I find that through fate or folly that I am often the person that people ask where to eat. It’s either readers who are looking for a place to eat in Sydney or interstate or friends or family. I don’t mind of course, it is of course yet another chance to talk about food. But when my sister Blythe visisted Sydney from London she and my family asked me to find somewhere. The brief was simple enough yet it was complicated.

It had to have a gorgeous Sydney view to reorient my sister who was used to London views

It had to be impressive enough for my mother

It had to have reasonably priced meals to make Mr NQN happy

It had to have a shop attached to it as I needed to do some gift shopping

It had to have something to amuse my impossible to please father. Hmm ok that’s a hard one. Let’s just cut our losses and go with the first four points.

Burnt Orange is housed in a Federation style mansion, formerly the Mosman golf club in the 1930s. It is a cafe with a lovely view slash boutique slash gallery. We park at the carpark next door ($3-4 an hour!) and take the short walk down the path to the large timber and stone house. There is a wrap around verandah for diners and inside is the retail store. The Burnt Orange concept was from an Irish company called Avoca (they serve Avoca bread).

Jug of homemade lemonade $8

While we’re browsing the menu we order a large jug of still homemade lemonade which comes out in a pitcher with a wooden spoon, cut strawberries and mint leaves. It’s slightly bitter as of course it is lemonade, too lemony for my mother and Blythe who are not really into home made lemonades but I find it quite pleasant.

Elderflower pressé $6

The Elderflower presse is gorgeously refreshing and floral with the aroma of Elderflower from the first sip and delicate bubbles.

Australian Antipasti platter: Princi prosciutto, Affineur truffle salami and bresaola with mixed olives, dips and house chutney $26

Service is sweet and friendly and from reading reviews it has improved vastly. A very generous serve which could feed at least three for an entree, the antipasti platters comes out with some heavenly bresaola (smoked beef), prosciutto and Affineur truffle salami which is heady in fennel seed. It also comes with the Avoca walnut bread and a sourdough rye both thinly sliced, the Avoca walnut bread the clear favourite with it’s rich nuttiness and almost cake-like texture. There were also two dips in a shared container: hommous and baba gannoush as well as a tomato relish and a pear chutney which were all made on the premises. To finish it off are black and green olives and cornichons.

Tasmanian salmon cake served on a crisp salad of baby cress & granny smith apple with a lemon mayonnaise $21

The mains come out together and we start with the Tasmanian salmon cake which is a nice surprise. We had expected a fried cake (for my mother) but instead we get fresh, well cooked poached salmon, potato, herbs and baby capers with salad. The salmon is fresh and singing with dill and it’s a very generous sized portion and excellent value.

Burnt Orange fish pie with a selection of fresh fish fillets in a creamy leek & white wine sauce topped with fluffy potato mash and a side of green leaves $24

One of the most popular items on the menu is the fish pie which is filled with large, tender chunks of white fish and salmon (not at all watery as some fish pies can be) and a creamy sauce flavoured with fennel and celery which gives some mouthfuls an ever so slightly bitter taste to an otherwise creamy sauce. it’s topped with mashed potato and then baked until it has slightly crispy edges on top and is paired with a large green salad. I did like this dish although I did find some mouthfuls had that ever so slight bitterness to them.

Moroccan-spiced lamb with fig & almond cous cous $25

The moroccan spiced lamb is cooked until soft and falls apart. It was a hit with everyone, especially when we paired it with the tomato relish which we still had from the antipasti plate. The lamb was well flavoured and matched with a fruity sweet couscous which had Turksih apricots and currants in it.

Chicken pie with preserved lemon & rosemary, spring vegetables and flaky puff pastry $24

This one was quite a favourite with everyone-Mr NQN was appreciating the serving sizes here and even he couldn’t finish everything on the plates. The chicken pie is filled with a tomato based sauce, chicken thigh pieces, chickpeas, carrots, peas, preserved lemon and rosemary and topped with a layer of home made buttery puff pastry. The sauce was rich and given a lift from the preserved lemon and the buttery puff was good indeed.

Pumpkin, goat’s cheese & walnut tart with Melissa’s carrot jam and fresh herb greens $18

With the sizeable portions of the other dishes, the pumpkin, goat’s cheese and walnut tart was noticeably smaller by comparison. It was an interesting tart though with a crumbly base almost like a sweet tart base which my mother adored. It was filled with pumpkin and rich goat’s cheese and a spoonful of the carrot jam which was slightly sweet grated carrots and mustard seeds. The walnuts were hidden under the salad which we didn’t quite discover until the tart was finished and we wondered where the walnuts were and it might have been better to put the walnuts on the tart as they would have provided a nice, toasty crunch.

