First of all, apologize for the lack of blog posting after holiday.

We got back from holiday (Indo) on 1 Dec 08, arriving at Sydney in the morning, using …. Singapore Airlines A380. It is the latest one (from the registration number 9V-SKF CMIIW). A bit of delay when boarding at Singapore, probably some technical problems. When I got the time, I will put some photos on my photoblog. One funny thing, there are 2 girls sitting right across us. They started to cry when the plane was taking off. Overwhelmed to fly A380? Hehehe.

We celebrated our 1st anniversary by having dinner at Meat & Wine Co. Nothing fancy, just kangaroo meat and rib eye steak.

Then, came back to work on Dec 3rd. Our church presented a musical Christmas celebration on Dec 6, and it was really beautiful, fantastic, spectacular. I felt honoured to document this event. Photos can be seen here and here for the behind the scenes .

On Christmas day, went to church, taking photos as usual . Results can be seen here. After that, went home and got a bad headache so stayed at home for the rest of the day. Mean while some of my friends, they queued at DJ to get some vouchers from 2AM. It is for the first 100 people standing in the queue. I think I will do this thing next December . Then, went to the city on boxing day, bought nothing even there are sale everywhere.

So now, we are back to normal life, no holiday anymore, we can concentrate on buying our first pad . We are still deciding which home loan we will take. Currently, the choice is with ANZ because all the good & brilliant people at my workplace recommend it. Anyway, we will go to a mortgage broker so we can compare home loan products.

Yet another culinary adventure with friends after church in the evening. We found out that Daruma (in Prince Centre) actually closed on Sunday nights so have to try it on other days, maybe we’ll go there on Saturday afternoon.

When we came in, was greeted by some waitress in quite sexy outfit hahaha. Maybe this is some sort of marketing ploy to get more people come to the restaurant. So, we quickly perused the menu and decided to order some basic Thai foods. Maybe if we come back again, we’ll try some fancy ones

Since the room is a bit dimmed, all photos are a bit dark with no flash used.

So many delicious foods hmmmm …

Som Tum Thai & Pu
Green papaya salad with small crabs. At first bite, it was not that hot, but when the foods in the mouth, the chilli started to kick and my throat on fire. LOL. Was good but I like the ones from Saap Thai better.

BBQ Pork Neck
It is grilled pork neck laid on bed of lettuces, with some dipping sauce (soy sauce). As expected, pork is tasty as always. Hahaha

Green Thai Curry
Man, this dish really hit the spot and we all agreed it was fantastic. But we wonder is there any MSG used ?

Stir fried chicken with chilli basil (hot)
Like a normal stir fried chicken everywhere else, with some chilli and thai flavour.

The staple foods – sticky rice.

Recommended

Woo hoo, we are pretty excited right now because we gonna have 3 weeks holiday on this month. We will be going back to Indonesia, mainly Jakarta (our beloved hometown) because we really missed it and want to catch up with some friends and family especially Diana since this is her first time going back home after almost 1 year living abroad in OZ. I know 3 weeks is pretty short to spend at Indo but you know, annual leave quota does not let me stay longer What more, it really is not the best time to go for holiday since Aus Dollar is pretty low and this means more money to buy foreign currency.

Jakarta – here we come.

Anyway, we will leave Sydney on 6 Nov by Singapore Airlines, taking their last flight (they fly 4x a day Syd-Sin), so will arrive at Singapore around 12AM. Decided to spend the night at the Airport Hotel so we can spend the next day (7 Nov) sightseeing (probably bit of shopping) around Singapore. Then we gonna take last flight to Jakarta at 9.20PM using SQ as well so arrive at Jakarta at 10PM local time.

We will also going to Bali for 4 days 3 months since we can’t get enough of Bali during our honeymoon last year hehehe. Everything is taken care of, from the flights, hotel, transport even itinerary is scheduled so we can only hope everything will be work in place and no delays whatsoever. The only thing we worried is Air Asia (for flight to Bali), they are quite infamous with flight delays but when you travelling cheap, can’t really do anything more other than wait

We at Bali last December.

The temple where Kecak dance is performed on Uluwatu at sunset time.

Pura Ulun Danu

Of course, one of “must do” thing in Indo is to try local foods (let’s hope our tummy can stand the foods) so expect many many entries about this. We have listed which restaurants & places I should go at Jakarta, Bandung and Bali hahaha. We mainly want to eat Indo foods because we missed these the most, the reason is although there are some Indo restaurants in Sydney (mainly on Anzac Pde – Kensignton & Kingsford), the taste is not that original. In Jakarta, there are a lot of good foods you can get from hawker and small restaurants

We went to Chat Thai last week after watched the movie “Body of Lies”. For you who have not watched Body of Lies, you better get going because it was a good movie with some twist at the end, and Di Caprio really shines as CIA agent hunting a terrorist cell in Middle East. Russel Crowe’s character is quite annoying as the bullish CIA boss.

