My adventure in Australia is drawing to a close, but I will like to share one final post with you: Adriano Zumbo. This is the patisserie that has caught Sydney by storm, this is the bakery that has created many lovely creations each season – this is the place in Sydney that I wanted to go the most.

Cakes arrived at our small round table, plated nicely. I’ve no idea exactly how the name Google it, Real life ($7.9) came about. But I do know for a fact that it is banana passion-fruit creme tart, and it is not just a pretty face. The diguise of almond croquante within the midst of the creme was clever; it added a crunchy dimension and provided a slightly salty aftertaste to the tart.

First and foremost: banana passion-fruit creme, a pretty orange-yellow layer on top of the crispy tart, beautifully dressed by the presence of the fresh berries. Banana and passion-fruit provided a good balance with each other, on it’s own, passion-fruit taste slightly sourish, but the banana is like the key to the lock, just like how chocolate always works with hazelnut.

The fine balance meant that neither fruits were overbearing, and in this case, it was rather surprising that both the banana and passion-fruit maintained a subtle, yet distinct flavor.

Your frund in the frudge.. toasted ($7.90), turns out to be a quirky interpretation of sandwich with tomato and cheese, in the body of a cake. I’ve ordered it solely based on the crispy puff pastry; the toast mousse had one of the weirdest taste I ever came across, flanked with the addition of the tomato jelly and the melted cheese creameaux, with hints of black pepper; I’d give it full marks for the creative idea, but it was too much for me.

Most of the creations have cheeky and whimsical names, and the 5, 6, 7, 8 ($8) is no exception. The flavors practically exploded on my tongue, each portion was trying to out-do the other; the lemongrass pandan & vanilla creame legere was by far my favourite among the three components of the cake.

You can discover the robust lemongrass taste among the smoothing and fragrance pandan; to the right of it there’s a case of identity crisis with the pineapple palm sugar sous vide – Adriano did something to it, but I’ve totally no idea whatever that is.

Coriander creamaux completes the trio with a peanut stable base the the bottom. 5, 6, 7, 8 is a highly complex creation, it looks good with the three complimenting colors, and there’s an intense mixture of different taste and texture involve – you’d either love it, or get lost trying to follow each and every unique flavor.

I’m glad we left the Not too S-h-a-b-b-y ($7.9) for the last, it was again, a combination of many different individual flavor, blend in to make one wholesome cake. There was flourless biscuit, muscavado creme brulee plantation chocolate mousse, and chocolate malt creme legere; all of which did not make sense to me. Tasting the stuff, one struggles for words, memories came flashing back and I felt like a kid again; I remember the first time I tried nutella, the first time I put foie gras into my mouth – I know my life will never be the same again.

It took every bit of discipline I had not to moan and giggle and rave after my first bite. I’m in love with this cake, so in love, she’s the reason for my very existence.

I’m really happy that I went to Adriano Zumbo patisserie before I left, his bold yet unique creations are indeed worth the effort to travel all the way there, I think Adriano Zumbo really deserves the accolade he has earned so far.

The fact that the patisserie is out of town in Balmain, yet managed to garner so much support, tells you everything about the desserts. Adriano Zumbo – he’s a genius! Thank you Richard & Simon for bringing me here!

* * *

This is the last post of my Twelve days in Sydney. It is not exaggerating to say that I planned the itinerary based on food, and all these will not be possible without the awesome food blogs in Sydney. I had the pleasure of meeting 50 Sydney food bloggers at a Christmas party while I was there; Helen & Lorraine are practically food bibles of Sydney, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Billy’s, Howard & crew and many other great food blogs that is impossible for me to list all of them here.

I’m not sure when I will be back again, but there’s something I’m certain of: Sydney is a great city, with real friendly folks, and good food. See you there!

Adriano Zumbo Patisserie
296 Darling St
Balmain, Sydney

I’ve a pleasant surprise when Billy asked me after our pigged-out, if I’m interested to visit him in Central coast, and when he mentioned sun, beach, and food – yes of course, I’ll love to!

It took me one and a half hours train ride from Central station to get to Terrigal; a major coastal suburb of Central coast, which is located north of Sydney. Upon arriving there, we went to a cafe patisserie, the fat goose for brunch.

