BAI.
We are off to the land of (South) Korea for about two-and-a-half months! Wheeeeee!
Have fun reading and re-reading our archives!
Our hiatus will be stoppededed at the end of January or startish of February...depending on how lazy we are!
MUCH BAI!
There are two stores. The original store, in the good land that is Slurry Hills, now bakes all the bread, and the store on Broadway takes care of the pastries. I imagine that they do swapsies some time in the early hours of the morning. The thing with Bourke Street Bakery is the range. There are the few select bakeries in Sydney that do absolutely amazing bread. Bourke Street does this, and has a variety of goods which will blow you out of this world like someone with a really huge fan. There are reportedly nine types of sourdough breads, including a grape schiacciata (basically like a foccacia), an olive-oil bread topped with crushed red grapes and cooked with rosemary, another with cherry tomato, roast garlic and basil, or walnut. Prepare yourself also for the majesty that is the daily rotation of fruit breads, like that being hazelnut and raisin or apple and oat. Seven different fruit breads...can life get any better? No but, actually.
The pastries are brilliant. I know it seems that most of the posts we do, we do with unadulterated passion and an overzealousness...but, it really is that most of these places we do review are just that good. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a blag that pontificates on everything we do and eat - we reserve our words for that which is truly awesome. So, yerr. Pastries. Here they are golden, cooked really well, and retain a rustic, almost caramelised, texture and taste. Oh, man, they are made of delicious. The pistachio and ginger brulée tart is sensational. So. Gorram. Rich. The centre is creamy as hell, and the burnt toffee is satisfyingly crunchy. Go little green pistachio men (pieces), go! The croissants are flippin' nice, too!
The goods are honest and simple. Nothing is prettied up for image purposes, so the bulk of the baker's concentration goes into getting the goods to taste amazing. I can totally deal with that. I can also deal with them cramming their windows with their bakednosities, the flour heaving itself to the upper atmosphere of the store as everything is shifted around and into nice brown paper bags. And don't even get me started on the huge rusted old Boulangerie sign out front of the Slurry story; a relic probably bought in from Paris.
Quality pastries for the utmost win. Ladies.
I was kind of disappointed to learn that Boulangerie simply meant bakery. The beautiful sign outside Bourke Street Bakery promises so much more.
We arrived there, after getting a tad lost and wandering down the wrong end of Bourke Street, to be greeted by a massive queue out the door. It was obvious that this old school looking place had its fair share of fans. They have delicious breads of the sourdough variety, with that delicious hard crust and soft interior combo that combines to make the perfect loaf.
The best thing about this place is the creativity of it's menu. Judging purely by taste, both Sonoma, Brasserie Bread and the even more difficult to find La Tartine pump our superior bread. But picking between these four is like grumbling because you got a million dollars and not a million and one. What sets Bourke Street apart is that they do things like Pistachio and Rhubarb tarts, Praline twists and some more exotic loaves, as well as a menu that does change periodically.
Also, they use Single Origin coffee, which means that if the Barista is doing his job, you should get damned good coffee too.
You can't really ever expect to get a seat here, considering they have about three. But that just motivates you to buy tonnes of bread (literally) and eat it at your homestead. Pair it with some good jam, or a good slather of butter and you have yourself a winner.
This place is the definition of rad. I'm very glad that there's the store so close to Sydney University.
So as the oven dominates the warm and dimly lit room with it's brick intensity, you get to make the awful decision of eliminating the pizza's you won't have. It is therefore a good idea to bring a friend or thirteen. Because last time I checked, that's how many pizzas are on the menu. There is no question that you pick (at least) one pizza all to yourself. It's not gluttony here, it's the beauty of ultrAA-thin crusts and relatively little else. See, tradition is good for some things! All choices kill it, but the one's I have a seemingly large amount of trouble going past, are the Diavola and the Crudaiola. The Diavola basically translates to devil, and it is if you can't handle the rad that is chilli. The simplicity of crushed tomatoes, the thinnest coating of mozzarella you ain't ever seen, chilli, olives, the hottest damn salami evrrr, and a few anchovies is mind-blowing. I hate anchovies, and yet I manage to love them on this pizza. Go figure! The Crudaiola, as far as I can tell, refers to the raw tomatoes used on this pizza - crudo being the root of it's name. Topped also with the same (not literally) mozzerella, as well as garlic, basil, a good sprinkling of pine nuts, and a lovely dashing of olive oil, this pizza is the freshest damn one you can get. You'll feel like you picked the ingredients yourself from la tenuta di famiglia right back in Italy.
