[Brisbane] Hello! Kyochon

KyoChon
Shp3/ 581 Beenleigh Rd
Sunnybank Hills
QLD 4109

Utterly disappointed with my lunch at Ryutaro, I drove over to Beenleigh Road to change my food luck.

KyoChon is a fried chicken chain shop from Korea.

I was so excited when I saw the teeny tiny ad in local free Chinese newspaper. Must try! Fried chicken from Korea? Hmmm, I wonder how they compare to my favourite karaage and spicy KFC fried chicken (KFC in Oz sucks).

menu


Soy marinated chicken


Spicy marinated chicken

I always get half soy marinated and half spicy ($28, happy hour 12-16.30 $20). These Korean fried chicken were indeed very good. No wonder they had a even bigger market share in Korea than KFC. These are really finger licking good.

My favourite has got to be the soy marinated. Don't be fooled by the normal looking fried chicken exterior. The meat were well marinated and reeked of garlic (I love!) with a spicy crunchy coating! Wow, the flavour packed a punch.

Your order will come with a free pickled daikon (radish). I noticed a rice cooker by the side of the fridge. I suppose they serve cooked rice for free too as there is no rice on the menu.

Ahhhhh, I heart fried chicken.

[Brisbane] Ryutaro Japanese Food

Ryutaro
Sunnybank Plaza Foodcourt




Spicy ramen with chicken teriyaki AUD7.50

An impulse order when I had no idea what to eat.

I wished I hadn't even considered it.

I waited for an eternity (40 minutes) for a bowl of mushy noodles (I wonder if I look like I needed denture?), bland soup with chilli flakes. I don't even want to start on the chicken ............

Determined to change my food luck, I then drove over to Sunnybank Hills to get my favourite fried chicken.

[Brisbane] Landmark Restaurant, Sunnybank

Landmark
Sunnybank Plaza
Shop 101
Mains Rd
Sunnybank 4109 QLD

Dinner with Big King's colleagues at Landmark Chinese Restaurant at Sunnybank Plaza Shopping Centre.

Do not be put off by Chinese joint located in a suburb's shopping centre. This place is very popular with the locals with queues forming even on a weekday.

This place serves yum cha and lunch and dinner. Though I must say it's not my favourite place for yum cha even with the novelty of trolley carts.

We had the mudcrab/lobster set menu for six persons. Lobster was chosen for ease of consumption.

Lobster in spring onion sauce


Fried chicken with crispy garlic


Greens with century egg, salted egg and the usual egg


Steamed fish topped with pickled olive leaves

I have never had pickled olive leaves before but they tasted nice with the fish.


Fish maw with assorted vegetables

The above were default dishes for the set menu for 4 persons. For 6 persons, you get to choose two more dishes from a choice of eight (bottom menu pic). If you can't read Chinese but want to order from the menu, do ask the wait staff to explain.

We chose to have clams and pork.


Steamed clams with mung bean vermicelli and garlic

I like this dish the best, the clams were sweet and plump and the vermicelli was very tasty as they had soaked up the sweet juices of the clam.


Pork in OK sauce

Now I haven't a clue what this OK sauce is, it tasted sweet and savoury. Scattered round the plate was some canned fruits. Weird.

The meal ended with a fruit plate (watermelon soaked in syrup) and a sweet soup (sweet barley soup with eggs). I find the idea of eggs in sweet soup off-putting.

[Gold Coast] Absynthe Bakery

Absynthe Bakery
Circle On Cavill
Shop 16, 3184 Surfers Paradise Boulevarde
Surfers Paradise, 4217

After lunch at Kimchee House, we crossed the road to Circle on Cavill.

We aim to have coffee and cake at Absynthe Bakery.

Heard so much good things about this French bakey on Gold Coast.

Ordered 'today's special':-cup of coffee and strawberry mascarpone tart/vanilla cake for AUD7.95 plus a mini croissant.

Mmmm *cough* *clear throat*, those bread and hot pies looks OK, I suppose I might give them a try if I pass by next time XD.

Boarding a boat during winter on a full tummy is a BAD idea.

Sea was rough and when we go out into the sea, we were against the waves.

Oh my gosh, I got very sea-sick and everything I had since morning all went into a sick bag >_<.

The passengers on the boat were a sight, there were people who were even sicker than me and did no less than 5!!! sick bags, some even rolled around on the floor and others lie flat everywhere.

But it was a fruitful day, the very friendly whales swam all around us and did their jumping shows.

The crews were very friendly and helpful handing out sea-sick tablets and sick bags, pat people's back, threw away their sick bags.

Despite being sea-sick, it was still a worthwhile thing to do. It's once in a lifetime thing, only because I wouldn't do it next time XD.

