Barramundi in the middle of the dessert (alice springs)

I stayed at home today, sick. It started with a sore throat... when I thought I was recovering, BAM, I developed a harsh dry cough, blocked nose and ears, slightly runny nose. I currently feel gross and want to get better for the long weekend. I got this bloody cold right after coming back from Alice Springs for work.

Alice Springs was amazing - gorgeous landscape, refreshing demographics. One evening, we had dinner at the 'Barra on Todd Restaurant' in the Chifley Hotel Resort. I was quite sceptical of the quality of fish served at the restaurant as Alice Springs is very inland. The seafood in Canberra is a polarised hit and miss, so I was reluctant to try put my bet on Alice Springs.

However, I was pleasantly surprised - the menu had a variety of barramundi, such as one with a mustard and Parmesan crust, macadamian crust on Mediterranean veges. I got the barra with a almond crust on kipfler potatoes. The fish was thick, fresh, not too dry and the almond crust was done well. It was not pretentious and generous.

Barra on Todd Restaurant and Bar
34 Scott Terrace
Alice Springs
http://www.voyages.com.au/nt/barra-on-todd/

Nick's Bar and Grill: King Street Wharf

I went to Sydney for work late last week and stayed in a hotel on King Street Wharf. The hotel was better than anything I'd be willing to pay for out of my own pocket. It was surprisingly quiet as double windows blocked out the hustle and bustle of typical Sydney traffic. I felt that a one bedroom apartment was too much space for one person. Nevertheless, the views of the wharf and the city were pretty decent/good.

For a work dinner, we went to Nick's Bar and Grill. It was a rainy Thursday evening and a bit chilly. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was still classy (or upmarket) and sophisticated. For the entree, I had seared scallops with citrus and caramel sauce. The scallops were plump, extremely fresh and sweet. Definitely amongst the highest quality scallops I've ever had. The sweet sauce complemented the dish well as it brought out the natural sweetness of the scallops and the citrus added a 'bite' to the food.

For the main, I got the whole baby barramundi - offshore fish grilled and finished in the oven. The barra was cooked to perfection as the meat fell off the spine and wasn't dry at all. Others at the table thought a whole fish would be a clumsy choice and I must admit - I found myself constantly spitting out baby bones. But for what it was, the restaurant did well. My only complaint would be that the guts weren't cleaned out to perfection - this affected the end result as there was a very small section of bitterness in the fish's stomach near the guts.

Dessert is my favourite, if not second favourite, meal of the day. I got the baklava - a traditional Greek dessert with pistachio icecream. The icecream was ever so creamy and tasted like real pistachios. This accompanient was necessary as the baklava was probably the sweetest thing I've ever eaten. I'm a huge fan of baklava, but this one was way too sweet for me. One of my colleagues advised me that 'traditional' baklava is sickly sweet and usually accompanied by bitter Greek/Turkish coffee. After eating this, I wasn't surprised. The baklava was so sweet that I couldn't finish it - def needs to be shared between two people.

Several of my colleagues got the Mango and Summer Berry Fool, with fresh mango, mixed berries, chantilly cream and meringue  - it looked amazing and many of my colleagues praised the dish for having many different components but criticised it for having too much chantilly cream.

Overall, I'm glad I had the opportunity to dine here as I've heard much about this restaurant and walked past it a million times thinking that it was way out of my budget. A great restaurant but probably not distinct or quirky enough to be called one of my favourite fine dining restaurants in Sydney.

Nick's Bar and Grill

The Promenade, King Street Wharf

Sydney

http://www.nicks-seafood.com.au/nicksbarandgrill/ 

fish and chips at fyshwick markets

My friend had a hangover and was craving fish and chips. She knew that I have a food blog so asked me if I knew any good places, but to my dismay, I had not eaten fish and chips in Canberra nor found many places with good seafood. Nevertheless, the seafood sold at the Fishwyck markets was the freshest I’ve had in Canberra, so it made sense to try the fish and chip shop there.

