Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney

A few months back I went to Momofuku Seiobo for a weekend lunch, as they have a pretty well priced lunch tasting menu which has a few less courses than their more popular full dinner tasting menu.

I've been to several of the Momofuku originals in NYC, however never had a huge desire to make an effort to go in Sydney. With 3 hats however, it did seem like something worth trying at least once and I am glad I did at least see for myself whether it was worth the hype. A tonne of photos ahead of all our courses!

Our drinks menu on our uber shiny table in the mood lit restaurant decor.

Smoked Eel + Apple - the smoked eel infused flavour inside the 'cannoli' type crisp cigar was strong but matched well with the apple gelee. Good balance, and a little different.

Steamed bun + pork belly - this has to be one of their signature dishes and well known around the world. The bun was amazingly soft and delectable, and it was cute because this was served with a mini sriracha bottle. Was it the most amazing pork bun? I can't say so, but definitely tasty.

Striped trumpeter + celery + mustard -  to be honest I don't remember much about this dish except that I loved it because it was fresh and zesty. I love a good sashimi dish and this delivered.

Potato + avruga + chicken tail - this dish was fairly heavy and a weird follow up to the very light dish before. The chicken tail was crisp, flavoursome and went well with the sauciness of this dish.

We chose to have juice pairings - from memory a total of 5 juices. Each of them were a little unusual, and we loved guessing what it was at first sight before being told later what we were drinking. I'm not a big fan of crazy juices though, so some weren't to my liking but definitely good value and perfect for the heat of our dining day. I just liked this eerie looking photo

Watermelon + radish + black bean - this was a salad like dish with a very strong black bean flavour. It was absolutely beautiful to look at, however probably not to my liking as much as other dishes. I got about halfway and was done with it though the watermelon and black bean was a very clever combination.

Zucchini + onion mustard + yolk - this dish had all the 'typical' elements but was lovely. Crunch, flavour, smooth puree and a feast for the eyes.

Hapuka + cucumber + black garlic - in my fine dining experience of late I've noticed that black garlic is becoming uber popular not only for its flavour but for its punch of charcoal black colour. All elements of this dish were perfectly cooked and I hate that I can't remember what it was but that circular film was amazing! So perfectly executed.

Shortrib + eggplant + kombu - apologies for the terrible photo of this. By the time we got to this course I was sick of taking photos and engrossed in the conversation I was having with  my dining companions. The shortrib was well seasoned, but actually not the best shortrib I've ever had. I think I was reaching the point of being really full by this stage so perhaps this dish was a bit wasted on me, but all I rememer thinking was, this dish is huge!

Curd + black currant + mint - this pre dessert palate cleanser was really very cool. The pigmentation of the black currant and mint were spectacular to look at and punchy in flavour, nestled around the curd well in the middle. Perhaps a little heavy again, as by this stage I was so full, but definitely worth having.

Pear + honey cream + muntries - for anyone who has been to Eleven Madison in NYC, don't you think this plating and dish in general is very reminiscent of Eleven? Anyway we were hoping for a light fruity dessert and this delivered in all aspects. A great ending to the meal for sure, and it was good to see something other than chocolate dessert as we were so full.

And to finish it off, a 'petit four' in the form of a 'jam donut with a twist'.

Our take home menus and they gave us little kim chi take home bags (oops forgot to take a photo)!

So my overall thoughts? It was definitely worth trying, however I'm not sure if I could really see the 3 hat level dining that I was expecting. Service was good, but not amazing, though the casual feel of the restaurant makes it very accessible for everyday dining. Food was good quality, for sure, but was it mind blowingly creative and unique? No. And some dishes seemed to lack a little refinement. David Chang is a genius, there's no doubting that, but when I go to the US I love to eat his simple westernised asian dishes at places like Ma Peche which was fabulously tasty and great value. So I think perhaps thats what I think he should stick to.

Jurassic Lounge

A few Tuesdays back I finally made it to Jurassic Lounge at the Australian Museum. Its been running for a while now and its a fun school night out, looking around the museum and having drinks, food and entertainment at the same time!

Anyway, it was pretty cool to just get out and do something different instead of working late all the time and here are some of the cool things I saw:

How about a giant stuffed wombat? Seriously this guy was huge. Like bigger than a bear. Insane.

This was a dude walking around in a dinosaur outfit and going right up into people's faces and 'scaring' them. Very life like and he just wandered around randomly. Putting the Jurassic into Jurassic Lounge, for sure!

There's an indigenous exhibition at the moment which included these beautifully mosaic tiled kangaroos in the famous "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" type poses. This was actually far more beautiful in real life than my dodgy iPhone photo can show!

