Bread & Circus Wholefoods Canteen

Cafes and restaurants that serve traditional wholefoods properly prepared are few and far between in Sydney. Bread & Circus wholefoods canteen in Sydney's inner west, owned and operated by Amanda Bachara, stands out as a shining beacon in Sydney's wholefoods scene. Don't let the name fool you into thinking that it's bread-focused or that acrobatic shenanigans are afoot.

I lunched there with close friend and natropath Anthia Koullouros a couple of months ago and was thoroughly impressed. Anthia goes so far to say that this canteen offers "the best breakfasts in Sydney". High praise indeed from one of Australia's wholefood gurus.

The canteen shares a space with a local coffee shop in a huge light airy warehouse befitting of Alexandria. Long communal tables, mountains of fresh produce whenever you turn and gorgeous table centre pieces create a beautifully decorated fresh colourful space.

I interviewed Amanda about her food ethos for the canteen with my standard pesky questions:

Q. Do u use any industrialised vegetable oils in your store eg canola oil, vegetable oil, cottonseed, rice bran etc

A. only unrefined olive oil and organic butter used

Q. What is the provenance of the meat, eggs, dairy  and produce that you serve?

A.  The beef is grass fed from GRUB [Grass Roots Urban Butchery].

The  chicken is organic and free range.

The eggs are free range and biodynamic.

The milk is organic.

The yoghurt and ricotta are biodynamic. Other cheeses such as blue vein and parmesan are authentic and expensive and come from places that follow very traditional practices but not necessarily labelled as certified organic etc.

The  all juicing fruits, and most other fruits are organic.

The vegetables are about 50/50 organic/conventional.  I go for the best/cleanest tasting product. The best tomatoes I've tried aren't organic, so we use them.

Q. What are your desserts sweetened with? 

A. rapadura sugar , brown rice syrup, raw honey, demarara etc. No white sugar anywhere.

Q.  I note that there are grains in the menu (which all restaurants serve). Are any of your grains properly prepared eg sourdough bread, soaked, sprouted etc?

A. pancake grains are soaked and the oats and nuts for smoothies and porridge are soaked. We do not soak farro and other grains.

Q. How often does the menu change?

A. We make the menu up in the morning and start cooking it right away. Click here to see the daily menu. I ordered the large sharing plate of a mix of all of the salads with a side of grilled haloumi (I am Cypriot after all!)

To drink, Bread & Circus offers filtered (reverse osmosis) water, extensive range of exotic organic teas, dandy lattes, cold pressed juices and more recently coffee.

Opened in November 2011, Bread & Circus is open 7 days from 7am-4pm.

I highly recommend Bread & Circus for breakfast or lunch (from noon). Plus it's very kid friendly.

Contact Details: Shop 2, 21 Fountain Street, Alexandria. ph (02) 9698 2939. You can check it out or Like the canteen on Facebook here.

Have you been to Bread & Circus? What did you think?

The Hill Eatery - restaurant review

I've eaten at The Hill Eatery in North Bondi about half a dozen times since it opened mid 2012 and have been impressed each time. I'd describe the food as traditional wholesome Mediterranean fare. Source and processing: What I find refreshing is that this is one of the very few restaurants in Sydney that expresses an interest in the source and processing of their food (and not just taste and presentation). As stated on their menu:

"Our produce is sourced in an ethical manner with a strong emphasis on farm to plate. We are believers in knowing the provenance of our food we serve to you in order to understand how it was reared or grown and treated between the farm and your plate. "

I LOVE that they only use olive oil in their cooking to the exclusion of vegetable oils other than the duck fat potatoes which, most regrettably, are cooked in a combination of duck fat and vegetable oil  (why they don't just use duck fat to cook the potatoes remains one of life's greatest mysteries as well as tragedies...). If there are deep-fried food on their menu (which was the case over winter) these will be cooked in vegetable oils so avoid those.

I also LOVE that the meats are from locally sourced farms where the animals are grass-fed (as opposed to grain-fed) and hence more nutritional, ethical and sustainable.

I was told that the fresh produce is locally sourced and in substance is grown according to organic principles (eg unsprayed) even if not technically certified organic.

What's currently on the menu: The menu changes seasonally. Tonight we ordered a selection of the small share plates (a la Spanish tapas style)  including lamb kofta, mushrooms wrapped in jamon iberico, grilled chorizo, grazing plate (of anchovies, gherkins, brazilian peppers, olives and sourdough bread), whole grilled prawns with sauce, heirloom carrots with labne cheese (priced at $9-14 each). The salad of broccoli, garden peas, spinach with mint and parmesan is my favourite side ($12). The pasta is made on the premises. Currently there are share plates for 2 people of seafood paella ($45) or roast whole lamb rump ($45). The big plates include Black Angus beef fillet  ($33), slow cooked Berkshire pork belly ($33) and lentil and kefalograviera moussaka with Greek salad ($24). Gluten-free and dairy-free options are specifically noted on the menu. There is a seafood section of  bowl of prawns ($24), grilled whiting with fennel salad ($26) and grilled salmon ($26). (Side note- virtually all salmon sold in Australian restaurants is farmed so I avoid this as an option due to what farmed salmon are fed and the appalling conditions in which they live).

