Hunky Dory Social Club, Oxford St Darlinghurst

"Hunky Dory" is a standard response to something just fine, just dandy, not too over the top and exciting, something that is just... hunky dory. 

My first visit to Hunky Dory was early this year when it initially opened. I couldn't help but notice the cool little set up while I was driving through Oxford St, a new cocktail bar? I was so there!

Demos and I decided to sneak a cocktail in on a very very busy friday night. Hunky Dory is a seriously cool little venue and its easy to love. There are three levels, all very effortlessly cool - they have an Italian Restaurant, Bruno's on the ground level, a small bar area and DJ set up on the second level and on the third level, a rooftop bar overlooking the madness that is Oxford Street.

Demos always teases me about being one of those birds who are just drawn to random shiny objects and takes them all back to the nest and stashes all the sequins. Yup, thats me. I was drawn to all the shiny fixtures around the rooftop bar, everything fell into place so beautifully and was a contrast to the venues very worn down and industrial feel.

A bit of light reading in a cocktail bar?

A very adorable way to present a killer drinks list, golden books never fail to put a smile on my face! The cocktail menu has had a few additions since our initial visit, but that particular night we ordered the recommendations of a "Killer White Lady" and a "Highland Swig" both $18.

It was a long long wait to get served at the bar, the top level was particularly heaving on the night we first visited it was an absolute shoulder to shoulder struggle to get to the small bar.

Hugos Bar Pizza, Kings Cross

"Hugo's Sunday?"

There was a phase not too long ago when this text message was received clockwork at around 7 pm on a Sunday night. The troops would be gathered, we'd put on our Sunday best and indulge in Hugo's $5 pizza's and cocktails on their balcony at Kings Cross. My lovely friends (affectionately nicknamed the Mediterranean Gossip Girl - we are far less glamourous and all we like to do is eat) would dance the night away and dread monday mornings all together.

Barbera d'Asti $50.00

One particular Sunday, we decided to get together for dinner at Hugo's Bar and Lounge, a place we have often ignored as we'd walk up the stairs to the club..or stumble back to our cars.

Although they have a mean cocktail list, we did the adult thing and ordered two bottles of Barbera d'Asti. The vino went perfectly with our Italian meal - it was not overpowering or bitter, and very easy to drink with dinner. We took our places by the window sill in the beautiful dining room and looked upon the groups lining up to get to the club, dressed to impress. 

Pumpkin & Sage Tortellini $28.00

The first dish we tried was the Tortellini filled with pumpkin and mascarpone in a burnt butter and crispy sage sauce. This was an impressive and hearty pasta dish, the burnt butter sauce was not too overpowering or oily and each tortellini was generously filled with hot pockets of pumpkin and creamy mascarpone.

Polenta Chips $10.00

The polenta chips arrived as a side and they smelt divine. They were thick portions and had that delicious crunch - so fresh that when you split them, a burst of steam comes popping out. The polenta chips came with tomato chutney which was nice and tangy and also a plain whole egg mayo dip. We would have all love the added naughtiness of a gorgonzola sauce to slather these bad boys with.

Sicillian arancini filled with pork ragu, mozarella $18.00 Salad of figs with prosciutto di San Danielle, buffallo mozzarela & apple balsamic dressing $24.00

More delicious entree's arrived to share. The arancini's were of perfect rice and filling proportion and glued to a bed of sauce that is packed with the tanginess of tomato. Now for the prosciutto salad - could there be any better pair than this wonderful meat and fresh figs? Our group had to make sure our proscuitto slices were shared evenly as we all could not get enough. The apple balsamic added a punch to the greenery and before you know it our plate was empty.

Fig Pizza $26.00

I think there was a phase where my friends needed to book me into therapy because I was heavily addicted to Hugo's pizza's. There is nothing like them - thin (tick) crispy (thick) super tasty (double tick). For Christmas, I even asked Santa for the Pete Evans pizza oven.

La Casa Ristorante, Russell Lea

As a rule we here at the Empty Fridge would not describe ourselves as 'romantic'. We simply don't do the loved up eye gazing soul connecting that so many couples do on that one day of the year - Valentines day. After driving past La Casa every single day, we thought it'd be nice to warrant an occasion where we could potentially end up in a food coma. Reading delicious reviews of this family owned restaurant (Brother and Sister team Tony and Carmel Rugerri) and following Carm's delightful tweets, it was too difficult to stay away any longer.  So came into fruition a new tradition; The "Non-Valentines Day" celebration - no romance, strictly food only.

La Casa's very own wood fired pizza oven

So on this lazy Sunday evening a Concord girl and a Henley boy decided to meet halfway on Lyons Road, Russel Lea. As long time locals of the area, we have been desperate for a great Italian place to open up. A 5 minute drive where we could venture when the fridge is in fact empty. La Casa is the perfect home away from home where the smells and comfort of the food just hit the spot. 

