Pumpkin and cous cous salad

Tried to make the Sumo Salad I bought the other day! Can't seem to get the dressing right though :( Does anyone have any suggestions? I used Coles Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing, but it tastes way too sweet and doesn't have enough sour... Recommendations and recipes would be greatly appreciated!

Ms G's, Potts Point

I have finally trekked to the Red District to get me some Asian fusion cuisine!

I wonder what the bright neon lights stand for?

We got there before 6 and were promptly seated as it was still early in the night. The waiter was friendly and helpful with recommendations although I already knew what I wanted to order!

Ms G's Famous Yuzu Slushee, $14.00

This standard Russian vodka cocktail was very refreshing with all the citrus flavours from the Limoncello, yuzu juice and grapefruit bitters. I tried my friends' Pina 'Pearls' Colada and Good Morning Vietnam, but I thought mine was the best ;) The flavour of the alcohol also came through much stronger in the other two - that's why I like vodka better!

Ms G’s grilled corn on the cob, parmesan & lime, $4 each

 I love corn! And these juicy cobs were flavousome and delicious.

Mini crisp pork belly bánh mì, $6.00 each

With all the hype about these cute mini burgers, I wasn't expecting it to live up to its grand expectations. After all, could it taste that much better than Vietnamese pork rolls which I already love? But as I took my first bite, it completely blew my mind - they were so good! I think it has something to do with the tasty mayo. Now I'm really tempted to try the chicken katsu one as well!

Prawn toast with yuzu aioli & herbs, $14.00

Crunchy pieces of toast with prawn innards. Very reminiscent of all the prawn dumpling varieties you can get at yum cha only with a very crispy exterior so this was good.

Calamari & snow crab salad with yuzu & miso ranch dressing, $18.00

Sort of ate most of it before a photo was taken, oops. Compared to the other dishes we just had, this salad lacked the wow factor. It was still nice, but the delicate flavours of the ingredients were overpowered by the creaminess of the dressing and as a result, it felt quite heavy for a salad.

Jow’s sweet & sour lamb ribs, $23.00

I love lamb ribs, and when paired with the sweet and sour marinade that normally comes with pork? Spectacularly tasty! The lamb was very well cooked and tender, and the sweet and sour sauce went very well fattiness of the ribs. I normally have lamb ribs braised in soy at home, so this was a welcome change.

“Breakfast” crunchy cereal, sticky rice, burnt honey ice cream, mango & cranberries, $12.00

This really messed with our minds because the icecream tasted like Crunchy Nut! It was probably infused into the icecream. But I really enjoyed the flavour and it was consistent with the theme of the dessert.

“Stoner’s Delight 2.0” doughnut ice cream, peanut butter, raspberry jam, candied bacon, potato chips, mars bar slice, banana fritter, $12.00

I couldn't taste the doughnut in the icecream :( It was nice, but I was looking for that doughnut flavour. However, I fell in love with the banana fritter! It was so unlike any that I've had before and it tasted so good. The exterior was not the normal deep fried coating and instead, it had a thin noodle-like exterior that wasn't oily at all and felt quite light for a dessert.

“Ms G’s Lemon tart” with lemon curd, streusel, lemon granita & mascarpone sorbet, $12.00

However, this was my favourite dessert of the night! It was creamy and not too tart. When digging around, we found streusal hidden within the lemon curd which had a very thick consistency - almost like jelly but not quite. The lemon granita and mascarpone sorbet went wonderfully with every component in the glass and really made this dessert sing. If you love lemon, this is a must order! Especially as it was featured on Masterchef ;)

Overall, it was fantastic being able to catch up with friends over good food. I was not disappointed with Ms G's and I had a very enjoyable night there.

Ms G's
155 Victoria Street
Potts Point, NSW, 2011


Trading hours:

Lunch
Friday: 12pm - 3pm
Sunday: 1pm - 5pm

Dinner
Monday to Saturday: 5pm – 11pm
Sunday: 5pm - 9pm
Bar opens until late

Pancakes On The Rocks, Darling Harbour

Pancakes. Glorious, fluffy pancakes. What more could you want?

