Coogee Pavilion (Coogee, Sydney)

Another food venture by the Merivale Group and this time it is at Coogee. It has been a few months since Coogee Pavilion opened and it has been on my list. I did wonder when I could take the opportunity to frequent Coogee as it is literally the opposite side of the city from where I live.

Lo and behold a friend suggested we ladies meet up at Coogee Pavilion as she had been there and really enjoyed the vibe and the food. So here we are on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon enjoying the glorious weather and taking in the atmosphere of this happening place.

Fortunately we were allowed to book a table because it was packed as sardines and there were so many walk ins who had to wait for a table.

It is located at the most perfect spot right next to the promenade facing Coogee beach. There is a kiosk for take aways and in the main building there are sections for grilled food, juices, pizzas, Will and Co coffee and seafood (fresh/raw or cooked).

I could not believe how large the space was. More on what I saw later in this post.

We decided on the following:

Mini lobster roll with lemon mayo, celery and chives. I had to order this as I was curious to check it out. I liked the mini size, enough to get a good taste but not feel too full to have other dishes. There were nice flavours of tang and crunchy crispy chips. Yes, there were potato chips in the mix. Interesting combinations which I enjoyed.

A couple of us ordered the Coogee Diner Burger with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle with a burger sauce. Served with chips of course! Yep! It was seriously good! I could not get over the pillow soft burger buns, soooo good! Oh dear, I am getting hungry just describing the dish!

Papparich Parramatta (Parramatta, Sydney)

As most of you would know, Papparich is a chain of Malaysian food outlets around Australia and Asia Pacific. The first venue I dined at was the Chatswood branch which was their first restaurant in Sydney. Till today, I think there are queues just to get a table. And that opened over a year ago.

Recently, they opened in Parramatta and the food blogger in me had to check it out. On my first visit I met up with Mel from The Adventures of Miss Piggy and her husband Dave. It was nice catching up with Mel after such a long time and as usual we were busy taking pics of our dishes before we took a single bite.

Deep fried chicken skin - we had to order this, especially since I had yet to try this wonderfully crispy, addictive dish. Yum! I couldn't stop popping one in my mouth every few minutes. Dangerous!!

Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang - a very popular dish which was ordered by Mel and Dave. Turns out this is one of their favourite dishes to order when at Papparich!

Biryani Rice With Red Chicken and Sambal Prawns - this is one of my favourite dishes to order and it did not disappoint. I do like the flavours of the Biryani rice which was infused with various spices like onions, cardamom and cloves. It makes this rice so much more interesting and full of flavour. The red chicken had a slightly sweet yet slightly spicy flavour. And all this served with a rather large pappadum.

Bowery Lane (Sydney CBD)

Bowery Lane opened not too long ago and conveniently for me, it is located a couple of blocks from my office. This lack of distance made it so easy for me to have a mid week dinner with my friends in celebration of one of their birthdays.

It is located in an office building and as we arrived just at 6.00 pm the main entrance to the restaurant was not open so we went up the stairs and entered via the side entrance. As a result of that, I got a glimpse of the kitchen.

As you can imagine, I would have pored over the online menu and as it was, there were so many dishes I wanted to try. Decisions, decisions!

We started by sharing a couple of snack size dishes.

Char grilled lamb ribs with chimichurri and rocket. The lamb was tender and went very well with the chimichurri.

Manchego croquettes with smoked chilli aioli. The croquettes were delicious, not overwhelmingly cheesy but made more interesting with the chilli kick from the aioli. A nice surprise!

We decided to share the 1 kg braised Wagyu short rib which was served with horse radish cream and roasted garlic. I don't think my picture does justice to how beautiful this meat was. It was literally 'fall of the bone' tender and packed with flavour. I didn't need any sauce or cream with the meat. DELICIOUS!

Maslow's Cafe (Pymble, Sydney)

What is it about a new cafe that attracts my attention? The 2 key factors for me are the location and the menu. When I say location, I mean can I easily get to the venue? Good reviews and great pics on Instagram help too! :)

Broadsheet Sydney recently published an article about a new cafe in Pymble. It caught my eye and I made plans to check it out over a few visits.

I loved the hip look of this cafe. It is located in a garage which has been renovated to fit in a small open kitchen with some tables and a bar with high stools. The decor is slightly grunge like. How cool, and how very unPymble! More towards Surry Hills actually! :)

On my first visit, I had breakfast. My choice was The Little Soldier - 62 degree egg, asparagus and soldier toasts. The egg was perfectly cooked and the asparagus was nicely blanched and had a lovely bite. For my personal taste, I would have liked a sprinkle of salt but taste wise it was quite delicious. Loved the egg oozing all over the toasts. And I liked the plating.

The coffee of choice at Maslow's is Seven Seeds and I had a skim cappuccino to kick off my day. I found it slightly weak on my first visit but on my next visit, it was a stronger brew and sat much better with me.

On my second visit, I came at lunch time and ordered Mr Pig. Yes, you read right, "Mr Pig"! This was Braised pork, 62 degree egg, and baby salad served in a brioche bun. There was a dash of chilli sauce which gave the dish a slight kick. Sorry, I couldn't get a decent shot of the braised pork but just imagine slices of pork nestled under the egg. :)

Let me start by saying I tried to be lady like and used my cutlery. That was a huge failure on my part as the wonderfully dense brioche did not take to the knife. So I resorted to using my hands and eating it like I would a burger and it got all yummily messy!! The pork was tender and delicious, the egg was once again oozing all over the bun but it was such fun eating this way. I absolutely loved the texture of the  Sonoma brioche!