The shop smelt like any other fish and chip shop you'd encounter at the beach or any side walk - deep frying oil and sea water/fishy.

She got the fisherman’s basket, essentially a plate of deep fried crap, including chips, prawn cutlets, calamari, seafood sticks and maybe a piece of white fresh fish. I got the grilled white fish with the salad. Sadly, my fish was overcooked, dry and a bit chewy. Since I’m not really familiar with seafood, I can’t blame this on the (potentially cheap) catch of fish.

I’m still keeping my eyes/tastebuds out for a good a good fish and chip place in Canberra.

a tropical garden and amazing salmon at the Atrium restaurant

Atrium: In modern architecture, an atrium (plural: atria) is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building… Atria are a popular design feature because they give their buildings "a feeling of space and light." (Thanks Wikipedia)

My old flatmate and I are on a quest to experience (aka eat our way through) Canberra. We do this by making the most out of every decent voucher/special deal in the Entertainment book or online voucher websites (i.e. Living Social). This time, I was thoroughly impressed by what we got.

We went to the Atrium Restaurant in the Pavilion Hotel. The restaurant was situated ever so accurately in an atrium – but the bizarre thing was the tropical gardenry which was a centerpiece of the restaurant and integrated in the vertical architecture of the hotel. My old flatmate noticed that the leaves weren’t maintained very well as some were dropping, brown and dry.

Anyway, we both got the salt and pepper Tasmanian salmon fillet with dill potato mash, beetroot pesto with some sort of basil oil/basil pesto. It was delicious and definitely the best seafood I’ve had so far in a Canberra eatery. The salmon was fresh, tasty and not overcooked. The crispy skin of the salmon was done well – had a strong enough crunch to distinguish it from the soft fish but not to the point that you’d think it was deep-fried. The dill mashed potato was smooth, creamy and would be perfect for people in dire need of savoury comfort food. And the beetroot pesto was amazing as it had the traditional pesto texture but had the wow-factor of tasting like beetroot. The basil oil added an extra freshness to the dish.

Each component of the dish was great by itself. But when we combined all of them in one mouthful, we felt weak at the knees.

We used the Entertainment Book and received two for two salmon fillets for 28.50. Can’t complain at all.

Atrium Restaurant in the Pavilion Hotel

Dickson, Canberra

242 Northbourne Avenue

www.pavilioncanberra.com/facilities.html

Teatro Vivaldi in ANU: a theatrical experience

The Teatro Vivaldi restaurant is in an inconspicuous building surrounded by trees, found among foreboding academic buildings in the Australian National University. The restaurant was decorated with everything that reminds you of traditional and kinda Shakespearean theatre – black stage walls, red velvet curtains, beams and camera lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls were covered in theatre memorabilia – kitsch Venetian masks, black and white photographs of actors and old-school theatre advertisements. The overwhelming amount memorabilia made me feel like there were thousands of empty eyes were on me, and after a while, I felt like I was an actress myself. Although the ‘scene’ was a bit constructed, the place is a unique and distinctive in Canberra.

One of the two dishes we had was an oven baked Tasmanian salmon, on a sweet potato mash, baby spinach and drizzled with lime aioli. The sweet potato mash was a hit – sweet comfy goodness which made me re-think: Are sweet potatoes really more healthy than potatoes if I enjoy sweet potatoes more?! Unfortunately the key star of the show, the salmon, failed to perform to its potential. It was overcooked, dry and not very tasty. Up to this point, I was convinced that all salmon in Canberra suck.

The other dish we got was a sirloin steak with a roasted potatoes and pumpkin finished with a cabernet and green peppercorn jus accompanied with a rocket salad. I can’t remember this one as clearly (I feel a tad guilty when I eat red meat, for  environmental and chloesterol reasons, so maybe my memory plays tricks on me and refuses to remember when I do consume it). The steak was cooked to our expectations – tender, medium well – but steak isn’t hard to cook after all. It was a good meal but not something that I would rave to others about.

