Pintxos, tapas and sangria at The Carrington

When I heard that pintxos were available at The Carrington, I knew I had to go - if only to make up for the regret I still hold for not being game enough to try the pintxos bars in San Sebastian on my trip to Europe. In my defense, the indoor smoking all over the food sitting on the bars in there still turns me off the idea.

The refreshed Carrington is in an area of Bourke Street, Surry Hills that holds a special place in my heart, so it was with delight that I finally managed to get there one Tuesday night for chef Jamie Thomas' pintxos specials night.

Calamari sliders at The Carrington, Bourke Street, Surry Hills

With a group in the back restaurant area of the pub, we'd decided to go some pintxos and tapas with jugs of sangria. This easy-drinking red wine concoction at The Carrington is topped with cracked pepper of all things, and I lost count of how many jugs we shared after the fifth.

This amazing looking calamari slider, with rocket and some kind of mayonnaise smeared all over the bottom of the bun was so picture perfect it was a case of snooze (or change your camera settings) and you lose.

Potato, rosemary and manchego tortilla

Vegetarians and omnivores alike couldn't resist the velvety texture of the most finely sliced potato tortilla I've ever seen, served with a dollop of creamy aioli, I imagine, and paprika.

Anchovy and smoked eggplant tostada

I skipped the anchovy tostada despite the provoking, modernist presentation of the small silvery fish speared onto the bread spread with eggplant.

Chciken and pork sausage roll with Basque ketchup

The miniature sausage rolls - all shiny, tanned and puffed up - were pretty awesome drenched in tomato sauce and disappeared in a hurry.

Beef skewers with romesco

The metal skewers of charred tender beef cubes, sitting on lines of romesco sauce, were unexpectedly one of my favourites.

Pork belly sliders with white cabbage slaw

Another of the sliders on the pintxos menu, the pork belly was a crowd favourite with a thick slab of crackling topped belly and crunchy cabbage slaw.

Someone in the group lucked out as my half of the slider was almost all crackling - making up for me missing the calamari slider.

Hummus, eggplant and laba salad

The generously sized salad of hummus, grilled eggplant and white blobs of labna came with a couple of slices of bread too - sure to satisfy and completely vegetarian-friendly too.

Bull's tail empanadas

We sampled a decent range from the tapas menu, which are sort of the next size up from pintxos. For me, the empanadas were all about the pastry: gold and crisp with a shortness that just makes me smile. I can barely remember what the filling was like (more sangria?) but I remember loving these.

Jalapeno and smoked cheddar croquettes

There was no need to fear the jalapeno in the perfectly cylindrical croquettes as it was barely noticeable. Instead, the cheesy and smooth potato innards were quite the moreish delight, especially with a squeeze of lemon.

Meatballs

The huge meatballs sat amid a saucy dice of vegetables, with a smidgen of grated cheese melting on top. These were incredible and definitely, I think, some of the best meatballs in town.

Salt cod fritters

Some of the bacalao croquettes I've had before are more about the dryness of salted cod than anything else - these are not those croquettes.

These fritters rather had a lightness that together with potato filling and a fabulous orange-hued sauce were so easy to gobble down, especially with a drink on hand.

Morcilla stuffed squid

After chasing up the second-time order of the squid, the blood sausage stuffed creature eventuated finally, and looking pretty impressive too despite my aversion to all things blood. This rocket of a stuffed squid looked seriously tempting, but timing and the blood thing meant that it wasn't for me.

Pintxos. Tapas. Sangria. We'd ticked it all off at The Carrington and yet there was so much more on the food and drinks menu I wanted to try. Which is not all bad as it means a return visit to re-live San Sebastian is definitely in order.

Glass Brasserie: Breakfast to see you through a day

Porridge as breakfast just doesn't do it for me, especially in the colder mornings. Those pre-flavoured sachets are tasty but the sugar content and other stuff in them doesn't seem appropriate for that time of the day. And plain oats are just plain.

