Category: Global Cuisines

All About Food Blog loves trying different cuisines from all around the world. Sometimes food has the same name but completely different look and taste.

50 best restaurants in the world 2013

50 best restaurants in the world 2013 has a new winner in 2013.

El Celler De Can Roca of Spain has dethroned the top restaurant for the last three years, Noma of Denmark. Originally from Girona, Spain, El Celler De Can Roca is not an anonymous name. Spearheaded by chef Joan Roca (with his two brothers), they’ve been a runner up to Noma for the last two years. They have also been in the list for the last eight years and steadily climbing up the ladder. According to theworlds50best.com, eating at El Celler is truly uplifting, with the warmth of the family dynamic all-pervasive.

I am actually more suprised by Attica‘s rise to prominence. Attica is Australia’s Top restaurant in 2013 and is located in Melbourne, Victoria. They are the highest new entry for the year at number 21. In 2012, Attica was only sitting at number 63, well below Quay at 29 and Marque at 61. This year Quay is still on the list at number 48, while Marque and Tetsuya are out of top 100. Sydney’s top restaurant according Good Food Guide, Momofuku Seiobo, is the only other Australian restaurant in top 100 at number 89.

50 best restaurants in the world 2013 in Asia

Asia’s top restaurant is Narisawa from Tokyo, Japan. Named after its head chef, Yoshihiro Narisawa, this restaurant has a French technique with Japanese ingredients. Tetsuya’s other restaurant, Waku Ghin of Singapore, is sitting at number 11 on the list.

Surprisingly, my home country has ONE restaurant in the top 50 Asian restaurants called Mozaic in Bali. It is located in Jl. Raya Sanggingan, Ubud, Gianyar – Bali 80571. The restaurant is described as Franco-Indonesian, a fusion of French and Indonesian cuisines. Its current signature dishes are suckling pork with pig’s trotter ravioli and babi guling emulsion.

This is one restaurant I will definitely go to test! 🙂

Apr 30, 2013
Societe Food and Wine Bar

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Unfortunately, Societe has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

6.5 / 10 Taste: 6.5/10

Price: $15-$25 for breakfast

Place: 7/10

Review:

Societe Food and Wine Bar is the latest upmarket, modern Australian restaurant. We went there for breakfast, towards lunch time. I can see they have a lot of tapas, but we didn’t order them.

Let’s start with my order: Societe BIG benny. Along with Societe big breakfast, it was the biggest and most expensive serving dish on the menu at $ 25.5. Directly taken from the menu, it was smoked salmon, haloumi, poached eggs, avocado, spinach & hollandaise sauce on Turkish bread… a whole lot of stuff for a breakfast! It was beautifully presented and pleasing to see. The salmon and eggs were nice but forgettable hollandaise sauce and pretty salty haloumi cheese.

On a lighter note, there was Euro Bruschetta for $15.9 or $3 more for one poached egg. Without the egg, it would be a nice vegetarian dish consisted of avocado, basil, tomato, grilled haloumi and drizzled with olive oil on Turkish bread.

Not so very different than these two, my friend ordered B.L.A.T. ($16.5). It stands for Bacon, green Leaves, Avocado and Tomato. It was prepared on a wooden chopping block with aioli on Turkish bread with chips.

Breakfast is incomplete without a cup of coffee, I ordered Latte like I always did. The best thing of the day came in the form of babycino. It was frothed over the top and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.

The final verdict for Societe Food and Wine Bar

There was really nothing outstanding for Societe Food and Wine Bar to command such a premium price on their breakfast menu. The only redeeming factors about the restaurant were their dishes’ presentation and my son’s happy face looking at babycino.

Details:

1/ 9 – 15 Danks Street

Waterloo NSW 2017

+61 2 9698 8899

Apr 16, 2013
Braza Churrascaria

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price: $47 All you can eat

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

I wanted to say Braza Churrascaria is just another all you can eat Brazilian restaurant that’s been flooding Sydney over the years… but I just couldn’t!

Why?

I’ll skip the part of explaining what Churrascaria is (you can look at the ‘Did you know?’ section) and let you know why I think you MUST visit this place. Look at the menu below or in this link and see an extensive list of things you can eat (including side dishes).

Let’s start with the obvious Rump Cap or Picanha. Seriously, if a Brazilian restaurant doesn’t serve a great picanha, don’t return! Picanha is the core element of a churrascaria. Still in the beef department, they also have flank, rump, hump and Scotch Fillet. The meat quality in Braza restaurant was incredible.

I have limited knowledge of food from the pork department. They have an assortment of Neck, Leg, and Belly. From the look of it, they were the least appealing in the restaurant. Strangely enough, you also got a chance to see a whole pig / pork meat sitting on the wooden trolley. They only have two lamb dishes: Leg and Rump. Both were nice and cooked correctly (i.e. no smelly lamb taste).

