I love birthdays. I feel like a person’s birthday is a good way to celebrate that person, having them in your life and acknowledging that they mean something to you. And yes I know you could say you shouldn’t have to wait for a specific day to show that you appreciate someone but hey, when someone remembers and plans ahead of time to make sure they can spend time with you I get all the warm fuzzies thinking how lucky I am to have such awesome friends in my life. When my birthday rolled around, Isaac and I went out to eat at Ete in Barangaroo and celebrate another year of surviving.

We start with the Woodfired bone marrow ($12) with truffled streusel and caperberry. The bone marrow is unctuous and quivers as we dollop huge globfuls onto the toast. I kinda wished there was more than 1 bone per serve but I guess that’s probably a good thing for my cholesterol.

The Chicken liver parfait ($14) is rich, incredibly smooth and comes with a layer of hazelnut and quince jam. I loved that they were super generous with the cracker and bread basket too! My pet peeve is always that there’s never enough crackers and you feel when you get a refill that you’ll have to pay heaps.

I was a bit wary about ordering the Duck breast ($34), mainly because I’ve had too many dry duck dishes than I can count but luckily this confit leg duck was anything but dry! It was perfectly juicy, tender and while the skin wasn’t crisp I enjoyed the sliver of creamy fat and mopped up all the juices with some leftover bread.

The Lamb rack ($44) of juicy, pressed lamb belly was bloody tasty and so friggen tender. How great is lamb when it’s done right??

The Pomme puree ($12) is PERFECTION. It’s silky smooth, ridiculously buttery and is all that is good in the world. And I’m not sure if Isaac was being a great friend but I managed to eat much more than my share of this amazing mash and carefully scraped the bowl clean.

We were pretty full but honestly we could not go past the Assiette mignardise selection of mini desserts ($38) because I mean, LOOK AT IT! A mini trolley of desserts! It’s an instagrammers dream! And how much do I love variety! There was toasted meringue covered cake pops, chocolate eclairs, lemon meringue tarts, macarons, ice cream and mini dishes of creme brulee.

Été
T1.03 Tower 1,
Barangaroo Ave
Barangaroo

Trading Hours:
Mon – Thurs:
Lunch from 11:30am – 3pm
Dinner from 5:30pm – 9:30pm

Fri:
Lunch from 11:30am – 3pm
Dinner from 5:30pm – 10:30pm

Sat:
Dinner from 5:30pm – 10:30pm
Sun:
Lunch from 11:30am – 3:30pm

It takes a lot for me to make the trip over the Bridge. But for the past couple of weeks I’ve been craving barbecue and with Black Bear Barbecue closed on the weekends (edit: I spoke too soon, they’re doing a popup at Entertainment Quarter on the weekends now!), I managed to convince the boy that we needed to visit Smoky Sue’s in Neutral Bay and check out their offerings. And then another visit when Raff and I took a day off for a food crawl!

The Double Platter ($55) comes with your choice of 3 meats and 1 side with fries, pickles and a sauce. Such value! The portions of the meats were pretty generous, we stuffed ourselves silly and had about ¼ left to take home (haha barbecue leftovers are so good tho, thank you past Suze). Smoky Sue’s does barbecue in a not so traditional way, sous viding the meats for a bit and then smoking so the meat is always incredibly tender and juicy but still with the delicious smoky flavour.

For our meats I decided against the pulled pork, pulled lamb, fried chicken and pork ribs. Next time fellas! Instead we got the Texas style 100-day grain fed point end beef brisket which is a beauty, I mean, check out that smoke ring! The meat is tender with a ribbon of creamy fat and a good hit of smokiness. But that bark! It’s a flavour that’s just out of this world, with that magical combo of caramelised and salty edges that will make you want to curl up and go to barbecue nirvana..

I loved the plump and springy smoked sausage links (from Challenger Smallgoods) that’s stuffed with cheese and jalapeno though I would’ve liked a bit more heat (woah who am I?).

HNNNNG. Can you hear me drooling from behind your screen? The 100-day grain fed beef short ribs is nothing short of mouthwatering meat heaven. It was so ridiculously tender I could’ve used a spoon to spoon with it cut it apart! It was fattylicious and insanely juicy with a delicious smokiness throughout. It’s a pretty giant serve and this pushed us into meat sweats territory. But I’m not complaining! No siree!

For the choice of sides, I get the Slaw- thinly sliced red and white cabbage and grated carrot with balsamic dressing for some semblance of health. It’s crisp, refreshing and helps to cut through the richness of all the meats. On my second visit with Raff we get the Mac and Cheese bombs, creamy mac and cheese that’s been crumbed and deep fried to molten perfection.

Raff couldn’t resist the Ribby McRibFace ($28), a limited time only special that is just so friggen epic with a their incredible beef short rib, slaw and American cheese between Brasserie Bread’s soft milk buns. The short rib bone is easily pulled away leaving one beast of a burger and is definitely one for the meat-lovers out there.

