Posts by tammi

WIP me into shape! Work in Progress, Sydney

Review
WIP, Sydney, Restaurant Review

WIP, Sydney, Restaurant Review

We know that Merivale does good things, and as a dining powerhouse, their food will always hit a minimum, consistent standard. Combine that with experienced, star chefs, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for trendy restaurants that makes food-lover’s mouth water, and eyes glaze over.

The latest project is Patrick Freisen’s Work In Progress (WIP), and they have been drawing extended crowds in with a menu of Fried chicken, and Lo Mein.

Curry Wagyu Brisket Lo MeinCurried beef brisket noodle soup, $16

I’ve never been a huge fan of noodles in watery soup, but there’s a very thin line between soup and gravy, and this curry sauce with its tender beef brisket pieces and yellow strands of noodles is my very definition of comfort food. This serving of Curry Beef Brisket Lo Mein looks a bit on the small side, but the bowl contained a good amount of food, and I wasn’t actually left wanting.

And then, fried chicken! Because who can resist fried chicken?

Half and Half ComboHalf & half ginger fried chicken & chilli fried chicken, $18

Pnom Penh Chicken WingsPnomh penh wings, lime white pepper, $16

The Ginger Fried Chicken tasted like plain fried chicken to me – not a bad thing! – and the Chilli Fried Chicken brought a really nice punch. My favourite part is licking off the sticky glaze from my fingers, and the juxtaposition of the crunchy, sticky and juicy in the one delicious bite.

The Pnom Penh Wings also made a fantastic impact on me, mostly because the lime and white pepper dipping sauce provided a refreshing palate cleanser of sorts that kept me going back for more chicken!

It’s a great non-committal way to try out new dishes, and providing new lunch options to those working in the CBD. Sure, the meals aren’t exactly what I would call “value for money”, but it is good food executed at high standards, so…you get what you pay for.

Give it a try next time you’re in town – we don’t know when this pop up will ship out.

This meal was independently paid for.
Work in Progress
50 King St
Sydney, NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9240 3000
Website: http://merivale.com.au/wipbar

Work in Progress on Urbanspoon

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Step Up to the… Mira Korean Street Food, Eastwood

Review
Mira Korean Street Food Review

Ttokboki with Cheese $10

One thing that I’ve missed thoroughly since moving from Singapore, is street food. Nothing quite beats the rising smoke around food on sticks, bustling crowds and surly hawkers. Not only is the food crazy delicious and cheap, but it’s also the ultimate in convenience, allowing you to eat and roam the street at the same time.

Street food in Sydney is not quite the same, but it doesnt stop anyone from trying to serve it up in different forms! Enter Mira Korean Street Food, who are attempting to serve up classic Korean street treats, but in a sit down cafe in Eastwood!

Soondae (Korean blood sausage), $10Soondae (Korean blood sausage), $10

Soondae is a Korean blood and noodle sausage that is served with a spiced salt on the side, as well as a few slices of tripe or liver. It’s almost like a gateway blood sausage to me – not nearly as strong in flavour as black pudding, and has a familiar chewy texture that accompanies starch noodles. Not a fan of the liver, but I never like thoroughly cooked liver anyway.

Fried Seaweed and Sweet Potato Noodle, $2 for 2pcsFried Seaweed and Sweet Potato Noodle, $2 for 2pcs

That same noodle used to stuff the Soondae is used again here in this Fried Seaweed and Sweet Potato Noodle snack, that is battered, fried and served with a soy dressing. Great for the novelty factor, and again, addictive chewy texture, but not entirely special otherwise.

Odeng sitting in a hot water bath

Odeng involves a skewered fish cake served in a bowl of anchovy broth. These skewers sit in a hot water bath, in preparation for their time in the bowl…before it hits my tummy.

Odeng (skewered fish cake soup), $3Odeng (skewered fish cake soup), $3

It’s supersoft, a bit like tofu, and for all the fish involved in this soup/skewer, it’s incredibly
milk, and reminds me of restorative broths my mum used to make when I wasn’t feeling well.

In all, not quite the street food experience that I was looking for, but its really worth a shot if you’ve got the late night munchies!

Mira Korean Street Food
16 Railway Parade
Eastwood, NSW 2122
Phone: 02 8542 9233

Mira's Korean Street Food on Urbanspoon

To Pro or Not: Which camera should I buy?

Photography Tech
I'm a photographer, and you should be one too.

As odd as it may seem, photographers never start out as photographers. They rarely ever are born with a camera ready to play with, even if their parents are amateur enthusiasts. My parents, for example, were quite into memory preservation through film, and I never got into photography into a serious way until I was well into my 20s. It all began with a tiny point and shoot, and when I outgrew that, I was faced with the question that many advanced beginners are faced with:

Which camera should I buy?
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A whole new…Yummy World Korean Restaurant, Eastwood

Review
Hand cut noodles being lifted out of a metal bowl of soup with chopsticks

Handcut noodles from Yummy World, Eastwood

A Yummy World should have been what Aladdin and Jasmine were singing about on that carpet ride. Because who cares about fireworks unless you have epic snacks to go with it, amiright?

