Featuring….

* Tamarama Beach

* Birkenhead Point, Roseby Street, Drummoyne

* Campos Coffee 193 Missenden Road, Newtown

* Harrys Cafe de Wheels Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo

* Pendolino 2/412-414 George Street, Sydney

* Dendy Cinemas Opera Quays Shop 9, 2 East Circular Quay, Sydney

* Tokonoma Cocktail Bar & Lounge 490 Crown Street, Surry Hills

* Swissotel 68 Market Street, Sydney

I have also posted a guest column on the award winning travel blog, Cheapo Air. Check it out here!

Although no Bentley ride is offered this time around, Ms. Taste and I are instead joined by a ragtag bunch of steak lovers hankering for a nice juicy steak.

$33 for a main and a drink

I arrive late to the party, as usual but this is perhaps one of the last times I will be driving into the city on a weeknight . Everyone is starving and they gesture for our waiter as soon as take my place in the booth. I usually enjoy taking the time to analyse each item on the menu to decide what I will having, but through the wonderous tubes known as the Internet, I had already performed this step during the day.

Bread! With seedage! Clear out so I can take pictures of it!

Our signature beef tartare, shoestring fries - $16 extra

I order the beef tartare. Served with crusty sourdough and fries, the mustard flavour has everyone referring to it as “fancy Maccas” for the rest of the evening. The beef is moist, tender and flavourful and my attempts to dip my fries into the meaty goo left me with a pile of bent fries. By the time I am done, I am wondering if I have enough room left for the main course.

Sashimi with ruby grapefruit, pickled limes, wasabi flying fish roe, ponzu sauce - $16 extra

The kingfish carpaccio comes with 8 fine slices of fresh sashimi with alternating grapefruit and lime wedges on each slice. The acidity of the citrus elements blends beautifully with the sweetness of the fish, while the ponzu adds a nice kick to round off the dish.

Char grilled clarence river baby octopus, kipfler potato, chorizo, romesco sauce - $16 extra

The octopus entree is well cooked and very tender, however I am glad I did not have to eat the whole serving as it’s quite substantial. Two pieces and I was already in octopus overload.

Grilled white scallops, coriander, black fungi, bean shoot, ginger black bean vinaigrette - $16 extra

The grilled scallops go down very well with the group. Accompanied with a tangy asian salad, the scallops are cooked to absolute perfection. At $28 full price, this dish has a very high price per bite value relative to the other dishes available but who ever thinks about those things, right everyone?

Rangers valley wagyu flank steak, 200g, barbeque sauce ($33 + $5)

There are no surprises when it comes to our mains: 6 medium-rare wagyu flank steaks arrive at the same time as if on cue. The flank is a tough cut, but the extra fattyness of the wagyu gives each mouthful a burst of the steak’s juicyness. The wedge of lemon is there to help with the toughness but I enjoy the meat without it, slicing myself a small chunk and savouring each meaty mouthful.

Check out them sexy abs

Plum, blackberry mascarpone trifle, spiced red wine jelly - $16 extra

The last course is a lone trifle, which is reasonably portioned for one. It’s not spectacular but gets a ‘pass’ mark from our sole desserter for the evening.

Out of the March Into Merivale offerings, I was pleased with Mad Cow (who can say no to steak) but I am going to have some trouble deciding on where to go next. I enjoyed Lotus‘ offering most at the launch party however their prices are already reasonable without the $33 promotion, so I want to take advantage of one of Merivale’s pricier restaurants. Perhaps a second shot at est?

Mad Cow
The Ivy
320 George Street
Sydney City
# 02 9240 3000
www.marchintomerivale.com

Fat Noodle consulting chef, Luke Nguyen

Star City has been undergoing major renovations in the last year with the aim of transforming into a world class dining and entertainment complex – in other words, more like the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The launch of the open plan Fat Noodle brings Star City one step closer to realising this dream.

Fat Noodle

This open plan noodle bar is effortlessly inviting and sits right next to the Baccarat tables and 1c poker machines. There’s something very Vegas about the new setup and if this is where Star City is headed, then I am looking forward to the final reveal.