My verdict was made long ago. And now it officially stands. Yerr! Ain't nothin' to be done about it! \o/ Whhhheeeeeeeeee!
The pizza here is so damned good.
What else is there to say about this place? It says a lot about this place that it manages to win prizes in publications such as the Good Food Guide while disparaging its service. The good news is that the service here isn't terrible. It just isn't up to the standards of the food.
OK, it's a tad cold. But come on, what kind of person are you if you let a little bit of unfriendliness stop you from eating some delicious-ass pizza?
A person I'm not inviting to La Disfida.
All the Pizzas I've tried here have been delicious. So full of flavour, so incredibly edible. Other pizza just seems like.. cardboard in comparison (Ed: It's because it is!!). Here, they just get the simple things right. You can taste the tomato in the base. The salami is hot. The speck is covered with bocconcini.
Okay, that last one isn't that simple. But if you have eaten it before, you realise how delicious it is.
Pizza doesn't seem like that difficult a thing to get right. It seems like something that everybody should get right. Why does it take a small pizza place in Haberfield to show us that we shouldn't settle for bland pizza where all the flavours mix into each other to the point of gray? Shouldn't all food be this wholesome, this flavourful?
The answer = Yes.
It's not the nicest restaurant ever, but you could do a hell of a lot worse. Nothing to complain about, unless you're one of those customers who expect pampering. Turn up, order everything on the menu twice and eat till your face falls off. Because life is about enjoying the simple things. Simple things like being a pizza glutton.
Beautifully thin crusts are definitely a must for any pizza. Here, they prove the dough for these delightful circles of deliciousness for several days before baking. This somehow manages to make the pizza soft on the inside and rightly crisp on the outside exposed to the flames of the wood-fire oven. Flames and flamingoes. There is a really distinct taste to the dough here, that which I have trouble putting anything specific upon, however which seems to develop somewhere within the salt region...of my memory? Tastes? Very Mediterranean, and very "let's-all-go-to-the-seaside-whheeee!". As for the toppings, well, they are divine. Applied sparingly and using only the freshest ingredients, the seemingly minimalist expression of this veritable art allows one to savour each and every taste. So fresh, in fact, that there exists within Rosso Pomodoro their very own glass meats cabinet, from which they procure their thinly sliced cuts of salami and prosciutto. It is, evidently, extremely tiny if you use the Nutella jar for scale. Then consider that same jar to be really flippin' huge.
This is my favourite pizza place in Sydney.
Now, strangely enough, this isn't the best pizza in Sydney. But it's so damned close, that the charm of the place tips it over the edge. Although it looks like nothing special from the outside, as soon as you open the door, the charming hustle and bustle hits you in the face like a mighty bazooka. Smiles and laughter from staff and customer alike, and specials on the chalkboard that have me drooling from the outset.
I have no point of reference for "authenticity" in pizza. American style pizza, Italian style pizza, I have equal fondness for both. However, the execution of the traditional Italian style here is flawless. I dig the thin crust , giving maximum emphasis on the delicious toppings on offer. It's the kind of food that tastes like something you'd make at home if you had a giant wood fire oven and the perfect ingredients, as well as a recipe pried from the hands of an old Italian grandmother. Soul-warming food.
We got brilliant service here, and everybody in the restaurant seemed in high spirits. This is precisely the type of food that facilitates a good time, and it seemed that they understood their role perfectly. The room exerted a distinctly Italian vibe, from the proud AC Milan scarf to the fake FIFA world cup trophy on display. The rules chalked up on the wall provides a smile as well as an implicit guarantee of quality, being strict enough to be serious without being at all restrictive on anyone with respect for those who are trying to have some standards within their own goddamn restaurant.
The customer is not always flippin' right. They are more often wrong than not.