Believe it or not, one of my workmates had never been to Pancakes on the Rocks!! Blasphemy or what?! And she calls herself a Sydneysider... I kid, I kid. So we decided to have dinner there after work so she could get her first taste of what Pancakes on the Rocks is all about! I myself have been there quite a few times before, but I still managed to try dishes I haven't had there before. I had made a booking a few days before, and we were seated promptly after arrival in one of the big booths next to the window.

Beef ribs, $25.95 + $2.00 for sour cream & sweet chilli sauce

Potato wedges, sour cream, and sweet chilli sauce is one of my favourite combinations. You really cannot go wrong with that! The beef ribs were nice and tender and not tough at all which was a relief. They were good, but not as fantastic as the pork ribs you can order here! I'd definitely recommend ordering the pork ribs over the beef ribs! The plus side was that this hunk of meat had 3 bones - it split perfectly between the three of us girls that were there ;)

Thai chicken crepes, $14.95

There were satay chicken breast pieces inside this crepe, along with carrots and coriander. Funny story - I picked up this small piece of what I thought to be a crispy part of the crepe that fell off. I put it in my mouth and it turned out to be fried ginger! Needless to say, I spat it right back out. Cannot believe I chewed on a piece of ginger... But yes, nice crepe. Even nicer when I lathered it in sour cream and sweet chilli sauce.

Blueberry heaven, $10.95

This was amazingly delicious as I do love blueberries. The pancakes were nice and fluffy and I do not even want to think about how much sugar went into making the blueberry sauce.

Devil's delight, $13.95

Very, very rich dessert. Especially loved the strawberries covered with chocolate sauce! Strawberries and chocolate is another favourite combination of mine. Sweet and juicy!

Everything cleared off the plates, we were stuffed to the brim. Three girls, four dishes that were extremely big in serving, not a good combination. We sat at the comfy booths for over half an hour digesting because we did not want to get that sudden feeling of bloatedness that hits you after standing up when you've just had a gigantic meal. It was nice to relax and talk without needing to worry about anything uni related!

Monstering through all the dishes

Going in for a quick detour in Harbourside, I managed to nab myself yet another shirt and wallet from Cotton On. Ah, the perks of having a friend who work in retail!

Pancakes on the Rocks
229/230 Harbourside Shopping Centre
Darling Harbour, NSW 2000

Trading Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 7am - 10:30pm
Friday - Saturday: 7am - Midnight

Parramatta shopping spree

Today was a wonderful day spent relaxing and shopping with one of my workmates. I will probably upload pictures of what I bought over the next few days. For now I just wanted to bask in the glow that is university holidays.

I also tried the individual pieces of sushi at Hero Sushi on the top level of Parramatta Westfield which was really nice and cheap! Compared to sushi trains anyway... And this way, I got to try one of everything which is always a bonus. Didn't take a photo as the box squished the sauce everywhere... But I did also buy a Boost! I ordered a kids Tropical Storm as I had just finished lunch and didn't want to fill myself up too much. But the wonderful girl at the counter "accidentally made too much" so she gave me a medium! That actually made my day - she was so nice (:

My upsized Boost!

Of course I drank all of it and became super bloated... Haha greedy old me.

And my lovely high school friends bought me a really late birthday present!

Belts from Forever New

Chocolate therapy pops & strawberry peppermint mints from Happy Lab!

Left to right: Milk strawberry, Milk coffee, White vanilla, Milk blueberry, Dark orange, White green tea, Dark chilli, & Dark mint

I thought these would be hollow with a flavoured truffle/ganache centre but turns out they are solid chocolate and are flavoured with oils! Tastes delicious, yum.

Happy Monday!

xx

Holidays are hereee!

So it is finally time to relax. BUT since my sleeping pattern is so messed up from uni, I've been finding it hard to fall asleep so early at night despite feeling super tired :( I'd be lying in my bed, trying to sleep but to no avail. And not only that, my neighbours are fixing their roof so there are tradesmen coming in at 7am in the morning who decide to blast music at insanely high volumes. It's not a club for goodness sake! And people are trying to sleep here!! To top it all off, the neighbour's dog has this weird complex where it barks at anyone and anything non-stop. So there is the noise of the power tools and hammering, the insanely annoying pop music, and a dog that won't shut up going on continuously from 7am in the morning... I seriously do not understand how that dog can continue barking for that long. Doesn't it run out of air capacity in its lungs?! All in all, this just means I've been getting even less sleep compared to when I've been going to uni... HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? Le sigh.

