Café Cre Asion, Sydney (Again)

Oops, I did it again!

Two of my friends from secondary school were visiting Sydney, so I just had to bring them to my favourite macarons after talking so much about it. When it comes to bringing tourists/visitors around, I am pretty predictable with the places that I'd bring them to. Other than the usual must-haves, I'll also bring them to my favourites if they were keen. Lucky enough, girls will always have a sweet tooth :)

So I brought them to Café Cre Asion, we had a bit of coffee and macarons (duh).

I had my latte with a stolen macaron for photo-taking. I can't explain this soothing feeling I get by looking at this photo..

I bought a box of eight macarons for $21, a piece of them is usually $2.70 each. This time round, I remembered all the flavours and even noted down my thoughts after eating them hahaha #wellprepared. 

1. Caramel Chocolate - I prefer a caramel macaron with a burnt taste, but this one doesn't have that. It's kinda a common flavour, so I probably wouldn't pick this the next time.
2. Lychee Raspberry - The flavours are very light, a little too light to taste any lychee. A bonus is the raspberry jelly that is sandwiched between the shells. This macaron definitely has an interesting texture.
3. Spearmint (with chocolate?) - I don't particularly like mint flavours of anything for the fear of strong mint taste, but this macaron doesn't have that strong fresh mint taste (like toothpaste does). It's light, and it goes well with the chocolate filling (that's how choc mint chocolates always get sold out in supermarkets right?).
4.  Coffee Tonka - Tonka bean is like a substitute for vanilla bean. The macaron shell was crumbly and it fell apart after eating half of it. It's also smaller in size compared to others. I don't have strong feelings for this.
5. Cha Non - This isn't my first time having this Thai milk tea flavoured macaron. It's my favourite amongst all the macarons in this box of eight. It has an authentic Thai milk tea taste and it's light enough that it isn't too sweet. Love it
6. Chocolate nougat - I'm guessing this is the chocolate nougat because of its lighter colour. Honestly, I can't differentiate all the macarons because they looked so similar in colour. I was very surprised that there wasn't much taste in this, which is quite a disappointment.
7. Rum and Raisin - I didn't have this because I don't like rum or raisin. I only picked this to try because it was a new flavour (I'm a total sucker for new flavours). Like all other macarons from Cre Asion, the flavour is very light and it's not too sweet. You should try it if you fancy rum or raisin or both together.
8. Peanut butter - Lastly, the peanut butter. It has a strong peanut taste with real bits of nuts in it and on the shell. Sometimes you can't expect peanut butter macarons to come with real peanuts because for all you know, they might be using Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter as their filling! But this one was definitely not Kraft peanut butter #peanutbutterfan. 

I'm craving for macarons again.. 

Read my previous post on Cre Asion (here) and (here). 

Café Cre Asion

21 Alberta Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Yummy Eight, Sydney

I think I found another favourite restaurant. I reckon there should be no limit to favourite because you simply just can't have only one favourite!

We passed Yummy Eight countless of times and on first impression, I thought they were some kind of restaurant that do Asian desserts (I loooooove Asian desserts and I crave for them all the time). Looking at their menu from the outside, it really doesn't look impressive at all. Finally, we decided to give Yummy Eight a try, looking at the massive crowd in there. For sure, we weren't disappointed!

I can't decide if they are a Chinese restaurant because they fulfill so many elements of Taiwanese cuisine, so I might just tag them as both. It's really close to Chinatown/Haymarket but also close to Town Hall, talking about convenience.. They are located almost next to Ko Foo Korean Restaurant (post to come soon!), so people might miss it totally because Ko Foo is just simply intimidating with their range of food (I fell for it too). Anyhoo, eating at Yummy Eight makes me feel really healthy because they steam most of the food and we really enjoyed it that we'll be back!

