Jimmy’s Butter Chicken
25 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Chicken Tags: curry, indian, Jimmy's butter chicken
I meant to make this Jimmy’s butter chicken recipe last year when Jimmy made this in Master Chef Season 2, but I had this fear of failing on my first ever Indian curry recipe. I am familiar with cooking Asian style or south East Asian style curries like Malaysian, Thai or Chinese curries but never had any experience with Indian curry recipe. I wasn’t even familiar with the spices to start with but I thought in order to grow, I must step outside my comfort zone and try new things. The result was ok but because I was being stupid and didn’t read the measurement correctly and use the whole yoghurt instead of the required needed, so the result turn out to be a little bit more sour than what I would liked it to be. The flavour though, was nice and I will try making this again next time.
Ingredients: (inspired by Masterchef magazine)
140 g Greek style yoghurt
3 cm piece ginger, peeled & finely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp garam masala
1 carrot, peeled, roughly chopped
3-4 potatoes, peeled, cut into cubes
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra, to grease
1/4 cup roughly chopped coriander, plus extra leaves, to serve
800 g chicken thigh fillet, cut into 3 cm-wide strips
2 tbsp ghee (I just use normal butter)
2 onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground turmeric
260 g (1 cup) passata
300 ml pouring cream
1 bunch mint, leaves picked, finely chopped
Basmati rice and pappadams, to serve
Directions:
1) Combine yoghurt, ginger, garlic, 1 tbsp garam masala, lemon juice, oil and half the coriander in a large bowl, then season with salt and pepper. Add chicken and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.
2) Preheat a lightly greased barbecue or chargrill pan over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and cook, in 2 batches, turning for 6 minutes or until almost cooked through.
3) Heat ghee in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onions, turmeric, tomato paste, chillies potatoes, carrots remaining garam masala, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onions are soft. Add passata and cook for 20 minutes or until thickened slightly. Add little bit water if the sauce become too thick, test potatoes with a knife to see if it has been cooked.
4) Reduce heat to low, add cream, mint and remaining coriander, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add chicken and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens. Scatter with extra coriander and serve with rice and pappadams.
Spices can be find in my favourite spice shop – Green Valley Spice
Marinate the Chicken
Add Passata and cooked til potatoes are cooked through
Add in the cream
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Obesebaby 1st Anniversary Give Away!!
09 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized
Happy 1st Birthday to Obesebaby! It has been 1 year since I started blogging and there is so much to celebrate: 69 posts, over 100 followers, over 30,000+ visitors and hundreds of comments, met the most awesome restaurant owner & chefs, made friends with so many kindred spirits along the way. I have been working hard everyday after work (full time job) to work on Obesebaby ( my part time job) by designing and giving it a nice face lift, designed my very own personal Obesebaby logo, Business card and T-shirts hoping one day Obesebaby can expand and grow.
Of course, I could not have done it without you and as a return of my appreciation and love to your support I am hosting a giveaway! I am grateful for all of your visits, regardless of whether you comment, follow, subscribe to, or have bookmarked this page.
Thank you to my sponsors Jessica Pedemont, Jackie M & Food Morning, I have over 50 wonderful prizes to give away – remember you have to be in it to win it. Good luck!
1st Prize – A surprise cake worth up to value of $500 from Chocolate Artisan couture. For those that don’t know her, Jessica Pedemont is a very talented and many award winning chocolatier and pastry chef. Owner of Chocolate Artisan couture as well as a team member of Planet Cake. (For some more information of her cakes and picture please see food blogger post from Simon & Vivian)
2nd Prize – 3 course dinner for two at JackieM Malaysian Cuisine, a talented cook from home cooking became now owner of Malaysian restaurant also producing her own frozen packs & curry paste. (Check out more from Simon & Thang)
3rd Prize – $20 gift voucher from Flying fish
4th Prize – 50 X $10 crazy wings vouchers from Food Morning (one voucher per winner)
Ok so here is how’s it works:
1) [worth 1 entry]
Follow me on Twitter (@obesebaby) then simply tweet the following:
RT @obesebaby To Win great prizes from #obesebabygiveaway, check http://bit.ly/pfBNYy for details
OR
2) [worth 1 entry]
“Like” me on Facebook then simply post this on Obesebaby Facebook wall:
Like Obesebaby Fan page to win great prize. Participate the anniversary giveaway here http://bit.ly/pfBNYy
OR
[worth 5 entries]
3) Subscribe to Obesebaby blog to stay up to date with latest recipe, restaurants reviews and food related events. ( Subscribe on the right hand sidebar, I promise you won’t get spammed!)
