Sponsored Post: Campsie Street Festival, 21-22 May 2022, 11am-8pm

Food stalls + music + art + kids games

For one weekend only, the heart of Campsie will be transformed into a buzzing street festival, with a range of food stalls dishing out mouth-watering Chinese-Malaysian cuisine. 

Sydney dining institution Albee’s Kitchen will be serving up some of their famous Malaysian food – expect exciting specialty rice and noodle dishes, moreish tapioca and sesame inspired desserts, and refreshing drinks to delight your tastebuds. 

Albee’s will be joined by other neighbourhood favourites such as Malaysia Hometown Hawker, who are known for their range of authentic Malaysian dishes, Hexin Bros, with tasty homestyle dumplings and noodles, and craft bakery S.Wheaty, dishing up a delectable selection of sweet treats. 

A pop-up Tiger Beer bar will also be running all weekend, where a selection of brews and cheeky beverages will be available. 

Meanwhile, there will be a dedicated durian stall offering durians for sale and feasting – and for those who have never tried durian ice-cream, there will be the opportunity to get your hands on Duria Australia's new Musang King 3D ice-creams. 

To find out more, go to: https://www.cbcity.nsw.gov.au/events/campsie-street-festival

#campsiestreetfestival #whereinterestinghappens

Images supplied by Campsie Street Festival

Chuuka, Pyrmont (3 July 3019)

Jones Bay Wharf, 19-21 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009
https://www.chuuka.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/chuukasydney/

Chuuka Chuuka Boom Boom

“Chinese flavours. Japanese precision. Victor Liong and Chase Kojima have joined forces to create food like you’ve never seen before. What is CHUUKA? CHUUKA is marching to the beat of your own drum. CHUUKA is a world of contrasts that defies categorisation. CHUUKA is CHUUKA.”

Restaurant life looking great matched with good service, a lovely view of the Harbour Bridge and a promising menu at this former Flying Fish restaurant location. I fondly remember back in the good old days of blogging when tweetups were a thing.

It's their first day and my preference for the Wood cocktail of barrel-aged & hickory-smoked shiso umeshu, Bulleit rye, Campari ($19) is unfortunately not yet available so opted for the Japanese Gin & Tonic ($16) using a Japanese style gin from Cambridge Distillery with juniper, shiso leaf, sesame seeds, cucumber, sansho and yuzu. A lovely drop but I'm not a fan of the glassware style as the ice tends to fall onto your face when you get to the end of your drink unless you're using a straw. I much prefer my gin and tonics in tumbler style glasses for a more relaxing drink experience #firstworldproblems. To start Pacific oyster, bonito soy yuzu, spring onion oil ($5) have a tasty dressing that makes up for them being preshucked. Oyster lovers will still appreciate the balance of flavours to compliment the oyster's creaminess.

CHUUKA ‘Ebi Chilli’, stir-fried prawn, chilli miso butter, Japanese milk buns ($42) comes with 6 large prawns. You'll also get 6 milk buns. I was given 4 in this instance but could have asked for the other 2. I would have loved to take the left over buns home for the kids but unfortunately takeaway not allowed at the restaurant. Sauce was tasty with a pleasant hum of chilli. The perfectly soft buns served warm are handy to mop up the sauce. Prawn texture wasn't quite as firm as preferred on this occasion but after mentioning to the chef he has since made amendments in the kitchen to rectify for the better. Good use of the cleaned out prawn heads which have been fried to a decent crisp for added texture and to enjoy eating whole. Dish best shared between at least 2-3 people.

Chase’s ‘Tempura Yuzu Chicken’, dried chilli, sweet & sour yuzu sauce ($24) is apparently one of their signature dishes. Tasty flavour reminding me of a sweet & sour sauce with some chilli heat but it's not as angry as it looks unless you bite on the dried chillis. Pleasant crisp batter that adds some crunch to the dish. My only suggestion would be keeping the chicken pieces a touch smaller to make it easier to pickup and eat with the chopsticks gracefully. A good one to share between 3-4 people.

The menu is designed to share and dishes are served in the order they're ready. I think best suited for dining as a table of 4 to try a few things. Wine by the glass starts from $13 for whites and $16 for reds. Decor looking good for business lunches but families seem welcome as well when I spot a baby change table available in the toilet.

Zilver Bondi, Westfield Bondi Junction (17 Sept 2016)

Level 6, Westfield Bondi Junction
500 Oxford St, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
http://www.zilverbondi.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/zilverbondi/

Salt & Pepper Lobster Love

When my awesome brother @plus1guest wants to take the family out for a Salt and Pepper Lobster treat it's happy days. But in the true traditional of how my family works it also comes with my dad doing a mini research trip of at least 5 restaurants in advance to check the price of the live lobsters, the state of the tanks and the ease of parking — and I think he sometimes even enquires whether there's a Seniors Discount available just in case. It's also a drawcard if they can do a good crispy shredded beef and we take into account past experiences as well. So after the countless emails, suggestions and change of minds we finally decide on Zilver Bondi.

For our table of five (minus the 2 kids which thankfully are being looked after by a very kind friend) we choose a 2.008 kg Salt and Pepper Lobster ($477.90, $238/kg). We've found 2 kg+ is a good size to provide decent chunks of meat in the tail. They've done us proud here and we're happy. The 2014 Rock Bare The Clare Riesling ($40) seems to have been a good choice to enjoy with the lobster with some nice buttery notes and not being overly sweet. Steamed oysters with soy sauce, ginger, shallots ($8.50 each) are huge. Maybe a little too large as they're bigger than a mouthful to try and eat but flavours were good. We've had the Peking Style Shredded Beef ($24.80) here before and happy again with it. Nice amount of crispy batter without being to thick and a tasty sauce. Stir fried scallops and vegetables with xo sauce ($42.80) have plump scallops in a tasty sauce that goes well with the Zilver special fried rice with crab meat, fried scallop, crab roe and egg ($24.80). We had to get nicely made Steamed BBQ Pork Buns ($8) for the Mrs as this is one of her favourite yum cha dishes. Fruit platter ($18) ended up being served complimentary and we had to get a Deep fried ice cream with caramel sauce ($9.80) for some nostalgic dining.