One Wine Bar with three work friends: Lustm, Catfish and Giuseppe.

As I slipped off to get some cash, the crew ordered our $35 special of grilled Hawkesbury skate with capers, kipfler potatoes and Beurre Noisette.

Our Brown Brother’s wine was a choice of vermentino or tempranillo. Lustm and I went white, Catfish went red and Giuseppe was medicated, so no alcohol for him. Instead our kindly waiter whipped up a freshly squeezed pear, apple and blood orange juice. Nice.

When the food arrived it was superb.

The skate was juicy and tender, flaking off in shreds of perfectly cooked white flesh. It matched wonderfully with thin curls of lemon zest, tiny salty capers and what seemed like thin slices of green olives. These were balanced well with the waxiness of the sliced kipflers and verdant beans.

And I forgot how wonderful a well-cooked Beurre Noisette can taste! I almost swooned from my chair when the buttery nuttiness exploded in my mouth. It’s such a simple sauce, but rarely done as well as this.

Unlike many mains, every mouthful of this dish was fresh and flavoursome, dancing across my tongue.

The boys were in shock (and a little squeamish) when Catfish and I told them skate was just a fancy name for stingray, but that didn’t deter them from devouring their whole meal.

After our mains we couldn’t help but order the (very well priced!) $7 dessert special: vanilla bean ice cream, berry tart and mango mousse. Each little item was perfectly balanced and singing with true flavours (real vanilla beans, fresh mango pulp, soft bright berries).

Our lovely waiter generously donated the last four glasses of a bottle of Brown Brother’s Orange Flora Muscat. Double nice.

We clinked glasses. We drank.

Hey, it’s Friday afterall!

crave sydney intl food festival - week 3

Hyde Park Barracks by Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar)

Here's the round-up of food blogging activities for week three of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival.

Bilson's by Monica

Week three is still pretty busy, but it means that next week is your last chance to snap up the tasty festival treats and cheap deals.

Cocktail of the Month
Gourmantic (Gourmantic) is drank up at Monkey Magic with a cocktail made with gin, cucumber, honey and absinthe.

Hats Off Dinner
Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar) made it to one of the famous Hats Off dinners, this one on Nouvelle Cuisine at Bilson's Restaurant. Some pretty tasty photos.

Thelma & Louise Mademoiselle Délicieuse (Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks)

Let's Do Brunch
D (Here Comes The Food) had a great meal at Efendy, Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar) tried out the 'sunny' Hyde Park Barracks Café, Mademoiselle Délicieuse (Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks) experienced a north-side brunch at Thelma & Louise Café and Penguin (Penguin Says Feed Me) staked out Café Ish.

Let's Do Lunch
It's tagine at Sean's Kitchen by Aimee (Aimee Chanthadavong) and crispy-skinned chicken at my own lunching experience at Guillaume at Bennelong.

Markets
It was a village atmosphere at the Summer Hill Grand Food Bazaar by Lisa (Lisa Perkovic)

Pub Grub Pies
One of the little known additions to this year's festival is the interesting pub pie special which I have been spending quite some time searching out. First at the Lord Nelson Brewery and then a Balmain and Rozelle pub pie crawl visiting the Riverview Hotel, the Welcome Hotel, the Royal Oaks Hotel and the 3 Weeds.

Tomislav by Billy (A Table for Two)

Special Dinners
Franz (Australian Gourmet Pages) had a great time at the Young Chefs Dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill , Jane (Jane Cooks Live) supported sustainable cooking at the 10 Mile Dinner at Dank Street Depot while Billy (A Table for Two), Suze (Chocolate Suze) and Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar) were all at the amazing Just Desserts dinner at Tomislav. I have my eye on this restaurant. It looks fantastic.

