With thousands of years of culinary history behind them, it should come as no surprise that the Chinese even do surf’n’turf better, as a decadent cold platter of Suckling Pig and Jellyfish ($?) demonstrated. That was served before my evening’s real ‘golden egg’, a ten-month old BBQ Goose ($88/whole) cooked in the style of Peking duck. It’s glistening crisp skin gives way to tender, less-gamey flesh. I eat the liver too, in a lip smacking tango called Beef Cube Stir Fry with Goose Liver ($28.80) so salty it did have me reaching for my 2010 Vasse Felix Chardonnay ($40) more times than was proper. Aussie-grown goose aces Kam Fook’s Special Roast Chicken ($22.80). Regardless it’s a lovely, moist bird, cooked to perfection in a ‘spaceship oven’, arriving with crisp skin bespeckled by crunchy garlic crisps. A contrasting course of Snow Crab with Ginger and Shallot ($88/kilo) gives me pause. It’s delicate flesh rivals that of mud crab, with a truly tantalising flavour difference that even has me extracting orange lobes of roe. General Manager Alan Yeung (a qualified international food judge) explains Chinese culture dictates large restaurants can demand a better market share of good suppliers. You’ll taste it on the plate here.

Kam Fook Seafood Restaurant
Shop 6010, Level 6, Westfield Shopping Centre, 100 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction
Ph: (02) 9386 9889 www.kamfook.com.au
Chinese $$$-$$$$

The owls are not what they seem. Lurking beneath the respectable veneer of this thirty-year Paddington café stalwart is something subversive for this staid strip. Armed with a modern barbeque in the cosy courtyard garden, the “ridiculously attractive” Stephen Wong (blame my dining companion) trots out an unusual and underpriced menu of Asian influenced, modern Australian cuisine. Stephen’s guided by an owner/restaurateur with thirty years teppanyaki experience; and by golly it shows in tender Double Cooked Beef Ribs ($18.50) and a Melting Moment ($26) of grade 6+ grass fed beef with red wine butter. Three generously fleshy pieces of Crispy Mario’s Quails ($16.50) fly through our fingers and are stuffed into our salivating mouths. Our piggery is slowed (slightly) by a Roquefort Salad ($16.50) that rapidly descends into a two-fork treasure hunt for the best creamy blue cheese ever to be tossed into rocket! Choose the 2009 Steeds Run Shiraz as it’s drinking companion. Demonstrating considerable culinary confidence, Stephen flirts with burnt flavours in both the evening’s Twin Peaks – a crazy-good salted caramel and roasted peanut Panna Cotta ($12) and a silky Lemon-Lime Tart ($9). Combine them with February’s ten-dollar-a-dish introductory special, and I’m channelling Josie Packard for a return visit, pronto.

Sloanes Café
312 Oxford Street, Paddington
Ph: (02) 9331 6717 www.sloanescafe.com.au
Modern Australian/Asian $$

Even with the weather being recalcitrant, summer is a time to store up lasting memories with family and friends. I recall one glorious afternoon spent under the leafy green arbour of a Paddington backyard. The property’s owner was none other than Max Kreijn – painter, writer and a truly fabulous home cook…

As we supped on his lime spatchcock, I flicked through the wonderfully painterly pages of his cookbook, The Painter In The Kitchen [RRP $38]. It’s now onto its second run in this portent Year of the Dragon, a fact Max plays cheeky homage to with a cover of (Thai) dragon fruit. Max dedicates it to his mother, grandmothers and aunts, who (thankfully) “did not think it was girly for a ten-year-old boy to want to learn how to cook”. Alongside the dish I so enjoyed, you’ll find Max’s two favourites Gigot Farci (garlic stuffed deboned leg of lamb) and a risotto with zucchini-flowers, tucked away amongst 150 recipes and 100 paintings. Buy it from Amazon if you enjoy classic, non-fussy dishes stemming mostly from the south of France, or if you just like owning beautiful things.
http://amzn.com/1461102863

