Category Archives: Food

Mr Crackles


Pork roll from Mr Crackles on Oxford St. Hard to eat without dropping some of the amazing crackling, but so damn delicious!

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

Post Holiday Depression


First day back at work – Lisa’s red EVO in the driveway. Sergio, Alain… let’s go to lunch!


Marigold Yum Cha!


Was late afternoon by the time we got back to Zen. We then had dudes over, beers, chills and Frank’s Pizza.

PHD. I’ve got it.

Posted in Food, Zen Garage | Leave a comment

Lake Macquarie Easter Break


The house was so pimp. SO PIMP!!!


Jess and Mei in the kitchen, in which Colin and Mei performed much magic in over the 3 nights.


Check the size of it. The house opens up on to a shaded outdoor BBQ area…


…which leads to a private jetty.


Aw yeah! Upstairs we found this theatre room with 8 reclining seats.


Cloud 9. Colin and Mei didn’t want the master bedroom (which took up half of the 2nd floor of the house) and suggested we had first dibs as we beat everyone else there so greedily, we took it!


The bedroom had a massive built in wardrobe, a balcony, a TV which popped up out of a low wall which separated the bedroom from an open bathroom. Our rule was simple. No #2’s allowed!


We woke up every morning to cafe sounds and great coffee. Despite having a Nespresso machine built into the kitchen, Zi and Colin brought their own gear and smashed out perfect coffee’s the whole trip.


We had too many people for the one boat, luckily the property came with another. Colin, Mei and I went out and killed it at sunset. The right time and place we picked up some decent sized brim.

me
I had a mad fight with this guy. This year I purposely went out and bought a tiny lightweight rod which made fishing so much more fun as every decent sized fish made for a rod bending experience.


That’s Jess on the other boat (who’s never fished before!) pulling up her 2nd fish of the day.


Stevey driving our boat (which had engine problems, and was leaking too, but hey we caught fish!).


Successful and happy we got in before it was too dark.


Sunset at the Jetty, so beautiful.


After a massive feast of fresh fish and the best beef rendang I’ve ever eaten we hit the movie room.

recline
Epic fail though, we were all too smashed and tired to keep our eyes open (doesn’t help when the seats recline so much!).


Like last year, Cherry and Meatball made the trip but both were too scared to come out and play.


Eating so well. Fishing wasn’t really on the 2nd day. Not many bites but Zi managed to pull up a big flathead which we had tempura style.


Colin and Mei brought up a whole lot of brim too.


Colin and Mei also cooked up a massive lamb roast. Too good, so spoilt!


Feasting.


The 3rd day was grey and choppy. Colin, Mei and I set off again in our lucky sinking boat with temperamental engine, we spotted this massive flock of sea birds land and take off right next to us.

squid
The water was choppy further out but we pulled up a couple of squid! We caught some Taylor too, which kept cutting Mei’s line, so we headed back to the comfortable still water of the lake (the trip back in our little dingy was intense due to the waves).


Once at our secret little spot we once again caught some big brim. One so big it ran off with Colins line and eventually broke his rod too (the tip snapped off!).


Back at the jetty after another successful outing.


The house viewed from the jetty.


Takoyaki! Mei put the freshly caught squid to great use.


SO delicious!


At sunset the crew went out again and Colin caught this monster Long Tom!


Gloria pointing at Zi’s massive flathead which we deep fried fish and chips style.


Mei and her bucket full of of brim.


Day 4; So sad. Willy and Zi cleaning the boat, getting ready to hit the road home.


Traffic was pretty bad initially but eventually it got moving. We had dinner together in Homebush at a restaurant which Collin’s family eats at. Someone ordered lobster, we were still ballin’ out of control!

Had an awesome 3 night stay with the “So How” fishing crew at Lake Macquarie this Easter break.

The weekend started with JDMyard’s Easter dinner at Lantern by Wagaya in the city. Sergio and Alain picked me up, next thing we were at Anton’s place and I was potentially up for one messy night! I held off from getting too wasted though, knowing I had to drive to Lake Macquarie the next morning.

I got up sans hang over and made my way to Jess’ place. We loaded up the car and stereo with an SD card of select tunes then we hit the road. We got caught up in some pretty bad traffic on the Pacific Highway, but we were moving once we hit the F3.

The house was pimp and blew everyone’s socks off. It didn’t at all feel like a rental as it had so many nice personal touches; Polished concrete floors, open plan kitchen with built in steamer and nespresso machine, a private jetty, a theatre room, kayaks, boats, a lap pool, bbq and lots of bathrooms (each room had an ensuite + there were 2 extra bathrooms), foxtel and wi-fi too.

The fishing over the past 3 days was epic in comparison to last years Lake Conjola trip. We brought up so much pan sized fish and ate so so well.

I’m definitely feeling a little PHD (Post Holiday Depression!). Had a mad weekend, can’t wait for next year’s trip!

Posted in Food, House, Travel | 1 Comment

The Rook


Love the logotype (tattoo worthy!). Loved the taste of it too.


Lobster Mornay!


Ying taking a pic.


Deep friend Mars Bar for dessert!

Had planned on going back to The Rook to eat. Did so last night with John, Nads and Ying (who I interviewed recently).

We all balled out and had Lobster Mornay, my first of the year! You’ve just got to treat yourself every now and then huh?!

