A fusion of Vietnamese and French food. We went to La Mint last night to celebrate Christina’s Dad’s B’day.
What do you get for a man who has it all? Just fun stuff like this MasterChef apron (he is a MasterChef!). Christina and I got Tony some plants for his aquarium!
Jess.
Cake was from The Sweet Spot. Funny timing as I was craving cake all day long from working on the new Sweet Spot web site!
Last night Suga and I caught up with Di and Felix for dinner at Neil Perry’s Spice Temple. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now but at the same time I’ve been nervous about it too as I sweat a LOT when I eat chilli (I mean dripping from the head, allergic reaction for sure!).
Plenty of street parking and the front door was a TV screen which had footage of an Asian style door flailing in the wind (very nice).
A table of Chinese people eating Chinese food cooked by an Aussie. Uphill battle?
I hadn’t heard of this beer before but gave it a go. I’m a fan of crispy beers (not a fan of malty beers with lots of hops) but Yebisu was AOK!
The entree’s had me sweating and damn they were bad. One of our mains was this 24hr duck dish (had to pre-order the night before). It was chewy, fatty and had no flavour (actually all the dishes were fatty!).
Felix and Di. The service was crap, the food was crap, it was so dark you couldn’t see what you were eating but hey! The company was great!
We had an early dinner (6-8 was our time slot!) and feeling unsatisfied we thought we’d stroll over to the harbour for a drink at the Opera Bar.
I love being a tourist in Sydney. In my opinion, the Opera Bar is an absolute privilege to visit. I’m just so glad it exists. Where else can you drink right at the waters edge of a city’s prize icons?
Process is everything. I love this little plaque in front of the Opera House (it’s up the stairs). Danish architect John Utzon gets to show everyone how he came up with the Opera Houses shapes.
Photos from a “just for us” BBQ at JDMyard.
Didn’t take Beau long to be popping 360’s on this thing out on the road!
Andy Lah!
Stevey, late with the nem nuong because he ran out of fuel on his scooter on the way to the BBQ.
The Pakulas.
Mark’s new board (love the big old skool T-Bone like wheels on it).
Howie brought the Porker along. Still the most responsive car I’ve ever driven (yes, memories are now fresh again!).
Dave was manning the BBQ.
Degraves (again!). Potato & onion omelette.
For lunch we dropped into the Hutong Dumpling Bar to try the best dumplings in the world (according to Tanja and Ben!). We got there before they opened and waited 20 minutes but glad we did as people came from absolutely nowhere once the doors opened.
Duck dumplings were great.
I’m a huge Din Tai Fung fan and I have to say that Hutong’s Xiao Long Bao had slightly thicker dumpling skin but it wasn’t better or worse than Din Tai Fungs.
Chilli wontons were great.
Beastman has an eye on Megan Gale.
Spotted at Mag Nation (think Borders, but just magazines). A past edition of IdN Magazine with my name on it!
The next morning we headed over to (you guessed it) Degraves St. We hooked up with the 2 Mikes who’ve helped me run JDMST for years now.
Spanish Eggs: chorizo, beans… perfect!
Peppermint Twist. Sunday Markets outside the NGV.
Cookies & Cream.
I missed my old friend and flatmate Tanja when she came out to Sydney last week so we hooked up for dinner at Cavallero.
Head to Tail: I had the beef cheeks. So good I wanted another one straight after!
Suga and I booked a dinner at The Press Club months ago when we saw it on MasterChef. I have to admit I had my reservations and no-one is pickier than I am when it comes to food. I’m afraid of hype and what I hate the most is paying heaps of cash for crap food. It’s sad but a lots of ‘fine dining’ from all over the world has failed to impress me.
A stroll away from our hotel. The Press Club.
We were greeted by the lady who runs the floor (we recognised her from the show). She was awesome and gave us this welcoming card.
George’s quote on the menu.
We went À la carte. It turns out there was a new menu (not on their site yet). Christina’s chicken dish was so yum. A poached egg and the crispy little bits are fried chicken which made the healthy poached chicken underneath taste so naughty.
