Healthy Food: Top Juice

Monday, December 13, 2010

Top Juice: Biggest and best cherries I've seen this season, Westfield Sydney (10 Dec 2010)

Cnr Market and Castlereagh St Sydney NSW 2000

http://westfield.com.au/sydney

Best cherries of the season?

Thanks to Joy Leaper and Melinda Griffith from Liquid Ideas for sending me an early Christmas Hamper of goodies from Top Juice and Le Pain Quotidien of Westfield Sydney. I couldn't believe the size of this fruit hamper which seemed to have everything in it including mango, apple, orange, grapes, peaches, nectarines, dates, banana, papaya, passionfruit, Asian pear, massive strawberries, white cherries and huge red cherries and even a couple of exotic dragonfruit — it's weight was formidable. The large plump red cherries took me by surprise since I've been hearing so much about the bad season of cherries this year from readers in response to my Coles spot check although this doesn't seem to have affected the Top Juice offering. Seriously these cherries were ridiculous in size and thankfully were very tasty and juicy as hoped — I shared a few around the office to astonished faces. For such premium produce you have to expect a premium price and they're currently selling at $40/kg at Top Juice or $55/kg in David Jones Food Hall. Equally impressive were the strawberries with firm green stems and leaves still attached. They were nearly the size of the mutant one I found back in September but tasted a lot better — a Strapple as Kristy calls them.

Le Pain Quotidien — a name I have trouble working out how to pronounce — provided a large crunchy baguette and four Organic spreads. I don't really eat chocolate in the morning and prefer jam with my toast but the Belgian Chocolate and Hazelnut Spread is my favourite of them all — probably because it has a similar taste to Nutella which I've had before. I'm trying to think of a dessert I could make with them perhaps? I also received a $25 Breakfast Voucher which I'm looking forward to trying a croissant, coffee and maybe an organic omelet.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Quality fruit that tastes good, Spreads are organic, Breads are organic, Open from 8 am for breakfast

CONS: Need to eat the fruit quickly in this hot weather before it spoils, Premium cherries are expensive, Strawberries bruise the easiest in hampers

MUST TRY: Fruit salad at Top Juice, Find people to share the spreads with or I'll become a human blimp

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Fruit hamper of many different fruits

Size comparison of normal cherry (Hunter Street fruit stand) and Top Juice cherry

Good colour and flavour

Top Juice on level 5 Westfield Sydney: Premium cherries ($40/kg)

Size comparison of Top Juice strawberry aka The Strapple

Good colour and flavour

Le Pain Quotidien bread roll and organic spreads

Blondie, Noir, Noisella and Brunette spreads

Noisella: Belgian Chocolate and Hazelnut Spread

$25 Breakfast Voucher to use

Le Pain Quotidien located on level 4 of Westfield Sydney

Comparison pricing from David Jones Food Hall for premium cherries ($55/kg)

Sunny Ridge Long Stems Strawberries from David Jones Food Hall ($14.90/400g)

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

8 new eateries now open in Westfield Sydney Food Court (9 Nov 2010)

Cnr Market and Castlereagh St Sydney NSW 2000

http://westfield.com.au/sydney

Shiny new food court in Sydney

The recently opened Westfield Sydney now brings 8 new eateries on the level 5 Food Court Sydney Room although it's a little strange noticing Sugar Fix (level 1) is listed under Fresh Food on their map directory. As you enter via the highly mirrored escalators it's hard not to notice and be partially dazzled (and blinded) by the bright illuminated wall lighting — beam me up, Scotty! The food court has a fair amount of seating amongst the dark paneled decor and seems to be popular amongst the city office workers at the moment. The eye catching display of desserts and gelato on offer from Via del Corso is certainly one for me to revisit and try. I have my eye set on the fruit tart ($5) although a single scoop of gelato comes at a premium price of $5 — you'll get two scoops of quality gelato from Messina for this price. Top Juice has some wonderful looking fruit salad that looks set for competition with David Jones Food Hall and their chocolate coated strawberries are decadently sized — although I'm suspecting it's actually the same owners.

I wonder how the higher priced Wagyu Beef Burger ($18 eat in) at Justin North's Charlie & Co compares to his Plan B Wagyu Beef Burger ($10) but at least you can now order Fries ($6) or even Parmesan and Truffle Fries ($8) as a side. Eat Deli Kitchen seemed to be one of the more popular eateries when I visited. I must compare the Wagyu Salt Beef Reuben ($11.75) to Katz's Delicatessen Pastrami on Rye I recently tried in NYC which was sliced beautifully thin and so moist and tasty. Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar had plenty of pre topped pizza offerings by the slice which are cooked to order. The other successful franchise Guzman y Gomez is tucked away in the corner and didn't seem to have as much interest as all the other new eateries. Dergah Grill was offering kebabs although I'm always reluctant to buy falafel that isn't freshly cooked to order like Jasmin, Sabbaba or Yummba which currently has an eatery in the Westfield Bondi Junction. It looks like there's some nice seafood options to be had at Cloudy Bay Fish Co which I'll have to take a closer look at the menu next time.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Brand new and clean, Service seemed eager to please, Something new to try, Seems to be focussed on quality ingredients, Seating available

CONS: Need to go up to level 5, Can be more expensive than other food courts, Limited outlook view

MUST TRY: Something from every eatery in due course

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