Paper Cup

Six businesses in, Sydney café mogul Adriano Matteoni (of Glebe’s Clipper and Annandale’s Clover fame) has finally opened the shop he’s always dreamed about.

A two-minute stroll from Stanmore Station, walking into Paper Cup – with its bare concrete floor and exposed brick walls – feels strangely akin to entering a bomb bunker hidden beneath Camperdown Cellars. Boldly straddling the line between minimalist and bleak, the colour scheme would be completely monochrome if it wasn’t for a cluster of red pendant lights with exposed wiring hanging from the ceiling.

On ground level, a shiny new Synesso espresso machine – the Rolls Royce of coffee ware – sits staunchly on the counter, producing near perfect espresso shots and one-size-only takeaways with the help of a friendly Japanese barista-in-the-making. Under the guidance of an encouraging Matteoni, these shots are pulled using Paper Cup’s own ‘Natsu’ blend of Coffee Alchemy beans. There’s cold drip on offer too, which is left to stand for twenty-four hours to develop its rich caramel body before being served over ice.

The menu is as stripped back as the shop fit-out, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for with unique flavour pairings. Fried eggs come out beautifully runny in the pan, with Serrano ham, sage and dense toast. The Baharat beans with labne, maple syrup and toast offers a Middle Eastern take on the humble baked beans. Same goes for the Arabian Bircher with fruit and yoghurt – the star of the menu – despite traversing the dessert side of breakfast.

A couple of sandwich options see Paper Cup punching in the breakfast/lunch weight division, but only just. If Matteoni’s previous cafes were built on a tried-and-tested inner-west formula, then Paper Cup sees him venture off the safe and familiar path for the time being.

Paper Cup: 157/161 Cambridge St, Stanmore

Berry Sourdough Bakery and Cafe

In a town scattered with bakeries, hot bread shops, and a famous roadside doughnut van, it's a tough call deciding where to blow your carb intake for the day in Berry. But if you drive through the town centre and veer right off the main road, you'll find a likely candidate in the form of a regular whitewashed terrace house with a not-so-regular queue of customers winding halfway down the street.

Brother owners of Berry Sourdough Bakery & Cafe (or 'the Sourdough' as locals fondly refer to it) Joost and Jelle Hilkemeijer offer more than a mouthful of a name; their range of organic, hand-crafted baked goods and dine-in menu are a testament to the cafe's semi-rural location and ex city dwelling chefs ­– or as some might call it – the best of both worlds. An old school Alan Scott oven is used by a team of talented bakers to create such bready offerings as rye, corn, Levain Blanc, olive and brioche; each rested for a minimum of three hours and set to rise in willow baskets (the kind you can probably remember from your grandma's house).

For the pastry contingent, the brothers have hired a French-schooled-Japanese-hailing pastry chef who puts out croissants touted as some of the best in the country. But the buck doesn't stop at over the counter baked goods; the in-house breakfast and lunch menu is a high country affair – more manor than farmhouse – with a focus on fine local produce. From the homemade jams and preserves served with their house special sourdough, to the French toast with organic maple syrup, local smoked bacon and baked honey and pistachio ricotta, the menu dresses simple, high quality produce with some fancy modern trimmings. They also appear to be serious about their coffee, serving up speedy, boutique-roasted ristrettos and takeaway lattes to hordes of sleepy locals.

For a more substantial lunch plate, there's homemade chicken liver parfait with sourdough toast and papaya salad, spinach and ricotta ravioli with Mittagong tunnel mushrooms, and an abundance of local seafood options including local South Coast rock oysters, or zucchini and haloumi fritters with cured ocean trout, roe and cucumber. Told you this wasn't just a bakery.

Whether you're stopping off to pick up a fresh baguette and some pastries for a homemade afternoon tea on your Berry long-stay, or for a lazy brunch with the paper, Berry’s Sourdough Bakery is sure to please, as it has been since opening in 2003. It's the best thing to happen on this side of the Shoalhaven River, well, ever.

Berry Sourdough Bakery & Café - 23 Prince Alfred Street, Berry NSW

Fish Fingers and Banana Split - Bodega style

For most, the words "fish fingers" conjures up images of pre-crumbed frozen mystery fish, served by your parents to help you gain a taste for fish somewhere between your toddler and teen years. Same age-bracket goes for "banana split", but perhaps with a slight American tinge. Sydney Tapas restaraunt Bodega has reinvented the food wheel, and continues to do so on a daily basis with their fresh Argentinean culinary offerings often operating under similarly lo-fi names.