Then always a fan of the airbrush tattoos, I decided to line up to get me this one:

All in all a fun night out and if you're looking for something different to do on a school night, definitely check it out! There's cool food stands and drinks there for relatively decent prices considering its inside a museum.

25 things...

I came across this on the internet a little while back and couldn't help but repost it...

Its from Thought Catalog

25 Things You Don't Have to Justify To Anyone

1. Your job. Yes, even if you’re working something that other people condescendingly term “not a real job,” such as retail or service. If you have a job of any kind in this economy, you’ve already won.

2. Whether or not you have debt. If you managed to get out of your education debt-free, that doesn’t mean that your life is a financial walk in the park that you constantly have to be apologizing for. If you are in debt, it doesn’t mean you got a “worthless” degree and now deserve to be shamed for struggling to find work after you were convinced by your school that you were making a good decision.

3. The kind of food you enjoy eating, or why you enjoy eating. (No matter how “uncultured” or “boring” or “gross” someone else might deem your favorite food.)

4. Your decision to have children, or not have them, or to not be sure if you even want them.

5. Your dislike for marriage as an institution — and even if this one day changes, you don’t have to justify having grown as a person and moved into a new point of view. No one should be telling you “I told you so” over something as enormous as your decision to commit for life to another person.

6. Your sexuality, or your desire to experiment with it. You are allowed to have “phases” or “try things out” or be “confused,” and can take as much time as you want figuring it out.

7. Your gender presentation.

8. Your income level, and what you can and cannot afford. If you are having trouble keeping up with friends because you are not able to spend as much as them, there is no reason to risk financial ruin to try and keep up appearances.

9. Your body. The only person whom you need to talk to about with it is your doctor; everyone else can else can go kick rocks.

10. Whether or not you want to go out on a weekend night, or ten weekend nights in a row. The amount of time you spend in a bar or at a club does not directly correlate with how cool or worthy a person you are.

11. Your relationship status. If you’re single and happy, that’s great. If you’re in a relationship and happy, that’s great. If you’re either of those and not happy, you are more than allowed to be, and it’s no one’s business how you should “fix” it unless you ask them for their advice.

12. How many friends you have. One is enough. A hundred is enough. And there is no need to falsely upgrade acquaintances to “friend” status in your mind simply to fill out the ranks. A true friend is rare, and we don’t need to make it a competition for who has the most.

13. How much you drink when you go out, or if you drink at all, or why you choose not to drink if you do.

14. What kind of music you enjoy listening to.

15. What kind of an education you have or don’t have, or if you intend to go back and finish what you’ve started. If continuing your studies is something you want to do, good, but don’t be forced into saying that you want it just because it’s what people expect of you.

16. What you happen to be turned on by. If you like slash fiction, you like slash fiction. If you like people recording videos of themselves popping balloons, that’s awesome for you. It’s all good, and as long as you’re not hurting anyone, have at it.

17. Whether or not you know to cook, even if you’re a woman who “should” know how to do those things.

18. If you stay at home to raise your children, or if you hire someone to help you do so because you have a full-time career. Neither of those choices are more or less feminist, no matter what Elizabeth Wurtzel tells you.

19. How many people you have had sex with.

20. Whether or not you are a virgin, and whether or not you want to wait for marriage to lose said virginity.

21. Whether or not you believe in God, and what you think God actually is. (As long as you’re not imposing any of your beliefs on others, in which case we’d have a bit of a problem. But I trust that you’re cool and wouldn’t do that.)

22. Who you voted for and why. If you want to talk about it, you’re free to. But no one should ever make you feel like you have to tell them.

23. If you have sex on a first date, if you kiss on a first date, or if you won’t even hold hands on a first date. You’re allowed to do whatever you like when you’ve just met a new potential suitor.

24. Whether or not you choose to use dating websites.

25. Not knowing exactly what you want to be when you grow up, even if many people would already put you in the category of “grown up.” If you are considering going back to school, or changing careers, or moving, or starting a family, or doing charity work — it’s all good. And none of it has to be followed up with a longwinded explanation about why it’s a good idea and they should believe in you. If you need to justify what makes you happy to someone in your life, perhaps you should ask yourself why you even care about their opinion in the first place.

<3

H&M 'Official' Announcement

So you might recall I've always loved H&M and once again they've more officially announced they will be opening in 2014 via a facebook post tonight.

I announced this some 4 months ago in this post however back then it wasn't known when exactly. Well 2014 is still not quite that specific, but if my sources from back then are still correct they will start with Melbourne first and at least we have a ballpark time frame now and not some 'it will be in the near future'...perhaps 2025?

What I said then, still stands in terms of my opinions so check out that post!

