Chinese Noodle Restaurant – Sydney
Posted: December 31, 2013 Filed under: Asian Food, Chinese Food, Sydney, Uncategorized | Tags: chinese noodle restaurant, chinese noodle restaurant haymarket, chinese noodle restaurant sydney, dumplings, handmade dumpling, handmade noodle, Haymarket area, Sydney Chinatown Leave a commentMy last post in 2013 would be talking about this gem at Haymarket area a.k.a Sydney Chinatown. I consider myself lucky because if it’s not my aunty’s office located around here, I probably wouldn’t find this noodle shop.
I came to the new branch of theirs which is located in different side at the Haymarket plaza. This small noodle shop is packed at most of the time especially if you come here for dinner.
- Me and family were astonished watching the lady making the noodle and that’s why it took us quite a long wait to get our foods ready. They make every dish right after the order comes both for noodle and dumplings. It’s always interesting to watch quite a show like this!
Mixed Seafood Stir Fried Noodle – Xinjiang Hand-made style
It’s pretty awesome to realize the noodle that had just been made in front of us is now served on the table. It was pretty big and thick, reminds me of Japanese udon but in flatter way. The portion is ridiculously big enough to feed 2 persons or more! The chewy doughy noodle tasted well-balanced between sweet and savory sauce plus we got abundant toppings too.
AU$ 11.80
Pork and Chives Dumpling (steamed-15 pieces)
As seen in the picture, the dumpling’s wrap was quite thick and fluffy. I don’t like thick dough but really love the pork and chive stuffing. They are really generous in putting the well seasoned minced pork inside and it tasted really nice when combined with the soy sauce and sesame oil provided on each table!
AU$ 8.80
Vegetarian and Black Sesame Bun
The buns weren’t our favorite because it’s a little bit hard and rough. We also didn’t like the mixed vegetables filling for it’s under-seasoned.
AU$ 1.50
Black sesame bun topped by coconut crumbs, looking so luscious. Unfortunately, same like the vegetarian bun, this one also had a rough and kinda hard dough. The black sesame filling was not very special as well.
AU$ 1.20
Bun is just not their specialty, so go grab noodle and dumplings when you make a visit. The staffs don’t really speak English but they are very friendly though, so just point the menu while you are ordering the foods. Overall it’s a nice place to go when you are craving for affordable homemade dumplings or Chinese noodles around Chinatown!
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Birthday Lunch at Glosis Grill and Bar
Posted: December 30, 2013 Filed under: Bandung, Uncategorized, Western Food | Tags: food blogger, food review, Glosis grill and bar, Glosis grill and bar Bandung, Glosis Grill and Bar Hegarmanah, New Yorker Steak, Smoked pork chop Leave a commentDecember has always been my favorite month of the year for some reasons. It’s my birthday month and no need to mention we also celebrate the festive season of Christmas and New Year too! This 12th month of the year is when I have my final exam and then rewarded by a long holiday until the next year, when abundant yummy foods are available at most of the time and when family and friends come and gather to celebrate the joy of Christmas. For those reasons, how can I not love December?
I just had my silver birthday this December and sometimes I can’t believe I’ve reached this age. I feel like I’m still 22, isn’t that normal or it is just me? HA! I had a small birthday lunch with my family of mom, dad and my brother at Glosis Grill and Bar. This is one of Bandung’s old eatery that survives until today. I chose to have lunch here since Glosis Grill and Bar has pretty much historic childhood memories for the family. Our family is a loyal customer since I was very little and we used to spend many of our Sundays at Glosis back then. Even though many things have changed (they have relocated for several times since their first appearance) but we still want to go back there.
Mushroom Soup
The soup served with tiny bites of croutons and warm yet moist bread roll. I (was) a big fan of Glosis’ mushroom soup as they make it with blended champignon and cream instead of adding sliced mushrooms into cream soup. Honestly I felt a little disappointment as the soup was too watery and not much blended mushroom there.
IDR 23,000 ~ US$ 2.30
Fried Mushroom
I’m not very sure why the starters were mushroom themed until I write this post. The presentation was lovely and inviting, mushrooms also fried perfectly crunchy but it would be nicer if they add more seasoning to it. Seriously the mushrooms were plain but the good things you can savor the freshness of the mushroom, (if that’s what they intend to highlight with the dish?).
IDR 28,000 ~ US$ 2.80
Salmon Lemon Butter
I got excited and delighted to see all the vibrant colors on my plate and couldn’t wait to devour them all! Salmon was grilled to medium as what I requested and I really love how it went well with the lemon butter sauce and salsa. I just feel they need to add a little bit more seasonings for the potato, really.