As soon as we were seated, we immediately felt at home. We tell our lovely waitress Daniella our plans for a non-romantic dinner, we can't help but notice that even though it was early on a Sunday night, the place was filling up rather quick! "Daniella, do we have a time limit on this table? Because....how do we put this?..we really want to eat." So with a bottle of Lucarelli Negroamaro our amazing meal begins.

 Polpette della Mama $14 or Mama's meatballs for those unversed in Italian. 

Now we don't know what Mama Rugerri's secret recipe for these soft, perfectly seasoned meatballs is, but we would offer ourselves for temporary adoption and the promise of producing bottles of Passata if we could have this for dinner everyday. If historical architecture can bear any comparison to food, then this would be the colosseum of italian home style dishes. 

Vessel Italian, King St Wharf

Tuesday night date night had come around once again. Fortunately there was not much to think about this time around because luckily enough we were invited to come and dine at Vessel Italian. Situated on the ground floor of the new Macquarie building it is easy to get to and would be perfect for those wanting something to peck on after the Friday booze sessions especially as the silly season approaches.  

After finding parking on nearby Hickson Road Gianna and I meandered down toward Vessel lapping up the sun on this balmy Tuesday night. I must admit that nothing beats the summer weather, sun shine and good food - exactly what was in store for the evening. Having booked an early table, we were able to admire this beautiful restaurant before the other guests started to arrive.

Vessel has a very good location and when the sun is out and fills the space inside you can't help but feel that you are out having Sunday lunch, such a good respite for those slogging through yet another rough day at the office. Its location is prime for CBD workers who just want to whisk themselves to a elegant space and forget about looming deadlines. It is a beautiful venue and makes good use of the space. Open, airy with lots of light and accentuated with glass, steel and timber - it's like an architect's dream. I really liked the chairs, honeycomb openings matching the honeycomb cladding of the building, a nice touch. Once settled and seated we were given the menu and our friendly waitress suggest we begin with stuzzichinni (starters).

Along with the delicious bread, a selection of mixed marinated olives arrive with some crunchy grissini, a perfect accompaniment as we go through the menu

We also started with Suppi 'al telephono - fried saffron risotto balls with mozzarella and basil. There were a few starters that sounded quite delectable such as the asparagialla milanesse - grilled asparagus with poached truffled egg and parmesan but we settled on something small to get going. Nonetheless I think you can't ever go wrong with olives. Throw some bread in the mix, some olive oil and salt and you can sit quietly and eat to your hearts content. Well that's what I think anyway, must be the Greek in me - please ignore my momentary Mediterranean inspired musings.

The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills

"They have burger's here..I have been here before, I have had them - seen them with my own two eyes and even blogged about it..my blog does not lie"

"Where then show me on this menu where the burger is Gianna..where??"

Its a Beautiful Sunday afternoon at Surry Hills on 12th of September. For myself and my dearest and most fabulous friend - The Boss Lady, this is the day that is very special to us - our Birthday! We met during High School when we both worked the cash registers at out local Target Ashfield. Because of our love for Food, Music and above all else - Disney Movies, we have been inseparable since. Because we share the same birthdate, and were born in the exact same year we've discovered we have this magical mind connection thing.. (ESP-n) especially when it comes to food. In this particular case I knew she was looking for the Wagyu burger on the menu - but alas, the burger was off the menu. Thanks Justin Hemmes, what did that burger ever do to you? They were so good..

So yes, whats a Birthday afternoon without a few Birthday Bevvies for the Boss Lady - Its become tradition for us to spend and celebrate our birthday together. They have a great wine selection which is reasonably priced at 8-10 dollars a glass and also a pretty good cocktail list. We tried some of the share cocktails which were served in a caraffe and all the ladies seemed to enjoy that. They do an exceptional cocktail at the Beresford, even the humble pimms and lemonade was spruced up and served with Orange and strawberry slices. The cocktail list changes regularly of course, but the prices are a few dollars cheaper than their CBD cousins.

The Beresford has been re-developed into a more casual and informal Italian style trattoria. The dining area is a mix of regular tables, low leather lounges as well as an outside area which of course get a little rowdier in the evening. It gets very crowded here at night, especially in the beer garden but lucky on this pretty spring day, we got free reign over some leather lounger over looking the beer garden. 

Calamari Fritti with Rocket, Aoli and Lemon $18

As for their light menu, we have already established that the wagyu burger has dissapeared however the Calamari Fritti is always a winner. Its batter ever so lightly and the aoli dressing is pretty "lick and remaining drop off the plate" addictive. There are four pizza's on the lunch menu and both are $17-$19 dollars each. We try the Margharita - tomato, mozarella and basil and the peperoni, orgegano and olive pizza. It's woodfired pizza..at its finest, at a pub. The serves aren't large at all and I would have no difficulty in eating one plate on my own - especially with the thin and crispy base. 

