Sea Bay, Sydney CBD

As mentioned in my Saap Thai post, I really wanted to check out Sea Bay, as it was recommended by a friend who said they sell cheap dumplings. Sea Bay is a slightly dingy Chinese eatery, but if you're familiar with the ones in Kingsford, you'll be too used to this kind of diner to care too much about the decor, ambience or apparent cleanliness. In this second attempt at entering the premises, we managed to score the last table and were squeezed into a corner.

One thing I was pleased about was the generous portion of chilli oil & flakes, as it's not something generally done in Sydney. The dishes were prepared quickly and came out piping hot.

The first thing I launched myself at was the plate of pan fried meat dumplings. I liked the crunch of the dumpling skin, but when I reached the meat inside, it was evident that the cook had gone wild with the salt.

Pan fried dumplings (meat) ($10.80)

 Secondly, I tried the bean noodle soup - not making the connection that bean noodles are mung bean noodles (which I adore). It was surprising to find tomatoes in the soup, but the mushrooms were standard. I can't say too much about it - tasty but not particularly memorable (and at least it wasn't as salty as the dumplings).

Mushroom and vegetable soup with bean noodles ($10.80)

  Just as with the pan fried dumplings, the boiled dumpling filling was too salty. The effect was perhaps not as bad because the skin hadn't had as much contact with salt as the pan fried skin. The meat they used was the same as the meat in the pan fried dumplings (we didn't get to choose the meat for the boiled dumpling, so the filling was a surprise).

Boiled dumplings ($10.80)

  In conclusion, my dislike of Sea Bay isn't the ear-drum-bursting lunch crowd, or the fact that they've crammed as many chairs and tables as possible into each square metre (making it virtually impossible to get in or out where you're sitting back to back), or that despite these things it's still an immense challenge to get a table. My aversion towards Sea Bay is much more basic than that.

They just need to hold off on the sodium chloride.

Queenies, Surry Hills

"I've never had Caribbean food before" was what most people informed me when I recounted one of my most recent gluttonous escapades. Neither had I until a week ago, when I made a trip to Queenies, and even then, I'm not certain as to how much of it is actually Jamaican - though with its tropical decor, loud Jamaican music and references to 'jerk' meat, it certainly is Jamaican-inspired. A quick Google search reveals that Caribbean cuisine, much like Malaysian food, is a mixed salad of different cultures' foods, uniting in a mix of fried, spicy (referring to both heat and actual spices) and fresh dishes.

 Queenies is located on level 1 of the Forresters bar. Traipsing through part of the ground level, I was pretty worried that we wouldn't be able to get a table because the bar area was absolutely packed. I grew even more worried when we came upstairs and the bloke in front of us was asked to wait for half an hour. It turned out that his case was exceptional - he was expecting a large group and so enough space had to be cleared to accommodate them.

One of their smiling waitresses took the time to explain items off the menu to us (such as what plantain is), as well as naming the most popular dishes and her own personal favourites.

The drinks menu looked so tempting that I ordered a ginger beer-based cocktail that they dubbed a 'Sugar Mamma'. I sadly don't remember what they mixed the ginger beer with, but it was one of those cocktails that didn't taste too much of alcohol but wasn't too sweet either.

Sugar Mamma Cocktail ($10.00)

While we were waiting for the food to arrive, we were served a bit of chopped cucumber with dessicated coconut and a light, spicy sauce drizzled over the top.

Amuse bouche?

Since we had ordered a large number of smaller plates, most of our meal arrived at once, barely fitting onto the table. The first thing I dug into was my half of the bammies, of which we ordered one of each kind - pulled pork and prawn. The base of the bammies is like soft tortilla, except crunchy and chewy. Personally, I think the prawn bammy made more of an impression than the pulled pork bammy. The pulled pork is tasty and tender, complete with fresh Spanish onion and pineapple. Nevertheless, it pales in comparison to the prawn bammy, consisting of flavours of seafood, mango, onion and a spicy tang.

