Sydney Gastronome: the other highlights

Before my recent trip up to Sydney I mused on Twitter: "Is it bad that, as a Melburnian, the only thing I really want to eat up in Sydney is Thai food and Zumbo/Bourke St Bakery pastries?". I'll be writing up the Thai restaurants I visited in a separate post, but for now here's a collection of other culinary highlights from the four day trip.

Bourke Street Bakery
633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills (map)
(02) 9699 1011


I revisited Bourke Street Bakery because I'd liked it so much on my last Sydney trip. On that occasion I'd tried the pork and fennel sausage roll and a strawberry and vanilla brulée tart. I was VERY temped to get the pork and fennel again this time, but in the interests of variety for the blog I tried the lamb, harissa and almond. Also excellent, with pastry to die for.


My Sydney hostess, the gorgeous Miss C, was inviting some of her friends around for drinks that night so I bought a box of Bourke Street Bakery tarts for us all to share: lemon curd, strawberry and vanilla brulée, almond/pear and almond/rhubarb. I bought the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook but haven't made anything out of it yet - can anyone recommend a good starting point?


Later that night I taxied over to Potts Point to meet my friends Beatch, C and C for cocktails then dinner at Lotus.

Lotus
22 Challis Ave, Potts Point (map)
(02) 9326 9000
website


Lotus had been described to me as "modern Asian, ballsy flavours, a great cocktail bar at the back and just generally great for city fringe wow factor". After knocking back a rhubarb sour and a cucumber martini in the back cocktail bar, we were seated in the main dining room. Because one of our party was a pescatarian, we decided to construct our own seafood degustation from the selection of medium sized dishes (no entree/main divides here) - with the exception of The Cheeseburger, which we three omnivores were keen to try. No decent photo of The Cheeseburger I'm afraid, and I apologise for the poor quality of these other photos: it was nightmare food blogger lighting!


We ordered lots of dishes, these are just a few highlights: Vietnamese inspired sea scallop ceviche ($19, possibly my favourite); tempura of Japanese mushrooms with yuzu aioli ($16).


Seared scampi, foie gras (okay so technically not pescatarian), nashi pear and hazelnut oil ($24); local asparagus, spanner crab, fried egg, tartare sauce ($18).


I also really loved the steamed fish with silken tofu, mushrooms and kimchi consommé.

The desserts ($15 each) were also top-notch: blueberry granita, sauternes custard, peach ice cream and elderflower jelly; passionfruit custard with chocolate meringue, streusel and yoghurt sorbet; and a warm choc chip cookie with vanilla ice cream, raspberries and drizzled butterscotch. DROOL.


Saturday was the day when a group of us would be spending the afternoon on a sailing catamaran cruising around the harbour celebrating Beatch's 30th brthday. I got up early to run a number of errands. Stop one was Rozelle for Zumbo macarons.

Adriano Zumbo Cafe
114 Terry St, Rozelle (map)
no phone, no bookings
open Mon-Fri 6:30am-4:00pm, Sat-Sun 7:30am-4:00pm
website


Since my last visit to Sydney, Adriano Zumbo has closed his Cafe Chocolat in Balmain (still maintaining the original Balmain pâtisserie) and moved cafe operations to a site in Rozelle with adjoining kitchen.

When I mentioned I wanted to go and get Zumbo macarons for Beatch on the Saturday morning, every Sydneysider I spoke to sucked in their breath, shook their heads and said I'd be insane to try visiting on a Saturday morning. A.Zum was hot property BEFORE all the Masterchef macaron tower/V8 cake hoopla took place, but now his popularity has gone mainstream. I hope the rumours that he's expanding to Melbourne are true, and that he settles on a site soon. He does seem to be visiting Melbourne a lot more these days. Anyway, as it turns out, I only had to wait a few minutes to be served. Result!


While I was there I couldn't resist getting one of those exquisite passionfruit tarts.


The main cafe area is upstairs and is yet to open, so right now there are just ten stools by the counter. They afford a view through a window into the kitchen, where I spied a Zumbo macaron tower in its native habitat.


A macaron cornucopia! I'm afraid I don't remember all the flavours, but they included rose, pistachio & apricot, finger bun, raspberry & dark chocolate, pineapple, blackened vanilla (the purple ones), Mont Blanc, orange choc, passionfruit and - bizarrely - caramel hommus (the orange ones in the centre). CARAMEL HOMMUS! Later on I shared one with Beatch and he and I agreed that it tasted exactly like it sounded - caramelly but hommussy. I award A.Zum a merit badge for creativity, but I feel that rather than being a brilliant new combination it was merely the sum of its parts, nothing more.


Stop two was another site I've visited in the past: the Sydney Fish Market.

Sydney Fish Market
Bank St, Pyrmont (NSW) (map)
(02) 9004 1100
website


I wish I'd had time to stay and browse like I did last time, but I had a boat to catch! So I marched on over to the sashimi stand to buy a ridiculous amount of fresh fish.


Once on the boat, I arranged it on a platter with a serve of roe and some seaweed salad and it was devoured by an eager mob.


Stop three was just before I got on the boat: I asked my taxi driver to wait while I dashed in to a bottle-o to grab a bottle of Pol Roger.


We had a lovely time on the harbour, even if it WAS a little overcast.


After the cruise I went back to Surry Hills to catch up with the lovely Mel (aka Fooderati).

Cotton Duck
50 Holt Street, Surry Hills (map)
02 8399 0250
website


We met up at Cotton Duck, a restaurant that just opened a few weeks ago by Jared Ingersoll (of Danks Street Depot fame). The sustainable eating focus of the menu is echoed in the fitout of the restaurant, which features lots of salvaged and recycled materials. I drank another rhubarb sour (clearly THE hot new drink in Sydney this spring!) and we shared a rather lovely duck liver parfait with rosella relish.



