Sydney Fish Market

I've been wanting to come here ever since I found out there was such a place...except it was in Sydney. And when I found out we were going there when we were in Sydney I was pretty excited. I was actually quite willing to walk from Darling Harbour all the way there, before you go "it's not even that far...." it was December 30th and SUNNY AS *beep* at 12pm. My only escape was to walk in the shadow of the monorail track.
So when we arrived it was extremely PACKED and after a walk around I was quite disappointed as I had always thought it was a HUMONGOUS place but in actual fact there is only a few fishmongers there. However I was still overjoyed at the sight of all the seafood in particular the variety and amazed at the oyster shuckers. As retarded as this probably sounds I actually would like to shuck oysters as a part time job.

A dozen of oysters

Not exactly the cheapest oysters around but they are pretty fresh and good. Very creamy, not super strong in the oyster richness but what I liked most was that there wasn't that metallic taste. Oh so fresh =] 

Except I don't get why they don't have like a mixed dozen which has all the different types of oysters on one tray...I mean if I was just one person I can't afford and handle eating 3 dozens oysters just to try out different ones. 

One of the seafood platters, around $50

Yeah.....probably wouldn't order this again...nothing was above alright on the entire platter.

Sashimi salmon, tuna, kingfish,

Not cheap but somewhat fresh. I'm pretty sure the people who slice up the fish aren't sashimi chefs and they cut it really thin which I guess gives less bite and texture =[ Tuna was disappointing. We also got some sea urchin, I'm still not a fan of it, tastes a little bit like the sea and is super creamy. Why do people pay so much for it?

Verdict? They need a fish market like this in Melbourne!! Except next time I will probably get a dozen of oysters and some sashimi and just enjoy it slowly. Oh and I'd avoid lunch hour for sure.

Eating Out: Wild Fish [40 Wharf Street Port Albert VIC 3971]

Right next door to the fish and chip shop is a restaurant. Reviews said the food there was amazing. However after eating there I found it good-great but not amazing.

Bread-warm and soft except a tiny part in the middle wasn't cooked. 

 Pan Fried Kingfish with Tempura Potato Cakes on Stir Fried Julienne Vegetables $29

I don't exactly remember the exact name but it was somewhere along the lines of this. This was the chef's special. The kingfish was crispy and fresh and a lot larger than what I expected. The potato cakes were just potato cakes of a higher quality than usual. Also unexpected was the amount of vegies, a kid's worse nightmare, but they were evenly julienned with a slightly sweet sauce which went well with the salty fish. The tartare sauce helped the somewhat dry fish and potato cakes. I think a wedge of lemon would have really lifted the dish and made it less rich and filling as it was quite oily.

 Snapper Fillet with Chermoula $27ish

The size of the fillet was a little disappointing. Dad was filled up by chips. 

Flake and Scallop Pie $26ish

Probably the most expensive pie I've ever tasted. It was a little larger than usual but didn't look too appealing. Inside it was filled with fish and scallops and my brother was pretty full afterwards. 

Linguini marinara with prawns, scallops, mussels & whitefish $27ish

A lot like the one I had at Berth at Docklands. Mum really enjoyed her dinner and was very full from the pasta.

Food: 8/10 Fresh seafood but of course there is always room for improvement. Especially the non seafood elements.

Service/Environment: 9.5/10 Although the decor is a little simple but the view is amazing, especially the sunset. The service was very impressive.

Value: 8.5/10 I have to say considering the freshness of the seafood it is good value for money. Under $30 for a main is already on the cheaper side of fine dining and we're talking seafood main courses so very good value.

Verdict? Considering the location of this place I highly doubt I will be returning in the near future. It is worth a visit if you're somewhat within the area.

This place isn't on urbanspoon yet. It definitely should be.

Eating Out: Berth Restaurant and Bar [45 New Quay Prom Docklands, 3008]

Came here for a friend's party. It's a nice place by the sea/dock.

 Spaghetti Marinara $22

I was glad to see proper seafood and not that frozen marinara mix. I think the three prawns were the best as they were massive and full of flavour. The fish chunks were a little fishy and the some of the salmon was raw in the middle. The mussels were undercooked I think as it was quite slimy and raw/fishy. The pasta al dente but unfortunately drowned in oil. The garlic was there and not overpowering which was nice but the best part of the dish was it was served piping hot. The pasta almost burnt my mouth.

