Dolcissimo, Haberfield

Kyna is one of my best friends from high school, we've known each other for 16 years now! Her visit this month was very exciting to us, and since she is our guest of honour, we asked what she wanted to eat. PIZZA she said, AT THE PLACE CINDY TOOK US TO LAST YEAR! So its off to

DOLCISSIMO at Haberfield.

We were very pleased when the waiter showed us to the nice side of the restaurant and we happily settled

in by the window, and started our girly chat. For some reason I decided to order a spider (Sprite with vanilla ice cream) - it's very unlike me but I felt like one and thoroughly enjoyed it! Pizzas are great as always, but we were a little disappointed with the

tiramisu (sigh... Napoli in Bocca is closed for renovation) which would have been nicer if there are more sponge biscuits. I do like the pizzas at Dolcissimo, but you need to know that you go there

for the food, NOT the service, which can fluctuate from very

attentive and friendly to ignorant and negligent.

I'll certainly go back

Blue Mountains Treat

I spent an absolutely gorgeous and relaxing weekend in the Blue Mountains, with my very good friend Anne and her wonderfully welcoming family. Anne had invited me to stay with her for the weekend a long time ago, but neither of us had the time or the mind for a very long time. In fact I do believe this was supposed to be a 'birthday celebration' of some sort, and both our birthdays are at the end of the year! Very long delay indeed....

We spent some time at a cafe with a serene surrounding for lunch. SOLITARY Cafe/kiosk between Leura and Katoomba, overlooking Mt Solitary (hence the name), and has a rather impressive reputation for its food. After examining their short but sweet menu we'd opted for the specials of the day. Anne had a lentil and bacon soup, while I was lured by their bruschetta with chicken liver pate with caramelised onion. I didn't try Anne's soup, but it looked and smelled tantalising (not to mention it was one of the dishes I contemplated on ordering). Anne gave it her thumbs up and just scoffed it down with her usual ladylike manner. My bruschetta was simply delightful, the pate tasted of brandy and was light and smooth, but the onions! On visual inspection we thought it was simply caramelised. When I tasted it I thought, hm, acid... probably vinegar... wait, did I get a whiff of red wine? Ah I think it was red wine vinegar! And I think there was also honey!

Next course please - can we have the (lengthy) dessert list now thanks... Madeleines, a rarely seen cake shaped like little shells, was on the menu, so I couldn't resist but order it for a taste. And a slice of hazelnut and raspberry cake please. Oh and also a slice of orange-cardamon cake too.... we were struggling with the decisions but we ended up abandoning the chocolate brandy and walnut cake with mascapone chocolate dressing....... in hind sight maybe I should have swapped the hazelnut cake with the chocolate brandy walnut cake, because the hazelnut cake had a delicate subtle flavour I ended up craving rich chocolate! Anne's orange cardamon cake was surprisingly delicious too - I don't often come across spices in my desserts but it certainly worked well here. And the madeleines? They were little bite-sized freshly baked cakes that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, served warm.

With the warm winter sun on our back and Mt Solitary view in front of us, we were satisfied with the view, the food, and each other's company. What a gem this little place is... Highly recommended for visitors of the Blue Mountains!

Later that evening Anne's family opened a bottle of 1998 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz Merlot. Apparently 1998 was a good vintage in terms of harvest and the weather in the Coonawarra region, combined with medium/long term cellaring, the wine had developed into a smooth rounded delicious wine! Iknow little about wine, but have always liked the cab-shiraz-merlot blend for its dry, rounded and aromatic flavours, and have a few bottles of it at home, but this one was certainly more enjoyable than most - truly the cellaring had taken away the overpowering tang and really mellowed out the wine... time to stock up!!

A lovely weekend had to come to an end... I lingered as long as I could, then waved my hands and boarded my coach. Back to the city smogs and stamp-print cafe franchises until next time.....

Billy Kwong

Kylie Kwong, Aussie-Chinese celebrity chef famous for her fusion Western/Asian cuisine, was not exactly what drew us to her restaurant, for we love our authentic Chinese style food (preferably cooked at home, by mum, but once in a while we can survive restaurant stuff). Kylie has an uncanny resemblance to my sister, so we thought maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, the wait staff will not know the difference and give us free dinner... I mean, it's amusing.

