Boodle Fight - Sydney

Filipino food and culture is amazing, so many influences and so many flavors melding together....you never really know what to expect. That's why when offered the opportunity to participate in a traditional kamayan feast, I couldn't refuse! It wasn't my first time having a kamayan feast (apparently, also referred to as a boodle fight) but nonetheless, I was still heaps excited. There's just something about eating great food with your friends, getting into it and making a mess with your hands....and I get to cook!

I decided this time to make chicken yakitori, but as I had learned, the whole point of the feast was to come and have all the food ready to eat. This posed a problem as to do yakitori well, you need to grill it over charcoal. Luckily, I had a work around! I had the skewers prepared and marinaded ahead of time. Now normally, yakitori isn't marinaded but instead relies on the basting to give it flavor. I didn't have that luxury so instead I left it overnight in the marinade so the flavor would penetrate the meat. and when it came to prepare it, I put all the skewers into a pressure cooker and steamed it for roughly 10 minutes.

So now that the chicken was fully cooked, I took it over for the last step. To finish the chicken yakitori, I brushed on the yakitori sauce onto the skewers and then torched them all using my kitchen blowtorch. As I didn't have a charcoal grill (or a Searzall...for that matter) I used the torch to impart a smokey, grilled flavor to the chicken. It's not the best way but it worked! the chicken was nice and tender and had a faux-charcoal flavor.

Aside from my chicken, there were an abundance of other filipino delights! menudo, prawns, mussels, grilled squid, torta talong (eggplant omelette), grilled fish and so much rice! To say that there was way too much food would be an understatement. But what's a filipino party without excessive amounts of food right?

For dessert, one of our friends made knafeh. This was my first time having this dessert and I have to say that I'm extremely impressed! It was a little saddening that the sugar syrup was left out but the end product was still amazing: creamy and cheesy in all the right ways.

I'm so glad I got the chance to live life and eat good food with our mates. It's the little moments like these that we live for.

Shout out to our resident photographer Orville! Thanks for the amazing photos!

Papparich - Parramatta

Time really does fly when you're having fun. For me, life is all about good food and even better company. In that respect, I couldn't have asked for a better partner. The Mrs may be tough cookie to please but I can't deny that she's made my life absolutely wonderful each and every second I spend with her. In light of our total 62 months that we've spent together, we decided to head out to Parramatta and enjoy a nice movie date.

Despite being pelted by rain and hail, we ventured out in hopes that we could score a good spot and enjoy a nice evening together. Fortunately, due to the extreme weather conditions, no one decided to go out! Not complaining as it meant easy parking and readily available seating at the Mrs favorite place: Papparich.

The Mrs LOVES Malaysian food, more than anything. As such, I've developed a theory that if reincarnation actually exists, our favorite foods must indicate to us what nationality we were before. In this case, the Mrs must have been Malaysian Chinese. She offered to pay for dinner so I decided to go a bit nuts and order everything I wanted.

First to come were our drinks, which we ordered as soon as we sat down. Nothing makes us happier than an iced teh tahrik and milo ice. The creamy, sweet beverages were much needed for the things to come.

Next came our kaya toast and eggs, now you may be a little wierded out by the fact that we're having a breakfast item for dinner but trust me, it works. The Mrs quickly got to cracking open the egg like a pro: a dash of pepper and soy sauce to taste, butter up the toast, lather on the kaya jam and there you have one of the most delicious things you can have. Almost over-indulgent in it's mix of flavors, the abundant butter and warm, silky egg yolk compliments the sweet kaya jam and makes it a delectable treat.

We also ordered my personal favorite: Char Kway Tiew. I'm almost ashamed that I discovered CKT so late in my life and although Papparich isn't nearly the best Sydney has to offer, they definitely do make it well. The huge portioning doesn't detriment it either.

The star of the night though has to be the roti. The Mrs will not share her roti, so being the smart cookie I am, I ordered an extra roti the moment we sat down. Even that may not have been enough for us as we devoured the crispy, doughy pancakes in mere seconds. It was such a shame that there was only so little curry chicken sauce...for me, that has to be the best thing to dip the crisp, buttery roti into.

