Chatswood Night Market, Chatswood

Have you ever been to Chatswood night market?
It is located at the main street of the shopping centres, open every Thursday and (sometimes) Friday.
When it comes to night market like this, you have to pick the best from the best, rather than wasting time going round and round.
First thing first, garlic prawn. If you see a red-yellow stall like this in the picture, queue there, it is the garlic prawn stall. It is Spanish, so it has churizzo as well. You can choose a range of menu from bread rolls to just garlic prawn, or combination roll with the churrizo. I think the sauce was really good. You can also get the additional dips that are available on the table. They are like pesto and Spanish BBQ sauce, so they are quite sour; but very refreshing.

Second one, Takoyaki. If you see the black stall with some Japanese inside, queue there. You can choose between octopus, prawn and crab. I think the octopus and prawn are the best. And they are very cheap too, only $1 each. You have to buy it in either small ($4 with 4 balls) or large ($8 with 8 balls). Very nice.

Third one, drink. That night I got the sugar cane drink. You can choose between original, lemon, ginger etc.

Overall, very nice experience! Just done come when it rains....

Yakiniku Kashiwa, Crows Nest

Yuke

 Japanese barbeque, what a classic! In Sydney, there are a lot of Japanese restaurants. However, when it comes to the quality of the meat, you can't fake it. So, here I was, in Yakiniku Kashiwa, Crows Nest for my friend's birthday dinner. The quality of the meat was very good. However, it depends on how you cook it though. If you don't cook it well, no matter how good the meat, won't taste good..

Anyway, we ordered ox tongue, wagyu beef skirt, pork tube (marinated pork intestine), chicken thigh fillet, chicken cartilage, special combination (liver, intestine and tripe). To be honest with you, I did not what we were ordering. If it was me, I would never, ever, ever order intestine. But I did not know, so I just ate it. Then, it turned out, they were all good *except the chicken cartilage (soft bone) I just could not eat bone (how can you eat bone???). Anyway, I just found out when I wrote this, because I googled the menu.. Oh my... I thought they (the intestines) were squid...........

However, it was very good, surprisingly. The marinate was beautiful. Especially the wagyu beef skirt. I think it was the highlight of the night!

Not forgetting the yuke! Yuke is a raw beef meet, with raw yolk, shallots and Japanese vinaigrette. For some, it is disgusting, for me, it is delicious! But do not order more than 2, it starts to get yuck. I think the yuke is very good. The beef is very tender. If you try yuke quite a lot of times, you would realise that sometimes the meat was not very good, tough. A very good yuke is when it is tender and not smelly.

The restaurant is quite small though. Not very good for a big group. And do not wear your best dress, it is full of smoke inside. But of course, beautiful-barbeque-smell smoke. The price? I have to agree that it is quite pricy. But will definitely come back!

Miss Chu, Sydney

 Vietnamese restaurant with different approach. Here in Miss Chu, the feeling of Vietnamese cafe has been brought to Sydney. From the simple-unique decoration to the authentic foods, all was just different. On that day, me and my friends went there. Because I am a pork lover, I ordered Hanoi Pork Belly with rice. My friends order chicken satay, lemongrass beef, salmon. For appetizer, we all ordered peking duck roll.
The foods came, I was salivating, seeing the pork belly. They look so fluffy and not that oily... And indeed, it tasted so. Then, with the brown rice and the quinoa, it was just perfect. The salmon was pretty good too. I thought the beef and the chicken satay were quite average. Don't forget the peking duck pancake. I think they are fantastic. Well, it was not complete at all without dessert!! I ordered the Mango and sticky rice. It was quite disappointing I have to admit. It looks like it was pre-packaged. Anyway, the other dessert, the lychee and cucumber crush, it was quite unique, and I think it is worthwhile to try.

The thing is, the sitting place is quite small, so this place is suitable for small group. Will be absolutely back for the pork belly..!!

Chinta Ria Mood for Love, Sydney

Squid

Chicken and Snow Peas

Hey Everyone!
I have posted Chinta Ria Mood for Love. Now I am gonna post for Chinta Ria Temple of Love. This restaurant is located at Sussex St Sydney. It is quite difficult to find (for me..) It took me around 45 minutes going round and round Darling Harbour to find this place.. Anyway, probably it is just me. However, when I got into the place, it is quite unique. It has a big Julaihood (one of the Buddhist God) statute at the front. At that night, we sat outside though.