Max always cooks with a glass of red wine at hand, which brings me to my second item, Bartender of the Year. It has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? This is Phil Gandevia of Eau de Vie (still my favourite cocktail bar) making the winning entry in the first semi-final of this year’s World Class cocktail competition. He took out the Gentleman’s Cocktail category aboard a boozy boat cruising Sydney Harbour earlier in January. He’ll be competing for the national title against Melbournite Fred Siggins from Kodiak Club, and Queenslander Perryn Collier from The Laneway. The winner will carry our Aussie hopes into the esteemed World Class global final. Honestly for me, it’s just a really good excuse to drink a bloody good cocktail. I’m already feeling a powerful thirst for Phil’s creation – The Continental.
www.facebook.com/WorldClassAustralia

If you can’t stand waiting in a cocktail queue, grab some champers and dive out into any breaks in this wild, windy weather. Rather than tell you about my personal favourites, I’ll direct you to another book. This one is also by someone I’ve had the pleasure of dining with – Jayne Powell, better known as Champayne Jayne. She’s produced a great book called Champagnes – Behind The Bubbles [RRP $80] that will help you through ‘champagne season’ with clever drinking facts like how many bubbles are in your average glass, as well as a beginners guide to future champagne snobbery.
www.champagnejayne.com

Buffet. The mere word seems to fill most Sydneysiders with horror. I guess growing up here; the word did become synonymous with Sizzler. In my mind though, I’m always leaving Las Vegas in a post-Elvis wedding haze, savouring the taste of the world’s most perfect raspberry jube from Bally’s Sterling Buffet. If that’s out of your reach, this is Sydney’s best attempt to reach for those lofty heights. First stop seafood, and whilst the Midweek Buffet ($65/head) certainly contains a good selection, an eye-catching but underwhelming spanner crab makes the Friday/Saturday ($95/head) additions of lobster and a chocolate fountain tempting. If you’re on the corporate account, head for a Brian Croser/Jacques Bollinger joint project, the 2001 Tapanappa ‘Tiers’ ($165/bottle) and you’ll forget everything. It goes nicely with cold cuts, as you ponder groovy overhead LED chandeliers. It’s a pal to Pepe Saya, Aussie butter king, on a range of lovely bread. You’ll like it with the carvery, or any of the constantly restocked and tempting tajines. This venue gets the simple things right – temperature, presentation, cleanliness and speed. Staff are so attentive they remove plates before you even feel guilty about waste, allowing you to cake, cheese and pudding yourself into oblivion. Rooms are just a waddle away…

Café Opera
Intercontinental Sydney, 117 Macquarie Street, Circular Quay
Ph: (02) 9253 9396 www.intercontinental.sydney.com
World $$$

On a balmy evening in December, I found the time to pop into Bistro Bruno, one of Balmain’s more recent restaurant additions. From a chair on the wide balcony, I talked food with owner Erez Gordon, as we sipped Negroni cocktails, ate aperitivi and watched the daylight dwindle.

It’s a killer location; so I’ve been looking for a reason to revisit. It’s called Lobsta-Palooza! Hurry in during the last breath of January between 6pm-7pm and receive a classic ‘Fruits de Mer’ platter for $55/head. Erez promises it will arrive bearing “oysters, king prawns, tiger prawns, harbour shrimp, black lip mussels, razor clams, scallops in the half shell, scampi, blue swimmer crab and lobster” casually reclining on a bed of ice. Of course you’ll also sip great wine, and feed each other morsels seductively dipped into intriguing condiments.

If that’s not got you leaping for the nearest phone, fire up your libido even further on Valentine’s Day. Before I could get the words ‘commercial exploitation’ out of my mouth, Erez told me about a dessert of Callebaut chocolate fondue with berry brochettes and house made marshmallows matched to an adults only vanilla malt thickshake served with two straws. Yeah all right, it’s sex-on-a-stick as far as I’m concerned – what’s not to love about soft, pillowy marshmallows, rich, chocolate sauce and a two-straw tango? It’s part of a four-course affair with matching wines for $110/head (pay in January, get 10% off). Word on the street is: if you’d prefer to partake with more than one paramour, here they don’t bat an eyelid.
www.bistrobruno.com.au