We’re now on to the white meat of chicken. They have a decent range from chicken with bacon to chicken hearts. They also have Chicken Drummetes and fillet. Personally, I love chicken hearts and can easily have a dozen of them.

Braza’s seafood range was extensive on easter with the addition of mussels and octopus. However, they were only limited to Fish and Prawns in a normal day. However, if you see the fish plate, please ask as much as you can. They were heaps good! I am not a big fan of the Chorizo in Braza. I think they were quite dry and tough.

So now we are on to the best part: Braza Churrascaria’s ribs. They prepared the ribs in a slightly different way. They would wheel around gigantic slab(s) of ribs on a wooden trolley and slice the meat in front of you. The ribs were really the highlight of the day. They were succulent, juicy, and best of all, not burnt! You can have an option of Beef ribs, Pork ribs, or Lamb ribs.

They have Halloumi Cheese, Pineapple and Garlic Bread as the main churrascaria offered. I had no less than five slices of fabulous pineapple throughout the night. You might want to slow down on the cheese and bread if you didn’t want to be full too fast.

They handled the side dishes quite differently. Instead of circling around the table, you will need to order them specifically. My favourite was Polenta chips. They were really nice and crunchy. We also always have a supply of Brazilian Chilies, Farofafa, and Tomato Salsa because I like a bit more flavour on my meat.

The final verdict for Braza Churrascaria

Braza Churrascaria is hands down the best Brazilian restaurant in Sydney. The assortments and quality of meat are unrivaled to those other Brazilian restaurants in Sydney. The only downside to their otherwise excellent review was the unavailability of complementing sauce. It’s a very minor item but unfortunately I like sauce on my meat.

Did you know?

When we were there on Saturday at around 8 PM, they had a Brazilian dance a la Carnaval de Rio with very loud Brazilian drums.

For those of you new to the concept, Churrascaria is a place where meat is cooked in Churrasco style. The meat is grilled to perfection with an iron skewer on a fireplace. The waiters and waitresses would then go around the table offering those meats and you could decide whether you wanted it or not (no obligation to take everything they offered!).

Details:

1-25 Harbour St, Darling Quarter

Darling Harbour NSW 2000

+61 2 9386 9534

http://www.braza.com.au/

Apr 8, 2013
Garyu Art and Dining

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Unfortunately, Garyu has closed its doors for good.

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Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10Price: $8.5 – $18 for lunch

Place: 7/10

Review:

Just in time for Easter, I present you Garyu Art and Dining. Garyu Art and Dining is located in the former site of Chikyu-Ya in Bondi Junction. For some reasons, the owner is still keeping Chikyu-Ya’s sign board outside the restaurant.

We went to Garyu for lunch as they have the daily lunch special for a bargain price of $8.5. Every day, they have a different daily lunch special. Since we came on a Friday, the daily special was Chicken Katsu. In addition to the usual main dish + rice dish, you will also receive salad with miso paste, miso soup, and three side dishes. The chicken katsu was nice and soft in the middle with crunchy, golden brown batter. It was definitely the best $8.5 meal deal you can get.

One of the more interesting items on Garyu’s menu was its One Plate Lunch ($11). The set didn’t include rice but you were given eight sushi rolls. You can choose between Salmon Avocado, California or Vegetarian rolls. You also needed to choose from Salmon Teriyaki, Kara-age Chicken, or Sashimi as your main dish. The non-optional part of the One Plate Lunch was its salad and miso soup. It was a seriously tough task to choose for just a ‘One Plate Lunch’.

There was a side dish worthy of a special mention at Garyu. It was their Okonomiyaki. It wasn’t like any ‘normal’ Okonomiyaki you found in any Japanese restaurants. These ones were shaped like a kebab stick and deep fried to perfection. The ingredients were just like any other okonomiyaki with squid and cabbage. How does it taste? Because of its shape, it actually had a lot more crunchy taste. Granted that it might not be as big as the normal okonomiyaki, but it was certainly enough to build your appetite.

The final verdict for Garyu Art and Dining

It was certainly value for money, having lunch at Garyu Art and Dining. Its daily lunch special is more than just rice and main dish.

Did you know?

Before Garyu opened in Bondi Junction, we were invited to a birthday party in its old site in Bondi Road. They had a special baby food for the occasion.

