Cowbell 808, Surry Hills

I got to hang with some of my oldest and closest pals yesterday, and we found the perfect lunching spot at Cowbell 808, a cafe located on Bourke Street in Surry Hills. And when I say "perfect lunching spot", I mean that it was perfect in every sense of the word. Not only was the food and service excellent, the table we chose was situated right next to a ginormous open window, and we were caressed by gentle gusts of cool air the whole time we were there. I don't think you can appreciate how welcome a phenomenon that is unless you've experienced summer (or the lead-up to it) in Sydney. 

Despite the warm weather, I ordered a long black. Having just spent the past few weeks subsisting on watery instant coffee, this freshly made long black sent my brain's pleasure centre into overdrive. I enjoyed the full-bodied smokiness of the black coffee with a few more sips before I asked for a small glass of milk to add to my beverage. 

The window we were seated next too. Natural air-conditioning.

For lunch, I ordered the roasted beetroot salad with orange cous cous and mint. Whoever plated the dish did a totally awesome job. It came out on a wooden board, looking like an artwork and oh-so-fresh. The cous cous was generously drizzled with olive oil and was still warm, which went nicely with the cool, sweet beetroot and mandarin slices. 

 

Roasted beetroot salad with orange cous cous and mint ($10). Pretty as a picture!

My friend L. went straight for the Cowbell 808 burger, which came with a side of onion rings. L. was totally awed by the size and height of the burger, and we spent some time debating the best way to eat it (she eventually settled on using a knife and fork, the dainty creature she is). The patty looked so juicy, and when she cut into it, we saw that it was nicely pink (my favourite way to eat meat!) I tried some of the patty and it was very tender, though perhaps slightly under-seasoned. I didn't try the onion rings, but L. seemed to like it very much.

Cowbell 808 burger, with fried onion rings ($18)

My other friend H. chose the poached chicken sambo. A 'sambo', H. explained upon our quizzical looks, is simply the Aussie slang for 'sandwich'. L., who has always lacked the propensity to let things go (I love you dear, but you know it's true), asked why you would replace a two-syllable word with a two-syllable slang. Just...eat your burger, L. ;P

Poached chicken sambo (didn't note down the price)

H.'s sambo came piled high with alfalfa sprouts and chicken pieces mixed with mayonnaise. H. said she liked it a lot.

 

We enjoyed our meals at a leisurely pace, then spent some time chatting about nothing in particular, and admiring the deco. I thought the basketball hoop in the middle of the room was very cool, and H. wanted to shoot some goals with our used napkins (I talked her out of it). 

Graffiti!

I can see Cowbell becoming 'our special place'; somewhere to return to again and again for the ever-changing specials, the calming atmosphere, and the attentive and welcoming staff. 

Cowbell 808

616 Bourke Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

(02) 9698 5044

Roasted pumpkin and chickpea salad, with add-ins of your choice!

Or as the non-Aussies would call it, "roasted squash salad, etc." :D

Salad seems to be all the rage these days in our health-conscious society, with "salad bars" popping up all over the place. You know, those places where you pay an exorbitant amount for the privilege of watching the hot guy (or girl) behind the counter toss a few ingredients of your choice into a mound of salad leaves.

It's obvious that those who possess a decent business mind are taking full advantage of our newfound preoccupation with rabbit food - which isn't to say that it's necessarily a bad thing. After all, a customised salad's around the same price as a kebab or a KFC meal...without the detracting factor of potential coronary artery disease. It's a win-win situation.



And yet, I can't help but feel that there are better ways to spend my money than on salad. I mean, it's...salad. It's, like, 98.5% ready-made by nature. I maintain that it's an aberration of my basic, human right to be charged for what is essentially Mother Earth's gift to me!

(Okay, that was a joke. Salad bar people, please don't hurt me.)

