Maya Sweets and Indian Restaurant, Surry Hills

Only a quick post here, mostly because there's not much to write :D I don't really know much about Indian cuisine and desserts in general, so the only kind of insight I can provide when it comes to Indian Sweets is that...they taste nice. Different to what I'm used to, but nice!

I got this box of goodies from Maya Sweets on Cleveland Street of Surry Hills. There was such a variety to choose from, and I honestly wanted to try one of everything. Which probably explains why I ended up buying close to a kilo of the stuff without knowing how I was going to finish it all :D

Let it be known amongst those of you who have never tried Indian sweets that they are sweet. Like, really, really sweet. Don't rush in and take a ginormous bite like I did, because you will find yourselves grabbing at your own throats as the sugar literally explodes in your mouth and down your oesophagus. Instead, try small nibbles paired with strong, black coffee. You'll enjoy it more, methinks :D

And, just because I'm opinionated like that, I'm going to nominate a favourite even though my palate's as unrefined as a newborn's when it comes to Indian flavours. My favourite one was the yellow, spherical one (without the specks) on the far bottom, right corner. It tasted like buttery, caramel sand!

Maya Sweets and Indian Restaurant

468-472 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Phone: (02) 9699 8663

Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant, Burwood

Despite its name, Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant has very little in way of seafood. "Sea Bay" seems to be a homophonic play on its name in Chinese "xi bei", which translates into "North-West". And indeed, North-Western Chinese cuisine is what is served here - big, hearty portions of it, at very reasonable prices.

The restaurant was completely filled when we arrived (without a booking). The staff politely informed us it would be about a 10-15 minute wait until an available table, so we entertained ourselves in the mean time by perusing the impressive menu on diplay in the window.

Soon enough, we were ushered in and seated , the eight of us hunched over a table intended for a much smaller party. Never mind. We were hungry, there was still a long queue waiting outside, and we were just grateful to be out of the cold.

 An artistic self-portrait, taken on an iPad 2 - the perfect answer to when a food blogger forgets to bring her camera to the restaurant (doh!)...

We rattled off a selection of hot and cold dishes from the laminated menu, and within minutes they arrived at our table...all at once!

The jellied pork ear was perfectly crunchy and chewy with cartilage. I kept going back for more despite the searing heat from the tiny, red chillis.

Think the following one may have been tripe. It was very spicy. We Northerners sure love our chilli...and offals!

Some hot dishes to warm the gut: dumpling noodle soup, and mutton broth with 'mo' (a type of Chinese bread)



Sweet and sour lamb (I think...or maybe pork?). Absolutely loved the sauce. I was mopping it up with my share of the 'mo' :D

We ordered some green shallot wraps, not really sure what to expect. They turned out to be filled with cooked vermicelli and thin slices of fatty beef. A bit tasteless, really. It could have done with some sort of sauce, or seasoning. Guess that was why there were squeezie bottles of soy sauce at each table.

And, my personal favourite of the night: hand-made noodles, the "xi bei" way! Tiny, springy pellets of gluten-rich dough in a rich, meat sauce - yum!

The bill came to around $20 per person. Yes, the seating was really cramped, and there was a baby screaming constantly from the left-hand corneer, but you know what? It's dining experiences uch as this that bring back the fondest memories of my home land. I'll take unpretentious, quality food over a Michelin experience any day!

(Well, may be not if someone else paid for me to eat at the latter :D)

Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant

181D Burwood Road, Burwood 2134 NSW

Phone: (02) 9745 2238

Bloodwood, Newtown

You remember my Pal from the Pasticceria Papa post, yes? Well, it was her birthday a while ago, and to celebrate, she treated us all to dinner at Bloodwood in Newtown, with drinks at Kuletos (a few minutes walk away) beforehand. I think it's customary to treat the birthday girl rather than have it the other way around. Whoopsies :D I promise I'll make it up to her for my birthday!

My Pal put all our names down for the 'Set Menu', which was awesome. We started off with crusty, warm sourdough and olive oil. I noticed how everyone else at the table saved some to have with the rest of the dishes, while I myself greedily polished off my share in record time. Sorry guys, but clearly I really love my carbs.

I did have a little left to have with our next course, though. There was chicken liver parfait, marinated olives, cured meats and pickles. I mopped the parfait dish squeaky clean with the last bits of my sourdough!

(Before I forget - my apologies for the poor quality of the photography in this post. We dined in relative darkness :D)

At this point, I took a break and went downstairs to see a bit more of the restaurant (but mainly for a bit of reprieve from the parfait.) There's definitely a gothic vibe about the whole place. But with a name like Bloodwood, what else was I expecting, Martha Stewart-inspired decor?

