Chinese New Year 2010

Happy belated Chinese New Year!  After a miserable week of experiencing the 90s again, aka NO INTERNET! Sugarpuffi can finally blog regularly again! Yay!

Our family probably cooks once every month or so, so Chinese New Year has always been a rare occasion when we will cook at home...for once.

Surplus amount of Salmon Sashimi

Stir Fried Porky with Shallot Hunan Style (minus the chili)

I love this dish but being seated furthest away from it doesn't help :(

Prawns

BBQ Pork

Stir Fried Egg with Garlic Chives

BBQ Duck

Dozen Pacific Oysters

Braised Pork Ribs with Tofu

Steamed Barramundi with Ginger and Shallot

Ok, we cheated a little with the take away food and ready to eat seafood but hey~ I arranged them on the plate!

The fish had to be chopped in half since it was HUGE and wouldn't fit into the steamer nor the plate.

What's in this box?

Box of yummy nibblies of lollies, wintermelon sweets, peanuts, sunflower seeds and preserved prunes :)

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Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant 大西北食府

It has been a horrible horrible week.  First photoshop dies and now the internet is dead too.  What. The. Hell.  Called my internet and phone provider with a bleak hope of getting it fixed within a week, jeopardising my life to levels unimaginable.

Blogging at work seems to be the only avaliable option.

Ate at Silk Road, the first Chinese Muslim Restaurant in Australia that serves 100% Halal meat.  The food is an unique combination of central Asian flavour with the use of Turkish and Islamic spices and flavourings.

Shredded Potato Salad  凉拌土豆丝 $8

Spicy Beef in Salad Sauce 香辣牛肉干 $6.80 (s)

Possibly the most fragrant beef jerky around in Sydney.  The more you chew, the more flavours come out but I had to stop since it was so spicy.  

Cold Jelly Salad 酸辣凉粉 $5.80

This transluncent baby is made out of mung beans! When jellified~it is then shreded into strips and mixed with vegetables and their special sour and spicy sauce.

Pepper and Salt Egg Wrapped with Lamb 夹沙 $13.80

Can you believe the golden layer is made from egg?  From what the chef told me, this is possibly the most time consuming dish on the menu as the lamb in the middle is hand beaten for over 1 hour before it is ready to be used.  The crispy and crunchy egg layer with a juicy and soft middle makes my mouth water everytime.

Xinjiang Shish Kebab 新疆羊肉串 $12 for 6

Ahh...fresh lamb meat on metal skewers sprinkled with cumin, chilli powder and other spices.  Need I say more?

Xinjiang Styled Stewed Rice With Meat and Vegetables  手抓饭 $7 (s)

This dish is meant to be eaten by hand.  Ingredients are usually fresh mutton (but I think its lamb in this case), carrots, onions, vegetable oil, melted sheep's fat and rice. There are more than 10 kinds of this rice dish, mainly mutton, chicken and vegetarian, but the most common is the one using mutton.

Stewed Beef With Nang Bread 囊焖肉 $22

Nang is a staple food for the Uygurs just like rice and bread for other places.  The nang is placed underneath the stewed beef, soaking up the juice similar to how Western people eat their bread with olive oil.

Special Chili Chicken With Potato Cap 大盘鸡 $22 (s)

Hand Made Belt Noodles 皮带面 $2.50

The specialty dish of the restaurant with hand made belt noodles.  The chicken is tender and soft with the skin coming off the meat due to the long length of time in the stew.

 

Fried Filled Buns with Lamb 生煎包 $8.50 for 8

Another special mention is their tea!  The tea is served according to what is ordered and the season to accompany the food.  Our tea was a mixture of fragrant Fruit Jasmine and Jasmine Tea to neutralise the fatty food usually served in Uygur cusines.

Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant 大西北食府

Location: Shop 2/203-209 Thomas Street, Haymarket NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9211 5881

Opening Hours: 7 days from 10am to 9pm

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Suffering from lack of internal memory

I hope everyone had a wonderful Chinese New Year and Valentines Day :)

My laptop is currently experiencing permanent head damage and internal bleeding in the brain therefore leading to a massive loss of memory.  Photoshop; a major organ in my laptop fails to function as a resultant of this memory loss. 

I currently have 10 entries lined up to be posted but they are just currently sitting in the hospital ward waiting to be treated.  Hopefully Photoshop will wake up from its coma and can attend to the waiting patients very soon. 

I have been photoshopping 1-2 images a day before it passes out so I may be able to post a new entry tonight.

Until then, please stick around and read my previous entries and I'll be going to March into Merivale Launch tonight eating up on many canapes. Hoho.

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Ozeki Sushi

After hours of intense card playing...ok...it's not that intense since I lost miserably from beginning till end, we went to have rotating sushi at Ozeki Sushi.

Over joyed with their 'All Plates $3' sign, we were directed to 5 empty stools by the coveyer full of sushi rotating around the table with sushi makers in the middle making sushi and taking special orders.

Sushi Chefs At Work

Calpis

Everyone orders hot green tea except me.  I really don't get why they would want HOT tea in the middle of a scorching hot summers day.  Maybe it's just that I am the only one that totally forget about the meaning of calories when I am indulged in food.

Squid Sushi $3

I love squid sushi.  I love their chewy texture and how they bounce around within the walls of my mouth while I try to chew on them.  Apparently I am the only one that likes them in my group.  Does anyone except for me like them? because I've never seen anyone take them off the coveyer belt before.  Am I really such an odd ball to like them?

Octopus Sushi $3

Another chewy sushi that no one likes :/  I like the squid more because the texture of the octopus sushi is tougher.  The octopus salad however...