AND
Leave a short comment in this post about anything really, then follow by a square bracket of what method you have chosen to enter the draw. [Facebook], [Twitter] or [Subscribe]
E.g. Happy birthday Obesebaby [Facebook]
Please provide a valid email address so that I can contact the winner and use the same name in the comment box as your method of entering the draw. E.g If you choose to follow Twitter please be sure to use your Twitter nick name to enter the draw. This would make my life so much easier in identifying you and contacting the winner!
The draw will take place at noon (AEST) on Sunday 7 Aug 2011, at which time comments to this post will be closed. The winners will be announced here on my blog the next day, and are also contacted by email. This is open to Australian resident only. Good luck everyone!
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Sapore Della Vigna, Leichhardt
26 Jun 2011 6 Comments
in Italian, Sydney / Inner West Tags: Food Morning, Italian, Italian Forum, Pasta
www.italianforumrestaurants.com.au
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 7.5/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 7/10 |
| Service: | 9/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Entrée: | $4 – $15 |
| Main: | $20 – $30 |
| Dessert: | $10.90 – $12.90 |
| Degustation: | N/A |
| Corkage: | $2.5 p/p |
| Cakeage: | $10 |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Normal |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Easy |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Normal |
| Noise Level: | Noisy |
| Waiting time for foods: | 15 mins – 20 mins |
| Booking time require: | 1-2 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | Yes |
Sponsored by 
It has been a while since I have been to the Italian Forum in Leichhardt, usually I would go to restaurants located on Norton Street such as Portofino. Turn out it was a treasure find. It was a Friday night and we managed to find a parking spot in less than 5 minutes! There is a two level parking underneath the Forum which you can enjoy a 2 hours free parking.
Sapore Della Vigna has been there for over 12 years, family owned by Kathy and her husband. The place has been renovated and extended ever since taken over by Kathy. Its vast space can not only accommodate large bookings but also small groups for all occasions such as birthday party, engagement, business parties with seating inside or outside.
We were greeted and welcomed by the friendly staff and were asked where we would like to seat. I choose inside as it was quite a chill night and love the idea of sitting under the heaters.
Staff kindly change our wine to soft drinks
The Food Mornings voucher entitles us a mixed pasta platter for two which includes choice of 3 pasta dishes ($3.30 extra for each seafood pasta dish, exclude risotto and lasagne) and a bottle of wine. The menu has a vast range of selections from entree, pasta, salads and sides and as a result, we couldn’t make up our mind. The friendly staff came over and gave us some recommendation which end up it was my favourite. We opted for Penne Al Pollo – Pan fried chicken, sun-dried tomato & pine nuts in a napolitana and cream sauce $21.90, Linguini Marinara – Pasta with a selection of fresh local seafood cooked in a tomato, garlic, and white wine sauce $24.90, Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli – with a pesto cream sauce & topped with pine nuts $18.90 (staff’s recommendation).
An Italian dinner is not complete without some nice Bruschetta. We order one of those as a starter. It was so delicious and top with huge amount of fresh tomato, basil, garlic and a sweet vinaigrette dressing. What I love the most was the bread is toasted and warm when it was served.
