Mario mushroom cake and an R2D2 cake

Do you love Super Mario?Veruca Salt made not one, but two character birthday cakes last weekend. Pocahontas wanted a Super Mario mushroom cake, the special 1Up power up mushroom that gives you an extra life extra power/health in everyone's favourite childhood video game. [Thanks to fushmush and FFichiban for the correction]This cake was reasonably easy to construct - butter cake cut to size and

Maple walnut bread

I haven't always been confident with yeast. The thought of working with something that's alive, that grows, that expands, that could die if not treated carefully, it a petrifying thought for someone who has a reputation for being an accidental assassin when it comes to tending herbs and pot plants.But yeast is sturdier than you'd think. All it requires is time and a little TLC.It was Not Quite

Prize giveaway #8: A $200 dinner voucher for two from Ocean Room, Sydney

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the final day of a week-long competition frenzy, and it's concluding with a bang!It's lucky prize number eight, and the winner will be very lucky indeed. The final prize has been kindly donated by Raita Noda, owner and head chef at Ocean Room.PRIZE #8: A $200 dinner voucher for two at Ocean Room, SydneyIf

Prize giveaways #6 and #7: $50 home delivery vouchers from Menulog

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the fourth day of a week-long competition frenzy. Don't forget to check back here Friday lunchtime for the final prize worth $200!Today's competition is brought to you by Menulog, and it's ideal for anyone who has ever sighed at the thought of having to cook dinner.PRIZES #6 and #7: A $50 home delivery

Prize giveaway #5: A gift pack from SWEETNESS The Patisserie

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the third day of a week-long competition frenzy and it's perfect for all the sweet tooths.Today's competition is brought to you by SWEETNESS The Patisserie, the stall that is usually over-run with fanatic customers at the Pyrmont Good Living Growers Markets, desperate to stock up on Gena's award-winning

Chinese New Year dinner

Do you like pig?We love pigs, especially ones that come with crackling. Thin bubbling shards of crisp crunchy shattering crackling that cannot be eaten quietly. That's the kind of pig I love.One of three queues at Emperor's Garden on Chinese New Years EveIt was Chinese New Years Eve on Sunday, and you could feel the excitement in the air in Chinatown, particularly at Emperor's Garden BBQ House

Prize giveaway #4: Kei's Kitchen cooking class

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! Yesterday's competition has spread like wildfire - seems like a lot of you want to win a Global knife, with 68 entries received already! The demand for the digital scales and the cupcake carrier isn't too far behind either.Today's competition is brought to you by Kei's Kitchen, a mother and daughter team whom you

Grab Your Fork reaches 1,000 posts - with a week of competitions to celebrate!

Congratulations dear reader. You are officially reading the 1,000th post by Grab Your Fork.It's been almost five years of feasting and what a delicious ride it's been. Having a blog has prompted me to explore all of Sydney, to embrace its multicultural flavours, to support local producers and to share it all with you.Not only have I relished the perfect justification to eat 'just a little bit

A Vietnamese engagement party

I feel like I'm back in Vietnam, even though I'm in a household in Sydney's inner west. It's not just the round folding tables covered with plastic tablecloths, the bottles of soft drink waiting on each table, or the collection of plastic stools. It's the fact that there are five tables of ten set up in the living room and the tantalising smells of seafood and hot oil coming from the

Food Blog Awards - GYF only 5 votes off the lead

Voting polls close in less than 24 hours and Grab Your Fork is currently running 2nd in Best Blog City, at this minute only 5 points off the lead.VOTE NOW if you think Grab Your Fork deserves to win Best Food Blog - City.Polls close at 12 noon Sunday 25 January 2009 (Sydney-time).Thank you for your support!

Caramel Banana Cake

So I have a bit of a thing for banana cake.But what's not to love? Moist cake, the creamy fragrance of banana and surprise crunchy nuggets of walnut. Bliss.This version takes banana cake to a new level of decadence with the addition of caramel icing. The icing isn't sickeningly sweet, but adds a slight toffee sweetness that matches well with the banana and walnut.With a healthy dollop of sour

Use your noodle: Top 15 Ramen Dishes in Sydney

Remember my post on the Top 15 Ramen in Sydney?Two wonderful Grab Your Fork readers, YZ and AN, have come to the rescue by translating the Japanese text within the article. So it turns out the article isn't talking about ramen houses overall, but specifically the Top 15 Ramen Dishes in Sydney.Want to know what they are? Click on the revised post to find out.Of course I must extend a public and

