Kam Fook, Yumcha, Chatswood

Kam Fook

Shop 600, Level 6

Westfield Shoppingtown

28 Victor Street Chatswood

http://www.kamfook.com.au/index.htm

How was everyone's weekend? Hope everyone had a swell weekend :)

You know Kanye only needs 1minute and 43seconds to go from gangster to pure freakin awesomeness. Which brings me to this Sunday's song. Its not particularly good but it will leave you thinking 'WTF'. So enjoy :)

Anyways, back to business.

The line for this place was crazy long. We were told it would be a 2 hour wait for a table for 5 but luckily we managed to find an 'express' lane..

Beef tripe (I think)

Think I was the only person who ate this. I was really yummy though!!

Pork and vege dumplings

Chives dumplings

Siu Mai

Rice sticks? (Sorry don't really know the name of this)

Stewed pork

We also ordered a few other dishes but I sort of forgot to take photos. I don't actually know the names of the above dishes.. normally I just point to order haha. Which is why I love my Cantonese friends who do the ordering :)

The Good: Fresh and tasty yum cha. Good variety of dishes on offer

The Bad: Extremely busy on weekends

ZenQ Desserts, Desserts, Chatswood

ZenQ Desserts

Level 2, Victoria Street Entrance

Westfield Shoppingtown Chatswood

It seems like asian style dessert houses are all the rage.

ZenQ is a Taiwanese dessert restaurant which has launched its first Australian restaurant in Westfield Chatswood. Currently there are 10 ZenQ restaurants in Taiwan, Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau and it is the first restaurant to launch outside of Asia.

There were some pretty strange things on the menu. For example.. tuna salad toast dessert. Weird. If anyone has ever tried this please let me know how it was.. I'm both curious but also slightly disgusted.

Menu

We order the watermelon and mango shaved ice ($8.80) which was probably a bad choice. Thanks A.C! BTW remember to invite us to your future yacht parties when you're CEO ok? :D

How did it taste? Like sugar and ice + hundreds and thousands. Not particularly interesting. Personally I found ZenQ overrated.. but that might have been because we didn't try any of the traditional desserts.

The Good: Taiwanese dessert house and wide variety of desserts

The Bad: Overpriced for whats on offer. The oolong tea drink was around $7.

District Dining, Modern Australian

District Dining

17 Randle Street

Central, Sydney

9211 7798

http://www.districtdining.com.au/

I've been looking forward to fooding at District Dining for months. When a few friends agreed to celebrate the end of exam (singular) by giving District Dining a go, I didn't hesitate to book lunch four weeks in advance (haha).

The restaurant is in Surry Hills but to be honest, its actually opposite Central Station. This is great in terms of convenience (wooo no need to organise car pool pick up/drop off).

Apologise for the slightly lopsided photos. We were given 20 minutes to order before the kitchen closed, hence less focus on photo taking and more focus on menu ordering.

We share the Kingfish, wasabi pannacotta, quinoa and ponzu ($19)

Can I just say that YES! this does taste as beautiful as it looks. Wasabi pannacotta?! What an ingenius idea. I actually thought this was wasabi mayonnaise at first but it didn't have the right texture for mayonnaise. Absolutely gorgeous AND delicious. Must try.

We also order the Crispy Pork Belly, asian style salad, chilli and peanuts ($24). This reminds me of Longrain's eggnet salad. This was refreshing, crunchy and very flavoursome. Recommended by Miss Piggy :) I don't know how to write the code for links so please refer to the side bar for foodie blog links! (IT fail.)

The mushroom risotto, truffled marscapone and parmesan crisp ($25) is the best damned risotto I've ever had. Creamy risotto rice grains covered in buttery marscapone. Mushrooms galore. Delicious.

