eats, Food, restaurant, sydney, Uncategorized

Ursula’s

Ursula’s Paddington is the new project from pedigree chef Phil Wood. The food retains all the flavour and class of his previous statement at Icebergs Dining yet and is more accessible. Delicate petals have been replaced with lashings of rich sauce.

Ocean Trout with cream sauce, Warragal Greens & Trout Roe

The menu reads from times past with highlights and punctuation from ingredients only recently accepted into western diets in Australia. Such as the Coral Trout, smothered in delicious cream sauce which is laden with Warragal Greens and Trout Roe. It’s an amazing dish as is the mussel schnitzel, a potato and mussel patty, crisp, crunch and fresh vinaigrette salad, i bet this will be a Rockstar item in Sydney soon

Mussel Schnitzel
Prawn Pasta

Prawn pasta too, is highlight, opulent and generous, chilli edge and crunchy crumbs. Chunky prawn bits, scallion , ginger and Shaoxing wine sauce is a vibe, I’m a fan of spicy noodles and this hits the spot. Asparagus, bbq, in cacio pepe sauce, traditional and modern, defines the food at Ursula’s.

For dessert we choose the Golden Syrup dumplings, a homage to ingredients of the past and absolutely delicious

The food is Australian. It reminds me of what my grandmother would cook, apart from the modern twist, which elevates this food to a new level. Imagine how our food scene would be now if the early settlers listened and learned from the Indigenous population. The room is not large, it’s a chill space, feels very homely even with the 90’s interior of clashing colour and ribbon shaped light shades. Classy selection of international and Australian wines. It all feels very relaxed, with the great food and wine, happiness is the result. Then Phil was just cruising around the restaurant with his new baby just to really drive the homely feel. I’m a big fan of Ursula’s!

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Lucky Kwong

Hokkien Noodles

Lucky  Kwong is Kylie Kwong ‘s new restaurant in the new area know as South Eveleigh. It’s a great restaurant, it’s busy and interesting to see how this area all works together.

Old favourite dumplings sit next delicious new items such as the noodles along with food that is a progression of Kylie’s market stall food and flavours from her last restaurant, Billy Kwong.

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Pancakes

I am a fan of the food. An amazing amount of flavour is packed in to the ( apparently ) simple plates leaving the kitchen. And what’s most exciting is the clean fresh flavours, rare characteristics for Chinese food, normally served to me. On my first meal here, vegetarian hokkien noodles moved straight to my top 3 noodles in town, fresh from leaves, spiced, clean saucy with nuts this hearty bowl is totally moorish. Great favours and textures in the food and with such a big name chef owner,  Lucky Kwong was bound to be busy.

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Lunches only, what! So un Sydney. The rest of the city ‘s restaurants only wants to open weekend nights. Personally, I love another lunch option in town, especially for early week lunches! Lunches only, it seems Kylie wants to have a life outside the kitchen. Restricted hours and rockstar chef status is going to leave this new joint hard to get into. Then south Eveleigh has some serious offices, like the Commonwealth Bank office. The effect is there are thousands of people there who all want lunch, in South Everleigh, at lunch time, busy.

Slow Cooked beef and veg

Lunches only may be the reason for the simplicity of the wine list. One white, one red, both from Cullen WA. The white is delicious, it’s all I’ve tried but Cullen being an OG Biodynamic farming vineyard you know the wine will be good.

The interior too, simple at Lucky Kwong. Compound board, minimal smart design, aligns with the South Eveleigh aesthetic of re-cycle, re-use so we all can re exist, is echoed through Lucky Kwong’s design. Concise and smart. Then the app based ordering system, kinda smart? I always have menu questions so app ordering is kinda annoying to me.

The menu at Lucky Kwong is also smart & concise, hit flavours and textures from years of markets stalls and restaurant feedback are on the menu at Lucky Kwong. Pancakes are mouthfuls of fresh herbs. Slow cooked beef is still, somehow, clean in flavour, then with soft pickled, stewed veg it’s a delightful plate of food. Hero pork dumplings to placate the masses, familiar flavours of chili and vinegar will not challenge the thousands of square diners, who will be lining up at Lucky Kwong for lunch over the next few months.

