Exploring Sydney day 1, 2 and 3: Sydney fish market

It must have been a while since I last uploaded a picture heavy blog post. But because we somehow managed to squeeze in time to go to the Sydney fish market, I felt it was only appropriate to dedicate an entire post on it with minimal distractions. Yes, I was reluctant to come here everyday but eventually gave in because I couldn't think of anywhere else to go and for a fact that it is fresh seafood after all. Let's be honest. There's less calories in a fresh piece of fish or oyster compared to a slice of cake.

On the first day, we made a mistake of arriving at around 11am where we must have encountered a few truckload of tourists and locals. It was not a pleasant sight at all. Imagine trying to comfortably eat your food but somehow is constantly knocking your back every few minutes and there's just so much noise floating in the warehouse.

We did not eat a lot on the first day as it was way too crowded but we did bought ourselves two trays of oysters and a small serve of salmon sashimi. I am not a big fan of oysters and so, can't really comment much on it but the salmon sashimi made my day. At the sushi restaurants in Adelaide, I would have paid $10 more to have the equivalent amount of salmon sashimi at the fish market. Mental note to self, bring soy sauce and wasabi next time because they do charge an extra $1 per tiny pot of soy sauce infused with wasabi.

We then had more fresh seafood sashimi such as scallop, abalone and scampi sashimi. They were really fresh and did not wreck any fishy scent whatsoever. Although, I would caution you against sitting outdoors because as soon as we left the table that we shared with a few strangers, the hungry seagulls made a quick attempt at grabbing whatever seafood morsels they could lay their beaks on. It was a very frightful moment and we were lucky to not be in that situation :/

On day 2, we had more seafood. But this time round, we made an effort to purchase a mudcrab, lobster and a few kilos of clam that were prepared for us at $10 per seafood. I think it's a bit costly to get them to cook the seafood for you but if you are planning on having a mega feast, then it would be worthwhile.

We had the Singapore chilli crab and it was good albeit not as spicy as I would have liked it to be. The XO clams were not too bad and I actually preferred it. The garlic lobster was alright though, not sure if it was incorrectly prepared due to the rush.

Cheekily enough, we then ventured down the deep fried options with deep fried soft shell crabs, prawns and a lobster mornay. The soft shell crabs were not cleaned well but still tasted alright to me. Lobster mornay was a little too cheesy but still edible. Probably wiser to go with the fresh options in the future. Less calories involved too haha.

On the last day, we handpicked the best things to have at the fish market and arrived very early. Had more salmon sashimi, oysters and squid sashimi. Was too good to resist. Also had my first try at sea urchin roe which tasted very much like the sea, as quoted by the superior foodies. Not something that I can have often but it does have it's own distinct taste.

To end the trip quickly, we had stir fry clams with ginger and shallots and garlic prawns. The food arrived pipping hot on our table and the best part? No crowds to fight for seats. Double win never felt so good.

If I could give you a few pointers, it would be:

1. arrive early aka within 30 minutes of opening. Less crowd = more time browsing
2. do not sit outside unless you have to. Way too windy and crazy seagulls ahoy.
3. if getting seafood prepared by staff, order a bit more. It stretches that extra $10 you pay for preparing it.
4. if possible, best to buy whatever seafood you want and prepare at home. Always the most economic method.
5. prices across all shops are the same. don't waste your time browsing.
6. fresh seafood tastes so much better than deep fried ones. You have been warned.

Chanoma cafe, George Street Sydney

I was on a dessert hunt a couple of weeks prior to arriving in Sydney and had browsed what felt like hundreds of dessert cafe reviews. A few slipped out of my radar and that would have to wait until the next trip (eg Zumbo's balmain shop..why so far??!!). We roamed around the CBD area and so, my options were rather restricted, depending on time constraints.

However, I did gather over the internet that there's a really good dessert cafe that serves purely green tea desserts and I made a mental note to head there. The place was packed with people, mostly there for catch up sessions. The menu was very specific in that it's either an ice cream based dessert or a drink, whatever suits your fancy. They do serve hot dog and fries but we just had dinner so maybe on a separate occasion.

