So glad we found this little tapas bar at McMahons Point. The food is amazing! And the drinks are pretty good too. First up, white sangria. Yum…

The servings of zucchini flower were a bit small so they gave us double portions. Score! Two zucchini flowers each! They were so good one zucchini flower just wouldn’t have been enough. You know it’s a great dish when you start to think that it’s appropriate to pick up the plate and lick it clean. I was close to doing that.

The prawns were pretty amazing too. So amazing that G kept saying, and I quote “I want to marry these prawns”. They certainly were marriage material.

As I said, I’m so glad we found this little tapas bar, I think it’s my new favourite tapas place. And it’s just down the road from work. Yay!

We’ve been going to Fig Tree Restaurant for my birthday for the past two years, I’m secretly hoping to make it a tradition so we always get to spend summer in Byron.

After spending the day wedding dress shopping (for Esta) we were absolutely starving when we got there so we opted for the six course tasting menu and got all the sides. Bad idea – there was way too much food!

Because there were four of us, we were able to try every option on the menu so it was more like a 11 course menu. It took just over 3 hours to eat everything but we got there eventually.

Entree option 1: Yamba prawn and sweet potato soup
A bit prawny but really good. It tasted like two of my favourite dishes combined: Prawn noodle soup (Har Mee) and pumpkin soup. Odd but interesting.

Entree option 2: Roasted pumpkin panna cotta, walnut crumble and blue cheese.
A bit weird. Felt like I was eating an airy savoury cheesecake.

Starter option 1: Slow roasted pork belly, celeriac puree, apple and cress salad, grape sauce.
Pork belly is always a winner, and to make it even more of a winner just add grape sauce. YUM! Anyone know how to make grape sauce or where I can buy some from?

Starter option 2: Mediterranean vegetables and goats cheese roulade, olive tapanade
Strange.

Starter option 3: Ceviche of snapper, avocado puree, mango and chilli salsa.
Absolutely divine! Could have eaten a plateful of this.

Starter option 4: Duck and pork terrine, confit beets, cornichon pickles.
First time eating terrine, didn’t really like it. The pickled cauliflower was really nice.

Main option 1: Roasted Mediterranean vegetable plate with grilled haloumi and babagnoush.
Anything with haloumi is a winner in my books.

Main option 2: Breast and leg of duck, carrot and saffron cream, braised cabbage, anise jus.
It was an odd combination but it all went really well together. The braised cabbage tasted like Sauerkraut and went really well with the duck.

Main option 3: Dry aged Sirloin, beetroot puree, mushrooms and caramelised onion, Shiraz jus.
Mmm caramelised mushrooms and onions. The great thing about sharing food with Esta is that she doesn’t like mushrooms. Score!

Main option 4: Snapper, pea puree, sweet potato fondant, caper butter.
By this stage I was so full I honestly don’t remember eating this.

Dessert: Summer fruit pavlova, coffee panna cotta, lemon curd, Black Sambucca jelly.
Black Sambucca jelly – yes you read right! And it really did taste like sambucca.

We also got a cheese plate at the end, but we were soooo full we had to get a doggy bag.

A couple of weeks ago I tried Adriano Zumbo’s macaroons, and while they are really good, I think the Lindt cafe does a better job. They’re bigger (and hence more expensive), fluffier (oh so fluffy) and I think the overall flavour and texture is better at Lindt. Some of Adriano’s were a little too sweet for my liking, but that’s just me.

There’s so many flavours at the Lindt cafe, making it hard for an indecisive person like myself to choose. I ended up picking a handful of different flavours, the most interesting ones were Salty Caramel, Champagne and Olive Oil. My advice: steer clear of the Olive Oil one. I couldn’t quite figure out what it tasted like, it’s just odd. I would however, highly recommend Salty Caramel. As for Champagne … meh, didn’t mind it.

I was pretty impressed with the macaroons at Lindt, but I’ve heard rumours of even better macaroons at La Renaissance at the Rocks. Guess there’s only one way to find out…

My first visit to Bodega was short-lived. It was about 9ish on a Friday night and the wait for a table was too long so we ventured elsewhere.

To ensure we got a table this time round (they don’t take bookings, gr…), we got there right on opening time – 6pm. There was already a line forming at the door, but we got a seat.

I would highly recommend the fish fingers. As you can see from the picture below, they’re not your typical ‘fish fingers’. It’s Kingfish sashimi with little bits of cuttlefish on garlic toast. The puzzling thing was even though there was a heap of onion on top, it wasn’t onion-ey.

Pumpkin and feta empanadas with yoghurt sauce. Pretty average without the yoghurt sauce, awesome with it.

Never had Spatchcock before, it just tastes like chicken.