Back from my little jaunt, I was greeted at the table by what looked like mounds of gold bars. Oh wait, those were the famed polenta chips, with gorgonzola sauce on the side. This was what I've been waiting for all evening (oh, and the pleasure of my friends' company, of course). And it did not disappoint. Lip-smacking salty, crunchy goodness on the outside, with a core of fluffy and still piping-hot polenta - the gorgonzola sauce wasn't at all necessary, but I've never been one to say 'no' to a bit of extra fat in my diet. We were given two plates of these to share between the six of us, which was more than enough, even taking into account our massive, post-Happy Hour appetites.

Next to arrive - sticky glazed chicken wings. I think a side salad would have been very welcome at this point. Still, the chicken was tender and the glaze deliciously sticky, as promised.

I like how we were allowed to take our time sampling each dish before the next one was brought out. The baked mushrooms in green sauce proved to be a favourite at our table, with those who still had some bread left going nutso on the green sauce. What is 'green sauce'?, you ask. Hmm, that's a good question.

(Oh look, extra bread! Which meant I could go nutso on the mysterious green sauce as well.)

The grilled cuttlefish salad was very refreshing, and much needed by yours truly.

The king prawns and pippies in XO sauce tasted like my grandmother's! What a mish mash of flavours we've had so far. Guess this is what you call a 'fusion menu'...for real!

Our last savoury dish was the grilled lamb with yoghurt sauce. A seemingly Greek combination, but with some undertones of Indian curry spices. I'm tellin' you - FUSION.

And then it was time for desserts! Firstly, there was the deconstructed cheesecake, which had all the elements of a berry cheesecake...simply deconstructed. Personally, I like my cheesecakes just the way they are, biscuit crusts and all. I guess the 'cheesecake' bit was more like a mousse here. Served with fresh strawberries, a wobbly blob of jelly, and biscuit crumbs.

The dessert to die for (or because of) - the chocolate torte, which was richy, creamy and dreamy. The bitterness from the dark chocolate enhanced the thick mouthfeel. It made me want to sink into a river of cacao. (see - even thinking about it makes me act like a madwoman)

(Goes into foodgasmic paroxysms)

And to round off our feast, the Bloodwood trifle, which resembled the deconstructed cheesecake somewhat, but had grapes, pound cake, port wine jelly, peach anglaise, and vanilla bean yoghurt. Guess this was a 'deconstructed' trifle :D And be warned - the jelly's made with real port wine. I got a hit with a head rush of alcohol when I, unknowing, took a giant bite.

Thank you, my friend, for that amazing dinner experience! I promise to reciprocate some time soon by taking everyone out to Bloodwood again - after all, I really want to try the chickpea socca :D

Bloodwood restaurant & bar

416 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Phone: (02) 9557 7699

Website: http://www.bloodwoodnewtown.com/

Roasted pumpkin and chickpea salad, with add-ins of your choice!

Or as the non-Aussies would call it, "roasted squash salad, etc." :D

Salad seems to be all the rage these days in our health-conscious society, with "salad bars" popping up all over the place. You know, those places where you pay an exorbitant amount for the privilege of watching the hot guy (or girl) behind the counter toss a few ingredients of your choice into a mound of salad leaves.

It's obvious that those who possess a decent business mind are taking full advantage of our newfound preoccupation with rabbit food - which isn't to say that it's necessarily a bad thing. After all, a customised salad's around the same price as a kebab or a KFC meal...without the detracting factor of potential coronary artery disease. It's a win-win situation.



And yet, I can't help but feel that there are better ways to spend my money than on salad. I mean, it's...salad. It's, like, 98.5% ready-made by nature. I maintain that it's an aberration of my basic, human right to be charged for what is essentially Mother Earth's gift to me!

(Okay, that was a joke. Salad bar people, please don't hurt me.)

But, as my dad always says, there's no point in complaining; if you're unhappy with the way things are done, go do it yourself. Which is exactly what I did. I got off my lazy ass, threw away yesterday's kebab wrapper, and got down to work on makin' my own, customised salad. I decided on an age-old combination: roast pumpkin and chickpeas. To that, I added sweet corn kernels, chopped red onions, grilled and marinated red capsicum, and of course, salad leaves. The result? A healthy, nutritious and filling salad, made exactly the way I wanted, and for around half a price!

(There was the time factor - it took me almost 2 hours to put together this lunch. Oh, be quiet. You can't win at everything in life :D)

 

 Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and chickpea salad

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the roasted pumpkin:

1kg of pumpkin/squash

4 french shallots

4 small heads of garlic (I used purple-skinned garlic)

Salt

Cummin powder

For the salad (quantity up to you):

Cooked chickpeas (I used canned)

Sweet corn kernels (again, I used canned)

Grilled and marinated red capsicum (...canned...I mean, jarred...)

