A visual reminder of Mother’s Day written in the sky

Despite being born and bred in Sydney, I still find the Harbour one of the most spectacular places to be on a sunny day and my hearts swells with pride at the sight of the beauty of Sydney. I am truly a Sydneysider through and through. And today, for Mother’s Day, we’re playing tourist in our own city with my parents. If you remember Mother’s Day in Sydney on the Sunday, you might be puzzled, recalling a day filled with intermittent rain and you’d be right, it certainly was a so so day for weather. However the day before on the Saturday was a picture perfect day with not a cloud in the sky and only the gentlest breeze blowing. As we try and avoid restaurants on Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day and Valentines Day) through bad experiences in the past with harried, stressed venues being understaffed and trying to push us out in order to get the next seating in place, we simply celebrate it the day before and we’re lucky we did so weather-wise.

Fort Denison

Fort Denison is on Pinchgut Island, a small Island in the middle of the Harbour. Formerly a prison when Sydney was itself a penal colony, it was a prison within a prison. Nowadays, it serves as a tide marker and is Sydney’s only Island cafe.

The boat ride from Circular Quay to the Island

The tiny “ants” are the people doing the Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb

Accessible by boat, we board at Jetty No 6 at Circular Quay at 12:45pm for the 5 minute boat ride. Within 5 minutes, we arrive at Fort Denison which is a lot smaller that you’d expect (you can walk from end to end in less than 5 minutes) and are greeted at the cafe. The waiter is friendly and polite and lets us know that in a few minutes at 1pm they will be firing the canons which they do once a day, every day on the dot at that time.

The canon firing-kudos to my husband who captured this while covering his ears!

Why 1pm? Since 1906 it allowed ship to set their chronometers i.e. watches and the practise only stopped during World War II due to alarmed residents and resumed in 1986. Today a young boy gets to do it and we all cover our ears (it’s loud!) and after some view gazing and a chat with the friendly woman that oversees it we head back to our table under a huge marquee.

My mother and I order a couple of items to share while my dad who doesn’t like sharing orders the battered flathead and chips and my husband orders the lamb shanks. Prices are extremely reasonable considering the unique Harbour setting. We also see that they have a New Year’s Eve Celebration here for $1,000 a person-I wish!

Mezze Plate for 2 people $24

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Supper hour is an hour that goes largely uncatered for in Sydney. If you have a hankering for something late at night, most restaurants will have their last orders around 9.30-10pm and aim to have you out by 11pm. So for the supper loving or those the choices usually involve a trip to Chinatown to partake of some BBQ King or Mamak. Tastevin in Darlinghurst however keeps Night Owl hours opening their bistro until midnight and their wine bar with snacks until 2am.

Tonight Mr NQN and I are dining at a more “normal” time for my birthday dinner with Teena, Gina, Philippe and HotDog. When I get there I accidentally walk into Spice I am next door before I realise I’m in the wrong place. It’s tastefully decorated in a Parisian apartment chic style (oh how I love thee!) and we’re seated at a banquette, which they assure us is the best table. They know it’s my birthday and they’re very sweet and accommodating. Lighting is of the “romantic” kind (i.e. dark – especially the bathrooms where we almost feel our way about!) so please forgive the photos.

As I’ve been eating all afternoon I opt for a couple of entrees so we order a good range of things from the menu.

Bread selection $12  for 3

The bread selection is nice and fresh. There’s a seeded bread with fennel seeds and a fresh white baguette. I prefer the white baguette although the amount of French butter so this serve is minuscule with a small 2.5cms diameter round slice (we don’t get three times the amount of butter which we should have given that we’ve ordered three lots of bread).

Rock Oyster with Champagne vinegar and cracked black pepper $3 each

Gnocchi a la Parisienne, sauteed mushroom and white truffle mornay $16

My Gnocchi a la Parisienne is delicious. Tiny potato gnocchi are interspersed with pieces of soft mushroom and this is all coated in a creamy mornay sauce with cheese with a lightly scented truffle oil. I eat every last drop of this, scraping the plate with  my spoon.