The pork belly was pretty good. And again, it’s not your usual pork belly with crispy crackling on top. It’s steamed pork belly with a shiitake mushroom and onion salad. At first it was weird that the skin wasn’t crispy, but you get use to it and grow to like it.

I finally made it to The Counter in Crows Nest. Amy first told me about it months ago and ever since I’ve read blog post after blog post by mates who’ve been there. We tried to go there a couple a months back but, much to my disappointment, it’s closed on Mondays.

We got there just before the lunch rush. The line was out the door.

I was really impressed with the onion rings- crispy and full of onion flavour. Yum! The sweet fries could have done with another few minutes in the fryer but they were still pretty good.

And now for the main attraction, my custom built burger with American cheese, fried pineapple, fried onions, tomato, lettuce and garlic aioli. What a beast!

The quality of the burger was actually really good. All the ingredients tasted fresh and the beef patty was cooked to perfection. I’m proud to say I demolished the burger. My work mates watched in amazement, they didn’t think I could finish it but I did!

What a feast- Soup, veggies, eggplant hot pot, deep-fried sweet ‘n’ sour fish AND mud crab with transparent noodles!

Now you’re probably thinking that meal would feed 5 or 6 people? Guess again. 3 of us absolutely demolished it! We probably should have stopped half way through our feed and gotten a doggy bag but it was that point where you think ‘Yeah we can do this’. Bad move. I was so full could hardly breathe!

Btw the entire meal was just 67 bucks. What a bargain! Love Auburn Soccer Club, best budget food ever!

I thought we had to travel far to get to Brendan’s birthday all the way in the Shire, but that’s nothing compared to the lengths his girlfriend went to. Nat flew half way round the world just for his birthday, now that’s impressive! Nat, I think we’re all expecting surprise appearances later in the year okay?

The venue was The Como Hotel. It’s a pretty cool pub, even though it’s in the middle of nowhere. And just a note, don’t go there in the afternoon on an empty stomach, especially on a day when the chip machine so happened to be broken! I was absolutely starving and had to wait till 6pm for a feed. On the flip side my feed was ginormous!

It was the biggest plate of Marinara I’ve ever seen and I can proudly (or embarrassingly) say I almost finished it. The chips are awesome too!

Dessert was pretty good, but I thought the Toblerone ice cream tower tasted a bit like medicine. Strange…

Happy Birthday Brenda!

After our failed attempt at the Biennale we headed to the Guylian Cafe at The Rocks. It was great because there was no line and we got a table straight away. After prowling the cake display and menu we decided on the winning 3.

First up the Ménage à Trois: panna cotta, raspberry and chocolate mousse, and white chocolate croissant pudding (left to right in picture below). I’m a big fan of bread and butter pudding and white chocolate so it only made sense that my favourite was the white chocolate croissant pudding. Yum!

The Coconut dream cake was also a great choice. Good pick Anna! That orange carrot looking thing on top was really nice, sorta tasted like a jaffa (I’m a big fan of jaffas too).

Last but not least was the Lychee tart, which was average.

After eating we headed to the cinemas to watch Twilight. I don’t know why I was so excited about watching it, I blame it on all the sugar. Seriously worst movie ever! Can’t believe I actually paid $18 to watch it. If it weren’t for coffee at Guylian (and Jacob) I would have fallen asleep!

There’s like a billion Thai restaurants in Sydney. It’s starting to get ridiculous. At Kirribilli alone there’s 4 within 100 metres – that’s just stupid! Now you’d think with so many Thai places at Kirribilli you’d be able to get cheap Thai food. Nope, unfortunately that’s not the case.

My chicken Pad See Eew was $14. What a rip! I could get 2 of these at Bondi for that price. Anyway, according to Masterchef “it all comes down to taste” right? How did it go? I’d say a 6/10. Chicken was perfectly cooked, but I wasn’t too impressed with the amount of salt that was in it. Seriously think my blood pressure went sky rocketing after eating that.

With Nat moving to the UK next month we’re about to start a series of farewell dinners, drinks and BBQs. Oh heck, whatever we do in the next few weeks we’ll just label as “Nat’s Farewell”.

We started at Kuleto’s in Newtown because we all love 2-for-1 happy hour, then slowly made our way down King Street. In the hunt for food we stumbled upon Cafe C. Good service and good food, what more could you ask for (maybe some lamb meatballs aye Lisa?).

Polenta chips with what’s suppose to be aioli but I think it was fetta.

Some spicy potato tapas dish. Can’t remember what it’s called but I was yummy.

Even though most of us ordered our own separate dishes, by the end of the night there were forks and spoons going all over the table. Felt like I was sitting at the family dinner table – love it.