The always hungry SoRMuiJAi

Spanish Terrazas

2010-12-10T00:51:00.000+11:00

There are so many of these group buy voucher websites popping up in the last few months. Whilst it saves you a lot of money buying the vouchers, I also go out a lot more than I should to use these vouchers! On this occassion, I finally got to try Spanish Terrazzas.

Gambas al Ajillo - Garlic Prawns

When the prawns were put down, me and my friend immediately gave each other a look. The prawns gave off a very strong fishy smell that hit both of us at the same time. We decided to try it anyway, and surprisingly, the prawns didn't TASTE off. Hard to explain. It could have been a combination of other smells. We ate the prawns anyway and had no ill effect.

Patatas Bravas - Spicy Potatoes

Nice salty crispy potatoes. Just wish there was some aioli with it.

Albondigas - Meat Balls

Meatballs were nice and juicy, although slightly lacking in flavour. Needed a little more salt and garlic, or maybe I'm thinking more italian food now haha

Bread

The tapas is smaller than I expected. Usually when I visit Encasa, 4 tapas is more than enough to fill me and my friend up. We weren't that hungry and thought 3 dishes would be enough, but we were still hungry. We were slightly put off ordering more food since there were about 4 fruit flies buzzing around my head. We decided to cut our losses short and went to find more food at Chinatown instead.

Spanish Terrazas
541 Kent Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9283 3046
http://www.spanishterrazas.com.au

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Cafe Strada - Summer Hill

2010-12-04T01:00:00.001+11:00

From the outside, the place looks cold stark sandwich shop. The menu is simple and the inside is actually an internet cafe. Definitely not your run of the mill cafe, but they do serve some of the best food in the Summer Hill area!

Burger with the lot

First up, their burgers. Previously I talked about how I value a good greasy corner shop burger with the lot, and Strada falls straight into this category. Its not a gourmet burger made with sour dough bread and wagyu beef with goats cheese or anything fancy, but it is a good burger. Beef, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, pineapple, onions, bacon and a perfectly fried and still runny egg. Can't ask for much more than that.

Ontop of their burgers, Strada has some of the best chips I've ever had. The trick is to always order them "extra crispy". You can hear the clink clink clink of the chips as they get tossed in a big bowl for good salt coverage. You know those chips are going to crispy.

Big Breakfast

Mixed Grill

If you can wake up early enough, Strada also does a decent big breakfast. Its nothing to write home about, but its big, filling and good value. For an extra $1, you get a piece of steak as a part of their Mixed grill. Great value in my books.

Boscaiola

For such an unassuming shop front, you wouldn't expect Strada to do one of the best Spaghetti Cabonara's I've ever tasted! Unlike a lot of other Italian restaurants who douse their cabonaras with copious amounts of cream, Strada does it the traditional Italian way with eggs and cheese only. No cream. And the result is heavenly. The strands of pasta are lightly coated with a creamy eggy sauce so it won't leave you feeling bloated and gluggy after eating. Unfortunately I've only had it take away and don't have any photos :(

Their Boscaiola however, I've had eat-in and it was just as good. Whilst the boscaiola contains cream, its not swimming in a pool of cream. Another thumbs up from me.

Cafe Strada
12 Lackey Street
Summer Hill NSW 2130
Ph: (02) 9798 5691

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A Quay Tasting Menu wannabe with a magnificent Snowegg

2010-11-16T17:21:00.000+11:00

Its been over 2 decades, but we finally went ahead and renovated our kitchen. The only thing that didn't get changed in the kitchen was.....well, actually, we gutted the entire kitchen out and put a brand new one in there! Obviously with a new kitchen, I had to cook something special to break it in. And nothing is more worthy than the famous Quay Snowegg! Actually, after my first Quay visit when I saw the recipe online, I knew I wanted to attempt it!

Of course, if you're going to serve a Quay Snowegg for dessert, you can't just have any old food beforehand. So in the spirit of a Quay feast, I decided to hold a degustation dinner. Preparations started a week before the big day, trying out various recipes. As the day got closer, I started making the various components for the snowegg, starting with the ice cream and the granita. And just like MasterChef, I had a bit of a Callum moment when I was scraping the granita. A huge chunk of it flew out of the pan and onto the floor! Luckily I had plenty of granita left, so it wasn't an utter disaster. But I did have to get onto my hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor and cabinets clean!

On the day of the actual dinner, I tackled the poached meringue, which was surprisingly easy to make. I left the maltose tuile as the very last thing to tackle, which was probably a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I made the maltose toffee no problems. But the recipe then tells you to blend the toffee to a fine powder, so you can seive it to make the maltose tuile. Everything was going fine, until I crammed a MASSIVE hunk of toffee into my crappy little $15 stick blender with a tiny food chopper attachment. I hear a massive CRUNCH as I hit the pulse button. I press the pulse button again, and I can hear the motor whirring away, but it didn't seem to be blending. Sometimes the food gets stuck and you need to give the chopper a little shake and everything will be fine. On this occassion, as I lifted the chopper up to give it a shake, my hand slips and next thing you know, shards of maltose toffee flies out of the processor and lands all over the brand new kitchen bench top, cabinet doors, floor, my clothes and even in my hair. There was a full 5 secs of silence as everything sinks in, before I start screaming in panic.

There's about 2 hours before everyone arrives and I've just scattered shards of toffee like confetti all around the kitchen. 20mins of mass panic sets in as I try to contain the mess. When I finally managed to remove all traces of sticky sugar from all my orifices, I sent an emergency sms to all my friends begging/praying for someone to have a food processor. Looks like my $15 crapola was broken, and no food processor = no snowegg! Luckily my friend had one and offered to bring it over! *phew* crisis over. For now.

Strawberry, lychee and lime cocktail

Everyone finally arrived and dinner was served!

The menu

Amuse Bouche - Vichyssoise

I started the evening off with a Vichyssoise amuse bouche. Its essentially a chilled potato and leek soup. It was incredibly velvety and smooth. Of course, all the milk and cream I added would've helped.

1st Course - Smoked salmon and avocado pearl with potato rosti

First course was a play on the Quay sea pearls. I did a smoked salmon and avocado pearl, although its was more pingpong ball than pearl. I wrapped smoked salmon around a mixture of lemony avocado, diced smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese. This was served on a lightly dressed rocket salad, crispy potato rosti and fresh lemon juice.

2nd Course - Seared Scallop, cauliflower puree and chorizo crumble

Second course was inspired by Peter Gilmore. He's the first chef that has convinced me that Cauliflower is edible without having to be deep fried or covered in cheese. I did a simple seared scallop on a cauliflower puree topped with a lemony chorizo crumble.

3rd Course - Crispy fried potato prawns with garlic aioli

This was a purely experimental dish that went quite well. Large king prawns wrapped in wafer thin slices of potato, panfried til crispy, served with salad and an aioli dressing.

4th Course - Leek, mushroom and Camembert Flammenbrot

A simple leek and camembert flammenbrot served with sauteed garlic mushrooms. This got a big thumbs up and was one of the favourites of the day! If they liked what I served, they would've loved the bacon version! Maybe next time. (Forgot to take a photo so stole this from my friend! hehe)

5th Course - Beef Steakington

Fifth Course was a Beef Steakington with red wine jus. Basically a play on a Beef Wellington. Instead of a giant fillet of beef, I made individual portions out of steak. Except my portions were a bit off, and instead of being degustation size, these babies still turned out to be like a main course! The steak was a bit cooked for my liking, but perfect for my friends. (I do like my steak still mooing...) The red wine jus was a bit salty for my liking, but the beef steakington turned out quite tasty. But then, considering I've never eating a beef wellington in my life, I'm not sure how it compares.

The maltose tuile disaster did have a silver lining, as it meant a big break between courses as we tackled the last of the snowegg preps. Most of us were full to bursting! It took us about an hour to make all the maltose tuile and actually assemble the snowegg.

DIY Stencils

Since Strawberry Guava and custard apple wasn't in season, I made a Watermelon, lime and lychee version instead. And here is the final result!

6th Course - Watermelon, lychee and lime snow egg

Innards...

Oh man, I was thoroughly impressed with myself even if I do say so myself!!! The maltose tuile covered the meringue perfectly. The meringue was soft as clouds in your mouth. The lychee ice cream was incredibly smooth, decadent yet light! Watermelon, mint and lime granita give a much needed freshness and tang to the dish, all nicely rounded out by the lychee fool! Success!!!

There was silence at the dinner table as we all dug into the snowegg. I can confidently say, my snowegg will kick Quay's Jackfruit version ANY DAY. Although, I must admit, the Strawberry Guava and Custard apple version will abolish my take in a second!

We demolished the dessert and sat around contently when one of my friend meekly said "ummm....can I have a little more granita?". Too full to move, I told them to help themselves from the freezer. Next thing you know, there were yells of "Bring the ice cream too!", "Oh! Can I have the leftover maltose?!", "Did anyone want the meringue?!". In a whirlwind of flying spoons and containers, everyone had taken the leftovers and assembled themselves another snowegg! hahaha

DIY snowegg

If only we weren't so greedy, we would've had room for the 7th Course, strawberries cookies and cream cake I made. But that extra serve of DIY snowegg just pushed us over the edge.

7th Course - Cookies and cream strawberry cake and Raspberry White chocolate macaron petite fours

I packed the cake into little doggybags for everyone before I bought out a container of white chocolate and raspberry macarons. These were meant to be the petite fours, but I packed a few into each doggy bag instead. That is, until one of my friends tried one before moaning out loud. Like a pack of wild animal, my friends grabbed one each, took a bite and then proceeded to grab, snatch, scratch and slap their way to the rest of the macarons! I almost lost a finger trying to salvage a few macarons for myself. Needless to say, they loved the macarons!

After 3 solid days of cooking, the dinner party was an absolute hit! But I think I need a few months off before having another dinner party. I was exhausted! But atleast now I can say I made the snowegg!! Not too bad when you compare them to the Quay ones!

For those of you who want to attempt the recipe, here's a few tips:

When piping the meringues, fill the mould about 3/4 of the way up. The meringue puffs up quite a bit and you will be able to make more meringues as backups with the remaining mixture.
Do not throw away any of the meringue trimmings! They make a great DIY snowegg afterwards!
The vanilla custard base makes almost 500g, but the recipe only requires 100g. I halved the recipe to reduce wastage. BUT, with that said, the custard is amazingly good and I did regret not making the full amout! (Although my waistline didn't!)
Put the tub of maltose into hot water before using. It'll be easier to work with when its more runny.
Do not over bake the maltose tuile. In my oven, it would form the tuile in 1-2mins. If you bake it any longer, the maltose will bubble leaving an uneven texture. Not a big deal, just not as pretty.
The maltose tuile once out of the oven, can be gently peeled off after about a minute. The tuile is quite durable and can be peel off like a sticker. I tried to lift it up as an entire piece and it made the tuile very uneven and ugly.
When you blow torch the tuile, start from the outside and work your way in to the middle in a circular motion. Any uneven bits you can use a blow torch and gently pat down with a fork/spoon.

Giorgio's Cafe Bar - Belmore

2010-10-24T00:37:00.001+11:00

"Dinner in a Mechanics Garage? What the hell did you agree to?!" I yelled at a friend. But the plans were made and we couldn't back out now. Driving along Kingsgrove Road, we eventually find the closed Mechanics shop and park in one of the side streets. The whole time we walked from the car to the Mechanics, we kept arguing about why we're going to a Mechanics for dinner, and why would it serve awesome Greek food?!

Turns out, we're NOT eating in the Mechanics Garage. The garage was apparently cut in half and converted into a Cafe/Restaurant. My friend having driven by many times, assumed it was just a coffee shack you sit in whilst your car gets serviced. Thankfully, with the encouragement of our Greek friends, we find ourselves seated at Giorgios Cafe. The decoration is a bit of a mish mash of assorted things, but was cosy and comfortable, even though it was freezing outside.

Since our friends frequent Giorgio's, we left all the ordering up to them. Apparently it was a very simple choice. Mixed platter for 4 (Minimum 2 people).

The wine is poured, conversation is flowing, laughter erupts around the table before dead silence when the food is delivered.

Errrrrr.....This must be the whole meal right? We're having a dinner of just salad and dips and bread right? I'm not complaining, because the soft warm pita bread went fantastic with the hummus, taramasalata and babaganoush. The Greek salad had a lovely soft and creamy fetta, not the hard blocks of chalk you usually get. But....look at the size of it? And look at the size of it compared to the second course:

The silence was punctuated by the gasps and squeals that was apparently coming from....me. This thing was HUGE. Its Gianormous! Its... its like being presented with a whole cow. Except the cow is wrapped with haloumi and calamari and more cow and then the whole cow is put on a bed of chips!

Once the initial shock passes, and we've finished taking photos to document this monster, we dig in. The mixed platter contains perfectly squeeky haloumi, rissoles, souvalaki sticks, sausages, fish cocktails, fried squid and potatoes. Heaps of potatoes in 2 forms. Crunchy shoe string fries and the most amazing hand cut wedges. Crunchy, yet incredibly soft and fluffy in the centre.

Now anyone who knows me, knows my weakness for chips. Especially hot chips. I don't care if they're crunchy, soft, limp, fluffy or hollow. Heck, I even love stale chips! And now I'm presented with a platter that contains roughly 2kgs of pure potato starchy heaven topped with a greek meat feast that's supposed to feed 4 people...and 2 of them are small eaters....what do I do? I almost fall face down into the platter and gorge myself til I was sick. Did I mention we though dinner was going to be crap (because it was in a "Mechanics Garage"), so we stopped by red roosters earlier to gorge on some chips first? Gosh I'm so classy.

As much as we tried, we didn't get half way through the food. I regrettably had to leave half of the chips behind even though I was about to explode from the potato expansion that was happening in my stomach. Not being able to move (Which is always a good sign of a Greek feast), our friends decide to teach me to play backgammon. It was an intense 1hr battle, and in the end, we won. I don't know how we won, but we won. And I still don't know what backgammon is about. I do know, however, that Giorgios has an iced coffee on the menu, where they write their name in chocolate syrup! But when I questioned the waiter if they 100% write the name on the coffee, he said no. So with a little pleading, he took our special requests to get the name written on the coffee:

The whole feast cost us less than $30 each and we practically had to waddle out of there. Looking at the other diners, they will have to do the same even though they didn't get the platter!

Giorgio's Cafe Bar
104 Kingsgrove Rd
Belmore NSW 2192
Ph:(02) 9718 8555 ‎
http://www.giorgioscafebar.com.au

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Bored = Focaccia

2010-10-20T20:06:00.001+11:00

What happens when I'm at home with nothing to watch, nothing to play, nothing to read and just plain bored? I hit the kitchen to keep myself occupied! On this occasion, I did a late night raid of my neighbour's rosemary bush to try and make up a batch of garlic, olive and rosemary focaccia!

10mins of kneading, some light chopping of rosemary, garlic and olives and voila! Instant focaccia! I should've covered the focaccia in more olive oil to give it an extra light and buttery texture. But since I was eating this on its own for lunch, I decided to cut down on the oil for a healthier version. Thank goodness I did that, because I ate most of it the next day! hehe

Martin Place Bar

2010-10-15T12:39:00.001+11:00

A quick catch up lunch with my friend led us to Martin Place bar. Since we were more concerned with chatting than eating, we ordered the standard fare off the menu.

Chicken Schnitzel, chips and salad

Tempura flathead, chips and salad

I was surprised how huge the servings are! I love my chips and almost never leave chips behind. But even this was too much for me and about half was left uneaten. The flathead was tasty, but the batter was a bit soft and tasted of oil. My friend really enjoyed the schnitzel, but again, left a heap of the chips behind!

Martin Place Bar
51 Martin Place (corner of Elizabeth street)
Sydney
Ph: (02) 9231 5575
http://www.martinplacebar.com.au

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Singapore Chilli Crab

2010-10-10T12:52:00.002+11:00

Cheap crabs meant I get to mess around with recipes I usually wouldn't when they're at full price. I've always wanted to make Singapore Chilli crab and used this opportunity to try out Alex Lee's recipe.

The recipe was such a great success, that I offered to cook up a meal of Singapore Chilli crab for my sister's birthday dinner. Now although Singapore Chilli crab is a great dish, its not exactly a birthday party with only one dish. A sudden impulse lead me to cooking up a huge vat of beef rendang.

Simmering......

Finished!

Melt in your mouth rendang goodness! It needed more chilli, but since my nephews can't eat that spicy, I had to keep it fairly mild.

