Salad of free range chicken, spiced peach, keflatori, rocket and pancetta

Chilli soft shell crab, asian salad, papaya salad and red chilli nahm jim

Oven baked flathead fillets, fries and tartare sauce

There is also a small shop in the cafe which sells gourmet produce and modern beach house interior decorations and gifts.

78 Cyrus St
Hyams Beach 2540 NSW
Phone: (02) 4443 3874

And the best thing – an after lunch dip in the ocean!

Smoked mussels in thai marinade served on cos lettuce leaf

Chilled Blue Swimmer Crab & Crystal Bay Prawn Remoulade with Pickled Cucumber

Greenwell Point Rock Oysters natural

Seagrass Kilpatrick with Fresh Lemon

Special of the day: Ocean trout

Grainfed Eye Fillet with Lyonnaise Potatoes and bernaise sauce

Rocket, Reggiano Parmesan Salad

Jaffa Affogatto

Wicked Nutty Belgian Chocolate Terrine with Chocolate Ice Cream

• 13 Currambene St
  Huskisson 2540 NSW
• Phone: (02) 4441 6124
  
• Show street map

The Berry sourdough bakery is a perfect spot for a stop-off if you’re driving down south for Sydney. Owned by Joost and Jelle Hilkemeijer – their philosophies and influences are “Quality ingredients, time and simplicity”, and they couldn’t be more correct. Set in a rustic country house with terracotta floors and old wooden furniture, this isn’t your average bakery. All the breads here are handcrafted organic sourdough loaves, made from local organic food products without the aid of moulding machinery. The cafe menu is also packed full of interesting food, using as much local produce as possible – and always at their freshest. I was most impressed with the dishes created here – it’s possibly one of my new favorites! The service was also very relaxed, friendly, yet extremely professional. I never give ratings but they are at least 8/10 in my books!

Local Oysters with red wine and eschalot vinegarette

Homemade chicken liver parfait with sourdough toast with papaya salsa

Zucchini, haloumi fritters with cured ocean trout, roe and cucumber


oozing with deliciousness… oh my god.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli (?) with Mittagong tunnel mushrooms – perhaps my memory will come back to me, as this was an amazing dish

I have been searching for Mittagong tunnel mushrooms everywhere as I’ve heard such raving reviews about how tasty they were. And they were right!

Address: 23 Prince Alfred Street, Berry, NSW, Australia.

Phone: (02) 44641617

And thanks to Wang we got to sample a magnum of Rockford Basketpress with our meal
  
the slow reveal..

A supremely complete, elegant and stylish shiraz, opulent and exotically perfumed with notes of
sweet chocolate oak - which makes it one of the smoothest reds you can find in Australia. Just DIVINE.

Louisiana Crab Cakes – with corn, coriander, chilli and lime aioli $19.9

Seared sea scallops on sweet pea risotto with salsa verde $19.9

Here Johnno models a Prada t-shirt, and
the 120 Day grain-fed, NSW, Rib on the bone (650g) $49.9

Cheese Selection

pavlova meringue with kiwi fruit, strawberries & passionfruit coulis (amazing)

and… I didn’t eat this. What was this? Coffee Brulee?

Most dishes are available in two sizes and virtually all the wines are available by the glass and in very European-style carafes at different sizes – the prices directly proportional to the bottle price, which means extraordinary value for money in a relaxed, yet refined, setting. A table of six with 500ml of wine gave us a bill totalled at $301, and we were all well and truly satiated.

Cauliflower veloute with confit chicken wing and white truffle oil (Beautiful Flavours)

Croquettes of salt cod and pimento

Terrine of smoked ham hock and pork cheek, ear beignets and remoulade
(Online Australian Gourmet Pages Dish of the Month for February 2008)

Spaghetti with clams, serrano, parsley and chilli

Bream with a potato and rosemary ‘pizza’

Fillet of ocean trout on spiced caponata with toasted almonds (My FAVORITE)

Roasted spatchcock with green olives, lemon and thyme

Braised lamb shank with a ragout of beans

Bitter chocolate marquis with pistachios

Eton mess with rhubarb and strawberries (So Amazing!)

