Twilight Christmas Market @ Carriageworks, Eveleigh

This year, Carriageworks held their inaugural Twilight Christmas Markets, which was actually an expanded version of their usual Saturday farmer's markets - complete with the usual (and more) food and drink stalls, as well as stalls selling various knick knacks suitable as last-minute Christmas pressies (to others... or oneself) across the road.

Since I got a pre-Christmas early mark off work, I decided to catch the train to Redfern Station and make the short hike to the Carriageworks. Since it was the first time I travelled there by train (I travelled by car on my first, and only, visit to the Saturday Farmers Market), I was a little hesitant that I would get lost. However, on this particular afternoon, there were lots of people wandering the streets from Redfern Station in the same general direction so I decided to follow some strangers, in hope that I would be arriving the at the correct location. On route, I passed by people holding bouquets of flowers, or pulling along their trolleys of purchased goods, so I knew I was heading down the right path.

Finally, I arrived! The sheer volume of people squeezed into the small space was epic:

View of the Eveleigh Markets

Roadtrip to Bilpin

A few months ago, a few friends and I decided to go on a road trip together to visit a friend working in the Windsor vicinity. After doing some research into the surrounding areas, a friend suggested that we visit Bilpin for a day trip.

Bilpin is located just over 1.5hrs drive north-west of Sydney and is popularly known as the 'Land of the Mountain Apple', due to the rich fruit orchids and bountiful gardens that line the main (Bells Line of) road, which runs through the Blue Mountain region. The famous produce from the region are the locally grown/produced apples, juice and cider. Since they don't usually advertise the source of apples at the local supermarkets nor do I usually partake in cider (or any alcoholic drink), this place didn't really ring any bells so I was up for the challenge.

Roadtrip!

The Pontoon, Sydney CBD

In previous years, the location and food of my work Christmas parties have been a hit & miss but this year, my company put in some big money and hired The Pontoon for 6hrs to go around Sydney Harbour.

For those of you that have never had the privilege of being on The Pontoon, you can get a glimpse of it when it's docked at King Street Wharf or perhaps when it's filled with revellers whilst travelling through Darling Harbour. The ship is distinctive with its enormous glass exteriors and rooftop balcony, and is not to be confused with its smaller sister ship - The Starship.

The Pontoon

Foodi's (Not so) Amazing Scavenger Hunt, Sydney CBD

To celebrate a momentous occasion, a friend organised a food scavenger hunt, held in the Sydney CBD. At first I thought it was a self-organised activity but it turned out that the scavenger hunt was actually through a third-party called Foodi and there was actually a (significant) cost component to it. I can't believe that food scavenger hunts even exist in Sydney but then again, so do escape rooms (don't even get me started on this topic).

The premise of Foodi's Amazing Scavenger Hunt is for the teams to follow a series of clues that lead you to 10 or so food venues across the Sydney CBD in the space of 3 hours. Along the way, you are required to take team selfies, consume food samples, and complete challenges that may require you to either photograph or obtain (e.g. by purchasing, begging, taking... or stealing) items from the given scavenger hunt list in order to earn bonus points. By the end of the hunt, the points are accumulated and the winning team is announced at the final location (usually a local pub).

Let's just say the entire experience was... memorable... to say the least.

Din Tai Fung, Chatswood

Intrigued by the concept of rainbow dumplings, I decided to take the plunge and visit Din Tai Fung for the first time. Located in a relatively isolated corner of Chatswood Westfield, the restaurant draws the eye with their ~kawaii~ dumpling mascot.

Entrance of Restaurant

Upon entering the restaurant, customers are greeted by a large view into the kitchen where chefs are carefully crafting endless amounts of dumplings:

Kitchen

Mr Wong, Sydney CBD

Coming from an Asian background, the problem with eating at a Westernised Chinese restaurant is that you come knowing what true Chinese food and flavours should be like versus the bastardised version that is served to cater for Westerners. Sometimes it can be good... and sometimes it can backfire in your face. Hence when I was told that we would be celebrating DrL's surprise birthday dinner would be held at Mr Wong, I was a little hesitant for not only would the meal be expensive (it is two-hatted and located in the city) but it was surely going to be an interesting experience eating 'high class' Chinese food.

