Temasek, Parramatta

I've heard many times about how amazing the Hainanese chicken is at Temasek, so I jumped at the chance to go and try it when we went there recently with some family friends. There were a lot of us at the table so we got to sample a wide range of their menu. The food didn't take long to come out but what I noticed was that it came out in the order that we ordered the dishes with our waiter - something to keep in mind for next time! This was quite surprising because most of the time at Asian restaurants the dishes just come out whenever they're ready. 

Beef rendang - $17.80

The first dish we ordered was the beef rendang which has tender, fall-apart chunks of beef that are flavoursome from the spices used in the rendang. The sauce was also great with rice.

Sambal Balacaan Kang Kong - $16.80

Next up was the sambal balacaan kang kong - a vegetable dish with water spinach, sambal and shrimp paste. This probably could have done with a bit more chilli kick, but the shrimp paste and garlic added a heap of flavour to the vegetables. 

Hainanese chicken (whole) - $36.00

Sugar Hit @ Sheraton on the Park, Sydney

With the SIFF drawing to a close, I decided that I should at least try one of the Sugar Hits since I've never been to one. There were so many to choose from, but thanks to the Eat Show & Tell crew, choosing which one to attend became a lot easier from their extensive reviews! I initially wanted to go to Glass Brasserie and Azuma Kushiyaki, but they were both booked out on the night, so I settled for Sheraton on the Park.

A candy creation of chocolate and sugar in the Gallery Tea Lounge - it smelt delicious!

Almost as soon as we sat down, we were presented with our Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora. Not long after that, a waitress came over with 2 Sugar Hits. The service was very efficient, almost too efficient. It made me feel a bit rushed which was strange considering that more than half the tables were still empty. But maybe that was just me.

Warm chocolate pudding sprinkled with golden almond splinters, honeycomb ice cream and a drop of chantilly cream, served with a glass of Brown Brothers dessert wine - $20

Poporo, Haymarket

Another pre-theatre dinner - this time Charm and I were watching the long-awaited Wicked! at Capitol Theatre and we were looking for a quick bite before the show. However, I forgot that Thursday was shopping night and that all the usual suspects around the area (Musashi, Chat Thai, Wagaya etc...) would be packed. As a last resort we went to Market City and were surprised to find a new place open which seemed to offer quick and tasty food, which is exactly what we were after.

Touchscreen Menu

 
Poporo calls itself a "Japanese modern cafe restaurant" and offers a variety of burgers, pasta, salad and rice dishes. Apart from the normal Japanese-style rice dishes such as curry rice and omelette rice, they also had something called "doria" which was "oven baked white mornay sauce and melty cheese on tomato rice". Everything was very reasonably priced hovering around the $10-15 mark. You simply placed your order at the touchscreen, paid at the counter and sat down at a table with your number. 

Spinach and cheese penne (cream sauce with bocconcini, tasty, mozzarella, parmesan and spinach) - $10.90

Let's Do Lunch @ Foveaux Restaurant and Bar, Surry Hills

After looking at all the Let's Do Lunch options on offer for this year's SIFF, Foveaux Restaurant and Bar stood out to us as the one that we definitely had to attend. They certainly didn't disappoint, offering two options for their Let's Do Lunch, meaning that we got to sample 2 of their delicious mains.

Let's Do Lunch Menu

Foveaux is located (surprise surprise) on Foveaux Street, not far from Central Station. We entered the restaurant and were greeted by friendly waitstaff and a nice warm ambiance. We started off with the wine which were matched to the two different dishes, and hot sourdough rolls with a generous slab of butter.

Amuse bouche

The lovely waitress brought us the complimentary amuse bouche, which was a warm smoked eggplant veloute with white sesame and cumin. It had a distinct eggplant flavour and biting into the cumin seeds released a spicy flavour which complimented the smoky eggplant. Sir D doesn't like eggplant so he left half of his veloute to me, which I more than happily finished off.

Baked rainbow trout with Victorian morel mushrooms, clams, mache sugar snaps and sweet corn puree

Pie in the Sky, Cowan

On our way back from The Entrance, we stopped at Pie in the Sky in Cowan. I'd read about this place on Not Quite Nigella and Here Comes The Food, and since Sir D is a big pie-lover we decided to grab a couple of pies. 

It is definitely a pie-lovers paradise with so many different pie fillings to choose from. You can either choose to get your pies in a paper bag or put on a plate for you with cutlery. There's also other delicious additions to your pie such as mash, peas and gravy and although they were very tempting it wasn't quite lunchtime yet so we took ours home.

 

Pies galore!

We stood at the two pie cabinets for a good 10 minutes trying to decide which pies to get. Sir D firmly announced that we were getting one savoury pie and one fruit pie each - excellent! I had decided on the peach pie but was tossing up between the chicken and asparagus and the lamb, honey and rosemary. 

More pies!

We got our pies and hopped back in the car before we got too many stares from the many bikies that seem to congregate here, who were probably wondering why this strange Asian girl was taking photos of everything...

