Lunar Markets, Pyrmont Bay Park

 It's almost a week into my cold/flu now and I'm still feeling pretty lethargic. So much so, that I missed Lunar Streets- Chinatown, Thainatown, Koreatown all come to life with street food. NOOoooo!!!! An ultimate grazing opportunity slipped through my fingers.

So to make it up to myself, I went to Lunar Markets instead. It's exciting because I haven't been to night markets for a couple of years now, so I'm eager to try some of the new places.

 First stop is Daniel San and their charcoal BBQ skewers. The chicken yakitori was a good start to the night. Also available were pork belly skewers but we passed on those because...

Chicken yakitori - $6 each / $10 for 2

 We noticed a longer queue for Hoy Pinoy! The name literally means Hey, Philipino! - needless to say its here to bring the flavour of the Philipines to Sydney.

Chicken or Pork belly skewer - $6 each / $10 for 2

 At the same price and offering the same varieties, you will find Hoy Pinoy!'s skewers a little smaller than Daniel San's. But it's about quality, not quantity and personally Hoy Pinoy! wins this one in my books. The chicken was slightly juicier and had a better level of char which I enjoyed.

Hoy Pinoy! doesn't have a permanent store location in Sydney yet, but we anticipate its arrival.

 We ran into a man handing out gyoza samples and found this store which specializes in handmade gyoza. I love gyoza. But my gyoza expectations are pretty high. A quick online search showed this place to have good reviews from previous pop up locations but doesn't have a permanent store in Sydney.

Those were all the reasons I needed for trying these. We ordered the power combo - 4 x chicken and 4 x pork gyoza. 

 Power combo: 4 x chicken and 4 x pork gyoza - $12

 

The chicken gyoza were pretty good. Juicy with a good ratio of veges as you bite into it. The gyoza skin was superb too, distinguishable from the super thin commercial gyoza skin, these were believably home made. The pork gyoza missed the mark for me, however, like I said, I have exceptionally high standards for pork dumplings. If a store opened in Sydney, I would be keen to try the other flavours too.

 Phumplings? Pho + Dumplings. Somebody out there put two of my favourite foods together. This was really the highlight which drew me to the markets.

Phumplings - $10

Bar Pho came up with the patented idea of putting xiao long bao into pho soup. I was super excited by the idea and heard this menu item was sold out ever night at the Sydney Festival. Upon tasting it, it was ok. It wasn't mindblowing, nor was it dis-likable, it was just okay. The skin of the xiao long bao was probably a little thick/ gluggy and the filling mediocre by dumpling standards. The pho soup itself was well spiced, I would probably like it a little richer? It was a good concept, just not as amazing as I expected it to be. Maybe if they used a wonton-like dumpling it would accentuate the soup flavours more?

Coconut drink - $6

Crowds 5PM on a Sunday

Our final pitstop, Pasar Malam. We wanted to wet our whistle with some Ribena Longan but saw the chicken lollipops. It's fried food goodness and a decent portion size for the night market scene. Thank goodness we had a drink to wash it down with, otherwise it might have been overkill on the grease. 

Nonya Chicken lollipops - $10; Ribena longan - $5

It was great to see and try a few unique stores that aren't usually available in Sydney. Night market crawling is never cheap. The excitement of variety and small portions mean the cost quickly adds up, but it was certainly worthwhile for trying a few things out of the ordinary. 

Lunar Markets is located at Pyrmont Bay Park (across the road from The Star Casino).

It runs between 12th to 22nd February, 2015.

Mon - Wed: 5-9 PM

Thurs-Fri: 5-10 PM

Sat: 4-10 PM

Sun: 4-9 PM

See: http://www.nswfoodandwine.com.au/lunarmarkets for further information.

Johnny Lobster and I Love Pho, Crows Nest

Johnny Lobster

I love the slogan: Lobster for the People

 I think many will agree Sydney displays an impressive selection of seafood by world standards. The true shame is that many of us locals don't enjoy seafood more often (or maybe we exploit it too much for exports, but this isn't an environmental activist blog).

That is why I love the slogan of this place. Bring good, affordable lobster to the people. Everyone should enjoy the ocean delicacies Sydney's got to offer!

5:40 PM on a Monday night

Lobster Roll - dill, potato, pico de gallo $20

 So needless to say, I order the Lobster roll. I need to confess I've never had a lobster roll before, but I have had numerous dishes, across varying levels of sophistication, that market themselves with the term 'lobster'. Most of these (to my disappointment) contain meager portions or finely chopped crustacean you have to convince yourself its actually lobster.

With the exception of going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering a whole lobster, this roll has the most generous serving of lobster I've had in a while.

Mouthfuls of lobster with every bite, this roll hits the spot on a summer's day! Personally, it would have gone a little easier on the mayo, but the fresh salsa on top did well to balance out the creaminess. It's extremely filling with the potato + brioche combo.

Hand Cut chips- triple cooked $3.50 (S)

Thrice cooked chips! I love twice cooked chips so I had to give these a go! The verdict? hmm I think twice is the sweet spot. You really can have too much of a good thing.

Fried Chicken - Hot sauce, east coast slaw $10.80

 This was a no brainer for Uncle G - fried chicken and hot sauce? Hi there dinner! This plate was real value for $10.80. The delicious crunchy coating and incredibly succulent chicken is just bursting with flavour. Next time, I definitely want to try the Fried Chicken Roll.

