Foveaux Bar & Restaurant

A little while back i had purchased a voucher off Living Social website. I am signed up to so many of them it's not funny! I get spammed everyday, but i am always on the look out for good deals :)

For this particular deal, which i thought was a real bargain ($89 for a 3-Course Meal for Two and a Bottle of Wine Valued at $193), i had sent it around to my friends as i was sure they'd be keen as well. Turns out that 3 of my friends had bought the same deal, so i got mine for free! I was stoked! So this was definitely worth it for me hehe.

However, i have bought vouchers that have been disappointing as well, and also have heard stories from friends. One couple i know, bought a voucher online for a "8 course meal for two" somewhere (i won't mention), and it turned out to be 8 courses BETWEEN two people, not 8 courses each (which is how it usually should be when you're dining out!)

Another disappointment for me, was buying a voucher for a seafood platter in Glebe, and rocking up to find that they had changed owners, new management, so the voucher was no longer valid! *sigh*. That was $19, which i got refunded back so that was good.

And a last one, was a special deal of high tea for 2 at $35. It was a small cafe with only about 5 or 6 tables (obviously bookings are required if you only have that many tables!!), we only got 8 pieces of sandwiches, a truffle, a macaron, two strawberries, two small nut clusters, and a small chocolate dipping sauce which had this awful skin set on top of it, totally gross.

Anyway, i'm so wary of every deal i read now, you never know if they could be ripping you off or not :(

Anyway, enough about that. Bigbear and i used our Foveaux voucher on a Thursday night (it wasnt available on weekends, and most Friday nights were booked).

I really liked the food, although the portions were small, after dessert, we were still hungry! The food was really nicely presented, and the potato puree- was so indulgent! I can't imagine how much butter was whipped into it hehe.

Amuse Bouche of curry, lentils and warm yoghurt soup.

Buffalo ricotta cannoli, cucumber, tomato, olive and provencal herbs

Roasted quail, smoked eel croquettes, caper, beetroot and leaves

Roast king salmon, zucchini puree, cuttle fish, green olive jelly, coriander and popped skin

Braised wagyu shin, smoked sirloin, pearl barley and potato puree

Potato puree $8 (extra)

Chocolate mousse, orange sponge, orange curd ice cream, chocolate soil and brazil nut

Ginger sponge, carrot marmalade, cream cheese ice cream and walnut powder

Has anybody else had any horror stories for these cheap voucher deals? I think at the start when they first started coming out, they were really good value for money, but now it seems every single small company is in on it, and only want to use it to gain customers, and the price you are paying, isnt much of a deal breaker afterall..

65-67 foveaux street surry hills

tel 9211 0664

fax 9211 0669

info@foveaux.com.au

Inception cookies & a shout-out to Lucy&theRunaways

A couple of weekends ago Bigbear & I got together with Nat& Hughie for a baking session! I had found this recipe for oreo stuffed cookies and thought it would be fun to make one weekend :)

Natalie has an awesome fashion blog (go and check it out HERE) i am a regular reader and i just absolutely love her fashion sense its totally unique & out there, she makes the outfits look good (not the other way around! hehe).

We skype most days at work but it'll be her last week on skype this week (as she has resigned from her job) but im sure we will keep in contact still :)

Before we started baking we had to buy some ingredients from the shops so after our trip to woolies we had some brunch! Fries with sweet chilli and sourcream, yum :) I think we both equally love hot chips!

So now to the inception cookies! i thought inception cookies was a very clever name for these, (i loved the movie it was a total mindf*ck). These were heaps fun to make, & tasted delicious! Really sweet though, so you could probably reduce the sugar amounts to half of brown and half of white, as the chocolate chips in the cookie dough are already sweet enough.

I really want to try this recipe with the oreo mini's next time- i think they'd look so adorable!

Also because i hadn't used Hughie's oven before, i had to play around with the settings abit so the first two batches came out with abit of uncooked cookie dough (which still tastes delicious) but the last two batches came out just about right i just had to lower the temp abit as his oven was super powerful.