Dumpling

I am a fan of Lucky Kwong. It’s the quality, simplicity & freshness that’s got me. A two wine list is less annoying than how damn hard it is to get a seat. I wish this place was four times bigger, so hopefully, a South Eveleigh outside seating situation happens soon for Lucky Kwong.

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South Eveleigh
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eats, Food, restaurant, sydney

Sydney Dining in 2020 – Did a positive attitude result in positive dining? From Lockouts to Lockdowns and back. My COVID dining experience.

Well. What a year! After years of abuse in Sydney, a Global Pandemic was always going have a severe impact of the hospitality industry. In March, restaurants were empty as fear gripped the globe and everyone desperately tried to work out the virus. Being forced to close led many restaurants to re shape their business model. Then forced closures as the media pumped panic and fear, while politicians rode the wave to popularity, as slogans jammed positivity in commercial breaks. When Restaurants reopened it was at half capacity with more stringent cleaning, more costs and less customers.

Sydney has always been a tough market for hospitality. Real estate is amongst the most expensive in the world. Wages are also amongst the highest. And tax on alcohol is astronomical. Then, if you wanted to open a restaurant , you would have pass a probationary period of limited trading, such as no alcohol sales after 10 pm! All this means it’s very expensive to open a restaurant. Add some overzealous motivated religious politicians, soon, hospitality was blamed for violence on the street. There was a very successful transfer of street violence from Kings Cross to Newtown the whole time hospitality is taking the brunt of blame instead of aggression. With our former state leader about to face disgrace, Mike Baird retired, allowing hospitality in our city the chance to recover, not likely.

I’d read about Covid 19 in December 2019. A travel company sent me a warning about a flu from Northern China. Within weeks this company had banned all Chinese travellers. An extreme reaction I thought but then the resort I was travelling to has the potential to be more infectious than the Ruby Princess. A ski resort, in the middle of the Canadian Rockies, confined spaces in helicopters , reticulated air-conditioning , shared water bottles up the mountain.

Returning in March 2020 airports were on alert. I’d developed a cough as a result of freezing cold weather and the legality of marijuana in California, Colorado and Canada. Coughing in airports and on the airplane was already shunned. As usual, I was obsessed with getting Chinese or Thai food on my return. Kingpin Sydney chef Dan Hong was already appealing for customers to not abandon Chinese food as he saw reservations plummet at Mr Wong. Nobody knew anything and assumed the worst, restaurants were empty and getting desperate. I’d just endured several weeks of high altitude dining and was ready for some of my favourite Sydney food.  Spice I am, yes, Mr Wong, yew, Nomad, yay. At Chin Chin, Jacquie Chancellor, Nomad Chef,  sent me a message thanking me for still dining out! Coughing at Mr Wong in March cleared the next table!

Squid from Nomad

Soon Restaurants were forced to close. Personally, I’d already left Sydney. I’d spent several hours on the phone organising a flight home from London for my son. The hotel in London where he worked had issued no Covid warnings. That ignorance was a concern. Then I remembered my wife’s 90 YO dad was staying with us and made South Coast plans. Restaurants soon moved to a take away model.

Arriving to house with a defrosted fridge is never fun. When every sausage, slice of bread and bit of mince is defrosted weeks ago, buying supplies when voluntary rationing was also a test in patience. The funniest was a ban on vinegar, I was excited to start testing different vinegars but I could not buy more that one bottle. They rated 300 ml of Balsamic the same as three litres of white vinegar, one bottle. I don’t know who cleans with balsamic ? Unleash the data plans please, ready to cook almost anything online.

Sydney’s official Covid lockdown allowed me to get thoroughly sick of my own cooking. The biggest highlight was foraging pine mushrooms. Even cooking David Chang’s leek oil noodles still had my taste! An abundance of Instagram cooking tutorials only served to highlight my deficiencies in the kitchen, not give me the food I was missing. Restaurants only just surviving fell. Panic set in, I needed my favourite restos to survive. T shirts & cookbooks ordered ,what else could we do? Gourmet delivery and take away sprouted.  Drinking a margarita from a cup in the street was a new joy, previously prohibited by our lawmakers.  Can we please retain some of these simple pleasures ? The curve flattened and restos were allowed to open, I took every table I could get. I took ten seats at Restaurant Hubert  just because I could. Set menus imposed to ensure it was worthwhile for restaurants to open. A couple of tables with a couple seats only ordering tap water and starters would kill any restaurant in these times ! Tip big we were also told.

