Grilled Miso Eggplant (Nasu Dengaku)

If you've been following my Instagram, you may have noticed I've had a bit of a baking itch lately, jumping at every opportunity to practice my cake making skills (and running into a lot of failures one the way). For those weekends where I can't an excuse to bake cake, I like to experiment with different foods in the kitchen, and my idea of fun is any recipe that's completely new- the more unique and complex, the better of course!

As much as I love spending my weekends on these food experiments, when it comes to taste, sometimes simple is best and that certainly is the case with this delicious miso eggplant dish. I had my first taste of miso eggplant in a Japanese restaurant last year and was blown away by how amazing a simple dish of grilled eggplant with miso sauce could taste.

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Custard Chiffon Cake v2

It's not often that I make a recipe more than once of twice, and even less often that I post the same recipe twice on this blog, but this Custard Chiffon Cake is so good it really deserves a second mention. I've gone on about how much I love this before and it has since become a family favourite, a simple cake I can whip up relatively quickly which doesn't need any icing or any decorating- it tastes best by itself.

The only thing I hate it having to wait for it to cool before I can take it out of the tin!

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An Evening in The Rocks Tour

I had my fair share of odd jobs back in the good old uni days, but one of the most fun and memorable jobs was when I guided tours of international students through The Rocks- an area I wasn't particularly familiar with myself, but a little bit of reading up helped me sound like an expert in front of groups of students most of whom probably had only been in Sydney for no more than a couple of weeks.

So when I was invited to an evening tour of The Rocks, it certainly brought back many good memories. Quite unlike the tours I ran however, this one was certainly much more professional and well planned, guided by a group of very staff who were much more knowledgeable in the area than me.

Tuxedo Bar

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We started at Tuxedo bar, Sydney's first bar completely dedicated to Espresso Martini's. It's not exactly an easy find- you won't see any large bright signs guiding you in- but once you do eventually make it into the entrance, you'll find yourself into a warm, inviting space, located within the former Cadbury chocolate factory.

Any type of cocktail is the perfect way to start the night, but Tuxedo's Espresso Martini is especially delicious. There's about 6 different variants of the espresso martini on the menu- it never gets boring!

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