Adelaide Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 1): San Churro Choccolateria (Adelaide Central Market) ~ Review

After setting our check-in and stuff, we just want to chill and nibble a bit in a place that has Wi-Fi so here we are at San Churro Chocolateria Chinatown. You can guess by now that during my time in Adelaide, we stayed near the Chinatown Area.

The counter 

Ample and spacious seating area

This place is just so cozy to lounge around while sipping hot cocoa. There's 2 storey full of seating area inside and some seating space outside too.

Besides churros and hot chocolate, they have many other types of pastry and dessert like ice cream which comes in a unique flavour called Chilli Chocolate (which my sister say taste really weird), macaroons, cakes, and many more. They also sells many merchandise. 

As we were quite full, we decided to settle on 2 sweet stuff: 

Milk Couverture Hot Chocolate

On a winter evening, you can never go wrong with a hot cocoa. I love how rich this hot chocolate is. The consistency is also pretty thick. Next time, I'd probably try the dark chocolate version since I find this version a bit too sweet for my taste.

The cup comes with their tagline written on the inner top: sweeten thy love

Chocolate and Churros Tapas

This thing is awesome as it lets me try their churros (6 mini ones), brownies, deep fried chocolate truffles, strawberries, and assorted chocolate like their pretzel covered with milk chocolate, praline, butterscotch-filled chocolate cup, mint chocolate (the green-ish one) and milk chocolate covered in bitter cocoa powder (the four squares between the brownies).

Let me describe each components of the dish:

1. I must say their churros are very crispy and crunchy with the inside being very soft. It pairs really well with the milk chocolate dipping inside the tiny bowl. 

2. The milk chocolate dipping taste exactly like the hot chocolate though it has a thicker and richer consistency as how a dipping should be.

3. The brownies are rich and chocolate-y without being overboard though it's a bit on the dryer side, in my opinion. I'm not complaining since I can get the moistness by dipping it inside the milk chocolate.

4. The deep fried chocolate truffles are quite decent. It has the slightly salty, oily batter on the outside and the sweetness of the chocolate truffle inside. If asked to purchase this separately, I wouldn't buy this though. I like my chocolate truffle plain without any batter covering it. I basically don't understand the significance of frying it.

5. The pretzel covered chocolate has that nice texture of crunchiness and great combination of sweet and salty.

6. The praline taste hmmm... pretty decent.. It doesn't taste spectacular or anything. By this moment, I can't really tell the difference of the sweetness of the chocolate. I'm having a sweetness overload here.

7. Butterscotch-filled chocolate cup. I'm liking this for its soft butterscotch cream filling. It's mildly sweet which balance out the milk chocolate cup.

8. Mint chocolate. I don't know if it's the overload chocolate talking or the mint is just a bit too overpowering. I think they can consider toning down the peppermint flavouring on this.

9. Bits of milk chocolate covered in bitter cocoa powder. I like how this bits are not overly sweet given the bitter powder coating.

Would recommend this place if you're looking for a nice place to chill alone doing some work on your laptop or to hang out with friends for a catchup session. This place is also great for all of you tourist out there who needs Wi-Fi (I feel your pain).

Adelaide Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 1): Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant ~ Review

After a long journey from Sydney, we arrived around late afternoon starving in Adelaide. While exploring the Chinatown area, we came across this place for little Chinese food fix.

Upon entering the place, I must say I have my own reservation. The place looks rather..... not clean. Oh and we were greeted by a lady shouting at the chef (I think it has something to do with letting the chef know that we arrived or something). Anyway, awkward entrance aside, here's what we got.

Fried Combination with Fried Rice

So what you have is here chopped vegetables (probably Chinese Kale), bits of crab stick, fish, prawn, pork, chicken, and beef all stir fried in with some kind of an oyster sauce (salty-savoury kind of taste). This concoction is then dumped on top of fried rice (egg+rice). The combination of all the meats and vegetable are flavourful and very savoury. However, I can't help but think that this dish is made out of the many excess bits of food they have. Is that a bad thing to say? Anyway topping aside, the fried rice taste really bland eaten alone.

I must say that their portion is really really generous. The rice practically fills up the whole bowl and that fried combination practically covers the whole top of the bowl with the sauce sipping down to 1/4 length of the bowl.

Roast Duck with Rice

Let me just say first that I am not that much of a duck fan. This dish is rather fragrant and the duck is quite tender. The sweet savoury sauce is pretty nice though it's too little for us; we had to ask for extra serving of the sauce on the side. The sauce balance well with the hint of saltiness of the roast duck.

Singapore Fried Noodle

I don't understand why this is called Singapore Fried Noodle.It does not remind me of Singapore at all. Anyway that matter aside, the noodle serving is very generous. The noodle comes with bean sprouts, prawns and bits of meat. Taste wise is kinda bland; they could've up the sauce on this and make it more savoury. I would say skip this.

