In vogue packed lunches

My usual Sunday afternoon activities is to make a packed lunch for work (I lead such an exciting life), and given my attempt to be more healthy (i.e. no more packed lunches of cheesy pasta bakes), I thought I'd do something salady.

There is a chain called Kosmos in Hong Kong, another one of these juice bars which are suspiciously healthy. But they did do a nice brown rice salad that I would sometimes treat myself to. I liked the nuttiness of the brown rice vs. the sweetness of the other ingredients. Here is my attempt to recreate it:


'Biodynamnic' Rice Salad (2-3 servings)
(I keep noticing that everything is starting to be called 'biodynamic' - pastas, cakes, eggs - it will probably start to be as annoying as the 'organic' label - this is quite an annoying healthy salad, so the label seems appropriate, haha)

2 mugfuls of cooked brown rice
3/4 mugful of sweetcorn
3/4 mugful of red pepper, chopped
1 tin tuna
1/2 finely chopped red onion
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 times the olive oil to lemon juice
A few drops of sesame oil

1. Whilst brown rice is still slightly warm, mix with sweetcorn, pepper, and tuna
2. Make a dressing with the olive oil, lemon, sesame oil
3. Mix into the rice mixture (I think the rice soaks up the dressing more if a little warm)


Ta-da! (not that attractive in my plastic lunch tupperware...)

New noodley home for Connie

I've never been to, or actually even heard of, the legendary Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung, but I did learn that a branch recently opened in Sydney near Chinatown. They are particularly famous for their 小龍包 (Siu Long Bao, or juicy pork dumplings), so off I went to try.

The queue outside was ridiculous, probably more people waiting outside than actually eating inside the restaurant. But it's obvious that these queues happen all the time - there is free tea to help yourselves to, and heaters all lined up outside. Most importantly, all the dumpling makers are on-show in the waiting area:

And as you would expect with Chinese efficiency, the waiting system is extremely clear and orderly with a LCD numbering system, for once I didn't mind the no reservations policy. The wait was only about half an hour.

As you walk in, you get a huge swaft of vinegar, and I was getting excited. We ordered their special 蟹子小龍包 (crab dumpling) - and even as they arrived, you can see they are plump with liquid: And inside, it was very crabby (apologies for the out-of-focus photo, but you get the gist):

My usual partner in crime Meghana ordered garlic shoots with prawns (sweet, crunchy, excellent) and fried rice. Myself, of course it had to be braised beef noodle soup:

The noodles had good bite, the soup was deeply flavoured, the beef fell apart on my chopsticks - mmm mmm! Portion was a bit small though... actually overall, it was all quite expensive - $65 for 4 dishes, the dumplings worked out to be about $2.50 each (!)

My dad has always suspected that our family originates from North China to explain our shared noodle/dumpling obsession (and also why we are so big for Chinese people), and I think he would love it here! I'm already plotting my next trip to go back to try their 擔擔麵 (Dan Dan Noodles - noodles in a spicy soup with minced pork).

I just realised I put 4 (4!) photos in this post - you can tell I was excited.

Weekend in Byron Bay

Most impulsively, Meghana and I decided to take the weekend to go to Byron Bay right at the last minute to do some much needed sun-worshipping. Given the surf town's laid-back persona, I really didn't expect much from the food, but it only continued my love affairs with bugs.


Fish Heads located right on Byron's main beach is not much to look at from the outside, with plastic sheeting sheltering the patrons from the wind and sand, but the menu was very tempting, a nice mix of Australian seafood cooked simply - 6 ways of eating oysters, seafood spaghetti, simply grilled fish.

Balmain Bug was on the menu in a saffron risotto, so I had to eat it:


Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! These bugs don't have much brains (my favourite part of lobsters) but the flesh is just sooooo sweet. One of the yummier plates of food I've eaten in Australia so far.

Good sushi, bad sushi

I was most excited when I arrived in Sydney to see Japanese food everywhere - there are 3 sushi bars in Wynyard Station alone.


Alas, this just means a proliferation of really quite bad food. Here is what I managed to buy with Uncle B's $35 dinner money:

It really shouldn't be possible to buy 21 pieces of sashimi and get a humungous chicken teriyaki for that price, and I discovered why when I tucked into the sashimi - the wasabi had a very funny smell, fish not fresh, and I committed a sashimi first for me by throwing some away! Yes, that bad.

However, Damian blessed us with a fantastic Japanese recommendation - Busshari on Macleay Street, Potts Point. Completely packed out even on a Wednesday night, and you can see why - the freshest sushi I've eaten for a while. Here is a very blurred photo of the dragon's roll (mmmmmm... unagi....)

The four of us chomped through a sushi platter, tempura platter, dragon's roll, soft-shell crab roll, melt in the mouth belly pork, sizzling wagyu beef - and best of all, this place is 10 mins walk from my house! I'd better make friends with the maitre d'...

Chez Toaster feat. Chef Connie

When Tristen suggested we do a fish dinner party at her house, I foolishly volunteered to cook, not knowing that the guests will include a former chef and some very serious foodies. But somehow I didn't poison anybody.

Starters were oysters (you can see we opted for the easy option). Main was mirror dory with a choice of two sauces:

Mirror Dory with Coriander & Coconut Sauce (serves 4)

4 fillets of Mirror Dory about hand-sized
Small bunch of coriander
Thumb of ginger
Half tin of coconut milk

1. Wash the Dory and make sure it has been pin-boned
2. Lay onto a baking tray skin side down (no oil needed if your fillets still have skins on) and salt/pepper
3. Separate your coriander leaves and the stalks - finely chop the stalks and pick leaves
4. Peel and grate the ginger
5. Mix together the coriander and ginger and lay on each fillet
6. Pour coconut milk around fillets
7. Cover with foil and bake at 200C for about 15 mins

Mirror Dory with Dill Sauce (Serves 4)

4 fillets of Mirror Dory
Small bunch of dill
50g butter at room temperature
1 glass white wine - whatever you have sloshing around in the fridge, we used champagne!