The evening started out with a short trek from Wynyard station, past the curious crowds lingering on George and Hunter Streets looking up at the gigantic crane with a close encounter with the neighbouring buildings (the bystanders obviously had nothing better to do besides filming the entire incident on their phones) and through some inner roads of the Sydney CBD to the mysterious Mr Wong restaurant, which is actually in a reformed historic brick building accessible via a small laneway. Even though we had arrived just after opening time, there was already a thick, long queue outside the restaurant doors, filled with eager customers awaiting to be let through the glass doors and into the establishment.

Entrance of Restaurant
(This was from after dinner around 8pm. Still line of people waiting for tables)

Mowbray Eatery, Lane Cove

Last month, Sydney Public Relations extended an invite to MSG Cafeteria to visit Mowbray Eatery, which recently opened along the busy Mowbray Road in Lane Cove. As it's a relatively new cafe, there is limited information available online but all of the reviews that I came across online were positive so this place looked highly promising, especially with their focus on serving seasonal and fresh ingredients on plate.

So on the night of our visit, I picked up Ally on route to the location and arrived with minutes to spare before our booking.

Entrance to Cafe

Kirribilli Woodfire Kitchen, Kirribilli

Nestled in a cozy nook opposite Milson's Point train station is Kirribilli Woodfire Kitchen. Mr A and I went there on a complete whim on Sunday for a late lunch after seeing the colourful Jacaranda-lined McDougall Street, sprouting clouds of purple foliage in mid October through to November. (If you are going to venture there for instagram-worthy photos, please do keep an eye on the road and not hold up traffic).

Honestly, I had no intention of blogging about this place when we first walked in - another pizza and pasta joint, what's new? So apologies for the bad photos taken with my phone #nofilter

The restaurant has a casual dining ambience and also does takeaway and deliveries. Despite it's small size, the menu is ambitious. Basic pizzas are around $18 for a medium (11") and around $24 for a large (13"). Pastas are also at the $20 dollar mark with other mains such as T-Bone steak at $29 and salads in the high teens.

Afraid I wasn't going to finish a pizza on my own, I opted for a 11" vegetarian pizza whilst Mr. A chose Gorgonzola gnocchi.

Pilu at Freshwater, Freshwater

This foodie outing started with (very) late lunch booking at 2:30pm (the other choice was 12:30pm but our group would never have made it there in time). Our group made the trek out to the Northern Suburbs on a bright and sunny day with a nice cool breeze, unlike the previous day, so it wasn't overbearingly hot. Fortunately, I was able to find free street parking within 200m of the restaurant and therefore only had a short stroll down the hill to the restaurant.

On arrival, there was you walk along a pathway, past a long line of jasmine bushes and small courtyard overlooking the Freshwater Beach, and through to the main entrance:

Pathway to Restaurant

Courtyard Overlooking Beach

Front of Restaurant

The Dining & Co, North Ryde

For the catch-up between the former three musketeers, we decided to have lunch at The Dining & Co, which was recommended by MoosesDigest's sister.

Outside of Cafe

The Dining & Co turned out to be a relatively new cafe hidden within the inner streets of North Ryde. The interior is very hipster with clean wooden tables and chairs, large mirrors along the back wall to reflect the sunlight from outside, and black metal frames to display plants and decor.

East Phoenix, Zetlands

Following the lovely nuptials between Mr&Mrs N at Blackburn Gardens, the remnant MSG Cafeteria peeps lingered in the gardens to fancy artistic shots (by Ivanhoe) before heading to the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay for sustenance in the form of coffee and fries.

With 20min to go till the start of the night-time reception, we then headed out on the short drive south to East Village, Zetlands. Set inside the relatively new shopping centre, East Phoenix is located on the third level and has ample capacity to fit at least 300 (there were 23 guest tables at the reception, with at least 12 people per table and room for a large dance floor), with three private function rooms.

Front Entrance

As per usual Chinese Banquet receptions, it looked like another full venue.

Frangos, Petersham

Frangos was another place that Ivanhoe and Lenni also raved about in Petersham, which is conveniently located across the road from Sweet Belem. There was a queue out the door of the fast food place so that must surely be a good sign... until you see see customers throwing away half a tray of hot chips... hmmm...

