Wildfire Fast Festival Feast: Dinner with a view

After a huge Festival First Night last weekend, I’m back for more of Sydney Festival with the Fast Festival Feasts across a number of Sydney restaurants. One or two courses at $30 or $55 respectively at set times, with a glass of McGuigan ‘The Shortlist’ wine and a bottle of Tasmanian Rain water isn’t too shabby.

Tasmanian Rain sparkling mineral water at Wildfire, Overseas
Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay

Ahead of a show at the Sydney Opera House, options for the two-course deal in the vicinity are limited (Aria is only doing Fast Festival Feasts at lunch) so we find ourselves seated outdoors at Wildfire in the Overseas Passenger Terminal, facing the show venue.

It’s a curious dining location that I’ve rarely been privileged to, populated by couples dining alfresco and business dinners inside the restaurant, and many a passing, inquisitive tourist.

Booked in for the Fast Festival Feast, I was a little surprised that we weren’t offered the regular menu as well, should we have wanted extras like bread or sides with our meal. As part of the deal, we each get a glass of the McGuigan ‘The Shortlist’ Chardonnay and a bottle of Tasmanian Rain sparkling water.

Yellowfin tuna sashimi with smoked eel parfait, buttermilk ‘snow’,
dashi, cucumber and dill emulsion

I wasn’t aware that Wildfire has a rather modernist approach (they also have a churrasco menu, which frankly baffles me). The presentation of the entrée confirmed this with the presence of fairly flavour-free buttermilk “snow” atop the perfect ruby discs of raw tuna.

Thin rolled lengths of cucumber added to the subtle flavours, while the verdant dill emulsion and the caviar topped quenelle of creamy smoked eel parfait were highlighting flavour matches.

Kurobuta pork belly with spherical yoghurt, compressed watermelon,
liquorice, prosciutto and baby fennel

The pork belly main dish was very well sized and topped with a gloriously golden, bubbly layer of crackling. The block of meat wasn’t overly fatty and had great flavour, enhanced with the uber sweet rounds of watermelon and slivers of candied peel (possibly grapefruit), but not helped by the extremely sour grapefruit segments.

The spheres of natural yoghurt were much fun to play with and eventually burst, adding a sauce of sorts, albeit mostly flavourless against the salty shaved fennel. A strike of liquorice added to appearances, but didn’t do much for the sum of all parts in terms of overall flavour.

We ditched the eventually-quite-full restaurant and dessert menu in favour of a quick gelato before blazing back up the other side through the crowds to the Opera House, just in time for an 8.30pm performance. Thank you, Fast Festival Feast.

Sunshack Cider and lazy Sunday arvos

There’s nothing wrong with a mid afternoon nap, especially in summer when a day at the beach or backyard barbeque can be positively exhausting; and particularly when alcoholic beverages are involved.

Sunshack Cider Apple for the Sunshack Cider launch at Clovelly Bowling Club, Clovelly

With the cider boom well and truly exploded in Sydney (and growing), the launch party for Sunshack Cider was going to be fun on every level: how could one complain about sipping cider, lounging about grassy knolls, a gourmet barbeque and a bit of lawn bowls?

Crowds enjoy the Sunshack Cider launch party

One doesn’t complain, especially when Sydney turns on a smokingly gorgeous day with a nice seaside breeze to cool it all down in Clovelly.

Sunshack Cider on tap for the launch party

Brewed and cold fermented in Mittagong in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Sunshack Cider started as two blokes brewing cider for their mates – who all thought it was pretty decent stuff and so said two blokes decided to take the plunge and go commercial.

Sunshack Cider is available in apple and pear varieties and is relatively dry compared to many others out there in the current market, especially some of the imported ciders. The less sweet characteristic means, for good or bad, you can drink it all day long and not get sick of cloying sweetness or indeed, a sugar high.

The Sunshack Cider shack

And so we did. At a makeshift bamboo bar replete with rattan roof and staffed by appropriately beachy boys, we downed cider by the red plastic cup full.

I initially thought I might alternate between the apple and the pear, but upon tasting the pear – with a stronger fruit flavour much more perceptible than the quite dry apple – I was a perry drinker for the rest of the day.

Apple bobbing

It wasn’t all just cider and perry through the afternoon; though that would have made for a fairly decent afternoon in itself. There was a speech or two, a deplorably daggy (intentionally satirical?) Sunshack Cider song, bobbing for apples and, given the venue, lawn bowls – by the sea, no less!

Lawn bowls

We missed the part with the proper rules and instructions of the game, but found our way onto the not lush but well manicured greens for a spot of barefoot bowls, if you could call it that.

I’m pretty sure more of my bowls ended up in next door’s ‘rink’ or in the back ditch than anywhere near the jack, but there was a decent attempt or three throughout the afternoon.

Sunshack apple cider for you; Sunshack perry for me...

I was much more successful at going to and fro, from bowling green to bar, drinking and ferrying ciders; which at 4.5% alcohol content, don’t hit straightaway but slowly turn any afternoon into a lazy one.

Fish and chips with pea mash

Thankfully the organisers had considered the eventual impact of an afternoon of cider-ing and provided a range of booze-absorbing canapés to nibble, while waiting for the main late lunch event.

Some very good battered fish with fat chips had the extra surprise of a line of pea mash - who would have thought that combination would work, but it does with lots of lemon squeezed over.