We had no idea that the Grilled lamb fry ($21.50) was actually fried lamb’s liver, until the waitress clarified with us. It was served on creamy mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, and crispy bacon. Having tried pig liver, foie gras (goose liver), and duck pate (liver), I must say the lamb fry has an even gamier taste.

The wharfie ($16.50) had Toulouse sausages served on a seed mustard hush, topped with a gorgeous poached egg and covered with wild rockets. Pity there’s no hollandaise sauce though.

I’m sure, you have a different stomach for desserts, and I hope you will be salivating over the picture of the chocolate tart.

In the heart of Terrigal, there’s a rocky cliff called ‘the Skillion’ which provided an magnificent view of the long stretch of beaches. My dear, this is the place for our retirement in the future.

Sitting by the beach and watch the sun sets by the beautiful ocean, I knew this was going to be one of my best meals in Sydney. And it was. Like what Billy had told me, I’d go as far as saying this is one of the best fish & chips in Central coast!

I was very fortunate to be able to witness the cooking skill of Billy first-hand, he was preparing the Bo Ssam, a Korean cuisine where steamed pork is wrapped in lettuce leaf then accompanied by lots of condiments including kimchi, ssam sauce, for the Sydney Food Blogger picnic. And you wouldn’t know the dedication and effort put into making the dish unless you were there; he’d drizzled the sauce (oil released from the pork) over the meat on the hourly mark, the process repeats for six times , yes, it took six hours of roasting.

Searing hot sauteed mushrooms, crispy bacon, sunny side-up & golden brown toast for breakfast. This was in every way, the perfect breakfast anyone could ask for.

I had a great time in Terrigal, thank you Billy for inviting me to your house!

* * *

The Fat Goose
Shop 3, Killcare Road
Hardys Bay NSW 2257
Tel: 02 4360 1888

Haven Beach Cafe
The Haven
Terrigal NSW 2260
Telephone: (02) 4385 2061

The idea was to eat, eat, and eat, but plan b, or rather the lack of a proper plan, meant that we start at Plan B. We started off easy, but it was surely one of the best burgers that I’ve.

It took everything that I got to resist ordering another burger for myself, and missed out on all the stuff that was about to come – and so three hungry dude shared one burger.

Plan B by Becasse is famous for their wagyu beef burger, and at just ten bucks, you must try this burger! What is wagyu, anyway? When even the MacDonalds in Sydney sell Angus beef burgers, you probably think it’s not a big deal.

But the real wagyu burger, comes in the form of a thick beef patty, everything was kept simple; there’s no exotic ingredients like foie gras, nor were there redundant sauce – it was so good that you could feel the sauce gushing out! Interesting, beetroot was used, and it provided the contrast from the other burgers.

Plan B, 204 Clarance sheet, have you taken down the address?

It will be disappointing if one did not step into any pub/bar when in Australia. The folks here simply love (read: adore, head over heels, cannot do without) drinking. Be it a glass of the fine wines from the vineyard, or a pin of beer straight from the brewery, say cheers! There’s a strong drinking culture here; it’s not surprising to see people drinking during lunch time, or 3pm in the afternoon.

I was glad when Richard proposed that we make a trip to his favorite pub, Bavarian Bier Cafe for some beer to chill down the hot afternoon heat. Since I always have a sweet tooth, I went for the Mango, which had a smell consistency of the fruit. The taste however, did not have such a strong mango flavor.

No one in their right mind will pass on the chance to have German Sausages, and so we ordered a platter to share. There was a krunching sound when I bite the cracking roast pork, as with the German food that I visualize, it was hearty, tasty and definitely not enough.

‘Deep-fried sushi?’

Richard casually asked if we are keen to try it out, but I could sense the excitement in his seemingly-subtle-tone.

‘I don’t know, I’m not so sure.. about this’

And the next thing I know, we were standing in front of Kana Express kiosk. This is one place where most people wouldn’t have heard of, much less try the snacks here; an oblivious kiosk by the corner of a back alley.

The sushi was done Korean-style, and there’s other popular Korean snacks like spicy rice-cake, but our focus was on these two words: Deep-fried, & sushi.

