Chong Siam

Ugh don't know where to start, two weeks after we moved in there are still boxes that we haven't unpacked, let alone try and catch up with the blog. Lame excuse I know.

But hey the moment has come, I am now trying to do my best and aim to catch up by this week since next week I'll be away for more than a month (will still take food photos during holiday of course but don't think I'll have the Internet access handy there..)

OK let's roll.

As you're already now, Moco and I are not big fans of lining up for Chat Thai, however every time we 'had' to go out for dinner there we always passed this Thai restaurant not far from it, probably just 4 shops away? So that night we finally decided to give it a go.

The photo at the front of the restaurant that lured us was the soft shell crab Pad Thai, so it would be a crime if we didn't order that.


It's actually quite interesting since I've never had Pad Thai in that style before, plus I'm really picky with the rice noodle that's been used, it gotta be the right width, the right stickiness and of course the right taste all of which was dutifully applied - teehee!

The Boat Soup that we thought would come first as an entree actually came last. It's quite yummy for a $4 soup although it's also quite oily (yesh there's a high correlation between being oily and yummy).


The other dish we ordered that night was the Rad-Na, which I truly enjoyed. The flat noodles and the gravy were just the perfect match (I remember I almost burnt my tongue due to my impatience that night,it was more than a month ago but really it feels just like yesterday)
I just realized the Rad-Na photo is blurry, hm..let's just say it's the ambience of the restaurant =p


There's also another dish that attracted us that night but we're too full. Well for me the restaurant offers good food, great prices and no queue so surely there would be a next time for me to show you the dish :)

Bondi Wedtfield Food Court

Whoah I finally am speeding up the post here, I only five posts behind how good is that?

Normally I wouldn't find anything special with food in a food court, but I found the fancy food court in Bondi Westfield was quite entertaining. I can't think of any other food court that has beautiful landscape view nor a dish that costs like in a normal restaurant. Okay I might be a bit exaggerating here but really for me food court has a price range of $7-$10 max. Not $10-$18.

I had the biggest doubt when I saw this overpriced Thai food with menu that looked like just a made-up menu. But surprisingly I thought the pad see ew I ordered was fantastic. Maybe I was starving when I ordered it, but really I liked it. They used the extra flat noodle that I liked, the refreshing lime sauce that I liked, so I got no choice but to like it!

Lime and peppercorn chicken pad see ew

Moco on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. He picked the burrito meal that I think we both liked the chips more than the burrito =p


Definitely nothing compared to burritos we had before..but it's a good value I supposed, $9.90 for burrito, chips and drinks.

So I guess that's where my food court meal prejudice came from - you go to food court for the dollar saver not exactly the taste (although sometimes you just never know your luck).

Chat Thai

Wow more than two weeks ago since the last post. I left my camera at a friend's place and just got a chance to get it back yesterday! So unfortunately some of the food during the camera-less period were taken by my mobile :(

I think we're about 20 entries behind so let's get cracking yea? Traveling back in time to dinner two weeks ago when my cousin and her husband came to visit. She heard of this place highly praised by her brother when he came last time, so after lining up for more than an hour she decided no food is worth that wait.

Well I personally tend to avoid to line here but got no choice that night. And besides I prefer to go here at supper, simple reason: less queue, better menu.

For the starter we had satay - two chickens and two porks


Moco decided to try something new that night, so he ordered the bamboo shoots salad. I personally not a big fan of bamboo shoots so my opinion could be biased. But Moco said it was okay, a bit spicy but not too bad. As for myself I tried it only one bite and that was it. It reminded me of artichokes which I also disliked. My cousin also felt the same so the dish was shared between Moco and my cousin's hubby :)


Next couple of dishes just standard dishes that we normally ordered in here. I barely remember the original name so I'd just write mostly the ingredients =p

Prawn and omelette with tamarind based sauce

The dry suki is one of my fave dishes, and they cooked it so well here :)

The basil chicken that made me sweaty (it's so spicy!)

It's quite lots of dishes for four people especially since my cousin didn't eat too much (at least not as much as I did) hence unfortunately we had to call of the dessert. Till next time cuz!

Cabramatta Saturday

Ever since I found Cabramatta, I've never got a chance to look back. It has everything that I need. Pork chops, fresh spring rolls, Pho, snacks snacks snacks, sugar cane juice, and really I could just go on with a very long list of various foods.

Since I go there quite often I don't crave for pork chops or Pho like my other friends do. This time I had a craving for the Pad Thai from the Thai/Lao place in the 'No 1' food court. I'm quite picky with my Pad Thai but a while ago we tried the seafood Pad Thai and it surprisingly tasted so good! But to my disappointment, the taste has now changed, the price has gone up and the serving has shrunk by half and replaced by more bean sprouts! (gosh it kinda reminded me of the tiring roller coaster ride with Pad Thai in Thainatown)


Their chilli range were awesome, I like the sour taste in their chilli jam - it made my plain Pad Thai taste slightly better..

bottom left corner rocks my socks

Moco's Pad See Ew was a saviour at first. I think it's really good, it had the burnt wok taste that I like and the serving was not as stingy as the Pad Thai. That was until Moco found a piece of RAW chicken in the dish. I almost fainted. Ok not fainted but I did want to tell off the guy and got a new one or something. But Moco reminded me that we are in Cabra after all, and sadly as most Asian restaurants the best thing they can do just say sorry, chuck away the crazy bit (hair, flies, etc etc) and return your plate like nothing happened. Grr. Well at the end I did tell one of the girls and as predicted, she said sorry and left. boo.


