I Don't Eat, I Devour

One of Sydney's most exciting new restaurant / bar combo in the heart of Newtown, Odd Culture boasts an excellent wine list and one of the best value banquets I have had. When stepping into the space, the lofty ceilings immediately transport you away from the bustling, slightly crowded streets of Newtown.  The anchovy cigars caught our eye, so we ordered some in addition to the generously portioned set menu. Crispy, delicate and savoury, the already complex flavours of anchovies are enhanced further by the addition of olive and taramasalata.  Anchovy cigars, $7 each The house bread is curiously named "beer bread". It is a house baked sourdough with house butter, which is rich and generously sprinkled with coarse sea salt. The fluffy bread is a wonderful start to the meal - especially if you're also washing the food down with a couple of cocktails.  As a refreshing first course, disks of cucumber is tossed in silky preserved tofu and salted chilli. The contrasting text...

Thor's hammer certainly packs a punch. Probably one of the best dining experiences I've had in recent times, Mjolnir commits to the theme - but don't be fooled, this is no gimmicky restaurant where the wait staff plays dress up. The food and the drinks here mean business.  The entry is unassuming, leading down to a large, cavernous basement that transports you straight to mythical times.  Upon arrival, we are presented with a little shot of complimentary mead to whet the appetite. A sweet, moreish, fun number, it is nothing like the mead bought in bottle shops.  Across the Fjord, $21 Come for the drinking-out-of-horns, stay for the cocktails. The cocktail list at Mjolner is impressive - and many come with a theatrical display. This one came in a cloudy beaker and tastes alcoholic yet floral and subtle, with a distinct nose of of fresh pine trees.  Blazing Glogg, $23 This sweet, dark, boozy number came with a dramatic display of alcohol being pulled from one vessel to...

First of all, the décor and serving ware at Edition Coffee Roasters are the wabisabi style of my dreams. Moody yet calming, simple yet elegant, they certainly elevate the dining experience.  Best known for their coffee (as the name suggests), the food served at Edition Coffee Roasters is best described as Japanese-Scandi-fusion, and will be reason for my numerous return trips. It is unsurprising that it won best café at the Time Out Food Awards 2018. Wagyu meatball don, $23.10  Most of the savoury options on the small but curated menu are sandwich-like options, therefore the wagyu meatball don (rice bowl) immediately caught my attention. Served with crunchy, marinated cucumber, crispy nori, and a soy-cured egg yolk, the konbu rice was a real highlight. Umami, gently savoury and utterly moreish, this is a rice bowl I couldn't imagine easily replicating anywhere else. Each component is so skillfully created (particularly the soy-cured yolk: truly inspired), its simplicity is dec...

 MONA is an incredible museum and art gallery (perhaps my favourite in Australia), and the food options are just as incredible. There is the wonderful Faro, of course - but I'm going to talk about The Source, a restaurant quirkily giving you the option of dining outdoors on "living tables" with moss and herbs as tablecloths, or dining indoors and risking being seated indoors and eating above a dildo.  The table we got, alas, had no dildo fun, but is a rather aesthetic piece of jade ornament. The dining philosophy is sharing is caring, so here goes.   Spiced eggplant, $28 Eggplant has always been my favourite vegetable, and I fell in love with it once again in Tasmania. At The Source, spiced eggplant is cooked with saffron and fino roast fennel, manchego cream, green olives, roast tomato broth and topped with a couple of grissini. It is rich, umami and complex. The star ingredient - the eggplant - being such a perfect vessel to deliver all these flavour explosions....

Strongly recommended by a friend of the same name who discovered it by chance, Lucinda Wine Bar is the little sister of the highly regarded Dier Makr (where I'd failed to make a booking due to its popularity on this trip). The concept is fun: instead of a wine list, you tell the staff what you like, they bring you whatever they have opened, you taste a few and settle on your pick of the glass. The food list is ever-rotating and curated, and extremely well-priced.  Resolutely refusing to take bookings, going to Lucinda is something of a romantic affair: either you are the right person at the right time, or you are not. There is something serendipitous about the whole thing, including the artsy, beautiful, slightly unconventional clientele it appears to attract.  Bread with schmaltz, $5 Schmaltz, I learned, is rendered chicken or goose fat. Silkier and more decadent than butter, it is surprisingly light and non-greasy in consistency, with a lovely saltiness that is perfect with ...

 A tiny, unassuming little gem seating no more than 18, Templo is a neighbourhood gem in the truest sense of the word. The set menu, along with a small-ish wine list, is scrawled on a blackboard. The kitchen is semi-open, the chef calling "service" from time to time. The glasses and the drinks are lined up near the teller, to be picked up casually, as if reaching in one's cupboard at home, whenever a drink is ordered.  While awaiting the food, fresh bread is served. Drizzled with olive oil, it is fluffy, pillowy, and large loaves of them rested near the open kitchen temptingly. We ordered a skin contact wine to pair with the first couple of courses - refreshing like a white, but bolder and deeper, with strong and distinctive passion fruit notes on the nose.  The first course, the gnocco fritto, consist of little fried pieces of bread to be wrapped in cured meat along with pickle. The pickle at Templo is distinctly sweet compared to most pickles, which works very well with...

 Hobart is one of the most under-rated cities in Australia, in my humble opinion. Combining culture (MONA is my favourite museum / art gallery in Australia), natural beauty, excellent whiskey and creative cuisine showcasing local produce, it is a city I could revisit again and again.  Aloft is on the wharf, overlooking the vast expanse of water carrying fishing boats out to sea. It is what modern high end Australian cuisine is all about: fresh ingredients, superb technique, and a little East-meets-West.  The set menu starts with sashimi sitting on a bed of parsley buttermilk. It certainly lives up to the name of the course - an amuse bouche. The interesting texture, unexpected flavour (creamy yet so fresh) and tiny portion tickle one's fancy and awakens the taste buds.  Wallaby is meat I don't often see in Sydney, but in Hobart, most good restaurants would at least have one course that serves this unusual meat. Here we have a wallaby tataki with miso and macadamia. T...