Bodhi In The Park (Sydney) - "Vegan, we have a (dessert) problem."

As I age, I have become more attuned to the needs of my degenerating body: more exercise needed to fight the flab, more recovery time after a particularly strenuous match of tennis (look what happened to Rafa, eek), and more sleep to fend off the effects of afternoon languor. As far as food goes, I've grown to appreciate the deliciousness of once detested vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach and taros. But as I have slowly transformed from a voracious carnivore to a middling omnivore, how will I cope with a completely vegan meal? I'm here at Bodhi In The Park on a glorious Sydney summer morning to test my newfound vegetable enthusiasm tolerance.

Bodhi In The Park is an indoor/outdoor vegan noshery in the heart of Sydney, away from the hustle and bustle of Chinatown. Tucked away in the lush surrounds between Phillip Park Leisure Complex and majestic St. Mary's Cathedral, it is hidden and out of sight from the street, so finding it is half the fun. Once you find it, you can choose from the alfresco tables surrounded by verdant greenery or the inside tables where the ambience is more muted. On a bright sunny day such as today, the choice was a no-brainer, and every other table seems to agree with us.

By day, Bodhi serves yum cha from 11a.m. until 5p.m., and by night it's a la carte dining. Celebrating B's birthday gave us an opportunity to sample more than the usual handful of yum cha dishes, and as the food waiters arrive in waves, we find ourselves completely unable to resist over-ordering.

Being vegan, we thought the variety of dishes would be limited as there is no meat of any kind. Nor is there garlic, onions, honey, cream, or anything within cooee of animals, but when I counted the number of dishes listed on their menu, it was a staggering sixty-eight dishes. Not all dishes are available every day I would think, but the variety on offer is still tremendous.

Soon after we made ourselves comfortable on the outdoor bench, a succession of waiters carrying trays of food pounce on our table, and it wasn't long before our chopsticks were in a flurry. Strange though there are only chopsticks and no spoons. Nor were there any annoying flies.

1. Fresh rice noodle fold with mixed vegetables ($7.50), 2. Bbq gluten buns ($6.50), 3. Mushroom, mixed vegetables in crispy rice skin balls ($5.50), 4. Bbq fresh rice noodle fold ($7.50)

The first dishes we try are the rice noodles, one of which is mixed vegetables, and the other the red barbecue pork simulant. The fillings of both are good with plenty of textural contrast, but the rice noodles are fairly dry and lack the slippery sexiness of regular rice noodles. The barbecue gluten buns are more successful, puffed and lacquered to a shine on the outside, and sweet and salty in the middle. Also good are the mushroom rice skin balls, which look like deflated footballs; thankfully they taste better than they look, with the mushroom and vegetables filling scrumptious and the balls themselves possessing a 'soft' crunch.

1. Blackeye bean wantons ($6.50), 2. Chickpea, coriander, ginger buns ($6.50), 3. Savoury sticky rice steamed in lotus leaf ($7.50), 4. Siew mai ($5.50)

The next quartet contains two yum cha favourites: lotus leaf sticky rice and siew mai. Of the two, the sticky rice most resembles the standard version, with lots of flavoursome mung beans as the filling. The siew mai is vibrant and packed with cubes of taro, sweet potato, peas, carrot and corn; taste-wise it delivers as well. The chickpea buns are lacking in filling but the buns are sweet and fluffy. The blackeye bean wantons look a bit drab but are little parcels of delicious flavour.

1. Satay tofu ($7.50), 2. Pumpkin gow ($6.50), 3. English spinach gow ($6.50), 4. Crispy dry tofu skin ($7.50)

The final four savouries is a mixture of steamed and fried. The satay tofu is a crunchy mix of julienned vegetables and bean sprouts, wrapped in tofu skin and smothered with a kicking satay sauce, delicious. The pumpkin gow with a lone pea delivers a sweet burst of pumpkin mash but a too-thick wrapper. The green-tinged English spinach gow has that strong spinach flavour and is good, and we love the tofu skin pillow for its fried crispiness and snappy filling.

