Partying Hard(ware)

Last night, The Husband and I visited Bondi Hardware for its annual end of summer birthday party. I used to live one street away from the dinky little bar when it was indeed a hardware store and if the brief was to nod to its former life, owners Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll have nailed it.

Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll, of Applejack Hospitality and staff get all touchy feely at the annual end-of-summer party.

Although the handsome space has been given a good polish since the original occupant moved out, it still references the building's working village past with its industrial lights, wall lined with tools, exposed bricks, big old beams and ceiling clad with recycled timber.

Bondi Hardware remains lovingly scuffed up from its former life as three decades'-old hardware shop.

Watts and Carroll, of Applejack Hospitality, lured about 150 locals, media, friends and celebs to the party, where, given its proximity to Bondi Beach, the Point Break dress code was a cinch.

Chef's signature beef sliders.

Watermelontinis #winning

As well as celebrating its third year in operation the party celebrated the launch of head chef Elliot Anders' new menu, with tasters such as polenta and quinoa bites, tuna poke spoons, crispy pork belly and pumpkin boats , pearl barley arancini balls with lemon aioli, triangles of margherita pizza and his signature beef sliders.

Pearl barley arancini balls

Tuna poke spoons.

Punters also enjoyed watching the bartenders ply their trade, with endless rounds of watermelontinis made with Ketel One Vodka, elderflower liquor, watermelon, apple and lime, boutique beers from Endeavour, wine by Howard Parken and ciders by Batlow.

Bartenders work their magic with watermelontinis using a few tricks of the trade.

Co-owner Ben Carroll worked the room for the annual end-of-summer party.

Bartenders mix things up at the Bondi Hardware Point Break party.

Applejack Hospitality also have The Botanist, in Kirribilli, SoCal in Neutral Bay and The Butler, in Pott's Point.

Q & A with the Hongsta

Merivale's executive chef Dan Hong @Hongsta_gram has published his first book, Mr Hong.      Photo: Jason Loucas.

Dan Hong’s first book, Mr Hong is a collection of stories about the life experiences that led a young teen obsessed with rare sneakers and rap from Sydney’s western suburbs to carve out a name for himself as one of Australia’s top chefs. I was lucky enough to be invited to copy edit the book, which Hong co-wrote with the lovely Melissa Leong. The book follows Hong’s journey along a colourful path from his mum’s Vietnamese restaurant in Cabramatta to working at some of the world’s best restaurants and teaming up with Merivale gastropreneur Justin Hemmes.

The book includes recipes from Mr Wong, ElLoco and Ms G’s as well as food that Hong likes to cook, eat and share. Following are some of the dishes he says represent defining moments in his career.

MINI PORK BANH MI
As a kid, I grew up eating banh mi on the streets of Cabramatta. As well as being food from my heritage, it’s an iconic sandwich. What I love about banh mi is the balance: there’s the acidity from the pickles, the richness of the pork and the freshness of the herbs. Mini pork banh mi is the defining dish at Ms G’s.

BUN BO HUE 
This noodle soup is my death row meal. I’ve tried it all over the world and nothing beats Mum’s version. It’s got lots of lemongrass and chilli and is for the real food lover who likes funky shrimp paste, pig’s trotters and blood jelly.  It’s a dish that acknowledges the influence my mum has had on my cooking career. Mum still inspires me. I go to her house every Monday for dinner and she makes a Vietnamese feast for all her kids and grandkids.

EL LOCO HOTDOG
The El Loco Hot Dog sums up my food philosophy: it’s about eating delicious food with your hands and making the dining experience a lot of fun.  The important thing about my hot dog is it has a nicely smoked sausage that has snap when you bite into it. There also has to be more sausage than bun; there’s nothing worse for the hotdog to bun ratio to be out of whack.
WOK-FRIED MUSHROOMS WITH WARRIGAL GREENS
I like to play around with classic dishes at Mr Wong and this is my take on a classic Cantonese dish that utilises native ingredients such as Warrigal greens, which have lovely oceanic overtones. As well as showcasing Australia’s fantastic range of cultivated mushrooms, it’s a dish that reflects my mixed heritage.
THE LOTUS CHEESEBURGER

As Best Young Chef in 2008 I won a scholarship and went to work under Wylie Dufresne at WD-50 in New York. While in the US, I ate a lot of burgers and they were all so much better than what Sydney had to offer. At that time, I was right into molecular gastronomy, but I returned to Lotus with the realisation that I didn’t care about being different. I just wanted to cook food I wanted to eat.  The cheeseburger was an epiphany.  
SWEET AND SOUR PORK HOCK

My time at Longrain was so important in terms of the training I received. It taught me technique and helped further develop my palate. This is a version of the Aussie staple – sweet and sour pork – that was inspired by my first year of cooking at Longrain. I’d been eating pigs’ feet for years but Longrain’s caramelised pork hock with chilli vinegar was crazy good.  

Mr Hong by Dan Hong, published by Murdoch Books $39.99. This article first appeared in Good Food.

Hazelhurst Cafe: the ace of spades

Gymea has found its groove thanks in part to the efforts of chef James Watson, who is now gripping the reins at Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe and giving the 'burb a big giddy-up. Watson is like a rock 'n roll version of Jamie Oliver. And he's brought a bit of that 'oright geezer' grit to Gymea, in Sydney's Sutherland Shire.

Chef James Watson has upped the ante in the Shire.

Watson's Bay
For those who don't know much about the English-born chef, he first earned his culinary chops working under Gordon Ramsay, at Aubergine, and then St John Restaurant in London where it seems he was also prepped in the art of peppering a kitchen with expletives.

