Aqua S - Sydney

We were just chilling around and checking out random stuff in the city when we came across Aqua. This soft serve place caught my eye immediately - not only because of their theme colour (which is my favourite - blue), nor their interesting flavours (salt, lemon tea, biscuit), but the look of the final product, especially when fairy floss, candied popcorn and popping candy is involved!

I walked past and immediately stopped my hubby mid-step. My brain was like "say waaahttt?".

I already didn't OTT my sugar intake. I opted for the salt soft serve (which is blue!!!!) with popping candy and fairy floss. Took a lot of restraint to not get the candied popcorn, and I didn't really care for toasted marshmellows. The result? Fancy looking soft serve which has to potential to be the next Sydney fad. (but an expensive one at that)

The salt soft serve was quite salty ... but I love salt. Salted caramel, salted chocolate... salted anything! Turns out, I think I just like salt cos salt serve is my new best friend :) The popping candy was also awesome!!! That with fairyfloss is what childhood memories are made of. I would recommend eating it in-store if you are messy like me instead of trying to run to the car in the rain with this concoction in your hand as you end up with crusted sugary crystals and syrups all over you (I learnt the hard way...).

Aqua S
Regent Place
501 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
(Next to Sedap)

Eating in Jeonju

Now whilst Busan is the Seafood capital of Korea, Jeonju is the Food capital of Korea, home of super fresh ingredient and super tasty food. Being just a couple of hours (via KTX) from Seoul, hubby and I couldn't resist but to do a day trip here to have the best Bibimbap in the world. Or at least, this region is famous for bibimbap (and was having their annual bibimbap festival the week after we visited). Word of warning - we went on a Saturday (and I don't know if it was just THAT sat) but it was super crowded, full of local Korean tourists.

In Jeonju, there is Hanok Village, a village full of olden day Korean dwellings. This is were the majority of the tourist attractions lie - pavillions, a Confucian school, tea houses, traditional wine making places and so forth. I think this is also where Koreans take their kids to stay the night to teach them the traditional way of living. Above all those touristy things - there is food galore! So much street food!!! And stews, and tradition "royal table eats" (where you get a table full of food) and of course, bibimbap.

The bibimbap place we chose was a little walk away from the village. Upstairs in level two, the place was full of people, all eating the same thing. There's really two choices - the bibimbap with cooked beef and the bibimbap with raw beef. And like any good Korean meal, it comes with a table full of side dishes, all super tasty and super awesome and super refillable. This bibimbap had so many different types of root veges, it felt clean, wholesome, healthy and was really quite delicious. I'm usually not one who likes rice, but I loved this bibimbap and was almost able to finish this massive bowl of rice!

Street food-wise, who can resist some liquid nitrogen ice-cream. The workers at this shop completely hooked us in (along with some friendly Ahjussi's ) but taking these chocolate biscuits and pouring liquid nitrogen on them. When you put it in your mouth, it leaves this really cold, super crisp feeling. The worker was like 'chew quickly' and you realise why straight away. Don't chew quickly enough and that biscuit is going to be stuck to your tongue for the rest of your life! LOL Btw, this tiramisu icecream was deliciousness :)

A spectacle not to be missed at Jeonju this Sat was the amount of people lining up for things. People were lining up for all types of street food - particularly for Mandoo, for this baguette burger, croquettes and PNB. PNB is this super famous bakery that sells chocopies. You know how you get chocopies at the Korean stores here and its like, meh... PNB sells chocopies that are like OMG it's soooo big! The chocolately biscuits sandwich just the right amount of marshmellow and jam and it's all wrapped in this chocolate coating. It's not too sweet and not too dense. Pretty much just right for a chocopie. Hubby was a fan and I ate some (which is saying something as I usually don't even glance twice at chocopies).

After much deliberation, we also lined up and got his 'baguette burger'. This was a cheese, mincey, pizza-y mixture stuffed inside this super crunchy yet super soft baguette bun. Koreans definitely know what they are doing when they are making bread, donuts and deep-frying and this baguette burger was no different. We were initially disinterested and underwhelmed - puzzled by why the line was so freaking long but after one bite, we were sold (even though our stomachs were already full). It was cheesey, meaty and had the right amount of chilli.