Recipe from Beckybakes.net

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 pkg. Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.

Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.

Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.

Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie.

Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough.

Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE cookies.

This is the original post on these cookies (with more detailed step by step photo's) is here.

http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Happy Baking!

A weekend @ Bannisters, Mollymook

Last weekend i celebrated my 26th birthday at Bannisters, Mollymook. It was a beautiful weekend, 3 fun filled days spent with my man :)

Mollymook is located about 3 hrs south of Sydney, it was a really nice drive down, it felt really good to drive away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney, into a more calming and relaxing coast area.

We stayed 2 nights at Bannisters, our view from the balcony was just breath taking! Bigbear chose a secondfloor room for the view, rather then a first floor room with a hot tub. I loved being able to look out at the ocean, at anytime of the day, it was just so serene.

Our two nights stay included two breakfasts, which included one dish from the hot menu, and also unlimited food from the breakfast buffets which had toast, cornflakes, muesli, yogurt topped with passionfruit, juices, crossiants, coffee, tea & fruits.

from the hot menu - ricotta pancakes with cream and berries

from the hot menu - big breakfast

scrambled eggs on buttered sourdough toast, bacon, mushrooms & grilled tomatoes

from the buffet

toast with butter & vegemite (yum!)

crossiants

cornflakes with milk

fruit with yogurt

from the hot menu- eggs benedict

from the hot menu

big breakfast

poached eggs on toast, grilled tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms, sausages and blood sausages

me reading the paper :) provided for free in the restaurant!

While we were eating these two birds came to keep us company! One of the staff said that we could hand feed them bread so we did just that- aren't they pretty!

Both mornings we stuffed ourselves silly at breakfast (its the meal of the day where you can eat like a king!). I have to say, that the toast was my favorite. It was sour dough toast, which i love, and i just went crazy on the butter and vegemite! & also, the croissants were the best ive ever had im sure they were made on site, they had an apricot jam glaze on top, we kept going back for more :)

On our second night we had dinner at the Pool Bar, a small and intimate area downstairs by the pool with very romantic mood lighting, and you can enjoy live music by Roddy Reason on the 1st / 3rd / 5th Fridays of the month and alternate Sundays. There's also a snooker room a few metres down, where we went for a game while we finished our cocktails!

top left

french martini

vodka, Chambord, pineapple juice

top right

absolute vodka lemonade

below

toffee apple

butterscotch schnapps, strawberry liqueur, apple juice and a dash of grenadine

We didn't want to stuff ourselves at dinner cos we still had junkfood back in the room to have with our movie so we ordered fries with Truffled Pecarino Cheese, and a chilli prawn pizza – prawns, chilli, ricotta, cherry tomato & pesto.

The fries were really crisp & the addition of the cheese really made them pop with flavour! & the pizza, which was abit on the small side, had a nicely crisped base, and had generous servings of each ingredient which was great :) We were thinking about getting a second pizza after we saw how small it was hehe.

The sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and a dollop of cream, really hit the sweet spot for me, again the serving size a bit smaller then expected but we still enjoyed it :) Our bill altogether including drinks was about $95, the cocktails were $15 each and Bigbear had 3 drinks, so the majority of the bill was drinks really!

On our first night there, Friday night, Bigbear booked us in for the specials dinner, 5 courses for $70. This is really cheap! $14 per course, its a nice way to enjoy dinner at Rick Stein's restaurant without hurting our wallets. The restaurant was busy, and most people were having the same as us.

bread, butter and olives

The bread is the same bread they have at breakfast - a really nice moist and dense sourdough, i much prefer it toasted! But with butter and olives, i was still left wanting more. I wanted to ask for a second piece, but thought of all the food we had coming our way and decided against it hehe.

Seared swordfish with Guacamole and Lemongrass Dressing

Steamed Hervey Bay Scallops in the Shell

with Ginger, Soy, Sesame oil and Spring Onions

Fish and Shellfish Soup with Rouille and Parmesan

Fillet of snapper with vanilla butter vinaigrette

(this alone would've been $53 if we were dining from the normal menu)

side of veggies

snow peas, roast potatoes, carrots grated and cooked.

