Mr.Crackles, Darlinghurst

Mr. Crackles ~~ Who doesn't get tempted just by the name. This small shop is located in Oxford st, Darlinghurst and opens up until late on Friday and Saturday night. They serve not only rolls but also plate of Meats & Salads and an array of sides like sweetpotato chips, buffalo wings and also the famous Cup of CRACKLING, yuumm!

From what I read, to produce that succulent, juicy and melt in the mouth meat, it took 3 days for the pork to be prepared. First is the important part, seasoning the pork itself and braising it slowly for 10hours before it gets roasted to get that perfect crispy skin.

Look at those cracklings, seriously I can just nibble on them any time of the day! 

The sweet potato wedges is freshly made and served with chilli aioli. I love it. I think that the sweet potato has been cut to a prefect size where there is still a crunch and a bite to it. The sweetness goes well with the sprinkled salt and the creamy aioli,,, The price is pretty reasonable too with the portion that you'll get :) 

Sweet Potato Wedges $7.5

And then, the must try, Cup of crackling!! Can't say much about this one, just Deliciousss, Crispy, Porky goodness!

Cup of Crackling $5

I always get the crackles classic cause a cup of crackling is never enough ;P
The rolls is not as soft as the usual Vietnamese roll but I quite like the chewy texture of it. The fillings is more to coleslaw for me than Vietnamese salad, but they do have coriander though that makes it a bit towards the Viet side ;p And the roasted pork pieces is placed on top show casing the lucious meats..

A closer look to it, hehehe,,

On my next visit here, I will definitely try the lamb roll, the mini hot dogs and another cup of crackling :)

www.mrcrackles.com.au/

Meet Fresh, Chinatown

Meet fresh is a traditional Taiwanese dessert which is really popular here in Sydney! From what I read, Mr & Mrs. Fu were the ones that started the business with their aim of preserving traditional taste of Taiwanese dessert as well as producing them only with natural ingredients and no preservatives added. Their specialties is the Taro Balls which is handmade and so are always fresh.

And how they came up with the name Meet Fresh? It was because they want to make a place where people can meet and taste their fresh desserts :)

There a lot of Meetfresh branch everywhere now in Sydney. But the one that I always visited is the one in Chinatown. The place is always crowded with people at night especially on Friday when they have the Friday Chinese Market.

One of my favourite dessert is their Sweet taro Crushed ice. It comes with fine shaved ice at the bottom and topped with Taro Ice cream, drizzled with condensed milk and taro milky syrup? Not too sure, but they tasted great! The sides have taro pieces, pearls, red beans and taro balls. I alwaysss ordered 'extra extra' taroballs. Means 2x the amount as I love the chewy texture of it.

And.... my all time favourite! Herbal Jelly No.1!! Their herbal jelly is different from any other places can offer. It is silky and melt in the mouth goodness. From what I read as well, the herbal jelly is made up from a natural plant extract which is healthy for us... I hope its true ;P At the bottom of the bowl is fine shaved ice and they will give you a small cup of creamy milk to be poured in the bowl. The original bowl doesn't come with the taro balls but for my love of that chewy goodies, I always ordered double Taro balls! ^^

And for anyone that loves their crushed ice, I recommend to order taro Balls No.1... The fillings are similar to Herbal Jelly No.1 but instead they have taro balls and more crushed ice!

Have it a go on a hot summer day.. Or just cause ^.^
Another tips from me.. Their mango crushed ice looks tempting but it is not as delicious as what you see from the picture.... So think again before ordering hehehehe

http://meetfresh.net/
 

Del la France, Chinatown

Del la France is located on the corner of George st and has always been a busy cafe every time I passed by. After lunch, we meet up with Mr.P and decided to have a coffee in the city and finally try this place out. Thankfully it was not as busy as usual, even though the outdoor seating was full, we still managed to find a table inside.

The decor inside the place was quite interesting, it has an old french cafe ambiance. They not only sell coffee and dessert but also pies, baguettes and crepes.