I have been crazy over this photo-editing app that makes my photo looking really similar - blur and filtered. And also, I've been really lazy to bring out my proper camera. Who enjoys bringing a bulky DSLR or even a digital camera when there is phone camera and awesome phone apps now?! Now, for the review..

Their steamed meat balls were my favourite of the lot that we ordered. The minced meatballs were well marinated and rolled with generous amounts of glutinous rice, yummy! The mixture of saltiness in the meatballs and the sweetness in the glutinous rice was balanced, I just can't say no to more of this!

You probably can't tell from the photo, but the meatballs were extremely juicy. Yum! 

There is something about preserved vegetables that doesn't catch my eye, I reckon it's the extreme saltiness and sour smell of it. But their steamed braised pork with preserved vegetables totally changed my opinions of it, though I still don't fancy the idea of preserved vegetables. This dish was a little too salty and not as healthy even though steamed. Each piece of meat had thick layers of fat, it was oh so sinful yet satisfying at the same time. I may order this the next time, but it isn't a must-try to me. 

We also ordered a serve of spare rib noodles (small $9.80). We didn't want to be too full from dinner, so we ordered a small serve but hey, it was totally enough for the both of us. You can order the spare ribs as a separate dish because it was definitely on the menu as spare ribs with black bean sauce (something we always cook in our kitchen), so it isn't quite our favourite. Also, the noodles were rather bland. I guess this isn't in our must-try list too. 

I just noticed that every dish has parsley in them! Good garnishing but a little too much? 

Missing the soy milk we have back home, K needed to order their soy milk ($2.80). It isn't as sweet as the ones we buy off drink stalls in hawker centres, but it's good enough. Also, at $2.80 for a hot soy milk in this winter weather, it definitely is a healthier option to bubble milk tea.

I can't think of reasons why I shouldn't visit Yummy Eight again. Our meal was only about $30, service is good and the food doesn't disappoint. I need to take note of their prices again, since I don't remember paying $15 for the meat balls (got this price off their website), but then again, meat balls from Yummy Eight - anytime!



Yummy Eight (website)
G4/345b Sussex Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Opening Hours - Mon-Fri: 1.30pm-10pm / Sat-Sun: 12pm-10pm

Ramen Zundo, Sydney

I simply take too long to talk about one of my favourites, Ramen Zundo, right in smack in the city, in World Square Shopping Mall! I've been to Ramen Zundo countless of times now and it definitely is my favourite place to have ramen. Not only is it convenient, the food is so good! It's also not as crowded and you wouldn't have to wait long for food. Why not!?

I may get the names of the dishes wrong or the prices or whatever. But the main point is, everything there seems to be real good. As much as the broth isn't as thick as Gumshara Ramen (I haven't tried Ippudo but I'm not exactly keen since I've had them in Singapore before and I wasn't impressed), I prefer Ramen Zundo anytime. I don't think I remember the each and exact taste of the ramen I've ever had at there but I will put some comments before the photo and write about my overall experience at the end of this post.

Why do I love Ramen Zundo so much? They always have heaps of promotions aside from the good food! They just don't get enough publicity, but that's the conflict there. Too much of it will make it real crowded and the wait will be long. Ah, how? I had this card where I had sufficient stamps to get me a free drink, and so I did! Doesn't hurt to have a free drink right? Also, when you get sufficient stamps, you'll get a free dish!! The Jap lady at the counter/cashier told me that I could order like a ramen and get it free, as opposed to a free side dish, which was what I thought initially! Two thumbs up for service!!!

Their gyoza ($4.50), though not the best I've ever had in Sydney, but they are still good. I love their dipping sauce because it's not like super salty and it goes well with the gyoza. At $4.50, I would say it's a fair price and must-try! 

The difficult part comes next - identifying the different ramen we had so far. Oh and I like that their menu shows how the dish looks so you get an idea of what you're getting. 

Tokyo soy katsu ($13.80). Their Tokyo soy is made from a clear chicken broth, which is light and refreshing. I generally wouldn't pick soy based ramen soup because of the fear of too salty soy broth, but this isn't salty at all. 