Brushetta with tomato and basil – 2 per serve, $7.90
When the pasta arrived it’s presented on a silver platter with three generous serving of each pasta that we ordered. At first we dived into the vegetarian pasta which was packed with heaps of flavour and heaps of creamy sauce. (I was thinking a vegetarian pasta must be bland and tasteless but I am so wrong!) There was blended spinach and herbs piece inside the sauce and the ravioli was cooked perfectly. Secondly, I tried the chicken penne. Chicken meat was moist and tender and the pine nut was crunchy and paired well with the sauce. Lastly, we tasted the Linguini Marinara. I was feeling full already at this point of the meal but still polished half of the Linguini in my stomach. The seafood was fresh and the sauce is delicious.
From left to right : Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli – with a pesto cream sauce & topped with pine nuts $18.90, Linguini Marinara – Pasta with a selection of fresh local seafood cooked in a tomato, garlic, and white wine sauce $24.90,Penne Al Pollo – Pan fried chicken, sun-dried tomato & pine nuts in a napolitana and cream sauce $21.90,
Conclusion: I had a pleasant dining experience in Sapore. The atmosphere was buzzing, love to see people, talking and laughing, and that’s exactly what Sapore offers. It is a great place to meet up with friends or for a family gathering. Highly recommended!! Check out here for a great deal from Food Morning. This Mixed Pasta Platter for Two deal is on sale from 27/6 to 2/7 for a limited time.
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Address:
The Italian Forum, 23 Norton St, Leichhardt
opening hrs: Mon – Thur: 10:00 to 23:00, Fri: 10:00 to midnight, Sat – Sun: 8:00 to midnight
Ph:+612-9518-0078
Web: www.italianforumrestaurants.com.au
Getting There:
Parking: Forum underground parking. Entrance on Norton St
By train: No Train station near by
Aria Restaurant, Circular Quay
23 Jun 2011 6 Comments
in Fine Dine, Modern Australian, Sydney / Inner City Tags: Abalone, Aria, Master chef, Matt Moran, Peaking duck consommé
If you follow this season’s Master Chef, you will notice Matt Moran was one of the guest judges on the judge panel. I was over the moon when I heard that our business partner BTIG is bringing us to Aria restaurant located opposite of the opera house for lunch. The whole time during one of the pressure test, where contestants have to recreate Matt Moran’s duck consommé dish with abalone, I would rave about how creative it is to have a dish that has Asian influence but in a form of soup that made by a non-Asian chef.
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 8/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 9/10 |
| Service: | 9/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Entrée: | $36 – $42 |
| Main: | $44 – $56 |
| Dessert: | $24 – $28 |
| Degustation: | $160-$176 (w/o wine), $260-$286 (w/wine) |
| Corkage: | No BYO, fully licensed |
| Cakeage: | Free |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Hard |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Easy |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Dark |
| Noise Level: | Normal |
| Waiting time for foods: | 15 mins – 20 mins |
| Booking time require: | 2-3 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | No |
When we first walked in, the receptionist greeted with a friendly smile and took us to the table. The restaurant was very “corporate” style, I wouldn’t say it’s a very nice décor and most people were having a business lunch as you can tell by their corporate attire. We were given a seated close to the window with fabulous views of Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
We decided to go for the 2 courses for $68. As much as I would love to try the dessert too but I think my little stomach will struggle a little bit.
A complimentary amuse bouche is served to us to start off, it is a wild mushroom and asparagus soup. Although I am not a big fan of asparagus but I couldn’t taste any of it, but instead I can taste a dash of sweetness that came from the mushroom.
Peaking duck consommé with duck dumplings, shaved abalone and mushrooms
As mentioned before, how can I go pass a dish that has been feature in a Master Chef pressure test? So I opted for the duck consommé. The bowl came out to the table covered and once it is placed in front of me the waiter lifted off the lid allowing the aroma to come through the nose. I can’t wait no more! First spoonful was boiling hot with intense flavours. Floating on the top was some coriander and herbs which further raise this soup to a whole new level. The dumplings itself was a bit soggy but overall was very nice. I wouldn’t consider this as a traditional Chinese dish because I’ve never taste anything like that before.
