Caramel on toast ($4.50). Say whaaaaat? Just look at it. Gaze at its beauty and rejoice in happiness that Henri Marc (438 High St, Penrith) has brought this creation to the lucky peeps out west. A fat slice of sourdough is drowned in the most incredible salted caramel sauce and it was just so delicious that it just blew my mind. And seriously only four and a half smackerooneys? Totally worth the trek guys! I am totally in love with this place!


I first heard rumblings about a sexy new cafe from Mike Eggert and after a quick google search I was drawn to the beautiful photos over on tea-vie.com. My first visit to Henri Marc was with Ramen Raff for a long overdue catchup and then because I was dying to try more of the menu I dragged Noods along over the weekend hehe so don’t freak out that this post has heaps of food 😛


On my first visit I was intrigued by the Rabbit Hole Organic tea ($4.50). I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of tea, I mean, I’ll drink it and oddly I prefer drinking tea if I’m eating cheese but yeah I just couldn’t resist ordering the Banana Split tea and freakily it smelled exactly like perfectly ripened bananas with a hint of vanilla! Noods tried the Licorice Allsorts tea and while he loved the smell he thought it tasted a little too much like Sambuca and had to order the Salted Caramel Milkshake ($7) which I immediately fell in love with and ended up sneakily downing the contents.


Duck eggs, prosciutto and toast ($10). Tee hee the eggs are looking at meee! I much prefer the taste of a duck egg to a normal hen egg as it’s richer and creamier and made for the perfect breakfast slathered onto the buttered sourdough. Oh and that prosciutto baked to a crisp pretty much disappeared within seconds and I may have asked for another slice to nibble on later..


Egg and Bacon ($12). Gooey eggs + crispy bacon = amazing. Together forever! And much <3 to the sourdough bread that Henri Marc sources from Bakehouse On Wentworth in the Blue Mountains.


The Braised Brisket Roll, Mustard, Pickles ($13.50) was stuffed full of smoky juice dripping meaty goodness and it was all kinds of tasty though I kinda wished for a bit more fat because hey once you’ve tried Texan brisket you just don’t go back man!


We couldn’t resist the Roast Pork Belly, Apple & Cabbage Slaw ($16) which was beyootiful! The tile of crackling could have been a bit more cracklier but other than that it was pretty close to perfect with tender meat alternating with thin layers of delectable creamy fat.


Market fish, Chorizo Puree, Pickled Celery, Farro ($17). The fish of the day was sea mullet and it was phenomenal. Several bites later and the crispy skin fish with flakey flesh is destroyed and sitting happily in our stomaches. Noods loved the Chorizo puree but did say the amount under the fish slightly overpowered the delicate fish and I normally hate celery because I think it tastes like sadness but pickling them had me happily munching away.


A basket filled with sugar crusted donuts was sitting in direct line of sight on the counter and proved to be too much of a temptation at only $1 each. $1 each yo!! There is always room for fried dough! Freshly baked, these babies were light and was perfect to mop up any caramel sauce remnants.


Absolutely loved Henri Marc! From the quirky Surry Hills feel layout, to the down to earth and friendly service and of course the amazing food at ridiculously good prices, I know I will be back as soon as possible before word gets out and there’s queues around the block!

So last week the boy and I flew down to St Kilda for a wedding and I knew I had to squeeze in a meal at Golden Fields (2/157 Fitzroy St, St Kilda) for their famed lobster rolls. We were extremely sleep deprived thanks to the super early flight but that didn’t stop Noods from being very amused by the chicken feet on the wall and couldn’t stop staring at them lol


We start with the Duckfish, salmon roe, scud chili, ginger & lime ($16) which Noods had adamantly ordered because he wanted to know what a duckfish was. Google says the real name for duckfish is actually boarfish but eh it just tastes like a white fish. Tasty fish. The fat slices of fish are brightened by briny pops of roe and then the heat of the scud chili hits. Fire alarms start ringing and just as my mouth begins to feel on fire the edge of lime kicks in and brings the heat down to manageable levels.


I order two New England Lobster Rolls ($15) because there was no way in hell I going to share haha the hot buttered bun was packed full with cold poached crayfish, watercress and a swirl of kewpie mayo. Honestly it was just delicious and I was so happy and sad at the same time. Happy because it was amazing and sad because it was gone all too soon. The next time I’m in Melbourne I’m coming back for a whole bundle of these babies! Word on the street is that you can call and order the lobster rolls takeaway!


One word for the XO Diamond shell clams (1/2kg $24): phenomenal. I usually have issues with clams and pretty much anything that belongs to the bivalve mollusc family save for oysters so I was really surprised with these clams and how tender they were. And XO sauce just makes the world go round and I was oh so tempted to ask for a bowl of rice so I could ladle the leftover sauce onto!


