Late adopter tries popular restaurant

Ever since it opened mid-year, the Sydney branch of the Din Tai Fung dumpling chain has generated a positive buzz, from professional restaurant reviewers as well as foodbloggers. And let’s face it, it’s the latter we read and believe more now, isn’t it?

“Din Tai Fung began in 1958 as a small shop on Linyi Street [Taipei] run by Bingyi Yang and his wife Pengmei Lai” – from the brochure ‘About Dintaifung’. The chain now has around 50 restaurants in China, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia and the US.

We went there for lunch, arriving at 11.45am, but there was a 20 minute wait for a non-shared table (considering the place opens at 11.30am, there must have been people lining up pretty early). No probs, as it gave us time to peruse the menu and to mark the items we want on an order sheet.

We started with a very spicy hot and sour soup ($4.80 for small). I swallowed some the wrong way and had a minor coughing fit, not helped by the extreme pepper hit in the soup. It was tasty, but could have been hotter – temperature-wise, that is.

Next came cha jiang noodles ($11.80), with a saucy pork mince and tofu mixture on top of very silky handmade noodles. This was an excellent dish, with the meat being yielding and velvety; the noodles have a very fine texture and were the best I’ve had in ages. The wontons ($8.80 for 6) were okay, just ordinary wontons, although the wrapper was again very smooth and soft without being too delicate – no one likes wontons that break. The soup was gentle and a nice counterpoint to the wontons.

So how were the dumplings (xiao long bao)? These were the soup dumplings ($8.80 for 6) that have hot soup encased with meat inside the wrapper. Poke or bite a hole in the dumpling and slurp out the soup first, unless you want to burn your mouth by eating it whole!

I was fascinated by the beautiful pleats on the dumplings, and apparently each dumpling weighs the same. The dumpling makers work (and dress) like a medical team gathered around a patient in surgery, so the dumplings are obviously very good. The pork dumplings are nice, but the crab and pork ones were better (they should be, at nearly double the price, $15.80 for 6). Great crab texture. It was a pleasure biting into these mini (production line) works of art.

I’m glad we finally tried Din Tai Fung. Even despite the wait for a table, the food arrived promptly and the service is perfunctory though efficient. And the food was very filling, as only pork dumplings can be. I wouldn’t mind going there regularly, although bf said he prefers yum cha. We will have to rock paper scissors it out next time I need a dumpling fix.

There’s Monet…there’s Whiteley…there’s Lunch!

I visit the Art Gallery of NSW on an irregular basis, usually when there’s an exhibition on, or for the annual Archibald prize. I’m not sure why I don’t go more often, as entry to the Gallery is free, and it’s quite a cool oasis on a warm day, as long as there aren’t hordes of school kids on an excursion.

Last time I dined at the Art Gallery Restaurant was for a colleague’s farewell, and I remember the food and setting being pretty nice. So I suggested it as the venue for Lin Mei’s birthday lunch.

The Restaurant is on the entry level of the Art Gallery, with a more casual café located on the lower level below. It has big plate glass windows overlooking Woolloomoolloo and the Finger Wharf, and it’s very light and airy, though noisy when it’s filled with lunching ladies and business types. LM and I, as ladies of leisure at the moment, fitted right in.

LM ordered the sirloin steak and I had the veal (each $30). The steak was perfectly cooked to med-med rare with a creamy mashed potato accompaniment. My veal was wrapped in jambon ham and was melt in the mouth. And it came with a scrumptious slice of vegetable galette.

I was going to have a mango terrine for dessert until I noticed an amazing-looking citrus dish at the next table, so I changed my mind. The citrus salad ($15) consisted of orange and grapefruit segments and it was topped with a refreshing granita and a very minty sorbet. I’m not a huge fan of bitter citrus and this was a bit bitter (or, it had bitter bits – try saying that quickly) but it was okay overall.

The service was efficient and friendly and we had a wonderful time. Oh, and I got LM a box of macarons from Adriano Zumbo. In return, she gave me a belated birthday gift of a square scallop punch – woohoo, I love punches! We finished off the visit to the Art Gallery by having a peek at my favourite painting, the one by Canaletto of St Mark’s Square in Venice. Good stuff.

You say Peking, I say Beijing

To celebrate my Auntie I’s birthday, we had a family dinner at Peking Duck Restaurant in Beverly Hills (493 King Georges Rd, on the main strip). I grew up in this area, so know it fairly well.

