Per Se (Manhattan, New York City)

My 'to eat' bucket list is not a list which I have written down but one that is mentally in my head. The experience of dining at a Thomas Keller restaurant has been on my bucket list since I don't know when! I have tried in vain to get a table booking at Per Se during the few trips I made to New York over the past few years. This time I was determined to get a table, no matter what!

How about the fact I set my alarm clock to 2.00 am on a Sunday morning (when I was in Sydney) exactly 30 days before the reservation date? Does that sound too desperate? Or better yet totally determined? :)

And when I finally did get through (the line was engaged for 40 minutes) my booking was for 10 pm. Aargh! But there was no way I was not going to accept that time slot.

On the night we were due here, we arrived around 9.30 pm at the Time Warner centre. What a lovely building filled with up-market brands and some lovely Christmas lights. When we arrived at Per Se, I was sure we would have to wait for our table but they assured us our table was ready even though we were 1/2 hour early.

We were lucky enough to have a table next to the window and I could see Columbus Circle in the night lights.

The food experience started with a couple of amuse bouche.

Cheese gourgere - yummy cheese balls.

Salmon cornet - smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill served in a mini cone. Sorry, the image of this dish was so bad! :(

Then the Chef's tasting menu dishes were served.

"Oysters and Pearls" - Sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and Sterling White sturgeon caviar.

Butter  - salted and unsalted. There was a story for each of them which provides an interesting facet to the butter. Both were delicious in its own way and went well with the milk bun.

"Salad of Caramelised Artichokes" - Parmigiano Regiano, saffron pickled garlic, salsify root and Romaine lettuce.

"Sauteed Fillet of Chatham Bay Cod" - topped with a Pommes Maxim's, caramelised cauliflower tapenade, and clam chowder sauce.

Supernormal (Melbourne)

It has been a while since I had been down south to Melbourne and a recent business trip led to an opportunity to dine here with my team.

How could I pass an opportunity to try out the food at Supernormal?! As there were five of us, we tried various dishes and we were not disappointed.

To start with we were served 2 plates of Soy roasted pumpkin seeds. These were seriously so addictive. I couldn't stop popping some in mouth every now and then.

White cut chicken, cold noodles, peanuts, sesame and chilli oil. There was a slight kick in the chilli oil which lifted up this tender chicken noodle salad.

Prawn and chicken dumplings, chilli and vinegar sauce. Once again, the sauce did it for me. It made an otherwise regular dumplings come alive with the chilli and vinegar sauce.

Pork bao, with tamarind sauce. One of us decided to try something different. It looked scrumptious and got the thumbs up!

New England Lobster Roll. Yes! What more is there to say? Loved it! Warm and toasty roll which had a touch of sweetness. Offset beautifully against the clean tasting lobster meat which was succulent and sweet. Superb!

Pan Fried Pot Sticker Dumplings. Very interesting presenting the bottom of the dumplings as top up. There was a nice spider web crust at the bottom. It was served with some black vinegar.

Momofuku Ssam Bar (East Village, New York)

On Christmas Eve last year, it was our first day in New York City, after arriving the evening before. We traipsed around in the rain and around lunch time we started racking our brains for food ideas! Lo and behold we decided to head to one of David Chang's restaurants and this time we decided to go to the Ssam Bar. The last time I was in New York, I went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar so I was only to happy to check out the Ssam Bar! Yay!

Our timing was perfect, there was a table of 3 waiting for us. Not long after we walked in, the rest of the place was filled with diners!

We started with the very famous "Steamed Buns with Pork Belly" with hoisin sauce, cucumbers, scallions and a dash of sriracha. It was still as good as the first time I had them in June 2013 and I could have had more. The pork belly was so tender, and succulent. More please! That's what JN said anyway! :)

GK had the Rotisserie duck over rice with 'the lot'. This amounted to a plate full of duck scallion, ssam sauce, crispy shallot, lettuce, chive pancake, and pickles. The duck was perfectly cooked and let's just say GK was enjoying his dish at a leisurely pace. I couldn't help myself from eyeing the duck on his plate. They looked so succulent!

Sugarcane Restaurant (Surry Hills, Sydney)

Sugarcane has been in the food scene for a while now but I think since it recently went through a revamp of their menu and a fresh interior look, it has picked up interest in the Sydney food scene.

Recently I had an opportunity to check it out one Saturday night. It was a rather chilly night actually but quite warm in the restaurant. We were seated at one of the long communal tables.

Sugarcane is one of those restaurants with 2 seatings and since we had to vacate by 8.00 I decided to take the 6.00 pm option. KL and I had already checked the menu online so we had an idea of what we wanted.

The food came out thick and fast!

Sydney rock oyster with Sugarcane dressing - a few hmmm's from my table indicated these were good. I am not an oyster person so I skipped this one.

Prawn, rice cake and caramelised sugar cane. This piece of appetiser stood alone on its own as I was the only one who ordered it. I popped the whole thing in my mouth and was greeted with an explosion of flavours! Completely surprised but delighted by the tart and sweet flavours and the crunchy texture of the rice cake was spot on! I now wish I had ordered more of these! Super delicious!!!!

Sorry - not a great shot! :(

Crispy tortilla, crab, green apple, coconut and lime. Light, fresh and tangy flavours with a delightfully crispy tortilla.

Fried eggs, black vinegar and caramel. Better known as son-in-law eggs, these were so addictive. The egg was gooey on the inside and the black vinegar and caramel sauce was oh so deliciously sweet and slightly sharp. The sauce perfectly complemented the egg. Yum!

