Travel Bug

In the midst of these frantic, work-filled holidays; I've found myself increasingly surrounded by Instagram feeds overflowing with foreign travels, interstate shenanigans and a general step-by-step perpetual update of where I would rather be. I'd much rather be frolicking around the Mediterranean Harbour of Tokyo DisneySea, or even just be lying in the sun on the Gold Coast where my lovely friend is off, having the audacity to suggest she can't wait to be back home in Sydney (I kid, it's all jolly). Even though a few weeks remain of these holidays (weeks which I will undoubtedly be filling with more work in my last-bid scramble to try and make as much money as I can to save up for my inconceivably expensive and grand nine month escapade to Asia), people are regardless jetting off to Taiwan, to Melbourne; to somewhere other than Sydney.

Jealousy's a bitch.

Game of Thrones Exhibition

Wow what a day. 

Going on the third opening day of the free exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helena and I (amongst some uni friends I happened to bump into on the day), waited a staggering six and a half hours to get into this small, but far from underwhelming exhibition.

Lunch at Grill'd Burgers, Chatswood

Just a quickie food post (and then some blogging of other shenanigans that I've been getting up to in this wondrous month of nothing!)

'Field of dreams' - grilled field mushroom, basil pesto, roasted peppers, tasty cheese, salad & herbed mayo

Craving a burger nearly a fortnight back, I finally got around to satisfying the craving with the lovely Annie, when we made an impromptu trip to Chatswood for both post-exams celebratory food (the trend continues) and my need to gratify materialistic desires.

I remember a while back the first time I tried Grill'd, I ordered the Almighty, a beast of a trad' aussie beef burger whilst A got a field of dreams. Upon entering the cozy little joint in the Concourse a few days ago, all I really felt like was a big grilled mushroom; so unsurprisingly that's what I ordered.

I feel to some degree that I played up the deliciousness of this burger far too much in my head and maybe I was better suited to getting the simple, traditional beef burger or the chicken and brie burger that my C via Instagram chastised me for not getting.

At times I felt the mushroom was almost rubbery in texture and a tad bland for my liking. Although I didn't mind the combination of flavours together, in fact I think it was a great combo, I think for me some parts just weren't working. The cheese could have been a bit more generous and the basil pesto could have been used a tad more sparingly. Chips which were lovely and crisp at the beginning, were not the burning, right out of the oil warmth that I love (on a side note though, this may be because I had to get Joe out, take a photo, then take a photo via my Note 3 for Instagram; and although in my mind this hardly took too much time, the reality of it may be different).

I can't say I was exhilarated this time around, but I feel like it was a series of situations that made my tastebuds a bit strange. After all, I was feeling quite uncomfortable all day and quite tired which was a bit out of the ordinary.

Dinner at La Rosa Bar and Pizza, City CBD

Celebrating the end of Tina's exams and catching up with Nat (there's a general trend here isn't there?), we went somewhere a little bit fancier than the usual by going to a cosy Italian joint in the beautiful strand, La Rosa Bar and Pizza.

Polpettine di Carne con Salsina Piccante alle Olive - Free Range Pork and Parmesan Meatballs with Spicy Chilli Salsa

For starters, Nat and I shared a small range of polpettine meatballs which had polenta 'tater totts' (I can't think of any other way to describe them and a lovely salsa in accompaniment. The pork meatballs were excellent and the salsa was a lovely addition although in all honesty, the meatballs were succulent and juicy enough on their own that the salsa was not an immediate necessity; more like (and as it should be) a nice complement to the dish. The polenta totts were tasty and I could have a bowl of these all day, dipping them slowly in salsa and smacking my lips repeatedly.

Salame di Wagyu - Tuscan Style Mixed Wagyu Beef and Pork

I'm not going to lie, usually I never order salame at a restaurant, but I feel like that predominantly lies in the fact that most average go-to Italian restaurants don't feature options upon options of salami and moreover, I recently re-watched Eat, Pray, Love again and a particular scene of Julia Roberts passing a woman in a restaurant eating figs and salami has been firmly entrenched in my mind.

