Jazz City BBQ, Darlinghurst

I think it has all been a while since the anticipated opening of Jazz City BBQ with the promise of lots and lots of barbeque meat! LB Slaya, Cassanova, KC and I arrived early this Thursday night just a little before 6, perhaps a little too early as they hadn't even opened their doors yet (we were just a tad too keen). But once inside, we instantly felt like we were in one of those cute American diners with the red booths lining the walls of the small restaurant.

Menu

The menu is short and concise, offering five items with the promise of Southern American smokey char. It's simple really, you just let Chef Dan McGuirt exactly how much of each meat you want and he'll cut and weigh it for you!.

Dan slicing up the beef ribs

Are you guys digging his shirt or what? When he was about to cut us our beef brisket, he asked us, "Would you like the fattier or leaner cut? I would recommend the fattier cut, it's much more tender and juicy." How could we disagree with the man?

Housemade sauces

There are plenty of sauces for you sauce junkies to choose from. And if you're anything like us, you're just going to go for the whole shebang and may as well try everything!

Clockwise from top: cornbread / complimentary sliced white bread / pork ribs / beef ribs / beef brisket / coleslaw / complimentary raw onion and pickles / pulled pork (centre)

While I did love the flavour of the pork rib, it was a tad on the dry side, as was the pulled pork. But with all the sauces on offer, may as well drench it with that, hey? And let me give you a little tip - ride the sauce rainbow. You may be asking, what the heck is that? Mixing all of them together of course! The beef brisket was indeed awesomely fatty as promised and fat is flavour when it comes to barbequed meats. I was pleasantly surprised by the beef rib as I normally prefer pork ribs over beef ones but this was beautifully smokey with every bite. The meat slid of the bone real easy as we bit it straight off the bone - gotta get those fingers dirty when eating ribs! But what I really fell in love with were those pickles. Sweet with a little punch of sour, I couldn't help going back for more. And that cornbread. Soft, fluffy like a good muffin, and slightly sweet, our only regret was ordering one to share. Next time, one for each person!

I forgot to take a picture of the pecan pie we had. Though tiny, it was a pretty sweet end to the meal. Unfortunately they didn't have key lime pie on the menu tonight which was not a problem for us. We ventured down to Jazz City Milk Bar for dessert!

Banana cream pie, $10.00

I have nothing to say but this.

Oh. My God.

THIS WAS AMAZING. SO AMAZING. Well worth the trek here. A crispy base, layers of vanilla custard chocked full of banana pieces in between, along with whipped cream on top, made this dessert so delicious. The ripe banana really made this pie - it felt like I was eating banana custard!

Satisfied with the ending to our Southern style meal of comfort foods, we slowly walked back towards the city. But not before making a pit stop at Hungry Jacks because Cassnova and KC have black holes for stomachs. Next time, that key lime pie will be eaten :D

Jazz City BBQ
200 Goulburn St
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010

Opening Hours 
Lunch Wednesday - Friday: 12:00noon to 2:00pm
Dinner Wednesday - Saturday: 6:00pm to 10:00pm (or until Sold Out)
Closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 





Jazz City Milk Bar
Republic 2 Building Courtyard
Palmer Street (between Liverpool and Burton Street)
Darlinghurst, NSW 2010

Opening Hours
Lunch  Thursday-Saturday: 12:00-2:00pm
Dinner  Tuesday-Saturday: 6:00-10:00pm
Closed Sunday & Monday

Swine & Co, Wynyard

I have a question for you, my dear readers. What is your favourite type of meat? I, myself, am such a huge fan of pork. There are not only so many different cuts of meat you can get from the pig, but also so many different ways to cook it. And it is with this promise of lots of pork that we end up at Swine & Co after Chef Meathead's graduation (congratulations!).