Lemon tarts ($6.50), mango pudding ($6.50)

All that food and we still want something sweet, bless us. We normally cannot resist egg tarts, mango pudding, or mango pancakes at yum cha, so we choose the nearest simulacra. The mango pudding appears to be jellified by agar-agar and has no soy milk, rendering it rather watery. It did have a definite touch of sweetness and was redolent of mangoes (puree perhaps?), so it is acceptable. The lemon tart, on the other hand, is much less so. Its acridity is turbocharged and nukes our palate with one bite, and sourness aside, the lemon curd has a glue-like consistency which is hard to ingest. The thin pastry shell is also bland and verging on the texture of deep-fried egg carton, and the combination borders on unpalatable.

What a shame the desserts were so disagreeable to us, as the earlier savouries were enjoyable. Lots of organic vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and tubers made for a healthy lunch in beautiful and carefree surroundings. With no crowds, no Chinese ladies screaming "二十號! Number twenty! 二十號!" into a muffled microphone, no English-deficient trolley ladies, no sardine-can seating arrangements, and no rush to clear the table, the vegan yum cha at Bodhi could have won three devoted carnivores over. As it is, we are happy to have enjoyed the experience but it's back to the land of meat for us. Oink oink. 

 

Dishes we would order every time: mushroom and mixed vegetables balls, lotus leaf sticky rice, satay tofu

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恭喜發財 Happy Chinese New Year!

Baroque (The Rocks) - Operation Dessert Storm

As everybody is aware, Adriano Zumbo is a demi-god in the pastry world. The MasterChef phenom - and soon-to-be host of his own SBS television show (premiering Thursday the 10th of February at 7.30p.m.) - has dazzled one and all with his vast array of inventive creations that taste as fantastic as they look. As a result, his patisserie in Balmain has become an overnight halidom and regularly inundated with dessert groupies. Such is his popularity he has opened a new patisserie north of the bridge at resurgent food surburb Manly. So, where does that leave Sydney's CBD? Someone needed to pick up the slack, and that someone is Baroque at The Rocks.

Baroque is a patisserie-cum-bar-cum-bistro, and we are here to dulcify our palates on a Saturday night after a show at the Opera House.. Sure, ice cream and gelato lovers in the area can satisfy their cravings at Baskin Robbins, Gelatissimo or Copenhagen who are all within a few hundred metres of each other, but to have a Zumbo-like experience, Baroque is the place to go.

Baroque offers dining in or out, but when the restaurant is full, seating for the patisserie is alfresco on the front patio, and on a fine and warm summer's night, the combination of harbour breeze and a wonderful dessert is heavenly.

The pastries and cakes from the pastry kitchen is varied, and each item is served paired with ice cream or sorbet of the chef patissier's choosing. As K likes to say, everything is that much better with ice cream. Both our desserts come on rectangular plates, with the cakes on one end and ice cream on the other. The ice cream sits on a mound of biscuit crumbs and there are golden flecks of biscuit (?) scattered around.

Zulu - Valrhona "Araguani" 72% chocolate mousse, "Araguani" ganache with salted caramel, chocolate biscuit base, finished with a mini chocolate macaron ($13)

My Zulu chocolate dome is all about the chocolate: mousse, ganache, biscuit, and macaron in an orgy of cocoa and sugar. The chocolate used in the mousse and ganache is the Araguani 72% dark chocolate from famed French chocolatiers Valrhona, and its silky smooth, rich and bittersweet taste blends superbly with the salted caramel and biscuit base. The mini chocolate macaron sitting proudly on top of the dome melts in the mouth as the glazed crispy shell and cream implodes into a mess of sugary high. Oh, and the chocolate ice cream and biscuit crumbs were good accompaniments as well, although slightly redundant.

Le Roi Soleil - mango and mandarin mousse, jasmine, pine nut nougatine, almond sponge ($13)

K's choice also comes as a dome, but is a less rich concoction of summery mango and mandarin, and almost chocolate-free. I only got a spoonful of the Le Roi Soleil but it was bursting with freshness and flavour, and the nougatine added nuttiness and texture. For the life of us we could not work out the ice cream, but it paired well even though we did wonder whether the amount of biscuit crumbs on both our desserts were surfeit.

