27 Jan - Joe's Fish Shack

Last night, CB and I had dinner in Fremantle before seeing Voyager and Nightwish at the Metro. After looking in the Entertainment Book, we decided on Joe's Fish Shack.

We had just over an hour to eat, so we ordered fairly quickly. I went for the stuffed tiger prawns as an entree, which were stuffed with spinach and bacon, battered and fried. CB went for 6 oysters. Both entrees came out in lightning speed and the prawns were piping hot. They were pretty good, however I could not see much bacon in the dish. Nonetheless, they went down quickly as I was starving.

For a main, I went for the barramundi (grilled), which came with chips and coleslaw. The fish was cooked nicely, not overdone, and the coleslaw was tasty. The chips were a little on the cold/stale side and not seasoned, but they were edible.

For a drink I had Mercury Cider. It was a draught, but still good. I haven't seen it at the shops however, might have to keep a lookout.

20 Jan - Waters Edge Winery & Padbury's Cafe

Last Sunday we went out for lunch and after several suggestions, I booked a table at Waters Edge Winery in Guildford. We arrived to an empty cafe and grabbed an indoor table.

Whilst waiting for everyone else to arrive, I had an Ice Coffee. It was ok, they also supplied sugar but it was sweet enough without it.
For mains, I went for the 'Pork 3 ways', which consisted of braised pork belly, a grilled pork chop and pork crackling. By the time I finished it, I felt sick from all the pork fat mainly in the pork belly. I only ate about 1/3 of the cracking too.

The potato mash was nice with a nice amount of parmesan mixed into it, and the spinach was nice too. But overall, a bit too fatty for my liking.

CB and I also shared some chips. They were cold and way over salted. The aioli was nice but the chilli jam on the other side was too sweet for my liking.

Afterwards, we went elsewhere for cake. We originally wanted to go to Kappy's however they were shut. I shared a slice of tim-tam cheesecake with CB. You could tell it was a gelatin based cake, and to be honest, it wasn't very cheesey....
I also grabbed a Vanilla shake. It was a bit too vanillary for my liking (like they put too much vanilla essence/syrup in it)

19 Jan - Ning Kwong

Couldn't be bothered cooking so CB and I decided to grab Ningers for chow. We opted for special Fried Rice, Szechuan Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Spring Rolls. We also got a bag of complimentary prawn crackers.

The Fried Rice and Szechuan Chicken was good as usual, the Prawn Crackers and Spring Rolls were OK. The Sweet and Sour was heavy on the batter and the dipping sauce was more sweet than sour. Overall, it was a greasy experience, I'd have everything again except for the Sweet and Sour.

11 Jan - Shimizu, Harbour Town

Today I actually wanted Fujimores, but they weren't open, so I went for teriyaki chicken at Harbour Town. It wasn't bad, but I prefer Fujimores cos it's cheaper and roughly the same.

5 Jan - Botanical Cafe, Kings Park

Last night I had dinner with CB and a few friends at Botanical Cafe in Kings Park. This is a budget eatery for the patrons not wanting to spend the cashola at nearby Frasiers. Service was nonevident, you have to go up and order, and the drinking glasses had water marks.

I ordered the 'fish of the day', which came with beans, sauteed potatoes and an iced coffee. CB ordered a large chips as a side as her calamari didn't say it came with chips, even though it did.

The Ice Coffee was ok but didn't contain any icecream, just cream and coffee. I personally like icecream and some ice cubes but it was drinkable.
The fish was nicely cooked, it was moist and flakey. The beans, fish and potatoes were all dressed in olive oil but it was just a little bland for my liking. It wasn't seasoned well (and no salt and pepper at the table) and no lemon for the fish either!

The chips came with a dish of aioli. The chips were lukewarm and a bit stale upon arrival, and the aioli was not garlicky at all. The chips were a disappointment.