But, as my dad always says, there's no point in complaining; if you're unhappy with the way things are done, go do it yourself. Which is exactly what I did. I got off my lazy ass, threw away yesterday's kebab wrapper, and got down to work on makin' my own, customised salad. I decided on an age-old combination: roast pumpkin and chickpeas. To that, I added sweet corn kernels, chopped red onions, grilled and marinated red capsicum, and of course, salad leaves. The result? A healthy, nutritious and filling salad, made exactly the way I wanted, and for around half a price!

(There was the time factor - it took me almost 2 hours to put together this lunch. Oh, be quiet. You can't win at everything in life :D)

 

 Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and chickpea salad

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the roasted pumpkin:

1kg of pumpkin/squash

4 french shallots

4 small heads of garlic (I used purple-skinned garlic)

Salt

Cummin powder

For the salad (quantity up to you):

Cooked chickpeas (I used canned)

Sweet corn kernels (again, I used canned)

Grilled and marinated red capsicum (...canned...I mean, jarred...)

Red onions, chopped

Other add-ins of your choice! Chicken, avocado, the kitchen sink etc.

For the dressing:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 small red onion, finely diced

Method:

1. To make roasted pumpkin - preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius. Remove skin from pumpkin using a knife or vegetable peeler, then slice into bite-sized cubes. Place into baking dish along with peeled french shallots and garlic (also peeled). Season well with salt and cummin powder. Don't hesitate to really rub it in with your (clean!) fingers. Place into oven and roast for 1 hour.

2. To make dressing - pour the red wine vinegar over the finely diced onions and set aside.

3. Put your salad together.

4. Remove roasted pumpkin et al. from oven and allow to cool.

5. Put your roasted pumpkin+French shallots+garlic into your salad, pour in the dressing (including the onions), and toss it all around so everything's nicely...what's the adjective I'm looking for?...oh, you know, so everything's coated with the dressing.

6. Serve, and enjoy your (relatively cheap!) salad.

Luxe Bakery, Newtown

How does that song go again? Something along the lines of, "don't it always seems to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone". During my brief stint at the University of Sydney (I got a transfer to another university the following year), I never used to venture off the central King Street strip in Newtown when it came to lunchtime options. And I pretty much stuck to the same foods - pad thai, pad kee mao or pad see ew day in, day out. Heck, I didn't even learn about the existence of Campos Coffee on Missenden Road until I'd already submitted my transferral form.

And that, my friends, was how I completely overlooked the gem that is Luxe Bakery.

It was only after I had left the hallowed grounds of USYD for good (and hence removing any possibility of popping into Newtown for lunch on a uni day ever again) that I got clued in on such hot spots as Max Brenner, Berkelouw Books Cafe, Black Star Pastry and Buppa's Bakehouse (which I hear is now sadly closed). Guess that's what the holidays are for :D

So when I did get the chance to visit Newtown again, I made it a point to have lunch at Luxe Bakery, having heard about their superlative sourdough and nutritious lunchtime options. I grabbed a few friends, and we ordered a dish each and shared for variety's sake.

There was the antipasto platter:

Luxe Bakery does their own pickling. I saw it with my own eyes - jar upon huge jar of pickled vegetables lining the shelves behind the counter. The ones we tasted here were so good that I asked the staff whether the jars were for sale. They told me very nicely that they weren't at the moment. Does that mean they will be eventually? :D

The antipasto came with a basket of freshly toasted and sliced baguette, brushed generously with olive oil.

My choice from the menu (displayed on a ceiling-to-floor blackboard and updated frequently) was the smoked trout salad. It came with avocado and yoghurt, atop a bed of greens. Beautifully seasoned, well-balanced across the various components, and enjoyed by all three of us.

The last dish that arrived was my veggie-loving friend's order: the eggplant bake.

This was truly a dish for the vegetarians...which only made me want to become a vegetarian! The flavours were all so vibrant and fresh. And, oh my, the colours of everything we ate that day. The visual appeal and superb presentation of all the dishes stimulated our appetites, and the three of us had no problem with polishing everything clean off of the plates...before heading over to Buppa's Bakehouse for peanut butter pie.

