CeCi Korean Restaurant - Strathfield, NSW

Moving out is tough! You have to pack your belongings, move and transport the items across the city, clean stuff...and then clean some more stuff! I honestly thought I could pack my whole life into a suitcase and move on but clearly...I was very mistaken. My one suitcase turned into racks and racks of shirts, jackets, t-shirts and a couple of round-the-city trips to ferry my stuff from old home to new. In amongst all the uprooting of my life, I've been neglecting my diet lately (literally been surviving off of cup noodles for a week and a bit now). Without proper sustenance, my body began craving proper food and so being the ever loving partner, the Mrs took me to Strathfield and fed me a proper meal.

I've been going to CeCi's for a while now and whilst there's really nothing remarkable looking about this store, this place is a little gem hidden in the middle of Strathfield. The walls are plastered with the usual Korean soju posters as well as various in house specials (such as the flavoured soju...great for a night out). Order any items from the menu and the usual Korean side dishes are shortly brought to your table. This time, we got kimchi, cucumbers, buckwheat jelly, bean sprouts and marinaded potatoes. These little dishes are all delicious in their own right but even more so when you're starving and anticipating the meal you've ordered.

Despite going to a Korean restaurant, my first instinct was to order something that was deep fried. Which to me could only mean one thing: Donkasu (the Korean version of Japanese Tonkatsu...which I believe is a Japanese take on German schnitzel). Served with a side of rice, cabbage salad and a squizzle of bulldog Tonkatsu sauce, this dish is the perfect thing to have when you're craving a sense of belonging and home. Crunchy but not overly greasy, the meat is best served cut up into little bite sized pieces with rice.

The Mrs made the sensible choice and ordered the soft tofu hotpot. There is literally nothing more comforting than mouth-burning tofu swimming in a moorish seafood soup...the searing sensation of the heat and the spice numbs away any sense of homesickness which is ever so slightly mellowed out by eating it with the rice provided. The dish is kept consistently warm from the earthenware pot it's served in and won't be able to stop having more and more until you notice that you have nothing else but a few spoonfuls of soup left...well worth it though!

Since that meal, I've been reinvigorated in my mission to successfully transition from my old place to my new home and so far...I'd like to say it's going well. According to the Mrs, I still have a long, long way to go before I'm completely self-sufficient and responsible for myself but I've got (not a lot) of time to learn and well...least I've got Messina less than 10 minutes walk from me.