Lebanese food holds a special place in my heart as one of my favourite cuisines. If I were asked to articulate why that was so though, I’m not sure that I would have a suitable answer. Probably the closest I could come to an answer would be that it’s food that I find is often good, uncomplicated and inexpensive. It’s food without the pretension that more often burdens formal dining than not. It’s food in a casual environment for the common man. My kind of food.

That’s precisely the experience that a couple of fellow food bloggers and I had received when we dined at Jasmins one evening. A casual environment, without pretension, serving good food. A feast of really good food. The kind of good food that frequently has you coming back for more, at prices that makes such endeavours affordable. Read more »

ARAX Fine Lebanese Cuisine & Wood Fire Pizza, or just simply ARAX, holds a special place in my heart. It’s a restaurant that I’d first been introduced to more than 15 years ago and is pretty much the only place on the North Shore I’d make the approximately 40 minute drive to on a whim.

I find the woodfire oven at ARAX somewhat enthralling. A magic transformation portal that turns often simple ingredients into palate-pleasing platters of pizza perfection. Nowadays for me, the term “woodfire pizza” holds the same sort of meaning as the word “organic” does; there’s an implication of superior quality over the standard variety, which unfortunately doesn’t always deliver. This is one of those places, I assure you, that delivers on that implied sense of superior quality. Read more »

It’s not often that you have the opportunity to meet with a food blogger from another country. So it was with some excitement that I had the pleasure to meet Brad, the photographer/writer behind the award nominated food blog ladyironchef, one of the most popular food blogs in Singapore. With a name like ladyironchef, I was surprised to not see a woman sitting at the table when I arrived at the restaurant.

Considering it was his first time in Sydney, what better way to be introduced to the Sydney food scene than by having a marathon night out with prominent food bloggers from Grab Your Fork, chocolatesuze, A Table for Two, eatshow&tell, Citrus & Candy, & hungry.digital.elf. Read more »

Ever wondered what late night dining options there are around Sydney? I’m not talking just your Friday/Saturday nights. That’s pretty easy. I’m talking about the middle of the week, when say you’ve had to stay back real late at the office and you’re looking for something other than the ubiquitous 24 hrs McDonalds on your way home. Perhaps you have a hankering for late night pancakes and you can’t be stuffed making them. Perhaps, like with the food bloggers from Here Comes the Food and vue de cuisinier and myself, you just feel the urge to go out and grab a late night meal with friends, just because we can :)
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I was fortunate enough to have won the opportunity to buy the chocolate mousse cake pictured above. Yes, won the opportunity to buy the cake. If you don’t already know, you’ll see what I mean when you read on.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the chocolate mousse cake. It was initially introduced as a challenge on Masterchef Australia presented by the now infamous Adriano Zumbo. Then there was the charity auction, whereby you had the chance to bid for a slice of the action, costing up to $125 for a single slice (1/8 of the cake). Between the screening of the Masterchef episode and the auction, a lot of demand was generated for the chocolate mousse cake. This lead to the lottery, which would draw 100 lucky winners from a pool of over 4000 entrants, who would win the chance to purchase the cake at the value of $90, of which 5% would go to the Childrens Hospital, Westmead.

While all that was happening, you had bloggers attempting to replicate the mousse cake by recipe, with varying degrees of success (personal favourite was by Linda from eatshowandtell). Celebrities, such as Kate Ritchie, were also getting a slice of the action as well.

As I said, a lot of hype.

Having been fortunate enough to have been drawn as one of the winners one question I was sure to be asked, and I was asking of myself was whether the cake lived up to the hype, whether it was worth the $90 and how did it actually taste?

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