Pu'er, Waterloo

If there's one thing I can't resist, it's got to be yum cha style dumplings. So it was with great enthusiasm that we wandered over to Pu'er in Waterloo on the corner of Bourke and Danks street to have some steamed dumpling goodies at night. Pu'er offers a range of food from dumplings to larger share plates, all with a Western flair.

Scallop, $9.00

To start off with, I couldn't resist ordering the scallop dumplings - a Hong Kong style dumpling of prawn, scallop and baby bamboo all encased in a yellow egg pastry. Whilst the skin was a tad thick for my liking, the filling was delicious, had fantastic flavor and just reminds me why I'm a sucker for all dumplings with prawn and scallops.

Hong Kong mini burgers, $15.00

The waitress highly recommended these mini burgers and aren't they just adorable? Smaller than the size of my palm! Filled with a miniature panko crumbed pork fillet, a house smoked chilli paste, hoisin and baby cress, this cute number was a tasty little morsel that was not dry like I expected (being miniature and all). A bit oily, but at least the buns were deep-fried to a wonderful crisp and went really well with the filling inside.

Wagyu tacos, $16.00

Phew, these were spicier than expected! But that chilli kick paired very well indeed with the juicy wagyu beef. All wrapped by a soft bun, this is the perfect finger food snack to knock down whilst having a few drinks on a Friday night.

Three cup drunken duck, $26.00

Boy do you get bang for buck with these two giant duck legs sitting on the plate. Braised to perfection, the duck meat fell off the bone, yet still retained it's juiciness and flavor. Using traditional methods of Chinese braising with shao xing, soy and sugar, this dish really kicked home to my Shanghainese roots - almost like my mum makes at home ;)

Caramelised Berkshire pork belly, $24.00

And as always, it is always a bit risky to order things that are cooked on an often basis at home. I cannot fault the cooking, as the pork remained super tender and soft, but it was lacking that punch of strong soy and caramelized sugar I was looking for. The egg was a nice traditional touch but unfortunately was also lacking in flavor.

Chocolate brownie, $10.00

Whilst I don't normally tend to order brownies at restaurants as I find them to be more or less the same, our friendly waitress said these were normally a hit with the patrons so why not give it a go? For me, it was quite the standard brownie - chocolatey and dense. Perhaps a bit on the dry side but overall what you would expect from a chocolate brownie. I wasn't a fan of the red wine jus but it was the salted palm sugar ice-cream that blew me away. It was the perfect Asian twist on the standard Western salted caramel and truth be told, I forewent the brownie just to eat this ice-cream :P

Coconut & kafffir lime leaf sorbet, $10.00

This single dessert, hands down, was my favourite dish of the evening. Despite being stuffed to the brim (we were warned there was going to be a lot of food!), I managed to find extra stomach space just to eat this. The zing of the kaffir lime made the sorbet something special, seriously. It was even surrounded by pieces of young coconut - a definite win for me :D And the black sticky rice was subtlely sweet, still retained a nice bite to the palette and was wonerful with the sorbet or even dipped into the coconut water syrup on the side.

Quinton spoke very highly of the teas so how could we resist trying one? We told him to surprise us and he came out with the Osmanthus Phoenix ($9.00) which I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of :( But take my word that it was very pretty and beautifully presented! It was fragrant with the flavours of Osmanthus and had a delicate sweet aftertaste that lingered in the mouth. A good finish to our meal, and certainly helped with the digestion considering all that food we ate!

Overall, we ended our meal on a highlight with the sorbet which I would very, very happily demolish an entire pint of if I had one. The atmosphere was very cosy on a Thursday night, making it a cute little date place and service was nothing short of friendly. You even have the option of sitting half outside on the balcony! Which does have roofing by the way, so don't you worry about getting rained on :P Recommended if you're looking for a nice, relaxing night out with plenty of teas under your disposal!

