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 

Chongqing beautiful food--Hot pot & Mala Tang

Chongqing Hot Pot:
Hot pot - is the most famous and favorite dish in Chongqing. Chongqing local people consider the hot pot a local specialty, which is noted for its peppery and hot taste, scalding yet fresh and tender. People gather around a small pot boiled with charcoal, electric or gas filled with flavorful and nutritious soup base. You have a choice of spicy, pure and combo for the soup base. Thin sliced raw variety meat, fish, various bean curd products and all kinds of vegetables are boiled in the soup base. You then dip them in a little bowl of special sauce. Be careful since the spicy soup base is burning hot.

First eaten by poor boatmen of the Yangtze River in Chongqing area and then spread westwards to the rest of Sichuan. Now is a very popular local flavor and can be found at every corner of the city. There are a great variety of hotpots, including Yueyang Hotpot, Four Tastes Hotpot, Yashan Hotpot and Fish Head Hotpot. If you are adventurous enough, you can basically cook anything with hot pot, e.g., pig's brain and duck's kidney.

Chongqing people love their hotpot, especially when the weather is steamy. The fire dances under the pot, the heavily oiled and spiced soup boils with hazy steam, and the people are bathed in sweat. Although hotpot can be found wherever there are street vendors or small restaurants, chongqing Hot pot has the greatest variety and is known for its delicious soup base and dipping sauce.


Chongqing Malatang:

The other famous local food is hot and spicy Mala Tang. Literally, "ma" means numbness in the mouth, "la" is chili hot and "tang" means piping hot. Mala Tang, with various raw ingredients cooked in a communal pot of steaming stock blended with spices, originated in Sichuan's largest city, Chongqing. The double-sided soup pot, placed on a central table burner, is the focal point of the meal. Powerfully hot Mala Tang soup and fresh tasting chicken broth, side by side, are popular. Ingredients include fresh sliced abalone, sea cucumber, hog tendon, Beijing cabbage and beef dumpling, prawns, carp fish fillet, bean curd, chicken fillet and vegetables. The excellent dipping mixture of sesame oil, chili sauce, peanut sauce, chopped chilies and garlic combine to make magic. Savory tidbits are appetizingly tasty - egg coated glutinous square, crispy spring roll, fried buns, eight treasure black rice and water chestnut jelly.

Price Range: $40-$60

Nicole

Address:

• 8A/363 Sussex St, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia

Phone:

• 02 9267 6366

Reference:

http://www.topchinatravel.com/pic/city/chengdu/eating/Ma-La-Tang-2.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/ftsmh/ffximage/2009/07/14/hotpots_narrowweb__300x347,0.jpg

Galinsoga Geleshan chicken

Galinsoga Geleshan chicken in the mountain city of Chongqing is a well-known specialty of the house earlier, Galinsoga Geleshan chickens, not other places Galinsoga chicken, nor is it Galinsoga chicken; but the whole game out of the dry hot pepper speculation over fried chicken. On the dish at the beginning of production in two different ways. I said to be in the early 20th century by the Geleshan in a small hotel in a two-master. Another argument is that the same time, the same area, only one created by Granny. Although the difference in two different ways, but the dish originated in Geleshan, it appears that it is no doubt. Both teacher and student is developed or is the original Granny's worth, are not important. It is important really tasty dish. The typical approach is to use pepper Sichuan, Guizhou, or of Zhao Tianjiao, the chicken is used in the Geleshan chicken. The kind of flavor, natural than we usually buy a large-scale chicken farming out a lot of good.



Its features:
Bright bright color, shine the whole game Fanzhe red dye into Law, accompanied by a festive chicken, as if in a test of the lure customers to their stomach, such as sniffing the again turn a blind eye to the uncertain Biduan Spicy and lively atmosphere, the most The original desire to be relentlessly to draw, eat a hurry Xia Zhu, ah! It was hot! Yes Ma! And also with a soft Cuinen Weitian filling has happened. . . . . . More than 10 pairs of chopsticks in the blink of an eye, pepper, to find a group of meat!

Price Range: $20-$50


Nicole

Tasty Eating House
Address:

484 Anzac Pde
Kingsford NSW 2032

(02) 9313 8780


Reference by Nicole

Korean BBQ - Eastwood

If you’ve never had Korean food before or are just apprehensive in trying it because you don’t know what to order and/or how to behave, then I’ve got just the thing for you. Korean Barbecue. This is a fun way to introduce yourself and your friends to the awesome cuisine that it is. There are many, many types of Korean food: soups, stews, noodles, fried chicken, pizza, rice bowls, grilled meats, even sushi.

In a nutshell… Korean barbecue joints use either coal, gas, a combination of both coal and gas, or propane gas canisters for grilling. Tables are outfitted with a hole in the middle — the barbecue pit — and topped with a steel grill to cook the meats on.

When you sit down, you will be given an assortment of banchan — appetizers or accompaniments to your meal. These consist of assorted pickled veggies (kimchi) in small plates, sauces to dip your meat in, and, rice wrappers (large squares of pasta sheets made with rice flour), sheets of radish, and romaine lettuce leaves to wrap your meats in. Your server will then start grilling your meat of choice and some kimchi.