Now, Singapore Chilli crab AND beef rendang is starting to sound like a better birthday dinner.....but you need something to mop up all that gorgeous sauce don't you? How about a side of roti prata. Made from scratch of course!

You can see through it!

Not much photos of the roti making process since I was covered head to toe with flour and oil! But I did get the nice flip/toss action going! Along with a little gentle careful stretching, I ended up with paper thin roti!

Roti Prata

I used about 1/4 of the oil needed to give it an ultra crispy flakey roti, but the layers are all there once you tear it apart!

4kg of Singapore Chilli Crab

Who needs to go out for dinner when you can cook up a feast at home?

Pondok Selera Indonesian Food - Eating World Chinatown

2010-09-15T18:15:00.001+10:00

You would probably associate a girl's night out involving getting dolled up, consuming lots of girly cocktails and plenty of gossiping. Well, the gossiping bit is right. But instead of getting all dolled up and sipping on cosmos, we all met up at Eating World in Chinatown so we can indulge in a huge steaming bowl of....oxtail soup. Strange I know, but since I've gotten the girls hooked on it, we need to indulge in a bout of oxtaily goodness every now and then.

My friend who is lucky enough to get oxtail soup made by her mum, opted for a plate of Satay sticks with Ketupat (compressed rice cakes).

Looks good, but we're here for one thing and one thing only:

Oxtail soup

Its really quite an interesting sight, to see a bunch of girls huddled around a table, gripping slippery hunks of bovine tail between their hands and tearing into them like a ravenous dog. All form of table manners go out the door when you're wrestling precious chunks of meat from a knobbly bit of bone, but boy is it worth it. Not only do you get the melt in your mouth beefy goodness, you also get the most aromatic and tasty soup to go with it. All you need is a good squeeze of lemon and maybe a bit of chilli if you should so please, and you're good to go! Slupr away baby! The dish usually comes with either rice or noodles, but we always opt for neither. This is because we generally have these oxtail sessions on a Friday night, which means.....night markets!

Hahaha that's right, we never fill up during our oxtail sessions so we can hit the night markets for some street food! The most popular will have to be the takoyaki, because nothing warms you up like a molten hot ball of takoyaki!

For the more carnivorous of us, its skewers, and lots of them. Maybe some chicken wings or salt and pepper squid. If we're still feeling cold, some fake shark fin soup to warm us up. And depending on how caught up we get with shopping, we might stop by Emperors Garden and pick up a few dozen custard puffs as well. Definitely a great girl's night out and beats trudging in high heels all night to down cosmos!

Pondok Selera Indonesian Food
Eating World Food Court
25-29 Dixon Street
Chinatown, Sydney

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Ichiban Boshi - Bondi Junction

2010-09-12T20:41:00.001+10:00

A girls day out shopping trip led us to Bondi. We knew we would need some serious energy if we were going to shop for the next few hours. We headed down to Ichiban Boshi for a quick meal so we could spend more time shopping.

Tsukemen Egg Ramen

I was actually expecting the dipping sauce to be cold, like with Zaru soba. But this is actually a hot dipping sauce with heaps of corn, bamboo shoots, shallots and soya sauce. I actually found the sauce very salty and overpowering after a few bites. I ended up picking the topping out of the bowl and putting it on the noodles instead.

Dan Dan Ramen

My friend opted for the Dan Dan ramen and gave it her usual thumbs up.

Green tea frappe and peached ice tea

Ichiban Boshi
Shop 1, 171-173 Oxford St
Bondi Junction NSW
Ph: (02)9369 3980
http://www.ichibanboshi.com.au/

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Umi Kaiten Zushi

2010-09-10T20:00:00.001+10:00

I loved watching Wicked to much, that when another group of friends organised to go, I immediately put my hands up for a ticket. Last time we went to watch Wicked, I ended up Musashi. Wanting something slightly different, we opted to try Umi the sushi train.

Japanse Marble soda

I'm not sure what the actual name of this is, I just always refer to it as the Marble Soda, as they use a marble as a stopper! Ahhh the novelty value.

Cool pen dudes!

Pricing

Bonito

I've never had fresh bonito, only the dried stuff you find ontop of takoyaki, so it was interesting to try this. Its actually a very fresh and delicate soft fish, totally unlike the dried shavings I'm used to!

Grill salmon

Another grilled salmon

Sharkfin and jellyfish salad

Salmon sushi sandwiched between fried lotus roots

Beef tataki

Scallop

Tamago

Grilled mackeral

Grilled salmon and prawn

This was my favourite of the night. The salmon was lightly torched and wrapped around more salmon and cream, topped with a grilled prawn. A must have! We wanted another serve, but they were all quickly whipped off the train.

Raw prawn

Grilled scallops

Salmon wrapped around creamy seafood salad

Raw scallop

Special of the day

Prawn mince sandwiched between lotus roots, battered and deep fried

Ahhh I was content with a belly full of good sushi and ready to go all Wicked!

Umi Kaiten Zushi
Shop 1, Lower Ground Floor
477 Pitt St, Haymarket
Ph: (02) 9281 2006
http://www.umikaitenzushi.com.au

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Pier 26 Seafood Cafe - Summer Hill

2010-09-07T21:15:00.001+10:00

Wow......this visit to Pier 26 is ages ago! We actually went to Pier 26 a few days before valentines day, which explains all the balloons and decorations. I really should sort my photos better...

Anyway, to the food! Pier 26 is on the main strip at Summer Hill and is usually packed on a weekend (On the weekends, they sometimes have a drag queen performance). Pier 26 is famous for being a seafood restaurant with huge platters of seafood. Having an entertainment voucher, we decided to give it a visit.

Complimentry bread rolls

Unless you're shelling out big bucks, you generally don't get free bread in any restaurant anymore. Surprisingly, Pier 26 greeted us with bread when we sat down. It may not be an organic sourdough or some other gourmet bread, but it was a nice touch. And it came with proper butter!

Calamari

We started off with Calamari, which came in a fairly decent serve. The calamari came in a floury crumbed batter, almost like semolina flour type texture. They were big and tender, and went well with the tartare sauce.

I love how they're not stingey with the sauces.

Barramundi and chips

For the main, we both opted for Barramundi and chips. We chose the fish after talking to the owner, and what came out was very different to what was described. We were expecting a big juicy pan grilled fillet of Barramundi, but it turned out to be a small, thin overcooked piece of fish. I really wished we had choosen to have the fish battered and fried instead of grilled. The up side was that their chips are awesomely thick and fluffy. I wish they would give less chips and a bigger piece of fish. There was twice as much chips as there were fish.

I've got the new Entertainment book, so looks like I'll probably give them another go.

Pier 26 Seafood Cafe
26 Lackey St
Summer Hill
Ph: (02) 9798 8886

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Sultan's Table

2010-09-04T22:59:00.000+10:00

From the outside, it looks like a run of the mill Kebab shop. Walking in, you will find a large courtyard filled with tables for those who want to dine outdoors, away from the heat of the rotating kebab spit. We grabbed a lovely table by the corner and proceeded to order up a feast.

Mixed dips

From memory, the plate came with hummus, babaganoush, beetroot, cacik, carrot, spinach, chilli and something else.

Fresh turkish bread

My plate/palatte

Mixed grill

Smokey tender meat grilled over hot coals. What else do I need to say?

Chicken pide

Close up!

Juicy, meaty and packed full of flavour. A simple squeeze of lemon and I was in heaven!

Mushroom pide

Thumbs up from our resident vegetarian. The pide was so huge he could only get through half of it. Meaning more for us meat eaters!

Felafel

A bit dry on its own, but load it up with the dip that it came it, and it was perfect wrapped in pita bread.

We had actually ordered a Guvec as well, which is a Turkish stew. But the dish never came and we were already full by that stage so cancelled the order. We were more than satisfied with the fresh, vibrant and tasty food on offer and will definitely be back for more! I want that Guvec damnit!

Sultan's Table
179 Enmore Rd
Enmore
Ph: (02) 9557 0229‎

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Bungalow 8

2010-08-31T22:54:00.001+10:00

I had a sudden craving for Mussels and dragged a workmate down to Bungalow 8 with me. I haven't been back for quite a few years after overdosing at their all you can eat mussel events. This time, I'm only have 1 pot.....not 5. So I think I should be ok!

Tom Yum Mussels and chips

My absolute favourite, Tom Yum Mussels! Although, I must say that their Tom Yum tastes more like Laksa, and their Laksa tastes more like Tom Yum. I wish I had some noodles I can throw into the pot at the end of the meal so I don't waste any of the lovely broth at the bottom.

Bungalow 8
3 Lime St
Sydney
Ph: (02) 9299 4660‎
http://www.bungalow8sydney.com.au

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Sushi-Tei Lunch Sets

2010-08-28T23:52:00.002+10:00

Its hard trying to find nice places around the city for a casual sit down meal with my workmates without resorting to a pub. Luckily Sushi-Tei has a relatively large seating area, and even have private rooms for big parties. Perfect for an impromptu team lunch.

I ordered a Katsu and sushi lunch set. The set came with a huge slab of Pork Katsu, 6 pieces of sushi, chawamushi, miso soup, salad and various other side dishes. Not a bad deal for under $20!

Sushi Tei
1 Chifley Square
Cnr of Elizabeth St and Hunter St
Sydney
Ph: (02) 9232-7288
http://www.sushitei.com.au

Miraku Japanese Cuisine - Hunter Connection

2010-08-25T23:44:00.001+10:00

I'm always on the lookout for new cheap and cheerful places for lunch around the CBD. I really hate paying $10+ for a lot of crappy food at the local food court. Luckily, I'm not too far of a walk from the Hunter Connection and find myself there most days. You can almost guarantee that most food you get there tastes good. The competition is so fierce, if you're food is not up to a certain standard for a cheap price, you'll be closed in a few weeks.

Miruka is one of the newer places there that offer Japanese food. The food isn't your typical teriyaki chicken and udon soups, which is what appealed to me in the first place.

Karage Chicken

Crispy and light batter coating moist tender chicken. Not bad considering this was pre-cooked and placed into a hot box.

Miso Soup

Not your standard tofu and seaweed miso soup. Digging to the bottom you will find chunks of pork, chicken and various vegetables.

Mushroom rice with sushi, seaweed salad and tofu?

Chirashi don with udon salad and seaweed salad

The food is light and not over seasoned like some other places. Not everything is drowned in a sweet teriyaki sauce or deep fried tempura style. I loved their udon salad and would kill for a huge bowl of it. Unfortunately, Miruka does not cook lunches to order around lunch time. If you want something made from their menu, you need to get your order in before 11am, otherwise you can only purchase what is on display.

Miraku Japanese Cuisine
F9 Hunter Connection Food Plaza
7-13 Hunter Street, Sydney

Rise Restaurant - Darlinghurst

2010-08-21T00:46:00.001+10:00

Thanks to Not Quite Nigella, I found out I had actually won dinner for 2 at Rise as well as my aeroclock from the Iron Chef dinner. I rope a friend into using the voucher with me before it expired. The plan was to have dinner and then go visit his brother, who's dogs just had a huge litter of puppies!

Dinner was booked for 6:30pm, but we were early and arrived just before 6:15pm. Walking in, we find the entire restaurant empty. I didn't think we were THAT early, but the waiter explained that a table of 20 cancelled earlier in the week. I would expect the place to be quite cosy and buzzing with chatty diners when busy, but on this night, it was stark, cold and bare. This also meant we were the only table the waiter was waiting on. Actually, the only table the TWO waiters were waiting on. Whilst some would describe the service as friendly, I would say too friendly. I basically wanted to sit down and have a nice conversation with my friend, I found that half of my time was spent talking to the waiter who basically hung around our table. Luckily, after an hour, another table shows up and helps to divert a bit of the attention.

As for the food, Rise previously offered an a la carte menu, but has switched to tasting menu only. I guess that makes it easier as we don't have decide on what to eat.

First course - Salmon tartare with poached quail egg & gochujang miso sauce

Oh my....this is good. I can never go past good sashimi, but this was particularly good as it was coated in spicy miso sauce. I devoured every last bit of this whilst my friend left half on the plate. Not because it didn't taste good, but because it was so hot, his mouth was on fire! Mind you, my friend reckons black pepper is hot, so this was atomic by his standards. I found the dish quite mild ;)

When the waiter came to collect our plates, we requested that my friend gets a toned down version of anything remotely spicier than pepper!

Soup - Tom Yum style soup with scallop tortellini and mussel

Luckily this was a tom yum style soup, and not actual tom yum soup, so the spice was toned down for my friend. Still too much for him to handle and he left half the soup behind. But he did devour the seafood and both of us rate the scallop tortellini as "Friggin good!!". Now if I can just get a huge bowl of the tortellini...

Sashimi - Assorted fresh market sashimi

We were presented with oysters and four types of sashimi. King fish, salmon, tuna and I can't remember what the other one was. Each sashimi was seasoned differently to compliment the type of fish it was. This was my friend's first taste of sashimi (First course didn't count, he couldn't taste a thing beyond spice!) and he actually enjoyed it. He only had half of the sashimi as the raw texture eventually got to him, so that just meant more for me!

Seasonal plate

Soy milk flan with shiitake sauce

Rice paper roll of steamed chicken baton, avocado, cucumber & sesame miso sauce

Fish cake with daikon & wakame salad

The Soy milk flan is basically a chawamushi. Silky soft and delicate, I woofed this down. The rice paper roll was fairly bland, especially compared to the previous courses we had. The fish cake was tasty, and the crunch was a welcome change in texture after all the sashimi we had.

Pasta dish - Soba salad with soft shell crab and ponzu vinaigrette

Not sure where the salad bit comes in. It was basically soba with a bit of sauce and a soft shell crab on-top. The soft shell crab was fantastically crispy, but doesn't really fit in with the soba.

Main Course - Roasted duck breast served with polenta, mushroom croquette and red curry sauce

My friend had his red curry sauce served on the side, but turns out it was very mild anyway. The duck was tender and juicy and oh-so-moreish. I just wish I had more sauce to go with it. On top of the main course, you're served a bowl of rice and miso soup, just in case you're still hungry. But by this stage, we're both stuffed like a turkey. But I do wonder.....where was the polenta!?

Dessert

Dessert was a almond cream with latte sorbet, and passion fruit cream with a lime and lemon grass sorbet. We both started with the almond cream and it was gooooood. Creamy and velvety and went fantastic with the latte sorbet. I decided to try the passion fruit cream and was in HEAVEN! I moaned something to my friend about trying the passion fruit and continued to stuff my face. He digs into the passion fruit and gives me a "What are you on about??" look. And then he moans. Out loud.

"I just hit the cream......"

It was an embarrassing display of emotion, but I didn't care. I wanted to enjoy every blissful bite!

We're offered tea and coffee, but we're just too full to eat another bite.

If we had to actually pay for this meal, I would happily hand over $65 for the 7 course degustation! If you go on Tuesday, Wednesday or Sunday, the meal will only cost you $48. Speaking to the staff, the main difference is that you don't get miso soup, and you get a little less sashimi for $48. Still fantastic value if you ask me!

Rise Restaurant
23 Craigend St
Darlinghurst
Ph: (02) 9357 1755
http://www.riserestaurant.com.au/

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WAQU, Modern Japanese Dining - Crows Nest

2010-08-17T12:40:00.001+10:00

Nothing brings a bunch of girls together faster than good food and free gifts. On this occasion, my friend was bearing gifts she had brought us from her recent trip to the US. Woohoo!! Freebies! We decided on WAQU as a girls catch up.

The restaurant is surprisingly spacious, especially considering how much their rent must be. You would expect them to cram more tables in to maximise their revenue. We decided on the 5 courses for $60 option.

Course 1:

Spicy softshell crab taco, petite wagyu sukiyaki, fish tart, potato soup with confit tomato foam

The spicy softshell crab was easily a crowd favourite. How can you ever go wrong with deep fried crustacean? The fish tart king of just tasted like a cheese potato croquet whilst the petite wagyu beef was a bit bland for my liking. My favourite would actually have to be the potato soup with confit tomato foam. A bit bowl of that in front of the tv with some crusty bread would've made me a very happy girl!

Course 2:

Sashimi salad - ocean trout yubiki, seared kingfish, grilled abalone, ruby grapefruit jelly with seasonal vegetables

From memory, one of the best parts of the dish was actually an almond cream that basically brings the whole dish together. The tangy grapefruit, the melt in your mouth fish, all covered with a velvety almond cream. Even my non-sashimi eating friends enjoyed it....kinda. They still couldn't get past the raw fish and left about half behind. Hey, more sashimi for me!