Our sweet tooth satisfied, we revelled in the presence of a fine patisserie in the vicinity of the Sydney Opera House. Yes, it is a fair trundle from the sails, but at least it is still a much shorter journey than to the Zumbo patisseries, plus with the advantage of being open at night until late. Sweet-tooths seeking to cure late-night dessert pangs need look no further than Baroque.

Dishes we would order every time: Zulu

http://www.baroquebistro.com.au/

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Gotham (Darlinghurst) - Holy wagyu steak sambo Batman!

Fortune favours the brave, as the saying goes, but sometimes it can also favour the mildly irritated, as we discovered last Friday afternoon.

Having determined from the web the opening time of a new tapas-style eatery to be 5p.m., we arrived just after that time, only to be told they were only open for drinks and the dining commences at 6p.m. Unfortunately, that was what I had feared, and my attempts to confirm this the previous evening via telephone came up empty as the phone rang out, three times. Slightly miffed but unperturbed, I had prepared for that outcome by perusing proximal eateries earlier. But when the time came, a suggestion washed over me. There are so many new eateries nowadays, one tends to pass some of them again and again, making mental notes to return. Craving some tapas, we jigged across a few blocks to an eatery which serves "share plate food with a fusion of Japanese, Italian and Spanish dishes", the aptly named Gotham.

Gotham is a new-ish bar-cum-restaurant which has been operating for a few months near the beginning of Oxford Street, buttressed between Slide and The Falconer restaurant. It is aptly named because it looks to have come straight out of the fictional comic world of the caped crusader's Gotham City, although it is much more likely to have been given the nickname of the city that never sleeps, New York City.

Being a New York-style tapas bar/restaurant, it is dark, sleek and hip. There is funky furniture, wall decorations galore, and even a fireplace near the back. We have passed it numerous times and it seems to be filled with drinkers and snackers, day and night.

It was beginning to get busy as weekend-bound workers gathered to celebrate the end of another working week, but there were plenty of tables available. We have been eating lightly recently, so tapas-style sharing plates were ideal, and we started slowly by ordering two.

Considering the size of some tapas plates served in Sydney, we were not expecting to have much to nibble on, but we were gladly wrong.

Wagyu steak sambo - served with hand cut chips ($16)

Expecting greens and a piece of wagyu sandwiched between slices of toasted bread, we were instead treated to a beautifully-looking foccacia garnished to the brim.. The whole package was juicy and flavoursome, and each layer of ingredient was visible, from the wagyu beef to the thick slice of cheese to the tomatoes to the lettuce. The foccacia was airy, light, and possessed a bready crunch; the steak was tender and moist; and the greens, cheese, and tomato relish provided the sweetness and tang. I am not a big foccacia lover but this was top notch and combined wonderfully for a delectable 'sambo'. It was so good I almost forgot all about the chips. Me! The small container of hand cut chips were crunchily good and a perfect accompaniment to the sandwich. The wagyu steak sambo is a special but I hope it becomes a permanent fixture, as I will surely be back.

Peking duck pancakes - roasted and glazed duck breast, shallots, cucumber, Chinese pancake and hoisin sauce ($13)

The Chinese-inspired Peking duck pancakes came on a plate with the ingredients ready to be assembled, no allen key required. Four discs of egg pancake, four sticks of cucumber and spring onion, a small stack of roasted duck breast, four slithers of duck skin, and a shallow pool of hoi sin sauce made up the parts. The egg in the pancake made them slightly thicker, whereas every other pancake I've had with Peking duck has been simply flour-and-water-based and thinner. There was nothing special about this dish, but the thicker pancake allowed more of the ingredients to be packed and therefore felt more substantial. The roasted duck breast was above average but the duck skin wasn't crispy, which made everything a tad chewy. We still enjoyed them despite the lack of inspiration, but they were not quite to the level set by the fabulous wagyu sambo.

Having all but reached a comfortable limit with simply two tapas plates, we were surprised but very happy to have discovered a potential new favourite. Gotham is a cool and relaxing place to indulge in a drink or two, but the food is a good match. Despite the lapse in service (we were served the food without any cutlery or serviettes), the generous portions of shareable food at a reasonable price impressed; even Boy Wonder himself would be happy to eat here. Holy porgy po-boy Batman!

