Archive for the ‘Sydney’ Category
V Rating: VV Bill Granger is the celebrity chef du jour in Sydney. He writes a weekly column in the Sydney Morning Herald, hosts a cooking show on pay TV, and publishes copious cookbooks filled with impossibly bright, light, airy photos and casually brilliant recipes. Oh, and he runs a few restaurants as well.
So, when a good friend of mine came to Sydney on the weekend I promised to take him to a special lunch spot - bills Surry Hills (formerly bills 2). Unfortunately, we arrived at 11.30am. Lunch didn’t start until 12.00pm. As a line was already starting to form for tables we didn’t like our chances of coming back in half an hour - so we had breakfast instead. I ordered the ricotta hot cakes with banana and honeycomb butter because every review I’ve read about bills make mention of them.
The hotcakes were thick, light and fluffy. The fairly meager slices of banana (bloody cyclone) were tucked cosily underneath the hotcakes. The slices of butter on top of the hot cakes looked surprisingly like slices of banana - making for a not so pleasant first mouthful. The hotcakes were good - don’t get me wrong. But not as good as the reams of glowing reviews suggested. Andy and our friend had the good sense to order sweet corn fritter, with tomato and spinach. On the menu it comes with bacon, but they had it with mushrooms instead.
The truly amazing thing about these babies was the succulent, whole pieces of corn. Even though the cakes were fried, the corn still retained a strong, fresh, sweet taste. And yes, I had food envy the whole meal. The thing about bills was that if it were a cafe I’d wandered into from the street I probably would have thought it was an amazing find. But because Bill Granger has such a mythic status in Sydney, by the time I tried it out it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The cafe is stylish and funky. The food was clearly made with high quality, fresh ingredients. There are some good vegetarian options on the menu… but maybe next time I’ll wait until 12pm and try lunch.
V Rating: VV Expensive restaurants, in my experience, are unkind to vegetarians. French restaurants are even worse. Hence, I was in a highly dubious frame of mind when I arrived at the expensive, French restaurant Bistro Moncur. In some ways I was right. Bistro Moncur doesn’t offer a lot of choice for vegetarians. However, the exceptional quality of the food, combined with the relaxed, welcoming atmosphere, put me in a forgiving mood. It helped that Bistro Moncur is located inside a There were a decent three vegetarian entrees on the menu (double the usual number you find at these types of places). I chose the vine ripened tomato salad. It was essentially just large, ripe tomato slices in a light dressing. Refreshing, to be sure, but a leetle bit underwhelming for $16.50. The other vegetarian option was a salad of celery, roquefort, radicchio, pears and walnuts. in a walnut oil and coddled egg vinaigrette. The person next to me chose this salad, and it looked far more exciting than my dish. Sigh. Apparently one of Bistro Moncur’s signature dishes is the french onion, blue cheese souffle. I didn’t feel up to ordering this for lunch, especially with a main to come, but this may have a been a fatal mistake on my part because it gets rave reviews on Sydney restaurant sites. This is just one vegetarian choice for main, a seasonal vegetables with a pumpkin and mostarda custard timbale, flageolet beans and lentils in a tomato broth. Each aspect of this dish was fabulous. The custard timable had a soft, delicate, frothy texture that melted in my mouth. The pumpkin and mostarda (an Italian fruit mustard condiment) gave it a predominantly sweet taste with a slight kick. Flageolet beans are large and white with soft texture. They reminded me a cross between canellinni and kidney beans. They combined well with the lentils and the lovely tomato broth. It was clear that chef Damien Pignolet had put this dish together carefully using some more unusual ingredients like mostarda and flagolet beans. While sometimes unsual ingredients feel like they’ve been included solely to add some ‘fashion’ to a dish, in this case the meal had a hearty, down-to-earth feel. My only criticism is that even though the flavours complemented each other, there was no strong relationship between the food, so it felt like a tasting plate rather than a ‘meal’. As a general note of caution about Bistro Moncur, you can’t book and it is popular so get there early or expect a long wait. Although I’d normally only give an expensive restaurant with one vegetarian main a v-ware, because of the three veggie entrees, lovely atmosphere and unusual main dish I’ve awarded Bistro Moncur VV
A pox on McDonalds. Forgive me, but I was desperate for a bite to eat today and I dropped into a McDonalds on my way home. I don’t know when it happened but it seems that their vegetarian Deli Choices roll is now no longer available. Once I established this with the bored drive-thru operator, I just kept on driving. There is now once again nothing on the McDonalds menu for vegetarians – unless you are prepared to suffer the indignity of looking like a wuss and eating a cheesy garden salad while your non-vegetarian friends are tucking into their high calorie, spare-tyre inducing “meals”. I know what you are thinking. It is embarrassing that I was near a McDonalds in the first place. Having just watched the movie Fast Food Nation (the one that McDonalds is trying to out-PR with its series of ads showing gullible young workers being shown on “milk runs” of Australian meat packing plants), I shouldn’t have gone near the place. No bull. If you are wavering as a vegetarian and haven’t seen Fast Food Nation, see it. McDonalds may be able to put a thin gloss on their operations in their 30 second TV spots, but it’s impossible to explain away the fact that McDonalds earns its profits from the mechanised mass slaughter of living creatures. McDonalds: V-Ware. GR
V Rating: VVVVV At a time when vegetarian restaurants like Vegal Kitchen and Celestial Palace are closing down, it’s great to discover a new kid on the block. Thien is a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant just down the road from @newtown RSL and the Enmore Theatre. Tres convenient! I think its origins are Buddhist, but it allows BYO. I ate there a couple of weeks ago when Andy took part in the 20th anniversary performance of his old gospel choir, Cafe of the Gate of Salvation (COTGOS). Unfortunately we were running late for the performance, so didn’t have time to relax and appreciate Thien. However, I liked what I saw (and ate) and will definitely head back there next time go to see a performance on Enmore Road.
