Jason's La Candela - Summer Hill

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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Da Vinci's Italian Restaurant - Summer Hill

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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Mama's Kitchen

Wow.....its been atleast 8 years since I've been to Mama's Kitchen. Mama's Kitchen used to be one of our favourite restaurants back in the days of Uni simply because it was one of the cheapest places around. What used to be $3.50 for a Spaghetti Bolognese or Napolitan now costs $6.50. That's inflation for you!

We visited the Mama's Kitchen on Liverpool St (Is this the only one left?!) to catch up with Moishii one night. I remember when the 2 of us used to come here, we'd always end up with a stomach ache later. Luckily this time we fared better. And the food has certainly changed for the better!

Creamy Chicken Fettucine

Procuitto and rocket pasta with a chilli, garlic and lemon oil

I loved the taste of the fresh ingredients piled ontop. Quickly mix it in so the heat of the pasta releases the aroma in the fatty procuitto and rocket. I did find the oil a bit sickly by the end of the dish, but that's cos it had started to cool down. I'm definitely going to try making this myself.

Dessert!

Sticky Date pudding

Tiramisu

I went the Tiramisu. Cool creamy bites packed with a coffee punch. Sooooooooo good! I almost finished the whole thing. ALMOST. Its actually a huge serve packed into a deceivingly small glass!

Oh, I've also given you a hint as to where I will be going on my holiday!

Mama's Kitchen

57 Liverpool St
Sydney NSW 2000

(Ph) 02 9264 5841‎

Pendolino Restaurant

OMG my blog posts are sooooooo out of order! I really need to be more organised with my photos. It wasn't until recently when I saw a few blogs post about Pendolino that I realised I had lost my photos from when I went! It took me about 20mins trawling through all my folders before I found it.

I can't even remember when I went, I think it was some time end of last year? Its been awhile but I can still taste the food in my memory!

Complimentary baby olives with olive oil for bread dipping

Olive bread and sour dough bread

Pappardelle con Ragu di Vitella e Maggiorana

Organic Hand Cut Pappardelle with Braised White Rocks Veal Sauce, Veal Marrow and Marjoram

Oh god....is this how proper hand made pasta is supposed to taste like? Where have I been and what have I been eating?!? I've tried dried home made pasta and supposedly fresh handmade pasta, but nothing comes remotely close to this. This was soft and silky, yet still had a bit of a bite to it. And the deep fried bone marrow was utterly moreish. I could do with a whole bowl of fried marrow.

Spaghetti Chitarra con Pesce D'Acquadolce

Freshly-made Chitarra Spaghetti with Barramundi, Wild Prawns, Chilli, Capers, Garlic and Pinot Grigio White Wine.

This was my favourite of the day. Although the pasta was rougher than the parpadelle, the flavour was amazing. I wish I had more crusty bread to mop up all the leftover juices in the plate.

Near the end of the meal, suddenly my friend goes "OMG! IAN THORPE IS BEHIND YOU!". And lo and behold, he's sitting on the table right behind me! I tried to convince my friend to take a photo of me that conveniently would have Ian Thorpe in the background, but she was too shy to do and I didn't want to interrupt his meal. But atleast now I can say I had lunch with Ian Thorpe! hehe

Pendolino
Shop 100, Level 2, The Strand Arcade
412-414 George Street
Sydney 2000
(Ph) 02 9231 6117
http://www.pendolino.com.au/

Rosso Pomodoro

When a pizza place is highly recommended by an Italian, you know its going to be good. She's been trying to get me to go for the last 3 years. Yet every time they've organised an outing to Rosso Pomodoro, I'm either on holidays or have something already planned. This time, I was determined to go! Everything is going to be cancelled so I can go get some pizza into me!!

There are only 2 seatings a night at Rosso Pomodoro, 6pm or 8pm. We chose the 8pm seating since most of us didn't get off work til about 6pm. This meant we were STARVING by the time we got there. Didn't help we had drinks before hand and was in desperate need for some booze munchies!