Now, there are so many Chinese restaurants on the 500m or so between the train station and Stoney Creek Rd that a new one seems to have opened up each time I visit. Peking Duck has been open a few months and it is still packed each night (a good sign, as Chinese patrons can be fickle, frequenting new restaurants for a few weeks until the novelty wears off). You have to book a week in advance to get in here on weekends.

I loved it, because it was so different to the usual Cantonese food that we normally encounter. The ordering was done by my uncle and aunt, in Mandarin, so I had no idea what was being ordered. So I had to keep asking ‘What’s that?’ every time a strange dish showed up. As in most Chinese restaurants, the service is quick; the first dish appeared about 5 mins after we finished ordering.

I can’t abide duck tongues because of the way they look, so I can’t vouch for these ones. Apparently they were spicy (just look at those green chilis). The seaweed and jellyfish were refreshing, and good.

Then came something I’ve never encountered before – fiddlehead, a crimson-coloured stalk vegetable with a tangy flavour (or ‘unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption’ according to Wikipedia). Unusual, I wonder if it’s going to be an ‘in’ vege?. We also had what I thought was lamb, but turned out to be mutton – it was flavoured with cumin and was just like Moroccan lamb fillet!

Another unusual dish was man tau buns (fried and steamed) served with condensed milk for dipping. Weird, but it works, with the buns being nicely moistened by dipping in the gooey milk.

Then, after the seemingly endless array of dishes, the duck arrived (with an identity crisis, it’s called Beijing Duck on the menu). The chef who carved the duck is a real master, with the duck skin having no shred of fat or meat on it at all, just perfect crisp skin. There are different cuts that can be ordered with the duck, and we had the skin only, skin plus meat and meat only options. But you can order any of the 3 types, at different prices.

Again, a new way of eating the duck skin was presented – imagine dipping it in white sugar and strawberry jam. Weirder than the condensed milk and just as tasty.

All up, with all that food, we were out of there in under 90 minutes (compare that to 2½ hours at Kazbah the night before. I’d definitely love to go back to Peking Duck again, just to try some other dishes.

Shopping and eating - a typical Saturday

It was the final Good Living Growers’ Market at Pyrmont for the year last Saturday, so I felt an effort had to be made to go. Unavoidable circumstances conspired against me going more than once this year, what with bad weather, weekend sleepins, laziness, etc.

It was stinking hot on Saturday, even at the relatively early hour of 9am. It didn’t stop an eager throng from crowding the stalls, queuing for bacon rolls and looking for a shady spot. I only bought some passionfruit butter because it was too hot to carry much else (even though bf acts as pack horse, luckily). Also sampled some Ladysmith Lamb, which was being barbequed – it was delicious, and will definitely be on the shopping list when we get our new barbeque.

Also being promoted in the hot sun was next October’s revamped Good Food Month (International Food Festival?). It looks to be a corker and they lined up some top Sydney chefs to do a bit of an advance soft sell. See picture below.

After the markets, we adjourned to yum cha at East Ocean (we were going to go to Zilver but honestly, I couldn’t walk another step and East Ocean was closer). It was a bit of a disappointment (esp. after the great foodbloggers yum cha a few months ago). The service was slow (we waited 10 mins for tea and napkins to arrive), and the food trolleys were very sparse. So after some desultory dumplings, I adjourned home for lie down before heading out for dinner at Kazbah in Balmain.

We haven’t been to Kazbah since the start of the year, and it continues to maintain a high standard of food and service. It’s always interesting to read the menu here because it’s like doing research at school – you have to keep referring to the handy glossary to see what Kibbeh Nayeh, basturma and chevizli are.

The food was fantastic. We normally go with the shared mezze plate to start, but knowing that the servings here are not small, felt that we wouldn’t be able to fit it all in. So we had separate entrées for a change. Good move, because although the mains took a while to arrive, when they did, bf’s main of beef fillet was huge. It was cooked ‘blue’ as he requested, and I had a taste and it was melt in the mouth. Our waiter had explained that my dukkah lamb was prepared to medium-rare, which was fine with me. But when it arrived, it was more medium which made it a bit dry. The flavour was good though. When the waiter noticed that I hadn’t finished the lamb, I said it was overcooked. He went away, then came back and offered complementary dessert as compensation. That is so nice, and observant!