Luxe Bakery

195 Missenden Road

Newtown 2042

Phone: 4677 3739

Baroque Bistro + La Renaissance Patisserie, The Rocks

I've had some pretty good memories where La Renaissance Patisserie is involved. It is always with a great deal of excitement and anticipation that I go about grabbing a macaron or two, or a butter pain au chocolat from this patisserie in The Rocks after a Saturday morning spent browsing the market stalls in the area.

But more on that later. On this particular day, my very good friends C. and L., whom I have known for almost a decade now (and I'm 20 years old! - that's, like, half my life so far :D) were celebrating their 20th birthdays, and they invited myself and some others out to lunch at Baroque Bistro. Now, I didn't realise this until very recently, but Baroque Bistro is owned by the same Charkos family who run La Renaissance. Well, that explains the superlative quality of the food we were served!

I put it down to my very poor knowledge of French cuisine that I was expecting bistro food to be more or less on the same level as bar food - you know, a big plate of steak and chips, or chicken schnitzel. Or maybe bistro food is kinda like that, and Baroque is the exception to this. I found my dish of the confit lamb shoulder to be extremely delicate, in that all the flavours were distinct and no single one overpowered the others. And so beautifully presented too! Nothing like your steak 'n' chips :D

 Confit shoulder of lamb, eggplant, snowpeas, rosemary, lamb glaze, $29

Two of my friends ordered the roast of the day, which turned out to be chicken.  

Roast of the day (on Sundays), $25

One of the birthday girls chose a pea risotto, which she seemed to enjoy immensely. I'm not a risotta person (reminds me too much of mushy rice), but I liked the bite that I had.

Risotto (found on the 'Specials' menu) - I think it was $31

And finally, P., who is of a delicate constitution and has a stomach the size of a button, decided for some reason to brave an entire chunk of Wagyu brisket. It was hilarious seeing her face towards the end. I exchanged some of my lamb for a bit of the brisket, and my goodness it was deliciously fatty!

Slow cooked wagyu brisket, pearl barley, broccoli, wasabi, almond butter, $35

We also nibbled on crusty, warm baguette dipped in olive oil throughout the meal. As always, I went slightly nutso on the carbs.



Baroque Bistro has a pretty extensive dessert menu (no surprises there considering the affilitation with La Renaissance), but people had places to go and we disbanded after the last vestiges of our sumptuous meal were mopped clean from our plates.

But I had to get my post-lunch sugarfix some way, and others being present or not, I was determined to get a cake from La Renaissance. Yes, even after the serious amount of protein I had just ingested. I grabbed the only friend who was free to hang around, and off we went!

The extent of my gluttony and greed really shames me at times...but then I just eat a piece of cake to dull the annoying, nagging voice shouting "MODERATION!" in my head. I wanted to try every, single cake that was on offer, and it was only the limited cash in my wallet, rather than limited stomach space, which made me settle for a single serve of the Fleur de lys.

Fleur de lys, $9 (eat-in)

The first bite quelled the voice of reason in my head all right. In fact, it pretty much stopped all other thoughts save the one that went something along the lines of "OMGOMGOMG,keepeatinsogoodgottahaveanotherbitechocolatechocolatechocolate..."

The description of the cake on the patisserie website reads: "Valrhona “Guanaja” 70% chocolate mousse with a creamy “Guanaja” centre, crunchy praline and chocolate biscuit base." I have to say that, after the initial few breath-taking bites, I found myself yearning for more of a texture differential. It honestly felt like I was eating spoonfuls of chocolate ganache towards the end.

The friend I had with me, P.S., showed admirable restraint and opted for a much lighter fruit mousse cake.

Passion de Pierre, $7 (eat in)

"A light creamy passionfruit mousse, with a layer of raspberry jelly, encased in joconde and decorated with fresh seasonal fruit." I managed a cross-sectional shot, and a tiny taste, before P.S. took her time finishing this gorgeous creation.

What a terrific day this was. Good food + dear friends = a Sunday well spent!