Bilpin apple crumble served with vanilla bean ice cream $10

We had saved room for dessert of course! Blythe has had her eye on the salty peanut slice and reasons that a slice is “like half a dessert so we could have two slices and that could count as one person’s dessert”! We start with the Bilpin apple crumble which is strong in clove rather than cinnamon and is served with little plums or dates and apple pieces and a butter crumble top.

Basil pannacotta with vanilla roasted peaches and almond crisp $12

Mr NQN and I first tried basil panna cotta a while back and I always liked the flavour of a creamy panna cotta with basil. This one has an appealing wobble and a true basil flavour to it. The vanilla roasted peach is an ideal sweetness and the almond biscotti is divine.

Salty Peanut Caramel Slice $4

The salty peanut caramel slice is just that. A thick, slightly chewy slice with roasted, caramelised peanuts with a light saltiness to it. I find myself wondering how to make this as I would like to reproduce it at home.

Mars Bar Slice $4

I’m less besotted by the Mars Bar slice which has a thick layer of super sweet milk chocolate on top and very uncrunchy almost soggy rice bubbles on the bottom. We enquire with the waiter if this is indeed how it should taste and he brings a fresh one from the fridge which is markedly better although not as nice as the salty peanut caramel slice.

Our two hours almost up with the parking Mr NQN and my father go off to take care of the car while I do a bit of shopping including some gorgeous vintage Christmas cards and some invitation sets.

Downstairs there is the newly minted kiosk which sells Muffins, toasites, Daylesford and Hepburn flavoured sparkling mineral waters and Serendipity ice creams as well as picnic fare such as sandwich or salad picnic boxes ($40 for 2) or platters for $20.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you often the ones that is asked to choose where to dine?

Burnt Orange

1108/1109 Middle Head Road, Mosman NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9969 1020
Burnt Orange at The Club House is located at the end of Middle Head Road opposite HMAS Penguin,
with a sign-posted car park before the building.

“I think you use a syringe and you inject the soup into it”

“No no too fiddly, I think it’s like a blob of gelatine that they put in it”

“No no you’re both wrong. They cook the meat and the skin separately and then put them together and pour soup inside and seal them up”

Dumpling Auntie

It’s almost Chinese New year and as an avid Xiao Long Bao eater, I had always sworn to find out how they put the soup in these little beasties and when New Shanghai asked me if I would like to learn how to make these dumplings I jumped at the chance. My mother is also curious to know so she comes along. Shanghai dumplings seem to have taken over as the new Yum Cha and on weekends (and some weekdays) eager hordes queue to try these delicious little morsels.

Dumpling Auntie

Traditionally these dumplings are actually eaten as breakfast foods or snacks in the afternoon rather than the way in which we eat them here as lunch or dinner. Today the two dumpling aunties are going to show me how to make four of the dumplings. The fillings and dough are all made up already but they’ll show me how to fill them and Shirley and John who own New Shanghai will explain the differences in making each bun.

Roll the circle mainly around the outside…

So that the centre is slightly thicker than the edges

First up are the regular gyoza type dumplings. These are steamed and then pan fried. The skin for this and the Xiao Long Bao are the same although the Xiao Long Bao are rolled thinner. They show me how to roll the skin which has an emphasis on rolling out the sides leaving the centre slightly thicker as the sides are to be pinched and gathered together. I watch as the other dumpling auntie fills a dumpling with the pork filling and then cradles it between two fingers in the hollow of her thumb ad forefinger and pinches the sides using her right hand while turning the dumpling slightly with her left so that they can a slightly rounded shape.

Fill generously (fill with less if you are starting out though)

Pleat with thumb and index finger

Ta-da! Sort of…I’m not getting hired with this one

My turn! OK not bad, she kindly fixes it up for me before I see that it has made the cut (although they might have binned it when I turned away to avoid hurting my feelings ).  Each Dumpling Auntie has worked for years making these dumplings and they can make them all.

Xiao Long Bao attempt one

Hmm could have used some more pleats!

Second attempt: fail. No-one wants their meat showing do they?

Now for the Xiao Long Bao. They estimate that they make up to 1,000 of these a day. The secret to how they get the soup in them is this. John remains a little evasive I think in an effort to keep the secret recipe a secret but it is with pork skin broth which produces gelatinous cubes that once steamed, melt into a soup. The other trick to these is in the pleating.  You sit it in one hand (your left if you are right handed) and fold each over in tiny pleats using your pointer finger to fold it against the already folded pleats in a total of 22 pleats per dumpling!

Watching the pro do it

Pinch, pinch, pinch

And if you, like me, love the puffy, pan fried dumpling with the lovely burnished bottoms but often found that you were too full to eat them as they always arrive last I now know the reason why. The filling and method for these dumplings is the same as the Xiao Long Bao but the dough is a different yeast dough. They store the dough in the fridge and these dumplings are only made once an order is placed or the dough will start to puff and develop and the result will be a puffier, more porous dough.

