Dragon Bowl Seafood Restaurant

When Moco said his dad wanted to take us to try a new Chinese restaurant, I was almost fainted *exaggeration mode on*. I have never been to a new restaurant with his dad. We always go to the restaurants that he's already been for ages. So this must be his NY resolution to try something new (or so I assumed).


Very honest restaurant. They certainly don't want to take blames for MSG side effects complaints ;)

Hm..kimchi in a chinese restaurant? that's new.

Cleansing soup..

Fresh fish ready to be cooked


Dinner time, let's rock and roll!!

First dish, giant scallop with vermicelli and XO sauce.

generous vermicelli and fresh scallop..yumm..

The signature dish, crackling pork skin with garlic chives. I find this dish is interesting, very oily but very addictive too hehe.

Prawn and scallop balls, pretty good but still can't beat the one from Moco's dad favorite restaurant. There's a reason why Moco's dad always go there for the past 20 years.

Salt and pepper squid mixed with white bait, definitely got Moco's attention.


The fresh steam fish, another Moco's territory, pretty sure he finished 1/2 of the fish himself.

ahh..service :)

The usual red bean dessert

Ah just the thought of all the food that night made me hungry now although I don't know is it because the MSG warning or if it's true, but we did think the food was MSG overloaded and felt so thirst afterwards lol.

Billu's

Didn't plan to eat Indian that night especially all the way to Harris Park, but we definitely don't mind to travel for good authentic food :)

Our first dish was the saffron chicken, which both moco and I enjoyed much.

Full of flavour..hmm..

Unfortunately the wait to the next dish took way longer than expected. Thali supposed to be quick since mainly all the dishes have been pre-made but this gotta be the longest Thali I've ever had to wait.


Luckily it tasted good but the wait has made Moco and I felt full prematurely which leads to a lower satisfaction level of our Masala Dosa.




Overall it's a beautiful Saturday night just to chill outside under the stars eating some curry..

Billu's is location on Harris Park's major road and quite big compared to other Indian restaurants around it. People were coming non-stop and still more people came to the restaurant closer to 10pm. They have an exciting variety of food and services from travel agency to ATM machine. But personally I don't recommend going there too late unless of course you know the area well - basic rules apply to any suburb actually :)

Bathers Pavillion

Balmoral Beach has always been one of my favorite places in Sydney, I'm happy just to buy a slice of brownies from the cafe and enjoy the view from the window or buy a take away coffee and had a walk near the cliff or even bought a takeaway dinner from a nearby resto (the most memorable one when we bought hainamese chicken rice from Ginger and Spice all the way from Neutral Bay) and ate it in the bench.

But when Moco gave me a surprise to actually enjoy a dinner in the hot seat of course I won't complaint :)

Complimentary amuse-bouche. I don't think I'm a fan of cold cauliflower but hey it's free.


Beautiful bread. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside, served warm and let the butter melt on it..hmm..

Funny that I'm quite picky with bread and noodle whilst Moco's favorite normally consist bread and noodle lol

Our entree..

pan seared scallops with bourdin noir broad bean puree and walnut vinaigrette

beetroot cured duck breast with chevre liver parfait, brioche and dill vinaigrette

Well I was actually struggling to eat the duck breast. I can't even eat a raw king fish, let alone to chew a raw duck, what was I thinking? I think the word brioche has distracted me, I love good French brioche. But sadly I can't see any brioche on the plate but anyway at least I tried something new so next time I know NOT to order it again. I think I ended up stealing Moco's scallop entree ;)

Love my main though, poached free range chicken with confit leg sweet corn pudding and smoked prawn butter..hmm..


Moco's main pan roasted barramundi with smoked ham hock spring onion, peas and baby cos lettuce



Dessert to be shared..

menage a trois des chocolats sauce anglaise

Bottom line, Merci Moco..you're the best xx

The Poet

Okay I've been really bad in uploading new posts, but yesterday I promised myself I will do one more post in 2010. I've got precisely three more hours before the year ends..

So here we go..literally our last meal in 2010..

pretty red teapot..

oh it might be a 'lil be sad, but not many Chinese resto give free prawn crackers, so I better take evidence.

deep fried chicken with Sichuan chili. It was silly of me to challenge Moco to eat the dried chili. I can't feel my tongue for two minutes.

eggplant with mince pork and fish sauce, love the generous ginger

xiao long bao - surprisingly nice! well our first judgement the skin looked a bit thick, but it was very tasty and soupy :)

not a big fan for handmade noodle, but Moco always in the mission to find a good handmade noodle.

the lot

A bit of a rush, but at least I get to keep my promise :)

Now that my mission is done, I better get ready to see the fireworks!!


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

See you soon in 2011 - trust me is one of my new year's resolutions is to post more, wish me luck!

Choco Cannelle Patisserie Fine

Wohoo nothing can make me happier than waking up on a beautiful sunny Saturday and knowing I will get a yummy breakfast.

Ok, to be honest I don't know if it's gonna be yummy or not but I have faith.