After a delicious and satisfying dinner, we went back upstairs to the cinemas to watch The Avengers and then finished off the night with Gelato Messina. I really love how far Parramatta has come in terms of the amount of options it offers, lets hope that progress continues and the city flourishes in the years to come.

*Note: you may have noticed that we stopped doing the suggestions section, this is cause we felt as though we would only be able to give a relatively positive opinion on most places. If you, the reader decided to go visit one of the restaurants we recently visited, I'm positive you'd love it as much as we do. Let us know by leaving some comments if you'd like us to bring back the suggestions section.*

Ichiban Boshi - Sydney CBD

Ramen is hands down my favorite noodle dish. I mean, I love noodles of all shapes and sizes whether they come with soup or no soup but above all else, I love ramen the most. For me, it's always been part nostalgia and part obsession. The very first bowl of ramen I had was a bowl of miso ramen that I had on my first trip to Tokyo. It changed me, opened me up to my love for all things Japan. All the countless hours spent watching anime, building gunpla, learning Japanese and eventually meeting the Mrs through our mutual appreciation for Japan....all from a single, delicious bowl of miso ramen.

So when Sydney is going through a particularly bad weather season, what do you suppose is the best thing to eat? Ramen! Meeting up with the Mrs after work, we decided to hit up one of my all time favorite ramen joints: Ichiban Boshi. This place was one of the original noodle bars which did the dish justice...of course now, Sydney's ramen game has improved a significantly (Menya, Ryo-tei, Yasaka, O-san, Ippudo...the list goes on) however this place still holds a special place in my heart. If it's one thing they do well, it's miso ramen.

On top of the fact that it was super cold and rainy, we lucked out even further when we found out that the elevator had broken down, no line! We were seated immediately and then proceeded to order our favorite comfort dishes. The Mrs was feeling like Katsu curry today so that's exactly what she ordered. Despite being a noodle bar, they do their Katsu curry particularly well! The cutlet was crispy, tender and unbelievably juicy, after a bite I was most definitely hooked. The salad and pickles were a welcome addition too.

For me however, the main star tonight was most definitely the steaming, hot bowl of ramen noodles. Nutty and aromatic in all the right ways, it was the perfect way to drive off those chills. The noodles were particularly springy today which was perfect because there's nothing worse than soft, soggy noodles. Every slurp carried with it an appropriate amount of that delectable broth, bating you into taking another mouthful and then another mouthful until you quickly realise...you're out of noodles. I normally wouldn't (be allowed) to do this but I just had to order a kaedama (extra order of noodles). Totally worth it though as that was just the thing I needed to satisfy my hunger.

Wonderful in it's simplicity.

If it's one thing I'll never get sick of it's ramen. I can only hope that one day, I too am able to live my dream and sling noodles for a living. Till then, I'm glad that Sydney's noodle scene is well taken care of by the many ramen purveyors we have available.

A Work In Progress - Sydney CBD

I'm very fond of my home town. I go back to Hong Kong once every year or so and as the years pass, I've also grown to love more and more about my heritage and where I've come from. In particular, I feel an immense passion and pride for the cuisine of my hood. My dad has spent most of his life cooking Cantonese cuisine and as a result I've been blessed enough to have a lot of good memories containing delicious Cantonese food. This is partially why I've been dying to try this new place cause I hear the head chef Patrick Freison knows his stuff.

The Mrs and I arrive just in time as the place was just starting to get busy. The system is very simple: order up at the counter, get allocated a table and wait a little till your delicious goods arrive. We opted to try the Supreme Wonton Noodles, the Curry Beef Lo-Mien (stirred noodle) and a half and half order of chicken (ginger fried chicken & chilli fried chicken). They also have a variety of cocktails and Kirin on tap: sold. 

The food came really quickly which was a good thing because after a long day of work, I was definitely famished. The Mrs and I tried a bit of each noodle first and then swapped to compare. I tried the Supreme Wonton first and I must say that I was thoroughly impressed. The soup itself would have benefited from a bit more heat in terms of temperature but the flavor and the noodles were spot on. They weren't lying when they said these noodles were the closest you'd get to the HK experience. The Mrs however was harder to impress, she thought that the wontons were particularly heavy on the ginger. Overall though, on authenticity points, this dish definitely scores highly. 