Overall, I don't think I enjoyed this place enough to go back. The lack of service (cafes should still have proper service), the half an hour wait for the food (with the cafe not that full) and the food being uninspiring and not up to standard means I will go to other places before going back to this one.

5 Jan - Gloria Jeans / Mandarin Duck, Whitfords City

Yesterday we went to Whitfords City to go get some quotes on a planned upcoming trip to KL / Singapore in September later this year. We arrived and started off with a coffee (I had a Very Vanilla Chiller) at Gloria Jeans.

After a couple of hours at two different travel agents (both giving us not much hotel choice in our Singapore leg due to the Formula 1) we decided to grab lunch. I grabbed some wonton noodles at Mandarin Duck in the food court.



Unfortunately, they didn't offer a dry version. It wasn't bad, the noodles I think were different to what is traditionally used in the dry version. The wontons were not luxury like mum's, but they were decent enough I guess and had a hum of ginger. The chilli packed a punch and my nose started running.

Sydney 2007 Holiday Day 6

Home Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6

5:34PM - Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Oporto, Lindt Cafe.

The day started off getting dressed and packing the suitcase, ready to check out of the hotel by 10:30AM. After making record time packing all my stuff together, we checked out by about 10ish and proceeded down George St, past Martin Place for some donuts.

I went for 'Strawberries and Cream', along with a 'Cream filled Chocolate' donut. The strawberry donut was strawberry flavouring mixed with cream. It wasn't too bad, but I was expecting chunks or at least a jam. I probably wouldn't have it again. The cream filled chocolate donut was filled rather sparingly (like the other custard filled one I had on the beginning of the trip). I hope that the donuts are only filled this way at this particular KK's .. the theory will be put to the test when I get and eat some donuts from the airport store.

We also stopped by at the Starbucks at Martin Place. I ordered a coffee frappa, which unfortunately was my last, as the airport terminal we're departing from does not have the Starbucks :(

After walking around for a bit, it was lunch time. Since CB and I weren't really that hungry due to our late start, we went to Oporto (a local chicken fast food chain). I ordered an Oporto meal with an Oporto burger, CB had a 'Rappa', and we shared the drink and chips. The burger wasn't too bad, much alike a KFC Zinger burger, with the bacon and the pineapple. The chicken was grilled so it had a smokey taste to it, not sure if I prefer it to the Zinger patty or not. Doesn't matter anyway since we don't have it in Perth.

After killing some more time walking around the various malls (including Dymocks where I read some interesting things on wok cooking), we went to the Lindt Cafe as CB wanted to meet up with her friends one more time. I had the profiteroles. They were OK, definitely not worth the $11 that I paid for them. They were small, and therefore didn't have a lot of cream in them, but quite rich (due to the chocolate sauce no doubt). I much prefer my own profiteroles.

We then proceeded to head back to Chinatown. I was planning to have the suckling pig from BBQ King on the way back but having a look at the window (where all the roasted meat is located), it looked like they didn't have any. Also, I wasn't hungry at all. It started to rain heavily on the way back too, so we got half drenched by the time we got back to the hotel.

Getting the tickets for the train to the Domestic Airport was a pain in the ass too. I had bought one ticket and was trying to buy another, when it didn't like my $10 note and when I tried to give it all my $5s, it chucked a shit and couldn't give me change, giving me my $5s back. Stupid fucken machine. To top it off, it's the only machine on this particular end of the train station, so there was a little line by the time I gave up and went to pay at the kiosk instead. Sydney is a bit weird at times (this being an example). Central Station must be like 2 - 3 times busier than Perth station, but only has 1 pay machine on each side .. bit stupid if you ask me.

Anyway, we are now at the airport and waiting an hour or so before we can board. I have two dozen KK's shouting out to me wanting to be eaten but I have to resist.

Tuesday 12:01AM - Qantas meal.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful, I read about 2/3rds of the new Gordon Ramsay book. For dinner, I chose the Chicken Curry, which wasn't too bad. It was white man hot obviously (not hot at all). We also got an icecream at the end of the meal too!