Bloodwood

February 3, 2013

Bloodwood is another hip venue brought to Michael's attention via The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry. Though I think he would've liked a full night of tapas, cocktails, dim lighting and pounding music, we made do with a sly dessert (and an ever slier wine for Michael) on a Sunday night.

The Bloodwood dessert selection ($25) was a suitable sampler. For now, it's composed of:

• a sweet and sour hot mess of pavlova with berries and passionfruit chiboust,
• a trifle of sturdy pound cake with champagne anglaise, port wine jelly, yoghurt mascarpone and not quite enough cherries, and
• a rich wedge of crunchy-smooth chocolate, caramel and peanut torte with a fluffy banana mousse and more peanuts.

They were all eminently pleasing if not surprising.

Bloodwood was clearly in hot demand, with many people willingly waiting for a table in the restaurant section, or folding themselves around tiny bar furniture that could just barely contain their shared plates. On the strength of Bloodwood's desserts I'd take my place the queue, at least once.

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Bloodwood's vegetarian options have been explored more thoroughly on The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry and Veg with Edge. 

The rest of the menu has been enjoyed on Does My Bomb Look Big In This?, heneedsfood, Restaurant Reviews, The Empty Fridge, Mockingbyrd, Beauty and the Feast..., From Our Home, Eat Chat Laugh, minibites, Nooschi, Secret Foodies, Are You Hungary?, Jasmyne-Tea, Conquering King Street, Newtown, A Foodie's night out :), Connoisseur in Training, Beyond Bourke Street, Eat Drink Daily, Tum Yums, ChopinandMysaucepan, Nutmeg's Cafe, The Adventures of Miss Piggy, Absolutely Ayana, Simon Food Favourites, raD fooD, Saya's Soulful, Radhikar's Internal Dialogue, Food, booze and shoes, Gastronomous Anonymous, Food and other delectable things, the 'hood food guide, Just One More Spoon, Excuse Me Waiter! and Richard Elliot.

The Hand that Rocks the Ladle likes the venue but not the food, and there are other mixed experiences on to taste is divine, Yewenyi and Opining, Whining & Dining.

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Bloodwood
416 King St, Newtown NSW
(02) 9557 7699
desserts $9-26
http://www.bloodwoodnewtown.com/

Accesibility: Entry requires two half-steps up and an about-turn (see photo above) and the interior is generally crowded, although the main passageway is clear. We perched at a high bar, where we received full table service and didn't see the main restaurant area. We didn't visit the toilets either, but apparently they're unisex.

Sadhana Kitchen

February 2, 2013

Before we headed to N2 for gelato, Cindy and I had traipsed all over the Sydney CBD trying to find an Iku store that would sell us a light lunch to justify dessert. Turns out that they're all closed on the weekends, leaving us with no option but to swap things around: dessert first and lunch second. With a load of ice cream on board and a 12 course dinner ahead of us, we knew we had to aim for something healthy. Enter Sadhana Kitchen - a raw vegan cafe based in a yoga studio that was conveniently located between Newtown train station and our pre-dinner nap.

Being both a raw-vegan cafe and a yoga place, Sadhana was always going to lather on the spirituality pretty thick - you'll need to skim past the 'prana' and 'chi' and ignore some of the flakier health claims. But it's worth it, because the menu is great - loads of healthy juices and smoothies (healthy, not cleansing or able to build stamina), coffee, heaps of herbal teas (which had me wondering - are coffee/tea technically raw?) and a whole pile of breakfast and lunch dishes. Plus sweets!

Cindy perused the breakfast options, passing up the banana coconut pancakes (with 'superfood caramel sauce', whatever that is, $15.50) and settling for the Sadhana Kitchen granola (buckwheat, goji berries, cacao nibs, crushed walnut and shredded coconut with almond/rice/soy/oat milk, $9.50, or $14.50 for a large bowl). Cindy went with almond milk on her granola, which is 50c extra.

They load the granola up with fresh berries and banana, so you can't really see the mix itself above. It was light and crunchy, with plenty of chew to it (even with the milk on it), and Cindy was particularly happy to get the distinct taste of the cacao nibs shining through.

