Steersons - Bridge St, Sydney

Christmas dinner at Steersons (formerly Kingsleys). Actually, I planned to cook some stuff for Christmas eve, but when I found out that I'll be the only one who would be cooking the feast, I backed down, LOL.

Christmas eve in Sydney was almost dead-silent - everyone must've gathered home for dinner. Only lazybones like myself dined out. Well, to be fair, there were lots of Asian and Italian families dining at Steersons that night, too. The place was quite festive, but instead of the restaurant making the effort, it was the guests. Everyone dressed up (especially the Italian family) and taking photos, etc...quite a pleasant atmosphere.

2005 Irvine Merlot, Barossa Valey, SA

-> Smooth, complex, and my amateur tongue detects a hint of plum and citrus. A very interesting drink.

Rating: 7.5/10

English cheddar souffle with crispy bacon & sage

-> Yum. It really is what a souffle should taste like. Smooth, warm, and the crispy bacon is just heavenly. Everything melts in your mouth, delightful.

Rating: 8/10

Chicken liver pate with botrytis jelly, cornichons, & toasted brioche

-> The pate has quite a strong taste, and so does the jelly and cornichons. Overall, I'd say that everything is too powerful, and this creates a poor balance of flavors.

Rating: 6.5/10

Grilled spatchcock with asparagus, fennel, field mushrooms, truffle & parmesan

-> Oh, joyful. The spatchcock is cooked to perfection, and the aroma is just heavenly. Certainly beats dry, overcooked turkey that I attempted last year, LOL

Rating: 9/10

Australian Angus beef top sirloin, served with chips and port jus

-> Quite excellent. Steaks are, after all, Steersons' speciality.

Rating: 8.5/10

Pre-dessert chocolate-covered coffee beans

-> YUM YUM. The bitterness of the coffee beans contrast beautifully with the sweetness of the chocolates. Addictive.

Rating: 9/10

Chocolate fondant with lavender & honey ice cream

-> A tad too sweet for me, but blisfull nontheless. A great dessert.

Rating: 8/10

Liqueur affogato - espresso with vanilla bean ice cream and frangellico

-> It's good, especially the vanilla bean ice cream, but the coffee liqueur is a tad too strong in my opinion. I ended up just using 1/3 of the coffee.

Rating: 7.5/10

Scruffy Murphy's Goose Garden - Sydney

Uncork the Dom Perignon, Krug, and those 1980 Châteauneuf-du-Pape you've been saving for when the POPE drops by, lovely people!!! It's time to CELEBRATE - for Erique finally caved in and tried his FIRST EVER $6 steak in Sydney! Huzzah!

Yes, you heard it right. After years and years of being a pretentious a-hole ("$6 steaks are NOT food!!") ("$6 steaks aren't made from beef, they're just grilled dirty used flip-flops!!") ("If it's not wagyu porterhouse or aged fillet mignon, it's not beef!!"), I finally had my first taste of a true-blue (albeit not uniquely) Sydney dish, the $6 steak!! (on some places, it's $5 and on others it's $9, but usually no lower than $5 *shudderr*)

The venue of choice - Scruffy Murphy's. A Sydney institution, a beloved Irish bar. The very venue which has seen many, many drunken St Patrick's days. Don't be shocked - during my 6+ years in Sydney, I've never even once stepped into this famed establishment before this time. When I'm in a mood for some Guinness (or to accompany Mark my drunken Irish chum), I always go to Paddy Maguire's (another Irish bar in the City). The idea of going to Scruffy Murphy's always scared me. I mean I'm just a vulnerable Asian kid (oh, boo-hoo!) - what if I get taunted by those brash, intoxicated 7-feet tall Irish lads? What if they want to make conversations? What if some guys ask me stuff about er, football (or rugby? whatever you call it?)?? I can't even distinguish between the Sydney Swans and St. Kilda! I mean, I'm practically Niles Crane from "Frasier"!

But ho-ho-ho. What a surprise. The place was, at the time of visit, packed with mostly ASIANS. Koreans, to be exact. I mean, there were no drunken, brash, 7-feet lads! And it was a footy night! Just some occasional roars and screams not more than...I'd say...80 decibels or so.

I love Sydney.

Guinness

-> Pint o'Guinness. Ireland's greatest gift to the human race. A sip of this wondrous concoction will make life not worth living without it. If there's just one type of beer I am allowed to drink for the rest of my life, it'll be this one. As my lips touched the thick, creamy head, the unmistakable aroma of hops, malt, and barley enters my nose, and when you thought that it doesn't get any better than this - a refreshing, bubbly, delicious liquid streams from your throat and gets straight to the heart - truly a blissful, unforgettable experience.

