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 @

John and Peter Canteen, Eveleigh

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:00:40 +0000

It seems I’m trying but failing spectacularly to eat healthily. Perhaps just before Christmas isn’t quite the time to instill a healthy eating regime. Even typing out the words makes a voice inside my head shriek “destined to fail!” but nevertheless, when faced with a meal in front of me, I try and at least [...]

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Alice In Culinary Land Dinner

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:00:13 +0000

“Dressing up is encouraged” I read. I bite my lip. I was destined to attend an Alice in Wonderland themed event and I looked at my Alice costume hanging up, bought on ebay a few weeks before. It barely skimmed my buttocks as most of the costumes available here seem to be of the cleavage [...]

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360 Bar and Dining, Sydney CBD

Not Quite Nigella — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:00:39 +0000

I find myself getting constantly lost in the new Westfields Shopping Centre (there’s something quite strangely spiral about the layout or maybe it’s my brain that is spiralling). But if I were to give you directions on how to get to 360 Bar & Dining it would be the way I find things-via shop name. [...]

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Quarter 21, Sydney CBD

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:00:53 +0000

When we dine out with a particular group of friends, friends of nearly 15 years, I get a bit nervous. Because one of my friend’s husband’s is called Hot Dog. He has a Grizzly Adams beard and as I say on my dining companions page, for a waiter he can either be your best friend [...]

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From The Farm To A Dinner Plate At Concrete Blonde

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:00:35 +0000

Mondays are my day in. The weekends are always hectic and whilst I still work on Monday I rarely venture out of the house as that requires a kerfuffle that I just can’t muster. But when the email arrived in my inbox to ask if I would be interested in more than a dining experience [...]

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Jonah’s, Whale Beach

Not Quite Nigella — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:00:28 +0000

What do Justin Bieber and Bono have in common? Well apparently they’ve all taken in the view I am looking at right now. No it’s not of a stadium full of screaming fans but instead the surrealy beautiful blue water of Whale Beach. Whale Beach or Palm Beach is the playground of the moneyed and [...]

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A Night At Rockpool With Rene Redzepi

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:00:06 +0000

Rene Rezdepi: the “world’s best chef” The man to my left getting snapped talking to people looks tired, very tried but deep in concentration when he speaks. He’s smaller than I imagined and some around me are whispering how different he looks with his beard. He is wearing a jacket, a linen shirt untucked and [...]

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Botanic Gardens Restaurant, Sydney

Not Quite Nigella — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:00:14 +0000

“Where are we?” I ask Mr NQN breathless, holding an umbrella and standing in front of a fuzzy grey rain soaked day. “Don’t worry, follow me” he says taking my hand and guiding me through throngs of bushes and greenery. The greenery is of course because we are in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the [...]

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Hawthorn, Mosman

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:00:39 +0000

I started off the sentence “Well my agent recommended this to me…” before trailing off and realising how terribly affected that sounded. Surely starting off a sentence proclaiming that you have an agent is similar just the precursor to speaking about yourself in the third person for example “Lorraine is hungry now. Please bring Lorraine something to [...]

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The Wine Library, Woollahra

Not Quite Nigella — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:00:38 +0000

Going to a wine bar and not having any wine might seem like a silly thing to do but allow me to plead my case. This wine bar, The Wine Library on the Woollahra end of Oxford Street reportedly has some very good morsels to eat on offer. These delicious sounding bites also come at [...]

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