As the guest, or so they said, I was entitled to the first bite. It was edible. I think one’s enjoyment of this sushi comes from the revelation of deep fried to the mind. On it’s own, the sushi tasted very tame, but the addition of the fiery hot chili sauce enhanced the flavor greatly.

I love summer. I really do.

Summer, is the perfect excuse for us to indulge with ice cream, and more ice cream. We dropped by Passionflower, a dessert cafe which exotic ice cream flavors. The choice of vanilla hazelnut & burnt caramel was made by me, the former was evidently the favorite, and I liked the nutty taste in the vanilla ice cream, while the latter had a strong burnt caramel taste.

Summer, is not summer, without ice cream.

I stole a glance at Krispy Kreme when we walked by the shop, and was immediately dragged in and convinced to have one (just one) of the original donut. This should be the definition of how a good donut taste like: glazed with a layer of sugar, yet not to the point of being cloyingly-sweet, there wasn’t any hint of oilyness that a poor donut will have. One, simply isn’t enough.

Our original plan was to have tonkatsu at a nearby Japanese restaurant, but it was closed by the time we got there, so we went to Harry’s instead. I’m sure, any reputable guidebook will list the pies & hotdog at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels as one of the must-try in Sydney. Tiger pie is particularly famous, but to be honest, I’m not very certain of it. Mashy and meaty, maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the hotdog, it was a shame that we only had one to share. I’d imagine one to hold the big sausage with both hands, and put the whole thing into the mouth!

While on the way to Max Brenner, we passed by Le Patissier and decided to stop here for some sweets instead. For a small place, they have quite an array of desserts to choose from. I wanted to try vanilla pastry cake but it wasn’t available that day, so we had the Lemon Ganache. The sourish lemon ganache provided a good counterbalance to the sweet chocolate layers, but the whole cake was too dry, and I’m not a big fan of kirsch that’s also present in the cake.

When the fork first sank into the Creme Brulee, we already came to the conclusion that it failed. And unsurprisingly, the surface of the dessert was not caramelized properly; it was either a leftover, or they had torched and caramelized too early. However, the custard underneath was actually quite decent, and there’s even vanilla beans used.

* * *
Just in case you are wondering again, yes, we ate all of these in one afternoon.

Plan B by Becasse
204 Clarence Street, Sydney 2000
Tel: 9283 3450

Bavarian Bier Cafe
24 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: 02 8297 4111

Kana Express kiosk
Corner of Central Street

Passionflower
580 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Krispy Kreme
Queen Victoria Building
429 – 481 George Street,
Shop 95 – 97 Lower Ground Floor,
Sydney, NSW 2000

Harry’s Cafe De Wheel
Haymarket, NSW 2000
Next to Paddy Maguires Pub
Tel: (02) 9281 6292

Le Patissier
50 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9299 0015

‘You must go to the Sydney Fish Market – they have the freshest seafood & oysters there!’, gushed one of my friend.

The fish market was around twenty minutes walk away from where I was staying, so I decided to take the lightrail instead.

It was fascinating to watch how the bus conductor collects money from passengers; he’d ask everyone where they are heading and proceed to issue tickets to them. The process continues at every stop, and every time he’d notice the new passengers and approach them. It’s almost absurd to think that this traditional way of collecting bus far is still being used in this era.

The calling of the sea gulls is the first sign of the fish market, and of course the strong fishy smell. I’m lying if I say I’m not there to do the tourist-thing; how can anyone miss out on the experience of visiting the fish market, slurping down a dozen of oysters and feasting on fresh sashimi?

Unfortunately I couldn’t see myself finishing half a dozen of oysters on my own, and somehow the whole place has a tourist sign stamped all over it, so I wasn’t very keen on trying the food there. Not especially when I see piles of pre-fried fresh (seemingly-not-very-fresh) waiting for the next sucker tourist to buy.

It probably wasn’t the best idea to visit the fish market at 3pm, somewhere in between lunch and dinner. No, I had greater plans, for sure. I took the return journey on the lightrail and went to this out-of-this-decade place call Oceanic cafe.