Pad Thai with a serve of chicken. Now, I thought we were going to get the normal chicken that comes with Pad Thai. You know, the chicken breast slivers we typically get when we order Pad Thai with chicken. Boy was I wrong! These were twice cooked chicken and came fried! There was a delicious caramelisation to the chicken which brought a nice complexity to an otherwise standard pad Thai. I liked the fact the bean sprouts were not fried and were fresh and still crunchy.

Pendolino (Sydney CBD)

Pendolino is an Italian restaurant located in the historical and iconic Strand Arcade. I absolutely love walking through the Strand and browsing the shops. And when I have some additional time, I like browsing the 1st and 2nd floors of the retail shops.

But in all these years I have yet to dine at Pendolino. It was time to meet up with my friend SH and celebrate her upcoming birthday. Silly me forgot to bring her presents so that means I will have to mail them, wont't I? Duh!!

It was the first time I went to the Strand after hours and I was surprised at how everything was gated right at the start of the arcade. I couldn't browse around even though I was 15 minutes early for the dinner.

So I took the lifts and when I exited I was literally stepping into the restaurant. It was unexpected and it threw me a little.

The lightning was low, which to me means dark! Terrible for trying to take photos but great if you are here for a romantic dinner. Lol! They even brought out a mini lamp for diners to read the menu and they take the lamp away once the orders are placed. I was so tempted to ask for the lamp to stay on the table.

We had:

Three types of olive oil served with some delicious bread. I liked that they labelled each of the oil so we knew what we were tasting. There was the fruity olive oil, lemon infused, and blood orange. My favourite was the lemon infused. SH preferred the blood orange. And I really enjoyed the walnut bread.

Entree of Carpaccio Di Manzo All'Abese - free range raw beef carpaccio with truffled white walnut purée, Testun di Barolo cheese, rocket cress, wild baby olives and handmade rosemary grissini.

Entree of Burrata Con Insalata Di Rape Rosse - warm beetroot and red radish salad with burrata, crisp breadcrumbs, Cabernet vinegar, and Ligurian honey dressing.

I was thoroughly enjoying my entree. The burrata was lusciously creamy and the beetroot was sweet and perfectly cooked. The crisp breadcrumbs provided the much needed crunchiness to the lovely salad.

SH finished her dish up and her verdict was the carpaccio was delicious! Enough said!

OneSixEight Restaurant and Bar (Sydney)

You think you know all the new kids on the block 'restaurant wise' but a few slip through the cracks occasionally. Especially if the media does not talk much about it/them. Well, this one slipped through the crack for me but what a nice discovery I had while enjoying my meal there.

The restaurant is called One Six Eight and the only reason I found out about it was because the chef Leigh McDivitt is related to my boss. They are cousins! A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join an after work dinner by my boss with a few other work colleagues and I was only too thrilled to accept the invite.

Leigh was previously at 3 Weeds and I recall having dined there once and remembering the food was delicious. The restaurant is located at Kent Street at Millers Point and it is located just below the underpass to the Harbour Bridge. A great location for business lunches and dinners. It had an executive feel when I stepped into the restaurant.

We had a drink at the bar area before adjourning to our table. The menu looked really interesting. And we dined on the day when the new spring menu was presented.

Our taste buds got going with Ceviche kingfish with horseradish ice cream and lime chilli dressing. The flavours were popping in my mouth! Yum!

Entree
Seared scallops with torched prawn, nam pla jam and pork dust. It did look good and NL commented on how fresh and succulent the scallop was. She thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

Duck prosciutto with smoked octopus, blood orange cloud and shaved duck yolk. The majority our group chose this for entree, including me! The thought of having duck prosciutto intrigued me so I had to try it. It was a lovely dish, there were intriguing flavours of duck, combined with the octopus and the duck yolk. A really good dish!!

Mains
Seared bonito, heirloom carrots, shellfish pearl barley & squid ink reduction. NL once again broke from the majority and was enjoying this delicious dish.

Bishop Sessa (Surry Hills)

Yes, I am back at Surry Hills but this time it is for dinner at Bishop Sessa. For some reason, none of my foodie friends whom I spoke to recently even knows of Bishop Sessa. I was very surprised by that.

Bishop Sessa is located at where Crown Street Assembly used to be, and where Tabou was. Even though this dinner occurred about a month ago, I still recall the wonderful meal we had there.

There was the option to have the 6 course degustation menu or a la carte. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we collectively decided to have a la carte. Admittedly, the restaurant was very dimly lit and reading the menu was a challenge in itself. Fortunately I had my torchlight app from my phone which was put to good use that night. :)

Entrees
My entree was Scallop ceviche with cucumber, avocado and lemon and ginger sorbet. If I ate the beautifully and thinly sliced scallop, it would have tasted quite flat. But the sorbet was popping with the flavour of ginger and was a great companion for the scallop. Lovely dish! The sheet of rice paper roll served over the dish was so light and tasty.

NF had the Carpaccio of Glacier 51 Patagonian Toothfish, smoked clam, miso, apple and black olive. NF seemed to have enjoyed it and he commented on how smoky the clam was and the combination of flavours were good.

EF had the Heirloom beetroot and radish salad with smoked goat's cheese, pomegranate and walnuts. Even though I didn't taste the dish, I can already imagine the textures and flavours blending very well together. I have always loved having walnuts in a salad.

Mains
I had the Roasted Aylesbury duck breast, duck leg sausage roll, lentils, kale, carrot, orange and onion marmalade. Yummmmm..yummmm..yummm! Duck is one of my favourite meats and this dish did it for me. The duck leg sausage roll was divine. The duck meat in the sausage roll was full of flavour and melt-in-your-mouth tender. The duck breast was lovely but for me it was the sausage roll that caught my eye.