Reservation systems got restructured as groups missed reservations, leaving tables empty at empty restaurants. Our beaten brothers and sisters in hospo were desperate. Mandatory set menus were imposed , some good and some needing a tweak. After years of watching degustation restaurants open and then change to burger joints, Sydney diners were growing tired of being prescribed what to eat. I decided to avoid set menus and degustation a while ago. I’m a fan of the quality casual dining that Sydney has pioneered. However, during lockdown I did not give a flying fuck if I had to order the set menu if it would allow me to get that joints food again in the post covid aftermath. I was even happy to pay extra for iconic dishes from restos left off their set menu and only available as an add on, such as The Salted Egg at Poly. When I look back to this point , I must say, my self appointed position as one of Sydney’s Dining Ambassador, I feel annoyed. I go to a resto to eat, drink and be merry, not to sit and be seen whilst sipping on tap water. The one size fits all model seems to be a Sydney favourite! Those who didn’t order much had me ordering much more, like i need to order more!

I was so excited to be in restaurants again but my excitement was matched with time restrictions. An hour 15 mins here, hour and half there. My excitement and time restraints caught me out several times. I’d find myself ordering a martini, beer and bottle of wine the first time the wait staff spoke us. I did like being triple parked.

Slowly fear subsided and more people felt confident to dine out without getting infected. Restaurants were still at half capacity. Then something weird happened, complacency slipped in. I’d seen this with architects I’d employed during Covid Lockdown. Poor service and apathy crept in. The building that I was told was ready to go in April was not ready in October. The bastards had taken the allowance and done nothing. Restos too, acting as if at max capacity were serving substandard food and poor service. Surprisingly poor was 10 William Street, one of my favourite restos. I’d been two weeks before and had a great meal so I felt confident to take my friends there for their birthdays. Every plate went back to the kitchen with food on it. The waitress could not get the sommelier to come upstairs to talk to me. I ordered predictable wine and sat with an empty glass for far too long. Our waitress was giving her best service to three tall handsome Dutch gentlemen two tables over and spent some time sitting on their laps. A compulsory tip of $147 was imposed , then the waitress asked for more tip !

On this occasion I was particularly excited. I had dropped an Instagram story hyping this resto and my upcoming dinner. I dropped another story expressing my disappointment. Many people responded to this story, an owner contacted me and blamed covid. Fair call, it’s just not going to get me spending my money there for a while. It felt weird,  I’m a massive supporter of restos, I’m a fan of chefs and restaurateurs. Many friends work in hospo and related industries. I’d been dining out as much as possible. I knew they could do better but I could not, and still cannot , work out how I could communicate to them to get better service and pay more attention to what was coming out of the kitchen.

Another particularly poor experience was from some other Sydney restaurant heavyweights.  I’d secured a one hour and 15 min reservation. The usual, triple parked. Ordered, the all the food arrived in 15 mins, before some of the drinks. Done and dusted in 45 mins was weird experience. It was such a rush, only one dish would get me back, bone marrow pasta. I will also return to Barstardo, at least for that pasta, but it won’t be with four other people either.

Some Restaurants even opened during Covid. I jumped at the chance to get Federico Zanellato’s pasta without a degustation at LuMi Dining, his new Restaurant Leo. As did Ben Sears (Moon Park, Paper Bird ) opening a middle Eastern Restaurant Ezra. Smalls Deli, Lox in a Box, SOUL Dining are more openings.

And some restos smashed it. Alberto’s Lounge, Café Paci, Cicca Bella, Totti’s, Ragazzi, Bar Uma, Sean’s Panorama, Cho Cho San, Chaco Bar, Chaco Ramen, Mr Wong, Gogyo, Fai Jai,  when they had the chance to trade again.

