Nine Sydney food fads you have to try

CAN’T do without kombucha, bone broth or acai? You’re not alone, Sydneysiders simply can’t get enough of these food trends.

Super healthy: the breakfast salad at Rough and Bare.

• Kitchen Garden program rolled out at primary schools
• Brookvale’s growing craft beer scene
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WHAT is it about certain foodie fads? Here are nine hot food trends that Sydneysiders love.

NITRO COFFEE

Danes’ nitro coffee takes cold-drip coffee to the next level. This uber-trendy drink is essentially coffee in a keg that’s served and poured like a draught beer.

Its Four Elements espresso blend beans are soaked in cold water, filtered and bottled as a concentrated liquid that can be served straight, mixed with water or over ice.

Tap-poured coffee uses 75 per cent nitrogen and 25 per cent CO2 to get the bubbles.

Think of it as a well-known Irish stout, managing director Paul Jackson said.

Or try this: Freshwater’s Cruise Espresso has coffee-tasting boards and the occasional public tasting (or cupping) sessions

Danes head trainer Jon Saroglu with the nitro-brewed coffee. Picture Troy Snook.

POKE

Move over ceviche, summer is coming and the latest ‘raw’ fish to sample comes from Hawaii.

Poke has both Japanese and South American influence — think sashimi and ceviche — and it is often served with rice. Papi Chulo on Manly Wharf has its own homage to the Hawaiian street food, head chef Toby Worthington said. Tuna poke, the Papi Chulo way, is marinated in a dressing made of soy, sesame oil, sugar syrup, grated ginger, garlic, apple, onion and lime juice to ‘cook’ the fish for a couple of minutes.

It is served with avocado, wakame (dehydrated seaweed), sliced shallot, sawtooth (a type of coriander), sesame seeds and a rice-paper crisp.

Or try this: Salmon carpaccio with seaweed essence at Sushi Izakaya Waka Manly.

Tuna poke dish at Papi Chulo. Picture: Troy Snook

TURMERIC LATTE

In three months, one knobbly rhizome rocketed up the Google trends ladder. Searches for turmeric went up 56 per cent from November 2015 to January 2016. Mona Vale vegetarian cafe Greenhouse Gypsy has leapt aboard the golden bandwagon and tweaked its lattes to keep the non-caffeine set happy.

They are made with powdered turmeric, dates and coconut oil and nut milk. If you want to make one at home, head next door where Scoop Wholefoods is selling 105g packets of the cafe’s Stay Golden blend.

Or try this: Reishi latte from The Nook in Elanora Heights. It’s made with powdered reishi and chaga mushrooms, vanilla, mesquite and honey-steeped in homemade almond milk.

Tahlia Hailes pours a turmeric latte at Greenhouse Gypsy.

KOMBUCHA

Kombucha shots anyone? Ruby Lane, the organic cafe and grocer in Manly, has a trio of these fizzy fruity drinks.

Kombucha is a fermented probiotic drink made with sugar, black tea and a probiotic culture. Kombucha is made for the cafe, owner Phil Dawson said.

The fermentation process takes eight weeks and flavours like raspberry, lemon, ginger and turmeric are added during an extra week’s fermentation. Kombucha fans say the probiotics aid gut wellbeing and digestion.

However Duane Mellor, accredited dietitian and spokesman for the Dietitians Association of Australia, said there was no scientific proof.

Or try this: Jonahs’ offers a booze-free alternative with its degustation dinner. Two courses are matched with an orange pekoe and a strawberry gumtree kombucha from Black Radish in Marrickville.

Kombucha shots at Ruby Lane.

BONE BROTH

Bone broth is an old-school technique that’s become a foodie fad. It’s a slow process taking up to 24 hours, Mona Vale cafe owner Anthony Milotic said. He makes broth by roasting beef bones from organic butcher Shiralee Meats.

They are simmered in filtered water so there is no chlorine and fluoride. His cafe, Rough and Bare, goes through 10 litres a day. Half is sold as a caffeine-free alternative to coffee, he said. Brothee is spiked with turmeric, spices and lemon.

Local TV chef Ed Halmagyi said bone broths tended to be cook slowly at lower temperatures, so more of the protein structure remains digestible. Mr Halmagyi said no science backed this up.

Or try this: Bone broth is available at Ora, the organic health food cafe in Manly.

Anthony Milotic with his broth. It’s served with seasonal greens and cultured kraut.

BREAKFAST BOWLS

Healthy breakfast bowls are all the rage with both savoury and sweet options. If you don’t fancy a mix of salad ingredients or vegetables, Bare Naked Bowls has a variety of fruity low-carb alternatives.

There are bowls made with acai, the hugely popular Brazilian superfood. But cafe co-owner Ashley Porteous believes another cactus superfood could be the next big trend. The Manly cafe serves purees pink pitaya with almond milk, mango and banana. It is topped with nut granola, chia seeds and bananas. Bare Naked Bowls gives back, too.

The cafe donates to The International Brothers and Sisters House, which helps youngsters in Cambodia, Tanzania and Nepal.

Or try this: Acai bowl at Balgowlah Heights cafe Cafeina.

Bare Naked Bowls green hemp smoothie, pear and almond smoothie, the Manly acai bowl (front) and pitaya bowl.

MEGA MILKSHAKES

The trend that started in Canberra with cafe Patissez’s Freakshakes and swept through Sydney was slow to reach the beaches. Social media got the ball rolling with people posting images of kilojoule-laden sugar hits topped with Nutella-infused doughnuts, marshmallows, maple-candied bacon and whipped cream.

One Manly cafe, Ground Zero, latched on with the likes of the Salted Caramel Banana Infusion. Roll Out The Wagon — a jar filled with chocolate milk, ice cream whipped cream, rocky road, marshmallows, Nutella, crushed nuts and wagon wheels — clocks up roughly 4900KJ. That’s more than half the daily energy requirement for the average adult.

Or try this: Smalltown in Avalon has a chunky-choc brownie smoothie made with homemade brownies.

Harry Wheeler and Max Roberts sample Ground Zero's mega milkshakes. Picture: Adam Taylor

SMASHED AVO

After Nigella Lawson’s recipe for avocado on toast was screened in 2015, posh UK supermarket Waitrose said its avocado sales went up 30 per cent.

Calm Cafe, a stone’s throw from Freshie beach, serves its smashed avo on toast with pesto and pine nuts. When you’re tucking into smashed avo for brunch, give a thought to how this little fruit got its name. Avocado was ahuacatl to the Aztecs. They thought the fruit looked like testicles hanging on the tree.

Or try this: North Curl Curl cafe COOH has smashed avocado on sourdough with salsa.

Calm Cafe’s smashed avocado on toast with fetta, pine nuts, pesto and lemon juice.

RAW DESSERTS

Raw food devotees claim various health benefits and increased energy levels as a result of boosting their diet with uncooked food. Freshwater’s cafe Bent Fork has no-bake treats, based on Nestle favourites. Instead they are made with dates, nuts, cacao and coconut oil. Or there are dairy-free cheesecakes made with avocado. Raw desserts are not entirely guilt-free, Dietitians Association of Australia’s Duane Mellor said they still have fat, sugar and a high-energy content.

Or try this: Manly cafe Native Feel Real has raw treats like chocolate pancakes with raw cacao mousse.

Raw desserts from Bent Fork.