About Me

Food is one of my many joys in life. It is a common bond I share among my friends and family. Combining food and travel makes it all the more interesting. I enjoy going out for a good meal with friends and family. The array of various cuisines and our fantastic array of produce really makes Sydney such a great city to live in. Blogging is my hobby and my posts on restaurant meals I have had are paid for and not gratis. Any gratis provided to me will always be stated beforehand.

Saturday 26 October 2013

The Deck Sydney (Milsons Point, Sydney)

My dear friend MO kindly organised a lunch catch up recently. She came up with a list of 3 restaurant options and all I had to do was pick and choose one. After perusing each of their menus I decided for The Deck.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and discovered how spectacular Sydney can be when the sun is out and the skies are as blue as!!! Walking around just under the Harbour Bridge and soaking in the sun and beautiful views made me appreciate once again how lucky I am to be living here!!!!! :)

I was excitedly taking so many pictures. I was behaving like a tourist (lol). MO was laughing at my excitement too.

We eventually walked along the pier and found The Deck. It is literally at the doorstep of Luna Park. And we were seated at a table with a view, yay!


For entree I had the Chorizo stuffed squid. It was served with a smokey tomato sauce and peppercress. Parts of the squid were quite charred which lent to the smokey taste. And I have a weakness for chorizo so I definitely did enjoy the dish. Seafood and chorizo - yum!

MO decided for something a little different and it was a dish I had not heard of before. Manti Turkish Dumplings - lamb filled and topped with tomato sauce and yoghurt. She loved the dish and I had a bit to taste and I must say it was really delicious! There was an exotic flavour to the lamb mince and the sauce with it was great! A good combination.

Saturday 19 October 2013

CHISWICK Restaurant (Woollahra, Sydney)

It was a perfect day to have lunch at Chiswick. Sydney was at its best behaviour and the glorious summery weather made our lunch all the more perfect.


I met up with a few of my friends from my NYC trip. As I was waiting outside in the gardens for them to arrive, I couldn't help but fall in love with the garden and the lovely building that was Chiswick. A perfect surround for a summer lunch (even though it is still spring).


Chiswick has a 2 seating time policy for lunch and we decided to have lunch at 12 noon. This meant we would have to finish up by 2.00 pm. The restaurant quickly filled up and before you know it, it was full house!

As I walked around the restaurant, my thoughts were images of an English summer! There was a colonial feel to the restaurant and a large of number of the guests were young, affluent and trendy. So not me! :)

For our lunch, we decided to share some small plates and have the Chiswick signature dish of the Wood roasted Moran family lamb.

Rosemary flat bread

Snow crab slider served with lettuce, kewpie and gherkins

Heirloom tomatoes, feta and crumbed bread salad (one of the specials of the day)

Ceviche of kingfish, chilli, lime and coriander

Sunday 13 October 2013

The Paramount Coffee Project (Surry Hills)

I have been holding off posting my experience at Paramount Coffee Project (PCP) as I really wanted to return to try their Crab Po Boy before I was happy enough to talk about my experience there. But sigh! I just haven't been able to return since my first two visits from weeks ago. So here it is, my post on PCP without trying the Crab Po Boy!


A week after Paramount Coffee Project opened in Surry Hills, I had an opportunity to check it out with my mate DD. My first visit was at lunch time. As it was only a week old then, it was not flooded with people yet. I loved the wide open space of the interior when I stepped in. It was larger than I anticipated but quite cool actually! There were a few bicycles stacked at the rear wall and it reminded of the bikes I saw when I was at Seven Seeds in Melbourne last year. Not surprising since this project is a joint one between Mark Dundon of Seven Seeds and Russell Beard of Reuben Hills.


And I liked the separate coffee station where serious coffee aficionados can hang out.

I had the Double Fried Chicken which was a spicy coated fillet with house slaw and creole relish. The chicken was tasty and I liked the slight kick in the relish. The only thing I found wanting was I would have liked the chicken to be crunchier. But the flavours were certainly there.

DD had the Joey chestnut which was a wiener with mustard, ketchup, cheddar, onion jam on milk bun hot dog. In other words, an upmarket version of the very American hot dog. DD also ordered some pickles with it. I had a bite of the hot dog just so I could taste the flavours and textures. The wiener was really good, there was a nice bite to it. The only thing we found wanting was the texture of the bun. It wasn't as soft as we had expected. It was actually quite dry. Maybe the bun was toasted too long. But that diminished the other good things about the hot dog. But I have been reading other blogs since then, some of whom had the hot dog and there were comments on how soft the bun was. So I take it as an anomaly that DD was not lucky enough with his hot dog bun.

Saturday 12 October 2013

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.

Sunday 6 October 2013

Chicken & Fishhead (Beecroft, Sydney)

I have always found the name of this rather quaint cafe to be strange but it certainly catches one's eye. I would have entertained the idea of asking the operators of this cafe why they chose this name but they were all so busy serving coffee and breakfast the morning I was there. I didn't think it would be a good idea to stop them from keeping the orders going. Maybe a question for another time.


It was a Saturday morning when I met up with my friends from Canberra. I suggested this cafe because it was nearby for both parties to meet up plus it was a good opportunity for me to check it out. Chicken & Fishhead is not only a cafe but a kidswear store too. What an interesting concept! It is a relatively small store but it has been able to successfully incorporate a family style cafe in this store. All the while being located in Beecroft, a north west suburb which has a very villagey feel.



We had:

Big breakfast of poached free range eggs, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and crispy bacon.

Bacon and egg baguette with Hank's onion relish and rocket.

Saturday 5 October 2013

Sake Restaurant (The Rocks, Sydney)

Believe it or not, this is my first time to Sake. I found the right excuse to check it out when K and S were recently in town from Melbourne. It's been a while since my last catch up with my nephew K when I was last in Melbourne and I cannot recall the last time we actually had a meal together in Sydney.


I didn't realise how cool an ambience Sake would have. When I stepped in to the restaurant, I immediately looked around and tried to absorb the decor and vibe around me. As I walked past the open kitchen, I was immediately greeted with a bunch of welcome greetings in Japanese!

We were seated in a long table and shared it with another couple. But The Sake team arranged the seating in such a way that there was an empty seat between us and the other couple. That gave us some privacy and we didn't feel cramped in.

As you would have expected from me, I had browsed the menu prior to my visit! :) So I had an idea of what I would like to order and with my visitors' agreement I went for gold (sort of!).

Sashimi platter - a small plate of extremely fresh sashimi of salmon, tuna, kingfish and snapper. We devoured it!

Kingfish jalapeño - this was recommended by the waitress and I can see why it is one of their signature dishes. There was just a slight kick in the jalapeño to lift up the flavours of the kingfish. The combination of the coriander and yuzu soy was subtle and not too overwhelming. Again, it was a hit with us!

Steamed prawn dumplings - Chinese inspired dumplings but with a twist. It had strips of noodle instead of a wonton piece covering the prawn and had such an interesting texture. Loved that it was different and delicious too!

Sashimi tacos - these were salmon and tuna sashimi diced and filled in baby tacos with chilled tomato salsa. They were matched with kozaemon junmai 'sake shots'. I normally don't have sake but I had to try this. Wow! I definitely liked it, both the tacos and the shot. I found the tacos just a tad small in size but other than that, the combination of flavours and textures were good.