Since we’re already slurping, I’m going to segue into one of the first frosty beverages that won my heart. It was 1978; I was four; and the iconic icy beverage was 7-Eleven’s Slurpee. What’s got me excited about it again during Sydney’s most dubious attempt at summer on record, is them depicting it in graffiti on a t-shirt designed by Sydney-based artist Deb. I went gaga over her work recently on Cockatoo Island, and adorning Melbourne’s famous Hosier Lane. Snaffle her Graffiti Tee for $15, or suck down fifteen Supersized Slurpees (okay, possibly excessive) to earn it for free.
www.slurpee.com.au

For a more gentile slurp, you’ve also got until February to get over to the Coco Republic designed Clicquot Summer Lounge at Hawthorn Mosman. I think it’s the perfect antidote to taking the kids to Taronga Park Zoo! Chef Scott Parson’s spent some time tasting the Champagnes of Veuve Clicquot and matched them to morsels like house cured ocean trout on blinis with crème fraiche and fish roe. Please have a flute of the NV Rose ($25) for me.
www.hawthornmosman.com.au

The first rule of Jamie’s Kitchen is: you do not talk about Jamie’s Kitchen as if it were a fine diner, no matter how distressed or funky it looks inside. This particular boy’s club is about making girls horny. We’re talking girls you’d like to marry (or already have), arriving from suburbia in their civvies, snaffling Tea Towels ($19.50/4) with babes – welcomed as you’d hope – in hand. The floor team lives the brand; and absorbs any loose admiration flying ’round. It works because of their commitment and near-military precision from the kitchen (and beyond). Foodies might cry disappointment, but it’s the height of a produce-driven ‘soup kitchen’; serving Italianate nosh with Posh Chips ($6) that chop Charlie & Co’s back down to fries. Antipasti Meat ($13/head) thrives from great producers; while Smoky Scamorza Arancini ($9.50) help Pieropan Soave ($13.50/glass) sing. A luxuriant Buffalo Ricotta Ravioli ($14) had me cooing before tender Veal Saltimbocca ($27) became my friend. Flimsy slices of Pineapple Carpaccio ($7.50) are set simply against blood orange sorbet, inspiring me to remember Executive Chef Dave Clarke’s Chophouse days. Over an Affogato ($6) I muse: it might not be perfect, but it’s a restaurant del popolo. Roll ‘em out lads.

Jamie’s Italian
107 Pitt Street, Sydney
Ph: (02) 8240 9000 www.jamiesitalian.com.au
Italian $$-$$$

Balance is restored in North Newtown with the opening of its first wine bar. Sharon Chalmers and her partner Maria have created a space that reflects Newtown, from its diverse menu, all the way to the local photographs on the walls. A Totara Sauvignon Blanc ($8/$32) whets our appetite before we let the Garlic King Prawns & Grilled Chorizo ($15) dance a salty tango in our mouths. Beetroot & Goats Cheese Parcels ($10) aren’t wrapped in pastry as expected, but in delicate pockets of beetroot. Blissfully surprised, we try a red the waiter recommends from the handpicked list. The Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir 2010 ($8/$39) is a light, cherry-toned drop that goes swimmingly with the Pan-Roasted Snapper ($26); its pepper mousse, tomato salsa, spinach and fennel side makes for an expertly thought-out dish, plated prettily as well. But it’s the Wine Plate Cheese Selection ($22) that has given my late night cravings a new address. Generous amounts of cheese, quince paste and honey and with a glass of Prosecco Sparkling ($8/$39) – it’s the best pairing in Newtown since Berkelouw Books starting serving ramen. Good drinking food – and vice versa – in an environment that doesn’t make you feel like you need a secret sommelier app on your  iPhone.

The Wine Plate
62-64 King Street, Newtown
Ph: (02) 8094 9994 www.thewineplate.com.au
Tapas/Modern Australian $-$$

If Sydney’s sodden summer makes you rain check the beach, dive into the izakaya underworld. Gather some pals in a dark padded private room at Mizuya to sing while you sup! Owner Jessie Chau gave me the lowdown on the top five foods you order on a touch screen and consume whilst still holding the microphone:

1)    Marble Beef Kushiyaki – it’s meat, on a stick!
2)    Barbecued Dried Squid – self-explanatory but tasty.
3)    Takoyaki – compelling octopus and potato balls drizzled with mayo.