Fish and Chips $20

 Steak Sandwich $16 + $3 for chips

Chicken Parma $19

Food: 8/10 Fresher ingredients would have helped but no complaints either. Presentation could be improved if you want to be nit picky. 

Service/Environment: 9/10 Great service. Our 20 meals came out quick and relatively together. Overlooking the water.

Value: 8/10 Reasonably priced for some decent food.

Verdict? I guess I would come back but the entire broadwalk is lined with restaurants. I wouldn't mind trying a few others as well.

Cooking: Tomato Seafood Marinara Spaghetti

Another dead simple recipe, very quick and tasty. Came home late and managed to make this in about 30 mins (From finding ingredients, peeling them, chopping them and cooking them and doing it slowly) with a bit of help from my bro. By the way, my bro cannot cook, if he had to live by himself he'd live off instant noodles, toast and fried eggs. Taught him how to cook pasta...or maybe the packet did.
Parents went out for dinner with family friends which let bro and I at home to make our own dinner.

Serves 2
Ingredients: 1 onion diced. 2-4 cloves of garlic. 1 carrot diced. 500g seafood marinara mix. Half a big (750ml) bottle of tomato passata (tomato puree. I don't ever buy those bottled pre made pasta sauces anymore, biggest rip off ever, and it takes the same amount of time to make your own). 250g spaghetti.

Method: Prep all the vegies. Cook pasta. In a separate pan, saute onions, galic and carrot for a few minutes until onions are translucent-ish. Add in seafood and cook for 2 mins. Add in tomato passata and season to taste (you can add in a few tbsp of tomato paste if you want it to be richer and add some chilli or dried oregano to you're liking). Simmer until pasta is done. Drain pasta and add into the sauce, toss until coated and serve.

I know it doesn't look the prettiest but taste pretty good. Especially when eaten on the couch whilst watching Jamie Oliver talk about junk food.

Eating Out: China Bar Signature Asian Buffet-Burwood East

I don't think many people have reviewed this place yet. It's relatively new, on the corner of Springvale Rd and Burwood Hwy. At $55 a head for dinner on a Fri-Sun and Public Holidays, it's not exactly the cheapest buffet around. Also if you go on Fri-Sun + PH, there are two sessions, 6-8pm and 8-10pm. 2 hours actually isn't a lot of time to eat everything you want.

Last experience with buffet was in CHINA. Biggest buffet I've ever been to, it was bigger than two basketball courts, just MASSIVE. Tonnes and tonnes of food, downside, you have to line up for a lot of things, and therefore you waste your 2 hours. It was the first buffet I went to where I left still hungry.

So we decided to utilise our 2 hours by arriving before 6 (like everyone else that night =.="). It was very nice and clean, LOTS of variety, and all the food was pretty decent. I guess you get what you pay for. Didn't take a picture of seconds and the desserts I shared with doug. Best idea for buffet, share desserts so you can try them all =)

Of course start with seafood =)

Oysters: Average, very bland but they did provide tabasco in this massive bottle. But then again it's not a month that ends in ER for those who know what I'm talking about. (ended up eating 8 for the whole night. Couldn't beat doug, he won with 12)

Smoked Salmon: Very nice, rich oily flavour. 

Peeled prawn: Surprisingly good as it had prawn flavour/sweetness.

Unpeeled prawn: Very firm texture, prawn flavour was about the same as the peeled one. Doug said "Better to eat the peeled ones as it saves time and tastes the same."

Mussel: No taste whatsoever, very watery for some reason.

Crab: I don't like eating crab cos it's such a pain, but my dad loved his crab I think.

Fell in love with the sashimi chef guy, I'm pretty sure he's not jap but he can slice like a master, and he looks bad boy XD unfortunately i have a thing for bad boys.

Salmon: Good rich flavour

White fish: No idea what fish this was, but it was seared on the outside. Too bad the fish didn't have any flavour.

Salmon Sushi: Skip this one, wasn't the best.

Salmon Roll: Both were very good.

Hot and Sour Soup: Sorry about it being so blurry, but it came in a little personal clay pot. I was quite surprised at how good it actually was, good balance between spiciness and sourness.

Peking Duck: Yes, eat all you want. The peking duck here isn't bad, the pastry is very thin and it's freshly made. Only downside is the duck wasn't exceptional, but acceptable. Ended up eating 3 =)

Chinese Roast Meats

Roast Pork: Pretty average, thick layer of fat and the skin wasn't super crispy.

Roast Duck: Huge let down, didn't taste very nice, no crispy skin =(

Hainanese Chicken: Alright i guess, comes with all the usual sauces. Could have been better.

Spicy Chicken: Not sure what it was, but it was garlicky and slightly chilli. Tasted pretty nice, good appetiser. 

Xo Chilli Mussel: Still tasteless, mussels just weren't good that night,
Baked Scallop: Flavour crash, the topping was like the Honkie Pineapple Bun topping (sweet) and it just didn't go well with the scallop.
Satay Chicken: Tasted a bit weird to me, definitely better satay chicken out there,
Curry Chicken: I only tried one of the curries on offer, not a bad curry chicken, prefer the curry chicken at Yum Cha Inn though.
Roti: Hoping it would be better than it was, but it was good enough to mop up all the curry sauce.

Chocolate Wonton: Interesting idea. Bite into it and there's all this melted chocolate. To my disappointment it was dark chocolate (WHITE CHOCO FTW)
Mango Mousse: OMG I wish I could have taken this home. It was sooooooo nice, creamy but light with a hint of mango flavour. Only problem, the spoon barely fitted into the cup. Even funnier, Doug tried the white wine jelly and the spoon was too big for the wine glass, so he had to use his knife to get the jelly out. They need to provide dessert spoons here.
White Chocolate Mousse: Almost as good as the mango mousse, I felt it was just a tad too rich after so much food. The chocolate decoration was very pretty though.
Chocolate Muffin: A chocolate muffin is a chocolate muffin.

Jelly: Orange jelly...can't go wrong
Guava Mousse: Weird taste, slight hint of guava but just weird.
Creme Brulee: This should be renamed, custard with black speckles on top.
Cheesecake: Did not taste like cheese cake, more like custard tart...

I was very SAD to find out they didn't have any durian icypoles like Wezblob said there was. I was looking forward to finishing the night with one. So instead i chose the melon icypole which was alright.

Verdict? Pretty good food considering it was a buffet. However at $55 a head, I'm not sure whether it's justified. 


Food: 7/10
Service: 8/10 Dishes were whisked away very quickly.
Environment: Very comfortable and clean.
Would I visit again: Only if it was a special occasion or if I wasn't paying...I just don't have that kind of money to burn

Seafood Pie - Cooking

Friday night means no rice night. My parent being very asian have to eat rice every night, except for friday and saturday nights :) I normally cook dinner on Friday nights with the help of mum to make sure I don't burn the kitchen down and so that dinner is served before 12am XD

 I decided to make seafood pie. Got the idea from watching The Naked Chef (Jamie Oliver was so good from the very start). And mum wanted to get the marinara mix from Safeway as it was like half price or something (how asian right?) I'm not a fan of the marinara mixes from supermarkets as they're frozen and you're buying a whole lot of ice with your seafood. And the seafood lacks flavour. But it was HALF PRICE.

The sauce didn't thicken like I hoped it would and the cream and cheese made it super rich and filling.

This whole pie for 3 people. Obviously we didn't finish it and some of it ended up as my breakfast the next morning, then the filling of the pie was used to make a sauce for pasta for lunch and I finished the rest of the pie for dinner again. So 4 consecutive meals of seafood pie. The taste just got better and better.

New Years Day-Claypot Rice, Yau Ma Tei

One of the last things on my list was claypot rice, looked online for a good place and found Four Season Claypot Rice in Yau Ma Tei. Went there at 7 ish, and the line was masssivee. Around 20 metres long but we decided to line up anyway even though you had to line up on the road. An hour later we finally got a table.

Beef Claypot Rice: I know it's a bad photo, had to be super quick as there was a massive line of people waiting for a table outside. So pretty much its beef on rice that has been cooked over a fire, it comes with an uncracked egg which u crack in and mix into the hot rice to cook it. Yummy!


