Visions of grandeur

Hyde Park Barracks Museum behind the Downer Macquarie Arch

Part of this year's Vivid Sydney - the second annual festival of 'light, music and ideas' - is the nighttime light extravaganza along Sydney's Macquarie Street, starting at St Mary's Cathedral, with bits around Hyde Park too. Macquarie Visions features iconic Sydney buildings lit up by awe-inspiring light shows; educational to boot.

St Mary's Cathedral, College Street, Sydney

Designing the Nation - St Mary's Cathedral

Designing the Nation - St Mary's Cathedral

The Downer Macquarie Arch, Macquarie Street

The Downer Macquarie Arch

The Downer Macquarie Arch (from the north)

Fair Go - Hyde Park Barracks Museum

Common Wealth - The Mint

Common Wealth - The Mint

Macquarie Visions celebrates the 200th anniversary of Governor Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth and goes some way in detailing the history of that era. I'm not one for history, but I walked the light trail through to the end and learnt a little more than I expected to.

Advance Australia - Parliament House

Words on the Street - The State Library of New South Wales

Words on the Street - The State Library of New South Wales

Words on the Street - The State Library of New South Wales

Light water feature

Pastimes - Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Pastimes - Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Pastimes - Sydney Conservatorium of Music

If nothing else, do check out St Mary's Cathedral at the very least. It is a simply stunning spectacle that even freezing fingers don't distract from. Macquarie Visions is on until Sunday, 20 June.

Hyde Park gets in on the blue light action

The Downer Macquarie Arch through Hyde Park

And don't forget to pick up a free torch from the booth outside St Mary's Cathedral from 5.30pm. Happy Visions!

Eat like it's 1945

In an area beginning to spoil for gastronomic choices, the unique experience of rijstaffel (pronounced ry-stah-fell; literally meaning rice table) at 1945 Dutch East Indies Cuisine makes it that something a little different. Adapted by the Dutch from the Indonesian during their colonisation of the archipelago in the 19th century, rijstaffel was invented to showcase the abundance of exotic spices. Small portions of side dishes are eaten with rice; a concept perfect for tailoring individual meals to almost any preference.

Walking in from the car-lined street at the posh Jacksons Landing end of the street, 1945’s well-dressed dining room is warm and welcoming. and beaming with Indonesian artefacts that seem to want to tell stories. The sense of being taken away to another time or place is omnipresent – in the spice-infused air; the friendly and exotically attired waitstaff; the artefacts adorning the walls; the dining crowd even.

Menu at 1945 Dutch East Indies Cuisine, Harris Street, Pyrmont

The menu is stunning – from its stately wooden encasing, to the vast number of appetisers and mains, along with soups, rices and condiments. It’s quite daunting and not at all a typical menu, so advice from those in the know is valuable. The waitstaff can certainly assist, but so too the set menus – in this instance, the Grand Rijstaffel.

To drink, there’s a range of traditional (and infinitely amusing to the uninitiated) Indonesian beverages featuring milks, teas, jellies, fruits and other fascinating ingredients. 1945 also has its own boutique wines – a chardonnay and a shiraz – produced from organic Hunter Valley grapes; surprising in its drinkability and match to many of the foods on offer. I know that's a put-down of organic wines, but in my head I expect watery or muddy, not twinklingly enjoyable.

The Grand Rijstaffel

Relived of the task of choice, we are still surprised with the lightning-fast arrival of food, and even more impressed with the spread that sits before us. On top of an elevated wooden board (a mini table if you will), 15 menu items mind their own little territories of the vibrant banana leaves. The question of where to start arises momentarily, to be hastily quashed by the fear of rapidly cooling food.

(clockwise from left)
Kroepoek oedang, nasi koening and nasi oedoek

At the heart of the meal and board are Nasi Koening, a bright turmeric rice with flavours of lemongrass and bay leaf, and Nasi Oedoek, a lightly coconut scented rice – both domes topped with Seroendeng, a captivatingly sweet and crunchy sprinkle of spiced coconut. Circling the rice is almost every protein, flavour, spice and cooking method on the menu – oh, where to start?

Ajam panggang ketjap

Sate babi

While the variety is head-spinning, I'm immediately drawn to the Ajam Panggang Ketjap, a fall-off-the-bone chicken drumstick with drool-worthy sweet, charred marinade and the grilled pork skewers, Sate Babi, smothered in a sweet and nutty sauce. A particularly saucy rendition of the famous Indonesian beef curry, Rendang Daging, is creamy with coconut and none too spicy.

Rendang Daging

Oedang panggang goerih

So exquisite are the skewered jumbo prawns of the Oedang Panggang Goerih, grilled in a spiced coconut marinade, that the shells deserve scoffing too, while the Tjoemi Goreng Tepoeng of crisply battered, tender squid could do with a bit more excitement.

Tjoemi goreng tepoeng

Terong belado

They've also got a way with vegetables here. Terong Belado is a slightly odd coupling of a long purple eggplant, fried and split to reveal its soft innards, and filled with a chunky chilli spiked tomato sauce. A favourite is the Sambal Goreng Kentang Buntjis, green beans with fluffy cubes of potato, heavy with lemongrass and galangal and served at room temperature.

