CHEFS GALLERY, SYDNEY

I've been so sick in the past 3 weeks and to top it all off, there was more than just 1 type of sickness.

First week I came back from Sydney (AGAIN!!! This is my fifth visit in the past 4 years), I fell sick the next day because of exhaustion. Well, when we went to Sydney, we didn't hire a car so we pretty much relied on our feet power and walked pretty much everywhere. I am used to walking in Melbourne and in Malaysia (when I used to live there). When I was younger, my parents couldn't afford holidays that are too costly and too far so we travelled around Southeast Asia most of the time and my parents, my sister and I would walk everywhere from dawn to sunset and beyond. So in a way, I was trained from a very young age to walk everywhere and wouldn't feel tired. Fast forward, 13 years have gone by and admittedly, my body is not as strong as it used to be (Yes, I am an old lady now that I possibly need a walking stick soon). I still can walk for miles but of course my body takes the toll the next day or the day after or when my body recognises it's time to rest, then it registers that it is overworked. As a result, I fell sick. 

Silly me, knowing I wasn't feeling well, I went to the gym anyway and the next day, my body was aching and the flu kicked in. After I recovered from the flu, I had a friend came over from my hometown for a week holiday and I fell sick again from eating too much! There is actually such thing as falling sick from overeating. Imagine this, I went out for dinner every single night with my friends for the entire week. Trust me, you WILL get sick from eating out too much. 

Back to the reason why I was so exhausted from my Sydney trip and I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. Although I walk so much in Melbourne, Sydney's CBD is a lot bigger than Melbourne CBD (Central Business Districts). It's almost 3-4 times bigger than Melbourne's city and to help you picture it, Melbourne CBD can be described to look like a square shape whereas Sydney CBD is a rectangular one, so the streets stretch longer and more dense. After 2 days of pure walking and carrying tripod around, my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off from the joints. I was flat out. We probably should've rented a car but parking would be a hassle and expensive although public transportations weren't cheap either in Sydney. We tried to justify by thinking that we would be able to appreciate the scenery more and we would know our way around more than just relying on GPS. There were many instances when we walked into the wrong street and we discovered something else better. 

Since I've been to Sydney so many times, my fifth visit concentrated more on hunting for amazing food. After several years of on and off blogging, I realised that whenever I visit a good restaurant, I really want to share it (although I tend to ramble too much). So I've decided to share my food adventure whenever I encounter food that is share-worthy. There is just so much good food to share around and I'm not even getting paid for it! I'm just so passionate about good food. 

Now, I know what defines as good food is very subjective and it depends on individual preferences so what I deem as good, you may not agree. So, feel free to disagree and if you do agree, good!! 

I went to a number of restaurants whilst I was there but I will only pick one to write a review on. It is this popular Chinese restaurant called Chefs Gallery. The food there is simply amazing. What really impressed me was the fact that they make simple and familiar food taste extraordinary. There is that extra "X" factor and I must say, this restaurant is by far, in my top 3 Chinese food category. A lot of Chinese restaurants in Australia serve very average tasting food that is overpriced and super oily. I rarely come across a Chinese restaurant that makes me feel like "Wahhhhh". With no doubt though, a Chinese restaurant with average tasting food combined with good location always do pretty well (on average) but Chefs Gallery proves that great taste with great location create a phenomenon. 

First of all, the queue was unbelievable. Correction, when I was in Sydney, there was a vivid light show festival going on for that particular long weekend (it was during Queen's Birthday). So, the usually jam packed city was even more jam packed and everywhere you go, there was an extremely long queue outside pretty much all the popular restaurants even when you already made a booking! We didn't make any reservation before we walked in Chefs Gallery, it was a serendipity because we planned to have dinner elsewhere but the queue was way too long and we couldn't be bothered. The queue was extremely long in front of Chefs Gallery as well but La Boyfriend wanted to try so we waited for about 15-20 minutes for a seat which wasn't such a bad waiting time at all. Partly because inside the restaurant, it is very spacious so it can fit many patrons at once. 

In the beginning, I was a bit cautious because when the wait staff brought out the dishes to the patrons, they all looked really ordinary. For a second, I must admit I doubted my decision for walking into this restaurant because the last thing I wanted was spending my last night in Sydney eating ordinary meal that I can easily get in Melbourne. To my surprise, I was not disappointed at all. The noodles are well known here because they are handmade, each to their own and they are extremely delicate not like many self proclaimed "hand made noodles" which taste horrible and texture wise, are just too rough and thick. I did keep my expectation low when I heard about their hand made noodles. 

