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Showing results 1 - 35 of 63 for the author: Helen Grab Your Fork.
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Cakes at Takashimaya, Namba, OsakaFor a country that exhibits remarkable restraint when it comes to snacks and junkfood, Japanese depaato (department store) food halls are a haven for dessert lovers. It's all about quality of course - each slice of cake as meticulously crafted as an exquisite work of art.We spent hours roaming these basement levels. The pastry chefs wear pristine white uniforms
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A Masterclass with Tetsuya doesn't happen everyday.What was most interesting about the evening was that ten food bloggers were chosen from around Australia to join Tetsuya Wakuda in his newly-completed Masterkitchen on the first floor of his Kent Street restaurant."You're the first to see it. Ahead of other media," we're told as we head up the stairs.Tetsuya demonstrates scrambled eggs - I have a
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In the hustle and bustle of Japan's big cities, personal space is something you never take for granted.And yet despite the neverending waves of commuters on the Osaka public transport system, there's always a sense of order. Clear markings on train platforms indicate the precise point where doors will open, and passengers always form a polite and patient queue.On our first full day in Japan, we
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When did Sydney turn into a construction zone?After three weeks out of town, I return to suddenly notice the new escalators at the north end of QVB and the masses of hoarding in Darling Harbour and all along the front entrance of Star City casino.Last night we were shepherded toward the main gaming floor for the launch of Sydney's latest dining venture, Fat Noodle, by consultant chef Luke
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Itadakimasu!Our arrival in Osaka, Japan prompted only one response: Let's eat!Fluffy clouds (taken with iPhone)The flight had been reasonably uneventful. We had taken advantage of the buy-one-get-one-free Jetstar offer on sale early last year -- the only downside was the 6.10am departure from Sydney and the transfer from domestic to international at the Gold Coast. The early check-in time and a
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Food keyrings in OsakaI'm back!How did three weeks in Japan fly past so quickly?Japan was a blast. Highlights included the ice sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival, seeing the snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) in Nagano enjoying their outdoor onsen, and making a day trip to Kobe for a lunch of Kobe beef. Rest assured, there'll be plenty of Japan-related entries to come once I wade through the
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"All I want is crab."There is only one dish in Suze's mind when we head to New Shanghai in Ashfield for a spur-of-the-moment dinner. It's the crab cooked in salted egg yolk. "Mmmm..... salty....." she whispers in anticipation when we place our order.Famous New Shanghai steamed mini pork bun $6.80But first, we must have xiao long bao. It's not a proper visit to a Shanghainese restaurant without a
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It started at Bathers. As we slurped and scraped our way through the bowl of mussels on the table, the G-man suddenly asked "Do you remember the time we had the all-you-can-eat mussels at Bungalow 8?"I nod, ruefully."We had four pots!" Gun declares proudly to the assembled throng. "Four kilos! Each!"Heading shaking, I make a wan sort of smile. Oh yes, I remembered. I had eaten about ten mussels
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The best thing about a restaurant no-bookings policy is that impromptu plans can be easily made, even though it's late on a Friday afternoon.The Bathers' Pavilion Cafe is the casual but more budget-friendly side to Bathers' Pavilion. Patrons enter the same glass door at the front, a view of the sand and crystal blue waters of Balmoral Beach beckoning on the other side. On the left is the
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The best kind of meal? One cooked by Mum and Dad.Make that a meal cooked by any Mum and Dad because tonight Stomachs Eleven have descended on the home of L&M. M's parents, who are in town for the week, find themselves with a whole hoard of eager extra mouths to feed. We'd been promised a Shanghainese feast and we could barely get there fast enough.It's hard to fathom the number of dishes already
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Beef and beer. How can you go wrong? This week's Freebie Friday is a Beef and Beer Masterclass by MUMU Grill.The Beef and Beer Masterclass by MUMU Grill follows on from its wildly successful launch during the Sydney International Food Festival last year. Initially expecting to fill just one class of 12, overwhelming demand led them to run six classes. As a result, MUMU will be hosting this as a
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Konnichi wa from Japan. It's cold here but we are having a ball.Those of you following @grabyourfork on twitter will have noticed a sporadic stream of photos. If you're not on twitter, here's a brief update on a few things I've seen so far...[Click the pics for larger versions]Today's Osaka find. Soft boiled eggs from the convenience store!Probs with kids not eating their meals? That's because
