Best of The Hit List: Maiz, Cafe Freda’s, Amah by Ho Jiak, and More

Chef Juan Carlos Negrete doesn’t take shortcuts when showcasing the cuisine of his Mexican homeland. At Maiz, the mango mole is flavoured with 27 ingredients that have been slow-cooked, fermented, roasted and blended for hours, before being served with hand-pressed tortillas, confit duck and a splash of tepache. His chilli oil is powered by 10 types of Mexican chillies, and he’s even created his own “Mexican-ised” version of Vegemite to flavour breakfast quesadillas. After gaining a loyal fan base for Maiz’s brunch menu, this diner is expanding to dinner, with strawberry-dusted buñuelos and waste-repurposing tepache on offer.

When Matt Whiley opened Re in April, there were hype-heavy headlines about it being the world’s first permanent no-waste cocktail bar. The award-winning bartender has been upfront about the long journey to meeting that goal. But along with his dedicated team (which includes Australia’s World Class Bartender of the Year, Evan Stroeve), he’s underdoing impressive moves to get there. Their Never Wasted initiative involves taking pandan pulp from Gelato Messina, Murray cod fat from Saint Peter, coffee chaff from Artificer, bones from Firedoor and transforming that diverted waste into cocktails you’ll want to savour.

The launch of Lode Pies was followed by intense queues – one line even snaked past The Trinity pub on the corner, 100 metres away. With award-winning chef Federico Zanellato adapting his beloved pithivier from his two-hat degustation menu at LuMi into a takeaway version, people were clearly prepared to wait for the star menu item. There are other pastries that deserve the spotlight, too: The caramelised banana, peanut and chocolate wonder that’s called Mr Peanut; the jewel-like Crown on 487 pastry, sweetened with raspberry, rose and white chocolate; and his semi-caramelised take on a sausage roll, which you can dip in a fermented habanero-tomato sauce.

Award-winning sommelier Giorgio De Maria fronting a new venue? You’d toast to that. Even better that it involves fellow wine importer Mattia Dicati and chef Enrico Tomelleri (10 William St). Paski Vineria Popolare is named after De Maria’s dog, who is immortalised in the upstairs mural. That’s where the restaurant area is located: It’s home to excellent snacks (don’t pass the tapioca and Asiago fritti, sweetened with chestnut honey and shrouded in fine cheese shavings) and just-as-great pasta dishes (like anolini with broad beans and pecorino, prepared in a deeply savoury broth). Downstairs has a more casual ‘bar and bottle shop’ vibe. Either way, you’re drinking well, with Mauro Vergano’s vermouth, Podere San Biagio ‘Tresette Col Morto’ fizz and other good pours available.

Junda Khoo has drawn on inspiration from his Malaysian grandmother’s cooking for his popular Ho Jiak eateries. For his latest outpost, it’s chef Loong Oon (Hun Loong) who is tapping into memories of his late Malaysian grandma (or ‘Amah’) for culinary ideas. At Amah by Ho Jiak, the fish-ball soup might conjure recollections of her hand-pounded version, which he had to piece together from his memory bank (and some chef intuition and experimentation), because she never recorded the recipes before she died earlier this year. The menu evokes her early morning visits to markets (before the sun would even rise) and her day-long spells cooking in the kitchen.

The namesake ‘Baba’ is co-owner Alexander Kelly’s Macedonian grandmother, but the menu is just as likely to include Chinese influences as well as dishes that reflect his cultural roots (his baba loved to cook fried rice, after all), and Kelly name-checks his favourite hand-pulled noodle eatery – Xi Bay in Burwood – as an inspiration on the menu’s bouillabaisse Bolognese. Meanwhile, co-owner and head chef Jean-Paul El Tom uses that same dish to express his fanboy dedication to Hurstville’s Shang Lamb Soup. The food at Baba’s Place is a tribute to city’s multicultural postcodes as well as the team’s families, with El Tom listing the geographic coordinates of his mum’s Lebanese village to explain where the house yoghurt originated from.

Xinyi Lim might back local producers (such as Moonacres and Seasons) on her plate, but her menu at Cafe Fredas also has a globe-spanning curiosity. Her flavour-dense mole recalls her spell at Mexico’s Expendio de Maiz, while the beef rendang is a snapshot of her mother’s time spent in Malaysia. The chef spent a stint at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, and has dedicated her Family Meal project to studying the food of the world – Georgian, Persian, even Peruvian-Chinese cuisine has attracted her attention. It means her menu will range from grilled onigiri with soy butter shiitake to scallop crudo and pandan panna cotta.

Marvin Antonio Barahona’s Raza Central might be the only Sydney restaurant dedicated to the food of El Salvador. He’s so devoted to the cuisine of his birthplace that’s he been honoured by the El Salvador Embassy for highlighting it so passionately. The stars of his menu are cheesy pupusas, the staple that’s known as the country’s national dish (there’s even a National Pupusa Day that’s often celebrated with record-breaking attempts to make outsized versions of the tortilla snack). Don’t skip on dessert, because you’ll want to sample the sugar-sprinkled, custard-filled plaintains on offer.

After running Billy Kwong for close to two decades, Kylie Kwong called time on her signature restaurant in 2019. The follow-up, Lucky Kwong, was understandably highly anticipated: her Cantonese-Australian canteen opened mid-2021 and was soon met with queues and buzz. It expands on her community-minded approach: via wok-tossed stir-fries, noodles and savoury Chinese pancakes, she celebrates Indigenous ingredients from Jiwah, organic vegetables from Palisa Anderson’s Boon Look farm and sustainable seafood from Saint Peter. Her condiments – from the Two Good chilli sauce to the Wayside Chapel rooftop honey – also support admirable causes and organisations.

Not even a ute smashing through the front of P&V Paddington could stop the momentum of Porcine, its upstairs restaurant. Chef Nik Hill has been turning to the pages of vintage cookbooks (and French classics) for his high-comfort menu. The bistro has recently been serving up king trout rillettes with lobster and Armagnac jelly, rooster “pot au feu” and tomato tarts with a creamy dollop of Fromager d’Affinois.