REVIEW: Ananas

Just off Argyle street is this little gem.

First off, I will apologise for the quality of these photos. It was lovely and romantically lit inside the restaurant which made photography a bit challenging. Plus, it was my birthday and we were drinking which also made photography challenging. Had we not had such a wonderful time which I want to tell you about, I wouldn't be posting these terrible photos. If something doesn't look amazing, it's me and the camera, not the restaurant.


Oui, indeed,

Those mitigating circumstances aside, let me tell you about Ananas. If you've been following me closely, you'll know about my obsession with all things French and being my birthday, I wanted to have a sophisticated French dinner with my best girls, who both live in Sydney. So I went on a hunt for French restaurants in Sydney! And found Ananas. Which means pineapple in French, and pretty much every other language.

Pretty table flowers.

We walked down the cobble stone alley way and up the stairs for our 8pm sitting. We were greeted quickly and walked through the busy cocktail and bar dining area to a large, plush booth at the back. The restaurant was low lit with candles and rustic chandeliers, it really felt like a wonderful date venue. But dates can include lady dates! The atmosphere was great, and even a not-so-keen eye could spot the namesake fruit dotted everywhere.


Lets get turnt!

We ordered cocktails, one Ananas Bellini ($19) which was vanilla, honey, pineapple and champagne,  two PBE Martini's ($20). The bellini was fruity and bubbly, but for $19, I'd want more than just some champagne. Which is why I got a PBE Martini. I don't know what possessed me to get a coffee based cocktail as I don't drink coffee. I drank it though as I figured the coffee would give me a boost in addition to the alcohol.

Creamy butter soup. Butter soup...I bet I could make that with 500g of butter and a hot day.

The waitress was so patient with us and we ordered each course one at a time, talking too much and drinking a lot. Generally being merry. But she kept coming back and helping us out with menu details and topping up our drinks. Eventually we got around to ordering. To start, we were given a complimentary veloute - a French soup, thickened with butter - made from apple, fennel and black garlic. The soup was creamy and smooth, but I couldn't pick up any of the garlic.


Big shoutout to all the body parts of friends and family who appear in my photos.

We got things started in earnest with our starters...wait, I see what I did there. First, we had 6 oysters, at $4.50 each. We choose the Merimbula oysters which were Sydney rock oysters. They were plump little oysters, served with 3 sauces of which the cocktail sauce was the nicest with the oysters. They were plump and flavourful.

Can I be really uncultured and say this pate tasted like Strasburg ham? But I mean that in the best way possible. I love Strasburg ham!

The second of our starters was Le Pate de Campagne - country style duck terrine with cherry gastrique and brioche ($23). This dish was delicious! The duck and the cherry sauce along with the brioche struck a balance with sweety and salty. It was snaffled up in no time.

That's some shadow over that risotto. I'm sorry, risotto. You deserve better.

For our first entrée, we ordered Le Risotto a Notre Facon - Ananas style risotto for $24. The risotto changes depending on available produce. When we visited, the risotto of the day was beetroot, asparagus and speck. Other than colour, the beetroot didn't lend anything to the dish but the asparagus was firm and the little bits of speck were little chewy treasures in the risotto.

Shadow strikes again. I even know how to get rid of those shadows but my mind was pretty addled by this point,

Our second entrée was Les Langoustine - crispy scampi papillotes with sweet basil, extra virgin olive oil and sauce rouille. Sauce rouille is basically a fancy mayonnaise. I really liked this, it was one of my favourite but I don't know how French it was. The crisp pastry and plump prawn were cooked really well, but the sauces were little more than decoration. A bit more of them would have been nice.


Snails. You may use your fancy name but I know you're snails. And that's what I couldn't get over.

Now since we were in a French restaurant, how could we not get the snails! Les Escargots ($22), Burgundy Snails, parsley, garlic butter and hazelnuts. And it was my first time. They came out in a dish specifically made for escargot, which I thought was pretty cool. There were little discs of pastry atop the snail in parsley. I can't say that I would order them again. They tasted fine but for me, I couldn't get over the texture. My dining companions who had more experience in the snail eating arena both agreed they were very good and for my first escargot consumption, it was a good introduction.