While the talk of the town is Bodeda owners Ben Milgate, Elvis Abrahanowicz and his new wife/old flame Sarah Doyle's (Maitre Di) latest Surry Hills restaurant Porteno, its little brother is still -and always will be- a favourite of ours.

We started with the house Empanadas, reasonably priced at $10 for 3 or $13.50 for four puffy morsels of Argentinean-style beef served with a heavenly sauce called 'salsa criolla.' There's a vegetarian alternative too, but if you ask me, dining at an Argentinian eatery as a herbivore isn't the best use to use your culinary time.

The humbly-named "Fish Fingers" ($16) are no breaded affair; they are kingfish sashimi sitting atop garlic toast, topped with calamari ceviche and onions. Lashings of the stuff. Not the greatest date food, but the most incredible mix of ocean and earth that you may ever experience; it's fancy surf & turf for the not-so-faint-hearted.

We doubt that you're still ravenous by this point, so ordering the most expensive dish on the menu may not seem appealing, but leaving without sampling the signature South American slow-cooked meat would be sacrilegious. We ordered the 'slow cooked lamb loin with roast garlic miso and eggplant' ($32), and if you think your taste buds got a work out with the kingfish fingers, you ain't tasted nothing yet. The depth of the miso, coupled with the melt-in-your-mouth lamb will mark a flavour milestone in your life; we're willing to bet money on the fact.

To finish, we can't go past the pimped-up 'banana split' ($14), a cream flan served with dulce de leche ice cream (otherwise known as 'heaven'), ginger biscuit and of course, the dish-hero, banana. We've been getting inundated with dulce de leche around Sydney-town of late, from the gelato flavour of the month to dulce de leche-flavoured-cookies at boutique cafes, but these guys were one of the first to pioneer the sweet, milky, caramel goo on their menu.

Other menu highlights include (but are not limited to) the Jamón Serrano ($12), salad of fried cauliflower, chickpeas and silverbeet ($16), and steamed pork belly with warm salad of onion and shiitake mushroom ($24). The drink list offers an incredible selected of native Argentinean wines, beer and cider, and an exorbitant number of wild cocktail imaginings, so wild that they've turned the next room into a bar of sorts.

Bodega isn't tapas in the traditional, small-plate sense of the word, so come armed with your appetites. Like other likeminded Sydney hot-spots, they doesn't take bookings either, so best get there around 6pm (opening time) with a lick of drool on your chin for staff sympathy votes.

Bodega Tapas Restaurant & Bar

216 Commonwealth St

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Phone: +61 2 9212 7766

Email: enquiries@bodegatapas.com

Touch and go Japanese – Mizuya

Sometimes you just want to go to a restaurant and be totally left alone. Sometimes you just want to eat in peace, with no distractions and no annoyances. You don’t want to hear what offers are on, how exceptional the wine is, how you have the best seat in the house and how ‘you just made a very good choice maaaam’.

Sometimes, you just want the food and that’s that.

At these times, a plasma touch screen displaying the entire menu, which sits at the end of your table, is perfect.

Never underestimate how good it is to be able to simply touch an image of a dish that catches your attention and have it come over to your table in five minutes. And while you’re at it, never underestimate how your eyes will automatically become too big for your belly.

This may seem like a rather cold service but in fact, it’s efficiency to the extreme. You sit down, flick through the digital menu, order some drinks (by tapping on your poison of choice, of course) and then spend the rest of the time browsing through images of food and arguing with the person sat opposite you. It’s playful, it’s useful and it’s perfect for those who love to over-order and experience as many little dishes as possible.

There are a variety of extremely popular Japanese choices, such as the hot pots, which are brought to your table with clouds of steam following behind, not to mention some of the more unusual meats such as crocodile and ox tongue (apparently very popular). The way it works is to think of it as ‘Japanese tapas'. As if you are there to have a bit of fun with your food and to experiment a little. Order a few dishes, share them, see how you feel, then order more.

This is a great place to come with a small group of friends and feast yourself silly.

