Bankstown Bites Food Festival 2008

Bankstown Bites. The most rewarding fooding festival on the Sydney calendar.I can hardly believe it's been three years since my last visit at the inaugural Bankstown Bites Festival. Since then, the festival has grown in size and popularity. Crowd estimates were set at 15,000 according the Bankstown Council website.The highlight, of course, was the range of free food tours on offer: an opportunity

Bill Granger's buttermilk pancakes

Do crepe pans really make a difference? The friendly folk at Kitchenware Direct recently offered to send me a Scanpan crepe pan to road-test, and who was I to argue?It was also the perfect excuse to test out Bill Granger's recipe for buttermilk pancakes.Bill Granger's buttermilk pancakes2 cups plain flour3 teaspoons baking powder1 pinch salt2 tablespoons sugar2 eggs, lightly beaten3 cups

Shanghai Night, Ashfield

Steamed Shanghai style mini pork bun $6.50(xiao long bao)Sydney's best xiao long bao? Search no more.Despite the class and style of the newly opened Din Tai Fung, it's the cheap and cheerful chaos of Shanghai Night that still wins my heart.Just like Din Tai Fung, the xiao long bao are handmade on-site. Here, however, it's a family-run affair: a modest production line of two sitting discreetly

Chocolate cupcakes

You don't make friends with salad, but you will make mates with cupcakes.These Nigella cupcakes were brought to a barbecue dinner with friends and a hit with everyone. The cupcake batter was flavoured with three tablespoons of cocoa; the buttercream icing made with four tablespoons of cocoa.The only downfall was my laziness: making a double batch in the food processor meant the sugar didn't quite

Lemon curd (or how to use up leftover egg yolks)

Need a recipe to use up those extra egg yolks?With six egg yolks in the fridge after a batch of friands, I made a double batch of the lemon curd recipe listed below. Even then I'd wish I'd made more. Extra thick and zingy with lemon, this is heaven in every spoonful.Use it on toast, in butterfly cakes, in tarts, on sponges, with ice cream or to sandwich meringues.This also makes a lovely gift--if

Blueberry friands

Forget those manufactured oily friands that sit like a brick in your stomach. A homemade friand is deliciously moist with a nutty crumb.But I always save the best for last - the caramelised edge, of course.Blueberry friands6 egg whites185g butter, melted1 cup or 125g almond meal1 1/2 cups or 240g icing sugar mixture1/2 cup or 75g plain flour80g frozen or fresh blueberriesLightly whisk egg whites

Din Tai Fung, Sydney

Xiao long baoDin Tai Fung - the most talked-about dumpling house in Sydney at the moment. From its beginnings as a side business for an oil shop in Taiwan, Din Tai Fung is now a global phenomenon with dumpling houses across China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the USA, and now Australia.Dumpling makers hard at workIt's hard not to get excited at first sight of the glass-walled

Good Living Growers' Markets, Pyrmont

Jamberoo blood limesOnly my second trip to the Good Living Growers Markets this year (for shame) but, on the flip side, it meant the surprise discovery of new stalls and new products. Jamberoo blood limes--a new cross between an Ellendale mandarin and the Australian native red pulp fingerlime--packed powerful bite-sized bursts of zing.Cheeses by Formaggi OcelloSweetness the Pattisserie was

Nigella's cupcake recipe (with a chocolate cupcake variation too)

Thank you Nigella.It was a Friday night with girlfriends cooking up all things Nigella: we had the Feast DVD on perpetual pause on the telly, bucketloads of cream in the fridge, and--most important--, hot pink cardigans and Hollywood tape at the ready.Nigella's food processor cupcakes are my latest obsession. Quick to make with a recipe that's easy to remember, these instant crowd-pleasers are