Nonna's Gourmet Sausages, Brookvale

EDIT 11/08/10: Please note that Nonna's Gourmet Sausages have now moved from Chipping Norton to Brookvale. See the end of this post for updated address details.

[Video notes: I originally edited this video to a soundtrack of Frank Sinatra's "I've Got You Under My Skin" - appropriate, no? Sadly, YouTube wouldn't allow this track due to copyright reasons, so I had to substitute an alternate song after I'd already made the edits.]


Carol Cropper and Garry Aquilina

Sausages. They're a favourite with kids, barbecues and mashed potatoes.

For Carol Cropper, Andrew Lupton and Garry Aquilina, sausages are such a passion, they went into business together.

On a visit to Nonna's Gourmet Sausages in Chipping Norton, Carol, an ex-pat from Yorkshire, explains that sausages are not just a quick meal, but a part of her heritage and family history. "My dad is a true Yorkshireman who used to make sausages when I was a little girl. When I complained to him about what Australians were then eating as sausages, my dad said - why bother buying them? You should make them yourself."

So she did, first by buying a sausage mincer from Leichhardt and then begging some sausage skins from the local butchers. Carol soon set up stalls at local farmers' markets around Sydney and won over a legion of loyal fans. Juggling sausage-making and market selling with parental duties and weekend sports chauffeur for two rugby-playing sons, Carol realised the sausage business was no longer sustainable. "I needed to expand and I didn't have the support or the money to do that, so I stopped and became chauffeur again."

Then along came fate.

Carol's brother Andrew moved to Australia, and after arriving, began looking at buying a business with Carol. "Lo and behold, Nonna's Gourmet Sausages went up for sale and so we said let's go for it!"


Freshly made sausages

THE SAUSAGE MAN

In direct contrast to Carol's chattiness, Garry is quiet and reserved, a hard and honest worker, not a natural salesperson. Born of Maltese-born parents, meat and smallgoods has always been Garry's trade, starting off in smallgoods in Joseph Street, Lidcombe, and then Zammitt's smallgoods. From there he moved to AC Butchery in Leichhardt and then after four years there, left to open his own butcher shop in Wetherill Park. After selling the butcher shop, he worked for a few years before taking the plunge and opening Nonna's.

As Garry quickly discovered, running a sausage business on your own is not easy. "You think you can run the shop, do the sales, do the paperwork and everything," he explains with a sigh. "But you can't do it. It's impossible, especially when you've got children."

When Carol and Andrew bought the business, they kept Garry on a partner. "He is the business," Carol explains.

Later when I speak to Garry he says "I didn't expect that, but I was more than happy to stay on".


The sausage maker

THE PERFECT SAUSAGE

The English and the Maltese both have their own ideas of the perfect sausage, but the consistent underlying factor is the quality and quantity of the meat in the filling.

"I'm used to a a softer sausage made with pork, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, mace, herbs and spice," says Carol. She shudders as she talks about the cheap sausages currently available, which she describes as "pasty, fatty and hardly-any-meat".

"I went and found out how to make a cheap sausage and I was nearly sick," she winces. "Basically you use pork rind, pork flare [the fat around the kidneys] and beef suet, and you heat it up, emulsify it and then set it into a big block. Then you cut the fat emulsion up and mix it with meat."

Suddenly I'm not so hungry anymore.

European sausages, Garry explains, are traditionally chunky in texture. "With a fine paste of mince, you don't really know what's in it - whether it's pork, chicken or beef - but with a chunky product you can tell."

A perfect sausage for Garry uses good quality ingredients and only pork meat if it's a pork sausage or all beef for a beef sausage, and so on. "All my sage, rocket, spinach, garlic and herbs are all fresh," he emphasises. "I mix all my own ingredients - I don't buy any pre-mixes. I weight my own garlic, salt and pepper and noone gets their hands on the recipe.

"We don't use any bread crumbs or rice flour either. We use an organic preservative and natural casings, or sheep intestines. Synthetic casings are cheaper, but we use natural cases which are more expensive.

