Ima Cuisine, Auckland

I'm searching the back streets of Auckland for a good place to have dinner when I stumble upon Ima. I'm instantly drawn in by all the orange (although it does make it an absolute pain to take photos). After the flight, Mediterranean food sounds really good...

We step inside and I notice all the mismatched chairs, bookshelves filled with cookbooks and this...

... yes, Gordon. Ramsay.

After ordering from the hand-written menu, I totter over to the open kitchen to see what Chef is doing. It's smiles abound back there! Also, there are strings of dried chilis hanging from the shelf which is totally neat.

Bread with olive oil, sesame seeds, cumin, salt and pepper Complimentary

Just like in Italian restaurants, we're served a plate of bread with olive oil plus something to dip it in. I love it except I need to pace myself because bread is pretty filling...

Chicken liver pate traditional Jewish style $14
Served on grilled brioche

This is different from the pate that I'm used to, in the way that it's not as smooth nor creamy. It's a lot nicer to have more when you're not overwhelmed with creaminess... Thin juliennes of pickled lemons adorn the tops and cut through the meatiness of the pate.

Brik $19
North African delicacy: fresh tuna and preserved lemon in Warqa pastry parcel fried crisp with soft egg inside

Warqa is essentially brik pastry so when you cut into this little parcel, you can hear the fragile cracks. Then take in the egg yolk oozing out (I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for oozy yolks!) from inside the soft tuna. Every mouthful is accompanied by some strips of carrot which, along with the lemon, add some freshness.

Boneless stuffed baked baby snapper $29

At first I actually thought the snapper was boneless... then I realized that they took the bones out... Oops. It's just a plain baked snapper with a some spring onions. The snapper is used as a canvas for the sides. (Below).

Slow braised Lebanese lamb shoulder $15 per portion

I think I almost teared up when I ate this; tender, succulent pieces of lamb with a seriously meaty jus and some onions. Do you love meat? If you answered yes, try this. (With sides; below).

Sides (set of 5) $12 per person
Slightly spicy tomato shallot salad; minty, zesty, crunchy salad; Tunisian grilled carrot salad with feta

These sides are to accompany the snapper and lamb. My favorite from this plate was the grilled carrot (mostly because it has grilled feta and I love cheese). The chargrilled flavor is offset by small knobs of salty cheese. The tomato salad is actually a little spicy... Minty? Check. Crunchy? Check. Zesty? Where....?

Sides (set of 5) $12 per person
Seasonal vegetable dish (tomato, zucchini, eggplant); Arab rice with lentils, pine nuts, pistachios, almonds and caramelized onions

My favorite of these two has got to be the vegetable dish which reminds me of ratatouille (this dish, not the rat). Stewed veggies add a kick of freshness to the proteins. The Arab rice is interesting... Somehow I'm getting some faintly sweet flavors from it. There's a healthy amount of nuts interspersed in the rice, actually imparting flavor rather than being an aesthetic addition.

Arab coffee cooked in a special pot $6 per pot for 2

This little contraption is sweet! It's basically unfiltered coffee in a stove-top coffee pot. The coffee settles into the bottom of the pot, effectively letting you decant the coffee. A small amount of sugar is added just so it's not too bitter. It'll definitely get your heart racing!

Ima Cuisine
57 Fort St,
Auckland
1010 New Zealand
Ima Cuisine

Little Nepal, Burwood

I watched this amazing film Samsara about a week ago and was really struck by a particular scene that reminded me of Nepal (even though it was filmed in India). Being me, I translated this impression into food and had a hankering for Nepalese food for the past couple of days.

Burwood seems to me like a bit of an odd suburb to have a Nepalese restaurant, but bam! That's where Little Nepal is. We arrive early so the tiny restaurant is empty save for 2 tables. Once inside, I quite like it for its lime green back wall, huge Nepalese flag, red patterned table cloths and mirrors lining the left wall.

Food During The Holidays

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything sooner to the New Year but I've needed to get everything in order before starting 2013 and this year I'll try to juggle everything a lot better okay guys? Thank you for bearing with me!

To start off, just a quick picture post of some things I ate and made during my recent holiday to the coast.

Simple Yule Log

This is part two of my yule log post. Here's how to make the plain log cakes on either side of the mocha one. I made this using a mash up of two taste of home recipes: 1, 2. Post for mocha log is here.

Mocha Yule Log

It's almost Christmas! This means it's almost time for friends and/or family, food and lots of presents! So maybe take a break from putting up the tree (if you haven't already) or hanging up tinsel, baubles, or pretty lights, and make something for the Christmas party! I made a few yule logs (or bouche de noel's); the mocha one is that huge one in the middle (recipe from taste of home). My blog post on the other logs is here.

Tempering Chocolate

Just a quick one on tempering chocolate. I'm pretty sure y'all would rather not hear about the chemistry behind it but basically, when you temper chocolate it gives it extra crack when broken and generally a little extra shine.

Hurricane's Grill, Top Ryde

Yep. That's me in a bib. No giant knife like chocsuze, but with a bib nonetheless. Eating ribs can be a very messy business, but it's a tasty business. Make reservations first unless you want to wait for a table...

Boerewores $18
Traditional South African beef sausage, mildly spiced and serves with mashed potato and Spanish sauce

 It really is a long winding sausage... Creamy mash. The sausage by itself is a little chunky in a good way and not too fatty. When I add the Spanish sauce, my food brain goes "DING DING DING TACOS". The sauce sort of reminds me of salsa.

