Food babies and alco pops
Taste of Sydney 2017
Centennial Parklands
Dinner with my bff
Thanks to @iatemywaythrough we won tickets, it’s not very often all amazing restaurants from around the country are all in the one place. I did my research this time and knew what i wanted to try. There was a huge line over over 100 people when doors opened @ 5:30pm. Our strategy was to hit to food first and do stalls/wine later, this turned out perfectly for us and it only got busy when we were up to our dessert but even though lines were long we didnt wait any longer than 5 mins.
The perfect start was at Gastro Park; Liquid pumpkin & parmesan gnocchi, forest mushroom tea $12, this was so cool, instead of being thick gnocchi you chew, it was little liquid sphere/egg shapes that exploded in your mouth. Bursting with flavour this was the best way to start off our taste foodventure.
Next up was Kensington St Social; Hiramasa Kingfish tartar wasabi ponzu, wakame, jalapeno & puffed emperors rice $8, we also grabbed a Watermelon Frose <3 the kingfish was spicy but not overpowering, nice kick starter.
Onto Anason; Charcoal octopus, tomato ezme $12, the octopus in this dish was worth it, the other elements like the witlof and the tomato was pretty bitter and bland but the octopus was worth it for sure.
My fav savoury dish of the evening, Tequila Mockingbird; Salmon Carpaccio shiso, puffed wild rice & passionfruit $6, i was so impressed by this dish, the value in price was so nice to see, the salmon slices were quite thick, the passionfruit flavour was awesome, really refreshing and aboslutely perfect accompaniment to salmon. The crunch of the puffed rice added another great texture.
Found Nel.; Truffle Hunt $10, i made the mistake of eating the soil first, until later overhearing you arent meant to eat the “soil” at all…..it was all in my teeth and so thick i was scared i wouldnt be able to get it out. After trying the truffle instead it was deliciously hot, the soil was dry which gave a different texture to a normal arancini style ball.
Dessert time!! We started with the best and our fav dish of the night Anason; Turkish Mess mastic meringue, rose cream, berries, figs, helva, pistachios $6. Yassssss this dish was to die for and the highlight of the night, the crunch of the meringue, the beautiful rose cream and the FRESH berries and price made this dish our absolute favourite <3
I then tried Little Nel.; Summer Efflorescence strawberry sorbet, lychee, champagne mousse, crystalized rose petals $12, this dessert was double the price of the Turkish Mess, and i would have rather 2 x turkish messes, the strawberry sorbet was super sweet, the berries were dried berries not fresh. The crystalized rose petals were pretty cool! Also bought the Wagon Wheel Raspberry, yuzu & milk chocolate wagon wheel $6, this was pre packaged so could take home for later, great idea!! This wagon wheel was like a gourmet wagon wheel but more like tim tam cream inside, it was delicious!!
Onto the booze, i tried an IYCPOPs which are premium alcohol infused ice popsicles, 1/3 of a standard drink, it was more for the taste rather than the alcohol intake, the flavours were so hard to choose, i ended up picking “White Peach Bellini” delicious!
666Vodka which is craft vodka, had giant coconuts which had “butter” vodka inside, it tasted literally like butter, super strong too, very interesting, not sure when i would ever drink butter vodka :/
Finished with a Flamingo; sparkling moscato great way to finish the night, love moscato and this was super sparkly!
We also bought some Byron Bay Chopping Boards as a treat for ourselves, i chose a large one that had 3 little bowls, which i thought i could use for ingredients then i can flip to the other side and use a serving dish for olives, cheeses, dips etc - perfect!!
Taste of Sydney was perfectly organised, there was much more seating then previous years and the taste card with credit was genius, could even be used at the stalls!! Until next year…