buffet, the hunger slayer

Huge hunks of fried cheese bread, croutons and horror of horrors...bacon bits! This week, Shag has requested a food topic near and dear to our child-of-the-80s hearts, the buffet and more specifically, the Sizzler buffet.

Mere mention of the word conjures charactures of overweight Americans with little pig noses shovelling food down, trough-style while the a la carte diners look on in horror.

These days, buffets are a more civilised affair, but a more rare occurance - the best examples of which can be found in hotels.

Stamford Hotels

O'Riordan St
Mascot NSW 2020
(02) 9317 2200

This swanky family of hotels still knows how to put on a great buffet, with fresh produce, nery a crumb out of place and international culinary themes spread throughout the year.

Seafood lovers should head to the Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport on Saturdays to get familar with the finger bowl and their seasonal cultural events, showcasing authentic food from far flung corners of the globe are worth checking out, too.

The Malaysian festival late last year turned up cooked-on-the-spot mi goreng, fish curries and sambal for days, with Indian, Indonesian and Chinese influences on show for the punters.

There's a Nepalese Food Cultural Festival running from the 5th - 11th of April, with a Cajun and Creole food fest to come in July.

Sizzler

559 Hume Highway
Carramar

Cnr Campbelltown & Harbord Roads
Campbelltown

Cnr Princes Highway & Jubilee Avenue
Kograh

Yes, they still exist! Though not in as many locations as their buffet hey-day in the early 90's, Sizzler may be a dwindling species, but the salad bar, complete with wedges, pasta and pumpkin soup is still cranking away. The $21.00 price tag for the salad bar may have changed, but the ubquitous 'shrimp fry' and prawn cutlets look exactly the same as the time you splashed out and ordered from the *gasp* a la carte menu.

www.sizzler.com.au

Mandarin Oriental
6 Raffles Boulevard
Singapore 039594
6338 0066

How does a buffet that includes French champagne, martinis, foie gras and seafood for days grab you? Well, those of you who know something about the Mandarin Oriental's reputation for extreme opulence and their no-expense-spared approach to the hotel trade, will expect nothing less than the best, when it comes to le buffet.

Starting at SG $118 (thats around AUD $94) for all you can consume seafood, French champagne and more, Singaporeans really do know how to do Sunday brunch, mack-daddy style.

fooderati does daily addict

For those who like to sip, my first review has just been published for Daily Addict. Last week, I checked out Eau De Vie, the Kirketon's new vintage-feel cocktail bar in Darlinghurst.



Click here to read.

fooderati welcomes

While fooderati started as a blog by a frustrated digital advertising suit, it has evolved into published food writing, food media consulting for clients such as Australian Pork Limited and the awesome Adriano Zumbo.
















This week, fooderati welcomes two new clients into the family: The Corner House (as seen in this week's Good Living) - run by Anthony Kaplan from North Bondi's The Shop & Wine Bar fame, and Tastevin - a brilliant French bistro slash wine bar slash supper club on Sydney's Victoria Street, Darlinghurst.



















The great thing about the evolving nature of fooderati is being able to work with inspiring people and places - celebrating the good and exciting in the Sydney food scene - lucky? Hell yes. These guys rock.

march into merivale

At the risk of repeating what everyone other blogger in Sydney will probably write about March Into Merivale - the launch on Wednesday, the subsequent media dinners this week that you, the punter didn't go to - this post is dedicated to telling you about how to get a little more bang for your buck in March.

This month, grab a bargain on Merivale - the Hemmes-driven hospitality machine, hell bent on making you have a great time, dammit.

In the spirit of Sydney Festival and Sydney International Food Festival, the $33 lunch/dinner special makes an appearance during March, a bid to rescue you from the kitchen (where you'll probably hurt yourself) and trying some new tucker, created by some of Sydney's best chefs, including Lauren Murdoch, Dan Hong and Peter Doyle.

Restaurants taking part include: est, sushi e, Uccello, Mad Cow, Bistro CBD, Lotus, Ash Street Cellar, Teppanyaki and Sushi Choo.

Fooderati's top picks:

Est

Fillet of veal, mparrettati, mushroom sauté and baby beans

Sushi Choo

Bento box - mixed sashimi plate, beef tataki and tuna avocado salad with wasabi soy and truffle dressing

Plus (from thee options):

Deep fried prawn dressed with kataifi shredded pastry with aonori (dried seaweed) salt

Lotus

Grilled sirloin with carrot puree, wasabi butter and red wine sauce

The deals include a glass of vino or ice-cold suds to wash it down, too. The menus also change fortnightly throughout the event, so you can have more than one bite at the cherry.

If you fancy your meal a little more low-key, the Royal George, Slip Inn and CBD are offering TWO main meals plus wine or beer for the $33 price tag.

Check out more details, including other event dinners and tastings here.

valentines day and weird aphrodesiacs

Let's face it. Valentines day is a bit of a consumer trap. Some restaurants call it 'amateur night', or 'money for jam' - an easy few bucks to be made by the somewhat non-regular dining crowd who think the holiday is one best started in a swanky restaurant in order for better odds that it'll finish in the bedroom.

