Happy Year of the Rabbit

Gong hei fat choy! Today is the first day of the lunar new year – this year represented by the rabbit (for those born in 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963, 1951, 1939, 1921 and so on – this is your year).

Last weekend's Chinese New Year markets

I’m not big on zodiac so I don’t know what the year will bring (go the Rabbitohs?!) but I know that Chinese New Year is a time for being with family and loved ones, sharing good wishes for health, prosperity and happiness – and lots and lots of food. Oh, and the occasional lucky red packet if you’re unmarried (and realistically - sadly - under the age of 25).

Lion dancers at World Square, George Street, Sydney

On food, Chinatown is the obvious place to hit at this time, though be aware of the crowds that are likely to descend on the area to check out the traditional lion and dragon dances through the streets, deafening firecrackers to ward off evil and bad luck, and generally revel in this festive time. (SMH also has a list of regional Chinese eats here, many outside of the Chinatown area too).

Jin Wu Koon lion dance troupe at World Square, George St, Sydney

There’s a week-long food festival of sorts at World Square that started yesterday, officially opened with a traditional lion dance by award-winning troupe, Jin Wu Koon. Well, the stilt jumping bit was maybe not so traditional, but very impressive nonetheless.

Lion taking lettuce and lucky red packets

Samples from Chatime, World Square

Ongoing till 11 February will be samples from some of the eateries in World Square. I scored a sample of premium pearl milk tea from Chatime yesterday, which was cool and refreshing in the heat (Taste of Shanghai and Din Tai Fung are also sampling – check out the schedule here).

Lion dancers inside Din Tai Fung, World Square

Lion dancers and bemused diners at Din Tai Fung

Lunch at Din Tai Fung was also a perfect start to the new year’s celebrations, especially as dumplings are revered as lucky foods for their resemblance to olden forms of Chinese currency. Post to come, courtesy of PPR, World Square and Din Tai Fung.

Prior years' Twilight Parade participants

Then there’s the City of Sydney’s pièce de résistance – the Chinese New Year Twilight Parade on Sunday evening (6 February), from Town Hall to Chinatown, passing by World Square on George Street.

Ready for lion dancing?

We will be sure to see many bunnies and lions during the parade, but excitingly, one-third of the parade will consist of performers from Hubei, China. See full details here – and see you at the parade, ‘wascally wabbits’.

Marching to the beat of your own

Farewells tend to be bittersweet occasions – the departing can be going home or to some exciting venture, while those left behind are left behind. But life being what it is, you’d have to be silly to not go out and try things, and take a few measured risks here and there – especially that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, however freaky it seems. Never mind the naysayers and niggling doubts at the back of the mind – it’s your life to live.

The menu at Different Drummer, Glebe Point Road, Glebe

A farewell for a Glebe local was fittingly held at a local Glebe establishment, with a happy hour-and-a-half to console those being left behind. Different Drummer is rather well known for its generous happy hour, with plenty of people there in time to take full advantage of it.

There’s an upstairs which was closed off for a hen’s night, a spacious back section which was reserved for a couple of private functions; leaving the front bar which was fully populated, and a narrow-ish corridor with three tables that led into the back section. We crammed our group onto one small table, scooting in when people needed to pass through us and the group standing in the walkway.

Cocktails at the red lit bar

It’s a small, moody place lit in red hues with underground tones, and generally loud and lively with a packed crowd of stylish, mostly twenty- and thirty-somethings. The liveliest section was no doubt the bar, particularly about 20 minutes before the end of happy hour. The hatted bar staff were plentiful although they seemed to have rather consistent three-deep queues nonetheless – perhaps due to the extensive cocktail list and the 90 minutes worth of two-for-ones.

Poolside Punch No. 4 cocktail

I start on the light sounding Frapple – vodka, Frangelico, apple and lemon juices – although the Frangelico was noticeably absent. A martini glass of apple juice later, it was later found in the Poolside Punch No.4 – white rum, Frangelico, mango juice and fruit garnishes – although both cocktails lacked a real ‘yum’ factor.

A glance at the time and it’s amazing how quickly 60 minutes passes by in the company of good friends, chatter and two-for-one cocktails. We’re down to our last 30 minutes (including wait at the bar) of happy hour, and the scrum at the bar starts to get slightly frantic. I hear cries of “20 mojitos”, but think our little group of five didn’t do all too badly as the minutes ticked down to 7.30pm.