Writing this post, it makes me want to go back. SOMEBODY, LET'S GO EAT PIZZZZZZZZZA ^__^
Food markets are always exciting. It's a chance to sample the tastes and experience the delightful smells that infuse with each other and send you under the dizzying spell of a food frenzy. Better in public than in the privacy of your own home, where, if you may collapse, people may not discover your body for weeks.
I don't really have much to say about Feastability. In my opinion it could be better, in terms of quality of produce offered, however, in it's defence, it is more a showcasing of local restaurants and food businesses than anything else. It also must be noted that I am one spoilt foodie (can I be called that? according to the wikipedia article I think I am categorised more within the realm of a gourmet!?), for sure. Feastability is an opportunity to experience the world that is King Street in the courtyards of the local Performing Arts School.
So there were different roasts and blends of coffee, samples from T2, and crushed juices, in particular the delicious apple and mango (was it?) that I had. In terms of food there was paella, copious amounts of Thai (and, although, it is Newtown I did manage to sample a delicious marriage of chillies, roasted shredded coconut 'meat', ginger, dry shrimp, and a whole lot else, wrapped in a tiny leaf of lettuce, which was ultra delicious), the lovely artisan's bread that is Common Ground (the fruit loaf I bought was sensational - it was more panettone styles though! surprising!!), and, most importantly, ice-cream from Ice and Slice, a highly recommended place for the frozen stuff if you're ever in need of it at the Missenden Road end of King Street.
Plus, there was a lovely 'dear' of a drag queen commentating the day's entertainment and happenings. There were two stages, which really set the tone to international. I think that in the time I was there, I saw Tongan dancers, a choir of 50+ year-olds shouting their way through gospel-type songs, a Mexican shindig, and a country band from...the country. Representin' the peoplez. Yo.
For me, there aren't many better ways to spend a day than strolling around markets selling delicious things to squee over with a few friends, with nothing much to do other than make stupid comments and consume deliciousness. You might not agree, but hey, that's why I write a food blog and you don't.
Feastability was fun. There was the same stalls that I've become accustomed to, some gozleme over here, some Thai over this way. I had some coffee from an Artecaffe-toting café that I don't recall the name of. Which is a shame, because although the coffee is average to good, the barista was not, which makes all the difference most days.
There was delicious bread baked by a Neo-Christian commune, Rubyos offered us a mini-grazing plate, and of course there was plenty of Thai to be found. The entertainment was as varied, with a terrible choir, some cool Islander dancing and other assorted fun randomness.
A lot of the novelty was lost on us, having traversed up and down King Street more times than we can remember, and having loved Newtown for as long as we've been exposed to it. It's a fantastic little area, and Feastability reflected that. That said, it would have been nice if some of the stalls had gone to some effort, or at least had Campos and Serendipity turn up.
And extra delicious is always welcome!
Okay. Here's what happened:
This gelato bar is phenomenal. It's presentation serves a very modern and slick take on the fifties-style diner, albeit in tiny form. Lime green seats match the fluorescent green take-away cups, the matte taupe and dirty orange wallpaper climb busily over the walls, and the chrome glistens in an oh-so shiny fashion. It's gelato serves are *choose-your-own-deity* in a cup. A lovely mixture of traditional Italian flavours, that being cassata, tiramisu, hazelnut, cawfee, torrone, pistachio, strawberry, and lemon...bitches...as well as brilliant fusions of dreams nought before dreamt, that is, lime cheesecake, coconut & lychee, and chocolate sorbet. And just the gorram insanely good in terms of ingredients: notably the Tokay fig. If this place was a person, it could take me, there and then. Are the flavours displayed in mounds? Mountains? Half-buried soccer balls? I don't care, you decide. It's freakho beautiful, whatever the hell it's compared to.
If I describe to you any of the flavours my senses have experienced it would probably embarrass you. I'm just going to say that in terms of quality, ingredients used, and combinations available, this place is absolutely incredible. It's probably my second favourite gelato bar in Sydney. That's a Big Title. I hearts this place muchly. Seriously, they are definitely right about one thing: Forza Messina!!!111@@!!
I'm in ur kitchen, eatin' ur frozen goods.
Messina is a place in Italy, a country that seems to pre-occupy us with its wealth of delicious eatables.
