#gastro park

[rafafari]

[postcardsfrompeta]

Taste of Sydney 2017

Centennial Parklands

Food babies and alco pops

Dinner with my bff

Thanks to @iatemywaythrough we won tickets, it’s not very often all amazing restaurants from around the country are all in the one place. I did my research this time and knew what i wanted to try. There was a huge line over over 100 people when doors opened @ 5:30pm. Our strategy was to hit to food first and do stalls/wine later, this turned out perfectly for us and it only got busy when we were up to our dessert but even though lines were long we didnt wait any longer than 5 mins.

The perfect start was at Gastro Park; Liquid pumpkin & parmesan gnocchi, forest mushroom tea $12, this was so cool, instead of being thick gnocchi you chew, it was little liquid sphere/egg shapes that exploded in your mouth. Bursting with flavour this was the best way to start off our taste foodventure.

Next up was Kensington St Social; Hiramasa Kingfish tartar wasabi ponzu, wakame, jalapeno & puffed emperors rice $8, we also grabbed a Watermelon Frose <3 the kingfish was spicy but not overpowering, nice kick starter.

Onto Anason; Charcoal octopus, tomato ezme $12, the octopus in this dish was worth it, the other elements like the witlof and the tomato was pretty bitter and bland but the octopus was worth it for sure. 

My fav savoury dish of the evening, Tequila Mockingbird; Salmon Carpaccio shiso, puffed wild rice & passionfruit $6, i was so impressed by this dish, the value in price was so nice to see, the salmon slices were quite thick, the passionfruit flavour was awesome, really refreshing and aboslutely perfect accompaniment to salmon. The crunch of the puffed rice added another great texture.

Found Nel.; Truffle Hunt $10, i made the mistake of eating the soil first, until later overhearing you arent meant to eat the “soil” at all…..it was all in my teeth and so thick i was scared i wouldnt be able to get it out. After trying the truffle instead it was deliciously hot, the soil was dry which gave a different texture to a normal arancini style ball.

Dessert time!! We started with the best and our fav dish of the night Anason; Turkish Mess mastic meringue, rose cream, berries, figs, helva, pistachios $6. Yassssss this dish was to die for and the highlight of the night, the crunch of the meringue, the beautiful rose cream and the FRESH berries and price made this dish our absolute favourite <3

I then tried Little Nel.; Summer Efflorescence strawberry sorbet, lychee, champagne mousse, crystalized rose petals $12, this dessert was double the price of the Turkish Mess, and i would have rather 2 x turkish messes, the strawberry sorbet was super sweet, the berries were dried berries not fresh. The crystalized rose petals were pretty cool! Also bought the Wagon Wheel Raspberry, yuzu & milk chocolate wagon wheel $6, this was pre packaged so could take home for later, great idea!! This wagon wheel was like a gourmet wagon wheel but more like tim tam cream inside, it was delicious!!

Onto the booze, i tried an IYCPOPs which are premium alcohol infused ice popsicles, 1/3 of a standard drink, it was more for the taste rather than the alcohol intake, the flavours were so hard to choose, i ended up picking “White Peach Bellini” delicious!

666Vodka which is craft vodka, had giant coconuts which had “butter” vodka inside, it tasted literally like butter, super strong too, very interesting, not sure when i would ever drink butter vodka :/

Finished with a Flamingo; sparkling moscato great way to finish the night, love moscato and this was super sparkly!

We also bought some Byron Bay Chopping Boards as a treat for ourselves, i chose a large one that had 3 little bowls, which i thought i could use for ingredients then i can flip to the other side and use a serving dish for olives, cheeses, dips etc - perfect!!

Taste of Sydney was perfectly organised, there was much more seating then previous years and the taste card with credit was genius, could even be used at the stalls!! Until next year…

[helarious-blog]

Birthday & Gastro Park!

