Toriciya - Cammeray

A few of our friends had recommended for us to dine at Toriciya ages and ages ago. But for various reasons, it had taken us til now to visit this joint. Post-media hype meant some difficulties in getting a reservation and a bit more forward planning (of which we suck at). The restaurant was small and cozy. Japanese speakers were everywhere - most importantly, in the kitchen - meaning atleast a good level of authenticity.

They had a specials page. Out of that, we couldn't resist ordering the Otoro (fatty tuna belly). Our waitress said that the tuna was from Norway - then shipped to Tokyo - and then to us. It was super super fatty, really melt-in-your-mouth and gave off a very mild and subtly sweet flavour. It came at a price though!

Something else from the specials menu was the charcoal grilled extra large Cloudy Bay clams. These were not chewy or tough... but still, slightly underwhelming.

 The Toriciya nigiri set did not disappoint though. The fish were all really fresh and really sweet. The thickness of the nigiri was perfect. There was scampi, tuna, king fish belly, salmon belly, scallop and some other fish that I've completely forgotten the names of. It was all delicious.

As Toriciya is also famous for their skewers ($3 each), we ordered a plenty. There was pork belly, chicken and shallot, japanese sausage, chicken skin, etc. and you could choose between having it basted in sauce or just sprinkled with salt. The skewers were all OK.

Just to make sure hubby was full, he ordered a triangle rice. This was literally a triangular shaped rice with sauce and fried. It was slightly overpriced for what it was.

Last but not least - dessert! We each got a scoop of icecream. The brownish looking scoop is the roasted green tea icecream whereas the normal green scoop is just normal green tea icecream. I liked my roasted green tea icecream muchly.

All up, it was a good meal at Toriciya. The produce here is fresh and the package presents itself nicely. It is slightly pricey but I guess fresh produce comes at a cost :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Toricya
18 Cammeray Road
Cammeray, NSW 2062
Tel: (02) 9904 2277

Vic's Meats - Pyrmont

I've been meaning to check out Vic's meats at the Sydney Fish Markets for a while, but it's been a bit of a struggle trying to convince hubby to go to the fish market and not focus on prawns and sashimi and seafood platters.

Vic's meats is located kind of at the carpark of the Fish Markets. It's got a small ish but good-quality butcher attached to a smokery where you can grab a quick bite - pulled pork sandwich, brisket, cheeseburger, wings, lamb cutlets, pork ribs or beef short ribs. So in short, just a meat fest. There's also a section here where you can get super premium cuts of wagyu cooked teppanyaki style - a tad pricey though...

With our memories of how awesome smokey meats were in America, we were a bit dubious as to whether this could be replicated in Sydney. All the meats were smoked on site in this industrial, mean-looking smoker on the back side of the store. I ordered the pulled pork "sandwich" and hubby got an open beef brisket sandwich (which really just means that you get the meat and slaw separate from the bread. It was all put together really quite sloppily, but thankfully, it was quite tasty.

Hubby's beef brisket wasn't quite as tender or as smokey as the ones in America, but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless. The bbq sauce was really tasty, as was his slaw. I believe my pulled pork sandwich was tastier. The pulled pork was super juicy and succulent and packed full of flavour (with help of the smokey, slightly sweet sauce). The whole thing fell apart easily and the mustard pickle slaw went a bit everywhere but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Quite a tasty little bite :) If only I had some hot chips to go with it all, it would be perfect~

I think that Vic's meats is worth a try. Even if you're not super full after the bite, you can just duck next door and fill yourself up with prawns and lobsters and what not. Win win situation really.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Vic's Meats
Sydney Fish Markets
50-60 Bank Street
Pyrmont, NSW 2009
Tel: (02) 8570 8570

Eating in Busan

For some weird reason, I always seem to miss out on Good Food Month due to being away. Normally I get a bit upset for missing all the awesome food but this year, I felt like I went to foodie heaven overseas - namely, Busan. Busan is the seafood capital of Korea and it does not disappoint. Not only do you get super fresh and tasty seafood here, you also get a million side dishes with each meal. Need I say that I LOVE korean side dishes?

Our first stop when we got to Busan was the Jagalchi Fish Markets in the Nampodong area. This place is MASSIVE. Even before you get to the main market building, there are streets full of ahjumma (Korean 'aunties') trying to lure you in to buy their seafood. Most places have these dicey little tables and stools for you to sit on as they prepare your seafood either sashimi, barbequed to stewed. I have to say - the aromas wafting from these stalls and the crazy amounts of seafood teaming in their stalls is quite a temptation.

We ate at the Jagalchi markets twice - once on the street stalls and once on level two of the actual market building. I have to say, I preferred the one at the actual market building more , even though it was a tad more expensive. We had a live Hirame (flounder) sashimied  for around AUD$50 but it came with a crazy table full of side dishes!!! As it was our first meal in Busan, I was completely blown away. You should have seen my face light up when dish after dish after dish was brought out! Loved all of it - particularly the pajeon (spring onion pancake) - super fresh, crisp and crunchy outside and soft insides. YUM! The fish itself was also really delish! Really really sweet. The stall we went to was 'C1' in the 2nd floor of the building.

