Dinner at Din Tai Fung, Chatswood

Don't be put off by the (relatively) poor Urbanspoon rating, I was almost in tears for the most part of this dinner because the food was so good.

Tofu with pork floss and preserved duck egg

The food comes out exceptionally quickly and following Asian food tradition, everything comes as it comes and there isn't really a set structure of entree/main/dessert. Ordering the tofu with pork floss and preserve duck egg (8.8), I was skeptical given that I (to put it mildly) don't enjoy pork floss; but lo and behold the dish was pretty damn good. The tofu was fresh and the combination of preserved duck egg, pork floss and tofu was strangely really nice. Of course, not a dish for everyone, but the flavour of preserved duck egg was incredibly mild in contrast to everything else - the pork floss is the flavour that seems to come through the strongest. So for me, not my favourite but it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.

Spicy shrimp and pork wonton

Now we should note that I am extremely picky about wonton. Since I was born (no melodrama here I swear), I have never liked any wonton from any person or restaurant that is not made by my lovely mother. It's something to do with the flavouring, the amount of meat, the flavouring of the meat etc. etc.; but wow the spicy shrimp and pork wonton (9.3) was delicious.If I had a stronger chilli tolerance I would order bowls after bowls of this stuff, but alas I knew I had full dishes to myself to consume and so I had 4 of these and relinquished the rest to my sister who gladly gobbled them up (in conjunction with her own bowl). 

Fried pork dumpling

I will probably never say no to deep fried anything. The same was the case here with the fried pork dumplings (5.8). No fault, the serving portion was just the right size, the Japanese mayo (I'm assuming) was a lovely addition, the meat inside was juicy and sweet. No faults.

Pork xiao long bao 

I won't say too much about the pork xiao long bao (12.8) because there's a lot about them on the food blogosphere but wow they're worth the hype. The skin is thin and just right, the soup juices hot and delicious, everything everything was just right. 

Chicken fillet

My sister was incredibly skeptical that this would turn out really nice, but there was this beaming 'specialty' indicator next to the chicken fillet (10.8) so I got it and no regrets at all. Given this came out at the same time as the xiao long bao and the fried pork dumplings, I went into a bit of a delicious-food-shock having been presented with so many delicious things at once. It was also around about this time that I started tearing up because the food was so good (it might help to add for context that J and I had been surviving on tacos, instant pasta and everything in Heston for Coles food range so all these delicious, fresh things came as a bit of a hit in the face)

Vegetarian bun and Vegetable Pork bun

In all honesty the buns were probably the biggest let down for the night. Mum makes the best vegetable buns (and meat buns) ever, so really, this was sort of a doomed from the beginning.

When we went, wait time was very brief at about a few minutes and we were in. Upon being seated, you're presented with both a 'menu' and what looks like a take-away check list. You proceed to order through checking off what you want off the 'list' and then hail the waiter once selected. Wait time for food was a little longer but it didn't really matter in the end because the quality of the food was such top notch. We were also given a bag-stand-carrier (how does one even explain this?) which was very nice and hailed back to meals spent in Japan.

Anyway, point of everything is go there, go get a food baby, it's very much worth it.

Dinner at Mad Pizza e Bar, Newtown

Adventuring into the night for what turned out to be a completely sober, bizarre reunion amongst PSYC1001 kiddies; our adventures with food led us to eat dinner at Newtown, catch a taxi to Gelato Messina at Darlinghurst; and proceed to realise that the same pizza place where we had eaten at Newtown was no more than 50m away from Messina.

Tuscano: shredded lamb shanks from Victoria, baby spinach, red onion, garden peas, mint, fetta, garlic & lemon

Ordering three pizzas and a pasta to share between four, we opted for the tuscano, funghi and primavera pizzas.

The lamb on the tuscano was lovely and juicy and the assorted toppings of vegetables were fresh and crisp. The provided lemon was a welcome relief to the fragrant spices of what I assume the lamb had been marinated in and the pizza base was perfect.

Funghi: Fat field mushrooms, rosemary, fetta & rocket leaves w/ shaved Parmesan & virgin oil

Being the mushroom fiend I am, I can find no fault with the funghi pizza. The field mushrooms were indeed fat and succulent, the rocket a lovely bitter crunch, the virgin oil dripping everywhere... I will say that for an additional 4$ the virgin oil could be replaced by truffle oil but I completely forgot about this when we were ordering. But no regrets there will always be next time (especially because this is only really a short walk from uni)

Primavera: Crisp cooked base w/ rocket leaves, diced tomatoes, shaved parmesan & sliced South Aust prosciutto

The primavera was exactly how a prosciutto pizza should taste. Although the tomato chunks look a tad too big, they were actually just the right size to create a burst of freshness in your mouth. Rocket, proscuitto and cheese could never fail anything.

Siciliano: Rigatoni pasta w/ Qld prawns, fresh tomato, Garlic, chilli, basil & pangrattato

And finally the siciliano pasta. In all honesty I can't comment much about this beyond the fact that it was pretty good. It was quite spicy though (I completely overlooked the word chilli in the menu) and I didn't end up eating much, particularly because I was inhaling my pizza slices and by the time I got to the pasta I was already pretty damn full.

I loved the vibe of this place, and the cute customer service we received on the quiet Monday night we decided to go in on. All the pizzas were gobsmackingly delicious and I'm interested to see if there are any real differences between all the different other locations dotted around city of what seems to be this pizza "franchise".

Verdict: Will be back

Part 2 of this night's adventure continues here!

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.

