Edit: CLOSED OH HAI! So like, in case you don’t stalk me on Facebook, a coupla days ago Richard and I found ourselves stumbling towards ZenQ (Shop 233, Chatswood Westfield- Entrance via Victoria Ave) in need of more sustenance after a crazy dinner where there was more wine than food. Now I tend to have issues with traditional Asian desserts thanks to my dislike of random textures but there was one thing I was dying to try…

Banana Chocolate Honey Toast ($16.80)! Eating bread as a dessert doesn’t weird me out because I’m used to eating ice cream sandwiches back in Singapore where slabs of icecream would be held together by rainbow bread. Teehee how crazy is the presentation? It’s like half a loaf of bread man! Awesome bread though, sweet and light and topped with chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and woooot heaps of banana slices!

(Pic stolen from crunchy tiger) We were asked if we wanted our Honey Toast cut and we paused and said no because we had nfi but this is what it looks on the inside (this is the strawberry toast, duh)

Aaaaand this is what happens when you don’t know what you’re doing and stab away at the toast…

Dear Suze,

Thank you for 10 years of your love, support and crazy food concoctions…here’s to many more!

Love, Noods

Edit: CLOSED Word on the street has been abuzz with talk of all the new eateries on Level 5 and 6 of the new Westfield Sydney. But I spy with my little eye random posts popping up here and here about a restaurant hidden within a clothing store! Cara and Co (Shop 4001, Level 4, Westfield Sydney, 188 Pitt Street, Sydney) comes all the way from Moscow and is filled with all kinds of crazy awesome clothes and jewellery.

Even a retro arcade machine! Hours of fun I tells you!

Make your way past the racks of silky floaty dresses and uber comfortable couches (or thru the hallway lined in silver chain at night).

The restaurant is tucked in the back complete with glowing floors, a soundtrack of chill music and projectors beaming clips of models strutting down the catwalk.

My first visit was with the boy and the rellies, and Noods is very much enamoured with his giant bottle of Belgium Chimay beer and the accompanying bucket filled with ice. He loves his beer like how I love my candy.

I heart bread and tasty butter!

The kitchen has sent out some appetisers and I may have emitted squeaks of glee when the plate of lollipops landed. Cmon guys LOLLIPOPS! Cute or what? The lollipops were goat cheese balls covered in a beetroot glaze with hazelnut crumbs at the base. We were given cutlery but I um shoved the whole thing in my mouth because I’m classy like that.

Our second appetiser was the jerusalem and artichoke soup which was awesome on that freakishly cold night a coupla weeks ago. Nubbins of hazelnut added a welcome crunch and all too soon we reached the base of the mug.

Last Wednesday a quiet night in had been planned but then the realization that the boy had footy and I would be eating 2min noodles by myself which led to a random txt to Gianna and while talk began of chocolate mousse and hotdogs we somehow ended up at Cara and Co and kicked the night off with a bottle of rose which tasted like grown up red cordial and made everything right with the world. So um gonna smoosh pics from both nights into the one post doo di doo

Our appetiser for that night was foie gras on beetroot with pureed oysters nitro-d into glistening pearls.

Our second appetiser was 2 fat planks of glorious hand cut french fries with a rich tomato sauce and a dollop of mayo.

The menu is concise, with barely any description for each dish which lends a sense of mystery and means we just HAD to order one of everything from the menu lol our first entree is ‘Trifle’ Delight ($29), a one hour slow cooked egg yolk is buried under a layer of fluffy potato, ribbons of bresaola, spinach puree and blanketed in shavings of Tasmanian truffle. It is luscious. It’s the only word that can accurately describe this dish. Rich, decadent and absolutely mind blowing.

The name of the Kingfish de Belder ($23) is a nod to Belgian chef Dave De Belder, who runs De Godevaart in Antwerp and oversees the Cara and Co menu. It sure is purdy. Paper thin slices of radish, pickled cucumber and mini dots of avocado encircles 4 fat slices of juicy kingfish.

Back to Your Roots ($22) is just too beautiful, the baby veggies poking their heads out of the creamy mash and cheese ‘soil’. Almost too beautiful to eat! It’s like a freaking miniature garden!

Foie Gras 24 carats ($36) has golden nubbins of foie gras scattered amongst circles of beetroot, brioche crumbs and oyster pearls. It is extremely similar to the appetiser but I’m not complaining about the bonus addition of more foie gras in my stomach!

