Sydney 2015
Now that I've gotten most of the restaurants and cafes out of the way, it's time to blog about everything else that happened in Sydney!
First stop, Central Park to see both the wooshy sculpture thing, as well as admiring the heliostat, but more importantly, to check out a super hyped up cake stall and check out what else was around at the Brewery Yard markets. We managed to get there early while Kraving K was still setting up, so I hopped over to a fancy steampunk stall instead. After a conversation about their different products, I decided to impulse buy two very pretty, live mechanism pendants:
But alas, when I turned around to see how the cake stall was doing, the line was already half an hour long! Me being me, I commented on this to the steampunk stallholder, and my huge expense quite literally paid off - they had a friend who was waiting close to the front of the line, and allowed me to join them, essentially skipping the queue. Win!
And this is what all the fuss is about. Very pretty cakes topped with very pretty flowers! So we bought some of their mini ones to try it all out:
They make for great pictures! Strawberry fruit tart, beetroot and chocolate cloud cake, yuzu cloud cake, and matcha cloud cake. For me, these were only worth getting once for the pictures, though I attribute a lot of that to no longer having much of a sweet tooth - my sugary cravings are more and more infrequent these days. The strawberry fruit tart had little golden crispy malt balls, and I believe a hazelnut paste. Quite nice, and not too sweet.I'm not sure if I like chiffon cakes at all, and I guess I don't like matcha. The yuzu was okay, though my brother said that it didn't taste like yuzu - it was more just citrussy. The beetroot one was quite interesting because it actually tasted like beetroot, and while the flavour combination worked, it didn't stand out too much for me. I guess I like a buttered up, beautifully layered and flaky pastry better!
Now the next overhyped thing, the Aqua S shot. One day I just started seeing a lot of these pictures pop up, and it's just so over the top! Why have ice cream in a massive cloud of fairy floss and take a picture of it in front of their wall of blue and clouds?! So I had to go do it too. They had either apricot or espresso flavour alongside their sea salt, so I chose espresso. It's weird, but since I drink almost exclusively espressos and filter coffees these days, I don't like many espresso flavoured products at all. Also, I just wanted Fairy floss, marshmallow and pop rocks, but there wasn't a price point advertised for three toppings (there were costs for 1, 2 and all 4), so I chose to get everything. I could barely hold the thing and take a picture of it with my camera at the same time because of the size of the cloud! I also spent a long time eating it as it was quite the quest, so my strategy was to consume the cloud first, taking with it the caramel popcorn and poprocks. The ice cream had to be licked throughout this to prevent the melty bits from dripping, and then the toasted marshmallow was consumed while in the ice cream, since it was impaled on a pocky stick. Then, the standard consumption process.I'm definitely not a fan of almost all ice cream (wow, I'm such a hater!), so I had this mainly to say that I had it. It'd be interesting to try out all the flavours, but while they might be nice, I just don't think I'd enjoy it to the level I like. It was still fun watching everyone else taking that same picture, over and over and over!
I really do love Japanese food, so off to Jugemu Shimbashi I went, for their soba. Ah, their soba is so delicious! It wasn't terribly busy at lunch time so I easily got a reservation for myself, and had a nice view of the street. However, this was also the day that I managed to poison myself with caffeine, so I wasn't feeling well and couldn't finish this duck and mushroom soba. I felt so bad!
Even though I was on the brink of death, I had to still make sure I was eating normally, so that night I went to Burger Project (no, Neil Perry wasn't there on any sweep of the premises I conducted, so he still remains elusive) and sampled their cheeseburger (for no burger is complete without cheese!). Even with a diminished appetite, this was quite nice, but nothing standout for me. it's great for a cheap, good quality burger though! Plus the place has excellent table lighting for perfect pictures.
I have a love of taking pictures of animals, especially birds, so I revisited a couple of parks (and the usual places where seagulls flock) to snap some pictures with my newfound camera abilities, so that I had a better idea of what I was doing compared to the last time.
And of course, some non bird pictures around the city:
I love capturing sparkles in my pictures! After taking a few pictures in cape town, I've discovered that water features are also great fun to take pictures of. Then there was this shot of the bridge, where I found the Luna Park ferris wheel (I think it's a ferris wheel in Luna Park) was actually reflecting in a very standout manner!
Ok, more birds! This time, a funky looking chicken. This is a separate post as it features the Grounds of Alexandria. Though it could technically fall under a cafe post, I didn't dine at the cafe itself or consume any coffee, but rather explored the place to get a feel for it, so it falls under Sydney instead. The petting zoo is pretty cute, and I love all the different food outlets they have to cater for different tastes.