Black Star Pastry
277 Australia St, Newtown (map)
(02) 9557 8656
website


On my last morning in Sydney, Miss C took me to her local, Black Star Pastry in Newtown (located next door to noted restaurant Oscillate Wildly). How crazy-good does Black Star's orange cake with Persian fig and quince look??


Miss C and I shared a mango danish and a Portuguese custard tart. We never seem to see mangoes in danishes here in Melbourne - can we please make them a thing for this summer? They taste brilliant.



The Wine Library
18 Oxford St, Woollahra (map)
(02) 9328 1600


Last venue! Prior to heading to the airport I spent an hour with Beatch, C and C at a fabulous little wine bar at the end of Oxford Street, called The Wine Library. We sat next to the custom-built charcuterie case, drank a couple of bottles of Italian red and nibbled on cheese and jamón. A perfectly civilised end to a raucous, decadent long weekend.

Sydney Gastronome: Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat

As I mentioned the other week, I spent last weekend up in New South Wales. I went up with the family to Newcastle to join in the celebrations for the milestone birthday of the mother of my new aunt-in-law.

We'd flown up to Newcastle, but the flight back was from Sydney so on the Sunday morning we drove down to Sydney, my uncle driving his brand new car, an Aston Martin DB9 (aka the car from the latest James Bond movies). The car was pale blue. It was outrageous. And sexy. And outrageously sexy.

It rained the whole time, which was slightly surreal for us bushfiery Victorians.

When I'd found out the week before that I'd be in Sydney for six hours on Sunday, I'd started planning my afternoon. I'd known from the start that I'd want to visit Adriano Zumbo's new cafe, and I was very keen to spend a few hours swanning around Surry Hills, taking the walking tour designed by Lucy of The Design Files fame. I'd emailed Sydneysider friends J and D, asking whether they were free to catch up for lunch or coffee. The charming J joined me for lunch despite feeling somewhat tender the day after Good Vibes, but as for D... he hadn't surfaced post-Vibes. What a piece of work.

Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat
Shop 5, 308 Darling Street, Balmain (map)
(02) 9555 1199
Open 7 days, 7am-6pm


I stumbled upon Adriano Zumbo's pâtisserie last time I visited Sydney, and was happy to subsequently discover that A.Zum has quite the cult following amongst Sydney food bloggers. So when I read Not Quite Nigella's review of the Chocolat Cafe that he was opening a few doors down from his pâtisserie (plus NQN's extended interview with the very dishy A.Zum himself) I knew I HAD to visit.

I got down to Balmain a little early so went to check out the pâtisserie first. The girl serving was an absolute sweetheart (they're blogger-friendly, this lot) and was very happy for me to take photos of the cakes. I actually didn't end up buying any of the cakes but if I had, I would've gone for the Maxiadz, the Cloud 9 or that scandalously rich-looking Millefeuille.




I DID however buy one of those vibrant passionfruit tarts to share with Mum, plus one of every flavour of macaron they had in the place to take home to Melbourne to share with housemate DJ. And yes, they're "macarons", not "macaroons". Those wanting to know more about macarons vs macaroons should read what Melbourne's foremost macaron expert has to say on the subject here.


And on to the cafe itself! It's down a little shopping arcade, with tables out the front and only one large table and a few couches inside. At the counter, there was a selection of chocolates (including the notorious Cameltoe chocolate, named for its shape - !!) and a few more macarons.


Cute, cosy interior. The dark, varnished wood reminded me of a ski lodge. I ordered a coffee and then kicked myself for not ordering a hot chocolate instead - J had a dark chocolate one and from the sip I had it was divine, natch.


J and I both decided to cut to the chase and just order sweet desserty things for lunch. I ordered a dish called "It's a Macaron not a Hamburger!!!" ($13.50), which is a big chocolate macaron filled with dulce de leche gelato served on a bed of banana caramel rice pudding and topped with "chocolate soil" (cookie crumbs). Very rich (couldn't finish it) but delicious, and nice textures.


J went for the "Paris - La Vie en Rose" (also $13.50): rose crème brûlée, raspberry sorbet balls, fresh lychees and petit rose macarons, served with a coconut strawberry tapioca shake. And rose petals! It really was an extremely pretty dish.


He didn't much fancy the shake, but J liked the brûlée a lot. He gave me a quarter of a petit rose macaron - it was fabulous.


Afterwards, we shared a cab to Surry Hills and I embarked upon Lucy's walking tour. I saw some gorgeous stuff, thanks heaps for posting the map Lucy!

Loved the interior of the Object Gallery and their exhibition Abundant: Highlights from the Australian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale.


Seen in Foveaux Street.


Cute mobiles in Spence and Lyda.


Back at uncle and aunt's apartment in Milsons Point, about to split the passionfruit tart with Mum. The tart was TO DIE FOR.


And here are the macarons!


In descending columns in the photo below, from left to right, we have: chocolate; vanilla; cherry coconut with chocolate filling; pistachio, rose; citron; orange with chocolate filling; passionfruit; orange; earl grey; coffee; rice pudding.


I would like to report to you that they were all delicious... but unfortunately DJ, best-friend-K and I only got through half of them on the Sunday night (highlights included the citron and the earl grey). Returning home from work on Monday night I was aghast to discover that I hadn't properly sealed the container I'd put the rest in, and they were infested with ants. Giant space ants. Bloody drought, driving all the ants inside! We hates them, my precious!!


Bushfire haze on the flight back to Melbourne. :-(