In the St. Patty's Day spirit and fresh from an early night off work, I whipped up a majority green taco buffet Tuesday night. Chopped jalapenos, fresh cilantro, avocado, cabbage, chopped onion and the cherry on top: sour cream with garlic, cilantro and lime sauce. The prawns (protein; read: vehicle) were simply sauteed in garlic, cilantro and paprika.
This should be my thing when I travel south of the equator: find a restaurant at the top of the tallest tower in town. The cheese plate was great, but then I love any cheese plate and when it has FIVE options, you really can't go wrong.
Ok, so the incredible Russian dessert (which has seriously caught on down undah) wasn't named after the psychologist but the ballerina. And, oh my, is it gracefully delicious! My first Pavlova experience was at Pony, a hip tapas bar in the Rocks on a sweltering afternoon, the kind where lunch takes 2 hours because everything is moving more slowly, not because you're imbibing anything other than sparkling water. Course one involved a dozen local oysters with fresh lemon. Course two was a tender octopus and vinegar salad with pickled onions. Course three changed my life. When the merringue arrived, I'd never seen anything like it and didn't quite know how to approach it. My creative director Lea dove in by using her spoon to crack the outer shell of the merringue with a thwack. Inside the stark white shell was a marshmallow-like gooey goodness so lovely I almost forgot the perfectly ripe mango and whipped cream above and below. I've no idea how the merringue was cooked to remain un-charred yet perfectly crispy on the outside. A+ for presentation, don't you think?
Mere metres from Sydney Harbor and the Opera House, starving, fatigued the heat, I discovered the little-known Super Supreme. 50% pizza, 30% melted cheese, 20% some kind of focaccia and 100% kitchen sink, I think eating an entire SS should win you an award. There were layers of canadian bacon, pepperoni, bell pepper, olives, even pineapple! When in Rome?
GS&P has started the fantastic new practice of turning the parking lot out back into a mobile catering slot. Every day a new vendor parks their truck and the smells from BBQ permeate the building. Roli Roti, of Ferry Building fame, has stopped by a couple times now with amazing chow. Their most famous Porchetta sandwich made it on 7x7's '09 and '10 top 100 lists, so you know it rocks. I ended up ordering rolls for my creative directors who raved about them and said they had to fend off would-be sandwich-stealers! For my part, the incredible bread, carmelized onions and fresh herbs were lovely, however I somehow got the gristliest hunk of pork on the spit. I could tell it was an amazing sandwich but I couldn't get past not being able to chew through the meat. But, and this is a big but, a rump-roast-size but, I can't wait to give it another try!
