Half Yearly (Jan-Jul) Food Favourites

Life Update

How many times have I left my food blog for months without posting? Probably too many to count haha. As always, real life has been busy and stressful since I've graduated but haven't found a paying job to feed myself lol. The good thing is, I've finally started my practical legal training and so I'll be looking for a part time job whilst I try to finish that.  Basically, I'm poor and stressed haha! But I'll still eat LOL.

If anyone is still reading this blog, to accommodate my on and off periods and my stress, I've decided to make it easier on myself. Instead of doing restaurant reviews, I've decided to try and post monthly on what foods/dishes from what restaurants/places I have visited that I most enjoyed for that month. So basically, it'll be all about praises where I can reminisce about the best food I had for that month and what I would actually go back and eat again in the future. This would be more beneficial to me as well since it's difficult for me to remember what food I've actually enjoyed that much, so yeah, if I'm posting about it from now on, it must mean that I absolutely loved it!

Lil Miss Collins

13 Wentworth St, Parramatta

Poached Chicken Breast Salad ($16)

Breast chicken, walnuts, snow pea leaf, baby kale, apple, chickpeas topped with berry compote seeds topped with chef's dressing

I still remember this salad. I legit ate this in February but I still remember it because it was that good and I usually hate salads. The chicken was so tasty and tender, it was unbelievable and the dressing just made everything work so well with each other, it was so delicious. It didn't feel heavy, but I was full. Perfect balance of saltiness to complement the freshness of the salad and the dressing, I actually really want to go again just to eat this hahahah.

King-T

Shop 18/127-133 Burwood Road, Burwood

Mixed Fruits Green Tea ($6.50)

This was the first time I've ever drank the popular mixed fruits teas and I can honestly say that I'm sold! It's so refreshing and sweet! The green tea was also subtle but apparent making the tea have a great balance of sweet and the tea taste, I'd say it's on the sweeter side though. But really though, the price is not bad and it's super fresh and tasty, hard to pass this one when you're in Burwood! The line can be really long at times though!

Cafe Zodova

28A South St, Granville

Chicken Schnitzel ($15)

The other time, I decided to try a local cafe and I was really craving a chicken schnitzel so I just went for it instead of my usual brunch options. I'm so happy I did though because I did not choose wrong! The schnitzel was nicely crumbed, tender, and full of flavour even by itself, I wouldn't have even needed the sauce because the chicken was just cooked so nicely! The only sad thing was that it's not a gigantic schnitzel but that's fair enough hahaha. Chips were nice and crunchy too but a tad too salty, which makes the salad perfect to cleanse the saltiness of the chips haha! Great overall meal and would definitely recommend if you ever came along~

Kanzo Fresh Sushi TO GO

Shop 6/55-67 George St, Parramatta

Salmon Lover Platter ($49)

12 pcs nigiri, 8 pcs sashimi, 8 pcs large, 6 pcs medium and 12 pcs baby roll

Fyi, I've been to the restaurant but I like the takeaway store with limited seating much better. Anyway, this platter is awesome. It's relatively cheap and so worth it. My bro and I have ordered it takeaway quite a few times already and most of the time, the salmon is quite fresh. It's got a variety of salmon prepared in different ways and personally, I love the baby rolls the most because they have the perfect salmon to rice ratio. Otherwise, solid platter if all you love is salmon and can't get enough of it lmao, I've shared this with my brother and we finish it quite easily for our dinner haha.

Cuppa Flower

1/15 Allen St, Waterloo

Giant Tempura Soft Shell Crab Croissant ($23.80)

Fried eggs, fish roe, sriracha mayo

Isn't this so beautiful?! The moment I saw it on Instagram, I knew I had to order this and happily, it really does taste as good as it looks! It's so worth it (even though it sounds expensive) because the crab is a very generous portion and really complements well with the mayo and croissant. It has a very nice crunch and flavour to it when eaten altogether and the croissant is sooo soft and crunchy by itself as well. Everything was done so well in this dish that I'm still so mesmerised by it just looking at the photo. It's extremely filling btw, I barely finished it haha! Egg was runny and yess,  about the crab again LOL, it was so juicy! Absolutely recommend! It was a trek to get to Waterloo but it was worth it <3