We left the ordering up to our resident Italian, although I had already told her ones I wanted to order. hehe Actually, she was really really keen on knowing my opinion on the pizza as I can't stop raving about that one perfect slice of margherita pizza I had in Venice. Which is why she ordered every pizza I wanted! Woohoo!

Diavola - Tomato, Italian mozzarella, hot salame, capsicum

This was one of the first pizzas that came out and got placed infront of 3 boozed up boys. I almost lost a hand trying to take this photo! Vultures I tell you! VULTURES! I managed to get 1 left over mangey slice before I got stabbed with a fork. No wonder the boys refused to share! Hot, spicy and cheesey. The exact thing you need after 2 hours of non stop drinking! *squawk* *squawk*

Gorgonzola - Italian mozzarella, gorgonzola, ham, mushrooms

One of my favourites of the night. The salty stinky gorgonzola, ham and my favourite vegetable, Mushrooms!

Patate e Salsiccia - Italian mozzarella, Italian sausages, potatoes, rosemary

I love potato pizza. I never knew you could have potato on a pizza until my Italian teacher took us out for dinner one night and its become one of my favourites since. This version is beautiful. Soft fluffy potatoes, chunks of italian sausage and the lovely aroma of rosemary that has crisped up in the oven. Heaven!

Charred base

A photo of the famous "lesbian art" inbetween pizzas

If you ever go Rosso Pomodoro, you'll notice quite a few paintings of naked women. I didn't realise there's a second half to this painting since there was a table sitting right infront of bottom half. The BOTTOM half... *cough*

Prosciutto - Tomato, Italian mozzarella, prosciutto

Simple classic italian pizza. The prosciutto is placed on the pizza after it comes out the oven. All it needs is the residual heat from the pizza to release the fatty aromas. So good! I would love a whole plate of just prosciutto to munch on whilst waiting for the other pizzas to come out.

Capricciosa - Tomato, Italian mozzarella, ham, olives, mushrooms, artichokes

My absolute favourite pizza of the night! I've always ordered capricciosas whenever I go out for pizza anyway. Its got all my favourite ingredients. Ham, mushrooms and olives. This one had the addition of artichokes. I've never liked artichokes much, especially italian artichokes because they're usually marinated and too vinegary for me. These ones were divine! They were soft and almost slightly creamy....I was actually picking off extra artichoke when no one was looking! hehehe

Special of the day - Zuchinni flower, pancetta and brie?

This was the special of the day that cause my friend to jump up and down in excitement. She had this about 2 years ago and absolutely loved it. But every time she went back, they never had that pizza again. I'm her lucky charm ;)

The boys were still like vultures swooping in on the last of the pizza, so we ordered 2 nutella calzone pizzas to shut them up. *squawk*

CALZONE alla NUTELLA - Calzone filled with Nutella and almond flakes

OoOoOozey nutella calzone

Ugh.....we really didn't need those 2 calzones. I was in a pizza coma by the end of the night. (Mind you, I was full, not bloated like cheap pizza will do to you). What is my verdict? Molto Buono! Some of the best pizza I've ever had and even better than alot of the ones I had in Italy. Mind you, I always order mushroom pizza and I was in Italy in Summer. This meant most places were serving pizzas with pickled mushrooms. Even if I take out the mushroom factor, Rosso Pomodoro's pizzas were supreme. I can't wait to go back!

Rosso Pomodoro
Shop 90-91, 24 Buchanan St
Balmain (White Bay)
(02) 9555 5924
http://www.rossopomodoro.com.au

Ventuno Pizzeria Enoteca Birreria

We had a catch up at Ventuno after I got back from Houston. The place is warm and cosy yet sophisticated. We had a lovely waiter who was helping us with all our cocktail selections whilst we studied the menu.

Golosa

Tomato, mozzarella, ham, mixed porcini mushrooms, grana cheese, truffle oil.

I was soooooo undecided whether to go with pizza or the seafood risotto. I randomly blurted something out when the waiter came and pizza it was! The crust was soft and chewy, reminding me of the gorgeous pizza I had in Venice sitting by a canal.