I visited The Potting Shed, as their menu looked appealing, plus they have an adorable macaw there! The charcoal bun pork belly sliders were really nice - better than the ones I had in Adelaide. These ones were softer, and the flavours worked better.The strawberry pot plant was also adorable - look at those mushroom meringues! There was a great flavour to the strawberry sorbet too. The only thing I didn't like was how dense the cake was though. It was mainly pistachio based, but also seemed like it was possibly gluten free or vegan in texture, for it wasn't fluffy or even mudcake-gooey, but rather, missing an ingredient. The meringues were my favourite part of the dish.
And here is Fluffy the macaw! She's quite a large bird, and I learned that she's only about a year old. Incredibly well behaved though! She also knows how to dance - well, she bobbed her head up and down at one point when I was taking pictures. Definitely one of the star attractions of this place! I probably will have to come back for their coffee.
Another section that's too small for its own post, is exploring the Hunter Valley. I went there for a friend's wedding, and was a little worried it was going to be a rainy one - but lucky the skies cleared and we had some amazing weather for a great outdoor wedding! We stayed in a house that had some pretty scenic views of vineyards, mountains and cows, though due to the recent storms, this area was actually flooded so that the vines were dead. Hopefully they'll grow back once the water evaporates!There were also a couple of dogs in the area (very friendly!) that visited our holiday home, and they loved the attention that we gave them! My friend had to make sure that her cat wasn't around during that time though - he doesn't like dogs!I'm also happy that we had bought flowers from Flemington markets the day before and arranged them ourselves - it turns out this was way cheaper than hiring a professional florist to arrange bouquets. The flowers lasted a long time and didn't wilt, so much so that when I took them back home, they were still good for at least another week!After the wedding, we had brunch at a nearby restaurant called Emersons, which I didn't realise until later did degustations for dinner. It must be a fancy restaurant! It was already a fancy cafe as it had lamb's fry - which in this case was liver - which is probably the first time I've ever seen it served in my time at Sydney (ok, so this isn't in Sydney) cafes. It was a tad more cooked than I liked, but it turns out I really do like the taste of liver now, so I was fine with it.
And a revisit to The Tea Room. I was having a belated Mother's day outing with my mum, trying to figure out where to take her for lunch, when she reminded me that she's never been to the Tea Room before. I've had several visits there already, and forgot about it after my last few experiences weren't as great as the first. However, I wasn't as knowledgeable about teas back then as I am now. I was a little apprehensive at going back, but since my mum hadn't been, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to revisit.I'm glad I did though - this experience most closely matched my first experience here. We had a really nice waiter who walked us through the tea menu, and even brought out a sample of a few of his favourite teas for us to smell. I like interactive experiences, and my mum has a great nose, so she had fun talking to him and identifying the different teas presented. For once I didn't choose an earl grey, instead I went for the Tarry Lapsang, a variation of lapsang souchong. I really liked this tea - it had a very strong smokey smell, but when drinking, there was a lightness and fruitiness to it that was very pleasant. My mum chose a yunnan black tea, which was so smooth, malty and quite satisfying.The standard afternoon tea set came out, and I love the fact that their little polenta tart is still on their plate after several years - it's my favourite item in the afternoon tea set. The macaron was my least favourite, since I've eaten quite a few amazing macarons around the place.Overall, I certainly had an epic adventure packed into just 11 days. From visiting old favourites to checking out new places, these were some highlights of the trip:Being able to walk right into Sepia and meeting Martin BennTasting a Burger Project burgerGetting a Mary's fried chicken burger and that was an overhyped burger that actually met expectations! So tasty!Rockpool Bar & Grill David Blackmore full blood wagyu burger is still the best burger everArtificer was a place I overhyped for myself and was also totally worth it!Eating lots of ramenVisiting my first Izakaya and really liking the offalSokyo had the most amazing sushiAnd probably a lot of other stuff from my adventures! I guess poisoning myself with caffeine counts as a standout too, as unpleasant as it was!I heart Sydney!
Nel
So a little place called Nel restaurant popped up on my feed, and I thought it was worthwhile visiting. Sure, there were other places, such as LuMi, Ume, or fancy places in Potts Point. However, for some reason, just the thought of a "Nel" was intriguing.It seemed like a fairly easy place to book for lunch, and the fare was described as modern British, which was good, since I have a strong tendency to go for Japanese restaurants. I was also a little wary of their price point - $35 per person for lunch. I've never seen any fine dining so cheap, apart from prix fixe menus.