Click here to see more: Mizuya, George street

Chocolate naan - Aki's Indian

There’s something about high tea which doesn’t really appeal to glutton and nuts. Whichever way you stack four tiny sandwiches on a plate, it still looks like there’s less food than an average five year old would eat for lunch. Adding a few mini-desserts and a scone doesn’t really help either. Ok, so the champagne does, but that’s usually forgotten as soon as you see the bill…

Safe to say, high tea is often an overrated affair best saved for those with more money than culinary taste.

However, and we say this with real sincerity… when we discovered that Aki’s on the banks of Wooloomooloo, had an Indian afternoon tea on offer, we pretty much ran there – especially after hearing about the star of the show: the chocolate naan.

As far as culture goes, we’re not overly convinced that along the dense Indian side-streets of Mumbai etc, you’ll be offered a stack of porcelain plates with mini onion bhajis and samosas… but here in Sydney, it certainly makes for an interesting twist.

The chocolate naan (which let’s face it, was the sole reason we were forgetting our aversion to high tea) is a tiny and thin, rolled-up naan bread, smeared with runny chocolate sauce and strawberries. Think of a crepe or a pancake and you’ve basically hit the nail on the head - so sweet - so, so sweet. Wasn't quite what we were expecting – although, we weren’t really quite sure what to expect from Indian afternoon tea to be honest. It was delicious though – like a tiny mouthful of runny chocolate and pancake mix.

However, like most things on offer at afternoon tea, it was tiny. Breathe in too heavily and you might inhale it through your nostril. So miniature in fact, than when you ate it, you felt less satisfied and more frustrated that there was no more left to eat. This is also a testament to how good it tasted, and like every top chef will tell you… the key to a great restaurant, is to leave the diner wanting more. Which we certainly do… make the chocolate naan a fullsize dessert and we’ll be running down again!

For those who are curious about the other Indian afternoon tea tid-bits on offer… the rest included:

Upma with Papdi Crispies: Semolina cooked with green peas, curry leaves, ginger and green chilies topped with crisp savories

Vada Pav: Cocktail buns sandwiched with besan battered potato dumplings

Prawn 65: Famous Chennai staple of shrimps dusted in spiced rice flour

Kathi Roll: Shredded chicken tikka in wholemeal roti with spiced onions, coriander, mint and pomegranate dust

Paneer Chutney Sandwiches: The Indian take on sandwiches - Cottage cheese, tomato and chutney

Caramelised Saffron Infused Basmati Rice

Custard Petit Fours

Chocolate Naan

Click to visit Aki's Indian

Better Than Sex - House Restaurant

Someone once told glutton and nuts that if we thought food could be better than sex, then we weren't doing it right. Well, we reckon they're not eating the right food...

House Resaurant in Surry Hills is one of those places you show up to with 'the jury still out' expectaton-wise. It's got a slightly unusual licensing rule (drinks are to be ordered from the bar nextdoor only) and it's quite open to Elizabeth Street's speeding traffic. However, even with these things in mind, House will knock you for six - twofold.

Firstly, by completely blowing these undecided expectations away (this is more than just 'Thai food' - this is north-eastern street Thai, so good it'll make you want to go and live on the streets of Thailand!).Secondly, and quite literally, it will blow your tastebuds away. The food is hot. Seriously. Even the salads have a massive kick... and at one point we were definitely crying.

However, what glutton and nuts is more interested in, of course, is the most unusual and quite surprising thing on the menu - or the 'special dessert menu' to be precise. Now, we don't throw this around too often - but we had what was possibly the best dessert we're yet to taste in Sydney. Yes, from a small north-eastern street Thai on Elizabeth Street - it took us by surprise too - but without a doubt this dessert would hold its own (more than) against any of Sydney's best restaurants.

It was aptly named 'Better than Sex' and comes with a bit of a shy giggle from the waitress. The name hooked us in and the sheer size and look of it sold us. This dessert is big enough for two (but you definitely won't want to share!) It's lightly fried brioche, with green tea ice cream, caramel sauce completely saturating the dish and some runny chocolate thrown in to boot. The most gluttonous and delicious dessert we are yet to find in this city - and read early posts - this includes Quay Bar's guava egg!

The challenge is on... but we think this one will be hard to beat.

And if you're still undecided - it's called 'BETTER than SEX' - you HAVE to try it!

House

202 Elizebeth Street

Surry Hills

02 9280 0364

Molecular Mixology

As well known as beans on toast, yet more similar to beans ‘as’ toast – molecular gastronomy came, saw and conquered both our imagination and our taste buds. If you’ve not actually had bacon ice cream or snail porridge, then it’s likely you’ve at least heard of them, or come across something similar.