Overall, I enjoyed the restaurant experience and would consider having my birthday celebration there to expose my friends to this distinctive (but slightly constructed) place. The food was mediocre so I’ll have to scope out other places.

Teatro Vivaldi Restaurant
ANU Arts Centre
University Avenue
Canberra

Sushi Hotaru

Everytime I visit Sydney, I insist on eating sushi as there is a serious lack of good sushi in Canberra. My friend brought me to Sushi Hotaro, the new-ish sushi train under the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya in Galleries Victoria. It was right after Christmas, so the place was packed with tired (mostly Asian) shoppers. Each dish was $3 + 10% holiday surcharge. The price per dish was definitely value-for-money as most dishes had some form of seafood. It was one of the best sushi trains I've been to in Sydney!

Apparently, seafood is one of the most environmentally-unsustainable foods to consume as it is farmed and sourced using an extraordinary amount of natural/man-made resources. I ignored all of this, just for this meal. I promise I'll eat less seafood in 2012 :) and I usually stick to my convictions.

There was a magnificent artwork in the centre of Galleries Victoria with hundreds of books suspended from strings. It was like a massive diorama (there's probably a more sophisticated description for this type of art).

Salmon sushi, blow-torched

Salmon and scallop sushi, blow-torched

White fish (snapper?), blow-torched, sprinkled with chilli powder

Edamame sushi

Avocado roll with salmon

Scallop sushi, blow-torched

Cooked tuna & tomato sushi

Cooked tuna and salmon avocado sushi

Sushi Hotaru
500 George Street
(Below Kinokuniya)
Sydney

wine, roses and jazz festival

In Canberra, graduates across government departments have many opportunities to attend interdepartmental social mixing events. I wanted a wine tour to happen, but rather than asking someone else to do it (and it possibly not happening), I put up my hand to organise it (yes, I am a sucker).

The capacity of the wine tour was 77 people. 3 separate groups of approx 25 rotated around different wineries, essentially a ‘tour’. The tour purposively fell on the same weekend as the Wine, Roses and Jazz Festival. This allowed the graduates to not only go wine tasting, but enjoy the music and pretty scenery. We visited the Murrambateman region because a committee member advised that it is one of the more picturesque regions.

Tallagandra Hill Winery

This was, by far, my favourite winery on the day. The winery has a contemporary café feel. We enjoyed a sit down wine tasting outside under shelter. Brad, one of the owners of the winery, talked us through each wine we tasted, what food would complement each wine and answered our (mainly mine) bizarre and inane questions. For example, I asked why do people swirl their glasses before they drink the wine? I can’t remember Brad’s exact response but it was something along the lines of allowing people to fully smell the wine and to allow the aromas of the wine to come alive. After all, the sense of taste is dependent on smell. Brad also told us a bit of history of the winery and made the whole experience very personal.

Another group had lunch at this winery and they were thoroughly impressed by the generous servings of food.

I’m not a red wine drinker, because I find it too strong and too fruity. I actually feel like a Queen Lear when I drink red wine. However, the 2011 ‘Sassy’ Red was amazing. Even a couple of males liked it. My wine tasting notes describe it as being made from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, tasting and smelling of sweet berry fruits, with a delicious touch of sweetness on the palate. I thought the wine was zangy (like citrus), playful and light. My favourite red wine in the world, so far!

Dionysis Winery

This winery reminds me of the cute country cafes and shops that you’d find in small towns, such as Berrima. Normally guests enjoy a stand up wine tasting in the shop front, where they are surrounded by delicious condiments etc. For our wine tasting, we were in the back shelter where all the barrels of wine were stored – it felt natural and raw. The new 2011 Reisling was my favourite and was well liked by the male/female crowd. It wasn’t overly strong and had a good balance between fruitiness and sophistication.