Pulled pork & pineapple bammy ($7.00)

Prawn, mango and ginger bammy ($7.00)

I next tried the plantain (a banana looking fruit that's firmer and drier), which was accompanied with spiced mayo. Given it's similar to banana, I was expecting it to be similar to goreng pisang, the Malaysian deep fried banana snack, in terms of sweetness, crunchiness, and moistness. However, it turned out to be fairly plain and it seemed to carry out the role of a filling carb (much like French fries or mashed potato) rather than that of a main component of the meal.  The spiced mayo, I admit, was pretty appetising, and I could detect quite strong strains of curry powder, which reminds me of how the kitchen smells whenever my mum cooks Indian food. Nevertheless, I think the plantain is more of a novelty rather than one of their stronger dishes.

Fried plantain ($8.00)

Given that each table was adorned with 3 bottles of jerk sauce, I took the liberty of trying each and every one with the plantain. Of the three, the tastiest was probably the ginger mango (middle), and given it had the least sauce in the bottle, other patrons seem to have thought so too!

 
One of the highlights of the meal was the ceviche, a plate of thinly sliced snapper sashimi, chilli, mango and avocado. On the side were a few hard tortilla chips that we used to collect the pieces of snapper. The ceviche was juicy, fresh, and the contrast of crunch from the tortilla against the softness of the fish and mango left me wanting more.

Hellshire Ceviche ($16.00)

Another plate (or basket) we shared was a soft shell crab dish with hotstepper sauce. The sauce tasted like tom yum soup - Asian and spicy. The soft shell crab was moist and well battered. Though it was a pretty big portion, it was so addictive that it was fairly easy to polish off.

Soft shell crab ($16.00)

 Last to arrive was our smoked pork loin main dish with crumbed mussels and mango salsa. The crumbed mussels were deep fried, crunchy and slightly fishy tasting, but they stood out and seemed to stand out more than the pork loin did. The mango salsa was, as with the other dishes, fruity and enjoyable, but I felt that there was just so much of it that it overpowered the pork.

Smoked pork loin ($24.00)

For dessert, we ordered a Brixton mess to share. According to the menu, it's made up of banana cream, rum caramel, meringue and chocolate sauce. I suppose it's a pretty accurate description, except most of it was just cream. There were chunks of meringue throughout, which reminded me of honeycomb or violet crumble. However, there was barely any rum caramel and the chocolate sauce was rendered useless with the sheer amount of cream. Apologies for the poor photo below - but even then, you should be able to see just how much cream there was.

Brixton Mess ($14.00)

 Conclusion

As I've made pretty clear, I don't presume to know anything about Jamaican food, so I can't comment on its authenticity - in any case, sometimes our Australian adaptations of food are more pleasurable to (at least our) taste buds than truly authentic flavours. Most of the dishes that I tried were mouthwatering. A couple of their dishes are a bit of a miss. The range of food we had became a bit samey due to the excess use of mango chutney all around, and the dessert we tried was a bit of a flop. Nevertheless, these aren't big issues (at least I know now what to avoid), Queenies impressed me with what they did do well, I was stuffed to the brim with food, and overall I had a really enjoyable night out.

Saap Thai, Sydney CBD

My friend and I were heading towards Sea Bay because we heard they served cheap dumplings. Unfortunately, at the time it was peak lunch hour and it was absolutely packed, so we moved on to its neighbour, Saap Thai. Saap Thai is pretty small - we were sitting on one end, at the second last table, so the photo below will give you a pretty good idea of just how limited space is.

Sitting far away from the sun

They were evidently well versed with lunch crowds, as the food came soon after we ordered.

My Panang beef curry with rice was incredibly large - there was an abundance of rice (there must have been 2 rice bowls of it at least) and plenty of beef. The beef was fairly tender and the cut chosen was reasonable (most of the strips were entirely edible, not the sinewy nervy bits that cheap restaurants often give you). The curry was moderately spicy, quite sweet, and slightly milky. The beans and broccoli didn't seem old, making the overall quality of the dish excellent given the price and generous servings.

Panang beef curry with rice ($8.90)

I would like to report a similarly good experience with the sides I had, but they were pretty bland.