Specials cocktail / Charlie Chaplin, $18.00 each

Who doesn't like starting the meal with a girly cocktail? I got lured in by the specials cocktail which  tasted like whizz fizz that I had as a child! I can't remember the exact mix but there was brandy and cherry liquer in it. McMini ordered the Charlie Chaplin which was equally as drinkable with gin, apricot brandy, lime juice and rhubarb bitters.

Complimentary bread

 Those sticks were very addictive because of how airy, crunchy and light they were.

Charcuterie, $30.00

I think we all have a slight obsession with cured meats but Chef Meathead wins on how much he loves his cured meats. I tried some of the chicken liver pate which was very rich and creamy and was coated with a thin layer of fruity jelly to add an undertone of sweetness to the salty pate.

King salmon, $30.00

Look at how perfectly the salmon is cooked! Who knew that salmon would be great with fennel? The olive soil scattered was a very clever way to add seasoning to the dish by allowing us to choose how much we wanted to eat with our salmon. But what I found super addictive were those seaweed pieces and am curious how they managed to get that crispiness to them.

Pork belly, $34.00

You really can't go wrong with pork belly if you have tender soft meat topped with a wonderful slab of crunchy crackling. And with a little croquette on the side? I'm won over! I'm used to eating pork with apple, so the introduction of a super smooth pumpkin puree and peppercorn jus was something new to which I'm glad to say I tried and liked.

Suckling pig, $40.00

Now this was a large chunk of meat I'm telling you. I was expecting something smaller, more delicate and have to say, the meat wasn't as tender as the pork belly when I had been expecting the suckling pig to be more so. I think we were all starting to get the meat sweats at this stage... There was a lot of pork happening. But no matter, we had veggie side dishes!

Brussel sprouts, $12.00

Not everyone is a fan of brussel sprouts but surprisingly, I actually like them (does that make me strange?). This version has been cooked with lentils, fermented chilli and speck. I do find that brussel sprouts needs to be cooked with a meat to soak in flavour so I was happy to see the addition of speck.

Dutch heirloom carrots, $12.00

Sweet roasted carrots with caraway butter! The addition of the crumbs on top made me feel like I was eating a dessert as they were quite sweet and reminiscent of cookie crumble.

Hand cut chips, $12.00

Aioli makes everything alright when eaten with all kinds of chips. I guess this doesn't really count as healthy veggies to help break down all the meat we were consuming :P

Located in the heart of Wynyard, the bar upstairs was very busy and packed out with business men and women when we entered on a Friday night so I have to say that booking is a must if you want to try out all the swine available for consumption here!

Swine & Co.
16 O'Connell St  
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday: 9:00am - late

Uccello, Wynyard

Sorry for the silence lately, dear readers. From starting my masters and getting used to working at an actual architect firm, I've neglected things on the blogging front! But after finishing one of my assessment presentations and graduating from my bachelor degree, I decided to celebrate in the way I love best. Of course my friends and I were going to eat :P I'm so thankful for Casanova, McMini and Chef Meathead for coming out to my graduation - I know the ceremonies may not be the most fun of things but from the sincere bottom of my heart, I really appreciate your presence!

We headed over to Uccello afterwards for dinner with hungry stomachs to try the newly introduced "First In Best Dressed" menu by head chef, David Lovett, which draws upon his favourite rustic Italian dishes. Who can say no to Italian food? :D

Complimentary bread

The First In Best Dressed is only on weeknights and you must be seated between 6-7pm but it's insanely good value. $45 for two courses or $55 for three. $10 extra for another course? You bet we are all going to pick that option.

Cured meats, soft cheese, sourdough

We started our antipasti with a selection of cured meats, cheese and sourdough - always a winner. The board we were presented with came with both  chorizo, nduja, prosciutto, salami and goats cheese! It was my first time eating nduja and boy was that good.

Raw red prawns, parsley, lemon, olive oil

Casanova wanted a big entree the size of Chef Meathead's cured meats board so you can imagine his disappointment when this serving size came out haha! Normally I'm not a fan of prawn so I was especially apprehensive about raw prawn but this really surprised me! The prawns were so soft and the the flavour and it was just an incredibly delicate dish.