The very glamorous 'Fat Noodle' hostesses

The launch of Fat Noodle was a star studded affair, spruiking the likes of Sarah Wilson, Sean Connolly, Mikey Robbins and Tony Squires to name a few. It wasn’t until Matt Preston’s fashionably late arrival that got us food bloggers excited. Sporting a brown blazer, suede boots and a pink-and-white cravat, Matt was a vision of style and elegance. Chowing into Luke Nguyen’s signature ‘fat pho’ noodle cups, he said, “Luke, what’s with the tiny portions!”

Matt Preston with Luke Nguyen

The food was flavourful and there was plenty of it – a handful of waistaff worked the room holding tasting platters filled with pork neck skewers, prawn and pork dumplings, crisp parcels, rice paper rolls, salt and pepper tofu, ‘fat’ pho and slow braised wagyu. The stand-out for me were the dumplings (beautiful skin with lots of bite) and the slow braised wagyu (tender pull apart beef in a rich aromatic broth).

Crisp parcels with pork

Grilled Byron Bay organic pork neck skewers

Roast duck Vietnamese rice paper rolls

Roast duck with vermicelli noodles

Handmade pork and prawn wontons

Slow braised wagyu beef brisket and tendon with noodles

Salt and Pepper silken tofu

Great food is always complemented by great drinks and a real highlight for me on the night was the cocktails, which included tamarind and palm sugar martinis and lychee margaritas.

Bar staff prepping the tamarind and palm sugar cocktails

Perhaps the thing that appeals to me most about Fat Noodle is its late opening hours – 2:30am on school nights and 6:30am on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s the perfect spot for a late night Vietnamese hit!

Fat Noodle
Star City Casino
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
# 1800 700 700
www.starcity.com.au

Open from 11.30am to 2.30am on Sundays through to Thursdays and 11.30am to 6am on Fridays and Saturdays.

There’s nothing that says ‘I love you’ better than seeing Mr. Taste wrestling a 1.2 kilo crab around the kitchen, trying to find a way for it to die a relatively painless death.

My mum used to cook crab quite often when I was growing up – only I would leave the room every time she did the ‘deed’. This was convenient at the time of course, except now, we had to resort to Google to find out the best method for killing crab. Some prefer to stab a chopstick through its eyes, others throw it in a pot of boiling water and some prefer to put it in the freezer before attempting the above to put the crab in deep sleep.

Once the crab was numb from the freezer, Mr. Taste yanked open the shell and chopped it up into sizable portions.

We then fired up the wok and methodically followed a recipe from Ginger & Spice’s head chef Alex Lee. We had seen the recipe on a very enjoyable episode of SBS’ Food Safari.

Singapore Chilli Crab

Ingredients

Mud crab, well washed and chopped into sections
2 brown onions, peeled and roughly chopped
8 red chillies
Belacan, thumb size piece
½ tbsp vinegar
6 tbsp oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
400ml tomato puree
2 tbsp tomato sauce
4 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp salt
4 tbsp sugar
Water
1 egg
Coriander leaves, to garnish

Method

1. Blend onions and chillies in a food processor for 30 seconds.

2. Heat oil in a wok and add onion and chilli paste.

3. Add belacan and continue to cook until most of the liquid from the onions evaporates.

4. Add vinegar, tomato puree, tomato paste, sugar and salt.

5. Add tomato sauce, starch and light soy sauce.

6. Add crab pieces and continue to cook over high heat until shell turns red.

7. Add egg and stir through gently. Add water if the sauce is too thick.

8. Plate and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

That was the only stipulation I gave my girlfriends when deciding where to eat for our Friday night catchup: somewhere we could get a table without waiting and get change for a $50.

Xage (pronounced ‘Sage’) was our answer.

Hailed by many as the new Phamish, Xage is located on the ever accessible Crown Street gastrostrip. A small and cosy place with a handful of alfresco tables, Xage is refreshingly unpretentious. The service is efficient, friendly and very attentive.

