August | 2014 | For Food's Sake – A Sydney Food Blog | Page 2

As someone who steers well clear of chilli, the fiery dishes of the Indian-influenced Malaysian cuisine can be somewhat intimidating.  On this particular Saturday afternoon, however, I was prepared to roll up my sleeves and embrace the heat.  The reason being that we (Team FFS)  had been invited  to dine at  PappaRich Australia’s Chatswood venue and have the opportunity to meet Ambassador and Master Chef Contestant,  Poh Ling Yeow.  We were delighted to meet the lovely Poh and sample her top picks off the Malaysian street food menu.  It was wonderful to learn about Poh’s passion for Malaysian cuisine and convivial social dining, which is very much encouraged at PappaRich. It was also interesting to learn that the franchise originated in Kuala Lumpur in 2005 and opened their first Australian doors in 2012 with their Melbourne restaurant. As we settled into our seats at the large Chatswood venue, alongside some familiar faces from the food blogging community, we anticipated the arrival of Poh’s choices. It should be noted that PappaRich honours the largely Islamic culture …

Walking down Enmore Road towards Hartsyard this chilly Friday eve, I was struck by the sheer awkwardness of having the ‘Oompa Loompa’ song stuck in my head – “What do you get when you guzzle down sweets?”. A big honking Peanut Butter Sundae that’s what! If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right. Rich American style food is the perfect winter comfort food, which is why Alex, Madre and I set out for Hartsyard, we were one of those eager beavers lining out the front, we all bustled in out of the cold and were shown to our table just in front of the kitchen pass, which was cool, we could see all the goings on behind the scenes. Its pretty cosy in Hartsyard, lots of close quarters. We perused the menus to save face, we already knew what we were getting. The menu is divided into three main sections, seed, feed and out to pasture. Put simply entrée, mains and deserts. With no hint of a lettuce leaf in sight, we didn’t need …

I have one of those traditional lovely, old school Nonna’s that usually don’t leave the house unless it’s for church or family occasions. But the past few years as we’ve gotten older we like to take the old girl on a few ‘excursions’. My Nonno like my brother isn’t particularly adventurous with his food, to the point where he hasn’t had a single hamburger from McDonalds in his life…..his ENTIRE life. If it isn’t Italian it doesn’t go in the gob. So, we like to take Nonna to places where she can experience something a little different. Dumplings in Cabramatta, Brunch at Bills… And this particular occasion celebrating Nonna’s birthday, breakfast at Garfish. Any outing with my grandma typically involves lying about the time to be ready, the general rule is 30 – 45 minutes before we actually intend to leave, seems to work a charm every time and luckily she doesn’t have the internet so she’ll never know. Situated in the heart of Crow’s Nest on a quiet side street, with the car park …

Rapidly becoming one of the most hyped and talked about places in the inner west, Brewtown Newtown offers a rustic and well thought out dining area/cafe that seems to have a never ending amount of people frolicking to get in. The decision to come here was based solely on comparing their Cronuts to the amazingly good one’s from The Grumpy Barista. It was killing me to join the trend and wait in line but we were lucky enough to not have to wait at all so myself and fellow cronut lover Michael – now known as P.I.C (Partner in Crime) decided to check out the breakfast menu. The menu was abundant in options that left me questioning my final choice, the Mini egg benedict brioche roll $8.5. Before I begin on the food, the service at Brewtown was some of the best I’ve seen in a long while, all the staff were aware with what was going on, were extremely helpful and managed to be extremely calm within the craze of cronut hungry people. After ordering, our food …

Now maybe this is just in my house but my dad, whenever there is some cleaning to be done, will head outside, seconds later we’ll hear the whining of the leaf blower. These days it’s the equivalent to the pool rod cleaner. Apparently having one also doesn’t fit the bill, we have two in our garage. Leaf blowing is some serious business. All of this is of course in jest, on this cold windy Friday night the family took our dad out for an early birthday celebration, there were no power tools in sight. The recently refurbished Centennial Hotel headed by Chef Justin North reopened in February this year. With a soft muted white theme throughout the restaurant and open spaces creating a fairly warm dining space, we were quite taken aback by its chic redesign. Large wooden tables with heavyset solid chairs are spaced a reasonable distance from other diners. We settled in and were greeted by our waitress who brought menus and explained the specials of the night. A round of ‘beverages’ were …