Good times collective #10

We're in the 'racing towards the end of the year' portion of 2014 now, and already the diary is filling up with so many social and food events that before we know it, it'll be time for festive decorations with the jolly man in red.

But before then, there are birthdays (some 31sts, a 1st and an 80th!), hen's dos, weddings, festival season and some big ol' venue openings - better get ready for some good times.

Lamb ragu pasta at Cafe Sopra, Bridge Street, Sydney

When I stick to the tried and true favourites at Cafe Sopra, I'm never disappointed. The maccheroni with rich, tomato-ey lamb ragu - served as one of the set menu banquet items - is a winner; perhaps the closest to knocking off my favourite of the pasta with crushed peas, Italian sausage and pecorino cheese.

Grilled salmon brown rice bowl at Dragon Boy, World Square, Sydney

While the majority of cheap-eats-seekers at Dragon Boy in World Square are probably there for the udon noodles, which are cooked immediately in front of you and served canteen style with tempura and kakiage fried vegetable fritter options, I like exploring the non-udon options.

A donburi bowl of brown rice topped with several thin slices of aburi torched salmon, a few healthy-looking mixed leaves and a cherry tomato is about as guilt-free as it gets, disregarding the squiggles of obligatory mayonnaise and brown sauce.

Antipasti board at Le Pub, King Street, Sydney

In an underground space that was formerly a questionable Irish pub, Le Pub on King Street (also accessible from York Street) is now pretty bang-on for a city pub.

The Parisian-styled Aussie pub and bistro does mains sub-$30 and a great charcuterie board with rillettes, saucission sec and terrine - or whatever else the kitchen has whipped up in house - with remoulade, cornichons, pickled vegies and plenty enough bread which is such a rarity.

A variety of steamed dumplings at yum cha at Golden Unicorn Chinese Restaurant,
Maroubra Road, Maroubra

I rarely crave yum cha these days. Perhaps it's to do with the fact that I always overeat at yum cha and feel ick afterwards, or that I can't stand waiting for a table.

Golden Unicorn Chinese Restaurant sort of has the south Sydney yum cha market cornered (for now) with its weekend queues forming down a flight of stairs onto Maroubra Road.

For a suburban yum cha outlet, Golden Unicorn definitely delivers with some steamed dumpling options even the Chinatown restaurants don't have. The smaller room and waitress rounds also means the food tends to be hotter and fresher.

Fish burger from Rockpool Bar & Grill, Bridge Street, Sydney

Ahead of Neil Perry's Burger Project opening in World Square, I could almost lay claim to having had one of his takeaway burgers already.

This crumbed fish burger from Rockpool Bar & Grill was ordered with the intention of eating it at the bar - until work beckoned. So, with a bit of foil and a carry bag, this desk lunch of crumbed flathead fillets with an iceberg lettuce leaf in that classic Rockpool burger bun was, and still is, hard to beat.

Sambal sting ray from Sinma Laksa House, Anzac Parade, Kingsford

I think I had sambal stingray at almost every hawker centre we visited in Malaysia. It's not all that common back home here, but it is available at Sinma Laksa House.

Smothered in spicy sambal sauce, a ray wing is grilled to a brown burnish and served simply with more chilli sauce. The stingray texture is like that of most flat fish: soft and smooth with easily manageable bones, while the sambal and chilli provide all the flavour and heat that's needed.

Here's to this awesome end of the year and plenty more good times yet.





 

A sweet new fitout at Sugarcane

With age comes wisdom, experience and, especially if you like a drink, a few signs of wear and tear. If only I could undergo a sweet new fitout like Surry Hills' Sugarcane, which has had a facelift and the nip & tuck from its simple, bare basics look for the past five years or so.

New wall mural and fitout at Sugarcane, Reservoir Street, Surry Hills
(Image courtesy of The Cru Media)

The new look is brighter, and more lively and inviting than previously, with hints of Thailand and Asian marketplaces quite fitting with the pan-Asian menu of chef and owner Milan Strbac (ex Longrain). Indeed, the loud chatter of happy diners suits the new fitout much better than its muted former look.

So approachable and welcoming is the new look that Strbac is seeing more walk-in customers than ever into the petite restaurant. Former customers shouldn't fret - most of Sugarcane's signature dishes remain on the menu with a bigger, better focus on the wine and cocktail list.

Prawn, rice cake, caramelised sugarcane

I remember the Thai-influenced prawn-topped puffed rice cakes from several previous visits, and they were as delightful as ever.

Best eaten in the one mouthful, this moreish appetiser of a whole prawn, shredded betel leaves, fried shallots, chilli and a caramelised sugarcane dressing atop a crisp rice cake was a table-silencer - at least for the time it took to scoff the mouthful and wish aloud for another.