Lamb shanks are da bomb.,



We had chips too! Cos where there is Cassie, there are chips.

After some more drinks, we ordered our mains. Because not everyone is as awesome as me, two of the mains were entrees. For my main, I ordered the L'agneau ($44), lamb, charred eggplant puree, couscous, yoghurt and capsicum. This dish is usually lamb rack but on the night we visited, they ran out of lamb rack so it was a lamb shank instead. This was very pleasing to me. The lamb was unctuous and tender. I would have liked some more eggplant but this is fine dining. There was a good serve of couscous and the meal itself was well portioned. I enjoyed it very much.

Pretty, but small. Just like the lady who ate it!

For the next main, we ordered Le Saumon ($27), citrus and cognac cured ocean trout, petits potato galettes, cucumber, dill and radish. This dish was quite small but the waitress advised us of such. It was beautifully presented and the fish absolutely melted in the mouth.

How can raw meat taste so damn good?

The final main was so wonderfully French, Le Filet en Tartare ($24), steak tartar, capers, quail egg and toasted brioche. Ordering steak tartare is said to be the biggest compliment to the chef, as you trust the quality of their meat. And the chef didn't let us down. The steak didn't even need chewing and with the quail egg mixed through, was so delightfully creamy. The amount of steak was also really generous. It appeared to be a whole steak, which is good for a high quality steak.

I wish you could hear the crack of that chocolate. Amazing.

We were stuffed to the gills with fine French food but it was my birthday so the girls got me a dessert, with a candle and everything. We ordered the Snickers Revolution ($19). There was no description on the menu, what was presented was a chocolate cylinder of mousse atop candied peanuts with a quenelle of peanut and chocolate ice cream. What it was bliss. A dish of pure transcendence. As full as we were, I think we all could have had a hundred more. It was the perfect way to end the night...or the dinner part of the night anyway.


Also this. Source: here.

The atmosphere was dark and romantic, the staff were helpful and the food was lovely. Ananas was an absolute pleasure and my only complaint about the restaurant is that they're so far away.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4.5/5
Price: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4.5/5

 

REVIEW: The Book Kitchen

See the black dog on the left there? He's a groodle and his name is Gus and he's a good boy.

Oops! How can it be two weeks since my last post? I'll tell you how. I went to Sydney! And then I got sick. But...I went to Sydney! For my birthday! And I had one of the best birthdays of my 20 something years. That's right, 20 something. That gives you an indication of how old I might be, since I'm not willing to say outright what something in the 20's I am. But you shush your mouth! I'm 20 something, goddamn it!

The wonderful industrial yet cosy interiors.

As far as chronology goes, this is the second restaurant I have to review from my Sydney jaunt but I wanted to do this one first. The morning after the night before, we were a touch shady and boy, was I looking forward to breakfast. Hold up..."boy"? What am I, a mid-western choirgirl? Um, no. Anyway, moving on.

Book lined walls.

My lovely friend who lives in Sydney took me to one of my favourite Sydney suburbs, Surry Hills. Alliteration for the win! Surry Hills is full of so many lovely cafes with a great food scene and this little café was no exception. The Book Kitchen sits on Devonshire Street, which is pleasantly busy, making it great for people watching from the tables outside. A table inside also seemed a great place to sit, with the book lined walls and great bustling atmosphere but on this sunny Saturday, we nabbed a seat in the cool winter sun.

Action shot.

Service was prompt with water and menus delivered quickly and drink orders taken swiftly. We ordered a hot chocolate ($4) and a pot of TBK Chai Leaf Tea ($5.50). There were tragically no marshmallows for my hot chocolate and after Felix, few other hot chocolates please me without marshmallows. What's the bloody point. Still, it wasn't horrid and it did the job. The chai tea was delightful - wonderfully spiced, milky and sweet - it hit the spot.