"Our sausages are each 110g to 120g each, and they're full of meat".


Natural casings - sheep intestines

WHY SAUSAGES

Garry is clearly sausage-mad, and when I ask why he went into sausage making, he says "Not many people like to stay [in a butcher shop] and produce sausages for a long period of time. I like to experiment, and with sausages you can't produce a recipe overnight. It takes you months or years to make a product. I've produced 26 different varieties of sausages now.


The full Nonna's Gourmet Sausages range


The menu


Maltese sausages

THE TASTE-TEST

Carol's happy to fry up some sausages for a taste-test. The hot and spicy sausage packs plenty of heat, and the chorizo (in South American style, is quite unlike the Spanish version I'm used to, being less fatty and milder in flavour without the addition of smoked paprika.

Maltese sausage comes in a traditional scrolled snail shape, with a satisfying filling that is chunky and hearty. I'm also a fan of the chicken, sage and pistachio sausage. "That's our number one seller," says Carol.

Later at home, we throw a garlic prawn snag on the barbie - Garry is the only accredited seafood sausage maker in Australia apparently. It sounds like an odd combination until you realise it's just like a garlic prawn kebab, the cooked sausage swelling to reveal an all-prawn party that is succulent and sweet.


Garlic prawn sausages and Garry's Special sausages


Garlic prawn sausages

Carol jokes that Garry's Special came about when he threw together random ingredients then picked up a Silver Medal at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show for his efforts. The Garry's Special is still Garry's favourite, a combination of pork, roasted pine nuts, fresh tomatoes, fresh shallots and Provolone cheese.

"It's an awesome snag," Garry says with pride. "It's a meal on its own. Actually the majority of our products are a meal on its own".

Garry's two children natually adore sausages. One likes Garry's Special, the other likes the beef, tomato, garlic and spinach version. Garry himself still loves his sausages, although when I ask him whether he has them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, he laughs and says, "nah, maybe not breakfast - maybe just lunch and dinner."


Garry's Special

At dinner that evening we notice that all the sausages are generous with meat, so much so that one or two is plenty per person, our appetites quickly satiated from the high ratio of meat.

In addition to the simple "throwing a snag on the barbie" approach, Carol is keen to spruik the other ways sausages can be cooked or used.

She uses them on pizzas or in pastas or to make meatballs. "And they make the best sausage rolls," she says with an audible sigh. "Squeeze them onto some puffy pastry, fold over, brush with egg wash and they are to die for.

"The things you can do with a sausage!" she exclaims.

Indeed.


Nonna's Gourmet Sausages for sale at Harris Farm Markets Broadway




View Larger Map

Nonna's Gourmet Sausages
> Nonna's Gourmet Sausages has moved to Brookvale, Sydney
1/271 Newbridge Road, Chipping Norton, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9734 0769
Open Monday to Friday 6am - 4pm

Nonna's Gourmet Sausages at
Brookvale Meats
45 Mitchell Road, Brookvale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9905 5239

With thanks to Carol Cropper and Garry Aquilina for the behind-the-scenes tour at Nonna's Gourmet Sausages.

Wagaya, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney

I like wasabi. I really do. But there's a strange flutter in the stomach when you first come face-to-face with the sushi roulette game at Wagaya in Sydney's Chinatown.



With its touch screen menus and ordering system, affordable bite-sized dishes and smart but groovy decor, Wagaya has been an instant hit with diners since its opening late last year. Designed in the style of an izakaya or Japanese tavern, this is about having after-work drinks accompanied by small bar snacks or dishes, a bit like tapas but with chopsticks.

The touch screen menu is one its biggest talking points. A tabbed menu is easy to navigate and offers photos and prices of every dish. Apart from the fact you don't have to flag down waitstaff to place your order at the start of the evening, it also means that extra dishes can be ordered at any time. Even glasses of water or top-ups of green tea are tapped through for instant alert to the kitchen. Service is exceptionally fast, with our dishes arriving within ten minutes and water materialising almost instantly.