Perkedel kentang daging (left) and perkedel djagoeng (left)

The golden brown deep-fried Perkedel Djagoeng fritter comes tightly packed with corn kernels, while the Perkedel Kentang Daging is a starchy and light, perfectly formed pattie of potato and minced beef.

Atjar bening

Condiments are served alongside the platter, delightful atop the savoury crunch of the Kroepoek Oedang, giant prawn crackers that are thick and not a touch greasy. Atjar Bening is a refreshing pickle of julienned cucumber, carrot and shallot with a smidgen of chilli, while Tempe Teri Katjang Goreng is a crowd pleaser – soybean, anchovies and peanuts fried with bay leaf and galangal – a complete surprise in its sweet taste and chewy texture but deliciously decadent and moreish, like something I could have as an afternoon treat.

Sajur asem

Balancing out the meal is an earthenware bowl of a tart, spicy tamarind soup, Sajur Asem, which is nourished with groundnuts, green beans and a corn cob floater.

Es tjendol

The grandiose meal is plenty for two healthy appetites and ends on the sweet note of the popular South-East Asian dessert cendol, or Es Tjendol – a pleasing glass dish of short, green pandan noodles swimming in a pool of coconut milk and shaved ice flavoured and coloured by palm sugar.

Despite all that food, I find the rijstaffel is a surprisingly quick way of eating a serious variety of big flavours while taking a short journey through regional specialties of Indonesia. Its flexibility means that big and light appetites, carnivores and herbivores, chilli lovers and haters, groups or intimate couples can harmoniously share rice at the table.

Entertain me

With a two-day deadline to use the vouchers and the card of last year's Entertainment Book, I put together a half-hearted challenge to see how entertaining it could really be. The results are mixed, but the weekend was busy.

Marinara risotto at Rouge Bar, Australia Square

It starts with a voucher at Rouge Bar, smack in the middle of Australia Square and facing formidible competition from Ryan's Bar, particularly on a Friday lunchtime. Pretty standard CBD fare to choose from, sandwiches and an odd arrangement of pasta - select your carbs and then a sauce to match; hence the rather unusual marinara risotto.

By all accounts, it's lovely - in a tomato based sauce with quite a bit of seafood presence, rather nicely accessorised with deep fried sweet potato strips. Don't ask about the pepper dusting around the edge of the plate though.

Chicken penne

My penne pasta looks promising too, the julienned beetroot kind of unusual but healthy, I thought. There's poached chicken pieces, vegetable bits, cheese shavings, and penne, of course. What there isn't is flavour - I can see that it's meant to be a tomato sauce, I just can't taste any tomato. The sauce (or what little of it there was) was watery and bland, rendering the entire meal quite insipid - which was slightly better than the service. Next.

Mexican pizza from Crust, Crown Street, Surry Hills

The Crust voucher is one of the awesome value ones that two can get five or six meals out of - although that figure depends on how much pizza you can eat. The Mexican comes a few of man's favourite things - and by this I mean some of the boys I know. Chorizo, Spanish onions, jalepenos and chilli flakes with slightly more girly roasted capsicum on a refried bean base.

It came with one container of sour cream and another container of an avocado salsa, which had great flavours but I only wish it were fresher. This pizza is hot, even after I had pulled the green jalepeno slices off. I was torn between being beaten by the heat and how yummy the salsa was served on top.

Philly steak pizza

My choice is the Philly steak: thinly sliced black angus roast beef, roasted red capsicum along with fresh varieties, more-ish caramelised onion, mushrooms, drizzled with a little too much dijon mustard and not quite enough rocket leaves - all on a tomato sauce base.

Pretty awesome the next day too, although I don't recommend microwave reheating. If you can't be bothered with the oven, I suggest using a sandwich press - but make sure the non-stick surface is still doing it's thing otherwise the cheese and dijon are going to make matters sticky.

Dinner at Foveaux, Foveaux Street, Surry Hills

To the card - one last time, though embarrassingly I only have four scratches on the back of the Gold Card. What a monumental waste, but not for lack of trying. There are a bunch of unexciting CBD options on there, loads of hotel restaurants and definitely nothing new. Foveaux was one I'd been meaning to scratch off, and in the typical nature of doing things at the last minute, here it was - post to come.

Ten pin bowling at AMF, Belmore Road, Randwick

So there's no food or booze involved in the AMF voucher, but there are some pretty funky shoes. Well, not really. I never thought bowling shoes were cool, retro nor any other remotely positive word. Are they even necessary if you're not doing that pro slidey thing?

There's no beating ten pin for some guaranteed fun - I think so, anyway. I love it - it takes me back to younger, freer days and while I'm not superb, I don't need bumpers. I'm a bit of a lightweight so it's six or eight pound balls only. Even then I manage to strain my forearm a little - though I did forget to stretch. It is a sport after all.

Bowling turns dark and party-ish

Mid way through our first game, the lights dim, the neon lights start flashing and the music pumps up - it's apparently kids party time. Luckily they're right down the other end, so we can dance away as we please; celebrate like mad when we get a strike or spare; and not be tempted by overpriced hot chips, hot dogs, chicken nuggets or whatever else is deemed party food.

I have the highest score at the end of both games, but we're all winners as it's been a supremely entertaining weekend. Looking forward to seeing what new restaurants and establishments are included in this year's Entertainment Book.