Galileo at Langham Hotel Sydney

Recently my sister bought a voucher deal for a degustation at Galileo in the Langham Hotel (once known as the Observatory Hotel) in the Rocks. For 7 courses, it was 50% off for the normal degustation menu, so only $55 which we thought wasn't too bad a deal when you could often pay that much for a meal at a casual cafe. My sister quickly realised that the deal was being offerred because the once famed chef at the helm of Galileo has since moved on, and so they seem to be wanting to really try and catapult this new chef into the sydney food scene.

We used the voucher on a weekday night and there must have been roaring trade on the voucher as there were quite a few big groups booked. The ambience there is elegant and very old school traditional, which was nice for a change.

Anyway, onto the main event - the food! Excuse the photo heavy post :)

Our amuse bouche was a prosciutto with cucumber from memory...it was tasty but not amazing. And that really set the scene for the rest of the menu which we felt similarly towards.

Reading the menu, I was looking forward to this dish because of the balmain bug and mix of seafoods - balmain bug, ocean trout, cucumber puree, duck prosciutto. Pretty to look at, definitely, and the flavours were good but once again not wow. Personally we thought there was too much going on and sometimes less is more, right?

Again, beautiful presentation with this dish - seared yellow fin tuna, crispy shallot and lemon oil jus. I really can't fault the delicate way it was all presented on the plate, and from memory this was probably one of the more balanced dishes. But then again, you can't go wrong with good quality seafood right? As you'll notice as well the serving sizes are quite generous which is definitely a plus for this menu!

I think the next course - barramundi, mussel, butter lettuce veloute - was one of my favourites. You can't go past a crispy perfectly cooked piece of fish, and again look at the size of the fish which is quite sizeable given it is a degustation menu. 

Actually, I really did love this strawberries and cream granita palate cleanser. It is amongst some of my favourite flavours and it definitely was a good palate cleanser, however we thought this would have been better served as a pre dessert rather than a palate cleanser as our next course was still savoury!

Excuse this photo, unfortunately its not the best because I was hastily taking photos by this stage. This beef tenderloin, natural jus and heirloom tomato was a very 'typical' dish, but beef is one of my favourite meats so I wasn't going to complain. By this stage we were really getting full but I do recall this was perfectly cooked, succulent and really quite good. 

As you all know, I'm a dessert person and this dessert really spoke to me (ok yeah, that sounds lame, but it did!). It was all the flavours I loved, light, zesty, and I personally think this would have been a perfect way to end the meal. Strawberry soup, basil sorbet, panna cotta.

Except that it wasn't the last dish! It was instead this quite...heavy and sweet pain perdu with pedro ximinez and rhubarb compote. To be honest, I'm not a big rhubarb fan, but also by this stage I wasn't sure I could fit much more in because I was so full!

So all in all, the food was OK but definitely needed some finetuning. It felt like the menu and dishes were 'trying too hard' in that they were trying to show masterful techniques and flavour matchings however some were just a little bit off in terms of balance, seasoning and understanding the concept of less is more! I do have to say the service was OK as well, not amazing, given we had to wait to get the attention of a waiter before our water was refilled towards the end of the meal. Not something you should be doing at any restaurant! 

Will I go back? Probably not. Would I have gone if I didn't have a voucher? Again, probably not. But it was good to try somewhere different for a change!

Cute kid photos

I came across this amongst some of the flipboard pages I read - this talented photographer has some amazingly cute photos of his kids in really clever and fun setups. I suppose as a photographer, you always want to keep your creative juices going and do something different than just always landscapes, portraits, macro etc. Well check this out! For more check out www.jwlphotography.com

Aren't they just too cute for words? Rest assured these kids will always have a tonne of photos documenting their life!

He has cute titles for his photos too :)

'Bread winner'

I just think back to my first digital camera, which I only got when I was 18! As a result, there are hardly any photos of my high school years, but a tonne of my pre-primary years because parents just love to take photos of their toddlers, am I right?

Seeing photos like this make me think I really need to learn how to use my camera better and editing programs to get some cool pics!

Images linked from photographyblogger.net

Sephora haul

My lovely Australian friend living in the US returned home over the Summer so very graciously agreed to bring home some of my online shopping. Conveniently for me, her trip home coincided with a $15 email voucher from Sephora as well as there being sale items!

I couldn't help myself and stocked up on some stuff I needed, as well as some other random goodies...

You'll see in the pic too that I got some SD cards - they were purchased from Best Buy during their Black Friday sales so for US$30 I managed to get a total of 48GB of SD card storage. I don't think I'll be needing SD cards for a while (and they were purchased in anticipation of my next holiday!).

So a lot of the stuff there were free samples - all those perfume samples, beauty flash balm and the mascara in bubble wrap.

I only got this because I thought I might need it going travelling and it was on sale - it turns out to look pretty dodgy but it could still be pretty useful on the go. From memory it was around US$12?

