Cooking - Vietnamese Noodles ( Banh Uot Cha Lua)

One of my goals for this year was to learn HOW TO COOK! Literally I have no cooking talents or secret abilities - it's square one for me. But this Vietnamese dish was one of the simplest yet tasty dishes I've ever learnt! Thank you Kat for teaching me ♥ I will attempt to replicate this at home and do you proud!!! So here's how to make this yummy dish!

Delicious! 

Ingredients: Serve 2  -

•  Rice noodles (Banh Uot) - 1 packet 
• Raw Cucumber - 1 
• Herbs (mint/coriander/basil) - quantity depends on preference 
• Condensed Pork [Chả lụa]  
• Depends on preference - 2cm off 1 roll is how much we cut 
•  Fried Red Onions - use as much as you like!

 Ingredients for the Sauce [Nước chấm] : 

•  2 table spoons of sugar 
• warm to hot water 1/2 bowl to melt sugar 
• 4 table spoons of fish sauce 
•  2-3 cloves of finely diced raw garlic 
• lemon - quarter squeezed or white vinegar

FISH SAUCE :P LOVE THIS! 

Read more for the full method of cooking!

Noobie Foodie│Tapas Joint

Dinner with the family is one of my all time favourite activities! Because it’s a chance to catch up with some of my favourite people over delicious food! This time some members of my fambam went to try Tapas Joint at Chinatown because it just opened and there was a GROUPON (I OVE GROUPONS). We were allowed to choose 12 different tapas and 4 desserts – among the 4 of us. It was A LOT of food!! 

Here is my review of this new restaurant – warning there is going to be A LOT of pictures!

ALL THE FOODDD 

Read more for the details!

Food Bucket List - Sydney Edition

Because I have a memory of a gold fish literally and I keep forgetting about places that I want to eat at I decided to do an entire blog post about them (and there is soo many)! If anyone has any other recommendations PLEASE let me know! I shall add them to the list!

When I get to visit these places I shall cross them off :)

1. Cafe Style/Lunch: 

• Oliver Brown
• Three Beans 
• Kanzi (try the food)
• Barmuda (for the mocha)
• Mary Street Cafe 
• MSM Chatswood 
• Orto Trading Co 
• Bourke Street Bakery
• Element 6
• Le monde 
• Earth to Table
• The Grounds Alexandria
• Clipper Cafe (again)
• Lyons R.A.W
• Excelsior Jones 
• Kitchen by Mike
• Cafe Sopra 
• Espress Organica 
• Three Williams Cafe 
• Bondi Wholefoods
• Suveran at Bondi 
• Dough Collective 
• Black Star Pastry and Cafe 
• The Paramount Coffee Project 
• The Copper Mill 
• Brickfields 
• Four Ate Five 
• Bread and Circus 
• Central Baking Depot 
• Cabrito Coffee Traders 
• Pablo and Rusty's 
• Marlowe's Way 
• Mecca Espresso 
• Ampersand Cafe and Bookstore 
• The Wedge Espresso 
• Bion Societe 
• Sappho Books, Cafe and Wine Bar
• White Rabbit Gallery tea house  
• Cafe Shenkin 
• Pharmacy Cafe 
• Reuben Hills
• Toby's Estate - Near Uni!
• Blue Bird
• Watts On Crown 
• Greenheart Espresso
• Bootsdarling
• 212 Blu
• The Stables Cafe  
• Three Blue ducks 
• MCA Cafe 
• Pottery Green Baker 
• Two Good Eggs 
• The Chalkboard Cafe 
• The Bitton Cafe 
• Brown Sugar 
• Kepos Street Kitchen
• Gnome (Part of BREWTOWN NEWTOWN!)  
• Cornersmith Cafe 
• Pilgrim - WHY SO FAR! 
• The Annex 
• T2 Cafe 
• Pain De Sucre 
• Little Marionette 
• Luxe Bakery 
• La Renaissance 
• Rustic Pearl  
• Mad Spuds 
• Tea +
• Autolyse Sydney
• Lid and Jar 
• Circa Espresso
• Wedge Espresso 
• Three Ropes Espresso
• Palomino Espresso
• Baker Bros 

2. Restaurants:

• Flying Fish
• Soda Factory
• Azuma (for the meal)
• Pastizzi Cafe 
• Chur Burger 
• Gastro Park 
• Meat and Wine Co
• Rockpool 
• The Little Snail 
• Miss Peaches 
• The Rook
• Good God 
• The Cuban Place 
• Nishiki 
• Koh-Ya 
• Pappa Rich 
• Ryotei Ramen 
• Cipro 
• Mr Wong 
• QT 
• Est. 
• Sepia 
• Quay 
• Yulli's 
• MEXICO 
• The Burger Joint 
• Buns and BAlls 
• Beijing Alley 
• Bishop Sessa
• Yuki's  
• Hot Star Fried Chicken 
• Cochin Restaurant 
• House of Crabs 
• Cafe Sydney 
• Bavarian Bier Cafe 
• Baroque Pantry 
• Khao Pla 
• Ramen Ikkyu 
• The French House 
• Coco Cubano 
• Youeni FoodStore 
• Movida 
• Tapavino 
• Ms G's 
• Lentil As Anything Sydney
• Alpha Restaurant 
• Mejico  
• El Loco  
• Mr Crackles  
• Toko
• Beach Burrito Company
• Nomad
• Jazz City Milk Bar 