My last attempt

In a powerful commercial steamer like this, Xiao Long Bao are steamed for a total of a mere two minutes

Once they are made (and these Dumpling Aunties only take a few minutes to make a batch), these are then moved onto the frypan area where they are placed in a lightly greased frypan and then once they sit there they ladle over about four ladles full of oil and 1 of water-yes water! This is then cooked for 10 minutes which explains why they take so long as each batch is cooked to order. And yes don’t lift the lid while you are cooking these as the water and oil combination is explosive!

Four ladles of oil and one ladle of water. Yes, seriously!

She’s a brave woman opening up the pan halfway through…

But look how purty they are!

Chinese proverb: a brave person opens up the pan fried dumpling pan once they are cooking

White Tea $3.50 per person

A couple of weeks later dumpling fiend Mr NQN and take a seat to try these dumplings for ourselves. It’s busy with a crowd gathered at the front. We take a seat and the crowd is mixed-there are Chinese families as well as people from all sorts of ethnicities. The design inside here evokes that of a Shanghai alley and there definitely appears to be an effort to raise this above the usual Shanghai dumpling eateries. There is a selection of teas from white tea, spiral green tea, dragon as well green tea as well as additional extras like XO sauce (a divine and extravagant mixture of dried scallops, dried shrimp, chilli, garlic and Yunnan or Jinhua ham)  for $2 for a small serve- I looove XO sauce (I’ve considered carrying it around with me)!

XO chilli sauce $2

#514 Stir fried Chinese rice cake with blue swimmer crab $18.80

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Le Wharf

A funny thing happened to me this year around my birthday. Well the book happened really and I scarcely had time to do anything. And as the case may be, the birthday planning fell to the wayside. I had wanted to visit Berowra Waters Inn for the longest time ever since my advertising days. The Thursday or Friday lunch was legendary-mainly because it was quite a distance and you weren’t expected back and if you timed it right, you ended up with an almost three day weekend. Sadly this never eventuated and this year, by the time I got myself together for my birthday it was a week before my birthday. I knew that there wouldn’t have a single spot, even on the pier itself, even if I begged. So I set it aside for next year.

Luckily, next year’s birthday came early in the form of a remarkable weekend away and Mr NQN and I were driving away from Brooklyn after our relaxing night at Dangar Island on our way to Berowra Waters Inn. We drive past what I unaffectionately term the “Hill O’death” aka the windy Berowra Water Road high above the road below and with as many twists and turns as a formula one raceway. We park the car (a tip, book for an early lunch as the carpark gets crowded on weekends and you don’t want to be schlepping your good self up the hill in heels) and we make our way down to the private ferry wharf where a ferry driver shuttles back and forth across the water picking up guests and depositing them on the wharf in front of the restaurant. It’s a short five minute ride and we alight and climb the wooden walkway (caution, leave your spindly spike heels behind) and up the sandstone stairs to the restaurant.

With floor to ceiling windows, inside is chic, very North Shore and all view and service is friendly, deferential and helpful. We’re dithering over what to get so they suggest alternating with the dessert assiette for two and possibly a cheese course if we have room which will give us a taste of everything on the menu. You can have five courses including tea, coffee and petit fours for $150 or $210 including wines or six courses with each additional course $25 each of $35 with matched wines.

Amuse Bouche

We start with a glass of Billecart Salmon champagne to soothe the nerves (not that the nerves were jangled in any way). We’re given an amuse bouche, salmon and eggplant caviar on a crisp. The crisp is warm and very buttery and the salmon and eggplant caviar lovely.

Bread with French butter stick

“Oooh look at this butter!” I exclaim to Mr NQN. because I am easily besotted by butter. It’s is a salted French butter in a foil wrapped baton shape. The bread is warm but I’m not particularly taken by it, it’s very wheaty for my taste (it sounds odd I know).

Chilled Vichyssoise, Oscietra & Salmon Caviars, Beignets Of Hawkesbury Oysters served with Hewitson ‘Gun Metal’ Riesling 2009, Eden Valley, South Australia

Said to be their signature dish, the kitchen sends out two of these so that the courses can come out in pairs as there are nine savoury courses). Lucky thing too as I might have fought Mr NQN for the moussey Vichyssoise which is light and airy as a mousse. Inside it halfway down are the two caviars, a larger red salmon caviar and a small black Osciestra caviar and on top are tiny, tiny breadcrumbs. The beignets of local oysters are crispy and hot and sit on top of a bed of creamy leeks. Heaven. I pick up the vichyssoise cup and try to lick up extra bits from the side of the cup before realising that I may be embarrassing Mr NQN when I see his expression of horror.

White Asparagus, Green Asparagus, Slow Poached Organic Egg, Fresh Black Winter Truffle From Manjimup served with Krinklewood (Biodynamic) Chardonnay 2008, Hunter Valley, New South Wales

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