Firstly, the vegetarian curry puffs were limp and soggy, while the filling wasn't memorable. I don't know why I even bothered ordering curry puffs in a Thai restaurant, but evidently my mind was elsewhere at the time. 

Secondly, the spring rolls were crispy, but they went overboard with the noodles and there wasn't much else inside. Once again, they lacked flavour. I had a couple of small bites and didn't bother finishing the rest. And once again, I'll think twice before ordering spring rolls at a Thai place. The carrots on which the spring rolls and curry puffs were served looked like dried bits of carrot skin, brown and old.

Vegetable curry puffs x 2 ($2.50); Vegetarian spring rolls x 2 ($2.50)

All in all, a good place for a quick and cheap lunch. Just don't expect much more.

Boon Chocolates, Darlinghurst

Note: This post is short but will probably be continually updated - as I do intend on returning (and maybe eventually sampling the entire menu, provided they don't run out of mousse next time).

Boon Chocolates is an artisan chocolate store that believes in creating small batches of chocolate and indulging in a chocolate experience. Boon offers a number of different chocolate drinks with different characteristics, including floral, fruity and woody notes.

The site is small and consists of 2 levels. The ground level is the retail portion, where customers select from a range of homemade chocolates to take home. Sit-in patrons are directed upstairs, which is a small, cosy lounge area with a lot of artwork. It was a little awkward finding that there was a group of people already upstairs, and they had taken up the armed lounge chairs. We perched ourselves on the low stools a distance away from the other group and eventually we resumed our conversations.

The really friendly owner (presumably) escorted us upstairs and talked us through the drinking menu. He suggested that "first-time" chocolate drinkers stick to the dark or milk chocolate drinking sets - making the visit feel like a wine tasting course. It was explained that the chocolate shots were very intense and thick, suitable for more seasoned hot chocolate drinkers.

We followed his advice and selected from the range of normal hot chocolate drinking sets. Although normally accompanied by a piece of chocolate and chocolate mousse, they were out of the mousse and so we were given another piece of chocolate to make up for its absence. Hopefully it's not a common occurrence, though I suspect it might be considering we weren't late - we visited them in the early afternoon and they close at 8pm on Saturdays.

Boon

I had the milk chocolate drinking set. I should have probably ordered the dark chocolate set, as I thought that it was a bit too light and milky for my liking. As a drink, it was smooth and creamy, complementing the (dark) chocolates quite well. The chocolates literally melted in my mouth - one was red wine flavoured and the other was rum and raisin. I couldn't detect any red wine, but the rum and raisin had a stronger flavour. Regardless, both pieces of chocolate were full of cocoa and very tasty.

Milk chocolate drinking set ($8.50)

Dark chocolate drinking set ($8.50)

Sel et Poivre, Darlinghurst

'Sel et poivre', when translated to English, means 'salt and pepper'. It's a humble name for a humble French bistro. However, where that French bistro is situated outside of its country of origin, its status is elevated and high expectations are drawn - that one will come across actual Parisian fare eaten by real French people. Considering that thus far I've had better experiences eating French food in restaurants situated outside of France (my last expedition in the Parisian food scene did not yield much satisfaction), my biggest motivation in visiting Sel et Poivre was to reminisce over escargots.

Having spent part of my childhood in Malaysia, I grew up appreciating Western food cooked well, as when done poorly in an Asian country, it can taste very very wrong! Some of my fondest memories include visiting Lafite in Shangri La KL on special occasions and gorging on breadsticks, slices of baguette, escargots and fresh sorbet in between courses. While the style of Lafite tends towards fine dining, the largest impression that it left on my young palate was this equation: Snails = Yummy.

So what does this have to do with Sel et Poivre? Well, escargots are a bit of a rarity here in Sydney. It's hard to find them in groceries, and almost as hard to find them in restaurants. This meant I was all excitement at the prospect of seeing a dozen snail shells sitting on a silver platter immersed in garlic butter sauce.

