Category: Sydney

All About Food Blog is currently based in Sydney, Australia. It is obviously THE place to be if you want to find food from all over the world.

Potluck

This week will be our Special Potluck Event. We invited 12 friends to share dishes. We had three appetisers, three main courses, two desserts, and a drink menu. I am going to list the dishes based on its order of serving. Since there will be 9 items here, I will only describe what it looks like.

The Experience

Appetiser #1 – Pacific Oysters with Tetsuya’s Vinaigrette

Coincidentally, my dish was presented first. It was a kind of too-simplistic version of Tetsuya’s infamous Vinaigrette Oysters. It was simply a mixture of ingredients stirred together to form the vinegar and, then, poured on a freshly shucked Pacific oyster.

Appetiser #2 – Hokkien Prawn Mee

Our second dish for the day was made by Pin Fong. Two perfectly cooked prawns and fish cake were laid on a bed of Hokkien mee and glass noodle with a handful of bean sprouts, sliced egg, and excellent prawn-based soup. This was Pin Fong’s traditional dish when he lived in Kuching, Malaysia.

Appetiser #3 – Chicken and Mushroom Pie

A classic Australian meat pie, made by Shienny was next on the menu. Chunks of chicken breast, mushrooms, and onions were baked and covered by layers of crunchy pastry. It was so delicious that we could not believe it was her first attempt!

After the appetisers, we had a one-hour break to lessen our tummy’s tension before getting into the main course. Some of us played the Board Games ‘Acquire’ and some just watched some cuddly animals on TV.

Main Course #1 – Indonesian-style ‘Empal’ Beef

Maria and Sud presented a finely decorated plate of ‘Empal’ beef. It is an Indonesian-style dish that was made using the pressure cooker method and then sweetened and fried. It was accompanied by Indonesian Rice Crackers.

Main Course #2 – Roast Lamb

This one is Wil’s all-time favourite, Roast Lamb. It was an oven-roasted lamb with Wil’s special mustard marinade. He cooked it in a way that the lamb was still tender and juicy. It was another simple dish with a big taste!

Main Course #3 – Singaporean Chili Mud Crab

Another first-attempt dish of the day, Singaporean Chili Mud Crab by Inggita. A mixture of blue swimmer crabs and mud crab twice cooked in Singaporean-style chilli sauce. It goes well with Basmati Rice.

This time we also took an hour-or-so break to prepare for the always-so-devilishly-delicious desserts.

Dessert #1 – Blueberry and Chocolate Mousse

Jason brought in a beautiful looking cake which was layers of dark chocolate mousse, chocolate hazelnut biscuit, blueberry compote with a mirror of blueberry glaze.

Dessert #2 – Homemade Tiramisu

This one is Rahmat’s fully-perfected homemade Tiramisu. The tiramisu needs to be chilled for a day before serving. It was also non-alcoholic due to dietary requirements of some of the drivers.

Drink – Fruit Punch

Apart from regular soft drinks, we were also treated by Arein’s special Fruit Punch. A mixture of sliced fruits are combined with heaps of fruit juice that created a very refreshing drink.

Did you know?

According to Wikipedia, apparently Potluck was originated from England in Middle Ages.

Location:

Our Apartment, Maroubra Junction NSW 2035

Website:

http://ardipradana.com/

Oct 4, 2010
Almond Bar

Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6 /10

Price Range: $15 – $20

Place: 8/10

Description:

Baba ghanouj: smoky eggplant dip

Lab’tar: combination of yoghurt and oregano, sesame, sumac and sea salt

Shawandarr: traditional roasted beetroot & yoghurt dip

Haloumi: grilled sheep’s milk cheese with olive oil, oregano & diced tomatoes

Scallops moghrabieh: tender scallops tossed in giant cous cous, shanklish (aged yoghurt cheese) & diced tomatoes

Mukloubi with chicken: layers of spiced rice, eggplant & chicken, finished with homemade yoghurt, almonds & pine nuts

Chargrilled lamb skewers: marinated in a special house sauce

Review:

Our friend’s colleague recommended us to Almond Bar. According to the recommendation, this restaurant was one of the finest Middle Eastern restaurants in town. When we got there, my first impression was: it’s a pretty restaurant with a lot of wooden decorations. Our maître d’ greeted us with warm welcome and showed us our table. The table was kinda small with pre-arranged menu and welcome snack.

Upon glancing the menu, we found a banquet-type food that consisted of assortments of dishes from the Mezza (share dish). We decided not to take it and opted to choose from the list of food on the Mezza list. Since Maître d’ recommended us to get between 4-6 dishes, we expected to have a small-ish dish.

We decided to have one starter and four Mezza on this occasion. The starter was Pita Bread and Vegetables with 3 dips: Baba Ghanouj, Lab’tar, and Shawandarr. It came with deep-fried and baked pita bread. This was the nicest dish of the night, especially Baba Ghanouj, it accentuated on the eggplant’s smoke flavour. The mezza that was sort of in-between dishes were the Haloumi Cheese. It was pretty small and the cheese was pretty bland.