The curry beef lo-mien was also good, they chose to use thick noodles instead of thin egg noodles which I thought was a good touch. The beef itself I thought was flavorsome but texture-wise it was missing something. I believe it the beef could have benefited if was more fatty and tender.

The main highlight of the night was definitely the chicken. I've had a lot of fried chicken in the past (that's just Sydney alone) but this fried chicken is most definitely top tier. Crunchy, juicy and flavored perfectly: if you want a feed, make sure you order enough so you don't have to share. The ginger chicken was really good when dipped into the sauce but the star of the show has to be the chilli chicken. Succulent pieces of chicken covered in a spicy and sweet glaze, it had to be the best thing I had tonight. 

I was initially a bit skeptical of the noodles, not wanting to be disappointed and being left with a more intense desire for the real deal. However, I can say with certainty that A Work In Progress does not disappoint. We (by we I mean myself) will definitely hit up WIP again.

Mister's Test Kitchen - Gyoza Night

Now I know, I know....I couldn't keep my promise.

Although I have a very good reason! My long time phone: the Samsung Galaxy S4 died on my over the weekend so I spent it organizing a replacement and what better replacement than the newest Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge! So convenient that the latest version comes out just as my old one gives out on me. So with this brand new smartphone and a decent 16MP camera, expect better quality photos from now on!

So first post tonight will be from the backlog. A while back I was craving dumplings and since I had recently depleted my supply of gyozas, it was time to restock! Now make no mistake, making gyozas is no easy task. All the prepping and wrapping takes one full day so if you're going to make them, commit and make a LOT. The rest can be frozen and cooked up whenever your cravings hit.

So we start by shopping for ingredients, most of which can be sourced from your asian grocers. luckily, I live in a predominantly asian area so ingredients were easy to get. For this recipe, I chose to go with a more traditionally Japanese approach (though the dumplings did originate from China anyway but that's besides the point) so I chose to use pork mince, cabbage, spring onions, garlic and ginger....oh and round gyoza wrappers.

For the seasonings, I used sake, soy sauce, sesame oil a pinch of sugar and a dash of salt and pepper. Important point to remember: chop the cabbage roughly and salt it to bring out the moisture. Afterwards, wring out all the water and you'll make sure the gyoza doesn't end up too wet on the inside. Do NOT blitz it....whatever you do, do NOT use a food processor for the cabbage, if it gets chopped up too much, it'll be heaps gritty and detriment the texture. And don't mix the mince too much!! If you do, the meat will clump up into a meatball once it's cooked and you don't want that. What you want is a loose and moist filling that doesn't stick to the wrappers. You'll know what I mean when you cook it.

Fill the wrapper with a little more with a teaspoon of filling, tab a little water on your finger and wet one side of the round wrapper then fold in half.

Now comes the hard bit, pleat on one side. I'd LOVE to describe how to do it but you learn by watching. So either find yourself a Chinese grand-mama and learn off her....or Youtube it, much easier. Repeat until you run out of wrappers. Also make sure you place them onto a nice floured tray or plate. Separate them and put them in the freezer once you've finished one plate. The freezer will firm up the dumplings making them much easier to cook later on.

To cook, heat up some oil in a non-stick frying pan and line the pan with the dumplings (flat side down). Pan fry them a little until the dumplings brown a bit on the bottom. Once they've been browned sufficiently, pour water into the hot pan until the dumplings are half covered and then cover the pan with a lid. Turn the heat down to medium and let it steam until fully evaporated. Afterwards, its just fry them some more until they're crispy again and voila!

                                                                Dumplings for days.

Brewristas - Glebe

Hello everyone!

Firstly, we'd like to thank each and every reader who comes by our little blog, we've recently been trying to blog more frequently (so that we can get a into the habit of posting and so that our list of places to blog about doesn't grow any more) and we're definitely noticing the increased views we're getting so that's good! It's such a humbling experience knowing that people come and find genuine interest in our lives so we definitely appreciate you taking the time to read about our adventures. We hope that we can continue to consistently provide good content regularly so stay tuned!

