recommendations, east sydney

I've been working at my current office for over a year now, and have discovered the following gems tucked around the "East Sydney" (still not a suburb according to Australia Post) region:

Kakawa Chocolates, 147 William Street - I think I first read about it in one of those free city magazines that get handed out at train stations, and it caught my eye because it stocks $5 ice cream sandwiches. Not really the weather for those now, but I picked up some chocolate coated macadamias and chocolate covered meringues when I dropped in the other day. Would love to try the green tea praline next time.

Miss Chu's, 1/150 Bourke Street, just off William Street - the rice paper rolls will set you back $6 per serve, but they're definitely a step up from the 2 boxes for $5 rolls you can get from Hunter Connection in the city after 3pm. They were a big hit at our Christmas picnic in the park last year.

Bar Reggio, 135 Crown Street - for the trecolore pizza, although my colleague always goes for the Australiana (bacon and eggs)...

Big Boy Thai, 82 Stanley Street - call them up to place your order and it'll be ready before you leave the office to collect it.

Lord Roberts Hotel, corner Stanley and Riley Streets - great rooftop, huge lunch specials, my friend gets cravings for their skinnier-than-Maccas chips.

East Sydney Hotel, corner Cathedral and Crown Streets - the pub with no pokies! Yay.

Other regular haunts: Toby's Estate for mid-morning pick-me-ups, Sweet Infinity for mid-afternoon pick-me-ups, Verde, La Mint and Just Another Restaurant for special occasion lunches.

As much as I bemoaned the food choices around here when I first started, it's really grown on me. I'll miss it when I move on in October.

harry's cafe de wheels, woolloomooloo

Ever had a craving that you couldn't shake?

It happens to me all too much for a non-pregnant person. Recent culprits have been the KFC tower burger, chatime roasted milk tea with grass jelly and soy crisps (to the point I trawled each city supermarket for them, and then discovered a bulk source through the Nut Galore at World Square. Dangerous!)

What gets me every time is how specific the craving is, so absolutely nothing else will do. That's the dilemma I faced this morning after my work friend mentioned that she had a hot dog from Harry's the other day. The OCD part of my brain instantly started chanting, "hot dog hot dog hot dog".

I tried to resist, truly. But after seeing the glorious weather outside (begone, humidity!) and checking that it was only 1km from my office to the holy grail I set forth.

I first went to Harry's on a rainy, rainy night with chapflap early on in our relationship. That time, I managed to drop my hot dog on the floor of his car. This time, I kept a firm grip on my hot dog with veggies, and decided that it could possibly be my perfect food - carbs on carbs, rapidly consumable and most importantly, comes with mustard...

A veggie hot dog will set you back only $5.20, but you get this million dollar view.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Cowper Wharf Road

Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

(02) 9357 3074

You can get more information here

dong ba, cabramatta

A return visit yesterday following our discovery of this treasure on Valentine's Day. The plates of lettuce/ bean sprouts they provide for your pho/ other chosen noodle are enough to feed a small child. I love the duck and bamboo shoot rice noodles at the bargain basement price of $9. The duck comes on a separate plate, ready to be enjoyed on its vinegary own or dunked in the garlic sauce. The soup comes with an added bonus of a couple of blocks of 豬紅 (coagulated pig's blood), but you can always pick those out.

This time, we also tried the special pho, spanner crab and grilled fish noodles, spring roll vermicelli and pig's knuckle noodles. Only disappointment was that the coffee didn't come with the traditional drip-drip gadget that I invariably make a mess with. Plenty of condensed milk though to cut through the savoury soup goodness.

Finished the afternoon off with an avocado shake from the Thai place in the pedestrian mall (don't know the name sorry... just that it features delicious fried snacks in the front). Apparently it took 3 avocados to make my regular sized drink. No wonder I didn't need dinner last night...

Dong Ba Restaurant
Shop 5, 117 John Street
Cabramatta NSW 2166

(02) 9723 0336

Open 7 days

Also at Shop 6, 40 Park Street, Cabramatta and 296 Chapel Road South, Bankstown

next lunch destination, city

After reading onebitemore's entry comparing the Olive and the Big Bite on Pitt, I ventured over to the very non-descript arcade on Pitt Street (easily identified though by the line threatening to snake out onto Pitt St) to attempt to conquer an entire sandwich for lunch. My smoked salmon (hold the tomato please, it'll just make my sandwich soggy for the next day's lunch) sandwich was delish but gigantic. Will need to return to the Olive once I make it back to being an inner city worker for comparison purposes.