These days, the trend has relaxed somewhat, or as Heston so carefully put it, “it’s dead”. Yet, in its wake we’re left longing for more…

Step in molecular mixology, the intoxicating cousin of the gastronomic variety and the current focus of Smirnoff Black ambassador Tristan Stephenson, who has whipped-up the following cocktail, and is ready to share all...

VT Turbo

“The VT Turbo is a deconstruction of the classic vodka and tonic. The foam on the VT Turbo gives the drinker the familiar bitter kick of quinine, present in tonic water. Sipping through the foam reveals the classic sour balance of vodka, lime and sugar. By separating the two main constituents of the classic drink, the VT Turbo offers a different balance of flavour on every sip” TS.

Tonic Syrup

200ml water 200g sugar 10g dried cinchona bark Zest of half a grapefruit 4g citric acid

Add everything except the sugar to a pan and gently simmer for 15 minutes. Bring off the heat and stir in the sugar. Allow to cool and keep refrigerated.

Liquid part:

50ml Smirnoff Black 25ml Lime Juice 10ml gomme syrup 25ml Tonic Syrup 2 egg whites

Shake the Smirnoff black, lime juice and gomme with ice and fine strain into a chilled glass.

Shake/beat/whisk the egg white and tonic syrup to a soft peak.Float the foam on top of the drink and serve with a twist of lime.

Tristan’s cocktails are available at Smirnoff Black events. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events on www.smirnoff.com

Uchi Lounge Uchi Blend

Walk down the side-streets of Surry Hills and you're sure to find something 'interesting'. For glutton and nuts last Thursday, this little something really struck our interest... it was of course, a secret drink (come on, as if you wouldn't be a little curious...)

What we discovered was a strong, sweet, sake-based secret drink, which no one to this date has been able to correctly guess the four key ingredients of (and that even includes some top Japanese master chefs).

It's called the Uchi Blend and is the creation of Uchi Lounge's bar manager on Brisbane Street - one of the most diligent bar tenders in Sydney and someone who treats his alcoholic creations like individual works of art. He has sworn that if someone is to guess all four ingredients at once he would reveal honestly if they are correct or not (maybe you'll get a free bottle too... but hey, that's not really our place to say.... and to be honest, you'll ever guess correctly anyway).

We had a stab at it - Watermelon...? Plum...? Grapefruit...? He just looked at us blankly and shook his head. No. ALL FOUR at once. You can't list ingredients. But it you tell me ALL of them I will tell you if you are correct. (we honestly believe he will...)

We were beaten. And even though we sat there sipping and tasting and trying until the bottle ran dry, we failed. However, we were still pretty satified with the drink... For fans of sake, this is heaven. The sake list includes a range of beautiful flavours from vanilla mix blends to cinnmon and even gogi... but this, this took the limelight. Secret drinks. Gotta love the taste of mystery!!!

If you do happen to go to Uchi Lounge and guess correctly please let use know on our facebook page!!! We;ll be back making a few more guesses... all in the name of research if course.

Uchi Lounge

15 Brisbane Street,

Surry Hills,

02 9261 3524

Sashimi-tini

Sashimi and martinis. Possibly God's two greatest creations. Put them together and you either have the most incredible gastronomic invention you can think of... or soggy fish in a glass.

Either way, the brains behind the drink menu at Tokonoma on Crown Street have certainly been trying their best to test their diners... and this is exactly what glutton and nuts is about.

It's hard to tell whether they thought raw fish in a (very) strong martini would be an increbible mix of flavours or if it had more to do with the fact that these two words kinda sounded similar - we're guessing the latter. We're also guessing it was the result of a pretty incredible staff party in which they were trying to out-shock each other with ingenious ideas - like the combination of the head chef and the bar manager putting together their favourite little ditties without thinking it would ever actually make it onto the menu...

Which it did. And is now in front of us waiting to be drank/ate.

It's an interesting, different and brilliant concept. And in all honesty tastes much like a classic (and very strong) martini. The fish isn't overpowering in the slightest (although we didn't really expect it to be) so in terms of flavours it's actually pretty easy to drink. This martini is certainly all about the flavour of the liquid rather than its garnish, it's sheer potency and the confusion that comes when you finish the drink and don't quite know what to do with the slightly swollen slice of salmon which is left over... we'll leave that part to you!

