Wagaya, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney

Food bloggers ahoy!Pic above just added - thank you Karen for your wide angle lens and the tripod donater (can't remember who?). We took this shot towards the end of the evening when alas, a few people had already gone home.How many food bloggers can you fit into a 25-seater room? We managed to squeeze in 30, a feat achieved when Chocolatesuze celebrated her birthday at Wagaya. Just when we

Freebie Friday winners: Good Food & Wine Show

The winners of the Grab Your Fork Freebie Friday competition have been decided and confirmed*.Avik has won the major prize with their question: "What was the first dish you taught your children to cook?"Avik has won 1 x double pass to the Good Food & Wine Show Sydney including tickets to the Gordon Ramsay session at 12.30pm on Saturday July 4 2009, worth $95 in total.The Random Sequence Generator

Upside-down pear and macadamia cake

This one's a winner.Every time I've made this upside-down pear and macadamia cake, everybody wants seconds. The cinnamon-spiced pears are a perfect match for the chill that is winter, and the inclusion of almond meal gives the cake a lovely moist friand-style crumb.What I love most about this cake, is it can be made in advance and then reheated to serve. Once up-turned on a plate, I like to place

The Smokehouse, Surry Hills, Sydney

EDIT: The Smokehouse has now closed

I do love a good bathroom.

Just as they say you can judge the quality of a coat by its buttons, so too is the mandatory bathroom inspection a good indicator of a restaurant's attention to detail.

It's a little dim when you first enter the bathroom at The Smokehouse, your hands flailing in the milky shadows searching for the light switch, until you realise,

Lowenbrau Keller, The Rocks, Sydney

It's true. I do derive an inordinate amount of pleasure whenever I say the word schlachtplatte.Partly it's because I relish putting on a very bad German accent, trying to generate as much noise as possible on the schlaaaaacht (I did say it was a bad accent). But perhaps the most exciting part about saying schlachtplatte to the waitress is the promise of the meat to come. A feast of meat. A

The Light Brigade Bistro, Woollahra

"Hi Helen...I’ve been looking at your fabulous blog ‘Grab Your Fork’ and I wanted to extend an invitation for you and a guest you to experience the award-winning cuisine of Chef James Privett at the Light Brigade’s Bistro..."And that email--by Lisa from the Trish Nicol Agency--is how Suze and I find ourselves at the Light Brigade for her early celebratory birthday dinner.Light fitting in the

Yuletide dinner at Restaurant Atelier, Glebe with Australian Pork

Sometimes you need to hit "pause" just to appreciate all the good things in life. You would think the end is nigh, what with economic woes and flu outbreaks, yet if you stop just a minute and breathe, you'll find there are plenty of things to smile about and be grateful.Even the official onset of weather means good things. I'm thinking rich hearty comfort food and cuddly doonas, big steaming mugs