Ordering four glasses of water


Confirmation of order

A photo menu is provided on laminated A3 sheets too, and because our screen is above our heads (so the nominated orderer has to twist in the seat and tilt their head at a precarious angle), we end up using the printed menu to decide on our dishes once the novelty of browsing through the screen wears off. The tables by the bar have a better located touchscreen at shoulder-height when seated.


Mentai potato salad $6.80

Our mentai potato salad arrives first, a muddle of potato coated in mayonnaise and cod roe that sits on a bed of lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, corn kernels and cucumber.


Deep-fried chicken karaage $6.90

The fried dishes arrive thick and fast. First the deep-fried chicken karaage, marinated and battered chicken pieces that are so fried to such an earth-shattering crisp they taste like chicken crackling. It's really that good.


Salmon skin age $4.50

Deep-fried salmon skin, on the other hard, is a little too crunchy for my liking, losing the texture, flavour and oily sweetness of the salmon.


Crumbed cheese $6.50

Chocolatesuze lost no time in ordering the crumbed cheese from the menu, and I'm glad she did, the cubes of camembert soft, molten and yielding within its golden batter armour. It's so good we order another.


Lychee sour $7.50


Sushi roulette game $8.50

And then the sushi roulette game appears on our table, a silly and pointless juvenile prank that is of course utterly irresistible. The menu explains the concept.

"1 out of 6 pieces of sushi has a lot of wasabi inside! Let's see who is going to choose it and cry with it!"

We all make guesses at to which one we think has the wasabi "bomb" inside, but it's my inspired idea to make the chooser close their eyes whilst everyone else spins the plate, then allow their chopstick to rest on their lucky sushi.

Yas is the first to go, our bated breath and expectant faces falling into disappointment when he chews slowly, then finally breaks out in a grin. Billy is next, his eyes appearing quizzical as he chews, until he too breathes a sigh of relief.

There are four pieces left and chocolatesuze giggles nervously. She, too, blindly selects a piece and chews cautiously, worriedly, and then swallows with a joyous shriek.

My turn. Three pieces of sushi left. A one-in-three chance of getting the bomb. There's a strange but intoxicating sense of exhilaration as I put the whole sushi in my mouth, three pairs of eyes expectantly following my every chew.

Ahh... relief.... it's all good, there's nothing to be seen here. No danger to be... omigod my teeth hit the unmistakeable grittiness of wasabi. Wasabi, wasabi, wasabi. It hits my sinuses in one breathtaking hit, my eyes widening with shock as I notice the others falling about laughing at my misfortune.

The problem with the wasabi bomb is the paste is dry and it won't go down my throat. I can feel the wasabi getting stuck in my gums and in-between my teeth and still it lingers, as the raucous guffaws laughter only swell in volume around me.

Chew. Chew. Swallow. Exhale. The others wipe the tears from their eyes. I can still feel bits of wasabi stuck in my teeth.


Crab chawanmushi $6.50

So the crab chawanmushi is a welcome distraction. This steamed egg cup is elegant and satiny smooth, a slinky barely-set custard that has a depth of flavour from dashi and a faint sweetness of mirin. Little slivers of mushroom and crab stick add textural contrast.


Crab chawanmushi


Cassia milk $8.20


Shishamo fried $7.50

Shishamo is a small saltwater fish also known as smelt, that's particularly popular in Japan. Lightly floured and deep-fried, they have a very faint bitterness to them. I am always fascinated by their open mouths which almost convinces me I can hear a resonating heavenly choral chorus if I concentrate hard enough.


Dragon roll $9.50

The dragon roll is an impressive presentation, a long plate holding pillows of rice topped with glistening unagi eel and deep-fried slices of lotus root. Sandwiched between the eel and rice is a thick wad of cream cheese, an addition I hadn't expected, but one that somehow works, the slight tartness holding itself against the richness of the eel.