Rating: 10/10

Rump Steak with Mushroom Sauce

-> Here we go...the verdict. Hm...what should I say, what should I say. Hmm. Oh, all right, I LIKE IT, okay!! There, I SAID IT!! It's NICE! Please don't make me come back there! (or make me. I mean, whatever). *scoffs*

Rating: 7/10

Rump steak with Diane sauce

-> Slightly better than the mushroom sauce. Grilled perfectly to my order (medium rare). Rich, tasty Diane sauce which is heavy on the garlic

Rating: 7.5/10

I'm Angus Steak House - Darling Harbour, Sydney

Dinner. Feeling alfresco that day, so decided to sup on some good meats while enjoying the view over Darling Harbour that looks like a million bucks (as a comparison, the view over Circular Quay / Sydney Opera House / Sydney Harbour Bridge area looks like a billion bucks - more expensive).

I'm Angus always looks interesting and inviting because of its visible kitchen - what my dad said was right - the cardinal rule on establishing restaurants, if you want the restaurant to be popular and crowded with customers, is to make sure that the cooking area is visible by the diners. Common sense, really - the sight of meat sizzling on grills and the glorious smoke coming out of it does make the stomach rumble and the mouth salivating.

Parmesan Garlic Bread

-> One of the better ones I've tasted. Crispy edges, but still moist in the middle - just the way I like it.

Rating: 8/10

300 gr. Sirloin with Port Jus Sauce

-> I asked for medium rare, but it came out medium. Other than that, this is a good steak. Next time, maybe I should ask for rare so that it would come out medium rare (LOL)

Rating: 7/10

Giant Pork Ribs (full portion)

-> If Hurricane's Ribs (in Bondi) is the yardstick upon which all Sydney ribs (of similar style of cooking) are measured against, I'd say that this one is juuuuust a teeny notch below Hurricane's. The texture is perfect, but Hurricane's sauce has more kick to it. However, there is a reason why should you eat ribs at I'm Angus instead of Hurricane's - it's approximately 5 bucks cheaper and there's no horrendous queues.

Rating: 7.5/10

Conclusion: The best dish in this restaurant this time was the garlic bread??? LOL

Azuma - Chifley Plaza, Sydney

Lunch with Cla. I haven't been to this restaurant for ages - in fact, this is one of the first Japanese restaurants I've been in Sydney. This place is (or used to be) quite a big deal - gaining awards and such, however, not much has changed since they relocated to their current location nearly a decade ago. The food is great, but the decor is somewhat bland and deteriorating. A nice place for power lunches (considering its location at the heart of CBD) but not for dinners, really.

Considering their great food, they should do something to pimp up the place a bit, really - the place is really uninteresting.

Azuma Bento

Wagyu, nigiri sushi, sashimi, hourensou, assorted amuse bouche, assorted tempura

-> I actually wanted to order this one, but since I came late, Cla beat me to it! The sushi is apparently good.

Rating: 7.5/10

Steak Bento

-> The wafu steak. It's really good, and grilled to my desired level of done-ness. The sauce is sweet and delightful, and I can see that it's daikon (white raddish)-based, my favorite kind. The meat is tender, as expected, however, it's rather cold. Well, I'm not expecting this dish to be sizzling hot with amazing fumes coming out of it à la Chinese food court dishes (such spectacle is against every concept of traditional, refined Japanese dining), but considering that they put the steak in a hotplate, they could at least serve it a bit warmer.

-> The assorted tempura. Ingredients aren't exactly spectacular - just your ordinary tempura. However, it tastes amazing and couldn't be more perfect.

-> The Maguro (tuna) Carpaccio with rockets. Quite nice, with Japanese-style dressing.


Rating (overall, for the Steak Bento): 8.5/10

Guillaume at Bennelong - Bennelong Point, Sydney

Barramundi with crispy skin on, sauce basquaise & pimentos

-> Excellent. If I'm japanese, I'd exclaim, "Sasuga Guillaume"! Over the time, this has become one of Guillaume's most popular signature dish. The crispy skin of Barramundi is just irresistible. It's soft, juicy, cooked at the prefect temperature. Truly a memorable dish.

Wagyu beef striploin, grainge Angus Black Label, sauteed garlic, confit of vegetables, merlot sauce

-> This is crazy delicious. I'm speechless. Period.

Further comments:

Mommy's in town. Two nights only. Good chance for extortion.

Yeah, mommy's in town with her Womens' Club ladies for their annual trip (or biannual. Or triannual. basically whenever they feel like going - sometimes even four times a year) - this time to a ski chalet in Otago, New Zealand. The trip includes a 2-day stopover in Sydney. This is a trip especially tailored to suit tai-tais' need, hence the 2-day stopover in Sydney to give them a chance to roam about Castlereagh St, etc for some Hermes, Chanel, Bvlgari and the ilk.

For some tai-tais, this is also a good chance to check up on their poor, sweet precious overgrown babies currently studying in Sydney that miss their mommies so much even though they basically jet back-and-forth to Indonesia as often as they like. These babies are really precious, they need their mommies to kiss them good night, tuck them, buy them new Vuitton multicolour carrying bag for their precious little Pomeranians, and read them good bedtime stories and nursery rhymes about three little piggies that goes to Prada in Via Condotti to buy some Striped Nappa tote bags.