The furnishings in Oceanic cafe exudes a nostalgic charm, it was akin like traveling back in time to the 70s-80s. ‘Hello, can I have a pork chop?’ ‘No, no more pork chops left, I have lamb chops, you want?’ The old lady whispered. It took a while for the food to come, and I had the fashionable white bread with a slab of room-temperature butter. It looked like just an ordinary white bread, but somehow it was so soft and it goes so well with the butter. Maybe I exaggerate, it is just (soft) white bread with (normal) butter after all.

The lamb chop was slightly smaller than what I’ve expected, but the layer of fats beside the lean meat provided the kick I was looking for. And there was the side dish of green peas, how often do you still get them nowadays? It’s always the typical Caesar salad, or the upmarket (but boring) wild rocket. There’s also wedges that lacked the crispy bite, and I liked the slightly sweet onion sauce on the lamb. It was appetizing – not too bad at all!

While walking around Chinatown, I stumbled upon Kura, a small in-the-hole Japanese dining & takeaway shop. There’s only 14 seats inside the place, most people just eat and leave. I went there twice, on the first occasion, I had the chicken katsu set ($9) which came with crispy fried chicken and delicious Japanese rice – the only rice that I’ve while in Sydney. Another perennial return saw me ordering the Katsu don ($9); hot fluffy eggs covered the soaked fried chicken. Comfort food, my dear, comfort food.

* * *

Sydney Fish Market
Pyrmont Bridge Rd
Pyrmont NSW 2009, Australia

Oceanic cafe
312 Elizabeth Street,
Surry Hills, Sydney, NSW

Kura Japanese
3/76 Ultimo Rd
Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia
(02) 9212 5661

Central, Parramatta, Blacktown, Springwood . . . My thoughts drifted off as I read my book, and watched the station passed by. Soon, I lost count of them, and my eye lids became heavy as though she had sang a lullaby softly in my ears…

I hit the blue mountain next, an area known for her magnificent scenaries. It’s a very beautiful place; fantastic view up in the mountains, with the three sisters being the highlight.

There’s just something old fashion about Katoomba that seduces me, right from the start when I arrived on the train station, to the country-like signage and shops around; everything was so laid-back and time seemed to pause and slow down.

I stayed in a hostel called the Flying fox, it was quite unlike the other ones that I stayed in before. Here, everyone knows everyone as it is quite a small place, people come and go but most of them don’t really leave – they’d come back. Here, you have a bunch of friendly folks, it’s akin like having a mini United Nations; Germany, Canada, UK, Italy – people from all over the world staying under one roof.

Shall I tell you about the mountains, and the splendid view at the three sisters? No, the lonely planet or any other reputable guide will do a better job in educating you. I’m also sure you’d not want to listen to how I went on a four hour mountain hike with a German dude, wearing less than proper shoes and ended up having blisters all over my foot, and having the irritating flies (summer time) bugging me the whole afternoon. All you need to know: get yourself to Echo Point – the tip with the breathtaking view overlooking the three sisters.

One of the place in the town of Katoomba that serves burger is Greco’s. The shop is like a fast food restaurant, one of the room-mate told me they served pretty decent burgers at reasonable price.

It’s kind of sad that it took me until now to realize, a beef burger taste absolutely wicked with the addition of a slice of BBQ pineapple, the beef burger probably isn’t very appealing with the thin patty and flat buns, but when you up-sized it to the lot ($7), all’s good. The extra egg, bacon, pineapple added volume to the otherwise ordinary burger. Initially, I felt that the burger looked way too small, but it was only when I tried to put it into my mouth, and failed then I realized how big it was.

Further down the street, there’s a Chinese-operated takeaway shop that goes under the mundane name of Blue Mountain Seafood Fish & Chips. Surprisingly, their fish & chips ($7.5) are really quite good; the batter was crispy and not over oily – one of the better fish & chips that I’ve had. The next day I tried their beef burger ($5), but it was somewhat ordinary, I preferred the burger from Greco’s.