Grace Hotel by Ffichiban (Here Comes The Food)

Sugar Hits
These dessert plates are still as popular as they are every year with visits to Bacco Chifley Plaza by Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar), The Westin by Aimee (Aimee Chanthadavong), Azuma Patisserie by Lee (The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry), Monkey Magic by Gourmantic (Gourmantic) and a strong effort put in by Ffichiban (Here Comes The Food) with three hits in one night at the Grace Hotel, Bacco & Shangri-La Hotel

Talk & Taste
The bubbly Jayne (Champagne Jayne) posted a video on her subject of passion and expertise, champagne.

Grace Hotel by Minh (Eat Show and Tell)

World Dinners
The Malaysian Food Festival at the Grace Hotel posted by Minh (Eat Show and Tell) looks like quite an experience and is open for lunch and dinner.

If I missed your post or you want to join next week's round-up, read this post to find out how.

The next (and last) round-up will be posted Sunday 31st October. Better get eating!

Hyde Park Barracks by Monica (Love My Foods & Sugar)

balmain & rozelle pub pie crawl

Who ate all the pies?
Who ate all the pies?

I did!!!

Well at least I ate the ones on our Pub Pie Crawl through Rozelle and Balmain today.

Five friends sent out on a journey of pie discovery, traipsing the streets in the cold and rain to discover who is offering the best pie out of all the amazing pubs of Balmain and Rozelle.

As part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival, pubs around Sydney are offering a pint of Coopers Pale Ale and a special pie for $20.

I’d already tried the beef and mushy peas pie from the Lord Nelson Brewery, but today was an attempt on the six pies offered in the Balmain and Rozelle area.

Our first stop, the London Hotel and their Lamb Shank Pie, was vetoed by Jonas and M.E. who both don’t like lamb. Boo hoo. I love lamb. Oh well.

And unfortunately we ran out of time and didn’t try the Rabbit & Porcini Pie at Dicks Hotel. Another missed opportunity as later a waitress at our winning pie pub told us Dick’s pie is also particularly good.

From the four pies we tried, every pie was given a score out of 5, as voted by me, Jonas, M.E., Shamu and Tombolina, with the highest possible score a perfect 25.

We had some generous voters (Shamu) and some harsh voters (M.E.). Here are the results.

Wild Hare Pie (9.5 out of 25)
3 Weeds (193-197 Evans St, Rozelle)

With all the praise lavished on the 3 Weeds bistro, this was the pie that I thought would be the best. Surprisingly, it turned out to be the worst.

It looked delicious, a huge oval of golden pastry, but one you stabbed into this pot pie with a fork the pastry lid turned out to be very thin and inside was a shallow layer of watery stew rather than thick gravy and meat.

In fact, of the two pies we shared each had only one small fragment of hare meat and the rest of the filling was made up of carrot and potato.

The boys did say the carrot and hare combo got a point for irony, but overall it was a poor effort and very disappointing for such a renowned foodie pub.

9.5 hops

Pale Little Duck Pie (15.5 out of 25)
Royal Oak Hotel (36 College St, Balmain)

This was our first stop and the pie was completely encased in perfectly cooked pastry. The interior was dense with shredded duck meat that wasn’t at all runny.

It was very well presented, atop a mountain of mash and spinach leaves and although it was good, it’s didn’t hit you in the face with flavour.

Shamu and I really liked this pie for its subtly (Shamu rated it her second favourite), whereas Tombolina, M.E. and Jonas wanted more of a flavour smackdown.

15.5 quacks.

Coopie Chicken Pie (19 out of 25)
Welcome Hotel (91 Evans St, Rozelle)

This one really hit the spot. We cooed over the huge pot pie covered with thick, flaky pastry and a side of cream sweet corn.

Once we broke through to the filling we were met with gooey, oozing cheese-smothered chicken. It was delicious.

The serve was very generous, so the boys liked it, but Shamu got a few mouthfuls of gristle so that took a few points off.

19 clucks.

Berkshire Pork & Apple Cider Pie (22 out of 25)
The Riverview Hotel (29 Birchgrove Rd, Balmain)

This was our winner!

We came to the Riverview just after 3pm and were turned away as the kitchen had closed for lunch service. It was a bit upsetting watching the tasty-looking pie being served to other tables and initially we had this pub down as “pie fail”, but after our disappointing 3 Weeds experience we trekked back to the Riverview to give it a go.