Front Counter

As you line up in the queue, you get to see stacks of cooked charcoal chicken waiting to be served as well as a view of the large selection of sides.

Salads

Sides

Sweet Belem, Petersham

Ivanhoe and Lenni raved about the Portuguese tarts from Sweet Belem so this bakery was included as a food pit stop in Petersham. Surprisingly, this was up the road from The Tiny Giant so our walk to here came to an end within 2 min.😂

Entrance of Baker

Bakery Sign

The Tiny Giant, Petersham

When Ivanhoe first invited me to a foodie adventure trip to Petersham with Ali and Lenni, I was totally excited because it would be within the vicinity of The Tiny Giant! I've seen many pics from the cafe on Instagram so I suggested that we visit this place during our food crawl through Petersham.

The day started out with a trip to the e-waste disposal place in Marrickville (a very enlightening experience) and took a slight detour to the The Addison Road Community Centre. We were all disappointed to discover that the Marrickville markets were actually open on Sunday, rather than Saturday, so we ended up checking out the various shops within the community centre. During our stroll through the Community Centre, we spotted some live poultry by a small fair-trade cafe, and walked through the community gardens in search of some (invisible) bunnies. Apparently Ivanhoe saw some bunnies on her last visit but we didn't see any... conned again by Ivanhoe within the space of 30min!

Afterwards, we headed to The Tiny Giant in Petersham and were able to score a free parking spot nearby so we didn't have to walk too far to the cafe.

Outside of Cafe

Small Bar, Crows Nest

I recently came here to celebrate the momentous first birthday party of mini-Aunt T. Small Bar seems to be the go-to place for special occasions for MSG Cafeteria due to its convenient and central location so I thought I'd use this opportunity to document and share the food experience.

Located along Willoughby Street (i.e. main food street) in Crows Nest, Small Bar faces some intense competition in the food stakes. There is limited seating outside the main entrance and along the long aisle towards the courtyard around the back, however the courtyard space is big enough to accommodate 40+ people.

Outside of Restaurant

Aunt T & Co. went all out on the event with the food and decor, even decorating the courtyard with balloons, banner and bunting. Also, Ivanhoe was recruited to apply her artistic skills to create the time capsule slips for guests to fill in.

Noodle Night Market 2016, Sydney CBD

Every year during Good Food month (i.e. Oct), the Sydney Night Noodle Markets are held in Hyde Park within the Sydney CBD. Lines of stalls are opened providing visitors just a glimpse of the (mainly Asian) foods on offer around Sydney. Ironically, despite being labelled as a 'noodle' market, most of the stores actually don't even have a noodle menu item.

Despite arriving around just after 6pm, the crowds in Hyde park were in epic proportions and gradually got bigger as the night went by.

Entrance Closest to Town Hall Station

Fortune Cat Art

Giant Fortune Cat
(recycled from Chinese New Year?)

Bernie's Diner, Moss Vale

After an enjoyable lunch at Biota Dining, Bowral, the group headed off south to Bernie's Diner.

Entrance of Diner

Set in Moss Vale, Bernie's Diner resembles the classic American diner from the 1950-70's (à la Grease) with bright red bar stools and booth seating, and a black and white checked floor. Their menu here is actually rather extensive and included burgers, sides, drinks, dessert - oh the choices...:

Biota Dining, Bowral

Just outside of the Bowral town centre, Biota Dining is a fine-dining restaurant shrouded by a tall row of bushes along the main street. There is limited parking outside the restaurant but don't be discouraged by the sheer number of cars filling the car park - the spots may be occupied by people attending a party/function in the small area next to their bar.

En Route from Car Park to Restaurant

Biota Dining offers both degustation tasting menu ($145+ pp; requires reservations beforehand) or bar dining during lunch hours. As this was a last-minute food stop, our group didn't have a booking so we rocked up to see if they were able to fit us in for a late lunch. Ivanhoe did try calling beforehand but got stuck with their voicemail...

Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom Tour, Mittagong

Two months ago, Ivanhoe began organising a group road trip to Bowral in order to attend the Li-Sun Exotic Mushroom farm tour in nearby Mittagong over the Labour Day long weekend. I wasn't quite sure what to expect so I did a little research/light reading to get myself prepared for what was ahead.