Ice cream sandwich - Brioche, sailor Jerry's spiced rum butterscotch $6.50

Two wasn't enough!!! I wasn't completely sold by the description at first glance but after the first bite, I just couldn't stop. The brioche buns were warm and toasty - almost cake-like. Warm cake, w vanilla ice cream and rich butterscotch sauce. Say no more - I'll have two to myself next time please!

I Love Pho

So the whole Johnny Lobster adventure came about because I'm sick and I didn't want to cook (yes, I know, probably not one of my top cold remedies). But on my way to a hearty bowl of pho, I saw Johnny Lobster instead. Having promised ourselves pho though, Uncle G and I decide we will still have pho the next day, just to satisfy our cravings.

Rare beef pho $13.50

Special beef pho $14.90

Nobody likes a negative nancy, so I'll keep this short and sweet. If you have never had pho before, you would probably not "love pho" after coming to this place. The soup needed a little more love and spices and there wasn't fish sauce, chillis etc available to adjust the taste to our liking. We were given a dish of chilli sauce and 'hoisin' sauce but this hoisin wasn't very sweet and quite salty.

I guess this may be a westernised Vietnamese restaurant? The upside is their spring rolls were quite nice :). I forgot to snap a photo of them but they were delicious! Positives: after the Entertainment book discount, this was a considerably cheap dinner for this area.

Note: I love Pho is available on Entertainment Card

Mumu Grill, Crows Nest

It is a rare occasion that my family decides to dine out and go western. However, as a family member has recently arrived in Australia, we decided to take her out to experience some real Aussie grub, and what could be more Aussie than a good'o steak?

I would consider the restaurant size moderate. Offering indoor and outdoor seating options. There are plenty of tables to go around but I would still book, just to be safe.

Mumu Grill prides itself on being Sydney's only 100% grass fed beef steak house. Why grass fed beef? This type of beef is supposed to be lower in fats, cholesterol and higher in vitamins and omega-3.

We get stuck into studying the menu and quickly decide we're going to focus on the specialty - the beef.

Say hi to the chef's in the kitchen!

Riverina T-bone 'Tagliata' 1 kg w rosemary, garlic - $65.90

The 1 kg Tagliata is definitely a share plate for 2-3 adults. All our meat came perfectly cooked; this giant T-bone was no exception. The bonus with a T-bone this size is you get a decent size fillet piece; as we know, this is the T-bone sweet spot. The only thing that would have topped this dish would have been a serving of chimichurri sauce to go with.

Special of the Day: Grilled snapper

Mum isn't a beef advocate, so we ordered the special of the day: snapper with slaw. We were expecting a snapper fillet so you can imagine we were all pleasantly surprised when we got a whole grilled fish. The slaw this was served with was AMAZING! A unique mix of apple, celery, fennel and a homemade sauce made the whole dish something special.

Cape Grim prime rib 350 g - $44.90

"Cape Grim prime rib crusted with szechwan pepper (Our Fave!)" is how this baby was sold. The words Szechwan pepper caught Uncle G's attention. Unfortunately I didn't try too much of this one, so I didn't get a good taste of the pepper crust, but Uncle G said it was to his liking.

Victorian beef fillet w sage, proscuitto, cafe de Paris butter & mash 160 g - $32.90

Yes, the eye fillet. The holy grail of beef. And this little morsel of tender lean meat did not disappoint. It was definitely everyone's favourite for the night.

Special of the day: Surf and Turf 

We ordered this dish because I love scallops and sirloin is one of my preferred cuts of steak. The eye fillet is probably my favourite, but sometimes when I want something more substantial, nothing hits the spot like a good marbly sirloin. The chillis and sauce worked well with the steak. I would have been even happier if the asparagus were kept whole though.

Finally onto dessert! There was a menu option of a tasting plate which included each of the desserts we ordered, but we decided since we're only getting 3 desserts between the 6 of us, we wanted the full size, real deal.

Chocolate tarte w hazelnut gelato, mandarin curd - $14.90

I was saving the chocolate to last because I didn't want it to overpower my palate for the other desserts. But when I tried it, it wasn't too heavy at all. It was decadent but the high dark chocolate/ cocoa ratio balanced this dessert well.

Mumu famous brown sugar pavlova w fresh pineapple & passionfruit sauce - $15.90

The pavlova was my favourite dessert that night, probably because it's rare I get to eat a fresh pavlova. The meringue was soo perfect! Crispy casing but light and airy on the inside. The cream, pineapple and passion fruit worked wonderfully together. The older family members found this dessert a tad too sweet, but I'm not complaining, bring on the sugar!

Mango Creme Brulee

Sometimes creme brulees can be difficult to finish, especially after a big meal. But this one reminded me a classic vanilla custard crossed with the mango puddings you get from good chinese yum chas. Very enjoyable dessert.

What an amazing effort. Between the 6 of us, we devoured almost 2 kg of beef, a whole snapper and 3 desserts. If that doesn't sound impressive to you, you need to understand I was eating with 3 middle aged family members, who of which are borderline vegetarian on normal days.

It's a 'grass fed' cow grazing! 

This is my 3rd visit to Mumu Grill. The experience has always been consistent and I'm a happy return customer. The restaurant often participates in promotions including entertainment card, groupon, free birthday meals - so shop around and you might get some value out of it too.

Note: meal was paid for on Bartercard.