Kingfish crudo, marjoram, pink pepper, lemon

I love how light the cured kingfish was - it's always so refreshing on the palette.

Buffalo mozzarella, peach, San Daniele prosciutto

Oops forgot to take a photo of this one! Luckily one of my friends did :) Since peaches are out of season, they told me that they would replace the fruit with figs which was fine by me. Creaminess from the mozzarella, saltiness form the prosciutto, and sweetness from the figs all make for an example of letting good produce shine on their own.

Char grilled sardines, lemon, chilli, parsley

The flavour they managed to pack into the sardines blew my mind. I loved the saltiness of the dish which really contrasted with the delicate ceviche style dishes earlier. I know you can eat the bones in the sardine but I would've much rathered not as it wasn't entirely soft. But that was a minor dent in what was a pretty damn tasty sardine.

'Risotto Milanese’ saffron and bone marrow risotto

Kicking on to our primi course, how could I resist the classic risotto Milanese? Mixing in the bone marrow added that extra dimension of richness that really tied everything together. There was just a tad graininess left to the rice so if the risotto was cooked just a tiny bit longer, it would've been perfection.

Rigatoni, pork sausage, broccoli, ricotta

The rigatoni was also something I didn't expect to be as good as it was. If all broccoli tasted this good, I would have no qualms eating it on a daily basis! When I took a bite of the broccoli, there was a real hit of basil and we all know how much I love my fresh herbs :D

Pappardelle, wild rabbit, pancetta, rosemary, parmesan

The parppardelle was made much wider than I'm used to but that really doesn't affect anything. Rabbit is only something I've had once before and I can happily say that the game meat was scattered in wonderful tender chunks in a tomato based pasta sauce.

‘Stinco di maiale’ roast pork shin, fennel, bay, potato

I expected the dishes of the second piatti to the be the smallest but I was definitely wrong! The waiter brings this out to me and laughs a little.

"I hope you're hungry!" he says.

My eyes popped out at how large the serving was. It was the entire pork shin! At this stage I was beyond full. But power on for the food! What I absolutely adored was the fennel. It was so soft and was just holding its form together. Just the way I like my fennel cooked! I'm glad the pork was left on the bone - the flavour is always better that way!

Roast blue eye, fennel, orange, olive, strega

When fish is cooked this well, I really want to clap my hands in glee. It was so moist! With a a simple squeeze of lemon atop the fish, it was all thumbs up.

Trippa alla Romana, beef tripe, guanciale, tomato, mint, oregano, pecorino

A lot of people aren't into offal, but for those of you who are - get this dish! There was plenty of awesome sauce left over to be wiped up with the bread on offer :P

Spring lamb shoulder, caponata, pine nuts, mint

Lamb shoulder is such a gorgeous cut of meat because of all the fat on it so it's barely a dish where you go "Oh dear, the meat is far too dry". Tender to the point of falling apart, there was little to fault with how it was cooked. Eaten with the caponata, it really made this dish sing.

I don't think we could have fitted in dessert no matter how hard we tried. Despite it being a Friday night and located next to the Pool Club, it was surprisingly not too loud. But that may have possibly been because it was raining that night :P For only $55, the meal was very good value especially with the large serving sizes. Uccello provided both quality and quantity tonight and left us rolling out the door in a food coma-esque state!

Uccello
Level 4, 320 George St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Opening Hours

Lunch
Monday - Friday: 12:00 – 3:00pm

Dinner
Monday to Saturday 6:00 – 10:30pm

Chur Burger, Surry Hills

If there's one thing you cannot eat gracefully, it's got to be the burger. But there's just something about burgers that always hit the spot. Definitely not the healthiest thing in the world, but if you're gonna splurge on your health kick, it may as well be on something amazingly delicious like a good old burger right? Alas, I love food too much to ever think about dieting (as do my fellow food lover friends) and that is how my fellow friends Chef Meathead, Miss Dentist-In-Training and I end up at Chur Burger on a Tuesday night - lured in by the promise of $10 burgers.