We ordered shredded peking duck with cucumber, hoisin sauce rolled inside a Chinese roti $16.90. 

It wasn't the best I've ever tasted in Australia. If you want to go all the way out, Peking duck with Chinese thin pancake is better than this because for me, it feels like it is half half effort. As in, the roti is a bit too thick and it covers the beautiful taste of the shredded duck and the fresh cucumber. If the roti was thinner, maybe it would taste a lot better. It wasn't too bad and it is amongst the popular entreé in this restaurant when I was browsing urbanspoon. The shredded peking duck was not fragrant enough for me to take notice that I was eating peking duck. 

The next dish had me swallowed back my own words.. 

La Boyfriend ordered spinach handmade thick noodles wok fried with prawns, mussels in shell, baby calamari tubes, Chinese Shitake mushrooms, dusted with seaweed & sesame powder. 

The handmade spinach noodles tasted amazing! You could taste dedication and passion poured to this dish and it makes you feel personalised. Makes you feel homey. La Boyfriend loves it and until this day, he is still raving non stop about it to everyone. I love how they topped it off with sesame seed and seaweed "powder". The seafood was fresh and they gave some pretty generous amount of calamari and mussels. The noodles were not flakey when I chewed on it and it didn't taste flourish (I'm trying to describe it at my best, so I do apologise if you're frowning when you're reading it and trying to imagine how they taste like). It was simply flavoursome!!! and of course there is no artificial colouring agent used, just from natural ingredients, mainly green vegetables (i.e. spinach, duh!!!)

As for me, I chose prawn and pork wontons handmade noodles served with mince chicken and chopped lettuce in a Shanghainese style spicy sauce $14.90.

Again, hat's off to the chef for their amazing handmade noodles. These noodles are a bit different from the spinach noodles because the spinach noodles are flat and wide similar to kwey teow noodles whereas the noodles I had were round and skinny. Stupid me forgot to actually take a photo of the noodles to show you guys what I mean. It's similar to spaghetti noodles just to give you a better idea. It's not egg noodles though bear in mind.

This dish is pretty spicy so for anyone who shuns away from spiciness then this is not your cup of tea. It's a bit like eating sizhuan dish (in terms of the spiciness). This dish doesn't have the infamous "sizhuan pepper" though, it is spicy in a different level. I'm a huge fan of spicy dishes because I'm from Indonesia so I love anything that's spicy. The wontons and mince meat just went so well that theu created a symphony in this particular dish. I literally could hear music when I took my first bite. The wontons meat was generous and the skin was not too thick so you could really taste the flavoursome prawn and pork meat and the size of it was pretty humongous too (value for you money)!

I did skull down a couple of glasses of water whilst consuming this dish but I was addicted to the spicy taste despite the burning sensation on my tongue. Overall these 2 dishes deserve my 7.9 ratings out of 10. That's a very weird rating eh? but I'm not ready to give out an 8 out of 10 ratings just yet.

To cool down the spicy aftertaste, we ordered something more soothing and sweet, who wants dessert???

We had black sesame ice cream with red bean paste and pearl dumplings.  We actually were dying to order this really popular piggy bun filled with black sesame paste but they sold out!!!! It was one of the most popular desserts in Chefs Gallery. Oh well, what can we do, it's not like the head chef could especially make us one as if we were some important people. Nevermind, I would settle for this ice cream instead and it was also amazing!

First of all, I love black sesame dessert, so I may be biased with my opinion but the entire combination of black sesame ice cream, red bean paste and pearl dumplings (mochi) are just too good!!! It wasn't too sweet at all and it wasn't too filling either so in case if your main fill you up quickly, you can definitely fit in this dessert because it was pretty light and you can share it :) All these 3 combinations are my favourite, so I'm definitely bias!!

Overall, I had an extremely wonderful experience dining in this restaurant and I would love to return to try many more dishes. Maybe next time :) Below are the details of where you can find this restaurant and don't be like us, make a reservation beforehand! Good Luck!