Next one on was the Scallops Moghrabieh. This time, the presentation was not good. Since the lighting was yellow-ish, there was no clear distinction between the scallops and cous cous. To top it off, the flavour was, again, pretty bland with a little bit of seafood sensation in the scallops. By this time, we kind of felt let down by the food so far. The Lamb Skewers only helped to increase our faith in the restaurant a little. The lamb was nicely grilled and its sauce added an accent to its flavour.

Last one on the line was Mukloubi with Chicken. It was written in the menu as the ‘Chef’s favourite dish growing up’. We had a very high expectation on this signature dish. When the dish arrived, we were taken aback by its shocking presentation. It looked like fried rice, covered in gooey yoghurt and a sprinkle of almonds. The taste was even more challenging, considering that we have never had fried rice combined with yoghurt. I personally think that those two don’t go well together. It could have been better if the yoghurt was served on a separate bowl as an optional add-on.

The final verdict: It was a nice and quiet place to have dinner. The service was also good. The food was not particularly appealing and over-priced. In terms of flavour, it was pretty standard and way off of our tastebuds.The only consolation they had was the dips.

Did you know?

There are plenty nice-looking restaurants, but be careful not to choose some random ones without any recommendations or you might be disappointed!

Location:

379 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9380 5318

http://www.almondbar.com.au/

Sep 26, 2010
Palm Breeze Cafe

Rating:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5/10

Price Range: $18 – $33

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

I had a very good first impression when we first stepped into Palm Breeze Cafe. It had a very nice and cosy ambience, friendly staffs, and our table was prepared within seconds. Upon glancing the menu, I was impressed with the wide arrays of cuisines they offered. They have pretty much everything from the Mediterranean to Western dishes.

After looking around for a few minutes, I decided to taste their Scotch Fillet and Ribs combo. I was fully aware that by doing this, I was ready to directly compare the café with household names like Kelly’s and Hurricane’s. I pictured the combo would be of similar size of Hurricane’s because other steaks that went past me were huge. However when it came, the steak and ribs were tiny. I only got a rack of lamb ribs and a very tiny slice of Scotch Fillet. The fillet was cooked nicely but the ribs were quite bland. The other main that I tasted was Vitello Oscar. It is grilled veal with creamy garlic prawns on top. It had the best presentation for the night. The cheese would melt right through the prawns and veal. The prawns were really nice but the veal was a bit overcooked.

The next two that we ordered from the menu, I did not really taste as my friends ordered them. The first one was Moroccan Chicken Salad. It was a quite colourful salad and had a quite big portion. In addition to the usual salad, they also put in onions, cucumbers, cashew nuts, and Moroccan-style grilled chicken. The other one was Schnitzel Parmigiana. It was the least interesting plate of the night. It was practically a chicken schnitzel with a little bit of cheese and sauce on a bed of chips and salad.

For desserts, the five of us picked two of our most favourite desserts: Crème Brulee and Tiramisu. Again, presentation wise, the two desserts were above average. They really stimulated our curiosity. However, upon tasting, we found that the crème brulee’s caramelised top was too thick and the layer of cream was also too thick. We had similar experience with the Tiramisu lacking the ‘memorable’ taste.

The final verdict: It was a nice place to spend the night. The food presentation was really nice. In terms of flavour, it lacked the wow factor that made me want to return to try other stuffs on the menu and was kind of par rating.

Did you know?

This café is located in the Sydney’s suburb, Burwood. It is one of the first suburbs that I am familiar with due to the fact that my game store is located there. It is also home of the last destination of Sydney’s longest bus service route 400 (In my opinion). The bus goes from Bondi Junction – Randwick – Maroubra – Eastgardens – Airport (Domestic & Int’l) – Rockdale – Campsie – Burwood. Six times (or more) the travelling time of trains or cars!

Location:

128 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

http://www.palmbreezecafe.com.au/ (The website is currently inactive)

Sep 19, 2010
Din Tai Fung

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: $11 – $20

Place: 7/10

Review:

Just like any other well-known Chinese Restaurants, Din Tai Fung is always packed with people. If you go there only with your partner, don’t be intimidated by the huge number of people queuing outside the restaurants. The turnover for two people is quite high, so you will only need to wait for half an hour. But if you go with a large group, I’d suggest you to book in advance.

Din Tai Fung is world famous for its Xiaolongbao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaolongbao). It is a very soft dumpling with mince pork (or some other combinations) and gelatine soup. We normally add vinegar and sliced ginger, pop the dumpling so that the soup would come out and enjoy it all in a spoonful. This time, we ordered its variant, Steamed Green Vegetable Dumpling. It was served in a bamboo basket and a layer of white cloth. The dumpling was quite different than any other dumplings we found on a yumcha restaurant. You can actually see through it and looked soft and yet it is strong enough to be handled by chopsticks.

Similar to other fine dining restaurants, the portion of their food is pretty small, thus we ordered quite a few dishes. First one to come out was the appetiser, Drunken Chicken. It was a chilled Boneless chicken marinade in Chinese wine. It was soft and had a hint of sweetness in the chicken. Very good to build your appetite, but unfortunately, this was the best dish of the night for me.

