Simon's Food Highlights 2010

Happy Foodie New Year

Dear Readers

Wishing you a very delicious and satisfying Foodie New Year. Here's a selection of 10 of my favourite dishes of 2010 to visually stimulate your taste buds and whet your appetite. They're the sort of dishes I'd happily order again, and again.

Best wishes and happy eating!

Simon :-)

Other annual food highlights:

• Simon's Food Highlights 2010

• Simon's Food Highlights 2009

• Simon's Food Highlights 2008

Le Grand Café

CBD Sydney

Salad Niçoise

Efendy

Balmain

Kadayifli Karides: Kadayif wrapped Hervey Bay king prawns, walnut, capsicum and roasted garlic muhammara

Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse

Woolloomooloo

Steak Tartare with truffle aioli, sourdough crostini

Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse

Woolloomooloo

Iceberg salad, radish and blue cheese

Banana Palm

Coogee

Salad of lotus stem with chicken breast, prawns and peanuts

Singapore Shiok!*

Haymarket

Har Mee

Katz's Delicatessen

New York

Pastrami Sandwich on Rye

Bistro Papillon

CBD Sydney

Papadelle au Lapin Façon Chasseur: Braised Rabbit Papadelle with Mushroom, Pancetta, Herbs and Preserved Lemon

est

CBD Sydney

SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch: Pan roasted aoraki salmon, shaved fennel, asparagus, witlof, preserved lemon, dill oil

Guillaume at Bennelong

Bennelong Point

SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch: Pavlova with passionfruit cream, mangoes, mixed berries and vanilla bean ice cream

Katz's Delicatessen: Pastrami Sandwich on Rye, New York (26 Oct 2010)

205 East Houston Street, New York 10002

http://www.katzdeli.com

I'll have what she's having!

If I had to pick one foodie highlight when I recently visited New York it would have to be this place. It doesn't seem to get more authentic than this and even though it's probably become more commercial due to the movie When Harry Met Sally and seeing all the celebrity photos plastered all over the walls it still exceeded my expectations of how good it was — Meg Ryan might have summed it up perfectly with her emotions. As you walk in you get a food ticket which is marked depending on what you order. There's a few cutting stations for the pastrami and they give you a little sample to taste to make sure you're happy with the meat.

The pastrami is sliced beautifully thin and packed into the sandwich with a tasty mustard. The meat was so tasty, moist and melt-in-your-mouth that I would simply describe it as succulent. Someone needs to open one of these places in Sydney — please! The Pastrami Sandwich on Rye ($14.95, $16.28 inc tax) was more expensive than I was expecting but I think worth it and I loved the pickles on the side. There's enough meat in one sandwich to possibly share between two but it's very tempting to keep it all to yourself. If you order anything else on the menu then you possibly might be disappointed because their signature dish is the pastrami. Service was pretty efficient once you worked out the system of how to order and if you like how your sandwich maker made your sandwich then you can give them a tip.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Possibly the best pastrami sandwich on rye in the world, Open 365 days, Tasty and moist pastrami

CONS: More expensive than I was expecting but worth it, Can take a while waiting to be served when busy

MUST TRY: Pastrami Sandwich on Rye, Living in New York

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Pastrami Sandwich on Rye ($14.95)

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Juicy thin slices of tasty pastrami = food heaven!

For the best go to Katz's Delicatessen

Menu

Slicing up the pastrami

Plenty of seating but still packed

Celebrity wall — if it's good enough for Johnny Depp then it's good enough for me.

When Harry Met Sally crew

The spot where Harry met Sally — check out the sign above.

When Harry Met Sally famous scene

Open 365 days a year — now that's dedication.

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