Christmas in New York (2014)

If you asked me a year ago what I would be doing this Christmas I would have most likely said "stay at home in Sydney and catch up with family and friends over lots of feasting".

But that didn't happen. Instead I am in the city of New York spending Christmas with my travel mate JN. A few weeks ago, back in Sydney, we were trying to work out where we would be having our Christmas lunch and JN discovered Tocqueville through the US Time Out website.

So here we are sitting down for lunch over a 3 course fixed price menu of USD95, not including drinks.

For drinks we had the Pear Bellini and JN also had the Eggnog Cocktail though it didn't go down well with her taste wise.

Before we were served with our dishes, we were presented with an amuse-bouche. They were Caponata cakes and utterly delicious. After some googling, I worked out what we had. They were made of eggplant, olives and onions seasoned with herbs.

We started with entrees (or Appetisers as the Yankees call it).

Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup with black truffle royale. When they served the dish, there was a small circle of food sitting in a large soup bowl with no soup in it. JN looked horrified and was suddenly thinking "is this all I am getting?". Within ten seconds, someone came around to slowly pour the soup into the bowl in a slightly theatrical manner. You should have seen the look of relief on JN's face! I was laughing my head off. I wish I was quick enough to take a picture of her face!

Verdict: Super smooth, creamy and thick soup. The black truffle royale was superb!

House Cured Terrine of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, greenmarket quince and toasted brioche. The terrine was so smooth and packed full of flavour. It was deliciously creamy.

For mains (or Entrees as the Yankees call it), I had the Moroccan Spiced Braised Lamb Shank, with crushed potatoes, olives and fine herbs. The lamb was literally falling off the bone as I cut into it. I enjoyed the rich, earthy flavours from the Moroccan seasoning. The serving was quite large and I did struggle to finish off the plate. But I found it to be quite delicious.

The Governors Table (Sydney CBD)

The name of this restaurant intrigued me when I first saw pictures of its food on Instagram. After realising where it is located (at the Museum of Sydney) I had a better understanding of the principles of not only the name but the touches of Australian native herbs, floral and fauna throughout its menu and decor.

I loved the openness of the exterior connecting to the interior. How perfect it would be sitting there on a balmy evening looking out to the busy street from the inside.

When we were seated at our table, my friend, the lovely LA, asked the front of house how his day had been. I think it threw him to have a guest asked how he was as opposed to the other way round! I unwittingly proceeded to explain we were here to celebrate LA's birthday.

As we were perusing the menu, he served us 2 glasses of bubblies in celebration of her birthday (on the house!). What a lovely and generous surprise!

Confit salmon, blood orange curd, soy bean, tomato and roe. Wow! This dish was seriously good. The salmon was practically melting in my mouth and soft as butter. A beautiful blend of flavours with the salmon the star of the dish.

Spiced lamb ribs, binnorie feta, and pomegranate glaze. Tender, smoky ribs with delightfully crunchy pomegranates scattered through the dish.

Grilled king prawns, mojo verde, with black garlic aioli. Firstly, I would like to say that we did not order this dish. Once again our suave front of house presented us a free dish because of LA's birthday. We couldn't believe it, another generous gesture! Irrespective of whether we had paid for it or not, I found the prawns to be succulent, sweet, nicely grilled and the back garlic aioli had a slightly smokey yet sweet flavour. Very interesting combination.

Tiger prawn linguine, black garlic, citrus mascarpone, nasturtium, and chilli crumb. It was a light, fresh and subtly spiced pasta. Remember, we ordered this dish before we were served with the surprise king prawns. But in my opinion there is no such thing as too much prawns! :)

Maslow's Cafe (Pymble, Sydney)

What is it about a new cafe that attracts my attention? The 2 key factors for me are the location and the menu. When I say location, I mean can I easily get to the venue? Good reviews and great pics on Instagram help too! :)

Broadsheet Sydney recently published an article about a new cafe in Pymble. It caught my eye and I made plans to check it out over a few visits.

I loved the hip look of this cafe. It is located in a garage which has been renovated to fit in a small open kitchen with some tables and a bar with high stools. The decor is slightly grunge like. How cool, and how very unPymble! More towards Surry Hills actually! :)

On my first visit, I had breakfast. My choice was The Little Soldier - 62 degree egg, asparagus and soldier toasts. The egg was perfectly cooked and the asparagus was nicely blanched and had a lovely bite. For my personal taste, I would have liked a sprinkle of salt but taste wise it was quite delicious. Loved the egg oozing all over the toasts. And I liked the plating.

The coffee of choice at Maslow's is Seven Seeds and I had a skim cappuccino to kick off my day. I found it slightly weak on my first visit but on my next visit, it was a stronger brew and sat much better with me.

On my second visit, I came at lunch time and ordered Mr Pig. Yes, you read right, "Mr Pig"! This was Braised pork, 62 degree egg, and baby salad served in a brioche bun. There was a dash of chilli sauce which gave the dish a slight kick. Sorry, I couldn't get a decent shot of the braised pork but just imagine slices of pork nestled under the egg. :)

Let me start by saying I tried to be lady like and used my cutlery. That was a huge failure on my part as the wonderfully dense brioche did not take to the knife. So I resorted to using my hands and eating it like I would a burger and it got all yummily messy!! The pork was tender and delicious, the egg was once again oozing all over the bun but it was such fun eating this way. I absolutely loved the texture of the  Sonoma brioche!

The Last Ever 'Pig on a Spit' at Restaurant Atelier (Sydney)

I start this post with a sigh, a huge sigh! Sadly, a few months ago, Chef Darren Templeman announced the impending closure of his restaurant. Restaurant Atelier has been operating for just over 10 years and it was time to shut the doors and move on to other adventures.

Upon hearing this, I immediately checked their website for upcoming special events to find an opportunity to dine one more time at Restaurant Atelier. I saw the 'Pig on a Spit' lunch event for the 29th of December. As the last day of business would be December 31, and I would still be on my end of year break, I immediately decided to book some seats at this event. And I am glad my friends CW and CHW decided to join me as well. They are fans of Restaurant Atelier's excellent food and of Chef Darren Templeman's culinary skills. I can still recall my very memorable 10 course degustation meal at this restaurant back in August of this year (10 course degustation at Restaurant Atelier).

I didn't realise at that time but this lunch turned out to be a small reunion of other bloggers whom  I happen to know. Miss Piggy was there with her husband Dave and half his family. MiCasa SuCasa was there with her husband Andy and their little gorgeous baby Button. And twitters Vanity Fare1 and Prick with a Fork were there too with their respective families (note that they are people whom I know of but do not know personally). But just imagine the tweets flowing through online social media that afternoon!

The lunch kicked off with some delicious pork rillette and cornichons. We had to control our number of portions as these were addictive and we wanted to save space for the upcoming feast!

There were 2 pigs on a spit all ready for our lunch. What a sight!

And when the spread was presented, there was Couscous salad, roasted peppers, roasted carrots, roasted zucchini and squash, roasted potatoes with a touch of paprika (I think), asparagus and corn, and the star was of course the many platters of the roasted pork. By the way, did I forget to mention all this spread was for only $50 and the food was presented buffet style?!