Though there's quite ample seating area, I would not recommend this place for long chill-out session because it does not cut it for me. It's not comfortable enough and, again, I just don't find it that clean. I'd say go here for takeaways or if you're on a tight budget. The plus points of this place comes from its very reasonable price, giant portion and pretty decent food.

If you're going to Adelaide for a holiday, I suggest you go for BBQ City instead for a good fix of Chinese food.

Sydney Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 7): Chat Thai Restaurant (Westfield) ~ Review

After a week full of family time, I headed to meet my old-time friend for dinner. She recommended Chat Thai at Westfield CBD. Apparently it's a pretty famous Thai food place and this is just one of their branch.

It was friday evening and there was quite a queue when we came. Thankfully we only waited about 15-20 minutes before our table's ready. As you can see, Chat Thai's atmosphere is pretty bustling with so many people chatting and dining inside. They have an open kitchen in front foods that need minimal preparation and a larger kitchen inside to serve cooked dish. Really like the dim lighting and and decoration inside the restaurant, it has an authentic Thai but still modern enough. Loving all the wooden details infused in the restaurant from the ceiling to the chairs.

This is how they served their tap water. Must say that this is a pretty cool looking metal cup. Had my friend not told me, I would've thought this is a small bowl for washing hands >.< One kid that pass my table though thinks my cup is his washing hand cup. He dipped his finger into my cup -.- I asked for another cup and the waitress looked super puzzled and somewhat stern.

Anyway the reason I'm telling you this story is because the staff are quite stern in my opinion. You can feel how in a rush they are and how they want you to order fast. She had a very stern look when I ask to change my cup. Furthermore, when we try to settle on how many bowls of rice we want to add, she had an annoyed face while waiting for us to come into conclusion, like we need to speed up. I guess this is what happens when you're working in a super busy and crowded restaurant with overflowing number of customers. Must be a very stressful environment. 

Anyway here's what we got:

Dtoom Sap or Hot and Sour Soup of Braised Pork Ribs. This right here is super awesome. I've never found a Thai soup that compares to Tom Yam but this might be it! It has that sourness you find in Tom Yam but on a pork broth soup. The pork is also very tender and you can actually chew and swallow the tendons and soft bones. The hint of spiciness is like a cherry on the top. The soup might be too salty and sour to eat on its own. I suggest eating it with rice, which makes it taste just right :)

Kana Mhu Grob or Stir-Fried Chinese Kale and Crisp Pork Belly. This is another awesome thing. The dish is topped with a salty slightly sweet sauce which I believe is the marinate of the pork as well. You can feel the marinate sips in to the pork meat so well. Not only is this pork crispy, it is also so tender. It's so easy to chew and the Chinese Kale is cooked perfectly - still green and crunchy. This thing is another must-have. My friend actually swore by this and almost order 2 portion for the 3 of us. Eat this with rice too

I hate to end with a disappointing dish. I'm just following the order how the food was served. I am a sucker for Thai Basil Chicken. It's something that I always order when I head to a Thai restaurant so I had to try their version of this. Unfortunately, this dish taste bland compare to the other dishes above. The Thai Express in Singapore makes a better Thai Basil Chicken according to my tastebuds. The basil is there but they should amp up with the sauce. Make it more sweet and add some salt.

All in all, I will definitely pay this place a visit again next time I'm in Sydney. I am very interested to try their original branch. I heard they have a really good dessert in their original branch. Hopefully when the time comes :)

Sydney Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 6): Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant ~ Review

After a day spent on graduation ceremony,  of course we had to celebrate and we head off to our Aunt's recommended Chinese restaurant in Chatswood - Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant. They were having some promotion on the crab on that day, so yeah we had to get that. So here's the food we got:

Okay I don't exactly remember the name of this dish. This is basically steamed chicken - kinda taste like the chicken you get with Hainanese Chicken Rice. The meat is tender and flavourful, it's salty with a hint of sweetness into it. It's server warm. The sauces on the sides are made of ginger and garlic.

The star of the show - The Ginger and Shallot Crab. The crab is so fragrant and the meat is so soft. The 9 of us finish this pretty easily. And you can never go wrong with Ginger and Shallot if you're in Australia. It's sweet, salty, savoury. Yumm...

Fried Oyster. This one is pretty so-so for me just because in general I prefer raw oyster. This dish is not bad but I can't seem to find the difference between this and a regular deep-fried oyster. Skip this..

Sweet and Sour Pork is one of those staple dish we got in a Chinese restaurant. You just can't go wrong with it. The meat in this one is tender and easy to chew which is good. The batter is deep fried to crispiness and the sauce is very generous. On a side note, there's nothing different from this sweet and sour pork to others' served in other restaurant. So if you're looking for a twist on the original, this is not it. This one is just a good old comfort food.