But the restaurant I returned to most, with no set menu, was Lotus 2.0 Potts Point. Set for closure by Merivale, the building was sold. With the onset of Covid the new owners wanted to see solid trading in these times, we were lucky to squeeze a few more months of the opulent decadence Lotus was dishing out. Soon my friends wanted bookings with me there. I’d eat half the menu and return three days later to eat the other half. As thunderstorm’s of truffle rained down upon lobster and crab a lowly pasta dish demanded my attention. The humble fungi noodles from Big Sam Young, BSY. Yes, truffle elevated this plate of noodles but only a few dishes get me inspired to try to replicate at home. I just hope BSY keeps enough shrooms on hand so he can make me something similar at his next venture.

This dish kind of signifies Lotus 2.0 for me. A restaurant that sells burgers next to prawn toast, lobster next to cheese toasties, steak next to sashimi is a restaurant I’d generally avoid. It’s the food everyone wants but my personal mandate for specific direction in dining was obliterated through the food tasting absolutely fucking delicious. Then it became easy , I could eat anything at Lotus, plus the staff were happy and relaxed and I could always find nice wine below $80 a bottle. Mushroom pasta, simple and delicious, add egg, yum, make enoki crunchy, yummier, add truffle decadence, all day . It can be a simple dish, delicious, add truffle, opulent. Boom. Lotus 2.0.

So now, as restriction look like easing ? It is much harder to get a seat, spontaneity is gone especially if you want to go to a bar after dinner. My attitude is positive, I’m positive i’m going out. Positive i’ll try new places and return to old favourites and i’m positive i’ll give those disappointments another chance. Just please can everybody wash their hands.

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eats, Food, restaurant, sydney, travel, Uncategorized

Restaurant Leo

Restaurant Leo

Restaurant Leo is a modern Italian restaurant where sophisticated cooking meets accessible food. Bean soup with mussels is a hearty low brow dish that’s delicate and delicious, similar to the sand whiting, so fine and precious and hearty at the same time.

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Cuttlefish risotto was a standout along with the cauliflower gratin, made boujee with the addition of truffle. It’s delicious and I can see this dish, along with the lobster maccheroncini , becoming a standout dishs in Sydney in 2020. Hazelnut ice cream with truffle and truffle jam has got me going bonkers and dish worth rushing in for before the end of truffle season. Saltimbocca is good, rich in flavour and adding a little fresh or zing in there somewhere would get me ordering this again.

Excellent wines available,  have a chat to Fabio to help find exactly what you’re after, we had a Gee Albana, a rich tannic orange wine, with sea spray vibe that rocked with seafood.

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Restaurant Leo serves delicious Italian food that’s more accessible than Frederick Zanellsto’s other restaurant, Lumi Dining, with much of the finesse you find at Lumi Dining.  And now you don’t have to order a degustation to to get some of his awesome truffle pasta.

 

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Pasta Wafu

With such tasty noodles available in town Pasta Wafu opening adds excitement to the Sydney dining scene. But alas, they played this a little safe and this good bowl of pasta is not as exciting as expected.

Jap Spag Bol from Cho Cho San, with its firm chewy udon, spicy pork mince , spring onion and cream sauce is a go to dish in Sydney. The XO Pipi Hand Rolled Udon of the former Paper Bird  was another phenomenal noodle dish. Mr Wong always has at least two noodle options available that are bound to be awesome.

With Marco Polo taking noodles from China to Italy, the combo of pasta with Asian flavours is an exciting  idea and not too much of a stretch for a palate to comprehend.

Miso Fettuccini with shiso & nori took my fancy, with added parmesan ( $2 ) and bacon ( $4 ). The flavour is good and the thick cut chewy bacon adds much to this dish. Where i was let down was the soft pasta. So many Sydney restos now serve firm chewy al dente pasta, it is hard to go back to old school Australian style, soft, well done pasta.

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Kirby Craig, Ume Burger, has hit so many home runs with his Jap inspired burgers I was pretty excited to go to Pasta Wafu. There are five bowls available with six add ons. A bowl is $14, $20 with the bacon and cheese I got. You could easily get to $24 for noodles in a paper bowl.

