I Don't Eat, I Devour

Hillview Farm is located in NSW. It grows a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables which are usually sold at various farmers markets around NSW. What they don't grow themselves, they source from a select few family-run neighbouring farms. In addition, Hillview Farm grows their produce sustainably, without the use of synthetic chemicals or artificial ripening processes. With COVID19, farmers markets are unfortunately non-operational, but Hillview Farm is doing fresh produce delivery, which I can only imagine is very popular at the moment. You have the option of purchasing individual items, and that of ordering seasonal box sets. Whilst the price of individual items are more expensive than supermarkets, they are comparable to your local green grocer, and at times like these, if one can, it is nice to be able to support farmers directly. If you choose their seasonal box, then the prices are pretty comparable to that of supermarkets. The downside of the seasonal boxes, of course, i...

Is anybody else feeling like time is passing incredibly slowly, and yet at the end of each day, I think - oh my, it's been another day already? I start this post in this way because I have just finished my week of Soulara home delivered meals, and yet I feel like I have been on this meal plan forever. If you missed my previous blog post where I reviewed a couple of the meals and provided information in cost, delivery method and packaging, here it is. Now let's get back into reviewing the food. Sunset Mwanga Stew Promising to "take your taste buds to Africa", this is a West African peanut-based stew filled with kale, butter beans and coconut cream, and served with sweet potatoes and quinoa. I enjoyed that I got two types of complex carbs and I really think Soulara nails the quinoa-cooking. The stew has a great texture with little bits of crunchy peanut, but I found this dish strangely sweet. I got behind it after a couple of mouthfuls, but it was a bit of a...

What s strange time we're living in! You will see that the unusual times has also had an affect on my style of blogging - I am usually quite direct and impersonal, focusing solely on the taste of the food. This time, however, I cannot help but wish to share some of the thoughts that have been swimming around in my head for the past few weeks. Please bear with me, and I hope this conversational, personal style of writing might be a little resonating during this lonely time. Holed up in my home without being able to go out, I have had plenty of time to reflect upon how lucky I am to have a home in which to quarantine. Life must be even tougher than normal for the homeless. I am also reminded on a daily basis that the ability to socially distance is quite a privilege through harrowing videos and photos of those who live in slums, which flash across my computer and TV screens each time I turn on the news. My thoughts go to those who might be quarantined with an abusive partner, wit...

Ever since a friend told me about Cubby's Kitchen I've wanted to try. So, in celebration of getting off work at a decent hour and living a relatively responsibility-free existence, I spontaneously grabbed a friend and off we went to explore Cubby's Kitchen. This is the most spontaneous I have been in a long time. Usually, I have already studied the menus and reviews closely and thus know exactly what I want to order, but not this time. We just looked at the menu and hoped for the best. And we did get the best.  Smoked Labne, $15.5 Labne is a strained yogurt that is wonderfully creamy, as one would expect - but what is delicious about the labne at Cubby's is its deep, woodfire smoke flavour, which added to the sourness of the yogurt. Paired with some pistachio, toasted sesame seeds and chilli oil, it is a great start to the meal, but because of the generous serving of accompanying pita, be careful or you'll be full before you know it.  Ladies fingers, $16...

The chef is Finnish, the old location is Darlinghurst, the menu is short and sweet, the taste is fusion. Welcome to Cafe Paci 2.0 - this time, located along the bustling main strip of Newtown and conveniently only a couple doors down from Mapo, my favourite gelato place in Sydney. I had heard s much about its molasses and potato bread that this accompaniment to a meal is what I had looked forward to the most. Potato molasses bread, $4 each These are heavy - that's the first thing I noticed about them. Heavy, however, doesn't mean stodgy. It is a style of bread that is different to my favourite, being the sourdough at Kitchen By Mike, yet it is neither dry nor overly chewy. It is comforting, with a slight sweet stickiness that isn't intrusive. Chicken liver paris-brest w’ onion jam, $16 This is my favourite item on the menu. Shaped like a desssert - the pastry usually reserved for  sweet cream and jam is revolutionised to hold liver pate and onion jam. The slig...

Ultra-minimalist and ultra-chic, Kuro is a Japanese restaurant that is not very Japanese. The techniques are modern, the ingredients are non-traditional, and really there are only little hints of Japanese elements in their delicious dishes. Kuro Chiffon, $5 A tiny morsel that turns the expectation up-side-down: a savoury chiffon cake? Topped with nori-flavoured creme fraiche and salmon roe, I think I will have all future chiffon cakes salty, please.  Tomato, $14 One of my favourite dishes of the evening: refreshing tomatoes on a bed of stracciatella (the burrata-like cheese, not the choc-chip ice-cream) and topped with a savoury, umami jelly film, this is one refreshing and moreish dish.  King Prawn, $14 each Deep fried so every element is edible (including the head and tail, we were told - though I'm not so sure about that), the king prawn is served with a prawn butter and encased in arare (Japanese rice cracker crumbs). I found the dish somewhat ...

The original Totti's is in Bondi - an area of Sydney I do not frequent, but I had heard great things about it. When I noticed the renovation sign coming up next door to Bar Topa in the Ivy precinct in CBD, I was pretty excited to try its CBD sister, Bar Totti's. The CBD location is surprisingly big - unlike the hole-in-the-wall, intimate Bar Topa, Totti's CBD is divided into two sections: a casual bar area and a sit-down restaurant area.  We made a last-minute decision to have a look on Friday night - the place, as one would expect, was bustling, but we were lucky enough to go at the right time and were able to nab a seat in the bar area.  We ordered a couple of dishes to accompany our drinks, and unexpectedly walked out with full stomachs.  I am already planning a second visit so that I can try a couple more things from its bar menu, and a third visit where I can have a sit-down meal.  Wood fired bread, $11 Served impressively puffed, you'd think thi...