Use your chopsticks to take cooked meat from the grill and transfer them to your plate. Dip the meat in the sauces and either eat them as is or wrapped with or without the grilled kimchi. Half-way through your meal, your server will give you a steaming bowl of soup. Dish it out and pass it around. Other places give you a bowl of steamed egg custard soup that’s just absolutely heavenly. At the end of your meal (if you’re in a place that does not use coal), the server will cook fried rice on the grill. Believe me, nothing tastes better than rice cooked in meat drippings.

Tust me, this is very good to try!

Price range: $30-$50

Nicole

Address:

The ttokssam Age Korean Fusion BBQ Restaurant
87 Rowe St, Eastwood
Tel: (02) 9858-5160

reference：

http://lady.yninfo.com/info/705.html

Cabramatta - Thanh Binh

Vietnamese food is one of my all time favourite food. Ranging from rice paper rolls to spring rolls to Vietnamese style salads to pork chop with rice to noodle soups and much much more.  Of course when mentioning about Vietnamese food, Cabramatta would be the best place for it as it has many and also different Vietnamese restaurants that we can choose from.

One of the most-well known dish would be Pho, Vietnamese rice noodle soup, commonly served with chicken or beef. Many different varieties are also available. Although many restaurants in Cabramatta have Pho, my favourite one would be from Thanh Binh.

Today i will introduce you to the Special Beef rice noodle soup.

The  special beef rice noodle soup contains a variety of  meat than the other rice noodle soups  (and thus it costs a little bit more) is served with cooked beef, beef meatballs and beef tripes and also onions, coriander and spring onions. Also served with the rice noodle soup is semi cooked beef (usually placed on the top) which is cooked by the hot boiling soup.

Along with the noodle soup, cooked or uncooked bean sprouts (depending on request), chilli, asian basil, lemon and lime is served to enrich the flavouring of the soup. Hoisin sauce or Seafood sauce and fish sauce is also add for more flavouring.

A tip to eating this would be to push to the semi cooked beef to the bottom of the bowl and separate it so it can be 'cooked' properly by the boiling soup, add the bean sprouts, chilli, asian basil, squeeze a bit of lemon and lime juice, mix and ENJOY!!!!  (Add as much or little as you wish!)

Although there are a great variety of drinks to choose from, my favourite would be coconut juice. It is the best to eat the hot rice noodle soup and drink something cold to cool down from it.

Price range - $9-$11 (depending on the type of Pho you choose)

Photos and Post by: Catherine

http://thanhbinh.com.au/
Check out the homepage of Thanh Binh to look at their yummy menu!!

Address: 52 John Street, Cabramatta 2166
Phone: (02) 9727 9729

Sichuan hot pot is the best choice

Sichuan hot pot performance Chinese cooking inclusive. The word "pot" is a cooker. The performance of the harmony of the road of the Chinese diet contains. Soup from raw materials, using cooking techniques with the, with the divergent, differences in the sum, so that meat and prime, raw and cooked, spicy and sweet, tender and crisp cotton rotten, fragrance and mellow wonderful combined. Especially in the folk customs, showing scenes and psychological feelings of school harmony and dripping Earned compatibility, to create a "concentric with the poly to share the fun culture. It has large popularity.

1/4 cupfermented black beans

1/3 cupshaoxing wine (substitute ( medium dry sherry)

3 inchesfresh ginger, unpeeled

1/4 cupdried hot red chili pepper (Sichuanese preferred)

1/2 cuppeanut oil (substitute ( vegetable oil, any high smoke point oil)

2/3 cupdripping (original recipe (beef or lard)

1/2 cupszechuan hot bean sauce

3 quartsbeef stock

1 tablespoon rock sugar

1/3 cupsichuanese fermented glutinous rice wine (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt (really, to taste)

1 teaspoonszechwan pepper, whole

  Practices:

Directions:

1. Make a paste out of the black beans and 1 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine, using either a mortar and pestle or a food processor.
2. Wash the ginger and cut it into slices about the thickness of a coin.
3. Using a scissors, snip the chiles into 1 inch sections and remove the seeds.
4. Heat 3 tbs of the oil in a wok over a medium flame so it's hot but not smoking.
5. Stir fry the chiles to flavor the oil; you want the oil to sizzle around the chiles, making them crisp and fragrant, but NOT burning; using a slotted spoon remove them and set aside.
6. Rinse out and dry the wok, the put on a simmer/low heat.
7. Add the rest of the oil and the beef drippings.
8. Once the drippings have melted completely, turn up the heat to medium.
9. When the oils just begin to smoke (around 250-300 degreesF), add the chile bean paste and stir fry until the oil is rich and fragrant (60-90 seconds).
10. The paste should NOT burn; if necessary either move the wok off the heat or turn the heat down to let the paste sizzle in the oil.
11. When the oil has reddened, add the black bean mash and the ginger.
12. Stir fry until they also are fragrant.
13. Add about 1 1/2 quarts of the beef stock and bring to a boil.
14. When the liquid reaches a boil, add the rock sugar, the rest of the Shaoxing wine, and (optional) the glutinous rice wine.
15. Salt to taste.
16. Add the chiles and the Sichuan pepper (adjust the quantity depending on how "hot and numbing" you want it) leave the broth to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
17. You are now ready to use this to dip ingredients to cook.