1. Prepare the fish as per steps 1 and 2 in recipe above
2. Finely chop the dill
3. Squish the butter and dill together to make a dill butter
4. Dot and spread the dill butter over the fish
5. Pour the white wine around fish
6. Cover with foil and bake at 200C for about 15 mins

Here were the results (accompanied by Duncan's very yummy Mandarin & Chestnut salad, and beautiful rice sculptures by Meghana):

Dessert was a very yummy apricot tart and also orange and blueberry frangipan tart. All washed down with copious amounts of champers and vino. I greedily await the next featured chef at Chez Toaster :)

All Thai'ed up

I've been feeling quite poorly this week, and whenever I'm ill I crave hot, spicy food to clear those sinuses. I have been pretty impressed with the standard of Southeast Asian food in Sydney, but this week Nav & Bing (hi guys!) pointed me to a little gem.


Spice I Am on Wentworth Ave is, as Nav described it to me, a "hole in the wall" - in the middle of the backpackers' district near Central Station, on a road full of motorbike shops. Every single guidebook raves about its very authentic Thai food, and I definitely satisfied my craving. To start, a green papaya salad:

I have a small obsession with papaya salads, which equals my obsession with pho, and this was probably one of the best I've ever eaten. It was very spicy, with a good balance from the sour lime juice, crunchy peanuts, and salty dried shrimp. Zingy is the only way to describe it, and thank goodness I inherited some of my mum's immunity to chilli.

I had a tough choice for main, and settled for their signature Crispy Pork Belly (called something like Prim Prik Pork, which sounds rude).

This was basically belly pork smothered in curry paste and deep/stir fried with kaffir lime leaves, chilli, and green beans. It's a little too crunchy in places (and therefore a bit overcooked), but what a fab idea. The beans also perfectly set off the fattiness of the pork. There was way too much food so I took it home, and it is great finger food if you leave it on your kitchen counter and nibble a bit every time you walk past :D

Australian Chinese food

First trip to dim sum (or yum cha as they call it here) in Sydney not a disappointment! Denise and Dave introduced us to Marigold in Chinatown - they still have ladies pushing trollies, something you rarely see even in Hong Kong nowadays, I was most excited.

Here is my dish by dish dissection:

• Har Gau (prawn dumplings) - skin a little too thick, prawns not big enough, but nice bamboo shoots
• Siu Long Bao (pork 'soup' dumplings) - not bad at all, very juicy
• Cheung fun - they do the traditional dai pai dong plain ones with sesame and sweet sauce - my dad would be pleased
• Taro croquettes - very light, not greasy, very good
• Turnip paste cake - cooked by the most bored looking waitress ever, and not fried enough to form the crunchy 'skin'
• Jelly - not exactly a dim sum staple, but surprisingly addictive

Downside to trolley service though, of course, is lack of choice for your personal favourites. So no tripe for me yesterday :(

Too kool for skool - gah!!!

One thing we discovered this weekend is how 'hip' restaurants in Sydney don't take reservations. Not even on Saturdays. Not even for big groups. And you can expect to wait for 2.5 hours.

We were perhaps a bit unreasonable as 15 of us from work (all transfers with no lives, obviously) turned up at Toko in Surry Hills on a Saturday evening thinking we would get tables. The izakaya-style Japanese food they serve is excellent (particularly the robatayaki duck with preserved pear), but I hate these establishments which make its patrons feel like they don't deserve to be there. Why open a restaurant if you make it so darn difficult to eat there??!! We had tried booking, we suggested splitting into 3 or 4 tables, but no. We had to eat on tinny tables at the bar.

London colleagues will probably know my distinct dislike of Asia de Cuba in St Martin's Lane Hotel in London. A classic establishment which makes you feel like they are doing you a massive favour for letting you eat there. And they hammer it home by charging £55 (yes, £55!!!!) for a mediocre pad thai, and then charge you twice on your credit card and then refuse to have anything to do with it. My least favourite place I've had the displeasure of eating at in London. Gah.

Another slightly too kool for skool place was Jimmy Liks in Potts Point. I loved the food here, good chilli kick to their take on Thai and SouthEast Asian street food. The eel in betel leaf in particular was creative and yummy and moreish. But as you sit in their uber-cool bar, they offer you a little light to read the menu as the whole place is steeped in darkness. The prices are not exactly representative of street food either.

But! Tristen did manage to chat up the rather hot waiter. He's called Dane apparently, and has offered to buy Tristen drinks next time we're there ;)

Eating cures homesickness

I did return to Sydney slightly grumpy and plumpy - so my week of eating very good food has helped the former, but probably less the latter.

Australia in general is not great for streetfood, unless you count pies which are a bit too peppery. But as I wondered through Potts Point Market I discovered Turkish Gozleme - a kind of crepe filled with things like spinach, cheese, mince, potato.

Delicious with a squeeze of lemon.

The standard of food in Sydney has also risen dramatically since I've been shopping in butchers and delis rather than supermarkets - also a lot cheaper too. This is a ridiculous steak that I had which was about a fiver in old English money - look how huge it is!!:

Uncle B really spoiled us this week, with a trip to Est at the Establishment on George Street. My first 3 hat restaurant in Sydney, and my first Morton Bay Bug - I shall be having more of those - a lovely cross between lobster, crab, and prawns. I must say the main & pud were a little boring. Anyone know why the Michelin inspectors have never bothered to come to Australia?