doyles @ sydney fish markets

The background to this post in a nutshell- Dad bought a kick arse new barbeque and J&I thought we'd head to the fish markets to grab some seafood for a family gathering. The choice of Doyles came about as J discussed with me (in all seriousness) how expensive the parking was. Admittedly, I baulked too, $2 for the first hour (reasonable) but then $5 for every half hour?? We made decision then and there that we may as well treat ourselves to a nice meal and settled for Doyles.

Perusing the menu, I was incredibly tempted to go for the Seafood Platter (and seeing it delivered to a table nearby, it was definitely my No. 1 choice). Then I was kindly reminded by J that a) There were only two of us, b) The table with the Seafood Platter were sharing it amongst 4 and c) We were going to buy seafood anyway for cooking that night. Fine...

Sitting outside at Doyles.

Bread to start the meal. Assorted Starters: Jumbo Prawns, Salt & Pepper Calamari and BBQ Baby Octopus. Whilst the Jumbo Prawns weren't quite as jumbo as I thought they would be, they were delicious and I'm still trying to work out what was in that dipping sauce.
Doyles Famous Fish and Chips. Admittedly, a gigantic serving!
J&I @ Doyles!

To be honest, whilst it was nice to have a nice and relaxing lunch (with waiters in attendance, clean cutlery, clean plates, and the last bit of sunlight for the day high up in the sky), I think I actually prefer mingling in with the crowds when it comes to eating at the fish markets. After lunch, we were pushing our way through the various fish stalls to find all our seafood and it was great to see people with their seafood platters piled high; scrambling to get a seat and dig in. And well, it is a lot cheaper! Man, the oysters and salmon sashimi we bought for home were sooooo good!

5 years: hukuya @ eastwood

I'm a bit behind in my blogging but a handful of weeks ago, J&I celebrated our 5 years. It was a rather low key event with us deciding to grab dinner locally at one of our favourites, Hukuya on the other side of Eastwood Station. J had asked earlier whether I wanted to do anything special but when I had a good thing about it, all I wanted was something casual and simple. Hukuya was definitely the place to go.

J&I - together for 5 years now.

Our dinner: Sushi Deluxe (great value for money!), Yagedashi Tofu (not particularly good that night), and Spicy Yakiniku (delicious!). Something new on the menu - Teriyaki Oysters. These were so good I actually had my share of them (usually I palm oysters off to J cause he likes them more than I do).

It's really hard to put in words what the last 5 years has been like. At times it's like a roller coaster (usually my stubbornness being the cause of it although J has his moments too) but for the good part, it's perfect and I can't ask for anything more. J- Thanks for sticking by me through thick and thin, making me laugh, reminding me not to take laugh too seriously, being so on top of everything (you pull me out of each hole I dig myself into), trying to learn the difference between all the different cake types and really, for everything that you do! *HUG*

totoya @ military road, neutral bay

It seems like I'm eating a whole lot of Jap food these days - though I have to admit, I do prefer eating Jap over the other cuisines that are out there. There's something about the lightness, flavours and variety in Jap foods which keep me going back. I pretty much eat everything although not the biggest fan of octopus sushi, egg sushi (too boring) and fish roe (the texture of it makes me cringe and the fact that I'm eating baby fish eggs...urgh!).

A couple of weeks back, a friend suggested eating Jap in Neutral Bay. For those unfamiliar to the area, Neutral Bay is your haven of Japanese restaurants. I've only been to a handful but have heard enough about the remaining to be enticed to make the trip out when I have my cravings for Jap (unfortunately J thinks otherwise and we usually settle for something closer to home).

My friend A took charge and ordered for the group (I think he was hitting onto the waitress!) From memory, this was beef/ox tongue.

Takoyaki.

Unagi with Rice. Awesome with a generous serve of wasabi tossed through - the wasabi really gives this dish its bite!

A helping me get my photo. Can't remember the name of this one but definitely chicken.

Sashimi & Sushi Boat. I wish it had more pieces to go around the table.The start of the skewers (you should have seen the length of our bill when they punched it through the till!! It was definitely a good half metre long!!). A pretty much ordered all the skewers on the menu with the exception of the ones containing innards.
More skewers.Even more skewers. Vegetarian skewers.My favourite skewer was probably the Chicken Skin Skewer (fatty...yes I know) but man, it was so tasty and didn't taste the least bit fatty. I'm usually quite grossed out just eating chicken skin but seriously, this is a must try! Anyway, after all the skewers, the guys decided they were still hungry and ordered a Hot Pot. Look at that pile of noodles!!

It ended up being quite a silly night - the guys challenged each other to squash the big empty cans of Asahi with one hand (I think J won that one hand's down much to my annoyance). The conversation occasionally veered to girls and at one point, the whole table stood up/moved a metre out so that my friend T wouldn't splash them with hot water when he was grabbing noodles from the pot. More noteworthy is that the waitress came to the table with our hot pot sitting on the stove and the stove turned on - skill or insanity; I'm not to sure. Dinner was about $35-40pp which I thought was quite reasonable. Worth a try!

kura @ ultimo road, haymarket

Our last time at Kura (the little Jap restaurant on the corner across from Market City) was probably a whole year ago - it's one of my favourites which I would love to visit more often and always look forward to when the opportunity arises. On this particular occasion, J&I had been looking forward to grabbing a quick meal before the Chinese Spectacular which we were seeing at the Entertainment Centre that happened a couple weeks back.

