O My Dog!

I recently went to Great World City with Shi Min and we chanced upon O My Dog! which is part of Skinny Pizza.

It was nearing dinner time and i didn’t want to eat a hot dog (even though i would try it next time).

What we did have this time is…

It’s kinda a cute place. and what we tried this time was the Truffle Taro Fries!

It is $4 for a small packet. The taro are sliced into thin thin strips and we liked it! This is definitely something i would order again to eat while walking around at Great World City. Love it! It had a great scent and taste of truffles!

Beef Noodles @ Toa Payoh

I really need to know the name of this stall.

I chanced upon this little stall at a Toa Payoh coffeeshop when i needed dinner with my mum one night.

And i really like eating beef noodles – dry, with a bowl of soup.

What i like about this is that the sauce is nicely thickened, there are no lumpy lumps. It is not so thick that you just know they have used too much cornstarch. The texture is great.

Also, while the chilli it comes with is nothing fantastic, it is spicy and sour – a perfect accompaniment.

A normal bowl is $4.50 but fish added 4 beef balls each.

There is a minimum of 2 beef balls for $1.

These are not your common run-of-the-mill beef balls you find in the supermarket. It would seem like these are homemade and are well flavoured.

This is our table for dinner and it was a simple dinner – which we hardly have but i think we should have more often, cause i did enjoy it.

This coffeeshop is located next to Toa Payoh Courts and has a big chicken rice stall – so you shouldn’t miss it.

Can’t wait to return again! :D

Okinawan Diner Nirai-Kanai @ Liang Court

Liang Court is one of my newest hangout simply because it fulfils my criteria of being a less congested but yet still lively place.

Another big reason is because there are so many Japanese restaurants there!

One that i have recently gone with fish is an Okinawan Diner at the basement of Liang Court.

It seems to serve very homely and authentic Japanese food. This is not a restaurant you go to if you are looking to eat sushi, sashimi and the likes thereof.

One of our favourite items that we have tried is …….

This is a type of gourd which is called silk gourd translating directly from its chinese name si gua 丝瓜. I love this – it’s basically si gua and tofu simmered/braised in a miso based broth. Delicious! I would so get this in a set the next time i’m there.

This is … seaweed tempura. Yumm! It’s not completely crunchy since seaweed obviously isn’t. This is not the thin crunchy seaweed you buy in packets. It’s the soft version. We really liked this since we love adding extra seaweed in our ramen usually. Definitely will order this again!

This is really delicious! Deep-fried mincemeat patties! A little on the salty side, but oh! so delish!

 
This is what  got for my main dish. It’s fried noodles in a salt-base with a poached egg on top. So i poked the egg yolk and mixed the egg with my noodles! Love it! But i would try something else next time. just for variety sake.

This is what dish ordered – a pork belly set since we heard that their pork belly is awesome. but, we were unfortunately disappointed with this. It wasn’t as soft and tender as we had wished. Fish also changed the rice to okinawan rice which is flavoured rice with mushrooms and vegetables – we like this rice but it was i think $2 or $2.50 to change to this rice.

The presentation is really good though. See how they arrange the veggies to look like a tree?

Definitely worth a visit if you go to Liang Court!

Skinny Pizza (Wheelock Place)

Hello!

It’s been a while. a real long while. The new year has come and this year is one full of trepidation and fear and hope and all other sorts of emotions for me. I also want to re-start on my blog – i’ve been neglecting it for far too long.

So for my first post in the hopefully-going-to-be-awesome new year, i’m gonna be documenting a place that me and fish like eating at – maybe a little bit more me than fish.

It’s called – as the title of the post suggests – Skinny Pizza. and the branch that i always go to is the one at Wheelock Place. Simply because i prefer to be away from the crowd – i like a place that has enough people to be vibrant and lively but not so much that i wanna get out of there asap.

So, of course, this place specializes in pizza.. but what makes its skinny? It’s low on carbs, because the traditional pizza dough is not present here, what we do have instead, is a base of super thin crunchy layer that still provides the mouth-feel of having some sort of carbohydrates, but yet not so much that you feel incredibly full after a few slices. What it provides instead, is the ability to enjoy and taste the various different flavours of the pizza.

In our case, we decided on “The English Breakfast”.

This has fresh rocket leaves, fried bacon, sautéed mushrooms, a yummo fried egg and shaved parmesan. This has to be one of my favourite-test flavour combo! (I leave the rocket leaves to fish though.. hehe)

With 1 pizza, we obviously need sides! 3 sides for $15.

 

We have here… Seared Brie Cheese. Which only i will eat because fish doesn’t like to eat brie or blue cheeses. It is not so much seared then fried in a crust of pistachios which i love. 