Looks the goods...wasn't the goods.

After drinking our hot drinks, we were ready to order. The waitress was so accommodating and thoroughly knew the menu. There were many tempting choices with lots of vegetarian options, which I'm really learning to notice as I move away from such meatcentric eating. We ordered two dishes and decided to share. There was a caramel milkshake on the menu however the kitchen was heartbreakingly out of caramel, so I got a chocolate milkshake ($7). The texture was very thin and the flavour was not very strong but the canister was cold and the serving was big. Check out where it ranks on The Cassie Cakes Milk Bar.

The meals arrived quickly and together and were presented invitingly! First, the Trio Corn Fritters - Poached Edd, Avo Salsa, Rocket with Roast Tomato ($20), plus we got extra Haloumi ($6). The haloumi was good and I'm glad we ordered it, but it was nothing on the Greek Festival haloumi. But for café haloumi, very good. Maybe the haloumi tempted comparison but the fritters...stand aside! No comparison came close. These fritters were so tasty, the corn was juicy and sweet, they were friend well and along with the avocado salsa and egg poached to perfection...mouth party. Please get the fritters if you come to The Book Kitchen.

For our second meal, we ordered the Slow Cooked Greek Beans - Rich Tomato Sauce, Poached Eggs, Salsa Verde, Pancetta and Sourdough for $19. The waitress kindly got our beans sans pancetta. The beans were tasty and firm to the bite, as though al dente. The toast was delightfully buttery, scooping up the beans with a hunk of buttery sourdough was an absolute treat. The eggs were also stellar and as with the Corn Fritter, just perfect. I love a well poached egg - the whites firm and the yolk runny.

The food at The Book Kitchen was top, everything was well cooked and well seasoned, balanced and tasty. The drinks were okay, not the best milkshake or hot chocolate but the chai tea was spot on. With such great food, backed by friendly and quick service, The Book Kitchen is really a wonderful brunch spot. It was such a pleasant café. Highly recommended.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Price: 3.5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

Cassie Cakes Goes to Paniyiri

Finally!

Finally. FINALLY. I went to Paniyiri. And I was so excited. In the fortnight leading up to the Greek festival, I told everyone I was going. As if it was an exclusive thing. The famous celebration of Greek Culture started in 1976 and gets bigger every year. 60,000 people are expected to attend this year. That's a lotta baklava! And a lotta haloumi...and a lotta lotta Greek food! Check this blurb from the Paniyiri website:

This year festival goers are expected to down some 300,000 Honey Puffs, more than 100,000 Souvlakia, almost 12,000 Dolmades, 18,000 coffees, 1,600 kilograms of grilled Haloumi, 10,000 Shiftalies (Greek Cypriot sausage), 1,000 kilograms of calamari and another 1,000 kilograms of baby octopus.

I can only do my bit to help Paniyri reach those goal.

 

Let's get amongst it.

Mr Cakes and I arrived in the early afternoon on the first day of the weekend festival. The weather was gorgeous, a beautiful Autumn day. Clear blue skies, crisp and sunny. Forget about street parking, there wasn't a hint of a free space for blocks around Musgrave Park, at least not by the time we arrived. We found parking for $10 close by though and it was worth the money to hasten the eating of Greek food.

 

I was pretty excited about this shot, the flags flying together..unity...symbolism. Stuff.

As we came over the rise of the west side of Musgrave Park, I was surprised at the size of the crowd. Musgrave Park seemed a lot bigger full of all these people. The air was fragrant with the smoky smell of spit roasts and barbeques. I was so excited, dancing round Mr Cakes as he paid the $10 entry for us both. The stalls formed a large crescent around the large stage with a fairground of rides and games behind the food tents. The choice was too much for me so we started by knocking back a few drinks at the bar overlooking the amphitheatre.

Opa! That's a free wine right there. For liking dry wine. Go me. 

