Experiences | For Food's Sake – A Sydney Food Blog | Page 2

The ‘Good Food Month’, the perfect excuse to eat like a glutton and have it be celebrated. October, besides being the month I decided to make my first appearance on this earth twenty-seven years ago, is also home to a month-long festival celebrating all things food, different cuisines and varying locations. The Night Noodle Markets run for almost three weeks in Hyde Park and is one of the most popular attractions of the month long food celebration. Last year was a calamity of errors and total amateur hour on our part, buying dishes on a whim without proper research (my middle name). Alex went once before our visit together so this will be a bit of a mish mash post…..like his brain. So we were well prepared this time around with a list of stores and dishes on our hit list. Read on to hear all about Alex and my eating adventure.. So, I (Alex) first ventured to the noodle markets on a very quite wednesday evening. The popular stalls were on my list for …

As someone who steers well clear of chilli, the fiery dishes of the Indian-influenced Malaysian cuisine can be somewhat intimidating.  On this particular Saturday afternoon, however, I was prepared to roll up my sleeves and embrace the heat.  The reason being that we (Team FFS)  had been invited  to dine at  PappaRich Australia’s Chatswood venue and have the opportunity to meet Ambassador and Master Chef Contestant,  Poh Ling Yeow.  We were delighted to meet the lovely Poh and sample her top picks off the Malaysian street food menu.  It was wonderful to learn about Poh’s passion for Malaysian cuisine and convivial social dining, which is very much encouraged at PappaRich. It was also interesting to learn that the franchise originated in Kuala Lumpur in 2005 and opened their first Australian doors in 2012 with their Melbourne restaurant. As we settled into our seats at the large Chatswood venue, alongside some familiar faces from the food blogging community, we anticipated the arrival of Poh’s choices. It should be noted that PappaRich honours the largely Islamic culture …

Finishing work at 3pm during the week means I hardly ever have an excuse to order take out. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy my local Chinese or Thai when the mood strikes. And the cool weather Wednesday night lent itself to a bit of slothfulness. So Alex and I decided to take advantage of a ‘Menulog’ voucher and sit back and relax.   Ordering through Menulog is fairly simple, you merely choose your preferred restaurant, pick your selected dishes then input your payment details. There was a bit of uncertainty after we had paid, we were anticipating a confirmation sms message that did not arrive 15 minutes after we had ordered. I’m not sure if this is a regular thing. But it did lead to a bit of confusion as to whether the order was processed. Our order was set to arrive at 6:42pm but came at 6:30pm which was very welcome as we were well and truly famished. We went with a local Thai restaurant ‘Baan Raun Thai’ we tend to stick …

My second day (or should I say second morning) in Melbourne town was probably the greatest day of my life, or for any food blogger/photographer for that matter. Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a sucker for sweets or deserts, so after hearing so much about Doughboys Doughnuts and seeing all their social media I decided to track them down. Located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, Doughboys is situated inside of The Mercat Cross Hotel on Queen street, just opposite the famous Queen Victoria Markets. The inside of the Mercat itself is quite retro and grungy so Doughboys definitely fits in with the American style barbecue that is also there as well. Before I got to Doughboys I assumed that it would be quite a large area and would be packed with people but as me and mum waddled up the stairs thinking about these delicious doughnuts we were about to devour we were surprised to see literally no one there except for the lady behind the counter. They didn’t lie when they said …

Did someone say Cheese & Truffle Toasties??? To launch into talking about food without providing context is something I generally don’t do.  However, on this occasion I do so in order to ingrain into the minds of our readers one absolute stand out item on the winter menu at The Oaks Hotel’s Cabin Fever bar..The Toastie.  Now.. on to the context. The Oaks Hotel, a stalwart establishment of Sydney’s Neutral Bay, has recently transformed their front bar to create an inviting ambience resembling an aspen-style ski lodge.  Myself and fellow FFS bloggers, Bianca and Alex, were lucky enough to have been invited to attend the launch party of this unique pop-up bar.  We were suitably impressed by the well thought out details with the use of wooden clad walls, fireplace and various ski equipment carefully placed around the bar to give it a real cabin feel. The Canadian Club was flowing that evening and we sipped on a delightful drink, known as a Ginger Spritz, containing CC, ginger ale and lemon – a refreshing combination that went down a little too easy! Having been tempted by the sound of Celebrity Chef, Danny Russo’s, specially …

As the terms slowly go by, the assignments and briefs get harder and harder, and while I love a good challenge, this assignment was right up my alley and got me very excited!! For those that don’t know, I’m currently in my second year, studying a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communications majoring in photography at Raffles College of Design and Commerce. The assessment brief for the first assignment of this term was to create 1 finished image as either; – a front cover of an exotic/creative food magazine, titled “Nosh“. – an enticing and descriptive imagery of fresh produce and ingredients that promote local growers and quality Australian produce as a double page editorial with article. I decided to go for the front cover! So here is how I went about researching, and going about the shoot for those that are interested! For my front cover food shoot for ‘Nosh Magazine’ I decided to go with the idea of getting a cake from Black Star Pastry in Newtown. Originally I was going to get …

We were lucky this past March/April to have three French relatives visit, having family all around the world; we are blessed to have these usually short but sweet visits. Between all the family members we did the usual Sydney touristy things. Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, the city, Harbour boat tours, walks around Manly and Bondi. As well as some really special experiences – Madama Butterfly on the harbour (in the rain), yum cha (not a regular undertaking for our French cousins) and a fabulous dinner at Via Napoli. All made special by the family attending.     Madre, Vanessa and I were set to take our cousins to the Fish Markets, an icon in the Sydney Fish Mongering industry. They had not experienced anything quite like it, France obviously, is home to delicious artisan cheeses/ breads/ charcuteries/ sweets…the list goes on really. Mum and I were told by our cousin Christine, that the seafood was exceptionally cheaper than in France. Walking through the bustling markets at lunchtime on a Friday, you get swept up in …