Dinner at Madam Nhu Surry Hills

Reuniting with the majority of Michael's 4U gang and lone individuals (looking at you Nat Dam and Helena) from other classes, we had a cute dinner at Madam Nhu where we merrily sipped away at pinot gris and consumed fresh summer rolls, tofu and too many dishes that I TeHe (and others) diligently ordered whilst I was chatting away with Cwilson.

Located just a short walk away from Central station, Madam Nhu is tucked away on a little corner that strikes me as odd that I haven't seen it before. After walking in with a gang of 8 with no reservations, we briefly lingered at bar stools before we were given a table and left to inspect the drink and food menus. Unfortunately we had gone on a Monday, so cocktails were unavailable, but in true classy fashion we all felt like some white wine and went along with a bottle of pinot gris.

Amongst a flurry of summer rolls, we got the BBQ duck fillet summer rolls with hoisin sauce, salad summer rolls w/ hoisin sauce and crispy shiitake spring rolls w/ green chilli sauce. The rolls were all very fresh and crunchy, the accompanying sauces were packed full of flavour and the assortments of vegetables and vermicelli gave each roll a lovely variety in texture - not to mention the serving portions were absolutely perfect for a group as big as our own! It didn't seem like I had an outright favourite, but I think I liked the shiitake spring rolls the best.

For the mains, we shared the bun bo grilled beef and salad, Madame's Fried Chicken (aka MFC), silken tofu with sichuan pepper salt and chilli and salt and pepper squid with shallot and chilli. The bun bo grilled beef salad was absolutely delicious. It was fresh, light, flavoursome, the meat was amazingly seasoned, the noodles perfectly cooked and cooled and (once again) the serving portions were just right. I have to admit that Madame's Fried Chicken was a bit of a let down given how much hype is given about them in the blogosphere and I didn't really enjoy it that much - in fact, opposite to what everyone raves about, on the night that we went I found that the chicken was a tad too chewy and the whole dish was a bit greasy. The salt and pepper squid, albeit quite tasty, was also a bit of a let down only on the basis that it was a bit too battery for my liking - but it was nonetheless very nice and I chomped down more than a few pieces eagerly.

The restaurant itself is very small and cute, somewhere where you could get loud (like our own table of 8) and enjoy a cosy and intimate dinner should you wish to have one. Seemingly very popular with locals, there appeared to always be a few people waiting for a table and upon leaving at around 8, a short line had formed at the door (maybe because people were trying to escape the dismal weather with a hot bowl of pho).

A very casual little place to eat, very much in sync with the vibe of Surry Hills itself, I'm currently on a look out for more places like this that take the atmosphere of casual dining more associated with places for brunch and cafes, to a dinner context and environment.

Dinner at Hurricane's Grill

I frequently see racks and dinners from friends at this place, and when I happened to go to Bondi on a whim and got a bit hungry; Hurricane's seemed like a good place for us to go. I've also heard strange things from J, who insists that Bondi Hurricane's is better than Darling Harbour Hurricane's. I'm not sure if I really understand that logic, but I suppose I'll go with it, given that I haven't tried the Darling Harbour gig.

And with that intro, I might actually do some legit food blogging..not sure if this'll go down well *cue food blogging jargon

For starters, the salt and pepper calamari was good, but it was a bit too battery and I feel like it needed some spices seasoned on it or something to add some pow. It may just be that I love the salt and pepper calamari at Meat and Wine Co. really badly, so everytime I eat s&p squid, that's what I keep comparing it to.

The garlic mushrooms were also pretty good too, but a bit too buttery and garlic-y for my taste. I'm not a big garlic fan and wow kapowza there was a lot of garlic in those mushrooms. Maybe I like button mushrooms better? Not sure, I think this was a hit or miss for me and well..it was a miss this time around.

Mixed Salad: where can you really go wrong in a mixed salad?  Fresh + great (despite the little mountain of alfalfa sprout-doom)

For the mains, J and I shared between a full rack of pork ribs (far too ambitious) and a 350g rib eye steak. 

The pork ribs, the most popular dish at Hurricane's were ok but that may just be that I'm not a huge meat person. The meat slid off the bone quite easily, and the speciality sauce that Hurricane's marinates its ribs in was very tasty; but there was something about the ribs that didn't have me incredibly hooked and wanting more. The 'Monkey Gland' sauce was very sweet though - side note for future or anyone heading out to Hurricane's: you don't need a sauce at all if you order the ribs.

The rib eye steak was also fairly well cooked, but again, I wasn't the biggest biggest fan. First of all the meat was cooked to Medium, because J can't take my usual preference of Medium-Rare steaks. Second, it's unfortunate that I've just come home from Japan, aka the land of ridiculously tender and juicy wagyu. Although maybe by Australian standards the meat was 'tender and juicy', it really isn't up to par with the type of steaks we were eating in Japan. Not sure how I feel about this to be honest. The mushroom sauce was great though (when is it ever not though?)

The restaurant itself was very noisy and rowdy, but it's exactly the type of place where loud exclamations and outbursts of laughter between good friends can exist without getting judgemental heads turning your way every few often. Service was very good as well: J was running extraodinarily late, and even though I insisted for them to give our table away and just give us the next available one after it; they led us in and left us to our memorising of the menu. Food was prompt, waitress was ridiculously friendly and joked around with us for a bit.

I don't think I'll be back to Hurricane's anytime soon. Maybe for a drink (but from what I saw the drink menu was heavily overpriced for a poor person like me), or a salad or something small and not involving too much meat, but in a sense that defeats the purpose of going to Hurricane's. Maybe I've just realised that I'm not a big ribs and steak 'type of 'gal'. Who knows? I still see friends rushing off to Hurricane's, and the place was very very crowded; with people still going in at 9PM to start their meal, so they must be doing something right.