The Australian Heritage Hotel: The Rocks

Social networking at its finest

Another month, another excuse for a bunch of Twitter socialites (and a few Sydney food bloggers) to get together for some food and conversation, thanks to the social beacon that is Fridley. Last time it was a Greek banquet but this time it's beer and pizza at The Australian Heritage Hotel.

There is the odd mood where a good seafood woodfire pizza with copious amounts of garlic and anchovies will get me hot under the collar, but I have to confess that in the end, I find pizza vividly dull and unexciting. You can blame years of Pizza Hut and Dominoes for tainting my world view. So tonight my agenda was all about conversation first with dinner a fleeting thought at the back of my mind...until the food actually came out!

Forgive the use of flash and check out the sticky chicken wings

We started off with some sweet and sticky marinated chicken wings that were quickly polished off minus some proper table decorum on my part. But seriously, I defy you to eat these moreish chicken wings without licking one digit! They don't call it finger licking good for nothing.

In quick succession, the pizzas arrived and ladies and gentlemen, these weren't your average Hawaiian and BBQ Meatlovers. We are dealing with the Australian Coat of Arms cooked and slapped on a pizza base. Skippy the kangaroo is on the menu but I had my eye on the emu (they say it tastes like chicken). Not exciting enough? We also have saltwater crocodile for your culinary pleasure (they say it also tastes like chicken).

What were the chances he was twittering throughout dinner?

Now before you panic (I'm looking at the tourists here), rest assured that koalas are nowhere to be found near the ovens. In fact I believe that eating koala is kind of taboo in our country. Has anybody actually heard about koala meat? I wonder if it'd taste like chicken? Personally I don't think I can bring myself to try a koala bear - quite a hypocritical view of course considering that I'd happily try emu or the 'roo. But gosh darn, koalas are too cute in their Nimbin-esque gumtree induced state of high. Plus they have the cutest bums. Another reason why I wouldn't eat wombat either.

But I digress. In a big way!

Spicy Chorizo Sausage

The Spicy Chorizo Sausage pizza was oddly devoid of any actual chorizo but satisfied none the less with hot salami and caramelised onions. It was made even more enjoyable after I pushed off the kalamata olives and gave it to the olive loving Lis!

Baked Pumpkin

Definitely not one for the meat-lovers: baked pumpkin, fresh rosemary, garlic, paprika and marinated feta - full of vegetarian goodness.

Roast Duck

I've heard many praises for the roast duck pizza that was peppered with mushrooms, spanish onions, asian greens, shallots, sesame seeds and a plum sauce. Sounds delish...too bad it was all gone before I tried it! *grumble*

BBQ Emu

One half of the Aussie coat-of-arms bbq-ed with spanish onions, fresh basil leaves and cherry tomatoes. And no, it didn't taste like chicken! In fact it was a rather gamey meat not too unsimilar to lamb or goat. Most of the pieces of the emu were rather chewy but I did have one fillet that was mouthwateringly tender and juicy. Seems likes eating emu isn't as crazy as first thought!

Saltwater Crocodile

My favourite of the night: this was served with fragrant fresh thai herbs and the crocodile was marinated in coconut cream with asian greens. A touch of spice capped off a fabulous pizza. As for the crocodile, I can only describe the meat as a really soft, fleshy chicken or a chewier, 'meatier' firm-flesh fish. A cross between chicken and a fish - that's about as eloquently as I can put it. But my advice is don't knock it till you try it!

Aussie Four Cheese

Another one for the vegetarians, this was an orgy of cheese consisting of blue, parmesan, mozzarella and cheddar as well as sun dried tomato and rocket. Luckily I couldn't smell it. But I'm sure it was delicious for the cheese lovers.

Smoked Salmon

Now this I can get excited about and I practically waited with baited breath all night for it! How could anybody resist smoked salmon, capers, crème fraiche, baby spinach and spanish onions? At least there was one good reason for waiting: everybody else were too full to eat it leaving it all for greedy ol' me! Win!

Yes folks, these weren't your standard Pizza Hut greasy doughs of artery clogging god-knows-what-meat pizzas. These were utterly delicious, and that's a lot coming from somebody who just doesn't get excited about pizza. As for the emu and crocodile? I'm glad to say...tastes better than chicken.


The Australian Heritage Hotel

100 Cumberland Street
The Rocks, Sydney 2000
02 9247 2229