Just next door to the Jagalchi markets are the PIFF street eat stalls. This is where the Busan International Film Festival used to be but now - it's just teaming with carts of delicious street food. My favourites include the fish cakes and the 'hotteok' (seed stuffed pancake). ZOMG - its deep fried cripsy, sweet with some sugary paste in it, chewy and soft dough, AND tons of sunflower, sesame and other types of seeds. Sweet and savoury and really addictive. Lucky they're only like a dollar each.

Just around the corner from the PIFF food carts is another area in Nampodong filled with eating carts. Ahjummas here try to lure you to eat their Bibim Dongmyeon (cold glass noodles), there this really tasty squid salad, tons of fish cakes and really delicious pajeons (spring onion pancakes). It's also a 'must try' to just eat on the street like the locals - standing up, squished in between people, trying to eat everything without spilling stuff on your shirt (or other people's shirts). Everything is really quite cheap - hubby and I got full on this stuff for less than AUD$10.

After shopping around Nampodong area (and if your still hungry from all that street food), there is also a 'jokbal alley' right there. 'Jokbal' (or pig trotters) are boiled and cooled then sliced. You can opt to have pure meat or you can have it in a salad - which usually is this jelly fish, mustardy, cucumbery mix. It's tasty... but you know, if you had limited stomach space, other things in Busan are more WOW.

If you just happen to be in Busan during a crazy windy storm, there is no need to despair. Just take yourself to Lotte or Shinsegae (biggest department store in the world) and have a massive feast, shopping spree and Spa (SpaLand). It is a crazy experience - not only the food but also the spa in this department store (another must try!).

Foodwise - there are restaurants, food courts and these areas which just sell snacks. We had it all in Shinsegae - really yum  beef rib soup and ginseng chicken soup in the restaurants, browsed all the Asian "international" foods on offer, and stopped off at tons of just small food stores that sold snacks like super delicious green tea icecream (originating from Jeju), these little croquette bread things which was really popular (crispy, deep fried, soft bread with filling eg. curry, cheese, red bean), and mando (who can say no to dumplings?)

As we stayed in Haeundae, the Haeundae Gukbap Alley was easily accessible. Gukbap is this pork soup concoction - often with rice in it, or on the side, or if your odd like me, with noodles. There's two famous shops (even though the whole alley is Gukbap) right next to each other. One is Granny Kimm Hee-Dae's original cauldron gukbap and the other is the Jeontong Haeundae Wonjo Halmae Gukbap (48 year old traditional haeundae granny gukbap). We tried both - I personally preferred the one with the yellow sign. However, the one with the red sign offers Korean Yakult as a side dish (and no one can say no to yakult).

yellow sign shop

red sign shop

If you want seafood dining with a view, it's hard to pass on Millak Raw Fish Town. Housed in an old brown building, there are a good 10 stories filled with seafood-serving restaurants. You can be brave and work with the ahjummas on the ground floor that haggle you to buy their seafood with the promise that someone upstairs will cook it up, or if you're like us, you'd just try your luck at any one of the restaurants upstairs. We picked one on level 6 which had a decent number of happy customers inside.

We ordered this fish stew (AUD$30) and again, it came with a table full of amazingly tasty side dishes, and four (yes FOUR) grilled fishes. It was delicious! Yes, some people think that putting a fresh fish in a chilli stew is a waste - but it's sooo sooo sooo tasty! The fish meat is sweet and it make the spicy stew so yum!

Another place good for dining with a view is at Taejongdae. Most people come here for the park - fantastic view of cliffs, you can go for hikes, there's temples, light houses and even a 'suicide rock'. Whilst we did all that touristy stuff, we were really mainly here for the clam tents. This is a massive row of tents with Ahjummas in each one, flagging you to come in and eat their barbequed shell fish. Yes please! I think that each tent is around the same - we got out meal from this super friendly lady who thought were were noobs and cooked everything for us.

The seafood sits in these buckets of water and I can only assume that everything is still live cos it tastes so good and so fresh. Our lady gave us 3 pots of mussels (even though there's only 2 of us), prawns, a massive platter of shellfish barbequed, dukbokki (rice cake) with shell fish in it, and this rice dish (also with shell fish in it). The sauce is amazing - a combination of onion, garlic, cheese and gochujang, and the seafood is just so sweet. All this for AUD$40 - and an amazing view! Sold!

If you get a bit sick of seafood (if that's even possible), venture to Seomyeon. Yes there is shopping and street food galore here, but there's also a plethora of amazing Korean BBQ places. We were lucky and found one that served really crazily amazing pork belly (Samgyupsal). We were well and truely in a local area as when we asked for a menu - the dude pointed the a wall of korean words. Sign language helps and when there is really only one thing that every table is ordering, the real question is probably just 'how many' you want to order.

This pork belly was EPIC. it was sooo massive. Still originally on the bone, the slices were thick, good portion of fat then meat then fat then meat, and these glorious-looking pork skin pieces that you make into delicious crackling on your bbq. ZOMG. It was melt-in-your-mouth goodness. I want my samgyupsal to always look like this from now on!

