Second time is a charm!

The second attempt at the First Class Cooking green garlic soufflé was a success! Give credit to the real, actual souffle dish or the expert second try, either way it was a fluffy, creamy achievement. Voila!

Longrain Egg Nets

Longrain

After hearing about Longrain from nearly everyone I saw in Sydney, how great Longrain is for cocktails and how long you have to wait for a table at Longrain and how the best Asian fusion is at Longrain, I had to try it. Restaurants are so modern in Sydney! Low, super long, family-style tables stretched from the front to the way back of the space. High ceilings with one low table and one high table made the space feel vast and echoing. At first, I thought the reason tables at Longrain were so sought after was because there were barely any seats, but there were actually tons of people just sitting at these two giant tables.

Everything I ate in Sydney was some variation of pan-Asian or Asian Fusion. It became rather hilarious in a really delicious way. Longrain appeared to be heavily Thai but with such a modern twist it could only be described by everyone I asked as, wait for it, Asian fusion. One of the first dishes to arrive appeared to be somewhat famous with its egg net wrapped around pork and shrimp. It was pretty interesting although no one wanted to touch it and break it apart! I tried posting a video of how they make it, pretty cool.

We ordered way too much food, as you always do at family-style restaurants I think. Red curry beef, green curry Kingfish, basted crispy duck, salmon and lemon trout. Betel leaves topped with shrimp, roe and smoked trout. My favorite was the salmon with fennel and giant pearls of roe. Just for fun, even though we barely made our way halfway through the meal, we ordered the dessert platter. It was a smorgasbord of gooey treats like sticky rice, pudding, tapioca, custard, jellies, and caramel. Dinner was so enjoyable, the ambiance was lovely and the food was impressive. My client said the last time she was there, Gordon Ramsey was eating in the private dining room! I don't blame him, it's one of the first places I'd love to return on my next trip.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels

When your choices are meat pie lathered in mashed potatoes or hot dogs covered in chili, it's less the kind of place you stumble upon and more the kind you seek out. Even if it's a shack by the water in front of your hotel...Enter the Tiger. Meat pie, pastry crust, mashed potatoes, mushy peas and graaaaaaaavy.

Spice Temple

Getting out of the cab on the corner Spice Temple is supposed to be on, we spun around a few times looking for a door before noticing a giant digital panel with animation of an exotic curtain rippling in the "wind." Of course this turned out to be the door, which was an appropriate introduction to the place. Winding stairs led down into an underground lair of lush velvet curtains, modern low tables and orchids galore. Our private room had low lights around a square table, as modern as you can get, Sydney signature.

We were celebrating the wrap of another long shoot so our producer who was familiar with the trendy spot handled the ordering. I started off with a Dragon: Tanqueray gin with lemon, lime and ginger. Each dish was spicier than the last, like a gimmick without escape, not that you would want to. Calamari steaks with a dry rub were hot enough without the chili paste we dipped them in. Crispy eggplant and chicken was so overrun with chilies that when I accidentally bit down on a small one, an antiseptic numbness inside my entire mouth ensued for minutes. Dragon was the only cure!
The impressive dish was the Leather Jacket, a white fish that arrived in a bowl of broth with 3 inches of chopped, roasted peppers and a pepper expert waiter. He described the mix of pepper types while he allowed them to steep in the broth. One had notes of citrus, you know, once you got past the ear-popping fire explosion on your tongue. Another was known for the antiseptic I discovered previously and yet another was supposedly smoky. As he scooped out one after another heaping basket of peppers, about a 10 ounce fillet of fish was hiding in the broth beneath. I couldn't believe the flavor. By the time we got to the Leather Jacket, so many spicy dishes (and so much Dragon) had been sampled that I felt like I had worked up to it. I could handle more and more spice, so I could actually taste the delicate citrus and smoky flavor right before my tongue became completely numb.
Dinner at Spice Temple was more like an adventure or a trip somewhere exotic where you can't wait to try the local specialty than any other fusion restaurant I've been to. I would highly recommend a group experience here so you can try as many plates as possible.