I weighed up the raw pad thai ($15.50) or the lasagne ($15.50), but eventually decided to try the tejas tacos (served with walnut mince, salsa, guacamole and house-fermented sour cream, $15.50).

Of course, they look nothing like tacos. But the walnut mince and gaucamole combo were fantastic - the rich, spicy 'mince' and the cooling avo, with a mild salsa and the intriguing 'sour cream', which was quite pasty, and most likely based on cashews. I was really impressed - even the salad dressing in the middle worked with all the other components. I was also a bit worried - this 'light' lunch was actually pretty substantial, I was glad our dinner booking wasn't until 8.

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Sadhana Kitchen has been raved about by thisisliz, angie gluten free, div forever, Keith Kempis, Dear Asparagus, Saya's Soulful, what do you eat then!?, Not Quite Nigella and Live to Eat Life. 

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Sadhana Kitchen
76a Wilford Street, Enmore (in Jivamukti Yoga)
(02) 9516 1334

breakfasts $9.50-$15.50, lunches $10.50-$15.50

http://www.sadhanakitchen.com/

Accessibility: There is a flat entryway, into a pretty crowded interior. Ordering and payment is at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher

23/05/2013: News on Spoon's facebook page suggests that they're no longer operating at this location. There'll soon be another vegan cafe in the shopfront! Thanks to @cookiedaux & @Zuckerbaby for the update.

February 1, 2013

I had a good work excuse to be in Sydney for a week at the start of February and I managed to talk Cindy into coming up early with me and spending a long-weekend eating our way through the inner-west. We got in about lunch time, dumped our bags and headed straight down to Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher on Enmore Road.

Spoon's is a mock-meat place selling their own range of products (sausages, schnitzels, pies, burgers and seitan bits), alongside a handful of other mock-meat goodies, loads of sauces and a few other bits and pieces. The best part? They've fitted it all out like an old school butcher - right down to the cow head on the wall and the fake grass in the cabinet. It's pretty special.

They also have a fish and chip style front section, with a grill and a small menu of made to order goodies. There are a couple of burgers, a BLT, two variations on sausages in bread and a handful of sides. As soon as I saw them, I knew Cindy was going to order the Kentucky-style tofu nuggets ($4.50).

We couldn't help comparing them to Cindy's invented KFC tofu, and these probably didn't quite measure up. They were still pretty great though, crispy and coated in Spoon's own secret herbs and spices, served with a sweet mayo-type dipping sauce.

For mains, Cindy ordered the BLT (smokey rasher, tomato, lettuce and mayo, $10).

I'm not sure if the bacon is made in house - it certainly wasn't the usual Sanitarium-style rasher. Cindy commented that it was very much at the charred, crispy end of bacon imitation, quite different to the usual fakers.

I went for the schnitzel burger, which comes with the old-school accompaniments of tomato, beetroot, onion and mayo. I added a slice of vegan cheese for an extra buck.

This was exceptional - the schnitzel had the perfect texture, with a crumby exterior and a chewy patty. The flavours are good too - meaty, oniony and hearty. 

After watching a customer buy a brownie and then return in 5 minutes to buy another, Cindy grabbed one on the way out. It turned out to be banana flavoured, so I didn't give it a try - it was pretty popular with Cindy though.

I really enjoyed our visit to Spoon's - the faithful recreation of a suburban butcher takes a nice little vego place and kicks it up to something really fun. Spoon's seems to be doing pretty well too - they had a steady stream of customers while we were in and they're even getting positive reviews in the tabloid press. We've taken some schnitzels and sausages home to try out for ourselves - keep an eye on twitter for updates! A happy note for all of our Melbourne readers - Radical Grocery have started shipping some of Spoon's mock-meats down to Melbourne, so you can soon pick them up locally.

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miscdebris, Mama Shaz and Baby Pickle, Veggies & Me, Meet the Wikos, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry, easy as (vegan) pie and Like a Vegan all have nice things to say about Spoon's (both the hot food and the take home goodies).

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Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher
175 Enmore Road, Enmore
(02) 9029 8990
hot dishes $8-$10.50
facebook page and website for ordering

Accessibility: There's a small step up on entry. Ordering takes place at the butcher's counter, and you grab your food from a high counter near the fryer. The seating (some of which is at street level out the front) is pretty limited and mostly low stools.