Course 3:

Tempura WAQU Style - assorted tempura of teriyaki-eel, micro fish, nori-maki sweet potato, okaki-age avocado, soy mayonnaise, three japanese salts

My friend being allergic to Miso, opted for the Tempura course, and of course, gave her thumbs up to a big plate of fried goodness.

Seafood miso soup - slow cooked sea tiger prawn and white clam, panfried scallop, yaki-onigiri in miso soup

For the rest of us who aren't allergic to Miso soup, we all chose this option. Its a cold and dark night outside, and nothing will be more comforting than a big steaming bowl of miso soup. Except that's not what came out.

A bowl is presented to us with seafood and miso that had been painted on the bowl itself. The waitress walks around with a huge kettle of dashi stock and came up to me first. Oh yeah baby, miso me up!! She tilts the kettle and "spills" a little dashi stock on my bowl and then walks away. I look up thinking she's gone back to refill the kettle, when I see her doing the same to my friend's bowl. Then it dawned on me, that's ALL the soup I was getting. We're instructed to mix the now dried and crusted miso on the bowl, with the "stock". The only problem is, we were given about 2 tablespoons of stock each. My friend had less than me and the stock didn't even cover the bottom of her bowl!

We start scraping at the dried miso to mix into the stock, except there's just not enough stock to wet the miso enough to scrape off. I get fed up with the scraping and scratching and decided to just eat what I've got, but whatever soup in my bowl is now stone cold. My OCD friend decided she needed to scrape off every last bit of miso, and basically ended up with a miso concentrate.

The soup aside, we decided to tackle the seafood. The clam and scallop is cooked to perfection. The yaki-onigiri was crunchy and toasted the way it should. Then I get to the slow cooked tiger prawn. I cut the prawn head off and do my usual thing of sucking the brains out. Except the brains were still raw. I'm almost tempted to spit my mouthful back into the bowl but force myself to swallow it. This is when I find out that whilst the tail of the prawn was cooked, the part of the prawn joining the head was still cold and raw and gave a horrible fishy smell. I wasn't the only one who found this problem as my other friends commented on the same thing. You would expect something that is slow cooked, to actually be cooked!

Course 4:

Suzuki Mulloway + Alaskan Crab - poached suzuki mulloway, sake steamed alaskan crab, yaki-tofu, crispy kombu, shungiku puree

My friend's crab dish comes out and its instant food envy. I wanted that crab and I want it now!

Slow cooked duck breast, crushed pistachio cacao nibs, age-dashi taro potato, cherry plum chutney

Having seafood for the previous 3 courses, I chose the slow cooked duck. A duck breat is slice and presented so the lovely pink flesh is showing. Whilst my friends rated the duck ok, I couldn't even slice the duck. And when I did finally manage to hack a piece from it, I couldn't chew the duck it was so tough. The first few bites my friends thought it was funny, but half way through, my jaw was tired and everything started going tasteless. You would expect that when you need to chew the one bite for 5 minutes. You can even see the sinew in the photo. I did get 1/4 of the breast which was fairly tender, but the rest was just inedible. My friends asked me to send the dish back, but I honestly couldn't be bothered waiting for them to cook me a new one, and I didn't really care at this stage either.

Course 5:

Tart tatin, fuji apple puree, cheese mousse, lemon meringue

The dessert was a simple tart tartin. It was nice, but nothing spectacular. I didn't even finish the dessert as I found the meringue so sweet.

We finished the meal off with the most amazing Japanese green tea I've ever tasted. I should've asked what type of green tea it was, but was desperate to get out of there.

All in all, I was disappointed by the meal. Whilst the first and second course was amazing, the downfalls of the third and fourth course just completely ruined the entire meal for me. I might come back when they change their menu and give them another go, but right now, I'm in no rush to go back.

WAQU
308 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest
Ph: (02) 9906 7736‎
http://www.waqu.com.au/

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The need for Quay....Snowegg that is

2010-08-15T20:11:00.003+10:00

I remember sitting infront of TV during the MasterChef finals when they revealed that the final challenge was to recreate the Quay Snowegg. Almost immediately, all the friends I went to Quay with, started messaging each other.

"OMGGGGGG ITS SNOW EGG!!!!!!!!!!
"SNOW EGGGGGG!!@#%#$%@!@!#$"
"OMG I WANT ONE NOWWWWWW!!"

Before the challenge was over, we had basically organised a group of people to revisit Quay just for the snow egg. We were VERY lucky in being able to get a booking for the 2nd Thursday after the show aired. Apparently Quay is booked out until Feb 2011!! Thanks goodness we've been talking about the snowegg non-stop since our last visit, and didn't hestitate in committing to another night out at Quay.

This time, we invited a few other friends to join us. I guess they got sick of hearing us talk about the Strawberry Guava and Custard Apple snowegg and wanted to try it for themselves. The days leading up to our dinner, I was disappointed learn that they changed the snowegg to Jackfruit! (Actually, the night the show aired, Quay was offering only a Guava snow egg anyway) I love eating jackfruit when in asia, but I find the ones in Australia very bland and almost "off" in taste. Despite this, we were still looking forward to our night out.

Last time we did the tasting menu and all of us went into a food coma by the end of the night. This time we opted to go for the 4 course a la carte menu so we didn't stagger out of there.

We start off with an Amuse Bouche of Tuna Tartare with a consomme jelly type thing with eggplant puree. Again, their amuse bouche just blows you away and kick starts your appetite. I'm not sure what they did to the eggplant puree, but I wish eggplant tasted like that every day!

First Courses:

Raw Chinese artichokes, Hiramasa kingfish, smoked eel, horseradish, nasturtiums, octopus, pickled kohlrabi, egg white & radish flower

For the first course, I had the kingfish with raw chinese artichokes. I still have no idea what the chinese artichokes are, but I can tell you the dish was really light and a great first course. In the centre of the pile is the pickled kohlrabi that really lifted the whole dish up. I enjoyed it so much, I guiltily moped up every last bit of the dish with bread. (Hopefully the waiters didn't see!)

Mudcrab Congee

Most of my friends had ordered the mudcrab congee. Since I had it last time, I chose something different. But when it came, I can tell you I had serious food envy! The smell of the gorgeous aromatic congee wafted around the table making me salivate! FOOD ENVY!!! FOOOD ENVYYYYYYY!!!!! >_<

Second Courses:

Butter poached partridge breast, chestnuts, truffle, bitter chocolate black pudding, milk skin, walnuts

In the tasting menu, you get a butter poached quail breast. We assumed for the a la carte they were going to present the exact same dish, but using a larger partridge breast. The description on both menus are exactly the same, but the dish couldn't have come out more different! It still got the thumbs up though!

Confit of shaved South Australian squid, organic red core radishes, garlic custard, native violets, rosemary flowers, roasted squid consommé

My jaw dropped when this dish got placed infront of my friend. The gorgeous super thin see through slices of red radishes surrounded the plate was breath taking! I whip out the camera, ready to take a photo when the waiter says "I'm going just going to pour on the consomme now". My brain did a silent "NOoOOoOOoOoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

*SIGH*

The waiter was faster than me. But he wasn't as fast as my friends on the other side of the table, who went into a frantic to take a photo of the dish before he got there with his jug if consomme.

Besides the picture perfect dish, I did taste the consomme, and it was an explosion of flavour in my mouth! Not sure about a whole bowlful, as my friend said it got a bit too flavoursome by the end of the dish. But I certainly wasn't complaining about the little bit I did try!

Crisp confit of pig belly, green lipped abalone and cuttlefish, handmade silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers

Again, same description as what was on the a la carte, came out looking different. Still tasted just as great according to my friends!

Gentle braise of sea scallops, pearl oyster, rock lobster, lettuce hearts, tapioca, lobster velvet, oyster cream, pea flowers - $15 supplement

I just could not resist the sound of this dish! It was the lobster velvet and oyster cream that got me. The only problem was, I couldn't really tell it apart from everything! With that said, it was still an amazingly complex dish. The tapioca alone is worthy of being a dish on its own. I made sure I scraped up every last tapioca pearl.

Third Courses:

Complimentary salad

Nameko, shiitake, enoki, & king mushrooms, truffle custard, mushroom consommé

My friend chose the vegetarian dish of mushrooms, custard and consomme. Too bad she was sitting on the other side of our huge table, I would really have loved to try this dish. I loveeeee mushrooms and tofu! She did tell me that it was a beautiful dish and ate every last bit.

Roasted wild snapper, smoked butter, celeriac cream, young greens, winter melon, vongole juices

I didn't try this dish, and I actually don't remember hearing my friends talk about this dish at all. Not because it was bad, but because I was in a world of my own......

Slow braised Berkshire pig jowl, maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil

Let me get 2 things straight. I hate prunes and I hate cauliflower. The only time I eat cauliflower is when its been deep fried or smothered with cheese. Prunes? I just don't eat it full stop. So why did I order this dish?? I had faith in Peter Gilmore that he can make me like it. And I couldn't get past the maltose crackling! I figured since I already had 2 seafood dishes, I needed some meat in me, preferrably with crackling!

The dish is placed in front of me, and I'm immediately hit with the fragrance of prunes (In a nice way). I tentatively dig into the cauliflower cream and immediately had a "When Harry met Sally" moment. I've never tasted cauliflower like that in my life before. It was rich, hearty, yet delicate and was a light as clouds. LUCKILY! Friends on both sides of me ordered the same dish, meaning I didn't have to share this! MUAhaUAhaUAh

After the initial orgasm over the cauliflower, I take my knife and tapped the crackling, expecting a nice crunch. There was no crunch. The knife went straight through the crackling and then through the meat! HUH? It was only then that I realised the "maltose crackling" wasn't crackling basted in maltose. The crackling was MADE of maltose! Holy crapola! ITS MADE OF MALTOSE! The thinnest, crispiest maltose toffee, covered the most tender and melt in your mouth piece of pork I've ever had. *swoons* Even the prunes went amazing with the pork. This is hands down, the best main dish we've had at Quay. This time, it was my friends who had food envy!! It was so good, I had to borrow a piece of my friend's bread to mop up everything.

The moment finally arrived when it was time for the snowegg. I can hear the satisfying crack as I dig into the egg with my spoon. The texture is just the same as I remembered. The crispy shell, soft meringue, cool crunchy granita and smooth creamy puree. But the taste...the taste just didn't compare to the strawberry guava and custard apple version. All of my friends who came with me last time agreed that the Jackfruit version just wasn't as good. And given a choice between that and the BTS, we all unanimously chose the BTS. But those who had never tried a snowegg before, absolutely loved it!

Even with 4 courses, we were still stuffed by the end of the night, and could not fit in tea or petite fours. I can't wait to come back and try Quay again, especially when Guava and Custard apple is back in season!

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal
The Rocks, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9251 5600
http://www.quay.com.au

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Absinthe Salon and House (Northeast Thai Street Food) - Surry Hills

2010-08-11T22:55:00.009+10:00

I've been wanting to go to the Absinthe Salon ever since I heard about it. I've only had it once before, as a shot...after about 8 shots of other stuff. So my memory is errrr....slightly clouded....

I finally managed to organise a night out with the girls and agreed to meet at the Salon. It was a freezing cold, rainy dark night when we went. Trudging up Albion St in the rain, we eventually find ourselves outside a dimly lit building with bars on the doors and windows. The only way to enter, is to ring a doorbell so someone can let you in. It felt like I was attending a secret society meeting and only the most elite may enter.

Walking in, you find yourself in a quaint little front room, displaying various "absinthe equipment". Through the room, you're led into a small and cosy salon, where each table had an absinthe fountain on it.

We're seated whilst we wait for our other friends and given an absinthe menu. Hmmmm.....ok..... I have idea what I was meant to do. Maybe its the surrounding, or maybe its just be a long week. But I stared and stared at the menu, and I didn't understand a word it was saying! All I noticed was random numbers indicating the alcoholic level. 45%, 65%.....holy crapola! 72%!? Isn't that like.....hospital grade disinfectant!? Is it going to burn a hell hole through my stomach?!

When the rest of my friends arrived, the waitress kindly came over and gave us an explaination of the different type of absinthes. And since it was our first time, she would not recommend us jumping straight into the 70%+ type absinthes. Dang, I was looking forward to seeing if I could breath fire after drinking it! In the end, we each chose our absinthe.......based on the look of the bottle! haha luckily, they were all fairly low in alcohol content. I think I ended up with the highest one around 60%.

My blue bottle

The Absinthe fountain is filled with water and heaps of ice. TO prepare the drink the proper way (And no, apparently downing it as a shot is NOT the way to drink it..), you place their funky spoon/sieve thing over your glass of absinthe and then place a cube of sugar ontop. You then turn on the absinthe fountain and let the now ice cold water, slowly drip onto the sugar cube. The sugar cube will slowly dissolve into your drink. You can add as much water and sugar to taste, but the waitress told us what the recommended water to ratio was for each drink and we stuck to that.

I was expecting a burning taste when you drink absinthe and half expected to have to scull the whole glass. But what we had was smooth, mellow, and tasted of liquorice choc bullets! However, don't be fooled! After about 15mins, my face started to go slightly funny, as if I've just gone to the dentist! Luckily my friends confirmed that no, I'm not drooling haha

We slowly sipped our drinks as we waited for the rain to subside outside. We opted to have just 1 drink each since most of my friends are light weights anyway. The plan was to go to House, just a few blocks away for dinner.

House is the new Spice I am. Unlike other typical Thai restaurants, House specialises in Northeast Thai Street food, which resembles Laos food. Despite the rain, its packed to the rafters. We put our name down on the waiting list, and ducked into the Triple Ace bar to wait for that call. We eventually get a table before we start to chew our arms off.

Nua daed deaw - Dried beef

Hmmm...not sure how to describe this dish. Partly like jerky, partly like overcooked beef (In a nice way). I could've done with a big plate of this and an ice cold beer, especially when you dip it into their spicy sauce.

Tom Yum Powng Kai Embryo Soup

Wow.....I didn't know what to expect. When my friend suggested we try this, I thought it was going to be similar to Balut (Fertilised duck egg). But the "embryo" actually looked like cooked egg yolks, but had a bouncy texture of egg whites. Even my freaked out friend enjoyed it and went back for seconds. The soup was hot and sour and vibrant, albeit a bit too salty for our liking. I reckon a little bit more water would've been perfect!

Gai Yang - Chargrilled chicken

Oh my.....who knew a simple chargrilled chicken could be so moist and flavoursome! Sticky smokey skin, moist chicken paired with their various chilli sauces made this one of my favourite dishes of the night! Now where is the other half of the chicken.....?

Deep fried snapper

Hmmmmmm.....absinthe affected my memory....but I do remember the fish being incredibly moist and flakey on the inside, and crispy and crunchy on the outside. I didn't even bother with cutlery and grabbed a deep fried crispy fish fin and started crunching on it like they were chips!

Larb Ped - Duck Salad

Another must have whenever we go Thai, is a duck salad. Usually you would expect slices of roast duck in a salad. In this case, it aws more like minced duck meat. But it was fresh, salty and gave a really good spicey kick to waken me from my absinthe induced stupor! They even provide a tumbler full of cold raw veggies to help ease the burn of chilli.

Oh, and did I mention how cute the basket the sticky rice came in was?!

Whilst their food was great and on par with the quality churned our by Spice I am, we were there for one thing only. BTS. Or as the waitress shyly explained, Better Than Sex. On almost every table around us, you can see people sharing plates of this dessert. Not us. I ain't sharing this with nobody!

BTS

OMG......they're right. It is BTS! A big cold creamy scoop of thick Pandan and coconut ice cream, sits ontop of a cripsy, buttery fried piece of brioche. This was then drizzled with palm sugar syrup and topped with black seasame seeds. OH MY FRIGGIN GOSH!!!! My friend took one bite, and physically slammed the table with her fist because it was so good! The outside of the brioche was incredibly buttery and crunchy. Take a mouthful of that with the creamy ice cream and you're in heaven! I actually ate the entire outside ring of the BTS, before tackling the centre of the brioche, which was crispy on the outside, but airy and light in the middle. I knew I was going to slip into a food induced orgamsic coma, but I didn't care. I couldn't stop! Lord help me I couldn't stop!!!! Next thing you know, I'm slumped on the couch clutching my belly with a sugar glazed grin on my face. Yes my friends, that was BTS.

