There seem to be a lot of pop up dining and drinking experiences around Sydney these days and now there’s one to please the whisky connoisseurs who may know a thing or two about Drambuie, a sweeter whisky with lovely notes of honey and spices infused into it. I must confess that I had never heard of it before, although it has been around for over 260 years and has quite an interesting heritage to do with a Scottish prince and a secret recipe.
Category Archives: Pop Up Restaurant
Crave Sydney: Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Waterloo
If you love an excuse to dress up in theme and enjoy good food, then the Mad Hatters Tea Party is one event you shouldn’t miss during the annual Crave Sydney Food Festival in October. It’s a rare opportunity to fall down the rabbit hole by indulging in the flavours and textures of a culinary wonderland…
Filed under Australian, Pop Up Restaurant, Waterloo
Calle to Cavern Pop-Up Dining at Emmilou, Surry Hills
On a breezy spring night, we were invited by the lovely team at Lime & Tonic to take part in an exclusive pop up dining experience in Surry Hills. We were quite intrigued by this fun concept, which combines a bit of adventure with our favourite pastime of eating out. The idea behind all of Lime & Tonic’s offerings is to create memorable social experiences by putting together a selection of the best restaurants and activities in Sydney.
Filed under Australian, Pop Up Restaurant, Surry Hills
Masterchef Pop-Up Restaurant
Masterchef Australia is well into their 4th season and it’s a wonder why they took so long to come up with the concept of a pop-up restaurant. The Masterchef pop-up restaurant opened its doors last week outside St Mary’s Cathedral featuring different past Masterchef contestants and celebrity chefs cooking up a storm each night. It’s sponsored by American Express and supports OzHarvest, a charity that rescues food which would otherwise be discarded. I’m really excited to eat tonight given that I am a huge Masterchef fan and also knowing that my dollars are going to a good cause.
I attended the restaurant on Saturday 7th July which featured Masterchef contestant Hayden Quinn (Series 3) and Martin Boetz (head chef of Longrain). The restaurant looks like a giant tent with big glass doors and an earthy atmosphere thanks to the many plants dotting the room. It also features a bar downstairs (no bookings required) and dining upstairs, but unfortunately tickets for all the nights are now sold out. When we arrived, we were promptly seated and our celebrity guests were introduced. They chatted to us about the concept and menu, which featured a range of entrees, mains and desserts designed by the celebrity chefs.
Lobster bisque with scallops – by Hayden Quinn
To start the night, we choose the two entrees made by tonight’s guests. The lobster bisque is served with a small lobster fillet, scallop and fish roe. I’m not an overall fan of the bisque itself and find it way too lobstery, but the seafood was soft and succulent. The fish roe also added an interesting textural element to the bisque.
Eggnet filled with pork, prawns, peanuts and caramelised coconut with a cucumber relish – by Martin Boetz
Next up is an Asian-style salad by Martin Boetz. The first thing I try is the side of pickled vegetables, which are very refreshing. I’m not a fan of the chunks of ginger in there but the cucumbers were quickly eaten up by yours truly. The eggnet covering was thin and fluffy. Hidden underneath was an assortment of bean sprouts, coriander, nuts, chilli and pork. It had a beautiful Thai vinaigrette tossed through it and was a lovely light entree to start with, as well as being quite a generous serving!
Seared duck breast with Aigre-douce sauce – by Justin Schofield
Onto the mains! These were not designed by tonight’s guests but were cooked by the dozens of assistant chefs hidden in the kitchen. The duck was accompanied with an assortment of baby vegetables, puree and an onion with a puff pastry. This onion added an interesting touch and was delicious with the pastry; however, the other vegetables were medium cooked and could have been a bit softer. Our duck breast was sliced into thick pieces and was seared to perfection – it was pink, juicy, soft and melted in your mouth. The only downfall with this dish was that the sauce wasn’t that interesting and I don’t think it pulled the dish together very well.
Roast rump of pork with crackling, potato puree, buttered cabbage and charcuterie jus – by Justin North
Next up was the pork. This was cooked beautifully with a layer of fat attached onto the side. The mash was creamy and soft, the sauce was delicious – very homely food for a winter night. However, one bad thing was that the crackling was way too hard. Even using my back teeth, my eating partner and I found it difficult to break with our teeth. A failed textural element to the dish.
Lemon and mint spring rolls with lemon syrup – by Marion Grasby
When it came to desserts, we made sure we picked the most interesting sounding ones to end our night. First up were some spring rolls filled with a creamy custard with a subtle refreshing mint flavour, though I couldn’t taste any lemon. Also, there were two things which caught me off guard with this dish. Firstly, the dish was warm – I expected the dessert to be cold, so this was an interesting change. Secondly, the spring roll was soft and soggy. I was hoping it would be crispy but unfortunately it was not.
Passionfruit puddle pie - by Julie Goodwin
Next up was a passionfruit pie, which was a lovely fruity finish to our meal. I found that the pastry base was a bit boring and needed more sugar. The cream sitting on top didn’t really complement the tart and this also lacked sweetness, but thankfully the tart filling was quite delicious and the passionfruit seeds added some interesting crunch.
Cheese platter served with crisp bread, grapes, lavosh, strawberry and pinot jam
As if we didn’t already have enough food, we were given a cheese platter featuring four types of cheese. I still don’t really appreciate cheese, but tried them anyway. The one standing up like a small pyramid was the most delicious and creamy; the others remained unfinished as they were a bit too strong for our liking.