Red onions, chopped

Other add-ins of your choice! Chicken, avocado, the kitchen sink etc.

For the dressing:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 small red onion, finely diced

Method:

1. To make roasted pumpkin - preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius. Remove skin from pumpkin using a knife or vegetable peeler, then slice into bite-sized cubes. Place into baking dish along with peeled french shallots and garlic (also peeled). Season well with salt and cummin powder. Don't hesitate to really rub it in with your (clean!) fingers. Place into oven and roast for 1 hour.

2. To make dressing - pour the red wine vinegar over the finely diced onions and set aside.

3. Put your salad together.

4. Remove roasted pumpkin et al. from oven and allow to cool.

5. Put your roasted pumpkin+French shallots+garlic into your salad, pour in the dressing (including the onions), and toss it all around so everything's nicely...what's the adjective I'm looking for?...oh, you know, so everything's coated with the dressing.

6. Serve, and enjoy your (relatively cheap!) salad.

Luxe Bakery, Newtown

How does that song go again? Something along the lines of, "don't it always seems to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone". During my brief stint at the University of Sydney (I got a transfer to another university the following year), I never used to venture off the central King Street strip in Newtown when it came to lunchtime options. And I pretty much stuck to the same foods - pad thai, pad kee mao or pad see ew day in, day out. Heck, I didn't even learn about the existence of Campos Coffee on Missenden Road until I'd already submitted my transferral form.

And that, my friends, was how I completely overlooked the gem that is Luxe Bakery.

It was only after I had left the hallowed grounds of USYD for good (and hence removing any possibility of popping into Newtown for lunch on a uni day ever again) that I got clued in on such hot spots as Max Brenner, Berkelouw Books Cafe, Black Star Pastry and Buppa's Bakehouse (which I hear is now sadly closed). Guess that's what the holidays are for :D

So when I did get the chance to visit Newtown again, I made it a point to have lunch at Luxe Bakery, having heard about their superlative sourdough and nutritious lunchtime options. I grabbed a few friends, and we ordered a dish each and shared for variety's sake.

There was the antipasto platter:

Luxe Bakery does their own pickling. I saw it with my own eyes - jar upon huge jar of pickled vegetables lining the shelves behind the counter. The ones we tasted here were so good that I asked the staff whether the jars were for sale. They told me very nicely that they weren't at the moment. Does that mean they will be eventually? :D

The antipasto came with a basket of freshly toasted and sliced baguette, brushed generously with olive oil.

My choice from the menu (displayed on a ceiling-to-floor blackboard and updated frequently) was the smoked trout salad. It came with avocado and yoghurt, atop a bed of greens. Beautifully seasoned, well-balanced across the various components, and enjoyed by all three of us.

The last dish that arrived was my veggie-loving friend's order: the eggplant bake.

This was truly a dish for the vegetarians...which only made me want to become a vegetarian! The flavours were all so vibrant and fresh. And, oh my, the colours of everything we ate that day. The visual appeal and superb presentation of all the dishes stimulated our appetites, and the three of us had no problem with polishing everything clean off of the plates...before heading over to Buppa's Bakehouse for peanut butter pie.

Luxe Bakery

195 Missenden Road

Newtown 2042

Phone: 4677 3739

Sweet Infinity: A special brownie in honour of a special lady

Nigella Lawson is acting as judge on Masterchef Australia tonight! I had originally planned to bake a cake or something in honour of her appearance, but with exams looming and everything, I cickened out and went the store-bought route.

Well, if you call a $6 brownie from Sweet Infinity in The Strand Arcade "store-bought"!

I must have walked past the window of Sweet Infinity five times this afternoon before I gave up and just went in. It was the window display of brownies. There was literally a pyramid of them, cocoa-dusted chocolate bricks stacked sky-high. So in I went, resigned to the fact that this was the day that I will finally get my hands on Leanne Beck's renowned handiwork.

There was one customer before me, a middle-aged woman, dressed in full business attire. Take a guess on what she ordered :D That's right, it was the darned brownie. And, when I asked for one too, the lady behind the counter said, hilariously, "that's my afternoon...fetching brownies". Sounds like a fabulous way to spend one's afternoon!

I had a hard time waiting until after dinner to dig into the brownie. But I succeeded in the end, and the reward was all the sweeter for it. Served with a scoop of creamy Connoisseur vanilla ice cream, the brownie simply made my eyes roll to the back of my head...Nigella style! :D

And like Nigella once said, "everything in moderation...including moderation!" As much as I would have liked to gobble down the whole, giant slab, I knew I'd enjoy it more if I spread it out over the next few days. So into the freezer it went, to be microwaved and served with more ice cream tomorrow night, and the one after that...