The 38-year-old migrated to Australia in 2002 where he quickly gained attention at Balmain's Riverview Hotel. He has since earned a lot of cred for being one of the first of the city's award-winning chefs to look at Sydney's outer suburban strips anew.

After Watson opened the Peacock Trattoria in 2010 in a non-descript smear of shops in Kyle Bay he shifted his gaze to Gymea, with the launch of the Italian Stallion and Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe in August 2014.

The 'cock' as I like to call it, is one of my all-time fave neighbourhood bistros in Sydney and I was beyond happy when I heard the chef's culinary aspirations had crossed Tom Ugly's Bridge. The fact Gymea is just 20 minutes' drive from my home in Cronulla is also a beautiful thing.

The Italian Stallion has helped give Gymea a leg-up in the culinary stakes.

Giddy-up Gymea
The Husband and I were so excited about the arrival of The Italian Stallion Bar and Griglia we galloped there a week after it opened. We both loved how deliciously New York divey and vibey it was and were impressed with our Planet of the Grapes mojitos followed by a few glasses of riesling and the chef's signature duck salad and divine crab linguine. The service from restaurant manager Fabio was also fabulous. So much has been done to rejuve the Stallion since then that it deserves a return visit in the the next few months, when the renovations are complete. (Watch this space.)

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe has helped Gymea find its groove. 

From garden fork to plate
Now for the heads-up on Hazelhurst. Thanks to Watson - who was also responsible for the recent reworking of the Seawall Restaurant in Walsh Bay - the gallery cafe has benefitted from more than a few tweaks. The new design is rustic and real and references the garden aspect with a feature wall of vintage tools, communal tables that could double as work horses, tin tubs spilling with flowers and well-placed branches, lemons and pineapples providing many points of sculptural interest.

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe now takes advantage of its location, overlooking a sprawling garden.

The newly rejuvenated Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe is now a place to linger longer.

Art and about
Taking pride of place inside the cafe is a mural by Mulga the Artist that is based on a caricature of the Italian Stallion's Fabio. The character is wearing sunglasses that frame the pass where the chefs peep out onto the floor and it sets the tone of the new cafe, mainlining it with personality. It doesn't matter where you sit, Fabio is there, wearing hot pink frames, glowering at you, challenging you not to be impressed. Watson's notion - to make the gallery cafe a cool place to stay and hang - has paid off. In fact, it's a trademark of his eating houses that you don't want to leave.

Heading them off at the pass is a mural painted by Mulga The Artist.

Perfectly potty
What I really love about the new-look cafe, which was fairly staid in its former life, is that the pensioners in sensible shoes and cardigans feel as welcome as the couples with young kids tumbling about on the lawn next to arty hipsters and locals looking smug that Gymea has lifted its game. It's also fantastic that it's drawing more and more people to the first-rate exhibitions on show in the gallery space next door.

Shear genius - the cafe has been reworked and is now both rustic and refined.

Hello pumpkin
The cafe is an all-day dining affair serving breakfast and lunch until 4pm each day and the menu itself taps into the zeitgeist in that it's food we want to eat. Expect proper ballsy cooking with breakfast options such as Persian pumpkin pancakes, haloumi, dukkah, egg, herbs and Syrian chook or the Big Breakfast Bruschetta, with poached eggs, bacon, herbed mushroom and tomato.

Scones with jam and cream served in pretty terracotta pots.

For all those in-betweeners
There is also an in-between menu with scones with berry jam and double cream served in cute terracota pots and a tempting kids' menu of chicken schnity and chips, quesadilla or fish 'n' chips all served with a nudie popper and seasonal fruit.

House-baked muffins and friands are the order of the day.

Hello ducky
Although the 'cock's signature crispy duck salad, with nectarine, hazelnuts, witlof, watercress, radicchio and vino cotto makes a cameo on the lunch menu, diners are enticed to branch out with solid options such as Tuscan panzanella salad, heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, crisp bread, baby basil, tomato vinaigrette designed to thrill. As for the reuben sandwich filled with corned beef cooked with golden syrup and malt vinegar, Swiss cheese, pickles, red cabbage and onions? Out. Of. Control.

The reuben sandwich is reason enough to visit the Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe.

There's a song in my art
Hazelhurst Gallery has always been a hot local spot, with major exhibitions, art classes and markets. Now the cafe also deserves attention in its own right, as does James Watson who has made the Shire a better place than when he arrived. Now, head chef Sarah Marsh's ingredient-led menu sits comfortably alongside tidbits 'foraged' from the garden and the mains look like they've riffed with Mulga on how to pull off being a key player.

Breakfast muesli and fresh fruit and yoghurt in a jar ... what a perfectly poised start to the day.

It's elementary, dear Watson
"What I've tried to create is an upbeat, funky modern place to go where the breakfast is good, the lunch is good, the service is good and there are lots of add-on activities in the area. Everything is taking shape and really all I did was capture the goodness in the place ... the bones were there, we've just put some flesh on it," says Watson.

Click go the shears at Hazelhurst Cafe.

The ace of spades
Watson has certainly captured the goodness in the garden cafe in spades. The place is poised and perfect and, like the rest of his restaurants, is lacking in pretension and intent on doing things well rather than being self-absorbed. Add upbeat tunes, a buzzy local vibe and order from a wine list that swaggers around the globe and the result is what Shire locals crave: a gloriously civilised cafe with accomplished chefs delivering food that thrills with the bonus of a garden view. Booyah.

Mulga the Artist has also helped the gallery get its groove on.

Tuck into a tropical fruit pavlova which is bolstered by lemon curd and passionfruit sorbet.

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe, 782 Kingsway, Gymea, NSW. 2227. For bookings, phone (02) 8536 5755. Open 9am-4pm Mon-Sun.