Anyway, the wagyu salami was so damn good. Not at all sinewy, full of flavour; and when combined with the buttery bread, a drizzle of olive oil, the olives and some of the pickled vegetables; it was heavenly combination of textures and flavours in my mouth.

(Bruschette) Pomodoro e Olive con Ricotta Salata - Tomatoes, Black Olive and Salted Ricotta

Tina ordered an unsurprising traditional bruschette combination; although I only had a bite, the tomatoes were fresh, the amount of olive oil drizzled on was perfect and the ricotta was a great addition to the palette-cleansing starter.

Moscardini Ubriachi - Tomato & Olive Oil Braised “Drunken” Baby Octopus with Fennel, Caper & Parsley Salad

For mains, Tina ordered the baby octopus; but I only got a brief taste of this and I don't think I'm justified in commenting about it given that I've only ventured briefly into the world of octopus through the side-door of takoyaki. Tina did note that it was incredibly heavy on the palette, so by the end of is she had to give a good portion of it to Nat to finish for her.

I can no longer find this on the menu, but the above was my pasta dish of choice; a wholewheat bigoli of some sort, with a pork accompaniment that had been infused with truffle oil. The infusion with truffle was just right (given in my homemade adventures with truffles, I've come to discover that there is such a thing as over-infusing something with truffles), and the wholewheat pasta made me feel like an incredibly healthy aficionado for some reason. Although hardly one of the most beautiful dishes, I still highly enjoyed this.

La Rosa is an incredibly intimate place with dim moody lighting via candles in the early evening, moving onto unobtrusive 'mushroom glowing' lights in the late evening. Filled with romantic couples, birthday dinners and even a hen's night (a classy one I gather); it was a perfect place to sip rose and enjoy an evening catching up with good friends. And with an Urbanspoon rating of 91% based on 305 votes, that's a pretty impressive feat. 

My only qualm may be that our waiter was a tad inattentive and it took a while for him to realise we were attempting to catch his attention to order some wine to start off with; and during the course of the night it was generally fairly hard to wave him over. Albeit this minor detail, I'm far from disappointed by the restaurant; service is, after all, associated very much with the level of 'fine dining' a restaurant possesses. Maybe it was because I've just been to Popolo, but I don't think La Rosa has quite reached 'fine dining' status, although it's pretty close to it.

Dinner at NaruOne, City CBD

Celebrating the end of Lee's exams and catching up with Manda and Ping, we went to NaruOne on Pitt Street in ambition to eat some of the delicious fried chicken that this little restaurant is so famous of.

Choosing a hearty seafood and soft tofu slow cooked stew, it was exactly the thing we needed for such a brisk night. Full of flavour, the mushrooms and tofu were absolutely delicious; however I unfortunately can't give any comment on the seafood given I don't particularly like seafood too much.
Onto the fried chicken, we got the half and half option, of half sweet and spicy and half normal fried chicken. Believe the hype, the chicken was spot on.

Now it's unfortunate that upon heading to Urbanspoon to get the Spoonback HTML coding, I've come across the poor reviews this lovely little restaurant has received. All I can say is at times I feel the price is a tad on the pricier side for this type of food, but for the quality of it, I'm not too disgruntled about it at all. The issue was service that has been raised by fellow patrons was fortunately not too big an issue for me, probably because we had a Korean in the midst of our group who was able to fluidly converse with the waiters about appropriate dish sizes and the like.

Dinner at Marukame Udon, Chatswood

Post exam finals, craving something beyond the usual foods of instant noodles, pies and sausage rolls and 2 am Mars Pods snacking; I returned to Marukame Udon in Chatswood for a second time.

Arriving at nearly 6 pm, I was unsurprised by the varied line of people that all patiently waited outside for their turn to order sanuki-style (or what M calls cafeteria style).

