momofuku seiōbo

I've read about momofuku quite a while ago. Been wanting to go since then and finally got my "excuse" to make a booking. My 2nd wedding anniversay :) Told Robin I'd take him to a restaurant that he's never been and kept it a surprise till we're there. Good to have nice sister in law who didn't mind babysitting the little guy for us that night. We really enjoyed our night out. 

We got there early that day, so we sat at the bar for a little while. If you like coffee and if you like beer, here's something to try! Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout Japan - $14. I'm neither a coffee drinker nor a big fan of beer, so I didn't even try. Robin didn't really like it though. He said it was weird to combine the 2 drinks together. After a while when our table was ready, we were shown to our seats which were at the counter looking directly into their kitchen. 

First course, Snacks - nori, smoked potato, shiitake chip, mochi (clockwise from the top). This plate were for the both of us. How I wish I could have 2 pieces of everything. The plate did look a bit sparse, I wish they would fill it up. All of them would make great tv snacks :) Here are the zoomed in photos. 

Now, the main momofuku attraction for me. Steamed bun - pork belly, cucumber, boisin sauce. Sorry about the picture. It did not do the bun justice. I just couldn't wait to bite into it. The bun was so soft and fluffy. The pork was oh so tender. Together with the crunchy cucumber that added some bite to it and the sweet hoisin sauce, it was like the best bun ever!! All looked like very common ingredients, but together there was some magic that made it so incredible. I saw how they store the bun in a container in the kitchen, very very tempted to ask the chef to put a few in a doggy bag for me to bring home :p

Here's the Sea mullet with blood orange. Again, the chef had worked wonders here. I don't really know my fish market, but Robin said sea mullet is a very cheap fish. The chef had made it so amazing with the creativity to serve it with blood orange. 

Marron with fennel and dill. Very fresh marron nicely cooked. See the black blob of stuff at the back? Absolutely no idea what that blob of black stuff was but it was AWESOME. Didn't look very nice, but that was the BEST part on the plate. 

A very pretty looking dish of Beef with radish and fermented black bean. Can't see much of the beef here because it was covered under the vibrant slices of radish. I quite like this dish but Robin thought the combination didn't quite make sense. 

This was the Smoked eel with jerusalem artichoke and pink grapefruit. Again, combination of seafood with citrus. This was served with a bowl of eel broth. The intense flavour of the broth just made us wanted more. It didn't have a tiny bit of the seafood fishy taste in it. 

Mud crab with yorkshire pudding. Hmm.. babybrain strikes again! Can't remember much about the taste of this dish anymore. Only remember seeing the yorkshire puddings being made in the kitchen and wondering when would I get served these cute looking thingy. 

Egg with toasted rice and brown butter. Wobble wobble wobble~~~ Perfectly wobbly egg!! How awesome was that. Such simple ingredients yet such highly satisfying flavour. I was amazed how well the fragrant of the toasted rice go with the egg and butter. 

Pea agnolotti with parmesan and ham. I remember that white foam thingy. Again, funny looking component and absolutely no idea what it was. Creamy with a bit of spiciness in it. Very interesting foam. 

Mulloway with smoked roe and lettuce. Robin started eating his while I was still busy taking photos. He gave me a nudge n said "you better eat this now". Presentation wise it was rather ordinary, but the fish... so fresh so crispy. Even the lettuce was good. Nicely charred. For some reason the best part of all these dishes are those unknown components on the plate. There was some crispy crunchy stuff sprinkled all over the plate. I reckon those were the icing on the cake. Made the dish a whole level higher. 

Lamb neck with onions and mustard seeds. Lamb was nicely cooked. Very tender and juicy. Love those onions. They were actually very sweet. Great combination with the mustard for the lamb. 

This was a bit of a funny 1 for me. Pecorino with honey licorice and bee pollen. Never thought of eating cheese with honey. That's essentially what it was. I'm not sure to consider this a sweet or savoury. 

Now here's a funny looking dessert. Wattle seed, malt, crispy milk. No idea how they made the crispy milk skin, but it was so crispy it's like eating milk flavoured chips. 

