I am staring at my phone. It is 4:55pm and I am awaiting a text message which will get me one step closer to knowing where I am dining this evening. You see I have no idea where I am eating tonight except that I know it is in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. At 5pm my phone beeps. The suburb is Darlinghurst and there are instructions to head there and at 6pm the address will be given. I don’t quite have the inclination to wander the streets or bars of Darlinghurst by myself so I sit tight and wait until 6pm to receive further messages.

The Library

At 6pm a simple address is given: “32 Burton Street, Darlinghurst”. Hmm I say to myself, I know that address! I pop it into google and up pops The Commons, which was formerly The Pond, a pop up restaurant I had visited a while back. Built in 1842 or 1850 it was formerly a dairy with convict common gardens located on the corner of the site. A small creek ran down from Taylor Square to Wooloomooloo past the property. During the sixties John Singleton had his first office there (he and a friend planted the giant Jacaranda in the backyard with a plaque that read ‘As long as we live, we shall grow’). Then during the seventies the building became a restaurant called The Different Drummer before changing hands where it then lay dormant for years. The building owner posted a sign outside that asked passers-by for suggestions on ‘What do do with this cottage? Interesting ideas invited’  and apparently he liked this idea just fine.

I make my way there and arrive at The Commons. Bicycles are lined up outside and the whole building is actually an 160 year old structure that has been renovated with greenery and lots of wood. In fact the come hither comforting Wintery smell of a wood burning stove pervades throughout. I ask where the Secret Foodies dinner is being held and am directed “Downtown”. Downtown means the basement level bar of this renovated 160 year old house where pre 1960′s cocktails are served and little plates of food are offered. I walk past the kitchen and the chef gives a friendly “Hi!” and past the vintage books in the display cases.

I join the three secret foodies that are already gathered and meet Alex aka Ms Darlinghurst who has organised the Secret Foodies dinners. So far she has held 24 of these events ranging in size from tonight’s 14 people up to 50. The concept is simple, people sign up and pay for a dinner knowing a vague location and a date and time and on the day, two hours beforehand they receive the suburb and one hour before they receive the address. The restaurant is usually somewhere new although at times there may a golden oldie being rediscovered thrown in.

Negroni Sbagliato

I start with a negroni sbagliato which is Campari and sweet vermouth on ice with prosecco. It has that familiar bitterness from the Campari plus a sweetness from the prosecco and is quite potent indeed! And even though I seem to be the only person by myself (note to most, you may want to come with a friend) people are friendly and chatty.

Mixed cured meats

A selection of mixed antipasto plates come out. The first plate is the salami, breseola and pancetta which is excellent. Soon after, the rest of the 14 people arrive and fill up the Downtown section that we’re occupying which was in fact the former servant’s quarters.

Vegetarian antipasti

Another table gets a vegetarian antipasti and we get a bowl of olives. We don’t get the antipasti plate and the waitress tells us that only three plates of each will go out whereas there are four tables of us which seems like a bit of a glitch as people were interested in trying everything. Also on the menu there are mentions of three plates which we didn’t get which is quite disappointing as they sounded rather good. They were cheddar and pickles; potato skins and ketchup and tumbleweed calamari as well as bread and oil. I didn’t see hair nor hide of these so I’m not sure where they went!

Stuffed zucchini flowers

Our last antipasto dish is stuffed zucchini flowers which are crunchy deep fried zucchini flower stuffed with a seasoned cheesy filling. They were served piping hot and were crunchy and full of flavour.

Alex asks Rob the owner to come out and have a chat to us which he does. He and his friends built the tables and stools that we’re sitting on (in fact they are blown up versions of Dutch milking stools). The bookshelf and the area behind called “The Library” are used for spirit masterclasses and careful not to take out or browse one of the encyclopaedias that sit on the bookshelf as the books help keep the bookshelf upright as part of a carefully balanced act!

Click here to read the full story

“There are eight of us, that’s definitely a good sign!”

Now ordinarily I’m not a particularly superstitious person. It mainly extends to jinxes more than anything else. And whilst Chinese people are renowned for being superstitious, I’d say that my parents were mildly superstitious but not overtly so. The number 8 is said to be extremely lucky (and I was born on the eighth of the month so I figure that has given me plenty of luck) and conversely the number 4 is said to be bad luck. But growing up, practically overrode superstition and when they bought their first house we ended up growing up in a house numbered 44. If you know Chinese people you would know that many would either ask to change the number or they would quite likely not live at a house who has an extremely unlucky number (with 44 being double bad luck!).

So when we had our crowd of eight dumpling eaters I couldn’t help but remark about the superstitious number. Allow me to explain our exploits for the day. Our aim was simple, to find the best Xiao Long Bao soup dumplings in Sydney. You know those deliciously warming dumplings that seem to have taken over the hearts and tummies of food lovers? At best they have a delicate, silky skin encasing a pork filling with a hot, fragrant soup inside which burst open to warm the tummies (and possibly scald the tongue!). We’d see if dumpling fatigue was indeed a real phenomenon and we would test our stomach’s fortitude in the most delicious way.

Starting at 1:30pm in the afternoon (later than we’d like but David had a swim that morning) our group was made up of intrepid dumpling lovers Queen Viv, Miss America, David the chef from Perama and his wife Belinda, Jen from Truffled Pink and her boyfriend Nick came along with Mr NQN and I. Only hardened dumpling lovers needed apply. Our list encompassed nine dumpling restaurants in total spread across Sydney. Everyone perused the list of dumpling houses that we were eating at and nodded. “Also there are a lot of eights in the phone numbers!” someone exclaimed.

