5 Foodie Finds – top choc, food with wings, Good Food Month, Noodle Markets and a café with a twist

We get a real rush from finding these new, upcoming or little-known morsels. It’s a bit like putting your hand in a jacket pocket and finding ten bucks – ten bucks that taste delicious!

Our last 5 Foodie Finds were random and wide-reaching – from happy eggs and bush tucker to room service and Viet pho… and this time it’s just as random!

From food high in the sky to down and dirty in Sydney’s night noodle markets, we’ve got a lot to tell you in our foodie finds this month:

Spencer Cocoa chocolate

On our recent trip to Mudgee, we were lucky enough to discover the delights of this tiny chocolate makers.

Main man, Luke visits the cocoa growers in Vanuatu twice a year for the harvest and has an amazing relationship with the locals. They grow the beans and partially process them, then Spencer ships everything back to Mudgee where the choc is made.

Dark, rich, beautifully flavoured and tempered to a satisfying snap as you bite it, this is the best choc we’ve tasted. And the packaging is great too. Lots of soft foil wrapping and the embossed cocoa leaves on the surface of the bar provide you with a very luxe experience.

SpencerCocoa.com.au

New Qantas Economy dinners

I always dread the moment the flight crew start dishing out dinner at 35,000ft.

What will I be attempting to digest this time? What dressed up bin juice will I be dribbling down myself as I hunker over my measly tray, the headrest of my reclining neighbour pressing into my forehead?

Well, perhaps that’s all about to change. We were invited to a special preview of the new Qantas Economy dinners recently, and I must say, I’d probably pick a Qantas night flight next time just for the grub.

New packaging means fresher food, better flavours and more realistic textures. And gone are the prison canteen trays; everything comes in a deli style box.

The range: farfalle basil pesto pasta with prosciutto and roasted hazelnuts, butter chicken curry with rice and a naan bread, quinoa, beetroot, goat’s cheese and felafel salad, and chickpea, pumpkin and couscous salad.

Not bad, ay?

Australian Good Food Month in 4 cities

Good Food Month is the country’s biggest food festival. The four eastern capital cities have all kinds of things going on from celebrity chefs to growers’ markets, all courtesy of Citi.

Some of these events you need to pay for, but there’s a lot on that’s free to go to.

Sydney‘s and Canberra’s Good Food Month starts from October 1st.

Melbourne needs a bit more time to warm up, so it gets going from November 1st.

Brisbane’s first ever Good Food Month starts in July 2015.

Go to www.goodfoodmonth.com for more details.

Night Noodle Markets

The crown jewel in Sydney’s Good Food Month has to be the Night Noodle Markets. Every year these markets open up in Hyde Park right in the middle of the city.

Since 1998, Noodle Markets has grown to be a place where over 200,000 hungry people congregate for the three weeks in October it runs.

Head over to Hyde Park between 10th to 26th October to chow down on noodly goodness and dumpling joy from stalls representing some of the top Asian restaurants in Sydney – places like Mamak, Longrain and Din Tai Fung are among the record 50+ stalls at this year’s markets.

Doors open from 5pm weeknights and 4pm Sat and Sun. It’s free to enter the markets but it’s a licensed area, so no BYO, I’m afraid.

Night Noodle Markets 2014.

Rushcutters

When we set out to meet up with our lovely new friend Alexx from AlexxStuart.com and her family, we had no idea about the place we were heading.

Rushcutters Café is more than just a place to go and grab breakfast or lunch – though they do serve some delicious meals there. There’s also a small market place at one end. It has the most amazing range of organic locally produced veggies, meats and cheeses.

There’s also a dinner menu here that’s well worth considering. We’ve only ever had brunch here, but Alexx assures us it’s good. She also delivers cooking healthy classes to kids, so keep your eyes open here.

Their recipes and other great events running at Rushcutters are all on their website too.

Rushcutters.com.au – what’s happening.

What’s your favourite choc? Do you have any in-flight food nightmare stories? Will you be visiting any of Eastern Australia’s Good Food Month events? Where’s your favourite café spot? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance and courtesy of respective websites.