Sydney Food & Wine Fair: get your eat and drink on

30^th October 2010 from noon to 5pm Sydney Food & Wine Fair @ Hyde Park

Good food, good wine, sunshine, picnic rugs and entertainment. It must be the Sydney Food & Wine Fair, which was celebrating turning 20 this year. I often think that there is nothing better than sitting somewhere in the sun, either beach or park and devouring loads of tasty food and delicious wine with good people. This is why Sydney Food & Wine Fair always appeals to me so much. Especially because I haven't been able to go to many of the Crave International Sydney Food Festival events, bar the night noodle markets. Although this may have been because tickets to the progressive dinners sold out in hours.

There were cooking demonstrations by Masterchef contestants, some dance lessons by some reality dance show contestants (can you tell that I don’t watch much tv?) and music that surely the older people there would have enjoyed. But that wasn’t why we were there. We were there to drink, eat and lie in the sun digesting. Which we did. And there was plenty of space on the grass to do so.

Tempus Two’s wine was perfect for the mood. I had the fruity Moscato, which made me think it was summer already. We settled down with this and Wildfire’s lamb, peas and cannelloni with goat’s curd and a Thai style salad (from I can’t quite remember where?)

This was followed up by some serious lying in the sun, reading the free Sydney Morning Herald weekend paper and devouring pavlova from Bill’s. The pavlova was a definite highlight, crunchy and chewy with yoghurt and strawberries, so that it wasn’t too rich, and was served in a generous portion. Much larger than most of the other serving sizes, some of which could have been eaten in one mouth full.

Four in Hand’s offering of fish looked great, but we didn’t quite get around to trying it out. Fish being on the list of foods to avoid by my fellow food lover in crime. I did however, manage to sneak Café Sydney’s  trout, orange, beetroot, salmon roe salad past his eye. This was perfectly light and fresh to suit Saturday’s weather. (See image below).

I’ve been dying to try out Lucio’s hatted restaurant and their hot and spicy barbeque wings looked tempting, but we already had a BBQ planned that night. So it will have to wait until another time. Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream (not exactly a hatted restaurant) proved to be extremely popular, due to the strong sun and everyone was in a relaxed chilled out mood. The only suggestion I would have for the event organizers would be regarding the positioning of the coupon sales, as they blocked the pathway. The only negative comments heard all day was about this, because everyone knows that Australian’s don’t like queuing and walking through and potentially squashing plants in parks.

We had a few more glasses of wine and then headed off home to start preparing our BBQ. A great day of food, mild heatstroke, wine and oh did I mention the fab food? 

Victoria's Secret Showcase event

Fashion Palette, Pink Ribbon Day & the Cancer Council NSW presents: Victoria’s Secret Showcase, Friday 29th @ Piano Room

Idea: Attend a random launch/ event

Free pink fairy floss, other pink candy, pink champagne (noticing a theme here?) and the chance to see Sydney’s (take note, not the real) Victoria’s Secret Angels? Yes please. We were there in a flash.

Although we had to leave before we got to see the run way show, we got to donate some money to a charity and have lots of free stuff! Always a good start to the night. This is the beauty of random launches. The free stuff. And the Piano Room was the perfect venue for this, live music (even if the singer wasn’t the best), big old fashion looking chairs, the odd large horse statue. There were lots of teetering women in heels and a few models floating around.

These are the perfect kind of events to go to before heading out to other places, all boozed up for free. So my suggestion, why not try attending a random launch? Go on, it might be fun.

http://www.ineedhits.com/

Secret Foodies at Mumu Grill

27^th October @ Mumu Grill

Last night I wrangled up the girls to head out to a secret location to dine with fellow food lovers. This of course being a Secret Foodies event. Secret Foodies event number 11 to be precise. You get a theme for the night, last night’s being “don’t panic it’s organic,” the area of Sydney that it will be held in (North of the Bridge) and then await further instructions. The text a few hours before the event told us the location was Crows Nest and then 1 hour before we get the address of the restaurant. It was Mumu Grill!