Thanks to the power of Twitter and social media, I managed to put together a great day just a few days out from today: Gareth's birthday! Seeing as he said he didn't want anything in particular, I was having a hard time trying to come up with something. Luckily, some tweets about an exhibition and the good food guide caught my eye this week and I was able to have enough time to organise this line up for the day:

Home cooked pancakes for breakfast

A visit to the Eugène Atget photography exhibition

Lunch at Gastro Park

The Pancakes

I had been secretly craving pancakes for breakfast for some time myself, so this was a great occasion to satisfy my taste buds! Lorraine's blog aka Not Quite Nigella is always full of easy to follow and good looking recipes. Her version of blueberry and chia pancakes was perfect, considering I had just recently acquired a pack of chia seeds to put in my breakfast smoothies. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used defrosted berries instead of fresh ones (because I didn't have any, oops) and the pancakes turned out great! Just the perfect amount of floury texture and the chia seeds with berries combined to create a unique tasty flavour. I will definitely be making these again, and next time I'll include some protein powder too! 

The Photography

Eugène Atget is a French photographer from the late 1800s to early 1900s, known for his mastery in capturing Old Paris. I highly recommend this exhibition to anyone who has a passion or interest in photography, long exposures or Paris - even more so if you've been to Paris! Seeing photos of what Parisian streets and landscapes looked like a century ago is incredible, particularly since Gareth and I have both lived in Paris ourselves and many a time, captured the same scene on our own digital cameras!

The Gastro Park

The Good Food Guide 2013 was just published last week! Gareth is a huge foodie, so I tried to find a restaurant on this list that served up lunch on a Saturday. Two-hatted restaurant Gastro Park saved the day, and boy was it a gourmet experience! Let's just say that everything we ordered was freaking amazing, and I seriously loved my main, the jewfish. I would definitely come back here, without a doubt. Now there aren't too many restaurants on my list of return-visits, so this means I really rate it! Enjoy the photos - I don't think I need to say much else :)

Foie gras, wild hare, beetroot, plum vinegar and red cabbage granita

Seared octopus, fried bread and sherry vinegar

Soy & mustard glazed swordfish belly with pickled cucumber

Rare venison with yam, spiced wine sauce and grapes

Crispy scaled jewfish, smoked potato purée, calamari crackling with ink sauce

Caramelised pear skin with balsamic and lavender ice cream

Chocolate, honeycomb, mandarin sphere, cookies and cream

Gastro Park is located at 5-9 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross Sydney

After lunch, we returned home and watched the Swans smash the Crows in the first round of AFL finals on TV - the perfect end to an amazing day! Happy birthday Gareth!

Wearing: ASOS dress / Topshop jacket / Dolce Vita boots / Mulberry bag / Sportsgirl scarf

[shekiki]

Game of Thrones-themed lunch at Gastro Park

[popliar]

Fantasy Feast Fit For a King 

As a marketing ploy for the show's Australian DVD release, Warner Bros asked King to devise a special menu, to be served at Gastro Park next month. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Descriptions:

1) Fallen Eyeball. The first snack really sets the gory tone of the menu. Liquid mozzarella eyeballs, finished by a make-up artist, are coated with cocoa butter and served on the earth's soil, made from black olives and bread, with a white balsamic vinegar dressing. 

Bleeding Stag - no Westeros celebration is complete without the slaughtering of an animal. Pierced with arrows, and designed to appear as though straight from the hunter. Delectable seared venison served with a dripping fake blood dressing, made from bonito, soy and ginger.

2) A soup of crushed skulls and raven feet! Crushed skulls crafted with a crusty garlic potato galette with raven feet fritters, made from black battered red piquillo pepper. All served with a Raven Broth made from quail and pigeon stock.

3) The King's Feast arrives. A roasted chunk of wild pig served on Heart tree log, alongside roasted stone fruits of the Godswood forest.

4) Liquid gold poured over a dragon egg for dessert. Dragon eggs feature a sprayed chocolate shell with a liquid passionfruit and vanilla centre. Served on an edible earth of dark chocolate mud, white chocolate clay, gold nuggets, vanilla and buttermilk nitro rock and crumbed shortbread. All drizzled with a golden orange curd.

5) The cake of thorns

Gastro Park's Game of Thrones menu, March 7 to April 7, $100 a head, minimum four people a booking, bookings essential, 8068 1017. Source.