Martha Moss

Gorgeous E called me Martha Moss when we had dinner a few weeks ago and I love it, it's me to a T.

I was just going to have a quiet one on Friday night when A emailed me in the afternoon to see if I wanted to join his flatmate and neighbours for a pizza. OK, so first we tried a new place called The Lager Bar which is just an example of what not to do when you've opened a new place. However, Cooper's Lager is delicious. I mention this because I'm turning into quite the lager ladette. Most of last week I've been coming home and taking the edge off with a beer, and spending the night on the couch. Little could have made me happier. Mind you there is no edge to take off. But anyway. Instead of pizza we ended up at Indian having a banquet. It was all good fun. D's girlfriend was very keen to go dancing, so we headed to The Boatshed. I came to the conclusion that any place with a $5 cover charge is creep central. This had the right number of creeps, which all seemed to perk up even more when the girlfriend started rubbing herself up against me. When I accompanied her to the bathroom, as females are prone to do, she made it quite obvious she was very into JB so the rest of the night, in between tequila shots, was making out with my ex-boyfriend's neighbour's girlfriend. Funny, funny night.

Saturday I was feeling quite seedy and was planning on lying on the couch all day, but had a great lunch at a cafe and fell ga-ga for the waiter. Gorgeous, heard his whole life story. Meanwhile I'm sitting there washed out and in my hangover sunnies. PS when has it become acceptable for casual Sydney cafes to charge $28 for lunch (omelettes; mushrooms with cheese)? It was jam-packed so I guess anything goes in this fair town.

D came over later on bringing nana treats from a fete and we watched My Father The Hero. God I love Gerry Depardieu. Then off to our favourite Turkish restaurant in Enmore for more stuffing before sliding over to a party down the road at feral Newtown.

Went to pilates in the morning, made the most delicious mushroom pasta for lunch, then joined mum and her friends at Forbidden Fruit, an insane Chinese show at the casino. Acrobatics, a plot nicked off Shakespeare, and not one, but two retards in the storyline. All I could think of while watching this colourful spectacle was food, I need Chinese food. Noodles, dumplings, saucy meat. Three of us went down to Chinatown and found a new Uigher restaurant, it being the food of Central Asia, Uzbek, Mongols. Delicious! Handmade noodles, dumplings, lamb kebabs, tea. Massive amount of food for $30. And it was packed. And there is another Uigher restaurant next door. I love Sydney!

Turkish meat and oily grilled bread

Amazing gourmet mushroom pasta (hint: add a little lemon zest and juice to the cream)

Uigher lamb kebabs and cucumber salad

Uigher handmade square noodles with lamb

No More Eating

Happy Birthday mum! Sunday was her birthday with a picnic in the park, naturally too much food, all delicious of course, the crazy Russian friends and relos, her ex showing up, dogs running around, vodka. She had a good time so I'm happy, although I'm not so happy at the amount of food I ate. Have a wonderful year to come my beautiful girl!

Saturday was up early for the Growers' Markets and I knew it was going to be manic in junction with Good Food Month and the gorgeous weather, but I never imagined it would be insufferable. Why Sydneysiders queue up 50-deep for a coffee is beyond me. The crowds were beyond me and A who joined me was more than happy to leave. We went to Fratelli Fresh and had a delicious brunch upstairs, of goat's cheese frittata and my beloved five cheese zucchini flowers. Stocked up downstairs then headed home to make some goodies for the picnic. I made mini peach cupcakes with the first peaches of the season and panzanella. But first I started with the pistachio macarons (it took an hour to grind and sift the pistachios and almonds and still they weren't that fine) and they just didn't work. The tops cracked all over, drying them out, and hardly any frilly feet. They worked beautifully for the trial and failed for the real deal - very upsetting. I think because it was so hot and humid and I used a different recipe which had a lot of icing sugar in it that made them very, very sweet. I'll go back to the original recipe and try to alter it for different flavours.

In the evening A and I went to The Bentley for the degustation - he buys dinner, I buy drinks, as that's all I can afford at the moment. Having tapas there last year blew me away so I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the menu was like a year on. It was really good, though the service was endearingly kooky (forgot our cheese course; forgot to charge us for the dessert wine; poured my beer with too much head; called the squid ink "black stuff"). Two dishes in particular wowed me: a pocket of steamed white fish with an avocado and jamon serrano sauce. I need to replicate this immediately. The other was the dessert, which A didn't really like but I thought was so interesting and fun. A tube of white chocolate encasing a fizzy sherbet sorbet, with a quenelle of mandarin icecream on the side and the plate sprinkled with dark chocolate cake crumbs. It looked so pretty - dark brown, white and pale pinks - such a great colour combination - and a spectrum of textures.

This Is What It's All About

A swim at Bronte Beach after work.

Three Warm Days

I love that Sydney has three Colombian restaurants, and Friday night I joined Kath's friends to try the newest - any excuse to eat more empanadas. Which we did, along with lots of meat. God bless Central/South America.