Food Blog Awards - vote now

The top 5 nominees in each category and have been announced and Australian bloggers are proudly carrying the flag. Yay!Show your support for Aussie bloggers this Australia Day long weekend by voting now. Voting ends 12 noon Sunday 25 January 2009 (Sydney-time).Congrats to all the Australian food blog finalists!VOTE Best Food Blog - City: Grab Your Fork and Not Quite NigellaVOTE Best Food Blog -

85 Degrees (85C) Bakery Cafe, Chatswood

Strawberry cardina $4.00Austrian-style cake covering with fresh strawberry flavoured milk mousse enables itself to be one of our most popular choices for satisfactionForget the economic downturn -- it seems as though chocolate and dessert are the new "me" indulgences to defend us from sorrow.The first 85 Degrees Cake Shop opened in Sydney just over two years ago. Its second fourth outlet (

Sydney's Top 15 Ramen Dishes

Edited 21 Jan 2009: GYF reader YZ has kindly translated the entire article so it all makes sense now. The article is about Sydney's top 15 ramen dishes, each pictured and with an accompanying blurb. Translated text has been added in green below. Thanks so much YZ, and GYF reader AN, who also provided translations of the dish names. Been curious about the list of Sydney's top 15 ramen dishes we've

Zenya Noodle Bar, Eastwood

Gyoza, included in the $3 ramen upgrade for 3 gyoza & salad, (otherwise order separately for $5.80 for six)Pork and vegetable dumpling with Japanese soyand citrus dipping sauceThe ramen adventure continues.K & M are still making their way through their photocopied list of Top 15 Ramen in Sydney, photocopied from a Japanese community magazine. They've already eaten at Zenya and are keen to go back

China Grand Restaurant, Haymarket Chinatown

EDIT: China Grand has now closed and been replaced with The Eight.
It took me a while to realise that Dragon Star was no more. This behemoth of yum cha, characterised by huge crowds and female 'bouncers' calling table bingo at the top of Chinatown's Market City, used to be one of our favourite haunts on Sunday mornings.

So it's been about a year since Dragon Star closed and was reborn as China

Fortune cookies, this blog and Catholic Tibetans in China

A short anecdote.We snapped open our complimentary fortune cookies after our dinner at Rhodes recently. It was funny but each of our fortunes seemed highly appropriate. The pragmatic side of me, however, was convinced we were just gullibly buying into statements that could actually apply to anyone, a phenomenon also known as the Barnum effect. The above fortune was mine. Veruca Salt was convinced

Pomegranate syrup cake recipe

When it comes to cakes, I do like a bit of culture.I'm talking about natural yoghurt, that thick and somewhat sour dairy product, packed with good bacteria, which is so easy to make. I've only just discovered the joys of Easiyo, and a good friend let me in on the DIY recipe details. It's so cheap and easy to make your own!With a large tub of yoghurt and a few bottles of POM Wondeful pomegranate

The Sanctuary, Sydney

Oven-roasted kingfish $17.00with caramelised eggplant, garlic and tomato and chive vinaigretteIt's the little things.The Sanctuary Hotel has become a little like Old Faithful. Fast, affordable, reliable. And I've yet to endure an overcooked steak. In fact we find the steaks here are still so very good. No horrid bits of gristle, and the steaks are always seared to perfection.I had the

All About...Romana's, Balmain

Campos coffee - large flat white $4.00I'm not really a breakfast out person. I'd much to prefer spend breakfast asleep and wake up just in time for lunch. A late lunch is even better.But on a gorgeous summer's day, a weekday when most people are working, even I can appreciate the little bit of luxury that a cafe breakfast can bring.It can't start any better than with a Campos coffee. I'm

Temasek, Parramatta

Look! Look! Say hello to the crabs, kids!Master Four is silently petrified, shrinking back into his chair, but Miss Two is instantly alert and more than a little curious. I feel a little cruel about introducing the little 'uns to our soon-to-be-dinner but the waiter is more than obliging, beckoning Miss Two to come a little closer and touch its shell."Okay, now say goodbye..." The kids start

New Star Kebabs, Auburn

Oh I do love Auburn.

It's not a sentiment one often hears in the media, but sitting here, on an aluminium chair at a metal table amidst the hubbub of Auburn Road, I drink in the palpable energy and buzz about the place. The street is filled with passing kids and shoppers, the air is thick with the smell of charcoal and barbecuing meats, and middle-aged men all around me, sit, chat and

Ginger cupcakes with chai icing

I know. The icing does look a little poo-like.

