Pendolino Italian, Strand Arcade - Sydney CBD

The Arrosto Di Anatra Con Cavofiore Al Vino Rosso - or simply slow roasted duck leg with Sicillian red wine braised cauliflowers, puree and Fava beans, black olives and duck and thyme sauce.

It is a restaurant named in honour of a special olive tree, dear to the heart of those who hail from Tuscany and Umbria.  It is tucked away at one corner, the western one, on the second floor of the Strand Arcade, right smack in Sydney City Centre, the one joining Pitts Street Mall and George Street.
make it past their cafe and you then enter the inner sanctum.

Pappardelle pasta flavoured with beetroot and garnished with fresh goats cheese, dried black olives , red onions and Italian parsley exemplify the rustic charm  and feel of the Pendolino.  What caught my eye was their attempt using pork , veal and tomato ragu, served with a Gramigna pasta.  The Trota, a fine name for a basic Russian inspired sandwich, places ice berg lettuce with smoked trout and zings up the final taste with a horseradish mayonnaise, perhaps an excellent lunch idea.  For the brave and initiated, the truffled  chicken liver and Portobello mushrooms I reckon can be a good choice, for it is a challenging matter to make and draw out the best in two very delicate ingredients.  My recommendation for insalate or simply salads, would be the Ortaggi, a healthy and light mixture of ideas with pine nuts, ricotta, beetroot, pumpkin and Treviso radicchio, splashed with a Nebbiolo vinegar.

The cafe portion perhaps is great for breakfasts.  One can reasonably expect choices in cheeses, breads and paninos, What makes Pendolino apart in my eyes is the tasting plate in oil and olive, the Da Assaggiare. This is a wholesome experience by itself, providing the guest with subtlety, contrast and quality as you soak the beautiful bread samples with each distinct and memorable choice of olive oil flavour. The other significant thing that makes me want to go back tot he Pendolino is the blood orange olive cake (the Torta agrumato di Sanguinella).  And then there are the mains, carefully prepared, lovingly served, beautifully articulated and downed with an exquisite choice of wines and liquors.

Pendolino not only offers a cafe and restaurant, but perhaps more significantly also is a wine and olive oil providore. Beautifully named the Lolioteca, you can also access the products on line but perhaps nothing is as enjoyable as viewing the range up front  - with choices like blood orange flavoured extra virgin oil and premium sweet Nebbiolo red wine vinegar, you are transported to another world.  To me, the simple and most satisfying choice would be a small container of Australian grown olives  (the Piccoline).  The store underlines what Pendolino does best, provide an atmosphere and experience, with accented pronunciations that magically transport a guest back to another time, another place - and not in downtown Sydney, on the edge of a desert island.

Housed in a corner of an era of architecture gone by, huddled discreetly by climbing two flights of stairs or taking an antiquated lift, Pendolino first greets you with a cafe with a casual al fresco feel, and even if you find this section can be choked with tables and narrowness, you are soon ushered into a dining room from another century.  Subdued candle lights provide a possible line of gems but once you look at the menu, the carefully named and made dishes overtake the attention of the diner above everything else.  The owners of Pendolino also operate La Rosa upstairs in the same Strand Arcade.  Please note that Pendolino restaurant is closed on Sundays and public holidays.  The wine bar takes over from 5pm till late for six evenings a week.

There is nothing more gratifying than good friendship - and short of that, letting the juices of a craftily and lovingly coked duck flow on to the palate.  With a deep marinade bite, I enjoyed the flow-on succulence of the meat and the crispiness of the well roasted skin.  The sauce matched the inherent tone and taste of the red wine enhanced meat.  I would have preferred alcohol to fully complement this remarkable dish, but we were at office lunch time and had restrictions in time, liberty and option.  Maybe next time at a more easy pace.

The Kebaya Restaurant at the Seven Terraces - Georgetown, Penang

The Nyonyas and Babas were affectionately accepted by Queen Victoria as the 'King's Chinese".  The Kebaya reflects on such sentiments by offering the fish mousse (the otak-otak) to be eaten with miniature chicken pies.

Christopher  Ong and partner Karl Steinberg have done an excellent job in restoring several formerly decrepit Victorian styled terrace houses into a  swanky and yet historically beautiful abode for visitors in the Seven Terraces.  Their most noted restoration before Georgetown's Old Quarter was the Galle Fort Hotel in Sri Lanka.