Thien’s menu offers a good choice of food, much of which uses fake meat and (quite imaginative) seafood. There are 12 entrees and 48 mains. We tried the soy prawn rice paper rolls, the tofu lemongrass and a stir-fry. The huge spring rolls were lovely and fresh. The rice paper skin was cool, setting off the fresh herbs in the filling. I haven’t tried fake prawns before, but they added slightly firmer texture to the filling without overpowering the other ingredients.
The tofu lemongrass was spicy and juicy, and gave off a beautiful lemongrass aroma. We chose the stiry-fry to get a dose of green vegetables, and to compensate for the oiliness of the tofu lemongrass dish. As you can see in the photo, the vegetables in the stir-fry were cooked just right, so that they didn’t lose their colour or flavour. We ended up over-ordering (especially seeing as we were in rush) and had to take a couple of rice paper rolls away in a doggie bag. Fortunately, they survived the trip and still tasted good the next day! While we didn’t have time to try them, Thien also seemed to have a delicious range of desserts with some cakes supplied by a local bakery. I gather Thien is only a few months old. The staff were lovely and very eager to assist, despite the small restaurants quickly filling up with walk-ins. While occasionally the staff were a little flustered, I have my fingers crossed that in a couple of months they’ll be accustomed to success and Thien will have a long future. (Just for the record, COTGOS were amazing. I was blown away by the power of the voices, the beautiful arrangements, and the strong sense of love and community emanating from the choir. Happy 20th anniversary!)
V Rating: V-ware Altitude, on level 36 of Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel, was the venue for a dinner with overseas work colleagues. It was awarded the Australian Hotels Association (NSW) Best Restaurant of the Year in 2005. I naturally feared the worst and decided to check out the menu online. At least there were a couple of veggie options listed on menu. For entrée, Altitude offered a pressed terrine of heirloom plum tomatoes wrapped in basil served with Woodside goat’s cheese ($25) and for main, a “rice less cauliflower risotto” with blue cheese courgette flowers (at a hefty $35). A note on the menu suggested that the daily offerings could differ from those listed on the menu, so I took the precaution of emailing the restaurant. My email went something like this:
A few hours later, I had a somewhat concerning reply:
Hmmmm. This was not a good sign. While I would not expect the average Joe or Joanne to know what the term “ovo-lacto vegetarian” means, I do expect better things of people who make a living out of preparing and serving food. So I decided to chance it. On arrival, the view was spectacular – overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it’s one of the best in Sydney. I followed the lead of my dinner colleagues and ordered a mixed leaf salad with sherry dressing ($10) as a starter. Before it arrived we were served a small complimentary palate cleanser of apple jelly with small salmon chunks. It looked so carefully and delicately prepared I didn’t have the heart to send it back, but nor could I eat it. The salad was fair, and then came the intruiging “rice less cauliflower risotto”. Ha! This appeared to be little more than roughly pureed cauliflower, topped with the ubiquitous deep fried zucchini flower filled with (yawn) blue cheese. So there you have it. The wine list was excellent. Open up the V-ware files. There is still room for Altitude.
V Rating: VVV North Bondi Italian Food had been tempting me for weeks. First Reb piqued my curiosity when she tipped me off that it was a good place for vegetarian food. Then I wandered past a couple of times on evening strolls and was struck by the restaurant’s romantic view of Bondi Beach, all waves lapping gently on the shoreline reflecting lights along the coast. So, when some close girlfriends and I wanted to celebrate one of our number’s impending wedding, North Bondi beckoned.
North Bondi offers a traditional Italian food and wine experience in a modern, romantic setting. The menu is divided into sections, such as cheese, vegetables, salads, pastas, seafood and meat.
There are two pasta mains for vegetarians to choose from, plus a number of vegetable and salad dishes. I had the orecchiette, cherry tomatoes, ricotta and basil. It was a little creamier and richer than I had expected, but the tomatoes offset the ricotta with their strong, pert taste. The authentic Italian touches and mature, European decor combined to make for a relaxed, special evening. And so a couple of happy hours, and two bottles of Italian white later, we left North Bondi.
V Rating: VVV Mojos is just around the corner from where I live. Despite this, I’ve avoided going there out of a combined fear of Spanish food and of catching beautiful people germs. However, a couple of weeks ago my ex-housemate and his girlfriend suggested we go there for dinner on our way to a party. Talk about a revelation!
I’m starting to think that my fear of Spanish food is unfounded. There were 13 vegetarian tapas dishes on Mojos menu, plus three salads. Every dish that I tried was magnificent. We ordered five dishes and a salad between the four people. This prompted a withering lecture from the waitress (’I'm not sure if you guys have eaten here before, but people normally order 2-3 dishes each). Fortunately we didn’t take her advice, as the dishes we had were plenty satisfying.
My favourite dish was fresh, grilled artichoke drizzled in lemon and olive oil which had strong flavours and great texture. However, the cous cous balls, garlic potatoes, Spanish salad, fried eggplant and cheese were also high quality, fresh-flavoured dishes.
The one thing about Mojos is that is that it was chocka-block full and plenty noisy on Saturday. So make a booking or go hungry! |
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