Happy hour madness

Ferrying drinks back to our corridor table wasn’t too difficult, but talking and manoeuvring around a table of ten cocktails wasn’t the easiest feat, let alone clinking glasses above them all.

The Bloody Mary proves a winner, especially for the Bloody Mary virgins as the savoury combination of tomato juice, Tabasco sauce and pepper stand out from the general sweetness of the other drinks. The Moscow mule is light on ginger and lime flavour; the Ginger and Apple Cooler better for flavour and much like a soft drink; the Passionfruit Collins a girly favourite and the Caipirinha – untasted by me, actually.

Suffice to say, the drinks sustained us for a while longer, until the munchies kicked in. Luckily we’re rather prepared, as Different Drummer is both a cocktail and tapas bar. We elected the ‘Large Tapas Selection’ which offers a choice of six dishes from the tapas menu for $60.

Crumbed camembert, flash fried, served with water crackers and cranberry

The crumbed camembert is an automatic choice for our table of cheese fiends – a small crumbed wheel served with crackers, mixed leaf side and a sweet cranberry sauce. Whether it was the cool weather (although it was quite warm inside) or the camembert sitting a while, the insides weren’t as molten and oozey as I was hoping for, and thus not the full cheesy experience; although this could also have been on the part of the restaurant not serving dangerous, potentially scalding foods.

Salt and pepper squid - or not

In hindsight, I wonder if my order of salt and pepper squid was mixed up with the ‘golden fried calamari’ listed on the menu, as it did come with a mayonnaise or aioli of sorts. If it was mistaken, then I guess it was slightly better than I'm going to give it credit for.

I'm starting to think that salt and pepper squid is so prevalent on Sydney menus that the dish has lost its meaning – or rather, its flavours. Simply battered/ crumbed and deep fried coils of squid itself do not make for salt and pepper – it’s all in the seasonings. Tender squid is also paramount and this rendition misses the pass mark on both. It’s not super chewy, but you wouldn’t call it tender in any language.

Char grilled lamb brochettes with a Moroccan marinade

The unassuming lamb brochettes stole almost everyone's heart that night. Who would have thought three little chunks of meat on a skewer could be so soft,flavoursome and juicy? With just the right amount of cumin and seasoning, these four skewers were virtually free of fat or sinew, as tender if not more so than lamb cutlets, and simply to die for. As the last bare skewer returned to the emptied plate, I'm sure we were all wishing that we had more.

Steamed asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto, topped with fresh parmesan shards and bearnaise sauce

I blame the effect of four cocktails and reading in dark red lighting for this unexpected dish - I saw 'asparagus' and 'prosciutto' but nothing else. A bunch of steamed asparagus came wrapped in thick cut prosciutto where I was expecting spears of asparagus wrapped in paper-thin prosciutto. I think the dish was overcomplicated with both parmesan and bearnaise, as the latter added very little to the overall and the parmesan added saltiness to the already salty prosciutto.

Vegetarian risotto balls with salsa

I ordered risotto balls thinking some substance (read: carbohydrate) was necessary to soak up alcohol. These crumbed and fried balls of a quite tasty risotto were not too heavy nor cheesy/creamy, lifted by the sweet tomato salsa, and did a fine job in filling and soaking up. I can see these being potentially, and dangerously, moreish.

King prawns in chilli, ginger and white wine sauce

The final tapas of prawns was a little underwhelming; from its queer red hue to the utter sweetness of the sauce. I could certainly taste the chilli kick, subtle ginger and smoothing white wine in the sauce amid the sugar, but I don't think the nicely firm prawns needed all that sweetening.

Six dishes later, satisfied with bellies full of cocktails and food, it was definitely not easier to squeeze into our petite table. The place was still full and possibly louder than earlier, and the walkway remained filled although the bar was not quite at happy hour levels of activity.

We tarried awhile with some more drinks and conversation, as if we didn't want to leave or say goodbye. It was definitely a good night out and while it wasn't necessarily the farewell we planned, like life, it took its unpredictable path and we made our choices. After all, we all have our own drums.

