Georges Bar & Grill, King Street Wharf Sydney

Put lamb on a dinner menu, and hey, I know what I'm having.

We had dinner at Georges Bar & Grill in trendy King Street Wharf the other night. I have to preface King Street Wharf with "trendy" because it always strikes me as so. There's always an underlying sense of flashiness about the place: in the architecture, in its patrons, in its uber chic logo.

Nevertheless we join the trilling stilettoed throng and part our separate ways at Georges Bar & Grill, a restaurant which specialises in Mediterranean fare.


Bread and dips $8.00

Our table of four share a starter of bread and dips. To our surprise the bread doesn't have a crisp crust, but has a more malleable chewy texture. The pitted kalamata olives are very good, but we wish there'd been a bit more of everything to get onto our bread.

Two people opt for the steak; the other two go for the lamb.


100-day aged grain-fed sirloin steak $29.00
with mushroom and Kefalograviera lemon potato

The sirloin steak looks and smells great. It tastes great too. It's nicely seared, well-rested and a perfect shade of medium-rare pink.



The mushrooms are meaty and the potatoes have a pleasant golden crunch to them too.


Oven-roasted lamb rump $28.00
with eggplant relish

I revel in the lamb rump which is again, beautifully rested. There's a fair bit of fat in it too which is deliciously decadent, although by the last mouthful I'm starting to feel the cholesterol. The bed of eggplant relish is salty beyond belief however, so much so that I can't bear to finish it (and I always aim to clean my plate).

Our meals are otherwise excellent albeit lacking in greens. The expectation that patrons should order their vegetables as a side is always grating, especially since we didn't realise this until it was all too late.

Still, it does great meat though. Juicy, tasty and meltingly tender. Just remember to order your greens.

Georges Mediterranean Bar & Grill
The Promenade, King St Wharf
17 Lime Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9279 4445

Open 7 days a week 12pm – 11pm

Pasar Senggol Indonesian Street Festival

Another weekend. Another festival.

We made a quick jaunt to Frances Street in Randwick, in Sydney's east, for the Pasar Senggol Indonesian Street Festival. The skies were a little patchy at times, but that didn't stop the enthusiasm of families and friends out for a tasty day out.

The Japanese stall at the start of the line was clearly not Indonesian. But the wafting smells of takoyaki and dorayaki on the grill drew us near anyway.


Dorayaki Japanese filled pancakes

Dorayaki are a popular Japanese snack, kind of like a pancake sandwich with various fillings inside. These include chocolate, custard, green tea and red bean which are signified by the specially shaped drizzles on their surface.



The takoyaki were also popular.


Takoyaki with prawns


These are prepared by pouring takoyaki batter into a gem iron tray...


And then twisting and turning the balls until cooked.


We shared a portion of six, garnished with fine bonito shavings and served with skewers as eating implements. Unfortunately ours were a little soggy and undercooked, even though we had had to wait for about ten minutes for them to be cooked.

We also had much fun with a bottle of Japanese lemonade, the kind which has a little glass ball inside that drops into the tunnel within the bottle's neck once you open it. The novelty of the clinking travelling marble soon wore off however when its movement to the bottle lip made drinking the lemonade itself rather cumbersome and difficult.

But back to the food, there were plenty of other snacks on offer:


Indonesian samosas


Sticky rice with chicken and sweet sticky rice cake


Happy baskets

We had these happy baskets, a crispy cup made from a deep-fried wonton sheet, lined with lettuce and topped with cooked vermicelli noodle, chicken, pork floss and sweet chilli sauce. Someone likened it to "Indonesian sang choi bao" which wouldn't be a bad call. Rather simple but quite tasty, and would go down well as a cocktail canape or dinner party appetiser, I think.


Spring rolls and deep fried wonton dumplings


Pandan sticky rice desserts


Indonesian samosa and martabak pancake

Fried foods are my weakness, so I couldn't help sampling a samosa and the martabak pancake. Alas I wasn't much a fan of either. The samosa was a little gluggy with peas and watery potato, the martabak pancake was crisp but the pea omelette inside wasn't quite what I expected.

