Albees

Here's another malaysian eat out in Campsee you can check out with it's many variety and the dishes definately brings you back to Asia.

Curry puff with egg inside $2.5 per piece and it runs out fast:

Char Kuey Teow (one of the best i've tasted in Sydney):

Sotong Kangkong:

Kuching Laksa which was not what I expected as it did not look or taste like the one I had in Kuching 3 years ago. I was pretty disappointed with this dish and probably would not order this again as it tasted just like any curry laksa dish.

Youranuse??

If you haven't heard of Adriano Zumbo, he appeared on Masterchef Australia with his macaron tower, his disel cake, and the amazing ginger bread house!!! He is very creative in his macaron flavours and if you ever go there especially during the weekend, the queue is always out the door and the macaron flavours often run out in the Balmain store!

If you go to the Rozelle cafe, it's small but there were more macaron flavours there when we went. Hubby and I went for a day trip to Manly and happened to park next to Adriano Zumbo new store that opened in December 2010! We were unaware of this new outlet but was thankful that we found a new place to buy macarons and his amazing looking patisserie! They also had a little small place that you can order coffee and sit next door but like the other outlets, it's pretty crammed!

Out of all the "wierd" looking gateaux delight, we chose "Youranuse" which consist of mandarin mousse, tonka bean brulee, almond ginger crunch, sour cream jelly, fig sable, orange toffee creme and pain d'epice.

The many layers of wonders inside this small little precious delight:

hmmm can't wait to go back to try another of his creation..

Location:
Manly Pâtisserie:
Shop 1a/40 The East Esplanade, Manly

Hours:
Monday to Friday
7:00am till 7:00pm or until sold out
Saturday & Sunday
8:00am till 5:30pm

Din Tai Fung

So after being in Sydney for almost 2 years, I finally visited Din Tai Fung, a well known dumpling place that is famous with not just the Chinese but with the local Australians as well. We arrived early for dinner so there was not much of a queue although inside was already packed with customers! When we left, the line outside was LONG!

So, their menus basically consist of dumplings, noodles, taiwanese rice, side dishes, a range of hot and cold desserts. I haven't blogged about this other restuarant called Chef gallery but comparing the both of them, Chef gallery had more variety of food whereas Din Tai Fung probably specialised in xiao long baos (soup dumplings) and noodles. Both resturants however is nice and I would definately come back again (early) to get sits!

Their xiao long baos were so juicy and smooth, and their noodles had a nice texture and was delicious!

Their famous xiao long baos:

Fried rice with pork chop:

One of my favourite noodles, Zha Jiang Mian:

Like I said at the start, there was a line and if there is a line it's normally pretty decent! The service is quick and efficient so that the turnover can be higher for customers standing in the cold to go in! Not a place to go for a quiet night out or have desserts to chill with friends, you'll have to move somewhere cosier and not where their actions seems to be rushing you out!

Address:
644 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Phone:
(02) 9264 6010

Website:
www.dintaifungaustralia.com.au/

Ayam 99

This is the first Indonesian restaurant I was introduced to when I first arrived in Sydney and ever since then I've been coming back regularly for their chicken and Bak Mie. I really like dry noodles like Mee Pok, Kuching kolo mee, Zha Jiang Mian, and the list goes on...hence this Bak Mie is always on my list when dining in any indonesian place!

I wouldn't say that this is the best as I've recently tasted another indonesian just 2 shops from Ayam 99 because it was closed Mondays and Tuesday when we went. Also, Ayam 99 is not the cleanest so that's another downfall especially if you are bringing guests around!

But for today, the grilled ayam (chicken) was so tender and juicy and the Bak mie was deliciously satisfying I was stuffed!

On the other note, if you want to order plain rice to go with your chicken, you must order other side dishes such as their tofu wrapped in banana leaf which is pretty tasty!

Name:
Ayam 99

Location:
464 Anzac Parade
Kingsford

Closed Mon Tues

Tan Viet - Do you feel like crispy chicken tonight?

One of my favourite places to go in Sydney has got to be Cabramatta! I like it because it brings me back to Asia with it's vibrant colours, amazing bakeries and food, and the bustling atmosphere!

I like how I can find my favourite pandan chiffon cakes, sugar cane juice, durian shakes, dim sums, Vietnamese desserts and many tropical fruits such as Durian, Jackfruits, Starfruits, Longans, and the list goes on...so whenever I have visitors and I have a car I'll bring them to Cabra to eat with their eyes and their mouth!

So with my sister in law visiting Sydney for the first time this week I had to bring her here! Before we went, I had to search for places to eat as I'm not familiar with that place at all! So, we ended up at this place called Tan Viet on 100 John Street. We were expecting to have the usual beef pho and spring roll vermicilli but to our surprise it wasn't in the menu!!!! We looked around and realised very quickly that they were popular for their crispy chicken and noodles which can either be soup or dry! So, obviously we ordered that and was really satisfied with the freshnest of the ingredients and the tenderness and crispyness of the chicken.