DCE Cafe and The Lolly Barn, The Entrance

Recently, Sir D and I went to The Entrance for a little getaway. After taking much longer to get there than anticipated (since it seems like whenever I drive on the F3, I always get stuck in traffic because there's an accident), we were absolutely ravenous and we popped into this little cafe for a late lunch. We ate here the last time we went to The Entrance and fell in love with their crunchy yet fluffy fries, so we ordered burgers since they all came with a generous serving of said fries. 

Beef Burger: with homemade 100% beef pattie, tasty cheese, beetroot, salad greens, tomato and gourmet tomato relish, served with chunky chips - $13.50

Night Noodle Markets 2009, Sydney

Sir D and I headed to the Night Noodle Markets last night on the prowl for some yummy food. Having been there in previous years, we went early to avoid the horrendous crowds that build up through the night, and also to redeem our SMH subscriber free drinks vouchers from the SMH stand! We got there at exactly 5pm and had time to walk around all the stalls to see what was on offer before there were too many people.

The early bird catches the worm... people at the Noodle Markets at 5pm
 

There were all the usual Malaysian and Thai places selling noodles and curries as well as a few yum cha stalls selling dim sum. Notable newcomers included Din Tai Fung who were offering dumplings such as their famous pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) and also some mini dessert buns like red bean. 

Offerings at Jackie M

We decided to grab the char kway teow from Jackie M since we could see them frying each batch of noodles separately to order. The smell wafting from their stall was mouth-watering, and we could see that it was already drawing some early noodle-market goers to their stall.

Chicken Char Kway Teow - $12.00

Sushi Rio, Sydney

My sister Charm and I are both love our sushi. We ventured out to the city one Friday afternoon for lunch and we stumbled across Sushi Rio's lunch special where all sushi was $3! With a bargain like that we couldn't resist and so we abandoned our original lunch destination to eat at Sushi Rio.


The place was quite full but luckily when we went there was no line and we were seated promptly. One thing I like about Sushi Rio's setup is that their plates are grouped into categories according to the type of seafood/meat in the sushi. So all the salmon, prawn, tuna, chicken etc has its own little section of the train preceded by a sign saying what the section is. Pretty good for those unfamiliar with their sushi.

Raw salmon onion nigiri (normally $3.00)

We started off with the salmon onion nigiri which was very fresh and zigzagged with wasabi mayo.

Grilled eel nigiri (normally $3.50)

The eel nigiri is sweet and tender - the most tender eel I've ever had I think!

Raw scallop nigiri (normally $3.50)

Lindt Chocolat Café, Sydney

One Friday afternoon in the city, Charm and I were in the mood for sugar. We headed over to Bacco Pasticceria in Chifley Plaza but alas, we'd come too late and they were pretty much sold out of their cakes! So the backup plan for our sugar hit ended up arriving in waffle form at Lindt Cafe.

Lindt Waffle: freshly made and served warm with Lindt vanilla white chocolate ice-cream and Chocolate Fudge sauce - $15.00

Let's Do Lunch @ Sean's Kitchen, Pyrmont

October has got to be every Sydney foodie's favourite month because it's the month of the Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF)! Having trawled the SIFF website for all the fantastic food-related events on this year, Sir D and I kick-started the SIFF with a visit to Sean's Kitchen for Let's Do Lunch.

Interior of Sean's Kitchen

With a name like Seven Deadly Sins, I could not resist finding out just how deadly the Let's Do Lunch offering was at Sean's Kitchen. It was quite hard to navigate ourselves to the 2nd floor of Star City where the restaurant was located since they were renovating sections of the casino and many of the escalators were closed off - so frustrating because I was hungry! We got there eventually and we requested the Let's Do Lunch offer, and our friendly waitress promptly offered us a choice of a Brown Brothers red wine or a Coopers pale ale.



We also got a slice of bread which was warmed up but the crust was a bit too chewy as though it had been out for a while. I was hungry so I ate most of mine with the lovely creamy butter (which was covered with a cute cow print!) but Sir D left his behind.

Seven Deadly Sins - $35 including a glass of wine, beer or mineral water

Miro Tapas Bar, Sydney

One of the things I love about tapas is that you get to share everything - which for me means no pleading with people to have a little taste of their meals! Tonight we're at Miro Tapas Bar to farewell MB who is jet setting off to Europe for 2 months - lucky him! And by some divine miracle from the food gods we get seated at the only well-lit table in the whole place. Not so good for the ambiance but definitely good for my photos =D

Sangria - $20 for a jug

We start off with a jug of sangria for the table, which is sweet and fruity. Very drinkable.

Calamares al Sol (strips of calamari, golden browned on the hot plate with a special salsa) - $12.00

We order a whole lot of tapas to share depending on everyone's preferences and luckily we end up with lots of different dishes. First up is the calamari with salsa verde which is a simple yet delicious dish. The calamari is also very tender.

Champignones al Ajillo (garlic mushrooms) -$11.00

Next is the ubiquitous tapas dish: garlic mushrooms. These are juicy and have a great garlicky flavour.