Aangan, A Taste of India

It's been awhile and I know I mentioned something about writing a post about my trip to Hanging Rock on Anzac Day like almost 2 months ago! I've just been so busy with catching up with friends, watching too many TV shows, like GAME OF THRONES?? OMG, who doesn't watch Game of Thrones?? I believe many people still haven't gotten themselves onto GoT yet but trust me, if you haven't yet, stop reading this and go watch GoT now!! Maybe after you finish reading my post first :) BEWARE!! You may get addicted to watching it that you forget anything else. For me, I'm up to date with the show so I only spare 1 hour every Monday night to watch one episode but I have so many other TV shows to catch up on :( Anyways, life is too short (cliché) so sitting all night long watching TV is a waste of time. For me, seeing my friends and catching up with people I haven't seen for so long and maintaining/building more network of social circle is more important. Not that I'm anywhere as good as those posh socialites. I just love socialising, period. Judge me all you want.

Back to the main content of this post...
Last week, my boyfriend and I were having a first world problem trying to decide between having pizza for dinner or Indian food. After a seemingly long period of time, we locked in on Indian food. Through a friend's recommendation, we checked out this hot spot in West Footscray area where it's known as little Mumbai. There are quite some selections of Indian restaurants and most of them, if not all of them cater to vegans so it's definitely a plus point for all vegans!! It is located on the main street of Barkly street. Click here to find out more details in regards to menu and location.

I must say, they are extremely clever in utilising the space of the restaurant. It's not too cramped and it is quite spacious inside. When you first arrived at the front of the restaurant, you won't be able to find the entrance because the entrances are locked. There is a wait staff who's standing outside all the time to greet customers and guide them to this extremely narrow hallway where you will enter the restaurant from the side door. When you see it, you know what I'm talking about. So look out for a staff when you arrive, don't try to open any door you see because you'll most probably look like an idiot.

The wait staff there are all very well groomed and greet you in a professional manner, which nowadays are very hard to find when you eat in a semi-casual restaurant. People say when you pay peanut, you get monkey which I do have to agree at some stage.. Well, most of the time. Especially when you eat in Chinese restaurant. Service is not their priority because they get customers regardless of their service as long as the food is good and cheap. HOWEVER, wouldn't it be nice to have both??? Win win solution!! I don't think cheap food with great taste comes with amazing service.. That's very rare if it does. I personally probably have encountered less than 5 times in my lifetime of eating out almost everyday and no, I don't always eat somewhere fancy all the time.

I love Indian food (one of my all time favourite food) and there are some really good one in the city but I'm getting sick of them because I live in the city, so I wanted to explore more in the outer suburbs and I tried once in Blackburn but it was extremely disappointing and also very pricey. When you see too many Australians in any Asian restaurant, you probably can guess that the food is not authentic enough. You want something that's close to what you can experience back at home or what you can assume to be like on the other side of the world. Once, I walked into a semi fine dining Chinese restaurant in China Town and when I saw the entire place was filled with Australians and even the manager was Australian, I walked out immediately. That's one of the signs that you shouldn't be paying double the price for less adequate food. I hope nobody takes it the wrong way as I have seen and tasted some amazing fusion food but it has to be fusion food not claiming to be authentic Asian food.

I miss the time when I was in Malaysia where Indian food was widely available and easily accessible plus affordable. My friends would call me up in the middle of the night (at 12 am or sometimes even past 12 am) and we would hang out at "mamak" eateries. Mamak is the word to describe casual eateries with outdoor seatings and you can literally turn up with pyjamas on. It is a casual hangout place with good and cheap food. I miss those here as nothing is open after certain hour and the cafés are different from there. What's lacking is that casual atmosphere. Not that I have anything to complain about over here but don't we all agree there is a lack of diversity in terms of café style. After a while, everything looks pretty much the same, as in they serve pretty much the same thing.

Ok, I have strayed too far away from the main star in this post. Aangan has one of the best Indian food I have ever tried in Melbourne. Hence, I spared some time to do a blog post on this restaurant. The staff was very friendly and he even helped these two helpless souls to order some food based on his recommendations (and of course depending on what you like personally). I rarely eat lamb except when I eat Indian food or Greek because the meat is a lot more flavoursome and it doesn't stink. I don't generally like the smell, only if it is cooked right.

As we sat down on our seats, we were greeted by 1 serve of Papadum (fried flour made of chick peas, lentils, rice/potato and other vegetable ingredients). The serving was for 2 people and it came with 2 types of sauce too (red and green chutneys). The red one tastes a bit sweet and sour combo which I don't quite fancy but I like the green one, just a slight hint of mint). The papadum was so yum and crispy I can literally eat 20 of those. One of my favourite snacks when it comes to Indian food. You usually can get it from Indian take away shops for free (if you buy rice with dish combo that is).