Absinthe Salon
87 Albion St
Surry Hills
Ph: (02) 9211 6632
Bookings at least a week in advance is advised

House
(Northeast Thai Street Food)
202-210 Elizabeth St
Surry Hills
Ph: (02) 9280 0364

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Quay - Tasting Menu

2010-08-08T23:15:00.001+10:00

I had meant to blog about this immediately after visiting Quay, but the world cup took over my life! Better now than never I guess.

The one thing that hits you when you're seated at Quay is the gorgeous view!

Since we couldn't decide on what to order, we went with the Tasting Menu to keep things simple. Plus it means I get to try more food!

Yes.....I have an obsession with Cutlery, and Quay has awesome cutlery!

Amuse Bouche

The Amuse Bouche was a tuna tartare with tapioca and horseradish creme friache. Wonderfully light and complex, definitely kick started our appetite!

Signature Quay cocktail

I ordered the Quay Signature cocktail even though I don't like half of the liquors in it. I guess I should've chosen something else because I didn't really enjoy the cocktail. Its not really Quay's fault though, I should've known to choose something else.

Malted sourdough bread

I have a confession to make. I hate sourdough bread. The fact that the bread is sour makes my brain think its off. However, I was plesantly surprised that the bread at Quay actually went down quite well! So well in fact, that I tried one of each of their types of bread!

It helps that they had awesome butter as well:

Sea Pearls

Starting from the bottom and going anti-clockwise, we have:

- Crab and yuzu pearl
- Octopus Pearl
- Tuna with a creme friache centre
- Sea Scallop
- Abalone

The crab pearl was a bit too bland for my liking. It needed a bit of seasoning and maybe a bit more yuzu kick. Octopus pearl was surprisingly delicate in taste and given a big thumbs up by my friends. My favorite would have to be the Tuna pearl, the rich fatty tuna with the creamy centre really hit the spot for me. Sea Scallop would have to be my second favourite. The Abalone pearl had a very rich and almost overpowering dashi and soya sauce taste.

Check out the see through abalone one!

Mud Crab Congee

The moment they place this down infront of you, you get hit by a gorgeous waft of congee. It smelled incredibly rich and complex, but was surprisingly light and delicate in taste. I loved the fact that there are big chunks of crab meat in it. My only complaint would be that I needed a bigger bowl! A huge bowl infact!

Confit of pork belly, abalone, mushrooms and silken tofu

Honestly, who can say no to crisp crackling and melt in your mouth pork belly? But the pork belly was not the star of the dish. The tofu and the mushroom not only outshone the pork belly, but also the abalone! Infact, I forgot there was abalone on the dish altogether!! That's how good Peter Gilmore can make tofu and mushrooms!

Butter poached Quail, Bitter chocolate black pudding, milk skin and jamon

Of the whole tasting menu, this dish had the least appeal to me. But after tasting this dish, it was my favourite savoury meal of the entire night! The quail was incredibly tender and juicy, the chocolate black pudding was soft and packed a punch of flavour. I wanted more more more!

Wagyu beef with quinoa and nuts

I was so incredibly full by the time this dish came out. I still remember the beef being tender and juicy, but didn't remember much besides that. I was starting to slowly slip into a food coma.

Check out Quay's awesome plates

Strawberry Guava and custard apple snow egg

Yes I was full, but I didn't know I had a seperate stomach just for snow eggs! This is the famous version that was shown in the MasterChef finals. We were quite lucky that we went in late May when they were still serving this. Because when the episode aired, Quay was serving just a Guava version. I'm so glad I got to taste this as I can hands down say, this is one of the best desserts I've ever tasted in my entire life. The thin crispy maltose shell, the soft fluffy meringue, creamy custard apple ice cream all ontop of a bed of granita and cream.

I know my friends loved the snow egg, but my favourite was waiting til the end. When the slightly melted granita mixed with the cream and guava puree. It kind of resembled a vietnamese ice slushee drink.

I would've licked the inside if my tongue was long enough!

8 textured chocolate cake

Looks pretty average of a dessert, until the waiter comes with a pot of melted chocolate and proceeds to pour it ontop. The hot chocolate basically melts a hole through the dessert.

Melting...

melting...

Melting......

Ready to eat!

If you're a chocoholic, you would be in chocolate heaven after eating this. Me? I'm not a big fan of chocolate and basically went into a catatonic state after a chocolate overdose. I forced myself to eat this, and had to give up after I got through 1/3 of the cake. This was way too rich and basically smashed me into a food wall.

Peppermint tea to help aid digestion

Petite fours

I can understand why Peter Gilmore is one of the best Chefs not only in Australia, but in the world. The food is simple, complex, delicate and rich all at the same time. The snow egg more than deserves the fame its received since MasterChef. I just can't wait til Guava and Custard apples are in season again!

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal
The Rocks, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9251 5600
http://www.quay.com.au

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Japanese Feast

2010-08-08T20:38:00.000+10:00

Life is finally starting to get back to normal after dedicating 1 month to the world cup. I thought life could rsume quickly after that, but I've spent the last few week rebuilding my room and also playing StarCraft2! I have a 1 week quiet period coming up before we totally gut out kitchen and rebuild that too! I'm not sure how we're going to survive for a few weeks without a kitchen inside the house. Looks like I better cook up a storm now and settle for eating out when it does happen.

Lately I've been in a real Japanese food cooking mood.

Japanese seaweed and tamago salad

The seaweed salad was store bought, luckily the grocery stores now sell them by the kilo! Tamago was made with my trusty tamago pan, all sitting on a bed of lettuce, cucumber and tomatos. I topped the whole thing with some light Japanese salad dressing.

Paul!

Its ok, I love paul. This is Paul's distant cousin! hehe So why did I need octopus? So I can slow cook it for takoyaki!

My new takoyaki pan

Not a bad first attempt!

The batter was a bit thick for the first few goes. By the time I had the batter worked out, I had run out of octopus. I ended up using anything I could find in the fridge to keep making these babies! haha

2nd attempt

I invited some friend's over for dinner just so I had some more guinea pigs to try out my takoyaki.

Gyoza

Pork, prawn and wongabok gyozas. I served these with a soy and rice wine vinegar dipping sauce. I love cooking and presenting gyoza this way, its so awesome looking when you plonk it down in the middle of the table.

Oyako don

Super fast and easy dish to make. I cooked up a huge pan and just served it over boiled rice.

Oyako don served with pickled ginger

Teriyaki chicken

After serving all that savoury food, I thought I'd whip up an impromptu dessert. Sweet takoyaki balls! Basically the batter was a sweet green tea mixture, and the filling was a red bean paste. I ran out of batter half way through making the batch, so there are some half balls in there haha. Still tasted awesome though, especially when its still warm and soft served with ice cream!

Jason's La Candela - Summer Hill

2010-06-27T23:40:00.000+10:00

I do love my entertainment book. All the discount vouchers make it so much more fun trying out new places! My reasoning is, if its bad food, atleast you didn't pay full price. If its good food, even better! You got it at a discount.

With that in mind, I decided to try Jason's La Candela at Summer Hill. Having tried heaps of other restaurants around there, it was time to give Jason's a go.

The layout is clean and simple, giving you heaps of seating room. Since we were very early, the restaurant was empty except 2 other tables.

Not in the mood for pizza, I went the seafood marinara.

Seafood Marinara

The serving size was quite small, especially when you think of how much room the mussel shells actually took up. Taste wise, it was quite nice. Fresh seafood, simple tomato sauce and the pasta was cooked al dente. I just wish the serving was bigger as I was still hungry afterwards.

BBQ meat lovers pizza

My friend ordered the bbq meat lovers pizza. Since I was still hungry, he offered me a slice. I took about 2 bites before giving up. I found the pizza very very greasy and almost sickly with the sweet bbq sauce. The pizza was also too mushy for my liking, both the dough and the meat has the same soft texture. Meanwhile, my friend loved the greasiness and sweet flavour, but by the last slice, the grease and mushiness also got to him.

OVerall, the food was ok. The pasta was tasty even though the serve was small. The pizza was a decent serve, but I didn't like it at all. Mind you, I had a slice at the end of the meal, so I don't know if time was a factor, but my friend liked the pizza. I'll probably come back again since I'm armed with a new Entertainment book and see how it goes this time round.

Jason's La Candela
24 Lackey St
Summer Hill NSW 2130
Ph: (02) 9798 3897

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Mr Chao Seafood Restaurant - Hurstville

2010-06-24T23:11:00.002+10:00

After a fairly early morning airport pick up (10am is early on a weekend alright!?), we decided to swing by Hurstville to take our guest for a bout of Yum Cha at Mr Chao Seafood Restaurant.

My dad started panicking about how we're not going to get a table even though its only 11am, so he dumps us in front of the restaurant whilst he finds parking. I thought it was a bit over the top, but by 11am, there were only 2 free tables left.

Steamed beef rice noodle (Ngau Cheung)

Prawn Dumplings (Har Gau)

These were super full of chunky bursty prawns. Definitely hit the spot.

Dim Sim topped with baby abalone (Siw Mai)

This is my must have every time I go yum cha. I always prefer the standard traditional ones. Unfortunately, they said they only have the abalone topped ones today. It wasn't bad, I gave the abalone to my mum, but it also meant we got 3 instead of 4 :(

Shortcrust bbq pork triangles

Uber flakey and full of bbq pork goodness!

Beef tendon in black bean sauce

Done very well. The worst is undercooked chewy rubber ones. These ones melt in your mouth and had a lovely gelatinous stickiness to it.

Black bean pork ribs and salted fish rice

My dad's must have. He prefers the traditional one with black bean pork ribs with the chicken feet though. Luckily he loves salted fish, so it was still good.

Black bean chicken feet

Malaysian steamed cake

Lava buns

OMG! These are one of my favourite dishes that are rarely served at yum cha places. So when I heard they were on the menu, I had to get a steamer for myself! What's so special about them? On the outside, they look like an ordinary steamed bun. But its what is inside that matters....

Innards

The centre of the bun is a sweet and salty custard that oozes out like lava. Its made from salted egg yolks and sugar and turned into a custard like filling. I wish more yum cha places served this because its incredibly moreish!

I probably only go yum cha 2-3 times a year, so I can't tell you if its good value or not. My dad actually goes yumcha every week with the oldies and apparently this is one of the better ones in Sydney in terms of quality of food, taste and cost. I guess it must be good coming from a bunch of retirees! hehe I did find the quality of food pretty good though!

Mr Chao Seafood Restaurant
127 Forest Rd
Hurstville NSW 2220
Ph: (02) 9580 8003

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Da Vinci's Italian Restaurant - Summer Hill

2010-06-17T23:18:00.000+10:00

I love going to Summer Hill at night, especially on a weekend. They try to promote the Summer Hill Village theme by creating alfresco dining, tables and chairs around the fountain for people to meet up and relax. But on the weekend at night, they also have live music. Walking past, you will see many kids running around the fountains, laughing and giggling. Parents will dance with their kids in the middle of the street and thoroughly just enjoying life. Right next to where the live band is, is Da Vinci's. In winter, you can smell the wafting aromas of wood fired pizza.

Its the first time I've actually eaten in at Da Vinci's, usually I grab their pizzas take away. They always have great offers, a large pizza or pasta for $10 take away! Bargain in my books!

Since we usually get their pizza, we decided to try out their pasta instead.

Bruschetta

First up, Bruschetta. Crunchy grilled bread topped with tomato, basil and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with oregano. The tomato was a bit soft for my preference, but overall, a delicious bruschetta, especially when the crusty bread absorbed all the lovely juices! I was fighting my friend for the last of the oil/vinegar on the bottom of the plate.

A "bianco" spaghetti marinara

Basically seafood pasta without the tomato sauce but with plenty of garlic. The pasta tasted delicious, with a generous kick of garlic, but I wasn't impressed by the seafood. The prawns and mussels were nice, but seemed like they were from a frozen pack. The calamari, however, was terrible. It was unbelievably soft, mushy and... brown, I could cut it by using my fork. With that said, the overall taste of the pasta was really nice and studded with heaps of garlic. I just really didn't like the actual calamari, and there was heaps in the dish.

My friend got a chicken penne in a creamy tomato sauce. A big thumbs up from my friend in terms of taste, but the serving was quite small. That's probably why I never order penne when I'm hungry. It looks like a big dish, but there's actually very little food in it.

Da Vinci's Italian Restaurant
25 Lackey St
Summer Hill, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9716 9000‎

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Sushi Choo

2010-06-12T23:26:00.000+10:00

Its been ages, but I finally managed to organise dinner with a friend at Sushi Choo. Ever since I heard about their all you can eat offer, I've been meaning to organise this. I can't think of a proper reason as to why we didn't go earlier. I guess I was just too lazy in organising!

The day finally comes around and being bored, I decided to read up on some of the reviews for Sushi Choo. I wish I hadn't done that as there were numerous comments regarding the rice not being fresh, lack of variety etc etc. I was almost tempted to change the dinner venue as I was taking my friend there for his birthday. And the last thing I want is a bad experience for a birthday dinner.

I'm glad I didn't listen to the reviews and actually went to Sushi Choo. We rocked up about 5mins past 6pm, and half the restaurant was already full!! We seat ourselves down, armed with chopsticks and started tackling the sushi train. I must admit, the first 10mins was quite disgraceful. We're like starved wild animals, eating everything we can lay our hands on!!

Tuna

Pasta Salad - My friend's favourite

Gyoza!!!!!!!

Chicken Katsu

Salmon and avocado

Prawn

Edamame

My beloved seaweed salad

Salmon

More tuna

Crumbed prawns

The variety of sushi isn't huge, which was kinda expected for all you can eat. I was just disappointed they didn't have my favourite tamago sushi! I thought it would've been relatively cheap to make? *Shrugs* They've also stopped serving the potato croquettes, which was a huge disappointment because my friend was soooooo looking forward to it.

The outstanding winners of the night would have to be the uber fresh salmon and tuna (Although there was a noticeable difference in the grades of tuna served throughout the night), the seaweed salad and the Gyoza! OMG! yum yum yum yum yum!! Definitely my favourite for the night. The Gyozas are steamed and not fried, but it offered a nice change to the cold sushi. (As did the crumbed prawns, but it became a bit oily after awhile) The only complaint would have to be at one stage during the night, a particular batch of gyoza was terrible! I'm not sure if it was a vegetarian version or something, but it tasted of raw daikon, and lots of it. It was also really REALLY soft and mushy. I initial response was to spit it back out, but managed to remember my manners. I was very paranoid about it for the rest of the night. Every time I picked up a piece of gyoza, I was hoping, half praying it wasn't that weird batch we had. Luckily, every batch we had after that was fantastic.

I was quite impressed by the sushi in general. Unlike other all you can eat places where they give you heaps of rice and a tiny piece of fish, Sushi Choo had a pretty good rice to fish ratio. I did find a few pieces of sushi where the rice was more over cooked, but nothing drastically bad about it. The overall quality was pretty good, especially since they were churning out masses of sushi non-stop the whole night!

Next time I need to sit closer to the beginning of the sushi train! We were seated half way up the train, and the couple next to us liked the exact same things we did! I'm pretty sure I gave them the evil eye every time they took a plate off the train that I wanted! hehe

With the Feast for the Senses specials on for Merivale right now, I think they're removed the early bird / all you can eat special for Sushi Choo. I'm hoping it'll be back soon!

Sushi Choo
320 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
Ph: (02) 9240 3000
http://www.merivale.com/#/ivy/sushichoo

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Iron Chef Sydney Event @ The Hilton, 2010

2010-06-07T22:50:00.020+10:00

I have been wanting to go to the Iron Chef dinner ever since it started in Sydney. But because of the cost of the event, I was never able to get any friends wanting to go with me. Luckily this year the price has dropped, and thanks to our friend, we got us a great discount price and managed to assemble a big group of people to go.

Braving the freezing cold wind and rain, we arrive at the Hilton a huge flock of people all waiting to see the Iron Chefs. Come 6pm, we're ushered into the foyer outside the ballroom where we are served drinks and canapes.

Bubblies with Scallop sushi

Tuna sushi and beef with chilli fried onions

The most gorgeous fried oyster and more beef with chilli fried onions!

Meatballs!

If the food was anything as good as the canapes, we're going to be in for a great night!

