Sydney Festival 2014: Sacrilege and Festival Village

If you were at The Domain on Saturday night, you'd be well aware that Sydney Festival is in full swing for 2014.

Thousands of people, all up and dancing to Hot Dub Time Machine and then soul queen Chaka Khan was a spectacular sight, but if you missed that, there's plenty of other free and ticketed options around town.

Sacrilege at Hyde Park for Sydney Festival 2014, 9-26 January

One very popular, free feature is the unmissable Sacrilege in Hyde Park north, in front of St Mary's Cathedral. It's a life-size replica of historic Stonehenge in bouncy, jumping castle style.

Sacrilege at Hyde Park

That's right, jump and bounce on Stonehenge, right in the middle of Sydney. Up to 100 people can bounce in each timed session, which are proving popular with all ages, especially on the weekend.

Sacrilege at Hyde Park

Sacrilege at Hyde Park

Sacrilege at Hyde Park

Lawn Library at Festival Village, Hyde Park

There's plenty more entertainment in Hyde Park's Festival Village, with food offerings from 12pm daily and bars opening from 4.30pm.

The City of Sydney has set up the Lawn Library, giving bookworms a unique outdoor, open-air library - no musty smells here.

Folk in a Box at Festival Village, Hyde Park

There's the "world's smallest music venue", Folk in a Box, where audiences of maximum two people enter a dark box to be serenaded by a live musician.

It's a bit strange but the box is covered in notes of thank you and praise for the musicians, and everyone comes out smiling.

Food trucks at Festival Village, Hyde Park

As for food and drink options, there's plenty on offer, though not without queues. There are a range of dedicated stalls and a few food trucks; Jafe Jaffles and Let's Do Yum Cha on Friday night.

Festival Village, Hyde Park

Food Society has the biggest food offerings with burgers and other bits, while the booze sponsors each have dedicated bars.

Woofys sausage sizzle cart

We thought we'd give gourmet sausage sizzle a whirl as I've not come across the Woofys cart before.

With four varieties on offer, each featuring a prime cut beef sausage, it was several steps up from the fundraising sausages and priced at $8 a serve.

The Corker (front) and Nacho Dog (back left) from Woofys

For starters, they were good quality beef sausages, cooked from raw, served on a soft white bun.

The Corker featured creamy cabbage slaw and crispy fried onions and tomato sauce, while the Nacho Dog had guacamole, sour cream, crushed cheesy corn chips and chilli sauce.

The Boss Dog from Woofys

While I couldn't quite pick a favourite, the Boss Dog was a definite winner with slices of tart pickles, sauerkraut, American mustard, tomato sauce and crisp fried onions.

Gelato Messina stall

For post-show dessert we couldn't go past Gelato Messina's fun, carnival-inspired sweet treats. There's actually quite an extensive menu including hot dogs with a chocolate ice cream sausage, Pluto Pups with ice cream centres and ice cream sundaes in fantastic Messina style.

Fairy floss at Gelato Messina

Samurai Fairy Ball from Gelato Messina

The child in me insisted on having the fairy floss dessert, called the Samurai Fairy Ball. The pink floss covers a chocolate-covered pop of light green yuzu sorbet in a sugar frenzy that's just out of this world.

Gelatoffee Apple from Gelato Messina

The Gelatoffee Apple also features an ice cream centre: a super fresh strawberry flavour on this occasion in a red toffee shell, gorgeously fun and slightly messy to eat.

The Spiegeltent entrance

We saw the amazing Amanda Palmer in the Spiegeltent on Friday night, who absolutely killed it with her solo cabaret show.

The Spiegeltent is one of my all-time favourite venues and I'm looking forward to seeing LIMBO there this week and then All That Fall, Othello: The Remix and Ockham's Razor after, and the whimsical Merchant's Store installation in Darling Harbour. I've got my Sydney Festival on!

See more Sydney Festival photos on my Facebook page.

East Village Gourmet Food Festival and the Long Dinner by Longrain

Crowds at the East Village Gourmet Food Festival, 5 October 2013, Joynton Park, Zetland

I'm not sure how we can be into the last week of Good Food Month already. Work and social life have cruelly ganged up on me so I haven't seen as much as I would have liked and I've only been to the Noodle Markets once this year.

But I did attend the second annual (renamed) East Village Gourmet Food Festival in Zetland's somewhat hidden Joynton Park earlier in the month.

Table seating at the East Village Gourmet Food Festival

Taking its name from the nearby commercial and retail development, due to open mid next year, the East Village Gourmet Food Festival brought together local producers and festival favourites for a day and night of eating, drinking and lounging in the sunny park.