Also spotted a new outlet of Taste Baguette on my wanderings - it's just been reviewed by he needs food and will save me from trekking over to Sussex Lane for my lemongrass beef baguette fix. Greatly distressed by the news that Taste is opening up at new usyd law school though - just a another kick in the guts after us 2008 grads had to put up with giant cockroaches, Cityrail-inspired air-conditioning (hot in summer, cold in winter) and that ever-present strange smell on level 5...

Big Bite on Pitt
250 Pitt Street (between Park and Market Streets)
Sydney NSW 2000

Open 7 days

Best way to jump the queue (without risking being stabbed by hungry officeworkers) - call ahead on (02) 9283 4700

Taste Baguette on Market Street
Corner of George and Market Streets (just abovethe escalators leading down to QVB from Myer)
Sydney NSW 2000

Open 7 days

Also at World Square and Foveaux Street in Surry Hills

karaoke, city

Karaoke. Love it or hate it, there's something quite cathartic about wailing Avril Lavigne into a microphone in a darkened room after too much whisky and green tea.

I've discovered during my relatively recent introduction to the sport (chess is a sport too, right?) that there's not a lot of information on the interwebs about Sydney karaoke establishments. Here's what I've experienced to date:

Karaoke World - 185 Elizabeth Street (near Sheraton on the Park) - (02) 9267 5011

My first karaoke experience took place in these hallowed halls. They actually do have a fairly comprehensive website, which is partly why I used them to book a room for my 21st (all the way back in 2007!) They don't seem to have upped their prices since then, at least on the website. This place provides books with codes for songs in them, if you prefer picking your songs that way, which I can't remember having seen anywhere else.

Big Echo - 104 Bathurst Street (next to Oporto, near corner with Pitt Street) - (02) 9283 2666

A favourite at my last workplace due to the $10 6-9pm happy hour (hours?) promotion, including free Asian drink (lychee water, anyone?). Oporto being next door is handy for those late-night munchies.

Viva - 210 Clarence Street (near QVB) - (02) 9283 7733

Another favourite at my last workplace as it ran the same $10 for 3 hours with drink promotion. Also was relatively lax with BYO until recently. Probably has the best selection of English songs along with Karaoke World of the Sydney karaoke places that I've been to. There's a Japanese grocery store (along with the excellent 100 yen shop!) across the road for snacks. Has also been recently refurbished and ran a Ladies' Night promotion where girls got in free on certain nights, but that's unfortunately ended now. Still wondering where you've heard of it before? A man died after a brawl there in December 2009.

Greenbox Plus - 591 George Street (near World Square) - (02) 9283 8806

The original Greenbox on Pitt Street is now a Japanese bbq restaurant called Shinara. Greenbox Mark II, named Greenbox Plus (edited 17/04/2010 - this place seems to now be just called Greenbox), is tucked away up one flight of stairs what appears to be a residential building. Probably the cleanest place I've been to, but has a reputation for being exxy - a group of 4 of us went for 2 hours on a Thursday night for $12 per person (Asian drink included). Not sure how much it is for Fridays/ Saturdays, which is when prices tend to go up for prime warbling space. (edited 17/04/2010 - a group of 8 of us went on a Friday night from 11am to 1am for $60 an hour, so $15 a person for the 2 hours. Not bad, but no Asian drink included).

Phoenix - 90 Hay Street (in the Chinatown pedestrian mall) - (02) 9211 1776

The only place I can remember that involves going up more than one flight of stairs for a k session. While that was fairly novel, we won't be returning here anytime soon. I've been told they've already cleaned it up a bit from the good old "hire a room complete with companions that will cater to your every need" days, but it was still pretty seedy last time we went. Plus, of course, someone got stabbed there in 2008.

CEO Karaoke - Basement (where else?), 1 Dixon Street - (02) 9283 7883

It has a website! A bit more upmarket than the others, being modelled on the chain of CEO karaokes in HK. Cleanliness on par with Greenbox Plus or thereabouts.