Rustica

Tomato, mozzarella, hot salami,mushrooms & black olives. I swapped a slice to try the Rustica pizza and it was also delicious.

Apologies for the blurry photos beneath, but SOMEONE was refusing to let me take photos of their meal! *GASP* So I took the photos for spite, and I'm blogging it for spite! haha

Pesto pasta

Seafood risotto

Roasted pumpkin penne

Chocolate and hazelnut semi-freddo

The semi-freddo was actually closer to ice cream. It was still delicious, but not really a semi-freddo.

We had a fantastic time catching up over beautiful food. I would love to go back again and try the huge pizza that came served on a board the size of a lazy susan!

Ventuno Pizzeria Enoteca Birreria
21 Hickson Road
Walsh Bay NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9247 4444
http://www.ventuno.com.au/

Trying some new Bento ideas

After cleaning out all my Bento supplies in the freezer for Xmas, I have to replenish my supplies. And what better chance than to try something a little different?


This was an uber simple bento to make! The beef mince was sauteed with soya sauce, sugar and lots of pepper. I drained all the sauce and poured it all over the rice before putting the mince on the rice. This ensures all the rice is nice and flavoursome. I then sauteed some grated carrot and diced beans in the same pan with extra pepper and soya sauce. The corn was straight from a can!

Tomato fried rice with Shang Dong Chicken

Very simple vegetarian fried rice with cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes add an extra dimension of flavour and subtle sweetness. The Shang Dong Chicken is a chinese dish of fried chicken with a sour sauce with lots of chilli, garlic and coriander.


Left: Grilled lamb with BBQ seasoning. Chicken and mushroom ravioli with a simple tomato sauce. I lurrrrrrve this chicken and mushroom ravioli! Absolutely delicious! I probably didn't need the lamb to enjoy this meal.
Top Right: Sweet white peaches
Bottom Right: Edamame and cucumber


Top Left: Tomato and cucumber salad
Bottom Left: White Donut peaches and home grown strawberries. I absolutely ADORE the white donut peaches. If only I can eat it all year round!!!
Right: My version of Chapchae (Korean stir fried sweet potato noodle). Doesn't look too bad for a first timer aye?

*ACHOO* I lost my poor meatball...

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,

I lost my poor meatball,

When somebody sneezed.

Every kid would know this song when they were growing up. I remembered the ABC used to have a video clip for this song, with a kid chasing his getaway meatball down the street. Even though meatballs are a common comfort food for a lot of people, but its something I've never made before. The most I've done is help my mum roll the Chinese meat balls we steam, just like those you find at yum cha.

With the weather the way it is, this was a good chance to churn out some comfort food.

I started off with beef and pork mince, at a 2:1 ratio. I add some finely diced bacon, garlic and onion, which I had sauteed until they had soften and turned brown. I soaked some bread in water, squeezed the water out until dried and mashed the bread in. Grate in some carrots into the mix with a dash of rosemary and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Mix until everything is combined.

Take your time and roll small bite sized meatballs. Even though this is time consuming, it's quicker to cook and much easier to eat when you don't have to fit a fist sized meatball into your mouth.

Heat up a pan and panfry the meatballs until golden brown.

For the sauce, I used finely diced onions, carrots and capsicums. Saute in a pan with garlic until the vegetables soften. Add a can of diced tomato, some stock, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper. Gently simmer for at least an hour to let the flavors develop. When the meatballs are almost cooked, add them to the sauce and simmer. Serve piping hot on top of some spaghetti, or eat it on its own topped with heaps of cheese.

Seafood Doria...I think...

My friend was telling about this wonderful dish that can be found in Japan called a "Seafood Doria". I've never had it before, and have never seen it at any Japanese restaurant before. A quick google returned the most heavenly looking image I have ever seen. From then onwards, it was a mission to recreate this dish!

I searched and searched, I googled and then I interrogated my friend until I was confident I kind of knew what a seafood doria should be.

