Progressing on with the rest of Sydney’s Sinful/Syd-ful/Syd-full/I’m out of puns, I find myself at the Friday night markets on Dixon with the very Fizz Chan. Incidentally this was also the same night we made our kigurumi purchases.
Mother Chu’s Taiwanese Gourmet
I’m a huge congee nut so most people would find it quite surprising that I’ve never step foot into Mother Chu’s, other than that one time a friend got yu tiao, something else this place is also apparently famous for.
Fizz’s bowl of pork and century egg congee must’ve arrived moments after the girl took our order.
My plainer looking bowl of chicken congee however took forever. Fizz was probably almost halfway into hers (and she’s not a terribly fast eater) by the time I got fed up and asked a waitress nearby politely where my damn food was. They must’ve just forgotten about it because after my little reminder it didn’t take too long to arrive.
Glebe Markets
This isn’t a restaurant but the lunch I got from the food stalls at the back of the Glebe markets. It is quite possibly the best pumpkin salad I have ever had. Huge orange chunks with feta squares buried within like treasures. As I waddled around the place with this tub of goodness, it wasn’t uncommon for people to stop, stare and point only to further proclaim getting their own for lunch.
MOO Gourmet Burgers, Bondi Beach
Another day with the special friend…okay her name is Grace alright? We’re here at Bondi Beach for the markets and the obvious tourist destination. Having raved to Grace about my positive experience at Moo Coogee, this was the obvious lunch venue. The MOO here operates on a pay before you eat basis which was awesome because we got to find out at the counter that students got a free side of fries with their meal. The cashier misread my ID the first time though and tried to refuse thinking it expired in 2011. Or maybe she refused because I looked like a creepy person masquerading as a university student.
Duck & Bacon Burger $16.50, Aioli home-made sauce $1.50
Whenever I see meat I can’t eat I feel like Edward Cullen except less sparkly. Begone slices of thick bacon! It was definitely worth the whining for Grace to dismantle her burger so I could have a mouthful of her duck patty. Succulent and flavoursome, it was anything but dry. I don’t know what it is about meats like lamb and duck that I’m crazy about. Perhaps it’s because it’s rare that I get to dine on them but when I do venture into the outside world for it, it hardly ever disappoints.
The aioli was awesome as expected. Just like the last time. I wish I could marry aioli.
Beef, Avocado & Bacon Burger, sans bacon and replaced with an egg $15.00, Pesto home-made sauce $1.50 (behind the mammoth burger)
I have a thing for avocado. And the last time I was here left me dreaming about their runny sunny side up egg for nights on end. So I butcher one of their recipe and there you go. The beef I found a tad bit drier than I remember but perhaps it’s just the comparison of the duck patty this time round.
Pesto sauce was tasty and all but perhaps a bit too chunky to be actual dipping sauce for fries. It’s something I wish I could toss onto some al dente pasta instead.
East Ocean
I had yum cha cravings on Monday. What of it?
Steamed Flour Rolls with Shredded Duck
Shanghai Style Pork Dumplings
Steamed Vegetarian Rolls
Chive and Seafood Dumplings
King Prawn Dumplings
Steamed Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms
Yum cha was standard, nothing we would’ve complained about but nothing terribly special that would warrant me coming here again. Probably the only thing that we had issues with was the lap cheong in the steamed rice. Unbeknownst to me, lap cheong boy doesn’t usually eat lap cheong and wouldn’t touch this stuff. He only had it in Malaysia because it was too damn awesome.
Pho Gia Hoi
You’d be hard pressed to miss this little gem along George St in Haymarket. It’s really orange, and I’m not quite sure how else to describe it’s interior. To my knowledge everyone I know refers to this place as the orange pho place. With Pho Pasteur right next door I’m sure some competition exists but I’ve only ever frequented this place.
Combination Beef Pho
Everyone will tell you that pho out in the west is far superior but my tastebuds don’t discern the broth too well, unless it really is terribly tasteless. I can tell you though that pho in Malaysia would pour itself down the sink if it were to be compared to ANY pho place in Sydney.
Part of the reason every time I think I’ll have Pho Pasteur, I wind up here instead. I LOVE Wrapping my own fresh spring rolls with minced prawn pieces.
Chat Thai
Dinner #1 on Wednesday night starts at around 4pm. I order som dtum because it’s quite possibly my favourite thai dish. I like it really spicy till I’m gulping down water by the jug and with lots of dried shrimp and peanuts to balance out the tangy green papaya.
Grace’s mussel egg pancakes which I thought were going to turn out like ochian (Chinese fluffy oyster egg dish) but came out more pancakey than eggy. Alyssa who was with us that night also ordered a Crying Tiger which is just beef pieces but it really looks like a black mass through an iPhone lens so I ended up deleting the photo anyway.
Madang
Our dinner #2 and Grace’s last meal took place at almost 8pm because we were meandering off along both ends of the city. Meandering because every good dinner place was full despite it being a weeknight and meandering also because we were conserving our bus tickets. Pictured above is bulgogi (right) which can do no wrong, something like sam gyup sal except marinated with wine and served with kimchi (above) that no one particularly liked because the meat was in huge slabs and we weren’t sure how to cook it with the kim chi
My favourite part of every Korean meal is the banchan. I wish all cuisines adopted this style of little side dishes. Was a good girl and had plenty of the vegetables but also of the fish cake slices to the very far left. Much to most waiters/waitresses contempt I ALWAYS end up being the banchan refiller. I think my highest score so far goes to that time at Milliore where I asked for refills about 5 times.
Seafood and shallot pancakes. I’m not usually a fan of savoury Asian pancakes because they tend to be too starchy and flour tasting but this is one of the best I’ve had.
Not pictured but we also nommed on is the spicy seafood tofu soup. Madang has the best tofu soup. Ever.
I’m at the end of my sinful Sydney meals (note that I’ve completely dropped the puns). It was definitely a scrumptious tour and brought back fond memories of places I swore I’d eat again at but never found the time to. It’s also given me a very, very good reason to swing back into some form of an exercise routine to shave off all the MOO burger and bulgogi lovehandles I’ve accumulated in just a week. Have any of you guys been to these places? What do you think, or can you recommend restaurants that do it better?
