Food Dec - Jan

I am bad at studying, to the point where I'm procrastinating by looking at food photos on my phone and wishing I was elsewhere. Here's a snapshot of what I ate over the last couple of months:

These never fail to make me smile - piggy buns from Chef's Gallery with a sweet black sesame filling. The hard part is - how do you bite into that adorable face?

Kingfish ceviche from Cafe Lima in Marrickville. Fresh strips of fish marinated in chilli and lime juice, topped by a mound of red onion and crispy fried broad beans. Never had ceviche with sweet potato and corn on the cob, but it was delicious.

Sourdough toast with blue cheese, pear and purslane, drizzled with honey. Cornersmith is such a hip place to hang out, starting from the chalkboard where you write your name to the cosy nooks where you can watch life go by, to their own jams and preserves to take home. If only it was closer..

Despite eating a lot already (see above), we couldn't leave Marrickville without a bowl of beef pho from Pho PhD. The stock was rich but a little too sweet for my liking, though the just-cooked pieces of beef were melt-in-the-mouth perfect. 

The burger with the lot at Cafe Guilia made me wish it was my local lunch spot - the best parts of the burger are the perfectly soft bun and such a juicy beef patty topped with an oozy egg. My brain could eat ten of these but my stomach could barely hold one, so humongous it was that it almost causes jaw dislocation.

Korean fried chicken at Naru one (mix of original and sweet & spicy). The powers of google tell me that Korean fried chicken is so ridiculously delicious because it is double fried, which makes the skin is so crunchy it shatters while the flesh remains soft and yielding. The best part is that one doesn't feel like it's oil fest - in fact there's almost no oily residue on your fingers after eating a whole plate of this. The sweet & spicy was quite spicy, but the leftovers were perfect on rice the next day.

 I love a good eggplant, and this was a damn good one. Nasu dengaku at Sushi Masa was half an eggplant grilled to smooth creamy perfection, topped by a glaze balancing the salty miso flavour with the sweet mirin flavour.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but smoked mackerel on toast at Runcible Spoon made me oh-so-happy that I have such great eating places near my house. 

 Handmade chocolate pops at Christmas

I planned to wrap the fried rice (with fresh tomatoes from garden, kecap manis and chilli) in the omelette, but in the end I got lazy. Still delicious though!

 Cold ramen from Ryo's - my favouritest place for ramen, and it was finally hot enough on this day to order the cold selection (I always have no. 3 or 4 from the hot). This came with an soy-egg, boiled pork, bamboo shoots, spring onions and a sail of nori as usual, all dunked in a chilled soy-based dipping sauce. Perfect for a summer lunch.

Prosciutto-wrapped figs with blue cheese dressing from Blu water grill in Hornsby

 Heaven = Marrickville Pork Roll

 Pretty as a picture - chia seed porridge at Sadhana kitchen with mixed berries, banana and some type of vegan honey.

 Summer means fresh tomatoes from the garden at home. These are so juicy and flavoursome that one remembers again what real tomatoes are like. Every year after three months of continuous tomato eating, I vow to be sick of tomatoes for the rest of the year. Then I spend all of winter complaining that the shop tomatoes taste like nothing, and then it's tomato season again!

 Organic pancakes with banana, berries, ricotta and honey from Clipper cafe in Glebe. The strawberry flower with a mint leaf won my heart!

 Marrickville is coming up a lot in this post, but that's because it's such a cool place. This is bruschetta topped with salami, ricotta and honey from Beejay's - such awesome coffee and yet another "hip cafe" for Marrickville.

 Australia day lamingtons from Black Star Pastry
 

One of my many visits to Meetfresh

Awesome coffee at Purple Moose in Alexandria

 All canteens were not created equal - this was an awesome lunch from Kitchen by Mike. Garlic rosemary focaccia, red rice & snow pea salad, creamy cabbage and apple salad.

 Teriyaki salmon set from Nazimi
 

Salmon lovers set (sashimi, roe, pickled, sushi, aburi ) from Niji sushi bar in Kingsford