Mum and dad had dined there before and highly recommended their mussels, but neither Lily nor I have any interest in this bivalve mollusc (however well it may be cooked), so I took on the challenge of picking the dishes that everyone will enjoy.

For starters, steamed oysters, lettuce wrap with pork mince and ginger, and seared

chicken liver with sweet sauteed onion. Oysters were plump and juicy but I skipped it (not keen on molluscs). Lettuce wrap (san choy bao) was delicious but, sorry Kylie, greasy, and we could

have used an extra lettuce leaf per person because there was way too much mince (which were also on the salty side). I really really liked the chicken liver, seared on the outside but BARELY cooked

on the inside so it was very tender and moist, though it could be cooked a bit more without compromising flavour and texture.

For main we had stir-fried mushrooms, wagyu beef brisket with szechuan eggplants, and Fukien fried rice. The four varieties of the mushrooms were juicy and plentiful, while the wagyu beef was AMAZING - melt-in-your-mouth with a great flavour that didn't overpower the sweetness of the meat itself (tomato based sauce, mildly spicy), the eggplant pieces so mushy it was blended in with the sauce. The fried rice was

lovely but we then regret the choice because the sauce from either the mushroom or the beef would have been YUMMY over the rice!! Very satisfying.

And no we couldn't fool the wait staffs, as Kylie herself was sitting in the middle of the restaurant, waiting for her friends to arrive. She kindly obliged us with a photo (of her and my sister - thanks Kylie!)!!

A few other specialties we didn't order (but wish we did) were the crispy skin duck and the pork ribs. Saw a few pass by and they looked simply devine. But we're not complaining - there's only so much space in our belly! Thumbs.

Eaglehawk Guesthouse Cafe

Our last afternoon in Tassie was leisurely spent at a cafe at Eaglehawk, between Hobart and Port Arthur, killing time before our 8pm flight. Inside the cafe are photographies and paintings created by local artists, and bunches of fresh flowers (including an amazing dark purple bunch of gladiolus) for sale.

We ordered their two cakes on offer - Sticky date pudding with warm caramel sauce and home-made vanilla ice cream, and chocolate-espresso cake served with fresh organic berries, berry frozen yogurt, and home-made raspberry coulis.

ARGH what a treat!!! The sticky date pudding was satisfying (sweet tooth delight) and the vanilla ice cream was SO creamy it felt more like frozen cream. But what really grabbed us was the presentation of the chocolate cake. What a feast for the eyes! Fresh berries - strawberries, red currents, silvenberries, raspberries - grown at the premise, fragrant, juicy, sweet and slightly tangy. Perfect. These berries alone deserve a 10/10, while the chocolate cake was a bonus. The frozen yogurt had fresh berries mixed into it and was delightful to the tastebuds. And, did I mention the raspberry coulis? I have never tasted/seen raspberry coulis like this, rich, thick, fragrant, fresh and really made with raspberry! Not like the thin-watery-red-food-colouring-artificially-flavoured coulis you see in most cafes. Divine.

Heading down Port Arthur way? Must stop here.

Chinese New Year Celebration in Tassie

To escape the usual "cook up a storm, entertain guests and wash up 200 plates and glasses" Chinese New Year ritual, I coerced my family to skip town for the week. So we went to Tasmania!

We picked a cute place for our family's CNY celebration at a little town called Grindalwald (about 20min drive outside of Launceston). Grindalwald, aka Swiss Village, is a thoughtfully designed town dominated by the resort with an 18-hold putt-putt and a retirement village across the road. Those who have already been to Switzerland (or any part of Europe for that matter) - It's cute but it ain't the real thing.