Crystal Noir and friend dined as guests of Pu'er courtesy of Quinton Van Schalkwyk & Siev Gour of Pu'er. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

Pu'er

20A Danks St

Waterloo, NSW, 2017

Opening Hours

Tuesday-Friday
Lunch 12:00 - 3:00pm 

Dinner 6:00pm - late

Saturday & Sunday
12:00pm - late

Ippudo at Central Park, Ultimo

Ah winter days are over, and that means the days of hot bowls of ramen are coming to a close... But my adamant love for ramen demands that I squeeze it in as much as I can before the weather gets much too hot to handle steaming hot ramen! Australian summers, you are just much too brutal. I was kindly invited by Sana on behalf of Ippudo to try out their newly opened branch in Central Park Sydney - definitely a convenient location for you USYD and UTS students. She was an absolutely delight to speak to and went over the menu with us, sadly informing us that the pork buns are not currently available on the menu. Ah well, there are other items to try!

L to R: Iced oolong tea, $4.00 / Homemade lemon lime & bitters, $5.00

Warm days mean cool drinks! I was glad to taste an unsweetened iced oolong tea and lemon lime bitters are always a refreshing drink to have on standby at any restaurant really.

Seared salmon sushi, $13.00

Salmon has got to my favourite fish. And when it's seared, there's just this delicious smoky flavour that's hard to beat. Naturally, this dish had to be ordered! Plus our curiosity over the mentai mayo really got us. It turned out to be a very welcome addition indeed, adding a lovely creamy zing to the palette. And we all know that avocado and salmon is a classic combination. Fatty salmon and more healthy fats from avocado? Don't mind if I do!

Extras plate

 Since we ordered the ramen specials, both came with its own plate of extras including a soy egg, bean sprouts, seaweed, bamboo shoots, black fungus, chopped spring onion and extra chashu (win!).

Miso tonkotsu special, $25.00

I absolutley love corn in my ramen because it adds that little burst of sweetness that goes really well with the tonkotsu broth. I found that the addition of miso to the tonkotsu broth made this one quite incredibly salty. Whilst still tasty, it was a tad much after a while but at least we had our oolong tea and lemon lime bitters! The noodles were cooked with just enough bounce - the perfect texture :D

Shiromaru special, $23.00

The original tonkotsu broth was less sodium based than the miso tonkotsu version and I preferred this one a lot more. As before, there was nothing to fault with the way the noodles were cooked and along with all those toppings, I was one happy ramen eater. I would recommend you put the egg in the soup to warm up a bit as it does come cold on the extras plate. What I did like was that the yolk inside was still soft and definitely not overcooked!

Blue Mountains, $13.00

And of course one cannot finish dinner without dessert. Though Gingerbreadmanne and I were incredibly full, we couldn't go past this green tea sundae. Who can resist green tea icecream, red beans, mandarins, oranges, apricots and coconut jelly? The icecream was so smooth and creamy and despite our initial thoughts of only having a few spoonfuls, we managed to polish off the entire thing (no ragrats, not even one letter).

At this stage, we were incredibly full and so very, very content with all that was eaten. Service here was incredibly efficient and the staff were nothing short of friendly with all the Japanese greetings - love that subtle touch of authenticity to add to the dining experience! You can find our more about Ippudo Central Park here.

Crystal Noir and friend dined as guests of Ippudo Central Park courtesy of Motoyama Sana of SD Marketing. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

Ippudo
Lower Ground, Central Park

28 Broadway Chippendale, NSW, 2008

Opening Hours

Monday - Wednesday: 11:00am - 10:00pm

Thursday - Saturday: 11:00am - 11:00pm

Sunday: 11:00am - 9:00pm

The Cliff Dive, Darlinghurst

The entrance

If there's one thing I haven't quite seemed to have the time for lately is kicking back for some nice relaxing drinks. Hipster bars are all what Sydney is about and I love finding these hidden gems scattered throughout the city. It's kind of like going on a crazy little treasure hunt trying to find the entrances to these bars. The Cliff Dive bar was not easy to find! The only sign that there is a bar is the bouncer standing outside this door with a giant pineapple on it. When I say giant, I mean huuuge. Look for the giant pineapple pictured above!

Going down the stairs, we were greeted with a giant sculpture, hinting of the things to come. The deco was incredibly inspired by that of Papua New Guinea and Timor.

