10 Things I Love About You

Oh Balmain, with your cafe-lined streets, your al-fresco dining and your trendy organic eateries. What is a foodie supposed to do but succumb to the gastronomic overload that you induce?

These are ten foodie things I love about Darling St, Balmain/Rozelle (in no particular order):

1. Nutella donuts at Bertoni Casalinga. You have the option of having them toast the donut or you can eat them straight away untoasted. I prefer to have them toasted because the coating of sugar caramelises and becomes crunchy while the nutella inside melts and becomes soft. Bertoni also make great coffee and its the place where all the locals go so you know that it's reliably good.

2. Chilli Jam stir fry mussels at Pinto Thai. I haven't tasted a chilli jam stir fry with such depth of flavour; spicy, salty, sweet, sour and herby all in the one mouthful.

3. Organic shopping at Aboutlife. Among countless other great wares, they sell Barambah Organics yoghurt which I absolutely love. Also they have a large range of artisan loaves (pictured below).

4. Everything sold at Victoire Bakery.

5. Looking at all the goodies in the homeware shop Plenty, especially everything in Robert Gordon's retro pastel range.



6. The gourmet goodies at The Fine Food Store. They stock Pat and Stick's Ice Cream and petit fours by Manna From Heaven. Also their cheese room at the back is worth a peek



7. French dining at La Grand Bouffe.



8. The Barn Cafe and Grocery. Aside from having a nice range of homewares, The Barn also stock a great selection of organic olive oils (first pic below) that you can pour yourself. They also sell Pashmak- Persian fairy floss and Dagoba chocolates. You can also have a relaxing lunch out on the patio, they sell salads, soups, and gourmet sandwiches- mainly cafe style nosh.



9. The breakfast tagines at Kazbah are a great way to start your day. You can choose between a meat or vegetarian tagine and for only $17 pp. Also the Egyptian Hibiscus tea is exceptional.



10. Pressing my face up against the front window of Planet Cake. It's not exactly on Darling St, but it's close enough for me.



I couldn't stop at ten so here's a few more....

11. Gelatissimo. Milk, sugar and eggs a triple threat!



12. Reliably good Vietnamese restaurant Miss Saigon, they make great sizzling plates where you can make your own rice paper rolls.

13. The duck at Blue Ginger. Also the barramundi with ginger and shallots is good.

14. The lovely lady at Thai Sugar that never fails to give us extraordinary service. For that we love you.

Im sure I could think of a lot more things I love about Darling St, we don't live around the Balmain area but G and I are seriously considering moving there. We spend quite a large amount of our days eating in this area, im sure the total number of hours spent at Balmain would rival that of any local. So I think its only a matter of time before we make the move.

What are your favourite food suburbs in Sydney? Or perhaps in the world?