We also tried lempeh, a homemade sticky rice mixed with chicken breast.


Combro pastel

The dish labelled as combro pastel was the surprise find of the day. M was intrigued by the queue of locals for this dish, and although it was marked as hot, we were surprised to find it completely mild. It seemed that you chose your tofu dumplings either steamed or fried, but we somehow managed to convince our server for a half-portion of each. A thick sauce of satay with mild chilli was then ladled on top, then squirted with a healthy dose of kecap manis.

We all found this super tasty, and the cool wintery day it provided the perfect dose of warming nourishment.


Sticky rice with palm sugar


Fried palm sugar pancakes

I'm not sure what these are called, but boy, were these right up my alley. The pancake was a little chewy with tunnels of air throughout, but the exterior had a sugary crunchy crust to it which had me grinning ear to ear.


Cake ketan hitam

Even before I googled cake ketan hitam, I thought it tasted like a heavier denser chiffon cake with the slight grit of ground black sticky rice. It is a style of chiffon cake, and black sticky rice flour forms the basis of this unusual dessert.



On our way out we grabbed a take-home pack of dorayaki. It's always a pleasure to end the day on something sweet.



Pasar Senggol Indoneseian Street Festival
Frances Street, Randwick, Sydney
Saturday 27 May 2006

Hung Cheung, Marrickville

In ethnically diverse Marrickville, the Hung Cheung is a lone Chinese dragon amidst a gaggle of Vietnamese noodle houses. Housed on the site of a former petrol station, its neon signs beckon at the start of the Marrickville Road eating strip.


Mud crab (market price)
with ginger and shallots and double e-fu noodles
This serving priced at $67.70

We start with our family favourite, mud crab with ginger and shallots. I'm a much bigger fan of mud crab over lobster. Although the picking out of crab flesh is much trickier (and nightmare-inducing for your dental conscience), I find the flavours so much tastier and sweeter too.

The resultant sauce, which is packed with crab flavours, is mopped up with thin silky ribbons of e-fu noodles. We always order a double portion of noodles, and even then there are still squabbles over the last of the noodles.


Peking spare ribs $12.80

Peking spare ribs are meaty, a thin batter gives it a tasty crunch. It's coated with a sweet caramelised sauce which is perfect for this sweet tooth.


Enoki mushrooms with Chinese vegetables $15.80

Chinese stir-fried vegetables arrive with a mass of delicate enoki mushrooms.


Minced pork with French beans in XO sauce $14.80

The pork mince is also delicious. Fine clumps of pork mince are flavoured nicely with XO sauce, salty, sweet and spicy hot sensations contrast nicely with the squeaky crunch of bright green French beans.


Crispy chicken $13.80

The crispy chicken here has always been its standout, and tonight is no exception. The skin is super crunchy, almost lifted from the sweet tender white meat beneath.


Sago pudding $17.80
(must be pre-ordered 48 hours in advance)

We finish with another family favourite, sago pudding, nicely caramelised although perhaps a tad too dry.


Sago in coconut milk (complimentary)

A complimentary fruit platter and a house dessert of sago in coconut milk pushes us to our limits. We unlock the emergency stomach though, before rolling our way out the door and into the car for home.

Quality Chinese food at suburban prices, although the bathroom facilities are in dire need of a spruce up.


Hung Cheung Chinese Restaurant
338 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9560 4681

Related GrabYourFork posts
Hung Cheung yum cha, May 04

Recipe: Apple, rhubarb and ginger crumble

Winter arrived in Sydney this week with a bone-chilling shiver. Antipodeans don't like the cold. Not unless it's amber and comes in a schooner.