New Shanghai Night

267c Liverpool St, Ashfield

Pan Fried Pork Buns

I can't remember the price but all the food here was pretty cheap, we had 6 dishes and it was ~$70 total. Anyway, if you don't mind the cramped space and the loud atmosphere at the usual Asian restaurants then you must come here! The buns are sooo good, it has a good amount of "wok air" where the bottom is nicely crisp and the top is so soft. The meat is super juicy as well! I don't think I've had a pan fried pork bun I've been so satisfied with in so long, super super recommend~! The line can get a bit long though, so watch out for that. Otherwise, the pan fried dumplings and steamed dumplings were really great too! I'd say I love this much more than New Shanghai and Taste of Shanghai.

Xi'an Eatery 西安诱惑

183D Burwood Rd, Burwood

Biang Biang Noodles ($12.80)

I love this restaurant, like legit my favourite restaurant in Burwood right now, mainly because of these Biang Biang noodles. I thought they were going to be overhyped noodles on Instagram but NOPE, so good. It's so chewy, and thick but so easily slurped up. The taste is amazing as well with it being nicely mixed with meats and other veggies such as tomatoes making it not heavy at all! I could literally have another bowl lol. The noodles are definitely the highlight and are a must try! Other dishes worth mentioning would have to be the pan fried dumplings because they were very light and tasty as well, thin wrapping, juicy meat, sooo good! The pulled pork burger was also pretty nice.

Vinh Phat Chinese Seafood Restaurant

12/10 Hughes St, Cabramatta

Egg tarts

I used to love Rhodes Phoenix egg tarts for yumcha the most but NOPE, after visiting Vinh Phat (15-20mins line on a Saturday afternoon, it looks long but line moves quite fast), I have found my favourite egg tarts. They're so huge as well omg. It's so creamy, sweet and legit melts in your mouth, I had two because I saw them come out with fresh ones omggg, so worth the calories! The pastry is quite thin and flaky so it doesn't take from the creaminess and just makes it taste even better, love love it! You can't go and not try these!

Whew! Finally done! These are the foods I've enjoyed the most in the past half a year I've disappeared haha, so hopefully I'll be back next month with more~! I'm getting hungry again after writing this up lmao.

JUAN - Bowl & Tea, Redfern

First post of the year!~ I came here last year but I've been busy applying to the College of Law and doing assignments and looking for someone to take me in for my PLT hahahah so yeah, things will be slow as usual XD I haven't given up on my blog yet though! It's always nice to come back and see what I think about foods I've eaten before hahaha.

On to Juan, it's a neat little place that requires bookings since it's a rather small-sized shop with few staff and I'd say it's more on the expensive side as well. It's very clean and sorta artistic though, which I like, it's got a good vibe.

Honestly, I can't remember if this was Chicken/Pork Katsudon but anyway it was around $18 iirc and dangg the egg was good. Loved it. As for the, yeah I'm pretty sure it's pork now hahaha, the texture varied. Some were rather tough and dry (might also be because it got cold as I ate it I guess or maybe just the meat-fat ratio was unbalanced since it was quite meaty) but the first few pieces I ate were so good. Texture was crunchy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside, nearly melting in my mouth. Sauce was more on the salty side but made it flavoursome. I'd say the rice and egg was the highlight though because that was perfect~ 

The Wagyu Beef Rice Bowl was probably better in terms of appearance than the taste. Wagyu tasted rather plain and not very smooth. Portion size was also really small. My brother and I weren't a fan of this one, unfortunately.

Just a photo of tea! My brother's girlfriend's sister got the tea that is best accompanied with the wagyu XD Just wanted to say that the tea cup was so pretty~

Think I got the peach iced tea and my brother's girlfriend got something similar but different flavour. To be honest, I didn't like this lol, I couldn't taste the peach at all and probably could barely smell it. The syrup helped with the sweetness but tbh, it reminded me of Lipton Iced Tea without that dry aftertaste. I'd say it was more of a sweet syrupy iced water.

The Sakura Matcha Tiramisu was so yumm~ It's so soft, spongey and full of matcha goodness. It's quite on the soggy side but I don't mind that~ You can apparently smell sakura from it but I couldn't really tell hahaha. Definitely recommended~

Overall, I'd say the atmosphere, the plating and interior was really artistic and nice but the food is rather average The only thing I'd really recommend is the tiramisu just because it's so pretty, soft and sweet!

AnimeSydney Maid Cafe 2017

I've always wanted to go to a maid cafe, but since Japan is too far away from me, I grabbed my sister to go with me to the AnimeSydney club's version of it :D It was at Sydney Park Pavilion in St Peters and there were people playing cricket on the grass fields with the maid cafe being held on the second floor hahaha! I have to say, the blasting anime music alongside the cricket match going on was a pretty funny mismatch to see hahaha.

I believe this is a once-a-year event that the uni club has been holding in recent years, so I had to come to check it out~! The service provided by the maids were very nice and kind, oh and they were so cute too! Food came out pretty fast as well but considering the simplicity of the food, it came in a reasonable amount of time hahah. But we did have to wait maybe another half an hour after our allocated booking time before we got in to sit down though.

We kinda got lost (we asked the cricket people how to get to the second floor lolol) but we eventually saw this sign and was like "Yay! We made it!" It was such a cute sign hahaha.

Little decorations on the table~ The table was big (6 people) so we shared it with another couple :D

Forgot to take a photo of the interior decorations they did but I guess you can see a bit of it here haha. One of the services that the maid cafe provided was your personal maid that attends to your table specifically and she would play an activity with you. For other tables, I saw them playing cards and for us, we did origami! Our maid showed us step by step on how to fold a bunny~ Since I'm terrible at origami, it wasn't the most relaxing activity but it was nice hahaha~

Mine is the green one on the left! XD It somehow turned out good enough hahaha!

We purchased a set meal each ($25/pp with a main meal, 2 desserts and a polaroid photo with your personal maid!) and mine was omurice for the main~ My maid asked me what I wanted her to draw on my omurice and I didn't know so I just asked for a smiley face hahaha! The rice was better than what I expected, rather warm and actually had a few pieces of chicken and peas etc, it was a nice basic meal~

Oh! We also sang along with a group of maids with words like moe moe power to make our food taste better hahaha! It was kinda weird but fun at the same time XD They were really cutee~

My sister was jealous of my smiley so she borrowed the ketchup bottle to draw her own face hahaha! My sister had Japanese curry for her main but there were barely any pieces of meat (that tasted like mystery meat lolol) with mushy veggies and she said her rice wasn't cooked properly hahaha. So that was quite disappointing. The curry was probably one of those from the packets at Daiso tbh~ it was very bland~

My dessert crepe was matcha with red bean which was kinda weird because it was literally a blob of red bean in the middle and that was all, so I was literally eating a bit of crepe with a concentrated amount of red bean paste (that was super sweeet). I think it would have tasted better if it was spread out instead since there was no balance to it at all.

My sister got the nutella version which tasted much better but with the same problem above haha. Maybe it was because the nutella wasn't as sweet as the red bean paste (possibly diluted nutella hahaha).

For the last dessert, we got a parfait~ It's not as crazy pretty as the ones in Japan and looks more like a sundae but it's definitely more of a parfait since it's filled with cream and chocolate/strawberry alongside crunchy corn flakes. The chocolate definitely tasted much better since it had pieces of brownie/cake as well whereas the strawberry was rather bland and a bit sour; mostly heaped with lots of cream and that's all.

Overall, if you're coming for the experience, it's quite worth it considering the vastly different atmosphere, service and fun you get from the anime music, games with the maid, dancing performance by the maids (it was pretty entertaining!) and a polaroid for memories! The food was definitely rather shabby so as long as you don't mind that, it's all good~ XD I would recommend checking it out next year!

Mikazuki, Parramatta

Yayyy! Parramatta is opening more Japanese restaurants! I've already been here like 3-4 times just because Mikazuki (169 Macquarie St, Parramatta) is so close to Parramatta Station since it's like right across from Arthur Phillip High School and is right next to UWS/WSU. It's a decent place that's a tad more on the expensive side but not too more than average so I really like it! Service is nice and the food comes in 10-15 minutes which I am always glad for.

Nabe Udon ($15.50)

Soy dashi flavoured white wheat noodle soup and seaweed in a pot topped w/ shallot, seaweed, naruto maki, soybean curd, tempura prawn and onsen egg

I really like the udon hereee! It's so springy but also soft making it really easy to eat and enjoy! Great for Winter and with the onsen egg mixed in, the soup is a bit eggy but filled with dashi flavour making it really lightly flavoured but not plain at all! The tempura prawn is also very big and legit, it's sweet and filled with seafood flavour and not soggy at all. Everything else is as usual since you literally just put it in to cook it so of course it was good~ I've eaten this twice already just because I've been so colddd and this warms my soul lolol.

Spicy Seafood Poke Bowl ($18.90)

Hawaiian style cube sashimi in spicy sauce and sushi rice topped  w/ seaweed, pickled ginger, avocado, nori, sesame, greens and roe

At first, I wasn't really sure whether I would like this but whoaa this was actually pretty good! Te sashimi was fresh and mixed with the spicy sauce and rice gave it a bit of a spicy but flavoursome mix. It's not very spicy at all so it's all right even if you can't eat spicy food especially since the seaweed and avocado hep to break it up from the spiciness as well. I'd recommend this~

Takoyaki ($7.50)

Octopus balls drizzled with garlic aioli, Japanese BBQ sauce, tuna shavings and seaweed paper

This isn't the cheapest of takoyaki but it most definitely is legit with the big pieces of octopus that are in the balls. It's nice and crispy outside but super hot and soft on the inside. I really liked this~ I really wanted another onee hahaha.

Large Tonkotsu Shoyu Karaage Ramen

My brother had this and thought the soup was rather salty and average for the price it had. 

Tonkotsu Miso Chashu Ramen ($15)

I wasn't a fan of the ramen either as it was pretty average, nothing special. It's not too thick so that's good but the chashu wasn't very crispy or very soft either. The noodles were very basic packet kind of noodles but the egg was perfect~~ Runny but not crazy watery kinda runny which is what I lovee~ Soup base was average in that it wasn't very good but not enough to hate it I guess? Basically, average overall.

Soft Shell Crab Roll ($12) and Crunchy Roll ($14.50)

The sushi were rather expensive for what it was considering that the rice was quite cold and more akin to boiled rice rather than sushi rice? The tempura was crunchy but it doesn't have that much meat to it and the soft shell crab was average in that it was soft but nothing special.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend the sushi or the ramen but I think the udon and rice bowls are quite delicious considering the limited options in Parramatta for Japanese food. I'll definitely continue to come here since it's so close and I love takoyaki haha. I can't wait to try all the other dishes~

Yumei Japanese Restaurant, Chinatown

My sister bought a voucher for Yumei (Capitol Square, 9/730-742 George St, Haymarket) so we all decided to try this place out considering how close it is to Central Station. My sister's been here before but sadly, it seems like the quality of the food has gone down from what she said. The food was reasonably priced but sadly, I have to agree with her that the food wasn't very good at all.

Karaage and Ebi Curry ($16)

This was very undermining as the whole dish was rather salty and the curry was especially gluggy and the corn didn't make it any better. The karaage was rather tender though and the tempura was okay but I was really looking forward to the curry which disappointed me.

Soft Shell Crab Salad ($14)

This was an all right dish if I recall correctly lol. Considering that even if it was relatively salty, there's salad to make up for that lol! 

Teriyaki Wagyu Beef? ($14.30)

Beef was really dry and seemed quite overcooked, wasn't a fan of the sauce either, quite watery and nothing special.

Chahan ($13.50) 

Rice was quite soggy and very sweet as well, not the biggest fan of sweet rice so that was really weird and unexpected, didn't enjoy it.

Grilled Sushi Party ($14.50) 

These were all right! Not super fresh but it wasn't bad, the rice was a bit hard though.

Volcano Roll ($14.70)

Cheese wasn't melted completely and was cold and chewy making the sushi rather meh. This was quite sweet too lol.

Yaki Udon ($13.50)

I really didn't like this. The amount of bonito flakes was way too overwhelming alongside the mayonnaise. It's the takoyaki sauce but udon version so it was really weird. The udon was rather hard as well so I didn't like this at all.

Overall, I feel like the sauces of the dishes always leaned to the sweet side and so even though some of the food was cooked nicely, the sauces didn't make the dish and vice versa for others. Hence, it was a pretty disappointing dinner and I don't think I'd go back again/

The Sparrow's Mill, CBD

A few weeks ago, my friend and I went to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum since there was a Groupon for it. It was really informative and had lots of information and things to see, I think you can easily spend the whole day there just reading everything lol, definitely quite an overload of info but it was interesting. It spoke about contemporary Jewish influences and culture on the ground floor and the next two floors greatly revolved around the Holocaust. It was a very quiet place so I'd recommend it if you're interested in the Holocaust.

Anywho, we decided to have a feast beforehand LOL and we were craving Korean so I suggested The Sparrow's Mill (120/116 Liverpool St, Sydney). It's really close to World Square so I think I might go there more often.. The table was quite small for the food we ordered though, it was quite a feat fitting everything below on to the small tables and not knocking anything down when we were eating lol. Otherwise, food came in like 15 minutes yay!

Incredible Gangjung (H $18) 

cinnamon base and soy sauce with sweet and crispy skin

I didn't realise this was a sweet fried chicken until it came hahaha! I don't even like cinnamon LOL. But for someone whose not a fan of cinnamon, it was all right. It definitely smells strongly of cinnamon though so that was a bit of a turn off. However, the cinnamon and soy sauce combination was quite nice, it was mostly sweet but it didn't feel weird as a sweet fried chicken. The meat wasn't dry as I thought it might be and it was quite crispy. My friend really enjoyed this as a lover of cinnamon hahaha. The rice cakes were so soft and chewy, I liked it~

Beef Soft Tofu Soup ($15)

Soup is my favourite at Korean restaurants, especially when it's Winter and it just warms you right up! It looks like it might be spicy but this wasn't really that spicy at all, maybe a tad bit to enhance the taste but not too much that I couldn't drink it. I mean, we nearly drank the whole thing hahaa! Note that this does have A LOT of beansprouts though, not kidding. I'd say it was mostly comprised of bean sprouts with bits of meat. egg and shallot. I got a good dose of veggies and warmth from this, I really liked it~~

Seafood Pancake ($15)

I was so impressed with the pancake!! It was crispy but also soft and it was so generous with the seafood! Every piece my friend and I ate had a prawn or octopus and they weren't tiny pieces either! There also isn't a crazy amount of shallot like other places do so it had a great balance of everything. The pancake itself was soft and didn't have an overwhelming amount of dough (yay!) so everything complemented well. I usually eat seafood pancake whenever I go eat Korean food and I'd have to say, this pancake might be my favourite, totally recommended!

Side Dishes

I'm not the biggest fan of the side dishes though~ I really like that potato that's sweet that other restaurants have but it was okay. Kimchi was kinda spicy so I had it with some rice hahaha.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food and would definitely come back for more! I wanna try the other chicken and soups whilst having another helping of the pancake hahaha. The only issue I have would be the small table and sides but that's fine~

Thai Garden, North Parramatta

As a farewell to my friend going to work in Darwin for a few years, we all decided to go to Thai Garden (526 Church St, North Parramatta) for dinner before she leaves. I wasn't expecting much since I've never been a fan of Thai but the variety and food was actually pretty good! The food came within 15-20 minutes as well and they all came at once so that was good~ Although we were upstairs, the staff were still quite attentive and I never felt that I needed to wait very long for them to notice when we needed something.

Pad See Ew w/ Beef ($16.90)

Stir fried flat rice noodle with egg and dark soy sauce, mild spices and seasonal vegetables topped w/ garlic oil and chopped fresh herbs

Pad see ew is always my go-to when I have Thai so this was a natural choice. Gratuitously, compared to the one I had last time, this was balanced and not as sweet as Saute Thai in Parramatta. I really enjoyed it with the veggies but the beef wasn't tender and was quite tough so that was disappointing. However, the chicken was really good! It soaked in the sauce quite well, albeit a bit dry.

Praram Vegetables ($16.90)

Steamed green vegetables and round beans topped with Thai Garden's peanut sauce sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds

Don't be fooled by its appearance! This was surprisingly really good (although probably very fatty lmao) since the sauce complemented the veggies very well being sweet, creamy but also a bit savoury for a nice blend of peanut butter. Everyone was fighting for this one hahaha, definitely recommended!

Chilli Basil Noodle ($16.90)

Fresh thick noodles saute with spicy homemade fresh chilli paste, mixed vegetables and Thai basil

No comment on this one since our vegan friend ordered this haha but she said she enjoyed it very much. Here's the photo if you wanted to see it XD

Massaman Curry Chicken ($18.50) (top middle)

Sliced curry chicken breast fillet in medium hot massaman curry, potatoes and onion wedges topped with oven roasted peanuts

I wasn't able to take individual photos since it was inconvenient to stop people from eating just for me to take photos hahaha but the Massaman curry had a surprising presentation in that it looked like a light satay chicken! It wasn't bad but was rather sweet for what it is and didn't taste like the usual curry you would expect. However, it was still quite creamy and nice.

Duck Oh Duck ($18.90) (left)

Shredded boneless duck w/ sliced Granny Smith apple, Thai herbs and mints, lemon chilli dressing, garnished with roasted cashew nuts and crispy fried duck skin

This was actually a pretty nice salad! It was sour but very refreshing and the shredded duck made it a bit more meaty so that meat eaters wouldn't be completely turned off from it. I'm not a salad person but I liked this.

Fried Ice Cream w/ Strawberry sauce

We decided to get dessert as well! Hahaha, this reminded me of my parents' restaurant back in the day lolol except this fried ice cream seemed to have coconut shreds in the fried outside as well which I didn't enjoy. I am not a fan of coconut (although I love lamingtonssss). Otherwise, your regular fried ice cream dose with the store bought sweet strawberry sauce.

Pandan Waffle w/ Vanilla Ice Cream

This was pretty yuumm! The waffle was nice and warm and it had a good deal of pandan flavour from it! Reminded me of those pandan waffles you get in Cabramatta but with lesser coconut shreds in it so I liked it~~ Vanilla ice cream is your basic run of the mill home brand ice cream~

Overall, although I'm not a fan of Thai, I don't think I'd mind eating here again merely because the variety of dishes and the standard across them all is pretty good and so it is a place that I would recommend even if you're not a fan of Thai!

Yasaka Ramen, CBD & Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts, CBD

Previously my sister visited Yasaka Ramen (126 Liverpool St, Sydney) in the beginning of 2016 and around December that year as well and she really enjoyed their ramen. So, we decided to visit again after she returned from Japan. When we first entered into the restaurant, for some reason the floor was really slippery (I nearly slipped zz) and when you go upstairs, the air is extremely pungent of ramen and pork making it really difficult to breathe. Tbh, I really didn't want to stay after that because I actually felt quite sick just sitting there lol. Anyway, we stayed and ordered. The restaurant was relatively busy around 6:30pm but we still got a table for 3 and we got our food in around 10 minutes.

Egg Ramen ($14.80)

I decided to just get something basic rather than the kakuni that my sister and brother ordered. I tried the kakuni and alike my siblings, we thought it was extremely sweet but the meat was very tender. As for the chashu, it wasn't really grilled at all and filled with fat rather than a nice balance of meat and fat. When I took a bite, it was just a mouthful of fat and I literally felt quite sick from eating it. The egg was good though, gooey and soft!

The soup base was similar to the chashu, filled with fat sadly. It was also very thick like goo. If we had to compare it to Gumshara, Gumshara has a good fat and is thick because it's filled with the nutrients of pork bones boiled in the soup for a very long time. Whereas, for Yasaka, it tasted like it had all the crappy fat and goo accumulated into the soup making it super oily and sickening. The noodles were also very plastic-ky making it very chewy but in an uncooked way.

Mango Calpis ($4.50)

This was a breath of fresh air from the fatty soup base. It was lightly sweet and very cooling in the restaurant. It was more on the watery side than the calpis side though and that's probably because of the ice and stuff. I liked it but I might have been influenced from the fact that I didn't enjoy my ramen so this was my only salvation lolol.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts

Chocolate Tart ($4.20)

Since I really love the cheese tarts here (I like them more than Uncle Tetsu!), I thought I'd try out their new chocolate tart. Unfortunately, this way way too nutty for me and the chocolate tasted like hazelnut chocolate as well so it was an overload of a chocolate nut taste, so unless you enjoy that, this is definitely more of a nut tart than a chocolate tart.

Overall, Yasaka was definitely a disappointment and I don't think I'd like to visit again but cheese tarts (not the chocolate tart T_T) are definitely worth it~~