A Day in Surry Hills
What a beautiful day it was today; blue sky, temperature in the high twenties and a nice breeze. Perfect day for…..the beach? Nope. Perfect day for wandering about in Surry Hills and visiting various foodie outlets.
I was out last night at the free Bertie Blackman gig at the Wharf restaurant and may have had one or two more glasses of wine than was strictly necessary. It was that sort of night. Still, we were enjoying the Ben Glatzer Dolcetto and all good things come at a price.
So, when Weepix and I arrived in Surry Hills this morning I was in rather urgent need of coffee and baked goods. To that end, the first place we stopped was Taste on Foveaux Street.
There was a host of pastries, bread and cakes on offer but I can rarely look past pain au chocolat in the mornings and the ones on offer here looked particularly good. Complimented by a long black for me and a pot of peppermint tea for Weepix and we were in business.
The long back was grand but the pain au chocolat was a tad disappointing – it had a nice flaky crust and chocolate was good, but the inside was too dense. Tear off a bit of the inside and squash it and you ended up with a little lump of white dough. I guess they needed a little longer in the oven.
After an hour or so of wandering it was time for some proper lunch so we headed over to Bird Cow Fish.
The menu is cracking and I pretty much wanted everything on it, but the recently consumed pastries dictated restraint. We ordered the prosciutto and salami plate with some mozzarella and grissini to share while we narrowed down the choice. One of my favourite things in the world is wrapping big slices of prosciutto around grissini and chomping away.
Given that this sharing plate was huge we decided that a starter each would be sufficient for follow up and blow me if they weren’t enormous too!
I had the sauteed fresh pasta sheets with braised oxtail, roast pumpkin, currants & parmesan ($18.50) and S went for the gnocchi with sautéed prawn meat, burnt butter, verjuice, capers & crispy sage ($18.50). Both dishes were fantastic.
The braised oxtail was obscenely rich but incredibly good. The earthy, autumnal flavour of the pumpkin combined with the sweet parmesan and the meltingly tender oxtail was sublime.
The glass of Gruner Veltliner I choose was completely mis-matched with my food but was suitably minerally and zesty and made me feel a little better (hair of the dog!). S had a glass of the Castro Martin Albarino and a glass of the Torrontes. The Torrontes was fantastic; a deep gold colour it looked like a sticky dessert wine and had a lot of honeyed fruit on the nose that followed through to the palate.
Another long black was ordered and despite passing on dessert it arrived with a slice of Panforte on the side that I manfully tried my best to polish off.
A very nice lunch indeed and we will most definitely be returning for an evening meal and to take advantage of the cheese plates. All this for bang on $100. That’s about 45 quid. Even after a year I’m still bemused by the high standard of food in Sydney for the price that you pay.
Next we headed across to the Bourke Street Bakery to pick up some bread for later in the day.
I’ve read about this place (and the Broadway shop) a fair bit (Not Quite Nigella and Grab Your Fork) but I haven’t ventured down before. Glad I did today! I’ve never seen a photograph of the Surry Hills store without a queue stretching out the door and today was no different. The tables up the side of the bakery were packed with people enjoying the sun and some of the tasty treats from just inside…
We picked up….I’m almost embarrassed to say….a couple of pain au chocolat (well it had been a good couple of hours by this point), a croissant, a rhubarb and almond tart, a loaf of sourdough and a loaf of sourdough with fig and sour berry. Got to make an effort with these things after all!
The breads are both fantastic; the fig and sour berry is stuffed full of fruit and is absolutely incredible with nice sharp cheddar and the sour dough is suitably tangy.
Not tried the pain au chocolat yet (will update when I do) and the rhubarb and almond tart was consumed when I was asleep this afternoon, but I am assured that it was delicious (and am filing for divorce).
All in all a very pleasant way to spend a day. Good food, good wine and several places on the list for next time.
