Snack Bar: Shaffa’s New Bone-Marrow Bagel and More Sydney Food News

What’s on around Sydney

• Cronulla taverna Homer is turning one, and you’re invited to celebrate. Owners Harry and Mario Kapoulas are putting on an $85 set menu, with ouzo on arrival. You’ll start with stone-baked bread with tzatziki and melitzanosalata (smoky eggplant dip), then move onto fried squid and snacky cigars filled with braised rooster. The main course is a hearty osso buco stew with pita, and dessert is karithopita (walnut cake) with vanilla ice-cream. Book here.

• The City2Surf takes over Bondi this weekend. We can’t think of a better place to watch the action than Icebergs, which is running a three-course brunch package ($90) with bottomless Bellinis and blood orange Mimosas for an extra $50. It features shared fruit platters, brioche buns with spreads, yoghurt semifreddo with banana and granola, and a choice of onion frittata or smoked salmon with potato cake for mains.

• Surry Hills restaurant Shaffa has a new weekend-only set menu ($79 per person), and we’re mildly obsessed with the bone-marrow simit. Turks have been baking the ring-shaped bread, which is similar to an unboiled bagel, for at least 500 years. At Shaffa, it’s hand-rolled and braided, topped with sesame seeds and baked in a new dome oven until crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It comes with matbucha, a spicy condiment made from capsicum and tomato, plus a five-hour bone-marrow velouté served in the bone itself. Yum. Book here.

• Tasmania has emerged as one of the most exciting cool-climate wine regions in the world. Taste for yourself on August 15, as Zetland’s Prince Wine Store brings together seven of the island’s top producers for Southern Oscillations. Anim, Future Perfect, Glaetzer-Dixon, Henskens Rankin, Rivulet, Sonnen and Utzinger will present four wines each, meaning you’ll try 28 in total, spanning chardonnay, pinot noir and more. From 12pm–3pm, chat directly with the winemakers, graze on snacks, and taste Burgundian wines at a dedicated comparison table. And it’s just $25.

• Rhône heads, this one’s for you. On August 18, Aria is hosting a lavish dinner showcasing the wines of renowned northern Rhône producer Domaine Yves Cuilleron, with the man himself in attendance. The five-course menu includes Brolos lobster raviolo with brown butter, kombu and tarragon; Sher Wagyu flatiron with Jerusalem artichoke, black garlic and malt; and a twice-baked comté soufflé with truffle honey and endive. Aria head sommelier Salvatore Persico has selected nine Cuilleron wines to match, covering syrah, marsanne, roussane, viognier and blends. Book here.

• Australian whisky may have stamped its mark on the world, but Scotland’s Islay region still has a stranglehold on smoky expressions. Sydney distillery Archie Rose wants in. It’s just released Triple Smoked, an innovative beast made using smoked malt, smoked casks and smoked water – but zero peat. Instead, master distiller Dave Withers used native stringybark to create an unmistakably Australian whisky with notes of “smoked charcuterie, bonfire embers, rich oak, roasted macadamia and charred lemon”. Limited to 10,571 bottles.

What we covered this week

• Family recipes and Pantry Story’s croissant dough power Stanmore’s new sandwich sanctuary.

• 15 to book: the new Sydney restaurants, bars and cafes we covered in July.

• Sydney’s best fish pies for golden crusts and creamy, fragrant fillings.

• Five to try: the latest Hot List additions.

• Sydney’s best new Japanese restaurants and cafes for sushi, onigiri and more.

• Where to eat, drink and stay in NSW wine town Mudgee.