Pulled pork, Chur BBQ sauce, red slaw & fennel mayo burger, $10.00

There was one burger and one burger only that I was going to order. I only had eyes for the pulled pork. It comes to you looking deceptively small, but this baby's packed to the brim full of pulled pork. Would you like some bread with your pork? Would I ever! The pork was incredibly juicy and wonderfully sweet and simply just worked with the slaw and mayo. Some flavour combos are just meant to be you know?

Crumbed fish fillet, pickled cucumber, lemon mayo & dill burger, $10.00

Miss Dentist-In-Training was ever so kind enough to give me some of her fish burger and I was pleasantly surprised that it was quite nice because I am not normally a lover of things reminiscent of fish fingers. However, my heart was stolen by the pulled pork burger very early on in the night. I gotta say, I think Chur's winning mayo is what makes their burgers so awesome.

L to R: Sweet potato fries, $5.00 / Crumbed fish fillet burger, $10.00 / Strawberry milkshake, $8.00

If you love that artificial strawberry flavour like you can get at those old school milk bars, go for the strawberry milkshake! I personally love it, though I know some people are quite against it, so I really loved drinking the milkshake and feeling like a kid again. Chef Meathead's salted caramel milkshake was also pretty good but he did say it started getting a little bit too sweet the more he drank it.

Sweet potato fries, garlic & lime, $5.00

I'm an avid fan of sweet potato, and I love them baked just plain BUT if I'm going to order them at a restaurant, I would expect more than just the same kind of sweet potato that I make myself at home. I was excited about the garlic and lime but unfortunately I didn't get a taste of either. And I know there's something nice about home style chunky cut chips, but some of the pieces were huuuge. I'm talking half a sweet potato per single chip...

Chips & chilli salt, $5.00

These were much more crispy than the sweet potato fries and don't worry if you can't handle your chilli because the chilli powder wasn't very hot. My friend ended up chucking on a whole tonne of tabasco sauce for that chilli kick he was looking for.

Chef Meathead happily demolishing his pulled pork burger

Seriously do not underestimate the size of the burger! It looks so small but there's so much filling that we all left Chur Burger in a semi food coma-esque state. But we also had a lot of potato to get through (with Chef Meathead ordering a whole batch for himself). I think our eyes are too big for our stomachs - I always want to order everything on the menu! And especially with my friend Miss Dentist-In-Training who has eyes equally as big... We are a bad combo :P

I really wanted to try the chicken wings here but we had nowhere near enough stomach space to do so. Ah, next time. So tell me, do you guys have issues with wanting to order everything on the menu like I do?

Chur Burger
48 Albion Street
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010

Opening Hours
Monday: 11:30am - 5:00pm
Tuesday - Saturday: 11:30am - 10:00pm
Sunday: Closed

Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe, Melbourne CBD

Walking around the unassuming streets of Southern Cross Station, we discovered a little Japanese café just on Collins St. And with a name like Purple Peanuts Café, how could we not enter?

Tuna onigiri, $4.50

I couldn’t help myself but order the tuna onigiri. The little triangles looked too tempting. And at $4.50, how can you resist the cheap deal? We had a choice to douse it in chilli, sesame or teriyaki sauce and we went with chilli. The onigiri itself had been fried to give a nice brown hue so that the rice had crunch with every bite. The chilli sauce wasn’t that spicy, but instead provided more flavour which had me coming back for more.

Katkuni pork $9.50

Ah, pork belly, one of the fattiest cuts of meat but also one of the most delicious. This particular dish comprised of pork belly that had been braised over several hours so the fat simply dissolved on your tongue and the meat was so tender.  Ah,it was bliss to eat.

