Canton Noodle House, Burwood

I don't usually travel to faraway suburbs on a Monday for dinner but last monday was an exception.. My dearest samsung camera phone decided to retire and so I need to temporarily find a replacement from Mr.US.. So I went to Burwood with some other friends to try out this Canton Noodle House Restaurant that I heard is pretty popular and always packed with diners!

Even though the name is Noodle House, I barely saw anyone ordering any noodle dishes from here so we decided to order dishes that we know our taste buds will like ;p 

First, Green Beans with mince pork and X,O sauce can never be missed, cause I love Green Beans!

And the taste was exactly as my expectation! Full of flavour and they are quite generous with the mince pork even though it's not as obvious in the pic. The green beans was also crunchy and not too salty, which is good :)

Next, our usual go to dish is the Salt & Pepper Calamari. What I loveee from the dish is the freshness of the seafood and how it was cooked so perfectly that it still tender and yet got that chewiness to it. I would give this calamari 9/10!!

This dish comes under Chef's recommended dish - Chicken chop and Chinese sausage hotpot. It's hard to describe what it taste like, The onions makes it fragrance and the sauce was so delicious, again pretty generous with the chopped chicken but not so much on the chinese sausage ;p

Now, this is the dish of the night for me! Pork Chop with Peking style sauce. The pork chop was battered and deep fried to crunchiness and covered with this slightly sweet peking sauce. So scrumptious, Highly recommended! I would definitely drive all the way to Burwood for this ;p

Lastly, we ordered the Shantong chicken which is quite different from other shandong chicken I've had. I noticed that every Chinese restaurant has their own interpretation of Shandong chicken. In KCR, they serve it with the sour sauce full with garlic and spring onions, in some other places they serve it with a light brown sauce and crisp basil leaves on top, and this one here they deep fried the chicken and have the sauce on the side. The sauce has a strong black fermented bean taste that is not to our liking, so we ended up just eating the chicken. Unfortunately, some of the chicken was dry and some are still quite red?! So we don't dare to eat it ;p

Overall, it was a good dining experience, some dishes were great and some just not suited for our taste buds, but I will definitely try other dishes in this place. I don't remember the prices for the foods but I can say that they are reasonable and affordable :) And yes, the place was packed with diners even on a Monday night!!

 

Abb Air, World Square (Sydney)

I heard from my sister that Abb Air serves great Thai Food so on a Saturday arvo, I decided to try this place out with Bebski. We got there pretty late for lunch, at around 2PM but there were still customers dine in there. The place was bright and neat, the waitress was friendly as well.

This starter called "LOVE" caught my attention. It was not cheap I tell ya, $4 per LOVE! But after a mouthful of the love, it was all worth it, the crab meat and enoki was wrapped by the seaweed and topped with creamy mayo and tobiko. The green sauce tasted like garlic sauce to me which gives a nice punch to the bite. I do highly recommend this starter if you loveee crab and enoki like me :)

LOVE $4/pc

Bebski as usual looked for something with Crispy Pork Belly in it and he got the Prik Khing Moo Krob with rice. I must say that the cripsy pork belly is too die for! Its soooo crispy but still got that nice bite to it. The sauce was not as wet as the other prik khing but I personally like this one better :)

Prik Khing Moo Krob $13.90

Almost every diner had a bowl on their table which made me curious about their soup. I asked the waitress and she recommended me the Boat Noodle Soup (black herbed soup) with a choice of pork or beef meat. I chose the beef one cause we got one pork dish already. The noodle soup also comes with beef balls, diced beef, veggies and crispy pork fat which brings up the dish to another level! The soup was a bit spicy and also has a sour tanginess to it.

The Boat Noodle Soup $10.90

We also ordered Yakult Pipo, which was this icy drinks with yoghurt flavour and some jellies in it. It was so refreshing :)

Yakult Pipo $5

I will definitely be back to this place to try out other foods! All of the dishes in the menu looks promising and some you can't find in other Thai restaurant, so definitely worth a visit!

John Smith Cafe, Waterloo

Another very late post of mine, just before Mr.V and Ms.S went back for good to indo, we decided to visit John Smith for our last brunch together in Sydney .. Arrived there are 12 noon on Sunday and we were told to wait for table. The place wasn't very big but they surely know how to entertain the customer while waiting for table :) They distribute their amazing choice fudge brownies for us..

At the end of the restaurant is where they made their coffee .. They also have a bar table viewing outside

And a display of their pastries, ranging from cronuts to croissant and their yummy brownies :) Such a tempting look even before we order the mains.. Drools!