Miso, cherries and black sesame. The only way I like my cherries is fresh. Not candied not poached, not anything. So I was a bit cautious about this. I tasted each component on its own and thought I didn't like it. So I decided to just gobble everything together and finish it since it's just tiny. Much to my surprise, everything suddenly just tasted so much better TOGETHER! Each component was vital. They just had to be there to complement each other to create this unique taste. It just wouldn't work without any of it. 

If I hadn't read about this restaurant before, I wouldn't be expecting this to end the meal - Pork Shoulder. While typically this would be a savoury dish, here, it was given the task of a dessert. Definitely sweet enough to qualify as a dessert, but not rich and heavy like a chocolate mud cake sort of thing. Kind of fun and messy though because no cutlery was given. EVERYONE had to use their hand for this haha.. What an experience :) 


Conclusion, very very very satisfied with this dinner. While the plating of the dishes wasn't as impressive as some other restaurants, it's definitely not a problem here because as soon as one tasted the dish, nobody would care how it looked like. Could also see that the chef got some very clever ideas with the dishes. 

Side note: Adriano Zumbo's dessert train was located right opposite and conveniently opens till 11pm. So what happened? I got myself 2 macarons from Zumbo haha.. Red was coke, green was mojito. Sorry about blurry photo again. I couldn't wait to bite into the macarons :p 


momofuku seiōbo
The Star
80 pyrmont street, level g ,
sydney, nsw 2009


PS. Reservations are to be made on their website and only 10 days in advance. Can't remember where I read about this, but I know new day is added at 10am each morning. So to make sure you get the day that you want, make sure you are in front of the computer 10 days prior and start hitting the refresh button from 9:59am (which was what I did). The seats do go out FAST. 

Iiza

First post of 2012!! Happy new year everyone!! Hope everyone had a good break :) I had a day off from being a mum so I decided to go to a restaurant in an area that I wouldn't want to go with a pram and a baby. That place is Newtown. We all know how "easy" it is to find a parking at Newtown. So on my day off, I went to Newtown with my friend to this Japanese restaurant that I have heard about quite a bit.



Green tea Noodle Salad - Green-tea noodles & fresh greens with soy onion dressing $14. This was quite nice. I really liked the dressing.

One thing the thing that I missed since I got pregnant was the sashimi. Now that I can eat anything and everything again, of course sashimi will be on the table :) Chefs Selection Sashimi Plate - Deluxe 18pcs of assorted fresh sashimi - $29. I think we really need Japanese restaurant of this kind of quality around the Shire. 

Fire Roll - 6 pcs of tuna rolls topped with spicy sauce & crunchy potato - $14.50.  Just thought I would try something a little bit different. I quite like the spicy sauce. The only problem was that they fell apart quite easily. 

This was something that I have never had in other Japanese restaurants. Japanese Gyu-suji Nikomi - Tender Wagyu beef tendon braised over night in miso stew
served in a clay hot pot (limited serves per day) - $21. This stew was very very tasty. Came with 2 slices of garlic bread which were so nice after dipping into the thick soup. Actually it wasn't really a soupy soup, it was more like thick yummy gravy :) 

Now this was the favourite of the day. 5 Seared ‘Aburi’ Sushi Plate - Deluxe 12pcs of delicately flame seared sushi - $34. I was told to order this if I ever get to visit this restaurant. So I did and I can understand why. It was sooooo gooood!!! As soon as I put a piece of them in my mouth, it was like O.M.G. Why can't I find something like this around the Shire? Now I need to go back to city everytime I want this. For all the girls who are planning to have a baby, DO NOT try this. You will not be able to resist eating this during pregnancy. 

Spider Roll - 6 pcs of crispy soft shell crab sushi rolls wrapped with finely sliced seasoned daikon radish - $14.50. First time I tried sushi wrapped up with daikon. It was quite interesting as the daikon added a bit of refreshing tartness to the sushi. Kind of like a lemon to fish and chips. 


That was a really really satisfying good meal. I really wish we have Japanese restaurants that serve food like this a bit closer to home. 