Goma bean salad, $4.50 for a small

Coz we had to make up for our unhealthiness from the pork belly, we got a side of vegetables too. Carrots and beans mixed through sesame sauce.

They also sell some interesting desserts like matcha tiramisu and green tea chocolate that they make themselves! A bit on the pricey side, but you wouldn’t expect things to be cheap if they were handmade.

We stayed for a while, discussing our group project and weren’t pushed to leave. It was relatively quiet though they still had a steady stream of customers. But I was very happy with the discovery of the pan fried onigiri – that is something I ought to experiment at home with! Maybe after I learn to make the actual onigiri first :P

Purple Peanuts Japanese Cafe

620 Collins St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Opening Hours

Monday - Saturday: 9:00am - 8:30pm

Gumshara, Haymarket

"I love ramen," I said whilst slurping on awesome ramen, not giving a care in the world how I looked.
"Have you been to Gumshara?" my friend asks. 

And thus the legendary ramen of Gumshara was brought up again. I have heard its name far and wide, heard it was good, and that it was the collagen-rific soup of dreams but with all the hype, can it really live up to its name? So it was that one hungry afternoon, I made a pit stop with my sister to try this amazing soup that cooks for hours and hours upon their stove pot in the small kitchen of Eating World food court.

Gumshara is an unassuming little joint, with a little shop front. As long as we can order, that's good enough for me. I was very insistent upon trying the thick tonkotsu soup, but they don't serve that until 5pm ie dinner service. What a pity that was - so disappointing!

Garlic tonkotsu ramen noodle, $11.50

I settled upon the garlic tonkotsu ramen because how can you go wrong with garlic oil? ;) Best stuff ever! So how was it? Can I just say that the soup is the stuff of dreams? With an awesome hit of garlic! Love it. If this was the thinner soup, the thick one must be super intense! This was still sticky enough from all the collagen boiled down from the bones that you could feel it sticking to your lips. The flavour was strong and the noodles were awesomely springy. Of course I also had to nab those eggs first before my sister could even try to steal them. As everyone with siblings knows, first come, first served! Mm, googy eggs... And those ribbons of fat on the chashu! So tender and melt in the mouth... I really wonder if I could down a bowl of the thicker soup. I guess it warrants a revisit to test my limits!

Gumshara Ramen
Shop 211 25-29 Dixon St
Haymarket, NSW, 2000

Opening Hours

Monday: 11:30am - 8:30pm

Tuesday - Saturday: 11:30am - 9:00pm

Sunday: 11:30am - 8:30pm

The Dip, Sydney CBD

The Dip was a huge thing when they first opened - good comforting American style burgers in the middle of Sydney? Three cheers for that! I've been many times, but I've never really gotten around to blogging about it as I've never taken many photos, but I finally have a couple!

Good God turns into a semi-night club as the night progresses normally. So it is quite a dark space when you head on down. I wouldn't quite recommend getting the jugs - they are quite expensive for what they are. It's pretty much cordial as it's quite watered down. Definitely light on the shots. But the food is another matter!

Pulled pork nachos, $15.00

Best nachos ever, hands down. Soft pulled pork that's slightly sweet with all that melty cheese and salsa, beans, jalepeno sauce and a sprinkling of spring onion for good measure. Yum.

Southern smoke, $12.00

Yes, I love my pork. It is an incredibly versatile meat I tell you. You can have it on top of nachos and you can also have it in a burger! With apple and cabbage slaw, beans and BBQ sauce, this combination was a winner. Something about apple brings out the sweetness in pork. It's awesome. This burger was incredibly messy to eat with the soft bun, but boy was it worth it. Plus I wasn't going out of my way to impress anyone - good friends deal with friends messily eating burgers :P

The Dip always provides solid food so I never mind heading over again every so once in a while - which I do!

The Dip
55 Liverpool St
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Opening Hours
Wednesday - Thursday: 5:00pm - 10:00pm
Friday: 5:00pm - 11:00pm
Saturday: 6:00pm - 11:00pm