Our first dish was green peas and ham: pig's head croquettes with a pea sauce. I was happy they used the cheek meat, though it wasn't clear to us that these were eaten with hands. I think my family were a little confused, but I'm more than happy to look weird and eat food however I want. Not as great as Hartsyard's pig tails, but still nice.
It seems a lot of places are deviating from the standard sourdough selection. This was a mature cheddar sourdough, accompanied with butter. No butter knife was provided, however if we used our 1st main knife, they would have replaced it (as happened to my brother).
Rainbow trout, pickled radish, vanilla corn, miso. This trout had an amazing melt in the mouth texture! It also wasn't heavily flavoured, which I didn't mind, because the miso mousse did quite well to enhance it. About the miso mousse... it kind of tasted like butterscotch to me, rather than a more salty soy experience. I guess this helped complement the corn. The radishes were less pickled than I liked, but it meant that the radish flavour stood out, so I guess that was intended.
In this 5 course tasting menu, this was the only dish where there was a choice - lamb, or vegetarian risotto. Since I really don't like risotto no matter how well it's prepared, I opted for the lamb. So did everyone else! I'm so glad I chose the lamb. Once it was presented and explained, I loved it even more. There was a piece of lamb backstrap on yoghurt, and to the side was lamb mince ragu wrapped in onion, tempura lamb brain, then potato on a black garlic puree. The mince was possibly a little too lean, but it had an awesome flavour to it, and I like the fact it was wrapped in onion. The tempura brain - that was the highlight for me! The crunch and flavour of the batter worked well with the creaminess of the brain, though it turns out, when I tasted the brain by itself, I wasn't too big of a fan. I do like this better than pancreas though, at least for now.
Dessert was a chocolate caramel ice cream with vanilla mousse, poached pear, meringue sticks and a pumpkin and orange sauce. Though the ice cream was melting by the time it got to our table, it was a most delicious ice cream! It had a richness in the chocolate that I really like, without being too sweet. The poached pear was on the crisp side, which was fine with me since it added a lightness to the dish. The pumpkin sauce on the other hand, tasted mostly orangey and I couldn't make out too much of the pumpkin flavour. I would have liked that to be a bit more balanced, especially as I don't like orange chocolate combinations even if they taste amazing.Five courses, you say? The last one was a tiny pastry thing with a currant in the middle, and lemon curd on top. They were such tiny morsels that I didn't take a picture and simply ate it.Overall, was it worth $35? Oh yeah! My wallet was certainly very pleased! But nothing here was particularly standout, though my two favourite parts were the tempura brain and the chocolate caramel ice cream. Their dinner menu is actually distinctly different and focuses on more seafood, so I imagine the experience is quite something else.
Masu Izakaya
Treating Sydney as a holiday destination is tough. Mainly because it's expensive, requires a lot of eating, and then blogging about all the pictures I took. The taking pictures part and hanging out around Surry Hills are totally enjoyable though!My two week stint in Sydney was so packed full of jam that I've decided that this little izakaya in Chinatown gets its own little post - which is usually reserved for high profile restaurants or coffee adventures! You lucky little izakaya, you!
I actually had two visits here, mainly because I didn't realise that they only did yakitori at night, which is what I was primarily after. But since I had already stepped inside intending to eat lunch, I stuck with it. In the first round, I ordered the seaweed salad first up. I've had seaweed salad served one of two ways - nice fat kelpy bits with sauce, or the standard thin green addictive stuff. Addictive stuff it was!
According to their menu, their sashimi plate didn't include kingfish, so I ordered a set of kingfish separately. It was a little fishy, but still enjoyable.
Alas, I should have asked and double checked if there was kingfish on the sashimi plate, because here it is! Oops, too much kingfish. They were able to do this as there were only two pieces of scallop instead of the three listed on the menu, I guess. The sashimi was so-so, nothing too impressive or mind blowing.
It wasn't until my night visit that things got exciting. I gave their scallop nigiri a go, but it didn't have the same sweetness as those from Sokyo (or even Umi Kaiten Zushi). However, I was curious about a dish on the menu called takowasa. It was described as "raw octopus and wasabi" so I simply assumed it was octopus legs sliced as thin discs, accompanied with wasabi. Though I couldn't figure out why it didn't fall under sashimi.What I received was a surprise to me as a result. It was an ugly, mushy looking mess of things in a small bowl, of slightly slimy baby octopus tentacles in a thin green sauce. However, since I did order it, I gave it a go. Woaaah! It was a salty, spicy, crunchy flavour bomb of amazing! I actually really enjoyed it as it had so much flavour and texture, so much so that I was craving it the next day. Now I'll have to seek this dish out and try it everywhere!