The dumpling-mobile aka Black Cherry

This was a mission that was planned far ahead of time. In fact it was planned almost three months in advance and in that space of time our naughty car Elphaba had decided to protest and die and we found ourselves carless. Thankfully the kind people at Toyota loaned me their new Rukus car (in a colour we christened “Black Cherry”) to help us in our mission. Thank god for friends with cars!

The brief:

• Try steamed xiao long bao and the pan fried pork buns if they had them on the menu
• We could order any drinks that we needed (dumpling chasing is thirsty work!)
• Try not to loiter if the place is busy
• We would score the dumplings on four criteria: the pastry, appearance, filling/flavour and soup. They would be scored out of 10 with adjustments allowed

Din Tai Fung, World Square, Sydney CBD

Our first stop was aiming high. We had all at other times visited Din Tai Fung and knew that their Xiao Long Baos were fantastic and whilst there was some debate about the flavour of the dumplings with Mr NQN insisting that Shanghai Night‘s were better for flavour, there was no mistaking how pretty these specimens were. Said to have at least 18 pleats in each individual dumpling these were mini works of art. As we walk towards Din Tai Fung we see a huge sign saying that they are not affiliated with any other dumpling restaurant which is oddly large for such an announcement.

Mr NQN, Queen Viv, Miss America and I meet the rest of our dining pals in front of this sign. “We’ve been kicked out!” Belinda tells us as they had been sitting there waiting for us but when they asked for a table for eight, they were asked to wait outside for a table. Yes it’s that sort of place. There is always a queue outside Din Tai Fung, pretty much at any time of the day.

“We’ve got to take turns explaining to them why we only want Xiao Long Bao” we agree and I go first. I fill in the form on the table ticking the boxes for two lots of Xiao Long Bao (we’re hungry as it is past our lunch hour) including several orders for the terribly refreshing lychee and mint drink and beers and two lots of xiao long bao.

The waiter hesitates “Just two?” “Yes just two, we’re on a diet” I offer. To their credit there’s no gnashing of the teeth (the large drinks order probably bought us an extra 30 minutes at the table) and they bring us a little stand for our handbags which comes with a cover cloth.

Xiao Long Bao

Our dumplings arrive quickly as they tend to here and they are very pretty specimens indeed. On the table are small bowls with threads of ginger on them and you add the vinegar and soy to these strands of ginger and dip the dumpling into this. There is even a guide telling people how to eat a Xiao Long Bao so we carefully followed the instructions and deliver a soup, gingery specimen to our lips. The dumpling skin is wonderfully silky and smooth and thin and the filling is less dense and less tightly packed than other dumpling restaurants. The soup with its helpful injection of ginger in the sauce is also just the right amount. Popular with the group, we pass around the scorecard and mark them.

Click here to read the full story

Why is it every time I see the implements of torture for crab, the first thing I think of is that chilling movie Dead Ringers? Still it doesn’t stop me from ordering crab, just gives me momentary pause for thought. Liss and I are sitting at a waterfront table at Kingsleys Steak and Crab House, the very last restaurant on the wharf which sits halfway down. We’re handed a large, paper menu which resembles a New York steakhouse menu. On the left are the creatures of the sea and on the right are the four legged creatures complete with black and white sketches of a pig, fish and a lamb.

Bread

Alaskan King Crab Legs 200g $19.90

There was no doubt in both of our minds that we were going to try the Alaskan King Crab Legs. Everyone by now has heard of or watched “The Deadliest Catch” where for the short three week harvest season fishermen risk their lives fishing the Bering Sea in order to catch these Alaskan King Crabs. The bodies themselves are fairly empty and all of the meat is concentrated in the long thick legs. This was the first time we were both trying it. The legs are precracked and are easy to crack open due to the strategic cracking. It is served with a mayonnaise and the meat is sweet and moist and we both instantly regret not ordering the bigger size. If I were to describe the texture of the meat it is firm and I would guess that seafood extender is trying to emulate the texture.

WA lobster and Qld King Prawns Salt and Pepper $44.90

The Western Australian lobster tail comes coated in a crunchy salt and pepper batter with three large Queensland king prawns. The king prawns still have their shells on and are best eaten shell and all or peeling them would make you lose all of the flavour on the batter. It’s not a typical light salt and pepper batter, it is much crunchier and a bit drier. The lobster tail is a tad tough and meaty and we prefer the prawns. They’re served with a nice garlic aioli.

Burrata Mozzarella $21.90

This salad had three of my favourite ingredients: heirloom tomatoes, 25 year aged balsamic vinegar and burrata. If you’ve never heard of burrata, it’s a cheese well worth acquainting yourself with. It has a mozzarella type outer and inside it is filled with cream. Their burrata is from Queensland but if you are curious, Paesanella do an excellent one too. The burrata here sits like a shiny, plump bag of treasure at the bottom of a glass, glistening with olive oil and the syrupy aged balsamic. The maitre’d places it on top of the salad and pours the balsamic and oil around it to dress the salad. The fresh flavours of the tomatoes, the tiny basil leaves and the creamy burrata are heaven together.

We turn around and see a couple of girls who have parked their boyfriends at the pub and are enjoying a Singapore Chilli mud crab (1-1.2kg $64.90). Not only are they wearing something to protect them but they are full length plastic aprons! “I don’t ever want this to end” one says and Liss and I ask if they have any crab left. Alas they have just sold their last one! Never mind, we say but our maitre’d asks if we would like more of the Alaskan crab legs. We look at each other, widen our eyes and nod eagerly.

Wagyu Rib Eye 400g $56.90

Click here to read the full story