There is a good mix of classic Vietnamese dishes, with a few bold signatures – such as the caramelised pork belly and beef curry.

Duck fillet bánh xèo summer rolls, hoisin peanut sauce $10

Crispy chicken spring rolls with nuóc chám $7.5

We order the crispy spring rolls and duck summer rolls as our entrees. There is something new and surprising in the flavour of these two dishes. I hazard a guess that it’s some form of celery. Both dishes are also accompanied with bright and flavourful dipping sauces, which is a nice change from the standard nuóc chám.

Like Phamish, entrees are Xage’s strong suit. However, also like Phamish, Xage stumbles a little when it comes to the mains.

My pork belly was tender and well balanced in terms of flavour but too ‘gooey’ for my liking. The chicken curry baffled my friend Miranda at first, but it slowly grew on her. Meanwhile the grilled chicken salad, although tasty, had too little vermicelli to satisfy my friends Jess and Amelia.

Caramelised slow-cooked pork belly kho $16.9

Càri gà chicken yellow curry, hot mint, sweet dried shrimp $16.9

Grilled chicken, cashew nut, herbs in lemongrass dressing $15.9

At the end of the night, we had all eaten more than our fair share of food. And for only $25 a head, it was a steal of a meal.

Xage
333 Crown Street
Surry Hills
# 02 9332 3344
www.xage.com.au

Open 7 days a week for dinner from 6pm-10pm. Open for lunch starting from March 2010.

We had already spent the day eating non stop, walking up and down every street and making pointless stops at shops we weren’t interested in. Sitting on a bench, watching office workers giving themselves early marks and heading home, kids flocking out of trams and into fast food restaurants, Ms. Taste hits her iPhone to find some things to do.

“We’ve still got time left on our ticket, lets go ride the 96 tram, we haven’t done that route yet”, I suggest. Ms. Taste shakes her head and lets out an exasperated sigh, “What is your obsession with trams?”

Then she remembers that No Reservations episode where Tony visits Melbourne and with a few more minutes of googlising, we are walking again with a purpose, towards Chinatown in search of Dainty Sichuan.

After walking all the way to Little Bourke St, we find that Dainty Sichuan has moved and in it’s place, serving the same Sichuan delights with the same kitchen and wait staff is Sichuan House. It’s only 4:30 in the afternoon but there’s already two tables full of loud students tucking into their plates of chilli.

These tables weren't empty for long

Cumin Lamb Ribs

Ms. Taste orders the Cumin Lamb Ribs because Tony did it No Reservations, despite her dislike for cumin. There had to have been a jar of cumin in this dish (and a similar amount of garlic and sichuan pepper). It was an assault on the senses, with the aroma of all the strong spices, the crisp deep-fried outside and soft meat inside, and the lingering burning of the lips after each bite always itching for the next.

Fish Sour Stew with Pickled Vegetables

The stewed fish with pickled vegetables is a favourite of ours. However, each restaurant seems to have their own spin on the dish. The version at Sichuan House has plenty of bean sprouts to soak up the sour soup and that subtle, unassuming kick from all the chillis hiding under and in between all the ingredients.

My kind of ribs and beer

Sichuan House

Sichuan House was just the hit we needed before our flight home. And as we sat on the runway waiting for our plane to take off, we could still feel the tingle of Sichuan House on our tongues and took comfort in the thought that there couldn’t have been a better way to end our trip.

Sichuan House
22-26 Corrs Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
# 03 9650 8589

I’m not one to shy away from trying new things – especially when an interesting concoction such as Manuka Honey ice cream comes my way.

New Zealand Natural Ice Cream recently launched a new flavour for summer, the Golden Manuka Honey. I went in with the expectation that it would be like Hokey Pokey, a flavour that often tastes like sickly sweet toffee than honey. (Coincidentally, the best Hokey Pokey I’ve ever had was on a flight to San Francisco on Air New Zealand).

But Golden Manuka wasn’t at all what I expected. The flavour was light and creamy with a very slight hint of honey, which was hidden in pockets of luscious swirls. The addition of golden kiwifruit was subtle yet unmistakably present at the same time. The texture of the ice cream, like all ice creams at New Zealand Natural, was velvety smooth and pleasant on the tongue.