Truffle Fries! Need i say much more?

1/4 metre long Spicy Chicken Sausage! I love the spiciness. and i love chicken sausage.

And now…. for drinks!

This is the Riverside Raspberry Julep Can-Can Mocktail. $6 each.

I really like this because i love lychees. I can’t exactly remember what there are in this drink – but the lychee flavour is quite prominent and that is what i love about this drink.

Fish chose an alcoholic drink that came in a tiffin. I don’t remember what it is exactly but it tastes quite good and fish liked it.

And thus,

We end our dinner.

Disclaimer: This is actually less than what we would usually eat. cause i wasn’t hungry that day. if i were, i think we might need 2 pizzas!

An outing with Yuki! – Westfield Sydney + The Rocks Night Market!

Me and fish went out with Yuki recently and we decided to have dinner at the relatively new Westfield Sydney's food court.

I had eaten there with fish previously and on our first visit, i tried the Snag Stand and fish tried .. i don't know what the stall's name is, but they advertise their reuben sandwich quite prominently.

I really like the Snag Stand.

I ordered their Toulouse (Bangalow Pork) – Freshly grilled w/ sauteed onions, rosemary mushrooms and truffle aioli on a toasted brioche roll $10.90

It was sooo delicious! The sausage was cooked perfectly, it was delicious and juicy! The truffle aioli sauce tasted just like a intense cream of mushroom soup sauce. yum yum.

The fries are great too! You have to order them! They are $3.90, made with 100% Tasmanian Russet Potatoes w/ Natural Sea Salt Flakes. They are so crunchy and the sea salt adds a very nice salty edge to the crispy fries.

They also have a range of dipping sauces which you can try. I tried the Wasabi Aioli and Chipotle Mayo but the next time i'll be trying their Truffle Aioli (which was on the sausage) and House Gravy.

Fish on the other hand, got a Reuben sandwich in a plate, so it doesn't come with bread, but with sides instead.

It's a waygu corned beef (i think) with an assortment of roasted veggies and pickles. The meat was really good and the vegetables were well roasted. Only thing though, we were so excited to try their roasted potatoes which were roasted in duck fat, but it was a little disappointing though. nothing special, maybe because it was left out and not freshly roasted.

Now, to skip to our outing with Yuki, i decided to go with sausages again!

This time, i tried their Pork & Fennel Italian sausage – Grilled w/ sauteed tri-color capsicum, sauteed onions, balsamic glaze & shaved parmesan on a toasted brioche roll. $9.90

With fries for sure!

This one is quite nice too, but i don't like gamey meat and this was slightly gamey for me, so i wouldn't order it again but it was still delicious!

Fish ordered from the same place as he did previously as well! but this time, he ordered crispy skin pork instead.

It came with almost the same sides but without gherkins but with apples instead.

The pork was nice and everything is good. but this is definitely a more fine dining kinda feeling since it's price is quite expensive but yet you feel like you're not really getting what you're paid for.

The portion of the meat isn't huge and the veggies are all pre-roasted and displayed.

Now for Yuki! We walked around and she was attracted to a fish dish from one of the stalls. She ordered a grilled barramundi with fries and salad. She didn't complain, so i presume it should be quite okay!

Next, we sat 555 to circular quay as we wanted to go to The Rock's Night Market. On the way there, for the first time since i'm been here, we saw a huge luxury cruise liner!! I so wanna fo for a cruise now!

Then we walked around the night markets and i bought 2 little bowls that i intend to use to as dipping/sauce bowls. They are hand-painted.

After walking, fish was still hungry and we decided to go for dessert at Pancakes @ The Rocks!

I had my favourite drink there – a lime soda!

Fish had Bananarama crepes and me and Yuki shared a Bavarian apple crepe + pancake combo!

It was good!! We were very full after this!

** Thank you to Yuki for helping me get my kitchen gadgets from Japan! and thank you too for your souvenirs!

This is so kawaii! Hello Kitty Takoyaki! I hang it on my camera pouch! Thank you again Yuki!!

Dome Restaurant @ The Arthouse Hotel, Sydney

6 months ago, i bought 2 coupons online for this restaurant, which i had never heard of. but i decided it might be quite nice.

So i went there first with fish on his birthday, but the place was too dark and the pictures didn't work out too well. This time, we went with hui and i used flash, so at least you can see something now!

Entrees

I have to say, their best dishes are their entrees. For me, at least.

  
King Fish & Tiger Prawn Chowder served with garlic croutons. This was delicious! I'll gladly drink more.

Gorgonzola Soufflé served with pumpkin oil & rocket. This was Hui's entree. It was good, especially if you like your blue cheese!