Iiza
184 King St, 
Newtown, NSW 2042
Tel: 02 8095 9260

Home Thai Restaurant

Haven't been eating out much since having the baby. So not much to blog about. For the sake of keeping the site active, here are some photos that I took ages ago but never got to post about them. Now, because it's been so long since I had that meal, I can't really remember much about them anymore :p That's why only posting the photos up. 

Seriously can't remember what this was. Have a feeling it's a tom yum gong but not 100% sure. 

Some kind of crispy pork belly and stir fried vege. 

Hoi Jor - Deep fried pork, crab meat, water chestnut wrapped with bean curd served with plum sauce - $7.90

Yum Hua Plee - Banana flower with chicken, prawn, shallot, coriander, onion, dried coconut, cashew nut, fried shallot, chilli jam with chef's dressing - $14.90

Gang kew - Green curry paste with coconut milk, cherry eggplant, apple eggplant, basil, lime leaf and red chilli - $12.90

Somtum Thai - Green papaya with garlic, chilli, tomato, green bean, dried shrimps, peanut, lime juice, palm sugar - $8.90

Have a feeling this was the whole barramundi with tamarind. Not 100% sure again... Not a good photo of it anyway :p 

Sai Groog Isan - A homemade Thai sausage traditionally from eastern part of Thailand frilled and served with fresh ginger and vegetable - $10.90

Par Thung - Bread stick with pandan custard - $5.00

Mango Sticky Rice - $6.50

I can't remember what this is called but I remember this dish. They were making this by the window so while waiting for seats outside the restaurant, everyone was watching these dumplings getting made. I remember this dish because it made an impression. It was on the dessert menu. It looked like a dessert, pretty like a dessert so we ordered thinking it'll be something sweet but it was savoury!! It was weird... as a dessert that's why I remember them. It should be an entree I reckon. We even told the waiter that it's more suitable as an entree heehee

Home Thai Restaurant

Shop 1 - 2 

299 Sussex Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Tel: 02 9261 5058

La Guillotine & The Chocolate Room

At the moment I'm going through all my new + old photos that I haven't posted before. Here's 1 of the not so recent visit to the French restaurant La Guillotine which was quite but didn't get posted earlier. 
We wanted to bring Robin's mum out for dinner 1 day. Can't remember what occasion though. I think it was her birthday? Wanted to bring her to somewhere she normally wouldn't go, so we took her to try some French food at La Guillotine. 

For entree to share, we had the Country style chicken liver and pork pate - $15. It comes with some herb bread, olives and gherkin. Been there twice, both times we ran out of bread before we could finish the pate. 

Another entree to share Homemade traditional onion soup with croutons and melted cheese - $13. I didn't really get to try much of this because there were 4 or 5 of us. 

Cant' remember whose main this was, but it was the Char-grilled lamb cutlets with herbs, whole grain mustard butter, ratatouille and mash potatoes - $32. 

This was probably the nicest of all mains that we had. Beef fillet topped with a slice of Foie Gras, port wine sauce and saute potatoes with onions - $44. Bit expensive for a steak, but it was very very good. 

Another main Duck breast with a cherry and Kirsch sauce on a gratin of potatoes - $44. Don't remember much about it, but I guess it's a good thing that at least no complaints :) 
Note: Prices posted here might have changed since it was quite a while ago when I visited. 


After dinner we didn't have dessert at La Guillotine, instead we went to The Chocolate Room to have some coffee and dessert. 

Didn't take photo of the menu, so I don't have the price for the things we ordered here. This was probably the ice-chocolate. 

Here's a hot chocolate with 3 pieces of chocolate from the counter, anti-clockwise from left: Pearl - 70% Dark chocolate ganache with Marc of champagne dipped in white chocolate, Cafe au lait - Milk chocolate caramel coffee dipped in milk chocolate & finished with a coffee bean trasnfer, Rum & Raisin - Macerated green Iran raisin soaked in rum, milk chocolate ganache coated in dark chocolate & drizzle with dark chocolate. 

Pretty looking latte.. 

Another sort of hot chocolate. Can't remember what flavour this was though. 

