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.

Wanderlust

It's been barely 4 months or so since I've been back and yet I want to pack a suitcase and leave the country already. I find myself lusting for next year and the new experiences to come, it excites me that I'll be gone for half a year by myself in a place where I'll be barely able to speak the same language. I can only really wish that time moves along faster.

A Fine Frenzy

In the hypnotic lull of the rain, copious essays surrounding me, multiple drafts scrawled with coloured textas and arrows and A Fine Frenzy on repeat; the reality of uni life is becoming a mundane acceptance. I'm finally slowly beginning to develop a rhythm to what I'm doing, re-discovering that lame sense of learning that's been absent for a solid half a year now. 

Slowly coming back

Hopefully this post marks the slow and steady return back to blogging. My days are slowly filled with anxious frustration concerning what it is I know I have to do and having the time and willpower to get it done. In the past two weeks my little bubble of ignorance has been shattered - by no means was I spoonfed information and content during high school; but the content was so much easier to grasp. My core international and global studies unit is the most convoluted and earth-shatteringly hard thing I've studied for a long while; all I can say is I'm looking forward to catching up and reading this week's required reading because it's something that I'm very interested about aka. the relationship of economic ties between foreign nations and globalisation VS the political economic theory that I'm drowning in right now. This week has seen me work a mind blowing 5 days, where on two nights I got home just a little past 11 after an afternoon/night of work, completely die in my first tute, realise how absolutely dull every single lecture (except INGS and Chinese) is, and decide after due consideration that I'm swapping in my le Pliage for a Herschel backpack.

I think I might call it a night.

xx

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Dessert at N2 Extreme Gelato

It baffles me that I've walked along Dixon Street so many times in my junior years the past, and yet I've never stumbled across N2 Extreme Gelato.

Worth the hype? Maybe.

*Apologies in advance for the shocking quality of the photos

Ordering the deconstructed macchiato, the gelato was pretty smooth and delicious. The syringe of chocolate was a lovely novelty that shot forth mini squirts of chocolate sauce. Combined with the sight of liquid nitrogen flowing everywhere, it was quite a sight to see and I'm glad I had finally made it to this hyped up place.

Indeed the icecream was good, but Westfield's Via del Corso and Gelato Messina are equally excellent gelato establishments (and were it not for the novelty aspect, Via del Corso's green tea and Messina's tiramisu and raspberry sorbets are my undoubted favourites)