High Tea at The Globe Bar, The Observatory Hotel

When five foxxy females seek to celebrate four November birthdays, a High Tea affair offers the perfect combination of sophistication, conversation and self-indulgent deserved gluttony.

Our chosen destination was The Observatory Hotel, a member of the Orient-Express family which, although only built in 1993, attempts to look as if it has been there ever since 1893.



The olde world charm is apparent in its heavy lounge settings, mahogany furniture and trail of ornamental keepsakes dispersed throughout the downstairs lobby. There's a plaque marked Drawing Room and I feel an irrepressible urge to request a pipe, smoking gown and perhaps a monocle on a chain as well.



High tea takes place in the Globe Bar. The patrons inside are dignified and speak in muted tones. I do my best to trudge in elegantly, and as I sink into a padded textured velvet sofa, a solemn-looking staff member is quick to offer a pot of tea.



A silver tray floats across the floor before it is lowered majestically on a nearby sidetable. A slender but heavy silver tea pot is lifted mid-air, a tea strainer readied, and then the pot is tilted gracefully forward for the cascade of steaming hot tea which flows delicately into my white china tea cup.

Bowb then appears, and soon after Saffron, S and A as well. Excitement is mounting as we prepare ourselves for an afternoon of tasty decadence.



Champagne arrives and we chit chat as we wait for our soon-to-arrive tier of goodies.



We wait and we wait and during a series of nervous glances at our watches, we realise that over forty minutes have passed and no food has arrived. Girly talk is all very well, but it cannot be sustained without sugar and cream and sustenance in general.

We cast pained looks of jealousy at the other smaller tables which seem to have their tiers arrive in next to no time. We are perplexed at the delay as we had made a booking weeks before. Surely they knew that five ravenous girls would be ready and waiting for the highlight of their week?



Finally, finally our tier beholden with goodness arrives. The staff member sweeps in and out with barely a word and we all shift about in our seats peering at the arrival with none-too-elegant finger pointing and curious musings out loud.

We begin with scones which are pleasant but perhaps a little doughy. Any shortcomings are quickly forgiven though with a thick splodge of strawberry jam--dense with whole strawberries-- and an even bigger spoonful of heavy and heavenly ivory cream.



Sandwiches are a source of much discussion: there is ham and cheese; cucumber and watercress; smoked salmon and capers; and the crowd favourite of soft curried egg.



The final dessert stage is again fraught with decisions. Feedback is sought from the first taste adventurers, as discussion culminates on how to personally ensure "the last perfect mouthful".

The mini chocolate friand is rich and almost squidgy in texture. It is moist and buttery like a dense chocolate brownie and topped with a trio of pistachio, walnut and almond.

A fragile fruit tart is almost crushed by eager fingers, set sail by slivers of mango and strawberry, with blueberry and raspberry anchors at the ready.

My chosen finale is the almond slice, a sticky square reminiscent of a florentine with camarel-set flaked almonds, sunny flashes of candied peel and atop a crisp buttery biscuit base sandwiched with jam.



I am forlorn for my long-empty and stone cold tea pot which has neither been refilled nor replaced at any stage during our two-and-a-half hour visit. Although we have had much fun and frivolity in a room lending to gloom, we are a little disappointed with our group's apparent invisibility.

A trip to the bathroom offers some consolation. A bottle of complimentary mouthwash is utilised for post-tea refreshment and the genuine cotton hand towels are appreciated for our soft, delicate milky white hands.



We exit onto the street all smiles and laughter for there has been sugar and cream and good company all-round.


The Observatory Hotel
89-113 Kent Street, Millers Point, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 (02) 9256 2222

High Tea at the Globe Bar is held daily 2.30pm-5.00pm

$29.00 for a three-tier high tea
$39.00 with a glass of champagne

Related GrabYourFork posts
High tea at the Swissotel Crossroads Bar (Jan09) , (Nov06), (Jun06) and (Oct05)
High tea at the Sofitel Wentworth (Sep08) and (Dec06)
High tea at the Victoria Room, Darlinghurst

Sugar frenzy: Holiday Cookie Swap

When you find a good cookie recipe, life is good.

