Thai Beef Salad in a cute Rocket box

After one night's of BBQ food, I decide to go for greens for lunch instead. My colleague recommended me to try Thai beef salad at Rockets. What I like about salad at Rockets is the cute salad box with a metal handle that packed your stuff. The rocketman icon you see in the photo is their mascot. The thai beef salad tastes really good. The salad is made up of spinach, vermicelli, stir fried beef and chilli. What makes it good is the spicy and sourness that makes one appetite good that I finished all the salad. I must say this is good recommendation from my colleague. Kudos to him!

Bliss Level: High

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A rainy Sydney morning

When the weather is gloomy, raining and winds blow, the best breakfast is a bowl of soup. I was freezing and decided to go for something that can warm me up immediately. My choice is pumpkin soup with bread from the usual stall, Rockets. The soup was tasty and hot that I finished the entire bowl. Most importantly I felt warm after that. At that moment, you realise how simple food can also serve a human's basic need well.

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Crazy Wings 西门烤翅

Chinatown is considered near our hotel hence we often find dinner in that area. We walked past Crazy Wings when we ate at the food court 2 days ago as the food seem interesting. Food is from Beijing and specialises in BBQ wings and lamb sticks. It reminded me of those bbq sticks I ate at Beijing roadside. Hence, we decided to give this restaurant a try. We were greeted by young waitresses with Taiwan accent and had to clarify with them whether this restaurant is from Beijing. The waitress took our order using a phone that doesn't look like a pda. We kidded that the order is SMS to the chef's phone. The food here is not cheap. Each stick costs at least AUD$2 (around SGD$2.20) which is not cheap.

As there are 3 guys + 1 girl, we crazily ordered many items:

• chicken wings (crispy and taste good)
• lamb meat stick (spicy and taste good)
• beancurd stick (above average)
• potato slice stick (average)
• brinjal stick (average)
• a bucket of fried rice (see photo)
• dumpling soup  疙瘩汤 (lumps of mi hoon kuay in soup that tastes like porrdige)
• fish stick (I don't like fish with too many bones)
• chicken gizzards 鸡胗

A worth mention to try is the unique drink that is imported from China called 酸梅汤 (sour plum soup). It tastes sweet )instead of sour) with plum taste.

In total, we spent AUD 108 (SGD 120) mainly by eating BBQ sticks and I considered that expensive but the food is interesting and since it tastes above average, I don't mind coming if I have a chance.

Bliss Level: High

Crazy Wings @ Sydney NSW (Chinatown)
Shop 41/1 Dixon St
Haymarket, 2000

 

red lantern interior

See and download the full gallery on posterous

plum drink

dumpling porridge soup

chicken wings and beancurd sticks

spicy lamb meat sticks

fish sticks

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Barramundi fish

Now that I take a closer look, the stall that I bought the soup warmer was called Pronto Express (See the photo below) within the workplace. Because of a hearty breakfast, I am often not hungry by lunch time nevertheless I order something to eat today. On display, there are food for you to choose (pasta, salad, sandwiches, filets, cutlets). I order Barramundi with vegetables. The vegetables are huge chunks of brinjal, carrots, tapioca and long beans. I seriously don't think Australians have a much bigger mouth than Asians. The portion is also huge that I couldn't finish the vegetables.The taste of Barramundi has strong freshwater taste and when I tried my colleague's snapper, I prefer seawater fish better. But I have seen many Aussie dish selling barramundi hence I wanted to give it a try.

Bliss Level: Medium

 

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Rocket's sausage pita

As promised, I took more pictures of Rocket. Breakfast is sausage with mushroom pita and hot white chocolate . Rocket is probably the only stall open in the cafeteria early morning. There is pretty blond girl whom always the order and she will write a queue number on your receip When the food is ready, your queue number will be called out. If you order drinks, your number will be called out from the drinks corner.

I didn't really like the strong lamb/beef?taste in the sausages. As you can see, I don't take note of ingredients very well. The white chocolate taste too much like milk. But the food isn't that bad till low bliss level.

Bliss level: Medium

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Sent from my iPhone

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Pancakes on the rocks

We walked past this restaurant while we are on the way to Fish Market. Pancakes on the rocks is located at Darling Harbour and next to Hurricane Grill, the another famous restaurant in Sydney. The service is good as the waitress changed our original seating to the one with couch upon our request. This restaurant truly specialises in pancakes as there is a page of menu just for pancakes.

The four of us ordered the following dishes:

• Casaer Salad
• Pesto Bread (starter)
• Beef Ribs
• Chicken & Bacon Pizza
• Mexican Potato Crepes
• Lemonty Pancakes

I like the beef ribs best. It tastes like stewed beef, soft and fatty. My other 2 colleagues thought it is normal only. Pesto bread, salad and pizza tastes normal. I didn't like the mexican potatoe crepes. The crepes is made of flour and potatoes together and tastes like tosai. The beef mix has a strong Indian masala taste. The pancakes taste good except that my colleague who like sour stuff ordered pancakes with lemon which all of us think it was such a bad choice! Have you tried sweet and sour pancakes? I still prefer pancakes to be sweet, latter with sinful portion of butter, honey or chocolates.