On another note, I made mung bean hummus today. It tasted... funky haha. I boiled the mung beans until they were soft, added parsley, peanut butter, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. I'm not going to lie, it did not taste that great. The only positive thing about it is that it's very healthy, especially with the added chia seeds! But I'm either going to have to tweak it (add garlic, onions, lemon juice?) or stick with how us Asians normally eat them - as a sweet dessert soup. Which is not good because an insane amount of sugar goes into it! Speaking of desserts, I still have a Betty Crocker brownie mix to use up before it passes its overdue date.

Anyway, I'm going out to Ms G's tonight with my high school girls so that should be fun since I have not seen them in such a long time! And not to mention I've been wanting to go to Ms G's for their lunch/dinner menu for quite some time (I went to their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dessert degustation that was part of the March into Merivale event). Must try their cute pre-packaged cocktails! It shall be awesome. So expect another restaurant review post soon!

I shall do some pilates before I have to head off - time to feel some pain!

xx

Miss Chu, Regent's Place

Since I was craving Vietnamese rice paper rolls the other day, I was on the lookout for Vietnamese restaurants in the city. When I saw the self proclaimed Miss Chu, Queen of Rice Paper Rolls, I thought why not see if she can live up to her title?

Miss Chu has opened up yet another joint in the hidden Regent's Place. You could walk by in a blink of an eye and not even notice the subtle entrance that leads into this little area. Going down the escalators, we are greeted by this little tuckshop and I feel as though this shop should be on the streets of Vietnam! There were other things on the menu, but I was just keen on eating some rice paper rolls!

Poached free range chicken & coconut young, $7.50

This roll consisted of chicken breast, young coconut flesh, vermicelli noodles, and a salad of mint, coriander, perilla leaves, blanched bean shoots and watercress. I found the chicken breast itself to be quite dry, but add in the sauce and it was delicious! The sauce was amazinggg, could have drowned my rolls with it haha. And how cute is it that they come in their own little bottles? I love the novelty of it.

Roast duck & banana flower salad, $9.00

Duck is always yuuum. This roll, with roast duck, shavings of banana flower, and Vietnamese salad, tasted exactly like the roasted duck you can buy at the Chinese BBQ stores. The sauce is the plum sauce that comes with the duck when you buy the whole duck and was also very runny - I found it seeped through everything and gathered at the bottom of the roll - unlucky if there's a hole! So all in all, nothing new but duck is duck so I'm not complaining (:

Miss Chu is a great place to go if you're looking for food on the run. Everything is packaged for convenience so that nothing spills everywhere when you're rushing back to work! So does she live up to her title as Queen of Rice Paper Rolls? I think I shall let you decide. For now, I will stick to my role - queen of eating rice paper rolls.

Miss Chu
501 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Trading hours:
Monday - Saturday: 11am - 9:30pm

Poached eggs and sumo salad

I know sweet and savoury may not sit well with a lot of you, but growing up in an Asian family, there was always an abundance of foods with this combination! Though when I first heard of bacon and ham with maple syrup, I was very reluctant to try it. Really? Meat with maple syrup? Maple syrup if for eating with fluffy pancakes! But then one groggy morning, I was at Pancakes on the Rocks with my friends and I really felt like eating poached eggs. But the only poached egg they had on their menu came with hollandaise sauce and behold - ham and maple syrup. Hungry, I had thought, why not? The food had arrived swiftly and that's when I discovered this miracle combination. The oozing yolk combined with the ham and maple syrup was to die for - I was hooked. So the other morning, I was craving this and made my own version at home with a crumpet!

The yolk was perfectly gooey! Though I think I need to find a way to perfect the whites of the eggs when cooking... And yes, I am aware of the dodgy plate haha. I will buy perfectly beautiful chinaware and matching cutlery and plate sets when I move out!