[Gold Coast] Kimchee House

Kimchee House
Shop 11
Lido Arcade
Surfers Paradise Boulevard

Bro-in-law and wife were in Brissie at the start of whale-watching season.

Off we went to Gold Coast to look-see, let them do their tourist stuff around Surfers Paradise and catch 'Mahi Mahi' after lunch time for our whale-watching session.

Before boarding the vessel, we had a simple Korean meal at Kimchee House.

BIG MISTAKE No.1!

The undigested food later all came up in 'Mahi Mahi' *shudder*. No more boat trip for me. Not even cruise. No no.

Lunch special menu

Kimchi fried rice

Pork bibimbap

Food was quite bland and I had to add quite a lot of chilli sauce to go with my rice.

After lunch, we walked to Circle on Cavill for some coffee and cake.

BIG MISTAKE NO.2!

For it all came back up too in 'Mahi Mahi'.

Orz...

[Mooloolaba] Mooloolaba Fish Market

Mooloolaba Fish Market
Parkyn Parade
Mooloolaba

If you ever make a trip to the Sunshine Coast, do make a stop at Mooloolaba Fish Market. It's a fish retail shop cum fish and chip takeaway. Or you can opt for the Grill upstairs which serves up fancier seafood dishes.

We ordered from the takeaway counter and had our seafood upstairs in the deck overlooking the river.

Left to right: Grilled oysters in mornay sauce, reef fish and chips, scallops and calamari

Especially good were the reef fish (special on that day with chips for AUD7.95, bargain!) and calamari.

Mooloolaba's beach is worth a visit and there is a row of shops and restaurants right on beachfront on The Esplanade.

The place gets very busy during school holidays as mooloolaba is famous as a surfers' beach so book ahead.

Rot in hell

Bumped my car yesterday!

Rot in hell!

可惡該死的無良車主/driver
祝事事倒楣,不得好死

***********

BLACK SUNDAY, yesterday was.

What a letdown and utter disappointment last night's Masterchef Australia's finale was.

Next season they should just called themselves MASTERCOOK!

Does the market need another '101 ways with roasts and potatoes (with occasional 2 vegs thrown in)' cookbook?????

Or another neighbourhood 'homestyle cafe'??????

Die hard fan of winner can't wait to lay their hands on the winner's cookbook???? On roasts and potatoes ALL swimming in anything but BROWN sauce/gravy??? Then again there might not be any roasts as roasts are BROWN!!!!

Pale looking aka NOT BROWN roasts on cover hastily put together and anything but BROWN roast potatoes on the cover sounds enticing???

Come-on man, be serious!! Those fans must really be utterly desperate indeed!!!

I am sure the winner is a nice and jolly good person, I must be clear here I am not criticizing/attacking the winner's character or dignity, just letdown with the show's gimmicks and tactics. Utterly ridiculous.

I don't have a particular favourite contestant on the Masterchef show. I enjoyed watching the challenges and masterclasses but even last night's finale and the one episode with Donna Hay left me fuming!

[Brisbane] Edamame

Last visit (several months ago) to Edamame, there was this special board on okonomiyaki (might be wrong spelling but I am sure you know what this is) done all sorts of way.

Hmmm, decided to play safe and go for the chicken.

Fried noodles (soft, mushy) topped with a piece of plain pancake/crepe? thing and topped again with few pieces of teriyaki chicken with mayo and some tangy sauce drizzled all over.

[Home Cooking] Egg Pancake. Apple Tarte Tartin

Chinese style savoury egg pancake

Savoury pancake with spring onions topped with omelette and cheese or tuna or whatever you fancy.

Apple tarte tartin with vanilla ice-cream

Watching Masterchef got me eager to try out some of the recipes featured.

Recipe click here apple tarte tartin.

Last night's macaron and caramel panna cotta has got me very excited indeed and I'll attempt the recipe soon. I need to get my hands on a sugar thermometer first.

Wash down the above with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, ah, bliss!


Merlo coffee torrefaziones on James St

It's housed in an industrial looking spartanly furnished building. It's just a roasting facility with merchandise like coffee machines and accesories and ice-cream (made by Licks!) for sale.

[Brisbane] Hanaichi Sushi Dining Bar

Hanaichi Sushi Bar and Dining
Level 3 Wintergarden
Queen Street Mall
Brisbane

My top pick when dining in CBD is the Hanaichi.


Sashimi salad with chef's special dressing

The special dressing was the failure of this dish. Overly strong flavour of the dressing totally masked the fresh taste of the sea of those beautiful sashimi.

Tempura udon

Resilient and slippery udon in tasty broth. Princess' favourite.