Ok, now to the actual reason I wanted to visit this place so badly: the yakitori. The several offal options are what intially caught my interest, though I'm still too chicken to order hearts (pun intended). I went for the bonjiri (parson's nose/chicken tail), pictured, nankotsu (cartilage), reba (liver), sunagimo (gizzard/giblet) and okra maki skewers. Yep, I figured okra would be the most interesting vegetable I could get on a skewer from the menu.
And then out they came, all on their own plate! I thought that was a little weird and excessive, since a few of these could be placed together. The liver must have been cooked medium or less, as it was still bleeding, but could probably have been placed with the giblets, cartilage and okra on the same plate. The only exception was the bonjiri, which had its own plate for not just the oil, but for a soy flavoured sauce that it was cooked with, which made it different from the other skewers. I really liked the liver here, so I guess after Cape Town I actually do like liver overall! The giblets were the best seasoned, with plenty of salt and pepper on them which is great as that's my favourite bit of chicken offal. The cartilage was the least flavoured, but I love the crunchiness of it so much that I didn't care too much. The okra was pretty good, and I believe it was possibly topped with cheese, as well as having a mayonnaise dipping sauce.The owner was also super nice and a very enthusiastic fellow. He initally commented on me taking photos of my food, then came around to ask me how my food was. It was great! It was my first real yakitori experience and I really liked it! Since only really loving and seeking nose to tail and offal after my stint in South Africa, and haven't having actually made the effort to go to all the izakayas in Surry Hills, this first impression was really good. I wish I had also ordered the tamagoyaki, but at the time I didn't want to eat more than I already had, since it was an early dinner for me.Times like this I wished I could revisit at a whim, but alas, I'm in a different state!Since I have nothing to compare this visit to, I cannot say if the yakitori here is actually decent, but who cares, because I got my first taste of takowasa here, which was so amazing, and the experience was really good - which means I'm happy to come back here to get my yakitori fix!To Chaco Bar and Izakaya Fujiyamaaaaaa!
Hartsyard
Hartsyard wasn't a place that had popped up on my radar, however my brother wanted to go. I had no idea of its popularity, fame, or even the type of cuisine it served - in fact on my initial viewing of the menu, I wasn't sure I'd like it at all.However, I booked it anyway, and when I checked the menu again on the day, it looked quite interesting - which was a good thing - we needed very large appetites and stomachs for this meal!
The food menu is split into three parts - Seed (entrees), Feed (mains), Out to Pasture (dessert). For a party of two it was recommended that we order only three items from Seed and Feed as the servings were quite large. We opted for four, since I wanted to try pretty much everything.First up was the chicken skin, which came in larger pieces than I expected, and that's when I realised that the servings are quite large. These were served with togarashi, which had a great spiciness to it.
When I chose the crispy pig tails, I was expecting... little fried curly things. Instead, we received two fried balls with pickle garnish and a buttermilk sauce. Wow. It was an amazing ball of gelatinous goo stuff that was so good! It worked so well with the pickles and the sauce. It was so crisp on the outside, too! This was my favourite dish of the night.
Fried chicken was on my mind since I've been meaning to go sample some Mary's fried chicken, but probably wouldn't have the chance to. Instead, it was fried chicken here - and this was the one dish we shouldn't have ordered. Not because it wasn't super tasty, but because there's fried chicken everywhere, and for the most part, are all equally delicious. This was just an issue of quantity. That cauliflower sauce made the biscuit (scone) taste so good, and that chicken had a great coating and was juicy on the inside!
We were struggling by the time the poutine came out. My brother really really wanted this dish, and I had no idea what it was. However, after a few bites, I loved this too! Who thought wet chips could taste this good! It was hilarious that we both liked the chips better than the beef shin, so we ended up consuming all the potato, but because we had to leave room for dessert, we had to abandon the tasty beef.
I think we were only meant to order one dessert, but we ended up ordering two. Definitely too much food! However, I can safely say this is the best tiramisu I've had. I'm not sure exactly why it tasted so good to me, but it probably had to do with the fact that it wasn't overloaded with heavy mascarpone and didn't have an overpowering coffee-alcohol soaked sponge. All the proportions were just right, and I liked that the coffee-alcohol flavour was instead concentrated in little blocks of jellies, and this was very delicious indeed. The shards of pulled caramel on top also added just enough sweetness to complement the dish!
