I love yum cha, but I don’t love how it’s largely limited to daylight hours. I am 100% not a morning person, to the point where I’m reluctant to even get up for food unless it’s something really special. Coupled with my preference for getting all my chores and errands out of the way earlier in the day rather than leaving it to later, I end up rarely having yum cha despite wanting to very much. That’s where Old Town Hong Kong Cuisine comes in.
Last week, I finally bit the bullet and dropped a couple weeks’ salary on flights and accommodation for a trip to Thailand at the end of the year. This proved to be an excellent move, as it’s given me something to look forward to and obsess over for the next couple of months, providing a sorely-needed reprieve to the huge amounts of study I’ve been (and will be) doing. And did I mention? The hotel I’ve booked apparently has a blinding breakfast buffet included in the room rate, complete with noodle station, omelettes made to order, dim sims, and freshly-squeezed juice! Just that alone is enough to get me hyped for my trip!
It’s always promising when you can smell a restaurant before you can even see it. As soon as we had rounded the corner, we could smell the unmistakable aroma of beef sizzling on the grill, and we knew we had found Bar Luca. Before Bar Luca became a cult burger restaurant however, it was just one of many pubs you’ll find dotted around Sydney. And aside from the change to a burger-only menu, as well as the presence of merch on the walls, not much has really changed. The large wall-mounted TVs are still there, as is the dodgy ATM near the toilets. There’s even a dingy little VIP room filled with pokies machines near the back. If you told…
Will you look at that, it’s my birthday again! It’s a pretty big decision every year as to where I should celebrate, but because my birthday unfortunately fell just over 2 weeks before a major exam this time around, I’ll admit I didn’t do nearly as much research as usual. Instead I just chose to have a lower-key dinner at Mejico, which I’ve been interested in trying out for ages, and have heard some pretty good things about. It’s somewhat of an open secret that Sydney just isn’t all that great with Mexican food, but the modern spin put on it by Mejico had me interested and optimistic. After all, just because the food isn’t strictly authentic, doesn’t mean it…
Just like everyone else, I was super excited when Sushi Hotaru made its way from Sydney to Melbourne a few years back. The prospect of a $3 per plate sushi train seemed too good to be true, yet there it was. In the intervening years however, I have to admit that the quality of the sushi had declined by a small yet noticeable degree, whilst the prices inched up bit by bit. Still, that’s not enough to get rid of the small soft spot I nurse for the popular sushi train, and to this day, I still enjoy the occasional visit. And although the prospect reviewing the original Sushi Hotaru location in Sydney isn’t exactly exhilarating stuff, I feel like…
Ichiban Boshi and I go way back. I first heard of the now-iconic ramen chain over 10 years ago, when I had just started reading food blogs, and the thought of writing my own was years from even crossing my mind. I had never had proper ramen at the time, but that didn’t stop me from being completely enamoured with the idea of noodles in deliciously porky soup (in fact, I think this may be where my ramen obsession started). And I almost, almost got to eat at Ichiban Boshi too, when I went to the Gold Coast with my family in 2008. Unfortunately that didn’t pan out, and it took another 10 years and an interstate move before the…