Ocello, Surry Hills

The eye catching sign from Ocello

If you love cheese, and/or a regular fans of farmers market, you shall be familiar with this name - Ocello. Otherwise, a pile of lovely cheese on the table at their stall. I am a huge fans of cheese, so while I first saw it's sign put up on the window of a shop at the St Margaret Complex in December 2008, I am exciting and have been waiting for it to open it's door. The store opened about 7 weeks ago, but my laziness has been stopping me to visit this gorgeous gem until now. So while the weather was good, and I was craving for cheese and dying for a cup of coffee, I struck my laziness and grab my camera (and of course my credit card as well) and made a short trip to Ocello. You will never miss the shop, the cheese storing room is like a glasshouse, and it was part of the display window which made it very unique to the other shops around.

As soon as you entered the shop, you would be surrounded by all the goodies; Variety of Jams, crackers, flat breads, Italian groceries and of course, plenty of cheese. It was lunch time while I was there, and my tummy was rrumbling, so I sat down at the cafe to have my lunch first before continue my cheese shopping journey.

Variety of Jams, Flat breads, Italian Groceries

The cafe was located near the entrance of the shop. It has a range of paninis, arinchinis, Italian cookies and cakes. I ordered a cup of cappuccino and 2 arinchinis; beef and mushroom.

The Ocello Cafe, Italian fruit cookies, Paninis, arinchinis, cakes and slices

Cappuccino

Mushroom arinchinis and Beef arinchinis

The cross section of the arinchinis, the vintage looking chair in the cafe

The cappuccino was aromatic and the foam was rich and creamy, it was delicious. And I think the "cocoa powder triangle" on top is cute. The next arrival were the 2 large arinchinis. They looked much bigger compare to them in the display fridge. I was starting to worry maybe I should ordered one, rather than 2. The beef one was rich and saucy. It was full of green peas and delicious bolognese sauce. The mushroom one was more cheesy and had a more mild taste. It was full of pieces of soft and chewy cheese. I found that when the 2 arinchinis were mixed together, they tasted incredibly good. So I end up eating them as a big ball of arinchini filled of cheese, green peas, mushroom and the lovely tomato-ey bolognese sauce. Despite my hard work, I couldn't finish them all. Next time I'll be more considerable and not be greedy to order too many food. After the yummy lunch, it was time to shop ... :)

Cheese ... You can look through the temperature controlled cheese storing room from inside of the shop as well.

The perfect babies sleeping quietly inside the nursery ...

Fridges full of Cheese, Prosciutto, Cured meat, Fresh Fruits, Eggs, Olives, Marinated vegetables, Italian sparkling water and juices.

Ocello is an one stop shop for cheese. It also sells a lot of compliments for cheese, such as olives, flat bread, dried/fresh/glace fruits and cured meat. There are 100+ different cheese in the fridge, while I was struggling to make my decision, a friendly staff came along and helped me to assemble my cheese platter. She kindly let me sample the some of the cheese first before I made any decisions. So after 10 minutes and all the extra yummy cheese in my already full tummy, I chose 4 different cheese and some dried muscatels for my cheese platter on the weekend.

Brie Aux Truffles, Brillo, Catteria Vecchio

To serve with the cheese, we had Basso leaves with black olives, which i bought it from a farmer's market a while a go. To drink, we had a bottle of sweet white from Piggs Peake in Hunters Valley, NSW. We bought the wine nearly a year ago while we had a short trip to Hunters Valley in March last year. It has been sitting in my fridge since then ... It is fresh, light and silky sweet.

Bacco's leaves with black olives, the bag of cheese from Ocello, Piggs Peake 2008 "sweet bread"

The 4 cheese I bought from Ocello

The Brie Aux Truffles from France is a brie cheese with a truffles layer in the middle. It was very soft and with a slightly bitter taste. After I left it out in the room temperature fro 30 minutes, it was almost melted away on the cheese board. We had to spread it on the crispy flat bread. Very earthy and creamy !

Brie Aux Truffles ~ $125/kg

The Brillo from Italy is a semi soft cheese made with sheep's milk and matured in wine. This explains why it had a burgundy coloured rind. It was smooth and creamy with a hint of wine aroma. This is certainly my favourite of the four. As soon as you opened the package, it's smell divine.

Brillo ~ $ 70/kg

The Blu di Moncenisio from Italy is a soft blue cheese made with cow's milk. I found that the taste was fairly strong; it was pungent and intense. I like it to be pair this with some pear slices.

Blu di Moncenisio ~ $70/kg

The Latteria Vecchio is an extra matured hand cheese made from cow's milk. It was hard, not but crumbly. It was slighty sweet with a fruity aftertaste.

Latteria Vecchio ~ $50/kg

Along with the cheese, we had some dried muscatels, fresh figs, pear, plum and fresh muscats. I have also made some candied walnuts. The candied walnuts are very easy to make, and delicious with cheese or to be use in desserts.


Candied Walnuts

2 cups of walnuts
2/3 cup of caster suagr
2 tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of freshly grated lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a tray with baking paper
2. Combine lemon zest, sugar, honey and water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil the honey mixture for about 7 minutes without stirring.
3. Remove the mixture from heat and stir in the walnuts. Spread out the walnuts on the prepared tray to cool.

Enjoy !

Dried muscatels (from Ocello $ 35/kg), fruit platter, candied walnuts

P.S. I would like to say a big thank you to Paul and Rebecca from Ocello. Paul showed me around in Ocello and made me a fabulous coffee, and Rebecca helped me to choose the cheese for my cheese platter.


Formaggi Ocello Flagship Store

425 Bourke Street (St Margaret Complex),
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Phone: +61 (2) 9357 7878

Opening Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm , Sat 8am - 6pm , Sun 10am - 6pm


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