Sydney Part II - So Many Restaurants, So Little Time

Dinner on Monday night was at Chef's Gallery, a Shanghainese restaurant that I've read good things about in one of the food blogs I read. That's right people, I read food blogs. That's just how I roll. This remained one of my favourite meals in Sydney so I'll definitely be going back for more in the next 2 trips coming up.

Fried rice with three types of eggs - normal, preserved and salted. This was nice, good comfort food. I have a soft spot for fried rice, probably a childhood thing as it always seemed like a special occasion when Mum ordered fried rice instead of normal rice when we went to restaurants.

Handmade noodles with cabbage, mushroom, chicken and chunky egg bits. I love chunky egg bits in fried noodles.

Flaky bread with pork floss - told you I love pork floss.

Spare ribs in peking sauce - one of my top 5 chinese dishes.

Boss chose this. I didn't like it. Fried eggplant. Bleh.

Nomnomnomnomnom...

Last but definitely not least, dessert! Little piggyssssssssssss!

Backsides of the girl and boy piggies.

I'm too cute to be eaten!

Errr no you are not. Oozing black sesame goodness.

Tuesday night, we hit up Din Tai Fung, the McDonalds of dumpling restaurants.

Check out the wall art made of steamers.

No the chefs aren't praying. They are busy making dumplings!

The ordering system was the same at Chef's Gallery. You are given a menu and you write down what you want.

The minute I sat down, the waiter brought this and put it next to me. I wonder what it's for.

Oh looksie, my bag is hiding under it, well-protected from any accidental spills and splatters.

Over-ordered as usual.

Super cold tofu topped with pork floss (again!) with preserved eggs. The coldness was a bit disconcerting but so nice with hot rice. Preserved eggs AND pork floss? What's not to love?

Spinach. One of my favourite veges.

Handmade noodles with mince. Meh, this was only ok. I preferred the noodles from Chef's Gallery.

Taiwanese-style pork chop. Deep fried..... L.O.V.E.

It would be wrong not to order dumplings so we did. They were yum and soup-a-licious.

Dinner on Wednesday night was an Indonesian affair at some random pokey cafe.

Chicken satays. These were amazing. They had that char-grilled smokey smell and taste that's had to explain and replicate. YUM.

Beef rendang. A tad tough. Check out the oil!

Chicken something or other. Nice and tender.

Spinach with a crazy hot sauce.

We thought we deserved an ice-cream since that was such a healthy dinner so off we went to Passionflower, an Asian ice cream parlour.

I got the Superstar, which I'm sure you'll say is very fitting for me. Black sesame, sticky rice and azuki red bean ice creams with black glutinous balls and sprinkled with peanuts. The red bean was so yummy.

Boss got the Eastern Sunrise - Japanese green tea, taro and sticky rice ice creams with banana wedges topped with an orange lychee compote.

Korean BBQ was on the menu on Thursday night.

There was a random cash machine opposite where we were sitting. Check out the wallpaper.

The usual complimentary little side dishes.

Meeeeeat!

Eel rice.

Part 3 coming right up.

Sydney Part 1 - Let The Madness Begin

Before I start, let me warn you. This and the next two posts are PG-rated. Piggy Gluttony that is. So be prepared to feel hungry when you scroll through the photos.

I took the first flight out to Sydney a couple of Saturdays ago. Work is implementing a system and lucky me was selected as the project lead for Finance. So I had to go to our sister company's premises for a week's worth of training. I am repeating this two more times in October so I am expecting to get very sick of Sydney by then. Maybe, maybe not!

So I arrived in Sydney at 8.30 and was at my hotel an hour later. It was too early to check in so I left my suitcase with them and headed off to Pitt Street Mall for a wander. Confession time: I actually went downstairs to the nearest BreadTop and bought 3 items, with the good intention of having them for breakkie, morning and arvo snack. Three items, three meals. Makes sense right? Errr I ate all three before I even got out of the building. Woopsie. BBQ Bun, Pineapple Bun and Egg Tart, ye evil things!

Anyhoo, I legged it to Pitt Street Mall and headed straight for the new Westfield which housed all the luxury shops as well as the usual high street shops. I spied the mothership calling for me but I was in travelling gear, aka tee + shorts + flats so I was too intimidated to go in. Plus I was worried I'll get tempted by the shoes. At $1500 AUD a pop, I can't afford to be tempted.

My preccccccious!

So I wandered around for a couple of hours (ate a few moere things) and went back to the hotel. Still no free rooms so i headed towards Chinatown. Biiiig mistake! First thing I saw was this dessert shop that Jenn told me about. Sigh, asian desserts I love thee.

So I stopped and had a grass jelly + red bean + taro + pearls hot dessert. Not sure why I chose a hot one since it was freakin hot in Sydney. Anyhoo, it was a very popular place and there was no free tables inside so I had to sit in the bright sunshine. So I didn't take a photo of my dessert.


Then I was finally able to check in around noon and I felt piggy (rightly so) so I walked to Paddington which is half an hour away from the hotel. I may or may not have eaten more things on the way. My feet were killing me so I got a pedicure in Paddy and wandered around the Saturday market before strolling back.

Met up with my boss for dinner as it's on the company yahoooooooooooooo... hence the gluttony, peeps. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Although, is it better to be a cheapskate or a glutton? Wooo if I was a character in Se7en, which way would I have gone?

We went to Palate, a popular Jap eatery just underneath our hotel which is super central as it is near Chinatown.

Boss's choice...

Mine was eel something or other. Typical Jap fare:

After that, we went for a walk around Chinatown to burn off the food and we came across this long line! I've read about it in guides so we *had* to get some too.

One dollar for FOUR custard puffs!! Who knew you could still get stuff for a buck??? No wonder there's always a queue!


See those yellow tubes? They are the innards of the puffs and are inserted into the puffs to pump them full of custardy goodness.

Looks like a walnut.

Unfortunately, they tasted chemical to me. Bleh. Boss, the human hoover, ate the other three.

The next morning ie Sunday morning, I had a sleep in and then headed to Mother Chu, a popular Taiwanese eatery right opposite the puffs for my brunch.

I also got a roasted tea with grass jelly from my favourite bubble tea place, Chatime.

Taiwanese vermicelli in thick soup... soooo good. I wished I had this again. And I shall, in October!

You tiao with Shaobing... deepfried doughsticks wrapped inside flaky pastry. This was dry as and I chucked them out after I had them wrapped up to go.

Ohhhh my love! Shaobing with pork floss. Pork floss with anything is good in my books. i remember we used to eat pork floss right out of the tub when we were kids, and also with rice. Yum!

After that, I jumped on the bus to Birkenhead Point Outlet. Sydney's public transport rocks. Didn't buy anything apart from tees because it was a meltingly hot day and I packed inappropriately as usual. Part 2 and 3 to come.