Create your own Gelato Messina flavour

We've all spent time in Gelato Messina, overexamining the flavours on display, wondering how the staff comes up with such inventive ideas.

Thanks to FBi radio, you have the chance to create your own scoop-worthy concept for that ultra-popular ice-cream cabinet - and if you win, your flavour will be in store from June 7-14 and you get to take home a tub of it! You just need to come up with a flavour using donuts as a key ingredient, get your entry in before May 30 & use the #fbicecream hashtag on Instagram or on Twitter. Or you can enter the old-fashioned way, by emailing your answer to fbicecream@fbiradio.com. If I was in the running, I'd go for chocolate, strawberry & a tiny bit of rosemary. Maybe yogurt mousse or something fancy, too, but that ain't in my fridge right now, so let's stick to these ingredients.

Gelato Messina locations: 389 Crown St, Surry Hills; Shop 1/241 Victoria St, Darlinghurst; The Star, Cafe Court, Level G, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont. You can following Gelato Messina on Twitter or Facebook.

West Juliett, Marrickville

Just to prove that the inner west is currently overachieving on the "great new eatery" front, West Juliett has been an excellent addition to Marrickville since it opened in March. It was on my "to check out" list after Kate Walsh from Real Food Projects mentioned it as a place worth taking notice of; and it makes sense that she'd single it out, given that this eatery focuses on extracting lots of wholesome, satisfying flavour from good produce. West Juliett does it in a way that makes you like it a lot – it's definitely one of my favourite new cafes.

It's worth sitting down here to try the excellent Mushrooms ($11.90), served on toast with super-caramelised onions, caraway, kasseri cheese and a snappy shroud of herbs. Load up on sides, that – despite their goody-two-shoes reputations – are really good. Sauteed kale and silverbeet and braised lentils may sound super-boring, but they're prepared in a tastebud-tricking way to make you like them. It's a nice way to be fooled. Or you could ditch the pretence to be "healthy" and pile up, as Will did, on Pork and Fennel Sausages ($3.90) with Olive Oil Fried Eggs ($13.90), accompanied by morcilla and Parmesan on toast – yet there's a sneaky load of rocket and ultra-savoury lentils to make you feel good about what you're having anyway. Halo effect aside, it still is an extremely satisfying feed.

Or you could order hand-cut Chips ($4.90) that come topped with fried rosemary, basil and other ultra-crisp herbs. And even though your boyfriend says he will only have one, they're dangerously hard to resist and soon he's wiped out your whole supply (with a little complicity from yourself, of course). And this chip devastation occurs, even though he already has a lime and chilli mayo chicken sandwich on Sonoma miche ($9.90) to be keeping him out of trouble. (Surprise, surprise, it's really good, too.)

We also love the drinks, which include house-made sodas that come in carafes bubbling with Strawberry, Hops and Pepper ($4.90; tastes like drinking poached strawberries, with a slightly wacked-out note; this one's my favourite) or Rhubarb Lime Ginger (Will's pick). There are also bracing juice combinations (think Pineapple, Apple, Lime, Basil) and I definitely want to sneak in a Classic Shake ($5.90) on my next visit (I've already got a Plum Vanilla Lassi mentally pre-ordered.)

It's not a surprise that this place is excellent, as it's by a savvy team that has run Cafe Zoe and other well-liked establishments. There's also a focus on quality suppliers (jersey milk comes direct from Warnambool; grass-fed angus beef is sourced from Taralga Springs and "we use free range eggs, tomatoes and honey delivered directly from Mary in Wyong", says the menu). Pastries and yogurt are made in-house. Coffee is roasted locally by White Horse. It aces all the cafe-enjoying prerequisites. The only downside to West Juliett is that it currently isn't open on Sundays, so you may have to forsake your Saturday sleep-in if the weekend is the only time you can get here. Or, doze off anyway, and just skip ahead to lunch. You can feel totally justified in ordering the chips that way.