I’m glad we did. Everyone unanimously gave it their top score.

The pie was very beautifully presented with mash and mushy pies, and a blob of wonderful Dijon mustard on the side.

The pastry was crusty on top but softer on the sides, and once you broke into the centre a luscious aroma of pork wafted out. The filling was chunky, flecked with darker pink pieces of ham and moist and sweet from the apple cider. A perfect match to the mustard.

It was a gourmet pie and tasted truly superb, definitely worth $20. Even if it was smaller than the chicken pie, the flavour was much more sophisticated.

22 oinks and our winner!


If you want to go on your own Rozelle & Balmain pie pub crawl, here’s a helpful Google map to help you make it happen. You’ve got one more week and one more weekend to do it!


View 2010 Pub Pie Crawl in a larger map

let's do lunch at guillaume at bennelong

Nice view . . . of the amazing butter!

 I climb the stairs to the Opera House after a long walk in warm weather and high heels. I’m parched and in desperate need of a drink. When I throw open the door to Guillaume at Bennelong, I am surprised to find an empty entrance area and an empty restaurant.

Cautiously I walk down the stairs towards the reception desk and am almost bowled over by some overly excited middle-aged women. From cavernously empty, the restaurant is suddenly alive with a flood of people coming up the stairs from within the depths of the Opera House.

I realise they have just opened their doors and I have somehow come in “the back”. Oopps.





I was supposed to be having my third Let’s Do Lunch with Stinky, but she had to work.
Hey, don’t go feeling too bad for her just yet! She’s a travel agent and her “work” consisted of a free week in the USA visiting LA, the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park and Las Vegas. Tough life.

Instead of giving up the booking, Tia Bicky and I decide to live it up with a nice lunch together in civilised surrounds. They give us a pretty good table, with a partial view of the Harbour Bridge. No complaints here.

The wait staff are all extremely friendly. Everyone smiles and greets us. Everyone.

While we chat about the skyrocketing prices of houses in Newtown (Bicky & Robot are trying to buy), soft slices of perfectly crusted sourdough are set down with beautiful salty butter. I could eat a slab of that butter on its own.



Roasted free-range chicken breast with a tombe of silverbeet on a bed of cauliflower puree, olives and lemon confit jus

 Our Let’s Do Lunch special looks and sounds simple, but like most French food you feel the time they chefs have spent making the sauces and the accompaniments that make these simple dishes taste amazing.

The chicken was cooked wonderfully, a crispy skin covering juicy meat without even a hint of dryness. The silverbeet provided an iron-flavour, counter balancing the sweet tomato and the velvety purée. The jus lifted the dish from being too heavy while the smear of olive tapenade gave a rich flavour. Just superb.



Baby beans with pistachio pesto

 Our side of baby beans with pistachio pesto ($14) is wonderful. The pesto is perfect with flecks of salt bursting out through the herbs and nuts. I just adore the sides and Bicky and I have no trouble finishing our vegetables.

That means dessert!

Although a few of the al a carte desserts tickle my fancy, Bicky is trying to reduce her cholesterol so we opt for petit fours instead. Oh woe, life over age thirty!

The petit fours ($8) turn out to be the perfect choice. There’s actually 6 tasty treats for us to try and they are all delicious.

I will present them to you in ascending order of greatness:


Liquorice Macarons





Pistachio Macarons





Strawberry & Vanilla Cream Tarts





Salted Caramels





Passionfruit Jellies



We leave full, satisfied and ready to walk back to work, uphill in heels in the heat.

But I'm tough :)

pub pies at the lord nelson brewery

Seven work colleagues in Australia’s oldest pub brewery, drinking beer and eating pie.

Yes, it was a productive working day.

As part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival pubs around town are offering a pint of Cooper’s Pale Ale with their own special pie.

The Lord Nelson Brewery is a beautiful old pub built out of local sandstone in 1841. The interior reflects its colonial history and the pub brews six permanent ales and then a few seasonal ales.