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

Mamak


Had all intentions to go to Din Tai Fung but we walked past Mamak, there wasn’t a queue so we grabbed a bite to eat pre-meeting with MOTOR Magazine.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

Ippudo


The pork buns and shrimp buns came out first. Both were far from subtle and absolutely saturated with flavour. Pork was cooked beautifully and tasted more like a traditional Chinese pork bun than Chang/momofuku’s Peking Duck flavoured pork bun.


Gyoza was nothing at all special, will give them a miss next time.


I got pretty excited when I saw the broth and how it wasn’t at all transparent. It reminded me of the best bowl of ramen I had in Japan many years ago. The broth tasted fishy, really complex. I kinda liked it as it was refreshingly different to everything else I’ve been eating since. The noodles were pretty thin, again different, but didn’t quite feel right. The pork was delish!

So I finally got to try Ippudo. I’ve heard so much hype about this place, lots of it has suggested that the pork buns are similar in style to momofuku, only better.

First I was surprised to find it in the food court (and not on the level above). There was no queue at all which was a surprise (it was a Monday, lunch) and inside it was very much a casual dining restaurant which took me by surprise too (with all the hype I thought it was going to be a fine dining affair).

The menu was a little confusing (which ramen to try!) and the waitress asked how we liked our noodles. Huh?! How do you suggest?! She suggested to have them hard as people often complained that they were too soft!

All in all I thought it was alright and I might go back to try the 2nd ramen on the menu of 3. Lils and I both had upset tummies afterwards though, perhaps it was the gyoza (we overheard the waitress say that there is msg in them to the table next to us).

Posted in Food | 1 Comment

The Rook


Sergio introduced me to The Rook yesterday afternoon. Strangely hidden within a corporate building on York St Sydney. Potentially my new fave rooftop late night restaurant/bar. They serve lobster three ways!

Posted in Food | 2 Comments

El Loco at the House

Go now : Lots of beautiful people out to play and margaritas, Corona’s, tacos and hot dogs on the Western Broadwalk.

Posted in Food, Uncategorised | Leave a comment

Taipei – Day 1


Charlie (who’s tall) freaking out about having to sit it out on a 9hr flight in such a confined space.


Willy just as freaked out but not showing it.


Xmas decorations on the (rather old model) plane.


The airport was completely empty when we got in (around 4am from memory).


First thing we did was get cash out of an ATM.


Bought some JDM ciggs duty free, a whole carton for the price of a couple of packets locally.


We hung out at the airport 7/11 a little to re-group. Nothing else was open and we couldn’t check in until 3PM so we weren’t in any sort of rush.


Local Taxis come in all sorts, new and old, some standard and some quite modified!


Left Hand Drive! Our driver had gadgets galore all over his dash. Clear skies greeted us as the sun came up. We were cruising at 140km/hr on the freeway into the city.


We dropped off our bags at our hotel. Zi was there to greet us.


We then followed Zi on a tour of our immediate area.


We passed a temple, then Rongxing Garden Park where the oldies were getting active. Some performing Tai Chi, some doing the Tango!


Our first stop, a local feed.


This was interesting, crunchy and light. Basically deep fried bread sticks in fresh baked bread… bread in bread!


Egg in roti was delish.


And our first serving (of what was to be many) dumplings.


Next stop was a cafe that made some great coffee.


Aussie spoons on display.


The girl behind the counter made a pretty special filtered coffee (whilst we had ours) which took at least 10 minutes to make. Customer then proceeded to (on purpose) add a whole lot of salt to it for taste.


We then hopped on a train to get to Sogo, a large Japanese department store, which wasn’t quite open yet so we checked out the supermarket within. Asahi beers in all sorts of sizes and guises, even tea.


Our first Mos Burger vist; shop still wasn’t open so we just wanted to sit down more than anything.


All of us walked away from the supermarket buying some fun stuff. Whilst I bought myself some Asahi and an Initial-D toy someone else bought a variety of dried seafood.


Haha. Encouraging Charlie to try new foods.


I came across the New Era Transformers Cap Bots which I promoted on Zen a while back, got pretty excited and bought a few.


Love it that all Sogo Dept Stores all over Asia have a level dedicated to great restaurants. We went for the Katsu House.


Oyster Katsu! So good.


Our first swig of the local beer. It’s nice and crispy!


We spent the day at Sogo and later that afternoon we checked in to the hotel. King bed = score!


The Wi-Fi password and ‘in case you get lost’ hotel card inside this little folder proved very handy throughout the trip.

Just got back from my one week trip to Taipei for Zi and Gloria’s Wedding. Was so fun travelling and hanging out with the boys, who started the craziness on the plane when we were denied Chicken Rice (yet teased with it), then forced to settle for FISH PASTA. The air hostess insisting “It’s really good, I tried it myself”. The chewiness of it, brilliant, so fresh, the pasta so al dente… David even went back and asked for more (but seriously, tripple microwaved nastiness which made for a running joke the whole trip long).

As usual I slept through the entire flight, and basically teleported to Taipei. We got in crazy early, and had a LOT of time to kill before check-in at 3PM. Zi greeted us early though and kept us busy (mostly eating) all day. Later that night Stevey flew in and we hit town hard, so hard it destroyed most of my Day #2 haha.

Posted in Food, Travel | Leave a comment

Last Night’s Party

Posted in Food, House | Leave a comment