Messina is also a small, tucked away, gelateria in Darlinghurst that makes me smile.
Lime cheesecake is a brilliant thing to turn into Gelato. I would never have known that, without having visited Messina. They have a great range of flavours, with old favourites mixed with some truly strange offerings. How can you complain when the most basic of styles are infused with a new freshness, while being simultaneously confronted with strange mixes of flavours.
Their Lemon Sorbet is the best I've ever had. Did I mention that they're really flippin' good at what they do? If you're lucky, you can even watch as the cold, delicious goodness oozes out of the machine. Doesn't look so tough. But somehow, they top Gelatomassi in terms of the quality of the product. And those guys are wizards. Mang.
The service here leaves something to be desired. It's a little cold, a little dull. But if you're a gelato-freak like some people, it's just a joy to be given Ice Cream that both reminds you of the goodness you had as a kid, and of artisans, possibly slaving away for decades to learn the skills they have.
Regardless. I want some. Even if I nearly got killed getting it last time. The desire to come here is so regular that the question of whether we should embark on the trip to Darlinghurst has been shortened to a single word. The amount of places in Sydney that deserve regular patronage are far too dispersed in my mind. But if you're in the area, you would do yourself a disservice, sir, if you didn't stop to enjoy a scoop or nine.
Messina?
Katipo is just the type of place that you can chill out at for hours (we did), appreciate the bohemian-style atmosphere (we did this, also), and nibble on some food as you please (yep, did that one too!). And, as a side note, this café's name is that of the species of New Zealandish spider (it's apparently run by a couple of Kiwi's) that is 'non-aggressive' and lives under logs. How cute! No seriously...most of the staff wear t-shirts that have darling little spiders hanging over their shoulders. I want one!
The coffee. It is Artecaffe. A pleasant and smooth blend, definitely one of the better ones around Sydney. The milk they did here was pretty good too. If I sound a little hesitant, it's only because I have awesome coffee a great deal closer to me. Thank you inner city!!
The food. From what I can tell, it's somewhat Spanish-inspired, the modern classics have a different twist to them; that which doesn't pertain to the typical, albeit enjoyable, bourgeois 'twist' that most cafés are employing at the present. We, with our great love for all plates mezze and antipasto, decided to get the the mezze described, by the personality of a blackboard, as: "Grilled haloumi, olives, capers, dolmades, dips, spreads, breads & a general plethora of Greekness". How the hell could we not?!? The dips and spreads that came was a really nice and garlicky tzatziki, a strange but oddly addictive nutty one that we couldn't quite work out the ingredients within (mayhaps it was a mixture of humousness and peanuts and something...else?), and a deliciously good eggplant (or a variation on the theme of baba ghanoush). Oh. Man. So gorram good with toasted Turkish bread. Not being one for capers or olives I reminded myself that we need to bring someone to throw these goodies at, occasionally. The halloumi was subtle in its flavourings, and bought an essential goodness to the platter, as did the tasty Greek salad. One can not ever go wrong with that. The dolmades, however, were a treat to be truly savoured. Now, being the lover of all things Mediterranean, I have had quite a few in my lifetime made by various professionals, usually in the form of grandmothers. But these were godly. The vine leaves were perfectly firm and held the smooth texture of the rice, infused with smatterings of finely-chopped cooked red pepper and various spices, to a veritable bursting point. Honestly, it was probably one of the finer ones I have yet to enjoy.
And so it's eclectic and filled with collectibles from by-gone eras, it's laid-back, and it uses ingredients of which I greatly approve. It's a café that I have developed quite a crush on (I really like it but true love has yet to develop - perhaps when we see each other a bit more that will happen). Maybe I should move to Bondi...
**Rumours abound that this place is actually open for dinner now, but this has, as yet, not been confirmed with mine own eyes. Ah, excuses to go back...It's refreshing to come across a café that gets it. Although I can't expect all café owners to be café whores like I am, surely they could visit a couple of exemplars to get an idea of what works and what doesn't? As soon as you walk in the door, you get a smattering of all the things that make for a great café.
Personality! Deliciosity! Passion!