Throughout the night, Hayden and Martin came around to the tables to take photos and chat with all guests. This was a great touch to make any Masterchef fan’s night. Hayden was a very down-to-earth type of guy to talk to and happily answered some Masterchef questions which I always wanted to know.
Some show spoilers for you:
1. For the dishes which the judges do not try, the contestants do not eat them. Unfortunately, they are discarded and wasted. However, OzHarvest salvages as much as they can (such a waste – the TV crew should eat it!)
2. Two plates are actually plated up. One which is tried by the judges (shown on air), and another one which is plated later for filming and for TV (makes me cry knowing how much beautiful food is wasted!!!)
Overall, the food was only average due to the small disappointments in every dish and the food alone was not really worth the $100 price tag per person (if it wasn’t a Masterchef event). However, the night was wonderful and kept me well entertained and the concept was well executed. Masterchef should definitely have more events like this! I was very happy to have met Hayden and pleased to know that all tips would go to OzHarvest and were matched by American Express (up to $20k).
MasterChef Dining pop-up Restaurant and Bar
St Mary’s Cathedral , College St, Sydney
Dates: 3rd July – 22nd July 2012
This event is now sold out for the restaurant. The bar does not take bookings so you can turn up for a drink (the celebrity guests walk around there too!)
To see which dates each celebrity chef will be appearing – visit http://www.masterchef.com.au/dining.htm
Filed under Australian, Bar, CBD - Town Hall, Pop Up Restaurant
Eat Art Truck, Sydney CBD
After my first experience stalking one of Sydney’s new Food Trucks, I had to go back for more. But this time, I was keen to try something different – cue the Eat Art Truck, which has also been receiving quite a lot of publicity recently as it is run by Tetsuya’s ex-sous chef Stuart McGill. The locations of this food truck are similar to those listed for the Cantina Mobil (Pitt Street Mall, Customs House, Queen’s Square) but they operate on different days and times.
On this occasion, we head to Queen’s Square as it is 7.30pm and the truck is due to move on at 8pm to Customs House. We have our fingers crossed that this time we catch the truck before it heads off and our luck held out when we laid eyes on the lone black van parked in the middle of the square. As the name of the food truck suggests, there is funky artwork adorning the back side of the van to make it easier for us to spot it.
Unfortunately, there were some restrictions on what we could order off the menu as they were approaching their departure time – so we weren’t able to order the Spatchcock Ssam with Crispy Noodles (which sounded amazing), but we were able to nab a few portions of the Pulled Pork Bun and the Chicken Wings with Shichimi Pepper to console ourselves with.
I’m not actually a fan of pulled pork normally because I find it a bit dry and stringy, but Eat Art Truck’s rendition is fantastic! It’s quite a huge serving with plenty of meat, mustard cabbage and hot sauce packed into a fluffy bread roll, so it is difficult to eat gracefully but who cares when you’re getting a flavour hit as awesome as this? You can choose either a sweet or hot sauce to smother your pulled pork in for this bun so everyone is catered for.
Pulled Pork Bun, $12
I was already impressed by the first snack of the night but I was blown away by the Chicken Wings with Shichimi pepper and chilli mayo drizzled on top artfully. The crispy fried batter coating the skin of the chicken was reminiscent of KFC’s Wicked Wings but 100 times better, with hints of 7 spices melding wonderfully with the chilli mayo. The juicy, succulent chicken meat underneath all the batter was a remarkable achievement considering the chefs only have limited space and equipment to work with in the van, but the taste was amazing. I could eat bucketloads of this stuff – it is so addictive! Luckily each serving is quite generous, with around 6-7 pieces of chicken.
Chicken Wings with Shichimi pepper, $8
We were disappointed that we didn’t get to try the Spatchcock Ssam on our first visit, but we chanced upon the Eat Art Truck again the next night at Belmore Park for some pre-dinner nibbles. This time, the Spatchcock was back on the menu and we pounced on it, along with more Chicken Wings for DK who had yet to try out any of the food truck fare. He’s definitely on the food truck wagon too now after this experience!
Spatchcock Ssam with Crispy Noodles, $12
The Spatchcock Ssam had about a 15 minute wait but was well worth it. Ssam is a Korean dish where a leafy vegie is used to wrap a piece of meat, similar to the San Choy Bow in Cantonese cuisine which you can find at Chinese restaurants. Eat Art Truck’s version features 2 servings of Spatchcock meat (a small chicken) on top of a bed of lettuce and crackly white noodle sticks for extra crunch. These were gobbled down quickly and were quite satisfying taste wise, but the Chicken Wings still edge out the others as the winner of the 3 dishes we tried.
Bottom line is that the Eat Art Truck does fantastic snacks at a decent price point considering the generous serving sizes. If you order one or two items, you’ll be stuffed and it’s practically a full meal, with the added bonus of trying a different eating environment a.k.a. sitting on park benches or standing around in a circle with your friends munching away.
Eat Art Truck
Phone: 041066 5178
Locations and times are posted on their website. The latest updates to their schedule are published on their Twitter.
Filed under American, Australian, CBD - Circular Quay, CBD - Town Hall, Pop Up Restaurant