It gets better when you start playing around with the ingredients. You can vary the flavours but most importantly this recipe doesn't lose its crisp sugary exterior and soft chewy core.

You may remember I recently altered Donna Hay's Double Choc Cookies into my own variation of Coffee Hazelnut Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chunks.

For the latest combined Holiday Cookie Swap theme for Is My Blog Burning #21 and Sugar High Friday #14, I again returned to my Donna favourite. Both are straight-forward ingredient swaps. Try to keep your wet:dry ratio the same, and adjust your flour if things are looking a little too wet or dry.


Malted Milk Cookies with
Chunks of Dark Chocolate and Malteser Smashings
Based on Donna Hay's double choc cookies from Modern Classics Book 2

250g butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup malted milk powder
200g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
100g Maltesers, smashed in the bag

Cream butter and sugar.
Add the eggs gradually and beat well.
Add flour, baking powder, malted milk powder, chocolate and Maltesers and mix well.
Place large tablespoonfuls of mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper or greaseproof paper.
Ensure there is plenty of room between mounds to allow for spreading (I did about five per tray).
Bake at 150C for 20-25 minutes (depending on how soft/crispy you like your cookie). I like mine a little crispier and left them in for about 30 minutes.

Makes about 25.



Chocolate Cookies with
Dark Chocolate Peppermint Chunks
Based on Donna Hay's double choc cookies from Modern Classics Book 2

250g butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
250g dark chocolate with peppermint broken into chunks

Cream butter and sugar.
Add the eggs gradually and beat well.
Add flour, baking powder, cocoa and chocolate and mix well.
Place large tablespoonfuls of mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper or greaseproof paper. Ensure there is plenty of room between mounds to allow for spreading (I did about five per tray).
Bake at 150C for 20-25 minutes (depending on how soft/crispy you like your cookie). I like mine a little crispier and left them in for about 30 minutes.

Makes about 25.

You can check out everyone's holiday cookie recipes at The Domestic Goddess and Il Forno. They'll be presenting a combined wrap-up of all the IMBB-SHF entries next week, and in keeping with the festive season, Jennifer is kindly offering prizes too!

Readers are invited to vote for their favourite cookie entry with twelve lucky cookie bakers winning a copy of The Cookie Sutra. Now that's gotta be worth a bit of kitchen gymnastics!

Chicken salad rice paper rolls

The other night we had Thai Beef Salad for dinner, so tasty and deliciously tempting that I ravenously grabbed my fork instead of the camera.

The next day the leftover bunches of mint, basil and coriander beckoned from the fridge with their summery clean freshness. Inspiration struck in the form of a Vietnamese-style chicken salad.

Cooked chicken thighs were pulled apart roughly and mixed with a rainbow of shredded cabbage, carrot and a leftover red capsicum. The green brigade of mint, basil and coriander were chopped coarsely and mixed though and a dressing of soy, fish sauce, fresh chilli and lime juice completed the party.

Then a lightbulb appeared and rice paper sheets became part of the festivities. A spoonful of salad (drained of excess dressing) rolled up in a softened rice paper sheet and served with a sauce of hoisin, peanut butter and lots of chilli sauce.

I made half my salad into rice paper rolls; the rest I ate out of a bowl with chopsticks, a handful of roasted peanuts on top for extra crunch. Yum.

Tomodachi, Broadway

Deep-fried soft-shell crab sushi $3.50

The food court crowd is a tough one.

Spinach pide boats jostle with lamb madras curries under the watchful eye of slowly twirling yeeros. The shiny happy salad bar and the sandwich counter beckon your conscience before your attention is diverted by the cake display, the gelato cart and the Chinese greasefest of all-you-can-plate.

And then your eyes alight upon the pretty cherry-blossom themed sushi bar Tomodachi. Tomodachi means "friend" in Japanese, and it looks like the kind of person you want to hang out with-- trendy, funky, clean and bright.



The menu here is a mix of Japanese and Korean dishes. Most customers tended to be couples, with many sitting at the sushi train counter to select their plates of choice. We were a rather large group and were seated at the varnished pine tables with bench seating.