Scallops – spiced and roasted with glazed witlof, pistachios, and dried apricots
Nadia ordered the scallops and she claim that it was cooked perfectly. I didn’t try this dish but from the look of it, I can tell the scallop was just cooked through with a nice brown surface.
Truffled potato mash, $15
Borlotti bean, cotechino sausage and rocket salad, $16
Cured New Zealand salmon with kombu and earl great tea, yuzu tapioca and avocado puree
I never thought you could put a tea together with a salmon. But the presentation was very beautiful, almost too beautiful to eat. Down side was a bit small to feed a big eater.
Pork Belly – Kurobuta sweet pork belly with pickled watermelon and crackling
Few other people ordered the pork belly, the skin looks perfectly crisp. At the end of the meal I noticed that most people left the watermelons on the plate unfinished.
Braised beef cheek with red onion choucroutte, roasted chestnut and puff wild rice
I ordered the beef as the main. Despite that I was half full already but I still managed to finish the whole dish. Because it is just so good!! I didn’t know what purpose the puff wild rice served initially but after a bite of the meat I understand that the puff rice can lighten the richness of the sauce and offer some crunchiness to the dish. The meat itself was tender and fall off the bone.
Barramundi – Crisp skinned fillet with grilled cuttlefish, apple, green olives and horseradish sauce
I rarely ordered fish as my main in a restaurant, purely because none of them impressed me but this one in Aria totally changed my view. It is very hard to cook a fish right but Aria did it. The fish was moist and juicy. It felt like it melts in the mouth. The skin was absolutely amazing and crispy.
slow cooked lamb neck with a potato gratin, Chinese artichokes, nameko mushrooms and wild asparagus
All of the people on the table either order fish, beef or lamb. I didn’t get a taste of the lamb but it looks perfectly cook still with a little bit pink in the middle.
Conclusion: Unbeatable location and excellent food. The service was impeccable, they gave us attention to our needs throughout the meal. I would definitely order the dessert next time when I come here because it looks absolutely delicious looking at the table next to us.
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Address:
1 Macquaire Street, Circular Quay
opening hrs: Mon – Fri: 12:00 to 14:30, 17:30 to 23:00, Sat 17:00 to23:00, Sun 18:00 to 22:00
Ph:+612-9252-2555
Web: www.ariarestaurant.com.au
Getting There:
Parking: Macquarie Street, Pitt street
By train: Circular Quay
Star Buffet, Seven Hills
30 May 2011 7 Comments
in Buffet, Dessert & Sweets, French, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian/Singaporean, Modern Australian, Pizza, Sydney / West Tags: all-you-can-eat, Buffet, ice-cream, seafood, seven hills, sushi
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 6.5/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 6/10 |
| Service: | 5/10 |
| Value: | 8.5/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Lunch: | Mon-Sat: $14.50, Sun: $21 |
| Dinner: | Sun-Thur: $21, Fri-Sat: $23.50 |
| Special: | Discount for member/senior/Children |
| Degustation: | N/A |
| Corkage: | No BYO, fully licensed |
| Cakeage: | Free |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Easy |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Easy |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Bright |
| Noise Level: | Noisy |
| Waiting time for foods: | Buffet style |
| Booking time require: | 3-4 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | Yes |
Before writing up a post on this restaurant, I need to let all my readers know that I am not the biggest fan of buffet. Firstly, I wouldn’t get my monies worth in buffet as I eat small quantity. Secondly, the quality of food is generally poor. Thirdly, I usually lost appetite when I see so many choices in front of me.
We were here for a post mother’s day celebration dinner with my family and my brother’s in laws. With eleven of us, I suppose buffet would be the best choice to cater for the oldies, young and kids. There were two session with the dinner: 5:30pm – 7:30pm or 7:30pm – 9:30pm, we were in the earlier session so I also get to take handful of pictures of the food before being destroyed by others.
Star Buffet like most of other buffet is located inside a RSL club, it offers great variety of gourmet food ranging from Australian, Asian, European, even a sushi train, roast BBQ duck/pork plus extensive selection of salads and desserts. I must say this is a really sweet value for what you get if you compare to the Casino Star City Garden Buffet.