I love it when my mom comes to Sydney for a short visit (a long visit is a whole 'nother story - it's a dreadful story, to be precise - my mom's not the easiest person and is very, very high maintenance. Well, not really high maintenance, but let's just say that she NEEDS a LOT of things. Crazy things. Like a Fortnum & Mason rosy periwinkle tea with cardamom infusion served with brown swizzle sticks).
The upside is, I get to hear lots of juicy gossips men are shameful to admit that they actually LIKE to hear. Like which tai - tai got a tummy tuck, who got a new 8-carat princess cut VVS-grade solitaire diamond ring, whose husband cheated on who, and who spent 3 days locking herself in the bathroom crying like hell with 10 bottles of Moet & Chandon.

Anyway, as with all good not-yet-on-payroll son, I consider my mom's visit to Sydney as an opportunity to extort and abuse her credit card. This includes eating out in places I wouldn't normally just casually decide to dine at. Like Guillaume at Bennelong.

The place is very nice, the food is of course, legendary, but the main concern here is its location. It's situated at the very tip of Bennelong Point, i.e, at the one and only, the iconic Sydney Opera House. Restaurant-wise, I could not imagine a more prestigious location for an eatery in Sydney. The view is indeed spectacular, and it's one of those special places you want to reserve for special occasions only, no matter how much money you've got, because location-wise, in Sydney, it doesn't get any better than this.

Being in Guillaume's carries the same air as being in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York, or the Russian Tea Room. Although Guillaume doesn't have the same historical value as the two restaurants in NYC, it is still located in one of the most iconic buildings in the world. And coupled with the excellent award-winning menu, it's definitely worth what you're paying for.

Rive Droite - Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

Salmon Napoleon avec chervil et Kumquat Vinaigre

-> Excellent. I used to think that salmon is just not great cooked - and better eaten raw, but this dish just proved me wrong. It's tangy, tart, and exquisite. The vinaigrette softens the fish, and made it more succulent.

Fillet de boeuf "angus grille", facon rossini, gratin dauphinois, sauce au vinaigre balsamique

-> Grilled angus fillet Rossini style, gratin dauphinois, with balsamic vinaigrette sauce. Just lovely. At first, I expected the vinaigrette to overpower the beef, but I was mistaken. It's quite subtle with a hint of sourness, and the way the beef seems to be roasted, then grilled just improves the texture dramatically whilst at the same time locking the flavor. Perfection.

Note:
Light dinner with Cynthia.
Exquisite restaurant at Lan Kwai Fong, frequented by expats (basically, Lan Kwai Fong is like Hong Kong's equivalent to Jakarta's Kemang). The wine list is impressive (12 pages)! I ordered the 2000 Gewurtztraminer from Alsace. I am no wine expert, but I think it goes well with the food. Gewurtztraminer is very sweet, and I kind of like the combination between the sweetness of the wine and the sourness of the dishes (from the vinaigrette).

The crowd was very stylish and smart-casual, with many colorful dresses, very Sex and the City. No tai-tais, surprisingly.

"Rive Droite" is the restaurant's name, and there's an adjoining bar called "Rive Gauche". I actually wanted to hang out at the bar, which is absolutely stylish and happening, but I had to catch a flight tomorrow so I decided to go back to the hotel instead.

Le Petit Paris - IFC, Central, Hong Kong

Arugula salad with Sauce Japonnaise, crab confit, prawn, and caviar

Wagyu Fillet Mignon au jus with sauce noir, champignon and seared asparagus.

-> The beef is grilled to perfection, medium rare (the way I like it), and the aroma is just fantastic. Good cuts of meat is just like gold - the quality depends on how much you pay for it.

Such a pretentious place. Incredibly high-brow. Kind of felt awkward to dine alone, since the three tables surrounding me were occupied with lovey-dovey couples that made me feel like such a loser. Thank god nobody proposed, or I'll just leave the place.
Prices are astronomical. That dinner set is almost as expensive as the degustation at Tetsuya's (Cla!! take me to Tetsuya's!!!)

Pepper Lunch - Shibuya, Tokyo

Not much to tell here, just your regular ol' Pepper Lunch. Just an info, Pepper Lunch in Tokyo uses ticket jihanki (vending machine) for ordering, just like described in my previous post.

Shimofuri Steak

Dining Bar KASUMI - Sydney

Izakaya-style cuisine.

There's this group of Japanese salarymen that hit on this innocent-looking waitress.

Salaryman: "Neechannnn...namae wa nan-sska??" (what's your name, miss??)
Waitress (in surprisingly HEAVY, DEEP voice): "Ayano desu." (Ayano.)

*awkward silence*



Wafu Steak Set
-> The dipping sauce was so yummy.



Yaki Udon

Cafe C'ya - Sydney

Perfect little lunch.

Hamburg Steak. Korean Style.

Meat Wine & Co.

Andri's Dinner.

Mixed Bread


Grilled Chicken Breast.

Classic Burger.

Prawns and Steak Skewers.

Sauvignon Blanc.

Fiji Still.


p.s. happy birthday ! <3