I had the Kingfish. The flavours of the fish, calamari and kipfler potatoes just went together insanely well. He outdid any Japanese fish dish I’ve ever had (and any seafood dish I’ve had from recent memory!).
The lamb is his signature dish so we both couldn’t pass it up. Roast loin, 16hr glazed neck and almond skordalia (a lot like hummus). Too good. TOO GOOD!!!
Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better. A waitress sprayed rose scent in the air above us and George’s Aphrodite came out. ART!!!
This dessert came out too, lovely but nowhere near as special as the Aphrodite dish above.
Seeing old letterpress letters surprised me as I didn’t assume The Press Club had a literal connection to typography & print. Massive bill but totally 100% worth it!
Last night we went to Blue Angel Restaurant in Darlinghurst for my Aunt Lely’s B’day. We were given the menu a few nights ago and they suggested that we pre-order our mains as it was bound to be a busy night. Too right it was! It took us ages to find a park. We spotted a line of Asian tourists outside and the massive no parking zone in front of the place (for coaches I assume) screamed tourist trap.
The decor was different! Very authentic Italian (I liked it) but we had no time to appreciate it as we were very quickly ushered upstairs into a private room. Before we even got settled down one waiter had dropped 2 bottles of wine which smashed on the floor splashing all over handbags, jackets and one guest. Worst of all they were mute and not at all sorry. It only got worse from there. All our waiters (which were all Asian) must have been trainee staff. They had no idea how to serve, they were super nervous and their English was very broken. They had no idea how to pour wine (I even had red wine spilt on my white shirt, nice) and what’s worse was that Christina’s main meal came out 15 minutes after everyone else’s (despite us pre-ordering a few nights before!). To top it off her pasta and my pasta were both way over cooked too.
We had a good time despite the crap service and food (my family is a hoot!) but I feel sorry for anyone who has saved up their hard earned cash to get ripped off by restaurants like this.
The big spill!
My cousin Nicholas, always clowning around!
Nicholas and Romina.
My hunz.
Christina loves her new iPhone 4.
Bernard and Lely.
Nicholas’ speech.
Have to admit I got hooked and have pretty much watched all of it. Pretty happy that Adam won it but I’m definitely going to miss contestant Kate’s completely in the zone, in-time to the music jig on the MasterChef intro.
Last night we had Jon and Kay over for dinner (they did the cooking!). Always great company these two. I rattled off a few shots and as I thought, the Lumix GF-1 struggled in low light in auto mode. Most of the shots came out too blurry to bother with:
Not sure how the Becks ended up in my fridge downstairs but it’s a crispy beer so I’m not complaining! A while back I went to a wine show and had a taste of the James Squire Golden Ale and loved it pretty much right away. It’s fruity and reminds me of a German mango beer.
Suga – Shooting inside under house lights is a lot better than any other camera I’ve owned.
Jon – Shooting outside though was a different story (every shot was pretty much blurry and noisy).
Jon and Kay going 9 years strong.
Today Christina and I caught up with Sonny and Mina at Deus Cafe which continues to do well judging by how busy it was. They were having a clothing sale in the carpark too (where I managed to pick up a jacket and shirt). Every time I visit Deus that urge to buy another motorbike kicks into gear (I’ve had a couple and still have a license to ride). A few years back I really wanted a Honda Zoomer and now that I can buy one through Deus (at a reasonable $4k too) I find myself not really wanting one anymore.
Deus – breeding and spreading tasteful bike culture to the Sydney masses.
Today this would be my bike of choice. I’m not sure I have clothes cool enough to be seen riding on it though.
A shot looking into their workshop. Note the Japanese bike culture magazines on the table? It’s no secret that Dare Jennings (founder of Mambo) was inspired by bikes he saw on a trip to Japan, so much so that it led to him founding Deus in Sydney and building customised Japanese bikes.
The rumour out there is that the Deus Cafe does better than selling bikes and T-Shirts combined. It doesn’t surprise me, this eggs benny was delicious!
Sonny and Mina.