As Autumn begins to get into full swing and the weather become a bit colder each and every morning, it becomes increasingly harder to wake up. That said though, I still managed drag myself out of bed and take the Mrs on a brunch date. She's always been so lovely and supportive that I thought that she deserved a bit of treat. With that in mind, we got dressed in our Easter Monday best and drove all the way to Glebe to try out a place that's been on our list for some time now: Brewristas.

Parking really wasn't hard to find as there's plenty of street parking all along Glebe Point Rd and on the off chance that you just can't find any parking, Broadway has free 2hr parking so that definitely helps (it's not a far walk either!). 

Walk in and you'll notice that the place is rather expansive with a back area that looks very comfortable. We opted to take the first seats that became available. That wasn't any detriment though as we got to see all the people come and go. The unfortunate result of visiting on a public holiday was that the staff would be exceptionally busy meaning it took some time before our coffee and food would arrived. I didn't particularly have a problem with it as I personally like watching people do their thing but the Mrs wasn't nearly as patient. 

*Action shot!*

The Mrs had ordered her standard coffee which was done spectacularly however I opted for a pour over with the house beans.

Quality takes time and attention to detail. That I understood and so when my coffee came, I was all the more appreciative of it. Brownie points for the impeccably dressed Kevin and his wonderful explanation of the coffee and the way to enjoy it!

Our food eventually came (the staff acknowledged the wait and apologised for it so all was well in my books) and boy did the dishes look pretty. The cold eggplant and vegetable stack was delightfully fresh which made it an appetizing Autumn dish as the flavor of the pesto wasn't all too overpowering and there was the balsamic glaze there to cut through it all. The bits of chorizo (an additional $3) and boccocini also complimented the dish well.

Now, Kevin's balls...oh so delicious. The flavor that these four small balls pack is immense. The combination of the tofu and pork which is deep fried and encrusted with bits of Shin Ramyun and covered in a good amount of spicy mayo....a match made in heaven if there was ever a more apt description. My only wish was that there were more of it to go around. I don't think any adjective I label it with could give it the justice it deserves so if you're ever visiting, trust me: order one order for each diner. You will fight over these.....or you might be smart enough to order more, I don't know. 

Brewristas is definitely a place to come and spend an afternoon, ideally you'd shoot for a day where it's less busy but with how these guys are doing, I honestly don't think their popularity with the Sydney crowd is set to fizzle anytime soon. 

Would we return? For the balls? yes. Most definitely yes.

Recommendations? Order the balls...make sure you've ordered enough so you won't need to share. Oh and sit in the back so you have a clear view of the brewing station.

Areas of improvement? If they provided more balls for the price that would be great but I guess that's just an indication of how impressive they were.

Devon Cafe - Surry Hills

The Mrs loves brunch. Like...I'm not even joking when I say it's almost an obsession with her. I'm lucky in that she uses as Android phone and not an Apple as if she had the opportunity to use Matchbook, all our time and resources would be devoted to trying each and every cafe in Sydney.

It's pretty obvious I don't appreciate brunch as much as she does.That said, I will say that Devon cafe was thoroughly impressive. Then again, that much is expected...I mean they are the Devon cafe. These guys are definitely in the top tier. Think along the lines of the equivalent of LA Lakers of the Sydney brunch game. And with their second location having not-so-recently opened up in Waterloo, it's rather hard to deny their popularity. 

We decided to visit one weekend as I had promised the Mrs I would take her to one of her desired locations. Being the smart cookie I was, I thought I'd go out early and grab a table (back when we went, it was still a single location and hence they got packed super easily). That said, they have their system down pat so I wouldn't worry too much about excessive wait times. 

We were seated promptly and having been given ample time to skim over the menu during our (my) wait, we swiftly ordered and eagerly awaited our food. The coffee came first which was nice as it gave me something to sip on while we waited. In this situation, I chose to order a pour over which was a good choice as I wasn't feeling particularly milky that day. Coffee was really good, as expected.