I don't know too much about Greek wine but then again, I don't know too much about any other kind of wine. I ordered a Roditis Savatiano dry white wine and Mr Cakes got a Mythos Greek beer. The bar man was very impressed that I liked the dryness of the Roditis so for that, I got another wine for free! The festival was off to a good start.

Mr Cakes has food handling skillz.

After we took the edge off with the drinks, we got down to business. I was fanging for some calamari! We made our first purchase of calamari and our first serve of haloumi from the Pan-Rhodian Society of Brisbane stall. The calamari was every thing I hoped it would be with lashings of lemon and salt. The haloumi got the same treatment. The haloumi was just amazing, I don't know if it's cos the Greeks are privy to a secret supplier or the way they cook it but it was unlike any I've had at cafes or at home.

Smell-a-internets is needed.

Meaty goodness.

Our next stop was at the Pankoakos Association O'hippocratis stall. We could resist the sweet smell of spit roast lamb no longer. Both Mr Cakes and I wanted to try the Yiros Wrap but I exercised rare restraint and insisted  we got the meat only serve. Mr Cakes showed no restraint and got a spinach and feta filo as well. 

Look at the texture of that lamb.

A filo that wasn't quite in to Paniyiri.

The lamb tasted as good as it looked, which was amazing. The little bits of fat on the lamb were my favourite, so unctuous and delicious. The filo wasn't the best but we soon remedied that...

Everything in this photo was awesome. Oh my god, that chicken.

...at the Cypriot Community of Brisbane stall. Mr Cakes got another filo, stat, along with a serve of sheftalies, which are Cypriot sausages, a juicy serve of barbeque roasted chicken and another serve of haloumi. 

These filos were much more in to the festivities. 

Don't you love Mr Cakes' shirt?

If it is possible, this haloumi was more delicious than the last serve! The sheftalies were tasty and well seasoned with herbs - I think with parsley. The piece of roast chicken thigh was just out of this world. Mr Cakes barely got a look in.

This looked like fun!

I was pretty full by then but you can't keep a good pair of eaters down. We took a break and watched the traditional Greek dancers then we wandered round the games area.

I really wanted to go in here, but Mr Cakes was not in to it.

No thanks.

After the intermission, we were ready to go again. 

Is the singular of diples diple?

Boss moussaka.

We got a serve of moussaka and a diples from the Panayia's Southside Parish stall. A diples is thin, fried pastry drizzled with syrup. It was okay, but I think it would have been better fresh and hot. The moussaka was also okay, the eggplant in the moussaka was really nice but the mince was a little dry and the topping was a touch stodgy.

A well-oiled honey puff machine.

Now it was time for honey puffs. Well, almost. We were pretty full so we had to have a nother drink and a bit of a sit down. But then! It was time for honey puffs. I'd been scoping out every stall for their honey puff prowess. It was to be my first honey puff experience and I needed it to be good.

Life changing.

We decided to go with the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of St George Greek Patisserie, not least cos of the awesome name but also because the turn over was high and the place was pumping out honey puffs like ... I don't know, like the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of St George Greek Patisserie. Mr Cakes also ordered a Greek coffee which ended up being Nescafe which confused us. But the honey puffs! Oh the honey puffs! Everything I heard of them was true, they were amazing. Hot, sweet, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I ordered a small plate and I don't think I could have eaten a large plate but oh how I was I'd tried. Honey puffs. More like HEAVEN  puffs. 

Wow. WOW. I don't know how I paused to take this photo.

We couldn't have possibly eaten more but there was so much more that we could have tried. My first Paniyiri was so much fun, next year I'm going to get there earlier to really give us time to digest more and eat more. OPA!



Cassie Cakes Goes to Eat Street

On your marks, get set...EAT!

I must be the worst food blogger in the world because it took me a year and half to get to Eat Street. There's a market which is solely about food and it took me that long to get there? Fail, Cassie Cakes. FAIL. But don't worry. I made up for it. My favourite foodie friend and I made plans to go and for the week leading up, we stalked Eat Streets Facebook, drooling over the photos and planning our attack.

