Bistro Moncur is a timeless classic. Like the perfect little black dress or an Armani suit, it can be relied on to instantly make you feel both totally comfortable and effortlessly elegant.  It’s the type of place that everyone should have at least one of in their restaurant repertoire. Stylish enough for a special night out, while at the same time, casual enough for a spur of the moment steak frites dinner, it is genuinely an all rounder.

Stepping through the heavy wooden door that links the restaurant with the front bar of the Woollahra hotel, I felt a totally unexpected sense of deja-vu. It had been almost ten years since my last Moncur meal but the minute I entered the subtly lit dining room I was transported back to my last visit.  Everything was exactly as I remembered. The strikingly modern black and white Matisse like mural that dominates one side of the restaurant, the white tableclothed tables with classic wooden chairs, and the surprisingly hushed tones of the full hard wood floored dining room, were all picture perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.  Not only do I live in the world’s most beautiful city, but my family have a sheep farm only two and a half hours away. So whenever I am starting to get overwhelmed by the traffic and the dirt and the whole impersonal nature of city life, I know I can just jump in my car and escape.

Just the thought of open roads and familiar friendly faces is enough to sustain me through the smog and congestion that is inevitable in the M5 tunnel on a friday afternoon. That and the vision of once again cooking in my mum’s luxuriously spacious, dishwasher equipped country kitchen.

It’s always the best feeling pulling into the tree lined driveway of “Mount View”. No matter how long between visits, or whether the countryside is the bleached straw colour of summer or the luscious green of a drought-free winter, there’s nothing as comforting as that feeling of being HOME…. Read the rest of this entry »

I quite enjoy taking the dietary foibles of my dinner guests into consideration when planning a menu. Although I only have a few vego friends, I really love the challenge of planning a meal that will satisfy both carnivores and green tongues alike. Recently, however, I took on a challenge that for a while threatened to overwhelm me: dinner for Sam, my pregnant, vegetarian, Jewish friend, her husband, Michael, (whom I since found out doesn’t like black pepper) and my dear friends Colette & Kieran.

Obviously I wasn’t going to be serving any succulent oysters or creamy fresh goats cheese to a pregnant lady. And while I did have a vague recollection of Sam mentioning that she had begun to eat red meat again due to her dangerously low iron levels…. I wasn’t about to risk a juicy lamb cutlet or a spicy merguez sausage. I was pretty sure that we’d shared a few seafood dishes last time we’d been out for Thai but with my limited knowledge of the rules of Jewish people and fish I decided that the best course of action would be to stick to vegetables. Read the rest of this entry »

Here in the beautiful city of Sydney, we really are spoilt for choice during the summer months when it comes to outdoor cinema options.  On one hand there’s the old faithful Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park where you get to start the evening with a casual picnic and a glass or two of wine in front of the screen and then when dark falls you have the luxury of watching the movie from the comfort of your own picnic blanket. The main challenge being to keep awake all the way through the movie….

Then there’s the Bondi Openair Cinema in behind the Bondi Pavillion on the beach. While it lacks the beautiful parkland surroundings of the Moonlight Cinema, it does have the benefit of allowing you to grab a feed at one of the many fabulous Bondi restaurants before settling into the plastic chairs for a cinematic experience under the stars.

For those of you who prefer your cinema with an amazing harbour view there’s the Openair Cinema at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.  With a screen that rises out of the water and a backdrop that takes in the city skyline with the harbour bridge and opera house it’s pretty hard to beat.  Their no cancellations for rain policy makes for some pretty weird viewing.  A couple of week ago I experienced my first cinema in the rain.  While the wet weather meant we had to abandon our picnic in the botanical gardens in favour of dinner on the balcony, it did not mean that we missed our movie going experience.  Kitted out with raincoats we rocked up to the openair cinema and joined the ranks and perched ourselves on the slightly damp chairs ensconsed in the ghostly white plastic poncho raincoats provided at the door. Watching Memoirs of a Geisha with the gentle patter of rain falling was not  an experience i’ll forget in a hurry. Read the rest of this entry »