Naturally, after singing A Whole New World obsessively as a child – the same way girls around the world sing Let It Go – I’d wander into a little Korean family style restaurant called Yummy World, and drag Simon from The Heart of Food along with me.

Chilli and Marmalade glazed Korean Fried Chicken at Yummy World, Eastwood

Given that this was essentially a second lunch, we *only* ordered a Hand Cut Noodle Soup (top picture) and a Chilli Glazed Korean Fried Chicken to share. The soup was intensely flavoured with shellfish and various seafood and the noodles were tender, with just a hint of bite. Very healthy tasting, and perfect for a cold, wet, windy winter. The Chilli Glazed Korean Fried Chicken was all sorts of sticky and finger licking sweet, laced with a very slight bitterness from orange rinds that were peppered through the dish. Like a jaffa chicken, almost. It threw me off at first, because I’m not a big marmalade fan, but by the end, I was scraping up every last sticky drop on those crispy wings.

Home style Banchan served up with lunch at Yummy World, Eastwood

And of course, the banchan. These Korean side dishes that add a fantastic variety to any meal, and instantly flood the table the moment you place your order. Simon says that these are very home-styled and quite rare to see in restaurants – I wouldn’t know, but I’d trust him – and I always enjoy the variety. And free flow? YES. Always.

The lady taking our order was quite efficient, even if English didn’t quite seem to be the language of choice. But the menu had pictures and the ol’ point and order procedure worked, so not too much of an issue there. I loved that it was packed with Korean families when we went – makes me feel much more confident in choosing Yummy World for lunch. With the crazy large number of Korean restaurants in Eastwood, I’m not so sure that they would be the top of my list for a meal, but great to have on hand as an alternate option!

This meal was independently paid for.
Yummy World Korean Restaurant
25 Railway Pde
Eastwood, NSW
Phone: 02 9874 8732

Yummy World Korean Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Amazing Hidden Gems in Sydney

Food Guides 2 Comments
Amazing Hidden Gems in Sydney

Sydney has always been quite the foodie’s paradise, with many cultures converging into this melting pot of a city, with some of the best produce I’ve seen in the world, to boot. And with the stampede of foodies hunting down every amazing eatery in town, it can be easy to think that there’s nothing really left to be discovered in Sydney.

Well, fear not, because I’ve found a couple of hidden gems in Sydney’s crevices, and armed with a true passion for amazing food and service, they’re putting the ‘hospitable’ back in the hospitality industry.

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Contouring for daywear: How to contour like a daytime drag queen!

Beauty How To
A panel of three pictures showing the different stages of contouring

Skillful contouring can change your entire face shape, sharpen features, and add such a boost to your everyday makeup look. But as much as I love me some RuPaul’s Drag Race – chantay, you stay – not every girl would like to contour like Kim K a drag queen for daytime makeup. So, after much trial and error, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks for how to contour, like a daytime drag queen. 😉
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Served! Aqua S, Regent’s Place Sydney

Review
Two photo collage of Aqua S's soft serve

Two photo collage of Aqua S's soft serve

How much can there be to soft serve? Heaps, apparently. Aqua S debuted to crazy round-the-block queues with a single, unique flavour: sea salt soft serve, tinted a bright robin’s egg blue.

You might say that it was the flavour that launched a thousand queues.

They have two flavours that change every week, with sea salt as the constant, and whimsical toppings like cotton candy, torched marshmallow and popping candy. Because what’s the point of soft serve if it doesn’t delight the kid in you? They seem to do fruit flavours especially well, with a fantastically juicy watermelon that was well balanced with the sea salt. The Apple Blackcurrant tastes like the large bottles of juice that you can get at the supermarket, and was quite refreshing, if not slightly on the cloying side of sweet.

The service is polite and efficient, and quite no-nonsense, which takes away from the whimsy slightly. And the price gets to me too, because $6.30 for a cone with two toppings somehow seems a tad steep to me when round the corner you can get decent soft serve for around the $2 mark. It’ll be interesting to see how long Aqua S can keep churning out new flavours though, because if they can, they’re in the running to be the Messina of Soft Serves in Sydney.

This was independently paid for.
Aqua S
Regent Place
501 George St
Sydney, NSW 2000
Phone: 0406 970 070
Website: http://aquas.co/

Aqua S on Urbanspoon

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Shiitake Mushroom Ramen Recipe

Food Recipe 4 Comments
An aerial shot of the vegetarian shiitake mushroom ramen, with pickles and gyozas on the side.

I am an absolute ramen fiend – nothing beats a hot bowl of noodles and soup in the middle of a freezing winter. But most ramen broths are based in bone and meat for that intense flavour, and it does mean that my vegetarian friends often miss out on this awesome meal. But bone does add a depth of flavour that is hard to replace, so I thought to use Lapsang Suchong – a smoky black tea – and konbu – a dried seaweed – to add body to the soup.

The result is this Shiitake Mushroom Ramen that I can share with ALL my friends, and if I swapped out the egg and egg noodles, my vegan friends too!

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