We spent a couple of hours there checking out the shops, taking heaps of photos (snap happy time) and had our dinner at the resort restaurant/bar. Dishes worth mentioning - eye fillet wrapped with bacon, served with pumpkin mash, rocket lettuce and Swiss brown mushroom, and the Moroccan-spice encrusted lamb cutlets with beetroot salsa. I had the trevalla fillet coated in parmesan crumbs, quite nice but top prize definitely goes to the 2 big slabs of eye fillet (medium rare and melt in your mouth!) for $28... at this price in Sydney you're lucky to get one slab of fillet, not two! Desserts were average and coffee was mediocre.

I must say, Tasmanian cafes have yet to learn the proper way of making espresso. None of the long blacks I ordered had sufficient crema on top, and generally lack aroma and body, even at places that served strong coffee. A good time was had nonetheless, though a great cup of espresso would have topped the night for me!

Beaches Restaurant

I intended to take a photo of every dish on my birthday, but forgot to when the dishes were presented to us....... THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE! BUT, that only tells you how excited I was when I saw the food.

DIVINE. Bouillabaisse, a classic French dish with seafood and a rich and slightly spicy seafood broth. There were scallops, mussels, fish fillet, prawn and yabbie on a beautiful, lightly spicy seafood broth which was wonderfully for soaking crusty bread rolls. It also came with a hot grilled roll with melted cheese, herbs and spices. Highly satisfying.

The "Roast Scallops Served with a salad of pork belly & crisp pigs ear & truffle mayonnaise" was originally an entree, but we requested an upsize, and very glad we did. It came with perfectly cooked, plump and juicy scallops - about 3cm in diameter and 2 cm thick (just to show you the quality of the ingredients, as well as cooking to perfection to present the freshness of the seafood), lightly golden brown on the outside. The pork belly cubes appeared quite fatty but because it was not overcooked, and was lightly flavoured, it did not taste greasy or heavy at all. Pig's ears were crumbed and deep fried, also lightly salted, and was nice and crunchy. This is not a dish for the conservative (boring) diner, but for the adventurous or those with true gourmet appreciation.

Love this restaurant - www.beachesrestaurant.com.au

L'Incontro

This is the third or the fourth time I dined at L'Incontro at North Sydney, and probably the most memorable because of the choices of dishes we made.

The location is convenient for us North Shore girls and the interior offered great ambience. The multiple dining rooms means more privacy and cosiness for the patrons as well as a feeling of individual service and personal attention. The waiters are attentive and friendly, but not in your face at all. The man who I presume is the owner is one of those passionate, cheerful Italians, his presence added to the atmosphere and dining experience.

Some may consider the pricing a bit hard to swallow but considering the service and the quality of the food, $50 for a main and dessert bought me a bloody good night. It was an evening of decadent, devine dining experience. I did not take photos of the main courses because we dug right into them the moment they were brought to us. No pretentious, bite-sized portions sculpted and garnished into a heap of food, presented on a large and empty plate, but just food prepared at its best and freshest.

The grilled scampi on rocket salad was superb, fresh scampi simply grilled and seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with freshly squeezed lemon juice - the best way to prepare and consume fresh seafood. Though 3 scampies would not have made a substantial meal for a hungry diner. The blue swimmer crab and angel hair pasta flavoured with light seafood and cherry-tomato dressing had a beautifully balanced flavour, not a heavy and rich tomato based marinara sauce. I personally had the duck with almond and orange sauce which would be easier to manage at the expense of the texture), and, unlike another 'duck experience' - a duck breast dish smothered in a dessert-sweet fig sauce - this had the aromas of orange and only a hint of the sweetness which allowed the flavour of the duck to prevail. None of us asked for salt and pepper shakers. It was absolutely not necessary.

Desserts - the main focus of my blog so far - what a highlight. We went for the zabaglione, which is prepared on the spot. I thought zabaglione is a smooth rich custard with a hint of sweet marsala, but it turned out to be fluffy, fruity, slightly tangy and quite alcoholic... later found out that the cook shoved in a dash of congac.... a nice touch but it wasn't for the palate of my non-alcoholic dining buddy. And the other dessert - old favourite, creme brulee, came with a dish of berry in syrup and an almond biscotti, beautifully presente, smooth and rich and totally enjoyable. And the owner even threw in a shot of their home-made limoncello liquore..... m-m-licious. I will return to L'Incontro........