Some dancing bonito flakes or fish roe would have enticed me more. I know these options are far from popular but an exciting element would charge the menu for me.

With firmer pasta this joint will easily go from a 6.5/10 to an 8/10 . I’ll return, check some more dishes and hopefully i’ll need to update this review. 

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Pasta Wafu is a collaboration between Kirby Craig ( Ume Burger ), Hamish Ingham & Rebecca Lines ( Banksii ).

Pasta Wafu, ground floor, The Exchange, Darling Square, Haymarket, NSW, 2000. Open seven days, 11.30am–9pm.Here

Pasta Wafu

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Hello 35 minute Lamb Shanks

Ingredients

1 onion

2 carrots

1 celery stalk

1 head garlic

4 Lamb shanks

2 cans tomato

600ml stock

1 glass white wine

Handfull of green beans

Rosemary stem about 20 cms long

5 bay leaves

60 ml olive oil

Technique

Well i’ll be, first time i’ve ever used a pressure cooker and i’m impressed. After I checked the instructions i was still a bit nervous, i mean 35 mins for lamb shanks! How can it be. When i popped the lid after the pot cooled and meat melted off the bone i knew the time was right, now did i get my flavour right?

Brown shanks in 30 ml olive oil two at a time in the ‘brown’ mode in your crockpot. Set aside. Add diced onion, celery one carrot into crockpot while still on brown mode, when soft and translucent add wine. When this is hot and bubbling, add the rest of the ingredients. season with salt and pepper. Put on the lid and seal. Turn Crockpot to Pressure cook – Meat. The the choice is yours, what to do with your 35 mins?cup of tea? clean the kitchen? or a glass of wine?

Technically you could even put the timer on to start in four hours, then the Crockpot will cook and stay warm for your arrive home.

The ease and simplicity combined with inability to taste while cooking also let to my doubts if i’d got this right as i not tasting whilst cooking is new to me. This simple combo of ingredients never seems to fail and the taste was great. I served the Shanks on a bowl of wet cheesy polenta and the whole lot got gobbled down.

Video here

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Lumi Dining

Sitting by luxury appartments and super yachts in the water 50 meters away you could think Lumi Dining is just another power lunch Italian restaurant. The food is Italian and it is degustation. What impressed me the most was high level of thought and technical application while the food remains tasty and comfortable, trademarks of Italian food.

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Crab

Sometimes I feel degustation meals get caught up in themselves. A couple of dishes can come out and be more about showing the technical prowess of the kitchen or dishes to test your capacity as a food lover. Raw diced oysters served on a sphere of crushed ice ( Murgaritz, San Sebastian ) Raw razor clams ( Bodega 1900, Barcelona ) are two dishes from high end degustation menu’s that confronted my nerve and left me thinking why? Why not make something hot and delicious?

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Oysters & caviar

The Agolotti at Lumi dining come covered in a foam sauce and remains hot tasty and technically astute. Foam serving to keep lightness in the sauce has a purpose, it’s not foam to show us the smarts in the kitchen. A moorish pasta dish, smart, comforting and delicious.

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Potato 

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Wagyu steak

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Uni Gunkan

 

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Mushrooms

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Chef Federico Zanellato

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Pie

Oysters are packed with Sydney rock  mineralality,  can come with caviar, are one of the raw items on the menu. We had to upgrade on a few. Ceviche of scallop comes with a fresh zesty citrus and celery juice, lip smacking sensation leaves your tongue tingling. Italian Gunkan of uni is also raw, salty on sweetish rice is brilliant start. Simple and technical, Italian Japanese fusion that sits easily in the menu lineup, is tasty and kind of obvious but i’ve never seen this anywhere before.

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Cabbage

Potato says the menu. Yes, mashed, fried and served with bone marrow and caviar. Hot, tasty and well delicious. Mushroom reduced and reconstituted into mushroom wafers is a fun snack, the crisp texture perfect at that time in the course line up. Pumpkin seed tart is a crunchy nutty snack working with a wet egg and crab and bowl of macadamia & crab also sits perfectly in the gourmet lineup of courses. Brioche and butter lands about now and is devourable.