Full rack of pork ribs $42.90 with Monkey gland Sauce $2.50
Monkey gland: typically South African, sweet and savory BBQ sauce

Basted ribs that are grilled under tender...You can see the char on the edge-most ribs and personally, I like a little char so I decide to take that one. The pork is falling off the ribs and delicious when dipped in Monkey Gland. It really is something to try at least once in your life if you can eat meat. Don't try to tackle a full rack unless you're SURE you can finish it. Obviously, I love sticky sweet tender ribs...And you can get them with chips or a boiled potato!

Hurricane's Grill, Top Ryde

Shop R3006, Ground Floor

Top Ryde City

Cnr Blaxland Rd, Devlin St

Ryde NSW 2112

Lovin' Haloumi

Robert Louis Stevenson III once said "Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese - toasted, mostly"; he's not the only one who has dreams about cheese! I adore cheese, I'm not sure I could live without it. I'm starting to learn more about cheese these days from reading books and watching Cheese Slices.

Caffe Moretti, Leichhardt

Moretti has been open since 1997 and serves food that isn't over complicated and very homely. Simple food is often one of the hardest to cook because restraint in the kitchen is harder than letting go and Moretti does this very well. While I'm waiting outside my tummy rumbles because I can smell all the food, especially the smell of the wood fired pizzas from the oven almost right inside the door.

Sydney Food Blogger's Picnic, 2012

Bloggers! (photo from Simon)

Last Saturday I went to the annual Sydney Food Blogger's Christmas Picnic and had so much fun! I ran into Thanh again and met the awesome DK & Yvn from excuse me waiter wheee! A huge thanks to chocsuze & grabyourfork for organizing this day!

Shanghai Chef Kitchen, Parramatta

Food is delicious after a few hour of browsing in Dymocks; so off to visit a new restaurant on Church St! The restaurant is sort of sparsely decorated but a small vase of fake flowers on each table adds some life (ironically). My table had pretty good service too! Shanghai Chef Kitchen is right next to Taste Gallery.

Shanghai steamed mini pork bun $5.80

Chinese Noodle Restaurant, Haymarket

After a long day I need to refuel of course! So time to go to Chinatown for some cheap dindins. Chinese Noodle Restaurant is located sort of behind Market City but there are two restaurants with identical signs, this one is right next to Menya Noodle Bar. The restaurant itself is tiny so we're led to another restaurant space which is a little emptier.

I feel like such a hipster (ironically) sitting in this tiny hole in the wall restaurant with no name on the window or any decorations. Sah hipster.

Pork and chives light pan-fried dumplings $8.80 (12/serve)

Rekorderlig + Sparkle Cupcakes Media Launch

This is a promotional post.

Rekorderlig cider has partnered with Sparkle Cupcakes to create a yummy cupcake based on the flavors of its Premium Mango & Raspberry cider and I was invited to the launch in Sparkle Cupcakes (Surry Hills).

Important business first of all: the cupcake will be available from 14th November to 31st November in the Sparkle Cupcakery which can be found at: 132A Foveaux St, Surry Hills.

Rekorderlig + Sparkle Cupcakes collaboration
Photography: Exposure PR

lunchalot.com Media Launch

This is a promotional post.

Are you feeling hungry?
I think this is an unofficial tagline for lunchalot.com, a new dining club in Sydney and the surrounding area.

Ambassador Mikey Robbins with the lunchalot.com girls
Photography: Ben Cole (lunchalot.com)

A few days ago I went to the media launch for lunchalot at Watts On Crown to learn a little more about it (and met some absolutely lovely people by the way; Liz, Will, Nicole, Kim, CEO Richard... Oh & MIKEY ROBBINS WAS THERE).

I don't know about you but I'm less likely to try a restaurant if I look in the front window and see it kind of empty. Lunchalot allows restaurants to fill up otherwise empty tables. More tables filled = more popular = more likely that I'll go in. Simple! Plus, when more of the nightly quota is filled, less food is thrown out and wasted.

So, some facts:

Rhinedorf, Beverly Hills

(This seems like a throwback to the days of frustratingly grainy photographs at dark restaurants. Just lettin' ya know)

I haven't noticed many, if any, German restaurants around Sydney but lo behold, I find Rhinedorf in Beverly Hills squished in amongst some Chinese restaurants. So instantly my head is saying "you must visit because German food!" (sometimes I lean towards meatatarianism).

Arisun, Haymarket

First of all, I'd love to thank grabyourfork & chocolatesuze for recommending Arisun towards the end of Dixon St in Chinatown.

The HSC was over so obviously I thought of a small celebratory meal: fried chicken. Yeah, clearly I love fried things (I'm trying to figure out how to deep-dry mayonnaise without Richard Blais-ing it). So without further ado...

Original fried chicken $30

I'm Back!

My sincerest apologies to any readers of this blog for an extreme lack of posts this last while; my life was taken over by the HSC, but now it's over and I'm back!

I can now go back to doing the normal things I love without feeling guilty: eating a lot, cooking, watching tv, sleeping, chilling... There will be some posts soon, I assure you!

Taste Gallery, Parramatta

 It was time to take a break from studying for the biggest exams of my life so far. So what do I do? I go for a little shopping and eating out. For some reason Parramatta Westfield seems to be lacking in young people today, but that's probably because of the evil HSC that's robbing us all of any social life. Comfort food at Taste Gallery!

Ladurée, Sydney

One of the higher end HSC study snacks: macarons. I've heard many amazing stories about the original Ladurée store in Paris so cue me jumping around like a squirrel on crack for these.

Dae Jang Geum, Cabramatta

Dae Jang Geum is the only korean restaurant in Cabramatta that I can think of and I'm guessing a lot of its market comes from teenagers and evidenced by the wall filled with various scrawlings in english and korean. So if you're in cabramatta and really want korean, this is where to go. Otherwise, it's not the most flavorful thing you can find on John St...

As usual, you always start with those small bowls of various tidbits, one of which is definitely kimchi.