Christmas

Lack of postings due Christmas...and the aftermath (rolling around on the floor because too fat to get up).

Seriously, Christmas is not the best time of the year because of the presents we receive nor the festivities. Christmas is the best of the year because it gives us a legitimate excuse to gain 5 pounds, or 10.

Christmas, prior to mainstreaming was a holiday associated with the birth of Jesus Christ, a celebration for Christianity.
Now, Christmas is more commonly associated with; Presents, Carols, Santa, Tree, decorations, lights, Turkey, BBQ, beach (Australia) so on and so forth.

Every year, families all over the world gather around to enjoy not only each others company, but also to indulge in a wonderful feast.

This year, unfortunately members of our family couldn't make it back for Christmas and thus only had a small gathering. Nonetheless we still had a wonderful meal (make that 10 + meals) on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Below are some pictures taken of the food, I couldn't be bothered watermarking and making the rest of the food pics pretty so only uploading photos of food from Christmas Eve dinner @ Richards on the Park based in Canley Vale.


Richards on the Park:
Don't be fool by it's reputation of being a "pub", apart from your typical pub food, there's an Asian Kitchen whereby you can order all the dishes you typically would order in any other Vietnamese/Chinese Kitchen! The food is actually of good quality and food comes out pretty fast! A great place to go if you're hungry but also want good quality food!

Sir Stamford Circular Quay

Sir Stamford Circular Quay

Hotels, conventionally known for as a place which provides accommodation for tourists/travelers, lovers getaway, hot affairs one-night rendezvous and so on.
In recent times, hotels, especially 5-star properties are now also famous for their dining (food).

Take Radisson Plaza Hotel for example, the 5-star hotel which house the famous restaurant, Bilson's. Without fail, Bilson's make the Good Food Guide Australia's top 10 every year. Why? What makes Bilson's better than any other restaurant? Is it because of its famous chef (Tony Bilson)?

Here are a few other examples to joggle your mind; The Observatory Hotel's Galileo French Restaurant, Hilton's Glass Brasserie (fanous head chef Luke Mangan), Shangri La's Altitude, so on and so on.

So the question remains - WHAT MAKE THEM SO SPECIAL? HOW ARE THEIR PRICES JUSTIFIABLE? I've personally been to all of the above and one thing I am certain, I've tasted better modern Australian than Bilson's, I've had better French than Galileo, Glass is overrated and Altitude you're only paying for the view!

Which brings me to my point - the only reason these restaurants are "ranked" is due to their established household name made famous by their celebrity chef! Don't be fool by the name - you have to judge the food for what it's worth!

Sir Stamford Circular Quay:

A 5-star boutique hotel in the heart of Circular Quay, next to Intercontinental and down the road from Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, Sofitel Wentworth, Radisson Plaza and Shangri La - major competition right there! Without any biases, I will say that the only reason this hotel remains standing today amongst its more modern competitors is the fact that they maintain their "signature" Victorian Classic look (okay, so the only real main competition is the Observatory who's also going for the same vintage look).

Thus Sir Stamford is ranked highly for the best venue to have High tea due to it's romantic Victorian setting, it'll make you feel like rewinding 30 odd years back to the days where English women wore pretty dresses and hats on Sundays sipping tea and eating strawberry scones ;)

Anyway so I finally had the chance to dine here on Saturday night and ordered only an entree, a main and a dessert for myself (had to refrain from ordering the usual multiple entrees and mains). Please refer to pictures below for specific review of each dish.

All in all, a place highly recommended for staying; eating; high tea-ing :)

x- C



Dozen Pacific Oysters - half with roe and caviar

rating: 8/10 = fresh succulent juicy oysters, nothing beats yummy fresh juicy oysters!



Fish of the day (Barramundi) brushed with lemon butter served with golden kipfler potatoes with tomatoes and olives

rating: 6/10 = beautiful fish melts in your mouth, the only reason for the low rating is because I'm naturally not a fish person so consider this score good!



Souffle of the day - Passion fruit souffle with raspberry ice cream and pineapple

rating: 7/10 - this was delish! 2nd best souffle after Pier!!! YUMMMMMM hot from the oven, this masterpiece will melt on your tongue and have a party in your mouth!!!

Excellent Seafood Chinese Restaurant

Located in the heart of Carlingford Court is a reputable Chinese restaurant by the name of "Hou Hou"; in fobby English translation - Excellent.

Why does this place stand out amongst the zillions of Chinese restaurants in Sydney you ask?

Two words:

VERMICELLI CRAB (actually it's glass noodles but vermicelli sounds a lot fancier) :)

So when you go to a Chinese restaurant, you can choose a crab and have it cooked any way - the three main ways to cook a crab would be: crab with shallots and XO, crab with tamarind (more Vietnamese than Chinese), salt and pepper crab and of course, Vermicelli crab (basically marinated crab with vermicelli noodles).

CRAB is my all time, ultimate, favourite food in the whole entire world - there is no way I would miss the opportunity of eating crabs for ANYTHING! I dream, i literally salivate by the thought of sucking the crab claws (yes, sad!). Therefore, I would allow myself to have the knowledge and authority to recommend this place and it's famous vermicelli crab! GO TRY IT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY! Allergies? Pffft for this? I'd rather suffer and have a lumpy face for a week! :)

Of course there are other great dishes the restaurant has to offer - I personally LOVE the chicken feet soup, the braised chinese mushrooms with bok choy and also the pork spare ribs!

