Picture it: the morning after a dinner party. I woke up and switched on the computer and put my on my computer mouse. It was buttery. Now what were the chances of that? Well if you know me, they’re pretty high. I’m often found reading food blogs with one finger on the mouse and the other feeding myself. So a buttery mouse would be inevitable. And then I got on twitter and the conversation turned to people in public with food on them. I’ve walked out with flour on my skirt and lettuce in my hair. I promised that I would keep an eye out for people wearing food when I was going out for lunch that day. I was hoping that it was more common than I thought (really to make myself feel a little better).

I’m always lost when it comes to the Ivy complex and find staff there varying degrees of helpful. The girl downstairs whose job I’m assuming is to direct lost souls such as myself wandering around the complex barely looks up and moves a bored arm indicating “that way” and could not be less interested. Then when I go upstairs to Uccello, well they couldn’t be more helpful. I’m meeting some friendly people from Whistler in Canada and discussing an upcoming return to Canada and at 12pm there is a smattering of other guests. Come 1pm at the eating hour the restaurant will be full of men in suits with the occasional table of pretty young things.

Balmain bug salad, French beans, artichokes, oven dried cherry tomatoes $26

I choose the Balmain bug salad and we warn the Canadians at the table that Balmain bugs are not in fact insects but really delicious crustaceans that taste like tender lobster tail. Here they are served as small, sweet, deliciously tender pieces amongst a frissee, French beans and artichoke salad dotted with sweet, flavoursome oven dried cherry tomatoes. I found the artichoke a bit too tangy for me and overwhelming in the salad and it was a touch oily from them too. And at $26 this is a bit high for the size of the portion and amount of Balmain bug.

Chicken liver parfait, vin santo jelly, toasted fig brioche $24

I tried a little of the parfait and it was smooth and creamy with a strong hit of alcohol in it.

Risotto with baby spinach, mascarpone, grilled porcini mushrooms

Grass fed eye fillet of beef, sauteeed mushrooms, baby carrots, truffle butter, red wine reduction $48

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“So anyway, I was wearing what I call my adventure pants” my friend Ute leans over and tells me.

“Adventure pants?” I ask.

“They’re cream linen pants. I don’t really care what happens to them so they’re my adventure pants.

I’m sitting at the bar of Neild Avenue at 6:15pm one Friday night. I was running late trying to find a park that lasted for longer than two hours (no luck) and Ute had arrived at 6pm when Neild Avenue opens. It is the latest eatery from Icebergs and North Bondi Italian’s Maurice Terzini and it is apparently the restaurant that everyone wants to be seen at. And from the long, tanned limbs and short dresses and long beach tousled hair, it looks like there are some lissome imports from Bondi here. Despite the fact that Ute was there at 6pm, that wasn’t enough to secure a table (there are no bookings here) and when I got there, there was only room at the bar. On a wobbly bar stool (best not attempted in heels).

The menu is shown to us (a stapled sheaf of pages) and a lovely young waitress from New Zealand takes our order. We ask her for recommendations on what seems to be an extensive menu. Each page is marked with a “No alterations to the menu” and we note that there are some very reasonably priced wines by the glass. There are a range of Mediterranean cultures represented from Turkish, Lebanese, Italian and Greek with sections broken down into small starters; grains, pulses & vegetables; ancient soups; more substantial starters and then a range of items from the coal grill and spit. We dither over the menu but then Ute utters the words that remind me of why I love dining with her. “Let’s order some things and I’m happy to start all over again if that isn’t enough and order more”. Music to my ears!

Complimentary bread

I look around. Open for just four weeks there seem to be people on every possible perching spot. I spot some television celebrities too. “It’s all very New York” Ute says surveying the room and it has that warehousy sort of vibe to it. The main dining area has high partitions and at the back is the kitchen where there are displays of meats, pastries and salads as you would see in a regular Turkish restaurant. The bread is an Afghan bread (Mr NQN’s favourite bread-he eats it by the yard) which is thin and slightly spongey. Here it is given the char treatment and served warm and smokey.

The kitchen with kebabs and breads in the window

Baked eggplant $17

Our starter is the baked eggplant covered with 12 hour cooked pork mince ragu and then topped with a white sauce of kasseri (Greek cheese) and pecorino cheese. It’s covered in a spray of parsley which helps give it freshness and the eggplant is soft and rich with the pork mince ragu and melted cheese topping although I don’t know if you say that it is particularly revelatory and I was hoping for one of those fall apart meat ragus rather than a mince one.

Fake Tabouli salad $12

There’s a large break between the eggplant and mains. One long enough where two people like us that can’t stop chatting actually notice that we haven’t had food for a while. The fake tabouli salad arrives and it is a moist salad made up of amaranth grain, tomato, cucumber flavoured with fresh coriander, parsley, lemon and a generous sprinkling of fried eschallots. On top of this is dolloped some hung yogurt which at first looks like hummus but has that unmistakeable yogurt tang. It’s wonderfully fresh and if this is what fake tabouli is, then I’m happy to have the fake.

Coal grilled leather jackets on the bone $35

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Whenever we go out for Chinese food I always feel compelled to take my parents along. For starters, I know that my dad needs to get out more but he only really likes Chinese food and for my mother who likes all food and likes to go out this is the path of least resistance.  Blue Eye Dragon was actually a long ago suggestion from one of my readers Rebecca, so long ago that when I looked up the date of her email to me it was about two years ago exactly. But I never forgot it!

The first thing that strikes us as we walk up to Blue Eye Dragon Taiwanese restaurant in Pyrmont is the wrought iron gates-shaped like a dragon. There is a spacious outdoor area and it is housed in a sandstone building.  The other thing that strikes us is that it looks so very different from your usual Chinese restaurant -it’s dark and moodily lit and there are no bright lights beaming the way to the table. We are shown our table, up on the stage above which is a curtained off area that the menu tells us serves as a private dining room. Despite the moody and romantic atmosphere there are plenty of families with babies and large groups dining.

Taiwanese High Mountain Tea (Chinese Tea) $2.5/pp (min. $5)

Mr NQN needs a bit of a pick me up and the Taiwanese High Mountain tea is ordered and comes with a tea light warmer powered stand which promptly goes out a few minutes after the teapot is placed on top of it. The tea…well it tastes like regular Chinese tea even if presented quite nicely and without a dripping tea pot.

Chicken Won-Tons with House Chilli Sauce (very spicy) $12

The won tons, eight to a serve here are slippery and filled with pork mince and are coated in a chilli sauce which is quite spicy and the dumplings are propped up in the bowl by shards of iceberg lettuce leaves. Overall they’re quite good and a nice kick start for our taste buds.

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings with Chives, Ginger & Shallot $12

The pan fried pork dumplings come out next and they have a nice crispy bottom. The skin on these is thinner than the Shanghai counterparts and the filling is a mixture of pork mince, chives, ginger and shallots giving these a good flavour to them along with a sesame chilli sauce.

Prawn Dumplings with Water Chestnuts, Shallots & Chinese Celery $12

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