Mizuya - 614 George Street (near the Metro Theatre) - (02) 9266 0866

A relatively recent addition to the Sydney karaoke scene. A package for 10 people set us back $488, including all food and beverages up to that amount and 3 hours' room hire, which is alright value taking into account the range of food and drinks (if you eat/ drink more than the basic $488 amount, you just pay for the extra). The first place I've seen in Sydney with touch-screen song picking systems. Rooms were rectangular though which makes it harder to mingle.

All of the places seem to have cracked down on BYO, which definitely wasn't the case back when I first started going. But of course, going to karaoke isn't just incidental to the primary purpose of drinking, right..

Other places to try which I haven't been to myself: Redbox, Cashbox (? chapflap's not sure if this is still around),  K Square... actually I lie as I have been to K Square (Capitol Square building), just that I don't remember so much about it. Same with Echo Point that I've been to once only (apparently it's haunted).

Outside of the CBD there's Ding Dong Dang (Surry Hills), Swing Box (Neutral Bay - we only found out about this place on a late night visit to Maisy's... there was just a door which looked kind of freaky), Juju's (Kings Cross - a Japanese restaurant which has karaoke late at night... I've been for the food which was good)... let me know if you konw of any others!

on ramen, city

A lot of chapflap's and my meals seem to consist of noodles in soup.

Slight variation on a theme here then because this one features noodles in soup and duck, another one of my faves

I got the "On Ramen Bento" set for $18.80, so I got side dishes comprising of japanese cheese sausage (with mustard, yay!), 2 takoyaki with waving bonito flakes (hello to you too!), salmon sashimi on a bed of carrots (nice and fresh) and a salad with yummy dressing. I felt a bit like I was in a korean restaurant.

I added an egg for $2 too, but was saddened that it wasn't the runny yolk type that I like, which I always eat first when we go to Gumshara. The duck was lovely and moist though, and the soup not too salty

Chapflap had the seafood ramen

He also opted for the On Ramen bento set ($18.80), which include side dishes of 2 takoyaki balls, sashimi, salad and deliciously crunchy (but highly unphotogenic) soft shell crab

All that didn't leave him any room for dessert, I couldn't resist the fluorescence of this pandan ice cream from Passionflower (the bottom ice cream is sticky rice - 2 scoops in a cup for $6 take-away)

The service was pretty good too at On Ramen, so it's a more dignified setting for satisfying your ramen craving than Gumshara. Not as much collagen goodness though

On Ramen

Shop 4, 181-187 Hay Street
Haymarket 2000

Open 7 days, 11am to 10pm

(02) 9211 6663

Cash only, minimum order of $8 pp

adriano zumbo cafe, balmain

We've been a little behind the rest of the Sydney foodblog crowd in making it to Adriano Zumbo Cafe, but it's been worth the wait. The first time we went was Valentine's Day (awww), when we had the chocolate brownie and orange hot chocolate, both of which were delish. Picked up 2 lovely boxes of macarons from the Patisserie too. Speaking of macarons, chapflap picked up a box for me recently from St Germain Patisserie in Redfern on this recommendation. Yum.

Recently we headed back after a leisurely lunch at the Oaks in Neutral Bay (cook your own steak! Fun!) with friends. I had the 5-6-7-8:

Chapflap had Miss Marple Deconstructed:

While the Serial Monogamist enjoyed the La Vie En Rose (Antioxidant's Weekend in the Cross in the background... sorry, no photo of the trippy watermelon dust!):

And the Washingtonienne, It's Not a Hamburger:

If only parking in Balmain wasn't so expensive :(

Oaks Hotel
118 Military Road (cnr Ben Boyd Road)
Neutral Bay NSW 2089

Adriano Zumbo Cafe
Shop 5, 308 Darling Street
Balmain NSW 2040

Adriano Zumbo Patsserie
296 Darling Street
Balmain NSW 2040

St Germain Patisserie
88 Rosehill Street
Redfern NSW 2016

blog review: grabyourfork and notquitenigella

These are the two blogs that got me into the whole food blog thing in the first place, so it's only appropriate that they start off this new exciting adventure.

You can find grabyourfork here. What keeps me coming back is (a) I've met the lady behind the blog through bookcrossing and she's super lovely and (b) the incredible Stomach's Eleven feasts.

notquitenigella features lots of delicious recipes with super-cute photos, the likes of which I can only drool over rather than attempt myself, and glamorous international travels.