And what better way to accompany a meal AND reward oneself for finishing an exam other than by eating hot chips. Reminds me of High School :)

French Fries ($7)

The Good: The Mushroom Risotto, the Kingfish and the Pork Belly. Wow 3/3 stand out dishes. Kitchen for lunch opens until 3pm. Modern interior. Great value $75 for 3!

The Bad: Nothing I can think of :)

King 143, Modern French

Restaurant King 143

143 King Street

Sydney 2000

9231 0143

http://www.king143.com.au/

You probably walk past Restaurant King 143 every day without knowing it. Its right opposite the Lyric Theatre and its an excellent choice for pre-theatre meals. They also have a four course menu for $60 pp that includes tea &coffee.

Its located just around the corner of Pitt St mall and easy to miss unless you're looking out for the yellow 'Restaurant King 143' sign.

Run by chef Toshi Ishihara, the restaurant offers modern French inspired cuisine with a touch of Orient. The Japanese lady who served us (I think it might have been Ishihara's wife?) was sooo sweet. Best service I've had in a long time :)

Its a cute restaurant and has a very old-fashioned homey feel.

We're served complimentary bread as a starter.

And order complementary drinks to our meal:

We order a Grilled Prawns and Avocado salad ($19.00) as an entree to share. Delicious, fresh and tasty.

I order the special of the day, the Pork Chops with White Wine served with steamed greens ($26.00). This must be the healthiest dinner I've had all week (quite sad actually).

L orders the Braised Lamb Shanks with Mashed Potato ($26.00).

What a find! Its honest, simple and good food without all the glitz, glamour & pretentiousness. I'd definitely recommend it :)

The Good: Great value, great location (right off the corner of Pitt St mall) and genuine service

The Bad: The decor is 'homey' but some might think its outdated..

Cafe Cya, Korean

Cafe Cya

G2 624 George Street Sydney

(In the alleyway between MacDonalds and the Metro Hotel)

Sydney

Do you like Korean food? I'm sort of going through a Korean food phase and Cafe Cya is one of my favourite Korean restaurants in the city. The food is always good however the service is sometimes questionable.. You've got to find your own table, ask repeatedly for water and chase up on your order as they are likely to forget/lose it. But the food is good and cheap so I don't mind. You get what you pay for right?

Complimentary side dishes

These are refillable and unlimited (by the way). OH and Cafe Cya is BYO.

Fish Roe and Tofu Hotpot

I love this! I usually order this when I eat Korean haha. The soup is sooo tasty and has just the right amount of chill without burning my throat. I love the texture of cooked fish roe.

Japchae with Beef

This is Korean potato starch noodles with beef and vegetables. I've actually never had beef japchae before but this was really yummy! There's more flavour than seafood japchae as the bulgogi sauce (I think its that?) is infused into the japchae. Really yummy

Chilli Marinated Chicken

This was really tasty and addictive! I don't know how they marinate their chicken but eating this reminds me of the happy feeling you get after eating a full blown MSG meal.

The Good: Cheap! Three dishes for $40. Yummy food and unlimited free side dishes

The Bad: Service is often reminiscent of an Government agency..

Hurricanes Bar & Grill, Darling Harbour

Hurricanes Bar & Grill and Sunday Night Easy Listening

Harbourside Shopping Centre

http://hurricanesgrill.com.au/

02 9211 2210

Bookings strongly recommended

Its that time of the week again- Sunday! Do you guys also have a love/hate relationship with Sunday? Its usually the most relaxing day of the week (sleep in after a big Saturday night out, brunch and do nothing all day) but its also the last day of the week and means Monday is around the corner :(

Sunday is also easy listening time! This week its all about One Republic- Good life. This song keeps me sane. I've been trying to read these damned Auditing standards but every single sentence goes on for like five lines and use fifty commas.. Gargh! Its taken all my control to refrain from throwing the Handbook out the window.

You know what? I'm going to do two songs this week since I don't have work tomorrow (muahaha). Neyo because he is such a boss.