Sel et Poivre is situated on that strip of Darlinghurst that everyone visits to eat at Gelato Messina, the Victoria Room, Wow Cow, etc. We were greeted by a friendly waitress who gave us the option of selecting where to sit. We decided on outdoor seating, facing the street.

Exterior

Watching the world go by...

Using my peripheral vision, I eyed the basket of baguette and was just about to open my mouth to order it, when the waitress preempted me and asked if we wanted bread to go with the escargots.

And so our orders were taken and the escargots arrived, bathed in parsley and garlic butter sauce. I was pretty disappointed that they came without the shells - though serving only a decorative function, part of the fun in eating snails is extracting them with tongs and miniature prongs! The texture was slightly chewy, as it should be, and the sauce didn't overpower the seafood flavour of the snail meat. Nevertheless, there was something missing - maybe there was too little garlic? I can't really place my finger on it.

Escargots - 1/2 Dozen ($9.90)

 Our basket of baguette was served with standard packets of melted butter. The bread was lightly toasted, crunchy on the outside and soft, dense and warm on the inside. It was a pretty nice filler and went well with both the escargot sauce and our mains.

Basket of 1/2 baguette ($3.50)

I'd ordered the beef cheeks, which were immersed in Burgundy sauce, soft carrots, a bit of diced tomato, and mushrooms. The Burgundy sauce was incredibly rich, so I couldn't really eat too much of it. The highlight of the dish was definitely the marinated beef itself, as it was tender and fell apart with a slight motion of my knife.

Beef cheeks ($23.90)

 As my friend had also ordered something that attracted a side of fries, they combined both of our servings of fries into one basket. They weren't limp, but they weren't very crunchy either - though they became pretty addictive after dipping it in the Burgundy sauce!

"Frites"

I sampled the steak tartare that my friend ordered, which had the option of being uncooked or seared. She chose the seared option. It was served at room temperature, which was surprising at first, as we'd figured that the searing would have created more heat. The accompanying sauce was Bearnaise, a rich combination of butter, vinegar and egg - tasting a lot like mayonnaise.

Steak tartare ($19.90)

Afterwards we took a look at the dessert menu and were amused to see that Sel et Poivre had self-proclaimed their creme brulee to be authentic. Nevertheless, we decided to pass on partaking of the sweets there, as we were planning a dessert crawl through Boon Chocolates and Gelato Messina.

All in all, Sel et Poivre is worth a try. The decor is charming, the service is friendly, the food is alright and the portions are generous (and I think I actually heard some French being spoken on the premises). However, from what I've tasted, it's not so memorable that I would actually revisit it (particularly with all the other tempting restaurants nearby).

Trio Cafe, Bondi Beach

Amidst the myriad of fast food outlets and pubs exist quite a few tempting looking cafes. Strolling along Campbell Parade from one of the bus stops, it was an immense effort to stay on track and avoid popping into one of the hole in the wall eateries along the way, particularly with the sun beating down on the first day of summer. Would you believe that until then I hadn't actually set foot on Bondi? (North Bondi, anyway...) Nevertheless, I somehow waded through the throngs of half-dressed, tanned and, at times, orange beach-goers and managed to get to the other end of the beach.

Exterior

Unlike what the photograph suggests (it was taken in the early afternoon), lunch time at Trio is quite lively and the row of tables outside was packed. There's plenty of seating inside, however, and we had no problem getting a table close enough to the front to get a bit of breeze from the beach.

The colour scheme inside was a little odd, a deep maroon(ish) red contrasted against mustard yellow, which slightly reminded me of Maccas. The tables, however, were set quite prettily with crisp white tablecloths. We were given a carafe of water with a long sprig of mint inside - more of a decorative touch rather than anything else, as we couldn't taste anything in the water.

To drink, I ordered a hazelnut latte. Then came the tough part. The fact that they serve all day breakfast added to the inner turmoil of having to select a menu item. I mentally weighed up my prospective lunch choices and it came to a stand-off between the breakfast tasting plate (consisting of muesli, french toast, pancakes, shakshouka and corn fritters), the prawn salad (thinking it would be light and refreshing on such a hot day), and the prawn tagliatelle (I find pasta and prawns irresistible in their own right).