This dish over here is accidentally served to us. It's basically soft tofu with fillet fish served with soy sauce and shallots on top. The saltiness of the soy sauce gives really great flavour to the soft fish fillet and tofu.

Okay this is so unappealing. The dish came in served per bowl. It is crispy fried noodle with meat and vege topped with a some kind of oyster sauce. It's a tradition to celebrate an occasion especially birthdays by eating noodles so we had these. It's a pretty decent dish. The noodle still has some of its crispiness which is good and the sauce is nice and savoury.

This is probably my least favourite dish mainly because it tasted pretty bland. It is soft tofu with mixed vegetables (carrots, snow peas, baby corn, and mushroom) and some meat (prawns and minced pork). I do like the consistency of the thick sauce but am not a fan of the taste. Had they made it more salty and sweet, I would probably have loved it more. Take a leave from Superbowl on this one please.

It's an unpleasant sight (it taste good though) but this is a whole steamed fish. The fish taste fresh and the meat is so soft. The soy sauce that marinates the whole thing is really good (salty with a hint of sweetness) and the shallots add some crisp to the dish. Just a side note, this is the same sauce as the one use in the fish fillet dish mentioned above.

Another less favourite of mine. It's steamed dou miao with mushroom topped with oyster sauce. The vegetable (dou miao) is the problem for me. I find it too hard to chew, I think it would have fared better if they steamed it a little bit more. The taste of the dish is also rather bland.

Chinese Restaurant will not be complete without the complimentary desserts:

Sweet Sliced Oranges

Fried Wontons and Chinese Cookies. Yum!

Bowl of Red Bean Soup - Not a fan of this. Could've been more sweet.

Given on a Friday evening,  the restaurant is not that packed in my opinion. Maybe evenings are not their forte. Would I go here again? I guess so if I'm in the Chatswood area. They serve pretty good decent Chinese food. I would like to see how they whip up fried rice and deep shredded beef dish - those 2 are my faves. Oh, and dim sum :)

FYI. Random story: I left my phone and had to come back to get it here. Good thing they picked up my call and wait for me to get my phone.

Sydney Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 6): Sister's Graduation Day ~ Review

Today is the day that we've all been waiting for. My sister's graduation day. Super proud of her. She graduated from University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Commerce.

The weather wasn't exactly on our side

Inside the Ceremony Hall

My sister and I

Really loving the architecture of this place

Bunch of other graduates

It was a rainy and windy day but I hope you had tons of fun. I'm not sure if my sister is gonna kill me for posting her picture with me online but I hope she doesn't ;) she looks good anyway. 

Again congrats on your graduation. I know this post is long overdue but I am super proud of you :)

Sydney Winter Holiday 2014 (Day 5+7): Pancakes on The Rocks (Darling Harbour) ~ Review

After an afternoon at Bondi, we decided to head to Darling Harbour to get a glimpse of the Vivid show and head off to Pancakes on the Rocks. My brother was obsessed with it that we actually came back a few days later, right before he head off back to SG. This is not their original branch but the location and the view of the Darling Harbour is pretty awesome so we keep coming back to this one.

The menu of course consist of pancakes (both sweet and savoury ones) but they also have pizza and other savoury snacks like nachos and even savoury main dishes like steak. We came on a Friday evening and Sunday afternoon and the restaurant were bustling with people and queues were forming outside too. 

We can see the staff was having some chaotic moments and it is quite hard to get their attention for stuff like to add more orders or ask for miscellaneous like extra tissue or more water. They usually take your order, bring your food and never come back to check up on you until you ask for the bill.

A summary and verdict based on my experience at the Darling Harbour branch before I go a bit more in-depth on the dishes we got:

1. If it's your first time in Australia, Sydney, do visit one of the branch. It's one of the more popular chains over there, besides Hurricane's Grill.

2. It's really hard to go wrong with pancakes. Their buttermilk pancake is awesome when done right.* Their chocolate pancake though is a bit too sweet for my taste. 

3. When I say done right* on top, this is because on the 2 days I came, the consistency of the food is not there. On the first day, the buttermilk pancake was great: hint of sweetness and fluffy. On the second day though, the sweetness wasn't there, the buttermilk was just bland. They really need to work on this consistency thing.

4. When you're in a pancake restaurant, just get the pancakes. The other stuff like the mains and pizza is not that bad, but not great as well. The savoury pancakes and crepes are pretty so-so for me too. For me the star of the show are the buttermilk pancakes paired with the sweet stuff. Full stop. 

5. The pancake I would recommend is the Bananarama. If you're craving savoury ones, I guess the Monte Cristo or the Farmer's Delight (I didn't get this this time, but I had a few years back and I remembered to be pretty good). 