I'd much rather have breakfast at Hilton Sydney's Glass Brasserie everyday but failing that, even once in a while is pretty special. Looking out onto the Queen Victoria Building facade one Saturday morning, I felt a little like a tourist in my own city, which I keep meaning to try one day.

Fresh juice mixes at Glass Brasserie, Hilton Sydney, George Street, Sydney

Glass Brasserie offers a la carte or buffet breakfast options daily. It's been a very long time since I was faced with a breakfast buffet and Glass strives to impress.

Start with a specialty 'Juice Master' cocktail - booze-free, of course, at this time of the day (although bubbles for breakfast are an option!).

Cappuccino

A lazy weekend breakfast is hardly complete without a cruisy coffee, rather than one gulped in front of a computer, with the espresso coffees made to order and specialty teas available.

Steamers feature more hot options, including Asian breakfasts

While there's cereal and museli and all, I'm all about the savoury breakfasts and there sure are some interesting choices at Glass to cater to the international hotel guests. Anyone for congee, fried rice or steamed dumplings for breakfast?

Cold cut meats and cheese buffet options

Or, would you rather cold cut meats and cheese in proper European style? I definitely would have gone back for this if I had time or stomach space, as the last time I had salami for breakfast was years ago in Munich.

Hot breakfast buffet options

The 'standard' breakfast options looked pretty enticing too: plenty of roasted bacon, mini sausages, eggs, hash browns and mushrooms, looking fresh and appetising - which is not always the case with breakfast buffets.

Selections from the breakfast buffet

We somehow managed a buffet selection without bacon or sausages; instead drawn to the vivid orange smoked salmon at the buffet, and also featured in the signature a la carte breakfast dish.

The smoked salmon shared the massive plate with a generous helping of creamy scrambled free range eggs, crunchy potato hash browns, sauteed mushrooms with spinach leaves and a bit of cheese.

In-house cold smoked salmon

Claiming to be Sydney's best smoked salmon, I don't think they're off the mark at all. Made in-house the Tasmanian farmed salmon is cured in salt and sugar for 24 hours and then rinsed, marinated in vegetable oil before being cold smoked.

The smoked salmon has an actual texture and flavour beyond mush and salty smoke, which is what some of the commercial packet stuff can taste like.

This glorious smoked salmon comes from Hilton Sydney's new-ish executive chef Carl Middleton (ex Lilianfels in Katoomba) and his own killer recipe with a new smoker installed at Glass.

Yoghurt pot with bircher museli

For a healthier turn, cute little yoghurt pots with what I think was bircher museli and nuts do the trick.

Buffet fresh fruit selection

As does the fresh fruit selection from the buffet, where cubes of melon and pineapple, but especially the passionfruit, add a sweet and light touch to the morning.

Chinese style congee with toppings

Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to sample the congee and steamed dumplings - possibly a bit of a controversial addition to the buffet line-up given Chinatown is mere minutes away.

The plain congee was that variety which is made with just rice and water, so my failure to add soy sauce as a condiment - in addition to the fresh and fried shallots - was a major error. In any case, this type of congee is meant to be plain and cleansing. For the dumplings, go to Chinatown.

Breakfast omelette from the a la carte breakfast menu

If there's not enough enticement in the buffet or for those just too lazy to get their own, Glass offers an a la carte menu, priced separately to the buffet, where the likes of omelettes are cooked to order with a choice of fillings.

This fluffy, folded-over and perfectly golden specimen enveloped diced ham, mushroom and cheese in a still-wet and stringy-with-cheese classic combination.

Signature dish of beach wood house smoked salmon with English potato scones, pan roasted
asparagus, free range scrambled eggs and baby watercress  from the a la carte
breakfast menu

And starring the aforementioned 'Sydney's best' smoked salmon, Glass' signature breakfast dish is a fresh, pretty construction.

This brightly coloured dish is quite a substantial breakfast of scrambled eggs, roasted asparagus and hidden beneath it all, an English potato scone that was more like a buttery, pan-fried hash brown than the afternoon tea style scones I know.