Fortunately, the weather on this day was awesome and we headed down south early in the morning so that we could scout out the local cafes in the Bowral town centre before the tour. The time soon came to head to the local swimming pool car park, which was the pickup point for the tour.

Shuttle Bus

Le Montage, Lilyfield

Ever since I received my 'golden ticket' invite inside a choc block, I've been looking forward to B&J's wedding for some time... cos the wedding had to be running on a chocolate theme, right? As an FYI/fun fact: unbeknownst to the bride and groom, 1st Oct is actually referenced in 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory' story as the day on which the golden ticket bearers could enter into the chocolate factory - how appropriate for the wedding!

The wedding ceremony and reception was to be held at Le Montage, which I had previously been to for a night-time wedding reception and the location just screamed CLASS (or maybe it was because the other couple had put in a lot of time, effort and clearly ~moolah~ to creating an awesome wedding reception)!

Sign in Driveway

So on this sunny, but seriously windy, day, I actually set up early with T-bone and Ally to check out the nearby Orange Grove markets and used this chance to source breakfast and baked goods before attending to my ushering duties for the wedding ceremony.

Gelato Messina HQ & More, Rosebery

Following on from our lunch at the Three Blue Ducks, we continued on our food crawl in search of dessert.

Messina HQ

Located diagonally across the block from the Saporium car park, is the Gelato Messina HQ, which offers gelato and cakes to passing customers, and appears to be the location of their cooking classes.

Three Blue Ducks, Rosebery

For over a month, the ND food group preparing and planning for a Rosebery food crawl and it finally happened! Foodie adventures was meant to begin at midday in Rosebery but due to a late departure and traffic, I didn't end up getting to the Saporium, Rosebery, until 12:45pm. By that time, the group were all hungry and in search of food.

The Saporium houses a few cafes, restaurants, a health food store, and holds weekly "markets" (i.e. a dozen or so food and goods stalls) on Saturdays from 10am-3pm. However, there was limited food options there that tempted our taste buds (maybe Mr Bao but it was rather expensive at $6 per bao) so we decided to head outside and walked through The Cannery to the Three Blue Ducks.

Three Blue Ducks

Entrance to Restaurant

The Three Blue Ducks is located in a massive warehouse, with high ceilings and ample natural lighting, that has been converted into a restaurant & homeware store.

Lucky Suzie, Darlinghurst

Having had a significant brunch/lunch at Devon on Danks, I decided to meander towards Lucky Suzie, which is also from the team behind the Devon cafe, in Darlinghurst to try their ABC dessert. The ABC dessert had featured prominently a few months ago on Instagram and I never had the time to visit (given its isolated location) until now, especially with the impending Opal card fare changes that will impede on my likelihood to visit out-there places.

Restaurant Sign

Outside of Restaurant

When I arrived, the front section of the restaurant, which was filled with natural lighting, was full so I had to sit further in near the kitchen/bar. The waitress didn't seem so impressed that I was just ordering a dessert.

Devon on Danks, Waterloo

After months of deliberation and planning, I decided to make the trip out to visit Devon on Danks, which had been personally recommended by many foodies as the better of the two Devon sites. So on this particular sunny (but windy) day, I walked from Redfern Station through the slightly scary neighbourhood of Redfern/Waterloo and past a small, one-eyed dog to get to the cafe.

Exterior of Cafe

Exterior of Cafe

The exterior of the building is rather nondescript and for a moment, I thought I was lost until I noticed the cafe signs. The cafe inside had a hipster feel with hanging lights and natural, wooden/string textures. The sitting area near the main entrance was actually rather dark so I opted instead to sit closer to the dessert and drinks station, which faced some large windows that let in some of that wonderful sunshine outside.

Royal Stacks, Chatswood

Prior to its grand opening, a lot of hype surrounded Royal Stacks with promos seen on Instagram and online so I was eager to visit and see what exactly was so great about this place.

Throne on Display Outside Restaurant (Prior to Grand Opening)

Realistically, their main drawcards are their burgers and frozen custards. The burger selection is reasonable with 8 options (or 9 if you include the off-the-menu McDowell burger) including one vegetarian option. Available sides include fries or potato gems with optional cheesy sauce. Regarding their frozen custards, they have quite a selection of flavours ranging from the good old plain vanilla to the fluoro-blue cookie dough (reminiscent of the Cookie Monster).