Having managed to score the last 2 seats in the restaurant (the restaurant probably sits about a dozen in total), we were admittedly a little surprised to find that all the prices had gone up since our last visit. In the past, you could've easily gotten away with change for a $10 note; now you're looking at close to $15 for a meal which to be honest isn't going to break your wallet but given the same thing was cheaper before, it is a little annoying.

J's Karage Chicken (I swear he always get this) . In one word... delicious!Teriyaki Chicken which turned out to be a tad disappointing. The teriyaki sauce was great but the chicken was dry and tasteless.

First time eating dessert at Kura. Green tea ice cream which came with 2 little fish waffles stuffed with red bean paste - all accompanied by a cup of hot green tea. Again...delicious!

Getting seated at the Entertainment Centre for the show.

After the show: a sundae from Lindt Cafe (enjoyed sitting on the wooden planks with our legs dangling over the harbour). The queue at Lindt was massive and we hardly stood a chance at getting a table.

And so the night ended with my belly filled to the brim :P

Thanks Kelly for the invite to the show - apologies that we didn't really get the chance to catch up properly (must do soon!)

sugar magic: lesson 8

8 weeks of class went by like a breeze and well, finally something to show and tell : ) I can't say that I'm the most coordinated person when it comes to sugar work but with a bit of persistence, a lot of patience, lots and lots of icing sugar later, here is what I managed to put together...

My completed rose and jasmine bud spray!

The class' work put together.

Thumbs up to Margaret, our ever patient and talented teacher - we all managed to get through the course and achieve what seemed like the impossible. Anyway, can't wait till class starts again next week!

And to answer everyone's question...yes, you can eat these things but personally, I wouldn't recommend it - they're too pretty!

julio's @ abercrombie st., broadway

Admittedly, since KT's been in Melbourne, I haven't been doing midweek dinners out. Everyone else I've asked is either busy, claim that they have work the next day or prefer to do something on the weekend. So when KT said she'd be back for the Easter break, I was beaming. But instead of having a dinner during the week this time (given this girl's busy schedule where she was catching up people every day of the week that she was back), we opted for something a little different which was to catch up on a Saturday during the day. KT suggested a place that was near her old work and very conveniently, we could visit the Glebe markets that were on nearby.

Ironically, Abercrombie St. is just on my way to work (about 10 minutes walk from Central Station). You turn left at the pub and for a good stretch of road, there really doesn't appear to be much but after you walk by a wedding gown boutique, some abandoned buildings, you'll find a niche little cafe called 'Julios' right on the corner.

The menu is up on the blackboard behind the counter and it's an open kitchen stretching right to the back where there's a little courtyard if you choose to sit outside. On a Saturday mid-morning/lunch, it's packed. Here's my chicken burger with bacon and a grapefruit & watermelon juice.

KT gets the chicken burger without the bacon. A wise choice given how big the burger bun is. I was stuffed!

As we chatted our weekend away, we watched in awe as a rather cute looking chef served up breakfast after breakfast of scrambled eggs, eggs on toast, full breakfasts, bagels, and more to a crowd that only got bigger as we ate. We both agreed that if either of us were to ever open a cafe, it would be one like this. An open kitchen, a chalkboard menu, cute chefs, great music, and most importantly, delicious food in most satisfying portions.

Overall the cafe is very relaxed and down to earth. You pay, you find yourself a table, you sit there for as long as you like and feel free to pull out a book and read if your heart so desires. Service was friendly (our waitress helped us to find a table) and gosh, I love it!!! Prices are reasonable and won't break your wallet; even more reason for me to be loving it! Thanks KT (as usual) for an awesome day out!!

warrimoo pizza & pasta restaurant @ st. ives

Usually I'm in St. I'ves for 2 reasons: a) To go to Max Brenner (my closest ever since the one in Chatswood Chase closed down) and b) To visit my friend who lives next to the forest (and usually, also go to Max Brenner). A couple of weeks ago, K (the friend that lives next to the forest) suggested having dinner at a pizza and pasta place just down the road from him.

Warrimoo is in a somewhat isolated location, part of handful of shops which if you're not a local, you probably won't pay too much attention to. There's about 10-15 parking spots just out front which was handy for us that night, we grabbed a spot just out front. Almost as soon as the car made its stop, J jumped out and headed into the liquor store to grab us a bottle of wine.

K did the honours and picked out a selection of dishes for us to try. I love how the pizzas come on this stand; it saves so much room on the table!! (Unfortunately I can't remember the pizzas we had but both were really, really good - you'll find that these pizzas only have a sprinkling of cheese but the good thing is that you can taste how fresh the ingredients are).

One of their pastas from their special menu (again the name forgotten). The dish was licked clean!
M&I were pretty confident we could fit dessert - ended up getting the Meringue and the Sticky Date Pudding. The Meringue in particular lead to the conversation of what the differences were between meringue and pavlova (any thoughts?). Both were yum! (They also had a Frangipane Tart on their menu which we were keen to try but they had already sold out for the night).
M&I.
The boys thought they would have a photo too. J pretending he's on the phone.

On the whole, dinner was extremely relaxing, service friendly and the food exceptional. It was a great place to wind down on a Friday night. K was funny (as buggered as he was, and after a couple glasses of wine), he's like 'Is my car still out there? I can't seem to see it? Has it gone?' Hmm...