Prawn crackers

 An insanely cute bowl of colourful prawn crackers were placed before us once we were seated and began pursuing the drinks menu (because who doesn't drink on a Thursday night?).

Pimento and Falernum

Michael (ex Sokyo, Black by Ezard and Bulletin Place), the drinks director, was super helpful and gave us heaps of info about the different cocktails they had on their menu and also about how they make them. They have two housemade bases that they use in all their drinks just to make their drinks that little bit more special. The first being Pimento - an overproof rum with a dash of black rum infused with allspice berries. Falernum is the second one and is also overproof rum based except this one has notes of almonds, clove and ginger - all of which you can taste just sipping on the little shot.

Luau Especial, $17.00

The Luau Especial was quite strong of tequila and everything else if you don't mind your drinks that way. The orange bitters, rhubarb, star anise and lime made this drink quite the refreshing one.

Pina colada, $21.00

Me being me, I definitely could not go past the pina colada. It said it was served in a pineapple! The Cliff Dive Bar only cores out a certain number of pineapples every day for the pina coladas so the servings are limited. Coconut juice is also a necessary ingredient for this coconut and young coconuts are also cracked fresh every day to obtain the juice. Michael whisked this up with ice to make it nice and frothy so it tasted almost creamy despite the fact that zero cream was used. I was definitely blown away at the first sip of this pina colada. My favourite rendition of pina colada to date. Especially with that lovely spicy undertone from their housemade bases!

The Hungry Honky, $16.00

Throughout our cocktail sipping, the aromas from the kitchen were wafting over to the bar and the skewer platter looked pretty damned amazing when it hit the table. You could really taste the South East Asian influence behind these skewers: wild ginger beef, turmeric and lemongrass pork, lemongrass chicken , chill and ginger octopus and chilli and tamarind tofu. My favourite one had to be the confit octopus. It was so tender and soft and the chilli and ginger really made it super delicious. House-made pickled vegetables were the perfect balance of sour and sweet to team up with the skewers. The pandan coconut rice was also something special all on its own - so fragrant it was almost dessert-like. Yum.

The fun and friendly Michael Chiem!

It was a lovely night kicking back to celebrate the end of my uni week and it was wonderful chatting to the boys of The Cliff Dive Bar. Thanks for a super fun night!

Crystal Noir dined as a guest of Yurripi at The Cliff Dive thanks to Olivia Dowd of HK Strategies. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

The Cliff Dive
16-18 Oxford Square, Oxford St
Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010

Opening Hours
Wednesday - Saturday: 6:00pm - 3:00am

Melbourne Alleyways

Wow I have just realised I am not yet done with blogging about Melbourne! I am so sorry, dear readers, for the snail pace in which I am distributing my Melbourne adventures :( It's good to look back on this trip and realise that it was actually Melbourne that converted me into a little bit of a coffee fanatic. All those wanderings through the alleyways to discover a lot of cute cafes with quirky names really couldn't scream hipster at me any louder.

Skim latte, $4.00?

Gingerbreadmanne and I wanted to go to eat buns at Wonderbao but they weren't open yet so we sat down inside a cafe just around the corner called A Little Bird Told Me. How adorable are the ceramics here? That pretty shade of aqua that is reminiscent of Tiffany's and the little blue flowers that held the brown sugar were too pretty for words. The latte was definitely a good one. Sigh, I miss you Melbourne coffee.

A Little Bird Told Me
29 Little La Trobe St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 7:00am - 4:30pm
Saturday: 9:30am - 4:00pm

Wonderbao's menu is short, concise and straight to the point of what they sell best. Buns. You can get open buns, closed buns, meat buns, vegetable buns, even sweet custard buns for those feeling like a little bit of dessert afterwards.

L to R: roast pork belly gua bao / braised pork belly gua bao, $4.20 each

Check out the glorious pieces of fatty pork belly and that generous lashing of sauce on top. Whilst the braised pork belly was already really yum with its pickled mustard, coriander and crushed peanut topping, it was the roast pork belly that really made my tastebuds sing with happiness. It was as though the Vietnamese pork roll secretly had a love child with the Chinese man tou. Definitely Vietnamese inspired with its pickled carrots, daikon and cucumber but also Chinese with the hoisin sauce.