West Juliett, 30 Llewellyn Street, Marrickville, NSW. Follow West Juliett on Facebook.

Osteria di Russo & Russo, Enmore

Adding to the outbreak of great new places in the Newtown/Enmore area is Osteria di Russo & Russo, which just opened on Enmore Road. The laziest of glances would suggest that it's just another Italian restaurant, but this establishment is full of take-you-by-surprise qualities.

The endearingly old-school interiors have a time-warp feel, but the menu is far from tradition-heavy: it's full of updated, not-so-common touches. The classic Crostata ($16) is reworked into a brilliant dessert, with each element isolated to maximise its awesomeness: the 'pastry' is a polenta disc, the fruit includes gorgeously slow-poached quince and a school-lunch-evoking quince roll-up, the almond is transformed into ice-cream and there's an airy puff of zabaglione to complete it all.

Also excellent is a Semifreddo ($16) studded through with thyme, topped with a thyme-threaded wafer and slicked through with strawberry and aged balsamic. There's also a cheese plate offering reimagined as a dessert and a meal-ending take on Ferrero Rocher as well.

Savoury dishes are worthwhile, too. Will was impressed by his entree, which takes pickled vegetables and bagna cauda and adds a salty hit of Wagyu Bresaola ($16); also great – his dish of Chargrilled Hanger Steak ($26), teamed with agrodolce dressing, chargrilled eggplant puree, leek and sculptural shards of radicchio.

There's only one vegetarian course (a Risotto with Prosecco, Zucchini Flower and Smoked Mozzarella), but if you ask nicely, you could end up with some excellent adaptations of menu standards, such as Piccolo Fritto ($18), a "little fry" with big flavour, thanks to the ultra-crisp vegies that get in a dust-up with chilli, almonds and a peppy salsa rossa. Any pasta with a good dose of melted cheese is hard to defend against – the Cazzellitti ($24) with pine and grey ghost mushrooms is laced through with smoked mozzarella and will work through your weak points. It's a lovely dish to get acquainted with on a cold evening. It's even nicer when you learn that Marc, who runs the restaurant with his father (hence the "Russo & Russo" name-checking in the business's title) is spending the next day, after an early battle with the alarm clock, foraging for the mushrooms in Oberon.

Marc cuts a very likeable figure at this eatery, which really resounds with its small, family feel. He kindly answers my rapidfire, ultra-nosey questions; is very good on the service front, and also picks out the fine soundtracks. Enjoying the food here, as the turntable was spinning Galaxie 500's classic On Fire from end to end, was one of the utter highlights of my weekend. I really like this place. And I'm glad that Alex Vitlin, who has been doing great things at Two Thousand since forever, clued us all onto Osteria di Russo & Russo when he posted a pic on Instagram just two days after it opened. Like he says, it's a "top little spot" and is a fine addition to Enmore Road (along with Shenkin Kitchen, which recently opened, and Hartsyard, which has been feeding us well for the last year. Hard to forget mainstay Cow and Moon, too). And of course, Mary's in nearby Newtown has been hotly pursued by diners and bargoers since it started slinging A-grade burgers a few weeks ago.

Incidentally, the menus and bills at Osteria di Russo & Russo are conveyed through secondhand books – in use are excellent, age-worn titles such as the Handbook of Structural Timber (great if you want to know about typical gussets or strap and pin joints), a bio textbook that includes the life history of the amoeba and an old copy of Modern Sex Life. I guess the latter is a pretty handy dinner-table conversation starter. There's definitely a lot that's worth talking about at Osteria di Russo & Russo.

Osteria di Russo & Russo, 158 Enmore Rd, Enmore NSW (02) 8068 5202

Mary's, Newtown

Mary's in Newtown has had many former lives – it's been a Greek sporting club, a women's sanctuary, a Masonic hall and an STD clinic. Now, it's one of the best new bars in Sydney.

The creative DNA of Mary's is impressive: it's run by Jake Smyth of Bodega and Kenny Graham of Porteno. The menu is by Luke Powell (one-time head chef of Tetsuya's). Odds would be ridiculously high that, all combined, they'd ace this set-up.