Beef Rendang

Fish and Eggplant

Char Kiew Tiau

For you that don't know, Chinta Ria sells Malaysian-Indian-Chinese-fusion food which resembles the races in Malaysia. So the menus are dominated with spicy-curry foods. There are some menus that are quite popular, which are the squid, fish and beef rendang. That night, we ordered chicken, fish, squid, beef rendang and the char kiew tiau. I like the SQUID the most. I do not know what it is called (I was actually late so I did not see the menu orders, I tried to find it in their website but it does not seem to have squid... O.o).. Anyway, if you are desperate, just show them these pictures, hope it helps. The next special is the beef rendang. It was medium rare. This was actually the first time trying beef rendang in a medium style. Normaly it is stewed for long long time, hours. But this one is different and worth trying. Other foods are quite average, but quite pleasant to eat.

The service is good, and surprisingly, the price is cheaper than Chinta Ria Mood for Love. Worth trying!!

Laksa House, QVB, Sydney

Laksa House is located inside the QVB. It is at the lowest level of QVB, close to the extension to the train station. It is suitable (I think) for the big eaters because the portion is so big.

Laksa

Nasi Lemak

Anyway, of course because it is a LAKSA house, then I had to order laksa and my brother ordered nasi lemak. It was very quick for the dishes to come out. With the nasi lemak, you can choose what 'toppings' you want to put. Beef rendang, lamb curry and beans were chosen.

The laksa was pretty good.. It was very big though. I think the soup was nice, just right. At that time, I ordered combination laksa. It has seafood, beef, and chicken which I think pretty generous for the price. With the nasi lemak, it was quite average I should say. Beef rendang and the beans are OK, but I think the lamb curry was excellent. The nasi lemak itself is quite good. But I could not really taste the 'coconuty' taste in the rice. However overall it is quite worth it for the price.

Jonga Jip BBQ, Eastwood NSW

 LOOK AT ALL THE SIDE DISHES!
Jong Jip BBQ is a Korean BBQ restaurant located at Eastwood. There are 2 Jong Jip restaurants in Eastwood, I do not know what the difference is. But they are all good. But I went to the one next to Eastwood hotel and NOT the opposite the train station. It offers a long of ranges of BBQ from ox tongue, short ribs, brisket, etc. Anyway, I ordered short ribs that night. And see how many side dishes I got! I think the BBQ was good, but the sides dishes are better! I think they have the best side dishes ever. I got a lot and tasted good. The baby potatoes are the highlight! Also the spicy bean curd! Anyway, just try it yourself.
Also, with the BBQ menu, you have to order 2 minimum.

Sushi Bay, Carlingford, NSW

My life is back!!! After a week of dreadful exams... Finally.. I am able to write again!!!!

Soft shall crab sushi

Grilled prawn

So, during exam, I have managed to come to several restaurants, including Sushi Bay, in Carlingford. It says that it is actually Japanese sushi, however, it tastes and looks so Korean. Every sushi they offer, they have Korean sauce to go with it, it tasted sweet, like a teriyaki sauce. Fortunately, this restaurant has sushi train!!!! Sometimes I am so upset coming to sushi restaurants without sushi trains, or the sushi train is turned off.

Fried Unagi

Aburi Salmon

 Anyway, some interesting menus were there. So I tried the fried unagi. It was a bit different. I mean... fried unagi?? We normally have fried salmon skin, or unagi sushi.. But it tasted good.

Then, I tried the grilled prawn with sauce on top. I think that was the highlight of the night. It tasted just right. The prawn was not over or under cooked. The sauce also has a very nice flavour to complement the prawn.

Aburi Scallop

I also tried the aburi salmon and aburi scallop. DO ORDER ABURI SALMON AND SCALLOP AT SUSHI PLACE! Anyway, they are my favourites, I always order them as the benchmark of sushi restaurants. I found their aburi salmon and scallop are quite good, quite unique with some sort of sweet sauce at the top, tasted like teriyaki sauce.

Soft shell crab roll

Now, the exciting part, the soft and shell crab sushi. There are two types: the big one with only avocado, sauce, rice and salmon roe, and the other one was the roll, with rice, lettuce, mayonnaise sauce and everything else. I think the big one, looks good, but does not taste that good, the other one tasted better. I really like the mayonnaise sauce they have. Sometimes mayonnaise can be quite overwhelming but this one does not.

Overall, the service was quite well and the food was alright. I will go back next time. However, it is quite pricy.....