Yes, another meet up. Ooh yes, Trish has been busy all along. So I really have no excuse not to post anything here.

This week of foodbloggers meet up seemed to revolve around Damian Heads’ two Sydney restaurants, Steel Bar & Grill and Pony Lounge & Dining. Both dinners were organised by separate parties, and both attended by different people (with the common denominator being me, of course), but I just find it amusing and interesting that I somehow found myself dining at both venues on the same week!

Ahh but I’m digressing again. Back to Pony.

Pony Lounge & Dining

Glass of wine with the Sunset Feast

It was wonderful to meet the faces behind the foodblogs, and catching up with a few of them again is a rare and treasured occasion. Special mention to Kath of A Cupcake or Two for organising this fun-filled evening!

We specifically made the booking early to take advantage of the Sunset Feasts special. What we found out though was that 1 hour and 45 minutes wasn’t enough for a table of giggling, photo-taking, babbling foodbloggers. Ah well… we just talk too much!

Entrees

Tasting plate of wood fire grilled vegetables, chorizo, & skordalia

This was my entree, and it was smokin’ hot! I love savoury dishes and although I’d like a bit more heat with the chorizo, the  grilled vegetables were surely tasty!

Lettuce wraps with barbecue chicken skewers, Cajun salsa, and creme fraiche

I only managed to get a bit of the chicken, but from what I’ve tasted, the chicken meat was nice and tender and went well with the cajun salsa and creme fraiche.

Spaghetti, asparagus, hand pounded pesto, pecorino

Did not get to taste this one but from the looks of it, it was quite a plateful of pasta.

Mains

Tasmanian salmon, salad of pickled beetroot, orange, mint and fetta

I had salmon as my mains from the dinner in Steel Bar a few days beforehand, so I gave the salmon I miss. Unfortunately I did not get to taste this but according to Trissa, it was quite good. I love the addition of oranges to the salmon dishes that I’ve come across so far – this must be a Damian Heads favourite.

Salad of twice cooked duck, spinach, pear and hazelnuts

Ahhh the duck. Let’s all pause for a moment for the duck.

[PAUSE]

This dish was so beautiful that I didn’t want the whole dining experience to end. The skin was cooked to crispy perfection, the meat tender, and there were bits of duck meat in the salad. It’s just perfection. It truly was.

Minute steak of angus eye fillet, shoe string fries, red wine sauce

Minute steaks tend to be tough, dry, and usually tasteless. But not this one – the meat was incredibly moist and tasty, and two thumbs up for the shoe string fries too.

Desserts

Individual pavlova, double cream, pistachio crunch and strawberry

Another pavlova dessert! This was a lovely plate of dessert, but because we had to be out by 7:45 we just quickly gobbled down the desserts and hence had no time dissecting the tastes and texture. It was a good pavlova though!

Macadamia tart, salted caramel, vanilla mascarpone

This was a wonderful dessert – I couldn’t stop myself with this one. I love macadamias and the ones on this dish were just perfectly crunchy but still tender. The vanilla mascarpone complimented the salted caramel well – overall a nice balance of sweet and saltiness.

Speaking of sweet, guess what were the sweetest gestures of the night? Betty’s oh so divine brownies with dulce de leche and Kath’s goody bags!

Go ahead... tell me your jealous!

Look at that dulce de leche centred brownies!

Dulce de leche innards

Foodbloggers in attendance:

Kath of A Cupcake or Two

Betty and Richard of Betty’s Bites

Trissa of Trissalicious

Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella

…

Sunset Feasts – 2 courses $35, 3 courses $45 (all with a glass of wine or beverage)

Pony Lounge & Dining

10 Playfair St The Rocks NSW 2000

Ph (02) 9252 7797