Firstly, I made a quick "fried rice" using leftover rice, bacon and onion. This goes into the bottom of a dish (I had to use a cake tin because I cooked too much.......). I then quickly sautee some peeled king prawns, fish and baby octopus. Other seafood you can use include scallops, mussels etc. Don't cook the seafood all the way through, it will need to be cooked again later. Scatter the seafood over the rice and ensure you spread it evenly so every section of the pan has a bit of everything.

Make a basic white sauce using flour and butter to creat a roux, then whisk in some milk until the sauce starts to thicken. Make HEAPS of this sauce. When the sauce is almost done, chuck in a handful of garted cheese until it melts in the sauce. Pour the sauce all over the seafood until it is generously covered. Sprinkle grated cheese all over the pan until covered. Bake until the cheese is all melted and golden brown.

My seafood doria coming out of the oven

It looks pretty average doesn't it? It certainly doesn't compare to the original photo I saw, and I was worried it would turn out crap. However, the minute I dug into the pan, I knew how gorgeously moreish this would be...

The rice had just become to absorb some of the cheesey white sauce, almost like a risotto. The seafood was just cooked to perfection. Soft tender baby octopus, flakey fish and the most bursty prawns ever! All covered in a lovely cheesey sauce. I was spooning the sauce up and eating it like a soup. Definitely something I should only make once every 6 months!

I'm not sure how authentic this seafood doria is, but my friend certainly loved it and both of us ended up fighting over the leftovers!

GPO Woodfired Pizza

Since our work xmas party last year at GPO Martin Place, I've been addicted to the GPO Woodfired Pizza. I took one of my workmates there for our "World Safari" lunches since she missed out on the xmas party. Since we've move into different departments now, our World Safari lunches are once a month now.

Caprese Salad - Tomato, Bocconcini, mixed lettuce and balsamic vinegar

This isn't your traditional Caprese salad of just Tomato, Mozerella and Basil. It was still nice and refreshing. We thought we would be good and order a salad cos we were going to pig out on pizza!

Spicy Pizza of some sort

Salsiccia - Italian sausage, mushroom and spinach

The pizzas are incredibly light and crispy. Even though the pizzas look huge, the bases are quite thin. One large pizza will easily satisfy most hungry people. My favourite would have to be the Salsiccia pizza as it is loaded with mushrooms, and I love anything with mushrooms. The spicy pizza (Can't remember what its called) was a bit too oily and salty for my liking. I know a lot of guys love this as its the equivalent of a meat lovers. I've also had their Proscuitto and Funghi pizza, Potato pizza and Boscaiola. All were fantastic.

GPO Woodfired pizza is now open at night times. There's no bookings, but usually there are plenty of tables at lunch and dinner time.

I am the pasta masta! (Not)

I got a pasta machine at the end of financial year sale in 2007. Its been sitting there ever since waiting to be used. I decided to bite the bullet and finally try to make my own pasta. (OK, I've made it once before without a machine, and that's a WHOLE different other story...)

I managed to turn this:

Into this:


Into this:

Let me say that to even get pasta into a thin sheet like that took me AGEEEEEEES!!! Jamie Oliver! You lie! It's so NOT a 5min job! Mind you, it was probably my fault more than anything. I didn't have a table I could clamp the pasta machine down onto, so I had to get my mum to hold onto the machine for dear life whilst I cranked the pasta through again and again. I literally broke into a sweat from doing this.

Once we got the thin pasta sheets, I decided to turn it into tagliatelle by hand cutting it. Except the pasta got stuck together because I was too lazy in properly flouring the layers. So it was another 5 mins to get everything unstuck. It wasn't until the 4th batch that I remembered the machine came with a pasta cutter!!! Still, my hand cut ones didn't turn out too bad:

Whilst I was making the pasta, I had the sauce simmering on the stove.


Here's my final product:


Close up:

The pasta turned out quite well. I actually preferred the ones I hand cut, not because they were "rustic", but I didn't roll the pasta out as thin so it had more bite to it. Next time, I am definitely making this outdoors. I ended up COVERED in flour. I had flour in my hair, on my face, all over my clothes and when I sneezed, I swear flour came out. I had to make a quick dash to the backyard to pick some basil and snagged my shirt on the fence. When I managed to untangle myself, I saw a cloud of flour billowing from my top..... Nevertheless, I am going to make pasta again next time!