My favourite was the BBQ roast duck as it was freshly roasted in house and not those that bought from supplier. It was tender and delicious and they carve it in front of you.
Make sure you leave room for dessert because I bet you can only sample a few, although the cakes that I tried didn’t have much taste but I only tried a few things. The focal point was definitely the chocolate fountain as it attracts many kids to line up for it. Instead of dipping the ordinary marshmallow I have substitute with fruits instead and I thought it tasted great!!
Not long after, the chef starts to bring out some nice tiny crème brulee. OMG , anyone who knows me would know that my favourite dessert is crème brulee and I was very impress that they had it here. I took one back to my table and can’t wait to crack the sugar on top. It was very creamy and fresh but the brulee itself was lacking the punch of vanilla bean and taste a bit too eggy.
I had a really good night and catch up with my family even though I didn’t eat much, but it was equally enjoyable watching my family demolish about 20 plates of foods.
Conclusion: The variety of food is quite extensive and you are paying for a buffet that offers a lot of different things. Strongly recommend for big eater or families with kids.
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Address:
Corner Best Rd & William St, Seven Hills
opening hrs: Mon – Sun: 11:30 to 14:00, 17:30 to 22:00
Ph:+612-9622-9690
Web: www.starbuffet.com.au
Getting There:
Parking: Next to the RSL club
By train: Seven Hills Station
Spicy lamb Mince Tagine
25 May 2011 3 Comments
in Breakfast, Lamb, Turkish Tags: breakfast, eggs, Kazbah, lamb tagine
I am sure a lot of you have tried the lamb breakfast tagine from Kazbah. Especially there is a branch open in Top Ryde now but I must say $18.50 for a breakfast isn’t cheap. I was so determine to make my own with more and fresher ingredients. I didn’t have a tagines dish at home and didn’t think it was necessary to purposely get one. So all my work was done on a frying pan then transfer to a baking dish for final few minutes to bake off the eggs. Result was yummy and very close to the one in Kazbah when I served it with the Turkish breads.
recipe adapted from Mindfood
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, deseeded, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
3 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp smoky paprika
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
500g lamb mince
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 tbsp lemon juice
40g baby spinach leaves
4-5 Swiss brown or button mushrooms
2-4 eggs
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 200˚C. Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add onion and capsicum. Cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Sprinkle cumin, coriander, paprika and cinnamon over mixture. Stir until well combined. Cook for 1 minute or until aromatic.
2) Add mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned. Add tomatoes and lemon juice. Cook until mince is well browned. Add spinach and 2 tbsp water. Cover and cook for 1 minute or until spinach leaves are just wilted.
3) Spoon mixture into individual tagines or a big baking dish. Form some hole in the mince by using a spoon. Break eggs into the holes of the meats. Cover and bake in oven for 10-15 minutes until eggwhite is just cooked. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4) service with rice or Turkish bread as desire.
I got most of my herbs from Green Valley Spice
The lamb mince does not have to be fully cooked as it still needs to go inside oven for extra 10 mins
You can add more eggs if you want but I was watching for my cholesterol level
Do not overcook your eggs, Its gotta be runny to be perfect. The best way to test this is to take it out from oven at 5-7 mins slightly move it to see if egg white is still wobbling. It should be just set and the remaining heat will cooks itself.
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Sitney Thai Restaurant, Parramatta
24 May 2011 4 Comments
in Street Food, Sydney / Inner West, Thai Tags: coconut sago, curry, dessert, pad thai, spicy, street food, thai food
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 7.5/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 7/10 |
| Service: | 8/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Entrée: | $7 – $15 |
| Main: | $15 – $20 |
| Dessert: | $7.90 |
| Degustation: | N/A |
| Corkage: | $2.5 p/p |
| Cakeage: | Free |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Normal |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Easy |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Dark |
| Noise Level: | Noisy |
| Waiting time for foods: | 15 mins – 20 mins |
| Booking time require: | 1-2 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | No |
Sponsored by
Out of all the the south East Asia cuisine, Thai is one of my favourite. The reason being is the fresh ingredients, spicy yet sour, lovely curries and lovely stir frys in Thai food. They don’t use a lot of ingredients but yet the flavours are complicated and delicate.