Dishes we would order every time: wagyu steak sambo

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Tapioca (Cremorne) - crispy pork heaven

With Thai nosheries as ubiquitous as ever, a new opening usually does not warrant much attention. That is, unless of course: a) it's in the foodie suburb du jour of Neutral Bay, and b) the two chefs are former disciples of Thai food master David Thompson.

According to the Tapioca website, chefs "Air" and "Krung" have both worked under David Thompson at the seminal Sailor's Thai at the Rocks, a Sydney institution that is going as strongly as ever. Now they have combined forces with front of house manager "Bancha" to bring their modern take on Thai food to the lower North Shore.

Whilst Tapioca is not technically in Neutral Bay, it is only located a little further up in Cremorne on busy Military Road. It is an unassuming eatery which seems quite small from the outside, but once inside, one can see it's an illusion, as it stretches twenty metres back and there are plenty of tables of various configurations.

The decor isn't as dark as some modern eateries, but whilst the tables are white tableclothed, the dark floorboards, dark chairs and the dim naked bulb lighting combine to give the dining room a moody ambience.

Decor is also simple and minimalist, with fresh flowers and various pieces of artwork down one side of the room, leaving the other wall completely bare.

The menu is uncluttered, with entrees, mains and desserts at a reasonable price: entrees under $18; mains under $30; and desserts under $10 with the exception of 'Selection of desserts' which is $12.

The food sounds interesting - similar to that of modern Thai flagbearers Sailor's Thai, Spice I Am, Longrain, etc. - and elevated above the norm; no fried rice in sight although there is a pad thai that is prawn only. We found the entrees to be more appealing than the mains so we ordered three entrees and one main instead of the typical two and two.

Deep fried quail egg and minced prawns wrapped in egg noodle served with tamarind sauce - 3 pieces ($14)

This first entree has been described (by Sydney Morning Herald food critic Terry Durack from memory) as Tapioca's interpretation of son-in-law eggs, and it looked delightful. The dainty quail's egg is be-wigged by a layer of minced prawn before wrapped in egg noodles and deep-fried. It is perfectly cut in half so there are six pieces, with the egg yolk exposed. The contrasting textures of the egg and prawn mince versus the crunchy exterior was great and the tamarind sauce lifted the dish with its tang and sweetness. A lovely way to start.

Grilled squid stuffed with minced prawns served with fresh chilli sauce ($16)

The second entree was the stuffed grilled squid, a dish I've not had much luck with. The numerous times I've tried this dish at various restaurants it has been overcooked to rubbery, with the exception of the superb one at Perama with its stuffing of rice and raisins. This one is stuffed with characterless minced prawns, and the texture is a little too similar to the squid, which in turn is a tad overcooked. Luckily there was the spicy fresh chilli sauce to give it a little spark.

Crispy vermicelli with chicken minced, tofu, bean sprouts and garlic chive wrapped in omelet ($15)

The final entree of an egg wrap was a little misleading with its menu description. Only the vegetables were encased by the thin omelette, and not the minced chicken, which was like a garnish. It certainly looked more colourful with the mince on the outside though. Taste-wise, it was delicious: a little sweet, a tad salty, and nicely balanced. Texturally it was fun too with the crunch of the vermicelli, bean sprouts and garlic chives combination on the inside and the soft and light egg wrap on the outside. The mince was a good addition as well although I wonder why they chose to use the more subtle chicken mince.

Crispy pork in a sweet and sour spicy sauce ($25)

With our antipastic indulgence leading us to near-farctate, we were glad only one main was to come, and what a main it was. Crispy pork dishes can be a bit hit-and-miss quantity-wise, but this one was more than generous. A small mountain of roast pork sitting in a bowl was covered by a scrumptious sweet and tangy sauce. The sauce is described as spicy but we didn't really feel the heat. No matter though, as the sticky sauce dulcified with honey made the dish extremely moreish with steamed rice. The crackling on each piece of pork was very crunchy, taking considerable fletcherizing, and it seemed neverending. Eventually, we fought a brave but losing battle, unable to finish the dish. Fortunately, enough was remaining for us to take home and have as a delicious lunch the following day.

