Instagram Interlude

Here's a confession of guilt: I've declared war on some unending to-do lists and I'm not sure if I'm winning. So, being time-poor, here's the laziest blog post I've come up with: a recap of recent meals via that hazy-coloured memory prop, Instagram.

Youeni Foodstore, Surry Hills.

The wedges, roasted with rosemary, thyme and Parmesan bread crumbs (genius!), are one of many things I love about this place.

The Pantone-busting jug of "Sara Special" juice is also pretty brilliant, too.

Sixpenny, Stanmore.

I took Will here for his birthday. It was as out-of-the-ballpark amazing as our previous visit. Everything won me over, convincingly – from the Pickled Fruit Salad and "garden of nuts" (as Will called it). There's a rye-version of Milo that goes by the name of Rye-Lo. Every kid should be eating this after school.

The petits fours take something you remember (classic Australian biscuits), zap them down to Rick Moranis proportions, while retaining their monumental flavours and uncapped levels of joy.

We did the classic, birthday-stretching excuse-a-thon – turning this candle-blowing event into a justification for dinner at Hartsyard, too.

When I ordered a cake to be made at the restaurant, all I asked was it somehow conjure up the flavour of "burnt bits of banana cake", as that's one of Will's favourite things. Hartsyard pastry chef and cake mastermind Andrew Bowden came up with this spectacular creation involving dehydrated banana cake, lemon, caramel, popcorn and coffee. I have post-cake grief just thinking about how spectacular it was and how I'll never get to chase that dream combination of flavours again.

Claude's in Woollahra recently got an overhaul, design and menu-wise. The space is awesome - the downstairs bar is full of bright thunderbolts of colour. It's like a pop-art weather chart.

The food, too, has this liveliness and spark to it. It's flavour unbound. Executive chef Chui Lee Luk and head chef Ben Sears are doing great things with the 2012 remix edit of Claude's.

Will I ever run out of reasons to go on about how much I love 121BC? Hopefully never.

By the way, I recorded another podcast! This time I interview Josh Nicholls of The Milk Bar By Cafe Ish about everything from Hungry Jacks's role as Cupid in his life to how he first ended up experimenting with Japanese cuisine and bush tucker. Also covered: his secret to creating a good burger, the time he got his nose broken by an apprentice chef and the instance he ate whale bacon. You can hear it on iTunes or via RSS feed.

Other places we've enjoyed in the last while: Paper Planes in Bondi and that grand old icon of Sydney dining, Rockpool, which has been renamed Rockpool On George; Rockpool Bar and Grill and its culinary scene-stealing may be partly to blame for this identity makeover.

I'm off to Melbourne to see Claire Davie, the brilliant blogger behind Melbourne Gastronome, talk at "Everyone's a Critic", a Melbourne Writers Festival session also featuring one of my all-time heroes, Sasha Frere-Jones. Then I'll be recording my next podcast and also trying to outsmart the to-do list (again and again). In the meantime, you can maybe follow me on, uh, Instagram.

Mr Wong, Bridge Lane, Sydney

Mr Wong on Bridge Lane is next-level great – it's the James Bond of yum cha restaurants. Whereas other eateries rely on the charm of leaky teapots and lazy-susan spins, this new place has sharp-suited waiters, details revved up to design-to-impress levels and there's enough exotic glamour to fuel three Daniel Craig films.

And like the heavily hyped instalment of each new Bond film, the arrival of Mr Wong is a big deal. This 240-seater restaurant, which officially opened on Friday, is the latest Merivale venture for Dan Hong and Jowett Yu, who have been doing awesome things at Ms G's. Rounding out their A-team is Eric Koh, from London's Michelin-starred Hakkasan, as Head Dim Sum Chef.

Even the most clueless person could guess that the food will be great. Yet, every brilliant dish catches you off-guard; you have to take a second to register how truly good the menu is. So when the dim sum arrives, the opening of the bamboo steamers leads to quick plate-piling – each person air-lifting their share of Steamed Barbecue Pork Buns ($9.80), Xiao Long Bao ($9) or Dumplings ($9) encasing mushrooms or asparagus and scallops – and all this activity turns our table into an echo chamber of "that's amazing!" and other remix versions of such praise. Tom not only talks up the Baked Venison Puffs ($10.80), but endearingly calls them Asian sausage rolls. Also, as if we would not use this dim-sum-ripe opportunity to say things like, "Amazing buns!" and yet still mean it in the most innocent, single-entendre of ways.

In an interview with Hospitality magazine, Dan Hong mentioned how he wanted Mr Wong to offer a "lighter" take on Cantonese food – "We want to steer away from those heavy, thickened sauces that a lot of neighbourhood Cantonese restaurants do" – and that definitely comes across in dishes like the Sichuan-style Eggplant ($18), which usually is super-caramelly and overloaded; here, it's so light that it could do handsprings – but the flavours are far from erased; in fact, the eggplant is beautifully modulated by herbal and aromatic reveals. This is definitely one of my favourites on the menu.

The Wok-fried Cultivated Mushrooms ($26), though, are a total soy bomb, packed with an arsenal of stir-fried enoki, oyster, shimeji and other fungus varieties. I have a feeling it's a close relation to a dish at sister restaurant Ms G's, where mushrooms are cooked in an ultra-savoury sauce made with butter and Maggi seasoning. Cathy really loved the Mr Wong version and its heavy-hitting impact.

