Top 5 Pasta Dishes
I love pasta! It’s one of the few things I love eating out as much as I love cooking at home. And the same rules apply: don’t overcook it (dried pasta should be al dente and fresh should be tender with a little ‘bite’), serve it fresh (never pre-cooked) and keep the sauce simple (3 […]
Top 5 Date Night Ideas
Remember when you first started dating your partner? Going out of your way to think of special things to do together that would surprise and delight the other? I used to think ‘date night’ was a great idea for couples busy with kids, who needed to set time aside for each other – and so […]
Top 5 Gueridon in Sydney
I like a bit of theatre with my food – and it doesn’t get much more theatrical than gueridon, the art of finishing and plating dishes tableside! Crêpes Suzette and steak Diane come immediately to mind, but there are many other possibilities as these restaurants show. I’m pleased to see a bit of a gueridon […]
Top 5 Lunch with a View
I’ve been accused of featuring the eastern suburbs too heavily, but I can’t help it if there’s a concentration of great eats (and drinks) in that part of town. So I’m delighted to be celebrating something that the northside (my home turf) has in abundance – great eats with great views! Time to enjoy a […]
Top 5 International Dishes 2015-2016
Top 5 International Dishes 2015-2016 It’s been a big year of eating and I’ve tasted some wonderful dishes overseas as well as at home. So, rather than knock any of my local favourites out of the Top 5, I decided to give you my Top 5 International Dishes as well. It’s a hard choice – […]
Top 5 Mod Asian
Australia has a long tradition of Asian food, with the Chinese restaurant a mainstay in every suburb and country town beyond living memory. In the late ‘70s, Thai and Vietnamese entered the mix and, over time, more Japanese and Korean restaurants followed. Initially they were clusters of ‘cheap & cheerful’ ethnic restaurants in specific suburbs […]
Top 5 Middle Eastern
Sydney’s always been a great place to eat the food of the Eastern Mediterranean – delicious shared feasts of dips, salads, flatbread and charcoal-grilled meat – less expensive and healthier than a lot of other offerings and mainly along Cleveland Street in the city and in the south-western suburbs. But there are also a band […]
Top 5 Chinese
Looking for more great Chinese food in Sydney? Try my Top 5 Dumplings & Noodles. Top 5 Chinese China is a huge country, with as much regional diversity as Europe. But for too long, Chinese food in Sydney meant Cantonese, the food of Hong Kong and Guangdong province, the ancestral homeland of many Aussie-Chinese. More […]
Top 5 Fast Food
I love language almost as much as I love food and I enjoy combining the two, discovering what the original meaning of food words tells us about the history of that food. Lately I’ve had cause to think about two terms often used synonymously: ‘Fast Food’ and ‘Junk Food’. For the word geeks out there, […]
Top 5 Pizza in Sydney
This may be the most contentious Top 5 I’ll ever write … so please consider it a mere introduction to the many places serving excellent authentic pizza in Sydney today! For me it starts with a thin, slightly charred crust. I generally prefer pizza bianca (without tomato), but rosso (with a smear of Italian San […]