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Falafel $6"Oh. My. God."I tend to get nervous whenever I recommend a dish or a restaurant, plagued by a moment of self-doubt when the moment of truth arrives.The falafel at Jasmin's are the best I've ever tasted," I confidently declare to Simon and Yas, but even when the dish arrives, I'm a little uncertain.I needn't have worried. Simon takes a bite and then nods in approval. Yas adds a chortle
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"Jamon, Aussie, Jamon... Jamon"This, I think, should be the cheer I will sing at all functions from now on.Tonight I'm at a beer tasting dinner at MUMU Grill, a preview event by owner and head chef Craig Macindoe before the soon-to-be regular event is launched to the public in March. We're also among the first to check out the new private dining room, a previously underutilised alcove that has
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Kaiseki course, KyotoKonnichi wa!By the time you read this, I will probably have already boarded my early morning flight to Japan. Oh yes, the lure of a cut-price budget airline flight was too good to resist!Over the course of three weeks, we'll be eating our way around Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo and Takayama with a brief side-trip to Seoul, just because we can!Watching television in my capsule in
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Why would three Australian winemakers travel half-way across the world to make wine in Argentina?The story of Jed Wines is best told by Tom Egan, Jed Director and one of the winemakers who makes the annual trek."When it comes to wine, the environment the grape vine grows obviously plays such a huge role in the resulting wine. What we loved about Argentina is that the climate is so different and
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Pae parata $5.50The food of Burma isn't widely known or recognised around the world. Sydneysiders, blessed with such a diversity of restaurants at their fingertips, have a specialist Burmese restaurant in their own backyard.Burma shares borders with several countries in Southeast Asia: China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh and India, and has borrowed elements from all of them to create a unique style
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A huddle of taxi drivers is always a good sign.I'm talking about taxi drivers at eating establishments. Surely with free transport at their disposal, their endorsement of any restaurant is worth noting?There's a group of four taxi drivers outside Immanuel, a simple and barely furnished cafe that serves homestyle Indonesian food. It's not our first stop for the evening. Feeling in need of
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Impervious to the appeal of the multi-coloured cocktail? The Zeta Bar at the Sydney Hilton has added smoke and a splash of science with a new range of cryogenic cocktails and sorbets.Cryogenics? It refers to the study of the production of very low temperatures (below -150C or -238F). We found out more at the recent launch held for an assembly of media.Making mojitos at the barThe cocktails flowed
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Welcome to the first Freebie Friday for 2010!Are you on a health kick as part of a New Year's resolution? Determined to eat better, cook more or save money by eating in? Then you'll love our first prize for the year which comes from the good folk at Le' Spice.One lucky reader will win a spice hamper containing three spice mixes: peri peri, Mughlai korma and almond dukka - perfect for that
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Food bloggers. Always ready to dig in.It's hard to believe that Grab Your Fork will be approaching its sixth anniversary in April 2010. The growth of food blogs since 2004 has been phenomenal - in 2009 alone, 56 new Sydney-based food blogs published their first post. I remember when I first started, I would say that I had a 'food website' because, back then, few people knew what a 'food blog' was
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"Normal? Are you sure you want normal?"Our waitress looks at us with scepticism as she takes our order. "It's very hot. Do you like chilli?"We're ordering our soup base at the newly opened Haymarket Hot Pot Restaurant. The available options seem arbitary - normal or extra hot (presumably for the locals), or mild and ultra mild (presumably for the faint of heart). In other words, you're either a
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"Real Mexican..." says Suze, as we peruse the menu outside Flying Fajita Sistas. "Will there be cheese?"Table settingWe are a group of eight tonight, waiting with the rest of Sydney, it seems, for the second sitting of 8.30pm on a Tuesday night. The reason for the strict turnover is simple - Tuesday offers $3 tacos and $3 tequila shots. No wonder everyone looks so happy to wait.Wine glasses and