3. Desserts: 

• Kurtosh (again) 
• Bills - for their pancakes AND food but mainly pancakes 
• Bay Vista Gateau 
• Mak Mak Macarons
• Café Cre Asion  
• The Sweet Spot 
• Sweetness 
• Lorraine's Patisserie 
• Flour and Stone 
• Anita Gelato 

4. Bars:

• Mary's 
• The Lobo Pantation
• The Wild Rover  
• Tio's 
• The Barber Shop 
• Grasshopper Bar 
• Newtown Hotel 
• The Argyle 
• Glass Wine Bar
• Uncle Ming's 
• Lil Darling 

5. SPECIAL:

• Belly Bao
• Sydney Food trucks  - Veggie Patch Van 

All the places in this list I want to try as well:

http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/restaurants/features/13101/top-5-coffee-in-the-cbd

If only I had a faster metabolism...

It'd be like this nomnom-ing every day!

♥ Lingfish

Café Explorer│Brewtown Newtown

Everyday my addiction to coffees grows!! But that’s ok because it means I get to explore more cafés around Sydney to find my favourite Mocha!

This time my friend and I decided to venture to Brewtown Newtown (gotta say I love the place just for its name) for a very long overdue catch up! Here is my little review of this wonderful café!

♠

Food First:

MY MOCHHHAAA :D 

Because I arrived really early I had my coffee first and I also had time to really taste the mocha there – it was delicious! This café really knows how to get coffee right – thank you for doing the name justice ♥

Also the coffee was served with soda water on the side which was something I wasn’t used to at cafés but it was a welcomed changed as I really enjoyed it!

Chai! 

My friend order the Chai which was actually served in a pretty tea set complete with honey on the side! Unfortunately I was so distracted with the conversation I forgot to take a photo of the milky cream colour of the chai as it poured out but I can say it was mouth-watering!

After settling in we order some lunch and by this time I was feeling something filling but different to the typical dishes I get so I decided on the Duck Ravioli with porcini and wild mushroom.  Porcini is a type of fungus used a lot more in European cooking but as an Asian girl I’ve always loved things like fungus but it’s largely dependent on the way it’s cooked! I think this Brewtown did this sooo well!

In terms of portion I wasn’t used to their only being two pieces of ravioli but it was two VERY large pieces of ravioli with some hearty soup that really warmed me up on that rainy day! The ravioli was so full of flavour of delicious I again forgot to take a photo of the insides because it got inside my stomache… my photos don’t show my love for this meal!! <3 p="">

My friend also ordered something very hearty – the meat ball sandwich with tomato, basil sauce and mozzarella baguette. I was enjoying my meal wayyyyyy too much so I actually didn’t get to try hers but she said it was delicious and extremely filling! Don’t worry it gives me an excuse to visit Brewtown again (not that I need one anyway). Read more for the full review and more pictures :) 

Café Explorer│ Coffee Traders at Ryde

This particular place I’ve been wanting to try for a long time because it’s right next to my bus stop so I pass it literally EVERYDAY! And finally I had the chance to try the food and coffee there!! (About time) Here’s my little blog post about this local café.

Exactly where we were sitting! 

Definitely a lively café that is spacious very stylishly designed with really interesting design touches like the chalk board and the vespa! Not every day you see a packed motorbike in a café!

COFFEE ADDICTION MET! :) 

As per usual we ordered two large Mochas and the coffee there was definitely something else! Sweet but not too sweet where I can taste the chocolate syrup and it was definitely effective to waken my senses. Coffee cravings as I write this..

And here comes the food!

Karen ordered the egg chicken chorizo and bacon on sour dough bread! And it was amazing! It was actually my first time trying chicken chorizos and it was so full of flavour! Because it was my first time eating it I’m not sure how to describe the flavour but it was something similar to Chinese preserved sausages with its oily but mouth watering taste. The bacon was fried to a crisp it literally broke apart as you tried to cut into it! That’s one of the best textures of bacon I’ve ever tasted!!! One day I shall learn to cook bacon like that! The sour dough was fresh and generously buttered it left this amazing crunch on the crust but soft and tender in the centre!

DEM EGGS!

My dish was the scrambled egg with ham and chicken with rocket and sour dough bread. I choose it because scrambled eggs are one of my favourite foods! It definitely met my egg cravings as the egg was really fluffy and delicious without too much cream or milk unlike year 7 camp style scrambled eggs (that was traumatising for me because I hated that milky eggy taste). The rest of my dish was nothing incredibly special but again the sour dough bread was so satisfying and filling. In comparison my food wasn’t as flavoursome (the chicken chorizos really packed a punch) but I prefer the milder flavours and softer textures.

Both food portions are huge! This is why I never lose weight isn’t? Anyway click read more for the review and more food porn: