Eats lately via iPhone #3

Hello fellow readers! Sorry for the lack of posts as of late - this last semester of my bachelor's degree is proving to be very hard with a lot of work :( But I haven't forgotten about this little blog nor have I disappeared and as proof, here's a little round up of all the things I've eaten recently! Whee, lots of food incoming.

Banh mi, $3.95

Pork rolls always hit the spot for me. There's something so comforting about the combination of pickled carrots (they must be pickled!!), cucumber, onions, coriander and pork. This one is from my favourite store in Ashfield. It's a chain of the original which started in Marrickville!

Ashfield Vietnamese Rolls
224 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW, 2131

Banh mi ga xa (lemongrass chicken), $6.95

Whilst I do love pork rolls, this lemongrass chicken roll stole my attention and I was feeling like something different. This store is just down the road from my work place so it's perfect if I want to grab a quick lunch. What's great about this place is they offer a variety of different breads (I chose multigrain) and offer to toast it for you which makes it so much more awesome. This roll was very tasty and especially refreshing from the addition of mint leaves. Their pork rolls are also cheap at $3.95 - a great price for lunch in the heart of the city!

Bank Mi K
G2/730-742 George Street 
Haymarket, NSW , 2000

Broadway roll - part of a set

The sushi definitely satisfied my sushi cravings at the time. Loved the spicy sauce that came with it. We got this as part of the meal set which also came with noodle so it was very cheap at $10.

Takoyaki

Because it's a standard order when eating Japanese, yay!

Maki Maki
169 Broadway Sydney
Ultimo, Sydney, 2008 

Special beef noodle soup, $12.50

I walked past a new Vietnamese in Burwood and made a mental note to visit soon. And that was exactly what I did and ordered a big bowl of steaming pho. Because pho is so comforting. The waitress came with the bowl of pho and I was wowed by the sheer size of it. The soup was flavoursome and clean tasting. I felt like I barely made a dent in the noodles! Definitely will try the rest of their menu. Business seems to be going well for them - it's always packed during lunch times!

Mint Vietnamese Pho and Cuisine
226 Burwood Rd  
Burwood, NSW , 2134

Smoked salmon and fennel salad, $16.00

Perfect combination of smoked salmon, fennel and spinach. There were currants to add sweetness and capers that burst in the mouth. The creamy dressing really tied everything together.

Le Monde
83 Foveaux St 
Surry Hills, NSW , 2010

Cocktails, $15.00

Caught up with one of my girlfriends at Fratelli Fresh over excellent truffle risotto. We also ordered cocktails because we're girly like that. Mine was a wonderful concoction of grapefruit and cucumber while my friend chose the peach and champagne combination.

Cafe Sopra at Fratelli Fresh
11 Bridge Street 
Sydney, NSW, 2000
Underground

Peanut butter milkshake, $8.00

Jazz City Diner was still closed, so we ended up again at the Milk Bar to which I proceeded to order this amazing peanut butter milkshake. I took one sip and felt giddy with happiness because it was THAT good. The peanut butter flavour is different from the peanut butter we have in Australia. It has a distinct American peanut butter flavour that I love - especially in Reese's peanut butter cups!

Coconut cream pie, $8.00

Soft, fluffy cloud of meringue on top of a smooth custard and flaky pastry. I think I went to pie heaven. It wasn't too sweet so I felt like I could continue eating it with no problem at all! Don't worry all you coconut haters out there - the dominant flavour is not coconut! It's just a sprinkling of flakes on top of the pie :)

Jazz City Milk Bar
Republic 2 Courtyard Palmer St  
Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010

Chocolate & churros tapas

A tasting plate of mini churros, chocolate, deep fried chocolate truffles, choc brownie and strawberries. Love the churros at San Churros - perfect for dipping in melted chocolate!

San Churros
47 Glebe Point Rd 
Sydney, NSW, 2037
 

Excelsior Jones, Ashfield

Early yesterday morning, my sister and I impulsively decided to head over to Excelsior Jones for breakfast before buying a few necessities in Ashfield. It's about time I headed over there! Excelsior Jones is located in the backstreets of Ashfield suburbia - an unassuming location for such a popular cafe which had won TimeOut Magazine's vote for Cafe of the Year 2013. Despite it being 11am on a Friday, the cafe was surprisingly buzzing with patrons who were chatting over coffee. I can imagine how busy it'd get for weekends!