Although I could be accused of bias, having grown up in NZ, this café oozes personality. With photos, knick knacks and odd pieces of furniture arranged into separate zones of hanging-out, it somehow manages to be immediately groovy and comfortable, something that a lot of cafés seem to aim for and miss horribly. We sat for a long, long time, enjoying a lazy weekend day in a café that seemed to be genuinely wanting to facilitate its customers. Students turned up with study materials ready, others just for a bite to eat and a chat with the staff. There's a wonderful atmosphere to the place, a welcome retreat from the rather stark and bare surroundings.
The coffee here is good. very good. However, it's not a espresso speciality café, such as the likes of Campos, Mecca and Single Origin, and shouldn't be judged as such. They make very good, smooth coffee with passion and dedication, and obviously pride themselves on making a good cup. The food here is likewise impressive, showing a willingness to deliver some delicious treats that venture a little bit further than that eggs and bacon fare that quickly become dull. They do about 3 different plates of pick-at-it, share-y goodness, which is always a huge huge point of approval, and the Mezze plate that arrived did not disappointment. Everything was in portions of good size, the dips were tasty as all hell!
You get a sense that they care about the details, nothing they served seemed to be content to reproduce the stock standard café fare, but rather strived for more. This passion is important, because it directly relates to the amount of delicious in your mouth, for less moolah. It also seems to equate to great service, which is what we received. I was relieved that we weren't shooed out for staying too long, but in retrospect it feels like the sort of café that would rather turn away customers than hurry someone enjoying the time at the café.
I really like this place. I also live nowhere near it. The coffee, nor the food, make it worth the hour or so it would take me to get there. But I would kill to have a local café this good. I think I'll go back soon, just to show my appreciation for its existence.
I really like the space created. The décor sets the atmosphere with the familiarity of kindergarten and the sophistication of a modern home's reach between comfortable and classy. A big communal table with a giant bowl of lemons sits in the middle of the naturally lit room, creating a nice feel of...communism. Right? Audacious tones and dark shiny wooden floorboards always win the way to my strictly pleased-only-with-aesthetics heart. And how can you not like multi-pastel-coloured bookcases?
The food amounts to huge proportions. They were not lying when they said it was big. Brekky. Man. I was pretty full! After some deliberation we chose to go with - sharing, of course, to get maximum tasteage of the foodoir - 'Big Brekky' (how could we not?), which consisted of toasted sourdough, grilled mushrooms, crispy bacon, poached eggs, and a pesto consisting, from what I remember, of parsley and parmesan; as well as the the two oversized Portobello mushrooms with garlic and balsamic vinegar which were grilled with spinach, gruyere, and parmesan. A classic choice, on both accounts, I rather thought. I think that any further description of the 'Big Brekky' would be unnecessary. Surely, you can see the tastiness from my perfectly-crafted camera shot. Or perhaps not. But, needless to say it looks grand and it tasted awesomely so. The mushrooms, though, were delightfully rich; the cheese compensating for completely overloading the system with a severe bout of sensory explosion, dulling down the intensity with the less vibrant tastes of dairy, in the forms of gruyere and parmesan, and vegetable ,in the form of deliciously firm spinach.
The only qualm I had about this place was the service. Pleasant wait-staff but we were made to wait over an hour for our meal which, suffice to say, left a bad taste in our mouths. It may be severe to dish out my anger (oh!...such Wrath!) primarily over this place but it seems that in Sydney there is a strong tendency to focus only on the products served when running a foodhaus. I have a big thing with service. We are so gorram privileged with the selection of joints to eat at that it seems as though if a place doesn't satisfy all the criteria to the utmost degree it will eventually wither and die. Not to be harsh...or anything. I don't know what happened that morning, whether it was a lost order, where we were sitting (although it was pretty damn prominent), or that we looked...like we wanted to have a really long conversation, but I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. Sort of. [/rant]
Ah, yes. We wish we were awesome enough to update when we please, however, alas, we are not. Or rather the amount of university work at the moment is, indeed, ridiculous. So we have made a decision!! We will now endeavour to complete posts every Tuesday and Saturday ... we are, say, like a disorganised webcomic. If you don't like that update schedule, get an rss feeder (they are rather good!!)