Matcha anmitsu ~ green tea ice cream served with chunky red bean paste, jellies and glutinous rice balls. Ice cream had a very prominent green tea flavour which tasted good with the chunky bits of red bean. The glutinous rice balls and jellies added a bit more texture to the otherwise "mushy" dish and I was very happy with it overall:)

Green tea frappe ~ I like anything sweet but this one took me by surprise. It was not as sweet as I had imagined it to be and had a very strong green tea scent. Definitely a good option if you prefer something not too sweet and still yummy.

Home Thai Restaurant, Sussex Street in Sydney

More blog posts on my Sydney trip and this time round, I dropped by a Thai restaurant. Despite living in a country next to Thailand, Thai cuisine is not something that we commonly have regardless of the occassion. I slowly developed an interest towards Thai food over the years living in North Adelaide, a place that's very close to many finger licking Thai restaurants.

I have been to Chat Thai last July to which, I concluded Thai food in Sydney is a tad more spicier compared to Adelaide's versions but on the flip side, there are a lot more affordable options to choose from. Home Thai was no different to Chat Thai. It had the same relaxed ambience that pairs really well with the robust flavoured food they serve.

Coconut juice and Thai milk tea ~ interestingly enough, I did not realize there's a Thai milk tea version which tasted rather similar to teh tarik (Malaysian pulled tea with condensed milk) except that their's were a bit more sweeter. Still pretty good in my opinion:)

Green papaya salad ~ Papaya or paw paw is a favourite among us South East Asians and so, we couldn't miss trying this out. I immediately fell in love with the crunchy and refreshing thin slices of papaya. The vinaigrette was a simple lime and palm sugar mixture that was subtly mild to taste. I was happy to have a generous serve of peanuts and dried shrimp in the salad which lent the dish a lot of texture.

Pad Kee Mao with chicken ~ the waiter allowed us to choose the chilli level of the dish and somebody made a horrific mistake of uttering spicy without much thought. The dish was indeed spicy but we managed to dig through it without too much water breaks and were still able to taste the noodles and its companion ingredients. Only mistake somebody made was to bite into a tiny piece of chilli that spiraled into a few minutes of unstoppable pain. Haha.

Durian sticky rice ~ I wanted to have desserts as it sounded very enticing on the menu. Noticed there's a durian dish on board and I could not say no. The sticky rice was beautifully coloured and topped with some durian flesh and drizzled generously with coconut milk. So sinfully yummy!

Mango sticky rice ~ an alternative to the durian sticky rice dish but with less coconut milk involved. Still loved this one although if I had a choice, the durian sticky rice wins hands down.

Overall, we had an enjoyable lunch meal here. The service is very efficient and quick, no time wasted whatsoever. The food was affordable, delicious and definitely made me look up flight fares for my next Sydney trip!

Exploring Sydney day 1: Fish market, Zumbo patisserie, Gumshara ramen

This is the second time I am visiting Sydney (blog posts on last year's Sydney trip can be seen here). Sydney is a very widespread city and one may need to travel further to explore more which was why I planned to visit a few different spots this time round. Australia is a big continent and I am forever grateful for cheap flight fares that enables me to easily move around the country. I traveled via Jetstar for convenience, reliability and affordable tickets.

First stop the bunch of us visited was Deus cafe which was located near our accommodation in Camperdown (about 20 minutes drive from the CBD precinct). Interesting decor on the walls but more importantly, a nice range of dishes to choose from which I would have loved to try if time permits.

After brekkie at Deus Cafe, we hopped into a taxi to the Sydney fish market where we literally went there on a daily basis throughout the entire trip. More on that later because it deserves an entire blog post to describe the scene.

And so, we adjourned to the Star Casino to visit Zumbo. Little did we know that we bought a whole V8 cake because it did not come in smaller sizes:( Oh and not to mention a few macarons along the way too. I think I can safely claim that I have tried most of the flavours available at the casino. Who knows what would happen if we had actually went to his main shop in Balmain. Perhaps on a separate trip:)

As you can see, macarons here probably costs less compared to Adelaide which probably reduced the rate of my wallet's diet. Would have liked to try his infamous Zonut but as stated above, we blew our budget on the V8 cake to which, I was a little upset initially but grew out of it I suppose.