Ox tongue $5.50

Chocolatesuze had been avoiding the ox tongue all evening until we finally convince her to give it a go. The tongue is sliced quite thickly which means some pieces are a little chewy and tough. Chocolatesuze struggles to take a small bite, and as she chews on with dogged determination, she rolls her eys and then suddenly pipes up "It's taking so long... it's like tonguing a tongue."


Scallop and garlic fried rice $9.90

We finish with a piping hot stone bowl filled with a huddle of scallop and garlic fried rice. The outer layer of rice has cooked to a delicious crust, a devilishly good combination of crunchy rice grains, soft rice in the middle, juicy seared scallops and delicate wisps of carrot and scallion.



I had the wasabi bullet and I survived.

Do you feel lucky?


View Larger Map

Wagaya
Level 1, 78-86 Harbour Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9212 6068

Open 7 days 5pm - 2am


Related GrabYourFork posts:
Wagaya, Haymarket (Jun09)

Japanese -- Ju Ju, Kings Cross
Japanese -- Kabuki Shoroku, Sydney
Japanese -- Madono, Haymarket
Japanese -- Nakashima, The Rocks
Japanese -- Nippon Club, Sydney
Japanese -- Umaimon, Sydney

Ching Yip Coffee Lounge, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney

Hong Kong cheese are the three words that come to mind when describing Ching Yip Coffee Lounge.

I mean it figuratively and literally. For where else would you find the happy collision of East meets West in this Hong Kong-style cafe that brings you the culinary delights of spaghetti bolognaise grilled with shredded cheese; spaghetti with ham in white sauce grilled with shredded cheese; and fried pork chop with spaghetti in creamed corn (all $9.00).

The Dixon House basement food court has often been a favoured cheap eat of mine, but until I received a few emails of recommendation, I'd never thought to take the escalators up to the second floor. It's like a step back in time, a flashback to 1970s Sydney with stark lighting, functional but mainly bare offices, and no end of Chinese travel agencies and massage parlours.

At the end of the corridor is the lurid but strangely alluring neon sign of Ching Yip, and despite its somewhat hidden location, this cafe is no stranger to Chinese locals, who pack the place out every lunch time.


Soup of the Day $9.80 daily set menu

The menu is a laminated A3 sheet of paper in pink. It's a huge selection that runs the gamut of snacks, sandwiches, rice dishes, pasta, fried noodles, hot pot rice, curry dishes, noodle soups and Hong Kong-style charcoal grills.

I can't help but marvel at the soups which range from Russian bortsca to Szechuan-style hot and sour soup to cream of chicken and corn soup (all $4.20).

The waitress scuttles over within minutes of us being seated and asks what we'd like to order. We politely ask for more time, for how can we choose when faced with options that include a fried egg and tomato sandwich ($3.80), condensed milk and peanut butter toast ($3.00), french toast ($4.50) or bacon and egg on toast with chips ($7.50)?

I do love a good Asian drinks menu, and in addition to the usual Horlicks ($3.20) and Ovaltine ($3.20), they have the hot tea and coffee mix ($3.50) I've yet to fully appreciate, as well as a hot lemon Coke ($3.80) which I'm told is very common and popular (Coke with fresh lemon heated til hot).

"Are you ready to order yet?" The waitress is quite persistent by now, a bit perplexed by our hesitation. Ching Yip customers tend to be regulars, and they know what they're having even before they've sat down on their chair.


Fried pork chop and rice with tomato sauce $9.80 daily set menu

The G-man and I take the easy option. The Daily Set Menu includes a house soup, rice dish and tea or coffee. The soup of the day is a clear pork broth that comes with bits of pork, pork bones and halved lengths of fresh sugar cane.

The fried pork chop and rice with tomato sauce comes in neon orange, the glossy thick sauce shimmering over the mound of white rice and deep-fried pork chop. The pork chop is tender with a delicious golden crust that's made somewhat soggy by the generous slather of sweet and sour tomato sauce. This is Hong Kong comfort food. Chewing is always an option.