All of a sudden you can hear the faint drumming of Taiko drums in the background. The drumming gets louder and louder when the doors to the ballroom are thrown open. I was standing outside the doors when I squealed "OMGGGGGGGGGG!! ITS THE IRON CHEF PHOTOS!!!"

Man.... I was acting like such a schoolgirl! Clapping and squealing when I saw the same photos that used to appear in Kitchen Stadium. I was squealing even louder when I realised that there was a showbag on every chair (Yes I know, I'm such a dork!)

Once seated, every table around us had their cameras out and flashes were going off like a disco party. It seems like we're not the only ones who want to capture every moment of this night!

The moment finally arrives when the Iron Chef theme music starts playing. I was so excited I screamed out "OMG!!! ITS THE IRON CHEF MUSIC!!!!". Luckily no one but my table heard. (That's what I'm telling myself).

Chef Sakai, with his pear

The minute Sakai steps out everyone went crazy with their cameras. The excitement only intensified when Chen came out as well.

Chef Chen with his cleaver

I can't remember a single thing the host said after this as all I heard was the clicking of 400 cameras around me. I just know we're in for a great night!

Bang a Gong, we are on!

Menu for the night

Sakai in the kitchen talking about his dish

Chef Sakai's Chilled seafood on cauliflower mousse with mango dressing
paired with 2009 Mt Difficulty Estate Pinot Gris

I personally hate cauliflower unless its deep fried or drenched in cheese. It took the skills of Chef Sakai to turn a horrible vegetable into something smooth and decadent! Seriously, I described cauliflower as decadent!!

As the first course came out, we hear some commotion at the other end of the room. Chen was out taking photos with people. We leave the food at the table and dashed over with our cameras to get photos.

When finally get back to our table to tuck into our first course when the hosts came out with Sakai looking for comments and judgement from the audience. I would've put my hand up, but I hadn't even had a chance to touch the dish yet! I wish I had just taken a quick bite, cos the winner gets a set of professional chef knifes from Chef's Armoury!

After they had picked the winner, they looked for volunteers to go into the kitchen for a challenge. I practically fell off my seat waving my arms around to get picked. I remember my heart was in my throat thudding when Sakai walked RIGHT UP TO ME and looked me in the eyes.......then he picked a girl from the table behind me! DOH!!!!!!

Chen walking right past our table when looking for volunteers!

The contestants were asked to plate up Chef Okazaki trio of Tuna dish. The fastest and best presentation wins. The winner also got another set of chef knifes! As the next course starts coming out, the camera in the Kitchen shows Tomo, Chen and Sakai eating the leftovers the contestants had plated up!

Sakai shows the audience how tasty the dish is:

L-R: Tuna tartare with spicy miso in wanton cup Tuna rice paper roll Tuna tataki, asparagus and lemongrass tomato salsa
paired with Knappstein 'Three' - Gewurstraminer - Reisling - Pinot Gris

My favourite would have to be the miso tuna on the left. The texture was incredibly melt in your mouth creamy. Even more so than what tuna usually is.

Chef Okazaki greets the guests

By the 2nd course, I was also onto my 7th glass of wine. Yes, 7th! My friend was driving, which meant I get to have all her paired wine, plus the few glasses of bubblies I had earlier on. This also meant I was getting very "happy" and suddenly decided I needed to buy an Iron Chef apron. Rewind an hour earlier, I was saying $30 for an apron is a bit much! But after 7 glasses, I suddenly found it great value! hehe I was almost "happy" enough to pay $120 for 2 autographed cookbooks that was entirely in Japanese. ALMOST. I was probably 3 glasses away from being that "happy" ;)

Eventually the cameras cut back to the Kitchen where Chen and Sakai are enjoying a game of golf with their putt putt mat where it took Chen multiple attempts before sinking the ball. Sakai on the other hand, managed multiple hole in ones!!

This is when the hosts decided to get a few volunteers up on stage to compete in a game of putt putt. This time, I must've looked like I was about to explode with excitement when I was waving my arms in the air and actually got picked!

Chef Chen setting up the mat

It was at this stage that a disgruntled man in the audience stands up and starts ranting and raving about how he's paid $385 for this meal and all he's getting is a comedy act. The few of us who got picked on stage actually went "Is he for real?!". He must've had a few too many drinks as he had to be calmed by the staff. Luckily the hosts and Chen were gracious and continued on the with the show.

Showing us how its done

The challenge was to beat Chen in a game of putting and the person with the least number of Putts wins the challenge. I've never played a proper game of golf in my life, the most I've done is putt putt golf. Luckily for me, I'm reknown to play EXTRA well in a game of pool after I've had a few drinks. (Seriously, I actually win a lot more games when I play that way!).

I'm 1st up!

I hit the ball and its going straight for the hole but I think I hit a bit hard and it might overshoot. Chen jumps in, grabs the ball and dunks it straight into the hole! *LoL*.

The next lady up hits the ball completely off the mat, but Chen came to her rescue as well. The 3rd contestant looked close to sinking the ball, but didn't seem to hit hard enough. It did go in in the end when Chen nudged it into the hole! *LoL* But because I only had 1 hit, I was considered the winner! Woohoo!!! (I wasn't going to argue!)

Hostess announced that I win a prize from Japan airlines.....but they're not plane tickets. I think I said "DAMN!" pretty loud, but hopefully not loud enough to be heard on the mic?! I'm then told that I won an "Aeroclock", which resulted me in going "WHATS THAT?!" (oops, a few too many drinks for me!). The hostess didn't know either, but said I would find out when I get it! haha

Chef Haru does a demonstration on stage on how he created his masterpiece. "Spatchcock en croûte de sel a la Haru". Its basically a spatchcock encased in a salt and thyme dough in the shape of a bird. It certainly looked very impressive, but our whole table was a bit disappointed that they remove the outer crust before serving it to us. We all wanted photos of it! Even if it meant having to battle the bones! (It'll also mean we get a whole spatchcock to ourselves, but that's just being greedy! hehe)

Spatchcock en croûte de sel a la Haru

paired with 2008 Stonier Estate Chardonnay

The spatchcock was incredibly moist and flavoursome (It was dripping juice when he removed the crust). It reminded me of the chinese salt baked chicken, but with a much more delicate taste. The mash was divine, but we couldn't reall work out what the black stuff was around it. If you take a big chunk, it had the earthy taste of truffles. But it couldn't be real truffles as the flavour was so delicate, rather than the rich earthy taste you would expect. We decided to treat it like truffle anyway and cleaned up the whole plate.

Next course up was the high anticipated Lobster in Szechuan sauce created by Chen. Unlike the other dishes we've had so far, where there is a brigade of chefs and sous chefs cooking and assembling the dish. Chen decided to cook every single serve of this dish for the 400 odd guests! It was great fun watching him on screen tossing a huge wokful of lobster balls. He even did a demo on stage!

Chen in action

Getting excited!

Sakai and Haru helping with the final plating

Iron Chef Chen's Lobster with chilli sauce Szechuan style
paired with 2006 Argyle 'Reserve' Pinot Noir

The lobster balls are served with a steamed mantou, that is used to mop up every last drop of that gorgeous sauce. At first I was disappointed that its lobster balls and not big chunks of lobster meat, but how wrong was I? Cutting into the ball reveals great big chunks of lobster. None of that horrible over processed rubbery flour fishball like things for Chen. This dish was magnificent! My friends were quite distressed at one point though....they ran out of bread to mop up the sauce! Its ok, we'll do it the lady like way......scrape the plate with the knife, lick the blade, try not to cut your tongue :D

Braised Wagyu veal cheek ono green pea and wasabi mash with cabernet jus
paired with 2008 Petaluma 'The Hundred Line' Cabernet Sauvignon

The last main of the night was the slow braised wagyu veal cheeks. The meat was so incredibly tender, that I didn't need my knife to cut the meat up. Actually, I was having problems holding cutlery at this point. (I think I was up to the 12th glass of wine. *hic*) The pea mash is made entirely from fresh peas, giving it that lovely vibrant and green colour. The mash itself was also very creamy, but I couldn't taste any of the wasabi in it. The dish also needed a bit more seasoning as people on our table started adding salt and pepper to it.

After we finished the veal, Chen shows up and starts walking through the Audience taking photos with everyone. I managed to get his photo and my apron signed! (Now I have a $30 apron I can never use! hehe) We also met his son!

My signed apron

Smoked Chocolate and 'DELAMAIN X.O.FALE&DRY 25YO' mousse with agar-agar of milk, chocolate anglaise sauce
paired with 2004 Knappstein Vintage Fortified Shiraz

The last course of the night was a smoked chocolate dessert. The plating was gorgeous, with a lovely agar agar disc, topped with a dome of smoked chocolate mousse and a smokey tuile on the top. Whilst the dish sounded fantastic on the menu, I really didn't enjoy this dish too much. The smokiness of the dish kept screaming bacon to me. Sweet bacon! The tuile on top had an uncanny resemblance to the lovely golden crunchy bits of cheese you find on the edge of a cheese and bacon roll.....except this was sweet.

The evening comes to an end, and all the Chefs come out on stage to the sounds of thunderous applause. Chef Chen introduced us to his Son and then basically invited everyone to his restaurant in Tokyo. I'm taking it as a personal invite Chef Chen!!

At the end of the night, Chen and Sakai posed for photos with all their adoring fans. We were close to the door and managed to dash over to the quickly growing line to get our photos taken with the stars of the night! That's it, I'm not washing my hands again, ever! I'll even let people sniff the hands that touched Chen and Sakai for $5 a sniff! ;)

After getting our photos take, we went to the cloakroom where I thought I could pick up my prize, only to line up right behind Maeve O'Meara! She is such a sweetie and actually remembered my name! *blush* Of course I acted like the squealing fangirl and just had to get a photo with her:

I can't even remember what we were chatting about, but I'm pretty sure I completely embarrassed myself infront of her! My friends also pointed out at one stage that I had to go to the other side of the room to pick up my prize. I quickly dash off to grab my aeroclock and came back to join my friends in the queue and even showed Maeve what the "aeroclock" was.

What I didn't know was that there was more to the prize! I only realised when I read Not Quite Nigella's post that the golf winner actually won vouchers to Rise as well! I vaguely remembered I had some form of paper with the aeroclock that I had shoved into my bag. It was only when I came home to dig through my bag that I realised that I did indeed win the voucher! haha Thanks Lorraine!

All in all, I had an absolute fantastic night! Hopefully they'll be back again next year and we'll score great tickets again!

Sanctuary Hotel

2010-04-27T21:17:00.001+10:00

$9 Cocktails.

That's all I needed to know to organise an outing to The Sanctuary Hotel. No, seriously. That's ALL I needed to know.

CAIPRIOSKA
SKYY Vodka muddled with fresh lime & sugar

LEMONLICIOUS
Crisp & tart, a luscious blend of Absolut Citron Vodka, Lemoncello, Grand Marnier & Sanctuary’s sours shaken & served in a large martini glass

CLARK’S ON KENT
A blend of fresh kiwi fruit, 42 Below Kiwi, Pear Liquor & Paraiso Liqueur served long over ice

MOJITO
Havana Club Rum, muddled with fresh limes & fresh mint, raw sugar & topped with a dash of soda

SANCTUARY ICE TEA

SKYY Vodka, Gin, Rum, Tequila & Triple Sec shaken with Sanctuary’s sours & served long
over ice & topped with cranberry juice

Chips with one of the best aiolis I've ever had

I would put a more descriptive post up.....but honestly.....after all the $9 cocktails I had, I can't remember jack. I do remember the cocktails being good, which is partially the reason why I can't remember anything. I also remember ordering a few serves of their chips cos they had a really awesome aioli. Everything else was a bit of a blur...... *cough*

Sanctuary Hotel
545 Kent Street (Cnr Liverpool Street)
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9264 1119
http://www.sanctuaryhotel.com.au

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The Counter Burger

2010-04-24T21:12:00.001+10:00

Its been years, and I mean YEARS since I worked at Crows Nest. Maybe because I went there 5 days a week for several years, I have no urge to go back regardless of the occassion. Don't get me wrong, I loved the company and the people I was working with, I also loved all the food and shops around there, but I'm just a bit Crows Nested out. So when the Counter opened, and I found out its in Crows Nest, I just couldn't be bothered going.

So one day, when we were organising for a catch up with a friend visiting from the States for a few days, The Counter was one of the options. If I didn't go for an occassion like this, I would never go. So a date and time was set for the big meet!

Going to Crows Nest brought back so many memories. I still know where to catch the train, which carriage to ride in so it stops right at the escalators, which street to take to by pass the traffic and take the least inclined hill. We arrive at The Counter where some old fashion shops used to be.

Perusing the menu gave me a head spin! OMG! So many choices! I mean, its not like I didn't know how the ordering system works. I had also studied the menu on the web beforehand. But now that I actually have to place an order, I couldn't decide! I ended up changing my mind about 6 times before I blindly jotted down my order.

Apple pie shake

I was tossing up between this and the chocolate peanut butter shake. I kinda wished I went with the peanut butter option as I found this shake to be a bit disappointing. I was hoping for a chunky shake with pieces of pie crust and actual bits of apple. Maybe the girl making the shake got distracted and left it blending too long, but there was no texture in the shake. It also didn't really taste like apple pie, more like a vanilla thick shake. My friends who ordered before me reckons they had a few small pieces of apple, but definitely not as chunky as we had hoped.

Fries - Normal type and sweet potato fries

We ordered a 2 plates of fries before our other friends arrived. Both were good, and I really liked the aioli, but I didn't find it any special. Maybe because I've had really really good sweet potato fries when I was in US, so I didn't find it anything special. My friends loved the sweet potato fries even though it was a bit too salty.

Now I'm not even going to try and explain what these burgers were. Especially since they're all custom made with whatever you want. Plus, most of us had actually forgotten what we ticked by the time the food came out! hahaha

Bunless burger

My burger!

Here's my towering monster! It was the biggest burger of the table. Boy am I glad that I ordered the smallest patty! I basically got a beef patty, with mixed lettuce, tomatos, boiled eggs, bacon, mushroom and grilled capsicum all topped with blue cheese and ranch dressing.

In hindsight, I should've stuck with normal cheese as I found the blue cheese used here to be way overpowering. Compared to the ones I've had in the US, which are quite smooth and mellow, The Counter's cheese is what I'll describe as "in your face pungent".

The ingredients were all very fresh and tasty, the patty had a good bite to it and the burger was huge! (I.e. I was too greedy with the ingredients). I don't think I've ever left a burger unfinished, that is until this occassion. I had a heap of bread and toppings left over on the plate whilst I waved my white flag of defeat.

So how did the burger rate? It was a good burger in a good setting. A great place to visit if you want a relaxed catch up with friends over burgers rather than at a fast food restaurant. However, with that said, I wouldn't say this is the best burger I've ever had. It might have something to do with the toppings I selected, or it was over-hyped for me. But basically, there was just something missing. For me, I would prefer to go to the local milk bar/corner shop and get a greasy burger with the lot and eat sitting on a park bench. Something to do with the generic ice berg lettuce, onion, tomato, pineapple and beetroot shoved between a cheap crappy bun and greasy but utterly delicious patty with bacon and eggs all topped with tomato sauce. It's not going to win any beauty contests, but I firmly believe its whats in the inside that counts. And this generic, greasy road stop burger is what I prefer. But obivously I can't have a girlie nights catch up squatting by the side of a road shoving the stuff into my face. And that's where The Counter fits in. I won't be rushing back for a burger, but I definitely will be up for it if a bunch of friends wants to catch up over burgers!

The Counter Burger
118 Willoughby Rd
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Ph: (02) 9436 2700
http://www.thecounterburger.com/

Trumps Tavern - Wynyard

2010-04-20T21:26:00.001+10:00

One thing about working around the Martin Place end of town, is the severe lack of Thai food. Sometimes, a girl just needs a good healthy dose of Tom Yum, Pad Thai and thai salads. I heard that Trumps Tavern actually serves decent Thai food, which surprised me. The only time I've ever heard of Trumps Tavern, is usually in the same sentence that contains the phrase "Hangover". Although one story involved a Russian Bouncer at 4:30am?! Long story.

Anyway, I dragged a friend with me to get a Thai fix. Being a Monday lunch time, and the fact that we were there before 12, meant the place was empty. This was a bit of a worry since I'm always weary of empty places in the city during lunch hours. But less than 15mins after sitting down, people started streaming in, and by the time we left, the whole place was packed with a huge line running across the room with people trying to place their orders.