Salt and pepper squid, yellowbean and soy dressing

To another signature - and classic Sydney - dish from the 'Small' part of the menu, Sugarcane's salt and pepper squid was impeccably tender in a light and pale batter with plenty of seasoning on the surface.

The squid was served with a yellow bean and soy sauce dressing which I found a tad salty with the already well-seasoned squid.

Coleslaw, crispy pork

Next was an Asian style cabbage coleslaw full of carrot, chilli, coriander and other healthy ingredients, and the rather concealed addition of not so healthy cubes of crisp fried, golden pork belly.

While each component was great and the vegetables were much needed in light of the pork, this probably could have been a standalone salad without the meat while the pork belly could make for a star dish of its own.

Crispy chicken, blood plum

From the 'Substantial' part of the menu came the crowd-pleasing boneless crispy chicken, battered then drenched in a sweet plum sauce and garnished with a wealth of fresh and fried shallots.

Served with a squeeze of lemon, this could well be the modernised and improved version of the classic Aussie-Cantonese dish of sweet and sour pork.

Braised eggplant, mustard greens

The deep fried then braised cubes of eggplant from the vegetables section of the menu had a very pan-Asian feel about it, topped with slices of cucumber, chilli and coriander, sitting in a pool of its braising juices which were great with steamed rice.

Massaman curry of duck

Rice was also partnered with the impressive serve of duck massaman curry, served with chunks of potato and plenty of mild curry sauce. The duck took on plenty of the spice flavours and fell from the bone easily, making for quite the filling dish with rice soaking up the sauce.

Banana roti, condensed milk ice-cream

We made room for shared desserts though, with the deliciously clever roti flat bread, topped with ripe, mushy banana, a silky condensed milk ice cream, caramel sauce and coconut cream. It was a fabulous combination of classic flavours and textures that came together extraordinarily well.

'Corn Flakes', coconut mousse, aloe vera

The other very modern-looking dessert we had featured a white orb of coconut mousse atop a contrasting crumble of corn flakes, sesame seeds and other crunchy bits, beneath which hid a subtly sweet aloe vera jelly. Intriguingly different, it took a little more time to understand and enjoy than the banana roti.

Sweets scoffed and the sweet fitout admired and appreciated, the older, wiser and renewed Sugarcane leaves you with a sticky feeling - one that you want to come back to again and again.

Food, Booze & Shoes dined at Sugarcane as a guest, with thanks to The Cru Media.

Ipoh on York - street eats

Malaysian cuisine has taken off somewhat in Sydney, although not to the extent of Thai restaurants in the past decade or Mexican joints in the past two years.

But it does mean that quick and easy mamak style (Indian Malay) street eats are now readily available in town - none more convenient for the CBD's rat racers than Ipoh on York.

Chicken satay at Ipoh on York, York Street, Sydney

In a spacious, underground location (a few doors down from new small bar The Barber Shop), Ipoh on York looks a little like a fast food chain at first glance. Brightly lit menu boards and cash registers greet diners coming down the stairs, but then so do the Malaysian/Singaporean accents of the staff.

It's all too easy to pick out the mamak favourites from the menu, pay, sit in the extensive dining area and await the delivery of your selected Malaysian dishes.

Four sticks of satay arrived in a serve of the chicken variety, smothered in a nutty, creamy satay sauce with just not much of a spice kick. Raw chunks of cucumber and Spanish onion complete the satay appetiser, which is easily lovable and hard to get wrong.

Roti canai with plain curry

The plain roti canai is my favourite style of the fluffy, grilled flat bread and it's not too bad at Ipoh on York. Not quite as thin and delicately layered as that of Mamak, the roti still has great chew and texture for mopping up the accompanying bowl of spicy curry sauce.

Hainan chicken rice

It's hard, if not impossible, to go past Hainan chicken rice when it's on offer. My favourite part of the dish is actually the chicken stock flavoured rice, which is seriously decent at Ipoh on York with a definitive ginger aroma.

The gently poached and chopped chicken was typically lukewarm and smooth in texture, served with traditional condiments of pickled green chillies, ginger and shallot sauce and fresh coriander, with sliced cucumber on the side. Meanwhile, the bowl of chicken broth was a little on the salty side but included some greens.

Wonton mee soup

Least impressive of our order was the wonton and noodle soup, where the wonton dumpling wrappers were about as soggy as could be. Probably cooked at an earlier stage and reheated for serving, the wonton were at least tastily filled, with a fair bit of greenery in the bowl atop the still al dente noodles.

A relatively cheap feed in the Sydney CBD - that's Malaysian street eats for you.

