Ms G's @ Potts Point

Date night and it was my turn to choose a place. I've been hinting that I wanted to try Ms G's out for a long time now so I thought why not?! I had heard the decor was quite nice but I didn't think it was this rustic and sexy! 

The bar area.

Ms G's consists of 4 floors (5 if you include the toilets).

It feels like a gypsy or fortune teller's house.

Sunday night. Not bad.

I really liked this wall decor.

We got some drinks while waiting for our table. The Man got the Ju Jube Martini. It was quite strong but had a sweet aftertaste.

Jimmy's Blue Tai. I don't know if it was because we were hungry but this was also strong.

All aboard!

Mismatching plates.

Mini banh mi - pork belly and chicken katsu. The pork belly had more flavour but the katsu was more fun to eat because of the crunchiness in the middle. The sauce reminded me of all the Vietnamese rolls I used to eat during my HSC year.

Katsu. So adorable.

Calamari & snow crab salad with yuzu & miso ranch dressing. Now this one was a favourite. Mixed among the abundant snow crabs were sweet apple slices which balanced the otherwise smooth texture nicely. Crunchy fried noodle pieces were also a nice touch.

The dressing wasn't overpowering and the apple and herbs added extra flavour.

Egg noodles with XO sauce, braised duck, poached egg. When I read this, I thought of the duck noodles from Chat Thai and imagined it to have that sweet tamarind flavour. The only similarity between the two dishes were the noodles. The dish served at Ms G's was sticky from the poached egg and had a lighter flavour.

Mixing. The duck was a bit cold and would have been better if it was more oily.

Snapper, mushrooms, Konnyaku noodles, herbs, tamarind. The soup was absolutely delicious. It was spicy and slightly sour. I was never a fan of tom yum but this soup was sweeter and I loved it. It was the perfect dish to warm us up during that cold night.

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Lady Longan paddle shot. This didn't taste alcoholic at all. It was so sweet, I could have had it as juice.

Ms G's fried chicken chops. Honestly, I was quite disappointed with this dish. It was just fried chicken, something I've had a lot at Korean restaurants. The spicy Korean ones had too thick a coat and the flavour was too heavy? should I say. They mimicked it but the sauce just wasn't right.

My favourite time - dessert!

Stoner's delight 2.0 - a sweet tooth's dream or nightmare. Doughnut ice cream, Mars bar pieces, candied bacon, peanut butter, raspberry jam, potato chips, banana fritter.

My favourite part about this dish were the chips. They were glued together with caramel or butterscotch and although I knew it was bad for me, I couldn't resist the crunchy sweet-savouriness. The Man loved the Mars bars, which were more like homemade rice crispy bars. I was especially excited about the candied bacon, having seen so much of it in the Epic Meal Time videos. It was so strange - beautifully caramelized on the outside but with an aftertaste of salty bacon.

Eating this dish was like being on an adventure. Everything was new and you didn't know what to expect until you tried it.

But.... sorry but the prize for best dessert, no best dish goes to Ms G's lemon tart! Lemon curd, streusel, lemon granita, mascarpone sorbet... It was heaven. I normally don't like sour desserts but this was the perfect mixture between sweet and sour, soft and crunchy. Every bite was like fireworks of lemon with a sweet and mellow ending. I loved this so much that I took my family a few days later just to have this.

It was a lovely night with lovely food. The staff were attentive even though the restaurant was quite full. They don't take bookings except for Friday and Sunday lunch so you may have to wait for larger groups. The wait shouldn't be much of a problem because you can sip and chat at their bar area! 

Pent Thai @ Epping

Pent Thai has been at Epping for several years now. I haven't been here very often despite its proximity because I always went to West Ryde instead. We were feeling lazy but hungry so we decided to try Pent Thai. 

From the outside it looks quite fancy. The Man was wearing his trackies so he was reluctant to go inside. The atmosphere inside, however, is cozy and the dim lighting makes sure that you're focused on your food and your friends. They also do free deliver for orders over $30 so I know where I'll be ordering from next ;)

Chef's specials. The Man got the Crying BBQ pork (funny name) and I got a traditional pad siew with tofu.

Very nice interior. Simple, but elegant.

Pad siew. It was extremely sweet. The noodles were nice and greasy, not sticking to each other, and the there were enough vegetables in there for some fun chewing times.

 The tofu was soft and silky, not those hard cheesy ones that other places normally use.

The Man's dish certainly was the victor of the night. The tender pork pieces are tossed in a ginger & lemongrass soy-based sauce with tangy spring onions to keep it light. It reminds me of this dish I tried in Thailand, where the street vendor tossed all the ingredients in a bowl and mixed it up. Simple, but full of flavour.

Crying BBQ pork. Interesting name, interesting flavours.