Tads too sweet that evening when we were there - the Tub Tim Krob, a Thai dessert to illustrate pomegranate fruit floating in a sea of milky white.

Cream Brulee with a twist  - with lemon grass, spice and everything nice -  a Thai layer over the French idea. The two main chefs at the Kebaya are Penang born but French trained.

The Kebaya's dining room is straddled along the fronts of the restored Seven Terraces, located behind the iconic Goddess of Mercy Temple in old Georgetown.  Kebaya refers to the esteemed traditional and elegant dress worn by Nyonyas for special occasions - the cut is such that women need a lithe and slim figure to bring out the best in the look of a kebaya.  There is  teak panelled art deco bar on one side of the restaurant.

Dishes, on first glance,  that would have been an everyday menu for the Straits Chinese family in the 19th and 20th centuries in the British Straits Settlements of Malaya and Singapore.  However, sitting down at the table and sampling the food, I realised that this was a new genre of cuisine, although based on historical conventions but all given a fresh attitude and approach.  This may set the menu at the Kebaya apart from its fellow practitioners in commercial Straits Chinese cuisine.

A snack of pai tee - vital are fresh ingredients, textured cuts to enhance the bite and a crunchy though petite holder.  The name for this unusual creation comes from a southern Chinese dialect pronunciation of the English word "party".

A place to read, a corner to hide away and a seat to soak in a Penang island moment.  The adjoining hotel has only 14 guest rooms with reproduction wedding beds and furnished liberally with antique porcelain.

The buffet holding side dishes, water jugs and drinking glasses.

A stringent and tasty stir fry, perfect for vegetarians, with broad beans  and corn slices in a mish-mesh with cashew nuts and capsicum - an idea for a working day's dinner at home as well.

Fujian sweet dumplings (mua chee) or Japanese mochis adapted to a tropical clime - served in sweet coconut milk although still sprinkled by sesame seeds.

A classic Vietnamese favourite - sugarcane sticks skewering deep fried prawns, combining the best of land and sea.

Fish fillet in a wet curry sauce, echoing Thai styles and flavours.

A porcelain egg tray cleverly holds sauces and condiments, essential to the taste buds when delving in the various forms of south east and east Asian food.

I am so glad that Kar Wai, Sue Chee, Henry Quah and Fai Keong took me to the Seven Terraces and dinner at its Kebaya Restaurant - it was an eye opener and excellent illustration of how UNESCO heritage status can help renew and reconnect Penang's rich historical background to a viable present and hopeful future, giving each island resident a vital appreciation, glimpse and reality of Georgetown's multi-cultural past.  Committed funding, a spunky determination and an innovative vision lay behind the developers of such recent architectural and socio-cultural dimensions.  Our group was also introduced to Chris Ong, whom I found affable and with a friendly countenance - and at that moment I realised that history of growth is often made relentlessly not only by politicians, but relentlessly by individuals in the background, quietly making their mark as leaders.

Location:Stewart Lane
Georgetown, Penang Island

The Lagoon, Stuart Park, North Wollongong, NSW

The Lagoon Restaurant has a name befitting its location, ambiance and cuisine. Tucked away in a corner of Stuart Park, with its own dedicated car park and surrounding stroll grounds, the open glass window panels of most of its surrounding wall tempt any diner to panoramic views of the Tasman Sea, a perfect horizon with real deep blue ocean water and even the apparently stuck long container ships waiting for their turn to unload cargo into Port Kembla, although a decent distance away from it all.
On a recent visit in the so-called winter of the Illawarra region, it looked and felt like a summer's day in London.  We were there early for lunch, although the crowds packed the place in especially after 1pm.

The menu was extensive, primarily concentrating on seafood, not just sourced from the NSW South Coast but also from other parts of Australia.  My group of three pondered over the cold and cooked platters - these offered  a sampling of crustacean sea produce like Balmain Bugs, fish grills and prawns.
Then there were the farm and ocean  or surf and turf combinations which provided both beef or lamb cuts with a smaller serve of seafood. We chose the third option, all seafood produce but at least offering two choices on one plate. I was more than happy with my selection of John Dory with scampi from the Indian Ocean off Western Australian state.  One of my fellow lunchers chose king prawns with barramundi, always a reliable tasty sample of what it means to partake in Australian seafood. We did observe a young man at a neighbouring table with a feast inspiring sizable dish of lobster and crab, whilst his young female companion had a more modest dish.