And here I present to you the V8 cake in all it's glory and perfection. We bought smaller boxes to package the cake into and it did survive the 1.5 hour flight back to Adelaide. True enough, there were 8 evident layers, nicely set out with it's own individual textures and flavours. Very impressive and not something that would be easy to replicate unfortunately!

One thing that Sydney does particularly well is Japanese food. There are so many ramen outlets and sushi restaurants to choose from! In future, I need to organize a Japanese food hunt here. Aside from that, this pretty much summarized our first day in Sydney. Way too much seafood and sugar but luckily, we managed to walk off some of it whilst moving around the city:)

Tetsuya's Sydney

Having rang up to book about two weeks in advance, we were pretty fortunate to land ourselves a table considering it was a last minute thought. I came across Tetsuya via Masterchef and since then, have been pondering on the likes of dining at his restaurant. It is fascinating to learn about an individual's life journey, both the bitter and sweet experiences.

The entire restaurant was beautifully decorated with a few paintings on the wall and sufficient space for diners and waiters to whiz past. Despite it being night time, I managed to catch a glimpse of his garden which must have looked spectacular in the day. Tetsuya offers a 10 course degustation menu for $220, excluding wine pairing.

We were offered two different types of bread to go with the truffle butter and of course, you are most welcomed to request for more. I wish I had because the butter was very fragrant, light and aromatic. It spreads like cream but has a butter-y like shine to it. Very yummy and it's a good start to our degustation meal.

Pacific Oysters with rice wine vinegar and ginger ~ how Tetsuya managed to concoct this is beyond my imagination. It had a slightly tart taste, a bit of pungent ginger aroma and sweetness from the fresh oyster. I would have liked more but let's not be greedy, shall we?:P

Savoury custard with avruga ~ without a doubt, all of us were not familiar with every ingredient placed in front of us but we were happy to try it out. This reminded me of a typical Japanese chawan mushi (steamed egg custard) but it was much more softer and was very fragrant indeed. Loved this one too and fingers crossed I am able to recreate something similar.

Carpaccio of snapper with umeboshi ~ fresh and slightly sweet, this may have been inspired by Tetsuya's background but made fusion.

Marinated scampi with walnut oil and egg ~ at this point, I was at fresh seafood heaven. The egg yolk may have been freezed a bit to retain it's shape. It did not melt or crumble when I pierced it with my knife. A very interesting combination but definitely kudos for innovation.

Confit of Petuna ocean trout with a salad of celery, witlof, apple and unpasteurised ocean trout roe ~ Tetsuya's signature dish that must have been created many years ago and until today, it still is a favourite among diners. And I second that notion. My piece of ocean trout was confit very well and topped with a salty seaweed mix that is just blew me away. I want more.

Roasted moreton bay bug with braised oxtail ~ we are now approaching a more carnivorous selection of dishes which is a good transit from the lighter dishes we had earlier. The oxtail was braised very well and bay bug cooked nicely.

Tea smoked quail breast with parsnip and calamari ~ I can't remember the last time I had quail breast but I do for sure know that this one is cooked well as it still had a tinge of pink. The parsnip and calamari served as perfect condiments to the game-y quail breast.

Roasted lamb rack with  black olives and artichoke ~ I liked how every single dish is presented well with attention to detail. This dish was a bit more toned down compared to the earlier dishes that we had but still cooked to perfection and most certainly, respecting the produce itself.

Sauternes custard with achacha and berries ~ dessert started off with a lightly flavoured custard that has little pieces of berries embedded in it and topped with granita. Reminded me of Quay's guava snow egg but I think this one has it's own charm to it.

Tetsuya's chocolate cake ~ strangely enough, this also reminded me of Quay's eight texture layer cake but with its own little elements. No fancy show of us diners, just a really decadent chocolate mousse cake that has a very shiny gloss on it. Ending the entire course with chocolate gets an approval tick from me.

Petits fours ~ pretty pink miniature macarons and chocolate truffle. To sweeten up the entire night!:)

Dining at Tetsuya is a unique experience on it's own and for a very special event, it is probably one of those things I have to sample at least once whilst in Sydney. Worth a try for anyone keen on Japanese fusion food done by an expert:)