I was sooo tempted to get the pies as everything looks so goood! Too bad I had buffet before and my tummy was so full that I can only droolssss looking at them T.T

 The DIY Baguettes station where you can choose fillings of your choice and they made freshly for you :) I would definitely try it next time !

As usual, Bebski got his Flat white with Hazelnut syrup. In my opinion, the coffee is too bitter and the hazelnut syrup is too much that it overpowers the whole drink. But Bebski didn't mind it and told me that a real coffee should have a bitter note to it ;P

Flat White $4.40

I got the Mocha and again, the chocolate is bitter as well and too strong :( I ended up giving it to Mr.P heheh! When I checked in to the place through foursquare, one of the tips is to get their ice chocolate mocha... Which I will next time I visit. It looks yummy and I just realized that almost every table got it :(

Mocha $4.40

Visiting french cafe is not complete without trying their croissant. I loveee croissant, from all bakery goods, I always can't resist croissant. The fluffy soft chewy texture is the reason why I love it! So I got the mini croissant which I thought it's not a 'mini' but instead a good portion and well priced croissant :)

Mini Croisant $2.90

I will come back here again and now I know why this place is always buzzing with people! Their pastries must be awesome despite the bitter coffee which might be just my opinion.. ^^

Yummy Chinese BBQ, Haymarket

                                    

When the place is first open, I walked passed by it and tempted to try a skewer chinese buffet which I never been in one. But looking at the price and the risk of it being unsuitable to my pallet is something that always made me think twice before entering. Luckily, they once had a voucher in scoopon for their lunch buffet and came back with Bebski for their usual dinner buffet which was great. We love the food, the selections of skewers, hot and cold bar have a great variety of chinese / scezhuan style cooking.

Recently, they offer another lunch buffet voucher in Groupon and I decided to get it again! What a great value for $11 pp for lunch.... So we went on Saturday. The place was quite full of people and without any further waiting, we immediately took the foods and started to eat.

Let me go through each food stations. The first that you will see once you entered the place was the rice and soup station on the right. At the end of path, they have the drinks, cutlery and also noodle soup station.

They have a glass cupboard full of skewer selections when you dine at night. But for the lunch buffet, they only offer the lamb skewer in which they will cook it and bring it to your table instead of cooking on the automated rotating griller located on each table.

The food station is split into two part, first is the entree (Chinese banchan), fruit and dessert and the second one is the hot food bar.

This is what I got for my lunch hehe..
I like most of their side dishes such as the seasoned cucumber, scezhuan beef slices, radish salad and some boiled peanuts... And from the hot food bar, I pretty much get a bit of everything.. The stir fired clams in Ginger and Scallion sauce is sooooo good! The clams are fresh and well seasoned. I have to compete with other patrons to get the dish as it runs out pretty fast..

I also got salt and pepper calamari which I think is cooked perfectly. The calamari being not chewy :) Also loved the pan fried dumplings, poached fish fillet in scezhuan oil (yummeh!) and they also have assorted fish balls in scezhuan oil and the best part is they have the fish ball with fish roe in it!

I also tried their noodle soup which has an authentic szechuan flavour to it, topped with cilantro which I loved and a slice of beef that is well seasoned. The soup is not hot and yet not cold. So I'm a bit confused as to what the dish was supposed to be like? But whop cares, I like it, it tasted great hehe..

Here comes the lamb skewers! 5 skewer per person. What a generous amount! They have been heavily marinated with cumin powder that some people might not like but that's how they seasoned lamb I guess :) Bebski likes it but I think less fat will be better :)

For dessert, they have pineapple cake with caramelised pineapple at the bottom and a not-too moist sponge cake on top. I also got the mocha sponge cake which is mooooisstt and have a nice mocha flavour to it. Besides sweet baked stuff, I also got the fried sesame ball with red bean inside which is a classic chinese dessert you usually see in yumcha :)