Enjoy!

blog addiction: tools of the trade

Here's a shameless plug for another google product - Google Reader. I subscribe to about 70 blogs at last count, and I've categorised them into little folders which I read daily in a specific order (just like I read my weekend paper. How could I ever bring myself to read News Review after Spectrum?) There are other things out there that I've never really got the hang of (StumbleUpon? Digg? Delicious?), so if anyone's willing to teach me, let me know!

time to teach an old blog a new trick?

During tipsy discussions with work friends last night, the subject of this blog came up. Yes, it's been neglected for a little while now, but actually not as long as I thought. I think I would like to keep it up, but perhaps take it in a different direction - there are so many food blogs out there already, all of which I love reading... what there doesn't appear to be is a catalog of what blogs are updated regularly. Granted, there are the grabyourfork's and jenius' lists, but I'd also like to share some other blogs which have helped me get through the daily grind.

So without much further ado, let's start!

sweet infinity, woolloomooloo

I will miss this beautiful bakery when I finish at my current job next year. Just wanted to alert everyone to the fact that they've started making one of my favourite things in the world - arancini, aka delicious rice balls. They make bolognaise, chicken and spinach and ricotta, all for the bargain basement price of $5 each. Haven't had the chance to try one yet because they were all sold out when I headed back to get one for lunch after spotting them on a morning macaroon run. My workmate liked her bolognaise one so much though that she went back for a chicken one in the afternoon!

Update 2 December 2009: finally got my hands on a spinach and ricotta arancini on my third attempt! Went at 10:30am on a Wednesday morning after being told at 11:30am on Tuesday that they didn't make them that day. It was worth the multiple attempts at procurement! Delicious!

Sweet Infinity
53 Riley St (near William Street)
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

(02) 9331 2448

Open 7am-4pm Mondays to Fridays
7am-1pm Saturdays

Get more information here

While you're there, check out the scrumptious cakes like the chocolate honeycomb cake (so want that for my birthday next year) and lemon meringue pies (available in snack and meal size...!) And they're donating all profits from sales on Saturday 5 December to the Sydney Children's Hospital (I read it in the Sun Herald, there doesn't seem to be anything up on their website about it). All the more reason for a visit :)

the chocolate room, city

Do we really need another chocolate cafe in the city? I would have to answer that with a resounding "yes" - we can never have too much chocolate, right? Spotted this place on the corner of Sussex and Bathurst Streets on our way to a movie. Apparently it's only been open for a week, and is the second Chocolate Room in Sydney (the other one's in Parramatta).

We had waffles for 2 ($14) and a iced hazlenut chocolate ($6) - 3 cakes of waffley goodness smothered in chocolate sauce and strawberries washed down with a frothy ferrero rocher-like drink. The iced chocolates come in 20 flavours, and I'm intrigued to find out what the difference is between iced chocolates and chocshakes (apart from the price - chocshakes are $7). Next time, I suppose...

Also picked up 3 individual "Spark" chocolates for $2 each. The shapes of the individual chocolates remind me of Boon, but the patterns aren't as fine.

Update 2 December 2009: the Spark chocolate lived up to its description of "an explosive finish"! It had pop rocks/ wizz fizz or something in it. Nice. The chocolate was a bit gooey though despite the weather cooling down recently - low melting point perhaps?

The Chocolate Room
298 Sussex St (corner with Bathurst St)
Sydney NSW 2000

(02) 9269 0004

Find out more here

Open 8:30am - 11pm every day

Also at Shop 11/15 Phillip St, Parramatta NSW 2150 (and in India!)

boon chocolates, darlinghurst

Boon Chocolates was recently featured in SMH and I've also seen it mentioned elsewhere on the web (for example on herecomesthefood). We went early on a Friday night before a late dinner and enjoyed the cosy atmosphere. There are only a few tables upstairs for eating in - it almost felt like sitting in someone's lounge room.

Hot chocolate is served with a deliciously light chocolate mousse and a praline. It was fairly dark upstairs so I didn't bother trying to photograph the drinks, but here's some shots of what we brought home:

Gift box of 5 pralines. I remember the pralines individually were $1.75, but I don't remember how much they were with the gift box and everything. Gift boxes of 8 and more also available.


One of these two chocolates is the Schubert, which features Earl Grey Tea. The other is the Jasmine, which has jasmine tea in it. Alex, who runs the place with his sister, told us that there's also a Mahler chocolate for the other classical music lovers out there. He named the Schubert because of how the flavour stays with you after you've finished it, just like Schubert's music.