Cavalier Specialty Coffee, Crows Nest

Cavalier Specialty Coffee first came under my radar after seeing some mouth-watering pictures of their Tiramisu French Toast on Instagram. After finding out that it was actually located within walking distance from work, I was eager to bookmark this cafe and on the first chance of a window of free-time, I headed out to St Leonards to locate this mysterious cafe. It turned out that the cafe was practically down the road from work.

On this sunny day, the local area is relatively quiet yet the cafe is buzzing with activity:

Outside of Cafe

Uncle Tetsu's, Sydney CBD

The Japanese cheesecake craze hit fever heights when Uncle Tetsu's opened the doors of its first store in Australia and people reported wait times of over an hour just to grab their hands on one of these babies.

Fast forward several weeks, the store is still super popular, especially among Asians. On this particular night, the lines were surprisingly rather short (perhaps up to a dozen people in the queue, compared the hundred or so that I saw the last time I was in the city) so as a last-minute surprise for PapaBear on his birthday, I decided to bite the bullet and line up.

Cheesecake Sign

Hotel Bondi, Bondi Beach

Back in Jun, MSG Cafeteria was approached by Hotel Bondi to drop by and sample some of their new bistro menu. So on the date of our booking, Whitty and I made the trek out to Bondi from the city after a brief stop by Zero Degrees to try their puffer fish. As we arrived at Bondi Beach early, we ended up walking along the promenade so that Whitty could go Pokemon hunting - apparently there were a lot of "rats and pigeons" around, as well as an occasional Psyduck if you're lucky.

Outside of Hotel

Whitty and I met up with the manager of Hotel Bondi, Ralph, who explained how the hotel had been renovated back in Dec 2015 - complete with new floors, paint job, new furniture and lighting. It certainly looked worth it! There were some awesome LED chandeliers at the main entrance for the hotel and more interesting lights spread throughout the bistro and bar area to provide dim lighting for guests. There was ample table seating inside as well as a pool/TV room. Apparently, Hotel Bondi previously leased out their kitchen but took the kitchen back in Mar 2016 so they're now serving their own food, complete with a new bistro menu.

The Waffle Shack, Ultimo

Anyone who knows me well will know I looovvve waffles - I got a waffle maker for my 21st and I cannot stop raving about Toscano's choc chip waffles. As a matter of fact, I'm actually munching on it right now as I'm writing this, much to the dismay of my fellow work colleagues as it generates wafts of sweet baked goods smell across the office once it comes out of the toaster... nomnomnom.... Hence I was uber excited when a FCBA event was held at The Waffle Shack as it could only mean one thing - wafffllessss!!!

My eagerness knew no bounds since I ended up scouting the place twice (because I was that eager) before the designated start time... all within hours of trying out the 'Sexy Me' egg waffle from Haven. Surprisingly, The Waffle Shack was sort of a hole-in-the-wall, sharing common space with a mobile phone reseller and a convenience store. I think I may have scared Chris (the owner) with my near-stalky photo-taking of him in action when there were no customers.

Outside of Store

Waffle Stack on Display

Haven, Surry Hills

Situated next to Central Station, Haven is famed for brewing specialty coffees that are specifically tailored to your preferences (based on aroma, sweetness, after taste, body and acidity), as well as for their fancy food items, like their signature HK-style egg waffles.

For those that have never heard of or tried HK-style egg waffles, then you're seriously missing out! One of my fondest food memories of Hong Kong is of their fresh egg waffles (along with the dragon's beard candies, sticky rice balls, and egg tarts with flaky puff pastry shells) - the sweet fluid batter is cooked on a special waffle iron so that when cooked, the waffle forms a lattice of egg-shaped pieces with a crispy exterior and gooey, custard filling. There are a few Asian cafes/restaurants that do sell fresh egg waffles in Sydney (e.g. in Eastwood for $3-5), or you can attempt to source an egg waffle machine or iron online that makes these awesome waffles... but sadly, you'll be out of pocket by at least $100 in order to get it shipped to Australia (yes, I've checked).