I felt that it would have been rude to refuse the dessert, although I was pretty stuffed at this stage, so I ordered the chocolate Eton mess, thinking that the meringue in it would be light. Not quite – the serving was massive, but I still managed to make a bit of a dent in it. Some Moroccan mint tea helped with the digestion. And sorry for the quality of the photos – we started when it was light-ish, and we were there for such a long time that it was quite dark when we finished (romantic darkness is no good for food photos!).

I really like Kazbah, it’s a professional operation with great food. They also have a sister restaurant, Sumac, in Darling Harbour.

Food and crowds - it’s the Glebe St Fair

It’s festival season in Sydney, and one of the most popular (and populous) is the Glebe St Fair. Part of Glebe Point Road is closed for this annual event (last Sunday) and it’s lined with stalls selling food, sunglasses, hats and earrings – there’s probably other stuff, too, but hats and sunglasses are at every second stall.


Like the Newtown Festival and Surry Hills Festival, the Glebe St Fair has a laid back inner city vibe about it, though not as hippy trippy as the other two. The stalls are pretty much the same at all of these events but there’s something about munching on a sausage in a roll that makes for a pretty good weekend. And Turkish Gozleme – what would a festival be without the ladies in headscarves turning over the gozleme (with a squeeze of lemon, mmmm!)

And dogs on leashes; can’t have a fair without cute doggies!

Another trendy Balmain restaurant

We’ve been trying to get into this new Balmain restaurant (Wase Japanese Dining) since it opened about 2 months ago and it’s been booked out every Friday and Saturday night since. Honestly, it put me off a bit, because it’s only popular because it’s new, I thought. We finally got in on the weekend by turning up late-ish (8.45pm) and got seats at the long communal table. I would have preferred one of the booths that line the place, as they’re a bit more private, but we were given table seats instead.

The crowd is mainly couples or young groups, and the noise level can get high, though when we got there, most people were finishing up. The waitstaff are fairly efficient given how busy they must get. Interestingly, the one and only sushi chef has a camera trained on his workstation so you can see him preparing on a big screen (nice touch if you run out of conversation with your dining partner!).

We started with Nasu Dengaku (grilled eggplant, $12) and tempura soft shell crab ($18), both of which were good, though oily, which is to be expected with such dishes. The crab was moist and meaty and dark shelled rather than orange. Tasty.

The sushi and sashimi platter took a bit longer to arrive because they were busy (said the waitress). And the plate was tiny! The bf actually asked if it was the large size that we ordered. I think it’s a bit rich charging $32 for 14 pieces. The fish was fresh and good, but the cost didn’t leave a very nice taste. Lucky I wasn’t that hungry after eating a Zumbo apricot Danish (brekky) and passionfruit tart (afternoon tea) beforehand.

Overall, the food here is not bad though the value for money is not the best. I’m not sure I’d visit again because of the cost and the crowding at the communal table (again maybe cos it’s new and trendy). And I think the name of restaurant is wanky (what type of ‘real’ Japanese place calls itself ‘Japanese Dining’?). And the wonton font they’ve used on their sign outside is such a cliché. Sugoi sushi train or Samurai (both down the road) are a better bet if you’re after Japanese in Balmain. Sorry for the rant, I just felt like a bit of a whinge. Moaning Myrtle…out.

bistro cbd followed by cupcakes

Spring is the best time of year, I think, because the weather is brighter, the birds are singing and the flowers are out (great if you don’t have hay fever). It’s also when lots of friends have birthdays, so there are lots of opportunities for birthday lunches.

Such as when C. and I celebrated her birthday at Bistro CBD, in King St (CBD). It’s one of those ‘business lunch’ places that are filled (mostly) with blokes in suits. An upside of this is that these places usually have good service and are pretty quick if you have to get back to work.

Aside from the a la carte menu, they also have a ‘fixed rate feast’ where you can have 2 courses for $30 or 3 courses for $40 (available only at lunch). It’s excellent value, though naturally the course sizes are a bit smaller than the norm.

We both went for the ocean trout for starters. It was beautifully marinated with bits of cornichon and a piquant fennel and radicchio salad. My pork belly main was just right – right size, right crunchy skin, right moist meat. For dessert, we both had the tamarillo, which consisted of a poached fruit with matching sorbet. I thought the serving sizes were perfect, considering you probably wouldn’t want too much food before that afternoon meeting back at the office.