Shortly after, our orders arrived at our table. The Mrs ordered the famous Eggs Blini and I had ordered the baked eggs with an extra side of morcilla (I wanted to go double but the Mrs stopped me). The Eggs Blini was presented beautifully, the vibrant colors definitely did well in appealing to the diner's eyes first. However, I personally can't say that the interplay of flavors held up as much as the initial appearance did. In my opinion, the blini was a tad too sweet which didn't work as nicely when paired with the flavor of fish from the trout and Ikura roe which definitely stood out more. 

I can safely say that I ordered the better dish as the eggs were done perfectly and the sauce was the perfect amount of savory tartness which helped cut through the moorish pieces of morcilla sausage. The thick cut toast provided was also perfect for sopping up any remaining sauce. 

In my opinion, Devon cafe is definitely worth the visit. Their street cred is well deserved and with their current menu, now would be a great time to go and try it out. 

Would we return? I don't have a choice, the Mrs will make me.

Recommendations? I don't think we can make recommendations as we haven't been since the menu change but looking at their current menu, I would go with the Soft Shell Crab Roll ala Japanois.....Oh and they have flavored Cronuts at Danks *wink wink*

Areas of improvement? Their game is pretty tight, can't say I'm aware of any aspect they need improvement on.

Ballers Polpetteria - Enmore

It's been some time since I've finished high school (and university) yet I still stubbornly hold on to my bad habit of completing tasks at the last second. That said, better late than never right?

As promised, we'd do two posts a week until the backlog is done and at the rate we're going we should be finished with the belated blogs soon. First post tonight will be about a nice little place called Ballers.

One evening, the Mrs and I decided to go out for dinner however we hadn't really decided on a place, so we decided the best course of action was of course to drive to a random suburb and see what was available. We somehow ended up at Enmore (I subconsciously direct myself to the inner city all the time because that's where I'm overwhelmed with the abundant options) but at that point in time we still hadn't decided yet and I was getting seriously hangry, so the Mrs suggested we park the car and have a stroll. By some stroke of luck, the parking spot we got allowed us to walk by this nice and cozy new joint called Ballers.

The store decor was so hip and trendy that we we're immediately drawn into the place and come on, I'd never really pass up any opportunity to stuff my face with meatballs. We ordered our dishes and decided to sit in the back where you get a clear view of the open kitchen. This in my opinion was the ideal location to sit as we got a clear view of the inner workings and we also got to have a conversation with the kitchen staff (which is something both the Mrs and I love doing)

The run from the kitchen to the tables was quite quick which was nice, although as at the point of time when we visited, they had only just been open for a month or so, the service staff were still trying to get a handle on things. It was also cause of this that they didn't have any alcohol available yet (though that hardly diminishes the experience) it would have been nice to have a beer with my balls.

We ordered two meals (beef and special meatballs both with the special sauce, meatballs come with a slice of baguette bread as standard) along with fries and mash. The meatballs were delightful as they were decently sized and had a real substance to the texture. The worst thing when it comes to meatballs is when you get more bread crumbs than meat.

Ballers definitely knows how to pack in the meat as every bite was meaty and juicy. The special meatballs were good however, the real winner would be the beef meatballs. If you had to choose, go beef. Just trust me, you will understand when you taste it. The special sauce was the right amount of tomato tang balanced out and exemplified with a good kick. Put the meat and sauce together and you just can't help but want more.

Their sides were also fantastic, fries were seasoned incredibly well with a nice herbaceous element and the mash was creamy, buttery and smooth. If the Mrs (queen of mash) herself approves, you know you've done well.

After a delightful meal, we were advised that we were able to leave our mark in the toilet where a mural of sorts was slowly building from the growing fan-base they had. Quick to get our stamp in, we dashed to the back and scribbled our names there (if you happen to go in, have a look around, you'll see our tag there)

Would we return? Definitely,

Recommendations? Again, go beef. Just trust me on this. 

Areas of improvement? When we went, the menu was a little difficult to decipher (they may have fixed this issue already) which meant that a little explaining needed to be done before we could order but that just adds to the charm as you could say it leaves you no choice but to make friends with the staff.