Upon entering, you declare a number for the type of udon you prefer, and what size. Placed on a tray, you then proceed along a row of delicious deep fried goods where you self-serve however many things you want. At the end of the 'belt', you then can order a drink, pay and top your noodles with normal 'condiments', like tempura crumbs (tenkatsu) and welsh onion etc.

Ordering the bukkake udon with soft boiled egg and beef, the medium was well and truly enough. The soup was incredibly tasty and delicious, udon firm and just the perfect portion size.

I would probably suggest to not completely overload your noodles with tempura crumbs however, the first time I came here I overeagerly sprinkled far too much to the extent that the crumbs absorbed all my noodle soup!

I am, however, a major sucker for any tempura or deep-fried. Just note that if you do want any tempura dipping sauce, you can and should ask the person who hands you your bowl of noodles right at the beginning of the 'belt'. Also as an extra tip, go upstairs where not many people go and the atmosphere is more quiet and intimate.

Getting my usual combination, I got a tempura prawn, a cheese hot dog, tofu tempura and a pork cutlet. All the tempura based foods were crisp and the batter was light and just right.

The cheese hot dog was a smokey type of sausage with lovely melted cheese oozing out; and the pork cutlet was ridiculously tender, moist and tasty.

Of course, I washed it all down with a can of Calpis.

If the standard of this restaurant keeps up, there is no doubt at all that I'll keep coming back again and again. Harking the likes of Menya and Mappen on George Street in the city, Marukame Udon is ridiculously efficient, worth the money, well worth the short wait, and most importantly delicious and fresh.

Service is friendly, efficient, and the traditional cheery and enthusiastic Japanese banter greeted us as we both entered and left. Full of young teenagers after school, old couples, families, married couples, couples going out on dates; even though the type of almost 'cafeteria' style of service may seem very casual; the food is far from ordinary.

Dinner at Popolo

It has clearly been a while since I've updated my blog, but here's hopefully a return to regular posts, food porn, being a tourist in my own city and posts filled with existential ennui.

A while back, after a rocky ride in Jade's newly learnt ability to drive a manual, we went to one-hatted restaurant Popolo in Rushcutter's Bay/Darlinghurst where we feasted on absolutely delicious Italian.

Upon entering more than half an hour earlier than our reservation, we were graciously invited to wait at the bar where we proceeded to order some girly cocktails (which I have no photos of unfortunately). It hardly seemed like we had waited too long before we were lead to our table, where we were immediately presented with our waiter for the night and menus to peruse.

The provisional sourdough bread and olive oil was soft and fluffy and everything that I could dream of to the extent that I didn't even wait for the small plates to come out to start tucking in.

It's unfortunate that I can't find what the above dish was called, but it was consisted of these deliciously rich and tasty strips of cheddar, with finely cut pieces of pancetta and a crisp lettuce or radish; that came together into this ridiculously tasty and appetising dish.

The cheese souffle was so good as well, my only cliched criticism is that there wasn't more!

It appears as though this pizza, however, is a deadset staple for the restaurant. Called the capri, it consisted of honey glazed cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and basil. Although delicious, in all honesty by this point my stomach was about to explode and it was not longer as pleasurable to be cramming this amount of food into my body. 

It's generally fairly amiss of me that I can't even remember most of what I ate this night (given it was in celebration of Mother's Day), but what I do remember is I left this intimate place with a full belly and completely satisfied with the $60-$80 I had paid for it.

Service was exceptional (as could be expected), from the maitre d', to the bartender, to the waiter, to even just the odd passing employee who indicated the way to the bathroom as soon as I left my table.

It was a lovely lovely night, quite intimate with not many seats and many a couple abound; however having said that, there were a couple of boisterous groups a la girls night out; but if anything that just contributed to the almost homely, but fine dining, feel of the restaurant. 

Although the restaurant is tucked into a residential complex and hidden behind a Lexus dealer, the restaurant is well worth the dedicated trip out to Rushcutters Bay.