At this winery, we had a light lunch – either a smoked salmon salad or goats cheese salad. I enjoy the first offering but many of us still needed more food to soak in the wine that we consumed throughout the day. A few of us shared a Dionysis platter, which included cold meats, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, dips, chutney, relish, tapenade, pesto and olives. This dish has a better presentation on non-festival days, as it would be served on a wooden chopping board, giving the dish a country gourmet feel.

Long Rail Gully

This is a large shed filled with barrels of wine and make-shift wine tasting tables. I didn’t taste much wine here because I was trying to sober up for the drive home. This was the first winery where my group actually got to listen to jazz. The highlight of this winery would be the gorgeous dam at the back. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of it.

Jeir Creek Winery
This is a small and cute winery. There are flowers and leaves climbing the walls and is exactly what I imagine a country winery to look like. I remember tasting a nice dessert wine here… But my technical memories of this part of the wine tour are pretty vague.

People seemed to enjoy themselves a lot at the wine tour. I had a lot of fun planning it (thanks to the committee) and hanging out with the grads. This was probably my favourite social event of the year!

Pork Barrel

I’ve heard lots about this restaurant through colleagues. The restaurant is listed in the ‘gold section’ of Canberra’s Entertainment Book so I expected a slightly formal dining experience. Instead, the restaurant had no white table cloths but exposed wooden tables and a café feel as waiting staff stood behind a U-shaped bar and as there were floating/make-do blackboards with the menus. The locals knew this and dressed appropriately. My flatmate and I just came back from work so were a bit more formal. But after 10 minutes, we felt at home.

We ordered/shared a pizza and salmon. The pizzas here are the same as those in Debacle, a famous Canberra pizza institution (my ‘evidence’ is heresay and if you compare the menus, they are exactly the same). The selling feature of the pizza was the doughy base – fresh, as addictive as crack on a stick, fluffy and just yum. However, I’m more of a toppings lady (maybe due to my avoidance of carbs) – while the base was amazing, if I was craving pizza, I probably wouldn’t choose to go here. The salmon was good – maybe slightly small, but it wasn’t overcooked (very common in restaurants). Sorry, I can’t remember what accompanied it.

Being the sweet freaks that we are, my flatmate and I brought home a mini blue(berry?) macaron and a mini raspberry friand. The macaron was weird – I couldn’t taste any blueberry whatsoever, so it was just a smurf-like macaron – two-dimensional.

Pork Barrel

King George Terrace
Kingston

http://www.porkbarrel.com.au/

big weekend

I love seeing how people’s choice of food reflects what’s going on in their lives.

On the weekend, I graduated from my work grad program, drinks with colleagues, partied and debriefed.

National Portrait Gallery: Graduation

The weekend kicked off with our graduation at the National Portrait Gallery. The ceremony was boring and I grumpy due to lack of sleep. However, the food was a highlight! We had crustfree sandwiches (either with smoked salmon, cream cheese etc or roasted veges etc) and cakes, such as orange and almond meal or chocolate brownies. It was a work event but the socialising aspect of it blurred work into the weekend.

Kingston Hotel: Work drinks/dinner

The grads went to the Kingston Hotel for drinks and a pub dinner after the graduation. As much as I love having dinner with the grads, I hate talking about my work outside of hours. Luckily the topic of food and the psychology of birth order came up. Love it! At Kingos, you’ve got the option of an a-la-carte menu or DIY menu (where you pick some raw meat and BBQ it).

I had a roasted pumpkin and pine nut salad. It was good overall, but it was covered in some heavy oil or dressing which made me feel a bit gluggy afterwards. My friends had a parma, chargrilled vege skewers, goat etc. Typical pub meals - laid back and no fuss.

Kingston Hotel

73 Canberra Avenue  

Griffith ACT 2603

Civic: a drunken night
Some of us headed out to Civic for a Graduate party. Everytime I go out, a person must have a greasy slice of pizza. Comforting convenient food when drunk is needed to soak up the immense amount of liquids consumed.