“Get the lamb” whispered the waiter amidst our discussion on which main to get. But it didn’t matter because there were four of us and four items on the menu so ‘everything please’ we smile at him. All the cuts of the Just Lamb ($49) were incredibly tender, it was just freaking perfection I kid you not (bahahahaha geddit?!) My favourite cut was the rib with a thin layer of delicious, naughty fat but the neck and steak were just as tasty.

Beef story ($48). So here’s a story about a girl who used to be vegetarian. That’s right kids I had major meat issues and wouldn’t touch the stuff! But ah look at me now! Or better yet look at those four fat rectangles of beautiful juicy bovine goodness! Dotted with pumpkin and celeriac puree cylinders & dots and doused with a liberal pour of Vin Santo sauce the story was a happy one indeed. Super loved the potato and garlic bits on top too.

Echoes From Antwerp ($41). Heh how crap is this photo? My bad! I think I wasn’t paying attention to the poor fishy because I was super excited about the meats (or perhaps that’s the wine talking) haha but the John Dory was given the thumbs up from even the non fish lover of the group. Mad props to the teensy tiny quail eggs that we ended up fighting over.

Check out the crazy red Devil’s risotto ($28)! Perfectly bitey-y but bathed in beetroot. It’s funny cos I love risotto but hate beetroot and Noods is vice versa. The diced apple helped to break up the beetroot flavour but could’ve used something else? I would say meat but I’m guessing this main is for the true vegos hehe

Aaaand the best part of the meal! DESSERT TIME! The waiters and chefs all came and sang happy birthday to the beautiful Miss G.

Nutty Lemon ($22) is a must order if you love all things lemon. I heart lemon and this dessert was all kinds of awesome with a bed of lemon curd, hazelnut crumbs and whole hazelnuts in silver and gold sprinkled all over. The puffy pieces had the texture of a cross between bread and sponge. It was weird but behold! See that ball in the middle? The thin white chocolate layer was holding a deeelicious limoncello cream! That there folks was the highlight of my night!

United Textures of Chocolate ($23) was amazingly not too heavy or super rich. The chocolate mousse on the dark chocolate biscuit base paired surprisingly well with the passionfruit curd and passionfruit sorbet and I took great delight at finding popping candy scattered around.

For a boy who does not normally order dessert, Noods was adamant in ordering the In Rhubarb We Trust ($21) and while the other desserts were a firm favourite with the rest of us Noods pretty much scraped the plate clean!

One last treat from the kitchen! Freshly baked madeleines baby yeah!

Cheers to the freaking weekend!

Well that was a crazy week huh? I think it’s just gonna get even more crazier the nearer it gets to Christmas (97 days to go woot!) Again, my bad with the random postings but I’m losing my blog mojo and while I have still been eating like crazy I just require massive amounts of sleep and writing about food always makes me hungry in the middle of the night lawl. Anywhos over the weekend the fabulous Linda and Howard from the very awesome blog Eat Show and Tell recently got engaged and they threw an amazeballs engagement party. Zomg it was totes pretty with twinkly fairy lights strung up in the backyard, lanterns and candles everywhere and beautiful flowers in wine bottles on every table.


Muahahaha oh how I love psychedelic jelly shots in all the colours of the rainbow


As well as a margarita bar that was pumping out delish lychee and ‘ghettoritas’ there was beer and assorted drinks stashed in this awesomely old skool treasure chest


Food bloggers are super awesome humans


Howie and Linda = Honda. No I didn’t come up with that hahaha and lawl they’re holding this massive baked salmon which was freaking delicious but it’s hiding behind the flowers oops. The food was just craycray starting off with canapes of beautifully lightly battered calamari, oysters, momofuku pork buns (omgssss) and halloumi. On the tables were huge bowls of potato salad topped with bacon bits, pear & rocket salad with sweet nubbins of caramelised walnuts, caprese salad, and making the rounds were the lemony salmon, smokey ribs aaaaaand…


BOXES OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE FRIED CHICKEN EVERRRRR! Linda’s fried chicken is like totally out of this world. Definitely puts any other fried chicken to shame! I have dreams about this fried chicken…


But ah must save room for the dessert buffet! Ooooh baby brownies, cake pops, cheesecake, creme brulee tarts, pavlova, cupcakes, lemon meringue tarts, salted caramels, peanut brittle AND MACARONS!!! ♥♥♥ the popcorn and salted caramel macs!!!


Teehee one too many jelly shots makes us something something. Congratulations Linda and Howie!