IDR 82,000 ~ US$ 8.20
Pork Chop
My mom’s all time favorite at Glosis is the Smoked Pork Chop. Pork meat was smoked and seasoned very well, super tender smokeyyy meat combined with the sauce was beyond. I reckoned the smoked pork chop was the star on that day!
IDR 79,000 ~ US$ 7.90
Sirloin Steak
Sirloin steak is actually a very basic menu, sadly the meat was cooked very medium instead of well done as my dad’s request. We were relieved because the staffs did a quick response to change it with well done cooked meat.
IDR 83,000 ~ US$ 8.30
New Yorker Steak
The New Yorker was nice, perfectly medium cooked and also well seasoned. The sauteed mushroom, onion and tomato was lovely too. My brother had a quick movement eating it up!
IDR 88,000 ~ US$ 8.80
The beverages were so-so but I recommend their Mojito selections as they are pretty awesome and would be a good pair for any dishes. A little offs we found during the lunch couldn’t ruin our joy and happiness that day. We still love the place, the ambient, the attentive staffs and hope there will be some improvements to their foods.
Glosis Grill and Bar
Jl. Hegarmanah No. 6
Bandung (022) 203 – 1321
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Hurricanes Grill – Bondi Beach
Posted: November 29, 2013 Filed under: Australian Food, Sydney, Uncategorized, Western Food | Tags: Hurricanes Grill, Hurricanes Grill Bondi Beach, Hurricanes ribs, sculptures by the sea, sculptures by the sea bondi 1 CommentExperiencing the unfamous pork and lamb ribs at Hurricanes Grill seems to be one of the top list when you visiting Sydney and surrounds. The restaurant joints are located at several points in Sydney but my review would be talking about the Bondi Beach branch. I must say it was a totally beautiful day, for the super bright blue sky, fresh air and warm sunshine. A perfect beachy weather to grab a really really good food with my family.
Outdoor area
We arrived a little bit earlier before the buzzing lunch time. Lucky us!
The restaurant was quite silent at the moment we came in, a friendly waitress greeted and directed us to the table. It didn’t take us long to decide what to order, the fact is we knew already what we want, a full rack of pork ribs with chunky french fries, another full rack of lamb ribs with baked potato and a bowl of Caesar salad.
large-sized knife, you will know why you need such a size like this once the foods are served!
We got our orders pretty fast and offered to wear a bib (yes I’m talking about that baby’s eating attribute) around our neck before started digging. Well, I must say you really need one since you may be smeared by the overflow BBQ sauce all over your mouth and possibly on your clothes too. I bet you will end up using your hands instead of the cutleries, those meaty bitty ribs are just too finger-lickin’-good!
Caesar Salad
The salad came in a big bowl full of goodness. Caesar Salad is pretty basic and Hurricanes do it right of fresh crisp veggies, yummy crispy bacon, croutons and really good dressing. A not-so-salad-person like my dad could even say he loves it!
Full Rack Lamb
I was surprised by how big the size is but I couldn’t really stop eating once started. Rich and generous BBQ sauce smeared all over the ribs was so shiny, smoky-caramelized smell from the grilling are calling you to dig in quickly. Everyone just gave up using the cutlery and start pulling by hands! Tats, my favorite scene!
The thick, tender, juicy and very well-seasoned meat served along with baked potato and chives-sour cream. Sour cream was in a solid-butter form and it melted down beautifully when spread over the hot baked potato. Potato was perfectly smooth and chives-sour cream enhanced the flavor.
Half AU$31.90 or Full AU$42.90
Full Rack Pork Ribs
Pork ribs sized even bigger than the lamb and served with chunky crispy french fries. The pork meat was also tender and juicy but there was porky smell that not very pleasant for me. I don’t know if it’s just me since my brother seemed loving it so much.
No one can resist
Half AU$ 34.90 or Full AU$ 44.90
Overall I prefer the lamb ribs than the pork one and loving chunky french fries more than baked potato. Meat and fries are just never go wrong! We were fully satiated by the foods, happy with the attentive yet friendly service and ready to have another adventure on the beach. Keep reading and scrolling down to have a glimpse of it!
During the visit, one of the waiter told us about the ongoing event alongside of Bondi beach walk “Sculpture by The Sea”. Therefore we decided to sneak out after having lunch. In this post, I also want to share some of my favorite sculptures among the amazing masterpieces of great artists from all around the globe. Hope you enjoy!
The “entrance” and information centre. They sold the catalogue for $10 each.