Pizzazz Cafe: farewell

One of my closest friends was leaving Canberra, so we caught up for brunch as kinda 'the last meal' she'd have in Canberra. She had eggs Benedict with bacon and I had muesli with rhubarb compote, and natural yoghurt. It was presented as a trifle in a clear glass - sophisticated. However, I thought the meal was okay - there was a bit too much yoghurt for my liking and could have done with more muesli. But maybe that's just because I am a cereal/muesli addict. I probably wouldn't order it again.

Pizzazz Cafe

41 Kennedy Street, Kingston 
Kingston, ACT 2604

Tosung Korean BBQ: debrief

A chilled out debrief meal needs to follow every big night out. I went with a close friend to the new Korean BBQ in Manuka. I needed to vent and was drunk (again, whoops) so thankfully, my friend did all the cooking. I probably wasn't craving meat at this stage but apparently one craves meat if they need a boost of energy.

Compared to the Korean BBQs that I would have in Sydney, it was bit small. But the meat was of good quality – what I mean by this is that there was not too much excess fat. The venue was good as the exhaust pipes were moveable, so we could place it near the smelly stove, minimising the heat from scorching our faces and the smokiness penetrating our clothes.

Tosung Korean BBQ

Manuka (old Zeffirellis)

milk & honey. an old relationship

An ex-boyfriend of mine travelled to Canberra to catch up with me. Although many people would feel awkward around their exes, for me, this guy is just like the boy next door. I appreciate that we still talk. We went to Milk and Honey in Civic and had chose the most contrasting meals: salad as opposed to a burger with a shake – haha, this is not to say that our choices in food reflects what we were like in a relationship.

I ordered the salmon salad – it was larger than the size of my face lol. But it was satisfying as there were a range of ingredients and there was an adequate proportion of salmon. He ordered a chicken burger which, sadly, was burnt. His 'breakfast shake' had raspberry, banana, pineapple juice, skim milk, honey and yoghurt. We were not impressed by it because it was watery and the proportion of fruits were imbalanced (maybe too much pineapple juice).

Milk and Honey

Ground Floor Center Cinema Building
29 Garema Place Bunda St
Canberra City ACT

http://www.milkandhoney.net.au/

food with friends

I haven’t put too much effort into this blog because on the blog, I’m having a one-way conversation with my friends and others. I prefer socialising with my friends in real-time and in person.

Baking day
One sunny/chilly afternoon, a bunch of the graduates and I gathered at someone’s house for a baking day! As domestic as it sounds, it was a fun way for like-minded people to hang out and boldly talk about the things that we are passionate about. Below are pictures of a colleague’s choc-chip cookie cake! The texture of the baking masterpiece was halfway between the density of a cookie and the floury/fluffiness of a cake.

Brodburger
In my last post about Brodburger, I criticised it for being average and commonplace. This view wasn’t taken well by people who I met in Canberra. So I decided to give the red caravan a second chance. This time it was daytime, I was with a good friend, and had a cider in hand. I had the fish burger without aioli – unlike last time, I noticed the earthy chargrilled smell/taste and the burger wasn’t overly oily. And I love love love the outdoor setting surrounding the caravan. I would go back again but still prefer the variety of other burger places.

Spider Cider

One evening, I was craving cider per se and icecream per se. A friend suggested that these two should be combined. We did this and it was amazingly good – essentially ‘cider spiders’. The froth that developed from the concotion was a fluffy, childhood-like dream that Heston Blumethal would extract and incorporate in one of his molecular masterpieces.

Bus Depot Markets

My spiritual cousin visited me in Canberra. I absolutely love visitors as it encourages me to do things I don’t normally do in Canberra. I guess going to the same places and doing the same things bores me. We went to the Bus Depot Markets and enjoyed organic strawberries and some filo wraps. We realised that one of the filo wraps had cream in it. This raised discussions of how some people have intolerances of dairy and gluten and how certain foods can affect your emotional wellbeing. I admire my cousin not only for her knowledge but motivation and courage to stop full-time work to continue studying.

Yuppie?

