Taste of Sydney 2012

Back in March I went to Taste of Sydney. Over the last few years it's come to become an event I look forward to each year. It's a great way to sample various restaurants in Sydney. 

This year Ms P and I had a pretty good run with the dishes we selected. We started off with fried Hawkesbury school prawns with prosciutto and rouille from Quarter Twenty One. This was one of the highlight dishes of the day. The prawns were so lovely and crispy.

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Fried Hawkesbury school prawns with prosciutto and rouille from Quarter Twenty One

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We then tried the crisp brisket of pasture fed beef with creamed wild mushrooms from Montpellier Public House. I didn't know what to expect with this dish. Not something I would order normally but boy was I plesently surprised. The creamed mushroom soup had me wanting seconds. The mushrooms reminded me of truffles.

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Crisp brisket of pasture fed beef with creamed wild mushrooms from Montpellier Public House

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Seared petuna ocean trout with ginger, chilli, shallot sauce served with carrot sambal and basmati rice from Flying Fish

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After the beef we tried the ocean trout from Flying Fish. This was slightly disappointing. The trout was nice but there was definitely not enough sauce. 

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Our last of the mains was the roast suckling pig from Four in Hand. This was heaven. The coleslaw, onion rings and hot sauce worked so well together. I've never been a fan of battered onion rings but these were something else. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a photo of the suckling pig on the spit. Looked great. 

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Roast suckling pig, coleslaw, onion rings and hot sauce from Four in Hand

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Rekoderlig cider tent... my favourite was the apple, cinnamon and vanilla flavoured cidar

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For dessert we decided we would go with one fruit based dessert and then with a chocolate option. For the first we went with a meringue filled with passionfruit curd, honeydew, rockmelon and watermelon from Otto Ristorante. Very good choice. Loved the passionfruit curd.

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Meringue filled with passionfruit curd, honeydew, rockmelon and watermelon from Otto Ristorante

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For the second dessert we went with the chocolate and spelt brownie with almond praline, vanilla cream and chocolate sauce from Agape Organic Restaurant and Bar. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Chocolate, nuts and vanilla cream, simple but delightful.

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Chocolate and spelt brownie with almond praline, vanilla cream and chocolate sauce from Agape Organic Restaurant and Bar

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To end the day, I didn't plan on having another dessert. Although I couldn't resist after stopping by the Booza Ice Cream stand. Booza is Levantine ice cream made here in Sydney. That is ice cream from the Levantine Region, namely this includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel, along with parts of Cyprus and Turkey . The icecream is made with sahlab pounded with wooden sticks until the right consistency. It is then served with pistachios. Sahlab is a flour made from grinding the dried tubers of the orchid genus. It is a thickener and gives the icecream an interesting texture. I'm a big fan of desserts with pistachios so I enjoyed it. Great way to finish the day.

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Booza Ice Cream