Posts in Review

Keeping My Cool with T2 Cool Sorts

T2 Cool Sorts Peaches and Cream

I’ve always been fascinated by cocktails and iced teas, probably because the delicate mixing of flavours to me is like alchemy, and that promise of absolute gold at the end of you get it right.

Well this summer, T2 has come up with fruity iced tea mixes, ready for your teapot and a bit of hot water.

T2 Cool Sorts Peaches and Cream

In the T2 Cool Sorts box ($22), you get 5 flavours to try: Banana Riot, Juicy Ginger, Mango Twister, Melon Head and Peaches and Cream.

I really bought the whole box because of the mango – it’s sweet without being too cloying, and refreshingly light and fruity, exactly what you want an iced tea to be. The peach brought similarly refreshing notes, but with less sweetness straight out of the box.

The rest of the tea though, were a bit average for me. The melon did truly tasted like honeydew, and since I’m a bit more of a rock melon sorta gal, it wasn’t quite my thing. The banana had really nice caramel notes, but wasn’t as refreshing as I wanted my iced teas in summer to be.

And the ginger. It may be because I grew up in a culture that likes our flavour strong, but I barely got a hint of ginger, and then not that much else unfortunately. If I feel like ginger, I think I’d stick to my Apple and Ginger Green Tea.

But that being said, I’m still quite happy with my purchase. It gave me a chance to get some ideas and try some new stuff. And that mango, oh that mango!!

Each pack roughly 10 cups, so it’s enough to keep me hydrated for say, a week?

Shame that you can’t get the pack of mango by itself, but you take what you can get, hey?

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Stark Raving…Mad Fo’ Chicks, Eastwood

IMG_5105

I’m glad I live in a world where Korean Fried Chicken joints pop up like daisies in the summer. It means variety, choice, and a horizon filled with battered and fried juicy morsels.

And it saddens me when I see what I thought was a busy restaurant all boarded up and closed.
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Battambang, Cabramatta

Phnom Penh noodles from Battambang in Cabramatta

Cambodian food has always been a bit like Filipino food to me: familiar, but not familiar enough. It wasn’t as commonplace as Thai food growing up, but most of the flavours just seem so familiar when I taste it.

And it tastes utterly delicious.

Off the recommendations on Thang’s blog, I decided to drop by for some Phnom Penh noodles on the afternoon that I found myself in Cabramatta.

A full bowl of Phnom Penh noodles from Battambang in Cabramatta

They come in soup or dry versions, and are basically rice noodles, topped with various bits of offal – pork liver, intestine and blood – as well as pork meat. A savoury brown sauce is then ladled over the top, and a bowl of soup served on the side.

Rice noodles getting lifted out of the bowl after being tossed in sauce and chilli

Jars of chilli sauce and pickled chillies are available at every table, meaning I get to make things get nuclear, and relive some childhood comforts.

It’s amazing how something that burns so much can be comforting in times of heat.

The noodles were slick and springy, and the offal was well, clean. Many places in Sydney don’t thoroughly clean their offal, leaving a bad aftertaste. Here it was just porky, as pork should be, and the mixture of brown sauce and chilli just made me never want to stop eating.

If you do decide to make the trip, it’s located inside a shopping arcade and not visible from the street, so keep that GPS handy, and look for the banner hanging off the ceiling that points you in the right direction.

Battambang Restaurant
15/73-79 John St
Cabramatta, NSW 2166
Phone: 02 9754 2120

Battambang Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Of Mice and Menya *

Dragon Jya Jya Men from Menya Noodle Bar

*No mice were hurt in the making of this post.

So it hasn’t quite been the weather for ramen, but sometimes it’s nice to pretend, and sometimes the craving for noodles just take over!

Menya is part of one of the largest group of restaurants I know: the same people own Tenkomori, Chanoma, Mappen and Oiden.

Menya RamenMenya Shoyu Ramen

They offer up two basic broths as bases: tonkotsu (pork bone broth) and torigara (chicken bone broth).

In this broth goes springy yellow noodles, and a variety of toppings like chashu (sliced rolled pork), ni-tamago (soy marinated egg), bamboo shoots, and so forth.

Tontoro ramenTontoro Miso Ramen

Besides the hot steaming bowls of ramen – some of which come in a mini, regular or large size – they’ve also got the usual suspects, uh, I mean sides.

GyozaGyoza

Or if you wanna try everything, the value sets offer a bit across the board – ramen, rice, and gyoza.

Mini value ramen setMini Ramen Value Set

The thing about Menya Noodle Bar that keeps me coming back is really the consistency. While nothing on the menu is particularly innovative or mind-blowing, you always know what to expect when you go in. And, with a comfy restaurant to sit in, it is a nice place to bring family, and a change from the underground food court ramen stalls. The only thing that’s a tiny bit of a let-down is the ni-tamago – the eggs are a bit over-boiled, leading to a distinct lack of a liquid oozing yolk.

If you’re not feeling so much like hot, soupy ramen, I would recommend the cold tsukemen option – cold noodles dipped in a rice miso broth – or the Dragon Jya Jya Men (pictured in the header) – drained ramen noodles tossed with blanched bean sprouts and spicy miso pork.

What is your usual order at a noodle bar?

Menya Noodle Bar
Shop Tg8 8 Quay St
Haymarket, NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9212 1020
Website: http://www.menya.com.au/chinatown/index.html

Menya Noodle Bar on Urbanspoon

Shira Nui, Glen Waverley

Food guides used to be released every year, telling people where’s the best place to eat at, drink at, or generally be seen at. But there’s one that’s becoming more powerful than the rest, and gives you to-the-minute updates.

And that guide, is called Instagram.
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You pho, Me Pho!

There’s been major changes down Eastwood’s Rowe St recently – shops vacate and restaurants move in (Bao Dao and Tounoya, to name a few), which can only mean good things for a glutton like me.

And it seems that just because a restaurant is popular doesn’t mean it’ll stay: Pho Gia Hoi was always pumping, but seems to have been replaced by Me Pho, a small, quiet Vietnamese restaurant, serving up more varieties than your average pho menu.
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PappaRich, Macquarie Shopping Centre

I’ve always scoffed at Singaporeans who go to other countries and seek out Singaporean or Malaysian food, because why go all the way to another place just to find what you can find at home? And then complain that it’s not good enough?

Well after living in Sydney for over half a decade, I finally succumb to the need for reliable Southeast Asian comfort food, and it seems that PappaRich might have the answer.
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Shyun, Carnegie

Sometimes it it’s so bizarre to me how I live in Sydney, but make friends with a Singaporean, in Melbourne of all places.

And we get along like a house on fire.
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Tea Plus Me Equals…

It can be hard eating in the hot weather. You’re grumpy, sweaty, irritated, but eating only makes you warmer, so that makes the whole situation even more annoying.

Well, in this sort of sweltering heat I just want tea. Cold, sweet, iced tea.
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