We were there at 6 to have a quick dinner but the plan have to change since there were so many people already queued and the movie starting at 7 PM. I just made a quick reservation tell them we will come back at 9.30 PM.

Located in front of room, I think they make deserts and some sweet foods to take away.

People are still queueing at 9.30PM.

Finally seated. Nicely decorated interior.

We came back at 9.30PM and got our seat straightaway. Although we quite often eat Thai foods, but the menu listed some of the foods we never heard before.

Grilled pork satay with sauce.
Sauce is some kind fish sauce garnished with some shallots. Being Indonesian, I prefer to have my satay with sweet soy sauce

Barramundi stuffed with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.
The fish is chargrilled. Tasted ok on its own (they did not put any sauce), this dish accompanied by nam jim jeaw, a spicy relish of chilly, palm sugar, tamarind essence with hint of tomato. So you can imagine it is quite sour, but the sourness compliment the fish perfectly.

We only had these 2 dishes with sticky rice.

We ate here with Erwin on his daytrip around Sydney.

Reached there around 1.30-2PM, as expected it was busy time as there were lotsa people queueing up buying foods. I managed to get a seat inside so Erwin and Diana waited for the foods outside.

We only had 3 dishes which are The Seafood Basket (variety of deep fried seafoods), Combo Pack (almost the same thing with The Basket), and Oysters 1/2 doz with Mornay Sauce and Cheese.

Oysters 1/2 doz with Mornay Sauce and Cheese

Fresh oysters, cheese is salty and gooey enough. First time trying the mornay sauce

The Seafood Basket & Combo Pack
Consists of 2 pcs of fish, calamaris, prawn cutlets, scallops, and of course chips. Overall I can’t differentiate deep fried taste from any other fish and chips shops. The fish are beer battered (I think) so the crispiness is well … quite crispy The sweet chilli sauce provided need a bit more taste to it as the it is not strong, but then again people prefer it that way …. but I like it hot

Last Thursday, we were keen to go to Sydney Night Noodle market, and three of us (me, Diana, Erwin) arrived at 8PM only to found too many crowds queueing at the stalls and we felt very very hungry.

Decided that better look for some nearest restaurant that is not too crowded so we can eat straight away. Well, what do you know, we really found one and literally after we order (a minute or so), the foods came to our table blazing fast!

Actually, we have been wanting to dine here but never got the chance so we gave it try.

Pork Katsu Don set
Erwin ordered this and I tasted a bit as well. Crumbs is a bit on the soggy side.

Diana had the Tasmania Don which consists of sashimis with rice. There is also some tartare sauce? The fishes don’t look fresh.

Meanwhile, I had the Teriyaki Chicken set. Again pretty common taste.

Takoyaki, bland taste inside. The mayonaise does not help bring up the taste either. Big no-no!

Deep Fried Gyoza, no good as well.

We are totally disappointed with the taste, and freshness of the foods. They already prepare the foods in the plate / bowl so I assume they just heat it in microwave before serve it. Also, a bit hard getting cold water as the waitress didn’t want to give the big bottle. So everytime we have to call for water to be filled. That is a bit silly. For sure, we won’t be coming back here.

Now is Friday afternoon, and I am still deciding what to have for dinner ….. hopefully it is not going to be as bad as Sakura

After keep having ramen at Ryo’s, we came back here (as we were in the neighborhood) last Saturday. Was quite busy considering it was just about 6PM when we got in, and luckily some people just left so we managed to get seats in that small crowded place

As usual, you have to order and pay first at the counter. I ordered Miso Ramen, Diana got the Tokyo Ramen and Erwin ordered Chashu Ramen. If you really paid attention, the price is different from the one in TGV, it is cheaper here. Probably due to location and rental fees

Chashu ramen – $12.00
I think there was like 5 or 6 pieces of sliced pork, topped with shallots.

Tokyo Ramen – $8.90
The broth is clear with soy sauce. Garnish includes soy sauce egg, fishcake and seaweeds.

Miso ramen – $8.90
Filled with miso paste, the taste is not as bland as tokyo ramen. But there was only the sliced pork, shallots, corns and bean sprouts.

Writing this post makes me want to eat ramen again ………………….. at Ryo’s

Constant cravings of pad thai made me went to Saap Thai for dinner last week. This place is conveniently located just across the World Square on Pitt St, so for those hungry people after shopping, they can hop there easily and have some good thai foods.