So I was more than pleased when an invite to dinner this week promised a heart-warming offer of home-cooked pizza. Rather than bring an obligatory box of choccies, I took a couple of apples and a block of butter with me--the intent to rustle up a thank you dessert of apple crumble. In the host's kitchen, I discovered a bunch of rhubarb in urgent need of cooking... Apple and rhubarb? Even better! And a pinch of ginger to give it even more warmth, as well as qualifying it for the latest ginger-themed Sugar High Friday online cook-off!



Apple, Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble

Crumbles must be one of the easiest desserts in the world. No measuring is required. Just rough guesstimates will suffice. A little bit of experimentation with different flavours never hurt anyone either.

Peel and chop enough apples and rhubarb into even-sized chunks to just fill your baking dish. Tart apples (granny smith or Bramley) have better flavour, but the rhubarb will provide some tartness otherwise.

Sprinkle mixture with plenty of brown sugar, a heavy dusting of cinnamon and several pinches of ground ginger (for three large apples and five stalks of rhubarb I probably used about 2/3 cup brown sugar). Add a few extra slices of fresh ginger if preferred, then toss mixture and set aside.

To prepare the crumble, rub in about 60g of softened butter into 100g of plain flour. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground ginger and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and combine.

Gently pile crumble mixture on top of fruit, then bake at 180C for about 45min or until fruit is cooked and crumble is nicely browned.

Serve with cream or ice cream, or enjoy it on its own. Alas there was no ice cream in the host's freezer compartment, but I found the ginger added a pleasing warm spiciness which cut through any sense of excessive sweetness or tartness.


Technoratic tags: SHF Sugar High Friday recipes ginger food + drink

Paddy Maguires, Haymarket

Time is relative. Your perception of time expands and contracts depending on how much fun you're having. Or how much pain you're in.

We've had lunch at Paddy Maguires a number of times, but this was the first time we'd dined in a large group. Seven of us had headed over for a celebratory lunch, and after ordering and paying for our meals at the bar, we nursed drinks as we all anxiously stared at our meal buzzers in a game of lunchtime bingo.


Classic chicken schnitzel $16.50
Crumbed tender chicken breast fried,
served with chips and salad or creamy mash and seasonal vegetables

The chicken schnitzel was the first to arrive. 28 minutes according to the image file properties (boy, I love digital cameras!). Its happy recipient was beside himself with glee, chomping on chips and hoeing hungrily into his schnitzel, an appealing shade of deep golden brown.


Chicken scallopini $16.00
Grilled chicken breast in a creamy sauce with spinach and semi-dried tomatoes served with creamy mash and seasonal vegetables

Chicken scallopini was buzzed a minute after. Sliced chicken breast in a creamy tomato sauce was garnished with semi-dried tomatoes, zucchini, carrot and broccoli.

The beef-and-Guinness-pie orderers licked their lips in anticipation. Lunch was near. Satiation was nigh.

The minutes ticked by. Drinks were finished. Stomachs started to rumble. Mr Schnitzel was polishing off the last of his chips as the pie people started to feel faint from overwhelming hunger.

This was torture. We were in pain. We could've starting collecting monies for a Forty Hour Famine!

We made enquiries. We made some more. Assured that they were "just waiting on more chips" we anxiously waited on the edge of our seats.

Finally, finally, our buzzer jolted a nervous dance on the table. Oh my god. Food. Food. Food glorious food!


Beef and Guinness pie $16.00
Paddy Maguires own special recipe with tender chunks of beef
slowly cooked in Guinness with carrots, potatoes and onions.
Served with chips, salad and a crusty bread roll

For the perceived eon of elapsed time, our beef and Guinness pies was alas, disappointing. The beef cubes were tough and chewy, and the gravy was more akin to a watery beef soup. There was as much potato as there was beef--we counted six giant chunks of potato in one pie alone.

The chips looked tasty, but they were verging on stone cold which particularly perplexed us. The pastry was lovely and flaky and it did make for a pretty picture, no?

My fellow lunchers still remain scarred by the hunger pang experience. The funny thing? I've just checked the files and our pies were ready 35 minutes after we first ordered. That's eight minutes after the schnitzel arrived.