Right before our baguette burger experience, we actually had probably the best Beef Rib Soup I've had in my life. This beef rib soup was really really tasty. The soup was just teaming with  the essence of beef bone and the beef? So succulent and fall off the bone. It left this warm fuzzy feeling within us. I wish I had some of that soup now :)

In Jeonju, there's also meant to be something called 'Bapsang' which literally means - a million side dishes. I suspect that you can get this in any of the house-stay places in Hanok but we didn't get to try as the place recommended to us by our friend was closed down :( Maybe next time! Jeonju is really a great eating day trip! Must go if you have some spare time in Seoul.

The Bulgogi - Chatswood

A while back now, hubby and I went to this Korean/Jap restaurant in Chatswood - The Bulgogi. It houses a-la-carte as well as all-you-can-eat options. Knowing our massive stomachs, we went for the buffet. There's a range of small instant eats, sashimi, salads, as well as meats and seafoods to cook on the grill. There are 3 buffet options - the standard, the premium (which has sashimi), and super premium (which has wagyu beef). On this night, we went for the mid-range one. We completely feasted and were completely stuffed after. Amazingly, although the service was a bit slow, all the food was super delicious and quite fresh. Not a bad buffet at all!

pork ribs

ox tongue

seaweed salad and soft shell crab salad

beef rib

salmon, tuna and king fish sashimi

kimchi

beef skirt and squid

squid sashimi

beef galbi and beef yukke

salmon and avocado salad

takoyaki

crab nugget

beef on the grill

prawns on the grill

green tea, black sesame and vanilla icecream

I have to say - it was all deliciousness! When I'm up for another crazy feed, I will be back!

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28/40

The Bulgogi
380 Victoria Road
Chatswood
NSW 2067
Tel: (02) 9410 3900

N2 Extreme Gelato - Chinatown

Liquid Nitrogen!
Its the 7th element on the periodic table.
It's also the element that generates awe and amazement as it's used to instant freeze things, generating a smoky foggy haze as the dry ice is taken out of it's container. Recently featured multiple times on MasterChef to make icecream, the new shop N2 has capitalised on the fascination. 

There are beakers and conical flasks and multiple mix-masters used here to make your icecream on the spot. The different flavours (both inventive and traditional ones) are written on the blackboard and changes on a regular basis. The icecream creators are lab-coat wearing "nerds" all led by the super super super charismatic and OTT friendly dude who takes your order on his i-pad.

So pretty much happens is that the icecream creators pours a flavoured smoothy concoction out of a conical flask into the mix master, then pours in the magic ingredient - liquid nitrogen, whizzes it for a bit and whala! ICECREAM! (of course, there are the theatrics of cold icey smokey haze in the midst of it all). For my first go at N2, I opted for the 'buttered popcorn' flavour. (There were also other flavours available of this night including blackberry/red current cheesecake, cookies and cream, earl grey infused caramel, stock standard strawberry, mango, very boring vanilla, & plain old chocolate.) My buttered popcorn flavour was super popcorny in flavour, really quite rich and slightly buttery/salty too! It was AWESOME! And I'm not sure if it's due to the dry ice, or the super windy cold night, or just psychological - but the icecream seemed not to melt quickly :)

1 scoop buttered popcorn - $6

If I worked in the city, I'd be coming back to this place again and again and again. Lucky I work far far away from this temptation!

Ratings:

Food - 8.5/10

Service - 8/10

Ambiance - 7.5/10

Value for money - 7/10

Overall - 31/40

N2 Extreme Gelato

43/1 Dixon St

Chinatown

Taste of Sydney Festival 2012

It had been a pretty crappy few months in terms of the weather in Sydney but fortunately the sun decided to come back and give us a fantastic time at the Taste of Sydney Festival. My hubby and I were at the Sat 11am-4pm session and were able to thoroughly enjoy the food and the sunshine :)

Walking around, we were drawn by the fantastic aromas in the air and the crowds of people surrounding various tents. My hubby was being super nice for the day and let me make most of the choices on what foods to get :) One of the first tents we got to was the one for 'The Montepellier Public House' (Chef: Matt Kemp). They had also offered lamb and panna cotta but I opted for the beef brisket. The beef brisket was served as golden brown crispy sticks but the pasture fed beef inside was soft enough to just fall apart at the fork. What more was the creamed wild mushroom sauce. It was soooooo shroomy in flavour and so deliciously creamy! It went very well with the crunchy stringy tender beef.