On another happy note, I finished my last exam today so I have freedom for a month! I came out of my exam ravished and was craving Vietnamese rolls. But alas, Vietnamese rolls were not in the cards and were sold out when I went to the sushi store. So I settled for the next best thing. Well, what healthy choices do I have when I am roaming around in a food court?

Pumpkin and cous cous salad, $6.50 for a small

Damn you Sumo Salad, jacked up the prices!! Last time I went, prices were at $5.95 which I already thought of as dear. So this was incredibly expensive for such a small portion. But oh well, it filled me up enough so I wasn't hungry anymore. And it was delicious! So I can't complain... Must attempt to make this at home - I have some cous cous sitting around in my cupboard.

Now I can go back to doing all the things I was doing before my exam - without the guilt!

Holy moly guacamole

Does the phrase sound familiar? Probably because it is. I remember Billy from Masterchef 2011 exclaiming this while I couldn't stop laughing. What a phrase it is!

I am finally dwindling down to the last few avocados from the large box my dad bought, and surprisingly enough, I am not sick of them! Actually, I think I will be quite sad as I eat the last one. I've been eating avocados on toast with salt and pepper for quite a while now and decided to change it up a bit with some guacamole! The original recipe calls for lime, but I only had lemons in the house so a little bit of improvisation was worked into my guacamole. When I was tasting the guacamole plain, I thought it was a bit too strong in lemon. However, after I put it in my sandwich with some turkey and added some spices, it was delicious and not too tangy at all. One of the best sandwiches I've had for a while now.

I really do urge everyone to make some guacamole - lots of healthy fats from avocados, YUM!

Guacamole

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, minced
red onion, chopped finely
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch paprika
salt and pepper to taste
(I would also recommend adding in some chilli flakes or chilli oil for that extra bit of heat! I didn't have any unfortunately)

Method
1. Toast garlic and onion on a pan until caramelised (optional).
2. Remove the seed, scoop out avocado flesh with a spoon and mash it with a fork.
3. Add chopped tomato, garlic, onion and lemon juice. Mix until combined.
4. Season with cumin, paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Eat! With tortilla chips, in a sandwich, lettuce cup - options are endless!

I put mine in a sandwich with turkey slices and cheese and toasted it. Delicious!!

Healthy baked sweet potato fries!

Who likes fries? I DO! But as fantastic as potato fries are, the deep fried oiliness cannot be good for your health. Since I am going through a change to improve my eating lifestyle, potato fries are a no no. As of last week, I am trying to cut out processed foods and eat as much raw foods as possible! And these sweet potato fries? Delicious!! And so so easy to make.

Before they went into the oven! I kept the skin on for added nutritional goodness!

Healthy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato
Canola, vegetable or olive oil (perfectly fine if you want to omit this)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste (I added a couple of pinches of each)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celcius and line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
2. Cut up sweet potato so the pieces are all around the same size.
3. Pour the oil and sweet potato into one bowl, throw in the cut sweet potato slices, and mix until they are all coated.
4. Add in all the spices and toss until evenly coated.
5. Bake in oven for around 30 minutes or until nice and crunchy on the outside.
6. Eat!

Yummm, sweet and spicy!

Another thing I bought recently is unsweetened almond milk. I noticed normal milk has quite a lot of sugar in it and I'm trying to tone down my sugar (SO HARD). The almond milk might take a little getting used to to be honest, BUT it has 38% of your daily Calcium needs! And I really needed to up my Calcium levels because they are at an all time low...

Weekend is coming up! Have to spend it studying for my exam next week, so I hope everyone else's will be much more enjoyable!

Optus, oh how I hate thee

Does anyone else experience very bad connection with Optus? I feel as though my internet is on a constant on/off connection, where majority of the time it is spent offline. So here I am, sitting at my grandparent's house and leeching my uncle's internet.

But in all seriousness, they literally came to "fix" our internet connection a week ago. And our family had to pay around $300 for a new modem, technician fee, etc. All for? DODGY INTERNET.

Now I am just attempting to finish my research journal that is due in tomorrow.