Thanks to Food morning, I scored two vouchers to dine at Sitney Thai Cuisine in Parramatta. It’s always such a lovely feelings to be having a good dinner with some lovely food bloggers that live in the same area like Mel and Tammi. But I am even more honoured that Sara made it all the way from South to attend the dinner.
There was endless chatting involved so I went straight in to the menu and said “hey let’s order food I am starving!!” A bit embarrassed by my own words but hey what’s the purpose of a food blogger dinner if there is no food right? Hehe
Duck Herbs – Popular Thai mini dish of finely chopped roast duck tossed with red onion, mint, sliced shallot, roasted rice and chilli-lime dressing served on cos lettuce leaves.
The vouchers entitle us to order four entrees, four mains and four desserts. At first I thought we must have a lot of leftovers but at the end we cleaned all the plates. As part of the condition of the voucher for entrée, two choices out of the four needed to be either curry puffy, spring roll or satay chicken. We opted for the duck herb, spring roll, Satay chicken and golden money bag.
Tung Tong – crispy fried pastry and fillings of chicken, crunched peanuts, green peas and served with sweet chilli dipping
Springs Roll – Golden crispy vegetarian springs rolls filled with mixed veges and served with plum sauce.
Kai Satay – Grilled marinated chicken skewers served with toasted peanut sauce and cucumber relish.
We all agreed the duck herb was a very good dish with the presentation similar to that of a San Choy Bow. There were heaps of spice and herbs that have been chopped finely mixed in the duck mince such as red onion, mints, shallot, chilli and garlic. I found the chicken was just cooked as I can still see a tiny little pinkish in the middle but I still enjoy it a lot because the meat used for the skewer is a thigh rather than a breast. It was juicy and succulent. Money bag and Spring rolls were piping hot which nearly burnt my tongue. The pastries wrapped outside were both crispy and flaky. I really enjoyed every entrée on the table.
Pad Thai with seafood – Stir fry of thin noodle tossed with mix of textures including dry shrimp, diced tofu, bean sprouts, garlic chives, crushed peanuts and sliced red onion.
I’ve eaten a lot of Pad Thai including the authentic one from Thailand. A good Pad Thai should not be overly sweeten and soggy. Sitney Thai’s Pad Thai was certainly not one of those. It was generous in portion and tasty.
Massamun beef curry – with sweet coconut broth and completed with sprinkle cashew and fried red onion
I choose this curry as a main because the weather on that night was cold and windy, the Massamun beef curries was hearty and chucky. It goes well with the steam rice. It wasn’t overly sweet or heavy, strong taste of herbs like star anise and cinnamon really boosted up my appetite.
Stir fry chicken with limes leaves and peppercorns sauce
This was the dish I thought that is not spicy, but turns out to be the most spicy. I like the vegetables and the flavours but the let down for me was the chicken meat. It was a bit dry and tough to chew.
Som Tum – green papaya salad with carrot, tomato, green bean, roasted peanut and dry shrimp drizzled with chilli-lime dressing
I actually learnt making this salad in Thailand when I went to Bangkok last year and joined a cooking class. It is simple yet packed with a lot of flavours. The one I made doesn’t have soft shell crab. But this one here certainly is an icing on the cake. It was crispy and fried to golden brown.
Coconut milk with sago and rockmelon
For dessert there is only one option so all of us had the same thing. This was a familiar dessert to me because in Chinese dessert we cooked a lot with sagos. The only bit I wasn’t used to is the slight salty taste of the coconut milk. It is similar to mango sticky rice where salt will be put into the sticky rice.