Order this drink if you have a curious nature as otherwise you'll always be left wondering. However, if you would normally drink things like lychee martinis then we'd avoid this one... it's for dirty martini drinkers who want things just a little bit dirtier...

Tokonoma
490 Crown Street
02 9357 6100

Small Food: A book made for glutton & nuts

Those who regularly read glutton & nuts will be well aware of our love for unusual and creative dishes... the more inventive something is, the more we're tempted by it.

Mostly, we tend to find these foods in only the most original of restaurants – those with chefs who take pride in shocking and surprising their diners.

Recently we’ve been searching for cookbooks that suit these creative needs at home; after all, we can’t always being dining out at unusual restaurants… as much as we try! So, as we hunt for the most inventive cookbooks on the market, we’ll post our findings on here… we may even try to recreate a few dishes ourselves and and put our money where our mouth is...

To begin with however, we’re starting small. Literally.

Small Food, by Brigid Kennedy is a celebration of canapés. If you’ve ever bumped into glutton & nuts at an event which serves fascinatingly creative canapés, then you’ll know exactly what this means to us: everything.

The opening line from Brigit’s Kennedy’s Small Food is: ‘One of the greatest pleasures in life is food; another is celebration’ which, at that, we’re sold.

Dishes such as gazpacho aspic with mustard ice cream take the jelly-and-ice-cream tradition and turn it completely on its head. Not only is this dish twisting sweet into savoury but it’s doing it in such a way, that (incredibly) it doesn’t lose its party-food touch. The result is something completely unforgettable.

Then there’s mango and passionfruit butter… great if you’re already a fan of things like banana on toast, while on the more filling side of things there's rabbit pie (definitely not to be missed!)

If you’re heading to an event and trying to come up with finger food that’s creative then Small Food is perfect. As Brigid Kennedy is also a very successful events organiser, it covers almost every possible circumstance you can think of: from the normal celebrations like Christmas and summer barbecues, to seasonal events, retro food and even ‘baby naming day’ food…

Chanel handbag cake…

When I was a child I remember going to a friend’s birthday party and spending virtually all of my time standing motionless with my eyes fixated on a Barbie cake which stood beautifully in the middle of the table.

She looked so real, so authentic, so much better than just a normal Barbie… I mean you could eat her for God’s sake!

Fast-forward 20 years (or so…) and I’m in the same situation. Except this time, I have no interest in Barbie (well, not that I would admit) and I’m in a rather lavish restaurant in Sydney, so must remain civilised…

Now, I swear that in the 20 years post Barbie-cake-infatuation, I have never seen a cake which has even come close to being as pristine or as perfectly executed as that Barbie was… and I sure have been looking.

That was of course, until recently, when the record was broken with the older girls’ dream item: The classic Chanel handbag.

Yes. 20 years later, I’m standing motionless with my eyes fixated on a classic Chanel handbag cake… which, is so authentically like the real thing, if I saw it on a shelf in a bakery I would most probably try and sling it over my shoulder.

What’s even more amazing that the lady who made it does not (yet) do this for a profession…

If passion makes you good at what you do, then this is the most passionate cake I’ve ever seen, let alone tasted…

Oh, and as for the taste... well, there’s only one word really: Rich (in all the best ways!)

For more info email gluttonandnuts@gmail.com

A Carpet Bag? What the?!

car·pet·bag [kahr-pit-bag] noun: A travelling bag made of carpet, commonly from an oriental rug...

i.e – not something you would uncontrollably drool over when spotted on the menu of one of Sydney’s top restaurants.

However, it’s CERTAINLY something glutton & nuts would order. Curiosity after all did kill the cat… and if we’re willing to chow-down on a nasty old oriental sac then we may actually be coming closer to death than we think…

While wondering if we’re soon to be reporting on weaving patterns and thread counts while simultaneously picking cotton from our teeth, we’re informed that a carpet bag is actually a uniquely Australian dish and has nothing to do with travelling holdalls whatsoever.

And much to our surprise what Australia loses in the ‘naming of top dishes’ field, they gain in the flavour and creativity of the actual dish itself.