The place is simple in decoractions. A small bar to the left and plenty of tables and chairs with a few couches and stools. To the left of the bar is a set of stair cases taking you downstairs to the pokies area. You can order food and eat down there as well, but it severly lacks any form of ambience. Basically a few tables and chairs tucked into the rows of pokies.

The menu is available at the bar and you line up to place your order at a seperate counter. They also have meal deals now where you can pay an extra few dollars and get a drink i.e. soft drink, wine or beer.

Now, onto the food!

Chicken Pad Kee Mao

The Pad Kee Mao isn't actually on the menu. But seriously, what Thai place doesn't have the ingredients to whip up a Pad Kee Mao? The girl behind the counter was more than happy to place my order and my friend had food envy as she didn't know she could order that! The serve is pretty decent and will satisfy even the big hungry boys around.

Thai Beef Salad

My friend had a Thai Beef salad and gave it a thumbs up.

Chicken Cashew Nut

I came back and tried the Chicken Cashew the next time around it was pretty darn good! Sweet and spicy, with a good selection of crunchy veggies, plump chicken a huge mound of rice. However, on this occassion I was hoping the serves will be smaller. Why? My manager was buying drinks for everyone! I couldn't drink as much as I was so full from all the food! hehe dang! You can never win!

Chicken Tom Yum Goong

This was exactly what I needed. The Chicken Tom Yum Goong was sour and spicy and so so refreshing. The bowl was huge, full of chunky chicken, vermicelli noodles and crunchy bean sprouts. This is probably a good dish to get if you don't intend to drink because the soup is sooooo good! Too much soup = no room for beers.

Trumps Tavern
50 King St
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9299 2929

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The Malaya

2010-04-17T22:58:00.001+10:00

I've been in love with The Malaya ever since I went there for a work lunch. Since one of my workmates missed out on the lunch, we decided to go there so she could try it out. Hey, no objections from me!

We decided to go with menu 4, which only requires 2 or more people. Not too bad of a deal for $52!

Popiah

First up was the Popiah. Very different to what you find in Singapore, but no less tasty. Sliced chicken and prawns with bean sprouts and vermicelli noodles, all covered with a sweet chilli soya sauce and nuts.

Otak Otak

Unwrapped

The Malaya is the what changed my opinion on Otak Otak. Whenever I'm in Singapore and walking through the hawker stalls, I'm always drawn in by the smell of freshly grilled Otak Otak. But every time I order it, I am bitterly disappointed by the taste. But having tried the version they serve here, I am converted! I absolutely love this stuff! Aromatic and spicy fish mince, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled to perfection. MMmmMMmm Now if I could find a stall in Singapore that sells it at a fraction of the price......

Satay Chicken

The highlight of this dish, or any satay dish they serve, isn't the satay itself. Yes, the meat is juicy and tender, but its the sambal/satay sauce they serve you. Oh my god its good!! I literally eat the sauce with a spoon (as long as the rest of the people don't mind me hogging the whole thing). Since there were only 2 of us, we had plenty of sauce left over. I actually had to fight the waitress to stop her taking it away. THE SAUCE IS MINE! MINEEEEEE!!!

Kapitan King Prawns

Another favourite of mine. Lightly battered king prawns cooked in a mild and creamy Penang style curry. The only problem with this dish is that I always burn my mouth eating it! EVERY TIME!!! Must learn to wait for it to cool down before I shovel the stinking hot prawns into my mouth!

Malay Beef Curry with Roti

Essentially a Beef Rendang. I'm not a huge fan of Beef Rendang, but still really enjoyed this dish. The meat practically melts in your mouth, and can easily be broken up using the spoon. The roti is nice, but not as fluffy and light as I had hoped. Especially for the price they serve you! Again, careful of the roti....burnted fingers EVERY TIME.... *Sigh* I never learn do I?

Sze Chuan Eggplant

Now this is the dish I dream about. I can't believe I can ever feel this way about eggplants. EGGPLANTS for gods sake! I feel like a giddy school girl every time I see this dish placed infront of me. The eggplants are deep fried til they're crispy on the outside, but soft and creamy on the inside. Its then cooked with shallots, cashews and dried chillis in a sweet, spicy and sticky sauce all served on a bed of Kang Kong (Chinese water spinach). I would happily come to Malaya and have just this dish and nothing else. Heck, I can even become a part time vegetarian if I get to eat this at every meal!

$52 each for lunch is definitely not cheap. But considering we had 3 entrees and 3 main meals with views of the water, I'd say its good value. Its not something you would do every week, but I love to go on these little trips with my friends to treat ourselves. Something to make the working week just that little easier to deal with.

The Malaya
39 Lime Street
King Street Wharf
Sydney 2000
Ph: 02 9279 1170
http://www.themalaya.com.au/

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Passionflower - A bit of a vent

2010-04-16T11:29:00.002+10:00

I had a friend's birthday on the weekend with dinner at Encasa. I'm not going to bother blogging about Encasa since I've been there so many times and have had the same banquet countless times already. Lets just say, the food was fantastic and we had a wonderful time there.

Since dinner was at Encasa, most of us had parked around Central station. The plan was to find a place to sit down for drinks or dessert whilst a few of our designated drivers sobered up. There wasn't many places around that area that wasn't a pub. The best option we had was Passionflower at Capitol Theatre. We actually haven't been to Passionflower for 2 years. The last time we went, they insisted on charging us a Sunday surcharge......on a Saturday night! The incident basically left us boycotting the place. However, we're going to a different branch and we really didn't have many other options to choose from. Plus, I also believe in giving businesses a second chance.

Sitting down, we umm and ahh over the menu before deciding on what we want. A few of the sundaes looked fantastic, except we didn't really like the flavour of ice cream combos they had. As we placed the order, I asked to switch one of the scoops of ice cream for a different flavour. The answer was a flat out NO. Apparently, the the combinations are there "for our enjoyment and cannot be changed". This is also printed in tiny writing on the last page of the menu.

But excuse me? the flavour combinations offered is NOT going to contribute to my enjoyment. For my enjoyment, I would like the combinations changed. I'm not asking for a mish mash sundae. I just wanted to change one scoop of ice cream to a different flavour. I was told I'm not allowed to change the combination of ice cream, but I can ADD a scoop of the flavour I wanted.....at an additional price. Hello?? Did you not say that you can't change the combinations because its for "our enjoyment"? But for a PRICE, I CAN change the combination by adding a new flavour. Nice.

The only other option is I DIY my own sundae and order 2-3 scoops and pay for the flavours I want. Except this works out much more expensive than ordering what is off their menu and I don't get all the condiments I wanted. I decided to stuff the ice cream all together and just get a drink. I was quite turned off by this stage and decided that I'm not even going to bother taking photos.

I had ordered a Passionfruit and Strawberry drink whilst my friend ordered a Passionfruit, Strawberry and MANGO drink. My drink comes out first, it actually looks quite pretty. Chunks of fresh strawberries floating at the top and some dark orange puree is in the bottom of my glass. Then my friend's drink comes out. Her Passionfruit, strawberry and mango drink was almost clear in colour. Slightly tinged with yellow and flecked with fresh passionfruit seeds and chunks of fresh strawberry. I immediately see a problem with this. My passionfruit drink has no fresh passionfruit pulp and is a deep orange, whilst my friend's passionfruit and mango drink has the pulp, but is almost clear. There must've been a mix up with the drinks so we call the waitress over to clarify. We asked her what drink my friend had, and she said Mango. So I questioned her why her mango drink has passionfruit, and my passionfruit drink doesn't. She looks confused as anything and runs back to the kitchen. From our seat, we can see a lot of huddled discussion and arm waving.

She eventually comes back and just says that they have given us the right drinks and quickly runs off. The way I see it, they made the wrong drinks and gave them to the wrong people and couldn't be bothered fixing it. My one was most probably mango and strawberry only (which explains the deep orange colour), whilst my friend had my passionfruit and strawberry one (Which is why it wasn't orange!). And to make it worse, the waitress actually came back and confirmed our drink order with us before making it!!

It was such a disappointing experience for us, especially after such a wonderful night at Encasa. Honestly, with rules and customer service like that, it'll do nothing but drive business away. I think it'll be quite a while before I go back to Passionflower. They had their second chance and they blew it. Atleast they didn't try to charge us a Sunday surcharge on a Saturday this time....

Am I being unreasonable?

Metro 1 - Ashfield

2010-04-12T23:33:00.001+10:00

I remember first visiting Metro 1 about 10 years ago. Back then, I used to pronounce pide as "PIED". Kinda like Tied. That is until my Turkish evil twin corrected me and ever since then I've correctly called it "Pid-eh".

I distinctly remember bringing my friends here the very first time. One of my friends was having car trouble, and decided to pull over the side of the road to check it out. For some reason, he decided to check his radiator by removing the cap. Because he had been driving for 45mins already, the heat built up in the engine cause the cap to explode upwards, ricochet off the hood of the car and fall into the engine. It was 8pm by the time we arrived to help. The only street light was behind the hood of the car, meaning we couldn't see jack. We stood in the freezing cold for over an hour, waiting for NRMA to show up with a torch to help us locate the cap.

By the time we put the car back together, it was past 9pm. All our dinner plans went out the door. I mentioned that there was a pizza type shop near my place that should still be open. We arrive and most of my friends just let their jaws hang. They were expecting a cosy little italian restaurant. But what they saw was a cold, tiled Kebab shop with minimal seats and decorations. They were all too hungry to yell/argue with me, so we moved the tables around until it can fit our group.

With the help of the owner, we ordered a selection of Pides, all made to order. Ever since that night, I've been absolutely hooked to their pide. Maybe its the first real Pide I've ever tried, but I reckon its one of the best in Sydney.

Fast forward to today, I am still going to Metro 1 so I can get a pide fix. I've also discovered that they do a pretty mean pizza! Its not the thin Italian wood fired variety, but it doesn't mean its any less satisfying.

Chicken and Mushroom Pide

My usual order is a Chicken Pide with mushroom. Its not on the menu, but the owners are more than happy to accommodate my request. The thin, crispy yet chewy pide crust is stuffed with thick chunky chicken kebab meat. It is also scattered with diced onions, tomatos and mushrooms. A light squeeze of lemon is all it needs to put a huge grin on my face.

I've tried most of the pide on their menu. Most of the time I keep going back to my Chicken and Mushroom Pide. But every now and then, I'll venture for something a bit different.

Sucuk Pide

Sucuk or sujuck is a spicy cured turkish sausage. When I was in Turkey, they would serve sucuk sliced up for breakfast or even just between bread for a quick snack. I haven't really had to cooked in a pide before, and I must admit, I love it hot and crispy. Its not something I'll order all the time, not because its not good, but more because I love the chicken and mushroom version too much! haha

Metro 1 also does an awesome pizza. They use the same dough for their pizza and their pide, which amazes me every time because the texture comes out so differently!

Supreme pizza

Their pizzas are thicker and chewier than the Italian wood fired version, but when you're getting a supreme pizza, you need a thicker base to support all the toppings! And Metro 1 are quite generous with their toppings!

Garlic pizza/bread

I've also recently discovered their mini garlic pizza bread thing and its AWESOME. Crispy yet chewy base, topped with mass amounts of garlic, cheese and parsley. Definitely not something to eat on a date, but you wouldn't really go to Metro 1 for a date anyway! So its not really a problem! hehe I wouldn't eat more than 1/2 of a garlic pizza in one go, as it does get very rich after 2 slices. A must order for any garlic lover! Oh, they also do delivery! Booyah!

Metro 1
309 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield NSW 2131
Ph: 02 9797 1034

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Jimmy's Recipe

2010-04-07T23:41:00.002+10:00

Sometimes on a hot humid day, you just don't want something heavy and creamy. But what do you do when you still want a big bowl of noodle soup? For me, I head to Jimmy's for their Assam Laksa. There's not many other places offering this around the city, with Malay Chinese being one of them. But Jimmy's generally have much more seating during lunch time.

Assam Laksa

Assam Laksa is nothing like your standard laksa. There's no coconut cream and it has a fairly strong fish taste as it uses a fish broth. Its also very light, sour and spicy. Kinda like a tom yum goong but not. The Jimmy's version contained what appeared to be canned tomato sardine (Very different to what I remember they used to serve, which was proper fish fillets) with slice onions, cucumber and pineapple. This dish may be a bit fishy for some people because of the fish they use. I'm hoping its a seasonal thing and eventually they'll have the proper fish fillets back again. Nonetheless, it was exactly what I wanted on a hot muggy day.

Jimmy's Recipe
The Galeries Victoria RG16
Ground floor 500 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9267 2288

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Taste of Shanghai - Ashfield

2010-03-31T23:02:00.000+11:00

I first went to Taste of Shanghai during the first 2 weeks it was opened. I thought the food was ok, but still preferred Shanghai Nights. Since then, we haven't been back. But we have noticed that they get more and more packed every time we walk past, and seeing all the different reviews on the net, I thought we should go back for another visit.

We arrived early, around 11:30am and all the tables were already full. Luckily, we only had to wait about 15mins to get a table. Their menu is quite extensive and offer a lot more main meals than the other Shanghainese restaurants around Ashfield. But being lunch time, we wanted more dumplings and noodles than a whole fish etc.

Pan fried pork buns

My must have at any Shanghainese restaurant is their Pan fried pork buns. Soft and fluffy on top, crispy crunchy bottom and a juicy, soupy filling. The Taste of Shanghai version isn't bad. Its crispy and fluffy and juicy and soupy. BUT, I find the juice/soup a bit too rich for my liking. Most places have a lovely clear, sweet, golden pork broth in the buns. Their version is actually a deep brown cloudy broth, as if they've put too much soya sauce and other seasoning in it. I also found it much fattier than the other places. Apparently the owners also own the butcher shop across the road with the same Chinese name, so we suspect they might also be using different cuts of meat from other places.

Steamed pork buns

The steamed pork buns suffered the same fate as the pan fried version. Too fatty and just not delicate enough in flavour. They were however, made really well.

Dried scallop fried rice

I loved the fact that its served in a wooden bucket like thing. The fried rice was quite tasty with a small mound of fried dried scallops on top. However, I found the rice really REALLY oily. When we got to the bottom, there was a pool of oil. Easily 2-3 tablespoon full, swimming in the bottom. I actually felt really greased up and ill after eating all of it.

Overall, the food is nice, but I find the food too oily for my liking and will probably be sticking to my other favourites for noodles, rice and dumplings. With that said, I do like the look of all the main meals that were served around us and will probably be coming back to try those dishes out.

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Road
Ashfield, NSW, 2131
Ph: (02) 9798 2877

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Hurricanes Grill & Bar - Darling Harbour

2010-03-27T09:31:00.002+11:00

MMmMMmmm ribs.....I salivate every time I think of Hurricane's ribs. The first visit was to the Bondi restaurant after a long hot day at Sculpture by the Sea. Since opening one in Darling Harbour, that's the one I frequent the most.

I love introducing people to Hurricanes, especially when they won't believe me that they're not actually pork ribs. They're actually stegosaurus ribs! hehe

A friend and I had tickets to a musical, and not wanting to be in a food coma, we opted to get food to share instead of eating a full rack of ribs each.

Complimentary bread

Mussels cooked in a creamy garlic sauce with bread fingers for dipping

First up was a creamy garlic mussel, served with toasted bread. Whilst the mussels and the sauce is good, the bread was just too brittle to serve any purpose. It couldn't absorb the sauce and just ends up crumbling every where. We ate most of the dish without really touching the bread.

Onion rings

Onion rings were an absolute disappointment. Instead of big thick battered rings of onion, they were thin, shrivelled bits of fried stuff that looks like the dregs of the fryer. Definitely will not be ordering this again.

Pork Ribs

Oh yeahhhhhh baby!! Come to mama! Look at the size of these ribs! I barely had to cut these up to share as the meat was practically falling off the bone. Sweet, sticky and moist...its like I'm describing an adult film! hahaha Well, it did taste that naughty! They were definitely finger licking good! MmMMmmm ribs.....

Hurricane's Grill & Bar - Darling Harbour
Harbourside Shopping Centre
Shops 433-436
Level 2, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Ph: 02 9211 2210
http://www.hurricanesgrill.com.au/

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Natto-licious!

2010-03-22T21:44:00.000+11:00

Ever since I watched Crayon Shin-Chan as a kid, I've always been fascinated about Natto. Not that I knew it was called Natto. I just remember the kid swirling his chopsticks around his bowl and suddenly everything is covered in a cob web thing! It was only a few years ago that I figured out what he was eating was Natto. Imagine my surprise when I found Natto being sold in a few Asian grocery stores!

