bills: a sydney institution

Bills, in Surry Hills, is one of my favourite places to eat. You always know you're going to get great food at Bills. Owned by celebrity chef Bill Granger, by day it's an amazing cafe, and at night, it moonlights as a great bistro-style restaurant. The waitstaff are friendly and chatty (but not creepy), and never, ever pretentious. The food isn't the most inventive or creative, but it's always made and presented beautifully. And at an average of $25 for a dinner main, it represents great value.

My friend Miss C and I went to Bills last night after an unsuccessful attempt to secure a table (sans reservation, admittedly) at The Winery. Neither of us was drinking (I'm doing FebFast, C had to drive) so sticking around without food wasn't so appealing. We walked up the road to Bills, found a table immediately and got stuck into some mineral water. It was a pretty crazy Friday night.

We ordered a mozzarella and saffron risotto ball each to begin with. I don't know about you, but I've never met a risotto ball I didn't like (except for my own, I can never get the crunchy texture quite right). These were no exception - crunchy on the outside, gooey, creamy risotto inside and chunk of mozzarella smack-bang in the middle. A side of homemade tomato sauce added a kick. Yum. The only question: why did we only order two??

We both ordered the lamb kofta for our main, and neither was disappointed. Three juicy, spicy kofta kebabs served with grilled flatbread, tomato and mint salad and a capsicum-almond relish: delightful. It was such a great example of how Bill cooks. Fresh, locally sourced ingredients served without too much fuss. You know how great dancers make dancing look really easy? Bill makes cooking look really easy, because he's so damned good at it.

Miss C was full to the brim, but I felt I deserved dessert as I wasn't drinking. I ordered the ginger biscuit icecream sandwich with butterscotch sauce...and it was ah-mah-zing. At first, though, I assumed they'd mistakenly given us two servings, as there were two sandwiches on the plate. Not so - two sandwiches is one serving, meant for one person. Personally, I think that's way too big, but if you're really into desserts, you'll enjoy. The ginger biscuits were fabulous: clearly fresh and homemade, and with that great spicy kick of ginger. Yum. Vanilla bean icecream held the biscuits together, and a wildly delicious butterscotch sauce was poured over the top. Pinch me, I'm in dessert heaven.

Bills
359 Crown St, Surry Hills (also Woollahra and Darlinghurst)
www.bills.com.au
+61 2 9360 4762

the winery by gazebo

This summer, so far, I have been invited to The Winery, a new watering hole in Surry Hills, exactly eight times. Given that it's only been open for about two months, this is pretty staggering. I needed to pinpoint the reason for its popularity. So I went to discover The Winery myself.

Marky, Bec and I head to TW on a warm summer's afternoon. Having heard that TW is the place to be and be seen, I decide to wear something cool and trendy. Of course, when I walk in, I see that my efforts will go unnoticed, anyway - everyone here is wearing their Sunday best. Humph.

The Winery is run by the same cool folks who run Elizabeth Bay's Gazebo, famed for ladies' lunches, cool cocktails and a scrummy, on-trend menu. It's located in the recently revamped part of Crown St - approximately the blocks from Foveaux St to Campbell St. There's a new swish grocery store (Thomas Dux), an amazing-looking library (I'm so sad it wasn't there when I lived in Surry Hills) and a whole new host of cafes and restaurants. The Winery, tucked behind the sandstone gates next to Thomas Dux, is just another part of the ongoing gentrification of Surry.

I arrive early, order a glass of Riparian Pinot Gris (at $8, it's the cheapest on the menu) and start reading at an outside table. I quickly discover that this is one of my favourite pastimes - drinking wine in a bar, reading my book. I consider the discovery as consequential to my world as that of, say, penicillin, to the rest of the world.

When the ladies arrive, we order a jug of Pimm's & Sangria - at $15, we decide it's the cheapest way to drink here. It's also delicious, a bonus. We're all hungry, so we order from the option-heavy menu. There's a selection of share plates (I love sharing food, but we decide that we're all so starved that, as much as we like each other, we need our own meals right now), mains, cheeses, sides and desserts. I've heard that the veal and chorizo sausage roll with pear chutney is actually better than a Bourke St Bakery snag roll (and, I suppose, at $18, it should be), so I order it. Bec goes for the crispy squid, mint, coriander and chilled cucumber salad, which is heavy on the squid and utterly more-ish. Marky acts the ploughman and orders the ciabatta and dip board, which comes with olives, parma ham and a generous chunk of cheddar.

My sausage roll is: a) huge (probably about 25cm long); b) delicious; and c) fairly high on the artery-hardening scale, I'd say. I admit I was reticent to indulge in a sausage roll without the requisite tomato sauce to accompany, but I'm happy to say that TW's pear chutney did the job nicely. If only there was more of it. Bec and Marky report happily that their meals are going down a treat, and to celebrate, we order another jug of Pimms & Sangria.

Bec has spied a dessert that takes her fancy (marscapone and golden peach trifle with flaked almonds), and, ever a sucker for chocolate, I'm keen to try the chocolate brownie with icecream, fairy floss and hot fudge sauce. Sadly for our gluttinous appetites, neither is available. Sure, it's busy at TW, but at 5pm on a Sunday arvo, should you really be telling customers you're out of food? Especially when you're right next door to a grocery store, no?