4)    Chicken Karaage – ditch KFC for a healthier Japanese version of fried chicken.

5)    Chilli and Garlic Edamame – crunchy soybeans you peel and pop!

Mizuya Japanese Restaurant & Karaoke
Open 7 days 11.30am-midnight (2am close Fri/Sat)
Basement, 614 George Street, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9266 0866 
www.mizuya.com.au

1) Keystone Festival Bar

You know you’re at a cool gig (Andrew Weatherall) when you’re dancing next to some of Sydney’s best DJs – Paul ‘Drop Some Drums’ Mac & Seymour Butz – on one of the best sprung dance floors in town! Rain made the pop-up Hyde Park Barracks venue even more exciting, with humidity steaming up the already throbbing dance floor. Tickets are still available for January 18-21 and 25-28. Throw $50 on top of the ticket price to enjoy a bird’s eye view from the raised VIP section with two hours of beverages! This includes the refreshing Sydney Festival Cocktail featuring Absolute Vodka, vanilla, POM Wonderful, lemon, mint and ginger beer.
www.sydneyfestival.org.au

2) VnC Cocktails

Finally a premixed cocktail with taste, bite and a kick like a mule for those nights when you want a classy drink on your couch. Unsurprising it comes from a New Zealander – Shane McKillen – who has thankfully eschewed preservatives, used great natural fruit juices, and premium vodka and tequila. For me the Vodka Mojito (RRP $19.99 / 700ml) went down most smoothly, though I’d have to resample the Pacific Mai Tai and Passionfruit Caprioska to really be sure. Nothing needed to be added to spruce these babies up at all (though ice may help if you find them too strong)!
www.vnccocktails.com

3) A Flavour of Moscow

Since summer here has definitely changed it’s flavour, why not go the whole hog and indulge in a full seasonal reversal at the fully air-conditioned InterContinental Sydney? Until the 31st January, 2012, they’re running with A Flavour of Moscow theme to celebrate their newly opened InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya. Despite having me at caviar blinis, they whisked me up to the very exciting 31st floor balcony of the Club Lounge for Moscow Mules and a beautifully presented platter of Russian canapés. You can enjoy the same star treatment by staying in a Club guest room or suite, (from $480 per night) during summer. If you’re er… champagne taste, beer budget like me, the Cortile Lounge is doing two-for-one From Russia With Love for $25 between 5pm and 7pm. You’ll also find most of the dishes – pork pelmeni, borscht and bitochki with wagyu beef – appear on the buffet in Café Opera. I even have a review for it coming next week!
www.sydney.intercontinental.com

In a strip dominated by student dining, it’s nice to see functional and wallet-friendly amplified by some cool. Slovenian owner/barista Uros Petancic pulls a mean Macchiato ($3.50). The ethical coffee he’s selected comes from Brazil, Ethiopia and India. It is big, robust, and full of nutty flavour. It also does the job nicely in a Latte ($3.50); so don’t ask for strong unless you’ve pulled an all-nighter (a take home kilo will set you back $36). Disappointed to have missed the morning’s house-made Banana and Hazelnut Muffins ($3/each), I order lunch. The Project 8 Chicken Burger ($10) quickly rejuvenates my grin. It’s healthy, it’s tasty, and it’s easy on the eye with a vivid red pepper relish, presented on a board – what’s not to love? The Free Range Smoked Ham Sandwich ($8.50) delivers balance with a mix of horseradish, Dijon, Swiss cheese and greens on lightly toasted bread, melding ever so nicely with a Banana Orange Frappe ($4.50). Uros is earnest to a fault; he doesn’t skimp on quality or warmth in a spot destined to be the next student hangout. Without a hint of a smile he assures me: “I remember all coffees.” How many visits ‘til he knows yours?

Project 8 Café
137 Broadway, Ultimo
Ph: (02) 9280 3216 www.project8cafe.com.au
Café $