Details:

106 Ebley St, Bondi Junction NSW 2022

+61 2 9386 9534

Mar 31, 2013
Deep Fried Meatballs Recipe
I have been pondering about this for a while and I have decided to add a section in All About Food Blog dedicated to recipe. For my first post on recipe, I’ve decided to write about Deep Fried Meatballs. I actually got this recipe from the back of a premix flour and I know it’s not the ‘proper’ way to write a recipe, but I think it’s a good start. I am also not a chef, so the writing can be quite unorthodox.

We altered the recipe slightly to substitute Mackarel fish with Basa fish. I guess you can substitute the meat from the list of ingredients to whatever you like as long as you have the right weight for each.

So, what do we need for making this Deep Fried Meatballs?
1. 1 Litre Canola/Sunflower Oil
2. NILASARI Premix Bakso Goreng
3. 125gr Fresh Prawn
4. 125gr Fresh Basa Fish
5. 250gr Chicken Thigh Fillet
6. 2 Eggs
7. 35cc Water
How do we cook the Deep Fried Meatballs?

1. Blend all the meat together. You could use either a hand blender or a conventional one.

2. Further mix eggs, the premix, and water into the blend. The instruction specifies you to mix with hand mixer for this stage.

3. Prepare a wok filled with cold oil.

4. Dust your palms with any kind of flour. This will help prevent stickiness for the next stage.

5. Spoon out the blended dough and create a dough roll with your fingers.

6. Immerse the roll you have created into the oil prepared in step three.

7. Bring the wok to a low heat and fry the meatballs until golden brown.

8. You might want to lower the heat a little bit for your second batch as it would cook a lot quicker.

Some tips to make the perfect deep fried meatballs

First tip: Do not stuff the wok with too many meatballs

A bit of advice from a friend: If your meatballs shrink after you take it off the wok, it means you haven’t cooked them long enough.

Another tip for you: To reach the perfect golden brown, you need around 15 minutes of frying time.

Deep Fried Meatballs

What’s in the premix?

The box stated that for every 250 gr of the premix, it consisted of Tapioca Flour, Wheat Flour, Chicken Flavour, pepper and salt.
Mar 19, 2013
Kingsford Chinese Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

7.5 for the trinity!
Taste: 7/10

Price: $8.5 – $12 per person

Place: 5.5/10

Review:

This week’s review was arguably the hardest review I have ever done in my life. Kingsford Chinese Restaurant is iconic in many ways and I might be risking the wrath of hundred thousand UNSW students who had no doubt tasted the food in this restaurant during their uni years and beyond. This might be the cheapest restaurant you could ever get in Sydney! For the price, the food was arguably the best amongst the rest of ‘cheap’ restaurants in town.

So what’s the catch: Service! In this place, the owner is the queen. If you ever expressed your discontent to her, the most she’d reply would be ‘Meh’. I guess she doesn’t need snobbish customers when people still line up for her food. So, anyone from owner to waiters/waitresses doesn’t really care about you.

Anything else you need to know? The restaurant is tightly spaced on the first floor. If you come with seven or more people, the second floor is pretty spacious. You might also want to dry/clean up your cutleries as they might not be properly dried.

Let’s get down to business. Why do people want to come to this restaurant are they still willing to queue outside? It’s because of the trinity; the three dishes that 90% of visitors would at least have one of them.

The first one was the infamous Sang Tung Chicken ($11). I particularly liked this one because of the portion and also the sweet taste. They were seriously overabundant and tasty. The top part of the dish was actually boneless meats and the bones spread out under them.

We called the next one Long Bean Belacan ($11). On the menu it was called Braised Green Bean with Malaysian Chilli Sauce. Don’t worry; it’s not a spicy dish! Belacan is a fermented shrimp paste that usually comes with chilli and garlic. This was one od the few vegetable dishes I didn’t mind eating.

My favourite would be the Salt and Pepper Calamari. It is officially named Deep Fried Calamari with Pepper Salt ($11). It was the most awesome(est!) Calamari I have ever tasted. They were incredibly crunchy but still soft in the middle. Hint: Don’t eat this without rice!

Since we had a bit more people, we ordered two more dishes: Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup and Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Beef. The soup was so-so but it only costed us $3.5. The stir-fried noodles dish was acceptable for a dish under $10.

The final verdict for Kingsford Chinese Restaurant

Kingsford Chinese Restaurant provided the best tasting food for its price. There are three staple foods: Salt and Pepper calamari, Sang Tung chicken and Long Bean belacan. If you want very fast service, order those three and nothing else! Oh, and try not to complaint too much…

Why do I give a seven?

I feel that I need to justify my scoring system here.

Kingsford Chinese Restaurant might not give you the perfect dining experience. It might on the other be your worst nightmare if you were a difficult and picky customer. However in terms of quality and what you get for your dollars, it was an exceptional value.

Details:

426 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

+61 2 9663 1728

Mar 7, 2013