I immediately grabbed a pack of 4 (They only come in packs of 4) and headed over to my friend's place. My friend had lived in Japan for many years, and I assumed that he could show me how to eat Natto and that he'll eat it with me. WRONG. My friend's expression was a combination of hysteria and horror. No way in hell was he going to eat Natto. He'll give me instructions, but he doesn't want to be near the stuff. Its like I rocked up with rotten eggs covered in blue cheese or something!

I guess I should've given my friend more notice, because he had no rice and no seaweed sheets! Dang! But I was still determined to try and decided to eat it on its own, with no accompaniments.

Since Natto is frozen, the first thing you must do is to let it defrost.

Once defrosted, you can peel off the layer of plastic sitting ontop. As you peel it off, you can see the strands of cob web like ick starting to form. Be careful pulling the plastic off or you'll get the sticky stuff all over you.

Then, using your chopsticks, you stir. As you keep stirring, you'll notice the strands of sticky cob web eventually turn into something that I can only describe as a cross between mucus and saliva. When it looks like the beans are suspended in this mucusy-saliva like thing, then you're done.

Natto usually comes with a few sachets of condiments. In my case, it was mustard and some soya sauce looking thing. Wanting to taste natto in its most purest form, I opted not to stir them in yet. And it tastes like.......coffee???

It wasn't entirely disgusting like my friend described. I wouldn't call it delicious either. To me, it was a slightly slimey, coffee like bean substance. I added the condiments and tasted it again. It still wasn't disgusting, and I'm finding that the flavour is growing on me.

I wish I had a bowl of steaming hot rice to eat this with, because I actually think it'll taste quite nice! My friend, however, was waiting for the contents of my stomach to come back up because he thinks I was faking it. I wouldn't rush out to start stocking up on Natto, but atleast I know if I get served only this and a bowl of rice, I'm not going to starve!

Summer Hill Hotel

2010-03-19T11:15:00.000+11:00

There are plenty of pubs around Sydney offering Cheap steaks, and Summer Hill Hotel is no different. They have renovated in the last year or two and now has an outdoor patio area. Since the renovation, I always see more and more people sitting in the outdoor area as my train speeds past. Feeling like steak one day, and being near Summer Hill gave me the perfect excuse to check out the place.

Walking in, there are 3 sections to the hotel. There's the bar and TV area, with plenty of stools for people to sit and watch the footy. Then there's a dining area with more comfortable tables and chairs that can accommodate a family. Lastly, there's the outdoor area. Being an extremely hot day, we opted to sit in the dining area that is partially air conditioned. Partially meaning the air conditioning is on, but the open kitchen is pumping hot smokey air into the dining area, cancelling out much of the cool air.

Steak with mushroom gravy

Steak with peppercorn gravy

There are a choice of gravies available for your $10 steak. I went with mushroom gravy and my friend chose the peppercorn gravy. Cutting into my steak, I found my medium rare steak was closer to medium well if not well done in parts of it. I've always preferred my steak undercooked than overcooked if they can't do it right. In this case, the steak was just way too cooked for my liking. I'm not sure if its the steak or the fact that its not medium rare, but I found the slab of meat tough and too charred for my liking.

I suspect they may have gotten me and my friend's order mixed up, or they really have no idea how to cook a steak. His medium well steak, turned out more like medium. I would've happily swapped with him, but we were both half way through our steaks by that point.

Wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli

Being unsatisfied with my meal, I was craving for something that really hit the spot. So we ordered a bit bowl of wedges to share. The wedges were searingly hot when we got it. But it was also really crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside.

I would probably come back again and try other stuff on the menu, just not the steak.

Summer Hill Hotel
1 Lackey Street
Summer Hill NSW 2130
Ph: (02) 9798 3331

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PJ O'Brien's - The Irish Pub

2010-03-16T11:05:00.001+11:00

When looking for a new lunch joint, I found the PJ O'Brien website. Being an Irish pub, I obviously asked my Irish friend what he thought of their food. His initial reaction was to scrunch up his face and say "Don't go there!". When I asked why, he replied that he doesn't have any good memories of the place. But that's due to the fact that goes there after pub crawling for 4-5 hours. I didn't say it to his face, but I bet he was so off his face he wouldn't know the difference between eating food and a coaster at that point! hahaha

So ignoring his warnings, I dragged a friend there for lunch. Walking in, it has a lovely rustic feel. Wooden tables and chairs, scuffed from too many people having rowdy drinks. There are a few booths available, and we chose a seat in the corner by the fireplace.

I ordered Shepherds pie, hoping for a nice satisfying meal. What came out not only will it satisfy me, it can satisfy 2 people!

Shepherds pie

The shepherds pie comes in a big bowl, freshly out of the oven. What I've learnt from my now many visits to PJs is to always, ALWAYS dig a big hole in the shepherds pie to let the steam out. On many occasions I would be too impatient and end up with a burnt mouth. The filling is simple, mainly mince and peas topped with a layer of creamy mashed potatoes. The pie is much lighter in taste then what I am used to, and certainly lighter compared to what I cook. With that said, this is NOT a light meal. Not if you eat the entire pie, salad and more potato chips all washed down with a beer (Or in my case, Bulmers). You then go into what I call the potato coma. Basically, you enter a vegetative state in front of your computer, struggling to stay awake for the rest of day and not get fired by your boss.

Happy Guinness

I was so impressed by the shepherds pie, I had to drag my Irish friends here, kicking and screaming to try it out. Now? Its the other way around. They'll be the one dragging me kicking and screaming into PJs. Not because I don't like their food, but because I eat everything they serve me, meaning I won't be able to do work for the rest of the day! I have to resist PJs if I have long boring meetings in the arvo.

Blarney Castle Tower Burger

Wagyu beef burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese burger with a side of chips and salad.

The meat is denser and smoother than some other places. But It was juicy and really tasty. I would certainly classify this as good pub grub. Oh, and yes, I am SUCKY at cutting a burger in half! hehe

Chicken Schnitzel

My friend had the Chicken Schnitzel and rated it as good, just needs more gravy. Because you can't never have too much gravy!

I've lost count of how many times I've been to PJ's. I'm slowly making my way through the menu. Other stuff I can highly recommend is the Beef and Guinness pie, Irish Pork Sausages and Mash (Really nice chunky porky sausages), pizzas and my workmate always, ALWAYS order the lamb shanks. I should probably take more photos, but every time I go, I would've consumed a few "drinks" before the food come out and basically forget. hehe

PJ O'Brien's
57 King Street, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9290 1811
http://www.pjobriens.com.au/

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Verandah Bar

2010-03-12T11:40:00.000+11:00

Years ago, when Friday night drinks were the norm, we would try to get into Verandah bar after work. If you haven't tried before, its almost impossible to get in. And once you do, you kind of lose orientation of where the bar is and end up pushing through the crowd endlessly trying to get a drink. I went to Verandah bar twice. Once I got in, but left after 20mins trying to get a drink. Second time I didn't even make it into the bar.

Its been quite a few years since I've been back, this time it was for lunch. Unlike the melee I witness a few years ago, lunchtime was actually a calm and peaceful experience. I actually know what the layout of the bar looks like without the 500 people crammed in there.

They have a few lunchtime specials during the week. $9 Rump on Mondays, $9 Schnitzel on Tuesdays and $10 Chicken Parmigiana on Wednesdays. The day I went was a Tuesday. Yay! Schnitzel!

The food and drinks are ordered at the bar. I was hanging around the bar waiting for the rest of the party to order. But less than 2mins after I had ordered, my buzzer went off. Talk about fast service! As I walked to the counter, I realised why they're so quick. Knowing most people will order schnitzel on Tuesdays, they had about 20 plates all laid out with the salad already on the plate. The schnitzel and chips are cooked in big batches rather per order. But with the amount of people ordering the special, you won't have to worry about cold stale food.

What impressed me most about the Verandah Bar schnitzel isn't the schnitzel itself. Don't get me wrong, it was crispy and juicy and certainly tasty. But its the bucket. The big silver bucket that sits right by the cutlery and condiments. What is so special about this bucket you ask? I'll tell you what is so special. The bucket contains litres and litres of the most gorgeous peppery gravy, which you can then ladle over your food. As much as you want. !@%#@$%

I'm definitely coming back, and next time, I'm going to order just a bowl of chips and then drown it in gravy. Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh baby!

Verandah Bar
55 - 65 Elizabeth Street
Sydney 2000
Ph: (02) 9239 5888
http://www.verandah.com.au/

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Kimama - Eating World - Haymarket / Chinatown

2010-03-07T22:53:00.002+11:00

Whilst Gumshara is famous for their Ramen with many people visiting just for a taste, just 2 stalls away sits another less famous Japanese stall called Kimama. Being a hot day, the friend I dragged along just did not want a hot soupy ramen. Instead, he opted to try the Katsudon from Kimama.

Katsudon

You know you're onto a winner when after the first bite, there's no time to comment on the food as you keep shovelling bite after bite into your mouth. Surprisingly, this little Japanese joint scored a 8 out of 10 from my friend when comparing to his favourite one in Japan. This is a big thing as most Japanese restaurants score a 5 or a 6 when compared to Japan standards.

My friend was so impressed, that we went back a week later so he can get another Katsudon fix whilst I get to try out the rest of the menu.

Second visit, just as consistently good!

Being another 30 degree day, I really didn't feel like a heavy or hot meal. I spotted a cold udon dish on the menu and immediately ordered that.

The noodles contain seaweed, some sort of mixed vegetable/bamboo shoot, diced daikon and a perfectly barely cooked egg all swimming in a cold vingeary broth.

Digging into the noodles I hit something hard in the bowl:

They weren't kidding when they said it was a cold noodle dish! Look at that ice!

Whilst the noodles were incredibly refreshing, I wasn't entirely satisfied after eating it. Mind you, this is not the fault of the dish. Firstly, I personally didn't like the whole bamboo veggie mix as it tasted a bit too much like Gai Larn for me. Gai Larn is probably one of the few Asian veggies that I dislike. Secondly, I was craving something REALLY REALLY vinegary. Whilst the sauce was nice, it didn't hit my craving.

However, with that said, the egg that came with the noodles is one of the best soft boiled/poached eggs I've ever had.It seemed like the egg was very softly boiled to the stage where the whites has just started to firm up before cracking the whole thing into the bowl. I saved the egg til last knowing it was going to be good. And boy was it good! The egg yolk just bursts in the mouth and is incredibly runny and creamy. I would come back just for the egg! Actually, they do sell just the egg.

Since I was ordering something cold, I figured I need something hot to balance the meal out.

I ordered a side of Karage Chicken with their Teriyaki Mayo. They actually have a few different flavours of Mayo, such as sweet chilli mayo. The chicken was crispy and incredibly juicy and went perfectly with the creamy mayo and a drizzle of teriyaki sauce.

The people in front of me had ordered Takoyaki, which looked absolutely delicious and handmade! (Not deep fried frozen stuff like some other placeS). Next time I'm there, I am definitely ordering the takoyaki. Maybe I should make a meal of takoyaki, karage chicken and eggs? hehe

Kimama
Eating World Food Court
25-29 Dixon Street
Chinatown

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Ocean Room - A Special Celebration!

2010-03-05T23:13:00.001+11:00

Two close friends of mine got married on the weekend. They decided to go for a smaller intimate wedding and opted to not have a big elaborate reception after the ceremony. Although we completely understand and support their decision, it doesn't mean we can't celebrate in a big way for them! So whilst there was no reception for us to attend, a few of us who did go to the ceremony decided we should book somewhere nice to celebrate their special day anyway.

After scoping around, we settled on Ocean Room. When booking, they mentioned that there will be a cruise ship docked on the night, obstructing the view of the Opera House. Because of that, they will be offering their 11 Course Tasting menu for $65, down from the usual $90. Score! AND there will be champagne on arrival! Double Score!

The ship that scored us our great deal

We arrive and are seated in the same seats we were in last time. Basically under the sloping part of their swinging bamboo decoration. This isn't too much of an issue until you've had a few and the whole ceiling appears to be moving (which it is...)

The moving ceiling...

Cute cupid at the bottom of the glass

There are 5 of us, 2 of which won't eat raw food and 1 is a vegetarian (I'll get back to this later). We placed our order for the 11 Course Tasting Menu and ordered some cocktails as well. The cocktail list actually has a small picture on the left-hand side showing the glass the cocktail will be served in. Champagne flute, tumbler etc. I chose my Hi-Tea-Ni purely based on the fact that it is served in a crystal tea pot on a bed of ice. In fact, I HATE Martini's unless its lychee flavoured or any other sweet fruity flavour.

Hi-Tea-Ni

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth this Martini went down. I guess it does make a difference when using high quality alcohol and keeping it chilled on ice the whole night.

Nippon Fizz

For some reason tasted like soya sauce....maybe its the whiskey in it. But it gave me a Japanese soya sauce salad dressing after taste. Not something I'd order that's for sure.

Ocean Room Punch

Ocean Room Punch was fruity and tangy. Definitely easy to go down.

Our complimentary Champagne was a mimosa with fresh pomegranate seeds floating on top. How pretty is that!? I love the burst of the pomegranate seed when you bite on it.

1st Raw course: Oyster Duo

Left: Rock oyster with fresh chilli & lemon vinaigrette Right: Pacific oyster with shiso basil sorbet and konbu

The Rock oyster wasn't that special. I found the dressing a bit bland and watery. The Pacific however, was creamy and briny, and the sorbet on top was fantastic!

1st Cooked Course: Sour Plum Scallop

Seared scallop with arrowroot noodles and sour plum vinaigrette

My friends were ooing and ahhing over this course. I didn't get to try it, but they're saying its one of the best courses of the night.

1st Vegetarian Course: Spicy Garlic Edamame

Poached green soy beans tossed with salt, fresh chilli and garlic

I could smell the wafts of caramelised garlic from across the table. I would've loved to have tasted this, but didn't want to steal from the vegetarian when I've got 11 courses coming!

2nd Raw Course - Tuna Cornet

Marinated blue fin tuna tartare in wrapped nori cornet

How cute is the presentation?! hehehe The nori cone was sweet, salty, crunchy and definitely moreish. I would've loved a plate of just the cone to eat in front of the TV. The cone contrasted beautifully with the soft fatty tuna. Just wished I had a bigger cone!

2nd Cooked Course - Kushikatsau
Crispy panko pork tenderloin skewer with Japanese bbq sauce and mustard aioli

Crumbed and deep fried meat on a stick. Need I say more?

Tomato Somen

Chilled Japanese somen noodles in clear tomato (Bonito?) broth

This was a complimentary dish from the chef to our vegetarian (Although the menu lists bonito in the dish, but I hope they know to make it without!). The clear cold tomato consomme was really refreshing. Too bad summer is coming to an end, because I reckon this would've been perfect on a hot summers day.

3rd Course: Soft shell crab Taco
Spiced soft shell crab, pickled vegetables in a taco shell

Oh yeahhhh baby! Fried stuff encased in more fried stuff! hehe The soft shell crabs were slightly spiced leaving a nice heat on the tongue afterwards. My only complaint, which isn't really a complaint, is that they should've made the taco shells bigger so I didn't have these giant crab legs practically poking my eyes out as I'm trying to shove it into my gob.

4th Course: Anchovy and Sorbet
Marinated anchovy with smoked tomato sorbet

This was an interesting course. I would classify this more as a canapé then a course. And I would definitely mark this as Italian rather than Japanese. Crostini with anchovies, capers and a lovely smoked tomato sorbet on top. I actually thought it was a tomato pesto type sauce when I first saw it. I didn't realise it was a sorbet until the intense cold hit the roof of my mouth!

5th Course:Wasabi Prawns
Crispy king prawn with wasabi aioli petit wasabi croquette

The prawns are lightly battered and topped with a creamy wasabi aioli and tobiko. The wasabi croquette was probably a bit too petit because we didn't actually know what it was. Kinda just tasted like fried batter. The prawns however, were fantastic! They burst in your mouth with every bite! I tried cutting each mouthful smaller so I could savour the taste. Didn't really work. Next time I should just order a whole plate of these little suckers.