Grilled Queensland Scallops & Gnocchi Medallions with nut brown butter. This was fish's and he loves the scallops. This can also be ordered as a main dish.

Mains

Corzetti Pasta, Pan-Fried with prawns, parmesan, chilli & chives. I ate this the first time as an entree and loved it so much, i ordered it as a main this time round. It's like aglio olio. I like.

Grilled Eye Fillet Of Beef with mash potato, agrodolce onions & béarnaise. The first time fish ate this, it wasn't awesome. He ordered it medium well and it came well, so it was a little tough. This time, he ordered it medium and it was perfect. It was so so delicious! He was very nice to share it with us. :)

Handmade Tagliatelle Pasta with sautéed mushrooms, parsley & pecorino cheese. Hui had this and to be perfectly honest, it wasn't that great. She couldn't finish it all and the pasta wasn't as delicious as i had hoped. So, unless this was below standard, i say skip this and go for mine's or fish's.

Sides

We all need a little green, so a side of veggies is perfect.
 
Really quite unnecessary for our meal. but fries if you want. i would say though, skip the fries and eat your veggies!

Desserts

Cinnamon Poached Pear with clove ice-cream & tuile biscuit. This was quite nice, a light and refreshing end.

 
Bread & Butter Pudding with rum & raison ice-cream. If you wanted something richer, this is fish's favourite. It really tastes good. Otherwise, their soft-centred chocolate pudding is great too!

Drinks

We debated a little because i saw all these beautiful drinks being served and i wanted some too! but i'm not a wine drinker and we were afraid the red sangria might be too strong for me, so we tried the white sangria. Very mild, fruity, slightly sweet. Perfect for me. Very easy to drink.

Conclusion

I actually really like it here. It's a place where you can sit down, have a slow meal and a great conversation. I will definitely be back, cause i so like it here. :)

Giovanna, Kingsford – We still love it!

We’ve been here many times, i think i blogged about it once. and we still love it.

Me and fish decided on here for dinner one night.

We always get garlic bread because i love garlic and i love bread.

We don’t usually have entrees, unless it is to share, i really don’t see how people can eat an entree and a main, when an entree already makes me very full.

So for mains, i got a special ‘Fettuccine with Truffle and Egg.’ According to the lady boss, their family went on a vacation to Italy and brought back 2 bottles of truffle shavings but their sons weren’t too keen on it, so they brought it to be used in the restaurant. So lucky of us!

This is the truffle with egg pasta. Really simple, very rich and good. This is entree size. I really couldn’t possibly have eaten a large sized one.

Fish got a favourite. A rib of beef served with peppercorn sauce. Their sauces here are divine. Fish usually orders 2 sauces, but today he decides to just stick with one. Their diane sauce is great as well. The rib this time was nicely marbled and very juicy and delicious even though fish ordered it medium well.

Fish wanted a pizza. The pizzas here are also classics, there’s no tandoori chicken etc. just plain simple pizza. So we ordered a pizza with tomato, cheese and mushrooms. It was simple and good.

 
Lastly, a serving of tiramisu to share. A sweet note to end the wonderful dinner. :)

and you know. we will be back.

Ding Tai Fung – My love affair starts all over again!

I used to love ding tai fung. Fish called it my happy place, cause i will always become really happy after eating here.

However, after an incident when i brought my relatives there, it angered me so much that i didn’t visit for around 6 months i think.

One day, fish was sick when we went to the city. He wanted something light. and xiao long bao seemed perfect. So we decided to give it another go.

We waited for a little while, got seats at an area i really like. We don’t share tables, so we usually have to wait a little longer. but i really like being seated at the platform on the right side of the restaurant, next to the kitchen. It’s nice and cozy and always have many waiters around for service.

Since fish was sick, we didn’t eat much that day, but we still ordered our favourites.

 
Vegetarian Delight. I love this. This is one of the rare dishes where i will gladly eat my beansprouts.

Fish had a bowl of free range chicken soup. Very light and tasty.

 
Fish didn’t feel well enough to order a main, so we got 16 xiao long baos and he ate most of it. It’s really good though. I don’t like raw ginger, so i always eat mine on its own. i bite a small hole at the bottom side of the dumpling, then pour the golden soup onto my soup, eat the dumpling and then drink up the soup. No wastage. yum yum.

My main which we couldn’t finish. Fried rice with fried chicken cutlet. yum yum again. Fish didn’t eat this since he had a sore throat so we had to take away the left overs. but it is really good. and i’m a rice fanatic. so i love their fried rice.

That’s all we ate this time. but my love affair has been rekindled. so i hope to be back soon! :)