The Malaya, Food, Art & Films at King Street Wharf

Good Food Month starts today, and one of the first mid-week events of the festival is Thursday night's commencement of Food, Art & Films by the Wharf – King Street Wharf, that is.

King Street Wharf has partnered with Arts Brookfield to present a combination of food and art for the month of October. There will be an outdoor pop-up art gallery run by art space Platform 72, an outdoor cinema on the wharf showing foodie films, and dining offers from participating restaurants on the wharf.

King Street Wharf will host Food, Art & Films by the Wharf during
October's Good Food Month
(Image courtesy of The PR Partnership)

Free foodie movies will show at 8pm every Thursday and Friday night in October on an outdoor screen next to Cargo Bar, with free entry for the first 100 people – it's first in best dressed with the area opening from 7pm.

Films showing include one of my all-time favourites Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, as well as Julie and Julia, Fried Green Tomatoes and one of my favourite animations, Ratatouille .

Movie reward tokens

The outdoor cinema will feature a fully-stocked candy bar with popcorn, gelato and fairy floss. In addition to special dining offers during Good Food Month, participating restaurants will be rewarding diners with free candy bar tokens to use during the movie screenings (while stocks last).

As part of the launch of Food, Art & Films by the Wharf, we were treated to a preview of the Malaya's lunch offer for the month at the iconic south-east Asian restaurant by the water.

Salt and pepper prawns from The Malaya, Lime Street, Sydney

The Malaya's Good Food Month lunch offer comprises two courses and a glass of wine (or beer or soft drink) for $45, starting with ever lovable salt and pepper king prawns.

The huge crustaceans arrived crisply battered and golden fried, as a plate to share, seasoned liberally and garnished with sliced shallots and fresh chillies - some of which had some serious kick.

Coconut beef rendang

The main course of the lunch offer comprises two selections, in proper shared Asian style. The first was beef rendang, an Indonesian style curry of fall-apart tender beef in a spiced coconut sauce.

The Malaya's rendition is moderate in spice heat, with the rich curry sauce completely delectable over a bowl of steamed rice.

Kapitan chicken

The kapitan chicken was a milder curry featuring lightly battered chicken in a Penang style curry sauce with coconut cream.

The small battered fillets provided additional texture to the chicken dish, which also had a sauce worthy of eating with rice alone.

Roti

While steamed rice is the carbohydrate of choice with curries, we also had some roti flat bread on the side - not some of the best in Sydney but a welcome addition nonetheless.

Chilli bean sprouts

Providing freshness amid all the curry and carbs was a vegetable side of crunchy bean sprouts, dried shitake mushroom, Asian spinach and chilli.

Black rice pudding

Separate to the Malaya's lunch offer, we were treated to additional desserts that appear on the restaurant's '50 Years of Spice' menu, also on offer during Good Food Month.

The black sticky rice dessert arrived in thankfully petite glasses with thick coconut cream, palm sugar syrup and fresh seasonal fruit, including contrastingly tart passionfruit pulp.

Chilli chocolate ice cream petit four

Dessert was followed by chocolate-covered ice cream petit four bites; best not left to melt. I think the subtle chilli tingle was in the chocolate coating, which was then appropriately soothed via a bite of a nondescript ice cream flavour.

The Malaya's Good Food Month lunch offer is available during lunch throughout October from Monday to Saturday (minimum 2 diners; maximum 8 diners). See the King Street Wharf's Food, Art & Films by the Wharf event schedule here.

Food, booze and shoes attended the launch of Food, Art & Films by the Wharf, at The Malaya, with thanks to The PR Partnership.

Pull into King Street Wharf Festival - till Thursday

I can’t imagine anyone complaining about another Sydney food festival – after all, we have plenty of great food to celebrate. The latest is the King Street Wharf Festival, which launched on Friday and goes through to Thursday, 25 July 2013 along picturesque King Street Wharf.

Entertainers at King Street Wharf Festival, 19-25 July 2013, Sydney

The inaugural festival commenced over Friday and Saturday afternoons where the wharf itself hosted food stalls from restaurants along the water, with entertainment in the form of live music and dancers.

Steersons Steakhouse stall

Hot Potato band on the wharf

Saturday afternoon was a beautiful Sydney winter's day, perfect for strolling the wharf. A highlight was the infectious Hot Potato band which played jazzy covers as they strutted up and down the promenade, stopping for photos and impromptu serenades along the way.

Hot Potato band jam

Sauces and pastes on sale at The Malaya stall

There was a good selection of offerings across the spread-out stalls,with very reasonable pricing on some items.

I couldn't resist the spiced aromas around The Malaya's stall where they were also selling their own brand sauces, pastes and curry powder.

Chilli coconut prawns from The Malaya

The Malaya's chilli coconut prawns was a great lunch dish of perfectly cooked king prawns, served with steamed rice, pickled vegetables and plenty of creamy curry sauce and fresh coriander.

There was some fair kick in the full-flavoured and vibrant chilli and coconut sauce, tempered by the sticks of pickled cucumber and carrot which were also doused in the sauce.

Wharf Teppanyaki and Kobe Jones stalls

There was value to be had at Wharf Teppanyaki with yakitori and a grilled salmon offering. The chicken and onion thigh yakiitori skewer was sweetly tender while the beef, skewered with capsicum, had great flavour albeit a little on the chewy side.

Pepper salmon from Wharf Teppanyaki

The salmon fillet, served skin-on with the same scattering of lettuce leaves as the yakitori, was not so much flavoured of pepper as advertised. Nonetheless, the well grilled fish was well cooked with complementary flavour in  the salad dressing.

La Cita stall

Quesadilla from La Cita

We finished off at La Cita with a pretty epic serving of their quesadilla, although sour cream seemed to dominate the plate.

The cheese filled tortilla came topped with a simple dice of tomato and Spanish onion, a splodge of avocado and so much sour cream I felt like I should have taken it home for other purposes.

King Street Wharf restaurants

Casa di Nico stall

We unfortunately missed the cannoli from Vessel Italian & Bar which had closed up stall by the time we were ready for desserts.

If you’ve missed the outdoor festival component, don’t fret as the festival extends into special dining offers at the restaurants along King Street Wharf.

Deals include mussels and a drink at Bungalow 8 for $30; nine mezze items at Georges for $24; degustations at Kobe Jones or Wharf Teppanyaki for $75pp; and wine tasting and salsa during the festival at La Cita.

See the full program here. Participating restaurants include Bungalow 8, Cargo Bar and Lounge, Casa di Nico, Georges, The Hudson, I Thai, Kobe Jones, La Cita, The Loft, The Malaya, Nick’s, Steersons, Vessel and Wharf Teppanyaki.

Food, booze and shoes received food vouchers for King Street Wharf Festival with thanks to The PR Partnership.