At the back of the area, there is Coffee Wheel diagram with descriptors for coffee, reminiscing me with my previous job as flavour technologist T.T

Ok, lets move on to the edible parts :) I ordered the Watermelon, apple and mint juice. It was so refreshing and perfect for a hot day. I highly recommend this juice, great combo and even bebski loved it.

Watermelon, apple and mint juice $7

 Mr.V ordered the Vegetarian option with smoked salmon as the sides. Poached eggs, Zuchchini, sweet potato roti with peperonata salsa verde and roasted corn. It got like a middle eastern spices in the rosti which was not to Mr.V's liking.. Another unfortunate thing is that his egg was overcooked. So not eggporn pic from the dish ;p

Vego Brekkie $16 + $4 Salmon side

And the dish that all of us have been waiting for.. The Eggs Benedict with braised pulled pork!! Undoubtedly hands down the best breakfast combo you can imagined! Tender and juicy pork with oozing egg, covered with generous serving of creamy and smooth hollandaise sauce serve on a toasted sourdough bread. Highlight recommended!!

And for me, always every time I read chorizo in the menu, I will always fall for it.. I got myself the Portuguese chorizo, pork, beans, poached eggs with bread. The beans, pork and chorizo were cooked in tomato based sauce, almost like a mexican-mediterranean dish, with the perfectly poached egg, it was a great dish for me. It just need a bit more salt ;p

Portugese Chorizo $16

Egg pornnn ~~ !!

And a meal wouldn't be perfect without dessert, especially if the dessert is cornets! We got all of the cronuts variants they have, from the glazy, the jam filled cronut and also the chocnut cronuts. My favourite should be the chocnut ones.

Chocnut $5.50, the rest is $4.50

Not to forget the brownies too. Thanks for their sample brownies, Mr.V and Bebski would love to have more of it, so we ordered another big slice to be shared.

Brownies $4

That concludes our brunch madness in John Smith Cafe, we went out with happy faces and full tummy. The service was great, all the staffs are very friendly and would love to come back for the pulled pork and watermelon juice!

Ramen Kan, Chinatown

I've been living in Sydney for almost 6 years now and never have I step foot into Ramen Kan in Chinatown until Ms.S suggested a dinner there. I've been to the one in Bondi many times but she said that the menu was slightly different and here, they serve the best Curry Ramen. The restaurant is located on the second floor, you can access it through stairs of lift, but beware, the lift is pretty dodgy ;p

So I went out with bebski, Mr.M and Ms.OS to Ramen Kan on a friday night. Thankfully the place wasn't as crowded as I went last time with Ms.S, may be partly because there was the Night Market in Chinatown which attracted more attention to people.

I got myself a simple yet refreshing drink called Lychee Coco in the menu. Basically it's just Calpis with Lychee and Nata de Coco. Never thought that Nata de coco and calpis can be a good combo! Great idea for house party next time ;p

Lychee Coco $4.30

The thing that I like in Ramen kan is they have 'all $3 dishes' in their menu, a good portion for snacking or as a sides to your ramen or rice set!
As usual, I can never pass the temptation of Chicken Karage! The portion was generous, 3 big chicken pieces, deep fried perfectly and served with Kewpie <3

I also got the Soft Shell Crab Salad which comes with Cabbage, cherry tomatoes and fresh corn drizzled with the house dressing. The serving of the crab was pretty decent in my opinion and what I love most is the corn pieces! It was fresh, thank goodness, cause I hate the taste of canned corn.

Bebski got the Salmon salad from the $3 menu, the salmon was fresh and again generous for the value!

Mr.M got The Hamburg Curry Rice, beef patty topped with mozarella cheese on an ocean of curry sauce and a mountain of rice :) I didn't get to try it but he said it's delish :)

Curry Hamburg Rice $10.50

Ms.S got the Mini Udon (Kaisen) set which consists of a bowl of plain udon, a small bowl of rice topped with fresh raw salmon and tuna and also a small salad bowl.

Mini Udon Set (kaisen) $13.50

The dish of the night, The Karage Cheese Curry Ramen, from the name itself I thought it would be too much for the taste, but it turned out that the curry wasn't as heavy/strong as I thought it would be, it's pretty light and the cheese gives a nice creaminess to the soup. The karage was unquestionable delish and the noodle was the wavy type of noodle which I love. There's no doubt that this dish is the popular one in Ramen Kan!