Skim latte, $3.50

Yes I have been converted into a coffee person after my trip to Melbourne. How did that even happen? Too many cafes over there with all of them recommending coffee whilst we waited for our breakfasts! Excelsior Jones serve their coffees made from Five Senses coffee beans and my flat white was a damned good one with a smooth finish. No complaints here.

Eggs Benedict, $14.00

Onto the food which arrived together not too long after our order. Both my sister and I couldn't go past the eggs benedict. Who doesn't love a soft, gooey poached egg? The moment of truth arrived when we had to cut open the egg. Would it be perfectly runny or will it have been overcooked beyond repair? We breathed a sigh of relief as it was the latter. The hollandaise sauce was all sorts of amazing with the ham and English muffin with the oozy egg yolk providing a wonderful richness.

Pork hock has, $16.00

I was torn between the pork hock and smoked salmon hash but in the end, pork hock won out. And oh my god was this dish good! The potatoes had been fried so that the innards were still fluffy and the skin was crispy which made it very addictive. The addition of the herbs were very welcome, providing that extra pop of freshness on the palette. This dish is carb overload mind you! So many potatoes - it is one best shared :D

Excelsior Jones has been decked out with the foundations of being a good cafe and we left in high spirits after good coffee and delicious food. Situated in the suburb just over where I reside, I foresee plenty of starts to my days here in the near future. I will try the salmon hash next time as well as revisit for the lunch menu! Burgers, anyone?

Excelsior Jones
139A Queen Street, Ashfield, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9799 3240

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Friday: 7:30am-4:00pm
Saturday & Sunday: 8:00am-4:00pm
Kitchen closed 3:00pm
Closed on Mondays

Taste Of Shanghai, Ashfield

Seeing as we are a healthy Asian family with a healthy appetite for dumplings, I decided to take my family out for dumplings for my mother's birthday! Ashfield is close by, and there are lot of Shanghainese restaurants so naturally that was where we headed.

Shanghai style smoked fish in soy sauce, $10.80

I'm not sure if you all know, but us Shanghainese are very big on having a sweet element to our dishes. In a lot of the meat dishes that are soy-based, sugar is often added. I think this is how my extreme sweet tooth came to be. These pieces of fish had that extra sugar kick I was expecting and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Grilled onion pancake, $6.80

I grew up eating these spring onion pancakes (my mum makes a mean spring onion pancake - I have cravings for them all the time!) so I had high expectations for these. The flavour profile was very different from the ones my mum makes and the pastry much flakier and fragrant from the oil (I'm suspecting it's because these are deep-fried). While I prefer my mother dearest's version, these definitely were one of the better ones I've had in Sydney.

Shredded pork with cabbage stir fried rice cakes, $10.80

I normally love nian gao, but these rice cakes were quite oily and lacked flavour. If you're feeling like eating rice cakes, I'd head over to New Shanghai just across the road because they do a fantastic stir fried rice cakes with XO sauce!

Beef and bean sprout stir-fried noodle, $10.80

These flat noodles definitely outshone the rice cakes. While the rice cakes weren't great and were quite stodgy, the flat noodles were had that wonderful smokiness that your get from the wok. If only there were more greens and less oil!

Mixed vegetable noodle soup, $9.80

I was surprised how good all the variety of mushrooms were in the mixed vegetables! It was quite salty but when eaten with the noodles and soup, it all balanced out pretty well.

Pan-seared pork dumplings, $9.80

These dumplings had an awesome crispy skin at the bottom and so much soup inside - just as good as the first time I had them here! The marks of a well made dumpling :D I hate it when I bite into the dumplings and it's all dry inside because the soup has leaked out from cracks in the skin...

Pan-fry pork buns with sesame, $9.80

I love sheng jian bao! There's just something about the fluffiness of the exterior... These ones were pretty decent, but for some reason, the bottoms were very thin and there was a lot of dough at the top! It's supposed to be the other way around so that was slightly odd for me while I was eating it. But the bottoms were crispy, and the meat inside was juicy so not much to complain about at all!