And just in case anyone should think to lay their little, greedy paws on my brownie:

Sweet Infinity

Strand Store

Shop 18 Strand Arcade,
412 - 418 George Street Sydney
Phone: 02 9231 0472
Website: http://www.sweetinfinity.com.au/

Opening Hours

8:00 am to 5:30 pm Monday to Friday
8:00 am to 7:00 pm Thursday
9:00 am to 5:30 pm Saturday
11:00 am to 4:00 pm Sunday

The Eight, Haymarket, Sydney

There were originally plans to have pizza in Darlinghurst for Sunday night dinner, with a trip to Gelato Messina for dessert, but the weather was so cold and we were all tired from shopping, so we decided on trying out Zilver on Pitt St instead, having heard from various sources that it was 'the best' Chinese restaurant in Sydney. However, upon finding out that Henry Tang, the owner of Zilver, now had a new establishment on Level 3 of Market City called The Eight...well, why not?

I don't consider myself an expert in Chinese cuisine (especially Southern Chinese cuisine), but I feel that I've been to enough Chinese restaurants in Sydney to give a somewhat balanced review. But, by all means, take this with a grain of salt :D I wish I could say that I have a 'cultured palate' (whatever that means), but the truth is, I'd pretty much eat anything put in front of me when I'm hungry. And, oh boy, I was so hungry when I stepped into The Eight that I gulped down two bowls of the complimentary starter broth and a handful of peanuts...and immediately regretted it when I felt my appetite wane.

When we dine at Chinese restaurants, we very rarely consult the menu; instead, we ask the waiters for recommendations. On this occasion, our waiter did an exemplary job of picking dishes which showcased what The Eight had to offer. However, I did make it a point to ask for the roast suckling pig and crispy pork belly platter.

I had to stop myself from drooling all over the table cloth when the waiter set this down on the turntable. GAH, I'm salivating just thinking back on it now. The horribly-lit photograph really doesn't do justice to the perfectly crisped pork skin, and the tender, succulent, fatty meat underneath. The pork came atop a bed of pickled jellyfish (also a favourite of mine), and plates of various condiments: granulated sugar, mustard, and hoisin sauce.

Next to arrive were the gigantic steamed oysters with XO chili sauce and vermicelli. There was plenty of sauce, which meant that the vermicelli was thoroughly infused with the XO and chili flavour. Cooked oysters don't sit well with some people, but I personally enjoy both the raw and cooked variety. These ones were cooked quite well - very tender!

I think this next dish is the braised vegetables in clay pot. It had edible fungi, carrot, snow pea, fried bean curd and tofu skin.  A nice, vegetarian touch to an otherwise animal protein-heavy meal.

And then all the rest of our dishes seemed to arrive at once! Not that I was complaining. Why is it that the more I eat, the hungrier I get?!

There was The Eight's special fried rice with crab meat, fried scallop and salmon roe. It was "special" all right. The price was very "special" too :D

The deep fried crispy duck topped with minced taro was my second favourite dish of the night (the favourite being the pork platter). The crispy duck was covered by a thick layer of buttery taro mash, and then the whole thing was coated in what tasted quite similar to tempura batter, and then deep fried. My dining companions all complained about how rich and fatty it was, but I tuned it all out and simply savoured each, blissful bite.



When we dine out at a Chinese restaurant, we always get one fried rice and one noodle dish. Yet another of our many idiosyncracies, I suppose. For tonight, we chose the stir fried ee fu noodles with mixed mushroom in abalone sauce. Wish there was more mushroom.

The sweet and sour pork with pineapple and lychees is another 'must'. The glaze was beautifully caramelized, and the pork underneath pleasingly fatty. The lychees were nowhere in sight, though. Maybe it was used in the sauce? Or, er...metaphorical???

The wok seared diced beef fillet with foie gras paste was recommended to us by our waiter, and I'm now recommending it to all you out there! Beautifully cooked beef, rich, flavourful sauce, and crunchy string beans providing a nice, textural contrast.

We were so stuffed at this point, but who can refuse complimentary dessert? :D It was the standard fare: fruit platter, dessert soup, and various Chinese pastries.

I walked out of The Eight with the waistband of my skirt cutting uncomfortably into my now rotund midriff. I try to practice mindful eating in life, but when the food is good and all your dining companions are chowing down...well, it's hard not to eat until you feel like a little porker yourself :D

The Eight

Level 3, Market City, 9-13 Hay Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Tel: (02) 9282 9988

Website: http://theeightrestaurant.com.au/