Earlier in the year, I was enjoying a cafe lunch in Canberra on a sunny weekend. We were talking about our families who owned businesses, gossiping and critiquing the cafe's food. Then one of us dropped the 'yuppie' description upon us. Do I really live in the yuppie culture?

I decided to ask my trusty guides: Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary.

According to one definition in Urban Dictionary, I'd probably be classified as a yuppie: "Acronym for Young Urban Professional... Usually congregate in... Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and a wide variety of vintage clothing boutiques. Includes both moderate Liberals (Majority of yuppies), and moderate Conservatives (smaller group of yuppies), although both the far left and the far right enjoy dissing them."

However, I highly doubt I fall into Wikipedia's definition: "Yuppies are made fun of for their conspicuous personal consumption and obsession over social status among their peers, which is seen as vain and materialistic."

People around me have always associated yuppies with latte-sipping people with toasted focaccias living in the Inner-West of Sydney (the trendy/cool part), or frequenting this area. Maybe Wikipedia/Urban Dictionary need to be amended or maybe the term 'yuppie' is up to individual interpretation or maybe the term is thrown around too easily and it's meaning has become more 'inclusive' of a range of people.

ANYWAY... to farewell one of my good friends who is leaving for New York, we caught up for breakfast at the Kawa Cafe in Surry Hills. It was a balmy Saturday morning, there were tables on the side walk and the food was really good.

We got the Vegan Breakfast, a Salmon toasted sandwich and... *drum rolls* an amazing poached pear and vanilla bean smoothie. The ingredients were fresh and reminded me how good food can be. I can't put it all into words. And plus I'm hungry and tired now, so I'll leave it at that.

FANTASTIC cafe that you could miss if you blinked. Highly recommended :).

Kawa Cafe
348 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010

And walking around Paddington, we came across a few food stalls - one of my favourite things to stumble upon :)

High Tea at The Victoria Room

For Mother’s Day, I got my mum a voucher for us two to have high tea at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst, Sydney. In a belated manner, we only used the voucher last weekend. On another note, I thought that I bought her a voucher for the high tea at the Queen Victoria Building, as I was tricked by the name Victoria Room. Initially, I was annoyed at myself for this, but I guess it allowed my mum to ‘expand her repertoire’ in high tea around Sydney.

The menu at the Victoria Room included:

Sandwiches

Chicken and Wild Herbs

Cucumber, Crème Fraiche and Dill

Smoked Salmon, Rocket, Lemon, Capers

Watercress, Celery, Walnuts and Goats Curd

Assorted Sweeties

Dark Chocolate Cup with Chocolate Mousse, Cream and fresh Raspberries

Classic baked Lemon Cheesecake

Delicious Seasonal Fruit short crust Tartlet

Red Velvet cupcake topped with Creamed Cheese Icing

Scones and Conserve

Date and Plain Scones served with Organic Strawberry Conserve and Chantilly Cream

I had a China Sencha Green Tea and my mum had a skim latte.

The atmosphere of the Victoria Room was unique and differed from the tea houses that we previously frequented. As opposed to European-style tea houses, where the rooms would be filled with light and dominated by the colours white or gold, the Victoria Room was dark, intimate, wooden and a bit Asian. It would be an ideal location for my type of a girl’s night out, as it was pretty, had unique décor and had plants everywhere.

We went to the Victoria Room with high expectations for the food. Our expectations were well supported from having tea at the Bather's Pavilion (Sydney), The Ritz (London), the Langham Hotel (Hong Kong) and the QVB (Sydney). We wanted the food to be made in-house, fresh and delicate. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to all of our expectations.

Sandwiches

The bread was soft and all the fillings had the right amount of creaminess, saltiness and crunch. However, a few times we found that the fillings weren’t evenly spread on the sandwich. For example, my mother got a sandwich where there were only walnuts in the last corner of the sandwich. I know we were being fussy, but high tea is one place where we should be able to do this.

