Chocolate dipped pears with pistachio toffee crumbs

 

Pass the matchsticks! I’m several days back from Oz and still crippled with the worst jet lag I’ve had in 20 years of regularly making the interminable Sydney-London journey. Jet lag does, however, have benefits. Pre-dawn espresso-fuelled runs along the beach (to shake myself into the proper time zone) are no bad thing. And during hours of tossing and turning my mind replays the best bits of our trip.  That pretty much means my sleepless nights are spent thinking about food.

Sydney loves a food and drink trend, especially when it comes to coffee. Pour-over and cold-drip is still keeping the caffeine geeks occupied, but the really ubiquitous new coffee thang is piccolo latte.

Technically it’s a ristretto shot, topped with a decent slosh of steamed milk. It’s served in a machiatto glass or dinky 100ml paper cups. (Coffee consumption doesn’t get more serious than at this joint in Marrickville.) Lemon curd tartlets also seem to be everywhere and I can confirm that consuming the two together is a very good way to pass the time.
Fattoush, the gorgeous sumac-redolent Middle Eastern salad (which my brother calls lazy persons tabbouleh as the veg isn’t chopped up so finely) is also incredibly popular, both in restaurants and home cooking. I followed the herd and made a batch for Christmas lunch, which was lovely with our Christmas lamb roasted on a spit.