Karage Cheese Curry Ramen $11.50

For me, I got half portion of the Hot & Spicy (Geikara) ramen. It is a chicken based soup which consists of wavy noodles, chicken pieces, heaps of thinly slices spriong onion and a dollop of chilli paste. As usual, it wasn't spicy enough for me and the spring onion >.< I need to pick it outttt ..

Geikara Ramen (S) $7.90

 The soup was light and that would be my last time ordering chicken broth based ramen ;p Pork broth has more flavours! It was still good but wasn't as great as pork broth based ramen :) I just love porkkk ;p

I'm glad I listened to Ms.S in the first place and try this place out. I do think that Ramen Kan serves cheap, tasty and well-portioned food. Service is always no doubt top notch for Japanese eat spots.

Do try the Karage Cheese ramen!

Fuku, Sydney (World Square)

Lately I've been procrastinating from blogging becasue of work and my family visiting Sydney, so this post is a late one from a month ago when Mr.P celebrated his 23rd Bday :) There were 6 of us dining in Fuku. Fuku is located just across Din Tai Fung in World Square. Make sure to book a table because when we arrived, the place was swarming with diners.

There were a lot of dishes that I would love to order but because Mr.P was treating that night so I just suggested a couple of dishes to him ;p All of the foods in the menu were tempting and even the prices were really reasonable in my opinion. So we let Mr.P ordered the foods while we chat and laugh :)

The first thing to arrive is Pink Dragon Roll - Crispy tempura inside the roll and topped with seared salmon on top and garnished with Tobiko. The sushi was mindblowingly delish! I'm not joking one of the best dragon roll I've had so far :) I highly recommended the dish ^^ Even though the components might sounds simple but the combos work really well.

Pink Dragon Roll $17

Another sushi dish that we ordered was the Volcano Roll - another tempura roll with mushrooms and scallop topped with spicy cream sauce. The creamy sauce provides a perfect addition to the roll.
Another delish sushi from Fuku but I still prefer the Dragon roll maybe because there was raw scallop in the volcano roll ..

Volcano Roll $22

Then come the Popcorn Prawns -  Tempura bite size prawn with Wasabi Mayo. The prawns were deep fried till crispy and smothered in somewhat sweet and tangy wasabi sauce. I don't really fancy the dish that much but most of my friends kinda like it :) The portion was quite big as well considering the price.

Popcorn Prawns $12

Next dish is Fuku BBQ Pork Spare Ribs which comes in small and large portion. We picked the small one and it came with wedges and salads. It was kinda unusual to see pork spare ribs cooked in Japanese sauce and served western style ;p

It was yummy though! The pork ribs was tender and the sauce is indeed special as they mentioned in the description of the dish ;p

Pork Ribs Small $13.50

And here comes the dish that I've been waiting for. The only thing that I insisted Mr.P to order! Cripy pork belly served on top of japanese coleslaw and with a side of mustard. We ordered the small size (Unfortunately! T.T). The skin of the pork belly was undoubtedly crispy and the coleslaw at the bottom complement the pork really well, with a hint of mustard, a mouthful is just .,,, Heavennn ;p

Crispy pork belly $14

That night was all about Beef, Pork and Prawns! The next dish is Angus Beef Steak - 48 hours slow braised short ribs served with Polenta and asian greens at the bottom. The beef was tender and well marinated but I don't really find anything spectacular with the taste :)

Black Angus Steak $24

Now this one is another story! It was so delicious that we ordered for seconds! Wagyu beef yakiniku - Tender and Juicy Wagyu with japanese yakiniku sauce. The sauce was amazing, full of flavours and the stir fry veggies at the bottom was great as well. The beef was really juicy and I literally can finish everything by myself! Another recommended dish in Fuku. Even though it doesn't have a 'Chef recommended' star, but I still do think that it's worth a try :)

Wagyu Beef yakiniku $24

Lastly, the mains that we ordered was the Corn-fed Teriyaki Chicken Breast - twice cooked chicken breast with teriyaki sauce. Nothing really special about the dish, the chicken was pretty dry in my opinion hehe.. Not a great dish to close this post ;p

Corn-fed Chicken Teriyaki $23

So the verdict for Fuku is it's definitely worth a visit and do order dishes that has the chef recommended star on it! :) Service may not be the best, it was hard for us to get the staff's attention considering how top notch the Japanese are with service ;p  I would definitely be back for their sushi, yakitori, okonomiyaki and the most important thing in a meal, their dessert!!