However…on the way back to said office, I passed by the Cupcake Bakery outlet underneath the Ivy complex in George St. So I thought I’d get some cakes to motivate my team. Well, everyone was certainly motivated! I (greedily) snaffled the red velvet cake mainly due to the little red icing love heart. The cake itself was a wonderful deep shade of red, but a bit dry. The overall voted winner was the tiramisu.

What I ate last week

Ali Edwards Creative has introduced a craft project where you take photos of your life for a week and then scrapbook them. Great, I thought, that’s just the kickstart I need to get my scrapbooking going again. Well, that was the idea.

It was about the 2nd day that I realised that i) nothing much is happening this week, and ii) gosh, this is such a boring week! Essentially, my week consisted of getting up, going to work, having lunch, going home, having dinner, going to bed, and so on and so on.

So my photos last week were not very interesting and I have yet to scrapbook anything. So I’ve decided to highlight the highlight of that week (and most other weeks), ie. What I Had For Lunch.

The week started on Sunday, when I got a tasty sausage roll from Simmone Logue. We went to Adriano Zumbo first, but they had sold out, and SL’s ones are better, in my opinion. It was delicious, and I’m sure I had several neighbourhood dogs following me down the street as I carried the sausage roll home. Then, the bf, who knows that I am partial to a good finger bun, got me one from Baker’s Delight. It was awful. Lurid pink icing that smelled of bubblegum and a flaccid white roll that was dry and tasteless.


On Monday, I had a chicken Caesar salad from the chicken place at the MLC foodcourt. Nice and fresh.
Tuesday was lunch at harbourkitchen where I had goat ragout with stracci. Perfection.


On Wednesday, I went to Officeworks, and when I came out, what did I see across the road but Bertoni’s Clarence St offshoot. The service there is just as charming as the Balmain branch. The mortadella roll was delicious, with lovely bread wrapped around tasty mortadella, cheese and capsicum slices.

Thursday saw me at MLC again, this time with the excellent roast beef on Turkish bread from Zupano. I could eat this every day.

Friday was so busy that I didn’t have time for lunch. So at 3.30pm, I went for a muffin at the café downstairs from work. It was almost as appalling as the Sunday finger bun. The muffin was dry and had an unpleasant odour of banana oil (if there is any such thing).

To wipe out the memory of it, I stopped by at Simmone Logue on the way home because Friday night is chicken schnitzel night. SL does a really good schnitzel, accompanied by salty roast potatoes. I got a serve with roast veges as well, and they were pretty good too. Add a Daim bar for dessert and it was a nice end to the week.

So that was my week in food. Hopefully next week will be more interesting so I can start documenting My Life That Is Not So Boring.

let's do lunch at the harbourkitchen

In an attempt to stretch out my birthday for another week, my friend Caroline and I had lunch at harbourkitchen&bar restaurant at the Park Hyatt. They have a 'let's do lunch' special for Good Food Month which also sweetened the deal.

I don't know why it is, but C also got lost on the way to the restaurant (LM, you're not the only one!). So she was a few minutes late, which gave me a chance to take photos of the harbour, which is still pretty when the weather is overcast and drizzly. I also discovered that I preferred one of the regular menu items to the 'let's do lunch' dish.

The 'let's do lunch' dish was wood-roasted snapper with carrot, orange and saffron puree, confit fennel and dried olives (comes with glass of Brown Bros pinot grigio or sangiovese). I went for the stracci pasta with baby goat ragout and pecorino cheese. The pasta was sooo silken and soft and it paired perfectly with the melt-in-the-mouth ragout (very like tender beef). I was so glad I got it. We shared a baby spinach, beetroot and goats cheese salad which was very good.

Click on the photo for a closer look...

The service was spot on. Because it's out of the way (relative to the CBD), I rarely come here, but it's definitely worth a visit. And such pretty views.

Lunch and a great gift

A bright spot in the midst of a horrible week (workwise) was lunch with Lin Mei at Bond Café in Philip St. It’s a lunch spot popular with ‘suits’ though it’s more casual than, say, a restaurant. The service is quick and slick, as expected by most of the clientele.