Octopus Salad Sushi $3

...is fantastic!  They chopped the octopus into cubes and mixed it with yummy mayo then sprinkled with caviar making it rich, chewy and a little sweet.

'Please Identify Me' Sushi $3

No idea what this fish is :P but it tasted a little game for my liking.

After a few plates of sushi collecting, we realised that we could order newly made sushi by just telling the sushi makers in the middle.  This is when I started to abuse this new found information and started to order everything from the sushi master.

Scallop Sushi $3

Oh how I love scallops (especially raw ones)!  I must say the serving for this plate is very generous with 4 scallops with a garnish of black caviar sitting nicely ontop of the rice.

Red Clam and Squid Duo $3

Beef Carpaccio $3

Didn't like this plate at all. The beef was dry, tough and flavourless.  It was like eating a tasteless beef jerky.  Enough said.

Oyster Hand Roll $4.80 each

Another disappointing plate of oyster hand roll.  There was a grand total of one cooked oyster (possibly flame torched but there was no taste) that is over powered by the strong taste of grilled capsicum.  To cover the oyster taste even more, an egg omlette was wrapped around it then a layer of rice around that. Not recommended to any hand roll or oyster lovers as you will be disappointed.  For the best hand rolls, eat at Makoto.

Chef's Spicy Sushi $3

Grilled Eel and Scallop Sushi $3

Soft Shell Crab Sushi $3

The crab was a little dry and was not crispy enough.  To make matters worse, Lucy took the big piece Y~Y.

Unagi and Tofu Sushi $3

Scampi Sushi $3

I have to say this is the best plate out of all. Just love the softness of the scampi and how it literally melts in my mouth.

Salmon Tobiko Sushi $3

Mmm... caviar wrapped in salmon~can't ask for more!

Ozeki Sushi

Location: G073 Chatswood Chase Shopping Centre, 345 Victoria Avenue Chatswood NSW 2067

Phone: 02 9410 2777

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Mizuya Japanese Restaurant and Karaoke 水屋

Walking out of Galaxy World while coming to the realisation that I am indeed too old for arcades is somewhat depressing as I have spent most of my high school afternoons submerged in Galaxy World and Timezone prancing on DDR machines.  The arcade was my second home.

Strolling along George Street, I discovered an underground area that served very visually appealing Japanese food. With further investigation, it was actually a newly opened karaoke place so you can actually sing while you eat. I like the sound of that!

Now that I am older, I can spend money more freely and I diverted my attention to eating.  I am not sure whether that is a good or bad thing because playing with the DDR makes u work out but eating makes you pile up on the calories so literally, I am paying more to become fat(ter).

 Mizuya, which means 'Water Room' - the preparation area in a Japanese tea house (Chashitsu) offers dining, singing or both services together as a package. A packaged karaoke room for 6 people with food starts from $198.  It includes 3 hours of karaoke with $198 worth of food.
 

I was shocked at the spacious interior of a 6 people room.  Normally at other karaoke places, you would have to cram yourself together like tinned sardines but this was different.  We actually had room between us *shock*.

Interior Decor

Using the convienient touch screen menu, the drinks started to arrive while we sang to Lady Gaga.  The girls went a bit fancy and ordered cocktails while the fellas drank beer. 

Sakura $9

Lychee Caipiroska $12

I somehow almost always manage to choose the nicest drink (Sakura of course) and Erin always get the shit drink. The lychee caipiroska tasted nothing but vodka and had no lychee taste to it at all!

Coconut Kimono $9

Sex On The Beach $10

Sapporo Draft $8

I also discovered these babies...

Mizuya Test Tubes $18

Oh boy! I've always wanted to drink colourful alcohol out from test tubes.  The test tubes came on a clear and chilled test tube rack~so fun! 6 test tubes for 6 people.  Just the right amount.  We toasted and...

Wheeeeeee!!! Empty Test Tubes

We were supposed to drink half and swap tubes to try out different flavours but some accidentally drank too much so that plan was fail :(

Wasabi Octopus $5.80

Raw octopus cubes mixed with a special sauce and wasabi.  It is chewy and literally bounces around in your mouth which makes eating much more fun!  Great tangy appetizer to get ur tastebuds ready for action.

 

Prawn Salad $8.80

Soft Shell Crab Salad $9.80

*Sigh*...salads NEVER come with enough dressing :(

Cuttlefish Sushi $3.80 for 2

BBQ Premium Wagyu Beef Steak $22.80

Although the beef looks large on photo, it is actually very small :(  Three tiny pieces of wagyu beef is not enough for 6 famished people.

Spicy Scallop Tartar $13.80

Layers and layers of goodies of fresh raw chili scallops, avocado, onion mince and black caviar on a bed of cucmber slices.  It was devoured so fast that it was almost gone with the blink of an eye.

Spicy Tuna Tartar $14.80

Spicy Salmon Tartar $13.80

OK we went a bit crazy on the tartars because everyone wanted a different type of seafood and also it just simply looked so nice!

Ox Tongue Kushiyaki $5.80 Per Stick

Vanilla Icecream $2.20

Vanilla and Green Tea Icecream $2.20

I like love icecream, especially when it's cheap!  We already went over our limit of $198 LOL!!! So the two bowls of icecream was shared amongst the gals but I have to admit I ate most of it...

Mizuya Japanese Restaurant and Karaoke 水屋

Location: Basement 614 George Street, Sydney 2000 NSW

Opening Hours: 7 days from 11:30am - Midnight

Phone: 02 9266 0866

Website: www.mizuya.com.au

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