‘Tis the season to be jolly! No it’s not Christmas but it’s time for Taste of Sydney, the food festival that allows lucky Sydney siders to sample food from the top restaurants around Sydney for a fraction of the price – a build your own degustation. Diners purchase crowns which they can redeem at each restaurant’s stand with 1 crown =$1 and dishes ranging from 8, 10 and 12 crowns with drinks at 6 crowns. The restaurants participating include Aria, Pilu at Freshwater, Guillame at Bennelong Balzac, Longrain, Danks Street Depot, Flying Fish, Assiette, Bird Cow Fish, Berowra Waters Inn, Four In Hand, Buon Ricordo, Jonah’s, Marque and el Toro Loco. There is also the Producer’s Market, the Chef’s table where you can sit and talk to the chefs, the Taste Kitchen and interactive wine sessions.

Chef’s Table (image from the Taste of Sydney website)

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Ladies and Gents (or if I were 5 years old, I would have started this with “Ladies and Germs” and promptly keeled over in a laughing fit), you didn’t think I would forget about you this Valentines Day did you? Well I have a present that is going to appeal to both of you… a beef and beer cooking class! Now ladies, both taken and single, you may have difficulty getting your Significant Other or whom you want to be your Significant Other to attend a cake making class but dangle a beef and beer cooking class in front of a guy and his ears are likely to swivel around in interest.

Mumu Grill’s Beef and Beer cooking class was such a success during the Sydney International Food Festival that they had six times the amount of people wanting to book than there were places. It had to be taken off the website before October such was the demand. So I have two places for one very lucky reader to their next Beef and Beer Masterclass on the 20th of February. If you miss out they hold regular Beef and Beer Masterclasses on the second and third Saturday of each month.

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Happy first To Market To Market for 2010 Dear Readers! I hope everyone’s year started off with a bang and that happiness continues. In aid of this, this month’s To Market To Market features a fantastic selection of the nicest goodies I was sent over these past few weeks.

A big thankyou to the lovely people at these companies who agreed to send out packs of these items to some lucky Not Quite Nigella readers so that you too can sample their goodies instead of just reading about them!

Just leave a comment at the end of the story telling me which product you’d like to try and why. You can enter once a day. I’m very sorry overseas lovelies but these can only be posted within Australia. I shall select winners on the 31st of January, 2009.

And the winners are!

Achachas: Alex H. and Anna T.

Polka Dot Cookies: Nadine H.

Relish This: Phuong Anh N., Cristina A., Kathy S., Nicki K. and Andrea L.

Jollie: Syrie W, Kristy D. and Tommy C.

Villa Maria: Jen W.

Congratulations to our lucky winners!

Achachas

“Acha what?” You may be asking. Well if you’re a fan of tropical fruit, and in particular mangosteens, then you might just love these. These succulent fruits are grown in North Queensland and are available in NSW, Queensland, Melbourne and Canberra. They’re similar to a mangosteen inside albeit slightly tarter and have a pearly, smooth white flesh. They are fun to pop open and provide a fun, travel sized snack.

Thanks to Achacha, two lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will receive a sampler bag of Achachas! NSW, Queensland, Melbourne and Canberra addresses only.

Polka Dot Cookies

I do love a good cookie and even better is an iced cookie. These pretty Polka Dot Cookies presented me with the most difficult dilemma however. As I was photographing them, all I wanted to do was eat them as the vanilla aroma was beckoning to me. As I lifted up the “Not Quite Nigella” teapot to my mouth I thought it was one of the most adorable things I had seen so I couldn’t bear to eat it. I compromised and ate a cupcake one and it was made of a sweet, crumbly vanilla shortbread biscuit topped with fondant and cute royal icing. This series of cookies is called the “Red Delicious” gift jar and is designed for foodies like us.

Thanks to Polka Dot Cookies, one lucky Not Quite Nigella reader will receive a gift jar of Polka Dot Cookies worth $45! Sydney metropolitan addresses only.

Relish This

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