Crisp brisket of pasture fed beef with creamed wild mushrooms - 10 crowns

The next tent we stopped at was for Sake Restaurant & Bar (Chef: Shaun Presland). They offered an awesome looking pan seared ocean barramundi, a hiramasa kingfish 'double crunch' sushi roll and a hiramasa kingfish ceviche. I could not go past the ceviche. We got chunks of kingfish coated well with citrusy, chilli ish sauce and tossed with onion, cucumber, tomato amongst other herbs (coriander I think?) It was quite tasty but maybe would have been better if it was a touch more delicate in the flavours.

hiramasa kingfish ceviche - 8 crowns

Quarter Twenty One (Chef: Justin North) won my heart with their slow cooked caramelised short rib with bone marrow persillade. It was OMG so tender and so flavoursome and so smooth and so silky and so everything! Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth moment, not to mention the smooth rich mash that came with it. How did beef taste so good?

Slow cooked and caramelised short rib with bone marrow persillade - 12 crowns

I had to atleast let my hubby pick one dish - and he went for the pork belly skewers from L'etoile (Chef: Manu Feildel). Manu was actually at the tent when we were there and a massive crown gathered as he took photos with people and did a bit of a 'happy dance' with his staff at the tent. The pork belly was tender and juicy but really quite fatty. I think more than half the cube might have been pork fat - which makes for a fantastic flavour but also sets alight the guilt-trip in my mind going ' this is going to kill me'. The pork cubes were separated with prunes and served with a small portion of char-grilled silver beet.

'murray valley pork belly' with prunes and char-grilled silver beet - 12 crowns

In my mind, the smoked salmon, chorizo and mozzarella croquette from Four in Hand (Chef: Colin Fassnidge) sounded delicious but my hubby was eyeing their roast suckling pig plate. Hence, I was nice enough to opt for the pig instead. I was not disappointed - stringy yet tasty pull-apart suckling pig was served with super tasty coleslaw and a puffy onion ring. The 'hot sauce' on top of the pork wasn't really hot, but it added a good flavour to the pork.

roast suckling pig, coleslaw, onion rings and hot sauce - 12 crowns

As we were walking around, we saw people with burgers and hot dogs everywhere. And so I couldn't resist either the chilli dog or the classic wagyu beef and cheese slider from Charlie & Co Diner. Hubby decided on the burger over the dog. Compared to previous years, the burger was less succulent and more 'meaty' in texture. I preferred previous burgers but hubby liked this one. The bun was super soft and somewhat sweet tasting, making it just dissolve in your mouth. The chips were quite impressive. Golden brown sticks of potato which were perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. YUM!

Charlie wagyu beef and cheese slider - 10 crowns

Last but not least, dessert time! I was hunting for my favourite icecream that I get to eat once a year from the New Zealand tent (Kohu Road Ice cream) only to find that it wasn't exhibiting this year!!! Full of dissappointment, I had to hunt down a substitute. I settled for Duccio Gelato (Five Dock) - coffee flavour and that was nice and all that... but I still missed my Kohu Road!

Duccio Gelato - 4 crowns

All up, Taste of Sydney Festival was a pleasant experience (as always), full of wonderous foods and yummy freebie taste tests offered by lots of exhibiting stores of wine and juice and salmon and bread and olive oil etc etc. If you are a HSBC customer, you also get free access to their lounge where you're treated to a free drink, live music and unlimited complimentary water :)

Taste of Sydney 2011

As I was purchasing tickets for the Taste of Sydney festival this year, I realised something horrendous... I haven't blogged about last year's Taste of Sydney festival - reason being, I had put my partner in charge of photo taking... and he still hasn't given them to me.