Entertain me

With a two-day deadline to use the vouchers and the card of last year's Entertainment Book, I put together a half-hearted challenge to see how entertaining it could really be. The results are mixed, but the weekend was busy.

Marinara risotto at Rouge Bar, Australia Square

It starts with a voucher at Rouge Bar, smack in the middle of Australia Square and facing formidible competition from Ryan's Bar, particularly on a Friday lunchtime. Pretty standard CBD fare to choose from, sandwiches and an odd arrangement of pasta - select your carbs and then a sauce to match; hence the rather unusual marinara risotto.

By all accounts, it's lovely - in a tomato based sauce with quite a bit of seafood presence, rather nicely accessorised with deep fried sweet potato strips. Don't ask about the pepper dusting around the edge of the plate though.

Chicken penne

My penne pasta looks promising too, the julienned beetroot kind of unusual but healthy, I thought. There's poached chicken pieces, vegetable bits, cheese shavings, and penne, of course. What there isn't is flavour - I can see that it's meant to be a tomato sauce, I just can't taste any tomato. The sauce (or what little of it there was) was watery and bland, rendering the entire meal quite insipid - which was slightly better than the service. Next.

Mexican pizza from Crust, Crown Street, Surry Hills

The Crust voucher is one of the awesome value ones that two can get five or six meals out of - although that figure depends on how much pizza you can eat. The Mexican comes a few of man's favourite things - and by this I mean some of the boys I know. Chorizo, Spanish onions, jalepenos and chilli flakes with slightly more girly roasted capsicum on a refried bean base.

It came with one container of sour cream and another container of an avocado salsa, which had great flavours but I only wish it were fresher. This pizza is hot, even after I had pulled the green jalepeno slices off. I was torn between being beaten by the heat and how yummy the salsa was served on top.

Philly steak pizza

My choice is the Philly steak: thinly sliced black angus roast beef, roasted red capsicum along with fresh varieties, more-ish caramelised onion, mushrooms, drizzled with a little too much dijon mustard and not quite enough rocket leaves - all on a tomato sauce base.

Pretty awesome the next day too, although I don't recommend microwave reheating. If you can't be bothered with the oven, I suggest using a sandwich press - but make sure the non-stick surface is still doing it's thing otherwise the cheese and dijon are going to make matters sticky.

Dinner at Foveaux, Foveaux Street, Surry Hills

To the card - one last time, though embarrassingly I only have four scratches on the back of the Gold Card. What a monumental waste, but not for lack of trying. There are a bunch of unexciting CBD options on there, loads of hotel restaurants and definitely nothing new. Foveaux was one I'd been meaning to scratch off, and in the typical nature of doing things at the last minute, here it was - post to come.

Ten pin bowling at AMF, Belmore Road, Randwick

So there's no food or booze involved in the AMF voucher, but there are some pretty funky shoes. Well, not really. I never thought bowling shoes were cool, retro nor any other remotely positive word. Are they even necessary if you're not doing that pro slidey thing?

There's no beating ten pin for some guaranteed fun - I think so, anyway. I love it - it takes me back to younger, freer days and while I'm not superb, I don't need bumpers. I'm a bit of a lightweight so it's six or eight pound balls only. Even then I manage to strain my forearm a little - though I did forget to stretch. It is a sport after all.

Bowling turns dark and party-ish

Mid way through our first game, the lights dim, the neon lights start flashing and the music pumps up - it's apparently kids party time. Luckily they're right down the other end, so we can dance away as we please; celebrate like mad when we get a strike or spare; and not be tempted by overpriced hot chips, hot dogs, chicken nuggets or whatever else is deemed party food.

I have the highest score at the end of both games, but we're all winners as it's been a supremely entertaining weekend. Looking forward to seeing what new restaurants and establishments are included in this year's Entertainment Book.

Humble beginnings

Thus begins the blog:

Toy bee embracing cheeseburger bun bottom

Simple, borderline silly and just there - but it made me smile. Happy meal indeed - or maybe not considering it was left behind in such fashion.

I'm on a quest to find simple sources of happiness and joy - a smile here, a quickened heart beat there - because life's just a series of distractions afterall and it's up to the individual to choose their focus - the inevitable sad, bad, ugliness or the happy, good, beauty.

If I find happiness in a plate, cocktail glass or shoe box - then so be it. Yes, there's certainly more, but baby steps for now.