Tombolo – Tasmania

Tombolo Freycinet Cafe

This little gem of a cafe opens 
for breakfast, lunch and dinner

We ventured away from freycinet national park where we were staying, 
to avoid the uninspiring prospect 
of hotel breakfast...

We made the right choice.

We were really impressed with the mountain views from our table

the mountains in freycinet have a striking resemblance to the US mountains so often seen in movies and tv. 

fantasic view

a relatively small space inside but this cafe offers a variety of food and drink options which 
included eggs 

which is the most important aspect of a good breakfast

mocha and coffee 
perfect boost to start the morning 
with a long drive ahead of us

the racer breakfast!
poached eggs salsa cheesy meaty ham on top of a crunchy toasted sour dough 

surprising not as heavy as it looks 
taste as yummy as it looks

bacon egg roll 
fried egg 
simple, and it works 

the racer is better!

Definitely check out this cafe if you are around the freycinet area, 
or have hotel breakfast..
but this is better

Butchers Block

butchers block in Wahroonga
this is the back of the cafe which is conveniently located right next to a big carpark

weekends this cafe is super packed and busy for all the lazy brunchers 

...lucky for us we arrive on a late afternoon monday

while it's a monday, and late inthe afternoon, the cafe is still quite full with people enjoying a coffee or having a late lunch

mocha, tutor tales go to (coffee) drink

chai honey latte 
comes with lots of herby leaves and drizzle of honey on the bottom of the cup 

plenty of tea for at least a full refill

the lunches here are HUGE 

the combination of light crispy flakes, a whole sausage sliced into two and a healthy amount of cream and avocado
this is a unique take on the very well known nachos

the use of the crisps instead of the usual corn chip was interesting as they were light and crunchy alternative

caesar salad - the butchers block take 

the use of a whole poached egg
the homemade croutons 
the grilled chicken
the prosciutto
the light but tasty caesar dressing 

for those who get the salad thinking it will be a light alternative for lunch will be in for a shock because this is once massive salad 

...I still finished it because it was amazing

Incinerator

Perfect sunny day for brunch at the incinerator

as expected, being the Easter weekend, there were lots of families up and early brunching

They also had an Easter egg hunt early in the morning that we just missed out on.

open kitchen 
where chefs and waitstaff are hustling and bustling to get the food out

this is basically all of the inside, not big but a number of outside tables are also available

House smoked salmon, cucumber, horseradish yoghurt with poached eggs

fresh veges, omega 3 oils, calcium, protein, grainy fibrous toast
this dish has all the healthy elements packed into a tasty meal to start the day

special of the day 
chorizo bits, beans, poached egg, avocado and garnish of veges and grass accompanied by a long thin toast 

a bit short on the chorizo as it only comes in tiny tiny broken up pieces but it was still a satisfying meal to eat

they use grounds coffee i assume

assortment of sweets 
I see cakes, tarts that all look yummy but we didn't see these until we already left our table!

...Otherwise I would have had no hesitation to give the lemon tart a taste

Incinerator art space
unfortunately was not open at the time were were there

The outside of the incinerator cafe,
its unique looking architectural design screams contemporary and modern

I was talked into a post brunch exercise walk by tutortales... (which actually ended with us walking all the way from willoughby to Chatswood)

oh wells, at least it was a perfectly sunny and nice day with bright blue skies

Ume Restaurant Surry Hills

Ume Japanese dining 
478 Bourke Street Surry Hills
we tend to like the small little restaurants
and in Surry hills there are plenty

service was great and and the small restaurant provided a friendly atmosphere to dine in

We decided to order a la carte
although most of the dishes we ordered were included in the degustation

the difference was if you order them separate they come in larger servings!

the waitress was even worried for our stomachs that when we wanted to try too many dishes, she prevented us from ordering anymore...

we tried the shochu, a japanese distilled drink thats different to sake because its made differently (source wiki)

The clear water looking one is the Imo - sweet potato 

The other drink is a housemade lemony drink (okay, honestly I forgot what it was. but it looks lemony)

very detailed wallpaper keeping with a traditional Japanese artistic theme

Snapper Carpaccio
very fresh, finely sliced pieces of snapper 
dressed with White Soy, Rice wine vinegar,
Shredded Cucumber, Shiso and Black Sesame

tasty tasty start of the meal

Ama Ebi
Raw Deep Sea Prawns, Prawn Oil, Walnuts, Okahijiki (which is fancy for seaweed from the land)
1 Year Old Preserved Lemon
(wow, 1 year of lemon!), 
Sashikomi Soy

I liked this even more than the snapper

Seared Hokkaido Scallop
Shibanuma Shoyu brown butter, Finger Lime, Dulse

their signature dish
and it was super tasty! 
the brown butter sauce was delightful

Shiki no Salad
 Roasted Heirloom Carrots,
 Fried Brussel Sprouts, Dashi Custard,
 Black Vinegar & Ginger Dressing

brussel sprouts are at the bottom of the vegetable list for us, however in the salad, those sprouts were fried to a crisp that made them interesting to eat (they still carried a heavy brussel sprouty taste)

Tako
 Slow Cooked, Tender WA Octopus
 Koji Potato, Lightly Pickled Cucumber
 Shichimi, Bonito Oil

chucky cut up bits of octopus tentacles! 
not my favourite dish of the night but still 
very well portioned, soft and tasty

Riverina Lamb
 Charred, Soft Lamb Shoulder
 Sesame Miso, Fried Nori
 Shoyu-zuke Heirloom Tomatos

huge portion of lamb shoulder!
I am a meat fan, and this was well cooked tender lamb in a flavoursome miso sauce 

not to mention well presented

finished off with dessert 

Sesame infused Aero Chocolate & Beet Root
 Toasted “Rice-Cream”,
 Beetroot Marshmallow, Merigue

A nice mix of sweet and sour flavours 
with a very interesting rice flavoured ice cream that actually balances everything together


Ume, highly recommended

Taste of Sydney

Taste of Sydney 
lamchop scored some free tix 
so we decided to check this out 
Centennial Park event 
running from 13-16 March 2014

features a list of trending restaurants 
in which event goers can have a taste 
all in the one location
for a price of course

giant fork at the entrance 

the event runs of crown currency: 
all food, drinks and products 
can only be purchased 
by these special crown monies. 

