10/7/11

Bitton Gourmet Cafe, Alexandria

Another mum's group meeting in Alexandria takes us to pram-magnet Bitton. I'm first to arrive and take a table out in the courtyard, next to the dedicated kids playroom and a huge stack of IKEA highchairs, and order a flat white.




After reading the French-influenced breakfast/lunch menu I can't decide, so I wait to see if anyone will share with me, especially as I want to tuck into some pommes frites. I'm in luck, and my partner chooses the sourdough toast with tomato, goats cheese and basil oil from the breakfast side of the menu. When our waiter comes I'm tempted by the special of duck liver pate, but I never say no to goats cheese.


The chips aren't cheap and don't look French to me but the fresh tomato sauce is a nice touch and probably pleases people without a lifelong addiction to ketchup. 


I think the sourdough is from Brasserie Bread so no complaints there, but with one huge and one tiny slice I had to cut both in half for sharing. It's tasty though, thanks to that goats cheese.


Of course, we can't leave without trying out that play area, so the babies get into some tummy time, or is that skydiving practice?


Bitton Gourmet Cafe
36-37a Copeland Street, Alexandria, NSW 2015
p. (02) 9519 5111
http://www.bittongourmet.com.au

7/7/11

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, Ashfield

For once, Pea Pa is home on the day his mum comes to visit. We decide to go to Ashfield for lunch, because I've been meaning to get my old record player fixed there for about two years, and because Nana Boot loves prawns. It's win-win.

We're not sure whether to go for New Shanghai or Shanghai Nights next door, so we pick the one that looks the busiest. They also specialise in mini pork buns, aka soup dumplings. Yes.



Baby Pea likes it so much he falls asleep, so we get on with ordering far too much food for three people.


Nana Boot can't eat much, so lucky for her the salt and pepper prawns arrive first. They're perfect and I eat them up tails and all.


The steamed rice and eggplant in garlic sauce come out too. Mains before entrees - why not? This is similar to my favourite eggplant dish from Chinese Noodle in Haymarket, but without the same depth of flavour. Solution? Soy sauce - now it tastes the same. Hooray!


Pea Pa and I get the special - steamed oyster in xo sauce. They're huge and meaty.


Finally, the dumplings and shallot pancake arrive. The dumplings are so good, self saucing with the ginger soup inside, though a splash of vinegar doesn't hurt. Vinegar and soy also liven up the lovely shallot pancake, which is the crispiest one I've ever tried.



Somehow we've managed to eat everything except most of the eggplant and half the rice, so they come home with us. The next day, I fry up the last of Pea Pa's radish cake, stir-fry the eggplant with some shallot and a big spoonful of kecap manis, toss them together and have them for dinner with the re-steamed rice.  I swear leftovers have never tasted so good.

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant
273 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131
p. (02) 9797 7284

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Malacca Straits on Broadway

Our first big trip as a family is fast approaching, and the last bit of it will be spent in Malaysia eating our collective body weight in street food. Sydney has it's fair share of that too, we hear, so why wait. It's lunch time, after all.

The modern looking Malacca Straits is short walk from Broadway shopping centre. There are familiar favorites on the menu, but we're strangely drawn to something new - char tau kueh, which sounds a bit like our beloved noodle dish if you swapped the noodles for radish cake. We love the yum cha equivalent of this spongy vegie cake so we give it a go, along with a healthy plate of Hainan chicken rice.




First comes the soup for the chicken rice. Ahhhh.


And here's the rest. The chicken rice is satisfying but not mind-blowing. But ...



... the radish cake is amazing. Rich and creamy and full-flavoured with a definite wow factor. The lady seems impressed we've ordered it, and really wants to know if we like it. She even tells us how to make it. So, a few days later, with some organic daikon from Marrickville markets, Pea Pa does. The recipe is here.


Malacca Straits on Broadway
66 Mountain Street, Broadway NSW 2007
p. 02 8021 7069
http://malaccastraitsbroadway.com.au

Malacca Straits on Urbanspoon

6/7/11

La Renaissance Pâtisserie Française, The Rocks

The Family Pea takes advantage of cheap Sunday travel to spend the day in The Rocks. We're actually there on best man and matron of honour duties to taste wedding food at Wolfie's Bar & Grill, but before that we have time to meet a friend for coffee, and it has to be the Renaissance. When I worked across the road from here my colleagues and I enjoyed many a morning tea supplied by this French patisserie, but that was more than five years ago.

It's market day and sunny and all the tables on Argyle Street are taken. We carry the pram and Baby Pea through to the leafy back courtyard with bigger tables and winter-friendly heat lamps.


I love a bowl of coffee, though it's probably not the easiest thing to drink with a baby on your lap.



I have a major weakness for gruyere so the ham and cheese croissant has my name on it. Pea Pa gets a shock when he sees it come out, all buttery and smothered with melted cheese. He's glad he didn't say no though when he tastes the creamy, ham-flecked bechamel filling - it's heaven. Definitely one to share.


Naturally we can't leave without sampling something sweet, and the almond croissant beckons. I cut it into little squares so we feel less guilty, or perhaps so no one notices me eat the last piece.


La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise
47 Argyle St, The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000
p. 02 9241 4878

La Renaissance Cafe Patisserie on Urbanspoon