Conclusion: Great food, service, and beautiful decor-dim mood light with a modern funky interior. The menu is extensive and their foods are packed with lots of authentic flavours.
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Address:
277B Church Street, Parramatta
opening hrs: Mon – Fr: 11:00 to 15:00, Sat – Sun: 12:00 to 17:00, Dinner everyday: 17:00 to 22:30
Ph:+612-9633-3226
Web: www.sitneyrestaurant.com
Getting There:
Parking: Church Street or Phillip St
By train: Parramatta Station
Ichigo Ichie, Sydney Central St
17 May 2011 3 Comments
in Japanese, Sydney / Inner City Tags: dinner in city, green tea ice-cream, izakaya, Japanese, spider roll, wagyu beef
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 6/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 7/10 |
| Service: | 8/10 |
| Value: | 6/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Entrée: | $5 – $16 |
| Main: | $20 – $35 |
| Dessert: | $8.80 |
| Degustation: | N/A |
| Corkage: | No BYO, fully licensed |
| Cakeage: | Free |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Hard |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Hard |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Dark |
| Noise Level: | Normal |
| Waiting time for foods: | 15 mins – 20 mins |
| Booking time require: | 1-2 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | Yes |
Sponsored by 
One of those weeknights catch up dinner with my girlfriends again. We decided to give the new Japanese izakaya – Ichigo Ichie a try. It is secretly tucked into a laneway on Central Street opposite of George Street cinema. Although it was a chilly Thursday night, the friendly staffs made me felt warm and welcomed.
We took a few minute to enjoy the warm and stylish décor, I especially love their Japanese cherry blossom painting on the wall because it made me feel like I was really in Japan. We took a long time to decide what to order, as we were getting a bit over excited and started to talk louder and louder, I realised the sound of our voice bounces off the wooden ceiling and created some distraction to other customers. The waitress came to us with a big smile and offers her help in recommending some dishes and guidance of how many dishes we needed for two people.
Medium rare Wagyu beef steak grade 7 (with creamy mashed potato and mixed salad leaves, Served with steak jus). $32.80
The fact that I have such a soft spot for beef, I am not talking about just ordinary beef, but Wagyu beef, so the medium rare Wagyu beef steak was highly on top of our list.
I have eaten a lot of wagyu beef before from different countries; Hong Kong, Japan, Australia but I can say this one in Ichigo Ichie is one of the best that I’ve tasted. It was so juicy and tender that it just melts in the mouth. But if I order this again I would request it to be medium cooked rather than medium rare. It wasn’t bloody but it was a bit too raw to chew. It also came with a small serve of creamy mashed potato, mixed salad and steak jus.
Spider Roll (Tempura soft shell crab, curly lettuce, flying fish roe & avocado), $15.80
The presentation of the spider roll looks good, lots of sauce and colour which combines well. Soft shell crab is nice and crunchy, rice is of the texture of sushi should.
Green tea ice-cream with Ariette (sesame sweet biscuit, red bean coulis), $8.80
And for those who would like something sweet at the end of their meal, there are two desserts to choose from. Not a lot of option but hard enough for me to pick one out of the two because green tea & black sesame ice-cream are both my favourite. But since I still got a tub of black sesame ice-cream from Serendipity at home so we opted for the green tea ice-cream with red bean.
It was lovely with the drizzles of condense milk over it, the sweet biscuits pieces pair well with the ice-cream and strawberries. I can have another serve of these.
Conclusion: The service was good, friendly. Ambience was somewhat made me feel like I was in Japan. Value, relatively expensive for a small portion.