Since I wasn't satisfied with the lunch, we were hunting for dessert at Kaysome (the land of fried banana, sweet potato chips and assorted sweets). This time I landed my eyes on the
sweet cassava - one small container without the coconut milk please!

great snack in the car =p

Fresh veggies on the street :)

I was half way satisfied but not quite there yet. Finally what really worked was the sugar cane drinks! The fresh ice sugar cane with the twist of orange was an instant boost, I immediately felt refreshed :)

Funny that we found the sugarcane prices are actually going down, not common but something that I could get used to (maybe it's the reduced prices that made me feel refreshed!). But then I think that's because the rival across the arcade are now also selling sugarcane at an even cheaper price! I didn't see it yesterday but next time I'll definitely give it a go..

3 Hippos

First post in 2010!

I'm about three posts behind..but it's okay we'll get there :)

We went to this restaurant for dinner with Moco's family just after the road trip, Moco's been here before and he said it's quite good..so I need to prove that for myself.

It's really a tough choice for what's my fave Asian cuisine, but if I could only choose one I think it would be between Thai and Indo (followed by Viet, Chinese, Jap and Korean). Luckily I don't have ever have to choose..

I'm not a big fan of the Thai/Lao sticky rice though. But seemed everyone else on the table enjoyed it :)

The first dish was traditional Lao Sausages, these are made of pork and lots of spices, they are definately not for those watching their fat intake but you know the rule fat equals flavour and these have plenty of it. They provide a dipping sauce that is a mix of fish sauce, chilli and rice powder that gives it an extra zing.


Next up was prawn Tom Yum, Moco assured me that last time he had it there was a great sourness and plenty of flavour however this time around the chef might have forgotten to add something because everyone on the table agreed it wasn't that nice. Off night perhaps, it was really busy but at least they were generous with the prawns.


Cooked beef larb is something that you don't see real Lao people eating that much, you can see them eating the ones that are either rare or even raw! This cooked version is a safer bet and since Moco's mum can't eat spicy foods we had it mild, which still had it's fair share of chilli inside.


The Chicken Satay was next which came in quite late considering it's an entree. However they were really tender and worth the wait. The satay sauce was great as well.


Moco's brother wanted some more beef so we got the Tiger's Tears. Not sure how it gets that name but it's essentially grilled beef. I think they over cooked this one because it wasn't as tender as we would have liked, with some pieces being a bit too chewy.


Now for the grand finale the Fried Fish with Chilli Jam, we had specified a big fish since there were five of us and it looked great. Reminded me a bit of my fave fried fish back home but it was lacking the Chilli Jam. The fried pieces of fish and refreshing paw paw salad was just begging for some more sauce to be dipped in.



Overall it was great value and a nice way to finish a long day. We'll be back to again on a quieter night to see what the chefs can do when not under so much pressure.

Dayao Thai and San Churro

As promised, we took my cousin and his wife for a fresh Thai dinner, for choices we were torn between Spice I am, Chat Thai or any random Thai restaurant in Newtown. We decided to bring them to Newtown just to get a different feeling outside of the city but we didn't take them to any random Thai restaurant of course. Instead we took them to Dayao Thai, yes it's a chain and normally we try to avoid them but this one is actually pretty darn good. We went here last time for a friend's birthday and we totally had a big banquet and probably only paid $30/person inc the corkage and treated the birthday girl :)

The place is quite ample for Newtown, but last night the crowd managed to fill in every corner of it. Good thing we made a booking the day before hence we got our table secured. For the entree we placed an order for the chicken wings stuffed with mince and the prawn tom yam goong. The chicken wings were pretty good although not the best I've had, and same verdict applied for the tom yam goong. Its sourness is definitely up there and whilst it tasted better than most of tom yam goongs that I've had but once again, not the best.

$8 for two chicken wings with sweet chili sauce..

We ordered three mains, the first one was the whole bbq chicken (I think we could have got away with just half a chicken though), whole deep fried fish with curry paste, tofu and vegis stir fried with basil.

The winner for the night (for me!)

The winner for the night (for my cousin ^_^)

There's always room for dessert..

3/4 cream 1/4 chocolate drink?

Triple chocolate attacks

It's been a while since my last visit to San Churro, they don't have my fave Buddha Baci anymore, so I ordered the closest which just the normal hazelnut hot choco, but for some reasons it doesn't taste the same and it tasted way too sweet for my tastebud. Actually it's too sweet for everyone on the table hence sadly we had to leave it wasted ;(

But it's paid of with the dark chocolate sauce with the churros, it tasted better that what I remembered ;)

Love fresh churros with dark chocolate dipping..