I love birthday’s! And amazingly it’s SAXA‘s 100th birthday nawww /sings offkey


Teehee good times ahoy when we’re together.

But first, some words from the SAXA ambassador Justin North before we begin his salt inspired menu at Becasse (Cnr of Pitt St Mall and Market St, Sydney)


Ocean trout cured and coddled, preserved buddha’s hand, artichokes and spring almonds. The ocean trout aka meltingly tender, sweet, and delicious strip of tasty fishy meat was the perfect starter and paired well with the citrusy buddha’s hand.


Roast saddle of suckling lamb, white asparagus, kohl rabi, confit pepper jus, spring herbs So tender why so tender! Cos it’s suckling lamb muahaha unsurprisingly it was awesome like knock your socks off awesome.


How about a side of roast veg with smoking pine? I do love the smell of burning.


Zokoko chocolate and black cumin cadeau with pain d’epice and reduced milk ice cream. Ball of chocolate, check. Gooey salted caramel innards, check. Gingerbready crumbs, check. Deliciousness? Check, check, check!


IT OOZES OH HOW IT OOZES!


Happy birthday SAXA! Here’s to many more to come!

ChocolateSuze dined at Becasse with thanks to SAXA

EDIT: CLOSED

MUAHAHAHAHAHA! So like, have you ever eaten something so delicious that you lick the plate? No? Well that’s what happened the other day at Gastro Park (5-9 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross) with some other food bloggers. Gastro Park’s menu is concise, with 4 items listed for entree, mains and dessert however it is the snacks section that catches my eye with a whopping 11 items priced from $5-$18. I ended up choosing 3 snacks for my entree and another 3 for my main which suited me extremely well thanks to my need to try different dishes. edit: I didn’t cut my hair lol but im super tempted to do it now haha


Foie gras, wild hare, beetroot, plum vinegar, red cabbage granita ($18) is just mind blowing. The shavings of foie gras melting on the tongue zomg TASTES LIKE DELICIOUS FAT RAINBOWS /end delirious rantings. I am not a big fan of beetroot but it paired surprisingly well and kept the dish from being too heavy. I really do not remember the wild hare part um doo di doo but this is the dish I would lick clean 😛


The Thai inspired kingfish sashimi ($16) while beautifully fresh, didn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell at standing up to the flavour of the magical foie gras from the previous dish though the quenelle of tomato granita was pretty intense and lifted the flavour of the kingfish.


Cured Blackmore shortrib grissini ($14) is a bit on the salty side esp with the parmesan flakes but disappears in seconds. The crisp breadstick is addictive but I totally wanted to unwind the silken ribbon of the salty shortrib cos I’m all class.


Helen’s entree is the extremely beautifully presented Liquid butternut gnocchi, mushroom consomme, sage ($26). Best example of when spherication is awesome yo! Each delicate ball bursts with an intense butternut liquid and the salty cheese crisp balanced on the glass is freaking moreish as is the fried sage leaves.


My second round of snacks begins with the dreaded slate tiles. Oops I mean, more snacks. The presentation of the tuna bone marrow in the the Raw scallop, tuna bone marrow, lime, sea salt, olive oil, chives ($16) is a little confronting but dig on in and get a spoonful of quivering clear jelly-like marrow which tastes like the sea but other than that is more a texture thing with barely a taste. The raw scallops is of course awesome but oh how I hated scraping the tile trying to pick it up!


Soy and mustard glazed swordfish belly, pickled cucumber ($16) is pretty awesome, incredibly tender with a texture almost like eel. I normally have issues with the texture of swordfish but it was just so crazy delicious that I think I could eat my weight in swordfish.


Seared venison, wilted elk, soy, ginger and bonito dressing ($16). I have nfi what wilted elk is and just like Foodie Pop I was wondering how do you wilt a deer? But anywhos the venison sure was tasty! I expected the bonito dressing to be uber salty but it was perfectly balanced with the soy and ginger and saw me dragging my super tender pieces of venison into the dressing with each bite.


The rest of the table went for the main of Crispy scaled snapper, smoked potato puree, calamari crackling, ink sauce ($39) and I managed to nick a piece of the crackling which was epicly insane.


Chocolate, honeycomb, mandarin sphere, cookies & cream ($22). My precioussss. Who gets the honour of thwacking the sphere? Ready?


Craaaaacccck! Hello innards shot! The sphere is freaking amazeballs and super loved the teensy tiny macarons scattered around.


Nitro pavlova, guava, pineapple, coconut ($20). I kinda have issues with coconut so had to stay clear of this dessert but the humans at the table gave it a thumbs up.


Textures of rhubarb and citrus ($20). I’m not a big fan of rhubarb either but how awesome is the presentation?!


The Pain perdu, caramelised apple, balsamic icecream ($18) is my favourite of all the desserts and I sneakily edge the plate closer and closer to attack the sugar coated cubes of french toast with alternate swipes at the tangy balsamic ice cream.

ChocolateSuze dined at Gastro Park as a guest of Destination NSW

OMG it’s Billy teehee like, I totally read your blawg! Hahaha so over the weekend the 21st annual Malaysia Fest was held at Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour and there was food stalls aplenty, performances and even cooking demonstrations.


Billy rocking his onde onde knowledge


The rain held off and the crowds were out in force with queues at the food stalls 20 deep


I had managed to drag the boy along for the day and from the Aseana Food Village stall we picked up some Rojak ($5) which was a delightful mix of crispy dough fritters, juicy pineapple slices, crunchy apple pieces doused in tamarind and shrimp paste and smothered in crushed peanuts. The Muar Chee ($5) is an old favourite of mine and the sticky rice balls coated in sesame seeds, crushed peanut and sugar makes for an addictive snack and washed it all down with a refreshing Iced Limao-Calamansi ($3).


The Laksa ($8.50) from Jimmy’s Recipe was quite a large serving and while the soup was a tad on the diluted side, the shredded chicken pieces were tender amidst the tangle of both egg and rice noodle.

Of course I had to take a photo with the slightly dodgy looking tiger haha

Edit: CLOSEDSo like, it’s Friday!!! Quick post today but I can’t tell you how happy I am that it’s Friday! And in case you’ve been living in a cave, much sadness in the world with the news that Apple genius Steve Jobs lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. I’m eating an apple right now for you Stevey!

But hey how about some dessert to cheer you up? Sugar Hits are back thanks to the Crave Sydney Food Festival and Azuma Kushiyaki (Ground floor, Regent Place, 501 George Street, Sydney) has got a beyootiful bento box just begging for you to dive on in.

I heart variety and the fruit salad with the tapioca balls and the rice dumplings is all kinds of texture crazy. The square of chocolate whilst not made by their pastry kitchen is a vivid bright blue with a layer of pop rocks that brings a smile to everyone’s faces. The scoop of the nutty tasting white sesame ice cream disappears fast as does the the skewer of butter cake soaked in sake but it is the glass of green tea tiramisu that I end up devouring and scraping clean. We were lucky enough to get to try an alternate kinako (roasted soy bean powder) tiramisu which rocked my world and the taster of yuzu sake or the alternate nigori sake warmed the cockles of my heart.

ChocolateSuze attended the Sugar Hit as a guest of Azuma Kushiyaki.