As this blog covers enough restaurants, how about we just cut to the chase and focus on aphrodisiac this Valentines day? And forget oysters (zinc), red wine and chocolate (endorphins, antioxidants), let's look a little further afield:

Top 3 weird aphrodesiacs

1. Ginseng

Originating from Siberia and when translated into English, roughly means 'man root'. The Pen Tsao Ching - one of the original authority books on herbs, written by Emperor Shen Nung (aka. the guy who 'discovered' and documented tea) - talks about ginseng being consumed to enlighten the mind and increase wisdom. An all-purpose well being ingredient (or adaptogen), aside from being good for impotence and therefore an aphrodisiac, ginseng also reportedly assists in the cure or alleviation of lethargy, senility and arthritis.

Try it in a tea, as a herbal liquid, or ground up in a capsule from your local Chinese medicine centre.

more info here, image from here.

2. Absinthe



What do you get when you mix mind-altering chemicals and alcohol? Apparently, a really good time. The scientific jury is still out about this one, but Absinthe afficionados claim that it alters sensory perception, leading to a better experience in the bedroom. It probably doesn't hurt that the average alcohol content is around a 45-85%, either.

Image from Will Work For Food

3. Peas



Well, a combination of peas, onions, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom, to be more specific, is written about in infamous 15th century Arabic sex manual The Perfumed Garden. There are no scientific corroborations on the theory, however when stacked up against soup of bull's penis and testicles, snake blood or Spanish fly, suddenly pea salad doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

Try this simple recipe:

Ingredients

1 small bag of frozen peas
1 small brown onion, sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
ground cinnamon
ground cardamom
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
1 small handfull of mint leaves
1 small ripe avocado
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Boil peas until tender. Train and set aside
2. In a hot frypan, lightly sautee onions and garlic until the onions become translucent. Remove from heat.
3. Peel avocado, remove stone and mash
4. Mix peas, onion and garlic, avocado, torn up mint leaves, grated ginger and a 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and cardamom.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Consume
7. Get busy

Image from here.

P.s. If you do want to eat out in Sydney on V-day this year, here are a few good options:

1. Rise (23 Craigend St, Darlinghurst)

6 course modern Japanese degustation: $88

http://www.riserestaurant.com.au

2. Restaurant Balzac (141 Belmore Road, Randwick)

3 course dinner including dishes like seared loin of Firstlight venison with figs, beetroot and hazelnut, for $115.

www.restaurantbalzac.com.au

3. Flying Fish (Pier 21, Jones Bay Wharf, Lower Level Deck 19-21 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont)

4 courses, including complimentary champagne on arrival for $175 per person.

www.flyingfish.com.au

food for dudes

(as heard on FBI Radio)

With presenter Sweetie and the role of producer being taken-over by Oscar while Catherine is on hiatus, while the girls are away the boys will..well, ask about 'dude food', for starters.

Notwithstanding the vegetarians among the less-fair sex, the general assumption is that they gravitate towards their caveman roots, favouring bold flavours, un-fussy presentation, generous proportions. Forget canape blinis with rosettes of Petunia smoked trout, men want meat, and plenty of it. A recent Fooderati Twitter poll did little to break this assumption:

@blues_junkie Franz Scheurer, founder of Australian Gourmet Pages: smoked wagyu tongue, cooked, then BBQed + served with (freshly grated) horseradish cream

@dan_hong (Head chef at Sydney's Lotus Restaurant) : anything with bacon

@vijaykhurana (Triple J's lunch presenter): Kangaroo steak! Whole mangoes just for me! Burrrrgers!

While @erezgordon simply shared these sage words: Don't you know men are genetically predisposed to anything deep fried? Whether we like it or not.

Armed with this meaty knowledge, here are three places to head out with the boys this weekend.

Pub steak:

Shakespeare Hotel (200 Devonshire St Surry Hills)

Friday evenings see the pub crowd spill out of the old-school interior of the pub and onto the sidewalk, London-style. Innit. There are several great things about the Shakey (as the local 20 something alcoholic population call it). Amongst these are their ability to expertly pour a Guinness the way it should be done, their proximity to Mohr Fish’s take-away chips (eaten on the footpath, schooner in hand) and the Shakey’s $10 Rump Steak. Served with ubiquitous mash and salad, there really isn’t anything more comforting than an ice-cold beer after work accompanied by your old mate, steak.

Ribs:

Hurricane's Grill (130 Roscoe St, Bondi)
Nothing says 'man food' (or 'yabba dabba doo') like a plate stuffed with a full rack of barbeque-glazed pork ribs and chunky potato chips. Anyone carnivore within a three block radius can be seen cartoon-wafting towards this mecca of meat. The ribs themselves are sticky, smokey and fall-off-the-bone tender. $37.40 will buy you a full rack, and if you can't finish it, then what kind of man are you? (just kidding. A tip for those who'd rather a half rack: sharing with a mate is better value than ordering a half rack each. Now how's that for bromance?)
South American Grill:

La Parrilada (Shop 470, Parramatta Rd Leichhardt 2040.)

Show La Parrillada's website to a vegetarian and they'll most likely run for the (vegan) hills. The showcase of meat, meat and (wait for it) MORE meat is overt and underscored by phrases like "over 2.5kg of meat!" Indeed for a restaurant named after one of South America's most famous food exports - the mixed grill, Jose Cruz and his staff are serious when it comes to the business of the barbecue.

The menu has a number of options all of which star meat. We opt for the Parrillada For Two promising "Over 1.5kgs of meat" in addition to fries and salad for under $50.Chorizo, steak, pork ribs, cutlets and lamb are served on a mini charcoal grill and the quality of produce and care in preparation is clear, resulting in a juicy, tender texture with a delicately smoky flavour.