‘Catalan’ Bread and Butter Pudding

Burlington Bar and Dining is located at 6 Burlington St, Crows Nest NSW 2065. Book far ahead to ensure a table! (02) 9439 7888

Tue, Mar 4

From:

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (SYD)

Departs:

10:20pm Tues Mar 4

Sun, Mar 16

From:		HONG KONG, HONG KONG S A R (HKG)	Departs:		11:55pm Sun, Mar 16
To:		SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (SYD)	Arrives:		12:10pm Mon, Mar 17

I just bought the Michelin Guide 2008 Tokyo: Restaurants & Hotels (Michelin Guide Tokyo)
but I would really love some personal recommendations. I want to try food in Tokyo that I cannot try anywhere else in the world…

Oh yes, if the opportunity arises, I am most definitely up for eating Whale. There, I admitted it.

The complimentary focaccia is pulled from a copper pan and sliced as you sit down. It’s accompanied by a terracotta saucer filled with chilli-infused olive oil. Such small details give A Tavola (meaning “to the table”) its warmth.

The small printed menu is short – two olive spuntini (snacks), three entrees, three pasta, three salads. It’s supplemented by a daily blackboard, mostly inspired by the pasta made that morning, although it may also include impossibly tender pork fillet ($38) fanned over caramelised fennel wedges with agrodolce (sweet and sharp) braised red cabbage and a generous dollop of superb salsa verde. If you’re lucky, the blackboard might begin with calamari fritti ($19) to rival Fratelli Paradiso’s legendary Sant’Andrea version. This bowl of lightly dusted squid is crisp yet supple, salty yet sweet, with nothing more than roasted garlic aioli and a lemon slice to squeeze over the tiny rings. (source)

The chef makes three fresh pasta daily but also uses a trio of dried Italian pasta for some dishes. From our table we can see the freshly made papparadelle hanging on a wooden rod across the front of the kitchen, waiting to be cooked.

The waitress explains to me that the risotto of the day is hand made fresh daily, and takes over 25 minutes of constant stirring over heat before it is served. Serving two (even though the three of us still could not finish it) it has a rich, aromatic sauce of different slippery wild mushrooms which compliments the al dente texture of the risotto. Topped with Saltimbocca – which is a pancetta wrapped pork cooked in butter, is so tender it melts in the mouth. Highly recommended, though I was told that you have to be very lucky to see it appear on the blackboard.

I think this one is a winner – we were too full to sample the desserts, but there is definitely more opportunities to come. HIGHLY recommended!

348 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, NSW (02) 9331 7871, www.atavola.com.au Dinner Mon-Sat, lunch Fri. Licensed and BYO.

Dammit I can’t believe I’ll be working on Saturday and cannot attend:

Ultimo Wine Centre Annual Champagne Tasting 2007

 

Always the best Champagne tasting in Sydney!

 

Saturday 1st December – 12 midday until 5pm

Billecart-Salmon, Taittinger, Bollinger, Laurent Perrier, Devaux, Delamotte, Gosset, Louis Roederer, Brice, Phillipponet & more…

Tags: A tavola, cabbage, carpaccio, Champagne, dessert, dinner, italian, mushroom, NSW, pasta, salad, salmon, snacks, sydney
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but WOW!

Everything is freshly prepared upon order, the sandwiches are grilled open (I’ve never been a big fan of ’squished’ sandwiches’), with a good variety of bread choices including soft wholemeal foccacia. All the meats are non processed – shaved leg ham, fresh chicken…

I had a chicken, avocado, tomato, mayo, lettuce and cheese sandwich on wholemeal foccacia. It looked like any other sandwich until I bit in. Highly recommended – and you know what? Nothing more than $7… considering the prices that other sandwcih joints charge in the CBD for a hopeless soggy sandwich, for such good quality ingredients – this one is a winner!

Just across the road from the Observatory Hotel:

Splendid Sandwiches

Phone: (02) 9247 2862 (photo source) Check it out

So the water was FREEZING, but that didn’t stop us from jumping in… who could resist?

Warm your stomach up with a “Camp Cove Sunset” – something we spontaneaously came up with.

60ml Belvedere vodka

Shake with Pear Nectar

Layer with Aranciata Rossa

Garnish with an orange slice for extra tacky-ness

And finally – Edible glitter!!! Happy Birthday to my two darling cousins Jaclyn & Roslyn