I mainly wanted to try the fried apple pie dish because it contained apple and sorrel granita, and I love sorrel. When it came out, my brother and I were instantly reminded of a McDonald's apple pie, both because of the smell and the look. It was tasty, but not mind blowing. We both liked the tiramisu better. The granita did indeed have a nice sharpness to it, but at the end of the day only one dessert is needed between two people, and the tiramisu wins.So we had ordered 6 dishes instead of a recommended 4, and we left crumbs in the last 3 dishes. Funnily enough, with every 2 hour limit booking I've had this time, we've just made the time limit (at Sake we hit it before dessert) - possibly because the company I had knew exactly what to order, which helps a lot. Time wouldn't have helped us anyway, since I doubt I could increase my metabolism on demand.Either way, I was very happy for having dined here, since I would never have picked out an American themed restaurant if left to my own devices. There are definitely at least a couple of fantastic dishes here that I would come back for.Now to somehow get rid of all that energy all that food gave me...
Sokyo
Oh Sokyo, whoever thought that you would be so amazing! Having previously had a mediocre experience at Sake, I wasn't sure what to expect here, especially since I've had sushi from Japan which is pretty impossible to match. That being said, Sydney is probably one of the best places to have Japanese, given the large Japanese population here.I totally didn't realise I could ask for the omakase when I made the booking, and it turns out a week's notice is required so that the chefs can age the fish. If I can't get into Raita Noda, I may as well put this on my revisit list!
There was a lot to choose from on the menu, and most of our indecision came from the fact that we wanted to try everything. To start off, we opted for oysters and the sashimi set. Those scallops! I love super sweet scallops, and I couldn't get enough of them. It was also cool that the platter came with dry ice, making for great presentation, but alas, I couldn't get a good picture of it. But that's okay because it's better to eat this than to take pictures of it. The selection of fish included marinated snapper, tuna, kingfish, salmon, bonito, Hokkaido scallop.The oysters had a plum wine and lime granita with a spicy ponzu sauce. I liked these oysters a lot!
The toro was a no brainer, though we agonised over how many we should get, considering they were $15 a piece. Four came in at $59, so we decided to order that way. No regrets! This was so good, so melt in the mouth and so well flavoured, and the biggest bonus for me was that I could actually taste the vinegar in the warm rice, and it was delicious! Never before have I had such delicious rice with my toro (except in Japan)!
Jurrasic quail robata with jamon iberico, endive salad, creamy ponzu and kalamansi teriyaki. The quail had a strong charcoal flavour to it, and the salad was great with a hit of bitterness. It wasn't particularly a standout though, I'd spend more money on the other items on the menu.Not photographed was a moreton bay bug tail tempura, mainly because it looked like popcorn seafood, served with two sauces - a pepper vinegar and a spicy mayo. Also not a standout, but I did like the acidity of both sauces.
The "DengakuMan" miso cod, on the other hand, was amazing! There was a line of spicy Japanese salad that was prepared with precise knifework, and cucumber salad. That miso cod! The flesh fell right apart and had the perfect flavour! I thought Patagonian Toothfish was unbeatable, but this gives it a run for its money!
More scallops, in a wasabi shitake pepper sauce. Not as awesome as the sashimi version, but tasty all the same! The broth was also rich and tasty.
Sokyo spicy bouillabaise. I originally wasn't sure about ordering this since I can't handle spicy, but after being advised it wasn't too spicy, went ahead with it. I wasn't disappointed! Both my brother and my friend smelled yuzu straight away, but since I don't really have a great sense of smell, I just had a slightly burning tongue through the whole thing. I actually would have preferred less white fish in this simply because I was getting full, but the soup was amazing! Now I need to create a seafood broth again at home.
Sure, I was getting full, but I needed more toro. And some uni. It was a great way to finish off all our savouries!
When there's a souffle, and it's yuzu flavoured, it has to be ordered. I've never seen one served in glassware before, so it was a first for me. It was very fluffy and tasty, and one of the better fruit flavoured souffles I've tasted, as a few have been too eggy. However, I don't think anything will beat the Vue de Monde chocolate souffle I had!
Mochi ice cream! I don't really like ice cream, but I do like mochi! I would love to try mochi ice cream, as this was simply ice cream and mochi. It was delicious and the mochi was so soft and flexible. The strawberry milkshake ice cream worked really well with this and I enjoyed it!If there's a place that tops Sydney sushi, I'd say it's currently Sokyo. One thing I also need to mention is that I really wanted to try a cocktail, mainly for the name - "Chasing Kojima". Maybe one day! In the meantime, I'll just make a punny character name in my story.I definitely want to go back for the toro, the hokkaido scallop, and the omakase! I actually liked the uni dish at Sepia better than here, mainly because over there it was marinated and had other flavour elements which enhanced the dish.I need to learn more Japanese!