Chicken Claypot Rice: I have to say this was pretty average, nothing special about it. I'm pretty sure there is better claypot rice in HK. I remember having awesome claypot rice in WanChai about 4 years ago, but they aren't allowed to cook their rice outside the shop as it was dangerous for pedestrians passing by.


Preserved Meat Claypot? All these claypots didn't have English names so I just make them up. So pretty much its just rice with Chinese Sausage, Liver Sausage and Preserved Meat? Also extremely average...

And then came the best oyster omelette EVER. I know it looks a bit weird but it was SOOOO YUUMM. Lots of little oysters that were packed with flavour in a duck egg batter with spring onions. Sure it was greasy but for some reason it was sooo nice fore some reason, I think it's because it's super freshly made with good ingredients. Very different to the usual oyster omelettes at Chinese Restaurants here.

The restaurant didn't sell drink so you have to go down the street to a little shop that sells drinks. The soft drinks come in bottles, every time my parents see them they talk about how when they were my age it was like that too. So after drinking my favourite soft drink, cream soda, we returned to the little drink store to RETURN the bottle and 2 bucks back :)

Verdict? The one hour wait was worth it...for the oyster omelette :) And good value, just over $100 for dinner for a pot of soup with homemade fishballs, 3 claypot rices, a dish of vegies and 2 serves (4 pieces) of oyster omelette. All that for $15ish aussie for 4 people :)

Market Dinner-Aberdeen Market 2nd floor

I think I can honestly say that this was probably one of the best meals I've had since I came to HK. And guess where it was? On top of Aberdeen Market. Honkie markets are very different to Melb Markets. It's a whole lot dirtier, wetter, more cramped, smellier and gross-er? One section is fruits and veg, this section isn't too bad. But once you walk into the meat section it's pretty disgusting, they don't pack the meat like the butchers do in Melb. All the meat is just hanging off hooks all around the shop, including pigs heads, trotters, every part of the animal. No fridge whatsoever. Seafood side smells and is wet and slimy. Live fish flapping around for customers to see. All types of seafood. Watching live fish get cut up, live eel cut up into three parts and all parts are still moving.
And this is the type of place where you can get the best dinner.

Starter: Blanched Prawns. DELICIOUS. They were extremely fresh and juicy. The meat was firm and full of prawn flavour. Dipped in a bit of chilli soya sauce and it was beautiful. Simplicity wins (as long as it's fresh).

Razor Clams: First time eating razor clams I think. They were stir fried in a black bean sauce. Tastes just like pipi/clam, just a lot more meat. Unfortunately you can get razor clams in Aus so have to make the most of it when you can get it. 

 Oysters: Deep Fried Oysters. I thought the batter would be thick but it wasn't, the oyster was just massive. The oysters were just cooked through but still was extremely plump. The oyster flavour wasn't very strong which was good as it can be extremely overpowering sometimes.

Fish: I have to say that I didn't particularly like this fish, it tasted very different to what I'm used to. It was wild fish from the sea and tasted very weird. I can't exactly describe the taste.

Chlli Whelks: First time eating whelk out of its shell that I know of. It didn't really taste like anything just chewy. The sauce was very chilli and covered the flavour of everything, not that whelks really have much flavour.

Also had a couple of other dishes but didn't get to take a pic of them. Garlic Chicken, Lamb Hotpot.

All in all, a very good meal. Lots of new experiences. It was nice to try new things, although I didn't really like many of them. But you should always try something at least 5 times to really see if you like it or not. 

Cooking: Spaghetti Marinara

Halfway through exams right now so really I should be studying.
Today I decided to cook creamy spaghetti marinara as the marinara mix at Safeway was almost half price. Took about 20-30 mins from start to finish.
Ingredients: Spaghetti, Marinara Mix, Cream, Onion, Garlic, White Wine

Tasted okay, wasn't exactly salty enough and the seafood lacked flavour. But the pasta sauce was really thick and creamy just how I like it. I think that's the way pasta sauces should be, especially cream sauces, just thick enough to coat the pasta. Unfortunately my family likes to drown their pasta in sauce, to the point where it is pasta sauce soup. I think a hint of chilli will make it that little bit better, next time I guess.