Simon Food Favourites: Gift

12 January 2011

A foodie gift from TC in SA (12 Jan 2011)

The foodies bible

Today I received a very appropriate gift in the mail from Taing aka TC in Adelaide. Unfortunately for TC it didn't have much use in SA so it's been kindly donated to me. What great timing as it's also my birthday week.

Thanks for thinking of me and I'm sure it be become a very handy resource for my food adventures in Sydney.

Many thanks

Simon :-)

31 December 2010

Rowda Ya Habibi: 3 Turkish Delight Flavours, Newtown (30 Dec 2010)

101 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Delightful flavours

If you're a fan of the rose flavoured Turkish Delight at Rowda Ya Habibi then I suggest you ask them if they have the Lemon or Mint flavoured Turkish Delight as well. They don't usually stock these other two flavours but fortunately for me a friend ordered a box from the restaurant of all three flavours and made up wonderful Christmas gift packs for his family and friends. I actually can't decide which flavour I prefer the most. The lemon seems to be the most subtle in taste and the mint perhaps the strongest. They make a great traffic light dessert too when stacked together if you want to get creative.

Lemon, Rose and Mint Turkish Delight

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14 December 2010

Top Juice: Biggest and best cherries I've seen this season, Westfield Sydney (10 Dec 2010)

Cnr Market and Castlereagh St Sydney NSW 2000

http://westfield.com.au/sydney

Best cherries of the season?

Thanks to Joy Leaper and Melinda Griffith from Liquid Ideas for sending me an early Christmas Hamper of goodies from Top Juice and Le Pain Quotidien of Westfield Sydney. I couldn't believe the size of this fruit hamper which seemed to have everything in it including mango, apple, orange, grapes, peaches, nectarines, dates, banana, papaya, passionfruit, Asian pear, massive strawberries, white cherries and huge red cherries and even a couple of exotic dragonfruit — it's weight was formidable. The large plump red cherries took me by surprise since I've been hearing so much about the bad season of cherries this year from readers in response to my Coles spot check although this doesn't seem to have affected the Top Juice offering. Seriously these cherries were ridiculous in size and thankfully were very tasty and juicy as hoped — I shared a few around the office to astonished faces. For such premium produce you have to expect a premium price and they're currently selling at $40/kg at Top Juice or $55/kg in David Jones Food Hall. Equally impressive were the strawberries with firm green stems and leaves still attached. They were nearly the size of the mutant one I found back in September but tasted a lot better — a Strapple as Kristy calls them.

Le Pain Quotidien — a name I have trouble working out how to pronounce — provided a large crunchy baguette and four Organic spreads. I don't really eat chocolate in the morning and prefer jam with my toast but the Belgian Chocolate and Hazelnut Spread is my favourite of them all — probably because it has a similar taste to Nutella which I've had before. I'm trying to think of a dessert I could make with them perhaps? I also received a $25 Breakfast Voucher which I'm looking forward to trying a croissant, coffee and maybe an organic omelet.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Quality fruit that tastes good, Spreads are organic, Breads are organic, Open from 8 am for breakfast

CONS: Need to eat the fruit quickly in this hot weather before it spoils, Premium cherries are expensive, Strawberries bruise the easiest in hampers

MUST TRY: Fruit salad at Top Juice, Find people to share the spreads with or I'll become a human blimp

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