In general, the food reminds me of Swenson. One colleague (who has atas taste)  thinks that the food isn't fantastic but to me, I don't mind trying their food again.

Bliss Level: Medium

I tried using Camerabag app to create the vintage look .. not bad!

Chicken & Bacon Pizza

Pesto bread (so-so)

Beef ribs (yummy)

Lemon Pancakes

Mexican Potatoes Crepes (aka tosai)

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Soup warmer

I was very sleepy and feeling cold in the morning. Sydney's temperature is around 10-14 degrees. Most of us aren't hungry at lunch so in the end I order a bowl of vegetarian minestrone soup (AUD $5+) to keep warm. Lunch is taken in the workplace too. Again, I forget to take the pictures of the stall front and I also forget the name of the store. Since I will be here for next few days, I will return to the stall again to take pictures.

The minestrone soup is normal and nothing spectacular. What is important is I felt much warmer and more awake after the soup.

Bliss: Medium

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Rocket's Wraps

As everyone know by now, I rarely blog about breakfast. It is not that I don't eat breakfast but I repeat my breakfast due to rush hours in morning so it won't be interesting to keep talking about the same food. This brings to a point that since I started this blog, I have eaten 40 over different dishes already. :) By the end of 365 days, I would have accomplish 700+ different dishes.

 Breakfast is taken at work campus which I am going to keep the location a secret. Today, we ate the usual breakfast place called Rockets. It sells salads, wraps and coffee and is very popular at the workplace. I had a wrap called "Mr Benedict" which contains spinach, ham, poached egg (half cooked) and some sauce. It is really tasty especially with the egg yorks oozing out of the wrap. This is breakfast is comparable to those I ate in US in my previous company. 

As I forget to take more pictures of Rockets, I will do so tomorrow in my next post as they have other good stuff to talk about. The problem with Iphone 3G is the pictures blurred when I took it too near.

Bliss Level: High

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Waffles ice cream near Sydney Capitol

After dinner, colleagues and I roamed around Chinatown. We have some stomach space and budget for deserts. I remember there is an ice cream place in the movies theaters near capitol (not the Singapore capitol :P). Again, I forget to take the surroundings and the cafe name too! It's ambience and fusion style ice cream cafe where I notice the cafe was filled with Asians. We ordered a 2 scoops of ice cream (seseame and white chocolate) and banana waffles to share. The waffles are crispy and not bad but my colleagues and I think the ice-cream could be better. But the ambience is relaxing and we ended up chatting there for 1-2 hours before heading back to hotel.

Bliss level: Medium

Location of the cafe near Chinatown

 

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Food court in Chinatown

Initially, I wanted to bring my colleagues to the Chinese restaurant that I ate when I came to Sydney but they have already tried the food so we walked further and took the suggestion of another colleague to try Food Court. It is between Mamak and Hingara Restaurant along Chinatown's stretch of restaurants. I realise I did not take the front of the food court and forget to take down the address. I realise I should have taken photos of the stalls in the food court too.

The food court is filled with food cuisine from Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thai, Indonesia, Korean, China and etc. In the end, I chose to eat Chinese dumplings. They sell 16 pieces at AUD$8.80. Australia restaurant serves huge portion but also at a higher price than Singapore. Cheapest food in Sydney is about $6-7 if you think Singapore is expensive but the price is compensated with larger portion.

I took pictures of the photo of what my other colleagues ordered too. You should check that huge portion of hot plate satay chicken with rice. We are amazed at how the food spills over the hot plate and wondered who can finish that huge portion. We looked around and noticed other people who ordered from similar stall couldn't finish the food too.

My chinese dumplings tasted very home cooked but I find dumpling skin a bit too thick. After eating 5 pieces, I start passing some to my colleagues to finish because the portion is too huge for me. I also tasted the Thai beef noodles that my colleague ordered and find it so-so too. Bliss level went down from high seafood lunch to low. Oh well, travel is all about exploration.

Bliss level: Low

16 pieces of Chinese dumpling

Food spilling over the hot plate

Thai Beef Noodles

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Sydney Fish Market - A Seafood Haven

My favourite food place in Sydney is the Sydney Fish Market. This is my third time going to this market and simply cannot get enough of it. If you are a seafood lover and drops by Sydney, you can consider coming here. I went with 2 colleagues that we walked from the Chinatown to this market in the rain. Going there in a group has the advantage to try out more food to share which is what has happened.