Pilates the next morning is not to counteract but because I enjoy it again, and later D came over. It's spring and spring food is beautiful: green of peas and beans and sunlight of squeezes of lemon and pecorino and olive oil. So dinner is a real Liguarian pesto spaghetti, with steamed discs of kipflers but with spinach instead of basil for a softer finish, and tarts with frangipane and sauteed rhubarb, that prettiest of pink anything.

For the tarts, I was excited to try Careme pastry, a company making real pastry, unlike that stale, frozen-tasting stuff you get at the supermarket, which is so bad I refuse to buy it. Although I'm starting to make my own I wanted to support this local business and am so glad I did - the pastry was incredible. I chose the vanilla bean shortcrust which is perfect for individual dessert tarts, and tastes just like fine patisserie pastry. They include helpful hints on using the pastry which is a really nice touch. What I love even more about Careme is the adorable packaging, something out of Laduree, with pastel coloured boxes and elegant font. Bravo!

Sunday afternoon was dolling up for mum's pre-birthday high tea at The Victoria Room. A lovely couple of hours sipping cocktails and scoffing finger sandwiches and little sweet bites and the best scones (with lashings of berry jam and fresh cream) I've had. Although Kath and I learnt another Russian superstition - don't give mum her present one week early, she didn't want to know about it.

And to round off the long weekend the first swim of the season. I expected the water to be icey but it was the perfect temperature, and to dry off in the warm sun - just bliss. Will be spending as much time as I can at the beach until we go.

In the evening mum and I went to see I Have Never Forgotten You, the documentary on the amazing Simon Wiesenthal. I love how it starts, with a montage of journalists asking why he still pursues the war criminals, why not just let it go and let them grow old in peace. He describes trying to find his mother on the cattle car and tells the interviewer, "I can only hope she died on the train and not in the gas chamber", before pausing to say, "do you know what that means to say 'I hope my mother died on the train?'". His passion for justice and love for humanity, his humour...a truly rare individual and I hope everyone sees this documentary.

Under The Sound Of Helicopters

Too much eating on the weekend (Bodega; Mark Bittman's prawn ragu; hypocritcal queueing up at Bourke St Bakery for the lamb sausage roll, polished off with a lemon curd tart - verdict, the lamb is textural and delicious, but I prefer the pork and fennel; the curd is smooth and creamy, but I still want more of a pucker punch from the citrus; there was freshly squeezed blood orange Pims drunk in the park across the road under the sun; cold dumplings; gorgeous home-made curry).

There was The Bourne Ultimatum (prefer the first) and my beloved 5x2.

An absolutely awesome penthouse party the likes of which I haven't seen in Sydney, fortunately was on Sunday as it could have got very messy.

This week is nothing but cooking, cooking.

Sausage Rolls Are Ugly

Bourke St Bakery
I don't like hype. I don't like queues. It's a bakery. Don't line up for baked goods. There's plenty more where that came from.

Except there isn't plenty more where that came from. Good bakeries here are a destination. And I'd just about had enough of hearing all the raves and had enough of two years driving past and seeing a congo line of trendies snaking around it's famous little corner and never a parking spot in sight.

But there comes a point where curiosity starts driving you mad and you happen to give it one last go and it's an hour before quittin' time and there are no queues and a park right outside.

They were out of their infamous harissa lamb sausage rolls so it was pork and fennel. Oh and a strawberry and vanilla bean brulee tart. "Anything else?" Well I'd like to have ordered one of everything, it all looked so rustic delicious. But no, I needed to test them first. Hype means nothin'.

But it's more than good. It's incredible. The scent of fennel hits me as I break through the flakey shell and stays with me with each bite. The pork is chunky, it's real. Its pork and a little carrot and whole fennel seeds. Pastry is the real test though, and it soars, buttery and flakey and golden. Oh. Oh yea.

Fratelli Fresh
Next it's on to my favourite food stop in this town, Fratelli Fresh. Boxes of love bite tomatoes all cute and red welcome me, and I scoop them up. Blood oranges. I'll think of something to do with them. Russet potatoes for gnocchi or more rosti. Perfect bananas, which give me such satisfaction to never buy from the supermarkets. Italian spaghetti and flour. A wedge of pecorino and bags of herbs.

It's open till 6 and is so close, so why don't I do all my grocery shopping there. OK, I will, and maybe stop for a sausage roll on the way...

Hudson Meats
One more local stop. Hudson Meats has just opened and when I first saw the logo I got a bit excited. A good logo with a good font goes a long way. I thought it would be bigger, and the deli section is limited, but there is goodness there. Mainly in the meat. Most of the meat is free range, what I have been looking for for a long time. And it looks good. I can't wait to buy myself a big fat ruby red steak and tuck into it like a caveman. There are also cookbooks for the serious foodie and a small providore section arranged extremely stylishly - bravo. I bought Australian-grown French puy lentiles and Spanish dulce de leche wafers. The staff are friendly and the hours are good. They have my support.