Pretty sure that was the waffle. Quite pretty and yummy :) 



La Guillotine French Restaurant
518 Kent Street Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: 02 9264 1487


The Chocolate Room
Shop 210 Maestri Towers

Corner Sussex & Bathurst streets
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: 02 9269 0004

Canberra Weekend Getaway

We've been saying we want to get out of Sydney for a while. Never got to decide where to go, who to go with and it was such a hassle to try to organise something with more than 2 people - these 2 have to work on weekend, that 2 can't take leave on those days etc etc. So in the end we just thought forget it, we'll just make a short trip on our own and enjoy some good food. So here we were, ended up in Canberra for a weekend. Left Sydney on Saturday morning, arrived at Canberra around lunch time. Robin actually booked a table for lunch at this busy little bakery called Silo Bakery. He was actually thinking of bringing me there for the desserts which looked awesome on their website, but unfortunately by the time we got there they sold out of ALL their sweets. So we just had lunch there.

I ordered Vegetarian Pates - $12 which came with some sourdough.

The pates came in 3 different flavours: (Clockwise from top left) Pumpkin & walnut, mushroom & almond, pimento & hazelnut. My favourite was the pimento & hazelnut which was a bit like the crunchy chilli and tomato dip. Little bit spicy with the crunchy hazelnut on the freshly baked soft bread.. yummmm.. Can't have the real pate, I really wouldn't mind having these vegetarian pates instead. 2nd flavour that I liked was the mushroom & almond. The only problem with the pumpkin flavour was that it was sweet. Almost like a dessert. Still good, but just a bit weird with the sweetness in there.

Robin ordered the Oyster blade beef braised in beer & onions - $24. It was good too! I ate almost all the bread with my pate, so Robin only had a bit of the bread to go with his nice gravy. Should've ordered more bread. It was still very good though, tender beef with soft potatoes at the bottom soaking up all the yummy gravy.

So that's it for our lunch. It was a pity that we didn't get to eat any of the sweet pastries and stuff. Oh well, maybe another trip.

After lunch we went to the Questacon just to do some touristy thing when we were there :) Drove the mini blimp through a hoop, went into a pitch black dark tent to see the star lab, just basically being a kid again haha.. It was fun. I used to really like to visit all these science centres. Lots of cool things to play with.

Anyway, after that we went to our hotel and checked ourselves in. Had a bit of rest there before heading out to dinner. We were lucky that in our room there was this book. Can't remember what it's called now, but it's basically a where-to-eat-in-Canberra book. So we picked 1 of the restaurants in the book and guess what? It was at the same block as the Silo bakery that we went for lunch. The restaurant that we picked was the Kennedy Room. It's half restaurant and half pub. So the restaurant half had tables and chairs set up, the other half was the bar with some tall tables and stools and plenty of space for people to hang around and chat.

For entree to share, we ordered the Caramelised roast pork belly with chilli & coconut vinegar - $16. The meat was really tender, it was nice to go with the sweet and sour dressing. The only thing missing for me was the crunchy crackling. It would be so much nicer if it had the crackling at well.

Initially we only ordered 1 entree. Then we saw our next table ordered this and it looked really good! So we ordered 1 for ourselves as well - Fried calamari spiced with sumac & black pepper. It was really good too! Cooked just nice, very crispy outside, soft and tender inside. With a bit of lemon juice over it, it's easily 1 of the best fried calamari I've had.

We thought we should be 'healthy' and ordered some greens, but we ended up didn't finish it anyway :p I had to save some space for dessert and Robin's main came with some greens too.

I had the Almond & sesame seed crusted barramundi fillets with Ver Jus - $32. The fish was nice, it wasn't overcooked or anything, I just didn't really like the crust. It was like the dukkah that could be bought in some deli, which I thought the smell of herbs was a bit too strong for the fish. I probably would enjoy it more if it had just a layer of crispy skin. The potatoes with the creamy sauce were really nice though.