Endive salad with Roquefort mousse, citrus and candied walnut $16

Mr NQN’s endive and pear salad certainly looks impressive. I usually steer away from endive as I find it too bitter but this one isn’t at all, with the sweet balsamic dressing and creamy Roquefort mousse assisting in this regard.

Pithivier of Escargot with beetroot $17

I love Pithiviers (little pies) and this one has escargot (snails) encased in a little igloo shaped puff pastry pie. The escargot when encased in a pie aren’t particularly distinct tasting, in fact they could be mushrooms or something similar and it’s mostly puff pastry rather than filling, but it is delicious, particularly with the sweet beetroot emulsion.

Confit of Duck $29

My husband’s confit of duck is delicious and as you’d expect, it comes away from the bone with ease.

Spatchcock $28

Lemon Sole $28

The lemon sole is moist and soft with most of the lemon flavour on top. It’s a whole sole so the serve is generous and it is accompanied by peas. I usually adore peas but these are underseasoned.

Beef $29

The beef is deliciously tender although Teena and Gina say that they prefer a classic Bernaise to the rich Roquefort which they feel overwhelms the beef.

Apple Tart  with Honey Almond Nougat icecream $13

The apple tart is a thin layer of very buttery pastry with paper thin slices of apple accompanied with a lightly crunchy honey nougat ice cream. The tart is delicious, very freshly baked so that it is crisp and the ice cream is a delicious accompaniment and a nice alternative to vanilla. And since it’s my birthday it comes with a sparkler and a song!

Chocolate Cake with vanilla bean anglaise $12

Sadly, the chocolate fondant is a disappointment. The flavour seems almost watered down for what should be a deliciously rich dessert.

Creme Caramel de Maman $11

On the other hand, the Creme Caramel which is sublime and moreish. I adore this and the custary eggy texture and scoop up every drop of the delicately wobbly custard edged with caramel.

We didn’t have time or inclination to visit the bar but it looked inviting.

And because you know I love lighting fixtures…

Tastevin Bistro and Wine Bar

292-294 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9356 3429
Open 12noon-2am
Closed Tuesdays

http://www.tastevin.com.au/

I need to tell the people at Yong Jing’s something. I need to tell them that the menu outside their restaurant makes everything look positively drab and dull. In a corner of the street where three Chinese restaurants sit side by side, we have Yong Jing’s Kitchen Enlightenment on one end, Dong Dong Noodles in the centre and Kingsford Chinese Restaurant on the other side. Kingsford Chinese is packed so we choose to eat there until we see the menu and decide that there’s nothing really jumping out at us on the menu. So we did what a potentially embarrassing thing and left. But we had our stomachs to consider you see. I’m of the firm belief that you only get a certain number of meals a day and you should either make them fabulous or very healthy. I’d had my 2 healthy meals already and I was in the mood for something fabulous. But because we’d already been to Dong Dong, the interestingly named Yong Jing’s Kitchen Enlightenment was our choice.

The menu

Which brings us to what I need to tell them. When we open the colourful menu it explodes with a tantalising array of dishes. Indeed it takes us a good 10 minutes to decide what to order as everything looks so damn good in the pictures. Prices are also reasonable for the food and we find it hard to narrow it down to 5 dishes but we finally do after some umming and aahing. If they’d only put this menu in the window I suspect their restaurant would be as full as Kingsford Chinese two doors down.

Deep fried chicken fillet cooked with special sauce $11.80

The tables and chairs are in a traditional Chinese lacquered wood and give it a lovely sophisticated touch as do the matching frame paintings and calligraphy. We’re not waiting long before our piping hot dishes arrive. The first dish, the deep fried chicken fillet cooked with special sauce comes with the sauce on the side. It’s an enormous serve of freshly fried chicken, very similar to Japanese Chicken Karaage but much larger in scale. The accompanying sauce is similar to a Singapore Chili crab sauce with egg. it’s nothing short of fabulous and it goes within minutes, every huge hulking freshly cooked piece.

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