Yummy Yumcha!

Hi!

So we're back with our first videoblog. We decided plain blogging was just too boring! Now you're able to see our faces as well!

So last week we went to Chinatown to have Yumcha at East Ocean Restaurant. Yumcha is a Chinese cultural tradition where many families gather together in the morning at Chinese Cuisines to have a meal and drink chinese tea. The term "Yum cha" literally mean to drink tea! The food are called Dimsum and are usually steamed or fried. The steamed food are oftenly placed inside bamboo steamers.

Here are a few popular foods that we love and enjoy eating. I recommend you all to try it out!!

Thankyou!

Kitty

East Ocean Restaurant
421/429 Sussex Street  Haymarket NSW 2000
(02) 9212 4198

Masuya- Fresh and Delicious Japanese restaurant

If you are looking for a place to enjoy a meal of fresh and delicious Japanese food, where you can choose from a range of varieties, then Masuya would be the best choice  for you. I have been to Masuya a few times with my family and it never fails to bring the most fresh and delicious Japanese dishes to us.


The extensive menu provides a range of different options ranging from different salads, entrees, sides, main, sushi selections, to hot pots and desserts. There will sure be something you will like.

For Entree we chose the beef tataki

Our sushi choice was the Spider roll on the left (deep-fried soft shell crab sushi) and

              the Spicy Tuna Roll on the right.

The hot pots at Masuya is a must try. They have about 5 different types of hot pots and the one I had this time was the Chanko hot pot. It had quite a lot of different ingredients including one crab, fishballs, scallops, chicken, vegetables and tofu in a konbu dashi soup base.

I would recommend you to have the hot pot last after all the cold entrees, sushi and other sides and dishes you have eaten. It would be best to finish off the meal with a warm hot pot, especially on a cold day.
Also, if you are going with 5 or more people it would be recommended that you make a booking as most of the tables are usually for 2-4 people and to make early booking if possible as there has been times when there would be a lot of people and you would have to wait for a fair bit to be seated.

Also, apart from the delicious food they make, the customer service is also quite good. All the waiters are Japanese and they are really nice and well mannered and would respond to requests and questions politely.



Price Range $90-$95 (based on an entree, two selections of sushi and a hot pot for 2-3 people for dinner)



Photos and Posts by Catherine



Address:
Basement, 12-14 O'Connell St,
Sydney, NSW, 2000

Phone(02): 9235 2717

Ginger-Indian Home style cooking

Ginger restaurant offers diners the very best of Indian cuisine. It's a home style cooking restaurant which opens for a long time already. I really like the decorate of the restaurant. It's artistic and makes people feel very warm.

The food there is very nice. The menu includes trusty favorites of locals such as butter chicken, Rogan josh, beef vindaloo and more, alongside lessor known traditional food, north and south Indian thalis, tiffin varieties– like dosas, poori masala and chaat items.I specially like the curry chicken which is very tasteful.

The roti have different favors for you to choose. It's also very nice.

Garlic Prawns which marinated with garlic and spices are cooked in a wok is amazing.

Indian food is totally another style comparing to other food. Hence it has its own specialty. If you also like Indian food and you can go Ginger to try their dish and you will like it.

Price range: 40-60

Long Lin

Location & Mailing Address

94 Wigram Street

Harris Park NSW 2150

Call : (02)80617245

(02)96359680

043 210 4339

contact@gingerindian.com.au

Reference:

http://www.gingerindian.com.au/home.htm

Future Blog

The Planned Layout and Design of the Future Blog

 Our blog aims to be a user friendly blog where the information posted can be easily accessed and not overly decorated or complexly structured in order to offer a pleasant and easy browsing experience for readers.

The layout of the blog is quite simple, yet well spaced out and organised. It allows readers to easily follow the structure of the blog and to be able to read and find the content(s) easily.

The planned background of the blog is to be in a simple colour  and with small images or designs on it (so it would not be too plain) so that it will not make the blog difficult to read as overly decorated/ complex backgrounds often cause problems on the readability of the blog. 

A logo maybe added  to the blog (next to the title of the blog) to add further designing onto the blog.

Like many, if not all blog posts, at the end of the blog, readers are given different options to share the post on different social networking sites e.g. Facebook and twitter.

Sheraton Hotel Buffet

The buffet is the best choice when you guys need gathering with your friend. you can choose what you want to eat and there are many options for you to choose. It's a good idea when you want to eat and relaxt at the same time.
I highly recommend to you the seafood buffet from Sheraton Hotel. There are many kind of seafood and they are all fresh. There also have several types of salad. Like beef salad, pasta salad and so on. Moreover many desert and sushi for you to choose.
The Curry there ia also very nice. And there are several types of curry. Like: red curry beef, green curry seafood.

In addition to the range of meals, don’t forget to save room for their full dessert buffet and fresh bread, cheese, and fruit selection. Then they can top off your wonderful meal with complimentary tea and coffee.