Here are some photos from my recent visit:


Pork spare ribs


mushrooms


THE famous vermicelli crab as mentioned above


Peking Duck - the dough was too thick


the chicken feet soup - simply divine!

X-C

Healthy Option

Recipe by Christian Garcia:

"Tuna Salad"



- 1 Can of Sirena Chilli tuna
- Baby spinach - hand full
- Boiled sweet corn from the cob sliced off (up to you how much)
- Cherry or Grape tomatoes x5
- 1 Free Range Boiled Egg (i put 2 coz i just love eggs)
- 1 Baybel Cheese (i ran out of fresh fetta)
- Balsamic Vinegar

The taste is even better than it looks! An incredibly tasty meal that's good for you! What a nice change :)

X - C

Masterchef Live!


The three judges came out in style - one in a Jaguar, one on a scooter and one on a bicycle (guess who's the clown?)


Marion and Adam - Marion, still as annoying as ever :)


Adriano Zumbo - don't like the man and his macaroons are overrated - there, i said it ;)


BEST-CHEESE-EVER!!! I died and went to cheese heaven!!! Stocking up some of these babies for Christmas!

The show overall was like any other food show (nowhere near as good as Good Food and Wine Show). You have your local produces, your organics, your chocolates, your seafood, your cupcakes, your wine, your cheese, your dips etc
Honestly, if I didn't score the tickets for free, I would say it's definitely not worth $77!!!

X- C

BODEGA!








Tapas - Spanish's answer to Yum Cha (minus the trolleys and non-english speaking, pushy waiters)

In Sydney alone, there are countless Spanish eateries and restaurants- namely on Liverpool and Pitt St.
Depending on your budget, you can have a decent Spanish meal for roughly $30 per person including sangria!

I would suggest for those whom are economically savvy to try places such as Encasa on pitt st, delicious tapas (the potatoes are a MUST) for an unpretentious price tag!
However, if you're anything like me and love a place with nice decor, top-notch, non-conventional tapas, then Bodega, El Bulli, Cru54 are a must try!!!

Bogeda, despite the waiting time offers a different take on tapas, more often referred to Argentinian than Spanish. From the entrees to the mains to the desserts, there's a twist to every taste, i.e white anchovies served wet.
On my recent visit, we had almost 80% of the menu (limited choices really) and I cannot stop eating the calamari with extra aioli sauce!!! The girls quite enjoyed the cheese croquettes as well!
Anyway, enjoy the food porn from Bodega above ;)

xx

BREAK-FASTTTT

So...as we continue to live in a fast paced environment and most of us are becoming more engulfed with time management and efficiency, it is safe to say that many of us often miss the most important meal of the day- breakfast! For whatever reason, due to "no time" or "running late to work" etc NO coffee is not sufficient and I won't regard it as breakfast!

This is rather sad as most of you could potentially be missing out on the most delicious meal of the day! With the ever-growing popularity in the "artsy fartsy" culture and the frequent visits to cafes and bistros....why not wake up early one Sunday, wear a pretty dress, call the girls and go out for a nice breakfast?

Some great breakfast joints that are my personal faves range from bird cow fish (surry hills), Dank St Depot (waterloo), le petit creme (darlinghurst), kazbah (balmain), cafe morso (pyrmont) and bangbang (surry hills).

The picture of the scrumptious poached eggs on top of smoked salmon was taken at Clippers Cafe - Glebe (another highly rated breakfast joint)!

x

MasterChef LIVE Australia

As most of you foodies are already aware, MasterChef Australia is going LIVE on the 10th-12th weekend of December. This entire show is sponsored by Coles and in addition to the 3 judges - Gary, George and Matt, the show will feature some of Australia's finest chefs including Mark Best, Niel Perry, Kylie Kwong, Peter Gilmore etc

Check out this link to get a better understanding of what the show will feature:

http://www.masterchefliveaustralia.com/

You can score tickets from ticketek Australia and the pricing are:
VIP $120
Gold $70
Silver $55
Family $170
Kids $35 (silver seating)

Luckily for me, one of the perks of working for an awesome well-connected company is scoring FREE (Gold) tickets to the show :)

See you there on Saturday 11th, 4pm session ;)

Greetings and Salutations!

Finally!

I have been working on this project for quite some time now - or at least had the idea set in mind and never had the time to execute it - honestly, for a html noob like myself, the banner alone took me a few days to finalise ;)

The idea of this blog is going to be slightly different any other food blogs you come across. I won't simply dine, review and rate the food/restaurant, god no, what's eatability for?

Where there are amateur chefs, there are amateur food bloggers.

- I am going to blog about home made recipes- pictures, steps, results and the whole shebang.
- I am going to review restaurants- both fine dining and local eateries.
- I am going to ensure that I can inspire the least domesticated person to attempt to recreate a recipe obtained from this blog!

All in all, I hope this blog will inspire people (female) with bad eating habits, diets, food conscious to eat more, enjoy and live life to the foodest =P