Why oh why do you not exist in Sydney, Wonderbao?

Wonderbao
Shop 4/19-37 A'Beckett St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 8:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday: 11:000am - 4:00pm

Holy Basil 2, Sydney CBD

Wanting to see the Vivid Festival, my family decided to eat out in the city beforehands. Holy Basil always has great food and close by to where I work so I headed off there right after I finished to meet the fambam!

It was my grandparents' first time eating Thai food and they requested nothing be too spicy so I definitely ordered on the mild side of the menu. And of course little pots of green tea for them!

Kai Yang (Laos charcoal BBQ chicken), $13.90

 The first to come out was the grilled chicken which had a lovely marinade that had been grilled to little charcoal-y bits. Delicious on its own, but you could always dip it into the sweet chilli sauce or chilli sauce if you're after that kick. We didn't expect the bowls of rice we ordered o be quite that large - it could easily have served three people per bowl!

Pad see ew (with chicken), $12.90

After enjoying the pad see ew last time, along with the fact that it's a favourite of my sister's, it definitely was a must order! The smoky flavour that permeates the noodles is what makes it so special and I really do like it, albeit the fact that it's just a tad too sweet for my tastebuds.

Gang masaman (beef masaman curry), $16.90

Massaman curry is a very mild curry that's quite creamy from the coconut milk in the recipe as well as the final drizzle on top. It's the best stirred through rice!

Som tam (green papaya salad), $10.90

I definitely wanted to introduce my family to the Thai papaya salad, requesting it to be very mild. I love how my grandma still found it extremely spicy haha! They were surprised that it was actually green papaya, as it's not something they've ever tried before.

Crispy fish (with green mango salad), $44.90

This was what I was looking forward to all night though! I could seriously have eaten it forever...They fillet the fish, cut it into individual pieces which are then crumbed and deep-fried. Nothing is wasted as the head and tail is given to you as well! The batter was very crunchy and extremely moreish as they definitely weren't shying away from the pepper :D It went very well with the green mango salad on top which was my preference over the papaya salad. I thought it was the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty. I didn't get any hit of chilli, but that wasn't missed with any of my relatives! The family also enjoyed how refreshing this salad was. I think they just couldn't quite get used to the slight pungency of the crab paste used in the papaya salad!

I don't think any of us were particularly in the mood for any dessert so we passed on their house special deep-fried icecream. I should probably check out the rest of their dessert menu next time!

Holy Basil
Shark Hotel 127 Liverpool St
Sydney NSW 2000
http://www.holybasil.com.au

Opening Hours
Daily
Lunch Hours: 12:00-3:00pm
Dinner: 5:00pm-12:00midnight

Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant, Cabramatta

No, I didn’t see iron chef Chen Kenichi or Hiroyuki Sakai, or any of he iron chefs for that matter! My family and I went to Cabramatta for yum cha to show my grand aunt (who is visiting from China) around. Iron Chef definitely is our family's favourite yum cha restaurant at the moment :) I think I will just let the photos do the talking!

Particularly enjoyed the chicken feet which have been deep fried and then marinated in that gorgeous sauce (I know not everyone can bring themselves to eat that sot of thing haha but I love it!), the bird’s nest which had minced pork surrounded by a taro paste and then is deep fried with a batter to give it that nest-like look, and the crunchy skin of the suckling pig! Of course the mango pudding with condensed milk and mango pancake tasted excellent (it’s mango with evaporated milk and cream, what’s not to love?).

So are you a fan of the casual "grab what you want off the trolley" at yum cha or do you prefer ordering off a menu at restaurants? And have any of you tried chicken feet and loved it?

Eats lately via iPhone #2

Uni has been keeping me busy lately so I've gathered snapshots of bits and bobs I've been eating!

Clockwise from top left: apple & cinnamon, lemon meringue, strawberry, black forest, carrot, hummingbird

Cupcakes from the Cupcake Bakery! Cupcakes are just so cute and there was plenty of icing - my favourite ;) I really enjoyed the apple & cinnamon, along with the lemon meringue! I was expecting something special from the hummingbird but it just tasted like plain old banana to me. Which isn't a bad thing as I love banana bread/cake/muffins!