The Lagoon is a civilised place with white table cloths, well dressed and trained wait staff and provides a mood of being in a well organised function.   Even the garlic bread was especially aromatic that day.
There are strong hints and touches of Mediterranean influences in the dishes available, especially in the gravies and sauces blended into most of the seafood.  Sauces can be a tricky part, for I recall on an earlier visit, how my mate and I found that the rather brash and heavy stuff given to us did spoil the overall charm of the seafood platter.  This time around there was no such discouragement.

We had chardonnay on our table in the middle of the hall, from which we could observe proceedings like birthday parties, the spectrum of well made dishes arranged carefully and spectacularly on the main counter near the bar and the energy of a rather elegant and smiling tall young man who paid attention to detail and assured the fullness of our wine glasses.

The fine dining continued with our summery option of three gelato flavours served in a boat like contraption.   Mango, raspberry and more.  The female staff were nice enough to change cold for hot espresso. The afternoon wore on but not the spirit and satisfaction at our table.  Kangaroo was available and fresh oysters captivated as entree. Apart from the food, I reckon there was also another positive X factor that day at this fine dining venue which can lower its formality to relax every visitor. And then Wollongong City centre beckoned as we left, going past the big live aquarium tanks, into a balmy 22 degrees Celsius outside.

Rocksalt Grill & Restaurant, Wollongong NSW

This restaurant has since ceased functioning.

A look alike smoking cigar adorns dessert - a cinnamon roll with an ash front!

Crispy salt soft shell crabs already heralded what the Rocksalt could do, an echo of the benchmark that this restaurant defines as their version of fine dining.   With a menu extensively covering both seafood and the farm, it was a delight to try to find our choices of mains for this occasion in late May.  Eventually we settled for the Wagyu Rostibiff from Darling Downs Queensland and the 

Moss Vale sirloin. Both lived up to their articulated descriptions and our built up expectations arising from the source of the ingredients.

Opened in 2012, the Rock salt at One Marine Drive is sited on a hillock near the iconic lighthouse at Wollongong Harbour.  It offers true blue Aussie items like the Bangalow sweet pork belly and Angus beef rump from Jondaryan in Queensland.  Yet there is handmade pappardelle, served with roasted butternut pumpkin, braised baby shallots, pine nuts and Persian feta, all garnished by a sauce vierge.

Seafood items that jump out of the page include the Tassie Storm Bay Atlantic salmon, offered with an Asian twist by accompanying kai lan and bok choy vegetables and garnished by caramelised palm sugar and Sichuan pepper - this is so South-east Asian!

Cognac, fortified wines (so appropriate for dinner time) and port litter across the drinks landscape. There are Galway Pipe and Grand Tawny choices from Ireland, plus Hollick the Nectar from South Australia, as illustrations of the carefully chosen list available at the Rocksalt.  My mate made an excellent selection in Shaw and Smith shiraz, so synchronised with our meaty mains.

The vanilla flavoured creme brûlée was garnished with flower petals and a crunchy biscuit.

It was a Monday evening and an apparently quiet one at that, but in the end that worked best for both of us, I reckon, having almost the whole restaurant shared with only a few others. The lighting was subdued and being early winter, the sunset had passed by the time we both made it to the venue after work. There were no parking hassles that evening unlike during summer days at this spot overlooking the main Wollongong ocean coastline.   Service was attentive and yet non-intrusive.  The food was good, the wine was flowing and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with a most appreciated friend.

Would I return to the Rocksalt?  An obvious yes. I have not tried this venue on more busy nights - and it is good that they are not closed on Monday and Tuesday evenings, as most dining places in the Illawarra tend to be.  I am impressed with their use of relatively fresh ingredients and efforts at presentation.  I liked the entree of scallops best.  I did notice the braised Cowra lamb shoulder done Moroccan style with poached saffron apricots and cous cous, but I did not feel the urge for Middle eastern fare that night.  I also appreciated the options of several types of sauces in Bordelaise, Cafe de Paris butter and mustards.  The kitchen responded to our medium rare requests for the grills with an almost perfect serve.  I would be interested to try the marinated melon salad at the  next opportunity.