[FOOD REVIEW] Canton Noodle House, Burwood

I haven't been here in so long! This time, it's a review for a restaurant my family and I love coming back to every now and then to get our dose of Cantonese food and my favourite rockmelon milkshake! Sadly, they ran out on this visit so I tried another drink. Canton Noodle House (45 Burwood Rd, Burwood) is relatively clean but the proximity of the tables towards one another can be quite uncomfortable due to the limited amount of space. But it really doesn't bother me too much. It is also really close to Burwood Westfields and thus not a far walk from the train station or parking.

 Look at those huge lemon slices! On this occasion, my sis' boyfriend ordered the Iced Lemon Tea ($4.50) and I ordered the Strawberry Milkshake ($4.50). If you're curious, the Rockmelon Milkshake ($4.50) looks exactly like the strawberry version but more orange. However, they taste completely different to me! The strawberry milkshake seems to have a really sweet strawberry syrup added into it which  complements nicely with the saltiness of the food and it also has a really smooth milky texture. However, the rockmelon milkshake tastes like real rockmelon pieces were used and it has a wonderful subtly sweet and frothy texture. I eagerly order this every time I come here!

As for the lemon tea, my sister commented that it tastes like Vitasoy Lemon Tea which has a very strong lemon taste and a refreshing sensation. The more you drink it, the more it seems to soothe your throat. I personally really like a strong lemon taste in my tea so it really depends on your preference.

My family always orders the Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab ($19.80) whenever we come here. Although the dish varies from time to time, it is generally very soft with a little bit of a crunch. It's filled with flavour and although it has quite an overload of salt and pepper for my tastes, the unique texture of the crab is retained making it a fabulous dish for soft shell crab lovers.

We saw a lot of tables order pipies that day so we decided to give it a try as well but I have to say that although the Pipies (baby clams) with XO sauce ($15.80) tasted really good, it simply didn't have enough to fill our stomachs satisfactorily. Most of them were empty shells and thus it was very disappointing. But before you completely dismiss it, the XO sauce for this was amazing. It had a tinge of chilli to it bringing out the XO flavour really well and it seeped into the pipies making every precious mouthful I had bursting with flavour. I loved every bite that I got!

My all-time favourite dish is the Japanese tofu braised with chicken and sundried scallop ($15.80). I totally recommend this dish at this restaurant. It's one of the main reasons we always make time to come here. I can't find anything else like this! The taste of the tofu is super soft on the inside but firm on the outside and thus retains its' shape very well. It's literally my favourite tofu dish ever! The sundried scallop really makes all the difference in this dish. We always make sure to scrape every last bit of sauce into our bowls haha! This dish isn't heavy at all and the snowpeas aren't extremely soft! It still has its' crunchiness and flavour and shows how well the sauce complements it! If you come here, this is definitely a must-try!

All my life, I have loved these vegetables and since it isn't in season right now, we had to come here to get some! This is the Stir-fried Water Spinach with Tofu Paste and Chilli ($12.80). If you have never tried these vegetables with tofu paste, I'd highly suggest you to try it. The vegetables are crunchy and accompanied with the salty and tinge of chilli taste of the tofu paste makes this one of the only vegetable dishes I cannot stop eating! I'm not a vegetables person so that's the best compliment you can get from me haha! However, sadly, this dish varies from visit to visit as well. It usually tastes really good but on this occasion it tasted a bit bland for me unfortunately.

Overall, although the taste of the dishes can vary slightly from time to time. My favourite Japanese tofu dish has always been consistently delicious every time I visit and thus we cannot give up on this restaurant haha. This is probably my most frequently visited restaurant because we always come back every now and then to fulfil our cravings on tofu! I'd definitely recommend for you to try this place if you haven't and if you're a fan of rockmelon like me, you absolutely must get the rockmelon milkshake!! It's irresistible!

[FOOD REVIEW] Stra Pocha, Strathfield

Recently, my sister has been craving fried chicken, thus instead of giving her a dose of KFC, we decided to venture to Stra Pocha (19-21 Everton Rd, Strathfield) and theirs!

I really liked how the restaurant was separated into individual cubicles as shown in the photo below.

It felt much more comfortable and it felt like we had our own private space. It was also very convenient and efficient to have a button for us to press and call the staff to help us with any orders or kimchi refills (yes!). The service was very fast here and our food arrived very promptly.