Arabica, with coffee.

The gorgeous Janne, with rose.

Kurobiko, with rice crispies!!

The passion that Fanny has for the chocolates is really evident, especially in the elaborate perfume bottles made with chocolate that sit in the display drawers. It's worth dropping by just to see them.

Boon Chocolates
251 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

(02) 9356 8876

You can find more information here

Open Tuesdays and Wednesdays 12 midday to 8:30pm
Thursdays to Satudays 12 midday to 10:30pm
Sundays 12 midday to 7pm
Closed Mondays

Street parking available close by; note that the section of Victoria Street that Boon is on is a one way street

gia hoi vietnamese restaurant, city

This new Vietnamese place is where Saigon Village used to be, next to Pasteur on the southern end of George Street. It's actually a new outlet of a chain that's already in Canley Heights and South Bankstown, but I'm not sure if it's the same menu at all 3 stores.

We had a large special beef noodle soup ($10) and special vermicelli ($11), washed down with a longan drink ($3.50) and coconut juice ($3.50). All worth a try if you're in the area. The soup of the beef noodle was a bit oilier than our benchmark (Toan Thong in Flemington), but nice nevertheless.

I didn't take any photos of the food because at the time we were too hungry (argh, city traffic!) But here's the menu for reference... a lovely grandfatherly type man was standing at the front of the restaurant beckoning people in and told me to take one :) Click on each image for magnification to a readable size...

Gia Hoi Vietnamese Restaurant
711 George Street
Haymarket NSW 2000

(02) 9211 0221

Open 7 days 10am to 10pm

Also at 230 Canley Vale Road, Canley Heights NSW 2166
(02) 9723 7324

And 299 Chapel Road, South Bankstown NSW 2200
(02) 9796 3388

I think I read on the drinks menu that the Canley Heights outlet is open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights. Adds another alternative to the kebab/pizza/pie late night snack...

sweetness the patisserie, epping

Look where we went this weekend :)

Sweetness the Patisserie was recently featured in the Good Living section of the Sydney Morning Herald (you can see a reproduction of the article in Beansprout's Cafe), but we discovered its sugary goodness earlier at the Rouse Hill markets. I was so excited to find out at the North Sydney markets that Gena planned to open a retail store in Epping. It's now open for business, and was quite a hubbub of activity on the Saturday afternoon that we dropped in...

Hazlenut and cranberry nougat (150 grams) - $7.50. Also available in 300 grams ($13.50). Gena cut a new batch of this while we watched. So fresh, so delicious...

The ever-popular mallows. In 385 gram bags ($15)...


And 150 gram bags ($7.50). Flavours vary from season to season - chapflap was disappointed to find they weren't making mango at the moment, but we did enjoy the strawberry, raspberry, passionfruit, lime and vanilla mallows currently available.

I would've loved there to be a cafe on site to try the biscuits and cakes straight away, but at the moment the premises is mainly an open kitchen with a small retail section at the front. You'll just have to tear open your packages in the car, like we did!

Sweetness the Patisserie
38 Oxford Street
Epping NSW 2121

(02) 9869 3801

Open Mondays-Wednesdays and Fridays 8:30am to 5:30pm
Thursdays 8:30am to 8:00pm
Saturdays 8:30am to 5:00pm
Closed Sundays

You can see more information here

Street parking available in front of the store. Epping station is about a 5 minute walk away.

sushi-ya, chatswood

This was a rather special looking dessert that I had with my parents - red bean dumpling with vanilla ice-cream mochi ($7.80). Capped off a grand feast at this popular Japanese restaurant which is just a couple of blocks down from Chatswood Chase (helping to explain its popularity). If you go as a couple try at all costs to avoid sitting in the little corridor that provides access to the toilets - not the most romantic setting!

Sushi-Ya
174 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood NSW 2067

(02) 9413 3300

dan-dan japanese dining & noodle bar, neutral bay

Read about this new noodle place in a Chinese newspaper and wanted to try it because it's run by the same group that run Sushi Samurai (Neutral Bay and Pyrmont, both of which are very good). Headed there for a late lunch on a Saturday and I must admit I was a bit worried that'd be shutting up shop by the time we arrived at 2pm, but funnily enough it actually got busier (and they kept serving) as we had our meal.

