Oh! O Bal Tan!

Guess what fellas? no seriously guess, and no its not I've finally gotten a life, and no its not I've finally moved out of home- though it is something similar I suppose...

IM IN SYDNEY! (insert happy dance here) 

oh yea thats right, I've journeyed out from my baby city of Perth and ventured into the decidedly adult city of Sydney, triple the population and quarter the space- it feels like your in a moshpit just walking down the street. 

Sadly however this trip couldn't be chilling out for a week, i'm a student, there's no such thing as chilling out for a week straight, I've brought all my novels and history books and text books with me (no shit, one third of my suitcase was made from trees D:) BUT I have found some time to enjoy myself by 

1) omfg there's a cute little puppy sitting on my feet right now!! :3 

Don't you just wanna die!!

2) Being with the sis and her new hubbie-to-be and 

And they call me immature... 

3) going out to eat.

It seems that Korean food is a new thing for my now, Ninniku Jip and now O Bal Tan across the freaking country- its obviously a sign, someone hook me up for a Korean language class! But anyway, in contrast to Ninniku Jip this was one of those grill-it-yourself places, except with legit charcoal, none of that pansy gas/hot plate shit- this was the real deal.  (also note: copper conducts really quickly) 

LEGIT CHARCOAL OMFG!!

However first things first, alcohol was to be provided (and not to be shot back, but to be sipped), this was soju (sojo?) something similar to sake, only Korean.

Then comes the food- we got the beef and pork combo, plus all the sides and sauces. 

Sides and Sauces->

<-Beef and pork 

The mushroom salad thing (as seen on the far right) was amazing! usually I'm the biggest fan of mushrooms, so this might not mean much but man, so tasty. And the tauge was itself very good. My sister was telling me that she had made it herself once with an online recipe, that it was real easy and the flavours simple to combine, told me I should give it a try some time, I think I'm gonna believe her... the only time she's lead me astray was when she told me your meant to eat the paper at the bottom of the Char Sew Pow... *glare* 

But seriously I think the main flavours of Korean cooking are as follows: Garlic... Chilli... that is all... maybe a bit of sesame seed oil.. THAT. IS. ALL (probably not)... but its so good!  

Then came the grilling bit- I believe this was the beef ribs, on the bone, like a cave man (they must have had massive calluses on their fingers cause meat off the bone off the grill was effing hoooot!)

Effing Hot!

But yes it was a wonderful experience, the food was not as good as i've had in other Korean BBQ restaurants (and they didn't have beef bulgogi (I mean whaaaat?)) which was disappointing and you did kinda have to hack at the beef until you got it to bite size pieces, and when it wasn't your turn with the scissors you kinda burnt the roof off your mouth trying to bite it into bite size pieces (maybe that was just me...) and price wise it wasn't to bad $35/head (and there were seven hungry eaters) BUT it was lovely I would definitely go back there again for the atmosphere, probably even just for the legit charcoal (and the missing fire blanket, no shit, the sleeve was empty :S)

taxi xoxo

Ninniwhat now?

Rejected by a full Sebastian's, wandering the streets of Victoria Park, cold and starving me and my fellow ravenous companion stumbled into the lovely restaurant of Ninnikujip (pronounced Ninny- Coo- Jip), where we went to more for the novelty of the name then anything else...

Ninnikujip is a Japanesse/ Koren restaurant, leaning more to the Korean side of things. It was a tasty restaurant, a bit more expensive then I thought the food called for, but the service was comfortable, in that wow-I-just-want-to-hug-these-people-they're-so-earnest kinda way, and the atmosphere was chic and slick, bright colours and music videos in the corner- and we can forget the kiddies playground- thats right a KIDDIES PLAYGROUND in the corner O.o!!

I got the Ishiyaki Bibimbap- Pork, which (if you don't know your Korean food) is rice, vegetables and sliced pork served up in a stone bowl, there is chilli paste, kimchi, tauge and miso soup on the side/ to mix into the rice as one gigantic delicious pile of protein, carbohydrates, glucose and fat. 

And my ravenous companion (pronounced Fa-th-ur) got the Ishiyaki Bibimbap- Beef, raw egg york included (and yes they really wrote it like that)

And the Father had a preservative free beer, Cape Bouvard... (I wish it were pronounced Cape Boulevard)... sadly I didn't try any, Dark Ales were always a bit too thick for me..  

However I did have the Calpis water (not pronounced cow-piss) it was... interesting... milky and water at the same time... with a taste i can't quite describe- though one of the adjectives would be 'sweet'.  

An interesting restaurant that I am excited to go back to, even just to try and sneak into the kiddy playground that I am far too tall to even worth putting in the effort to not get a concussion.

Taxi xoxo

Oh George!

