I am back again at 2015’s Taste of Sydney together with Josh and Nic! I was already prepared to pay for our entrance tickets when I won 2 general entry passes from Jennifer of I Ate My Way Through‘s Instagram post – already an awesome start to the festival.
We’ve decided to make a round starting with Biota Dining as we’ve heard they took the top award of the festival, and also Otto Ristorante which was next door.
This was definitely one of the most interesting dishes at the festival as it wasn’t your usual meaty type dish which is what you’d usually get. The taramasalata had very good texture, it was creamy and smooth, and you could taste the subtle smokiness as well. The charcoal cracker gave an amazing addition on texture and presentation. All in all, the flavours all really worked together.
The buns were what you’d expect in a place like this, it was soft and fresh. I especially loved the addition of the extra pinch of salt that was drizzled onto the bun as they presented it to us.
I can never pass up on a ragu so I’ve got to give this a go. While the sauce had all the textures and right consistency to it, it was not the usual bags-of-flavour ragu that I hoped it would be. However, it was overall a dish for comfort.
We were rather parched by this time as it was a pretty hot day. You’d think winter would have been nearing given the day that was yesterday. So, we decided to head on to the Bundaberg tent opposite.
Opted for the frozen version of course! Quenched away we went on to our next stop.
PORTENO!
A Taste of Sydney crowd pleaser. They’ve got to be since they’re back again! And man, do they know their way around their meat.
Having been the only ICON dish we had for the day, it was easily in my top 3 dishes of the day. This dish being Josh and Nic’s number one. Crackling was spot on – they really couldn’t go wrong there, meat was so tender it was out of this world, the vege added that extra freshness to accompany the meat. A++!
I think this face says it all. 😀
Moving on to The Cut Bar and Grill, and Ananas Bar and Brasserie.
It was one of the few seafood dish that we really wanted to try (key word being ‘wanted’ because we would have loved to try the crayfish from Otto Ristorante). This reminded us of a much more flakey deep fried prawn wonton. The skin was so amazingly light to eat and the scampi was cooked to perfection.
This dish was my number one! Hands down! The ribs were so succulent with bags of flavour. Pretty sure I could’ve ate a plate of these with some rice and toufu. I even looked up the restaurant menu to see if they had it but to my disappointment, they did not. Here’s to hoping they’ll put it on soon after this festival.
Last but not least on the savoury side, we made an executive decision to go to Popolo instead of Bang as we were running out of crowns for the day (got to stick to the budget!) We were not disappointed!
One of the softest gnocchi’s we’ve had. As for me, anything with pinenuts sells me right away. The colour was really the interesting part of the dish which was what made us want to get it at first.
Time for desserts and other goodies we found after filling our bellies. We stopped by 4fourteen for their popsicle as it was one of my favourite desserts from last year.
The popsicle was consistent in comparison to last year’s, which is what you’d want to see. Again, love the saltiness of the crumbs to go along with the caramelly-ness. Well worth the 6 Crowns.
I always love stopping by their store whenever I am in Bondi to get some of their eclairs. Josh loves eclairs and of all the ones he’s had around Sydney, this comes close to his perfect one. However, they only sold the mini ones. We much preferred the overall texture of their original sized ones.
We were also on a craze with a couple of coconuts out there. Seeing as it was a pretty hot day, it was only right to drink a couple of them to cool us down.
Their marketing strategy was cutting the tops of the coconut with lasers so that it could be easily opened after drinking to eat the flesh inside. I thought it was quite a brilliant idea but I would have loved the coconut flesh to be softer.
Next came the can version by Real Coconut Water. It was tasty, large portion and affordable. Had all the ticks in my book when it comes to buying coconuts.
Piccolo Me’s packaging of their Iced Nutella drink was too cute to pass out on. With my love for Nutella and coffee, I just had to get one to try that combination. It was a good balance of Nutella and coffee.
I thought this year’s event was an overall success! Although a pretty pricy one at that, it was definitely a money saver to have like-minded foodie friends to tag along and share the dishes with. That’s definitely a huge tip to anyone who wants to go next year. Entering competitions for free tickets would not hurt the bank account either!
This month of March is going to be a huge food month for me. The first half has already started very well with March into Merivale: Just Desserts and Taste of Sydney, can’t wait for the next half of it which I will be updating on.
**Some pictures have been taken by Joshua Sim (Instagram @joshiespace) and Nicole Chin (Instagram @nickychin)
Wait! The camera eats first! 