Tan tan men ($12.80)

Tokyo soy ($10.80)

Zundo white ($11.80). On the menu it says, "The pork bone broth gently boiled over twelve hours to create a richly flavoured soup". The soup is so thick (again, not as thick as those of Gumshara Ramen), but it's really light as well. I really wonder how they make such a delicious broth - love it! There are also generous servings of sprouts and cabbage.

Tokyo soy kaaage ($13.80).

Another ramen that I will definitely recommend is their double soup ($11.80). Only at $11.80, you get a real thick combination of clear chicken and pork bone soup! I enjoy their double soup very much, because you get less of the strong pork broth, like the one in Zundo white, and it's just oh-so-good!

I have yet to try their curry sets or rice dishes, so it could be time for a visit, especially in this cold winter weather. Hahaha, I seem to blame the weather a lot when I always crave to eat out. Well, it's a convenient excuse?

PS: I just visited Ramen Zundo's facebook page (link) and am pleasantly surprised that they're a running a one-year anniversary promotion! Oh my, oh my. I'm so gonna be gaining all the weight this winter with their half price ramen on every Tuesday night in July! Mark your calendars, mate!

Ramen Zundo (website/urbanspoon)
Shop 1030, 644 George Street
World Square Shopping Mall
Sydney, NSW 2000

Macarons from Café Cre Asion, Sydney

Because I lost the list of flavours of macarons we bought the other day, this post will mostly be a pictorial one :( And so, the same happened to the last post on Café Cre Asion where I just don't remember the flavours and end up just showing some photos of pretty macarons #fail. But this poses an opportunity to visit Café Cre Asion again, despite macarons being a really expensive affair :/

Sorry the photo below is slightly out of focus, there's nothing I can do with my limited post processing skills. 

We attempted making macarons the other day using the kit from Adriano Zumbo, those kits were on sale at Woolies for about $7! It was our first time making macarons, so needless to say we kinda failed. Plus, we're still beginners at piping, so the shells were a little bigger than usual :p I'm keen on attempting to make macarons from scratch, but I probably need a skillful person to be right beside me so they won't fail again. 

Café Cre Asion
21 Alberta Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Boom Bi Na, Sydney

There is only one restaurant in my mind each time I crave for Korean food, unfortunately it is not the (in)famous Madang that everyone loves going to. I stopped visiting Madang after a while, because 1) the queue is always heaps long 2) you gotta go real early at 6pm sharp so you get a table right away 3) the service is becoming hostile and irritable sometimes 4) really, the food doesn't give me the 'wow' feeling anymore.

Thankfully, there is always Boom Bi Na on Kent Street close to Town Hall station. I've been there countless of times now, on some occasions we'll pick the same dishes (and get varying taste and renditions of them) and on experimental days we will have different stuff. Here is my mashed up review on the different days I've been to Boom Bi Na, pardon the lack of information on prices and perhaps names as well.

You can easily judge a good Korean restaurant by its banchan (side dishes), from the variety or the amount they serve to the taste of them. I'm not a great big fan of kimchi, so I won't be able to say something about their kimchi at all, but Boom Bi Na definitely has some excellent banchan with a great variety, despite the small serves (but hey, they refill it at no extra cost so no biggie about small servings). If I remember it right, my first visit at Boom Bi Na was to buy lunch takeaway. Not all restaurants do this, but Boom Bi Na packed  their banchan for us too! I was definitely pleasantly surprised to see cling-wrapped banchan in my takeaway boxes even though there were only a few pieces of the variety they offer. Well, better than nothing! 

There are a couple of "usual few" which are awesome. I absolutely love their honey potato and once I even asked if they sold that as a dish! I reckon the vegetable banchan like the spinach and beansprouts are pretty average, but it's definitely a lot better than really salty or really oily banchan elsewhere. 