Time is relative. Those eight minutes felt like a lifetime.



Paddy Maguires
Corner George and Hay Streets, Haymarket, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9212 2111

Monday - Thursday 9.30am - 1am
Friday - Saturday 9.30am - 3am
Sunday - 9.30am - 12midnight

Previous GrabYourFork posts:
Paddy Maguires, Feb 06

Buddhist Multicultural Festival

Buddhist candle lighting ceremony

On our race around the Sydney CBD, we briefly paused at the Buddhist Multicultural Festival during Saturday's Amazing Flickrace. However with a brief to photograph portrait examples of the seven deadly sins, we didn't photograph much here. Do you know how futile it is looking for examples of lust, gluttony and wrath amongst a gathering of Buddhists? =)

On my way home however, I couldn't resist heading back this way to have a look.



A performance stage played host to a number of different displays, and although the bagpipe players were an usual addition to the entertainment program, they were well-received by the enthusiastic audience.



The food stalls were my main attraction though, and I admit I was excited when I spotted these. Onigiri! I haven't seen these since my trip to Japan!


Onigiri with cooked salmon

They're a simple snack of salted rice mixed with a scattering of salmon and wrapped in a waistcoat of nori. They're usually sold by railway stations, are cheap as chips, and are a perfect choice for when you're feeling peckish (Atkins? Who's that?).

The finale? A traditional lion dance of course. No Asian Festival would be complete without one.



The Buddhist Multicultural Festival, celebrating Buddha's Birthday, Enlightenment & Passing Away is an annual event organised by the Buddhist Council of New South Wales.

The 2006 Festival was held on Saturday 20 May at First Fleet Park, Circular Quay (next to the Museum of Contemporary Art).

The Amazing Flickrace

So I didn't get to the Surry Hills Festival on Saturday, but I did have much fun at the first ever Sydney Photobloggers Amazing Flickrace.



Randomly allocated to 5-person teams on the day, we tore open envelopes to discover our team challenge was to photograph 7 human portraits that embodied the 7 deadly sins spanning 7 different locations around the Sydney CBD. Our time limit was four hours. Our subjects had to be the public. There would be no post-processing. And each team member had to submit at least one photo.

It was challenging but much fun. And the final results from everyone were unbelievably good.

What's On in Sydney

Every Fri til 30 June 2006: Chinatown Night Market

This weekend
Sat 20 May: Surry Hills Festival
Sat 20 May: Northside Produce Market
Sat 20 May: Farmers Market, Entertainment Quarter
Sat 20 May: Orange Grove Markets
Sun 21 May: Sydney Specialist Cheese Show, Four Seasons Hotel


Next week
Mon 22 May: Sydney Writers' Festival (to 28 May)
Wed 24 May: DMBLGiT April photos due
Thu 25 May: Oysters in the House
Fri 26 May: Sugar High Friday: Ginger entries due
Sat 27 May: Indonesian Street Festival, Randwick
Sat 27 May: Kings Cross Organic Market
Sat 27 May:Ashfield Gourmet Market
Sat 27 May: Farmers Market, Entertainment Quarter
Sat 27 May: Orange Grove Markets
Sun 28 May: Boulevarde Market: Noodlin


Things to look forward to
Sat 03 June: Campsie Food Festival
Sat 03 June: Good Living Growers' Market, Pyrmont
Sun 04 June: Primo Italiano Festival, Little Italy, East Sydney
Sun 04 June: Italian National Day Celebrations, Wharf 8
09-11 June: Bungalow 8 International Beer Festival
16-18 June: Good Food & Wine Show - Melbourne
23-25 June: Good Food & Wine Show - Sydney

Sydney foodbloggers meetup

Date: Sunday 18 June 2006 (weekend after Queen's B'day)
Location: Sydney CBD
Time: day

Email grabyourfork at yahoo[]com[]au for all the details. Let me know your blog details if you have one.

Come one, come all.

And yes, of course it's going to involve food!