1 crown = 1 Australian dollar 

they put your virtual crowns on a card 
and the only way to get these crowns 
are by finding a crown seller (guys with pink shirts) 

each vendor will scan your card
to deduct the corresponding amount of crowns 
for the dish or product that you want in return

kind of a hassle

we pass by a few empty looking bars 
as it was still very early in the evening 

I take note golden bar had happy hour 2 for 1 drinks! 

(we came back many hours later 
and saw that happy hour was a permanent sign)

pass by a wine bar called cake 

onwards I say, 
as I am keen to start eating some food

chur burger 
at the very end of the festival grounds

already, people are lining up to have a taste 
of their mini burgers

Chow Bar and Eating House 
this is a Surry hills eatery 
that we pass by all the time 
and we often see it empty

Lamchop has always been keen to try it though
and since it won the previous night's best dish
we wanted to give it a go

Chow bar beggar's chicken
Silken lemon tofu, vinegar red peanuts 

wow, it was tender 
the tofu seemed to be misplaced as we couldn't located it anywhere on the plate while we were quickly devouring the chicken, not really caring

this was a great start to our planned feast

of course
Lamchop was totally taken in 
by a croquembouche sign 

and we are temporarily sidetracked from our feast

they do have some colourful desserts 

their croquembouches are tiny though! 
where are the massive towers?

next stop
iconpark - a crowdfunded platform for restaurant and bar concepts with the top 6 featuring at this festival

we gave Sedgwick Ave concept a shot 

this was purely due to what they had on offer:
Brooklyn's Finest De-boned
Free range wings 
Grilled watermelon
Light blue cheese Sauce 

de-boned chicken wings? YES please 
the watermelon was refreshing 
blue cheese sauce is good 
...if you dont mind blue cheese

we headed back to more established brands:
Popolo

crumbed lamb cutlet and eggplant puree
and diced, pickled onion

and not to mention a tomato! 
golden and crunchy on the outside
succulent and tender on inside

we chomped on this lamb cutlet in quick succession and before I knew it, 
Lamchop was already gnawing on the bone til it was completely clean

travelling along we found PorteÑo
and its roasting area from game of thrones

Charcoal Grilled Entrana
wagyu skirt steak with BBQ peppers
and chimichurri

we saw other people taking away big portioned plates of meat so we gambled on the wagyu steak hoping it was big portioned. 

no, it was small in comparison 
the large dish must have been the 20 crown lamb 
this wagyu however, was still truly tender and delicious

after charging through the food stalls 
...we decided to take a short break to see some other parts of the festival such as this garden area

...and an olive stall

efendy 
this vendor was on the top 
of Lamchop's to go list while we were looking through the restaurant brochure 
I wondered why...

was she enticed by the sunglasses man 
and his large barbeque 
producing some of the most 
tantalising and smokey aromas
promising tender, juicy, meaty dishes?

NO...
what Lamchop wanted from efendy was...

lamb testicles 
yes
these are the balls of a lamb 
it might not look like it 
but it definitely tasted like balls 

Lamchop ate it in one big mouthful (which is very scary) and she couldn't get enough of that 
spermy looking sauce.

with some testicle taste still 
lingering in our mouths 
we ventured forth to explore more of the festival 

this little stall had the genius idea of mixing a variety of alchohol options with 
coconut juice

sake tasting

meet the festival juggler 
he was juggling all night 
which was very impressive

four fourteen's roasting area with a whole pig on a spinning stick

we decided to try it: 
suckling pig with smoked potato 
and crushed apple

not as juicy as I expected but the potato was soft at least

matched with Aki's Indian crispy wheat pockets with spiced potato and yogurt 

I popped these whole into my mouth to find it exploding with a surprising amount of cream and less on the potato side, 
still enjoyable

my belt was shrinking around my waist

we had eaten quite a lot of food 
so, we looked for a place to wash it all down with a nice refreshing drink

meet Galliano's bartenders mixing up three very different cocktails

we went for the espresso martini and the amaretto sour

as it drew closer to nightfall 
the festival got a lot more crowded as 
office workers retire from their week 
to enjoy their friday night at Taste Sydney

we were lucky to arrive and commence feasting at an earlier time as queues to purchase crowns, let alone food and drinks were getting longer by the minute

having missed out 
on a number of free cooking shows 
we finally got a spot 
on the Dilmah chef's skillery

free tea tasting 
served by lovely Dilmah tea girls

feature chef:
James Viles from Biota Dining in Bowral
most of the show he was burning a bunch of lettuce til it was ... all shriveled up 
...what dish could possibly come out of burnt lettuce?

somehow he turned it into a spectacularly fancy looking charcoal biscuit with scampi paste,
fish roe and elder flower

delightfully matched with a cup of hot Dilmah earl grey which was a fantastic finish for the night