I've never ordered the dessert but currently on the menu is a dark chocoalte tart with salted caramel, peanuts and vanilla gelato ($12), passionfruit posset with coconut tapioca and mango icecream ($12) and seasonal fruit popsicle on a stick (dairy-free) ($8).

I've been more impressed with the Hill's dinner menu than their brunch menu (the latter being a little too grain-heavy for me but there's still a few non-grain breakfast/lunch options for people like).

Taste: The food is always delicious. In particular the small plates and the main of slow cooked Berkshire pork belly never disappoint. A mate, Randall, said "that was one of the best meals I've ever had!" (and from a Melbournian, this stands for A LOT!)

Meal portions:  fair to smallish. If you're an athlete or super hungry this might not be the place to dine, but for the average wholefoodie like me the size of the meals is nothing to complain about.

Price: On the whole I think the Hill is fair value for what you get. Tonight's bill came to $153 for 4 people including alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks,  so $38 per person - which I think is pretty good value. Another time it came to $50 per head - 'tho that time a lot more alcohol was consumed :-)

Wine: all Australian wines are either organic or bio-dynamic. Tonight I had a couple glasses of the savingnon blanc which was delightful.

Atmosphere: It's got a earthy Bondi feel - sophisticated yet casual, warm and cosy, yet light and breezy. Rustic floor boards, poppies in tin pots, Turkish kilms on walls, dark wood panelling, tables inside and outside on pavement.

Bookings: On Friday nights it's jammed packed with a throng of Eastern suburbs beauties and unless you have a booking you might be relegated to eating at the bar which is not necessarily a bad option. On weeknights and at 6pm it's quiet which can be a good option if dining with kids.  If North Bondi Italian down the road is full (as it often is) this is a great Plan B. No bookings required for weekday lunches. Just walk in.

Staff: super friendly (even if half the time they need to check back with the chef if you're pesky enough like me to ask questions about the menu). Not super attentive but, hey, I have to remind myself that I now live in Sydney and not Melbourne ;-)

Address: Shop 5, 39 Campbell Pde, North Bondi

Contact details: ph 9130 2200. www.thehilleatery.com

Opening hours:  Monday- Friday from 12 noon for lunch. Weekends open from 8am for breakfast. Dinner 6-10pm.

Have you eaten at The Hill Eatery? What did you think? If you go, let me know what you think. 

Hunting and gathering at Kingsley's Meats

When I walked into Kingsley's Meats a couple of weeks for the first time, I was immediately struck by the stylish, warm and cosy interior, very befitting of the Rose Bay village shops which it is nestled into. Headed up by Joel (ex-Hudson's Meats) and the familiar faces of Mark and Troy (ex GRUB), I found the staff super friendly and helpful from the start.

Here you will find an abundance of grass fed and finished meats, pastured chickens and pork, all from various local farms. One wall is lined with various jars and condiments and the freezer is stocked with organ meats (brains, chicken livers, black pudding), bones for stock making, limited dairy, pies and Careme puff pastry.

But proceed with caution: Don't expect that ALL of the meats and products will be pasture fed and finished and free of grains and preservatives. If these factors matter to you (and they do to me) then the key is that you will have to ASK! There's a subset of products there that I wouldn't buy eg cocktail Frankfurt sausages, grain-fed wagyu, rice flour based sausages, pastry, pies and probably most if not all of the visually enticing condiments that grace the shelf. When I questioned Joel on why he stocks these less than super nutritious products he replied that he is servicing a market, and that many of his customers in the local vicinity expect and demand these types of products. Ok, so not everyone has the same standards of nutrition as I do.  I get and respect that. At the end of the day Joel is running a business and has to pay rent and cover other expenses. I appreciate that while I only make and sell products that I am proud of my family and I (and my customers) consuming, for others this may not be a commercial reality. What I DO admire about Kingsley's Meats is:

(a) the staffs' knowledge of their products and their complete honesty and transparency in their source and processing. For example, they will NOT hide the fact that some of the products contain preservatives or that the wagyu is grain-fed etc

(b) the staffs' willingness to tailor a product to meet the customer's standards (e.g. they will happily make grain-free sausages if you pre-order 5kg and divi up between friends) and they will happily order in less than popular (but nutrient-dense) meats on an ad hoc basis on request (eg lambs brains, chook feet for making gelatinous chicken broth etc).

From the couple of times I have been there I walked out with armfuls of very reasonably priced chicken feet, chicken livers, beef cutlets, eye fillet and black pudding (the black pudding- traditional pork blood sausages- was amazing sliced then pan fried in beef tallow .... tasted like a super flavoursome sausage! Left over pieces were thrown into kids school lunches which they devoured).

I commend Joel and his team for establishing this little gem where we can purchase pastured meats and (often hard to source) organ meats.

Contact details are: 22 Plumer Road, Rose Bay (ph 9363 4971). Closed Sundays.

Kingsleys Meats are in the process of setting up a wesbite but in the meantime you can Like them on Facebook here.

Have you been to Kingsley's Meats? What did you think of it?