6. Customer service is also something they can work on. There needs to be more hospitality and more attention paid to customers. I have to admit it's hard though due to the many customers they have to attend, but they have gotta try working on this.

Below are the dishes we got on Day 1:

The Nachos is pretty decent. It comes complete with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, jalapeno, chilli and cheese on top. All of them may not be made from scratch and it does not taste wow or anything but if you're craving Nachos and stuck inside Pancakes on The Rocks, it's not a bad thing to order.

The Ultimate. Described as crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream.

The combination of the sourness of the raspberry and the sweetness from the crepes and ice cream. The cream cheese filling is not overly rich as the hint of sultanas tones it down. The buttermilk crepe is thinly made and you can taste the hint sweetness it it.

Smoked Ham Pizza. Double smoked ham, fetta cheese, cherry tomato and spicy pineapple salsa on a basil pesto base, topped with snow pea sprouts.

The pizza is pretty decent I guess. The crust is in between thin crisp and regular pan crust and they're quite crispy. The pineapple adds juice and freshness to complement the feta cheese, ham and pesto. However, I would have preferred a more moist base, like tomato base, since I find the dish still quite dry.

Bananarama. Buttermilk pancakes with grilled banana and homemade butterscotch sauce topped with cream and vanilla ice cream. This is MY FAVOURITE from everything on the menu. Cut a chunk of the buttermilk pancake, coat it with the sweet butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream, and a slice of the banan on top and you're good to go. The dish is so sweet but the banana taste balance everything out. Maybe I'm a little bias because I love bananas, especially grilled one that made it rather caramelised.

Black Forest Cherry. Described as chocolate pancakes with cherries in cherry brandy sauce topped with cream, chocolate ice cream, sprinkles of chocolate chips and chocolate sauce. Look at that glorious messiness. It is definitely a very rich dessert with all the chocolate elements from pancake to toppings and lets not forget the sweet cherry brandy sauce with chewy sweet cheery. All of these combine does reminds you of black forest, a VERY rich chocolate sweet black forest. The sweetness is too much for, I think if they swap the chocolate pancake with buttermilk ones, it would've been a better balance. 

On the second visit we got:

Hot and Troppo. Described as buttermilk pancakes with grilled banana, walnut, cream, chocolate ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce. This is when the buttermilk pancake taste bland :( The whole thing does not work well for me probably because I do not like the walnut as it's too overpowering. Had they cut then into smaller pieces, the dish would've been better. And I prefer the butterscotch-grilled banana combination any day. The dish is just a meh for me. 

Fried Calamari. Skip this. It's not worth the money. The calamari is not fresh; in fact, they probably bought it from the supermarket, fry it and serve it. I think you can do better at home. Only order this if you are really really REALLY desperate for a calamari. But then again, I think you would fare better if you jump to any other restaurant next door.

Blueberry Heaven. Described as buttermilk pancakes with blueberry sauce served with cream and vanilla ice cream. This does sounds and looks like a classic. The sweet-sour play from the blueberry bits and sauce could've play better with the ice cream and buttermilk pancake had the pancakes were as good as we had it on the first day. Again, I still prefer Bananarama to this.

Fisherman's Catch. Crumbed fillets of flatheads served with chips, mixed salad, tartare sauce. The small tin can in here is actually gravy. The lady mixed our request of aioli with gravy. Okay this dish is really bad. You can definitely taste how not fresh the flatheads are; it has a fishy smelly taste to it. The fries are just so-so as it's not crispy and salty enough. Oh and the gravy? Bleh. It does not taste like gravy. It taste like a watery, salty, brown sauce which I cannot understand.

Here is the Monte Cristo, which is chicken with smoked ham and cheese inside a crepe and topped with chilli sour cream. I can taste a hint of the spiciness in the sour cream which blends well with the rich smoked ham and cheese. The crepe is also pretty well made, it's thin enough and contains the filling well. I think they could've do better with the presentation - putting it on top of a bed of lettuce just makes the dish look messy.

Chicken and Mushroom Crepe is basically creamy chicken, mushroom and onion filling (which is inside these 2 crepe pockets). One layer of the crepe here is topped with coating of parmesan cheese and served with (special?) tomato sauce and sour cream. 

The reason I put question mark on the tomato sauce is because I don't find the tomato sauce special at all, they probably just dump it out from a can or something.

As for the filling, I have to admit that it's kinda hard to go wrong with chicken and mushroom. It's okay I guess, I find this filling to be pretty so-so, it's not salty and savoury enough in my opinion. The chicken chunks is pretty tender which is a good thing and the parmesan layer helped a bit in the saltiness department. The sour cream is a pretty good topping to add a contrast of sourness to the dish. 

I will not put this restaurant on my blacklist but I sure will order better next time. Thinking of trying out just their buttermilk pancake next time around.