I am not surprise why there is a line outside most of the time while we were in there! We were glad we found this place and definately will return! Just incase you were curious, they also serve spicy beef stew and you can have their bread rolls to dip in them. Also, they had tomato rice with some kind of meat with it. I'll have to give them a try next time!

Name:
Tan Viet Restaurant Cabrammata

Location:
100 John Street
Cabrammata

Price:
Crispy chicken with noodles or rice = $12
Most dishes above $12

Mother Chu

My sister in law is here for a visit so brought her to the usual touristy place such as Chinatown and we decided to try out Mother Chu taiwanese crusine. I've only been here twice but this time we tried their Congee with century egg:

Mee sua and green onion pancake:

I haven't had congee for SOOOOOO long and when I put a spoon of congee in my mouth, it was so tasty, and the green onion pancake went well dipped in it too! The pancake seemed fresh with a bit of a crunchy texture which I love.

There's so many other dishes that looked so authentic that I would like to give a try next time! This is somewhere that I would definately come back to get my taiwan fix, however, not for bubble tea just the food =)

In the noon, after all the walking (not that long), we needed a coffee break so after being in Sydney for almost 2 years, I finally visited Max Brenner that everyone raves about especially for their chocolate fondues and pancakes. We were however too full and wanted a coffee fix QUICK! I heard from someone that they used allpress coffee beans which is one of my fav back in Auckland so I decided to give their coffee a try. Both my sis in law and myself agree that their coffee was actually pretty decent and better than other "coffees" out there!

Cappucino in Kangaroo cup, with caramel drizzles over the top and a little chocolate bit at the side.

Name:
Mother Chu's Taiwanese Gourmet

Location:
Chinatown
86-88 Dixon Street
Sydney

Price:
Good

I love brunches on a sunny weather!

It's been awhile since I've checked out a new cafe for a saturday brunch and this weekend a couple from church introduced us to a cafe along Crown Street in Surry hills which is known for their cafe cultures and alternative lifestyle too.

We were suppose to go to this other cafe but it was closed so we chose one of the many along the road and ended up in lemon twist cafe. This cafe is pretty retro, with the coffee machine reminding me of the 70s and they had really alternative ornuments hanging around!

Coffee wasn't bad although I'm not used to their mocha made with thick chocolate stuff at the bottom (which i think i was suppose to mix but didnt)

Sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomato, hallomi on turkish bread:

Salmon eggs benedict:

Prices were pretty reasonable with each dish around $13. An interesting little cafe to dine in for sure, and I'm satisfied with the brunch and company!

Location:
393 Crown Street
Surry Hills 2010

Ramen Kan

I was brought to this place in China town after church one day & fell in love with the Ramen here. It's located upstairs hidden away & gets very busy quickly!


Takoyaki: Very tasty and great texture, definately beats the ones I've had back in Auckland


Tonkasu Ramen: Love thier Ramen, the soup, the simplicity of it all


Besides Ramen, they also do Don Bouri, other side dishes & a few nice drinks such as ice coffee & green tea milk.

Address:
Level 1, 90 Hay Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
+61 (02) 9211 6677

Sinma Laksa House

Simple lunch today after church at Sinma, not a bad place to go to for a range of Singaporean & Malaysian food =p

Hainainese Chicken rice: The chicken was not very tender & the rice was alright


Fried carrot cake: Not bad but not as tasty as the ones I used to have back in Singapore!


3/391 Anzac Parade Kingsford, NSW
(02) 9313 7663

Mamak in Chatswood

I have been going to Mamak in the city once a week & I still don't know why I go back there week after week when there's so many other delicious food around!

Anyway so we were in Chatswood and thought what we could try out and heard that Mamak opened its second new store there so why not give it a try! So that's where we ended up!........... AGAIN....

Nasi Lamak with Fried Chicken:


Roti Chanai:


Mutabuk:


Chicken Satay:


This photo from the wall shows the Mamak in the City:


Address:
Shop P9, 1-5 Railway Street Chatswood(02) 9411 4411

Artisan Bakery in Crows Nest

Visited a church in Crows Nest today & since I'm HARDLY out this way we decided to have a quick bite nearby on a hot and sunny day! There's definately many choices of cafes here in Crows Nest & it was quite hard to pick one to try.