We ordered samosa to start with because that's one of the most popular entreé in most Indian restaurants. The best I had so far (strangely), is at Vegie Bar, which is a FUSION vegan restaurant in Fitzroy. The samosa was very nicely done and went extremely well with their sour cream and mint chutney sauce (widely known as the green sauce)  and since my samosa experience there, I can hardly ever find a samosa that can beat the top #1 rank in my food dictionary where Vegie Bar's samosa holds at present.

This samosa is pretty good, better than average as it was very crispy on the outside and it was very flavoursome. The potato inside was not overcooked and too mushy. The texture of diced potato was just right and that's the way I like it. It was for me, a 7 out of 10 for the samosa.

I had some time to kill while waiting for our food so I had a look around. Looked at what other people ordered and the interior of the restaurant. The restaurant has a very nice set up and honestly, most Indian restaurants I've been, have some really nice decoration that says a lot about their rich culture and diversity. It would be very interesting to learn a little bit about their history given they speak so many different dialects and yea, although they may look and sound the same, they come from different parts of India, different dialects, different background, different ancestors but they all want to share a piece of their hometown here in Australia, So stop saying they're all the same, just like all Asians look the same to Westerners but no we're not all the same. Likewise, you won't like it if I think all Westerners look the same because there is a difference and trust me, I wouldn't know this if I was still living under my parents' wings in my comfortable house back at home. Throughout my life here in Australia, I have seen and learned a lot from all sorts of people because you can meet all kinds of people here. It is a melting pot and this mediator enables people to meet people from other parts of the world.

I strayed away again.. Quickly snapped some photos from the inside of the restaurant because almost 85% of the patrons were Indians, I didn't want to be seen like an idiot. Typical Asian (taking a photo of everything I mean).

We also ordered a rose lassi (a type of beverage). Lassi is a blend of yogurt, spices, water and choice of fruit. I really love mango lassi, one of my favourite drinks of all time but that night, we decided to try something different. A rose lassi and trust me, it literally tasted like rose... Well, no I don't know how a rose petal tastes like but it smells like one hence your sense of smell tricks your brain into believing a rose petal would taste like what you smell.

Then comes the main.. We ordered Chicken Madras Curry in mild sauce because La Boyfriend cannot take anything more than mild spiciness. So rather than watching him suffer, we both agreed that we would order mild instead and thank goodness that we ordered mild and not medium because as a chili lover myself, I think it was pretty spicy. I cannot imagine how spicy it would be if we ordered a spicy one!!! Oh man, I've got another story to tell, I went to eat Fukuryu Ramen in China Town with my girlfriend and they have something called "Dragon" ramen and boy, that ramen was a challenge to all chilli lovers out there. If anyone can handle the spiciness without feeling a burn sensation in their stomach, I will kneel and bow to you LOL I'm gonna save it for next time if I ever have the courage to try. I did get free a green tea ice cream in the end because we posted a selfie and hashtagged instagram.

Ordered a couple of garlic naan bread and some saffron rice to go with it. I must say the curry was super yum and the chicken tasted amazing with the curry. The only thing I wished was for the serve to be bigger :D

The garlic naan bread was pretty oily but boy it was filled with yummy goodness!! It was definitely very garlic - ky and the bread was soft to the touch. Me want some right now!!!!!! It was quite oily though so maybe use some clean tissue paper to absorb the excess oil (like who would do that??)  I do have friends who press out oil out of McDonald's french fries with tissue paper and I was taken completely by surprise that there are people in the world who would do this while eating french fries????

The saffron rice was very fragranced and it went so well with the curry because the rice was so light unlike normal jasmine rice which would fill your stomach quicker than saffron rice.

My overall experience in Aangan was very impressive considering I didn't have much expectation before I stepped in. Well, it's true what people say I guess.. Always keep your expectation low but if you want to succeed, maintain a high if not, higher expectation. That way you will keep striving for success but when you fail, take it with pride and thrive again.

For all I had there, the total cost for the food was only $33.50 so it wasn't that expensive compared to the Indian restaurant I visited in Blackburn. Costed way more than that and tasted average.

If there is any suggestion on restaurants I must try, please leave a comment down below.

Until the next food venture...
P.S: I'm going to Sydney for more food venture this weekend, yesssssss!!! Although I've been to Sydney so many times, I never blog on the food there so I'll take my chance this time. Wish me luck!!