Food blogger get togethers are fun. But a variation of this is a girl’s only food blogger get together made up of a smaller group of us where we can unashamedly gossip about weddings, shoes and other girly things. So where better to do this at a Champagne High Tea and luckily the We Love Sydney card gives us 2 Champagne High Teas for the price of 1 (2 people for $45). I’m Champagne High tea-ing today with my fellow High Tea lovers Karen, Suze and Reem. Planning this, through a suggestion from Karen was no meat feat entailing over 70 facebook messages. A military style operation if ever I heard of one!

Selection of sandwiches clockwise from bottom left: Smoked Salmon; Cucumber on malted bread; York Ham with mustard mayonnaise and cheddar and vine tomato

We’re given our flutes of champagne soon after we are seated and a plate of sandwiches. We’re sitting at a table right near the window overlooking a small garden. The sandwich selection is: ham & mustard; smoked salmon; cucumber and tomato & cheddar cheese. The smoked salmon is, I feel compelled to add, quite unevenly filled, some sandwiches chock full of smoked salmon while other only have a thin slice. However despite this they are thoroughly delicious (I had one of the thinner sandwiches).

The ham doesn’t find favour with some although I like this. The cucumber isn’t great with the seeds making the bread a bit wet and bizarrely cottage cheese pieces are spread instead of the traditional cream cheese. I find the bread too thick for the tomato and cheddar sandwiches. It should probably be added that the buttering on these sandwiches might be considered verging on the heavy handed (you can see how much butter is used in the smoked salmon sandwiches above with the yellow edging against the coral salmon being butter).

Ronnefeldt’s Earl Grey loose leaf tea

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The Burlington, Matthew Kemp and Lela Radojkovic’s One Hatted North side restaurant is one that we are grateful for. Growing up in the East I took if for granted that there were lots of good restaurants around but when I moved North I found it was a little harder to find these gems. Prices are more reasonable here than the already reasonable-for-the-standard-of-food at Restaurant Balzac and this Saturday night my husband are scheduled for a romantic dinner, just the two of us, and of course the omnipresent camera.

Looks rather spooky upstairs no?

From the outside, it doesn’t look like anything much, quite plain with unadorned windows but the interior is warm, reminiscent of Balzac with a little less fancy in the front room, with a middle room and large back room for a large private table with a huge chandelier atop. My husband swears that it used to be one of those Haunted or Host a Murder party venues and indeed, looking at the top floor from the outside it looks a bit spooky. We’re given our menus but I already know what I want having scoured the website already on several separate occasions (yes I am obsessed). I order two entree sizes meals while my husband orders an entree and a main. We’ve asked about the Eton Mess, his famed dessert but it’s not on the menu tonight. Like Balzac, the service is friendly and informal except for our main waitress who lacks the warmth of the rest of the staff and is instead cooly polite.

The bread arrives, 2 slices of a rye sourdough loaf with butter, at a little too soft a temperature. The bread is very good however with a good crust on the outside.

Terrine of smoked ham hock and pork cheek, ear beignets and remoulade $12 (small size)

We’re not waiting long before our entrees arrive, mine is the Terrine of smoked ham hock and pork cheek, ear beignets and remoulade. I’ve ordered the entree size which is 1 slice of the terrine. On the website there are 4 slices pictured so I expected 2 slices with 4 slices being the main size. It’s wonderfully good, reportedly taking two days to make, the brawn consisting of soft meat melding together with the carrots, celery and herbs and bound together and suspended in gelatine.

The thin crunchy toast slivers are indeed very crunchy and the little pig’s ear beignets are crispily good. And remoulade is one of my favourite accompaniments and it goes oh so perfectly with the rest of this dish.

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I’m not terribly fussed about Doyle’s the restaurant. I had a really, really bad meal there several years ago consisting of a boring piece of fish and the lumpiest, driest mashed potatoes I could imagine and from my distant memory I can recall some very soggy vegetables and a pretty big bill so I’ve never really wanted to venture back. One thing that I do go back for consistently is the Doyle’s Fisherman’s Wharf seafood takeaway, specifically the seafood basket. For $16.50 there’s enough freshly fried seafood for two people and it’s not just fish but also prawns, scallops and calamari. We were lent a convertible car this one particular weekend and we thought what would be the best use of it on these seemingly few and far between sunny summer days. Watsons Bay and the scenic drive seemed the right order.

We find a park right next to the usually frantically crowded Doyle’s which means that the food gods are looking after us. The stretch of grass in front is full with tourists and people enjoying the sunny day and eating their takeaway. I line up as I need little time to decide – of course we are having the seafood basket. There is a rather unfriendly grumpy man behind the counter who seems intent on being rude to everyone in sight. Unfortunate but seeing as he stands between me and the seafood basket I place my order with him. Our seafood basket, a large tray with definitely enough for two emerges a few minutes later. Instead of sitting picnic style on the lawn, we opt for the large tabled area to the right and back of the takeaway.

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