Assorted sushi from the conveyor belt. My favourites are uni (sea urchin), spicy calamari, salmon belly and tuna belly.

Green tea ice-cream

The homamade ice-cream is what drawn me to Hanaichi over and over again. Great flavour and texture, extremely satisfying after those wonderful sushi and sashimi. Equally yummy is the black sesame brulee and black sesame ice-cream served with a quarter of dorayaki (pancake with adzuki bean filling).

I look forward to next visit!

[Brisbane] Chloe's 4th Birthday dinner at Manor

I am ending the Melbourne posts at the second last day as final day we were in a rush; what with the heavy downpour, delayed opening of Zam Zam and a rushed lunch at Claypot King. No pictures were taken that day.

This year we celebrated Princess' birthday with a day out at Australia Zoo followed by dinner at Manor.

We started with a cold appetizer.

Jellyfish and shredded chicken

Followed by main dishes.

Pork chop

Cuttlefish balls with beancurd in broth

Steamed abalone with ginger and spring onion

Complimentary fruit and desserts (deep-fried glutinous rice ball and mung bean sago sweet soup)

We had a Shlix gelato cake in panna cotta and cookies & cream flavours on a meringue base as birthday cake. Delish!

[Melbourne 2009] Chadstone. Salsa's. Koko Black

Second last day in Melbourne, we decided to visit Chadstone. I am interested in the gourmet market which I believe is a first in a shopping mall, at least in Oz.


Chadstone shuttle (free)

Catch it at corner of Lt Bourke St and Swanston St just outside Chinatown's entry.

The journey took about half an hour to 45 minutes depending on traffic.

Not much for me to see, regretted coming. It's just like another Westfield.

We had lunch at Salsa's, which, came to Queensland, last month.

Aiyoo, waste of my time, this trip to Chadstone >_<.

Taco meal

Still a long time to kill before the shuttle depart so we went to Koko Black to look see and came away with an assortment of chocolates.

Man, they are delish! Forget Haigh's, buy Koko Black!

The Sweet Temptations Patisserie caught my eyes as soon as I walk near the entrance.

First time I went in to have a look, I was not impressed. But so many patrons. So I went in again after lunch, still not impressed. Me and Princess walked all the way back to Laurent Patisserie at the other end of the building to have our tea. Man, what a long walk that was.

Then I went into Sweet Temptations yet again to have a final look. Gosh, I don't know why the shop is still open and have so many customers. None of the stuff inside the shop looked delectable.

But at least I got some nice Valrhona choccies from Simon Johnson.

Very unproductive morning and afternoon.

[Brisbane] Hung's Vietnamese Food

Hung's
Sunnybank Market Square Shopping Village
Compton Rd
Sunnybank Hills QLD 4109


Crab paste vermicelli


Vietnamese omelette

Both dishes did not agree with my palette. I find the omelette too hard and dry. The prawns and pork belly pieces were cooked to death thus hard and chewy.

There is a particular way of eating the omelette. You wrap it in lettuce and topped with greens and herbs and dip the roll in the fish sauce concoction.

I was presented with greens covered in sands and grit.

You must be wondering why I didn't complain and demanded clean greens.

Well, if you have heard and read all these restaurants' tales about how they 'treat' your food if you make a complaint. I think its best to keep quiet. I don't want to be eating no strangers saliva or snort or some unknown grisly stuff.

I did ask for a glass of water to wash the sand away.

As for the crab paste vermicelli, hmmm, I haven't had this elsewhere so I had no benchmark. But the fishy tomato-ey soup made me stop after several struggled spoonfuls.

Stick to the pho.

Tis the season for oysters!

Coffin Bay Oysters AUD11/doz

I got them from CJ Seafood in Mt Gravatt Plaza, unopened.

I had no idea how to shuck an oyster.

Kitchen shears and chinese cleaver seemed to do the job.

Gave up when I got to the 7th oysters.

Sigh....

Got myself an oyster knife from Executive Chef the next day.

Hmmpphh the job didn't get any easier........

[Melbourne 2009] Noodle Kingdon

Noodle Kingdom
175 Russell St
Melbourne (CBD Chinatown)

Day 7 dinner.







An UNFORGETTABLE dinner.

I left after several slurps.

The cashier threw me this funny look when I paid.

I couldn't wait to get out of the place!

I found a mozzie in the soup!

Ewwwwww......

[Melbourne 2009] Waffle On

I am almost done with my Melbourne posts. Bear with me.

We walked over to QV after lunch at Meiji. I spotted a waffle station the other day and wanting to try.

Waffle On @QV

I think this is called 'The Canadian'. Waffle with maple syrup topped with vanilla ice-cream.

Waffle is quite nice with a little chew.