Everything was delicious, all the seafood was cooked perfectly, one negative was that we both found bones in our snapper :o But we kept eating, and just told the waiter when he came to collect our plates. He came back soon after and apologized, saying that the chef does his best to get out all the bones but on this occasion he had missed some.

The potatoes in the side veggie bowl, was SO crunchy! Love it when potatoes are baked to a crazy crisp :) & the piece of parmesan bread crouton in the soup, made the soup even more good, without it id say the soup wasn't spectacular.

Dessert took a little while, and when it came out we realised why! We asked if we could have two different desserts instead of both of us having the same one, and our waiter came back and said it was fine (yay!)

Amaretto creme brulee

pear rhubarb and walnut crumble with double cream

Both desserts were yummy. The creme brulee was so smooth, and the top layer shattered beautifully! And the amaretto cookie, the flavour was totally addictive! The crumble came out quite hot, that dollop of double cream just soothed the heat in our mouth, really delicious :)

Apart from staying in the hotel, we did get outside for other activities which included:

A walk around ulladulla

Lunch and snacks at a few places (they will be covered in another post!)

Coastal and inland nature walks

Beach walks

And also on the road trip there and back we stopped at Kiama & Berry (home of the donut van!)

We absolutely LOVED our long weekend at Mollymook, i can't wait to go back! This place holds a special place n our hearts, thank you honeybear for organising the whole weekend, love you my boo xoxo

Rick Stein at Bannisters

191 Mitchell Parade,

Mollymook NSW 2539

Phone: + 61 2 4455 3044

http://www.bannisters.com.au

Diggies

This year I've made 2 trips to Wollongong, and on both occasions i have come to this cafe! It was suggested to me from one of my work's customers, and i'm really glad i asked him! Its a cute little cafe sitting right on the beach, with a great view of the water and sand out front, a really nice accompaniment to your meal if you are able to get a window seat (which i did, both times!)

On my first visit i had corn fritters with avocado salsa, with a side of two hashbrowns and 1 egg fried sunny side up (no picture, as it came when i almost finished my food! But, i had ordered it a few minutes after i got my food, i was starving and thought an extra egg might be nice hehe.

I was expecting, well, fritters, not a corn pancake, but it was nice anyway, it lacked a bit of protein, i wish my egg came out abit faster :( But the hashbrowns were nice and crisp, not drenched in oil as some hashbrowns are, just right they were. & my mocha warmed me right up, this was back in April May, and it was a wet day, so it was nice to sip on this while i waited on my meal :)

You can see the lighthouse from the cafe, its a nice 10 minute walk up a hill, where you get a nice view of the ocean, and also some canons on display from a long time ago (you might find some kids straddling them for fun!)

On my 2nd visit it was with Bigbear, we decided to randomly road trip, for lunch, a nice walk, a visit to the Nan tien temple, and then back home - its really nice to get out of Sydney even if its for a little while.

seared ocean trout fillet $22

with sweet potato chips and herbed hollondaise

I wish i had abit more of the herbed hollondaise sauce, & the sweet potato chips were really tasty, it was nice to have them instead of say thich cut potato chips, or roasted potatoes.

steak sandwich $18

on sourdough with caramelized onion, tomato chutney,

garlic aoli and fries

Ian enjoyed his sandwich ( i ordered for him when he went to the bathroom), i tried abit of the bread and it was really nice and crisp! I think they might have pan fried it in some oil before bringing it out.

We both enjoyed our meals, our iced hot chocolate was a nice sweet treat, but the blueberry crumble we got for dessert- really hit the spot! We were pretty full, and decided against getting a second piece (it would've taken us into a foodcoma for the drive back home hehe)

I will come back here the next time i go to Wollongong, i'm sure of it! Hopefully it will be a little warmer as well, so i can go for a swim as well :)

open 7 days from 7:00am

1 cliff road. north beach. wollongong.nsw. australia. 2500

contact@diggies.com.au

http://www.facebook.com/diggies

telephone: 02 42 262688