15 Feb - Harbour Town Noodle Inn

I don't know if it's just me or my Chinese heritage, but whenever I smell oil in the air, I go hungry. I was actually looking for Teriyaki Fish at the Shimizu at Harbour Town but smelt the aroma of oil and wok hei, and decided upon a Seafood Hor Fun instead.

There's a few differences between their Hor Fun and my version.

• Their version is a lot soupier. Mine absorbs up all the liquid and is essentially dry.
• They don't seem to use egg yolks in the sauce.
• No soy sauce in the sauce.

The noodles had wok hei. The pickled chillis were sour and had a nice heat. Overall, it wasn't bad. Prawns and squid were cooked and not overdone, the bok choy was tender. My only gripe was too much juice (and too watery). Whilst I think my version is too dry, I had to finish eating this dish with a spoon.

9 Feb - Victoria Station / Burswood CNY Bazaar

CB, my mum and I originally went to Burswood on Saturday night to check out the Chinese New Year Hawker Bazaar that was advertised in their pamphlet. It sounded pretty good, with hawker style food, cooking demonstrations, lion dances etc, but when we arrived, it wasn't that good at all. Being overcrowded and lousy food (and expensive .. $8 for 4 satay!!!) made us eat elsewhere, so we headed for Victoria Station.

I was actually suprised we got in without a booking and with me wearing shorts. I went for the 'braised rabbit, with grilled witlof wrapped in parma ham'. Having eaten (and learnt) at Rockpool in Sydney, we decided to also go for sides too, and went for the rocket, parmesan and walnut salad and some roast potatoes.

The rabbit wasn't bad, the jus was a bit thick and syrupy and I probably would've preferred the dish without it. I would say rabbit is just like chicken (I know everyone says x meat is like chicken) but it seriously is. I was expecting it to be gamey but it wasn't at all.

The sides were decent, I thought the salad was quite good. Just the right amount of dressing, a heap of sharp parmesan and crunchy nuts. The potatoes could've been crispier but were definitely edible.

Afterwards we went back to the bazaar and went for desert. I wanted Cendol from one of the stalls but they were only making Ice Kacang due to the long line. It was OK but not that authentic, they used red bean paste instead of red beans, got a lychee, 1 palm seed and a whole lot of the green worms that are normally in Cendol.

9 Feb - Zushibento, Morley Galleria

Had a light bite to eat due to me having a roast lamb roll at home prior to going shopping. I was gutted when I bought Panko from these guys last week, the staff were talking in Cantonese! However, the food speaks for itself and it's one of the nicer Japanese places (is it because they have adapted the food to Western / Chinese tastes?)

I grabbed some teriyaki fish sushi rolls. The fish was battered and had a little crunch still, along with some lettuce and teriyaki sauce. All in all, quite enjoyable and I would definitely go for it again instead of teriyaki chicken.

2 Feb - Woodlake Chinese Restaurant

We were up in Ellenbrook on Saturday night and decided to grab some grub from the local "Chinese" joint. To compare with the stable and dependable Ning Kwong near home, I went for the Fried Rice and Szechuan Chicken. The Prawn Crackers came complimentary as usual.

The verdict?

I honestly prefer Ningers. The Fried Rice had a more smokey wok hei flavour, but wasn't as salty or tasty. The Szechuan Chicken was a little weird. It was on the sweet side and contained celery, no dried chillies or cashews (although nuts are a whitey thing). It also seemed to contain tomato or tomato sauce ... it was edible and not bad but to me it wasn't Szechuan Chicken....

2nd Feb - Hogs Breath Cafe Joondalup

After getting fitted with suits at Ferrari in Joondalup, we went for lunch at Hogs Breath. I opted for the El Grande Prime Rib (mega cut), but didn't get the 33% more. I also asked for rare but they couldn't do it (because their steaks are slow cooked before hand). I opted for medium rare instead with hog tail fries and salad with balsamic dressing.

The salad and fries were good, the steak was more medium/medium well, as there was no hint of pink in the middle. It was still tender, but the cheese sauce/salsa on top tasted from a packet. The jalapenos gave a little kick but not enough. Overall, a bit mediocre and I much prefer my own BBQ Rib steaks ....