The Book Kitchen

Surry Hills has so many options when it comes to searching for a breakfast or lunch or even dinner places. There are so many cafes and restaurants to choose from. Since DD has moved into Surry Hills, I can foresee myself spending a little more time in this inner city suburb when we do catch up for a meal.

The Book Kitchen is located diagonally across from the Bourke Street Bakery. I like the concept of a book store and cafe. Sitting near the book shelves and having lunch at the same time made me feel a little more literate! The place was packed, so we waited for around 15 minutes for a table. While waiting I looked across to Bourke Street Bakery and noticed the large number of people queueing up to enter the store. Amazing!

The number of people outside Bourke Street Bakery!

The Book Kitchen is a cafe by day and a restaurant by night. There is a focus on organic and bio-dynamic food. Their book range is focused on gastronomy. It was quite a hip place to hang out for a meal. DD suggested this place as he had been here many times for breakfast. It was his first time for lunch.

We both chose the Trio Lamb loin chops with pine nut pangrattoto crust, quinoa tabouli, and pomegranate molasses dressing.

Verdict: Our verdict is the lamb was cooked nicely, the dressing was a little too sweet to what we are usually used to. So we added some sea salt flakes to the dish, and the flavours just came through beautifully then. I really liked the quinoa tabouli. Beautifully tangy and great grain textures.

We didn't have dessert but had beverages instead. I must say, I did feel quite full after the lunch. I was glad that we had to walk quite a bit to get back to where we came from. The next time I think I will try out their breakfast menu.



The Book Kitchen
255 Devonshire Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
Website: www.thebookkitchen.com.au

Cinnamon, Cherry and Pear Muffins

This recipe is sourced from the Taste website. I have tried it a couple of times and have found it to be a good one to keep. Bear in mind that the ingredients listed is designed for 4 muffins. When I made for 8, I literally doubled the amounts of each ingredient.

Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons caster sugar
50g reduced-fat canola spread, melted, cooled
1/3 cup skim milk
1 egg
1/2 cup canned seedless black cherries, drained, halved
1/2 cup canned pears, drained, chopped
pure icing sugar, to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Lightly grease four 3/4-cup capacity texas muffin pan holes (I used muffin wraps instead).
3. Combine flour, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre.
5. Whisk melted spread, milk and egg in a jug (I used a glass bowl).
6. Pour into well.
7. Add cherries and pears.
8. Stir gently using a large metal spoon until just combined (do not over-mix).
9. Three-quarter fill each muffin hole with mixture.
10. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Stand muffins in pan for 4 minutes.
12. Turn out onto wire rack to cool slightly.
13. Dust with icing sugar.
14. Serve warm.

Taste website: www.taste.com.au

Cafe Morso

Once again I am back in Pyrmont. Strange coincidence that I have not visited Pyrmont in such a long time but I have now been here for 2 weekends in a row. This time it was to meet a friend for lunch on a Saturday afternoon that reflected a Sydney summer day (but in autumn).

I have not seen my friend KH in more than a year and we were trying to work out where we should meet when she suggested going to Cafe Morso. I checked out the website and I quite liked the look of the menu plus the very attractive location of the cafe. So here we are, sitting out on the wharf, enjoying some catch up time and having a relaxing meal at the same time.

Cafe Morso is located at the end of Pirrama Road, at the Lower Deck of Jones Bay Wharf. It is a stone's throw away from the Flying Fish restaurant. I quite liked the menu, there were some interesting variations to make the dishes just that tiny bit different to the staple cafe menus.

Well, what did we have for lunch? I had the Polenta crusted squid with spiced paprika mayo served with watercress, spanish onion and shaved cucumber salad. KH had the seared swordfish steak with corn and squid risotto and confit tomato. I found it interesting to have squid encrusted with polenta and I quite liked the paprika mayo. It was just something different which made in interesting. KH enjoyed her swordfish.

Seared swordfish steak

Polenta crusted squid

For dessert, we went all out and I had the Orange scented pannacotta with beetroot syrup and baby mint. Very, very interesting combination. Normally I dislike beetroot but I decided to try this combination out. It certainly combined very well and I thoroughly enjoyed my dessert. KH had the Trio of apple comprising of steamed apple pudding with caramelised apple pearls and apple sorbet; and served with vanilla anglaise. Her dessert looked scrumptious and she obviously enjoyed it. But after tasting my very interesting dessert, her verdict was that mine was the standout.

Trio of apple

Pannacotta with beetroot syrup

But the selling point of Cafe Morso is the location. Looking out to the Bay and the various ships docked, it did not feel that we were actually in the heart of Sydney city. Did I forget to mention how packed the cafe was?

Cafe Morso
Lower Deck (West Side), Jone Bay Wharf
Pirrama Road
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Australia
Website: www.cafemorso.com.au