We also scored wings drenched in Franks hot sauce on the house (Thanks Owen!) they’re new to the menu ($15/12 wings) and Smoky Sue’s will be giving away 2000 free wings on Sunday 29th September with any purchase!

Smoky Sue’s
3/6 Rangers Rd,
Neutral Bay
(02) 9908 3909

Trading Hours:
Tues – Thurs: 5.30pm – late
Fri – Sun: 12pm – late
(Kitchen closes 9pm)

One fine Saturday, Viv popped up in the hood and I was starving so a quick search through our never-ending list of places on the ‘to eat’ list later and we were on our way to 0.6 in nearby Alexandria. It’s such a pretty cafe, decked out in pastel blues, pinks and greys, with a retail wall filled with dashi tape, mugs, tea and cards for sale. This whole cafe just screams I’M INSTAGRAM FRIENDLY with heaps of natural light pouring in, vases of tiny flowers on each table and a glossy, tiled wall with their branding.

Eggs are pretty much my favourite food so I couldn’t resist getting the Scrambled eggs, mushroom & haloumi on brioche bun ($12). Look at the silly smooth eggs! I wished there were more mushrooms under there but I was happy with the slab of salty haloumi.

Next was the Duck Duck Goose Duck ($18). Cafe 0.6 bakes their own croissants which is pretty damn amazing, they were massive behemoths, buttery and impressively flaky. The croissant is layered with slices of avocado, strips of juice roast duck, onion, coriander and classic homemade plum sauce.

The La La Land ($20) is thankfully as delicious as it looks, though a bit on the pricey side for what is essentially fruit salad with ice cream. A round of house baked mango cake is topped with two scoops of Gelato Messina’s classic coconut & lychee gelato, there’s a whole bunch of seasonal fruits on the side to feel healthy and a tiny glass of pineapple sago to pour over for an added sugar hit. But SQUEE tiny pineapples!

Oh special mention to the epic Volcano Chocolate ($5), haha this thing made our eyes bulge and brought back Ned Flanders hot cocoa flashbacks. There’s a layer of frothy meringue that’s been lightly blow torched and showered with curls of chocolate.

0.6
1a/11 Bowden St,
Alexandria

Trading Hours:
Mon – Fri: 7am – 4pm
Sat: 8am – 3pm
Sun: Closed

So it was my birthday last month and I finally booked in for lunch at the Cured and Cultured Bar in Bennelong restaurant inside the Opera House cos you know, a girl’s gotta treat herself 😛 The Cured and Cultured bar is perfect for those not wanting to do the 3 course menu or have issues with super fine dining atmosphere *cough* Noods *cough*

We start with the Red claw yabby ($36) which I coo over for a good minute because I mean, LOOK AT THEM YABBIES! So perfect! This dish is a DIY affair, and I was grateful that each yabbie had been split and pre-shelled before being served in its shell. Grab a warm buckwheat pikelet (that’s cooked to order), whack on a yabbie and it’s up to you to control how much lemon jam and cultured cream you want. Personally I was quite happy not to slather too much of either as I enjoyed the slightly nutty flavour from the pikelet with the natural sweetness of the yabbie.

The Tart of raw ocean trout with golden trout roe, lemon ($14) is picture perfect in terms of presentation and also taste but be warned it’s on the small side and I could’ve easily smashed 5. The tart is buttery, flaky and crisp, the perfect vessel to hold the ribbons of ocean trout and briny baubles of trout roe.

We liked the Seared tartare of purebred Wagyu ($28) with dollops of horseradish cream and a sprinkle of capers and used the crispy beef tendon shards to scoop up everything but we kinda wished there was an egg on top to mix everything together? I dunno maybe we’ve just become accustomed to expecting an egg and missing out on the pleasure of stabbing the yolk.

There happened to be a function happening on that day and we stared lustfully at platters of the Suckling pig sausage rolls with black garlic ($24) being plated up and then died a little on the inside when the edges were cut off and dumped unceremoniously into the bin. I mean, that’s a 24 smackerooney sausage roll! We had a moment of silence for the sausage roll edges that were lost to the void before diving hungrily into our sliced up fanceh sausage roll. I loved the buttery, flakey pastry wrapped around the tender, 8 hour slow cooked suckling pig meat innards but wished there was more of the black garlic sauce which amped up the umami factor.

I’m not usually one for cherry desserts. Or coconut. BUT I loved the Cherry jam lamington ($28)! Yes it’s a bit steep for dessert but it is perfection. The shiny chocolate ganache mirror glaze envelopes a perfect cube of light sponge with coconut cream and a layer of tart cherry jam. And it’s nestled amongst frozen curls of coconut milk parfait that just melt on the tongue! Definitely a must order.

Innards!

Cured and Cultured Bar at Bennelong
Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney

Lunch
Fri – Sun: 12pm – 2.30pm

Dinner
Sun – Weds: 5.30pm – 10pm
Thurs – Sat: 5.30pm – 11pm