Selection of desserts ($12)

One would think with the pork taking such a heavy toll, we would be unable to have any sweets. Wrong. We wanted, no, needed, dessert. We were still quite full however, so unable to fathom having one dessert each, we ordered the $12 selection of desserts, thinking they would be tiny bite-sized morsels. Again, wrong. On a long platter sat three portions of pudding, sticky rice and sorbet, each a generous serving. We gulped but gleefully accepted the challenge.

The tapioca pudding was gooey and just the right amount of sweet, with a hint of coconut throughout. The sticky rice was delicious coupled with the coconut cream and strips of chewy caramelised coconut. Best of all was the strawberry and lime sorbet, which was refreshingly cooling, palate-cleansing, and full of tartness. I kept coming back to the sorbet because it was so good.

Having trekked some distance to savour the two talented chefs' interpretation of modern Thai food, we left the restaurant a little envious of the lower North Shore. Its newest addition serves smart, punchy Thai food with a smile and efficient service to match. As much as I enjoy the drive over the Harbour Bridge, I'm hopeful that one day this quality of Thai food will have a noshery a bit closer to home.

Dishes we would order every time: deep fried quail egg, crispy pork, strawberry and lime sorbet




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The Battery (Surry Hills) - Fried. Ice. Cream.

For me, the restaurant menu can be a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Many times I've perused the menu on a restaurant window, found nothing of interest, and moved on, never to return. Other times, the appearance of a single item can get my palate tingling and make me think "I have to eat here". Some of the foods I am opsomanic for include fried chicken, deep-fried pork chops, chips, fried rice, son-in-law eggs, and chocolate fondants (I've also just realised the majority of these are fried. Oops!). So when I was notified on Facebook that six-month-old fish-and-chippery The Battery had a new menu, I was intrigued, and even moreso when I saw the words 'fried ice cream'. Fried ice cream! That ubiquitous dessert so often (and probably only, in Australia anyway) found in Asian eateries.

Ever since I had my first taste of fried ice cream over twenty-five years ago, my curiosity was piqued and I was hooked by the unusual idea of deep-frying something that is frozen; how does it not melt?, I wondered, and how can something so deceptively simple taste so yum? Despite subsequently finding out it's some Tex-Mex or American invention, I still associate it with Asian cuisine, as the Chinese have somehow managed to arrogate and disseminate it throughout every Asian eatery known in Australia. Good for them I say. But what is it doing at The Battery? And does it go down well with the stomach along with fish and chips? I'm here at The Battery on a Friday night to find out, three days later than I had wanted to, but hey, it's never too late.

The Battery hasn't changed much in the six months since our last visit. The decor is still white with dabbles of black, and the only change I could tell is the addition of a medium-height dividing wall near the kitchen counter, with a lovely floral display (which changes weekly I'm told) at one end. The menu has changed for the first time, and gone are a few of the sides such as fried onion rings and potato scallops. In their place are healthier alternatives such as steamed greens, mushy peas, and a salad, seriously lowering the hypercholesterolemia potential. Of course the hand cut chips remain, as what good would a fish-and-chippery be without the chippery part? Also revamped is the dessert section, which was previously simpler fare such as deep-fried custard and the like, now replaced by the relatively unusual such as the aforementioned fried ice cream and orange 'spaghetti'. Orange spaghetti? That I gotta see!

Patience may be a virtue, but on this occasion it's a hindrance, so it was a case of "Let's get the savouries over with so we can have dessert!" as I stomped my foot on the naked floorboards. We could have ordered dessert only I suppose, but as we discovered at Bentley, there can be too much of a good thing, especially when that good thing is sweets, and lots of it. So reluctantly, we ordered one entree and one main to share, careful not to over-extend our stomachs before the main event.

Seared sea scallops with confit chicken wings and roasted sweet corn ($19)

The entree we shared was the scallops and chicken wings, the only entree with a non-seafood protein element. Plated artfully in a row were three super-plump scallops and two deboned chicken wings, sitting on a puddle of corn puree and splashes of soy sauce. The scallops were beautifully seared and retained all the juiciness and sweetness of the molluscs; the chicken wings had a superbly crispy skin but was let down by excessive salt and slightly dry meat (as a result of the deboning I assume); and the corn puree and soy sauce provided texture, sweetness and saltiness.