Moon Buddha by Vince Vozzo
A Shared Weight by Elyssa Sykes-Smith
The beautiful Coral Collective by coral. Sculpture no. 13
Bubble no.5 by Qian Sihua. Sculpture no. 19
There’s many a Slip by Ken Unsworth
Diminish and Ascend by David Mc Cracken. Sculpture no. 46
The sculptures were placed on the sides of this pathway.
Concealed Craft by Kirsten Lewis. Sculpture no. 2
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Greek Food at Stalactites
Posted: November 27, 2013 Filed under: Greek Food, Melbourne, Uncategorized | Tags: 24/7 restaurant in melbourne, chicken and lamb giros, Greek Food, pita bread, stalactites greek food, stalactites in melbourne Leave a commentStalactites will come across Melburnians’ choices when it comes to Greek food in CBD. Located in the heart of Melbourne city, on the intersection of Lonsdale-Russel street and famous for the yummy souvlaki are enough saying why this restaurant is always packed. I went here on weekday before the lunch busy buzzing time and comfortably found it wasn’t very crowded.
Stalactites “hanging” on all over the ceiling
The nice and friendly waiter directed us to a nice corner seating close to the big window. We went simple and basic in Greek food selections, a platter of lamb and chicken giros, pita bread, Greek salad and mix dip platter.
Greek Garden Salad
A bowl of freshness full with mixed leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, thinly grated carrot, Greek feta cheese & kalamata olives also sprinkled with oregano and vinaigrette. 
Mixed Giros Platter
A platter of marinated spring lamb and chicken from the spit. I was expecting something spectacular more on the lamb than the chicken. However, it was a pygmallion effect happening since chicken giros did stand out all by itself. The lamb was somewhat dry and barely seasoned whilst the chicken very flavorsome and tender, really nice to have it with squeezed lemon juice and chopped herbs on top.
AU$ – 16.50 small, AU$ – 29.00 large *Small portion is perfect for two while large would fit up to 4 people.
AUS 1.70 eachDips
Besides eating the pita bread with giros and salad, we went for something really Greek style which was having it with variety of dips. The mix platter dips consists of tarama, melitzanosalata, tzatziki & hommus. Tarama is Stalactite’s homemade caviar & lemon dip, Melitzanosalata is eggplant & garlic dip, Tzatziki is yoghurt, garlic & cucumber dip and Hommus is chickpea & sesame dip. Which one tastes best? It really depends on everyone’s preference even so, I always like Tzatziki since forever. Like it for the freshness of cucumber balance the creamy texture of the dips. Major love.
left to right : Tzatziki, Melitzanosalata, Tarama and Hommus
AU$ 8.50 – Small, AU$ 11.50 – Large
**Place desired amount of vegetables and meat then whip your favorite dips on top of the pita bread, roll the bread and eat by hand. The nature and urgency of eating by hand is quite unbearable for such thing. But trust me, your tummy will thank you later! Ha!
Despite of the pros and cons I’ve ever heard about this place, I myself found my visit was pleasant. Nice ambient, attentive waiters, quick service and most importantly the foods were good too. It’s not pricey since we got appropriate portions for every single dish. Stalactites is a worth visited Greek eatery in Melbourne in any time since they are 24/7!
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Theic Tea Bar Launching Night
Posted: October 10, 2013 Filed under: Melbourne, Sweet Treat, Tea, Uncategorized | Tags: Nathan Wakeford, tea bar in melbourne, tea blog, Theic, theic launching night, theic tea bar, theic tea bar launching Leave a commentI have the urge to (again) underline my excitement of living in Melbourne as the enthusiasm towards tea is (said) as the hippest in this continent! My excitement doesn’t stop here as there’s a new tea place in town, Theic Tea Bar by Chamellia. If you read my blog, you probably have been familiar with Chamellia by Somage since I made some blog posts about their teas previously. Located in the trendy suburbia of Collingwood , Theic is uniquely also merged with INSITU furniture design showroom.
Theic, means “tea drunkard; one prone to the immoderate consumption of tea“. As a tea-drunkard myself, I am so glad to attend the launching night on 30th September 2013 with many other drunkards. It was an amazing launching night with great people in a great place while enjoying great teas. Couldn’t ask for more.
Meet Nathan Wakeford, the man behind Theic, Chamellia and Somage Fine Foods. In addition he is also the current President of AASTA (Australasian Specialty Tea Association). Nathan uses the special H2O from Mount Donna Buang which he takes himself every single week in order to get all of the best any tea can taste!
Nathan had a “mini presentation” and opening speech which much showing his love, passion and dedication for tea!
