Chocolate Taperia

I have always been fond of walking about in North Adelaide as I have practically lived there for a good 3 years before moving to the CBD region. Being the independent, transport-less student that I once was, I often walk to food destinations and when the weather's gloomy and ominous, that's when I would scout nearby areas for food.

When I found out about this place a couple of months back, I was excited and happy to know that there are more dessert parlours opening up in that area. I did procrastinate about going there as it was quite crowded during the first few weeks after opening. Most of my friends kept me posted about their trip here on Facebook and you bet was I envious!

So we got here after dinner on sunday night and was thankful enough to have escaped the oncoming rain.

There is a chocolate display counter near the cashier counter and although I did not sample any of them, they do look tempting and sinful!

Frappe~ for the iced chocolate lovers out there.

Frito~ churros, empanadas with dulce le leche, chocolate and banana bombolini. The churros is pretty much standard but the banana bombolini was delicious. It had a sweet inner and warm banana mash which went so well with the chocolate sauce served.

The background picture is the Taperia platter which includes churros, macaron, hand made truffle, chocolate mousse with cantucci crumb, honey comb shards and lemoncello cake. A good dish to order if you would couldn't pick a favourite but yet, want to have a bit of everything:)

Churros with dark belgium chocolate sauce~ Simple plating style and looks very comforting. I could imagine myself eating this on the couch whilst watching TV during a cold, rainy weather. If only I had a steaming cup of hot chocolate to wash everything down!

Macaron~ The macaron was not flavoured with liquor nor any fruity concoctions and despite it's lack in flavour variations, it was surprisingly quite good. The outer layer was thin and crisp while the inner part had a soft, chewy consistency to it. I did enjoy every bit of it:)

How I like my churros: heavily coated and dribbling with dark chocolate sauce. I wonder if they would come up with other types of churros in the future..would be an exciting idea to play with!

Earl of Leicester

A friend of mine recommended me to drop by this place as he reckons it is quite good value for money and customer service here is not only efficient but friendly. And that's what I did. Went here for my brother's birthday, for a change in atmosphere as compared to your usual pub food dining areas.

I have always been a fan of eating food whilst watching TV shows (although it didn't help me lose weight at all!) but nevertheless, was fortunate to get a table with a nice view of the plasma TV. Had a brief update on the current news while waiting for our mains to arrive:)

The bistro menu is not too extensive and it was easy to locate our favourites.

I have to admit that I did not do much research about this place prior to arriving and little did I know that they have a salad bar available for diners. You can refill your plate at no cost and the vegetarian and cold pasta salads were yummy appetizers. Slices of bread and butter were also included but we did not want to be too filled up prior to our mains:)

Leicester pork ribs served with crispy, spicy potato skin and coleslaw~ the pork ribs were well marinated with a thick barbeque-ish sauce and it had a caramelized taste to it. The potato skin was not as spicy as I had expected it to be but it does give the entire dish a crunch element to it:)

SC Special~ Sweet chilli, bacon, cheese and sour cream combination on chicken schnitzel, served with a small bowl of chips. Recently, I seem to be lured to cream based dishes and this was no exception. The sour cream was a good contrast to the sweet chilli sauce and savoury-ness of the bacon and cheese mixture. Chicken schnitzel was not dry at all. A good schnitzel:)

Seafood plate~ herb crusted garfish, salt and pepper squid, prawn twisters, chips and a trio of sauces. This dish costs $26.50 and I think it is a bit tiny, especially if you have a big appetite like yours truly. The garfish, prawn twisters and squid were crunchy and well seasoned but I think I would need more to stuff myself with.  However, I would recommend this to small eaters:)

Parmagiana schnitzel with napoli sauce and mozzarella cheese~ the schnitzel was quite drenched with the copious amount of sauce used and although the outside layer of the schnitzel was not as crisp as what I would like it to be, it was still a yummy one.

Mixed grill~ Lamb cutlets, lamb sausage, pattie, scotch steak and bacon, fried egg served with worcestershire, tomato relish and dijon sauce.

We shared a glass of rose wine and beer to celebrate the event.

Overall, service was extremely friendly and food was served after 15 minutes since we placed our orders. Not a bad place to go if you are looking for somewhere casual to relax after a long, stressful week.

Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant

Upon arrival to Australia, I was immediately introduced to the infamous outdoor barbeque meal. It is almost traditional for my residential college to host a barbeque event annually to welcome freshers. Despite moving out of college for more than a year now, I can never forget how a fuss free cooking method could bring everyone together (over a couple of hot dogs, hamburgers and perhaps beer).

Moving fast forward, we were then introduced to a Korean variation of the traditional BBQ method where instead of the classic selection of patties, we utilize slices of fresh meat as the main source of protein. In this blogpost, we walk through my fond Korean BBQ memory lane but this time, to wish a dear friend farewell on his journey back home and hopefully, we would meet up again someday:)

The interior is quite spacious and accommodates one of the most comfortable wooden seats. We were too lazy to move around after settling our bottoms down and having button to ring for a waiter's attention made things all too easy.

The menu is quite extensive and there is so many types of food to choose from. One could opt for a hot pot, BBQ or individual main dishes such as soup noodles and rice dishes.

It is common to get served a few types of cold side dishes. We were served pickled beansprouts, tofu cubes, kimchi and a dollop of mashed potato.

A few minutes after being served with the cold dishes, we were provided with dipping sauces for the meat. This soup-y consistency sauce went perfectly well with most of our meat slices.

Fresh slices of pork belly (with a nice marbling of fat!)

Marinated chicken, ready to lick the grill's heat.

I like how the waitresses came around to help us cook our meat and because the ventilation's quite good, we didn't leave the place smelling like fried meat.

Beef and mushroom hot pot~ clear beef broth with enoki and button mushrooms, bulgogi slices, onions and some vegetables. A really healthy dish.

Our protein slices were so fresh that most of them didn't need to be marinated prior to hitting the grill and still turned out delicious. The fatty layers of the meat kept the meat succulent and juicy and you wouldn't need to add oil to cook them:)

Spicy seafood soup noodles~ I can down a few spicy dishes but this one pushed my limits a bit. I would rate it 7/10 spicy, mostly from the thick chilli broth used to cook the seafood. You have been warned to avoid this if spicy food is not your cuppa tea.

Overall, the stock made this dish really delicious and even my fussy brother agreed that it was worthy of a A- from him. Simplicity at it's best:)

I had a few bowls going around as we were sharing our food. Had so much to eat that day but I am quite certain that not much oil was used to bring out the lovely flavours of each ingredient.

And for the beer lovers out there, a Soju beer would not only warm you up but also break the ice among your friends (even if it's just one bottle!!)