Got there around 6 – 6.30, we quickly seated and order 3 dishes

Som Tum Thai – $7.50
It is mix papaya/pawpaw salad with some tomatoes, peanuts and green beans. Their som tum thai is quite hot, so we requested them to make it a bit milder.

Pad Se Ew (beef)- $8.00
Similar to fried rice noodles (guo tiao).

Pad Thai (beef) – $8.00
The best pad thai I believe hahaha. They have a bit of sourness (probably due to some lemon juice) on the pad thai. I prefer my pad thai this way.

Thai Ice Milk tea – $3.50
Just to cool it off after some heat from the chilli on som tum. I didn’t like it too much, but Diana digs it so she had this for herself, meanwhile I only drink the cold tap water

Just went there today after work. Actually went there last week on Thursday night, but was very crowded. So we came back today and got there at 6 PM so not yet crowded and there were seats available. We missed this event last year, so now can’t afford to miss it

I read a post on Eat Like A Cow about the Noodle Market and therefore decided to try Yai, Singapore Guo Tiao King and East Ocean.

Not too many people yet when we came at 6PM

Singapore Guo Tiao King stall

BBQ King Prawn Guo Tiao – $12
NO trace of MSG, Diana thought it’s a bit heavy on oyster sauce, otherwise tasted almost the same like the ones you can get in Singapore. It is not really a king prawn as you can see the smallish size of prawns.

Pad thai – $9
I got this pad thai from Yai’s Surry Hills. Quite surprised they already made the pad thai so it is ready to be packed and served. The taste is nothing special, no little sour taste which I really like in pad thai from Saap Thai. I think it really just the same ordinary pad thai you can get from some food court.

Salt and Pepper Calamari – $12
Diana said it is not really calamari, it is octopussquid tentacle. I don’t know and not care too much, but this portion really made us full.

The 3 dishes we had

Various stalls for this year’s noodle market :

The VIP area

Why would there be lion dance?

The long queue on Jackie M Malaysian Cuisine. I wonder if they have any specialty dishes?

This stall has quite a long queue as well. Never tried gozleme before, it is interesting to give it try sometime. The photo shows gozleme with fetta cheese, spinach and beef being made.

Increasing amount of crowds when we about to leave Hyde Park

We did not get any drinks from the noodle market, and luckily found this on our way back to the car :

Easy Way just opened on the Myer food court (Sydney Central Plaza food court). And they have a special offer going on until 23 Oct 2008. So while you are there, grab this one

Buy 1 get 1 free until 23 Oct 08

Medium green apple green tea with aloe vera

Medium lychee green tea with aloe vera

All in all, we are quite satisfied with foods and even more satisfied due to Easy Way buy 1 get 1 free Thinking of going back for the next few days try different foods, if we have the time.

Was going to have dinner at Daruma after church with the usual mob, we found out that they were closed for public as there was a private function held. So, we went to Wagaya instead since it has been 3 months ago we eaten here.

Once there, we were told to wait 30 minutes as they were quite busy at the time. So we duly wait and precisely after 30 mins mark, we were called to our table. As you might have know, this place got a touchscreen on each table for ordering foods so no need for calling waitress. That is quite cool but what about food quality? We are about to find out.

Menu is quite big and lots of foods are listed in there, so we needed a bit of time to make up our mind. To me, a large menu is a sign that food quality is not gonna be that special since they have to make a lot variety of foods in short time to fulfill customer’s demand.

Sushi roulette – $8.60
We started off with this. Luckily I didn’t get the one with massive amount of wasabi. Too bad we all forgot to put the soy sauce since we too much paying attention picking the sushi.

Dragon Roll – $9.80

Rainbow roll – $9.80
Sam & Stephanie had dragon roll. Feri & Shierlyne got the rainbow roll. Did not expect the sushi roll look so small. Totally different than what we had 3 months ago. Why did they make the size smaller? Totally disappointed with these rolls. Not recommended having sushi at this place.

Salmon chazuke – $8.90
Mark chose this one as he likes rice very much hahaha. It is a salmon soup with rice (and ginger I assume). I thought it is a bit expensive since bowl is not that big.

Sukiyaki – $9.90
Diana and I had this, it comes with the portable stove and everything is still raw. Tasted quite ok.

Yaki Onigiri – $5.50
Oily, salty and only a little bit of fish inside. I just imagined I am having those onigiris from Ryo Noodle’s when having this, hahaha it is that bad!

Overall experience is not very delightful. All of us are really let down with small portion size and somewhat mediocre taste. We all agreed won’t be coming back here.