So this year, I was determined to take my own photos. Again, heading for the evening session on the Saturday, we were met with quite a large crowd of fellow hungry food forages. We tasted many a things - from wine to sauces to dips to salmon to icecream - and all were pretty awesome! But in terms of things we used our crowns (the official currency of the festival) for, it was the following:

From memory, I think we had like 4 different wagyu beef dishes last year... this year, fish (salmon and trout varieties) seemed like the new black. Our first pick was from Berowra Waters Inn. I have to say, we smelt this in the cooking from outside the festival gates... and hence we just HAD to have it. They had a seeminly awesome selection of oyster beignets, slow cooked ocean trout, and cheese. I have to say, both the oysters and the trout looked amazing... but we opted for the trout (12 crowns). And trout did not disappoint. It was simply falling off my fork and melting in my mouth. AMAZING texture, amazing flavour - especially when dipped in the french onion soup puree. Accompanying the simply gorgeous (I can eat millions of) trout was a peppered oxtail 'croustillant' which was really, just a fancy juicy beefy spring roll type thing - and that was pretty awesome to... but in my mind, it was the trout which stood out.


We walked past Croquembouche Patisserie and initially, was enticed by the eiffel tower look-a-like thing. After a second of checking the place out, it was their selection of tarts, macaroons and petit fours which enticed me. Even though I had pretty much not eaten anything substantial yet, my stomach was telling me - "dessert time". And so I was coerced into picking a chocolate fondant (2 crowns) and it was simply decadent! Smooth, super rich cocoa mass denseness with a substantially good contrasted biscuity-cakey type base. Topped with just rich chocolate ganache... Mmm... Goes straight to the top of my cravings list :)



Now onto more main meals. I saw this super colourful arrangement from Otto and decided I had to have it. A Regal King salmon carpaccio (10 crowns) with orange bits, shaved fennel, salmon roe, baby herbs and crispy salmon skin, doused in a citrus and chardonnay vinegar dressing... it looked a million dollars. Tasted interesting too. Fresh. Yet the crispy salmon skin was like eating intensely salmon-flavoured chips - slightly hectic. The salmon itself was rather delicious :)



However, I have to say, Regal king salmon - which has a much more intense flavour compared to atlantic salmon - tastes better when cooked (or lightly seared). According to our later watching of Matthew Kemp (Restaurant Balzac) demonstrating his cooking of his seared regal king salmon with pomegrante, mint and feta salad (10 crowns), this is due the the fatty content that is in the New Zealand origin fish. All I can say is that when the fat is melted just a bit, it gives off ZOMG AMAZING flavours (or maybe it's because they cook it well?). These king salmon skewers were pretty damn delicious!


To me, it was dessert time again. I remember tasting absolutely amazingly creamy and rich icecream from the New Zealand tent last year, and surely enough - they were here this year again! Kohu Road icecream is apparently purchasable at any grocery store in NZ... but in Sydney, it's slightly harder to locate. We were given free sample tastings... vanilla (super rich, you can even taste the vanilla beans) was one of my partner's favourites, my friends liked the golden syrup, I thought that cookies and cream was pretty awesome... but after a very long deliberation, I decided to have a scoop of espresso and a scoop of dark chocolate. Both flavours were intense. Intense in a good way. Due to it's melting nature, I gobbled it up in no time and went hunting for the next lot of food with my partner :P




Wagyu beef burger (originally from Becasse store back in the day), currently offered from Charlie & Co is something I think we ordered all 3 taste of sydney festival's we've been to (12 crowns, 10 if you're a HSBCer). I have to say, the very first time I had this thing - it was gorgeously juicy, novel and eye-opening. The second time was good too. This time - I think I've had too much exposure to awesomely juicy beef burgers (maybe just a tad spoilt) and this burger, still amazingly juicy and tasty and yum, lacked a bit of creativity. The weird thing is, I didn't even pick to order this this time - it was my partner (and he was unimpressed with it the first time around). Men are weird. ish.
My partner's last dish of the night was from Four in Hand - the confit pork belly, squid, chorizo and chickpea (10 crowns). The pork belly was deep fried, yet kind of tender. Lots of tomatoey stuff and bits of chorizo, squid and chickpea just kind of swimming. My partner seemed to like this... I didn't enjoy it was much. I don't think I like my pork belly deep fried... or maybe if they deep fry it, it has to be thicker? I'm not sure, but it was a bit too crispy and dry for my liking, even though it was swimming in the choriza chickpea mixture.


So there you have it, our taste of sydney festival experience. I have to say, being a HSBCer, getting a free drink and a free chill out area was pretty cool - you get to enjoy the VIP area without paying VIP. The food and the exhibitors this year was also pretty good - and yes, I think this is the year of Regal King Salmon (can't get enough of that stuff LOL)