A few months ago I walked past this restaurant, George's Meze, when on the hunt for some ice-cream . Sadly George didn't have any fattening cold cream, HOWEVER it was put on my list of restaurants to go to because, well, hey I love restaurants and I love greek food, and George is a greek restaurant! So when my sister came for Sydney for 10 days to our lovely little town and I forgot to go shopping, guess where we went for dinner (;

We got the Seafood Claypot pictured below:

It was a bit too fishy for me, but not too bad according to the seafood lovers at the table...

Someone else ordered the Moussaka, a bit plain- but very tasty in a simple way, definitely worth trying.

and finally I had the Snapper- Oh my lordy! it was great- fresh and tasty, the aioli on the side was a bit unnecessary, it added to a flavour that I thought was pretty good by itself.

And to finish off the night some good old greek coffee- I admit I probably chose it because it came in that awesome little coffee maker thing that I really need to learn the name of, more so then the taste as it is sweeter and thicker then I usually take it... but it also came with a small, potent hit of turkish delight that cleaned my palate after wards...

AND! if you're there on a thursday night, as we happened to be, expect two fellas to start being awesome with their stringed instruments, sadly I forgot to take pictures of that ):

Taxi xoxo

Getting Down and Dirty at Dirty Nelly's

There is one thing that I most in this world... well actually there are a few things, Dada's calling themselves artists ( I mean really?), sunburns (oh the pain!) and those people who prefer Mr Darcey to Mr Knightly ( I mean REALLY?) but most of all... most of all I hate the common cold, something of which I seem to get alot now a days ( I blame the constant exhaustion of my daily life at the moment). So yes, i was snivelling, and coughing, and head aches to the max ( don't even mention the impossible amount of snot that erupted from my small nose) and completely not in the mood to cook.

So, in an effort to make my feel better it was decided we would go out for dinner, to Durty Nelly's in Shafto Lane ( this was probably not the best idea as I was close to collapsing and looking very stoned, as sick people do, the entire time, but we were to make the most of it).

Overall I did enjoy the pub very much, i'd been there once before, however since then they'd changed the menu ):

Durty Nelly's is a type of place to go to when you just want to chill with a smoke, a beer and some good ol' pub food. The staff don't hassle you, the music is something to sing along to, and when you sit outside, on the veranda, its gorgeous!

I had the Chicken Breast stuffed with eggplant, sun dried tomatoes, basil, somethings else, wrapped in prosciutto, on a bed of garlic mash and covered in olive jus. The only thing that i have to say is IT WASN'T DRY! I was so absolutely surprised, in a good way, totally worth having again.

My companion had the more traditional pub meal, a steak of Rump with garlic mash, corn cobbs and Pepper sauce. Now I don't know about you but, corn cobbs? i don't really know about that to be honest... But it was good, though the steak was a bit tough ):

and all was washed down by a nice pint of Heineken, and some lemon lime bitters, in true pub style, though maybe not Irish per say...

Totally worth checking out, especially after work as they have Happy Hour after 5 pm (:

taxi xoxo

TOAST!

So this fine morning, we decided to go to Toast for breakfast, has anyone heard of this little cafe?... For those who live in Perth, and do want to go to this awesomely cute little thing its in East Perth, on Royal street, over looking Claisebrook cove (a truly calming site).

The thing about Toast was that you need to know where to look to find it, that is its not really on Royal st, but if you walk down the stairs from Royal st and onto the cove area we found it by the mass of people that were sitting outside bathing in the spring sunlight. And a big crowd usually means that its good right? Yea thats what we thought too (:

But really, it was adorable- the staff were friendly (and awesomely dressed ^^), the coffee was absolutely divine (!!!) and the food was...unique... to say the least, unique and pretty damn tasty too.

What was also cute about the place was that it looked like someone had gone to the Paris flee market, bought a whole heap of shit (posters, cups, books, empty Ricard bottles) and sent it back to Perth to be a decoration in a cafe called "Toast" though I think it should be called "Baguette" instead to carry on with the french theme ><

(the only let down for me was the plastic Ikea cups... I don't really like to drink out of plastic cups if you get me drift...)

(ooooh and see a Ricard and a Martini bottle!! )

And here we have (on the left) Crab and Dill omlette, and to the right is the trout pate on potato and parmesan bread with avocado and poached egg (: and you can see some coffee also THEY HAD MISMATCHING SAUCERS <33333 :D

And finally we had my main meal of the morning Avocado, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce atop yummy corn fritters. (this really amazed me seeing as i don't usually like corn too much... however if I could say one thing, after a while the corn did get a bit over powering just because there was SO MUCH OF IT... but besides that this get the thumbs up.)

not to mention i saw capsicum growing in the pot in the corner, i mean really capsicum? awesome!

If your in the area you should totally give this place a try, its too darn cute to miss out on ^^

also this is my first time giving a restaurant review so... thats for reading (:

taxi xoxo