My Korea trip!

Wow it's been ages since I last blogged! The past few months seemed to have whizzed by so busily with uni, hospital and work. I've had 9-5 days, 5 days a week, then work or gym afterwards so I basically had no time to try new places. How terrible! I've also been to Korea a couple of times because my great granny was ill so I also have Korean culinary delights to share with you all!

Choo-uh-tang. According to the dictionary, the eel in this is called a 'Chinese muddy loach'. It's a small eel-like looking thing that's high in iron. In Korea, people are quite conscious of their health and often have dishes such as these to rejuvenate their health.

Chung-gook-jang. Made with grounded fermented soybeans, it's a stronger dish than the dwen-jang-jjigae families normally eat. Because of its strong smell and flavour, there are many Koreans who can't eat this which is quite unfortunate because I personally love this! This soup also has special health boosters - protects against various cancers, strokes, and dementia, strengthens the liver, regulates the blood pressure, good for the skin etc. I'm not sure how many of these you'll need to eat to see this effects but it feels good knowing that you're eating something healthy :)

Baskin Robbins. Korean Baskin Robbins has very interesting flavours you wouldn't see elsewhere. This one is called 'My Mom's an Alien'. Among the vanilla/chocolate ice cream are little chocolate balls. Oh so good

One of the things I miss the most about Korea are their pizzas. The bread is soft and chewy, the cheese is stringy, and there are so many flavours to choose from! My personal favourite - the sweet potato pizza. The Pizza Huts sell them with a hill of sweet potato around the circumference. Yum!

These noodles are made with buckwheat. They also serve buckwheat tea which has this lovely roasted flavour that warms you up straightaway. 

My aunt ordered the spicy one - no soup, just veggies to mix with.

The owner knew my grandpa so she gave us free mandoo (dumplings) :)

My aunt's dog. So adorable.

At home, we like to gather around and grill meat then wrap them in various leaves with sauces and other marinated veggies in them.

After we grill the meat, we put the sweet potatoes in the fire. They are the best when they are roasted straight from the fire. Super sweet and crunchy.

Some of the things I bought at a rest stop. There are rest stops every 5 km or so along the highways to prevent fatigue and accidents.

Brown rice + chamma, a potato like vegetable.

Boong-uh-bbang. It's so weird trying to write the words in English. These are originally fish-shaped red bean cakes they sell on the streets. Here, they used pastry instead so it was crunchy and buttery. I ate them all by myself :p

Restaurants in Korea give a lot of banchan (side dishes).

Mixed rice + chung-gook-jang.

You mix some of this spicy octopus stir fry with the rice. It was very, very spicy so the owner gave us a carton of this sweet milky drink.

Korean-Chinese restaurant. They had a dragon in the middle.

Sadly, I didn't take many photos here so I only have one dish to share - tang-soo-yook. They're basically fried pork pieces and veggies with a sweet and sour sauce.

This restaurant made me feel like I was at a traditional hay home.

They had rooms for every group. Like any other restaurant, they had a lot of side dishes. We grilled meat (which isn't really special so I didn't upload any photos) and the guys had buckwheat noodles to finish off as is custom.

Ox tongue and ox stomach. I wasn't brave enough to try.

Baskin Robbins family pack.

More grilling.

This place is famous for their kal-gook-soo, noodle soups. We got the bossam which are steamed pork bellies to share. You grab a piece, add some kimchi and maybe some tofu.

The noodle soup. The soup is made from seaweed and clams so you get a beautiful, deep flavour from the broth. This bowl, as you can see, is humongous and we ordered two bowls of these. As expected, we couldn't finish it.

Seafood! This was the first time eating live octupus. They were stills squirming when they brought it out. I thought it wouldn't be difficult to eat but it was deliciously coated in sesame oil so it went down very easily.

Abalone. Chewy and delicious. In the small plate are the intestines.

The main dish! Seafood soup. Mussels, abalone, clams, calamari... The soup was my favourite as it was spicy and glutinous.

Seafood jjigae.

After we finished the meal, they used the remaining soup to fry some rice. They press it down so the bottom sticks to the pan and becomes extra sticky and crunchy.

This was at the airport waiting for our flight. The golden bowl contains yook-hwae, raw beef. The side dishes were quite impressive.

You put the rice with the raw beef and veggies and mix them with the spicy chili paste. It's a type of bibimbap.

My mom got the galchi-jungshik. Jungshik means set in Korean. Galchi (hairtail) is that flat piece of fish.

My dish was the nuh-bi-a-ni jungshik. Nuh-bi-ani is a royal dish they used to eat inside the palace. It's a marinaded grilled meat dish that tastes similar to galbi.

This is only a fraction of what I ate! Thanks to my family for making sure I was happy and fed :) I really do live to eat.