Archive for the ‘VV’ Category
V Rating: VV A couple of Friday’s ago Andy and I had dinner at Arthur’s Pizza on our way to seeing The Sleepy Jackson at the nearby Paddington Town Hall. We had high hopes for the night, but unfortunately each experience left me disappointed. Arthur’s is a local institution that certainly packs a crowd. The decor is unassuming and everything looks like it’s been around the block a few times. The open pizza kitchen runs along the left wall. Basic tables line the right wall, and fill the back quarter of the restaurant. I don’t mean this as a criticism - I like my pizza joints to have a homely, friendly feel. Arthur’s offers some vegetarian choices. Six of the 21 pizzas were vegetarian and there were two vegetarian pasta options. Andy and I went with half a roasted vegetables, cherry tomatoes and goat’s curd pizza and half four mushrooms and cheese pizza. I found the quality a little disappointing. The topping was only lightly (as opposed to judiciously) scattered and the base was very thin and dry. The toppings sounded exciting on the menu, but when the pizzas arrived the ingredients and combinations seemed run of the mill. It wasn’t that the food was bad - it wasn’t - more that I was expecting interesting and authentic Italian pizza along the lines of Made in Italy in Pyrmont or Pompei’s in Bondi, and Arthur’s is not that kind of restaurant. After dinner we ambled across the road to catch The Sleepy Jackson. We had a lot of fun watching the infectiously cheerful warm-up act, Old Man River, but the Sleepy Jackson were disappointing. There was no structure to the set - one minute it was 80s stadium rock, the next minute country and western, then lush, bell-infused melodies and Carpenter-like ballads. They seemed pumped initially but fell apart when the crowd didn’t engage. It wasn’t that the crowd was unfriendly - we wanted them to succeed - but with the mood changing so often and a lot of unfamiliar songs it was hard to get excited. The band came back for encore - while basically acknowledging that they didn’t deserve one - but instead of choosing a song that they could be sure of pulling off, lead singer Luke Steele went with a high-pictched falsetto vocal that came apart at the seams. It was a heart-wrenchingly embarrassing final song, and I was glad for the band when they finished. It didn’t help that most of the crowd (and the band) had been up the night before watching Australia QUALIFY or the second round of the World Cup.
V Rating: VV Last Sunday I went to the Sydney Foodbloggers event where we shared a High Tea spread and lots of foodblogging dirt. The food was nice and prettily arranged, but did not quite live up to my expectations. The chocolate fountain was a visual highlight and I enjoyed my mango pudding served in a small glass with raspberry garnish. The options were vegetarian friendly as most dishes were cakes and puddings. However, vegans would be disappointed, with little more than fresh fruit to get them by. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more savoury food as I’m not much of a sweet tooth (not that this stopped me from having two full plates of food). To be fair, my expectations were high. My first ever high tea was at Harrods in London. You sit in the stately Georgian room and share a three-tiered tray of food (tier one is cucumber sandwiches, tier two is scones, and tier three is sweet cakes.) Waiting staff circulate and refill your trays as many times as you like. Legend has it that an English schoolboy once ate 64 cakes. Sure that was a fun bus trip home. Even as a hungry and poverty-stricken backpacker I couldn’t come close to this record. My second go at High Tea was at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra, the gorgeous 1930s building designed by John Smith Murdoch (the architect behind Old Parliament House). This a cornucopia of afternoon tea dishes, with plenty of savoury foods and love handle inducing sweet treats. I remember the atmosphere as being suitably parlour-like, although the hordes of people gave it a slightly unruly air. The best part about the Swissotel High Tea was getting to meet all the other bloggers. The day was organised by the lovely Helen from Grab Your Fork, the doyen of Sydney foodblogging. I was really looking forward to meeting her and finding out how she takes such beautiful photographs (sadly, the answer appeared to be talent, although a tripod and good light helps). I also got to meet the uber-lovely Emily from Pickos, Suze from CChocolatesuze, Nic and Tiff from Sweet Little Treat and Canadian Kevin from Kevin’s Travelling Food Journal. He impressed us all by running from afternoon tea to a cake competition that he’d entered. Hope you fared well! Cucina Rebecca and Sydney Cafes, two of the oldest food blogs / websites in Sydney, were also represented, but with a big group of people I didn’t have the chance to Putting faces to blogs was interesting. Most of the bloggers were young women who had other jobs. Some bloggers wrote exclusively about food, while others wrote about eating among other parts of their lives, or had second interests like the creative Nic and Tiff (check out their t-shirt stall at Paddington Markets on Saturdays) or traveller Kevin. It was great to be able to swap tips on cameras, photo-taking etiquette, blog programs (most people went with blogger, though a couple of us use Word Press and Moving Type) and programming tips. After asking some really impressive questions about restaurant photography (i.e. do you actually use a camera, or just a mobile phone?) I distinguished myself by running out of camera batteries and not being able to take a photo. So if you want to check out what the Sydney foodbloggers look like… you’ll have to keep guessing. But if you want to see what you missed at High Tea, check out these gorgeous pics from Helen and Suze.