This creation gained popularity in the 50s and is actually a fillet steak (served standing quite tall) stuffed with crab meat & tarragon butter. The idea is that the fish (doesn’t necessarily have to be crab) permeates the meat of the steak and the juices of both blend together to create a combo with much more of intense flavour than you would associate with Surf and Turf. In fact, simply speaking, a carpet bag is like taking the Surf and hiding it inside the Turf.

It’s certainly more interesting to eat than its Surf and Turf cousin as you have to cut right the way through the steak to discover what lies inside...

Now, we’re not going to give away where we tried this dish - we can’t reveal all of our secrets* but we’ll definitely be going back for more. The terrible naming of this dish is directionally proportional to how good it tastes, which should give you some indication of why we’ll be returning.

*Ok, ok, you can email us if you really want to know…

gluttonandnuts@gmail.com

Wagyu Carpaccio

Usually, the average steak menu has me at hello. A steak menu with an F1 Wagyu has me without any pleasantries at all… and a steak menu with Wagyu Carpaccio could slap me in the face, insult my family and tell me to never speak to it again, and I’ll still order it, tell everyone just how delicious it is, and secretly crave more.

Which, is exactly what I’m doing right now…

The Wagyu Carpaccio at The Park Hyatt’s Escher-like restaurant, Radii in Melbourne, is just that: delicious.

I could have had this dish thrown at me and I’d still be smiling.

Served with the tiniest portion of French onion soup, this starter (at $32) is an expensive one, but well, well worth it. The five finely cut slices of wagyu may disappear in all of 3 seconds but the taste, the texture, the density and the fat content blend together so well, that once tasted it’s incredibly hard to forget. The flavour has a really light fattyness to it and even though the steak is so finely cut, it's still almost chewy. The French Onion Soup (although extraordinary in its own right) was completely overlooked on this occasion (well, for the 3 seconds that the carpaccio lasted at least).

The one big con of this dish is that it disappears too quickly...

If you’re a foodie with self control, it’s perfect. However, ifyou’re a gluttonous so-and-so who ravishes their food, you’ll have it digested before the plate hits the table. You'll then kick yourself and pass filthy looks to everyone else you see who orders it.

Still, the kicking and the hatred for your follow diners is well worth it.

Park Hyatt Melbourne
1 Parliament Square, off Parliament Place
Melbourne VIC 3002
(03) 9224 1234

Win Tickets to Taste of Melbourne!

The greatest food event on the Australian calendar is hitting MELBOURNE! Running from Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th August, The Royal Exhibition Building will be transformed into a foodie's playground - a definitive who’s-who of Australian dining.

To find out exactly what's in store see HERE

Melbourne's finest chefs will be out in full force, with tasters, samples, new experimental foods, and tiny tid-bits for you to feast on.



AND glutton and nuts has TWO pairs of tickets to GIVEAWAY!!


All you have to do to WIN is SHARE this link on your facebook profile and you will automatically enter yourself into the comp.

Entries will be drawn on Monday 23rd. Tickets are for The Friday Long Lunch session. Good luck!




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The Tomahawk

A quirky little dessert like chocolate slab doesn’t follow a normal meal. In fact, it shouldn’t actually follow 1.7kgs of steak either but oh hell, whatever.

The Tomahawk, as it’s affectionately known, is an unwritten Chophouse speciality.

This being, it's not actually on the menu and you only get told about it if you look 'man' enough. You also get a hat if you can finish the whole thing yourself, which apparently THEN earns you a beer each time you walk through the door.

It’s clearly a very special club.

As The Chophouse doesn’t stock many of these, they're usually quite hard to get hold of. Most are reserved for pre-orders or go to those whom the waiters deem worthy. They also cost around $170, so are certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Although huge, The Chophouse has actually imported a special kiln-like oven from the US to cook these huge slabs of meat up in just 20 minutes (at heats of up to 2000C!) Apparently, as a result of the high temperatures, quick cooking speed, rising and falling infra-red heat, the meat is unbelievably tender... so, clearly the oven can handle this huge chunk of meat with ease...

The only question is, can you?

The Chophouse
25 Bligh St
Sydney NSW 2000
1300 246 748
http://www.chophouse.com.au/

Chocolate Block

Forget vanilla ice cream, apple tarts, chocolate brownies... we’ve had these zzzz-inducing things a million times over - in a variety of different ways - and somehow, they no longer seem to tempt us into popping that last button open.

