Umaimon, Sydney

EDIT: Umaimon has now closed.UPDATE MAY 2010: Word is they have moved to 159 Oxford Street Darlinghurst under the name Yokozuna Japanese restaurant.I love getting reader recommendations for restaurant.Admittedly I can't always get to them. Factors like transport (I have no car), price (I pay for all my own meals) and friend appeal (I need to find someone who'll want to accompany me) are all

The Sugar Hit super challenge: How many could you do in one night?

How many Sugar Hits could you possibly consume in one night?It's a question that's plagued me everytime Good Food Month rolled around. As I'd finish scraping the plate of another delectable Sugar Hit, the final mouthful of sugar slowly dissolving on my tongue, I'd ponder deep and meaningful musings like "should one start at the north end of town or south?" and "would it be faster to get a taxi or

The amazing impromptu dinner party

The dangerous thing about having friends as greedy as you is that food is never far from the topic of conversation.So even before we had finished swallowing the last mouthfuls of our oyster picnic at Mooney Mooney, hands rubbing our distended and protesting bellies packed solid with oysters, sushi, cous cous, salad, meatballs, quiche, cheese and spinach triangles, grilled octopus, banana cupcakes

Oyster Saturday at Mooney Mooney

Freshly shucked oystersThe G-man likes oysters. A year after our first trip to Mooney Mooney, the G-man was clamouring for a return visit.We could think of no reason to refuse.Les Wadham OystersOur bivalve-loving motorcade made its way towards the Hawkesbury, shack number ten, by Les Wadham, firmly in our sights. Imagine our horror when we discovered the shack was closed!Disaster was averted when

Banana cupcakes

I’d been hoarding mashed up rotten bananas in my freezer for weeks. When the bananas in the fruit bowl start to get all spotty and soft, I let them sit for a little while longer until they’re a mushy goo, transfer them to an airtight container, mash quickly with a fork, and freeze until required.With a stock of banana mash on hand, and an upcoming picnic with friends, there was no thought but

Good Food Month: Night Noodle Markets, Hyde Park

If you go down to Hyde Park today, you'd better go in disguise...We made it to the second and final week of the Night Noodle Markets, one of the more popular and accessible events during Good Food Month. It's been cold and blustery this week--almost a return to winter temperatures it seems-- but the allure of food stalls, alfresco dining and an opportunity to catch up with friends after work has

Good Food Month Sugar Hit: Kings Cross Hotel, Sydney

Black and white tasting plate:White chocolate panna cotta;Grand Marnier rhubarb and bitter chocolate sorbet with champagne raspberry;and warm chocolate fondant with Frangelico chocolate sauceIt was an impromptu Sugar Hit with a group of foodbloggers that christened my first Good Food Month venture for 2008. Together with Chocolatesuze, Fig & Cherry, Morsels and Musing and Not Quite Nigella, we

A little bit of self-promotion, a little more patience please

It's always an unexpected but pleasant surprise to discover a media mention about Grab Your Fork. And yet there's also a sense of Tall Poppy Syndrome Aussie awkwardness when it comes to self-promotion. I won't deny it's nice to be recognised, but perhaps more exciting is the sense that food blogs are becoming more and more recognised as valid forms of new media. We know they're cool. It's time

Osso bucco

We're rapidly approaching summer but occasional wet days like today are a good excuse to indulge in the last of the stodgy comfort food so relished in winter.Osso bucco is comfort food at its finest. A cheap cut of meat cooked on the bone until meltingly tender, the highlight for me is the bonus dessert of marrow - rich and fatty but delicious.This is a low-maintenance recipe - once you've seared

Crab racing at the Friend in Hand Hotel, Glebe

Crab racing. A drawcard for pubs around Australia, it involves a bucket of hermit crabs, a sheet of numbered stickers and no end of thirsty and raucous punters.We're at the Friend in Hand pub in Glebe, tucked away in the backstreets behind Broadway Shopping Centre, for its weekly crab racing night. But first there must be dinner, which we have in the Cesare's No Names bistro off to one side of

East Ocean, Haymarket - Sydney foodbloggers' yumcha

What do you call a gathering of foodbloggers?A gluttony? A stampede? A paparazzi?I'm undecided about the term, suffice to say twelve foodbloggers met at East Ocean for yum cha on Saturday. We had the corner table right up the back if you happened to be there. The one with ten cameras poised to take photos as each bamboo steamer touched down on the lazy susan airfield. You couldn't miss us!It was

Hunter Valley vineyards and cheese tasting

Very few things bring a smile to my face first thing in the morning. I don't like mornings. Introduce the promise of a hot cooked buffet breakfast however, and somehow I can manage to get out of bed with a decided spring in my step!Our final day of our Hunter Valley mini-break concluded with an itinerary packed with wine and cheese. We had a champagne tasting at 9am, and we needed to line our

Simple malt biscuits recipe

I've always loved the taste of malt: Horlicks, Milo, malted milk biscuits and Maltesers. All are consumed with insatiable gusto. Malt is also the basis of beer and whiskey, but let's face it, it's the sweet stuff that most of us are interested in.So I'm not sure why it took me so long to discover malt extract at the supermarket, but there it was, quietly perched on a shelf above the golden syrup

Kings Cross Organic Market, Potts Point

Lemon sour cake from Birgitta's BitesEn-route to brunch at Yellow Bistro & Food Store, I was pleased to happen upon the Kings Cross Organic Markets, a small but friendly cluster of stalls just past the dandelion-shaped El Alamein Memorial fountain.Foods mix with craft at this laid-back local market, but there's still plenty of bakeries, exotic mushrooms, smoked goods and gourmet teas to tempt the

Huong Huong Restaurant, Marrickville

Squid with lemongrass and chilli $12.00There's something very reassuring about busy suburban restaurants. The kind of places where the crockery may be a little chipped, and the decor is often loud if earnest, but the waitstaff know all their regulars, and the dining room is filled with a cosmopolitan mix of local families, couples and usually one screeching kid right up the back corner.And so we

Good Living Growers' Markets, Pyrmont

Like the corn cobs above, there were small windows of sunshine that blessed an otherwise temperamentally wet and miserable Good Living Growers' Markets today.At 9.30am the crowds were out in force, a hubbub of prams and toddlers and dogs and tourists...Herb posies $10.00Watercress from Darling Mills $2.50Cheese at Formaggi OcelloJersey butter from Johnson's Farmgate $6.00Still craving my Gympie

Travelodge Newcastle Hotel, Newcastle

Mushroom and potato soupSo these photos aren't my best but in the interests of thoroughness, I'm posting them anyway.Our recent weekend mini-break to the Hunter Valley saw us spend the Saturday night at the Travelodge in Newcastle. Only an hour's drive from the vineyards, it easily provided the best value accommodation for our money. There were a few problems reported with air-conditioning units

Make your long weekend sweeter

Only a few more days til a lovely long weekend! Yay!You can make your long weekend sweeter by heading to the Good Living Growers' Markets, mentioning Grab Your Fork to Gena at Sweetness the Patisserie, and taking home a special free gift with any purchase. This exclusive offer has been carried over from last month after the miserable washout at the last Good Living Growers' Markets. Mother Nature