H of the house of L: October 2010

The Crave Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) is happening around the metro Sydney area for the entire month of October.

One of the highlights occurs this Sunday when the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed to all vehicular traffic for "Breakfast on the Bridge", effectively turning the bridge into a large picnic area for BYO breakfast or brunch.

One of the "Precinct Promotions" for the SIFF is happening in a hip area called Newtown (just south-southwest of the University of Sydney campus), packed with heaps of shops and a wide variety of cafes and restaurants. "A Taste of Newtown" highlights at least seven restos. We made the leap and chose to dine at Rubyos last night (Oct 6).

Dining at Rubyos is meant to be famiy-style or yum-cha like, and their mains are strongly influenced by Asian and Mediterranean flavours. The special SIFF menu is a pretty good deal with at least half a dozen mains plus a drink all for $41 AUD per person. However, the menu included pork and shrimp/seafood which my two accompanying friends could not eat. This was just fine, so we dove into their regular menu ...

We chose the following six (photos below):

* peking duck, with rice flour pancakes, hoi sin sauce, and traditional garnish

* rubyos "nicoise" of hot smoked salmon, with potato crisps, oven dried tomatoes, sliced quail egg, and black olive puree

* tea smoked tofu, with wok tossed asparagus, black wood ear mushroom, water chestnuts, and a ginger & shallot sauce

* crispy fried tuna, with a sour red curry sauce, sticky black coconut rice, thin rice noodle, and candied chili

* oregano and almond crusted salmon, with chunky skordalia, rocket, and a tomato & black olive salsa

* meatballs of wagyu beef, flavoured with tuscan herbs, and smothered in rich tomato concasse & melted cheddar

Totally stuffed and a bit forlorn at not being able to sample their dessert menu, we all felt that six mains would have been ideal for four people with a much stronger chance afterwards for dessert.

It's too bad I'm leaving Sydney on the weekend - no croc tears, please - because in truth, I would've loved to sample more of the Food Festival over the remaining weeks.

- HL, 1400h AEDT (0300h GMT), 2010 October 7