Which is why it’s quite surprising that when we read ‘block of chocolate’ on the dessert menu at The Chophouse, it caught our attention... sounds, well, kind of normal. But intriguingly so...

What I think we learnt at The Chophouse in Sydney’s CBD, is this: a giant slab of chocolate, presented on a wooden board with a mini butcher’s knife, is hands-down FUN.

Oh, and that ‘The Chophouse’ truly deserves its name.

Even if you’re not hungry after the 1.7kg steak (which we harp on about here) you can’t argue that wielding a knife around your head and slamming it down into a massive block of choccy (with tasty honeycomb bits inside) isn’t gratifying. There’s something very, VERY relieving about it.

Glutton & nuts ordered this dessert just to see what was so good about a normal block of chocolate... and why exactly anyone would order such a thing after such a massive meal. With every intention of having a peek , taking a quick snap-shot and sending it back, we ended up wielding the knife in the air and cutting the thing to shreds. Ooops. Suppose it’s not so normal afterall...

If swinging a knife around in the air how you like to finish your meal, then this is definitely for you.

The Chophouse
25 Bligh St
Sydney NSW 2000
1300 246 748
http://www.chophouse.com.au/

Taste of Melbourne

Even as Sydney-siders, there’s something about a food festival in Melbourne that makes us tingle with joy. You’ve got to give it to Melbourne... it’s a city that knows (and loves) its food, and certainly isn’t shy about it.

Taste Fest hit Sydney a few months ago and saw Jamie Oliver rocking-out (quite literally) and cooking up a storm for a live crowd of VERY willing tasters. But even with Jamie headlining while blasting out some beats on his drum-kit, and Sydney’s best restaurants knocking our socks off, there’s something about Taste Melbourne that makes our hearts race even faster...

The line-up is like a who’s-who of Australian dining, including: Charcoal Lane, Esposito, Le Traiteur, Libertine, Longrain Restaurant & Bar, maze & maze Grill, Melbourne Wine Room, Mezzo Bar & Grill, Mr. Wolf, The European, The Palace by Luke Mangan, Sarti, Stokehouse Restaurant & Bar.

Add to this, the introduction of THE POP UP RESTAURANT (oh how we love Melbourne for this)

Each day a ‘pop up’ restaurant will steal the limelight...

Thursday: French by Koots Salle a Manger
Friday: Tapas by Comida Bebe by Raúl MorenoYagüe
Saturday: Japanese from Izakaya Den
Sunday: French moderne from Embrasse.

A weekend ticket is clearly the only answer.

If your foodie tastes ebb towards the produce-scene rather than fine-dining, then prepare yourself - over 90 producers will fill out the festival... glutton & nuts personal faves include: Green & Blacks, Mövenpick of Switzerland, Bultarra meats, Gridlock coffee and Bagdad foods. Then there’s the selection of spirits and liquors whole be present... best we don’t even begin that list...

If you’re a fan of foodie activities then grab yourself a ticket top the Australian Gourmet Traveller Chef’s Table where you can get to meet a range of top chefs, the Gourmet Traveller Wine Theatre where you can taste and learn about rare and boutique wines, and the Bacardi 'Art of Cocktail Making' class – which is a dangerously enjoyable a step-by-step lesson on how to make the world’s best cocktails...

Taste of Melbourne – The Ultimate Dining Experience
Thursday August 26th - Sunday August 29th, 2010
Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens Nicholson Street Carlton
Tickets start from $27.50

Thursday: 26th August - 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Friday: 27th August 12.00pm – 4.00pm, 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Saturday: 28th August 12.00am – 4.00pm, 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Sunday: 29th August 12.00pm – 5.00pm
http://www.tastefestivals.com.au/

Experimental Dining: Celsius Restaurant & Bar

Creative eating hits Adelaide TODAY!

Ayhan Erkoc is one of Adelaide’s most exciting young chefs. Formerly Head Chef of The Manse, with experience in world-class restaurants such as Copenhagen’s Noma and both Pier and Marque in Sydney, he’s now back in Adelaide and has experimental dining in mind...

When glutton & nuts heard he was putting SOIL back on the menu (not that soil was ever even ON the menu mind) our ears pricked-up with excitement and we became very jealous that he’s decided to do his creative thing in Adelaide. Lucky Rads.