After my dinner I turned to my brulee tart. My expectations weren't high, just a sugar hit. But again I was beyond impressed. The pastry was thin and crispy like the brulee top. It would be too easy to lump it with a thick, hard brulee; the thin shell is delicate and perfect. Inside, a creamy vanilla bean custard spread with strawberry jam. It's as innocent a delight as a neenish tart, but it has all the markings of a serious patissier, and that's why Bourke St Bakery deserves it's hype, and sadly for me now, it's queues.

When I win Lotto I will move to the beach, but until that happens, I will always stay in Surry Hills.

Today Haiku

Want of a garden
To sunbake in the nude in
This summer weather

Lamb shank pie, chowder
Must all now take the back seat
For oysters, sauv blanc

A Weekend And A Masterchef Challenge

On Sunday at lunchtime I was sitting in shorts, tunic top and ropey sandals, looking out the window at the blue sky, and had already had a wonderful weekend...

Saturday I bought fresh bagels and flowers in Bondi, and had a very relaxing lunch for grandma's birthday on Kath's new deck overlooking the water. The seafood was especially amazing - meaty prawns, melting tuna sashimi, clean, luscious oysters - and everyone chatty and happy.

Then it was home to scrub up and head out to Manly, for part one of the Masterchef Challenge. A did an amazing job with his two courses, absolute restaurant quality. The main was perfectly seared duck, with a blueberry jus, potato bake and wilted baby spinach. Make you want to eat duck every day. Dessert was a picture-perfect rhubarb souffle, fluffy and warming, with baked custard (two serves for me please), vanilla icecream and sauteed rhubarb. Wow. The pressure is now on me for part two, in two weeks' time.

It was a lovely evening, great wine and company and I love his new digs. He's done well and I'm happy for him. In the morning we walked down to the aquarium with his neighbour for breakfast, the water sparkling and everyone gaga at this weather. Breakfast was generous and delicious.

So at Sunday lunchtime I was sitting in one of my fave outfits and wishing the weekend would never end. Instead, D came over and we spent the day being outrageous, enjoying divine Turkish, lots of wine, watching Melrose Place season one, late-night snacking on Indian, and calling Jonathon. That phone call was one of the most surreal, brilliant moments that fit in seamlessly with our adventures. Hearing Jonathon say so calmy "I love you too" was a classic instant.

So, now it is time for less eating.

Above The Rooftops, The Blue Sky

Weekend

It's funny, I spend the weekend with the niggling worries of moving overseas to a cold, grey city under a dome of cloudless blue sky. This weekend gave us perfect winter weather, sunny and warm with a chilly whisper every now and then to remind you of the season.

Friday night reminded me that cooking a delicious two-course dinner doesn't have to be a melodrama. D came over for dinner and a DVD and I got to try the one Jamie Oliver recipe I've been dying to make since I first saw it on tele, what, ten years ago?! His Fantastic Fish Pie, and a trip to the fish markets yielded some beautiful snapper fillets and Yamba prawns (and plump Tasmanian oysters as a personal snack). It was quick and easy to make and to tweak it I finely sliced a potato (oh, for a mandolin) and overlapped them over the top like fish scales instead of his mash. They turned out crispy and delicious. Dessert was Bill "white teeth white pants and now white hair" Granger's recipe for chocolate self-saucing puddings, which I made in my beloved Bodum glasses. Incredibly easy to whip up after dinner and dark chocolate delicious, so if you prefer sweeter add more sugar and/or use milk cooking chocolate.

DVD was It's All Gone, Pete Tong. Obsessed? Muy!

Saturday was up for the Good Living Grower's Markets and the beautiful weather meant all of Sydney was out, clogging up any chance of a parking spot and the many coffee cart queues. Seriously - 20 minutes for a coffee? Keep that. The $40 I had to last me till Monday (note, this is a new concept) meant I showed quite a bit of restraint but still came away with great buys: pure organic lamb sausages, lovely beetroot and cauliflower and watercress, roo treats for Nut.

D and I spent the afternoon annoying travel agents with flight questions, as we want to get our tickets asap. We found someone who actually knew what they were talking about (and quite cute) who gave us the info we needed to buckle down and make a decision re: departure dates. Lots to think about this week so we can get the tickets next weekend.

Curled up with Le Mepris. Incredible, especially after reading the novel last year in Europe (which was not a great idea when you have all that time to think, think, think...).

Sunday caught up with I then took Nut for a big walk. Dinner of lamb sausages and baked polenta, when I usually hate sausages but this post had me hankering. And the first good night's sleep in a week...

Sydney, Now

It's a hot winter's evening. I've just taken Nut for his usual walk and I'm sweating. 22C. And I just got bitten by a mosquito.

This week, you can feel the days are edging their way longer. There's gold in the sky.

A beautiful time of year.

Favourite Local

The Robin Hood gets reviewed in the SMH. True, I haven't been there for a year, and it hasn't been my local for two years (a step-local?) but it does have the best $6 meals, good affordable wine and an easy atmosphere. No wankers, rare. Plus it has a killer jukebox (incl. Radiohead).