Poor Robin had to wait extra long for his Ribeye steak (400g) w beer battered chips, green peppercorn sauce & steamed vegetables - $36. The waitress took our order, even asked him how he would like the steak done, but when she got to the computer or something she just keyed in barramundi twice. So they made us 2 barramundi and didn't make the steak. So I just ate my fish first while Robin waited for his steak to be made. Apparently not worth the wait though. I didn't really try the steak but Robin said it wasnt' as good as expected. The best part of the dish was the chips. Sauce was good too. Just the meat not as tender as Robin thought it should be.

I ordered my dessert while Robin was eating his steak - Lime & coconut pannacotta with oven-dried pineapple - $13. When I took the first bite of the pineapple, it felt almost like I've discovered a new continent! I love everything pineapple - fresh pineapple, can pineapple, even (fake) pineapple flavoured gummi! So being introduced to this oven-dried pineapple was like "I've found a new way to eat pineapple!!" It was sooo good. The pannacotta on its own was very sweet, but together with the slight tartness of the pineapple they were like the perfect match. Wobbly + crispy; sweet + sour... Just made so much sense when put together. The only watchout was - the pineapple tend to stuck to the teeth hehee.. I didn't mind it at all, but I know it could be annoying at times :p

After dinner we just went up to the Mount Ainsley lookout. Wanted to take some star trails photos, but sky was too bright from the city lights and the big bright moon. Also, it was only 3 degrees at that time. So we didn't stay long there.

Next morning we woke up around 10am. As we were packing up, got a phone call from the reception to say that check out time was supposed to be 10 and it was almost 11 already haha. I thought I requested for late check out when I booked the room online, but I guess they didn't see my comment (or they ignored it). Anyway, so breakfast was skipped and we consulted our 'bible' of the trip again. Felt like having a Thai lunch, so we picked 1 of the Thai restaurants in the book. Guess what? It's located at the same block as Silo and Kennedy Room! haha.. I guess that block of shops at Kingston got plenty of good restaurants. Got there, restaurant was closed. So Robin suggested we go to the other suburb which he knew had plenty of nice restaurants too which was Manuka. So we went there and we saw another Thai restaurant which I remember was in the book too. It was the Bann Latsamy Thai Restaurant. By the way, sorry for not being able to provide prices for the dishes here. I took a copy of their menu, but couldn't find it now :p

For entree, we had the Rice paper prawn rolls. It was very similar to those that we get in Vietnamese restaurant. Refreshing sort of entree with fresh cucumber, some sprouts, cooked prawns and some rice noodle wrapped in rice paper.

There were a few options for rice on the menu and we picked the 1 that we never tried before: Saffron rice. It was bright orange in colour. Taste wise, I actually couldn't taste anything special. Robin said it taste like coconut rice, but I had a feeling the coconut taste came from the red curry, not the rice itself.

This was the Duck & lychee red curry which I thoguht contributed to the coconut taste in the rice when ate together with rice. It was very tasty, rich and full of coconut flavour. Generous servings too! Another thing that I liked was that all the duck meat was deboned :D Usually when order duck curry in Thai restaurants, I find that they give very little duck meat, just lots of vege. This was the opposite. Lots of meat, lots of big juicy lychees, very very good.

Another main that we ordered to go with our saffron rice - Stir fried tofu with cashew nuts. It wasn't too bad when eat with the rice, just a bit too sweet with the sauce. I would soak my rice with the red curry sauce but I wouldn't do the same with this. This plate of tofu + vege was really big too. We ended up asking for 2 takeaway boxes and packed ourselves 2 boxes full of lunch to bring to work the next day. Too full from these entree and mains. Didn't have any room for dessert :(  I would get the mango sticky rice if I had room in my stomach.

Overall, it was a very relaxing trip. Very happy with all the food there. Did some touristy thingy like visit the questacon & the parliament as well. Experimented with making timelapse video too which you can see here. At first we thought what are we gonna do in Canberra for 2 days, but when we got there, there were actually more things that we wanted to do than we had time for. Not a bad place for a short trip at all :)

Silo bakery
36 Giles Street
Kingston ACT 2604
(02) 6260 6060

The Kennedy Room
25 Kennedy Street
Kingston
(02) 6162 2318

Bann Latsamy Thai Restaurant
M Centre
Shop 9, Flinders Way
Manuka ACT 2603
(02) 6295 0426