The gang got together for some breakfast Yum Cha at the Eight restaurant today. It was interesting, and to be honest, we felt a little ripped off, I think.
When the lads and I were sat down – because the majority of the table were Caucasian – one wily old lady came over with her cart of fried food and essentially unloaded the entire cart on our table.
This was probably one of the biggest whirlwind days in recent memory! Strap yourselves in, dear audience – this is a long blog entry with plenty of photos.
My sister Sarah and I headed out to the Rocks, just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge for an awesome lunch of food trucks with tacos and Don Julio Tequila. The food was made by (now) celebrity chef, Roy Choi. He’s famous partly for the Kogi food truck, his contributions to essentially feeding the Marvel Studios crew during their Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures, and his adventures with Jon Favreau in “Chef Show” on Netflix. The movie, “Chef” (also directed by Favreau) was also based loosely around his life.
I know right, the tacos don’t look like much to look at – but somehow, they were amazing. The tortillas were fresh, the recipe clicked together so well, and they were hot and tasty. Definitely impressive, especially considering there were other “great mexican food trucks” there who partnered with Roy on the event, and they served their tacos – side by side, Roy’s food was still trumping theirs. 😲
Despite the wet weather that crept up on us around the start of the event, by the time things were well underway (and PACKED with way too stylish people and hipsters) – the sun came out and everything went smashingly 😂
But by far – this was the highlight of my day 😱
Being able to meet Roy was amazing, we exchanged only small pleasantries and I thanked him for helping me see more of the world of food; he was soon mobbed by at least 30 other people.
If you haven’t seen his show – this is good watching, people: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81288533
Then what happened?
I topped off the day with Korean BBQ with the Snacks gang.
What should have been a night at Mjolnir – a viking pub in Sydney, ended up turning into a visit to our group’s fave Korean BBQ chain – this time instead of being at the CBD, we went to the one in Strathfield.
Lesson learnt – we had a huge group so we had to wait a long long time to get seated. Easily an hour. We did eventually get in though, and they spread us cross two long tables
A fantastic night was had by all. Great food, better company – it was an awesome night to enjoy lots of food and drink 😇
We then had a brief wander around to chill and cool down from the heat of the BBQ, and digest our food a bit.
Plenty of memes were had. A good night all round, and a fantastic day that I’ll look back on for a long time to come.
Tim‘s birthday is on the 13th; however, we were all mostly free this Thursday evening to join him for a nice meal at Outback Steakhouse (North Strathfield) – we were there for company over the food, but it was hearty food, full of grease, and plenty of banter to be had!
Outback Steakhouse has been in my life for quite a while, actually. Despite it’s reputation, it served more as a common meeting point for various crowds of people that walked in and out of my life. When I got my first real job in the Tech Industry (working in marketing!) I planned many a LAN party event here with one of my best mates, Ben (missingo) at this restaurant over many many nights.
Anyway, retrospectives aside; the food hasn’t changed much at all (the prices have though, oof!)
They left too much of the fat cap at the end on, one end of the steak was charred way more than the other end (the fatty end was undercooked) – making the fat render and drench everything in grease, but not in a nice hot way. The steak was left to rest too long so it was almost cold; and the chips had coagulated with their cheese to form a solid brick (you can see in the photo, this is about 60 seconds after the plate was put down in front of me).
Still, I had a really enjoyable night (definitely more the company than the food, as it always has been) and everyone else that attended had a blast too!
It was good to see Marshy, Brad, Brad, Tanj, Amy, Sean, Jimmy, Bec, Mat, Gaetano, and the birthday boy, Tim. Happy Birthday mate.
Went to a quick surprise dinner with my sister, her partner, and an old friend at a classic venue; Korean BBQ Buffet in Chatswood’s Mandarin Centre food court.
It’s a cheap and cheerful place, and actually – they have one of my favourite cuts of meat, the Pork Jowl there – it was plentiful, it was fatty, it was tasty, I loved it.
At $43 per head, all you can eat – they’ve updated the Buffet and BBQ Meat bar that you self serve at. It’s a very homely, simple place. It’s nice and quiet and a good time was had by all, honestly. We only stayed for about an hour, but we DEFINITELY ate our fill. The Hostess was lovely enough to give us a plate of Wagyu cuts which was quite nice (the pork was better!) and I think myself and all the friends from Only Snacks should definitely visit here sooner rather than later!
Would definitely rate the place a 8/10. The food was good, it was acceptable, the company was great; a good dinner! 😂
Every couple of months or so, some of my friends and I have taken to lining up early at about 10-10:30 in the morning at one of the more popular Yum Cha restaurants in the city.
Honestly, it’s always a pretty great feed. Excessive amounts of dim sum, good company, and general shit talking!
Tim managed to try out some chicken feet, loved it 👍
Note to self, I need to bring my diabetes kit with me a lot more consistently when going out with the bois.
Chatswood has really changed a lot! There’s a whole new shopping centre along Victoria Ave now called Chatswood Place – which has heaps of great places to eat. A few days ago I got to enjoy an all-you-can-eat Japanese BBQ place called Kuro Sakura.
The pricing was pretty reasonable, and depending on the time of the week you were paying either $55 per person (Monday through Wednesday), or $59.90 per person (Thursday through Sunday, and public holidays).
There were additional bolt-on packages you could get with Seafood/Sashimi and Beef Tongue + Wagyu Karubi (Kalbi to the Korean fans), as well as an All you can Drink package for the soft stuff, and the alcoholic stuff. It should be noted though the packages didn’t include Coke Zero or anything diabetic friendly; so it wasn’t the most worth it for me.
The three of us ended up getting the basic $55 package.
The service was fast and prompt – it was actually really great. We were seated in a weird part near the back of the restaurant; and even then any dishes we ordered took only a couple minutes to be delivered to our table. The grill was nice, hot and powerful and I loved the interesting side-mounted exhaust that took in the smoke around the edges of the cooking area.
All in all, I felt this was a pretty great dinner. We ate copious amounts of food, the company made it way better than I think I’d have enjoyed it myself; and the really bizarre, yet funny mini domestic the front of house lady and husband duo had when I went to pay the bill capped the night off.
Also, the Black Sesame Ice Cream was the best after sitting in front of a grill eating meat for 90 minutes. 👍😋