My hazelnut latte arrived soon after, complete with a coffee bean resting on a bed of heart-patterned foam. It was sweet, creamy and tasty, but I couldn't really detect any coffee as most of the flavour came from the hazelnut syrup.

Hazelnut latte "di lusso" ($5.00)

The pasta, tagliatelle with king prawns, was served with baby tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and a nest of various herbs. The white wine reduction was respectful to the prawns - light and tangy, while I have no complaints about the texture of the pasta. They were pretty generous with the number of prawns (hidden within the mass of curls of pasta), which were springy, moist and not overcooked. I was quite pleased with the portions overall, as I was made to feel quite comfortably full.

Prawn tagliatelle ($28.00)

My lunch buddy had a hot chocolate, with even more extravagant foam art, and the shakshouka, which was on the breakfast portion of the menu. What is shakshouka? It is apparently a breakfast that originates from the middle east, consisting of tomato ragout, poached eggs and hummus.

Hot chocolate ($4.80)

Shakshouka ($19.00)

Will I be back? I'd like to think so. The quality of food is solid and the breakfast tasting plate is very tempting. However, given the number of fascinating cafes and my abysmal track record in visiting Bondi, I'm not sure that I'll return anytime soon.

Cocco's Pizzeria, Crows Nest

Cocco's Pizzeria is situated along one of the main strips of cafes in Crows Nest, just a couple of shop lots away from Bavarian Bier Cafe. There aren't many square metres of floorspace inside, but they have two levels, which means that private dining is definitely an option. Even without hiring the restaurant, the environment is intimate and casual, and, surprisingly (since it was a Sunday night and the food is pretty good), most of the tables were empty.

Exterior

 We took a pretty long time to decide what we wanted to have, but the staff were really accommodating and friendly. As an aside, we decided to share some dishes amongst the four of us, which, once served, came with serving utensils without us having to ask. It's attention to detail like these that really boosts my appreciation for service provided (especially when you're being charged average prices).

First up was the basket of 4 pieces of garlic bread. It was fairly average - white bread and a standard mixture of garlic butter spread. Nevertheless, it was mostly soft, wasn't as oily as per usual, and it was a nice filler before the mains arrived.

Garlic bread ($5.90)

Some of our other friends offered us their 'Bianca' pizza - garlic and herb pizza crust sliced up into numerous pieces, served with 2 types of dip - olive and chilli. It actually gave me a bit of food envy when I compared it to our garlic bread - the Bianca tasted a lot more 'gourmet' and the accompanying pastes were mouthwatering.

'Bianca' pizza ($12.90)

We ordered two pasta dishes - gnocchi and ravioli, one entree-sized and one main meal.

The gnocchi was prepared with gorgonzola cheese and cream sauce. It was soft and chewy, but not to the extent that it turned gluggy. Overall, it was made well and, despite the richness of the sauce, it didn't give me that sick feeling that I often get after eating too much of creamy pasta dishes (like penne bosciola done badly).

Gnocchi gorgonzola (main size) ($22.90)

Our pumpkin ravioli came with butter sage sauce, which was light and didn't overpower the pumpkin. Considering we were sharing these dishes, I felt like hoarding it all to myself - it was that addictive!

Ravioli alla zucca (entree size) ($18.90)

Our last dish was a tomato-based seafood pizza, which consisted of mozzarella cheese, anchovies, baby clams, prawns and garlic. Although the pizza base is thin, it isn't crispy and is bready and soft. It wasn't very oily and it was quite enjoyable. The anchovies were very salty, but there wasn't that much of it (and I'm not an anchovy fan anyway, so I'm probably biased), and the other toppings balanced out the flavours quite well.

Frutta di mare ($23.90)

At the end of our dinner, we were offered the dessert and coffee menu. Although the items on the menu looked tempting, all of us were just too full to think about ordering anything else. Excluding the Bianca pizza, the bill came to about $18 between the four of us, which is great value for excellent pasta, decent portions, and friendly service.