Miso cured Tasmanian salmon steak with red cabbage, roasted almonds and balsamic ($28)

With the main, we surprised ourselves by having the salmon instead of fish and chips, but we needed our omega-3 fatty acids for the week. Three salmon steaks accompanied by a salad of shredded red cabbage tossed with toasted almonds and balsamic vinegar came neatly fanned on the plate, dotted with tomatoes. The miso-marinade complemented the sweetness of the salmon flesh very well, but some of the thicker parts of the salmon unusually tasted a tad overcooked; perhaps it's because I'm used to eating sous-vide cooked salmon in restaurants, where the raw texture of the flesh is retained, but certain parts of the salmon felt dry. The red cabbage salad provided a welcome crunch and nuttiness alongside the sweet salmon and juicy tomatoes, and it was a good dish overall.

After polishing off the savouries at record pace, it was time for the sialogogic conclusion, the desserts, all three of which are priced fantastically at $8. I nabbed the fried ice cream and K the cocktail-sounding orange dessert, leaving the also-deliciously enticing honey panna cotta for next time (and there will be a next time).

Fried ice cream with Belcolade chocolate ($8)

The fried ice cream, usually in a bowl with a choice of out-of-the-bottle topping at your typical Asian eatery, is much better presented here as expected. It sat on a square plate in a pool of thick Belgian Belcolade chocolate sauce and surrounded by sprinkles of almond flakes. So obsessed was I by the words 'fried ice cream' when I first read the menu, I didn't even notice the words 'Belcolade chocolate'. Lunacy. The ice cream is a golf-ball sized scoop frittered into a sphere slightly smaller than a tennis ball, and it was devilishly delicious. The fritter was suitably crispy, the ice cream buttery and slightly cold (not frozen like some of the Chinese ones I've had where a metal spoon bearly makes a dent), and the chocolate sauce super-rich and sweet. The combination was divine and such a winner I wanted to order another. Maybe later.

Orange "spaghetti" with orange granita, mint and lychee ($8)

As for K's dessert, it did look like a cocktail with its bright Fanta orange glow served in a water glass. At the bottom of the glass sat the orange granita, on top of which sat two lychees, a lone mint leaf, and a jumble of rectangular strands of orange jelly (the 'spaghetti') made with gelatin and agar agar. As summery as a dessert gets, it was a great combination of citrus and sweet, cool and tart, and was totally refreshing like a decadent palate cleanser.

With the meal completed and ending on such a fabulous sugar high, we deemed the menu change at The Battery a resounding success, apart from the minor missteps in the savouries (which I've chosen to overlook because of the fried ice cream). It's good to know The Battery is still running on full power, despite earlier grumblings from some people that it is expensive for a fish-&-chippery, and we'll be back in a hurry.

Pierre gives the big spatula up.

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Mirazozo + Westfield Sydney food court - a feast for (almost) all the senses

If one's childhood happiness is measured by the number of inflatable jumping castles frolicked in, then mine was a total disappointment. No matter though, as that is what the Architects of Air is here for, to allow me to relive those missing moments!

Architects of Air are no ordinary jumping castle makers: they are manufacturers of luminariums (or luminaria if one desires correctness), and their latest inflatable structure Mirazozo is here in Sydney during most of January, parked in the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.

The luminariums created by the England-based company are structures designed to highlight the beauty of colour and light, in an environment influenced by Islamic architecture and Gothic cathedrals. Made from a special plastic, they are inflated to full size in under thirty minutes and allow people to enter and enjoy the stimulating and dazzling colours created by external light through the plastic. It's like the world inhabited by Super Mario with its bright reds, blues and greens. Fortunately, there is no princess to rescue, Bowser to conquer, or blistered gaming thumbs to contend with.

Inside the technicoloured labyrinth, tunnels twist and wind through multiple directions, with pockets of space for relaxing and unwinding. Many people like to sit in the 'caves' to meditate and gather their thoughts, absorbing the ambience of colour and sound. In the strong summer sun, there is respite to be had in the air-conditioned coolness of the chambers.

The bright colours can be overwhelming at first as one's eyes take a little time to adjust, but once they do, it feels soothing to the mind and body.