I've been wanting to visit this patisserie since I read this review. Even though not many people have reviewed it, all of the positive comments sound so sincere and definitely poked my curiosity. Shame that their opening hours are not too convenient for me, they close on Sundays and are only open until 12 on Saturdays? And nvm that they only open until 2pm on weekdays.

So I said to Moco, we have to dedicate one of our Saturday mornings to go there!!

Finally the day had come..got there by 9.30am and greeted by a friendly French ;)

With my hungry eyes I just went loco with the pastries, we had a hard time deciding so we got more than I think we should.


The price was not as cheap as what I expected for a suburban patisserie but hell it's darn good. The croissant was crunchy at the end and soft at the middle. The fresh brioche just melted in your mouth. The tiny tart was too tiny to be shared, it was amazing.





The coffee was nothing to brag about, but we will definitely come back for the croissant and brioche!! Ah the brioche..don't know why it's so hard to find a good brioche like that. Or actually I found it hard to find brioche period.

There were not many seats available so we just had take away and brought our treasures to a closest park - Happy Saturday indeed :)

China Doll

OMG..is it really that long ago since my last blog? Don't know how I'm so good at procrastinating :(

We are slowly crossing out the places we wanted to go, and still the list looks endless so I really don't know when and how to post it all, but hey - one step at a time eh? :)

I remembered it was a beautiful winter weekday night, not too cold so we decided to walk from the City to Wooloomooloo to work on our appetite. We always try to go out on a weekday - creating something that Moco and I can look forward to during the daytime. Surprisingly it only took us about 15mins but it might be our first and last time to walk down there. The road was kinda dark and scary, shame though cause otherwise it would have been a lovelier walk.

But the important part, we arrived safely and hungry! The place was half empty when we walked in around 7pm but in just a few minutes it was packed, guess everyone had a booking at the same time.

For starters Moco ordered sashimi and I ordered sang choy bow.
As you know I'm quite picky when it comes to raw fish, but trust me this one was worth it. The sauce was just so refreshing, the fish was so fresh - I just kept on stealing Moco's food!



Personally I found my entree too salty, so I was happy to swap my entree with Moco's anytime ;)

For the mains, Moco was contemplating between the curry and the beef and finally settled on the beef. Well after we tasted the beef, he kinda wished he picked the curry instead. The beef was rather tough and seriously nothing special. We much preferred Spice Temples's beef brisket.


But on the other hand my main was the champion of the night, the duck was just so beautifully cooked and the meat was so succulent..perfect. I almost wanted to lick my fingers just to make sure I got all the juices.


So no surprises, we were particularly pleased with the sashimi, the duck and my cocktail and of course loving the bathroom's Oriental decor but considering the price and the audience we think they could have provided better service at the restaurant. But of course that's just our personal opinion. :)

Indo part 3

Last part of the Indo trip, most photos showed the 'westernized' food - actually to be fair they were influenced from all over the world. I have to admit, Indo is quite creative when coming to 'adapting' :)

hainanese rice burger..i think it's pretty cool!

something prawn, something fried, with melted cheese must be good..

not your traditional baked salmon..

eel pasta! who would have thought? me likey! if only they can put more eel?

well presented pizza, again..if only they're a bit more generous with the ingredients - i can buy five portions of nasi goreng on the street for the prize of this tiny pizza *grumble*

beautifully cooked pad see ew!!! i actually thought indo is not the place for having thai food, i was obviously wrong.

nothing to be bragged, i've had better.

the picture is rather deceiving. will stick to my usual nasi goreng.

again, will stick to my nasi goreng. man, why i never had a good pineapple fried rice??

not too bad, but had better in sydney.

this is good. walked in to this resto with my dad randomly, no regrets.

just beautiful..i love fusion sushi, read: i'm a raw food prude. and indo has more variety of fusion sushi than in anywhere else that i know (ok maybe except singapore..)

i know i've said this way too many times, but this is gotta be one of my fave dishes in indo. fried eel with greens..so crunchy and yummo.


omg it's been ages that i had the real pork satay on the street. the experience with all the mozzies totally worthed. so good.

a must have with the pork satay. don't bring your first date, the onions speak for themselves.

pork ribs on the street, awesome.

yes when i said on the street, it really was on the street.

apparently this is a taiwanese noodle soup, i never had it before so i wouldn't know if they lied to me. who cares.

love it love it love it. one of the best pad thai i've ever eaten

japanese dessert in indo cost an arm and a leg. i guess you paid for the air con?

chicken caesar salad was surprisingly nice and the portion was quite generous

definitely not my cup of coffee. but according to my friend, it's delish..who knows.

my friend has been raging about this chips at this french bistro, and i was like, really? i came all the way here and you wanna take me to eat chips? i mean don't get me wrong, i LOVE chips with all my heart but i'd rather having something different you know what i mean? but anyway i gave it ago, and you know what..it's not too shabby for aggy ;) too bad they don't have wedges in indo, i reckon it'd be a big hit

and having it with fancy drinks...what't not to like?

last pic for indo :(

red bean and pineapple inside your kebab? only in asia :)