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Scallop

Tagliolini Black Truffle is an add on menu item. Firm buttery noodles covered in shavings of earthy truffle. A combo available worldwide and a dish made to perfection at Lumi Dining. A contender for best noodles in town.  I wish you could just buy pasta without getting the degustation, so I could go and smash it a dozen more times just to Pepsi challenge the best noodles in Sydney rating i’m working on.

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Truffle pasta

Hapuka, wrapped in daikon with a light foam sauce is delicate, subtle and is warm and light, big flakes of white fish fall away, crunch and light acid from the root veg and a foam that keeps it all moist and delicious.

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Hapuka

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Pork

Hot pork belly next, a thin sliver with a dot of Lumi chimi churi. Another option add on is wagyu. Both hot tasty mouth fulls on the home straight of the meal.

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Egg

Desserts of White Chocolate & Sudachi has the right amount of sweet and sour, served like a cracker, keeps the tail end of all the eating light and fresh. Buffalo, another light number, creamy and nutty, foam and crunch. Italian and unlike any Italian food i’ve ever had, delicious.

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Buffalo

Chef Federico Zanellato is making exciting and inspirational food. Italian food has now been redefined for me and i agree with Good Food, 2017 Chef Of The Year is a deserved accolade. We spent about $350 per head including all the drinks we wanted, three bottles of exceptional wine found with the assistance of the young gun Som Fabio Sercecchi.

Lumi Dining is an Italian degustation restaurant producing some of the best food in the world. Being hot, delicious and moorish it’s easy to miss the technical wizardry performed in the kitchen for each plate that lands on the table, over and over again. And serving a pie, an Australian staple, you could eat a pie everyday if desired, here delicious, out of context and fun. Plus sitting by the water is beautifully peace full and makes this spot a great lunch option. Simply, dining at Lumi is one of the best meals I’ve ever had.

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Orange is the new black

I’m going to tell you what I know. That is the tiny amount after two visits in six weeks, maybe it should be, here is then potential of Orange. Orange is a very cute town, about three and a half hours drive from Sydney.

Orange Food Week has just completed it first weekend. Food week is a great time to go but the joys of Orange are not limited to Food Week Activities. In fact, they may even be a diversion. We hung at at Reggae and Wine Party for a few hours, when we realised the vibe had plateaued it was an easy stroll to the Philip Shaw cellar door where we enjoyed the gardens, table service and an excellent local cheese platter with a bottle of  No 8 pinot noir.

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Philip Shaw Cellar Door

Hotel Conobolas has pub rooms and a motel out the back. Clean, neat rooms with a retro vibe without even trying. It was great for one night. On the weekend we stayed at Magnolia Cottage. It’s very cute, clean and perfect if you need a kitchen or more than one bedroom. It was $750 for three nights. Both these spots are very close to the centre of town.

Great food separates Orange from most other rural centres. Cafes to visit are Bill’s Beans, the BLT is sensational and the Reuben on rye with cheddar and pickles is also a great option. Thin crisp bacon and salads make the blt extra juicy and is my fav breakfast option in town.

Byng St Cafe is another popular Orange breakfast spot. Like Bill’s Beans the coffee is good. My fav breakfast item here is the Pork Katsu burger, yes I was hung over when i smashed mine. Maybe it was the wine, which is easy to do in Orange. Wine is a major activity in Orange, multiple cellar doors are open. I like Philip Shaw as you can sit with a cheese plate and i’m not interested in trying ever single wine on offer. I know what I want, I try a few and then get a bottle of what I want. The gardens and space at Philip Shaw make it a great place to chill.

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Katsu Burger

Hotel Conobolas is a well run pub with plenty of food options. I’ve only had the pizza here and it’s good. Other noteworthy food establishment are Charred Kitchen and Bar for Australian Food, Mr Lim for Korean. Our other dinner was at The Night Markets for Orange Food Week. I tried the Borrodell the house made sausage. This Pork and Venison bad boy had put the restaurant, Sister’s Rock, at Borrodell Estate is now at the top of my Orange hit list.

