Brunch at Bills; Surry Hills

Sometimes the heavens seem to point you in the direction of food you have to try. A few weekends ago I had a serendipitious moment where I needed to take my dogs to a grooming parlour that was a few doors down from the famous Bills. Several of my foodie friends rave about Bills, so it was like it was meant to be.

Sadly, the restaurant didn't share my sense of divine purpose, and we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, where we were then seated by the drafty door. Still, I had been waiting so long to try this amazing breakfast that I was still in a great mood, buzzing with anticipation.

I only took a few pics as I was delirious with hunger by the time our food arrived...

The husband's pretty coffee.

The husband's brekkie: Scrambled organic eggs with sourdough toast. Added roast tomatoes, bacon and mushrooms. 

The husband's comments: Pretty good, but not spectacular. Portion of bread was too small for the rest of the dish.

Ricotta hotcakes with fresh banana and honeycomb butter.

My brekkie was amazing. Every bit as good as my friends had raved about. The hotcakes were fluffy, light and absolutely amazing. I will be back so I can order another serving of these alone.

Bills
359 Crown St
Surry Hills
Ph 9360 4762

Favoloso Cafe Store Deli; Bronte

On a recent team offsite, we ended up at Favoloso Cafe Deli Store in Bronte. My team mate lives near by and promised us delicious things from her local cafe. She was 100% right and I was amazed I'd never heard about this little gem before. I presume the locals like to keep it a secret. Well, too bad, the secret's out now! Their website describes the cafe/store better than I could, as "a Sicilian-inspired cafe, delicatessen and local store with authentic, home-made meals and a great neighourhood vibe in true Italian-style".

Unassuming shopt front.

Deli section is attached to the cute cafe.

Lunch menu - chock full of vego options. Hooray!

Plus awesome specials - again, heavy on the vego options.

They specialise in awesome teas - this was a green variety.

Fluffy potato gnocci with pesto and parmesan. OMG. I wanted to eat it again once I was done.

Arancini balls with salad - so amazing.

Giant cookies bring out the kid in me.

They stocked Pat and Stick's ice-creams - we tried three varieties.

Carmel pecan - so amazing.

Favoloso Cafe Store Deli
43-45 Belgrave St
Bronte, NSW
Ph: 9389 8002

Gunners' Barracks High Tea

A morning high tea in the drizzly rain adds an air of elegance to an otherwise gray weekend.

Yes, I was back at Gunners' Barracks again, with some friends who dearly wanted to try the famous high tea I always rave about. It was a cold day, but thankfully they provided us with heaters.

We had the afternoon tea, despite the 11am booking. We heard some of the wait staff explaining what each item was to different tables, but, sadly, ours was just delivered with no additional information, so I'm giving my best guess as to what each item was.

Vintage tea cups. Very elegant.

Close-up of the fine china.

Our sweets.

This was my favourite - a type of mango pudding.

Ohhhh delicious.

Peach muffins and vanilla cheesecake.

Sandwiches for the non-vegos - egg, beef and tuna I think.

My sandwiches - egg salad (this was my favourite), cucumber and avocado and tomato.

Savouries - scone (absolutely perfect - crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the middle), leek tart and curry puff. All really tasty.

Chocolate orange macaron. Really light and delicious.

Chocolate cake - creamy and moist. Really delish.

Tea selection - I can't remember what I chose. The amount you can chose from is impressive.

Tapioca pearls. Mmmmmm.

Once again, the service and food was superb. I wish every dining experience was as pleasant as a trip to the Gunners' Barracks. 

End of Suakin Drive,

Georges Heights,

Sydney, NSW

Good Food & Wine Show 2010; Darling Harbour

It doesn't seem like a year has passed since I last battled crowds to get the best freebies on offer at the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show. We arrived at 9:45 and when the doors opened at 10am we had a pleasant stroll around the floor before the hordes arrived.

This year we started out with a cheese masterclass held by Cheese Matters.

We started with the squishy cheeses - Persian feta, brie, Camembert.

Moving on to cheddar, parmesan and a nutty Swiss.

Last was the washed rind and blue cheeses. Blue = still not for me!

Persian feta - so tasty

Giant wheel of Camembert.

Brie - great with grapes.

Surprise Bay cheddar on apple with quince paste. Amazing. I had about four of these alone.

Parmesan on pear.

Washed rind with apricot.

We had matching wines - my favourite was this Preece Moscato. It's also the reason why I spent the rest of the show totally buzzed.

Lush Berries.

Up close - pretty patterns.

Difficulty maintaining structural integrity.

Sensational blueberries.

I bought a kilo of this amazing museli for a friend who is gluten intolerant.

I took home a Blood Orange oil - great for cooking into chocolate cake apparently.

Because I hadn't had enough cheese already ... the Cheese Matters stand.

I had this mousse last year too - so delicious from Sabor Portuguese Mousse.

Chocolate from Josophan's in the Blue Mountains. SO delicious.

Wine from Tempus Two. Again, what I surely needed was more wine.

Suckfizzle wine - delicious!

Love this display from Ernest Hillier's.

Watching Pete Evans cook the perfect pizza.

Chocolate frogs from Adora.

My stash.

There is a lot of talk over which is the better food event, this or the Taste of Sydney. I much prefer the GF&WS purely because the Tasty of Sydney had NO vegetarian food whatsoever, and I left hungry. In contrast, there was stacks of vegetarian food here for me to sample, and I left stuffed and satisfied. Mission accomplished.