Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Party 2015 - Sydney, NSW

Comparatively,  the Mrs and I really haven't been blogging for long. Prior to starting this food blog, I regarded the food bloggers I followed as heroes and celebrities. Whenever I'd see Chocolatesuze, Ramenraff or maybe i-Fat around, I'd always freak out like a little fangirl but always be too shy to strike up a conversation with any of them. I admired and respected them so much for their courage to speak their minds and share their love and fascination for the wonderful food scene of Sydney. We started our blog as a joint side project with the intention of expressing our mutual love for food and sharing our many food related adventures and each day, I'm thankful for the encouragement we got to take the step that we did. This year, when we got our invitation to come along to this year's Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Party 2015...you would not believe how happy and excited we were!

I'd spent the whole night and the morning after preparing my dish. I wasn't gonna let this one opportunity pass me by as I felt I just had to make something super impressive. What made things even more stressful was the fact that after the move, the kitchen in the apartment was rather poorly stocked with very limited resources and even less room. What I ended up with was slider sized Chinese steam buns (inspired by Little Bao in Hong Kong) which sandwiched thick slices of beef rib that's been marinated in Saikyo miso overnight and cooked sous-vide for 1.5hrs at 72 degrees. I then chose to serve this with a bit of wild roquette and aioli. If I had prepared better and had given myself more time, I would have liked to cook the beef at a lower temp for slightly longer and it would have been better if the beef was glazed more but for the time and effort put in...I think I managed to pull off something decent.

The venue this year was Studio Neon in the middle of Redfern/Waterloo which was a fantastic place to hold the event. The chic and cooky furniture, abundant neon lighting and graffiti really helped highlight how special this event was. When we arrived, the table was already packed with delicious looking food! Along with the overwhelming amount of food were many familiar and unfamiliar faces all happily snapping away at the items on the table...at that moment, it was clear to us that we were amongst people who understood us. Once everyone had just about gotten their pictures and started mingling, ChocolateSuze smashed the smash cake and that was our signal to start digging in!

Oh hai David! The ever dapper Frosticle

Here are some of the pictures I managed to snap before all the food got demolished. In all seriousness, I actually felt really out of depth with the photography as almost everyone had a DSLR to take their pictures with and all I had was my Galaxy S6 Edge....I should really get into the practice of bringing along my DSLR again.

Part 1 of the platter set up by Angela/The Walking Advertisement.

Part 2

Part 3

Food! So much food!

Food overload: Macarons by Ramenraff, Smash cake, Rice paper rolls by Foodisourreligion and Green Tea Madeleines by Eat Your Teacup.

I'm usually not a big fan of Sagot...this though, was absolutely knockout delicious.

Spinach & Cheese Puffs by the Brunch Bandits.

El Jannah...always good in any circumstance.

Smoked Salmon Blinis

Baked Ricotta by Alanabread

Summer Berry Tiramisu in a cute jam jar by the Newlyfeds! Kindred spirits!

Brookies...half brownie/half cookies brought by Simon Food Favourites

The most delicious Lemper made by Irene's getting fat! 

And that wasn't even all the food...as some people came sometime later, there was food added to the table after (mash and mushroom sauce by whatemdid...was the first to smash that). We also played a nice game of kris kringle where the Mrs and I nabbed a great dish set for the new apartment! The Mrs and I honestly had so much fun talking and mingling with all the Sydney based foodies and bloggers. We managed to meet and make so many new friends and I managed to meet my heroes. Overall, I'd say that was a weekend well spent. Special thanks to grabyourfork and chocolatesuze for organising! the Mrs and I are definitely looking forward to attending again next year!

Shoutouts to the wonderful people we met and mingled with:

foodisourreligion, adobodownunder, whatemdid, thewalkingadvertisement, Rachfongxx, newlyfeds, maddielovesfood, Frosticle, chewyourchow, msjayemm, twohappybellies, khismosa

Lets keep in touch!

Night Noodle Markets 2015 - Sydney, NSW

A couple posts ago, I did say mention that I liked avoiding the crowds...I may have lied. Can you really blame me though? When one of the biggest foodie events comes around, you don't really say no. I really didn't think I'd be attending the Night Noodle Markets this year but miraculously, the Mrs made the suggestion when her friends all decided to go. So, soon as the both of us finished work, we met up in the city and proceeded to Hyde park before the crowds formed. Being that it was the final week, the amount of people visiting has already decreased but I'm still really glad we decided to head into the markets before everyone else. This way, the Mrs and I could sample all the delicious offerings with minimal wait times before everyone came.

The Mrs and I started our night off with a couple of skewers from Daniel San, which I assume is a new addition to the line up since I didn't notice them last year. We bought one pork and one chicken skewer so that we could sample both. I personally liked the chicken better (I love chicken yakitori) but the Mrs thought the pork was better. I do agree that the pork did take on the marinade and glaze better but I'll always like chicken better...there's just something about smokey, grilled chicken meat on a stick which makes life amazing.

Seeing that the traffic had started to slowly trickle in, the Mrs and I thought it'd be a good idea to grab a table. We quickly found a large enough table and sat down in preparation for the arrival of our friends, which I took as an opportune time to scope out the other goods. By now, it's no secret that the Mrs loves Malaysian food so I quickly ran up to Mamak and ordered two servings of Roti Canai (one for me, one for her). Mamak's roti is always amazing...super doughy, fluffy and crispy, this combination is best served when dipped straight into that vibrant and fragrant orange curry....tear apart, dip, devour and repeat for maximum enjoyment.