The Cupcake Bakery
320b George St
Sydney, NSW , 2000

 

Muesli and yogurt

Top Juice in Westfield Sydney has tonnes of fresh juices but I went for something heartier. Fresh yogurt is the best and this was the super thick kind swirled with a delicious mix of oats and raisins :)

Top Juice
Level 5 Cnr Pitt St Mall And Market St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Sweet taro and red bean crushed ice, $8.00

I have a thing for taro in desserts - especially the sweet marinated kind they have at Meet Fresh! Taro and red beans is a classic Asian flavour combination which I love :)

Meet Fresh
175 Rowe Street
Eastwood, NSW, 2122

Pork roll, $4.00

I love porks rolls. This place has my favourite pork rolls! Crunchy bread? Tick! The carrots and daikon are pickled just to my liking and the sauce they use here is what I think makes this pork roll number one in my books.

Ashfield Vietnamese Rolls
222 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield NSW 2131

Grilled Portugese chicken salad, $15.00

Decided to buy lunch at uni for once while waiting to meet a friend and went for the char-grilled chicken with piri-piri spices with coral lettuce, rocket, tomato and chilli sauce. The salad was average at best and not worth forking out the $15.00 (costs extra to sit in). Unfortunately you don't feel comfortable staying there for too long as the waiters continuously hang around and watch you like a hawk, even swooping in multiple times to try get you to leave quickly. Hard to have an enjoyable lunch when they're acting that way. I've had the baguettes here which are pretty good. Go for the lemongrass chicken!

Taste Baguette
City Rd Law Building The University Of Sydney
Sydney, NSW, 2006

Guava, biscotti & green tea froyo

Taro, biscotti, green tea & blood orange froyo

Noggi recently got renovated and they now have a lot of new flavours on rotation. Yes I know, I have a teeny tiny obsession with frozen yogurt. And Noggi has always been my go-to place for biscotti and blood orange (when they do have this flavour). I always top my frozen yogurt with mochi, coconut chips, blueberries and other fruit if I get extra toppings :D

Noggi
2/2 Albert Rd
Strathfield, NSW

Half roast pork knuckle, $28.00

Probably a bit silly of me to get half the pork knuckle when the entire thing costed just $5 extra! But I know I would not have been able to finish it without being waaay too full so I decided to skip the whole knuckle, go for half, and spend the rest on beer! I asked them to replace the mash with sauteed potato because while I do love mash, I've had it many, many times in my life and I wanted to try sauteed potatoes! The pork knuckle had such a lovely crackling, and the sourness of the sauerkraut plus sweetness of the apple compote brought out the best of the pork.

Bavarian Bier Cafe
24 York St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

French toast, $7.90 + $3.00 extra for bacon

My sister and I decided to have brekky in Newtown before class one day and we settled for a cafe next to the art store I bought some supplies from. I so badly want to say that I loved this but it was much to eggy for my liking. But yay for bacon and maple syrup!

Fringe Cafe and Restaurant
199 King St
Newtown, NSW 2042

Massaman beef curry, $6.95 during lunch

I order Massaman curry way too much, but this non-spicy Thai curry is so comforting that I can't help but be drawn to it each time. Hooray for multiple Thai restaurants in Newtown with cheap lunch specials!

Newtown Thai II
105 King St
Sydney, NSW, 2042

 

Hehe made myself a Vietnamese inspired salad for lunch at uni :)

And also breakfast in a jar so that I could transport it :D Greek yogurt, nectarine, berries, muesli and maple syrup mhmm.

Also baked some potato wedges with greek yogurt and sweet chilli sauce. Chucked in a tonne of different spices. Loved using the greek yogurt as it was just like having sour cream but less fat and higher protein :) Chobani's the best!

It was my brother's birthday recently and all good birthdays must end with cake! So a mango cheesecake was bought from Michel's Patisserie. He absolutely loved it despite the fact that he normally isn't the biggest fan of sweets so thank goodness :)

So there we have it! A little too much food everywhere haha.