Lakemba is well known for its amazing Lebanese eateries (like Jasmins) but there’s more to this fascinating multicultural hub than baklava and hommus. One of the most unique places on the bustling Haldon Street strip is Island Dreams Cafe, specialising in Christmas and Cocos Islands cuisine. These remote islands are territories of Australia and located in the Indian ocean – Christmas Island just south of Jakarta and the Cocos Islands half way between Western Australia and Sri Lanka.

The food from the islands is heavily influenced by Malaysian cuisine (with a dash of Chinese and Indonesian) so there’s nasi lemak, beef rendang, curry puffs and chicken curry (on the bone) on the menu. Lemon chilli chicken is another specialty, and on the day we visited there was a stirfried liver dish too. It’s cheap and cheerful home style cooking at its best, with a choice of two dishes and rice at $8.50 with a beyond enormous serving size. The rendang is rich and not overly spicy – it’s hearty, warming food definitely served with love.

The drinks here are major drawcards too (just ask the bunch of regulars hanging out the front on the pavement), from teh tarik to a large range of coffees from the typical to the traditional – think sweetened with condensed milk. I loved their delicious falooda style rose syrup based shake flecked with basil seeds, and there was a coconut consumed too (Saigon flashbacks!). I felt very welcomed and at home here, and just a little bit wistful for an exotic, tropical escape.

Bau Truong stands out like a beacon of cool design in a suburb awash with delicious but aesthetically challenged Vietnamese restaurants. A cool turquoise and yellow theme pervades the otherwise moody, dark interior, there’s a loft level creating a great feeling of space and a cool warrior-like wall mural dominates. The restaurant is the third in a series of Bau Truongs – the others are mainstays of the Cabramatta and Canley Heights eating scenes.

Fortunately the food here matches its superior surrounds, with the menu featuring Vietnamese cuisine with a focus on the country’s south and some dishes offering a nod to the owners Vietnamese-Chinese heritage. There’s a ‘tapas’ like menu featuring snacks from bo la lot to banh xeo and fresh spring rolls, then a large menu with soups, stews, grilled meats and more…lots more! Note to parents: the soft shell crab with tamarind sauce is the perfect kid-friendly food – crunchy fried batter, easy to eat, tasty but chilli-less (and there’s highchairs, and they open at 5pm for dinner so you can get your not so date-ish date night on).

Bau Truong, 185 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, tel: 02 9569 4938I loved their salt and pepper squid, one of their more Chinese influenced dishes. Covered in a tasty mix of shallot and chilli it also comes with a bowl of salt, pepper and lemon for dipping. There are wines by the glass for a reasonable $8 or so and there’s delicious Angry Man beer by Murray’s Brewing Co. Basically, it ticks all the boxes for a family-friendly dining destination with gorgeous decor and amazing food. Did I mention it’s in my neighbourhood too?!

Also at:
42 John Street, Cabramatta, tel: 02 9727 4492
250 Canley Vale Road, Canley Heights, tel: 02 9755 7099

Rather than pre-mixed, their yoghurt comes plain with a layer of fruit mixture at the bottom (the taste test winner was the passionfruit). The yoghurt itself is labne-like in texture with its liquid strained – luxuriously thick and creamy but surprisingly fat free, with some flavours at 2%. You’d never guess this was the case though. It’s textural trickery at its best!

As for my favourite way to eat yoghurt, this is what I do to convince myself I’m having a sweet treat when it’s actually healthy (clever – I know!):

• a bowl of Greek yoghurt
• a handful of frozen blueberries & raspberries
• a handful of roasted almonds
• 1 dessertspoon of shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon of rosewater

Add toppings to yoghurt and voila! A dessert worthy of a healthy eating new year’s resolution.

P.S. If you’re wondering where to find Chobani it’s currently retailing at Woolworths’ stores throughout Sydney at $2.29 a pop.

Double Roasters is one of the latest cafes to grace the burgeoning Marrickville cafe scene, already home to SMH’s cafe of the year Coffee Alchemy, a Bourke Street Bakery outlet, kid friendly Post Cafe and a gazillion others.

Double Roasters has it’s own brand of coffee roasted on-site, and features exposed beams and industrial chic decor. The crowd is a typical inner-west mix of 20 to 40 something hipsters, students and families. On the plus side, the brunch and lunch offerings are simple and delicious and generally under $10, with most hitting the very purse friendly $7.50 mark. The coffee is delicious and smooth, albeit mild in flavour.