Anyway, I had fun at TW. It's full of beautiful people, but if you can stomach that, you'll have a good time there. I can't wait to go back to try the Girls' Picnic (only on Saturdays).

The Winery by Gazebo
285A Crown St
www.thegazebos.com.au/winery/
+61 2 9331 0833

Sparkle Cupcakery

Have I mentioned that I loved cupcakes? Because I love cupcakes. I really, really love them.

Caliban and I held our engagement party on Saturday night (big thanks to Sam and Mauricio at Bar 202) and as well as yummy canapes and some much-needed alcohol-absorbent wedges later in the night, we served cupcakes from Sparkle Cupcakery, in Surry Hills.

As I said on Saturday, there's really no shortage of cupcakes in Sydney. Someone should open a coffee-cupcake hybrid store called Starcups - because that's how ubiquitous they're becoming. But - as always - there's a difference between grown-up cupcakes that remind you of childhood, and cupcakes that look like they've been made by a three-year-old. With sight problems.

Sparkle Cupcakery's offerings fit into the former category. The cake is densely moist and most taste like they have cream cheese mixed into the batter (cream cheese is fab in cakes - like sour cream and even beetroot, it offers more moisture). There are a bazillion fab flavours to try, too. I'm a sucker for traditionalism and I pretty much always choose vanilla-on-vanilla, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear that this was Sparkle's signature flavour, Pure Sparkle. Ka-ching! We also ordered Lemon Squeeze, Oriental Flower (a gorgeous lychee and rose cake with rose petal topping), White Chocolate and Strawberry (with real strawberries in the cake!) and Milk Chocolate. I did hear some reports that the Milk Chocolate was a little dry, but I didn't taste it myself, unfortunately.
One of the best things about Sparkle is the shop itself. When I went to pick up my cupcakes, there were two groups of women scoffing cupcakes and champagne like it was the world's ultimate girly hen's party/baby shower. And funnily enough, it was. Highly recommended, cheesy veils and all.

Sparkle Cupcakery
132 Foveaux St, Surry Hills
www.sparklecupcakery.com.au
9361 0690

Magnolia Bakery

Tis a truth universally acknowledged that young women of a certain age and disposition know exactly what Magnolia Bakery is - what it is famous for, where it is located, and why they might like to go there.
This is because Magnolia Bakery - along with Jimmy Choo slingbacks, Manolo Blahnik platforms, nameplate necklaces, flower brooches and Marlboro lights - was given instant cult status when it was featured in an episode of a little show called Sex and the City. Perhaps you've heard of it?

I visited Magnolia Bakery for the first time in late 2006. It was winter - perfect cupcake-scoffing weather - and I indulged in a cupcake (or two) every day of my ten-day New York visit. Needless to say, I returned looking rather like a cupcake myself. Charged with the mission of introducing Caliban to all things sweet and cholesterol-raising, I had to take him to Magnolia on our New York visit. Twice.

Magnolia really began the "cupcake revolution" of which we are still in the throes. Sydneysiders can choose from any number of cupcake offerings - Cupcakes on Pitt (popular with ACP girls), Cupcake Bakery (one of my favourites, for its fab red velvet cake), The Cupcake Factory, My Little Cupcake, Babycakes (the Summer Hill shop is great), and my personal favourite, Sparkle Cupcakery in Surry Hills. Magnolia was where it all began, though, in 1996, when childhood friends Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel decided to open their own bakery in New York's West Village. Like most co-owners, they eventually began to tire of each other and the partnership broke down. Appel launched her own, rival bakery, The Buttercup Bake Shop, and sparked a "cupcake war." Buttercup Bake Shop begat Little Cupcake Bakeshop, and a foodie revolution was born. Now, the best cupcakes of the year are reviewed annually by New York magazine, along with other city staples like pizza, burgers, sandwiches and cocktails.

But I digress. Magnolia is famed for its super-sweet, super-creamy buttercream frosting, and its moist, light cake. (Pictured here is the red velvet cake with whipped cream cheese frosting). The bakery also serves icebox cake (a Depression-era cake made of layered biscuit and cream) and banana pudding - but I haven't tasted these, so I'll stick to cupcakes. The frosting is thick, creamy, buttery and sweet - basically, if you're not a diabetic by the time you leave the bakery, you probably haven't eaten enough. They're still the best cupcakes I've ever tasted - and I make it my mission to try a lot!

I bought the bakery's cookbook for my Mum and stepmother when I visited the first time, and cribbed the cupcake recipe for myself. I've made it about a thousand times in the last three years, and it never fails to impress. I've revised the original recipe to my own taste - I add more vanilla extract and less icing sugar to the frosting, and baking powder to the cake (so it's even lighter, and rises more easily). Here is the recipe. Enjoy. In moderation.

CUPCAKES:
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups caster sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (C).
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat (this will make cakes tough). Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
5. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

ICING:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (not melted!)
4 to 6 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.

Magnolia Bakery
corner W11th and Bleecker Sts, New York
www.magnoliacupcakes.com

Below: me and my cupcake-softened core. Thank God for Diet Coke.