Will and I have been ultra-excited about the emergence of Mary's ever since reading in Time Out Sydney last year that it would be opening. Over the last few months, we've been guilty of walking past every week, scouting for hopeful signs that Mary's would soon blare into life. In February, I saw staff members painting chairs outside and was rather psyched when they said they thought they might be done and ready to trade in two to three weeks. Of course, these things often take longer than scheduled, and Mary's hadn't yet kicked in by then. But last weekend, when we chanced past and asked if they would be up and running soon, we heard the words we'd been angling for. Mary's would open this week.

The approach path to being finished may have taken longer to conquer than expected, but the wait has been utterly worth it. Mary's is brilliant on every level: the staff members are friendly, genuine and onto it (especially Jake Smyth); the drinks are good fun, with a short but deliciously sweet selection of cocktails (the grapefruit froth of the Pop Rock Fizz is a cheeringly great try), booze from local brewery Young Henry's and an accessible wine list; and the space retains some charm and curiosity of Mary's former incarnations (you can spot where the pool tables used to stand on the floor) while sneaking in some clever updates – from the funhouse-trippiness of a wood-and-mirror installation that smartly disguises an air-conditioning unit to the cheeky 'Slayer' references that can be found throughout (it's like playing a hair-metal version of Where's Wally?). The fit-out isn't about big-budget slickness but inventive touches like the lights made of repurposed bottles or the mini Jack Daniels containers that now house salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce.

Adding to the atmosphere is the excellent music, which features Nick Drake and Andrew Bird in quieter moments, while slipping in some Deerhunter, The Cure, DJ Shadow and Bat For Lashes at other points. You either spend your time going "it's this song!" in hi-rotation moments of joyful track recognition, to giving Shazam an intense workout in order to detect what the other great, unfamiliar songs are.

And Luke Powell's menu is short, unfussy and excellent. The burgers name-check certain fast food references (with the presence of "special sauce", a "fries with that" option, and a jokey use of branded packaging; my "'Shroom Burger" came wrapped with stamped paper that resembled a certain company's golden arches). However, these aren't just souped-up versions of what you can get through a drive-through window or 24-hour outlet. They're flat-out great burgers in their own right. The 'Shroom Burger ($12) is jammed with a garlicky, well-grilled field mushroom and that tart, pickly sweet sauce that earns its "special" tag.

And the Mary's Burger ($12) is so damn good that Will crowns it as the best he's had in Sydney. In case you think it's hyperbole, Darren Robertson (of Three Blue Ducks; also Luke Powell's predecessor at Tetsuya's) has been making the same call; and in fact, between everyone I know that's been to Mary's in the four days it's been open (it's surprisingly a lot!) – we've all been buzzing about how awesome the menu is. It's an echo chamber of burger-struck diners. You can also "double down" your order ($3) or even add Trashcan Bacon ($4) (according to Two Thousand, the name is a literal reference to how Powell smokes the strips).

Don't forget the carb-heavy sides, like the buttery mash slathered with gravy or the win-win situation of ordering either shoestring fries or hand-cut chips, ready to be aimed and fired with a tomato sauce squirt-bottle. And if you can swear off the burger-ordering bandwagon (tricky), you can also order Fried Chicken in Half Bird ($14), Whole Bird ($24) and Larry Bird ($40) portions.

I sort of wonder whether it's redundant to write about Mary's, because everyone already seems to know about it. I went, for the first time, on its second day. By the third night, it was so packed, Will couldn't get in for dinner. But, I think that sort of high-charged interest doesn't count as a solid reason to ignore this place. Because a) Mary's is excellent and worth seeking out and b) you can always hit it up at a less intense time. Like weekend lunch, which is what we did today.