However, I came across this Artisan Bakery & decided to check out what they have inside....and then i spotted scones!! Yap I love scones! They had a selection of scones that includes pumpkin and pine nut, orange with chocolate, raspberry and white chocolate and last but no least savory scone. I decided to try the pumpkin scone to go with my soy mocha and it was really light and nice. I regret not having my camera with me to take pics to show but what I liked about this scone was the pumpkin bits inside and the crunchiness of the pine nuts. Normally I would have thought that a pumpkin scone would just be orange and made with pumpkin puree, but this had actual chunky bits in it and it had a light texture as well which was great, not too heavy and too buttery!

They do a range of pies, quiches, sandwiches, breakfast, and other delicious bakery that includes tarts, cakes, croissants!

I would definately pop by again if I head out that way!

St Malo Bakery - 83 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest – (02) 9906 6256

Taiwan Cuisine

So tonight being a Friday we decided to try a new place in the city & found our way to this Taiwanese place called Taiwan Taiwanese Cuisine on 52 Dixon Street Haymarket in Chinatown.

This place was very interesting as you get to order your meal, and pay for it through this computer screen, it really amazes me the different types of concept each country embraces from the inside of the restaurant, to the types of food available - I heart this experience!


Once we ordered, it didnt take long for the food to come, so in a way, the food came out one at a time so if you want your food altogether it's better to order the one that takes the longer to cook first.

Here's a very typical taiwanese pork mince and mushroom rice:


Chicken fillet in pepper sauce that we thought it was way too pepperish for our liking! Thank God we ordered milktea coz that was the only way hubby could drown the taste of pepper overload!


There were many side stewed, grilled, deep fried dishes to ordered but we decided to give this stewed mushroom a try, it was very tasty but again on the peppery side but I like pepper! (Poor hubby)


Overall this place is pretty good if you want to order size dishes to share and can satisfy both the hungry and not so hungry. The milktea here was pretty good, I had the red bean milk pudding milktea which I really enjoyed.

There are noodles, main dishes, teppanyaki, soups, rice dishes that are available to try. It's not that cheap but I would say it's probably comparable to the other dining along Dixon Street.

Burwood

I've been very lazy with taking pictures of food lately wherever I've tasted new places. However I thought i'll just post some of the new places I've tried over the last few months of being here in Sydney and thought it was pretty yummy and would definately return again! I've tried 3 restaurants in Burwood & my favourite at the moment would have to be

Botoli Restaurant, Burwood
66a Burwood Rd, Burwood

They do a range of food & each dish that we've ordered was satisfying and we were pretty impressed with it. They do a yummy steam tofu egg dish with century eggs inside, DIY paper rice wrap springroll like vietnamese style, tasty noodles, eggplants etc etc. This place is good to come with a group of around 4-5 to really try a range of food there. The deco inside is pretty dull but have been here twice already and each time we were happy with the service and food.

If you feel like hand made noodles and dumplings here is a simple pretty decent price meal to have try:

Beijing Station Noodle, Burwood
Address: 135 Burwood Rd, Burwood

They do yummy hand made noodles and because I really like dry noodles such as mee pok, kuching mee, zha jiang mian etc I really liked the dish I ordered with is fried beef noodles. The picture will defintely do it justice because the way I just explained it was pretty boring lol!

They also do beef noodles soup which was very tasty and tasted abit like bak ku teh and the taiwanese beef noodles soup. So if you like that this noodles is definately worth a try. Being a Beijing restaurant they do also do pancakes (jian bing) which was very fresh and soft and I really liked it & thought how nice it would be with some curry! Other dishes they make include dumplings fried, pan fried, boiled and are all very tasty!

I'll definately want to go back again, it's quite a small little place & it was packed when we got there so definately seems like a pretty popular place!

I must remember to take some pics when I dine there again!! arrghh =p

Some extras in your food

Yesterday I had sushi from Asagao in the foodcourt just by our place & I was savouring each bite of the teriyaki chicken avocado rice roll when by mid way I saw a piece of dark thick hair with it! I was grossed out because it was quite big and obvious & it's my second encounter in 2 weeks with funny things in my food that I was pretty tired of it. Just to give you an example, 2 weeks ago while having one of my fav ying yang cha (coffee & tea combination) I was digusted to find a piece of insect leg floating around in my drink! I drank it anyway taking it out thinking it's just some dirt but then I found more as I continued drinking.........so I S.T.O.P and thought of cockcroaches, and all kinds of insect that the leg belonged to! ARRGGHH the image is still so vivid in my mind! Ok so to cut the LLOOOONNNGGG story short, I asked for refund and surprisingly they gave it back but I'm NEVER going back there again!

Ok so to continue from the sushi story...hubby returned the sushi asking for a refund which we got & a few minutes later a lady came from that sushi shop and gave us this:


I don't know what to make of this but it was a nice gesture for them to do so especially when we don't expect anything even a refund. It just goes to confirm how dirty Sydney is and it can exist even in what you think is a clean area!

So what extras have you found in your food lately?