Sweets

Dark chocolate cup – the chocolate was tempered, shiny and had a good crunch. However, we questioned whether the cup was made in store or outsourced. Though, the fillings (chocolate mouse, cream and fresh raspberries) were perfect.

Cheesecake – I wasn’t amazed. It could’ve be enhanced with bits of lemon rind.

Cupcake – I love cupcakes but this one was much too sweet. It was just pretty.

Scones

They were fine but a bit too bready for my liking. I think scones should be light and melt in your mouth.

Tea

My major disappointment is in the tea. Green tea is not meant to be brewed by boiling water nor for very long. By the time the tea got to my table, it was burnt and bitter. I also had one of those tea pots where I couldn’t remove the tea leaves from the hot water and so the tea leaves would continue to infuse in the water until I skulled my current cup.

While I may have given harsh criticisms of the Victoria Room, I still had a good time. I just wouldn’t go again!

The Victoria Room

235 Victoria St
Darlinghurst

www.thevictoriaroom.com/

being a tourist in sydney

It's not everyday that people from overseas visit you. I made some really lovely friends when I was doing student exchange in the UK and travelling in the USA. However, Australia is so far away from where they live so, realistically, I imagine that they’d come here if they had a good portion of time and enough money.

When one of my friends from the USA told me that he is visiting Australia, I was very excited! I decided to meet him in Sydney – it was the perfect opportunity to visit iconic and touristy restaurants/takeaways.

Löwenbräu Keller

First, we went to Löwenbräu. I know tourists probably don’t expect to come all the way to Australia to have German food. But we were exploring The Rocks and it was one of the few places that I knew and didn’t entirely rip you off. I had a mushroom pizza – the (german) difference is that it’s on a thin and light pastry, rather than a hearty dough. Although I usually avoid eating pastry due to my cholesterol levels, this wasn’t too bad. The pastry was less buttery than puff pastry but more dense and stable than filo pastry. I loved how the pizza came out on a chopping board and baking paper – it gave it a homely and country aesthetic.

My friend got the Nürnberger Würste, which had 6 traditional Nürnberger sausages, served with Sauerkraut, Mashed Potatoes and German Mustard at $26.50. According to Wikipedia, this pork-based sausage is one of the most popular in Germany. As I’m not a huge fan of meat sausages, I thought the Nürnberger sausages were okay. They weren’t as heavy as Australian sausages, which was nice. But they weren’t as flavoursome and hearty as the ones I had in Germany. Is food always better from where it originated? Or do I subconsciously think that ‘authenticity’ makes something better?

Löwenbräu Keller

Corner of Playfair & Argyle Streets

The Rocks

Sydney

Sydney Fish Market

I googled the walking route from Darling Harbour but we mindlessly tripped down an incorrect road and took a 30 minute detour. Whoops. As always, the Fish Market didn’t fail to impress me with its fresh seafood, people who prepared sashimi in front of you and the number of Asian tourists. I paid around 7.50 for around 10cm of sashimi and it filled me up for the whole afternoon – was thoroughly satisfied.

While there was fine and delicate sashimi, there seemed to be overwhelming masses of other stuff. One bain-marie had galores of deep fried stuff (ew or yum?). Also the fresh fish store had a large portion of king fish with a carving knife - this scared me because a) the king fish was huge and looked like it'd be half my body weight; b) it was confronting to see meat like this. I'm going to take a mini break from eating it.

Sydney Fish Market

Bank Street
Pyrmont

Sydney

Pie Face

Over the few days of my friend’s visit, we walked past Pie Face way too many times. I’ve never been game enough to go to this fast food joint but I got down my high horse and finally did it. I got the minestrone soup – it was okay. It was clearly thickened with cornflour or a similar thickening agent. But I love the idea of take away soup – it reminds me of the great takeaway joints in NYC which had a menu of 20+ gourmet soups.

He got the Steak and Cheese pie, which was decent. There was a good portion of what seemed like real meat and the pie didn’t just taste like lard. It would definitely be good for a snack out in the town when you are a bit tipsy or drunk.