6th Course: Sake Jelly Bar Cod
Seared bar cod with sake & plum jelly, sheer konbu

I've never been a huge fan of cod, I find the flesh to firm. Even when raw, I found the fish very tough to cut through. However, the jelly and konbu was FANTASTIC! I actually sat there scraping the last of the jelly with my fork, wishing that I had a spoon! hehe

Cooked version

7th Raw Course: Tuna Creation
Tuna five ways, with five different condiment

Tasting Note

A little tasting note is given to eat person so they know what they're eating. In general, I found this dish a bit average. Yes the tuna was good quality (Although there was a few pieces I just could not cut up, ended up hacking it apart), but the flavours paired with each piece didn't really stand out. I didn't even realise I was eating truffle salt. The only thing I really did like was the soy salt. And that's because its like soya sauce.....but in powder form!

7th Cooked Course:Sous-Vide Ocean Trout Slow cooked ocean trout, served with spicy avocado salsa and Treviso salad

I had a taste of this and the spicy avocado salsa was to die for! Really made me crave spicy guacamole and chips! hehe

Vegetarian Course: Goma Tofu Steak Pan seared, house made soft sesame tofu with toasty butter soy sauce

Oh man.....if vegetarian food tasted as good as this, I'm pretty sure I can be a part time vegetarian. Oh, I'll never give up meat completely, but this is certainly a very, VERY good substitute! The tofu was incredibly silky soft, but was lightly coated in a glutinous flour so it didn't fall apart and to also give it more bit. Chewy and silk soft? Genius!

8th Course: Saikyo Miso Cod and Prawn Sizzle Sweet miso marinated cod fillet with ginger scented risotto and pan seared green king prawn with coriander citrus sauce

The outstanding part of the dish had to be the pan seared king prawn. It had a lovely sweet and charred flavour. The head was also crispy, so good in fact, that I couldn't help myself but suck the goodies out of the heads! Of course I did it in the most polite and ladylike manner. And my friends seeing the delight in my face, palmed their prawn heads off onto me! haha I'm not complaining!

My dish!

The Miso Cod however, was a bit dry and firm for my liking. Probably not the fault of the Chef, more that I don't really like Cod in general. The citrus sauce however, was wonderfully tangy. I ended up scraping at it with my knife and licking the knife. Like I said.....ladylike.

The moving ceiling

The Hi-Tea-Ni was really starting to hit around this point, and it made it worse that I decided to stare up at the moving ceiling. Made me slightly loopy.....

Warm Summer Vegetable Collection Assorted seasonal vegetable assiette served with chilli, garlic and soy coulis

Essentially a half grilled half tempura'd vegetable dish. Our vegetarian was getting mighty full by the time this came out, so we ended up eating half of his dish! haha Like I said to my friend, I love eating with vegetarians. We always get to eat their food, but they can never eat ours! hehe Mind you, I'm so glad I tried this as it had a surprisingly garlicky taste. It's almost like they added garlic to the tempura batter. I wish I had a whole plate of this when it was still hot and crispy!

9th Course: Sansho Pepper Beef Steak Grain fed rib eye steak with sansho peppercorn jus

OMG......this is a course in a degustation menu? The steak was almost a full sized steak. Certainly big enough to be a standard entree or a light main meal for someone. I would've preferred the steak to be more rare. Generally I like my steak Medium Rare or even Rare. I even said to the Waitress I don't mind if the steak is still moving when its served to me. But it looks like they had cooked all the steaks as medium. Medium being the most "raw" our non-raw eaters could take. And seeing that they took a steak and cut it in half to serve 2 people, looks like for convenience sake they just made them all medium. With that said, the steak was delicious! Incredibly intense beef flavour! The little ball on the side was a fried mashed potato thing. My one was quite nice, still creamy on the inside. But the ones my friends got was all puffed up and hollow in the middle.

10th Raw Course: Tuna, King Fish and Ocean Trout Nigiri Sushi

Good sushi, nothing else to be said really..... except..... could the Tuna be any thinner!?

10th Cooked Course: Soft Shell Crab sushi roll

The lovely spicy soft shell crab taco crab made another appearance in the form of a sushi roll! My friends were completely stuffed by this stage so I scored 2 pieces! Woohoo! Including the piece with the giant crab legs sticking out! hehe

11th Course: Assorted Dessert

Left to Right: Chocolate and Espresso Layers, Apple Cake, Cranberry Sorbet, Creme Brulee

One thing we found about Ocean Room is that their desserts are their weak points. Even when we were there for their sugar hits during the SIFF last year, we weren't impressed. (I actually couldn't even be bothered to blog about it). But we wanted to come back to try their food anyway, hoping for something better. But again, we were disappointed, especially with the same chocolate and espresso layer cake/mousse/butter thing that was served for the sugar hit. However, I must say that their creme brulee was quite good. But not good enough to save their dessert course.

Complimentary Cranberry sorbet and pear sorbet for the Vegetarian

Now, whilst the food was good, let me talk a bit about the Service. When we first talked about finding a restaurant to celebrate our friend's birthday, I made a list of restaurants we could try. Ocean Room was our first choice as we've been discussing about going back since the Sugar Hit night. The only problem was I had people who didn't want to eat raw, and one vegetarian. So I called up Ocean Room to ask if their tasting menu can cater for people who can't eat raw food and vegetarians. The answer was yes to both my questions. Excellent!

I confirmed with my friends that Ocean Room can cater to their needs and got final numbers before I made a booking. Again, I reiterated that we had a vegetarian in the party and that he was hoping to try the tasting menu. Again, "not a problem".

Come the day, I get a call from Ocean Room to confirm the booking. I confirm the time and numbers and again, reminded them that we had a vegetarian with us. "Yes, we have that in the computer already". When we finally rock up and place our orders for the tasting menu, the Waitress asks us who is the person with the "dietary requirements". When my friend mentioned that he's a vegetarian, this is the conversation:

Him: I'm a vegetarian, so nothing with meat please.
Her: Is fish ok?
Him: No, no fish. No fish, no meat.
Her: What about other seafood?
Him: No seafood. No fish, no meat, no beef, no chicken, no pork, no meat.
Her: Is it ok if we use chicken or fish broth in your dishes?

And this goes on for awhile. What part of Vegetarian didn't they understand??? Eventually she assured us that she'll tell the Chef and placed our orders for the Tasting menu. 5mins later, she comes back to tell us that the Chef wants to use fish broth in the cooking. And if he can't have fish or meat broth, then he'll need to order A La Carte and will be served at different times to the rest of us.

Whilst my friend wasn't too bothered about this, I was quite upset that all of this was happening despite me telling them again and again that we'll have a vegetarian in our party that wants a tasting menu. If it couldn't be done, I would've let my friend know from the beginning or picked another place. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that everyone I talked to, assured me that his requests could be catered for.

However, with that said, I think they did realise that they screwed up and served him the complimentary courses to try and make up for it. I was happy that they tried to make it up, I just wish they were more honest up front!

The service was also on and off, depending on the person serving us. Whilst one of the Waitress was attentive and really knew the products, another Waitress was basically on another planet. When the first Oyster course came out, she dumped the bowl in front of me without telling me this was to be shared with another person. It made it extra confusing because the cooked course was served individually. I had to call her back to ask her if I was meant to share the food. Apparently other courses were also going to be shared, so we ended up shuffling our seats so that the people eating the cooked food sat together and the people eating the raw sat together.

Despite all that, I would still want to come back to Ocean Room. I thought the food was fantastic, even though they really need to work on their desserts. Their service is ok depending on who is serving you. And I am grateful they tried to make it up to my friend because I felt so bad the whole night!

Oh, as for the special, it wasn't actually available to everyone. When our "champagne on arrival" didn't arrive on arrival, and there was no mention of the $65 special when we placed our order, I enquired with the waitress. She asked if that's what was offered over the phone and I said yes. There was no drama after that and our champagne was served to us. Looks like the special was only available if you had made a reservation over the phone. If you had shown up without a reservation, saw the huge ship and still wanted to eat in, then you'll just have to pay full price.

Ocean Room
Bay 4 - Ground Level
Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West, The Rocks
Ph: (02) 9252 9585
http://www.oceanroomsydney.com/

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Gumshara Ramen - Eating World - Haymarket / Chinatown

2010-03-01T11:07:00.000+11:00

Maybe I went to Chinatown too much in my young days, but I've suddenly developed this aversion to the place. I think it was a good year in between visits to Chinatown. So when Gumshara started popping up in all sorts of conversations, its taken me this long to actually get there. I guess I couldn't have picked a worse time to go try it. Hot and humid and sticky isn't the type of weather that calls for thick gelatinous Ramen soup. But hey, how often do I come out?!

Although the menu is limited, it still took me ages to decide what I want! It was actually the side dishes that confused me! In the end, I settled for the standard Tonkatsu ramen with the soft boiled seasoned eggs and a side of Gyoza.

As I stood there waiting for my Ramen, I understood why everyone raves about the place. The chef doesn't just boil ramen and dump some soup ontop. Every bowl is individually seasoned, taste tested, re-adjusted and taste tested again until the chef is happy. I can see Gordon Ramsay just clapping his hands in glee!

Tonkatsu Ramen

The broth is extremely rich and gelatinous, and every bit deserving the praise that its gotten. There's no taste of msg that plagues many Japanese restaurants around Sydney. However, it was still a bit too rich for me. Luckily they give the option for less rich and salty stocks, I might give that a go next time. The noodles had a lovely bite to it and I loved the little condiments bar they have on the sides where you can add extra sesame, pickles etc.

Seasoned soft boiled egg

I don't know if you can see from the photo, but the egg white surrounding the yolk had barely set and was still wobbling when I picked it up with my spoon. Definitely a must order!

Gyoza

Thin crispy gyoza skin wrapped around a soft pork filling. I don't order Gyoza often, but this was pretty good compared to what I've had before.

For a little food court stall, their ramen is OUTSTANDING. This really puts a lot of other "ramen" restaurants in Sydney to shame.

Gumshara
Eating World Food Court
Shop 209, 25-29 Dixon Street
Chinatown

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Hai Au - Canley Vale

2010-02-27T15:40:00.000+11:00

I actually went to Hai Au a while ago, and never had a chance to blog about it. Why? Errrrrr......I didn't actually know where I was.... *cough* I mean, I did get a lift from a friend to another friend's house. Then we jumped into another car and went somewhere where there was a detour and then it got dark and then I just got lost! *LoL* Plus my friend had no idea what the restaurant was called. She just knew how to get there!

Anyway, thanks to Google Maps and Streetview, I finally figured it was Hai Au! I rarely EVER come to this part of town, especially on a week day, ESPECIALLY at night. So I was quite surprised how many people were actually in the restaurant, including a huge party of about 15-20 people. It took me 30mins to realise that party of 15-20 people was actually my friend and her family!! haha

Anyway, because of the detour and us getting lost, I was ravenous by the time we got to the restaurant. Even though there were 3 of us, we insisted on order 4 main meals! Never let me order when hungry!

Firstly, let me explain that I rarely, if EVER have Vietnamese main meals. 95% of the time I end up getting Pho considering how much I love it. The other 5% will either be noodle salads or other noodle soups. This is probably the first time I fully remember ordering mains.

So I had no idea what we were really ordering when we got the pork, prawn and lotus root salad. What came out was quite different to what I expected. Expecting the standard lotus roots, I was wondering what the heck those sticks of white stuff were.

The white stuff is actually pickled lotus roots. If you look at the ends very VERY carefully, you will see the same holes you find in the normal lotus roots. This salad was unbelievably refreshing! I absolutely loved the crunch of the lotus roots with the pickled daikon and carrots. The acidity cuts through the fatty pork and goes perfect with seafood. I enjoyed it so much I bought a jar of the lotus roots as well! I just need to know how to use it! hehe

Sour fish soup

This is one of my favourite dishes when I went to Vietnam. Its got the lovely sweetness of seafood, sour tang and loads of herbs giving the soup a perfect balance. I loved mixing the broth with plain boiled rice and eating it just like that.

Stewed pork belly and eggs with coconut juice

I was surprised how small this dish was compared to the others, especially the price they were charging. Its nice, but I reckon I make a much better version ;) With that said, the pork was melting in your mouth. Don't forget to cut the egg open and let the yolk soak up all the sauce.

Hot and sour beef

Another nice dish. Not sure how Viet this is. I didn't really eat much of this because by the time it came out, I was stuffed to the brim! This is the problem when you order 4 mains for 3 people! hehe

Hai Au Restaurant
48a Canley Vale Rd
Canley Vale NSW 2166
Phone (02) 9724 9156

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St Patricks Tavern - King St

2010-02-25T09:28:00.000+11:00

I used to walk up and down King St, thinking there are only dodgy pubs on the street. But since working around the corner, I've actually discovered that those "dodgy pubs" may look dodgy after 10 beers at night, but actually serve pretty good food during the day!

Having walked past St Patricks Tavern heaps of times, and noting they had signs outside that use the phrases "Duck", "Rump Steak" and "Seafood", I decided to go check it out with a friend.

St Patricks Tavern is actually below ground level, drowning out all the noisy traffic and people on King St. The decor is like a standard Irish pub with a bistro/dining area.

I was starving when we arrived, and promptly ordered a serve of Garlic Bread.

Garlic Bread - $4.50

Man.....these were huge! I was expecting 2 small slices of bread, not these huge garlic bread rolls! I limited myself to just 1 before the main came out in case I get full.

Beef and Guiness Stew - $16.95

I order the Beef and Guiness Stew. Rich hearty beef stew that melts in your mouth. I couldn't really taste the Guiness since they were a bit heavy on the tomato, but I don't like Guiness anyway! hehe They served it with creamy mashed potatoes! AWESOME! The Irish really know how to use potatoes.

Fish of the Day grilled and served with Lime Hollandaise, Salad and Wedges - Market Price

My friend ordered the fish of the day. A big slab of flakey and moist fish served with chunky home made wedges. Very different to the ones you get at a normal pub that are heavily spiced. This was good since you don't want anything overpowering the fish.

St Patrick's Tavern
66 King St
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9262 3277
http://www.stpatrickstavern.com.au/

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A hidden Hawker stall - Ashfield Cafe

2010-02-22T10:53:00.000+11:00

The first time I heard of Ashfield cafe, my initial reaction was "There's no such place in Ashfield!!". I mean, I've only been a local for the last 20 odd years. However, after hearing about the cafe, I took a different route to the station and realised that OMG! There IS a Ashfield Cafe and OMG! They serve Malaysian/Singaporean food! WTH?!

Basically, what used to be a milk bar that sells BBQ chicken, chiko rolls and sandwiches got sold awhile back. The new owners didn't bother changing the exterior in any way. They sometimes still sell food in a hot box out the front to cater for all the school kids in the morning. However, if you actually go inside, the old fryers and grills are now gone. In its place are giant woks and jet flames to give the lovely breath of wok charred taste.

They've also used the old chalk boards to display their menu. From memory, they used to contain the price of various sandwich fillings and burgers. Now, sections of the boards contain differnet types of Laksas, noodle soups, stir fried noodles, rice and curries. Basically your typical Hawker food, in a VERY Australian Milk Bar setting.

Ashfield Cafe is also only open Monday to Saturdays. I NEVER walk past on a Saturday as its right next to the train station and I always drive on the weekends instead. After work, the shop is actually closed since they're not open for Dinner. I can't believe how many years its taken me to realise that there is a Malay/Singaporean cafe right on my door step!

I specially woke up earlier on Saturday and convinced a friend to go try out this place with me. Luckily we got there early, as the place only has limited seats and was completely packed out within 5mins of us arriving.

Chicken Laksa

First up, their Chicken Laksa.The bowl is deceptively small when it arrives. Its only when you start digging with your chopsticks that there is a heap of noodles and chicken all crammed into the small bowl. Aromatic and not too creamy, just the way I like it. I find the Ashfield Cafe Laksa a bit more "watery" compared to Malay Chinese, but considering how hot it was, I actually quite enjoyed it. I found the spiceiness just perfect for me, but my friend reckons what goes in hot is going to come out hot. *cough*

Less spicy bowl

Hokkien Mee

I was actually hoping for the Malaysian Black Hokkien Mee extra saucy version, but this was almost as good. Big juicy prawns, slippery charred noodles and heaps of other goodies.

Most of the meals average from $7-10. Definitely a good bargain for the quality of food coming out of a Milk Bar! hehe When we were there, big crowds of people ended up ordering take away since there were limited seats. From what I can see, the portions take away are as big if not bigger than eating in. Something to keep in mind when its packed!

Ashfield Cafe
2 Hercules St
Ashfield NSW 2131
Ph: (02) 9799 4539

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