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

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.

Tenkomori Ramen House, Sydney CBD

Who doesn't love a good bowl of warm, steaming ramen? There's something about slurping the noodles that's so comforting. Ultimate winter food don't you think? Even though it's not winter yet, Sydney's had some pretty crazy weather that's been all over the place lately and despite it currently being summer, there's been some cold wintery days too! Though it has been heating up this past week... What is with that?

Tenkomori is the brother store of Menya Mappen and Oiden where you line up cafeteria style, pick your ramen base and add on anything else that takes your fancy from the hot bar or cold dishes!

Tonkotsu butter corn ramen, large $7.30

I love tonkotsu based ramen! Mm, pork collagen... This was particularly good because the butter made it that much richer. Look at the pool of yellow the melted butter left behind! I also loved hunting for those little pieces of corn.

Chicken kara-age, $2.20 & takoyaki, $2.00

Fried chicken! It tasted good but for some reason it was cold :( I always can't help but grab myself a stick of takoyaki. Love that stuff!

Tonkotsu curry ramen, regular $6.30 & mushroom salad, $1.80 (I think)

I was really interested in this ramen because I've never eaten curry with ramen before and I wasn't sure how the two would pair. It actually tasted good! If you like Japanese curry, you'll love this :) And those mushrooms that have been marinated were quite sweet, pairing very well with the spicy kick from the curry.

If you're up for something quick, and something cheap then this place is it.

Tenkomori Ramen House
Shop 16 Regent Place, George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000