This is the second Secret Foodies event I’ve been to, and they’re always a lot of fun. Most dishes are share plates, so that you get to try a great range of meals, there’s a drink involved (normally a cocktail) and the chef or owner of the restaurant talks you through what you’re eating.

Last night was a bit of a meat fest. If you were up for a salad, you were at the wrong place. Mumu Grill is Sydney’s only sustainable steakhouse. This means that everything is organic or sustainable, and a lot of the produce is local. They also have a great wine list to match the food.

The Slow Roast Prime Rib of Organic “Red Poll” with Kipfler Pots and Horseradish Cream was a good hearty meal, and the crunchy potatoes were amazing. The asparagus entree was cooked perfectly, and the Brown Sugar Pavlova with Pineapple and Passion Fruit Sauce was a standout. The only meal that I didn't enjoy as much was the suckling pig, but that's just down to personal taste, as pork, crackling and coleslaw (all of which were in it) aren't really my thing.

We got to meet some interesting people on our table, and Alex, aka Ms Darlinghurst, leads the night with her bubbly personality. You can’t avoid getting caught up in the fun. Oh, and did I mention that you get to wear masks! To keep it all very secret of course. We all share a story about the weirdest thing that we’ve ever eaten, a wasabi Kit Kat being one of them, and Ms Darlinghurst asks our chef about all things food. All round it was a great night. Plenty of food, great wine and lots of fun.

Try out a "meetup"

Want to try something new? Friends seeming a bit boring? Want to push your comfort levels? Well get into meetups. It’s a great way to make new friends and try new or weird things. Although, I will point out that some meetups are better organized than others. With some meetups, the organizer hasn’t created any events for months, or they forgot they had even created one. Oops. 

But if it wasn’t a bit hit and miss, where would the fun be? There’s no guarantee as to the type of people that are going to turn up, or the quality of the events. But even if the people all turn out to be a bit of a snore, what better way is there to brush up on your “I’m listening to you intently face?” Great practice for your next date or work meeting. Or you could find all about someone’s lint collection or the fact that they break out in a sweat at the thought of eating food that is the colour orange…

Some ones that I like:

Secret Supper Society:

This one is a bit of fun. You get to eat some very yummy food at a secret location. Unless you byo a friend, chances are you’ll be eating with a stack-load of strangers. I say just hit up the alcohol if you get an unlucky table. The Seafood night I went to was great, and my table full of new friends ended up stumbling to the Winery in Surry Hills afterwards. Good night, well… the parts that I remember.

Under 35s Fun:

This is quite an active meetup, with lots of activities posted. So there’s most likely going to be something you’re interested in.

There’s also ones dedicated to boozing it up, reading it up, as well as other activities like salsa dancing in Sydney. I say give one a go, just to see what you think.

Chaz Royal's Big Top Burlesque Follies

Held on the 16th October 2010 @ 99 on York

Advertising the show as “an extravaganza of Classic Burlesque and Circus Variety like no other” I have to say I had high expectations. However, yet again in Sydney, this show was largely let down by the venue. 99 on York is an RSL club. There were a few haphazardly placed plain tables with chairs around them, and that was it in the way of decorations. We had to go and grab chairs from the pokies section, as there weren’t enough chairs for the audience. I was expecting something reminiscent of a Big Top.  But instead it felt like we were in an RSL, which we were. The $4.50 glass of champagne had us gagging. Atmosphere was hugely lacking. The sound and lighting wasn’t exactly smooth either. This was quite different from what I’ve come to expect from venues like De Nom and Arthouse Hotel.

The ring master of the night, Armitage Shanks provided carnival-goth entertainment that ended with him leading the audience in a sing-along, dancing as elephants. It was impossible not to laugh during this.It was a shame that the audience was only just starting to have fun at this point.

The performers included the hula-hooper Lilikoi Kaos, Magenta Diamond who made us squirm by putting nails up her nose, international burlesque act Queen Beeby Rose, as well as the usual Australian performers, including Holly Ja’Doll and Lauren LaRouge. But nothing could save the show, not even all round great performances.

With just a little bit of more thought put into the venue, this could have been a great success. I wouldn’t have minded paying just a little bit more to get enough chairs put in the room and a few decorations thrown in to create some mood.