On some days they also offer seafood pancake. Little cut up pieces, not fantastic since it's served cold and ain't crisp anymore, but sometimes you just crave for korean pancakes and having that big portion is just too much. Sometimes they have this little anchovies with caramelised peanuts, ooh those are yummy too.

Another dish that we terribly love to order is this ganpungi (sweet and spicy chicken) or dakgangjeong (sweet and crispy chicken). They are essentially the same stuff, but the taste differs each time we order this. On first time, we absolutely love this. It was so crispy, not that spicy (I can't take too much spice) and it was a huge portion which costs about $30? I think different chefs cook it differently, that's why we don't always get the same taste, portion, spice and sauce. You can probably tell the difference in taste from the photos below. Sometimes it comes dry, sometimes there is accompanying sweet and caramelized sauce which is totally yum.

After several tries, we sorta gave up on this. Once, it was served soggy (sigh where are my crispy chicken pieces!) and it wasn't as sweet and caramelized anymore. Perhaps it was a bad day for the chef, there was added chili padi which totally killed my taste buds. We'll probably go back for this on a week night when it is less busy. 

Bimbimbap is what most people would order, common and a very safe choice. There was nothing bad about their bimbimbap but nothing over the moon either. Just be wary of the hot spicy sauce - if you can't have too much spice, don't add the entire saucer of it. Lesson learnt. 

I had a friend who visited from Singapore and was awfully craving for Korean food (she's a huge fan of the country, the beautiful stars and the language). The three of us met up and I'm really glad they loved the food as much as I do. We ordered four dishes to share (I remember it was food overrrrrrrrload) and it was nothing short of splendid. My friend Y was telling us about how Korean food in Melbourne was so horrible that she felt so comforted after having a wonderful Korean meal in Sydney (hehe thanks to me :D). We ordered dukbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes) because Y wanted to compare the lousy rice cakes dipped in spicy sauce in Melbourne and spicy rice cakes (I know it sounds the same but imagine it pictorially). The first dish on the top of the photo is that - spicy rice cakes. Definitely not a regret, Y finished almost every single bits of it. 

To accommodate the non-spicy food eater (aka me), we had this grilled pork with vegetables. It was pretty good, except that it wasn't salty enough and was too oily. But I wouldn't expect less oil with such a fatty meat. 

If I remember it right, this was grilled spicy chicken. It was spicy, but still acceptable for me. I reckon having a little of spicy food on a cold winter night definitely scores, whether or not the taste buds died.

Lastly, one of the specials on Boom Bi Na's menu - ginseng chicken soup. I've had this many times as well (about $30 too) and it never fails to disappoint. Albeit the chicken meat was tasteless, the soup was ohmygoodness yummy every single time. They will serve this soup with a small saucer of salt so you can salt it to your preference (to soup or chicken). The chicken is also stuffed with glutinous rice (it definitely has to be glutinous rice!!!) which makes this dish rather filling although it's all water. 

Definitely my go-to for Korean food. Writing up this post on Boom Bi Na makes me wanna eat Korean food now even though I had some for lunch yesterday (another post on that soon). Boy oh boy, can never be sick of Korean food. Week nights are the best with less crowd, but you'll still get a seat on weekend nights after a short wait. Service is a little slow (they seem to be shorthanded all the time), but they're still really friendly and don't take wrong orders (sigh, previous bad experience at Madang). 

Boom Bi Na 

Shop 2, 545 Kent Street 

Sydney NSW 2000 

Australia 

Photolog: Cafe Cre Asion

The best macaroons I've tried to date.

Not only are the Asian flavours interesting enough, the sweetness of the macaroons are not overwhelming. It's perfect for those who enjoys macaroons without the "sweet indulgence". We initially intended some for a friend's birthday, but couldn't resist buying another box of 8.

Cafe Cre Asion
21 Alberta Street
Sydney NSW 2000