All the guests were spoiled with some great selection of teas such as the refreshing iced tea, some Reserve selection brews and also the warming chai latte. I really enjoyed the white persimmon leaf from Korea and the Taiwan GABA Oolong.
The contemporary yet epic and attention-grabber tea bar area is ready to serve some of the very best teas!
For the bites, they serve raw, vegan and organic foods such as the famous snickers ball, fig&mesquite ball, savory muffin, chia porridge and Theic tasting (dips) platter.
top-bottom : fig& mesquite ball, snickers balll and mocha fudge brownie
Wishing all the best for the newly-opened Tea Bar and hopefully its presence would bring brighter and stronger tea atmospheric in town! Who knows there will be more people converted to be a theic, right? 🙂
I was well-sated (I might be drunk of tea), full of excitement and went home happily. On my way home, I knew already that I need to make another visit to Theic. So see you again, Theic! real soon I reckon…
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Rosebuds Water Infusion
Posted: August 31, 2013 Filed under: Melbourne, Sweet Treat, Uncategorized | Tags: melbourne, rose tisane, rose water, rose water infusion, rosebuds tisane, tea blog, tea blogger, tea lover Leave a commentHi guys! So here I am today tonight having a kind of insomnia. Well I wrote this post at 2.30 am this morning and just continued it when I got back home this evening! It is so annoying that I tend to have a worse sleeping problem every time I really need to wake up early on the next day, or when I have something really important on the next day or when I feel so exhausted. Is it just me or what?
As a result of exhaustion, being a little bit lonely and grumpy, got fined and gone wet under the rain (didn’t bring my umbrella) I had a bad fever about several days back. Lucky the heat went off after one day and the next day I was acting like jelly on my bed, dragging my body to move with so much effort and made myself a small pot of rose water infusion. Rose water for the sick made by the sick, even still be able to shoot some pictures too! Not a very legit sick story, I know.
Rose tea water infusion. Let’s not call it Rose tea when there is no Chamellia Sinensis inside, it is pure rose tisane made of bunch of tiny rose buds in baby pink color. I got this rose buds from Tea Leaves, a tea shop in Sassafras Dandenong for AU$ 18,00 a bag. I know, it’s pretty expensive right, in regards to who’s gonna drink rose buds that often? So to be a more economic tea lover, I splitted it up with my friend and AU$ 9 for each of us is not bad at all. There are 300 rose buds in a bag and we shared 150 each. Kidding. Who’s going to count to get that exact number? So just pretend we have equal amount of rose buds then.
This is my first time brewing a cup of rose buds as I used to add only 3 to 5 buds in my tea. So basically I used rosebuds to play around, just for setting of or paired it either with my berry tea, regular black tea or green tea and so forth. I always have the impression that hint of rose works well with those teas for relaxing purpose.
Brewing a bunch of rose buds was an exciting experience as I never really had a pure flower infusion. The rose infused water was really fragrant but still in a nice way. The infused liquor was in very bright yellowish color and not to mention, they look so beautiful in glass teapot or tea cup. I didn’t really measure but I used about 20-22 rosebuds mixed up with some rose petals in 350 ml hot water for 3 minutes. I had 2 infusions but the second one was clearly weaker in liquor color and flavor but the aroma was still stand out.
Well, do I love the rose water? Yes I do! The rose infused water is naturally sweet with a hint of fruity flavor at the finish. I always prefer and at most of the time have the tendency to love a naturally sweet infusion. It is refreshing and the rosy fragrant has a calming effect. I feel like jumping and soaking inside my cup!
I posted my rose water infusion on my Instagram and Path account and one of my friend asked where to buy dried rose in Indonesia. To be honest, I don’t know and will try to find any information of where to purchase this. If anyone of you know where to buy dried rose/rosebuds in Indonesia or particularly in Bandung, please kindly leave a comment or contact me! Muchas gracias 🙂
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Organic GABA Tea
Posted: July 30, 2013 Filed under: Melbourne, Tea, Uncategorized | Tags: GABA tea, health, health benefit of GABA tea, organic GABA tea, tea blog, tea blogger, tea review Leave a commentWhen the first time I heard about “GABA” tea, I found it sounds like a Japanese cartoon character. Pardon me. Sometimes this tea is also called Gabaron. Gabaron is even more cartoon-like for me. Pardon me, once again. Well I know, that probably sounds weird but that was my first spontaneous visualization.
Organic GABA tea is now popular especially to those with health concerns and specific interest towards organic teas. The GABA-containing drinks made from GABA tea have recently become more popular drink among Asians health-conscious individuals. In some area, there are GABA supplements and even GABA drink for losing weight purpose!