I'm not able to put everything we ate down in this blog cos that would take me a year to organise, but if you're looking for an eating adventure, Busan is definitely one place you can eat to your hearts content. I think the most expensive meal we had was around AUD$50 but a lot of the time, it's the cheap street food that is really satisfying. Loved Busan! I will definitely return.

678 Korean Bbq - Haymarket

A couple of our friends came with us to 678 Korean BBQ a little while ago now. I don't understand why it's called '679' but it's opened by a famous Korean comedian - must be an inside joke. Despite the odd name, this place is PACKED out on a Friday night(I recommend that you come, get a ticket, go out for a walk or a coffee then come back when they call you).

Oddly enough, though it is filled with happy meat eaters, the restaurant is not teaming with the smokiness you would expect. The vents must work super well~ I also love how all the lovely meat is on display for you to oggle over - all really fresh looking. We ordered a couple of wagyu cuts and the pork belly. What happened after that was a bit of a blur. Lots of movement, loads of "omg this is delicious", and lots of eating action.

There was a decent selection of sides. The cold soup that is rather refreshing and whets your appetite. All the lettuce leaves that you want to wrap your meat in. What I didn't manage to capture was the seaweed and this amazing steam egg that you also got - cos it was soooo good, it was gobbled up before my brain realised that I needed a photo. Who would have guessed that pork belly wrapped in roasted seaweed could taste so delish?

Both the wagyu cuts that we ordered were pretty sensational. Really flavoursome and really tender. My friends also enjoyed the pork belly muchly. Really no complaints about the meat.

At the end, we also ordered the beef brisket soup. The soup had a seafood base to it so there were plentiful crab legs, clams, and prawn bits in it. It was quite tasty really.

I expected a nasty bill but it surprisingly only came to $100 for the 4 of us. All of us were full (apart from our dessert stomach) and we had a pretty tasty meal. Not bad :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29.5/40

678 Korean BBQ
1/396 Pitt Street
Haymarket
NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9267 7334

Bali Adventures

As one of my friends that I've known for 2/3rds of my life was getting married in Bali, we (and a bunch of our friends) jetsetted to Bali to celebrate the amazing occasion. My friends and I were all risk adverse and hence, preferred to stay around the resort areas or be escorted by drivers. However, we still managed to duck out for some yummy feeds during our short stay.

One of these yummy escapades was to the famous suckling pork place in Ubud - Ibu Oka for Babi Guling. The "suckling" pig (ie. babi guling) was MASSIVE and much much bigger than the Chinese version of suckling pig. The crackling was thicker than the Chinese version and my plate of crackling and fat was quite tasty and super crunchy. However, some of my friends were a bit underwhelmed as their skin was a bit chewy. The meat portion was doused in a substantial amount of spices and was tasty enough but probably not suited to my chinese taste-buds.

 

 suckling pig skin

 

 Suckling pig meat

Fruit juices in Bali were a plentiful and a favourite of one of my friends (who absolutely loved the papaya juice). Coconuts were a must and we also had some super tasty starfruit juice. Unfortunately for this occasion, my pineapple juice was a bit unfavourable... a bit artificial-pineapple-smoothie tasting.

Close to Ubud, there are also rice paddy fields galore. Our driver, knowing our risk-adversedness, decided to drop us off at a super safe Kopi Luwak ('cat poo coffee') place - Bali Pulina. Here, not only are there rice paddy fields, they also grow a galore of expensive spices and herbs. They also offer a free tasting tea and coffee menu and their famous luwak coffee (for around AUD$5). Tastiness in an awesome environment. Why not? :)

from left to right: lemon tea, ginger tea, ginger coffee, ginseng coffee, chocolate coffee, pure cocoa, vanilla coffee, Bali coffee

Kopi Luwak

As though we hadn't had enough rice paddy field-ness for a day, we also had dinner at Bebek Tepi Sawah - a place for super awesome 'dirty duck' to be enjoyed whilst viewing rice paddy fields. We had their crispy duck and their grilled duck - both were super duper delicious that we had to order seconds! We also tried their smoked crispy chicken. This was super smokey in flavour but unfortunately, a bit too dry for my liking. Oh -and we'd ordered this 'soto ayam' soup which tasted like curry cup-a-soup noodle soups....

condiments

Toxic soup

Crispy duck

grilled duck

smoked chicken

Another highlight of this place was their satay skewers. Deliciously tender and tasty and came out sizzling hot. Was pretty awesome!

satay skewers

As my friends and I were staying in the Jimbaran area, and Jimbaran was known for it's seafood, we couldn't resist but to have a seafood feast on our last day. We went to Menega Cafe, a place with seafood sitting on piles of ice and live fish, lobster, clams and the lot in fish tanks for you to pick out your feed. We got a live grouper fish, some jumbo (massive super huge prawns - bigger than the size of my hand), some king prawns and some squid. Everything was cooked on an open barbeque and coconut shell fibre things which give it extra flavour and tastes. YUM!

kang kong

king prawns

Jumbo prawns

grilled grouper

bbq squid

So that was our short and sweet Bali food adventure - or atleast the food we dared to eat outside our resort/villa areas :)