As someone who doesn't use much make up, I love Sephora's sample size items. This duo of Diorshow mascara + primer was US$20 and considering it will probably dry out before I finish using it, I thought it was worth a try.

Terrible photo, but I love this purchase. For the grand total of like US$8, I got this Sephora liquid liner which I've been using a lot. I have an expensive Dior liquid liner which is painful to use, but this brush applicator is much like the more expensive luxury brands versions but for cheap as chips. It doesn't budge or crease which is great too, though the colour payoff isn't maybe as good as the luxury brands, but you can just rectify that with extra layers. Plus for tightlining as daytime wear (which is what I've been using this for at least twice a week) it works a treat as I don't want to look cleopatra eyed to work.

Plus the mascara base below is from the amazing Lancome Cils range which I already own. But I wanted to try this base primer to see how it compared to the Dior. It was free anyway! So far its been working pretty well, though I don't think its the most amazing product ever.

Who else loves Sephora? Actually I've been meaning to post about the Sephora opening in Australia rumours - maybe I'll post next week (yes I realise this post has been slated for 6 months but I keep on forgetting)!

Shoe Watch: March 2013

With all the rainy weather lately I've spent a lot of time at home internet researching for my upcoming holiday as well as online shopping.

Its been a while since I've done a shoe watch post...here are some shoes that I came across on my website hopping adventure

Christian Louboutin V-Neck

These have been around for a while but I keep on going back to them - they look boring there but amazing on. I love the sexy but demure traditional style and these happen to be 120s, but they come in 100s which is perfect perfect perfect for me! I tried them on at David Jones and wanted them immediately...and actually the price point was decent (600 from memory!)

Christian Louboutin Dos Noeud

I love classic - so these are just stunning and droolworthy in my opinion! The peep toe, ankle strap, bow on the back, and that pinky nude colour. Delicious!

Ferragamo Saphir

I know its weird that I would like this, but I think its kind of a cute twist on the standard Varas which can be pretty boring. But the gold bow and heel are a nice touch for everyday practical wear.

Now for a hideous pair...

I hope I don't offend anyone here, but can someone please tell me why anyone would buy this pair of Valentinos?? I mean I usually love his stuff, but this is just too eurotrashtastic for my liking. Its got everything going on - studs, perspex, ankle straps to oblivion. 

Any other shoes I've missed recently? I've been too busy to internet shop until more recently so I'm on the hunt!

March into Merivale: Est

March into Merivale restaurant deals have been running for several years now and I've always tried to make the most of them. A few years back I went to est for my birthday, and so this year when my very fashionable friend from interstate was visiting I thought it was worth going again.

The deal wasn't quite as cheap - last time it was $55 for 3 courses plus wine, this time $70, but the thing about est is you always get top notch service (it is 3 hat after all!) and the ambience and vibe of the place is brilliant. I love it there!

Italian buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, tarragon, sumac vinaigrette

grilled scallops, shaved fennel, zucchini flower, truffle, rocket

This was delish! I mean, how can you go wrong with scallops that are perfectly cooked with great flavours all balancing together.

fillet of beef, edamame, cucumber, miso-wasabi butter

Perfectly cooked and wasabi miso butter is always a fave of mine and that zing that comes from the wasabi was beautiful. I love a well cooked piece of meat!

And onto my favourite - dessert!

chocolate cream, apricots, tarragon, apricot

Raspberries, ginger cream, sorrel sorbet

The desserts were good but not WOW as I usually like my desserts to be. But you know the whole menu was accessible, easily eaten and beautifully presented. The entree and main were the standouts for me despite their simplicity as all I really wanted that night was a good meal that was delicate and it delivered exactly on that.

Between us we tried most of the meal options (except for the fish because no one wanted to give up the beef!). We stayed chatting for hours about all things fashion (because that's what we do!) and it was such an enjoyable evening.

Have you tried any of the MIM deals?

Burberry + Romeo Beckham

I know this has image has been doing the rounds, but I couldn't help but post about it because it is just unbelievably adorable and cute!

None other than ten year old Romeo Beckham starring in the Burberry campaign and having a quick laugh and chat with Christopher Bailey. If only we all had that money to look so stylish!

How does a 10 year old manage to make a Burberry trench look so glam?

ASOS Cuteness!

As you might remember me posting, I am going to Glastonbury music festival later this year which is renowned for being rained out. My cousin recently showed me this on ASOS and my friends and I are all so tempted to buy it!

HOW CUTE IS IT!?

What's not so cute is the 50GBP price tag ouch! For a raincoat? That's just for fashion? No thank you. I would understand if it was a outdoors store specially waterproofed rain coat but for now, this is staying firmly on the wishlist and not on the buy list (until it goes on sale!).