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No, duck fat chips don't fill you up for long.Even before we've settled in our seats after dinner to see David Sedaris, Yas and I are already planning supper for after the show.We tumble onto the street and find ourselves trekking toward Chinatown. Bellies full of duck fat chips and wagyu and lamb cutlets and crema Catalan could do with a little counterbalance, which is how we end up at Ten Ren
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Duck fat chips. This is the main reason why Yas and I find ourselves at Sean's Kitchen for a pre-show dinner.We're seeing David Sedaris at the State Theatre - not a huge walk between that and Star City Casino - but it's the promise of duck fat chips that clinch our decision. We're easily swayed.Sean's KitchenIt's my third visit to Sean's Kitchen, the first at the launch of Sean Connolly's TV
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The first thing you notice about Toriciya is the entrance. It's not the physical facade -- Spanish villa arches in a cafe latte brown--but the act of entering the door itself. A heavy glass-paneled sliding door utters a quiet shuuushhh as you slide it open. The low hanging noren curtain forces you to duck your head as you enter, an act of deference that imparts a sense of humility as you cross
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"Do you want to eat the pigeon head?"Master Five looks at me and nods eagerly. I transfer the bird's head to his bowl where he picks it up, looks at it curiously, pauses, and then crunch goes the beak.I look at him nervously.Crunch goes the eyes. Crunch goes the top of its head."Look Helen, that's his brain".I'm a little mortified but mostly pleased. Actually I'm mortified that he's eaten more
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Black vinegar and honey water $4.80 and mango soda $4.80Black vinegar on the drinks menu? Even as I read it, I knew I'd be ordering the strangest thing on the menu.Sushi Samurai is a small but cosy restaurant, timber tables and bench seating clustered in warm and earthy surrounds. It's reasonably busy at lunch and dinner, popular with local residents, nearby workers and Lyric Theatre patrons
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Pub grub. It doesn't have to involve steaks or mixed grills.You've probably walked past the Sir John Young Hotel on George Street hundreds of times. For years I'd looked on with curiosity at the outdoor tables, mostly men knocking back beers and lazily picking at terracotta dishes of tapas.Yes, tapas. Why did I wait so long?La Tapa Guapa is the Spanish restaurant attached to the back of the Sir
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Making up cupcake flavours is far too much fun. Chocolate? Vanilla? Why take the pedestrian route when you can go crazy with whatever flavour combination takes your fancy. Popcorn, Coca-Cola, strawberry balsamic and chocolate bacon cupcakes have all been baked recently, out of whimsy.Often, I'll try to match cupcake flavours to the cuisine I know we'll be eating, so Asian-themed dinners have
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Prawns on rice cake with caramelised sugarcane $4 eachI admit that I'd been a little nervous.A hip restaurant interior, a menu that traverses the gamut of South East Cuisine and a website that is all fancy Flash graphics and hip schmoozy soundtrack. These are the things that make me wary on approach to Sugarcane.The Surry Hills restaurant is not without pedigree, headed by ex-Longrain chefs Milan
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It's catching.Lately I've found that I'm not the only person at the table taking food photos. Somehow certain friends and colleagues have gotten into the craze too.Okay so they're not quite at the stage where they're lugging around SLRs in their handbags, but half the time I look up from my camera to notice someone else snapping a photo of the same dish as well.On my return to work after the
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Teh tarik Malaysian milk tea $4.50Exhausted? Lethargic? It's funny how the mere mention of food will always make me sit up with interest.And so it was that a car full of food bloggers, silently slumped in their seats after a long day at the Sydney Food Bloggers' Christmas party, found themselves all smiles again when Karen suddenly pipes up out "should we have dinner at Alice's?"Oh how quickly we
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Doesn't food always taste better on a stick? The Portuguese espetada takes things one step further.Meat. On a sword.I'm instantly sold.Complimentary bread and olivesMadeira Grill in Sydney's Little Portugal, Petersham, is not overly busy on a Friday night, although they are playing host to a large party 16 people. The tables are decked in white tablecloths, but the feel is more of a family
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There's nothing like a pre-dinner show to whet the appetite.At Busshari, in Potts Point, it feels like you're entering a cabaret show. We enter the darkened entrance to be seated in a dimly lit room, the ceiling festooned with paper lanterns and the only bright lights directed over the sushi counter, clearly the centre stage.A row of patrons, mostly young and well-heeled, line the sushi counter,
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