Ceylon tea Hong Kong style $3.00 or included in the $9.80 daily set menu

I normally take my tea black and without sugar but the Ceylon tea Hong Kong-style is so strong, you can feel the back of your throat go dry in an instant. Tea leaves are usually boiled in water over the stove until a thick brew is reached. It's a strong hearty drink that needs a teaspoon of sugar, more likely two.


Fried beef steak with spaghetti in black pepper sauce $9.00

The fried beef steak with spaghetti in black pepper sauce is a thin and tender beef slice drenched with a surprisingly peppery gravy. There's so much pepper it borders on tongue-tingling. A tangle of spaghetti is more well-cooked than al dente.


Beef in tomato sauce with rice $8.00

Beef in tomato sauce with rice is another tribute to the joys of sloppy comfort food. Again the beef slices are tender, joined by a medley of carrots, peas and tomato and coated in a thick glistening sweet tomato sauce.

Afternoon tea (3pm-5pm) offers some great food and drink deals that range from $5 to $7 and if you've ever wondered if you can still get banana splits ($5.00) or banana fritters with ice cream ($6.50), I suggest you take a little ride up an escalator or two as well.




View Larger Map



Ching Yip Coffee Lounge
Dixon House
Level 2, 413-415 Sussex Street, Sydney
(take escalators from Dixon Street, or lift from Sussex Street)
Tel: +61 (02) 9281 1591

Open 7 days 9.00am - 8.30pm


Related GrabYourFork posts:
Cafe, Macanese -- Cafe de Macau, Haymarket Chinatown
Cafe, Taiwanese -- Sunflower Crepe Cafe, Ultimo

Grab Your Fork on 702AM Sydney

The 702 waiting room

Phew! Live radio is nerve wracking!

EDITED 29 OCT 09: If you missed my interview on ABC 702 Weekends this morning, you can listen to the entire segment by clicking play on the embedded video below.



As I entered the studio with fellow guests John Newton and Michelle Cranston, host Simon Marnie leant over to me and said "There's been a lot of interest in your interview by your readers on the blog, hasn't there? I'd better be on my best behaviour!"

We donned headsets and waited for the red light to go on, indicating we were on air. I was quietly petrified, mesmerised by the softly quivering filter in front of my microphone. Simon did the weather and traffic reports by referring to two different computer screens and then we were off talking about cook books, recipes, writing and blogs.

Now that it's over, I realise there is so much more I could've said. Should've said. And I wish I could've named every single food blog in Australia.

Nevertheless it's great to see the ABC embracing food blogs and bringing this new frontier of food writing into the foreground. Thank goodness for Simon's warm and friendly chattiness throughout the interview, keeping the topics churning merrily along. Plus he reads this blog, so he must have good taste :)

He certainly enjoyed the coconut macaroons I brought along to the interview (how can you talk about food without eating it at the same time?). John and Michelle also gave these the thumbs up. This is one of the easiest recipes in the world with just two ingredients: shredded coconut and condensed milk. It's the kind of thing you could get the kids to do one lazy afternoon.

I first heard about this recipe from Nanny J who made a similar version for our recent afternoon tea party. Searches on the internet show it's quite a common recipe, and, funnily enough, the recipes are often prefaced with the introduction "my grandma used to make these".



Coconut macaroons
(as eaten by Simon Marnie!)

These are a quick and simple way of making macaroons without the fuss of egg whites. The condensed milk will caramelise in the oven, giving it a delicious creamy sweetness. If you like your macaroons extra caramelly, use less coconut so the mixture is less stiff.


250g shredded coconut
395g tin of condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Pour the condensed milk into a medium sized bowl. Add the shredded coconut and stir until well combined. If you prefer a stickier, more caramelly macaroon, use less coconut, say about 200grams.

Use your hands to make teaspoon-sized dollops and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure they are reasonably flat so the macaroons will brown quickly without the insides drying out. Give them a little room to spread.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden, taking care not to overcook.


Optional garnish: You could also dot these with bits of glace cherry prior to baking if preferred.

If you missed my interview on ABC 702 Weekends this morning, you can listen to the Food At Eleven podcast here (Note: this link is updated weekly with the latest segment).

Addendum: Readers--and fellow food bloggers especially--may gain some insight from the podcast of the panel discussion on The Secrets of Successful Food Blogging from this year's SXSW Interactive Festival. There's no doubt that the USA is leading the way in terms of realising the true potential of food blogs with offers of book deals and tv shows. Some food bloggers are earning enough money to quit their jobs and blog full-time! With the advanced development of the American food blog scene, it's interesting to hear the panel's tips on what they think makes a successful food blog. Worth a listen, with thanks to Nose to Tail at Home for uploading the recording. Listen to the full discussion here (mp3, 42Mb).

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've always had a bit of fascination with red velvet cake, a traditional Southern American specialty often referred to as "the chocolate cake of the south".

The cake is so named because of its incredibly soft texture, the moist crumb arising from the use of buttermilk and its fluffy aeration a result of the buttermilk's reaction with vinegar. Most red velvet cakes use cocoa although there's not an overly strong chocolate flavour. The red colour comes from food colouring, although apparently this may have its roots in traditional cocoa (pre-Dutch processing era) naturally turning reddish-brown when reacting with alkaline vinegar. Naturally this cake is always popular around Valentine's Day as well as weddings.

This is the recipe I used for my recent hosting of an afternoon tea. Because of their moistness, they keep well for several days in the fridge, and as always, the cream cheese icing is always a hit.



Red velvet cupcakes
Makes 12 regular or 30 mini cupcakes
This recipe can also be doubled to make a two-tiered sponge

150g sugar
60g butter
1 egg
100g (3/4 cup) plain flour
25g (2 Tablespoons) cornflour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
20ml red food colouring (less if using a paste)

Cream cheese icing
125g cream cheese
35g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
1 - 1 1/4 cups pure icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. In another bowl combine the buttermilk, vanilla and vinegar.

Add a third of the dry mix to the butter mixture and beat briefly until combined. Add half of the wet mixture and beat. Repeat until you finish with the remainder of the dry mixture.

Add enough red food colouring to suit your preference. Transfer mixture to patty lined muffin tins, filling to about 1/3 full.

Bake at 175C for about 14 minutes for small cupcakes / 20 minutes for regular sized, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Top the cooled cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Store any leftover cupcakes (if there are any!) in the fridge.

Cream cheese icing

Using an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar until you reach a spreadable consistency. If the icing is too soft, refrigerate for an hour. Otherwise use a piping bag for quick and pretty swirls.

* A handy substitute for buttermilk is natural yoghurt replaced at 100% yoghurt if thin, or 50/50 thick yoghurt and milk.



And as an addendum, I've just received confirmation that my live interview on ABC Radio has finally been rescheduled and will be held this Sunday 22 March at 11am. This week's Food at Eleven segment on Simon Marnie's Weekend show will focus on food writing, with respected food journalist John Newton talking about what makes a good food writer, writing for print, and food reviews versus criticism. Naturally I'll be talking about food blogs.

Tune into 702AM, 11am-11.30am Sunday 22 March 2009.

PS. If you aren't already doing so, you can follow me on twitter here.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
How to host your own afternoon tea
GYF on 702 AM ABC Sydney

SWEETNESS The Patisserie store now open in Epping

SWEET Mallows

SWEETNESS The Patisserie opened its new retail store and kitchen in Epping today. Located just up the road from the station, it's a gorgeous site that reflects Gena's commitment to homemade sweets and baking made with heartfelt passion and love.

Whilst I haven't had a chance to see the final set-up, I did get a behind-the-scenes tour of the kitchen a few weeks ago, a totally new fit-out with brand spanking new ovens, gigantic commercial mixer (you should see the size of the whisks!), stainless steel benchtops, and a very organised pantry. The picture of excitement on Gena's face was palpable and infectious.

