Almond Bar

A couple of nights ago I went to Almond Bar in Darlinghurst with CC (Cookies and Cream) for a special birthday dinner.  It was a night of delicious food, great service and lovely company in a cozy yet exotic, candlelit cubby house.  We'd been dying to try the place ever since stumbling upon it one evening and finding it promising-looking yet completely empty. We ducked down the road to buy some wine and returned to find the place fully booked for the night! This time we booked ahead and were able to be a part of the crowd taking up every single seat in the place.

Almond Bar is run by two sisters who cook mezze (share plates) based on their Syrian heritage.  After merely reading the menu, I understood why the place is always full; I wanted to try every single thing on it! An unexpected bonus was that all gluten free (and vego, I think) items were clearly marked.  I usually avoid gluten so it was great to be able to know easily and immediately what I could or couldn't eat.

Everything we ate was wonderful - labne, za'tar and babaganouj dips, fried potatoes in coriander and a lamb thing with pomegranates but I will probably chose entirely different stuff next time (and there WILL be a next time let me tell you!) because so many other things look fabulous.

We chose an amazing merlot from the wine list which tasted like mulberries and other yummy, wine-like flavours.  It was a round, juicy flavour with lots of berry notes and a hint of smokiness  (actually CC picked it so I'm not sure what it was called).  It went beautifully with everything.

And just to top off the amzingness of it all we also had dessert: rosewater-flavoured ice cream and pancakes with a cinnamon and almond filling and vanilla ice cream.  Heaven.

Hatted Bliss

We like to celebrate our birthdays with style and spice. They have become special events for us to look forward to - the secret preparations and anticipation on the one hand and the suspense and surprise on the other.

Previous lush* birthday dinners have been at Otto's, Sailor's Thai, The Boathouse and Spice Temple. Very diverse meals, locations and flavours and all hard acts to follow.
The common thread being a SMH Good Food Guide hat (The Spice Temple now has 2 hats but was only a new entry the year we went).

This year one of us turned 45 - which seemed like as good a reason as any to experience a fully-fledged 2 hatted restaurant.

With much anticipation and preparation (how do you pronounce it?) and to general delight this year we went to Guillaume at Bennelong.

It was hard to imagine how enjoying cocktails at the bar whilst looking across the harbour to the bridge and Luna Park could be topped, until we were lead by a friendly waiter to our cosy round table.
Discrete down-lighting allows each table to feel like an island and sweetpea was delighted by the high-backed, cushioned bench seating that curved around our table. 

I have no idea how I'm going to do justice to the menu - perhaps I will simply tell you what we ordered and let the chef's words do their own magic. 

I ordered the oysters with cucumber jelly and yuzu cream for entree and sweetpea ordered the scallops gently sealed and served with pea and smoked ham hock puree, girolle mushrooms and jus gras.

But before they arrived we were presented with a complimentary pre-entree (I'm sure there is some lovely French word for this, but it's beyond me) of tuna tartare with wasabi mayonnaise.
They were only small, but the tang of the wasabi mayonnaise turned out to be a lovely palate cleanser and they complemented the Mornington pinot gris we had moved onto to a tee.

For mains we went for the sealed John Dory served on a bed of carrot and ginger puree, coriander and pommes allumettes and the roasted chicken and yabbies with deglazed celeriac puree, fresh Manjimup truffle and jus gras. The individual flavours swam across your tongue with each mouthful.

And perhaps we should have stopped there!

The bottle of wine was all but empty and although the meals were not large, they were rich and filling.

But it wouldn't be a birthday dinner without dessert (& a little bit of gluttony and over-indulgence!) so we soldiered on.

Each dessert came with its own 60ml glass of dessert wine - and perhaps the sensible thing would have been to share a dessert.
The raspberry mille feuille with white chocolate, elderflower and raspberry sorbet (with a sticky from Bloodwood in Orange) was calling my name, whilst sweetpea was being tantalised by the Valrhona chocolate mousse with mandarin and vanilla bean icecream (and a sticky from NZ).
Instead we asked if we could share the 2 desserts and have 2 glasses with 30mls of each sticky.

To our surprise we were then presented with a pre-dessert dessert - a tiny platter with macaroons, jellies and chocolate treats.

By the time we had polished off all of the above a sense of fullness and silliness had overwhelmed us. Not even the bill could dampen our spirits!

Needless to say, the following day was one of general seediness and malaise. An experience that won't be repeated...until the next birthday!
* I use lush with all its various meanings in mind - tender, juicy, succulent, luxuriant and drinking bout!