Taste of Sydney 09

The last day of the Taste of Sydney festival was marvelous... it was scorching hot. After a week of rain, it showcased Sydney's best weather, chefs, food and produce. This festival will definitely remain on every foodie's calender next year!

Here are some interesting stats of what was consumed over the 4 day festival:

• 5,000 Gundooee organic grass fed wagyu beef burgers (Plan B)


• 2,100 Dark chocolate tarts with end of season berries & mascarpone sabayon (Berowra Waters Inn)


• 7,200 Sydney rock oysters with Vietnamese dressing, crispy shallot & baby coriander (Assiette)


• 120kg of Braised beef cheek and roasted onion & Jerusalem artichoke pie; red wine jus (Bird Cow Fish)

As soon as the menu had been released, I had been circling my favourites including fallback options.

Thankfully I was there early and managed to devour everything according to plan (plus a little bit more):

Crowns currency, $1 = 1 crown

I was really impressed that presentation and taste hadn't been compromised in mass production or been affected by the fact that they were cooked up in a portable kitchen and tents! These oysters were so creamy and delicious.

Assiette's Sydney rock oysters with Vietnamese dressing, crispy shallot and baby coriander

This one wasn't on the plan but it looked too good to miss. I was slightly disappointed Centennial Parklands Dining had taken off their beetroot macaroons with foie gras which I had been teased with at the launch party, but the fragrance of the citrus oil and fresh texture of Kingfish was beautiful.

Centennial Parklands Dining's Hiramasa Kingfish in citrus oil, fresh peas and creme fraiche

The crackling on the suckling pig wasn't as crisp as I would have liked it to be and the piece I received had a greater proportion of fat than meat. The gorgeous homely flavours of pork and peas were still tantalising.

Restaurant Balzac's saddle of sucking pig with crackling and baby garden peas

I loved this dish. The scallop added a different dimension to the traditionally hearty mousakka.It was plump and juicy and seared to perfection. I was glad the eggplant wasn't too heavy either. Overall, a really enjoyable dish!

Civic Dining's moussaka of eggplant, sea scallop and taramoslata

And Jonah's dishes blew me away. They were so good I didn't even share. I've never had zucchini flowers which tasted this good. The tempura batter was light and uber crisp and the basil pesto sauce did wonders with these simple wonderful ingredients. The yellow fin tuna was seared with the aromas of sesame oil and then served with a crunchy Spring mix of radish and watercress. The fried onion rings added extra depth to the dish too, it was so tasty. I've never dined at Jonah's before but I've instantly become a fan.

Jonah's at Whale Beach's tempura ricotta filled zucchini flowers with basil pesto sauce and sesame seared yellow fin tuna, crisp spring onion rings, red radish and watercress

Later that afternoon, I satisfied my sweet tooth with these 2 delicious berry desserts from Becasse and Dank Street Depot and cooled down with Longrain's luscious Ping Pong cocktail and Fruit Soda's granny smith apple and fresh ginger soda.

Becasse's eton mess with summer berries

Dank Street Depot's poached strawberries with a chocolate and hazelnut meringue with whipped cream

Fruit Soda's Granny Smith with fresh ginger drink

Longrain Bar's Ping Pong cocktail - lychees and passionfruit muddled then shaken with 42 Below Passionfruit vodka, lychee and fresh lime juice

The best alfresco fine-dining

Me lying down at Centennial Park

The best part of this festival was unquestionably the fact that it combined my love for alfresco dining with Sydney's best food. It was like a gourmet picnic which had been pre-planned for you.

Missed out? The Taste Festival will be at Melbourne in August! Find out more info here.

I'd also like to thank everyone who had entered my Taste Of Sydney double passes giveaway. One of the winners, Sam Lau, has thoughtfully sent me a MS Word doc of his deliciously fun time at the festival. I loved his effort, so with Sam's permission, read on for his review :)