The Apprentice, Ultimo

Vegetarian spring rolls with a sweet chilli dipping sauce

We had lunch again at The Apprentice last week, the training restaurant for commercial cookery students at the TAFE Ultimo campus.

I'm always impressed with the design of the restaurant upon exit from the elevators. The abundance of natural lighting is always remarkably refreshing, and the selection of chairs, carpet and tables have the clean quiet ambience of a museum cafe.

We gratefully accept proffered flutes of champagne on arrival. The three course lunch here includes two glasses of wine and a welcome drink for $25. It's unbelievable value.

We are pleasantly surprised this time to discover we are allowed to choose our preferences from the daily menu. Last time we dined we had a somewhat alternate drop of dishes, an arrangement that is understandable given the training environment. The available options, we learn from our waitress, diminish quickly as we wait for the rest of our table to arrive. By the time some of us have proactively decided to get in quick and order, the chicken breast salad with Roquefort has gone. So too has the grilled salmon main. I sneak in with the last available Moroccan lamb.


Deep-fried zucchini flowers
(accompanying the spring rolls)

I had deliberately avoided the spring roll option, immediately envisioning the deep-fried Chinese version. Instead a vegetarian version of summer rolls arrive and I glance enviously at their accompanying deep-fried zucchini flowers. That hadn’t been mentioned on the menu!


Spinach, fetta and semi-dried tomato quiche
wrapped in phyllo pastry

I had instead opted for the quiche, which looked nothing as I envisioned but, like the "spring rolls", exceeded expectations. Two tasty parcels wrapped in crisp filo/phyllo pastry. It was light and summery and a pleasant start to the meal.


Chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto ham
accompanied by mash potatoes and a creamy pesto sauce


Pork souvlaki skewers
served with rice, tadziki sauce and Greek side salad

The chicken and the pork mains are both declared good. The pork is reportedly very tender and the tadziki (we spend some time discussing its more usual spelling) has a nice garlic kick although it's a bit too creamy and not tangy enough for its recipient.


Moroccan lamb served with cous cous and a tomato salad

The lamb is served well-done but is surprisingly tender, and the marinade of Moroccan spices is aromatic and subtly spicy. The giant platform of cous cous is welcomed but the lack of sauce makes me wish I had rationed my tomato slices. The artistic drizzle of sauce is frustratingly meagre. It's tasty too which makes me weep even more.


Chocolate zucchini cake

For dessert I can't resist the chocolate zucchini cake, a combination I have seen many a time in cookbooks but never tried (chocolate potato cake is another one that comes to mind).

The cake is a little drier than I expected, and again, a spoonful of something creamy is longed-for. A dollop of King Island double cream perhaps, or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream would suffice.


Lemon meringue pie

The lemon meringue pie is accompanied with a mumbled apology about the failed meringue, mended with another serve of an alternative dessert, the summer trifle.


Summer trifle

The trifle is surprisingly delicious, although in hindsight I think I was more excited about the cream. There are cubes of sponge cake soaked in custard, a hint of banana I think, and a layer of berries topped with cream. I nab some cream for my zucchini cake which improves things immensely.


Vanilla and coffee bavarois

Prettiest dessert goes to the bavarois, a delicate wobble of vanilla and coffee layers topped with four criss-crossed cats' tongues. The trail of red sauce provides a dramatic flourish.

Overall the food is good with only a couple of tweaks required. Service can be a little awkward with a few incidents of water spillage and general nervous hesitancy, but with meals at these prices I'm happy to fund their hospitality learning curve.

The Apprentice
Level 7, Building E, Ultimo College TAFE
695-731 Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9217 5527

Lunch - $25.00
3 courses with 2 glasses of wine, beer or soft drink
plus a welcome drink on arrival

Dinner - $35.00
4 courses with 2 glasses of wine, beer or soft drink
plus a welcome drink on arrival

Open Monday - Friday during term time only
Bookings essential, and must be paid in advance.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
The Apprentice, March 2006