The overall bill was extremely cheap - the perks of eating Chinese food out, hey? :)

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW, 2131

Opening Hours
Daily from 10am until late

New Shanghai, Ashfield

Sunday family fun day! I think I wormed the idea of pan-fried buns into each member of my family's heads after I continually stated how much I really, really wanted them the other day. Next minute, we found ourselves at our local newly renovated New Shanghai for lunch on Sunday. Business there is doing well, and we had to wait in line for around 15 minutes before we were seated.

Stir-fried Chinese rice cake with shredded pork and vegetable in XO sauce, $10.80

I grew up eating rice cake, and I absolutely love how there's a bite to them. The XO sauce was delicious and this definitely ended up being one of our favourites.

Deep-fried calamari coated with salted duck yolk, $18.80

If there's one thing I love, it's salted duck yolk. I know a lot of people aren't fan of the duck yolks that are in moon cakes, but I find them so tasty! So when I saw this on the menu, I knew I had to order it. The salted duck yolk definitely added richness to what already was a rich dish. Tasty but I think this dish is best shared because of its heaviness ;)

Shanghai spring roll, $6.80

On the quest to find Sydney's best spring rolls. Alas, these were not meant to be. They were ok, but I don't think they have anything on the ones from Kwok Do in Burwood!

Deep-fried pastry filled with white shredded radish, dried shrimp & shallot, $8.80

I think we went a bit overboard with the deep-fried dishes... But my sister has an obsession with these so it had to be done! I'm normally impartial to these radish dimsims, but even I have to admit New Shanghai does them pretty well!

New Shanghai pan-fried pork buns, $8.80

This what what I was waiting for! But I think due to the rush that is lunch hour, the bottoms of these buns were nowhere near as caramelised as I would have normally liked :( Which was quite the disappointment. I've had them before at the Chatswood branch and they were great so I think we just got a bad batch!

Pan-fried pork dumpling, $8.00

These dumplings however, had a beautiful crunchy bottom! And they skin was thin, yet not thin enough so that they would crack and all the soup would leak out. You are no pan-fried bun, but you dumplings will have to do for today.

Mini pork wonton soup (short soup), $4.80

With all the greasiness that came with the dishes we ordered, my parents decided we needed some soup to help break through all that oil. Definitely loved the soup! Though do I really want to know how much sodium is in it? Probably not!

New Shanghai
273 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW, 2131

Opening Hours
Open daily from 10:00am - 10:00pm

Taste of Shanghai, Ashfield

After a gruelling day on a site visit to Cockatoo Island, the boy and I make a pitstop at Ashfield for some dumplings before his touch football game at Henley Park. We were there before 6 and easily nabbed some seats. I had been on an island all day and the winds weren't very favourable and left me numb all over! I was definitely in need of some heart warming food.

Braised pork belly noodle soup, $10.80

I was tossing up between this and the spicy beef belly noodle soup (BEEF BELLY! I don't think I've ever eaten that) but I ended up going with this one. The first thing that hit me when this arrived at the table was LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BOWL OF NOODLES! But I was really looking forward to digging into that plate of juicy looking pork. Braised pork belly is a very traditional Shanghainese dish and I have it quite often at home. While this version was nice, it didn't quite meet the standards of my parent and grandparent's which I really do adore. The texture of the noodles were lovely but it had to be eaten with the pork belly which gave the noodles that extra oomph that the broth was lacking.

Look at that fatty goodness! Cannot be good for my cardiovascular health...

Pan seared pork dumpling, $9.80

While the noodles were nothing special, these were very good! Just look at the oil glistening on their skins! The bottom was fried until very crispy and had just enough char without being burnt. The dumplings themselves had plenty of broth inside which was very flavoursome. Dipped in vinegar, these were very tasty indeed.

While it was relatively empty when we arrived, by the time we finished and paid for our meal the restaurant was getting quite full and there were still people slowly trickling in. It normally does get very busy and the restaurant always seems to have good business.

If you're in the area and looking for some good dumplings, you know where to stop by.

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, NSW, 2131
9798 2877

Trading hours
Daily 10am until late