On the downside there are no highchairs for the hipster babies (though there are colouring books – tick) and the service can be a little erratic when they’re busy. All is forgiven though for luscious poached eggs and sauted mushrooms totally hitting the Sunday brunch-lusting spot. Bonus points for big bunches of hydrangeas and cool industrial light pendants – think Doug up on Bourke, with coffee and food.

Double Roasters, 199 Victoria Rd, Marrickville, tel: 02 9572 7711, www.doubleroasters.com

The new incarnation of Restaurant Arras – the mod Brit turned modern European fine diner, which is on the site of the old Becasse, which was the old Edna’s Table, which is where we got engaged!

The vibe:
Luxuriously cool, with chairs upholstered in striped Paul Smith fabric; large, spaced out tables on two levels and a palette of cool icy whites with a splash of colour found in the wall mural. It’s decadent yet modern, and the atmosphere is that of special occasions – like date nights.

The eats:
A 9 course degustation menu of amazingly creative, colourful dishes, from nettle tartar with a quail egg (one of my favourite dishes of the meal) to pork belly with whey puree and crackling, a crab san choi bau, a deconstructed tuna nicoise, lamb with eggplant, scallop and squid, whiting with broad beans and some amazing desserts – white asparagus with goats cheese and white chocolate, and the visually playful cinematic souffle, featuring a popcorn souffle in a copper pot, popcorn icecream, a burst open bag of, you guessed it, popcorn, with a jug of caramel sauce to douse it all in. If that wasn’t enough to top off an amazing meal there was more to come – Arras’ famed hot pink perspex tray laden with chocolates, lollies, candies and other miniature sweets. Despite it being an all you can eat affair we could only muster the room for a few, sampling the honeycomb, mint chocolate and licorice lollipop.

The verdict: 
A perfect dining destination for great service, amazing wines and creative cuisine. We loved everything about our experience at Arras from the helpful and knowledgeable staff (who recommended a great Greek wine from Santorini – something we’d never think of ordering) to the ultimate indulgent dessert, the popcorn cinematic souffle, plus a whole lot of delicious eats in between. It’s a little wallet denting, but worth it for a splurgey meal (any excuse will do!).

P.S. Restaurant Arras was reviewed in this week’s SMH Good Living. If you missed it, it got a deservedly big thumbs up and earned 15/20.

Restaurant Arras, 204 Clarence Street, Sydney, tel: 02 9283 1922, www.restaurantarras.com.au

Update: Arras is now closed.

Inside iberry

On our holiday in Chiang Mai last month I had to check out icecream mecca and Thai hipster haunt iberry Garden, owned by Thai artist and comedian Udom and home to some quirky decorative drawcards.

I used to rattle on about my love for iberry in my old blog A Girl in Asia quite a bit. In case you missed it – iberry is a Thai ice-cream chain with the most amazing array of icecream and sorbet flavours, from the Asian inspired (mangosteen, tamarind, salted plum, rambutan, spicy green mango…) to more traditional but equally luscious numbers of the chocolate/hazelnut/caramel variety. And then there’s ‘banana and cheese’.

The dog statue dominating the garden

Another of iberry Garden’s quirky touches

The garden at the Chiang Mai branch houses an enormous yellow dog festooned with hanging colourful lanterns in the tree above, while on one side of the cafe is a cartoon like head. It supposedly resembles the owner and you can stick your head inside and pose in it for souveniry snaps. The usual array of iberry’s icecream flavours are there with some seasonal additions for good measure. This time I sampled pomegranate plus mocha almond fudge (not seasonal, just ridiculously lush).

Weirdly, we ran into someone my husband went to school with while there – what are the chances?! Have you ever randomly run into anyone you know while travelling?

iberry Garden, Siri Mangkalajarn Road, off Nimmanhaemin Rd Soi 17, Chiang Mai, Thailand, www.iberryhomemade.com
Open 10.30am until 10pm daily

L to R: Jackfruit salad, Chiang Mai sausage, Northern Thai chicken curry

The culinary highlight of our recent Chiang Mai stay was definitely Huen Phen, which specialises in northern Thai or ‘Lanna’ cuisine.

By day, the front part of the restaurant serves up rustic yet tasty local fare like the area’s famed ‘khao soi’ chicken noodle curry dish, and by night, the kitschy Thai decor-packed back room opens. There’s an opulent teak daybed, hanging bells, red lacquered urns and much, much more bedecking every nook and cranny of the restaurant, like a rustic Thai market stall come to life.