Singapore slinging - part 5: Newton Food Centre

This is the final post on my Singapore trip of late last year. After days of feasts of celebration, chilli crab, fine dining and more, as part of a large group we made a beeline to a locals' favourite outdoor food centre in the Newton area.

Newton Food Centre, also known as Newton Circus, offers extensive under cover seating and row upon row of hawker stalls, all plying their specialty fare.

Food stalls at Newton Food Centre, Newton, Singapore

It was a relatively cool, rainy night which may have deterred the usual crowds so we had no trouble finding a table for our large group and subsequently cover it with impossible amounts of food.

Food centres in Singapore tend to be filled with hawker-style stalls that specialise in a particular type of cuisine, much of it Singaporean and/or Malaysian.

Cage of crabs on display

As per Malaysian hawker stalls, you order food at a stall - or indeed, a number of stalls - then give them your table number (which you should 'bags' or reserve first before wandering off to order food), wait for the food to be delivered to you at which point you pay for it (cash only). It's not exactly a logical system to the Westernised diner but it seems to work quite seamlessly.

We had three separate groups disperse to make food orders and on return, it appeared double orders and eyes bigger than stomachs had completely filled our table with plastic plates of food - I'm not sure I've ever seen so much food outside of a buffet, and certainly not all on plastic plates.

Cockles

There was a rush on the cockles when they arrived, simply boiled and served with a kumquat or kalamansi lime like citrus fruit.

This is definitely hands-on food, with a trick to opening the quite pretty, small, textured shells: give the hinge-end of the shells a squeeze, pinched between two fingers. The shells seem to magically spring open, and the sea-sweet, just chewy cockle meat can be picked out easily with a toothpick.

Deep fried baby squid

I'd never seen baby squid before, let alone baby squid deep fried to a crunch and covered in a caramelly sweet sauce. Their crispness gave them an air of snack food crisps and they were downright delightful and odd.

Oyster omelette

There's something mysterious about the oyster omelette; quite possibly in relation to the source of the oysters. Freezer, jar or shell, it doesn't matter all that much as it's about the texture within the golden cooked egg which covers most of the soft, squishy molluscs, while the tart, spicy sauce is the dominant flavour.

Char kway kak - radish cake

Also cooked with egg was the char kway kak radish cake dish: wok fried and diced pieces tossed to a near scrappy but deliciously moreish pile.

Grilled chicken wings

Simply but perfectly executed were the grilled chicken wings: sticky and tanned brown on the outside - easily making the skin the best part - with meat full of spiced, marinated flavour.

Rojak

We thought we'd add a rojak fruit and vegetable salad to up the nutrient count of the meal, and did it ever in a huge serving size.

Apple, cucumber, pineapple and fried tofu all came slathered thick in dark, sweet sauce pungent with belacan shrimp paste and a hint of chilli, garnished with thin, dried squid or cuttlefish ribbons.

Hokkien mee

The plainest dish on the table of almost 20 plates was easily the Hokkien mee: soft Hokkien noodles in a simple sauce flavoured with soy, tossed with bean sprouts and a couple of prawns, and with a fiery sambal chilli on the side. This was pure comfort after quite the evening's gorging on big flavours and exotic food.

But while Singapore does have the exotic, it's the simple stuff that's most pleasing and the source of most cravings. Fine dining would struggle to challenge a good Hainan chicken rice in satisfaction and comfort, but Singapore certainly makes the best of both worlds.

So long, Singapore, I look forward to returning for the cheap-as-chips chicken rice, balmy nights on rooftop bars, more chilli crab and a Singapore Sling.

Singapore slinging - part 1: Sentosa and more

I swung over to Singapore for a few days in December - my first visit to the tiny country renowned for its humidity and food. I wasn't let down on either count.

Outside Universal Studios, Resorts World, Sentosa, Singapore

For the first couple of nights we stayed at the luxurious Equarius Resort as part of Sentosa's somewhat touristy Resorts World. The hotel room was honestly the biggest, most spacious I've ever stayed in, rivalling the size of some Sydney apartments.

Resorts World is basically a collection of hotels and other tourist sites on the man-made Sentosa Island, with the beach and casino proving major drawcards. There's also a Universal Studios theme park and apparently, one of the world's biggest candy stores, Candylicious, where there are plenty of US M&Ms and Reese's products for sale.

Candylicious shop at Resorts World, Sentosa, Singapore

Roti canai from Malaysia Food Street, Resorts World, Sentosa, Singapore

Seeking food one evening in Sentosa proved a little limited. A few uninteresting stores near the casino opened till late in the evening but time and time again, we were pointed to Malaysia Food Street; a rather contrived food court decorated in old Malaysian street style - without the Malaysian prices.

There were a bunch of stalls each dedicated to one type of Malaysian and mamak style food. The roti stall offered a generous serve of the freshly made and cooked flat bread with a curry dhal for dipping.

