Bali restaurateur Janet DeNeefe turns St Kilda’s Tolarno Eating House & Bar into a Balinese warung on March 23-24. Enjoy a traditional feast of babi guling (suckling pig), tales from Bali and live music. $99, MFWF.com.au
Taste of Bali
Plus, ten more news bites for the week ahead.
Bali restaurateur Janet DeNeefe turns St Kilda’s Tolarno Eating House & Bar into a Balinese warung on March 23-24. Enjoy a traditional feast of babi guling (suckling pig), tales from Bali and live music. $99, MFWF.com.au
Join delicious. for lunch to celebrate a new book by the brains behind Daylesford’s Lake House, Alla Wolf Tasker. Dishes will honour seasonality and provenance. May 27. $155. delicious.com.au/lakehouse
Sri Lankan street-food stall Hopper Kadé goes from pop-up to permanent with new digs on Crown Street, Surry Hills. Try the ‘classic’ – a tangy coconut sambal atop a free-range egg served in a Sri Lankan roti ‘bowl’.
A little bit of everything and a little piece of Italy, the new Barbetta in Paddington incorporates café (think espresso, wine, and house-made ravioli), gourmet food store, and a food workshop space. barbetta.com.au
Sweet stop Tella Balls Dessert Bar opens its first Victorian store this month – in Melbourne Central. Come for freakshakes, doughnut ice cream cones and ‘fish and chips’ (fried ice cream with a side of doughnut fries).
The famed giant Easter egg is making a return to The Grounds of Alexandria in 2018, but this year the elaborate chocolate will be introducing a special twist. Hundreds and thousands of 100’s & 1000’s will cover the edible statue – at 500kg and 3m tall it’s what The Grounds are claiming to be Australia’s biggest freckle chocolate egg. You can visit the oversized treat for yourself on Easter Sunday when it makes its debut at 2pm, but make sure you get there early as a crowd of 1,000 fought to catch a glimpse of the annual egg cracking in 2017.
Luke Mangan’s latest addition – Luke’s Kitchen – in Waterloo will be launching a spritz special for the rest of March. The new neighbourhood eatery is set to introduce a free Aperol spritz with the purchase of a breakfast or bunch dish off the menu, every weekend from 11am to 12pm.
The first ever fish market ferry service is on the way to Sydney, courtesy of SeaLink Travel Group. From March 24, a ferry will travel between Sydney Fish Market and King Street Wharf in Barangaroo, every 30 minutes between 9.00am and 5.00pm. The Fish Market Ferry is priced at $9 per person one way and $15 per person return. “SeaLink decided to start operating this Fish Market route in response to passenger demand and we are really excited to now be commencing the first ever Sydney Fish Market ferry service,” says Captain Cook Cruises general manager Anthony Haworth. “The service will not only provide a quick thirty-minute ferry trip for passengers visiting Sydney Fish Market or the city but will also help reduce traffic in and around Sydney city by taking cars and buses off our congested Sydney roads and expanding our blue highway.”
Spoil your mum rotten this mother’s day with the ultimate indulgent spa day. The luxe One&Only The Palm in Dubai is behind the Mother’s Day indulgence: The Ladies Hideaway at Guerlain Spa. Crafted specifically with mothers and daughters in mind, the event is a full day of pampering. Start with complimentary breakfast before making your way to the spa for the choice of a Guerlain Spa Radiance facial or a Beauty Lift treatment, a 60 Minute Massages, and Manicures or Pedicures de Bastien to finish. The package is available per duo, with one package available per stay.
Young Henrys is raising money for men’s mental health with a free yoga class for guys on March 24. The event will see 40 participants flow to the sounds of the ocean, with an optional beer in hand from the Karma Keg and all proceeds raised from donated goods auctioned to go to the One Wave charity. Broga will be held from 11.00am to 2.00pm at Beach Road Hotel in Bondi.
The Gourmet Pommies Will and Steve of MKR have a new project in the works – taking over the Butcher and the Farmer at the Tramsheds. The duo have been working behind the scenes since January and will be debuting their new menu and direction for the eatery on March 28. Decadent takes on simple, quality produce can be expected – think coconut bircher muesli, yogurt, apple, pecans, sesame seeds, honey or a maple bacon croissant with cornflake crust. Open breakfast through dinner, guests will also be able to tuck into heartier options including a 12-hour wood smoked brisket partnered with pickled cucumber and roasted chilli mayonnaise.
Hilton Sydney has undergone an extensive $1.5 million kitchen refurbishment of Luke Mangan’s hatted restaurant glass brasserie. Designed by The Rohrig Group and A+ Design Group, the refurbishments have created an open kitchen and chef’s table, with extensive custom-built commercial cooking equipment to suit the restaurant’s specific requirements.“The kitchen is the heart and soul of a restaurant. We wanted to ensure that we stayed true to the glass that our customers know and love, whilst also evolving the offering to reflect the changing dynamic of fine dining. It was essential that the kitchen lived up to the expectations of the modern diner, which it certainly does,” says Luke Mangan. To coincide with the new kitchen, Mangan has created eight new dishes and six desserts, specifically designed for the glass autumn menu, from Moreton bay bugs served with black garlic, chilli, lime and witlof to a light pumpkin soufflé with buttermilk sorbet.
Paddington Bear was renowned for his love of marmalade, so in celebration of the DVD and Blu-Ray release of Paddington Bear 2, dessert queen Anna Polyviou has crafted a special marmalade. The award-winning pastry chef held a marmalade masterclass at VIVE cooking school this morning, where guests got their hands dirty re-creating Paddington’s all-time favourite food.