A maximum time of twenty minutes is allowed per visit, and each visit costs $10 (or $8.50 each for groups of four or more). It is on until January 27, don't miss it.

(If you're reading this between 10a.m. and 7p.m., stop immediately and join the queue outside Mirazozo. What are you waiting for? Now! If it's outside the aforementioned hours, you may proceed with the reading)

After such a sensual feast for the eyes and ears, it was time to satisfy another important sense, that of taste. It was around four o'clock, that dead time of the day between lunch and dinner when many eateries are closed for their afternoon break. It was ergo a bit of a head-scratcher to find something that was: a) open, and b) good. Nothing around Circular Quay immediately sprang to mind, so the fortunate appearance of a free city hopper bus (love that green!) allowed us some thinking time.

After an initial consultation, we settled on somewhere in Chinatown, before that inevitable brainwave snapped my head back and made me stammer "Westfield Sydney. Burgers. Fries. Charlie & Co.".

I have been meaning to try the opulent food court here for a while, but never had the chance on previous occasions; today was perfect, particularly at this opportune time of the day when crowds would be largely absent.

And so I was proved correct. Ascending the escalator towards the food level, our heads peered into the court to see no more than twenty people. No queueing, no rushing, no worries. But why just limit ourselves to just that American staple of burgers and fries? The food court was our oyster and we decided to sample three eateries: Charlie & Co. Burgers for the aforementioned burger, Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar for pizza, and Via Del Corso for something sweet.

Federation Burger ($14/$16), parmesan and truffle fries ($8)

First up was Charlie & Co. I had the Federation burger at Opera Kitchen only a few weeks ago, and after enjoying that immensely, decided to try something non-bovine, so opted for the chicken burger. On first thought, the burgers here seem a fair whack less pricey than the equivalents down at Opera Kitchen. For example, the Federation burger is $16 to eat in and $14 to take away here, but $21.50 down at Bennelong Point for eat in; however, the $21.50 includes a serving of fries and table service. Here, the equivalent would cost $22 ($16 for the burger plus $6 for the fries), and even allowing for the fries being a larger serving, it is actually more expensive to eat in the Westfield food court! Who would have thought?

But back to the important part, the burger. The chicken burger is generously stacked with three crumbed and fried pieces of breast; together with the lettuce and tomato and relish, it made quite the mouthful. The chicken was perhaps a little over-crisp, and although tasty, was a little salty for my tastebuds. It was a pretty good chicken burger, just not a great one. The fries on the other hand, were, and then some. Parmesan and truffle oil on fries? Outrageously extravagant but it works a treat. The fries here are as good as the fantastic ones down at Opera Kitchen, and with the added indulgence, are even better, even if it does overwhelm the senses somewhat.

Meat Deluxe pizza ($12.50)

Next was pizza at Crust, a pizza bar with branches all over Sydney, although this was our first experience. Being fans of meat pizzas, we could not - and did not - pass up on their version. Meat Deluxe had a good crispy crust (as one would expect from a place named Crust!) and the right proportion of topping-to-pizza. It was balanced and the various meaty goodness (pepperoni, smoked ham, Italian sausage, chicken, ground beef, etc.) was generous and uniformly distributed and held together by a moreish barbecue sauce.

Toblerone ice cream

The final piece in the three-course afternoon tea/dinner was a dessert from Via Del Corso, whose counter is filled with all manner of hyperglycaemic goodness. As I was finishing my half of the pizza, K went to make the agonising choice. He eventually, after much thought, came back with the Toblerone, an ice cream pyramid of milk chocolate and white chocolate with specks of nougat and nuts, as per the chocolate bar.

The ice cream was smooth and luscious, and the chocolate sauce poured on top somehow manages to run down each side of the pyramid symmetrically. The small plate of whipped cream, the chocolate swirls, and the powdered sugar were distractions but we managed to finish it. Of course.

All in all, it was a wonderful Sydney afternoon with a fine feast for (almost) all the senses. I got to walk through an adult inflatable castle, chomp on parmesan and truffle fries, and return home in time to watch Top Chef All Stars. Creating new memories to complement those fading childhood ones; ain't that what life is about?








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