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Borrodell Dog

Sunset at Mount Corodoblas is another activity i’ll being doing on my next visit to Orange. The Millthorpe Markets are also worth visiting. Apples, salami and cheese is what I got but there is also plenty local crafty stalls. Those markets are on twice a month. The local nightclub is great for fun and packs in everyone from miles around for the decades of top 40 play list.

It’s great to a see rural centre on the rise and you have so many great option when in Orange. Worth considering if you want a rural break. You can fly , check out Rex, but three and a half hour drive V’s going to the airport, parking, checking in flying etc, i’ll take my wheels any day. Plus i love to drive The Bells Line of Road.

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Mushroom Ragu Recipe

1 kg shrooms

1 glass white wine

4 gloves garlic

Parsley handfull

1 cup Veg stock

Dried Shrooms

Shroom dust

Rosemary twig.

Bay leaves

Passata

Pine nuts

Pecorino

Bacon ( if not going vego )

Heat a large pan to medium hot. Take half the shrooms and de stem. Break stems with fingers and throw the lot into the hot pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the parsley including most of the stems. Add 3/4 to the pan. Crush garlic and add to pan.

Take half the remaining shrooms and cut into quarters, add to pan. Dice the remaining shrooms and add to pan. Add more olive oil if needed. Add rosemary and bay leaf. Cook until brown and shrooms release juices then turn up heat. When the pan is hotter, add white wine, let bubble then add veg stock. Reduce heat and add passata. Taste juices and add seasoning as needed. Cook down for about 15 mins or as desired, add more veg stock if the liquid reduces too much.

Add remaining parsley as garnish.

Serve on wet cheesy polenta ( lmk if you want to know how i cook this ?)

Add crisp bacon chips as desired.

Add toasted pine nuts & pecorino to the top.

Dried shrooms and shroom dust available from Urban Cooking CollectiveIMG_5434

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Poly

In the latest instalment of casual dining that defines Sydney is Poly. Mat Lindsay’s new project is called a snack bar and viewing the simplicity of the kitchen, with a fire place, grills stacked on bricks, you may expect some simple camp fire cooking. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Crispy spiced fried onion and camp bread with salted cod and parsley dip seem simple and are also delicious. And what a joy to be able to drop in for a snack and have some exceptional vino. You can also dig in, get the more substantial dishes and throw down on some exceptional wines too. We did both. LRG__DSC5808

The crispy onion is crunchy squiggles, lightly dusted in flour and spice and perfect at causing salivation. An intense parsley hit from the oil with the cod dip will fill a small empty spot in your stomach, the bread is kind like a damper and cooked over the open flame. Our first bottle was a tasty Chenin Blanc from Loire France, a scrumptious wine, far more complex than the price suggests. LRG__DSC5813

Bbq pipies are becoming a new fav of mine, good spice hit as well as a distinct lemon myrtle flavour. The bowl is not huge so they still qualify as a snack. The duck cigar tho is too big for one person and a delightful parmesan custard is great for dunking. The gnudi pillows of ricotta pasta is a must, sublte yet rich and six of these bad boys are great to share. We moved to a Amphros Daphne green wine, another unusual and delicious number. I have never seen green wine anywhere except Potugal and this one is well worth a sample.LRG__DSC5819

LRG__DSC5934More serious food is the beef rib. I’ll call it, best in Sydney. This bad boy is cooked in a pot on coals and the finished over fire. It melts in your mouth. A perfect pair with the celery Caesar salad, wow, sexy celery, i’ve never had it so good. At this stage i was enthralled in the wine list so we had a Bornard Ploussard and then a Boudy Poulsard, these light flavoursome French reds will go with anything on the menu and you pay for that privilege! LRG__DSC5852

Cheese and lettuce cups work so well especially when paired with the poor mans orange marmalade. Queen of puddings is a dense bowl of pudding goodness with burnt tips of meringue and sublime churros are also available.

Mat Lindsay has transitioned from wood oven at Ester to open bbq coal with ease. The relaxed vibe in the open room with impeccable service and a well balanced fat sound system has me hooked. Another chilled spot with incredible food and wine with options that will have me running back on the regular….. I just need to cool my jets on the big money wines available.

Poly

 

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