Showing posts with label rice cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rice cakes. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

Momofuku Seiobo, Pyrmont


As an extremely belated birthday present from my dearest younger sister, she treated me to a dinner at the Momofuku bar - what a darling :) Dining at the bar is as easy as 1, 2, 3. There is no need to go through the rumoured frustrating online reservation process. Just stroll right in after 6:30 and you could be eating pork buns in as little as 15 minutes without having to fork out for their degustation menu! I have desperately been wanting to try the pork buns here after really enjoying the ones from Ippudo :D


Our eyes were clearly bigger than our stomachs and we managed to order majority of the menu minus the pickled items. Shame because I really am interested to see what a pickled egg is like!

Pork buns, $15.00
The pork buns come as a serving of two and looked ever so inviting with two pieces of pork belly sandwiched in the middle with cucumber and hoisin sauce. Give a little squeeze from the sriracha bottle depending on how spicy you like it and it was perfect. The pork was so tender! The bun was so soft! It felt like biting into a pillow hehe. The flavour profile is completely different to that of Ippudo, so I really wouldn't compare the two at all.

Confit chicken wings, $16.00
Though the menu said wings, it came as a serve of three mini drumsticks and three wings. The chicken was deliciously succulent and coated in a super flavoursome sauce. Tried to keep it classy by eating these with our chopsticks :P

Spanner crab roll, celery salt chip, $22.00
While the crab brioche roll was nice, I wasn't particularly enamoured with it, instead being incredibly wowed by the celery salt chips on the plate! I would not have picked up on the very subtle celery flavour if it wasn't mentioned on the menu. I only paid careful attention because I was aware of it. That aside, I loved the chips! Thin, crispy, delicate. What's not to like?

Roasted rice cakes, xo, lamb, $17.00
I've had this dish twice now, with my friend ordering it when I came back for a revisit. When I first tried it, the ginger completely overpowered the flavour of the lamb. Was the mince beef? Pork? It was hard to tell, despite trying to get past that ginger hit. There was also a tad too much spice however, I still quite enjoyed this dish. It was quite addictive with the crunch of the outside of the rice cakes giving way to a soft, chewy centre. The balance of flavours on the second time around were spot on though! I enjoyed it much more that time. I'm just a bit surprised at the huge inconsistency in flavour at this high end establishment though.

Fried brussel sprouts, fish sauce vinaigrette, $15.00
I used to hate brussel sprouts but these mini cabbage-like vegetables have grown on me over the years. I generally enjoy them with bacon! However, this version won me over all over again. Slightly tart from the vinegar yet there was a strong salty kick from the fish sauce. Not to mention that crunch you get from the popped rice and the vegetable had slightly crispy outer leaves from being fried. I would've been happy with just this and a bowl of rice.

Top to bottom: bread & butter pudding, pear & almond, pecan danish, caramel au buerre sale, pineapple, caramel banana balsamic, salted butter caramel on toast, popcorn, lychee & coconut, fingerbun
And the sister and I could not resist getting a box of macarons from Zumbo right opposite of Momofuku. Special mention goes to the caramel banana balsamic which stole my heart! I was very wary about this one, despite the store assistant raving about it but boy am I glad we decided to get it after all. There was none of that artificial banana flavour crap, and it melded extremely well with the dot of reduced balsamic glaze in the centre of the macaron. Delicious! All of these were gone much too quickly. They were all way too delicious. I had my heart set on trying out the zonut, but apparently they are all gone by 1pm already :( Better luck next time I suppose.

Momofuku Seiobo
The Star, Level G, 80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont, NSW, 2009
http://momofuku.com/sydney/seiobo/

Opening Hours

Lunch
Friday + Saturday

Dinner
Monday - Saturday

Bar
Monday - Saturday: 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Friday + Saturday: 12:00noon – 2:00pm

Momofuku Seiƍbo on Urbanspoon

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Alrose Garden, Strathfield

Met up with my girlies a few days ago on a Tuesday night in Strathfield for some Korean feed.

Fried chicken, $14.00 with extra sweet spicy sauce, $1.00
Fried chicken!! You have to get the extra sweet spicy sauce because it makes it taste much better. This fried chicken came with the usual pickled daikon (which I love) and the chicken was decent, though it's got nothing on NaruOne, I'm sorry. Just wasn't as juicy or succulent. Could really go back for more of NaruOne's fried chicken right now!

Udon stir fried with udon, $15.00
They definitely were not stingy with the seafood here at all! Look at all that octopus, squid, mussel, and prawns... The spicy sauce had a lovely kick to it.

Beef ribs and vegetables with rice cakes, $15.00
This dish had a similar spicy sauce to the udon but who's complaining when it tastes good and there's rice cakes? I think I have a slight obsession with those chewy strips of goodness. The beef could've had a little more time to cook just to make it fall of the bone, but the flavour was there and it was pretty fantastic. Hidden vermicelli noodles hidden underneath everything! I loved dipping the rice cake into the sweet spicy sauce that came with the fried chicken. That was some good chilli sauce.

Pork schnitzel with rice and salad, $15.00
Holy look at the size of that schnitzel! To give you an idea of how huge that schnitzel was, that little mound of purple rice is the normal serving size of rice you would get when going to restaurants. Yep. The schnitzel was as big as my face. And boy was it good. The crust was so crunchy, yet not excessively oily. The sweet and sour sauce provided on the side really finished things off. Loved the purple rice as well - something I had never seen until now! Slightly more sticky than the normal white rice I eat.

Good food and huge serving sizes. Ended up being less than $15 per person!

Headed over to Yogurberry for dessert because who doesn't have room for froyo? :D Bumped into a few other friends I hadn't seen for a while too - it's always great catching up!

Alrose Garden
7-9 Churchill Ave
Strathfield, NSW, 2135
9764 1117

Alrose Garden on Urbanspoon