Not Quite NigellaThe cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @

Restaurant Toshiya, Cremorne

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:00:31 +0000

It was Saturday afternoon and I was hunting for a place for Mr NQN and I to have dinner with Queen Viv and Miss America that evening. The latter is very easy going but Queen Viv always needs convincing so I texted Queen Viv ”How about Toshiya in Cremorne? They have sashimi tacos.” “That sounds interesting [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Sokyo & Meow Meow, The Sydney Festival

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:00:48 +0000

I must admit that for the first two weeks of January I was in an unnatural state. I was mostly at home and not travelling. Which meant that I was cooking furiously and frantically and testing out dishes but it also meant that I was feeling a bit stir crazy cooped up at home. And I feel [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Saké, The Rocks, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:18 +0000

My weekends are so hectic that I often try and schedule nothing on Mondays. I need Mondays to recover from my weekend which is pretty much like a 5 day working week crammed into two days (not that I’m complaining Dear Reader, I love it!). But very occasionally, a lunch may creep into the schedule. [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Sorenzo, Meadowbank

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:00:17 +0000

My father has an innate sense of borders. There is a certain perimeter he won’t breach in his car and it spans about 10 kilometres around their house. Outside of that makes him nervous and so when I suggested a Japanese restaurant for my mother’s birthday in Meadowbank which was in truth only about 30 [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

The Chatswood Eat Street Progressive Degustation: Bavarian Bier Cafe, Mamak, Arigato, Izakaya and Rocket

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:00:08 +0000

Once upon a time, an email went around to my three partners in crime: Mr NQN, Queen Viv and Miss America. I asked them if they would like to come along with me on a little progressive degustation of Chatswood’s new Eat Street. Formerly the railway station, they’ve turned it into a small collection of [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Iron Chef Dinner 2010, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:00:30 +0000

The golden ahem … black ticket! I look around and survey the crowd standing outside the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom. There’s not a single Chairman Kaga outfit in sight. Despite this lack of frills and puffy shirts, there is excitement in the air as about 300 eager diners holding a ticket enter the waiting area for [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Mr NQN does Tetsuya’s: The Launch of Waku Ghin

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:00:27 +0000

Today’s post has been written by Not Quite Nigella’s other half, Mr NQN. The cursing was loud, I could almost hear it from work. The issue? My wife Lorraine (aka NQN) had been invited but was unable go to dinner at Tetsuya’s for a launch of his new Singapore restaurant. Let me introduce myself, I’m [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

Tokonoma, Surry Hills for a Shochu Tasting

Not Quite Nigella — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:00:54 +0000

“There’s no such thing as too much pork” Yas says with authority and I know he’s right. We’re ensconced in a leather booth in Tokonoma Surry Hills which is the bar and restaurant right next to Toko next door (Noma means “small space” although this is not really a small space). Having walked in in [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

A Masterclass with Tetsuya Wakuda & Win A Place at a Masterclass!

Not Quite Nigella — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:00:21 +0000

Tetsuya Wakuda I do have a few dreams left and many of them involve eating at spectacular restaurants around the world. One of them is located here in Sydney and it’s one that I haven’t visited in over seven years as the last time was for my 30th birthday. So I was very happy to [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by:

A Gourmet Safari at Azuma Kushiyaki with Maeve O’Meara

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:00:57 +0000

“Dear Lorraine, Im sorry for the late notice on this but wondering if you’d like to come as my guest to a new food safari we are running this Sunday – its a Japanese lunch with Mr Azuma in the city. They have a mission to bring Japanese food to people and will be doing [...]

Not Quite Nigella is sponsored by: