Crown Street Assembly, Surry Hills

There's new life at the former Tabou site, reborn as Crown Street Assembly (not forgetting the ill-fated Black Cicada stint in-between). The decor has been completely turned around, shifting from overwhelming blacks to a sleek and sexy modern bistro. White walls, a long leather banquette and a feature bar lined with bar stools make for a hip addition to the Cleveland end of Crown Street.

The menu is self-described as French with a touch of Asian, pooling the talents of chef Paul Cooper (ex-Botanical and O'Connell's Hotel, both in Melbourne) and restaurateur Erez Gordon (Bistro Bruno in Balmain and O'Connell's Hotel, Melbourne).

On offer is an eclectic and inspired collection of dishes, from potted rabbit rillettes to a hay-smoked 900 gram rib eye steak for two ($42 per person). The snack menu is perfect for those who want to nurse a glass of wine at the bar (they also have Trumers pilsner on tap), with online commentary already at fever pitch over the beef and bone marrow dumplings ($11), quail and ginger steamed buns ($13), warm lobster roll ($8) and the BTS wagyu slider ($8) that really is arguably Better Than Sex.

We stick with the standard menu tonight, starting with the housemade potato gnocchi ($18), light fluffy pillows of potato that have been pan-fried to a pale golden brown. Broccoli florets lighten the dish, but the deep-fried croutons are a welcome addition.


Burnt butter spaetzle, roast pumpkin, capers, honey and seeds $16

The burnt butter spaetzle is a heavier pasta rendition, twisted nubbins of dough that almost taste deep-fried. Cubes of pumpkin, pumpkin seeds and deep-fried capers provide textural contrast but it's quite an oily dish to get through.


Roasted Milly Hill lamb shoulder $32
with purple Congo potato, goats cheese, olive and spiced lamb sauce

There's plenty to love about the roasted Milly Hill lamb shoulder: packed with flavour, melt-in-the-mouth tender, and studded with luscious pockets of creamy fat. Slices of purple Congo potato, slivers of olive and dabs of goats cheese help counter the richness of the lamb.


Roast suckling pig $36
with celeriac puree, caramelised apple, tete de cochon, beetroot and calvados jus

Roast suckling pig is a celebration of decadence, offering a tranche of pork belly that is more fat than flesh. The tete de cochon is made from the meat from a pigs head, shredded and shaped into a wheel and then crumbed and deep-fried. There's plenty of fat hidden in here too.

Roasted fresh beetroot and wedges of caramelised apple offer some acidity but my soft spot is for the little cube of black pudding in the middle.


Almost pavlova $13
Merginue, lemon curd, vanilla anglaise and milk ice cream

I'm expecting a lemon curd version of Eton Mess when we order the Almost pavlova so when it arrives I'm confused by the inclusion of what tastes like lemon yoghurt cake. There's plenty of elegance in the vanilla anglaise littered with vanilla bean seeds but in my gustatory dreams, pavlova is all about the cream which is sadly absent here.


Pain perdu $15
Spiced pan fried brioche, caramelised banana and candied popcorn ice cream

We finish with pain perdu, almost breakfast-like with its doorstops of eggy pan-fried brioche. There's a heavy waft of spices when it arrives at the table.

A gangplank of banana glistens with a brittle veneer of blow-torched sugar and though the popcorn ice cream isn't particularly strong, we get our movie fix from the addictive kernels of toffee-coated popcorn.


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Crown St Assembly
527 Crown Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9319 5455

Opening hours:
Monday to Sunday 12pm-late


Related Grab Your Fork posts:

Surry Hills - Boteco

Surry Hills - The Carrington

Surry Hills - District Dining

Surry Hills - Gnome Espresso

Surry Hills - Mohr Fish

Stomachs Eleven: Tuna Belly - A Banquet

A full-grown tuna can measure up to 2.5 metres and weigh as much as 400 kilograms. These magnificent creatures are revered by sushi lovers the world over, prized for its taste and texture, especially the fatty tuna belly.

Mr and Mrs Pig Flyin' recently invited the Stomachs Eleven crew to join them in one giant tuna extravaganza. We didn't need to be asked twice!

Mrs Pig Flyin's Instagram pic above was enough to whet our appetites. They'd obtained the belly side of a whole tuna from a Japanese seafood wholesaler, an impressive slab weighing about fifteen kilograms.


Sushi knife

We made a beeline for the kitchen on arrival, admiring the cuts of tuna already portioned. Raw tuna is exquisite to look at - its soft pillowy flesh varying from shades of deep-red to dusky pinks.


Blowtorching tuna


Slicing tuna sashimi


Sashimi tuna trio: 
Akami (赤身), Chūtoro (中トロ) and Aburi Chutoro (あぶり中トロ)

Is there a greater joy in this world than achingly fresh tuna? We start with a trio of tuna sashimi, chunky slices of akami - the leaner part of the tuna - in crimson red, and two types of chutoro tuna belly: raw and blowtorched. The blowtorched chutoro has a tantalising smokiness, licked by flames until barely charred. In the centre is a seaweed salad and Pig Flyin's own homemade pickled ginger slices.


Broccoli with mentaiko mayonnaise  

Cold blanched broccoli provides a counterbalance to the richness, dressed simply with a mayonnaise sauce spiked with mentaiko spicy cod roe.


Kama toro sashimi (かまとろ)

There's a collective gasp around the table when the kama toro is served on a Himalayan salt plate. The kama toro is a type of otoro tuna belly - this one specifically from the collar of the tuna, and the intricate marbling is worth admiring for a somber minute or two. We transfer it to our mouths and the fatty tuna languidly melts on the tongue.


Kama toro sushi (かまトロ) 

Pig Flyin' is apologetic about his sushi-making skills, but we can barely hear his protests over our collective cries of gastronomic joy. The kama toro sushi is ridiculously good, although I confess I secretly eat the rice first just so I can savour the otoro tuna all on its own.


Sunazuri toro sushi (砂ずり大トロ)

Sunazuri toro is also part of the otoro tuna belly, characterised by distinct lines of fat that enable it to be pulled apart. The sunazuri toro is found at the bottom of the tuna belly and is especially prized.


Negi toro gunkan maki (ネギトロの軍艦巻)

We move onto negitoro - tuna dressed with a little oil and a liberal sprinkling of shallots. More often this is served on sushi rice 'battleships' but here Pig Flyin' arranges spoonfuls on shards of lavosh, providing a welcome crunch.


Maguro tuna tartare with truffled egg and fresh black truffle 

A tuna tartare is fancied up with a truffled egg yolk and shavings of fresh black truffle. The luxurious combination is decidedly swoon-worthy.


Spooning the truffled tuna tartare onto lavosh


Maguro zuke with goat curd and broad bean salad 

The next dish is a variation of the Cumulus Inc recipe for tuna tartare and crushed pea salad that we'd enjoyed last Christmas. Cubes of tuna have been marinated in soy, served with goat curd and bright green fresh broad beans.


Eggplant in soy ginger vinaigrette (なすの揚げ煮びたし)

Eggplants dressed in a soy ginger vinaigrette make a satisying side dish.


Maguro katsu with yuzu and habanero mayonnaise

Fried food is always a winner but who can deny the health-giving presentation of this maguro katsu crumbed tuna?


Tuna katsu cross-section

Pig Flyin' says this tuna katsu dish is inspired by Izakaya Fujiyama. It's a glorious contrast between the crunch of deep-fried bread crumbs, the raw delicate tuna in the middle, and the lashings of yuzu citrus mayonnaise on top, fired up with slivers of habanero chilli.


Grilled miso-suzke maguro kama tuna jaw (味噌漬けまぐろカマ焼き)

The tuna jaw is the finale of the evening, marinated with miso and simply cooked under the grill. We attack it with chopsticks, claiming a surprising amount of flesh from this often overlooked section of the fish. My favourite part is the fin, which you can crunch down like a potato chip.


Rice with dried clams (あさりの炊き込みご飯)

And there's clam rice if you still happen to be hungry, studded with homegrown shiitake mushrooms and nuggets of rehydrated clams.


Miso peanut butter cookies by J&J

Dessert offers a continuation of the night's gluttony. J&J's miso peanut butter cookies have a tantalising umami tinge to their sweetness and I've contributed a Valrhona rocky road jam-packed with marshmallows, raspberry licorice, peanuts and strawberries and cream lollies.


Valrhona rocky road by me


Banana butterscotch mess

There's a banana butterscotch mess made by Pig Flyin with oat biscuits, banana, cream and banana butterscotch sauce.


Eton mess with fresh and freeze-dried strawberries

And my favourite - Eton mess. Shards of meringue, layers of fresh cream and fresh strawberries topped with smithereens of freeze-dried strawberry garnished with mint.

Another unforgettable meal - thanks Mr and Mrs Pig Flyin'. Our stomaches salute you!


Otoro tuna belly

Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Stomachs Eleven: Christmas Dinner 2011
Stomachs Eleven: Bone marrow and pigs trotters
Stomachs Eleven: Pigs head and nose-to-tail eating
Stomachs Eleven: Wagyu shabu shabu and dessert sushi

The Forresters, Surry Hills

Pork on your fork? We find a whole hunk at the end of ours, a pit-roasted pork neck at The Forresters in Surry Hills.

The Forresters now falls under the Drink and Dine Group with a menu designed by executive chef Jamie Thomas. He's the culinary mastermind behind sibling hotels The Norfolk, The Abercrombie and The Carrington - a playground of tastes that allows him to serve kingfish pastrami in one venue and deep-fried Gaytimes in another.


Hawaiian corn $8
with tabasco mayonnaise, pineapple, bacon, chives and parmesan

There's a mixed crowd that file in after work, from mates, couples, families to tourists. The restaurant upstairs offers a more formal dining experience, but we're happiest on the first floor section, which offers booth seating and a view into the bar below.

The menu is split up into snacks, burgers, pizzas, mains, pastas and salads but on our second visit we zero in on the snack section. The Hawaiian corn is pimped up with parmesan cheese, bacon, pineapple, chives, tabasco mayonnaise and kernels of popcorn.

It's the popcorn that proves the most entertaining, an odd amplification of both the flavour and contrasting textures in each. There's a glorious char to the corn and the bacon provides a satisfying saltiness - the only disappointment is the temperature of the corn, which is room-temperature cold.


Popcorn squid $14
with green peppercorn mayonnaise

Popcorn also makes an appearance in the popcorn squid - I'd foolishly thought this meant the squid would be coated in a crunchier batter, rather than realise the popcorn reference was literal.

A dusting of furikake - that addictive Japanese mix of seaweed, sesame seeds and ground fish more commonly sprinkled onto rice - offers on an intriguing twist on the standard salt and pepper seasoning. And we're pretty keen on the green peppercorn mayonnaise too.


Spaghetti with meatballs $10 on Tuesdays (normally $18)

I'm a sucker for meatballs so we take advantage of the $10 pasta special on Tuesdays. The meatballs are monster-sized but finding a liberal amount of grated carrot inside makes me feel like a seven-year-old kid tricked into eating their veggies.


BBQ pork from the pit $30
with buttered rolls, Korean salad, bbq sauce and parmesan fries

We've eaten the BBQ pork from the pit twice now, unable to resist the DIY carnage of pulled pork, chips and salad. It's the kind of dish that gets heads swivelling whenever it's delivered to a table. The menu recommends this dish be served between two - believe them on this one.


Forkalicious 

I'd originally wanted to get a photo of the pork held aloft on a fork, but the meat is so tender, it falls apart at the first prod. The cuts of pork will vary (our first one was fattily delicious, whereas the second time it was definitely leaner) but the drill is the same: cram as much pork as you can on your bun and drown it in lashings of barbecue sauce.

The Korean salad offers palate-cleansing respite, a collision of kimchee and coleslaw spiked with a potentially hair-raising amount of chilli. The chips seem to evolve each time too - the latest seemed to be a mix of parmesan and jalapeno chiles.


Deep-fried cauliflower cheese $8
with smoked cheese sauce

And finally, from the man that brought you deep-fried pizza and deep-fried pickles, I give you deep-fried cauliflower cheese.


Deep-fried cauliflower cheese

The nutty florets of cauliflower are even better encased in a bread crumb coating and fried until golden brown. More veggies? Yes please!




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The Forresters
336 Riley Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel +61 (02) 9212 3035

Opening hours:
Monday to Wednesday 12pm-12am
Thursday to Saturday 12pm-1am
Sunday 12pm-10pm

Food available until 10pm daily


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Chippendale - The Abercrombie
Surry Hills - The Carrington
Surry Hills - The Norfolk

Via Napoli, Lane Cove

The one-metre pizza at Via Napoli isn’t just a pizza – it’s an edible catwalk, bubbling with molten mozzarella cheese and slightly smoky from the 90-second blast in the 485 degrees celsius domed wood-fired oven. Luigi Esposito, a third-generation pizzaioli – or pizza maker – arrived in Sydney four years ago and opened Via Napoli in November last year. His Naples-style pizzeria is all about keeping to tradition, using Neapolitan caputo flour for the dough, San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce and imported buffalo mozzarella and fior di latte mozzarella for the topping.


The wood-fired oven at Via Napoli

It’s happily chaotic no matter when you go, filled with couples, families and hungry pizza-loving blokes perched around tables that line the foothpath. Service can be somewhat arbitrary, but it all seems part of the experience, along with genuinely thick Italian accents from waitstaff.


Half-metre pizza $25-$40

There are 18 different pizza toppings on the menu – don’t even bother looking for ham and pineapple – including seven vegetarian options.



Siciliana pizza $20 / $40 / $60
Tomato, fior di latte, eggplant and parmesan


The Siciliana is a crowd favourite: thin slices of charred eggplant embedded in gooey mozzarella and a rich tomato sauce.



Quattro formaggi pizza $20 / $40 / $60
Four cheeses - fior di latte, gorgonzola, pecorino and parmigiano on a white base

Purists will stick with the Margherita (tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil and olive oil); gluttons will head straight for the quattro formaggi cheesefest –mozzarella, gorgonzola, pecorino and parmigiano all melted together in a fist-pumping triumph for lactose lovers.




Salsiccia e cime di rapa $20 / $40 / $60
Fior di latte, sausage, broccoli rapa and chilli on a white base


But it’s the salsiccia e cime di rapa that is the winner of the day: nubbins of pork sausage scattered with florets of broccoli rabe that are mesmerisingly bitter.


Assembling our one-metre pizza

You can choose up to three toppings on the one-metre pizza ($40-$60). If you haven’t brought your local football team to eat with you, the 13-inch round ($16-$20) and half-metre ($25-$40) pizzas provide more modest portions.


Via Napoli kitchen with the one-metre pizza takeaway boxes beneath the counter



Delivering a one-metre pizza


One metre of pizza $60
(iPhone and fork placed deliberately for scale!)


Checking out the upskirt - crisp and smokily charred


Slicing up a half-metre pizza 





Polenta and gorgonzola $15



Mix things up with fried polenta ($15) – crunchy planks of gold that are even better dipped into gorgonzola sauce.




Scamorza al forno $12

Scamorza al forno ($12) – smoked mozzarella melted in the woodfired oven draped over with shavings of speck – is also a winner.



Melted cheeeeeeeeese 



Smallgoods

Check out the smallgoods fridge too. Staff will assemble your choice of charcuterie, including salamis, prosciutto and melt-in-the-mouth whispers of lardo.


Slicing lardo cured pork fat


Charcuterie plate $20


Lardo love


Tiramisu $6

The tiramisu is so fresh it hadn't quite set when we ordered it at lunchtime, but it's still a deliciously creamy and boozed-up concoction.


Ricotta cake $8

And despite sharing a metre of pizza and more, we order a wedge of ricotta cake and wipe the plate clean.




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Via Napoli Pizzeria
Shop 3, 141 Longueville Road, Lane Cove, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9428 3297


Opening hours:
Lunch Thursday to Sunday 12pm-3pm
Dinner Wednesday to Monday 5pm-10pm


Closed Tuesdays


This article appeared in the July 2012 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This! [Read online] 

More Time Out Sydney reviews:
Akash Pacific Cuisine, Liverpool (Fiji Indian cuisine) 
ATL Marantha, Kensington (Indonesian fried chicken with edible bones)
Balkan Oven, Rockdale (Macedonian burek)
Bamiyan, Five Dock (Afghani cuisine)
Battambang, Cabramatta (Deep fried pork intestines)
Cyprus Community Club Aphrodite Restaurant (Roast baby goat) 
Dos Senoritas, Gladesville (Mexican street-style tacos) 
Durban Dish, Baulkham Hills (South African cuisine)
Everest Kitchen, Marrickville (Nepali cuisine)
Good Kitchen, Hurstville (Hong Kong cafe)
Hai Au Lang Nuong, Canley Vale (Vietnamese banana leaf charcoal chicken)
Hijazi's Falafel, Arncliffe (Lebanese breakfast)

Island Dreams Cafe, Lakemba (Christmas Islands cuisine)
Kambozza, Parramatta (Burmese cuisine)
La Paula, Fairfield (Chilean empanadas, lomitos and sweets)
Mario Tokyo Pizza, Strathfield (Bulgogi Korean pizza)
Misky Cravings, Fairfield (Peruvian cuisine)
Olka Polka Bakery & Deli, Campbelltown (Polish cheesecake and rye bread)
Rhinedorf German Restaurant, Beverly Hills (German pork knuckle)
Sea Sweet, Parramatta (Lebanese sweet kashta cheese burger)
Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe (Filipino pork hock crackling)
Taipei Chef, Artarmon (Taiwanese smoked chicken)
Tehran, Granville (Persian cuisine)
Tuong Lai, Cabramatta (Vietnamese sugar cane prawns)