Lunch before a night of drinking!

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Sneak Peak into a fabulous Xmas dinner!

I"m not usually one to go for desserts, but this berry cheesecake that was a part of my feast last night  at "The Gilbert's" was to die for - so delicious especially the biscuity crunchy base!!! 

More will come posted later this week.

The world of blogs. .

Lately I have had the time to read so many blogs both very inspiring, thought provoking and some just pure damn evil! Evil as in posting photos of very lust-worthy objects such as these LV bangles. . .

. . . . and then evil as in “that pork bun is to die for and looks so fantastically yummy I want it right now as I sit at home on this cold summers day and did I say I am also very very hungry?!”

Photo of David Chang's pork buns above courtesy of eataku.com

I have not taken my blog too seriously thus far and want some ideas on how to make it a bit different. The only way that I think is to post photos that are eye catching, trigger a positive thought straight away, make you smile and also write words that are entertaining and contribute in some way to you, the reader, whether it be telling you about a great restaurant or showing a rad photo that is far out and inspiring.

While discussing my blog the other night with friends one of them suggested that to incorporate my love of fashion and food more, why not write a section in each restaurant review about what to wear to this restaurant. You know, like would I be able to get away with thongs or do I have to wear something quite dressy to not look like a homeless person amongst the other diners? And I thought great idea! So once I write my next restaurant review I will definitely try this new element out.

Feel free to post a comment and leave your thoughts on what I could do to make this blog a bit different to the others. Not that I need to just thought I’d put it out there. It is just purely for my hobby, I write and post what I want to and hope people like it. And eventually maybe I can make money from it! Now that would be awesome!

Happy Sunday arvo people, until next time!!

Love a good burger!

Mmmm!

Good snack when tipsy!

Sent from my HTC

Just gorgeous!

Stumbled upon this spread today, OMG! Amazing!

Jamie’s Italian – 107 Pitt Street, Sydney

Monday night catch up with high school friends. Thought we’d try Jamie’s Italian as the line would probably be shorter than a Friday or Saturday night. It was, only a 15 minute wait with a buzzer which was fine. I remember eating here when it was Industry South of France. It’s a totally different vibe now, not fine dining at all, it’s like I guess a trattoria, rustic vibe with an industrial feel, jam packed with tables. The prices reflect this space but the service is an outstanding, a point I must make. The waiter we had was attentive and helpful, despite describing the difference between an entrée and main serve of pasta and risotto in grams. How on earth is an everyday person meant to know how much 100grams in risotto is? Just show us with your hands!

Ok, onto the meal! So we started off with a glass of the house white each. It was the Vino Bianco Della Casa. I’m not a wine connoisseur by a long shot but I really want to start learning more about it.

Entrée – “Italian Nachos” Crispy fried four-cheese ravioli with “angry” arrabiatta sauce – 6/10. To be honest it sounded great but then it was just a crispy pillow of ravioli with not much filling inside at all. The “angry” arrabiatta sauce was not “angry” at all. It was just a tomato sauce with some garlic and bits of tomato, just a tiny tiny hint of chilli. Plus there was not enough of it.

Main – “Crab and squid ink risotto” - Black creamy rice with hand-picked spanner crab & crunchy herby breadcrumbs – 6/10. Ok, I have never ever ordered risotto as I always just think of it as Italian congee, and it’s not that special as its just rice. I didn’t even order it in Italy when I was there 2 years ago. But it’s Jamie’s Italian, so it should be a good rendition, especially with the crab and squid ink right? I was totally and utterly disappointed. It was not as creamy as it said in the description and it hardly had any flavour. I couldn’t even see hence taste the crab; I really had to look for the white crab flesh. The breadcrumbs were nice and fine and crunchy but not that herby. It seemed to be only 50% flavourful. What was worst is that the squid ink stains your lips, not a good look.

On the other hand my friend Christina had the “Veal Saltimbocca - wafer-thin veal with sage & prosciutto flash-grilled with a spicy tomato, basil & chilli salsa”. Now when that came out it smelt really tasty! When the risotto came out I smelt nothing apart from the big chunk of lemon sitting on top of it. I tasted some of the veal and it was full of flavour, definitely better than my risotto. Oh yeah I ordered the entrée size of the risotto and it was pretty small. Hence I need to thank Christina for not finishing her veal so I could eat it haha and thanks for the photos!

So now dessert, luckily I did not fill up on the risotto so I could sample some. I had the “Creamy Panna Cotta served with a compote of seasonal fruit” – 8/10. It was very creamy indeed, the way I like it and infused with lots of lovely vanilla seeds. The fruity bits were apricot which added a nice tartness to the creaminess. The portion was small; I could’ve eaten another one. But I guess for $8.50 it was ok.

My friend had the “Ice Creams” with her choice of topping of smashed honeycomb on the 3 scoops of the flavours of the day. It looked nice, but maybe it was scooped out quite a while before it came out as it was a bit drippy over the sides. My other friend had the “Our Special Tiramisu”. I had a taste of this and it was saturated with lots of strong coffee as it was coffee flavoured with orange mascarpone and chocolate! It was delish.

Overall the food was ok. I think I had high expectations and also I ordered the wrong main. I need to go back and give it another go. There are a variety of dishes that I would want to try, like the “Ligurian Fish Stew”. Not so sure about the “Burger Italiano” though. So from what other people have said, my experience and observations, it’s not totally rave worthy but more like an affordable Italian restaurant in the CBD that serves up above average, sometimes tasty meals at very reasonable prices. And with the“Jamie Oliver” association it will continue to lure the people in.