There’s also another small town in Blue Mountain where chocolate comes from. I should make myself clearer; Leura is a small town in Blue Mountain that is five minutes away from Katoomba, and they have a famous chocolateria, probably one of the finest in Sydney and her name is Jodie. If you are a chocolate lover, and you’ve spent some serious time researching about them, you will definitely know about her chocolates. I’m sure you probably heard of Adriano Zumbo when you Google for ‘desserts’ & ‘Sydney’, and Jodie actually beat Zumbo in a recent competition. I don’t really give a hoot to such competitions – whichever chocolate that I like, is the best chocolate.

I went to Jodie’s Josophan chocolate boutique first. Stepping into the shop, the lovely chocolate scent greets you, and all around, are chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates. Besides different type of chocolate blocks that has contain nuts like hazelnut, almond, macadamia nuts, their specialty chocolate comes in very unique flavor too. I got a box of four which contains peanut butter cup, hazelnut praline, Kahlua kisses, and hot chili.

Heading across the main street, I stumbled upon Jodie’s standalone cafe next. Hot chocolate, sweet desserts, and breakfast items – that’s Cafe Josophan for you. Chocolate is much more effective than therapy, and no appointment is required.

Their cake selections were actually smaller than I expected, with about five to six cakes available to choose from. I’ve the Mexican Chocolate Cake ($10.5) that came with a scoop of ice cream, it was essentially made from a recipe using 70% cocoa solids chocolate. As much as I like sweet stuff, another cake would be too much to handle, so I went for the house made Belgian waffles ($11.50 for 2 waffle). Sweet heavenly chocolate drizzled on the thin waffles, served with fresh cream, pretty much the breakfast I’ve in mind. But the waffle wasn’t warm and crispy enough. Pity. I’d love to go for the hot chocolate, and flourless chocolate torte if I ever re-visit again – talk about chocolate overdose.

Dining out in Australia is very costly, so I went to the butchery and got myself a steak and two sausages – for just $3.50. It was nearly dinner time then I realized I totally forgotten to marinate the steak. Oh boy, I hastily sprinkled some pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon powder – whatever spices that seem edible.

Proceeding to barbecuing the meats, it was pretty exciting (and smokey) to watch the meat changed from red to light brown, and then a darker shade of brown. It was trial and error since I did not know how long to cook the steak, but it was easy peasy with the sausages as I waited for them to turn slightly charred on the outside.

Even the steak was slightly overcooked, it was still damn awesome. The two sausages were glorious too, you could see the glittering of oil on the surfaces, and they tasted so, so good! Under the influence of beer, and sitting in the backyard with a breeze blowing gently – this simple dinner suddenly became one of my best meals.

* * *

Greco’s
55 Katoomba Street
Katoomba NSW 2780
Tel: 02 4782 3689

Blue Mountains Seafood Fish & Chips
191 Katoomba Street
Katoomba NSW 2780
Tel: 02 4782 2964

Cafe Josophan’s
187a The Mall
Leura NSW
Tel: 02 4784 3833

The sparkling mascato had that bubbly taste on the first instance it touches the tongue, i’ll like to call it the happy wine. There’s always the saying that white goes well with seafood while you have red for your meat, but it really depends on your own preference – the wine you like is the best wine.

There was three wine boutiques that we went to in Hunter Valley; Wollombi wines, Mount View estate, and Savannah. Even though I have not been a big vineyard before, but I like the personal and homely vibe that the smaller boutique exudes.

A simple damper sandwich can actually taste so good when you are sitting on a bench that overlooks the whole vineyard, with a glass of wine in hand.

And as for myself, I tend to favor white over red because there’s a sharp aftertaste of the latter that is spicy and hits the palate, or maybe it’s like what they say: you always start off with white and as you mature and grow older, then will you slowly appreciate red wine.

Now I’m not going to pretend I’m a wine connoisseur and have a lot of knowledge on wine, on the contrary I know hardly anything about them. During the wine tasting, I enjoyed most of the whites, especially the late harvest ones; they have a fragrant smell and sweeter aftertaste. Desserts wine are particularly a big hit for me, I love the sweet and charming taste, and it will definitely be perfect to end a meal with dessert and wine.