So back to Hurricanes.. I'm sure everyone already knows that Hurricanes is one of the most popular restaurants in Sydney and does the best ribs (apparently) in Sydney. I must be really unlucky because that night my ribs were sh!t. On a positive note, the ribs are usually really good. These were too dry (sigh). Epic fail.

Half rack pork ribs, $29.90

Oh I forgot the obligatory photo of the restaurant..

New York Strip Steak, 350gms $33.00

Sigh. Perfectly cooked steak that wasn't mine. No fair.

Okay.. so for the past year I've been having an ongoing argument with a friend about whether or not the Pyrmont Bridge opens up.

Apparently, from an engineering perspective, its not physically possible for the bridge to open up because there's a monorail along the bridge. Well well well.. I prove you wrong! I have photo evidence that the bridge does open. In fact, it swings open.

For once I am actually right. Woo!

Hope you guys had a good week :)

The Good: Good ribs (usually), good location, must-try factor, fireworks on Saturdays, free mentos with your bill (yay!)

The Bad: Can be overrated, too many tourists, may need to wait for up to 2 hours if you don't book, 10% surcharge on Sundays, tables are too small, too dark to take decent photos, all the waitresses/waiters seem to be on holiday visas, dodgy toilets, too crowded and also quite impossible to eat ribs elegantly

Menya Oiden, Japanese, Sydney

Menya Oiden

537-551 George Street Sydney

First of all- some news! I'm on Twitter :) I'm a noob though.. never used twitter before so I'm not too sure how it works. Please add (or follow? all this facebook/twitter jargon makes my head spin) me on http://twitter.com/#!/thehungryduck See you there!

Anyways... sooo.. This morning I went to grab a coffee and noticed a new restaurant next to Menya Mappen. 'What's this?!' I asked myself. Enthralled, like a kid for whom Christmas had come early, I realised it was Menya. Oiden is an addition to the Menya chain and follows the same concept as Mappen except it serves hot piping Japanese rice bowls instead of udon bowls.

I had to try it. It didn't matter that I only had breakfast an hour ago, I was having lunch at Oiden. Hah! The determination of a foodie. On a side note- I wonder if I can claim all these meals as tax deductions..

Oiden is a 'self serve' rice bowl bar- basically you select your main and then you get toppings/additions yourself (just like in an old school cafeteria). Its cheap, the small beef bowl is $4.50 a bowl and the large $6.50. Most of the additions are around $2 each. There is also free chilled filtered water.

This is the restaurant right before noon

And shortly later a queue forms..

There's quite a few options to choose from. Since I wasn't that hungry I opted for the small beef rice bowl. But check out the menu! How cool does cheese beef bowl and ontama beef bowl sound? I'm so trying them out next time :)

Restaurant interior

I order a 'small beef bowl' and the 'small' is actually quite small - Check out the size of the bowl the guy is holding. Its a good healthy portion but I was still a bit surprised since its really small.

Creamy half-boiled eggs ($1.50)

Hot Bar Offerings ($1.50- $2.80)

Cold Bar Offerings ($0.90- $1.90)

Miso Soup ($1.50)

Beef Rice Bowl ($4.50)

The verdict? This is a guilt free lunch that's simple and tasty. A small bowl of rice topped with sukiyaki beef, shallots and pickled ginger.

I also order one chicken karaage ($2). This was deliciously crispy on the outside and tender on the inside :)

My only criticism would be the lack of healthy greens. The only greens I saw were either deep fried (ie asparagus tempura) or seaweed (which doesn't really count). Tsk! I can mentally picture my mum complaining about the oil and fat content..

Anyways I did manage to spot some fresh cold tofu ($1.50) which is healthy and sort of makes me feel better about eating that chicken karaage. Drizzle some soy sauce on top and its delicous.

Overall? Its a novel experience worth trying :)

The Good: Affordable, quick and simple meal

The Bad: Limited options (mostly rice). Also you cant really sit and chat for long.