After the initial distraction of the decidedly maximalist interior, our attention turned to the all important food. The menu helpfully points out the restaurant’s particular specialities and it’s all mouthwateringly enticing. We stick with the most regional sounding dishes on the menu – Chiang Mai sausage (pork with a delicious blend of fragrant Thai herbs and served with fried kaffir lime leaves – yum!), a northern Thai chicken curry (coconut milk free which is the northern style, but a bit heavy on the fish sauce), a jackfruit salad, sticky rice and a mindblowingly amazing spicy pork and chilli dip, accompanied by fresh green beans and cucumber sticks. Savoury, spicy perfection!

Pork and chilli dip – our favourite dish at Huen Phen

Huen Phen, 112 Rachamankha Road, Chiang Mai, tel: 66 53 277 103

The destination:
We headed to Enmore’s The Sultan’s Table for Turkish delights (of the savoury kind) on a whim after nearby Faheem’s Fast Food was found to be closed. Our cravings for something spicy and subcontinental were overcome once we saw the delicious spread inside The Sultan’s Table, a Turkish kebab shop and eat-in restaurant serving up pides, kebabs, dips, charcoal grilled meats and lots of vegetarian treats (vine leaves, stuffed capsicums and more).

The vibe: 
The Sultan’s Table initially looks like just another Sydney kebab shop (with a slightly more enticing array of food on display), but out the back is a simple covered terrace to sit and the food (and charming service) is anything but ordinary.

The eats:
First up, we had a plate of dips (hummous, baba ganoush and beetroot) and Turkish bread fresh from the oven – a significant serving size for a ‘small’ which could have been lunch in itself. Each of the dips were delicious but the beetroot was our pick. The zucchini fritters we tried were a little dry and uninspiring, but the charcoal grilled chicken shish kebab more than compensated. It actually had a similar texture and taste to chicken cooked in the tandoor, minus the spices.

The verdict:
Ultra friendly staff, amazingly fresh bread and moreish dips. It’s not a visually inspiring restaurant, but like many good places to eat it’s all about the food.

Sultan’s Table, 179 Enmore Road, Enmore, tel: 02 9557 0229

The destination:
Small bar and restaurant The Owl House, which was recently named best bar with food by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide. Set in a converted Crown Street terrace near William Street, it mixes a killer cocktail and wine list with a highly enticing food menu spanning influences from Japan to Spain and beyond. (Tip – small wine bar Love Tilly Devine is just around the corner, the perfect place for pre-drink drinks!).

The vibe:
Dark, cozy, intimate and friendly – most of the clientele when we visited were on low-key dates or double dates. The staff were super friendly, even conjuring up a coveted upstairs table for us when it was supposedly full. With its old fireplace and narrow confines, the upstairs room evoked memories of inner city house parties circa the late 90s – homely yet eclectic!

The eats:
We ordered a selection of non-cohesive but nonetheless amazing dishes, starting with the chorizo and manchego croquettes (comfort food at its best) and the fresh oysters with a ‘cloud’ of tequila, lemon, lime and soda – fresh and effervescent! For entree we had the sashimi of bonito with wasabi and cucumber emulsion, daikon, soy dashi jelly and miso cured shizo, and the quail dumpling with crispy pig’s tail, black pudding, scallop congee, shitake mushrooms, coriander and chilli. The quail dumpling dish trumped the sashimi with its interesting combination of ingredients and full flavours. The pig’s tail was crispy and delectable, and the blood pudding a revelation for this first-timer (tastes like chorizo!).

Next, we had the confit lamb shoulder with white eggplant puree, garlic, olives and sweetbreads – the tender lamb was melt in your mouth and as for the sweetbreads, these offputting sounding little morsels were fried balls of crunchy goodness, and it was easy to overlook that they are actually offal! We also had the Blackmore wagyu skirt with crumbed osso bucco, bone marrow, cavollo nero, polenta, spring onions and preserved lemon – beef perfection. There was a limited dessert selection (a cheese board and two sweet offerings) so we opted for gelato and macchiatos around the corner at Bill and Toni’s instead – old school!

The verdict:
Fun, casual bolthole with an unpretentious atmosphere and amazing food and wine – there’s good reason for their SMH award!

The Owl House, 97 Crown Street, Darlinghurst, tel: 02 9357 5060, www.theowlhouse.com.au