Chicken and Malacca chicken rice balls from Malaysia Food Street,
Resorts World, Sentosa, Singapore

The Hainan chicken stall offered its yellow-skinned chickens in various serving sizes with chicken rice balls: rice flavoured with ginger and fat from the chicken cooking process, formed into tight balls, and famous in Malacca in Malaysia's south, near Muar.

The chicken rice balls were straight up terrible with the overcooked rice closer to congee than rice. The half chicken was some consolation with its smooth skin and tender flesh while citrus notes added an unexpected twist to the soy based sauce.

Takeaway herbal drink at Albert Centre Market and Foodcourt, Singapore

Getting out of Sentosa, finding some decent food courts was a priority, even though we'd heard the famous Maxwell Foodcourt was closed for renovations.

We stumbled upon the Albert Centre Foodcourt one busy lunchtime and walked around in wonder at the number of stalls and the very reasonable prices all round. Certain stalls had long queues of hungry workers while others busied themselves with food preparation.

Chicken rice shop at Albert Centre Market and Foodcourt, Singapore

I think my stomach smiled when we spotted the Hainan chicken rice stall that had an impressive display of hanging chicken carcasses with only heads, back bones and tail ends - now that's cutting a chicken.

Things got better when we handed over S$2.50 in return for a small plate of chicken, doused in a soy sauce, a mound of chicken rice and a bowl of clear chicken broth with shallots.

Hainan chicken rice at Albert Centre Market and Foodcourt, Singapore

We helped ourselves to chilli sauce then found bench seating amid the scoffing, slurping locals and joined in the scoffing.

The chicken was so tender it may well have been a baby chicken; the rice was so perfectly balanced with ginger and subtle chicken flavours I could have gone another two bowls of it on its own; while the soup was sweet and fortifying with chicken goodness.

Sad as I was that I only got to eat as Albert Centre Foodcourt once, I was sure glad the Hainan chicken rice was such a satisfying, and cheap, choice.

Chinatown, Singapore

Little India, Singapore

Street side ice cream vendor, Singapore

The constant humidity in Singapore must mean good trade for the city's streetside ice cream vendors, who sell a range of flavours under the Wall's label from elaborate carts on footpaths all over town.

Customers have a choice of having the slabs of hard-frozen ice cream between two thin wafer crisps, or sandwiched within a large slice of soft, fluffy, sweet, tri-colour swirled bread (white, pink and green if you were wondering).

Street side ice cream vendor, Singapore

They're obviously designed to be eaten on the go through the hot, sticky weather and they do wonders for cooling off after a heavy shopping session or some particularly spicy Singapore chilli crab.

More to come from Singapore including chilli crab, food centres, fine dining and cocktails.

CKT and satay at Sinma Laksa House

I'm not averse to bits of crunchy fried pork fat for in the morning, meaning I'm not going to decline Malaysian char kway teo for breakfast, especially after a seedy night out.

Sinma Laksa House sits at the famous big roundabout in Kingsford; a Malaysian restaurant far enough away from the university to be not jam packed with hungry students, but customed by a value-seeking crowd nevertheless.

Prawn crackers from Sinma Laksa House, Anzac Parade, Kingsfoed

The casual eatery, away from most of the Kingsford hustle and bustle, offers bain marie lunch options, lots cooked to order and for special, luxurious meals there's an impressive selection of dishes featuring fresh mud crabs.

We ordered meals at the counter and snacked on pink prawn crackers, for which I think I'll be forever nostalgic about.

Penang char kway teo - fried rice noodles

I adore the char kway teo at Sinma Laksa House, although sadly it wasn't at its usual high standard on this day. Missing was a bit heavier seasoning and stronger wok smokiness, but at least there were the fried pork fat nubbins.

Treasure hunting for the porky bits are about the best thing ever, amid the wide rice noodles, prawns, fish cake, tiny mussels, lap cheung Chinese sausage and bean sprouts.

Char kway kak - fried radish cake 

The char kway kak fried radish cake has very similar seasoning to the char kway teo, if not the same. But instead of rice noodles, this dish wok fries cubes of steamed white radish cake; an apparently laborious dish to make.

The somewhat floury radish cake makes for a very filling dish that's quite nice the next day with lots of chilli sauce.

Chicken satay

The juicy chicken thigh meat of Sinma's chicken satay is an absolute treat; drowned in a sweet, peanut-ty sauce.

The Spanish onion and cucumber on the side, however, looked like they were prepared many, many days ago, while the lontong compressed rice cubes work well to clean up the remaining satay sauce.

Despite the driving school advertisements under the plastic tabletop sheeting and despite an off day for the char kway teo, it's still one of my nearby favourites for CKT and satay.