Anyway, once Lin Mei had arrived (after getting waylaid or lost or making a wrong turn – come on, LM, you chose the place!) we both ordered the rigatoni with scallops. I thought it was pretty good, though the scallops were a bit salty but with a nice grilled flavour. I forgot to take a photo of the dessert because it was so amazingly good that I tucked in as soon as it arrived (marinated strawberries with vanilla bean mascarpone, if you’re interested).

The reason for the lunch was my birthday and the delivery of some punches and stamps that I’d ordered. LM gave me this gorgeous bag and card that she made – isn’t she amazing? You can see how she did it here. Thanks, Lin Mei, I love it. And, for some reason, the colours of the chairs in the café reminded LM of her Stampin’ Up! shades…really rust. Really!

Foodbloggers meet and eat (East Ocean!)

Q: What do you get when a dozen or so foodbloggers get together for yum cha?
A: Lights, cameras, food and photos, that’s what!

Christie from fig and cherry managed to get likeminded foodbloggers and hangers on together at East Ocean restaurant for a smorgasbord of yum cha mayhem. Actually, it was very civilised and a great opportunity to meet some of my favourite bloggers. And it’s nice to see others whipping out a camera whenever a new dish appears on the table (it’s not so embarrassing when everyone else at the table is doing it…).

The food was pretty good, too, and the trolleys were well-stocked with all the favourites, including sui mai, har gau, chicken’s feet, shanghai soup dumplings, mango pancakes and egg custard tarts. Chocolatesuze wished for and got a slice of thousand layer cake and everyone was happy.

Thanks, Christie, for organising it. And it was nice to finally meet and re-acquaint with Jennifer, Reem, Lisa, Helen, Lorraine, Kathryn, Qingling and Howard.

Between the Covers

This is an event that is part of Good Food Month: an evening with Anna Phillips and Syd Pemberton talking about the process of putting together cookbooks, dealing with publishers, food styling, and the recent history of the art of cookbooks.

Syd and Anna are very funny, knowledgable ladies who have worked in the food industry for many years, and who have written a seafood cookbook together. Syd has numerous other publications to her name (and is apparently collecting some royalties from them). She also runs market tours and cooking classes. Anna has a background in home economics and works (among other things) as a food stylist for books, magazines and advertising (the can of baby beets below is one of hers).

It was a really entertaining evening, topped off with tastings of their food creations. The vintage pineapple stabbed with cubed cheese and cabanossi was a huge hit. I personally loved the prawn salad, which was made with farmed Thailand prawns. Anna is an advocate of these prawns, having seen the process involved in their farming. They look and taste amazing (I haven’t coloured any of these photos – they really are that bright).

It was interesting hearing their stories of photo shoots and how they believe that the food you see on the front of a box (such as cake mix) should be the same as what you make – no touching up or ‘faking’. Although the story behind that chocolate drink advert with floating marshmallows attached with skewers and blu-tack will have me searching out that box at the supermarket…

They are looking at having another session next Wednesday (in Balmain). It was a fun night.
www.foodtofuel.com.au
www.spfoodworkshop.com.au

Azuma and singing waitresses

Thinking (as usual) that I had plenty of time, I left it a bit late to book somewhere for dinner for my birthday. We were going to go to Rise (after having a fantastic time at Ocean Room for bf's bday), but it was going to be too difficult to get to.
So I managed to get a booking at Azuma Japanese restaurant, in Chifley Plaza. And what a night it was: wonderful food, great service and a taxi rank right outside.

Chifley Plaza always reminds me of work, because I sometimes frequent the (very good) food court at lunch time. Azuma is on the same level as the food court, separated by some glass screens. The food is in a class of its own.

We had the Omakase degustation, which consisted of 10 fresh, beautifully prepared courses. They were all just amazingly delicious, though I hit the wall about the time course number 7 (wagyu steak) rolled around. But I always leave room for dessert. And just as well I did, because bf had arranged for a special birthday message to be written on the dessert plate. And the lovely waitresses trooped out with candles and a sparkler and sang 'happy birthday' as well! And to top it off, they took a photo of us and presented it to us a few minutes later.

Here are some pictures of the food. For some reason, it reminds me of the dishes on Iron Chef...?

Maybe I could have eaten a bit more if I hadn't prepared this scrummy breakfast a few hours earlier...