I Don't Eat, I Devour

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....

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...