The store opening comes after Gena's phenomenal success at the 2009 Sydney Royal Fine Food Show Bread, Cake & Pie event. Out of nine entries submitted, SWEETNESS took home seven medals comprising:

• One Gold medal for: Dark Chocolate Shortbread (gluten-free)
• Three Silver medals for: Pecan Shortbread, Macadamia Shortbread (gluten-free), and Caramel Pecan Cheesecake
• Three Bronze medals for: Cinnamon & Chocolate Crème Biscuits, Banana Streusel Muffins and Chocolate Cheesecake.

A particularly proud achievement was the Biscuit Class event, where out of 33 entries, SWEETNESS won the only Gold medal award for its gluten-free dark chocolate shortbread.

In recognition of its medal success, SWEETNESS will be showcased amongst 20 different medal-winning products in the Woolworth's Fresh Food Dome at the 2009 Sydney Royal Easter Show. Gena will be holding tasting sessions of her famous SWEET Mallows throughout the show.

The official SWEETNESS website is in the final stages of tweaking, but should be updated soon.


View Larger Map

SWEETNESS The Patisserie
38 Oxford Street, Epping, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9869 3800

Open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm

SWEETNESS will continue to be present at its regular markets:

Eveleigh Farmers' Market, Darlington (every Saturday, 8am-1pm)
Good Living Growers at Pyrmont (1st Saturday of every month, 7am-11am)
Epping Twilight Markets (2nd Friday of every month, 5-9pm)
Castle Hill Farmers and Fine Food Market, Castle Hill Showground (2nd Saturday of every month, 8am-1pm)
Northside Produce Market, North Sydney (3rd Saturday of every month, 8am-12pm)
Rouse Hill Farmers and Fine Food Market, Rouse Hill Market Square (4th Saturday of every month, 8am-1pm)

How to host your own afternoon tea

Afternoon tea.

We'd been meaning to host a girly afternoon tea at my place for some time now, an excuse to cook up all sorts of delicious morsels, and the chance to showcase the gorgeous tea cups I currently have on 'long-term loan' from a friend. I've been collecting all kinds of old-fashioned tiered stands and accoutrements from op-shops over the years as well. It's amazing what you can find in your local op-shop, especially ones in country towns.

It was a celebration of the Speedster's birthday, as well as a general toast to the joys of sisterhood. The comprehensive spread was a combined cooking effort, although the bulk of our afternoon fare was primarily made by the kitchen whirlwind Veruca Salt.

The final spread was indeed quite a sight, and really, if every person brought or baked one dish, an afternoon tea is not the herculean effort it would seem. Petite portion sizes make any dish look elegant and add a few fancy tea cups, a tiered stand and a tablecloth and you, too, can enjoy a decadent afternoon tea on par with many hotel offerings for next to nix.

Twelve gorgeous ladies sipped and supped their way through a very pleasant afternoon. I suggest you get together with your own little circle of friends and host your very own too.


Crustless sandwiches: roast chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise;
hot smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber;
curried egg and cress; cucumber and cream cheese;
leg ham, tomato and relish
Joint effort


Savoury pastries


Red wine beef and mushroom pies
by Veruca Salt


Chicken and corn sausage rolls
by Pocahontas


Sweets
(Petit four foldable clam shell stand from op shop)


Lemon coconut cake
by Dorothea


Apple cake
by Dorothea


Trifle cups with Peppermint Crisp and Cherry Ripe toppings
by Pocahontas


Vanilla cupcakes, lemon coconut cupcakes and mini red velvet cakes
by me
(Tiered stand found at op-shop for $20)


Lemon tarts and chocolate mud cake
by Veruca Salt


Coconut macaroons
by Nanny J


Lemon yoghurt cakes
by Veruca Salt


Scones
by Divemummy


Scones with strawberry jam and double cream


Teas
(Tea display box found at an op-shop for $10)


Tea cups
(Not from the op-shop although I have seen quite a few for sale lately)


Passionfruit melting moments and lamingtons
by Veruca Salt and I respectively


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