If you ever visit Sydney, the Lord Nelson is a nice slice of history with some tasty beers.

But we’re here for the pie. It’s a simple meat pie with mushy pies. Traditional but well done.

It’s filling and the Cooper’s Pale Ale washes down nicely.

If only every work day was like this . . . . .

crave sydney intl food festival - week 2

Penguin Says Feed Me

Other week has gone by and we’re halfway through the month long Crave Sydney International Food Festival.

Sydney food bloggers have been busy-busy-bees and here is the honey.

First up I want to share these great maps tracking festival events across Sydney, pulled together by one clever fox, Pamela (And Other Fancy Stuff).

Cocktail of the Month
Bacco Wine Bar Tina (Food, Boozes and Shoes)

La Scala on Jersey Gourmantic (Gourmantic)

Citrus and Candy

Sydney Food Bloggers "Mad Hatter Spring Picnic"

Organised by Billy (A Table For Two) and Karen (Citrus and Candy), there were a lot of delicious treats enjoyed by food bloggers like Ladybird (Diary of a Ladybird), Phuoc (Phuoc'n Delicious) and Julie (I Dream In Chocolate).

 



Diary of a Ladybird

 Hands On (classes)
One of the things I didn't get around to booking into was the excellent cooking classes held during this month.
bel mondo Master Class with Andy Ball Sheena (A Sticky Affair)
Tea & Dessert Matching @ Sweetness Pastisserie Jenny (Panda & Cakes)


Let's Do Brunch
Two more early rising bloggers headed out for festival breakfasts. Betty (The Hungry Girl) visited the Bitton Gourmet Cafe and while I headed off for an amazing meal at Efendy.


Let's Do Lunch
My sister and I spent a lovely afternoon at Aria whereas BiteMe (Bite Size Review) managed to clock in at Becasse and QVB Tea Rooms.


Spicy Ice Cream





 

Markets



It was the first week of the annual Night Noodle Markets where two hungry bloggers found some treats: Penguin (Penguin Says Feed Me) and Gourmantic (Gourmantic).

Lisa (Spicy Ice Cream) made delicious preserves and granola with Denea (Gourmet Rabbit) for sale at the Reservoir Bazaar.



Gourmantic (Gourmantic) was extra busy with a second market visit, this time to the Summer Hill Food Bazaar.



Eat, Show and Tell

Special Dinners
Video blogger, Yianni (Yianni's City Life), captured Turkey’s Musa Dagdeviren and chef Somer Sivrioglu whip up a Turkish feast Efendy.
Minh (Eat Show and Tell) was luck to experience the delicious artistry of Janice Wong @ Sepia.
Franz (Australian Gourmet Pages) managed to photograph every course at this once in a lifetime event from NY's wizz kid Wylie Dufresne and Aussie Brent Savage WD-50 & Bentley Dinner.




Eat, Show and Tell

Sugar Hit
Two bloggers enjoyed their dessert treat this week and both went to the InterContinental Hotel: Squishes (Eat Show and Tell) and Simon (Simon Food Favourites)



World Chef Showcase

Some of the brightest and rising stars of the food world joined Australian experts to cook and discuss food over the last weekend. SBS Food recruited some bloggers for comprehensive coverage or you could search by interest:

Saturday Morning

Asian Andrew (702 Weekends SIFF blogger)

Asian Rebecca (Inside Cuisine)

Contemporary Creative Anna (Morsels & Musings)
Saturday Afternoon

Contemporary Creative Jules (The Stone Soup)

Middle East/Mediterranean Anna (Morsels & Musings)

Sunday Morning
Middle East/Mediterranean Amanda (The Cake & The Knife)
Sunday Afternoon
Contemporary Creative Helen (Grab Your Fork)

Middle East/Mediterranean Denea (Gourmet Rabbit)



If I missed your post or you want to join next week's round-up, read this post to find out how.

Next round-up will be posted Sunday 24th October.Until then, indulge and enjoy!



Gourmantic