A mixed foodie weekend

I'm really loving this cooking thing. I cook what I want, when I want. Things I generally wouldn't cook, I get a chance to experiment. Sauces and ingredients that have been sitting in my pantry for ages finally get used. Thursday, being such a miserable and wet night, I came home wanting something very carby and very comforting:

Minchee, Japanese Chicken Curry, sugar snap peas and rice

The Minchee is a stirfry of cubed potato and mince which I've always wanted to try after reading this. The potato was cooked until it just started to break down and naturally thicken the sauce. I browned the mince quite well before cooking this and it made the sauce so SO nice and almost nutty. I wanted to eat just the minchee with nothing else!

The curry chicken was thick and rich. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese curry when I'm out and about since I find their curry quite sweet. This one however, was more spicy than sweet. I actually had a few spoons of just sauce.....for tasting purposes of course.

Friday, I decided to have a catch up with Cookies at Macchiato. We always walk by and keep saying "We need to try it one day". Well, we did.

Mexicana Chicken Pizza

The woodfired pizza had a really crispy and light base. The addition of jalapeños really added a great kick that we needed on a rainy night. Next time we're going to ask for extra jalapeños!

Angelhair pasta with Chorizo Arribiata sauce

I've never had a creamy arribiata sauce before, but I must say it was a really nice change. They were also quite generous with the amount of chorizos! Oh, and we also ordered a big jug of sangria to wash down all that food as well. (As we do)

Saturday involved a lot of sleeping in. Listening to the rain fall onto the tin roof of my carport whilst snuggled up in bed was the perfect start to the weekend. I eventually dragged myself out of bed to do some housework and run a few errands. As I was out grocery shopping, I walked past a new bakery thats opened in my area. Our family friends had brought over their egg tarts previously and I was very impressed by that. So, I thought it was only fair that I tried some of their other goodies:

Harm Sui Gok - Glutinous pastry stuffed with pork mince
Char Siu So - BBQ Pork triangle

I had taken these goodies home, nuked them up and popped them quickly into an oven to crispen up and they were still delicious! I would've loved to have tried them fresh. But for lunch, I decided to stop by my favourite Turkish Pide shop. I haven't had their freshly made pide in ages! And they make the BEST chicken and mushroom pide in all of Sydney!

1/2 a chicken and mushroom pide (The pide was huge!!)

I had picked up a bag of prawns whilst I was grocery shopping so I could indulge a bit:

The prawns were sauteed quickly in a wok with chicken, before adding garlic and veggies. I made sure there was going to be a lot of sauce by adding a big cup of chicken stock, soya sauce and oyster sauce. Once everything was almost cooked, I thickened the sauce and then stirred through a beaten egg turning the sauce into a thick and eggy gravy which I poured over some instant noodles (I love instant noodles in a noodle stir fry!)

SO unbelievably good!

Sunday, was again spent sleeping in. When I finally did wake up, I finished off the remaining pide. Yes, there was enough food for two meals! I fluffed up my pillows and hide under the doona with a remote control watching House on DVD. I was sooooo comfortable I refused to cook dinner! I eventually had to get out of bed for volleyball training which ended around 8pm. Instead of going home to dig through the pantry for food (Yes I know it was my fault that I was lazy) I went to the local Chinese takeaway store instead. I wanted restaurant food!

Fried Dim Sims

These were nothing like the ones we used to serve at the restaurant. They were nice, but I was really disappointed that they were so different from what we used to sell. Our dim sims were 90% meat whilst theirs were 90% vegetable. Our batter was light and crispy, their batter was more crunchy than crispy (Yes there is a difference)

Beef with vegetables in Oyster sauce - Simple but delicious

Gong Po Chicken

I have plenty of leftovers to take to work tomorrow ;)