90Rhodes

An italian restaurant just 2 min walk from where we live and I finally gave it a try on our bank holiday!

Veal schnitzel:


Steak:


Fried Risotto balls:


Arrabbiata:


Simple food, fried risotto balls were really tasty & the coffe here is strong lol real italian ay!
Definately come back again to try thier pizzas!

Address:
90 Rider Boulevard
Corner Mary St, Rhodes NSW 2138

Baroque Bistro Patisserie

We went to this french place called Baroque Bistro Patisserie at the Rocks for Marcus birthday and they had a range of yummy looking desserts displayed as you enter. They had lots of colourful macarons on display!


The food here was delicious! They served bread in the basket accompanied with oil and keeps being refilled when its finished. Their very creative with their presentation and the food was really tasty and colourful and pleasing to both the eyes and the tummy!

Filet de Barramundi, aubergine, olives vertes, anise, sauce basquaise


Confit Berkshire pork belly, heirloom carrots, tarragon, silverbeet


I enjoyed the food here and it's at a really good location by the opera house and the rocks, would definately want to return again! Yummy!

Address:
Baroque Bistro Patisserie
88 George Street (corner of Hickson Road)
The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000

Jimmy's Laksa

Another Malaysian eatout we normally go to because it's

1) Good price
2) Quick and effiicent
3) Good portion for the price
4) Taste good to satisfy


There are all the food you would order when ur in Malaysia except Kuay Teow! Their probably more famous for their laksa hence their name. They have Assam Laksa, Ipoh Hor Fan, Curry Laksa, Prawn mee, Roti, Rendung, Nasi Lamak, Mutubak, Wonton Mee and other noodles.

Once you place your order the food is ready in 2 minutes. They don't accept cards so only cash which is annoying but it seems like it happens alot here in Sydney! It's so different to just using your eftpos card (AKA cash) back in Auckland.
Here, Jimmy is very busy during the weekdays with the working people eating there, and on Sundays after church. They are not open during nights so only lunch time! I would'nt say they are the best but in terms of price and quality I think it's worth it.

Sydney Fish Market

I've finally visited the famous fish market here in Sydney! I must say it wasn't as big as I thought but I was welcomed by fresh lobsters, oysters, tuna, salmon, crabs, scallops, and of coz lots of seafood platters both battered and fresh!

If you do come here it's probably best to take public transport unless you don't mind paying $3 for the first half an hour then $5 for every hour after! It's probably worth driving if you have a few people.

Seafood here was relatively cheap compared to dining in a restaurant. They also have sushis, deli, coffee and bakery avaliable. There were a few eating places to choose from so it was a hard hard choice...you can take your food out to eat in the sun (with the birds) or enjoy it inside with the noise of people everywhere!


Sydney Market I'll definately return again n order more fresh seafood!

Crazy little Bakery

We were recommended to this little bakery on Bourke Street in Surry Hills and we thought how bad can it be, I'm sure we can find a place to sit. HAHAHA. Yea right...when we drove past the little corner shop, there was a line queuing and there were only like 5 tables for 2 along the outside of the stall! Inside, there was not much room at all! It was definately a nice little "french" bakery type place and I had to order my usual soy mocha to give it a try! The mocha turned out to have a very rich chocolatety taste that was very creamily yummy but I could'nt really taste the "coffee" aspect like i would with other coffees. I can imagine how rich and delicious their hot chocolate will be like!

Anyhoo, on our second trip to this bakery because I wanted to get some fresh bread for dinner & because we were taking a drive to the city we stopped by Bourke Street Bakery again. Guess what. There was a long line as usual. The line goes pretty fast though so no worries as long as you don't mind bringing ur food elsewhere to eat!

There was a few nice french pastries and desserts there such as this strawberry vanilla creme brulee $4, more to the sweeter side as you can imagine with these treats


They had lots of nicely fresh baked bread and I wanted to pick up one for dinner so decided on olive fig flatbread $4. It tasted and smelt so divine that it's enough to eat on it's own!
I didn't do a very good picture of the bread but it went well with olive oil and i'll definately go back to get thier yummy bread again!

Italian Kitchen

We were trying to find an Italian restaurant that wasn't too far away and it was hard because we went on the net and just picked one without any recommendations on the food.

This place was rather quiet with only 3 tables of customers but the service was very friendly and welcoming. The atmosphere was quite intimate & it was warm and cosy for a nice dinner out. I think they do good pizzas although I'm not very familiar with what qualifies for a good pizza...to me it's the taste, the bread texture and thickness and the toppings etc etc....so I'll have to try more pizzas somewhere else to compare!










Their other dishes such as the ones above was quite dry and I didn't really enjoy them but the pizzas I was really pleased with and will definately come back again for pizzas if I wanted somewhere near home!