Prawn and coconut spring rolls

I had reservations about the prawn and coconut spring rolls, but these piping hot golden nuggets turned out to be surprisingly good. The firm prawns with a curried mix of coconut encased in crunchy spring roll pastry were rather inspired.

Those that missed out on canapés needn’t have worried about going hungry as later in the afternoon, the barbie was fired up by some professional help and a most delectable gourmet barbeque was to be had.

Pork belly on the barbeque

No burnt snags at this barbeque, but instead, marinated strips of pork belly on white rolls with fabulously summery salads as well as grilled skewers of vegetables and seafood.

White bread rolls

Grilled vegetable skewers

Rocket, orange, fennel, witlof salad

Potato salad

Lettuce and pear salad

Pork crackling

This is kind of a cheat's pork crackling but deliciously crunchy and naughty nonetheless. I can honestly say I took my fair share and only picked up one piece of crackling. But can you imagine that bowl and your favourite television show?

Clovelly Bowling Club

Aside from a slight breeze - which we effectively blamed for our bowls going in completely wrong directions - it was the perfect day for a barbeque and game of bowls by the sea.

Sunshack Cider: pear and apple 500ml bottles

We received some further samples of Sunshack Cider in the goodie bag for home (they'd organised a bus for guests heading back to Central station - it's all about responsible drinking, people).

The 500ml bottles are a little on the large side - at about the same alcohol content as a full strength beer, one bottle of cider constitutes 1.8 standard drinks, so be aware that something that tastes so good can still be reasonably boozy.

But lazy summer Sunday arvos and cider are just meant to be - as the Sunshack guys say, all you need is love and cider. See more photos from the launch party at my Facebook page here.

Food, booze and shoes attended the Sunshack Cider launch party as a guest of Sunshack Cider.

Duke Bistro - duke it out

It's the new year and I, for one, am looking forward to new experiences, a bit more travel and perhaps a little more direction this year. And while last year was definitely a fun one for dining out, I'm a little cautious about this year - I mean, how many more new restaurants can Sydney sustain?

One that definitely seems to have some staying power is Duke Bistro; one of the original Sydney 'dude food' revolutionists, though I think the label underrates the skills of kitchen significantly.

Dirty Smoker and The Tsarina (back) at Duke Bistro, Flinders Street, Darlinghurst

We began the evening with cocktails and all I remember from my smoked olive cocktail, Dirty Smoker, is a strong, savoury smokiness with the hit of a clear spirit. It was more novelty and experimentation than taste, I think, especially the smoked black olives on the side.

Much easier to down was The Tsarina; a girly mix of raspberry vodka and citrus flavours, served in the same coupe glass.

Radish, dashi butter

While cocktails are always fun, it was the food at Duke Bistro that had me excited. Having heard nothing but good words and appreciative noises about the radish with dashi butter dish, this was the first cab off the rank, served with bread rolls.

What could be so interesting about some plain old radishes cooked in a flavoured butter, you wonder?

Radish, dashi butter, bread rolls

Oh, but for the all-round smack of umami savouriness from the dashi butter; salty and sweet but not at all fishy - you really could have thrown any vegetable into this butter and it would be sensational, but the tender radishes shined.

Serving the dish with bread rolls makes complete sense as when I finished my perfectly round bread roll, I contemplated getting a straw to slurp up the rest of the butter sauce - it is that good.

Grilled scampi

Never one to go past scampi on a menu, the arrival of one scampi, split in half, was a little surprising and pricey we then realised. The split scampi, grilled beneath some unmemorable creamy sauce, was but a bite or two and definitely left us wanting more.

Bonito, lardo, pumpkin, coffee

Of the more substantially sized meals, the pan fried bonito dish was presented stunningly over a drool of pumpkin puree. The coffee flavoured crumbs went well with the sweet flavours of the dish while the lardo was difficult to find.

My favourite aspect of the dish wasn't the finely cooked, golden hued fish but the accompanying balls of pumpkin and macadamia nuts; of which you could barely differentiate until you had it in your mouth.

Char siu pork neck, gai lan, garlic shoot

The other 'main' dish was a more generous serve of Chinese char siu style pork neck; a little pink and incredibly tender. These hunks of sweet surfaced pork were served with a green puree and some green stems; one of which must have been gai lan and the other of garlic shoots.

MakMak macarons

These small plates were surprisingly filling for two girls, though I wonder how the hearty male appetites fare here. So full were we that we had just one proper dessert and a selection of mini MakMak macarons between the two of us, including a fine strawberry flavoured one.

Milk, Milk, Milk

I was initially intrigued by this dessert name and even more so when it was described as a dessert of various milk components. There was the pool of dulce de leche caramel sauce framing browned milk meringues and a fabulous milk panna cotta that seemed sugar-free (and for this skim milk drinker, it tasted more like pure milk than I ever remember).

I suppose the chocolate crumbs added some necessary colour contrast but the Milk, Milk, Milk was just my kind of dessert: a simple yet fun concept, full of different textures.

There's a lot of competition in restaurant town, especially if 2011 was anything to go by. With its winning interiors (there really is a boar's head sitting on a bar stool at the bar), clever menu and hipster crowd; I'm positive that Duke Bistro isn't just a dude fad.