 

Lynn Shanghai Cuisine, 199 Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Not Lynn's Shanghai Cusine, just Lynn Shanghai Cuisine. . . Wonder what Lynn is? Anyway this is a kind of newish dumpling place in town, so I thought I'd check it out with my girlfriend this week. It has received good reviews, it's reasonably priced for Asian food and I hadn't had dumplings for a while. It's in The Castlereagh Club but you don't have to sign in, just walk on through. I never knew this club exisited, the decor is quite sparse and minimal, colour of choice, red of course with a glass enclosed kitchen where you can see the chefs make the dumplings. Although the bench comes up over where their hands are so you just see the top half of them. . . so you can't really see the dumpling being made. . . . . .

Ordering is done by ticking the dish you want on a piece of paper. To start off with we ordered the "Famous Shanghai steamed pork dumplings" - 7.5/10. Pretty good with a bit of broth inside, the texture of the outside was perfect, not too thin and not too thick and floury. Thought I'd start rating the dishes I eat too. I started it in my last Thai post but kind of forgot to rate the rest of the meal as I was too excited about writing my first food post lol!

"Pork and shrimp wontons tossed in a spicy sauce" - 8/10. These were great, a bit slippery but the filling was very tasty, right balance of meaty and shrimpy, and the sauce was mildly chilli. I added some of the chilli sauce to it which had white sesame seeds all the way through it in a thick red oily concoction. I hadn't seen or tasted that before, I should've taken a pic of it, it was very hot! I apologise for the bad pics. If I am serious about this blogging thing I will think about carrying my camera with me everywhere I go but then again am I going to be brave enough to whip it out in front of everyone when dining out??? I suppose I am Asian, so it's kind of expected.

I felt like the hot and sour soup so I ordered it but I was very disappointed!! 2/10. It looked good with shredded meat and bamboo shoot but the taste was not right at all. I should've known by the colour of it, they should of had a picture of it on the menu. Too watery and totally not enough of the hot or sour flavours! They really need to fix this as a good hot and sour soup really builds up the apetite and then people would order more food!

We also got the "Sauteed eggplant with minced pork in chilli garlic sauce" - 7/10 a popluar Chinese dish, it was quite tasty, eggplant was nice and soft but the flavour was not as strong as I had hoped. My mum makes a good version of this with more tomato and a thicker gravy sauce thing, cooked in a hot pot.

 

Then we had the "Sauteed string beans with bambooo shoots" - 7/10, nice simple vege dish. We didn't finish these last 2 dishes as we ate our meal with a bottle of white and by the end of it we were struggling big time.

The front of house was Chinese of course but had a thick Aussie accent that was so prominent my friend and I had a chuckle about it as it was more Aussie than an Aussie found in the Woolies carpark of say, Minto. All waiters had great English despite the accent! The service was great although we did feel rushed at the end despite it only being just past 10pm! Actually just looked at the website it says they cloe at 9:30pm! Now that's a problem. . .

Besides that I would recommend this place, especially for someones birthday as there were 4 rounds of Happy Birthday being sung, including the staff, my friend and I felt a bit left out! Hahaha!

 

Love = Chloe S/S12

I love Chloe! One of my fave international designer labels, along with quite a few others that I will blog about in the future.

So the women behind Chloe over the years from Stella to Phoebe, Hannah and now Clare Waight Keller who are all graduates of Central Saint Martins has totally and utterly continued the femme French chic roots vibe with cool "it girl" tomboy touches this season. Here are a few pics of keylooks from the latest Spring/Summer 2012 runway show. I am loving the nude with coral and the all important white.

I wish I could have all these pieces but for now I will let these looks inspire my new summer wardrobe that I am yet to start. I am looking to buy something investment. Something great to wear to a nice xmas dinner or possibly New Years. Something to say woop woop I have a full time job again and can splurge every now and then!

House Thai - Northeast Street Food - 202 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills

House Thai - is a relatively new Thai place in Sydney.  It has no stir fries or the usual red, green and Panang curry on the menu.  It is based food from the Issan region in the North Eastern part of Thailand. The same chef that opened Spice I am another epic Thai joint opened up House and has made it different enough that it doesn't matter if you have Thai for dinner 2 nights in a row as the tastes are very different.

I love it as it is open from 11:30am daily til late.  No closing after lunch and waiting til 6pm for dinner, therefore no queues and the bonus is that it is a big place that is behind  a pub.  So my husband could get a beer and bring it back to the restaurant area, a big bonus for a guy. 

We ordered the Kor Moo Yang - grilled pork belly with Jim-jam dipping sauce - 8/10, the grill flavour is amazing. 

Followed by a Tom Mua Tum which is a spicy soup with slowly cooked beef, lemongrass, ginger, basil, mushrooms, lime leaf and chilli. Served in a brass pot with a jelly like heating device thing underneath to keep it piping hot. It was a beautiful balnce of sweet, salt and sour. Not heavy at all and very refreshing for a warm Saturday evening. The beef was fall apart delcisiousness with just the right amount of fat left on.

Then we had the "house special" Steamed Chicken Curry - which was totally different to what I was imagining. It came out wrapped in banana leaf and when we opened it up it smelt so good! It was like a steamed rissole. Bits of chicken with lemongrass, chilli and I think it was dill and a whole heap of other spices and herbs. It was relatively small serving, but it was enough for us.  Mmmmm!

I am definitely going back, so many more interesting things to try such as the Mackerel dip with veges.