I highly recomonde the Haymarket hot pot restraurant in Chiantown which is very nice. The food there is fresh

Long Lin

Haymarket Hot Pot Restaurant
1/93-105 Quay Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 0105

Reference:
http://chinese.food.com/recipe/spicy-hotpot-broth-sichuan-hong-tang-lu-382803
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/70/1544603/restaurant/Sydney/Chinatown/Haymarket-Hot-Pot-Haymarket

Townhall - Menya Mappen

I absolutely love Japanese food; whether it's Sushi, Sashimi, Teppenyaki or just noodles and rice. I love it so much I probably eat it more than Chinese food. Since I live in the city myself, I usually have a lot of different food to choose from.


Towards the end of last year, I noticed this new Japanese restaurant on George Street. It's situated at the the heart of the city, in a small shopping centre next to Events Cinema.  There was this huge hype about how tasty and cheap it was so I had to go try it myself and just got to review about it now! Since then, I guess I've eaten noodles there more than ten times!


This restaurant has a different approach to other Japanese cuisines. This is more like a self-serve canteen, where there are a few stations for you to get your drinks and food.

1. First get your drinks from the fridge.
2. Get a tray and tell the waiter your choice of noodles or rice
3. Move along and choose what type of toppings you want (almost all of them are tempura)
4. Pay at the cashier
5. Find a seat and return tray when you're done!

Easy right?


Today, I got takeaway but I had my usual favourite, Ontama Bukake. It's a very special way of eating Udon.  It is served with hot soup, lemon and a half-boiled egg. The small one is ($4.90) and the large one ($5.90).

For the toppings, I chose the vegetable kakiage tempura ($2.80), Japanese seaweed ($2.00) and the huge piece of Inari (beancurd) ($2.50)  

I think the good thing about eating there is that you can choose the size of the noodles or rice (large or small) and what kind of toppings you want. Unlike other Japanese set meals, you can be sure to finish the amount that you chose and be creative by choosing whatever you feel like eating that day!


Price range: $5.00-15.00


Kitty


Address:
Menya Mappen
Shop 11, 537 - 551 George Street, Sydney NSW
Phone: (02) 9283 5525

Strathfield - Jang Ta Bal

Usually when people think of Korean food, the first thing they think about is BBQ; which is exactly what I had today with my boyfriend.


This relatively new spacious BBQ restaurant is located in Strathfield, a place where people usually go to for a taste of authentic Korean food. Strathfield is literally populated with Koreans, with 90% of the shops owned by Koreans. Not only are there many Korean restaurants, but there are Korean bookshops, bakeries, cafes, supermarkets, salons and stationary shops etc. 


I have seen this restaurant a few times before when I went to Strathfield but never had the chance to try it out. We walked past a few BBQ shops, just to check out the environment to see if there were many people in there. In the end, we decided Jang Ta Bal was the best.


After walking in, the waiters were really nice to ask us where to sit. The restaurant was quite big and divided into two sections: a smoking area and a non-smoking area. In the non-smoking area, you could choose where you want to sit: on chairs or a platform where you have to take off your shoes and sit on cushions. We chose the latter one. 

Since we were starving, we chose the famous pork belly (samgyupsal), two servings of the beef belly and waited. The waiters were extremely efficient, giving us our water, side dishes and rice whilst we waited for the meat to cook.

Usually, the side dishes are quite similar in all Korean restaurants. However, Kimchi is a must. Koreans will not tolerate it at all if there are no Kimchi. Other than that, we had potatoes, potato salad, spinach and cucumber.

We decided to eat the Samgyupsal first. It doesn't matter at all how you decide to eat it. It can be served with rice or with lettuce. If you choose lettuce, you can be creative and add any of the side dish along side the meat with the sauce provided; special bean sauce or sesame oil....or both! 

After finishing the Samgyupsal, we moved onto the beef belly. It was the first time I tried it and they were SO tasty!! The meat was so soft; the texture a bit like Wagyu beef.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves Korean BBQ. There is a huge range of meat you can choose from. The waiters are all friendly and willing to refill your side dishes whenever you want. The Samgyupsal was tasty but what was special was the beef belly. It didn't take a long time to cook and one portion was huge! In terms of the price, Samgyupsal was $15 and beef belly was a bit more expensive, at $20. Overall, I would definately come here again. However, like any BBQ restaurant, the meat takes some time to cook so remember to have allocate alot of free time for that! Enjoy!  


Price range: $15.00-35.00


Kitty


Address:
Jang Ta Bal Korean Charcoal BBQ
48A, The Boulevard Strathfield NSW
Phone: (02) 9747 2800