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...

I have been wanting to try one particular Korean dish for a long, long time: icy cold noodle which looks chewy and are wrapped in such a dense ball that they need to be cut with scissors before enjoying. Hansang is always top of the list when I search for a Korean restaurant in Sydney where I have enjoy cold noodles, so I decided it was time to pay it a visit.  One of the best things about going to Korean restaurants is the complimentary banchan (side dishes, or meal accompaniments). I am a particular fan of the fish cake (top row, third from the left), the refreshing pickled vegetables (greens, kimchi and radishes) and the creamy pasta salad (top RHS).  Those pan fried dumplings were hard to pass. Filled with pork and chives, their golden shells give them a more satisfying and chewy texture than their steamed counterparts. The flavours are well-balanced and moreish, especially when dipped in the soy-based accompanying sauce with a touch of chilli. Ah, kimchi pancake. Simple, ...

Cuckoo Callay Surry Hills boasts a kitchy-bright interior and a big outdoors seating area, serving a menu of creative, East-meets-West dishes that are what brunch dreams are made of. In the era of covid, the outdoors seating and the in-app ordering are particularly appreciated. There is also a Cuckoo Callay Newtown serving a slightly different menu that I'm yet (but excited) to try.  Watermelon mimosa, $5 Weekend brunch, of course, starts with mimosa. In addition to the classic version with orange juice, Cuckoo Callay serves a watermelon version. It is a pretty watered-down, weak drink, but at $5 a pop, there is little to complain of.  Ask a chilli question and you’ll get a chilli answer, $24 The names of the dishes here are all cheeky, fun and punny. I was geniunely torn between a few options, but settled with this gorgeous soft scrambled eggs with fermented chilli, mushroom and eggplant xo, with a roti paratha on top. This rich and savoury dish is flavoured with fried curry ...

This long-standing Paddington restaurant is something of a venerable establishment. I can't quite believe it's taken me so long to finally pay it a visit, and believe me, it lives up to the hype.  Pretzel bottarga, $18 The first thing foodies will mention when the name 10 William St is spoken is probably this delicious entree. The waiter also recommended it, saying, it has practically never left the menu. We can certainly understand why that might be. Beautifully lightly whiped butter with a generous shaving of salty bottarga, served with a piping hot, seedy, satisfyingly chewy pretzel - wonderfully satisfying.  Focaccia, $4 With such generous serving of whipped butter, we had to order a focaccia just to mop up the remainer of the previous dish. The focaccia came with the most decadent pool of olive oil, and is wonderfully fragrant and fluffy.  Eel on toast, $14 each one of the new, rotating menu items, the eel on toast sounded a little more unusual than the alternative (...

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...

 I found out about this little neighbourhood gem from a series during Sydney's lockdown, where a bunch of Sydney hospitality heavyweights were interviewed about the food spots that inspire them. Kepos Street Kitchen, the tiny, unassuming Middle Eastern eatery tucked away among the leafy streets of Redfern, was named by the owner of Nour (one of my favourite restaurants - read my review here ).  Fish burger, $22 Vibrant and beautiful, yet somehow still utterly simple and unfussy, this is perhaps one of the best fish burgers I have had in a long time. The fish part of the burger is more like a fish cake (the soft kind, not the bouncy Thai-cuisine kind), crumbed and fried until golden, the fish completely mashed rather than flakey and seasoned to perfection. The bright magenta and green pickles were pleasantly tart but sweet, cutting through the grease of the patty. The fresh dill - generous sprigs thereof - was an inspired touch.  Smoked Salmon Salad, $24 I usually never or...

After months of lockdown, we are finally back, just as the weather started to warm in the Southern hemisphere and the beaches filled with revelers. Calita is on the waterfront of Bondi beach, and has the kind of bright, relaxed vibes associated with long, lazy and boozy lunches.  Various margaritas, $19-$20 Pictured are the classic margarita, the feiry-rimmed jalapeno magarita and the dainty, pretty violetta margarita. The violetta is an easy-to-drink concoction of butterfly pea infused tequila, elderflower, lime and agave. The acidity of the lime has turned the blue butterfly pea flower a pastel shade of violet.  El Pastor Cerviche, $26 Being a marisqueria (seafood restaurant), the freshness of the seafood is a huge drawing card at Calita. The kingfish is thickly sliced and very lightly acid-cured, topped with grilled pineapples and crispy canchitas. Sweet, fresh and moreish, this is a perfect way to start a meal.  Blue Swimmer Crab Tostadas, $28 Recommended by the ...

 Battery Point is a wonderfully quaint, quiet, picturesque suburb dotted with vintage shops and wonderful cafes, bursting with an old-world charm. The name on everyone's lips is Jackman & McRoss: purveyor of scrumptious light meals, coffee, baked goods, chutneys and preserves. A couple of hours of people watching in its brightly lit rooms while enjoying the simple yet delicious menu offerings is a lovely way of spending a relaxing afternoon. An item that I would not have considered ordering but for the online reviews is the scallops pie. I love scallops, but I don't much like pies. They remind me too much of school lunches or the frozen food asile: something one picks up and heats, with a heavy sign, because one had been unprepared or too busy.  Oh, was I wrong. As one would expect, a freshly made pie crust is not in the same league as those frozen stuff. The pie crust is flakey, dense and hearty; and the curried scallops inside are bouncy and fresh. A most satisfying meal...

 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....