Festival-goers were greeted by a gorgeous day for being outdoors, with food offerings from the likes of Salt Meats Cheese and their signature cured meats and antipasti, Longrain's yellow curry, East Ocean with a myriad of steamed yum cha dumplings and Foley Lane with a bar and food setup.

The growing festival delivered community spirit in spades - from the sophisticated outdoor seating to the petting farm, it felt like a locals event with kids and dogs out in full force.

Spit roast at the Dan the Man stall

Pizza oven at Salt Meats Cheese stall

Foley Lane stall

East Ocean stall

Gelato Messina flavours

Audi kids entertainment

The East Village Gourmet Food Festival by night

This year the outdoor festival continued well into the night with fairy lights, spotlights and happy glows keeping the park alight and half of the stalls remaining open to offer dinner under the stars.

Fairy lights in Joynton Park

Getting into the spit roast at the Dan the Man stall

There was delicious-smelling consolation for those who missed out on the Long Dinner as part of the festival, with whole spit-roasted pigs and lambs from Dan the Man tempting all that walked past.

Tables set up for the Long Dinner

As per last year for the Long Dinner, long, white clothed tables stretched the majority of the length of a very impressive, colourfully lit marquee.

Tables for the Long Dinner

White chairs and perfectly uniformly set tables were lined up beneath some simply stunning floral and foliage displays, with the evening's menu catered by Sydney modern Thai favourite, Longrain.

Longrain owner Sam Christie was out front running the show while head chef Louis Tikaram ran the makeshift kitchen most impressively for a 250-person-plus outdoor event.

Typo-loma cocktails by Longrain

Longrain's cheeky Typo-loma cocktails were a great starting point, for drinks and chatter with nearby diners.

The martini-glassed cocktail featured tequila and grapefruit juice (Paloma, anyone?) with a supposedly Thai twist of chilli-infused Aperol and lime - and a lychee for that girly touch.

Betel leaf, smoked trout, mint, peanuts, chilli by Longrain

Dinner was a Thai banquet shared at the table, starting with my all time favourite Thai appetiser, miang betel leaves topped with smoked trout and a mix of crushed peanuts, mint and red chilli slices in a slightly drippy, sweetly spicy dressing.

Devoured in a mouthful, the sweet, sour, salty and smoky flavours of the miang were perfect palate starters, readying one for a barrage of big, bold Thai tastes for the rest of the night.

Caramelised pork, prawn, peanuts on sour pineapple

The second appetiser was new to me; a nugget of very caramelised battered pork, and apparently prawn, on a wedge of pineapple.

It was hard not to immediately think of that Australian-Chinese classic, sweet and sour pork, but there were some highlight flavours in the pork and coriander that lifted it way beyond takeaway Chinese.

Grilled king prawn, green chilli nahm jim

The halved and grilled prawns were one of my favourite dishes of the night, with shells fragrantly grilled and split.

The large prawns were served with a very well balanced, just-spicy-enough, chunky green chilli nahm jim dressing that was so good it was drinkable and more fresh coriander leaves.

Prawn, chicken, coconut cream, kaffir lime

To mains, there were three different dishes which I thought was quite a feat 250-plus people. The first coconut cream concoction was a surprise of diced prawn and chicken in a mildly spiced, rich sauce served with witlof leaves on the side, as if a modern Thai take on san choy bao.

Having not ever seen or experienced a Thai dish like this before, it worked unexpectedly well with the witlof cups although it was quite comforting to have the creamy prawn and chicken gravy just over loads of jasmine rice.

Char grilled Cape Grim beef, roasted chilli eschallot dressing

The grilled beef dish was a return to familiar ground, served medium-pink and thinly sliced with a mound of roasted chilli paste on the side for flavouring and a bit of heat.

Red curry of duck, Thai basil

The red curry was undoubtedly the piece de resistance of the meal, coming out resplendently red over generous quarters of fall-apart duck which absorbed all the complex flavours within the curry - perfect with lots and lots of steamed rice.

Steamed Chinese broccoli, oyster sauce

Along with large bowls of steamed rice were steamed Chinese greens, served healthily and simply with oyster sauce.

Banana fritter, caramel custard, passionfruit

With stomach capacity remaining for dessert, diners hoed into platters of thickly battered banana portions, the Thai theme a little wanting.

It's been a while since I've had a banana fritter, and I'm still not convinced I like them, even if the crisp batter made for great mops for the passionfruit pulp and caramel custard covering the plate.

The Long Dinner by Longrain at the East Village Gourmet Food Festival

While bottomless glasses of wine may have helped too, it was a dinner that reminded me that I'm long overdue for a visit back to Longrain.