We ordered a variety of dishes which arrived rather haphazardly throughout the meal. The onus seemed to be on us to clear space on the table; and at the conclusion of our meal we were often asked to pass heavy bowls and crockery as the table was cleared.

The food, on the whole though, was quite delicious. The crab sushi could've been crispier and the agedashi tofu (dusted in potato starch and then deep-fried) could've been stickier and more gelatinous, but the prawn tempura were light, non-greasy and perfectly battered.


Agedashi tofu $5.00


Prawn tempura $8.50

We partook in a hotpot of bibimbab, that Korean favourite where assorted vegetables and beef lay atop white rice and crowned with a glistening orb of sunny yolk. The rainbow of colours is then swirled with chopsticks into a kind of wet non-fried rice and then blushed with a dab of crimson chilli sauce.


Bibimbab in hotpot $13.50

The sukiyaki is another raw-yolker. Suki means "spade" and yaki means "to cook". Our dish arrived already cooked, with a raw yolk provided for a frenzied riot into the soupy mixture. The beef in this dish was particularly tender.


Sukiyaki $13.50

I wondered why the waiter seemed to pause above our table as he held this impressive platter of sashimi. Then I realised he expected me to help him place it down.

As I took hold, the full weight of the dish became known. Not only was the bamboo mat sitting on a heavy ceramic dish, the entire vessel was filled with ice cubes as well for extra freshness no doubt.

The fish was fresh, firm and tasty and the tuna especially was a reassuringly deep red colour.


Jumbo sashimi platter (30 pieces) $35.50

We also ordered the chicken teriyaki and the unagi (broiled eel) both of which arrived with salads, boiled rice and a scoop of sweetened mashed potato (there was definitely sugar involved, which was quite intriguing). Both were good although with the amount of sugar involved in both dishes, it's rather hard to go wrong with either.


Chicken teriyaki $13.00


Eel (unagi) $14.50

Tomodachi offers a nice compromise between sushi bar and sit-down Japanese dining. It's bright, airy and buzzy and besides, you can never have too many friends, right?


Tomodachi Restaurant
Level 2 Food Court, Broadway Shopping Centre, Broadway Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9281 6000

Spice I Am, Surry Hills

It's official.
The best green papaya salad is here.
Spice I Am.
Champion It Is.


Green papaya salad (som tam) $7.90

If you like your som tum pallid, watery and flavourless you won't like this one.

Spice I Am makes their green papaya salad zingy, crisp with plenty of heat. There's a healthy dousing of fish sauce, a wink's worth of lime juice and a chilli kick that gets the adrenalin pumping and the endorphins flowing.

It's a party for the tastebuds and the generous handful of dry roasted peanuts add a pleasing buttery crunch.


Bael fruit drink $3.00

I had abandoned Thai cuisine recently, sick of insipid same-old same-old dishes sweetened to Western palates. But after a green papaya epiphany, Thai-yerd became en-Thai-sing once again.

And so we headed to Spice I Am for a weekday lunch. This hole-in-the-wall eatery sits between two backpacker hostels on the Central-side of Surry Hills. The seating is cosy and you could practically pick the peanuts off the pad thai on the table behind you.

A vermillion red feature wall marks one side of the eatery; framed prints hang on the other. And yet my attention is undisturbed by the shiny silver exhaust fans in the kitchen. They are gleaming like new. Perhaps they are new. But they are mesmerising in their resplendent magnificence.

A smiling staff member wearing a funky logoed t-shirt takes our order. The place is filled with a motley assortment of businessmen, backpackers and locals but a sense of ordered efficiency prevails.


Green curry chicken $7.90

Within minutes our drinks arrive. I choose the bael fruit drink out of curiosity which tastes much like a berry drink with a splash of salty plum.

Our green papaya salad is shared and then our other dishes arrive with rapidity as we frantically perform a game of crockery chess to make room on the table.

The green curry chicken is gooood. With a complexity of spices underlying its creamy texture, the Thai pea eggplants burst on the tongue with surprising freshness.


Massaman curry beef $7.90

The Massaman (mussaman) beef is also sighed over. The chunks of beef fall apart with a mere poke of a spoon, melting in the mouth amidst a pool of ochre-coloured sauce. It is a little on the sweet side but the beef is so tender that all is forgiven.