Celsius Restaurant and Bar opens today and if it weren’t for the thousands of miles between us, we’d be there... bib around neck, cutlery poised and tongues curling the words ‘vegtable patch please’ (which is an experimental starter of snails, herbs, soil, flowers, raw and pickled vegetables).

Ayhan’s focus is on local produce and classics with an experiential twist, meaning a bit of tradition and a LOT of fun. In our opinion, this is exactly what modern dining should be about. Ayhan and his staff will also be devoting time to ‘foraging expeditions’ – which means they’ll be making the most of seasonal, sometimes-overlooked ingredients growing wild around Adelaide, which is sure to be a real eye-opener!

Ensuring that guests enjoy a meal that plays on all of the senses is at the heart of Ayhan’s motivation: “I’ve already started playing with experiential accompaniments such as smoking pine cones and dry-iced lavender flowers," said Ayhan. "One of our first dishes, the ‘vegetable patch’, will include 'soil', snails, herbs, flowers, raw and pickled vegetables”...

We’re sure that the soon-to-be-famous veggie patch is where it will all begin, but with an imagination like Ayhan’s it’s certainly won’t end there.

In fact, we’re already eyeing up the star anise custard...

Celsius Restaurant and Bar is open for lunch Wednesday to Friday and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, from 10th August 2010.

Call 08 8231 6023 for bookings.
http://www.celsiusrestaurant.com.au/
95 Gouger Street
Adelaide, Australia, 5000

The Rocks Markets - honey cinnamon cashews

If you happen to be in old-Sydney-town on a Friday, stroll down to The Rocks Markets and check out the area's culinary offerings in express stall form. Apart from being a great open air lunch alternative, it's also a great way to preview the local fare before committing to a full-blown dinner.

Whether you've opted for the Dare gozleme stall, wagyu burger a’la Pony or a Lowenbrau sausage dog, it's still best practice to bypass the nuts stand on your way out of the markets for something to nibble on.

Sitting under a sign that humbly reads 'Fresh Nuts' on the east side of The Rocks Markets is this unassuming stall selling everything from cherry-flavoured Turkish delight, to wasabi peas, to homemade fairy-floss candy strips.

Then there’s the roasted honey cinnamon cashews, a dish where sugar and spice and salt meet in perfect matrimony. Everything about this snack is good, from the crunch of the fresh roasted cashews, to the sweet honey-coating, to the depth added by the cinnamon, not to mention it 'technically' makes the health-food cut (please note that we here at glutton & nuts are fairly liberal in our nutritional assessments). Everyone knows that cinnamon is the natural friend of many foods, be it toast, smoothies, rice, or gum. Now, you can cross cashews off that list.

The Rocks Markets – every Friday from 12 noon at The Rocks, Sydney
honey & cinnamon cashews - $3.50/ 125g bag from the 'Fresh Nuts'

stand

Bloody Mary Oyster Shot

Ok, so the last time glutton & nuts had a Bloody Mary, we were on a flight from Sydney to London, so hung-over that jumping from the plane seemed like the only appropriate option.

That was of course, until the idea of drinking more vodka sprang to mind...

Those who say a Bloody Mary cures all have never had one served to them by an insane Etihad flight attendant whose 90/10 split of vodka/tomato juice resulted in a feeling we can only imagine as being similar to downing bleach. This combined with the hangover from hell and a 24-hour flight... not so good.

That aside, it was time once again to face the bloody demon... and the only way to do it was in shot form - with an oyster thrown in, obviously.

Fortunately, with a head as fresh as a daisy and being served by staff who clearly knew what they were doing (glutton and nuts stands up and applauds Kingsley’s in Woolloomooloo) this time round the Bloody Mary experience was Bloody Marvalous!

This little shot of slithering joy was delicious... and no, not because they held back on the vodka (it's there in a big way!) but because the combo of salty oyster, tangy tomatoes and kick-ass vodka was mind blowing. And if you love your unusual foody textures then this is one you’ll not want to swallow. Swish it around and enjoy it a little bit... once it’s gone, it’s gone, unfortunately...

That is, unless you get the Kingley’s staff to rack up a long row of them... which, after discovering how seriously dedicated they are to all things food and booze, they most probably would!

Visit Kingsley’s... no, like seriously do...

www.kingsleys.com.au
Kingsleys Steak & Crabhouse
10/6 Cowper Wharf Rd
Woolloomooloo
New South Wales 2011
1300 546 475

g&n hearts Kingsleys