It’s been a long week folks. Sometimes you just need to take a breath, grab some sushi and hey why not grab a beer and chillax. I heart aburi salmon! Fatty, buttery salmon on a mound of rice and then blowtorched yeah baby i like the smell of burning!

Sammich of the week is from Bar H (80 Campbell St, Surry Hills), caramelized pork nubbins with fennel and mint on Sonoma miche ($14). And a can of grape fanta to wash it down. Lols my Polaroids are slowly taking over my work wall and oh TGIF! And in the spirit of hey let’s watch a random youtube… muchos gracias miss g for the heads up on Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night clip which crazily enough has Rebecca Black, Darren Criss, Kevin McHale, Hanson and Kenny G!

Edit: CLOSED It’s so purdy at Ad Lib (21 Bay St, Double Bay) with crisp white tablecloths and sparkling glassware, the naturally bright, airy room is everybody’s dream restaurant and with to-die-for food.

Duck Liver Parfait, Onion Marmalade ($17). Smoooooth oh so smooth! The paper thin slices of bread accompanying the parfait was deliciously crisp but definitely not enough and when I tried to portion my parfait and slather it on the toast I inevitably broke it, sending a shower of crumbs onto the table oops. Loved the jar but when I reached the bottom I was dying to shove a piece of soft bread into it to wipe up the remnants. Cos I’m classy like that.

Steak Tartare (small, $22). Just as I have had a crazy obsession with Reuben sandwiches and chicken/duck parfaits for the past coupla months, Noods has been getting this crazy glint in his eye whenever he hears about steak tartare. It’s amusing because he hardly ever gets excited about food unless it’s a giant steak. Or a ramen challenge.

Mix, mix away! Yeahhhh! ♥♥♥

Spring Bay Mussels, Champagne, Cream, Leeks ($28) arrives piled so high we stare in awe at the mountain of mussels. Seriously check that out yo! Mountain! Mount Mussel! The boy let out a chortle before diving into the mountain and reducing it to a pile of shells in mere minutes. I couldn’t resist and had to nick a mussel even though I am of the non mussel fan club and yet I fell in love with the super soft and juicy bivalve covered in a light sauce that was made even more addictive with the side of fries the waitress so successfully up-sold to us.

French Fries & Mayonnaise ($10). Perfectly salted fries but could’ve been slightly crisper, would’ve loved aioli instead of mayo but they did the job of soaking up the mussel juices (hee Gilmore Girls reference)

Braised Rangers Valley Beef Cheek, Creamed Potatoes ($32). You know what’s perfect for this crummy weather Sydney has been having? The beef cheeks! And oh boy were they incredibly rich and filling! I don’t know what other synonym I can use to convey that it was JUST SO TENDER! Like, angels blessed it with tenderness! The potatoes, not so much, I mean yeah they were creamed but they had a weird crust like it’d been sitting there for too long and before you say it no I didn’t take ages with my photos! I’m of the point and shoot and hope for the best category heh

Oh hello sir, feel free to give me a bigger scoop of dessert!

Our Chocolate Mousse ($12). I’d heard stories about Ad Lib’s chocolate mousse. “They scoop the mousse at the table from a giant platter and it’s amaaaaazing.” And it was. Like, perfectly chocolatey and the lightest chocolate mousse you can possibly imagine. Light clouds of chocolate. Chocolate clouds. Lined with chocolate shavings. You know, just to tip you over into oh god its soooo delicious if I were to die right now I’d be happy. I still have dreams about this chocolate mousse. It’s on my top 5 favourite food dreams alongside sleeping in a bed made of cheese. Did I mention there was also a very generous scoop of double cream? And chocolate wafers? Perfect ending to a perfect meal.

OH HAI! So ok, it all started with this super cute Cookie Monster hoodie that the awesome Richard got for my b’day and ever since then I’ve just been thinking about chocolate chip cookies non stop. The PERFECT chocolate chip cookie. You know, crunchy on the edges but awesomely chewy in the centre with huge chunks of chocolate throughout?

3 recipes and 5 dozen cookies later, I finally decided on my fav recipe found on Serious Eats which was an adapted version of a Jacques Torres recipe. I’ve tweaked it a bit mainly because US measurements are a bit off and also because I wanted to use 1 less bowl 😛 Ok ready? This recipe makes about 60 cookies which is heaps but hey sharing is caring!

Ingredients:
280g butter (if you’re using salted butter leave out the extra salt) room temp
1⅓ cups brown sugar
1 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
400g chocolate (you can use choc chips but I like chopping chocolate up)

First preheat oven to 165C (fan forced). Then the most important step in all of cookie making: creaming the butter and sugar properly!!! Beat your 280g room temp butter with the 1⅓ cups brown sugar and the 1 cup caster sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl until mixture becomes light and fluffy (min 5mins yo!)

Add the 2 eggs and the 2 tsp vanilla extract and beat well.

If you can be bothered grab a bowl and mix together the 3 cups plain flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp baking soda and 1tsp salt. If not, dump in the flour in the mixer and sprinkle the rest over the flour. Beat mixture on low speed until just combined.

Chop up 400g chocolate. I will not judge you if you prefer white/milk/dark chocolate in your cookies. Also you can totes use choc chips instead of chopping your chocolate but for some reason I really like taking out my rage on the chopping board 😛 Anywhos once you’ve chopped up your chocolate (or ripped open the choc chip bag) whack it into your bowl and stir until mixture is combined.

If your dough is heaps soft, wrap it in cling wrap and chuck it in the fridge for a coupla hours to harden up. If the dough is firm, roll tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough (doesn’t have to be perfect balls) and place at least 3cm apart on tray lined with a silpat liner or parchment paper. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and cooked through, but still soft, 8-10 minutes (obvs all ovens are different so for your first batch watch your oven). Let the cookies cool for 3 to 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire rack and cool further before storing.

Seriously these cookies are out of this world. Like Subway cookies!

WOOHOO COOKIE TOWER!!!

OH HAI! So in case you guys don’t follow me on twitter or facebook, look what the boy got me for my b’day! Bahahaha it’s a giant Lego head! We found it at Kmart for $38, there was a whole shelf of em just staring at me! Begging me with their puppy dog lego eyes to be taken home! (Side note my meh hoodie finally arrived from think geek haha <3 it)


To make this a foodie related post here’s what I filled the Lego head with- my candy stash! The top of the Lego head snaps off and inside are 3 levels/trays. I kinda want to get more Lego heads just so I can stack them and create a Lego totem tower&#8230; Have an awesome weekend dudes!