Sugarcane Restaurant (Surry Hills, Sydney)

Sugarcane has been in the food scene for a while now but I think since it recently went through a revamp of their menu and a fresh interior look, it has picked up interest in the Sydney food scene.

Recently I had an opportunity to check it out one Saturday night. It was a rather chilly night actually but quite warm in the restaurant. We were seated at one of the long communal tables.

Sugarcane is one of those restaurants with 2 seatings and since we had to vacate by 8.00 I decided to take the 6.00 pm option. KL and I had already checked the menu online so we had an idea of what we wanted.

The food came out thick and fast!

Sydney rock oyster with Sugarcane dressing - a few hmmm's from my table indicated these were good. I am not an oyster person so I skipped this one.

Prawn, rice cake and caramelised sugar cane. This piece of appetiser stood alone on its own as I was the only one who ordered it. I popped the whole thing in my mouth and was greeted with an explosion of flavours! Completely surprised but delighted by the tart and sweet flavours and the crunchy texture of the rice cake was spot on! I now wish I had ordered more of these! Super delicious!!!!

Sorry - not a great shot! :(

Crispy tortilla, crab, green apple, coconut and lime. Light, fresh and tangy flavours with a delightfully crispy tortilla.

Fried eggs, black vinegar and caramel. Better known as son-in-law eggs, these were so addictive. The egg was gooey on the inside and the black vinegar and caramel sauce was oh so deliciously sweet and slightly sharp. The sauce perfectly complemented the egg. Yum!

Pad Thai with a serve of chicken. Now, I thought we were going to get the normal chicken that comes with Pad Thai. You know, the chicken breast slivers we typically get when we order Pad Thai with chicken. Boy was I wrong! These were twice cooked chicken and came fried! There was a delicious caramelisation to the chicken which brought a nice complexity to an otherwise standard pad Thai. I liked the fact the bean sprouts were not fried and were fresh and still crunchy.

Chic Pea @ Plunge (Summer Hill, Sydney)

Having pop up restaurants is becoming quite common these days and this one popped up a few months ago. Chic Pea came into fruition when food blogger Fouad Kassab and business partner Hesham El Masry decided to join forces and create something special.

When I first read the article announcing the opening of Chic Pea I was immediately drawn to it and have been trying since then to dine here.

Well, I made it and together with some special friends, we decided to have the full set menu for only $60 per person. What a great price for the number of dishes we were served.

As I was not driving that night I decided to have a glass of white. It was the 2012 Krems Gruner Veltliner from Austria. I found it thoroughly lovely!

Note: Apologies in advance for my grainy photos. It was quite dark in the restaurant and I resisted the use of flash and tried to use the natural light from a candle. :)

We started with a complimentary plate of pickles - nice crunch and nice tang! Great start!

Almond and potato bread with Pepe Saya dukkah butter. What a great idea to coat the delicious butter with dukkah! Loved the concept and I intend to replicate this when I serve my PS butter in the future. :) But the star was the bread. A beautifully dense, nicely warm bread that I could have kept eating and eating and forsaken the rest of the meal. So good!

Hummus with Turkish chilli and smoke red pepper. I wanted more of this dish and would have loved some Lebanese bread to slather this gorgeous dip in.

Roasted beetroot with labnah, maple and black sesame. Another great side dish and the beetroots were sweet, and still had a nice bite.

Stuffed cabbage, with mushrooms, pine nuts and yoghurt. This dish reminded me of the Greek dish Dolmades. Except there was no vine leaves. I could taste the lovely middle eastern spices. Yum!

Purple cabbage salad with shanklish and Iranian raisins. A yummy, crunchy, full of flavour salad. It was quite light and the bits of crumbed cheese provided a slight saltiness to the salad.

PM24

Wow! This is my second meal today on my first day in Melbourne, after a 1 year absence, and I must say I am suitably impressed at the standards of the food I have been lucky enough to have had.

Dinner tonight is at the renowned PM24, a French bistro and rotisserie located right in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. Chef Phillipe Mouchel has excelled in producing such fine modern French cuisine in Melbourne. Dinner was booked for 7pm and it was already full house when we arrived.

I loved the open kitchen, the buzzy and lively bistro ambience and seeing Chef Phillipe Mouchel checking very plate as it came through for final plating was impressive.

We had some lovely cocktails to kick off the evening. I had the Vive La Lychee cocktail and K had the Melonicious!

My lychee cocktail

First Meal at the M's

This is not a blog post about a meal at a restaurant but rather it is about a home made meal at the M's. it is the first time I have been to their new apartment, a rather nice looking one at that!

I finally got to know their dog, Buddy, who is just adorable. I think he and I fell in love instantly....

I brought a cheese platter together with Prosciutto from Italy so the M's could try it and tell me what they felt was the difference between the prosciutto made in Australia and this one that came from Italy. I think they see a huge difference and understand why I extol the virtues of my oh so favourite Prosciutto Di San Danielle. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the platter.

For mains, CM cooked Chicken Breast topped with a Honey Mustard dressing and served on a bed of salad. She also roasted some sweet potatoes topped with grated cheese, this was served with the chicken. It was quite tasty, I liked that it was a fast cooking dish and the dressing could be made beforehand. The chicken was moist and tender and not verging on the dry side. Which means CM did not overcook it.