@chocolatesuze Is it Christmas yet #hotelcentennial #sydney #paddington #sydneyrestaurants #christmasham #ham ♬ Keeping Your Head Up (Jonas Blue Remix) [Radio Edit] – Birdy

Can’t wait til Christmas for some Christmas ham? Hotel Centennial in Paddington have a ham trolley at lunch on the weekends and for $35 it’s pretty great value. All eyes are drawn when the ham is wheeled over, the sticky glaze glistening and studded with cloves.

After the ham is sliced we were asked what accompaniments we wanted aaaand I said all of them because I have major indecision issues. I loved the chutney and dried fruits and alternated between that and the seeded mustard. The ham is perfect, super juicy and lightly smoky.

@chocolatesuze Finally trying ganjang gejang raw marinated crabs #melbourne #melbournefood #sevenstarpocha #crab #ganjanggejang ♬ Grapefruit – Tove Lo

3 years of watching kdramas and I’ve finally been able to try raw marinated crabs! Ganjang-geiang is a traditional Korean dish that’s made by marinating fresh raw crabs in a mild soy-sauce based brine. Our first dinner in Melbourne was at Seven Star Pocha (previously NaNa Izakaya) solely so I could try these crabs and it was everything I dreamed of and more!

First have a lil taste of the crab and then squish out all the crab meat onto your rice and mix. It’s beautifully savoury, salty and sweet. Once you’re done with the bodies get the hat and pack it full of rice for that ultimate umami hit.

We also ordered cheese corn which comes out on a sizzling hot plate, mentaiko udon that was super creamy and comforting for the soul and I couldn’t resist the cheese hotdog covered in sugar, tomato sauce and mustard. Check out this cheese pull! This is Seven Star Pocha in Melbourne.

@chocolatesuze Best croissants #melbourne #lune #melbournefood ♬ AIN’T GONNA STOP – Carol Kay

This is the queue for Lune Croissanterie in the Melbourne CBD at 8am. Luckily I was staying around the corner so it wasn’t too much of a trek to get to and the line did move quite fast as people were mostly just getting pastries to takeaway so all in all I waited about 20mins from queuing until the goods were in hand. The closer I edged my way along the line the more heavenly the smell of buttery pastries were.

I was totally creeping on the kitchen, watching the staff pull trays upon trays of golden croissants from the oven or putting the finishing touches on the pastries. I may have gone overboard with the ordering but hey you can never have too many croissants, this is what I got.

Starting off with the classic croissant, just look at this glossy, golden specimen! And the honeycomb lattice centre! Perfectly flaky, buttery and delicious. The ham & gruyere croissant is legendary, I mean sure a ham and cheese croissant is blasphemous to all the French but it’s awesome and one of my must orders at Lune The Kouign Amann is perfection, it’s buttery and sweet with a perfect caramelised exterior. Lemon curd cruffin is always a winner, the filling treads that magical balance of not too sweet and not too sour.
I couldn’t help but think of Baker’s Delight cheese and vegemite scroll but of course Lune’s version is fancier, the escargot pastry is filled with Vegemite béchamel and gruyère cheese. Lune was celebrating their 10th birthday so I had to get the birthday cake croissant filled with an almond and sprinkle frangipane and topped with a sprinkle crumble and vanilla buttercream.

@chocolatesuze Lennox Hastie has done it again #gildas #surryhills #sydney #pinxtos #winebar #kangaroo #sydneywine ♬ Melancholia – St. Loreto

Gildas is the newest wine bar in Surry Hills and is the sister venue to Lennox Hastie’s Firedoor. We were lucky enough to be seated at the counter and start off with some Negronis and of course had to get the signature pintos namesake Gilda- a briny olive, pickled guindilla pepper and deliciously salty anchovy. Then the Matilda which was beautifully charred kangaroo with native lemon and sweet onion.

You definitely can’t go wrong with the buttery basque ham and then onto the retired dairy cow tartare with an incredible rock oyster cream and zesty sorrel. The chips are hand cut and made in house.

The oyster mushrooms with smoked egg yolk and buckwheat looks deceptively simple but this dish was perfection, the flavour of the mushrooms are so intense and the yolk just amps up the umami factor.

The gentle sweetness of the charred leeks with romesco and lardo is a winner. The pippies with Alubia beans, jamon broth and Manzanilla sherry are another must order and I loved the featherlight churros stuffed with spanner crab.

Onto the desserts, I had been staring at the tarts all night and finally it was time, the buttery pastry tart is filled with vanilla-sherry custard and topped with caramelised blood oranges. You absolutely have to order the tocino de celo, an incredibly smooth and rich flan that had me in raptures. Last but not least is the smoked buffalo-milk soft-serve with dulce de leche and extra virgin olive oil.