Cashew nut chicken $7.90

The cashew nut chicken has a little more kick than your average Chinese version using a special blend of chilli jam and a hint of lime.


Crispy fish pad prik king $9.90

My choice for our shared meal was the pad prik king, a tasty mass of fried, hot, sour spiciness. Fish fillets were fried in a coating of curry sauce and pork rind. Green beans are crisp and barely cooked, and a smattering of microscopically sliced kaffir lime leaves garnish the dish like festive tinsel.

Our dishes are scraped clean by eager spoons and desperate forks, capturing every drop of sauce for ransom by our bowls of fluffy white rice. We are pleasantly satiated but our eyes still wander greedily as towers of tantalising pad thai pass us by.

Next time. Next Thai-m.




View Larger Map

Spice I Am
90 Wentworth Avenue (corner Campbell St and Elizabeth St)
Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 928 00 928

Opening hours:
Open Tuesday to Sunday
Lunch 11.30am - 3.30pm
Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.00pm

BYO no corkage
Closed on Mondays


A second more upmarket version of Spice I Am can be found at:
Spice I Am Restaurant
296-300 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9332 2445

No BYO
Lunch: Thursday to Sunday 11.30am - 3pm
Dinner: Daily 6pm - 10.30pm

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Spice I Am (Aug09), (Aug07), (Nov05)

Thai Food Festival

Who knew that one Sunday could hold so many photos?

Thankfully the Thai Food Festival was only down the road from the Spanish Quarter Street Festival. I nipped between the two a number of times throughout the day, interspersing Thai treats with Spanish salsa.


Thai sweets


Thai videos

It was a gloriously hot day and the buzz of families gave Tumbalong Park a happy carnival atmosphere. Thai families are definitely organised! They arrived with bamboo mats for sitting on, umbrellas for shade and some entreprenuerial types had even set up tents.

Refreshment came in the form of iced tea, iced black coffee, iced milky coffee or iced lemon tea. Then were were young coconuts shaped like a circus tent, to be shattered open by a smiling young man holding a cleaver. The sweet milky juice would be sucked up with a straw, and the soft creamy flesh scooped out with a spoon.

Little tubs of exotic ice creams could also be had for $1.50 but alas all the cool flavours like mangosteen, taro, green tea and guava were already gone by the time I enquired. I really wanted mangosteen but had to settle for the last papaya one instead.


Ice cold drinks


Chendol - a dessert made using rice flour tinted green
and then pushed through a sieve to create "green worms".


Queuing for food


Chefs making popiah (a Singaporean-style raw spring roll
with egg, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, prawns and vegetables)


Thai fare


Keeping cool with a painted parasol


Ice kacang

After nibbling on a sample of pad thai and crunching on a trio of sesame-encrusted toffeed banana fritters, a cup of ice kacang fulfilled both the drink and the dessert urges. A motley assortment of Asian sweets were ladled into the bottom of the cup: sugared beans, purple yam, mung bean, jelly, jackfruit and chendol, then topped with an avalanche of ice shavings and drenched with sweetened coconut milk.

The Thai boy bands (indeed, they sounded so) cleared the stage for a final performance of Thai dancing in traditional dress. They shimmered in resplendent silk embellished with intricate gold headpieces and adornments.







As day turned into dusk, preparations began for the Loy Krathong festival. A famous Thai celebration, Loy means "to float" and Krathong refers to the floating vessel made of banana leaves in the shape of a lotus leaf.


Krathong candles for sale


Procession of Thai dancers





Loy Krathong is traditionally celebrated on the night of a full moon in the twelfth lunar month.

People purchase krathong candles, light them and make a wish before setting them afloat. The krathong are believed to carry away bad luck or sins, as well as signifying respect to Khongkha or Ganga, the River Goddess.



The Thai Food Festival was held in Tumbalong Park on Sunday 13 November 2005.

This event takes place annually, usually in November.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Spanish Quarter Street Festival Part I
Spanish Quarter Street Festival Part II
Spanish Quarter Street Festival Part III
Newtown Festival