If you haven’t already, you can try the new Golden Manuka flavour for free at all participating New Zealand ice cream stores for a limited time. Get in quick and don’t miss out!

New Zealand Natural Ice Cream
www.newzealandnatural.com
# 02 9460 3344

Many thanks to New Zealand Natural and Mark Communications.

Crusty white bread sandwich, bacon, egg, tomato, avocado & lemon mayonnaise - $14

After a wonderful meal at Cutler & Co, we visited Andrew O’Connell’s other hatted restaurant, Cumulus Inc for some late morning breakfast.

The full English – farmhouse slab bacon, blood sausage on toast, fried eggs & smoked tomato - $18

The breakfast menu had a good variety of choices, guaranteed to appease the fussiest of eaters. However, the menu didn’t allow for changes to any of the dishes – so if you wanted to swap the sides around, you couldn’t.

Sardines with parsley, tomato and lemon on grilled sourdough - $13

CUMULUS INC. breakfast – boiled egg, toast, preserves, yoghurt, organic orange juice & coffee or tea - $16

The service was painfully slow at Cumulus Inc. It took me half an hour before I got my coffee (the waitress had apparently forgotten my order) and another hour for us to get our food. Even with 10 or so chefs in the open plan kitchen and six other tables, we all stared at each other in bewilderment as to what was holding up our food.

When our orders finally arrived, we hoed in without hesitation. It was satisfying, but it was far from fantastic. Everything tasted great and there was nothing I could fault, but the meal lacked the wow factor of Cutler & Co. Here, we just felt a little short changed.

Cumulus Inc.
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC
# 03 9650 1445
www.cummulusinc.com.au

Featuring…

* Incu, 256 Oxford Street, Paddington

* Single Origin Roasters, 60-64 Reservoir St, Surry Hills

* Gumshara, Eating World Food Court, Shop 209, 25-29 Dixon St, Chinatown

* Bodega Tapas Bar, 216 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hils

* Strike Bowling Bar, King Street Wharf, Sydney

* Shore Club, 36-38 South Steyne, Manly

* Meriton World Tower, 95 Liverpool Street, Sydney

Zeta Bar is redefining the way Sydneysiders wind down on a Friday night with the launch of an innovative menu of ‘cryogenic’ sorbets and cocktails. Remember Richard Blais’ wacky liquid nitrogen experiments on Season 4 of Top Chef? Zeta Bar takes it to another level with alcohol. That’s right, frozen alcohol. Didn’t think that could happen?

The liquid nitrogen and dry ice used to make the frozen cocktails and sorbets drops the temperature of alcohol to its freezing point – and because it does this in a matter of seconds, the resulting product is devoid of crunchy ice crystals and tastes incredibly smooth. It’s almost like a puffed ball of alcoholic air!

The new menu includes:

Zeta Sorbet – A summer inspired collection of all time favourite classic cocktails and champagne fixes – deconstructed and frozen in to cold palate cleasing sorbets. Flavours include: Black Raspberry Clover Club, Champagne, Mojito, Margarita, Pina Colada and Spiced Black Raspberry Mule.

Nitro Puffs – A selection of classic cocktails freshly made to order and cryogenically frozen with liquid nitrogen and served as an edible trio on a platter.

Champagne Ice Blocks – Served on the terrace from a bed of steaming dry ice. Perfect for a refreshing summer cocktail indulgence.

Cocktails – A selection of bespoke Belvedere Black Raspberry Cocktails.

Thanks to the team at Hilton for providing us with an entertaining and exciting entree into molecular gastronomy. Now, if only I took a barrel of liquid nitrogen home….

The Cryogenic Sorbet & Cocktail Bar is available from the Terrace Bar every Friday night until the end of March. Sorbets and cocktails start from $4.

Zeta Bar
Level 4, Hilton Hotel
488 George Street
Sydney
# 02 9265 6070
www.zetabar.com.au