Mary's is a highly welcome addition to Newtown, which has notched up some excellent new joints in the last year or so (Hartsyard, The Midnight Special, MakMak Macarons) and looks like it's going to land a few more soon – with Earl's Juke Joint and Newtown Social Club still under construction and nearby Shenkin Kitchen about to open its doors. I like the idea that Mary's has had such a vibrant, multiple personality past, but I hope it sticks around in its current formation for a good while. Here's to Mary's and her scoring a long, prosperous life in this Newtown laneway. I feel like I'll be paying her many, many visits.

Mary's, 6 Mary Street, Newtown NSW. Follow Mary's on Instagram

New podcast: interview with Christina Tosi from Momofuku Milk Bar

Hey, my podcast coma is over and I finally have a new episode of The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry. It features the amazing Christina Tosi, master of "crack pie", "compost cookies" and other baking wonders.

Here's a summary:

Christina Tosi is a James Beard Rising Star Chef and the creative force behind the popular Momofuku Milk Bar bakeries in New York. But she's taken an unusual path to get to this point. She studied electrical engineering and, even when she ended up in the kitchen of the award-winning WD-50 (as a chef, not an engineer!), she chose to take an unexpected next step: working as a cashier and resolving unsexy problems, such as unclogging toilets, at the newly started Momofuku. In fact, it was a boring paperwork problem that sparked her creative collaboration with Momofuku's David Chang. She went on to challenge his belief that "dessert is for wusses" and continues to prove to be the exception "to any assumption you make". We talk about her career; her famous creations, such as "crack pie" (it's "the dare of all dares to just have one slice and just walk away") and Australia's connection to it; the local flavours she fell in love with during her trip here, and much more.

Thanks to Bloomsbury (publisher of Christina's book, Momofuku Milk Bar) and Crave Sydney International Food Festival for making this interview possible. It was recorded (in a crowded props room during my lunch hour – very glamorous!) while Christina was in Sydney as a festival guest last year.

You can find this podcast episode online or subscribe to it via iTunes. And if you like what you hear, feel free to leave a nice word or rating on iTunes. It helps this podcast become a little less of a wallflower in the iTunes store.

And expect a "normal" post soon.

Easter treats

My collection box of Easter memories is pretty small. I grew up with Buddhist parents, so I was off the hook when it came to the religious significance of the holiday. Mainly, I remember peeling foil off chocolate, and knowing that the little solid eggs were nowhere near as prized as the large hollow ones you could sledgehammer into pieces with your egg-crushing hands. That satisfying soundtrack – the multi cracks of the shell – and then prising away all those cocoa shards to savour, that was a fun ritual to repeat each year.

Now that I'm older, I no longer need to bargain with (or outsmart) the Easter bunny to get a good stash of holiday sweets. So, in the lead-up to this weekend, I've enjoyed the excellent Hot Cross Macarons ($32 for 12) from MakMak Macarons in Newtown. The mixed-spice shell paired with the rum-and-raisin cream ganache makes for a winning combination that will also accelerate your addiction to this flavour. A baker's dozen of these, please! If you pick up these Easter-only treats at Makmak, make sure to check out the store's new Botanicals collection, which includes a knock-out Smoked Vanilla & Pecan Praline addition.

Kakawa Chocolates has Hot Cross Pralines at its city and Darlinghurst stores and they're damn good, too. The whipped ganache is airy and delightful (cue flashback of eating Milky Way bars as a kid) and the honey, clove and cinnamon accents evoke the original bakery-filling treats. Other Easter-Bunny-appeasing choices include the Potato Head Eggs ($16.50), heart-shaped cartons of eggs, Ninja Eggs, and Quail Eggs (top) flavour-charged with sea salted caramel, raspberry mint, blueberry and crunch hazelnut praline fillings ($15.50).

And Black Star Pastry has the real deal; its buns are a fragrant flashback to owner Chris The's church-attending memories as a kid. As you may have read in Good Food, his version of hot cross buns ($4 each/$18 for six) has a frankincense glaze and is rolled out of spice-scented and fruit-moist dough. You can also pick up an 80's Lip if you're feeling cheeky, too.