What is GABA tea? GABA is an abbreviation of Gamma Amino Butyric Acid. Well, who loves Chemist here? Raise your hand! No, I am not raising my hand though.
Gamma Amino Butyric Acid is one of the main neurotransmitter for the Central Neuron System (CNS) and has important role for the endocrine system. GABA prevents over excitement of the nervous system. GABA tea has been made and researched in Japan for more than 20 years by exposing tea leaves to Nitrogen during the processing. Nitrogen infusing makes Oxygen out of the leaves and this makes it really different from the other tea processing. The process takes around 6 to 10 hours long.
The GABA could work effectively as a natural relaxant to induce relaxation and diminish anxiety, and its administration could enhance immunity under stress conditions (Abdou et al., 2006). As other organic teas, GABA tea contains rich antioxidants too.
Benefits of GABA. Talking about the benefits, I would say this tea is one of the healthiest choice ever.GABA is good for :
- circulatory system
- calming and relaxing your nerves
- health & beauty purpose
- increasing energy levels
- providing extra endurance
- supplying anti bacterial properties
- increasing sexual performance
To give you deeper idea of GABA tea’s health benefit, let me show you the comparison between GABA and green tea because it has always been perceived as one of the healthiest beverage.
- 100 grams GABA tea contains 240mg of GABA
- 100 grams green tea contains 6 mg of GABA which means 1 : 40
My coffee geek bf spared me some GABA tea that he purchased from Chamellia by Somage Fine Foods. The dry leaf is dark brown in rolled ball shape (it’s Oolong by the way). The tea smells fruity and sweet. I brewed this GABA tea in 100 degrees Celcius for 2 minutes.
The infused GABA leaves’ color changed into slight reddish brown. FYI, one of the thing that keeps me captivated and interested with Oolong is watching those small rolled tea balls releasing and voila, full size tea leaves rising in totally different shape, size and (sometimes) color!!! 
GABA tea tastes sweet and fruity with slight sourness. The loads of sweetness flavor remains long in the mouth.
This is highly subjective, but I feel good when consuming something with the full awareness of the product’s benefits. Even so, I can’t say I am a fan of GABA either. It’s sweet but not kind of sweetness that I like. However I will finish my GABA tea since it’s good for my health and my coffee geek bf has been so kind to spare some of his for me. Hahaha.
*PS: Mostly people use Oolong tea for GABA but now there are green and black GABA tea as well.
This post is made with credits to GABA tea Australia, Robyn Lee Tea, LWT Food Science and Technology Journal and Tea Entrepreneur and Enthusiast group on Linked In.
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Honeydew Green Tea from Silkenty
Posted: July 16, 2013 Filed under: Sweet Treat, Tea, Uncategorized | Tags: honeydew green tea, honeydew green tea silkenty, honeydew green tea silkenty review, silkenty tea review, tea, tea blog, tea blogger, tea review Leave a commentI love tracking down all my folders and checking out if I probably have a forgotten stuff in it. And well yes, my treasure hunting was fruitful this time since I did find something two days ago! It is a review about Honeydew Green tea from Silkenty. I got this tea as a gift from Singapore but actually Silkenty is a Srilankan tea company.
This tea is a mixture of Honeydew melon, apricot and gunpowder green tea that I consider as an interesting blend. The first thing that captured my attention of this Honeydew Green was because this is a gift and I love gift. Who doesn’t? Hahaha. Okay I’m joking.
The first attention grabbing aspect is the lovely tea tin with transparent lid. The tin is white with touch of jade green elements and honeydew melon hand-drawing print. Transparent lid makes it possible for me to peek inside and it’s not because I love peeking, really. I just love to know what is inside my tin. The second attention grabbing aspect was when I opening the tin and got to smell a refreshing yet pleasant honeydew melon aroma.
The tea’s aroma had made me expecting that this is going to be a terrific tea. BUT My hope faded a little bit after seeing the dry leaves. Gunpowder tea has a very thew characteristic where the leaves are rolled perfectly round so the shape becomes similar to black powder or gunpowder. Unfortunately the Honeydew green tea leaves are not rolled perfectly as how it is supposed to be and there are more loose leaves than rolled leaves plus stems too.
Apart from that, I love the sweet dried-melon chunks which tastes like dried-fruit confectionery. I brewed the tea with 95 degrees C hot water for 4 minutes and got a light yellowish tea liquor. Likewise the dry smell, the steeped tea also has a strong honeydew melon notes. This tea is not impressive as I expected before but still, I do enjoy its aroma, sweet bites and the refreshing taste with nuance of astringency.
foodandteatraveller 