#firstworldproblems

Adriano Zumbo Patissier, Pyrmont

If there's one thing I cannot resist, it's dessert. I probably have the biggest sweet tooth out, no question about it. While at Max Brenner, my friends will stop after a while, claiming the chocolate to be too sweet and feeling slightly sick. I, however, can continue ploughing on and enjoy the sweet chocolate-y deliciousness to no end. However, I have tried going on a health kick recently to lower my sugar levels and lately, I have been toning down on the sugar. Until last night when I took my sister to ride the Zumbo Dessert Train that is! I have been before so I will probably be smooshing my previous visit with this time's doo di dum...

The first time I visited was near the beginning of this year and the serving sizes have definitely changed as well as the prices - they are much smaller now but the prices are cheaper too so it's easier to try a variety of things which is better! So onto taste... Excuse the crappy photos from this trip because they were taken on my Nokia.

Violet Crunchie - honeycomb foam, violet bavaroise, chocolate shards & honeycomb pieces

This tasted like Violet Crumble/Crunchy only soft and creamy! So it was enjoyable.

Peach Melba - fresh raspberries, blood peach compote, vanilla creme Chantilly, vanilla emulsion & raspberry pistachio cake

The foam, though interesting to look at and provides that element of fun, didn't quite add anything spectacular in this situation. The cake tasted a bit odd and was slightly on the dry side without the vanilla creme (which was very nice). I thought the compote didn't quite meld together with the cake so the entire thing didn't quite sit well with me.

Hazelnut Dacquoise - hazelnut dacquoise, hazelnut praline crunch, milk chocolate Chantilly & caramelised hazelnut

I have to say this one is my favourite! The hazelnut praline added that extra crunch and was nice and buttery. The hazelnut flavour was very strong as well so no complaints there (:

Chocolate Fondant - chocolate fondant bar cake covered, pistachio macaron, chocolate, vanilla creme Chantilly & raspberry compote (I think?)

Delicious! The fondant was smooth and thick and luscious. Sort of like a brownie. But maybe brownie's sophisticated cousin. The pistachio macaron didn't taste like pistachio and had that fake almond taste that seems to be associated with "pistachio". BUT THE FONDANT WAS YUM.

Chocolate Coffee Brulee - chocolate coffee brulee, chocolate sacher cake, milk, emulsion & espresso melt

Once again, foam was just an element of presentation. The sacher cake felt more like a brownie to me... But no complaints there as I love chocolate and I love brownies so a winning combination for me! The brulee was quite bitter and probably just a tad over-caramelised for my liking... But the espresso melt (the log in the background) more than made up for it and was sweet yet dominant in espresso flavour and sat well with a non-coffee drinker like myself!

TRIP #2

Ripe Cherry - dehydrated chocolate mousse, cherry compote, coconut moisture & foam, $4.00 (normal price $5.00)

I was in love as soon as I put the first spoonful into my mouth. The cherry compote tasted of real cherries and none of that artificial flavoured crap that tastes like medicine. Every component melted into each other and it was a delight to eat. Like a high class Cherry Ripe bar (:

Twisted Annuziata ganache, pear compote & pear gel, $4.00 (normal price $5.00)

I particularly loved the red pear gel! There was a poached pear piece inside encased by a jelly. However, the pear components didn't quite match the Annuziata ganache. Though delicious separately, together it definitely did not match.

$4.00 (normal price $5.00)

Once again, I ate this in two separate components. The corn, fantastic by itself but when paired with the mango at the bottom? Not a good combination. Great as individual elements though!

Watermelon Yogurt - compressed watermelon, yogurt creme legere, yogurt snaps, green apple bubbles & orange custard, $4.00 (normal price $5.00)

Watermelon is great in any form! Fresh, juiced, frozen - all good. Compressed? Also fantastic! This was one of the desserts that worked well together. If you managed to get everything onto a spoonful, you could taste the creaminess of the yogurt and custard, with the juicy watermelon providing an element of freshness that just gives it that little extra oomph. The green apple bubbles were actually really sour and I preferred eating it without the foam (:

Coconut Millefeuille Lola, $9.00 & V8 Cake, $10.00

The coconut millefeuille consisted of caramelised puff pastry, coconut cremem legere, coconut jelly and coconut moisture. I really am curious about this "coconut moisture". Why call it moisture? What exactly is it referring to? Well, it'd be great to sate my curiousity but for now I am just pleased to say that whatever this "moisture" is, it sure is tasty! The caramelised puff pastry has this slight burnt taste to it, like all Zumbo's caramel products seem to have. Probably the temperature and time he cooks it at and that's the end taste he goes for. I would personally prefer it to be slightly less caramelised but no biggie because the coconut innards were ever so yum.