First to arrive would always be the side dishes that everyone loves to enjoy as a snack! I really like how different Korean restaurants have their own little variation. The side dishes provided here were pickled onions with cabbage, creamy apples, soft eggplant, deep dried taro with honey, broccoli with (some sort of)  mild spicy sauce and our all time favourite and staple kimchi! I really liked the kimchi, it wasn't extremely spicy but it was very flavoursome. The creamy apples were very delicious as they were really nice and sweet. Especially good for when you're trying to save your poor tongue from any more of the chilli! :p The broccoli was pretty refreshing as well.

My brother has been wanting to try Korean hotpot for a while and so we decided to order the Kimchi with pork, veggies and tofu cooled in casserole hotpot ($30). This looked as good as it tasted! Every sip of the soup just made my mouth water for even more. It was super refreshing with the subtle sourness in the boiled kimchi. I didn't particularly like eating the boiled kimchi but the soup was awesome! We ate the veggies before they went soggy and had a few pieces of meat and tofu for the four of us. There were also potato noodles and mushroom but there honestly wasn't a whole heap so remember to share before gobbling it all! (I know it's hard!)

Next up was the Stir Fried Celophane Noodles in Sesame Oil with Assorted Veggies and Beef ($20). The noodles very rather sweet but I really love the the texture of potato noodles, thus I didn't really mind it at all and ate most of it haha! I love how chewy and soft these noodles are!

My sister was mega excited to receive the Deep Fried Chicken dipped in sweet soy sauce ($30). However, this wasn't as good as I expected. My sister's boyfriend said that the chilli fried chicken wings and the fried chicken with melted cheese tasted much better so I would recommend those instead because these were pretty average. The pieces that had sauce on it was extremely sweet but the best merit of the chicken was that the skin was really crispy and crunchy! I loved crunching on it the whole night haha! The inside was a bit dry but it wasn't that bad.

I think the Seafood Pancake with Veggies ($20) was the biggest disappointment for me. The dough was way too thick and most of the time, I felt that I was mainly eating dough with egg on the top layer. Overall, the pancake tasted really plain and the seafood was rather scarce. But the biggest dealbreaker for me was the dough, I really felt like I was eating a soft fat kebab pizza. It had a bit more taste when I ate it with some kimchi though!

 After ordering our food, we decided to try some soju along with it and thus we ordered the Chamisul ($13). It wasn't really strong and tasted okay, pretty much like rice wine!

Overall, this restaurant is convenient to get to and has pretty good food! I would definitely recommend the hotpot! It kept me warm throughout the night and tasted amazing! The price may be a bit more on the expensive side but I would definitely want to come here again to try the chicken with melted cheese next time!

[FOOD RECOMMENDATION] Bobo's Cafe, Chatswood

I've been aiming to post at least once a week but it seems like I missed last week hahaha. Guess it's hard for me to handle my personal blog and this one as well! But I'll get used to it and try to post here at least once a week.

This time, I'll be introducing my favourite shop to grab a quick lunch! At Bobo's Cafe (61-65 Albert Ave) which is conveniently placed on Level 2 in the Mandarin Centre at Chatswood is the best go-to sandwich I have tasted! It's around 5 minutes away from the station and if you're not interested in sandwiches and coffee, no worries because this is situated in a food court so there's heaps of options! There's also a Daiso Japan which sells everything for the price of $2.80!

Anyways, on to this sandwich I've been obsessed with these days...

This may not look like the most appetising sandwich but I have to mention that this is filled to the brim with delicious chicken pieces! This is the Chicken No.1 ($7.50) sandwich which is stuffed with evenly cut chicken pieces, lettuce, sundried tomatoes and avocado (it was the best!) with honey mustard sauce and a touch of salt and pepper! I absolutely love how smooth and delicious the avocado complements with the chicken and although it looks like there's a lot of  lettuce, there was not a single bite where I couldn't taste the chicken. The avocado also makes it taste very refreshing and not heavy at all. Although, it is on the plainer side, the honey mustard sauce makes up for it and gives it a good touch of flavour. In addition, if you're not interested in white bread, there were at least five other options such as wholemeal to choose from. It's tasty and it makes you full! There's nothing bad I can say about it!

The first time I tried this, I knew this had to be the best place for me to eat a quick and simple lunch (30min lunch breaks make me panic!) that will fill me up for the rest of my shift whilst leaving me happy and satisfied. Personally, I loved this so I recommended this to a friend and I was elated to know that he enjoyed it as much as I did so I would definitely recommend this to anyone that feels like eating a sandwich around this area!