Chocolate croissant and guava danish

To finish on a sweet note, I returned to the buffet - although breads and pastries are located in a different area, closer to the entrance. The stunning mini guava danish was irresistable and had to be on my plate, along with a flakey, buttery mini chocolate croissant.

We took leave of our gorgeous QVB vantage point completely and utterly sated and ready to take on the day. Indeed, this epic breakfast at Glass saw me through the entire day with lunch admittedly skipped.

Food, booze and shoes dined at Glass Brasserie courtesy of Hilton Sydney.

Momofuku Seiōbo: One of everything at the bar

It’s not all that often that I order one of everything on a menu. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. Before Momofuku Seiōbo, that is.

Momofuku Seiōbo has been thrilling Sydney-siders and visitors alike since opening at The Star in October last year. After an initial stint post opening, chef and restaurateur David Chang isn't often seen in the dark and cell-like restaurant (from the outside) but apparently does drop in when he’s in town.

The view from the bar at Momofuku Seiōbo, The Star, Pyrmont

One evening, when our original dinner plans went awry, we happened to pass by the heavy bars of Momofuku Seiōbo and spotted four empty seats at the bar.

There’s a no-reservations system for the bar area, and it looks on in the distance to the kitchen and degustation diners. Dinner is sorted by indicating on the paper menu how many of the six bar menu items we’d like – one of everything, please.

Seasonal pickles

As we got our drinks sorted – the gorgeous Mutemuka Shizo 2010, Junmai Muroka Nama Genshu sake from the Kochi Prefecture in Japan – it didn’t take long at all for the huge dish of pickles to arrive before us at the bar.

The variety and large serving size were impressive, with my favourite easily being the kimchi, which had a stock-like depth beneath the chilli flavour. There was something very natural and serene about the presentation of pickled onions, radishes, daikon, cucumber, beetroot, shitake mushrooms and carrot.

Pickled egg

The single pickled egg was pretty much just that – a single, peeled, pickled egg split in half, revealing a bright, gooey yolk. There was a familiar kind-of-sour, kind-of-sweet flavour to the hard-boiled egg and I couldn't help feeling very much like Moe Szyslak for a moment.

Confit chicken wings

Things got a little more interesting and started arriving all together with quite a large plate of browned chicken wings – both mid-wings and drumettes – garnished with shallots and chilli. While tender and well-seasoned, there wasn’t a ‘wow’ factor to the wings other than their ability to get the mouth watering on sight.

Spicy roasted rice cakes

The undoubtedly Korean dish of spicy roasted rice cakes, or tteokbokki, would be a treat for those who like Korean rice cakes, of which I am unfortunately not one. The spicy sauce was, however, spot-on with the chewy, cylinders of carbohydrates showered with sesame seeds.

Pork buns

And then there were the infamous pork buns. With two to a serve, they’re actually smaller than I had anticipated, although I can now understand how people can declare their desires to eat ten of these. I think I could too, if I was particularly hungry.

After hearing so much hype and seeing so many imitations (including my own, not-so-successful attempt at home), it was always going to be difficult to beat the expectations.

The bun was soft, nearing squishy, and held the sweet pork and lightly pickled cucumber, and with a few squeezes of the not-very-hot Sriracha chilli sauce, the pork bun was a few mouthfuls of contentment.

Spanner crab roll, celery salt chips

But the spanner crab roll was there to save the evening. The crunchy potato crisps were a great start although the celery salt was a little lost on me.

The toasted brioche hot dog-style bun was filled to the brim with a creamy mayonnaise-dressed mix of spanner crab flesh, chopped celery and herbs and other goodness that made this the menu item worth fighting over and perhaps ordering doubles.

Between two people, one of everything at the bar was probably enough for a light dinner. The Momofuku Seiōbo bar is probably not a place to sit and linger too long over a stemless glass of sake: one might get jealous of the degustation diners and go another one of everything at the bar.