OH HAI! Ohmygosh you guys do you love pie? I have been brought up on a diet of American tv shows and always, ALWAYS they get pie for dessert! It didn’t help that one of my favourite shows Pushing Daisies was all about pie (till they canned the show tch) but hey once you start thinking about pies you just cannot stop. After stalking posts here here here here here and here I knew I had to get myself to Pie Tin (1a Brown Street, Newtown) quick smart.


The Pie Tin’s hours are pretty awesome: M-W 10am-8pm, T-F 10am-10pm, Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 10am-6pm though the place is pretty packed during lunch hours and the humans seated at the communal table are eyeballed for their premium property.


Beers and ciders ftw


Selection of savoury pies


I’d managed to convince Noods to take a trek out to Newtown with the promise of deliciousness and he quickly devours his Tender Steak, Cheddar Cheese & Smokey Bacon pie along with sides of mushy peas and mash potato and a river of gravy ($10 for pie + 2 sides). I’d managed to snare the last Slow Roasted Shredded Pork with Apple and BBQ Sauce pie and was rejoicing in the tender nubbins of juicy pocine encased in golden flakey pastry with sides of mash potato and coleslaw.


Of course the real reason I wanted to go to the Pie Tin was for the dessert pies. OH BABY LOOKIE LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTIES! My heart, it was a-racing at all the choices! How to choose from such a drool worthy selection? It’s like picking a favourite child!


And the chosen child that day was the Snickers pie which comes with a side of cream ($6.50). It was everything I imagined. With a dark chocolate biscuit base, layers of chocolate and peanut butter mousse with a ribbon of caramel oh man it was GLORIOUS.


Visit #2 sees me being a tad greedy and ordering 3 dessert pies. It was sweet. Both in taste and in awesomeness. Picks of the day was the Malteser pie, Lemon Meringue pie and Gooey Caramel & Chocolate Ganache pie. As expected the Malteser pie was out of this world, surprisingly uber light and fluffy and unsurprisingly the caramel and choc pie was crazy rich like oh wow how many cavities am I gonna get rich. Not really a big fan of lemon meringue pie but I was suckered into ordering it when i saw the cloud of meringue piled sky high and it was sweet with a tart edge though I kinda wished the meringue was a bit more torched.


WHY SO PRETTY! Visit #3 has me seeing stars after spotting Noelines’ Triple Chocolate pie in the cabinet. If I thought the caramel & choc ganache tart was sweet then this pie kicked it out of the solar system in sweetness even with the scoop of vanilla ice cream ($1 extra) that I’d ordered but really what did I expect if there’s triple the chocolate lol but hey good times! I am foreseeing many more visits to try each dessert pie before possibly getting diabetes heh.

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Assembly Bar (488 Kent St, Sydney), aka the bar that is under the special place that is the KFC on George St has been on my radar for a while now. Always on the lookout for easygoing joints to chillax with awesome friends, Assembly Bar is the offspring of Pocket Bar and is conveniently located away from the bars that the suits frequent towards the Wynyard end.


Slip back into the armchairs and order a few rounds of drinks for the crew- there’s quite a selection of delicious cocktails available as well as wines and beers.


I can’t help but order the Assembly Fries after spying a bowl floating past me. The fries are golden and perfect, quite possibly the best fries I’ve eaten in a while but hot damn the $13 price tag has me weeping. The pot of truffle cheese sauce is gooey and the fries are dunked into the sauce with relish. That is, until the sauce gets cold and becomes congealed naww.


“The Sticky Ribs ($18) is a must order,” whispers the bartender. And it is DEEEEELICIOUS. The gorgeously tender meat is served off the bone with a sticky sweet sauce and yes there is broccolini there but uh it is mostly ignored in favour of the protein.


The Calamari Fritti ($10) looked a lil soulless and tasted like they needed to be bathed longer in the fiery depths of oil. Sads. Moving on.


Keen-wah Salad ($10) has me loling as once upon a time I used to pronounce quinoa totally not like how it’s meant to be… At first I had absolutely no intention of going anywhere near the salad but for research purposes I gave it a go. The first bite had me swooning as I had found cashews (my all time favourite nut) though with each subsequent bite I managed to not get cashews and Helen snuck the bowl back away from me.


The Pork Belly Slider ($12) is pretty big to be called a slider and without the expected hamburger buns it is pretty much just a sandwich albeit a tasty sandwich. It’s stuffed full of juicy pork innards as well as shards of crackle and the spicy sofrito packs a wallop of heat for this non spicy eater.


Provolone Peppers Croquettes ($10) are glorious, the deep fried balls just ooze with stretchy cheese and are studded with nubbins of red peppers. They don’t even really need a dunking in the spicy tomato sauce but maybe that’s because I prefer my balls of cheese to be unadulterated. Heh balls. Sorry couldn’t help it.


The Pork and Truffle Hotdog ($9) divides the group, I’m not a big fan of the bread as I find it a lil crunchy but the others prefer it as it holds the sauce without disintegrating into mush. The actual sausage is tasty, perfectly seasoned and I loved the novelty of the potato shoestring fries on top.


Oh wow could this photo be blurry enough? Haha I had to put this in tho cos lol I am a lego nut. And I’m sneaking in an early happy Australia Day dudes! Hope you chuck a prawn on the barbie!

Aaaaand happy Chinese New year guys! May the year of the dragon bring you prosperity and good health! And hey how about some quick peanut cookies for snacks if your rellies come around? This recipe is awesome and super fast to make.


Of course when it comes to reunions, there is always a feast! Yee Sang is a requisite with our family and our fav is from Istana (Shop 15a, 230-238 Pennant Hills Rd, Thornleigh).


Lo heiiiiiiii toss, toss, toss!


And welcome to any new readers who’ve just found this little corner of my world! Last week I was on 702AM and was interviewed by Simon Marnie in the Spiegeltent at the Sydney Festival and did a mini food tour around Parramatta with the lovely Zoe and Roseanne.


First stop is at Temasek (71 George Street, Parramatta), for seafood laksa and hainanese chicken rice. I know a lot of die hard Malaysian’s will argue on where the best laksa is and I do believe I’m in the Temasek camp 😛


For a dose of novelty we drop by t101 (186-190 Church St, Parramatta) for some pizza cones and bubble teas. Cheesy, gooey innards is da bomb!


And to round off our mini food tour we stop by Seasweet (4/354 Church Street, Parramatta) and drool over the pastries. The very sweet manager kindly gives us some delicious baklava to take back for the studio audience and amped up on sugar it’s back on air we go where I may have sounded like an insane teenager doo di doo