Individual V8 Cake - vanilla creme Chantilly, toasted vanilla brulee, vanilla water gel, vanilla ganache, vanilla macaron, vanilla dacquoise, vanilla chiffon cake & vanilla almond crunch

CHECK OUT THE INNARDS!!! I was particularly enamored by the water gel - it was like an awesome textured jelly! I loved this cake, it was surprisingly light for all those different components and it wasn't extremely sweet. I could buy this and eat it over and over again because it was delishhh. It definitely wasn't as rich as the chocolate version - the V8 Diesel. Even though that one was very rich, I really loved that one too. I know what I'm going to have a go at making later in the future!

I always love buying Adriano Zumbo's creations, but they're always so expensive and overpriced :( So I can only buy it as a rare treat every once in a while!

Xanthi, Westfield Sydney, CBD

I have been wanting to come here for quite some time now and I finally did! My uni friends and I had just finished our Studio presentations and were in the mood to celebrate finishing our last 60% assessment and since it was my birthday the day before, we had decided to go out to have dinner.

When we had entered at around 5:30, it was quite empty and no one was their to greet us. But service did come around and we were quickly seated and water was offered.

 

The stained glass jars holding the candles were beautiful! There was a lot to offer when we were browsing through their menu but we weren't too hungry as it was quite early so we ordered mostly from the Ouzomezedakia menu (small sharing plates).

 

Souzoukakia, $13.00

These spicy pork, beef and rice meatballs were cooked in a rich tomato, cumin and seeded mustard sauce and sat on top of tzatziki. It was packed full of flavour and the meted kasseri cheese on top made it even more delicious! There was so much sauce and the flavour was so strong that we ordered a plate of bread ($3.00). There were sourdough slices that had a nice chewy crust, and pita bread that was amazingly soft and warm from the grill. With the bread, this dish was spot on.

XFC - Xanthi Fried Chicken, $12.00

My friends and I had a laugh when we saw these on the menu and we just had to order it. The chicken wings are first poached in a spiced raki stock and then deep fried for a crunchy exterior. They sat on top of a creamy garlic sauce - this was where the bread came in handy again. Xanthi has such wonderful sauces so I would definitely recommend ordering some bread to go with everything.

Hot Smoked Eggplant Dip, $11.00

This also came with pita bread so we had a huge excess of bread but no matter, all the more to mop up the sauces with! This smoked eggplant dip blended with coriander, cumin, lemon juice, yoghurt and kasseri was fantastic with the toasted pita bread. I couldn't taste the coriander though which is a plus for me because I'm not the biggest fan of that herb, and even though it didn't taste like eggplant, it was still delicious!

Pork Belly Baklava, $21.00

I had heard about this a long time ago and was very keen to try this dish! And it was everything I hoped for and more. I love baklava and was very curious about a savoury one containing pork! This one has twice cooked pork belly with a date and pistachio filling and is served with a date mastic sauce. I thought the date sauce would be very sweet but it actually wasn't! It provided just that extra bit of sweetness that went wonderfully with the juicy pork. When all the elements were eaten together, it was like heaven in my mouth. This dish is definitely a must order at Xanthi (:

Overall, the service was very laid back (maybe a bit TOO chilled out...) but the food was lovely enough for me to want to come back to try other delicious dishes from their menu. And I will definitely drink some ouzu next time ;)

Xanthi Bar & Restaurant
Level 6 Dining Precinct, Westfield Sydney
100 Market St
Sydney NSW 2000
9232 8535

Opening Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 11am - 10pm
Friday - Saturday: 11am - 11pm