This is why I love the boss lady - my birthday card. 

I scope the table and see a few friends have ordered some delicious looking and tasting dishes - there was a substantial looking cured meat platter...mmmm salsicce and the warm mushroon salad with pecorino and traviso also looked delish. Not your average pub grub I say! The fries with sea salt were also a hit, I think all fries everywhere should be served shoe-string..slathered in aoli - but thats my dream.

Another year older, hopefully wiser! This tiramisu was delicious! A birthday not a complete without it. Thank you for another year together Boss Lady and for sharing your special day, love you like a fat kid loves birthday cake!

The Beresford Hotel - 354 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2000.

http://www.theberesford.com.au/

The Good Food and Wine Show 2010, Sydney Convention Center

Im not going to lie, I was a bit apprehensive about going to this event. Okay, it was indeed a cold sunday morning, and I may or may not have had too many saturday vino's - but for the love of food we did it. My heart was set on seeing George Calombaris with Gary Mehigan at the "Celebrity" Chef Theatre but unfortunately the chef demonstrations were sold out via ticketek. We crossed our fingers decided to chance it and see if we could get tickets at the door.

We arrived at 10.30 and speed walk straight to the "Celebrity Chef Theatre" trying our best to not look like over-excited hungry crazy people.  It was my lucky Sunday, and we got seats to the demonstration that was about to start. George and Gary were so entertaining to watch - lots of banter, a few gags here and there - but they were having lots of fun on stage and the food they cooked looked delish! Now i'm not a huge masterchef groupie, but how can you not love George? He's officially now the other Greek man in my life!

By the end of the hour long demonstration - my tummy was grumbling as always after skipping brekky to get there on time. I needed sustenance to get through all the exhibitions - stat. Was it too early for vino? Of course not!

A "restaurant" is set up for the day - with signature dishes from some of Australia's favourite chefs - George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan, Pete Evans and Tobie Puttock. The way the restaurant worked was by purchasing tokens - entree's were priced at $16.00, mains at $24.00 and desserts for $8.00. Each entree and main came with a glass of wine or beer.

Armed with our $72.00 worth tokens - it was decision time!

Our first main meal was the Bastilla of minced lamb with olives and pine nuts This was served with a glass of Hardys Oomoo Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.

The dish is like a giant lebanese kebbe but instead of the chick pea crunchy crust  - it was a soft warm and very buttery pastry - mixed with labne I had found my kryptonite and I was not sharing! 

Demos told me that the Braised chicken and celery fricasse tasted like the traditional greek food that he ate as a little Demos. The chicken melted in your mouth and the broth was just so tasty! How i wish George could send me a serving of this the next time I am sick - there was something so comforting about this dish. I sure hope Yia Yia can recreate this for me! This dish was served with Hardys Oomoo Adelaide Hills Chardonnay. Both mains were $24.00

Our "entree" actually arrived last - which we forgave as the set up was more like a cafeteria then a fine dining establishment. We had another dish from Chef Colombaris' selection and it was the Warm salad of squid and chickpeas served with wild greens. served with Hardys Oomoo Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc. I attacked the squid like a crazed seagull at bondi beach, but the chickpeas were too hard for my liking. Demos may have attempted to throw one at my forehead. Why? because he wanted this dessert to himself:

MMM..vanilla panna cotta, ala Gary Mehigan - with roasted apricots and honey. 

This was a delicious dessert and the vanilla flavour was just perfect after our very rich meal, technically - our breakfast. Lucky that we did start early, throughout the day, the restaurant area kept getting busier and busier.

Since we had our energy levels up - we braved the crowds with their bulky showbags and proceeded with the wine tasting. Another Happy Sunday indeed.

Pete Evans is my pizza hero. I credit him with the creation of what I think is Australias' best Pizza - my favourite sunday night treat..the $5.00 pepperoni at Hugo's Bar and Lounge in Kings Cross. He put on a great show -  the smell of the pumpkin and feta cooking drove me insane, as we were right next to the stage! I mean, So what if we hung around after the show was over to see if we could salvage some leftovers? Im convinced that I need a Pete Evans Pizza oven for my birthday. Thats #1 on the wishlist. 

We ended spending a good 5 hours at the show - just sampling food and walking around. At $29 per ticket, you need to plan your day and make the most out of it. There were alot more activities that we missed out on, such as the cheese masterclass, coffee class and even cupcake decoration classes! The early, much more organised birds got the spots. At the end, I was happy with our freebie caramel sundaes from weight watchers. Only 2 points, but who's counting?