Best chips in the universe, hey...



Look at dem chips. Nice hand modelling too!

The day arrived and we excitedly made our way there, arriving at about 5pm. We paid the $2 entry fee and we were in. We had our game plan, check out every stall first then tactically buy. Every stall was one temptation after another so we decided to buy some chips from Phunky Dory first. We of course knew all about Phunky Dory and their claim that they have the best chips in the universe. And they were very, very good. We smashed them. The chips were $6 for a decent serve.

Mmmm potato.



That guy is not impressing with my photo taking.

Now we had something in our bellies, we made it a little further around before being snagged by the Potato Slinky. Which is basically just hot chips on a stick. What can I say, I'm a sucker for some fried potato. The slinky ($5) was crisp and hot and since we're pros at the old fried potato, we asked for extra chicken salt. It was delicious.

The awesomely named, Samurai Chicken.

Drool.

After we ate the delicious slinky on a stick, we needed something besides potato. We both have a love for the Japanese version of KFC: Karaage. So we couldn't go past a serve of karaage from Samurai Chicken, which was $8 for regular size. The chicken was plump and the batter crispy. With a drizzle of lemon on top and a touch of mayo, I was in heaven.


Lovely Phil and his dumplings. Wait...hmmmm.



Get a load of this laksa. Good work, Phil, you legend.

By now we'd have just about enough of deep fried delicousness. We were on the hunt for laksa. We'd seen Phil's Dumpling Envy on the Eat Street facebook and the duck laksa was on our must have list. I was so excited when we spotted Phil and his stall. We ordered regular size for $15. Phil himself made it and he was so kind, he gave us an extra container so we could split it along with a bit extra soup. That's great service. And it was great laksa. The duck wasn't fatty as it can be some times and the soup was flavourful and authentic tasting. I could have done with it being a bit hotter but there was plenty of chilli available for me to up to heat to my insane liking.

The live music created a great atmosphere. 

Then the worst happened. We hit a food wall. We had grand plans for the okonomiyaki from a stall across the way as we'd heard great things but we simply couldn't do it. But as everyone knows, there's a second stomach for dessert.


Filled churros OMG! Exactly.



Check out the size of these things! I totally understand the feelings of the cartoon girl behind the churros, too.

We backtracked and ordered two Mars Bar filled churros from Cheery Churros. Yes, you read that right...Mars Bar filled churros! They were two for $7 and huge. Hot, fresh and covered in delicious cinnamon sugar, what more could two delighted foodies want? Ice cream, that's what.

Oh ice cream. I always come back to you.

We hot footed it to Byron Bay Gelati and ordered two scoops for $6.50. I can't tell you hot good a hot churro dipped in cookies and cream ice cream tastes. My only suggestion to Eat Street is put these two guys next door to each other! They'll make a killing.


Shut. The. Front. Door.

We truly were in the third trimester of food babies then. We took a walk around the markets to let the food settle. The markets are really busy but there are staff walking around keeping it lovely and clean. And while I'm not sure all 35 kilos of Puppy Cakes would be welcome, I did see a few lovely doggies around.

The view from the viewing platform.

There was also musical acts dotted around, entertaining people as they ate, lots of bars as well as a viewing platform to take it all in from.


The nice, open green space.

Behind the viewing platform was a lovely open green space, bordered by twinkling fairy lights that made it really enchanting. A picnic blanket and some knee rugs for the cooler weather would make it the nicest area to have picnic and let the kids run around.

Cronut heaven.

Before we left, I had to get a treat for Mr. Cakes so we lined up and grabbed some cronuts to take home from Chocolate Komberry Co. I got him a Tim Tam cronut with a Nutella injection for $10. He said it was the best cronut he's had! This was only his second one but still!


The Nutella injection took it to the next level.

We had such a great time at Eat Street and I can't wait to take Mr. Cakes. Next time, I think we'll take public transport over - the ferry terminal is nice and close - and have a few drinks.