Mr. Wong’s Crispy Skin Chicken ($28 for half) also got big applause on our table (Tom said any lifetime where you got to enjoy both this and The Dark Knight Rises made for a good existence) while the unassuming Steamed Chinese Broccoli ($12) is like the crack version of the steamed greens you guilt-trip yourself into ordering at yum cha – it's slathered in this ridiculous mix of oyster sauce and garlic oil that could turn anything into a habit-forming activity.

And while dessert at yum cha is usually a functional plate of oranges or a been-there-done-that selection of mango pudding or sticky rice – at Mr Wong, there's nothing standard-issue about what's on offer. We ordered every single dessert possible and they're all meal-ending knockouts: the Cream Cheese Ice Cream ($14) with meringue, strawberries, Thai basil and "more please" macadamia praline was zippy, unexpected and delicious; the surprise element of crumbly, baked streusel really added to the Roast White Chocolate Ice Cream ($14) and its bracing yuzu curd and flourishes of longans and raspberries; the Green Apple Ice ($14) was a lighter, ultra-refreshing option, with osmanthus jelly, water chestnuts and coconut sorbet; and there's nothing airy at all about Mr. Wong’s Deep-fried Ice Cream ($14), which takes the classic Chinese-restaurant staple, gives you the option of having it in vanilla or chocolate, and then serves it with butterscotch sauce that is equal parts salty-sweet and addictive.

Because we ordered with such freewheeling abandon, I was ready for Bill Shock when it came to paying. But the tally was incredibly reasonable (around $40 a head, including tip), especially for the quality of the food. Note, though, if you have eight or more people, you'll be charged a minimum of $70 per person plus 10% service fee.

One of the restaurant's charms is its unshakeable atmosphere. The period decor (with calligraphy, inlaid fan motifs and china plates on the walls; bamboo chairs as seating; even the toilets have elegant, Oriental-style doors), plus the jazzy soundtrack and the suited staff all have a time-tripping way of making you seem like you're somewhere else. "It's like we're in 1930s Shanghai," says Cathy.

In 2012 Sydney, though, I'm happy we have Mr Wong.

Mr Wong, 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney NSW (02) 9240 3000, merivale.com.au/mrwong

Gelato Messina, Surry Hills

Good news for anyone who has been on vigilant "Gelato Messina Watch", the new branch in Surry Hills finally opened today.

Like the Darlinghurst original, there are the dependable classics (Bounty, Tiramisu, Blood Orange) and the one-of-a-kind eccentric flavours that we gravitate to Messina for – such as Sexual Chocolate (which is so heavy-going you actually crave a wheatgrass shot afterwards), Satay (so authentically nutty that you expect it to be served on a skewer) and Ode To Zeno's, a tribute to the Lebanese takeaway bar that used to be located at this site. The latter flavour is a cloud-light serve of rosewater gelato, beautifully studded with pistachio crumbs, lemon and rosewater-soaked brioche and a lash or two of cream. It'd almost inspire any eatery to close down, just to have such an excellent treat named in its honour.

The Surry Hills store has slightly more knee room than the Darlinghurst post, where (even on the coldest of nights) it gets so crowded that a search-and-rescue mission is sometimes necessary to find a friend who has ventured further along the freezer cabinet than you have. It's also decorated with a whimsical mural of the suburb, interpreting the postcode's icons (The Nepalese Kitchen, The Clock Hotel, The Lemon Cafe) in a cartoony way. And with Gelato Messina's scoopworthy flavours and big fanbase, it won't take long for this shop itself to become a highly recognisable fixture of 2010.

Gelato Messina, 389 Crown St, Surry Hills. You can following Gelato Messina on Twitter or Facebook.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry podcast

I've started a podcast! Thanks to my amazing producer Alex Watts and FBi radio for making it possible.

I've had the idea cooking in my head for an embarrassingly long time, so I'm glad it's now happening. Unless they're major celebrities, you hardly ever come across long-form interviews with chefs (they're usually hustled in just for cooking demonstrations on TV or in print), so for The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry podcast, I have an in-depth chat with someone from the food industry and ask about their culinary background: battles, triumphs, insights and injury tallies; meals that blaze in their memory; kitchen experiences they loved or would rather forget, and their recommendations on where to eat and drink.

Here's my blurb for the first episode:

Lee Tran Lam catches up with David Ralph, a chef who has worked at diner-impressing restaurants in Sydney (Quay, Flying Fish and Sails at Lavendar Bay) and London (Michelin-starred La Noisette and Kensington Place). David's an expert at placating anyone with a sweet tooth as he currently runs Kakawa, the best chocolatier in Sydney with his partner Jin. He chats about his kitchen war stories (he once had to break up a fight between two chefs), what the staff meals at flash restaurants are like (the better the restaurant, the worse they are!), dealing with the day-to-day temptation of working with chocolate and shares his favourite places to dine in Sydney.

If you're curious, you can subscribe via iTunes or via The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry podcast RSS.

As for Kakawa, you can visit it at Shop 5, 147 William St (a few blocks from the Darlinghurst Rd end), Darlinghurst, (02) 9331 8818, www.kakawachocolates.com.au.