The Long Dinner also did a fantastic job of fitting into the local community feel of the East Village Gourmet Food Festival - at least for those lucky ones of us which can call this our local community.

The Long Dinner at the East Village Gourmet Food Festival

See more photos of the East Village Gourmet Food Festival on my Facebook page.

Food, booze and shoes attended The Long Dinner at the East Village Gourmet Food Festival as a guest.

Japanese beer at Biru Biru, then 'aisu kurimu' at Gelato Messina

Beer has a special place in my (drinking) heart, so I didn't need a whole lot of encouragement to visit the new Japanese craft beer bar Biru Biru in Darlinghurst.

Previously a Zushi outlet on Victoria Street, the same owners have transformed the very narrow space (right next door to Gelato Messina) into a dimly-lit Japanese izakaya with an impressive collection of Japanese craft beers alongside nibbles and skewers designed to soak up the alcohol.

Ocean Kujukuri Pilsner (left) and Yona Yona Ale tinnie (right)
at Biru Biru, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

With Asahi pretty standard and popular across Sydney now, and even the microbrew Hitachino Nest range getting around town, it's exciting to discover new labels like the Ocean Kujukuri pilsner which is a refreshingly hop-py and bitter start, and the Yona Yona Ale which is a heavier and fruity American-style pale ale.

The Victorian-brewed Robot Ninja rice lager was a first for me; beer with an entirely new, softer flavour profile which I look forward to learning about and sampling more.

Fresh tuna salad, nashi pear, miso sesame dressing

Biru Biru seemed a little understaffed on the night we visited, although in the squishy space it's hard to see how they could fit in a third waitperson.

There was a bit of a wait for our first dish of raw tuna salad, topped with sticks of nashi pear that had me thinking of the Korean-style yukke raw beef dish.

The mild, creamy miso sesame dressing just coated the mixed leaves in this unusual but somewhat unconnected salad.

Seasonal vegie and prawn kushiyaki skewers

We went for a selection of kushiyaki grilled skewers which are great drinking buddies. The seasonal vegetable skewer was an unexciting foursome of cherry tomatoes, shallots, capsicum and zucchini while the prawn skewers of three coiled crustaceans per stick could have used some seasoning or garnish.

Pork belly and enoki kushiyaki skewers

Much more exciting were the petite pork belly skewers with enoki mushrooms rolled within. These were worlds away from the first skewers with fantastic seasoning and a char flavour, and great textures of the thinly sliced pork and delicate strands of mushroom.

Wagyu beef and red onionkushiyaki skewers

The skewers of wagyu beef were undoubtedly buttery in flavour with fat, although surprisingly tough even in their small cube form, but paired well with squares of Spanish onion.

Chicken and spring onion kushiyaki skewers

The traditional yakitori chicken skewers were great, meaty thigh renditions, grilled with a sweet, soy-based sauce and interspersed with softly cooked shallot segments.

Lotus root chips

I'm more accustomed to deep fried renkon lotus root chips as a starter but the slightly thicker cut of the ones at Biru Biru meant that they retained a vegetable crispness and moistness within the golden exterior. They almost felt healthy but were also great dipped into mayonnaise.

JPC - Japanese popcorn chicken, honey mayo

A clear winning dish of the night was the small pieces of popcorn chicken in a batter so crisp and crunchy that every bite was audible. The honey mayonnaise on the side was a well-rounded finishing touch.

Crisp fried school prawns

We continued on the deep fried route, as frankly a lot of the menu is deep fried and it goes well with a beer or three. The whole fried school prawns probably could have been a tad crisper but it's hard to get this dish (that's showing up all over Sydney) wrong.

Agedashi tofu

It was a generous serve of lightly battered tofu cubes in the agedashi tofu, which was less wet than most versions I've tried. Rather, the soft, squishy and just-crisp-on-the-outside tofu sat lightly in a shallow pool of the dashi broth-based sauce, soaking in flavour from the bottom.

Sticky pork ribs, chilli miso, kimchi

We finished with a meaty, fusion dish of thickly-sauced spicy pork ribs which were rather chewy, served atop kimchi fermented cabbage that seemed to have had just a light pickling.

Situated right next door to Sydney's original legendary gelateria, it's no surprise Biru Biru doesn't have a dessert menu.

We finished off our beers and hopped next door to Gelato Messina, into the queue for apple pie gelato and cherry sorbet.

Gelato from Gelato Messina, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

Although you wouldn't think it, Japanese biru and aisu kurimu go together like a horse and carriage and make for great neighbours.