Happy Easter.

A Q&A with Good Food Under $30 editor Angie Schiavone (and book giveaway)

The Good Food Under $30 guide (which used to be called Everyday Eats) came out this week. As editor, have you noticed any trends in the last year – besides Sydney's neverending/indestructible interest in Mexican food?

Mexican has been popular, yes, but more generally Latin American food is king. There are some great new Peruvian places – Misky Cravings in Fairfield, El Amigo in Glebe – and some where the food is best described as ‘Latin’ (Panama House in Bondi, we’re looking at you!)

I think at the end of the day, we’re all looking to try something fun, fresh and different – so along with this new wave of more authentic Latin American eats, we also get very excited about any restaurant serving a cuisine we’ve never tried before. This year the book includes Jamaican, Ethiopian, Filipino, Czech, Fijian-Indian, Cambodian – and lots of more regional fare from specific parts of China and Thailand.

Tell us about some of the new discoveries you made while editing the book this year.

I became a mum just before starting work on the book this year, so I discovered a lot about eating out with a baby in tow! It’s gone from hoping he’ll stay asleep while we eat, to hoping he’ll stay happy and entertained while we eat, to making sure we order at least one thing he’ll be able to eat. His favourites are bread and sticky rice.

But I’m assuming you were more interested in new restaurants? The number of great new eats in Bondi is so big it almost seems unfair – isn’t the beach enough of a win? There’s also been a bit of a boom in Fairfield, including the addition of Green Peppercorn, the Thai/Lao restaurant that won our award for ‘Best New Restaurant’.

You’ll have to grab a copy of the guide to find out more – it has 550-plus new reviews and more than 100 entries that haven’t been previously reviewed by the guide.

There are some great award categories in the book – Best Sweet Spot, Biggest Bargain, Best Breakfast. What are some categories you wish there was room for in Good Food Under $30?

I wish I could name runners-up for some categories. I could have written a whole manifesto on ‘Best Dumpling’ – which encompasses so much; Din Tai Fung won this award, but its xiao long bao (not semantically dumplings, but really, they’re dumplings) are done better than anyone else in Sydney.

But if you’re after buns – New Shanghai is the business. And the new Shanghai Memory (offspring of the stalwart Shanghai Night) does the best fish dumplings. And don’t get me started on Polish pierogi!

You've moved postcodes since editing the book last year. Have you discovered great new places as a result? And are there any wonderfully over-represented suburbs people should keep an eye out for?We’re based in the Hills district temporarily and there are a few great options in the ‘hood. Our current favourite is the new Youeni Foodstore at Castle Hill, but we also love The Baron, just down the road. At Baulkham Hills, there’s a great little Thai joint, Aroy Thai, just a few doors down from Durban Dish – which, as far as we know, is the only place doing South African food in Sydney, and a brand new café called Sol.Cafe, serving up solid cafe fare with South American and Middle Eastern twists. We haven’t been here long, so the list is still growing!

The go-to suburbs for cheap eating: Fairfield, Cabramatta, Haymarket, Bondi, Redfern.

And what are some last-minute contenders you wish had made it in? At the top of my list is Chur Burger! I know you covered it on your blog, Lee Tran [thanks! -LTL]. It opened after we went to press, but we’ve tried to make up for it by featuring one of its “awesome” burgers on the cover of the ‘Under $30’ issue of Good Food in the SMH (note: ‘chur’ is kiwi slang for awesome – and by all reports, these burgers are just that!) Santa Barbara at Potts Point looks like loads of fun, too. It’s on the list for next time!

For updates on Good Food Under $30, follow on Facebook and Twitter.

Good Food Under $30 guide is out now (and was fun to contribute to). Thanks to Fairfax Books, we have five copies of the publication to give away, valued at $10 each. For your chance to win, leave a comment with your favourite place to grab a meal under $30 (include your email, so I can contact you if you end up scoring a book). I'll pick the winners after the competition closes Sunday March 31 (12:00 AEST). Good luck!