Agedashi tofu - $5.80. The sauce was very thin, almost like a soup, which is different to the agedashi I've tried elsewhere. Nice though.

Rice balls (or should that be pyramids?) - ikura (salmon egg) $4.50 and takana (mustard leaf) $3.80. Both very good - I'm a big fan of pickles so the takana went down well, and the seaweed was very fresh and crisp.

Inside of the ikura rice ball. Delicious...


Ramen with extra pork in tokotsu miso soup - $10.80 + $2 for the pork. Which meant it was cheaper than the roast pork ramen which retails for $14.80. Stingy, much? :) Maybe they give you more pork with the roast pork ramen... chapflap found the soup a bit too salty, we saw on the menu that you can ask for less salt so maybe that's an option. It was also slightly chilli which I found unusual, but chapflap said that some types of miso are chilli.


Karaage chicken ramen in shio (salted) soup - $12.80. I should've asked for the chicken on the side because it got soggy, but apart from that it was good. I especially liked having a whole egg (because at Ryo's you only get half an egg; although the Ryo's egg had a lot more flavour than this egg) and the seaweed sheet (at Ryo's I always get myself into a dilemma trying to decide whether to have a ramen that I don't like as much, just to have the seaweed, or to have the ramen I'm really after, but to sacrifice the seaweed). The bamboo shoots were also very fresh and tasty.

I liked how there's an option of 6 soups for the ramen (sho-yu or soy based, miso, shio, tonkotsu sho-yu, tokotsu miso and tokotsu shio), so you can definitely choose the combination that's to your liking. Apart from ramen there's also udon and soba, as well as rice bowls with teriyaki, tempura and funnily enough "ma-bo tofu" (痲婆豆腐). I must say I've never seen it before in a Japanese restaurant.

Another highlight was the innovative interior design - they've used a mixture of English and Japanese newspapers to line one of the walls, which makes for interesting reading while waiting for your meal to arrive. Otherwise there's a open kitchen so you'll be sure not to be short of entertainment.

Dan-Dan Japanese Dining & Noodle Bar
Shop 3/197 Military Road (intersection with Rangers Road, on the southern side of Military Road)
Neutral Bay NSW 2089

(02) 9904 1888

Open 7 days from 12midday to 3pm (see, I had nothing to worry about arriving at 2pm) and 5:30pm to 10:00pm (last order 9:30pm)

You can get more information here

On the little take-away menu I got, it says "no booking available for dining". Parking is notoriously tight around Military Road, you can park at the nearby Woolworths carpark (entrance on Yeo Street) for free if you buy something from Woolies (which means yes, the parking's not really free, but if you buy something that you're going to need anyway, then it's ok)

coolendel camping and cabins, west of nowra

Look Ma, wombat!!

Coolendel is located about 30km west of Nowra, and features camping grounds as well as cabins set in a nature reserve. We camped for just one night and enjoyed getting to know the local wildlife...

We spotted a peacock being shooed out of a family's tent - definitely keep the doors zipped up!

It was amazing how nonchalant the animals were about the humans hanging around. This wombat was very content just to keep munching grass and grooming him/herself. One of his/her friends woke me up in the middle of the night with his/her very audible late night snacking.

There's a wallaby hidden there in the undergrowth...

The wildlife theme continues - I thought that the end of the branch right at the top of the picture here looked a bit like a wombat. Or was I just imagining things?

Apart from the wildlife, there's also canoeing to try in the Shoalhaven River, plenty of space to pedal around in and bushwalks to wander through. It's definitely a very family friendly place, with hot showers, free BBQs/gas stoves and flat fields perfect for kicking a ball around. My only miff was loud music/conversation continuing beyond around midnight; the group of teens were good about turning it down though once chapflap had a word to them about it.

Aaaaww... we love camping :) Definitely a change from my high school Duke of Ed days, when a rolled up jumper serving as a pillow was the height of luxury! Not only does Coolendel have hot showers (and very clean toilets) and cooking facilities, but there's safe drinking water which I was told is sourced from the Shoalhaven River and treated on-site. So even though you could readily bring your own drinking water in (since you can camp right next to your car, saving the need to lug things from a carpark to the actual site), there's really no need.