I noticed that next to Mamak, Harajuku Gyoza had set up stall and being the mad gyoza fanatic that I am, I just couldn't help but order some for myself. For me, this was the biggest surprise of the night as I didn't really expect much from the gyoza...but it was absolutely, positively delicious. Gyoza is one of those commodities which is so readily available that it's hard to differentiate one from the other but this one...leagues above the competition. The crisp, crunchy bottom covers the juicy dumpling's filling which explodes with flavour as you bite into it. My experience was something straight out of a certain food-related manga...the nuanced and delicate flavours of this particular dish brought me to heaven and back...this is the one dish I legitimately wanted to go back for seconds for.

As our friends arrived, we were able to leave the table behind and go explore. The Mrs and I settled on Bao Stop as our next stall (the Mrs was interested in the fried chicken whilst I was more interested in the Peking Duck fries). I didn't actually order the fries in the end but I did order a trifecta and the chicken which was just as good. As we were in the line, the rain slowly but surely started to pour which was really not pleasant but for the sake of food, we (I) stood resilient as we waited. After we received our orders, I quickly dashed back to the group, making sure to shield the food with my body on the way. Unfortunately, it took us all a while to get to a comfortable spot and the sad thing about baos is that they tend to stick to the cardboard if you leave them there for too long. This made the whole eating experience rather messy but that was in no way detrimental to the food. The baos tasted great but I have to say the chicken stole the show...I'd say, rather ingenious the way they turned the distinct taste of XO sauce into a sweet and tangy glaze.

Didn't mention these...Korean style tacos

Apologies for the shaky focus...hard to hold still trying to dodge the rain.

Our friends saw our food and decided to venture off to the same location for their share. I was fortunate enough to be able to still try the Peking duck fries which they brought back. In retrospect, kind of glad I didn't order them because whilst I do love deep fried shoestring fries, the taste of gamey duck and hoisin only reminded me of the real deal therefore making me want that more.

Again, sorry...the rain really doesn't contribute to high aperture photos

At that point, the rain had started to clear up which signalled the continuation of the festivities. The group decided it'd then be a good idea to go and grab some ramen burgers from ONE tea lounge's stall. I abstained from this venture because I was very full at that point but nonetheless, we headed over and surprisingly quickly, ordered and recieved our food. I have to say, I am slightly disappointed in the ramen burger this year. We had the full ramen burger last year and that was absolutely delicious but as per their restaurant's menu, this year's offering was made in slider form. I think my preference is still for the mess that is the full sized burger though.

Additional to the sliders, one of our group members also purchased the fried ice cream baos. They came in various asiatic flavours (green tea, red bean and black sesame). I managed to get a taste of the green tea and I'll be honest, I wasn't really a fan. The deep fried bao just seemed a bit too bland for me and whilst they did pair it with ice cream and other sweet treats, the matcha flavour really wasn't as intense as I would have liked meaning the whole package just came across as mildly lacking.

At the end of the day, as much as I don't appreciate crowds...I'm still really glad that I got to go enjoy the Night Noodle Markets. The stalls only come around once a year and with the abundant selection of delicious samplings, you really can't go wrong if you spend a night out with great, fun people at the markets.

Belly Bao - Sydney CBD

If I had to give this week a theme, it'd definitely be fried chicken....so.much.fried.chicken. I'm not complaining (I love any deep fried poultry) just that we've probably had more fried chicken in a week than we normally do in a year. Tonight's blog will be about our visit to Belly Bao. Now, I'd tried to visit two weeks prior (mainly because I wanted their famous baoger so badly) but we couldn't find a table and there was a sign that said it'd take 90 minutes. This week, I was smart enough to make a booking ahead of time so I was guaranteed a spot.

We start our night off with a bit of dessert-before-dinner at Aqua S. They'd just introduced their new flavours: Milo and Fruit Punch. Not being a huge fan of fruity items, I'd opted for the sea salt and milo. Oh what a wonderful choice it was...If as a child, you weren't able to indulge in your love of milo, this will literally blow your mind. The creamy and wonderful texture of the ice cream paired with that intense chocolate and malt flavour just made for a spectacular start to the night. I urge any fan of milo to just get a cone and indulge, don't worry about the other flavours...the milo is all you need.

I've had very good memories with Goodgod small club as the previous food providers, The Dip run by Andrew Levins was my legit FAVORITE place to grab a burger. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about trying the new guys as I didn't want my memories tarnished by a disappointing meal. Well, disappoint they surely did not! First to come were the sweet potato fries which we crispy on the outside and sweet and fluffy on the inside, exactly what you want it to be. The chilli mayo drizzled on top really gives it a good kick of heat which just pushes the whole package to a new level.

Next came the main reason the Mrs and I were so stoked to try this place: the much loved bao-ger. Though a little disappointing when you first set your sights on it (looks tiny to someone with a massive appetite), this thing is dense. Not dense in a bad way but dense as in it's a immense flavour and texture hit for something so small. I loved the interplay between that perfectly cooked burger patty, melty american cheese, pickled radishes (think sushi ginger), big mac-esque sauce and the soft, pillowy yet crispy steamed/grilled bun. I would have had another if I wasn't aware of what was to come next...

Realised that flash was better than no flash.

oooze shot.

The Belly Bao Fried Chicken...yep, a whole chicken between 3 people (I forgot to mention, the brother-in-law was also with us). Unexpectedly, they do fried chicken really well here too! I was initially expecting something more asian influences (like korean style fried chicken) but found the batter to be closer to the OG Kentucky Fried Chicken experience. The crispy batter was spicy and peppery which when doused with the chilli sauce (pretty much straight gochujang) made for a mouth numbing dining delight.

BB fried chicken with chilli sauce 

To be honest, I do still miss Levins and his amazing hot dogs and watermelon burgers but I have to say, Belly Bao is a mighty fine replacement. I'm so glad they now have a dedicated spot to sling steamed buns and I can say for sure I'll definitely return for more bao-gers (possibly with a much larger group next time).