I decided to use my plain icing nozzle on a whim. Next time I'll only use it for icing that isn't any shade of brown, even if it does bear a resemblance to the Japanese golden poo good luck charm.

But the cupcakes were a hit anyway, a variation I made on Nigella's cupcake recipe. I've also started baking this recipe at a slightly lower

Basil pesto (and what my mother taught me)

My fridge is slowly breeding jars of pesto.No, I haven't found a magical cloning forcefield (hello Zumbo macarons!), but I have started a mini-processing factory in the kitchen - one that converts abandoned bunches of basil into that gloriously green paste: pesto.My mother always taught me to 'waste not, want not'. As a kid, it was an oft-heard lecture about starving children in China, about the

Growing your own oysters with The Oysterfarm, Wooli

They're here!The G-man's email was simple. Oysters. His place. Wednesday.I still remember the mobile phone call earlier this year. "Helen?" he'd asked, his constant smile audibly playing in his voice. "You like oysters, don't you...""Err... yes," I'd replied."Would you be interested in five dozen? Ones you grow?"It didn't take me long to realise he was talking about The Oysterfarm, a system where

2008 Food Blog Awards: Nominations now open

The Well Fed Network is running its annual Food Blog Awards.Nominations are now open so head over to nominate your favourite food blog/s across the 14 different categories.Nominations close 3.59pm Saturday January 10, 2009, Australia Eastern Standard Time (11.59pm Friday January 9, 2009 EST).To be considered a valid nominee, the blog must have at least 6 posts a month for a consecutive six month

High tea at the Swissotel Crossroads Bar, Sydney

Recently, I was entrusted with organising a Hens Day for a high school friend. With a range of girlfriends, sisters, and sisters-in-law attending, it was a case of juggling social calendars and babysitters for all involved. A buffet high tea at the Swissotel Crossroads Bar seemed like the perfect way to accommodate everyone's schedules as well as a delicious way to celebrate the sisterhood in

Rhodes Phoenix, Rhodes

Crispy skin chicken $18.80We'd forgotten it was Boxing Day.That's because we'd rocked up to Austrian Schnitzelhaus, ready for some pork knuckle and a shattering of crackling, only to find it closed. Doh! Or dummkopf!We piled back into the car and head to Rhodes Shopping Centre, figuring we'd catch a movie before dinner instead. By the time we get there, stomach growls have gotten more insistent.

Crab racing at The Court House Hotel Newtown

"I believe that children are the fuuuuu-ture... teach them well and leeeeet them lead the way... "Deny, the race caller, holds the tiny hermit crab aloft, convinced that his earnest croonings and Shirley Bassey's hopeful lyrics (yes, she recorded it well before Whitney) will coax the hermit crab out of its shell.After our liberal dousing with water during crab racing at Glebe's Friend in Hand

Kabuki Shoroku, Sydney

Premium wagyu marbled beef grilled on a hot rock $32

I know I'm a big kid at heart. That's why, even whilst I'm drooling a the sight of the fat-speckled slices of wagyu beef, I'm probably more excited at the prospect of cooking it on a rock.



And yet, Kabuki Shoroku is not really a restaurant for kids. It's a small and cosy eatery hidden within St Martins Tower, only a few doors up from

Adriano Zumbo, Balmain

Oh Zumbo, you are a funny one.We stopped in at Adriano Zumbo the other day, an always smiling Charles waiting behind the counter like an old friend. As I'd snapped a few photos, the guy beside me looked at me sideways and said "are you one of those foodbloggers?". Oh, the word is spreading. I remember when I had to explain what a blog was, let alone the concept of a foodblog.So if you weren't

Christmas presents for New Year intentions

Is someone trying to tell me something?In the lead-up to Christmas I received not one, not two, but three surprise packages in the post. First came an elegant black box showcasing half-a-dozen bottles of Vitamin Water. Trumpeting promises of "energy", "revive" and "triple-x", these sturdy bottles of flavoured water contain all manner of vitamins but "no juice", according to the disclaimer on the

Oscars, Pyrmont

400gm Rib eye on the Bone $30100 days grain fed Certified Angus served withgarlic chat potatoes and market vegetablesOh the misery of an overcooked steak.The signs were promising. Rib eye on the bone is usually a fool-proof cut of meat. A perfect harmony of tender flesh still married to the bone. Thick and hearty, it's perfect for the ravenous carnivore. But with the first incision, it became