We ordered

• 200g Salmon Sashimi (AUD$10)
• Seafood Platter (Octopus, 2 Oysters, Sotongs, Fries, Fish, Prawns, Crab Sticks) at AUD$28.50
• Soft shelf crab (AUD$4.50)
• 1 Dozen Fresh Oysters (AUD $18+)
• Cooked Prawns (Cannot remember the price as it was bought by my colleague)

We all are very pleased and looked very blissful after the meal. My colleague was suggesting that Singapore should start something like that which I strongly agree. For those interested, you can find more information and location of Fish Market here

Bliss Level: High

Seafood Platter

Sashimi

Pacific Oysters

The place where we bought the Seafood platter

The store we bought Oysters & Prawns & Sashimi

The two stores are opposite of each other.

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My first air plane food blog

My dinner and breakfast are taken on the SQ flight to Sydney. Taking long flights often makes me like a caged stationary animal fed frequently because activities are normally stationary except eat, sleep or watch videos.  Sometimes food on plane can be quite tasty. Dinner is roasted chicken rice and I find the chicken a bit tough. I like the pasta salad most and almost forget to take photo after I have eaten it. As this is an overnight flight, I didn't have appetite to eat much and  took few bites of the muffin instead.

Bliss level: Medium

Here I am in Sydney and blogging about food for next few days

Roasted chicken rice (dinner)

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Breakfast

 

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Instant noodles morning

When you are hungry, lazy and it's raining, you ended up cooking instant noodles that will solve the above three in 5 mins.

These days we only buy Korean instant noodles at home. Today's flavour is potato ribs soup. My trick to get an half cook egg is to break an egg only at end of cooking, cover it under the noodles and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Bliss level: High

Sent from my iPhone

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A dessert stall that doesn't allow photography

Personally I like Hong Kong style desserts that is commonly known as 糖水. Unlike Kopi and Toast, dessert concept cafes are not as common. 糖水春 is located at Ang Mo Kio hub #02-19. The decoration is very oriental. I notice many families took deserts here. The interesting thing is the beancurd in a wooden tub if you order for 2-4 persons to share. I sneakly took a picture of the tub that the family beside me is eating the beancurd from.

I ordered iced egg drop water chestnut sago (it's egg white and I don't know why they call it egg drop) while my friend ordered Mango Sago. I noted they sell Taiwanese deserts too such as mango/strawberry ice and seem to be their specialities. On top of desserts, they sell dim sum and some snacks too. The water chestnut sago that I order is cooling and refreshing and  I recommend you to try it too.

I wanted to take a picture of the store front but was stopped by the waitress. No wonder the other waitress was looking hard at me when I took some pictures of the deserts. Isn't it odd that they don't want free publicity for their food?

Bliss level: Medium

 

Mango Sago & Egg Drop Water chestnut Sago ($2.80)

A sneak picture of the family eating the beancurd contain in a wooden box

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Taste of Penang food at Gurney Drive

Initially I intended to eat at the S11 besides Ang Mo Kio Jubilee Complex. Then I remember someone mention in Facebook on a reply about hokkien mee that there is a penang style hokkien prawn mee at this place. I went into the building and found this cafe called Gurney Drive. Gurney Drive is a popular seafront promenade in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. The road is also one Penang's most popular tourist destinations. Strangely, its interior feels very similar to Old Town White Coffee with kampung wallpaper . They also sell kopi and toast too. Instead of ordering the Hokkien Mee, I have decided to order Char Kway Teow (Penang style instead) as well as the signature dish, Penang Lor Bak (Deep Fried Meat Roll and in Singapore, we call it Wu Xiang). Then I discover another interesting drink called Buah Long Long.

I am not sure if you know that Malaysian's Char Kway Teow is a little different from Singaporean's style. Our style is to put black soya sauce to make it sweet and salty but not theirs. This Char Kway Teow is not as good as the one I ate before in Johor but I would consider it above average. It tasted very much like Phad Thai noodles. What I strongly recommend is the Penang Lor Bak. The Lor Bak is crispy and mouthwatering that makes me want to return to this cafe for this. The Buah Long Long drink tastes like lime juice with a strong "sap sap" taste but the taste grows onto you and makes you like it.

I found a very interesting blog on recommendation on penang food here. The blog introduces all the mouth watering penang food and makes me want to go penang right away!Before I do that, I will come back here to try the supposedly famous dish of theirs - Hokkien Prawn Mee

Bliss Level: Medium to High

Lor Bak ($3.90)

Penang Kway Teow ($6.90)

Buah Long Long ($2.50)

Check out their website at www.gurneydrive.com.sg for their menu and pictures

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A great start to non-working day

When I woke up today, my lunch is already taken care. My mother knows I have a tendency to delay lunch or resort to cooking maggie mee due to laziness to buy food outside, she bought the food for me. Seriously, I have a great mum who took care of me very well and I appreciate this a lot. Lunch is bought from the famous Toa Payoh Lorong 7 market fish ball noodles stall. There is always a long queue at the stall. I will make a trip in future and blog about this famous stall to everyone. Despite placing on the table for quite some time, the noodles and fishballs maintain the standard and tastes yummy. It's a great start for Friday.

Bliss level: High

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