Yummy Chinese only have strawberry ice cream for their lunch buffet which has a nice strawberry flavour and not too sweet (but really creamy) ice cream. You have to scoop the ice cream yourself so show your scooping skill people! hihihih,,

Overall dining was good. I particularly like their type of food and a good value with the selections of food that you get from fish, calamari and clams! Not to mention the pork, beef and lamb!
Check the place out :)


http://www.yummychinesebbq.com.au/

Brothers Kebab, St George

Bebski used to live in Banksia and he was the one that introduced me to this awesome yummy cheap Kebab~! We have been going to this spot for Kebab cravings for almost 4 years now. The service and quality are consistently good. The place is easy to spot as it is located in the Princes Highway and with the bright shining sign, you won't miss it :)

Went here on a Tuesday night with my sister and bebski. Our planned was to eat in Chilli Garden but the thought of having those meats was just unbearable! So we took a turn to Brothers Kebab

They serve all kind of meats from chicken, lamb and beef. I like their chicken meat the most. it is so flavorful and Juicy! They are really generous with the meat portion as well. Apart from the regular kebab and the kebab on plate, they also have souvlaki, burgers and rolls.

And the chips is a must! They always made it fresh and serve hot with their homemade chicken salt. Its really fluffy and crispy at the same time with the saltiness of the chicken salt, what a great combo!

My sister & I got the Mixed kebab wrap and share it among us. The wrap itself is quite thin and the diameter of the wrap is not as wide but the filling is aLOT! We had it with mayo and BBq sauce plus extra cheeeeseee. The BBQ sauce is another favourite of ours. Its not as sour as the BBQ sauce that you find in the supermarket.

If you think that half a wrap is the only food we're having then you are totally wrong! We also got the famous Whatsup box which is their specialties to split between us two. In that box is a bed of chips at the bottom and mountain of beef & Chicken meat pieces smothered in sauces of our choice (we choose sweet chilli and bbq)

It seriously is BIG and only for $10!! We ended up leaving some chips and meats behind cause we are too full. Bebski on the other hand, he ordered one Whatsup box and he finished everything off ^^ To his defense, his meat was not as much as ours...It's a ladies thing I guess hehehehe...

Another thing, do come in dinner time cause there a lot of people having takeaways at that time. From 11PM onwards, the place is packed with people dining there while they only have 3 dining table that fits 4 people each ;p

La Mamma del Gelato ANITA, Chippendale

La Mamma del Gelato which means Mom's Ice cream. What a catchy phrase to lure you into this hidden store behind the new Living Mall called Central park in Chippendale. My sister told me about this place before and I decided to try it out as my friend also recommend me to try the Cookie Man ice cream.

The place is bright, covered with glass on all sides and the waitress are friendly. Greeting us with smile and asking us if we would like try any flavour and so I did try quite a bit before making the decision. They have a lot of flavour variants that are really tempting with their attractive colours.

Apart from ice cream, they also serve frozen yoghurt, and must I say that toppings are UNLIMITED! I hope its forever not just for a few months! Unfortunately we were quite full from the feast in Papprich to even try much here :(

Finally I got the Jumbo size ice cream which let me choose 3 flavours of giant scoops of ice cream. I did get the Cookie Man which has soft crumbed biscuits inside, The Mascarpone Strawberry (My favourite) and the Black forest which has a nice hint of liquor ^^ I think that the price for their ice creams are really affordable. $8 for 3 Jumbo Scoops is worthed! The ice cream being smooth, creamy and not too sweet is a positive points for me!

Not the most appealing picture! Sadly, the waitress didn't ask me if I would like the ice creams in cup or cone :( Would definitely have the cone next time!

Mr.P got the Sugar Free Hazelnut ice cream. Nice nutty note with profound hazelnut flavour and still has the ice cream sweetness for me.

There were a lot of Indonesians when I visited this place. Well, I think typically we loves our food and most of the time we gather with our friends, we would always talk about eating and foods :)

Definitely worth a trip and a try! Will definitely come back. I think Anita is my second best go-to ice cream spot after Andersen's!