Wollombi Wine
25 Charlton Street (off Wollombi road)
Wollombi 2325

Mount View estate
502 Mount View road
Mount view NSW 2325
Tel: (02) 4990 3307

Savannah
Lot 211 Mount View road, Mount View
Tel: (02) 4990 6326

I wanted an adventure, and I wanted something different. Not those dressed-up-to-the-nines fancy dinners in the best restaurants – those are not really my type. There are other factors that will make a great meal, and I was determined to have a memorable time there.

In the twelve days that I was in Australia, you’d not believe the amount of food that went into my stomach; I refused to stand on the weighing scale now – I probably gained an additional five kilos, everyday it was food, more food, and even more food. Besides stuffing myself full with everything that I can grab, and enjoying the magnificent scenaries there, I got to talk with  a lot of backpackers while staying in hostels, and also met up with the amazing Sydney food bloggers – they are definitely the highlights of my trip.

Sydneysiders love Bills, and I love the Sydneysiders for the way they enjoy their breakfast. Bills is a cafe opened by the famous chef Bill Granger, the concept is easy – serve the most gorgeous scrambled eggs and tasty ricotta pancakes in a simple cafe, and voila, you get all the people coming in for breakfast.

‘You have to try the eggs while you are in Australia’, gushed one of my friend a while ago when I told her I’m going to Sydney. Sydneysiders really love their breakfast, on a normal weekday there’s so many places serving brunch. Because of the differences in culture, you can hardly find much places in Singapore that do that but here, you’d thought that the people do not need to work and it seems like they do not have to work when I saw so many of them slowly enjoying a laid-back & causal breakfast at 10am where most people are supposed to be in the office, working.

There was however, no Eggs Benedict at Bills, so I had their popular Scrambled eggs on sour dough ($16) – and it was good! The one sprig of leave in the middle somehow seemed to make the eggs glowed with radiance, and there’s the just-right consistency in the texture and taste of the eggs. The butter slides off the toasted golden-brown sour dough easily, and the scrambled eggs just goes so well with the toast. The portion would probably deceive your mind that you need to order something else as add-ons, but by the time I was done, my stomach was so full that I couldn’t possibly eat anything else, well, maybe except for the delicious-looking ricotta pancakes that everybody is craving about.

‘Come to Sydney for fine restaurants and go to Melbourne to experience the cafe culture.’ I’m not entirely sure on that statement, since there’s dozens of wonderful cafes just in the surry hill/balmain area. One of them is Cafe Nookie at Cleveland street. Technically speaking it is not a cafe since there’s no seats for dining in, customers take away the self-brew coffee from the good hands of owner Ben. Cafe Nookie is more like a coffee-in-the-hole kind of place, and it’s definitely the smallest cafe in Sydney, pretty cool eh?

I walk through the streets of Surry Hills and my heart fluttered with a sort of feeling that I couldn’t quite describe – I’m so in love with this place. There’s plenty of trendy fashionable boutiques, and chic cafes just around every corner. The whole place is so quaint and dainty that it doesn’t seem to be in the city area.

Cafe Ish is exactly like how I will like a cafe to be, white walls with sunlight coming through the windows, serving nice coffee and comfort food. Howard & Teresa brought me here for lunch, and we took some time glancing through the menu before deciding to order Eggs Benedict, Emu damper, & Soft shell crab omelette.

I think the reason why we can embrace cafes freely rather than fine dining restaurants is because deep down inside everyone of us, most people have a dream to open a cafe, someday. A small-ish, causal chic cafe which serves comfort food, a place where people return and chill out all day, a place almost like their own home. It is not difficult to see why Cafe Giulia is immensely popular with the locals, they serve a wide array of food that includes eggs, salad, pasta, sandwich, burgers; comfort food with a reasonable price range. Coffee is another hallmark of a good cafe. Here, they keep it simple to mocha, and ice coffee, with an impressive selection of fresh fruit juices.

This is the first part of my Twelve days in Sydney series, to be continued . . .

Bills
359 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9360 4762

Cafe Giulia
92 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9698 4424
Tuesday to Friday 6.30am – 4.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 8.00am – 3.00pm

Cafe Ish
83 Campbell Street
Surry Hills

Cafe Nookie
268B Cleveland Street, Surry Hills
Tel: 04 0135 6072
Monday – Friday: 7:00 am – 4:00 pm