Coolendel Camping and Cabins
Grassy Gully Road
Coolendel NSW (approximately 30km west of Nowra)

(02) 4421 4586

Cabins from $100/night (off peak season, sleeps up to 6 people)
Camping from $16/night (off peak season, per adult)

You can find more information here

Coolendel was reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald a month or so back but I can't find the online version now. All I remember was that it was a very favourable review. I actually found out about the place before the review came out (just by looking around on the web, there are a lot of reviews of the place on 4WD websites and the like) and was worried that it'd get booked out with the SMH review! There's definitely no need to worry though, there was plenty of camping space to go around when we were there.

Note that the 30km drive out of Nowra to get to Coolendel is very straightforward for the first 20km or so (100km/h, excellent) but then the last 11km is windy and unpaved (but fairly compacted, so it's not like there's dirt flying everywhere or anything). The drive's do-able in a 2WD (good suspension will make the ride more comfortable...) but try to set out a bit early so you can get through it before dark (and setting up a tent is always much easier with natural light... no, there were no hissy fits when we were setting up our tent at 6pm, none at all...). If you don't want to risk the 11km windiness, we saw the entrance to another campsite along the 20km paved road called Grady's Riverside Retreat. Looks like there are no wombats resident there though unfortunately :( There are clear signs leading out of Nowra to Coolendel, just follow the directions on the Coolendel website (and once you turn out of Nowra towards Coolendel there's only really one road you can go on, so it's unlikely you'll get lost)

illawarra fly, knights hill

On top of the world at the Knights Tower, Illawarra Fly Treetop Walk, Knights Hill

This tourist attraction opened in 2008 and had no shortage of visitors on the Saturday of the long weekend that we were there. The walk itself doesn't take very long to complete (give it about 45 minutes to an hour, maybe more if like an adorable girl we saw, you require a bit of coaxing to get up the Knights Tower) and the views are great; but is it worth the $22 admission fee for adults ($9.50 for children between 6-16 and $20 for seniors)? I'd read on a blog (that I can't find the link to now, argh) that you can get similar views from lookouts in the nearby Budderro National Park, but I figured that if we were in the area, we might as well buy into the whole commercial experience. No shame in that, right?

Overall I think admission was fairly pricey in relation to the experience, but it was a well-constructed walk with lovely views, so I won't complain about that.

I think I saw a sign saying that the Minnamurra Rainforest Centre in the Budderoo National Park is currently closed for renovations - it looks like it's re-opening in July 2009. So maybe wait until that re-opens before heading down to the area and taking in both the Illawarra Fly and the Rainforest Centre.

Illawarra Fly
182 Knights Hill Road (off Jamberoo Mountain Road, all very well signposted)
Knights Hill NSW 2577

1300 362 881
You can find more information here

Open 9am to 5pm seven days a week

robertson pie shop, robertson

Found out about this place from the Illawarra Fly website - I'm usually sceptical of places billed as "famous" and it seems that every second pie shop outside metropolitan areas claims to be the best in the country/world/universe. But I was glad we made a pit stop at Robertson Pie Shop during our long weekend sojourn around the South Coast/Southern Highlands - yummy pies and a laid-back atmosphere made it hit home that we were on holidays :)


My potato pie. There's really nothing like instant mashed potato, especially since my proposal to take a packet camping was vetoed.


The all-important sauce anointing ritual. I think that's the curry chicken pie.


A work in progress - a chunky beef pie. Mmmm.


And a before shot of my lemon meringue pie. Crispy fluffy meringue, tart delicious lemon curd... I wonder if they make it in the microwave like they did the other night on Masterchef?

Afterwards. Yum.

We returned to Robertson Pie Shop on our way home to pick up a large steak and mushroom pie and two large sweet pies (apple and rhubarb and apple and strawberry). All very nice (although I didn't get to try the steak and mushroom myself, I'm just going on the fact that it was all gone within the day we got back). Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area - a warning though that the Macquarie Pass (part of Jamberoo Mountain Road, towards the Robertson end) from Albion Park to Robertson is a bit treacherous, but not so nerve-wracking that a warm pie won't settle the tummy.

Robertson Pie Shop
Corner Illawarra Highway and Jamberoo Mountain Road
Robertson NSW 2577

(02) 4885 1330

Open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 7:00pm
Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays 8:00am to 7:00pm

During winter the shop's closing at 6:00pm Mondays to Thursdays.

From memory small savoury pies will set you back between $3-$4, small sweet pies from $3. Large pies around the $13 mark.