V Rating: VV On the June long weekend rain teased Sydney, threatening to bucket down but often just delivering lingering drizzle. After 24 hours indoors I faced a dilemma on Sunday morning. I had coffee, but no food. It was a tough call but I decided it was time to brave the elements.
Blue Orange is one of Bondi’s best brunch spots. At 9am it’s peaceful. By 10am all tables are full. Blue Orange is a tiny place with wood-pannelled walls and warm orange lights with sculptured wire shades. Sitting there, watching the rain fall lightly outside, I felt like I was ensconced in a glamourous log cabin.
I rounded off my breakfast with a delicious soy capuccino. This alone was worth leaving the house for.
V Rating: VV A couple of months ago trusty Canberra restaurant reviewer Grundnorm stayed with me in Sydney. As Andy and I didn’t have a car at that stage, the Sydney restaurants I’d reviewed had mostly been within a one kilometre radius of my home and my office. To counteract my embarrassingly small geographical circle, Grundnorm suggested that we use his car to go to a new part of Sydney - somewhere different, far off, exciting, noice, unusual… like the Italian Forum in Leichhardt. The Italian Forum is a huge apartment complex surrounding a piazza with restaurants and shops. On a Saturday night the restaurants fill with bon vivants whose laughter, voices and clinking plates and glasses make for a loud and joyful atmosphere. We headed for Cafe La Vigna because they had six veggie and three vegan choices for mains, which is more than the average Italian Frum restaurant. We shared a fried haloumi entree (that’s five slices of haloumi on a plate). I chose the penne Siciliana as a main (olive, eggplant and capsicum in a Napolitana sauce). It was OK, although the eggplant was not as softly cooked as I like it. We also had a run of the mill garden salad. One of the most fascinating parts of the evening was watching the waiting staff deliver huge trays of food to other diners. The trays were laden with either meats or seafood and reminded me of a medieval banquet. Reviewed 11/3/06. KP
Normally I’d only write up a restaurant once, but this weekend we happened to go to Dolcissimo for brunch so I thought it would be a good opportunity to add a postscript to my original review. As with most places, the brunch menu was a good deal more vegetarian friendly than the dinner menu. I’m not a big ice cream / gelato fan. In fact, it’s one of the few vices I can resist. But I couldn’t verily pass up such an opportunity. And actually, it was pretty tasty. The gelato was passionfruit, which was quite tart and worked well with the sweet taste of the muesli and fruit. Sadly, I was so busy ordering my gelato alla muesli that I forgot to take notes about prices, options etc… this may necessitate a return trip. For research purposes, obviously.
V-Rating: VV The eastern suburbs in Sydney is synonymous with the rich and beautiful, and all the trappings that accompany them. However, a visit to the Anzac Parade restaurant strip in Kingsford provides a healthy reminder that there is another very diverse and interesting side to the area. I’m a fan of the Anzac Parade restaurants. There’s a great range of Asian restaurants to choose from, including Indonesian, Malaysian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. With the University of New South Wales just around the corner, the emphasis is on cheap and cheerful food pitched to a student budget and milieu.
Last Sunday Andy and I thought we’d make the most of our rental car and try out the delights of Anzac Parade. We settled on Ratu Sari, an Indonesian restaurant that is relatively ‘up market’ by comparison to its neighbours. We were lured to Ratu Sari by the long list of vegetable dishes on the menu. It was only when we got inside that we realised ‘vegetable’ was not the same as ‘vegetarian’. Most dishes contained shrimp paste, prawn crackers or occasionally chicken. While this was a bit disappointing given our initial high hopes, there were still a few wholly vegetarian offerings and full marks to Ratu Sari for being clear about their contents of their vegetable dishes. For entree we tried the deep fried cauliflower and krupuk singkong (deep fried cassave chips - always a favourite with Andy). For mains we shared the sayur lodeh (a vegetable curry in a coconut milk base) and the vegetarian cap cai. The last dish was a recommendation of the waiter after we explained that we were vegetarian and keen on a dish without seafood or meat products. The mains were both surprisingly good using authentic Indonesian ingredients. The vegetable curry was our favourite, and used choko, as well as more conventional vegetables. The sizzling, fresh cap cai was so big that as much as we wanted to, we couldn’t finish it.
V-Rating: VV Concrete is discreetly set on the busy junction of Harris St and Pyrmont Bridge Road. The design is modern and welcoming, with a warm charcoal exterior, open and light eating space, and a shaded outdoor area. The menu isn’t extensive, but the dishes are interesting. The lunch menu is divided into sandwiches, salads and mains. One dish in each section is vegetarian, as was one of the specials, although vegan options are limited. I tried the grilled haloumi salad with asparagus, rocket, green beans, avocado and macadamia nuts with a summer lemon and oil dressing - so did 80% of the other female customers. The flavours were fresh and well set off by the lemon, although there was a touch too much oil for my liking. One of the nicest parts of the experience was the friendly, attentive and speedy service. All up, Concrete is a lovely spot for a casual lunch or whiling away the hours. Reviewed 27 March 2006. |
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