Thursday, January 17, 2013

Chilli garden, Hurstville

Chilli Garden Second Visit...
Another catch up with my Subway Friends.. I dont know why we always meet up here ;P Its just a coincidence I guess.. So this time we ordered something different while still ordering the Fish in chilli oil and the beef tripes :)
We ordered this cold dish as our starter.. Well, my firends ordered it, it was quite a strange to me to me at first as the usually eat our noodle warm/hot. But surprisingly, I quite like it.. The noodle has a good chewiness but yeah it was bit oily :)
Cold Dishes - Jelly noodle in scezhuan oil
 The Mapo Tofu is cooked with duck egg, so the sauce is creamy and looked spicy but really there's nothing spicy from that dish.. The tofu is silken and smooth and the peas still got a good crunch to it :)

The below dish is one of my favourite of the night, so the concept it similar to Master Bowl in Chinatown, where you pick a minimum of 5 ingredients and they will stir fry it for you :)

My friend chose lamb, beef intestines, tofu, cauliflower, potato, mushrooms and Potato noodle :)

We ended up with $25/pp and there were 6 of us.. And we still manage to Da Bao / Takeaway a container full of foods :) What another great night in this restaurant . 
Good Food. Good Company..

Chilli Garden 1st Visit
I decided to have a catch up with my Subway friends as it has been long since I met them.. So I give them a call and asked them if we could catch up over dinner anytime soon. Previous meeting, we had dinner in Ayam Goreng 99 where I told them that this place serve the best Indonesian Fried Chicken. But it has failed to impress my Chinese Friends. So this time, I told them to pick the place.

Because all of us really love spicy food, he invited us to try Chilli Garden Restaurant. As the name denotes, the food here must be spicy :) I am so excited and can't wait to try it out. 

The waiter in the restaurant barely speaks English and my friend is a regular there so I leave it to them whatever they want to order.. Ill just eat and pay ^^

For starter, we had the Beef tongue and tripe in Chilli Oil (Cold Dish). Slices of beef parts simmered in Chilli oil with coriander, spring onions, peanuts and sprinkles of sesame seeds. Not to forget szechuan pepper! This herb makes your tongue numb! It was delicious though.. My bf favourite for sure..

Beef slice, tongue and tripe in Chilli Oil $9.80
 This was similar dish to the one on top but it is sliced chicken :)

Braised Dongpo Pork Hock with Brown sauce $26.80
 My favourite Dish of the nightt.... Fish fillet with scezhuan chilli! The fish is so tender, cooked perfectly. Underneath the pepper, there is also Korean bean sprout which has bigger head the regular beansprout! Caution though this dish is so numbing you lips!
Fish fillet in scezhuan chilli oil $33
 A cold noodle dish which I found weird when tasting it first. But after going back for seconds, it taste alright. I guess my tastebuds get used to it ^^ It's not my bf favourite dish though.. It looks spicy but its actually not. I regarded this as "chinese noodle salad" with the sprouts, sliced beef and as it is cold :p
Scezhuan Cold Noodle $16.80
 This dish how it works is similar to Master Bowl restaurant in Chinatown where you can choose the ingredients to be stir fried with the homemade special sauce.. My friend picked lotus beetroot, potato, chewy jelly noodle, chicken, tofu and cauliflower :)

Another favourite dish of mine and my bf... The deep fried chicken is crunchy and I can really taste the garlicky note on the chicken and when I eat the chicken together with the dried chilli, my god I can taste the spiciness of the dish! which is what I'm looking for :)
Deep fried chicken dices with dry scezhuan chilli $19.80

This Dinner was also to welcome my friend's twins to his Sydney trip for the first time ^^ 
What a fun night we hadd :)

Overall dining experience... Great Food, Great place, Great Price, Easy to find parking. Its just the waiter.. Hardly understand me speaking T.T
Highly Recommended! Will definitely be back!!

Chilli Garden Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Monday, January 7, 2013

Ippudo, Sydney Westfield

I was walking around in the city on Saturday night and went to westfield for dinner. I came across this new ramen restaurant called Ippudo and the queue at 6:30PM was not a joke! I googled it straight away, and apparently there were a lot of infomation about this ramen place that it is very well known in Japan and a couple of poeple have write their review on this place.

Ippudo Originated in Japan, they hand made their noodle and their put a lot of effort in producing the top notch pork broth that they serve there. They also introduced me to the word "Zuzutto" which is the way of eating ramen japanese style. In short word, we have to slurp the noodle when we ate them till it makes the sound to maximize the enjoyment of eating ramen :P

It was impossible for me to queue that night so I decided to come back on Sunday. I ask a couple of my friends along with my bf to try that place out. As my bf is very fond of anything Japanese-related..
We were greeted enthusiastically by the waiter and also when we left :P

For starter, we ordered the famous pork bun. The Bun is so delicate and soft, the Pork is flavoursome complemented by the crunchy lettuce and japanese mayo. one is never enough for me..!!

Pork Bun 4.50

Ippudo Gyoza (Hakata style) 6.00

 My dish was Akamaru Shinaji which is tonkotsu broth incorporated with miso paste and garlic oil. Accompanied by mushrooms and pork belly .. Taste wise, I don't really get the depth of the flavour as Gumshara ramen got.. Im not complaining though, its just that my expectation has been put up really high :p

Or maybe this is what authentic japanese ramen taste like, I'll never know till I travel there someday. . .
Akamaru Shinaji $16

This is what my bf got.. Shiromaru motoaji. It is similar to what i got but it was more to a tradition hakata style ramen without the miso paste and the garlic oil :)
Shiromaru Motoaji $15
I might come back again for the pork bun.. Not too sure for the ramen cause I prefer ramen with more flavour depth ;P Anyone agree? hehe..

Ippudo Sydney on Urbanspoon