Long Lin

Botanica Brasserie
Level One, Sheraton on the Park Hotel
161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney
Tel: 02 9286 6650

All-you-can eat seafood buffet
(prices correct as at 4 Sep 2009 - please ring to confirm)
Lunch
Monday - Saturday $65.00
Sunday $75.00

Dinner
Sunday - Thursday $79.00
Friday - Saturday $99.00

References:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/property/dining/index.html?propertyID=1305
http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com.au/2005/08/sheraton-on-park-botanica-brasserie.html

The Dynasty Chinese Restaurant

Nearly every month i will have yumcha at least 4 times eirther with family or friends and i would have to say that one of the best places in Sydney ( in my opinion) for yumcha would be The Dynasty chinese restaurant. It has a range of different variety of dim sums (small dishes in either bamboo steamer baskets or plates )and a really comfortable environment when you can enjoy your meal.

Although like many other yumcha places, where the food would be placed in special trolleys and be pushed around the restaurant and the person would list out the food in the trolley they have to each table, they also have a menu of other dim sums, noodles, congee and desserts, where you can order by marking the quantity you want on the menu and then passing it to a waiter.

There was a lot of different varieties that my cousin and i could choose from and we ended up choosing the dim sums in the photo taken.

(From the back of the photo) We ate:

-In the bamboo steamer basket there is:
Shaomai (steamed pork dumpling)
Shrimp Dumpling
Cantonese barbecued pork buns
Chicken Feet (steamed in black bean sauce)

-In the plates
Haam sui gok (deep fried dumpling with a crispy, sweet and sticky outer layer made from rice flour, with minced pork and finely chopped vegetables)
Spring rolls ( with pork and vegetables)

The food was really nice and we were so full after eating all those dim sums so we ordered one tofu pudding (served with syrup) to share.

Situated in the Canterbury League Club, the timber design and dull lighting of the restaurant creates a great environment for a relaxing meal and the design of it makes you feel like you're  floating on water and are eating on a large boat. It is quite spacious with many large tables for about 10-14 people and smaller tables for 2-8 people. The restaurant is separated into two separate areas, separated by a bridge alike short path with one large area, great for large tables and a smaller area with a few small tables and has a more quieter environment.

Price Range- Difficult to estimate as it depends on the food you order, as the prices differs as the dim sums  are categorised into small, medium, large and special dishes and on whether any specialty dishes and drinks were ordered.
For two people (ordering no drinks and only having dim sums) it is about $20-$35 approx.



Photos and Post by: Catherine



Address:
26 Bridge Road, Belmore, NSW 2192
Phone : (02) 9740 6633

Chatswood - Takeru

I think this restaurant is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Sydney. I one I usually go to is on Sussex Street near Townhall because I live really close to there. The one I went to today though was the one in Chatswood. 


After a long long day of studying, we were extremely hungry so we wanted to eat at a place where we didn't have to wait that long and the wait for the food was quick. I decided on Takeru, because they had alot of food to choose from. 


The food at Chatswood is exactly the same as the ones in Townhall. However, the way of ordering is totally different. In Townhall the waiters and waitresses would go to your tables to take your orders like the traditional way; whereas in Chatswood there are touch-screen electronic menus at each table. The good thing about this is that you don't have to wait to get served. 


Another special thing about this restaurant is the ability to order half-dishes. Half-dishes are basically half the size the of a normal serving. For example, if you cannot choose between eating a shio ramen or a curry rice, you can order both their half-dishes. Isn't that smart??


Today, we were extremely hungry so I ordered a Shio Butter Corn Ramen and my friend ordered a Chicken Namban set meal. In addition, we ordered a Mentai Scallop Pizza to share.

Within ten minutes of ordering it on the electronic menu, the Mentai Scallop Pizza came first. This was my first time eating. The pizza was quite thin, and had Mentai and scallops scattered all over it with melted cheese on top. We had two slices each and it was extremely filling because of the huge amount of cheese. I think it is best if shared between four people.  

My friend's Chicken Namban set meal came next. I always had the Chicken Namban cold ramen so I knew how tasty they were. The chicken is fried and topped with a special creamy and shallots.  The crisp sliced lettuce salad was compliented with a brown slightly tangy sauce. The set meal came with an additional small vegetable salad which tasted a bit bland; Miso Soup and rice.

My Shio Butter Corn Ramen was last to come and was extremely tasty, especially the soup base with melted butter. The ramen was cooked nicely and topped with half an egg, two slices of roast pork, corn, shredded fungi and shallots.

Since I always eat at this restaurant, I would definately come back and recommend this to my other friends. The restaurant in Chatswood is more spacious than the one in Townhall, and has less people. If you had a large group of people, I suggest eating at Chatswood.

Price range: $12-20

Kitty 

Address:

Takeru Japanese Cuisine
Shop 10, Victoria Plaza Shop,
369 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood NSW 2067

Phone: (02) 9412 1203