In addition to the dumplings, we also ordered Sautéed Water Spinach with Garlic and Deep Fried Chicken Fried Rice. Although a quite staple food in Indonesia, water spinach is difficult to obtain in Sydney. It is quite nice and healthy. There was nothing special about the fried rice as well, but the chicken was quite crispy and tasty.

To finish the night, we ordered Mango Pudding and Golden Taro with Taro Ice Cream. We ordered the pudding just to be on the safe side (and I think there’s a universal standard for how you make mango pudding). It’s a pretty generous serving of mango pudding with an optional side of condensed milk. Pretty nice, yet pretty standard! The other dessert, however, was really nice. It was a deep-fried, golden brown taro on a side with a scoop of ice cream. It was very crunchy and savoury.

Did you know?

As one of Sydney’s prominent building, World Square housed several big name restaurants, shops, and nightclubs. It is also an ideal meeting place because of the ease of travel to it.

Location:

Shop 11.04, World Square Shopping Centre, 644 George Street, Sydney

https://www.dintaifungaustralia.com.au/

Sep 7, 2010
Spanish Tapas Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: $12 – $90

Place: 8/10

Spanish Tapas Restaurant review:

Before you freak out after looking at the price range, I must tell you that the $90 is super-massive Paella to be shared with four (or more) people. Most of the tapas are in the region of $15 and the main course menu (if you don’t order Paella) would be around $25.

We actually managed to go to Spanish Tapas restaurant by pure curiosity. We always love to hang out at the café opposite the restaurant. We were surprised by the fact that it was a really nice and cosy atmosphere. The food itself was generally alright, borderline good.

Since it’s a Spanish restaurant, we ordered 3 tapas and 2 breads. The first two were the all-time favourites, Chorizos and Tortilla Española. Chorizo is the grilled Spanish sausages. The other one was Spanish omelette with a big chunk of potatoes. Very nice start to fill up the tummy to match the strength of Sangria!

The last tapas of the day was sliced smoked lambs with Olives. It is a very nice to get our tastebud going before the Paella arrives. It also came with two gigantic loaves of garlic and herb breads.

After 30 minutes, our main dish was out, Paella de Marisco. Description on the menu only listed it as Rice & Seafood. It is a lot more than that. It was served on a massive pan, a bed of rice in saffron with green veggies and tomatoes. Then, layers of calamari, mussels, clams, prawns covered it all.

For drinks, like in any other Spanish restaurants, we ordered the Sangria. This one is a little bit of a letdown because it wasn’t strong and a bit watery. We also didn’t want to get desserts and chose to go elsewhere that we were more familiar with.

Did you know?

There is a very nice Churros place in Glebe, called Chocolateria San Churro. It is actually a franchise (like any other places in Sydney), but it serves a warm and crunchy churros. I just realised that there was also a churros menu at this restaurant that I didn’t get the chance to taste. Btw, if any of you is wondering wtf churros is, then click here for the answer.

I also found that there’s a café, named Badde Manors, in Glebe that serves the best homemade Tiramisu.

Location:

26 Glebe Point Road, Glebe 2037, Sydney

http://www.spanishtapas.com.au/

+61 (02) 9571 9005

Aug 15, 2010
Kellys Grill

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price Range: $26 – $48

Place: 9/10

Kellys Grill Review:

There was much to love about Kellys Grill. Sitting atop Bondi Junction Westfield, it boasts fantastic view of Sydney’s skyscrapers and Harbour Bridge. The design of the restaurant itself is very stylish and posh. The food is, of course, exceptional without the need to queue or wait. Although, It is always suggested to book in advance to avoid disappointment.

As a fine dining restaurant, they offered a full range of cuisine from entrees through desserts, although we usually skip the dessert part in favour of Max Brenner’s. For starters, you always get a fresh-from-the-oven bread. It was a little bit sweet and the size is adjusted to the number of people on the table. Very nice bread to start off the evening!

There are several entrees that you can choose from, including their Mixed Tasting Platter. This time, for entrees we ordered Snails and Lemon Pepper Mushrooms. It is not your average slimy-looking snails. They were out of the shell, baked in a creamy garlic sauce and mature parmesan cheese. The mushrooms were also nice with a hint of olive, lemon and lime.

They have an even greater number of choices for the main course. You can choose to have grill, chicken, seafood, light meals, or even vegetarian. However, as personal favourite, we always order their Lamb Ribs (regular size). It came in as three racks of lamb ribs basted with their African basting sauce, a side of chips and fried onion rings.

The other main course of the night was Pork Ribs. I would say that Kelly’s ribs were more edible than Hurricane’s in terms of their grilling style. Hurricane’s were normally half-burnt.

Did you know?

Bondi Junction is my personal favourite place to hang out. They have all range of stores that you can visit in two 6-story buildings. They always have 2-hour free parking and you can park for free after 6 PM.

Location:

Level 6, Westfield Shopping Centre, Bondi Junction, Sydney

http://www.kellys.net.au/

+61 (02) 9389 8288

Aug 1, 2010