Golden Fields has a Fried Chicken ($36) special every Wednesday and Sunday which was the best news ever and when the plate landed on our table I was in raptures at the ridiculously crisp golden skin that shattered everywhere and gloriously juicy meat in all cuts of the chicken. You know that feeling when you just want to stuff your mouth full of food and cant stop to breathe or speak because it’s so damn awesome? Yeah. That. It was like the fried chicken was speaking directly to my chicken loving soul. The chicken didn’t even need the accompanying sauces of Sriracha, Kewpie mayo and uh nfi on the 3rd sauce cos yeah it was just amazing on its own!


I was worried the fried chicken would be oily so had ordered a salad of Wild and cultivated mushrooms in miso butter ($16) and while the chicken was perfect I gotta say that this dish was pretty tops because I freaking heart mushrooms! Talk about mushroom flavour bomb!


I was reached explodey point but couldn’t pass up the chance to try the Peanut butter parfait, salted caramel and soft chocolate ($13) and was so glad I ordered it! It pretty much tastes like a sublime Snickers bar! The peanut butter parfait was creamy and intense and the chocolate quenelle was so smooth and light it just melted on the tongue. But the best part of the dessert was the pool of salted caramel which was liquid gold and had us scraping the plate for more. Best.

Prices on the website are a bit off for some of the menu items we ordered but other than that our visit was awesome! Service was tops, food was spectacular and the atmosphere was cheery and bright in the light filled restaurant. I will return for you my beloved lobster rolls!

Zomg you guys what is up with the price of strawberries? They’re so freaking cheap it’s insane! Strawberries just makes me think of summer and this bundt cake is ridiculously delicious and best of all you only use one bowl!

I followed a recipe from Ryan Bakes and have converted the below recipe to metric. Instead of the cream cheese icing I made a simple lemon + icing sugar glaze and tinted it with pink food colouring to get it as close as I could to my pinkalicious Kenwood Kmix which is still my best friend in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
226g salted butter, room temp
2¾ cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups plain flour
¼ tsp bi carb soda
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 punnets of strawberries (about 250g), diced

Preheat oven to 165C. Grease a 12 cup bundt pan. Cream the 226g butter and 2¾ cups of sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add eggs, two at a time, beating and scraping mixture from sides of bowl after each addition. Add in the sifted 3 cups flour, ¼ tsp bi carb soda, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup sour cream and beat for 2 minutes or until ingredients are mixed well.

Fold in the diced strawberries until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake at 160C for 1hour-1 hour 15mins until cake is golden and leaves the sides of the pan. Allow cake to cool in pan before removing. Invert onto a a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For the drizzle glaze, mix together the juice of ½ a lemon and 150g icing sugar. make sure the glaze isn’t too thick or it won’t be able to be drizzled. Food colouring optional 😛

This bundt cake is the perfect cake for little lunch with some tea.

Aaaand an innards shot 😀

Edit: CLOSED

OH HAI! I’m just you know, chilling with a cigar 😛 Good news Westies, there’s a new Japanese restaurant in town! Sabu(321 Church St, Parramatta) is snuggled in the middle of all the pizza and pasta restaurants and is a welcome addition to those needing a Japanese hit that is more than just sushi or teppanyaki.


The boy and I start with the signature Sabu Cigars with Bloody Mary Shot ($18)- minced tuna rolled in a crispy pastry shell with avocado on one en, tobiko at the other and held together with a band of seaweed. The &#8216;ash’ was an awesome sesame powder which pretty much blew my mind and I would’ve loved this if it was in some kind of dessert! Or just give me a bowl of the stuff and I’d be a happy camper. Hiding under the ash was a spicy mayonnaise and to wash it all down came shots of Bloody Mary’s made with sake instead of vodka.


We chose the Snapper Carpaccio with cucumber and ponzu ($16) over the Kingfish Carpaccio with char garlic dressing mainly because Noods has this thing for anything with ponzu. While the snapper was beautifully fresh I wished there was a bit more ponzu in the sauce, we love ponzu and want it to smack us in the face with its zingyness.


We debated over ordering the Sashimi Platter ($39) but settled on the Beef Kushiyaki ($18) because I knew I wanted to save room for dessert. The amount of beef on the skewers was pretty generous, each piece was plump and tender but it was the pile of ridiculously addictive potato fries that has us wishing for more!


I love miso cod, it’s my weakness whenever i see it on a menu so of course I had to order the Marinated Miso Cod ($36) which was fricken delicious tho would’ve liked more of it haha there was also cubes of silky tofu with curls of fresh coconut which was bloody awesome.


I cringed at the price of the desserts but our waitress convinced us it would be worth it so I chose the Snow ($16) which was a yuzu parfait layered with pistachio ice cream, topped with pine foam and nestled with pistachio and matcha crumbs. Absolutely beautiful presentation, pistachio + matcha is always a winning flavour combo!


Sabu is definitely a welcome addition to the neighbourhood! While prices border on the exxy side, the lovely service and food means we’ll return for that sashimi platter soon!