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Address:
8 Central Street, Sydney
opening hrs: Mon – Sun: 11:30 to 14:30, 17:00 to 22:00
Ph:+612-8008-0600
Web: N/A
Getting There:
Parking: Kent Street/Pitt Street
By train: Town Hall
Hokkaido Japanese Restaurant, Circular Quay
08 May 2011 7 Comments
in Japanese, Sydney / Inner City Tags: Japanese, ramen, taki udon
| Ratings | |
| Food: | 7/10 |
| Atmosphere: | 7/10 |
| Service: | 9/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
| Average Price | |
| Entrée: | $5 – $10 |
| Main: | $10 – $25 |
| Dessert: | Not aware of one |
| Degustation: | N/A |
| Corkage: | $3 p/p |
| Cakeage: | $1 p/p |
| Others | |
| Ease of finding a car park: | Hard |
| Ease of finding the restaurant: | Hard |
| Brightness of restaurant: | Normal |
| Noise Level: | Noisy |
| Waiting time for foods: | 15 mins – 20 mins |
| Booking time require: | 1-2 Days |
| Child friendly/High Chair: | Yes |
Formally known as Lobster cave, located in loftus street in circular Quay area of Sydney CBD. Now this is a real hidden gem because it is secretly hidden under ground with a long stairs. As the door open, you come to one of the best and reasonable priced Japanese restaurant in town.
Hokkaido has an extensive menu for their ramen, udon, soba, don and Bento box. If you are not a big fan of noodle in soup there is always other dish for you such as the Katsu Don, Teriyaki Chicken and sukiyaki for the hot pot lovers.
What I love the most is their ramen and the soup base, which are essentially chicken soup based blended with other natural ingredients such as fish and salt. You can also choose between three type of flavour-base soup: Miso (bean paste), Shoyu (soy sauce) and Shio (dried scallop soup).
Cha-shu (roated pork) Lover’s Ramen (miso base), $15
Hokkaido Miso Ramen (Miso base), $12
The noodles were a thinner variety, but still perfectly chewy, the pork was so tender it almost falls apart when you pick it up and had a almost sweet, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth flavour. The egg wasn’t as runny as expected but wasn’t too bad.
Yaki Udon (Stir fried udon noodle) with Karaage (deep fried chicken), $16
Udon was chewy and always come out perfectly with right amount of meat and veges. The portion was so generous that this dish was unfinished even by a male.
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Address:
Basement, 20 Loftus Street, Circular Quay
opening hrs: Mon – Sat: 12:00 to 14:30, 18:00 to 21:30
Ph:+612-9251-8280
Web: www.hokkaido.com.au
Getting There:
Parking: Elizabeth Street
By train: Circular Quay
Point-and-shoot to DSLR for food photography
04 May 2011 6 Comments
in Others Tags: DSLR, food photography, Nikkon D7000, point-and-shoot
This post is nothing about food recipe or restaurants reviews – just wanted to get some opinion on food photography and DSLR.
I started my food blog for about 10 months now, been using my Canon point-and-shoot with no tripod and I got on just fine. As days goes by, I am more and more inspired by the stunning photos on other food blogs. For example, there’s pigged-out, The heart of food and Jenius to name just a few. Sure, they are professional, but I can’t help but drool at the food photos and hoping one day, maybe, just maybe, I can take photos just as good as them.
Being a total newbie to food photography, I was lucky enough to get some really helpful advice among the food bloggers group and on the internet. Words like aperture, shutter speed & ISO all sounds very new to me but also interesting at the same time. I felt it’s about time to advance my gear in preparation of producing some mind-blowing beautiful food photos. But with so many different brands, model, lens out there, what are the best DSLR for shooting food?
Some of the typical problems that I was experiencing with my point-and-shoot are high F-stop not much of depth of field in my images, terribly shaking images at night time, highlights can very easily get completely blown out which make the food looks greasy and white plates looks bright white especially when the flash is on. I suspect I need a tripod too of course.
I have been eyeing the Nikon D7000 for a while, went to TED’s camera and had a play with it, I tried on the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 Lens and it was surprisingly light. Had a few shots and the auto focus was just amazing. The fast f/1.8 aperture would be useful for shotting in low light restaurant. Going to check out the 28mm lens later for comparison. Guys drop me a line of what you are using or any recommendation would be helpful ^_^
Update: Test out two different lens yesterday from TED’s camera, one is Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, the other one is Nikkon AF 20mm f/2.8. can you tell the difference which one is which?
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