Hence you can see my eagerness to start off my food-driven day (note: this meal was followed by a visit to Koi Dessert Bar and The Waffle Shack... and Hotel Bondi) with a visit to Haven to see if their egg waffles live up to the ones from Hong Kong.

Passion Tree, Chatswood

I've heard a lot of hype around Passion Tree - their cakes here (and at the similarly named Passiontree Velvet in Macquarie Centre - are they under the same company since they also sell the exact same cakes and macarons?) give Zumbo desserts a run for their money (literally, since they're in the same price range) but more importantly, they're famous for their Bing Soo desserts involving a hollowed out fruit - like watermelon, rock melon, or pineapple - topped with shaved ice, fruit balls, and ice cream/block. Since this place was personally recommended by a friend, I decided to take the plunge and actually visit the cafe. I have previously walked by several times before but decided against jumping straight to dessert in lieu of eating a proper dinner.

The inside of the cafe is decorated with white decor (think white tables, chairs and wall cladding) but this highlighted the bright, colourful desserts on display:

Outside of Cafe

Front Counter

Desserts For Sale

Creperie Suzette, The Rocks

Part of the Harbour Rocks Hotel, Creperie Suzette serves customers fresh coffee, galettes and crepes within a small cafe space hidden within The Rocks, Sydney. The cafe gets a lot of natural lighting through the large windows along Harrison St and has a distinct Parisian feel with the internal decor, exposed brick walls and vintage wall art.

Cafe Sign

Outside of Cafe

I-Creamy Artisan Gelato, Sydney CBD

Hidden from the main street foot traffic, I-Creamy Artisan Gelato is located inside Skyview Plaza, off George St. If you decide to venture through the plaza, you'll soon encounter the large crowd surrounding the store - either curious bystanders, customers patiently waiting, or those that have already been graced with their gelato and are happily eating away.

Several of their flavours (including their coconut & lychee sorbet, white chocolate miso, Thai milk, durian, black sesame) have won gold or silver awards at the annual Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Show for the past few years so it's certified with a tick by industry experts. As you may notice in the below pictures, some gelato flavours have a bright yellow tags (they seriously look similar to minions, although I highly doubt I-Creamy is affiliated in any way with the movie) - indicating the awards level of the gelato - and others have a green clover/flower tag - indicating that there is adequate gelato for the staff to make 'flower gelato's.

Top Left: Store Front
Bottom Left & Above: Gelato on Offer

Flour Drum, Newtown

A while ago, Aunt-T joined MSG Cafeteria to various food blogger groups, which were mentioned on our blog but I never really asked about.. And it wasn't until I recently logged into the blog email for the first time that I discovered 50+ unread emails - a veritable minefield of spam (of the inedible type) and gold (of the edible type) because within the long list of unread emails were exclusive invites to food tasting events!

One of the recent invites received was from the Food Critics & Bloggers Australia (a.k.a. FCBA) for a tasting event at Flour Drum, Newtown. Having rarely been to Newtown (mainly to visit Black Star Pastry and Brewtown Newtown), I had to research on how to get here.

Located 10 min walk, or 4 min by bus, from Newtown station, Flour Drum sits inconspicuously among boutique shops along the main road but is rather like a hidden gem in the rough - for inside the cafe are some of the friendliest staff I've encountered and serve mouth-watering cakes. The co-owners - Christopher, Victor and Johnny - were easy to chat with and happily engaged in conversations with various customers scattered across the cafe (except maybe Johnny, who as the executive chef of Flour Drum spends a lot of his time in the kitchen - he stayed up till 3-4am making cakes for the weekend!!).

Outside of Cafe

The Meat & Wine Co., Darling Harbour

The Meat & Wine Co. restaurant has always been here from my earliest memories, located under the great IMAX theatre at the southern end of Cockle Bay Wharf/Darling Harbour. Despite know of its existence, I had never visited this restaurant until recently when a visiting relative was eager to try authentic Australian steak following a recommendation via a local guide book.

Outside of Restaurant

Fortunately I was able to book a table two days prior, despite booking for a very busy Saturday night during the spectacular Sydney Vivid festival - although we were given a limited dining time slot (6:30pm - 8:15pm).