Ice Cube Take 2

This is just going to be a short post. Last time I went to Ice Cube with my friends I said how everyone was ordering the seafood platters there and how they looked so good, well last Saturday it was Frankie and my 6 month anniversary (which is a first for me!) so I said we are going here and getting the seafood platter! So we did.

It was so huge and i think there was a truckload of chips underneath all the seafood. There were 4 big pieces of fish that were cooked beautifully, squid, cold prawns, hot prawns (which were the best hot prawns I have ever tasted), lobster (which you could have hot or cold, we chose mornay), crab (which i didn't even know was there until the end and I am talking about huge chunks of meat which came out with ease), oysters, mussels and smoked salmon. All for $135. You could easily share this between more than 2 people if you wanted, but who would want to do that!

I love this place. It's going to become my new favourite seafood restaurant, cause the seafood was excellent and at reasonable prices. The service is great too, and this came out about 10 minutes after we ordered it which was great. We shared the lemon curd tart dessert as well, which was as good as last time.

Happy six months!

Maya Da Dhaba

Finally caught up with a couple of uni friends on Friday night after it being cancelled a couple of times due to other commitments. Leonie suggested that we go to Surry Hills, so I decided on Maya Da Dhaba, as I have been wanting to go there for a while. This end of cleveland street is the Indian end, where as the other end is the Lebanese end. I think it's strange how they are all clumped together.

The restaurant itself is very nice inside and was quite empty when we go there at 7pm. It soon filled up though, which is when we realised how bad the acoustics were in the restaurant. We were practically shouting at each other to be heard. The restaurant was also very cramped, which meant that with me being in the aisle, every time someone would walk up and down my chair would get knocked. We were close to the entrance too, so there were a LOT of people walking up and down...

As we sat down we were given the menu and some pappadums and minty sauce to go with them. We decided on a couple of entrees to share.

Vegetable Samosas - $4.90


This was spiced potatoes and peas in homemade pastry. They were very nice, but very spicy too. They were quite big, so half a one each was enough.

Onion Bhajia

These were really spicy too, but still very good.

The next 3 mains we ordered, in my opinion (and my friends) didn't have too much flavour. The spicyness was so strong that it overpowered any type of flavour there was. I couldn't tell too much difference between the goat and the chicken dish. The pieces of goat that I got were mainly bone as well and the goat was tough. The Saag Paneer needed lots of the condiments on it to give it any flavour.

Saag Paneer - $9.90

This was the first time I have tried this dish and I was quite disappointed. I will try it again though in the hope that it will be better..

Goat Masala - $16.90

I have had a goat curry before and thought it was great. This i did not.

Chicken Chettinad - 13.90

Plain Naan

As well as the food not being too good and the acoustics and seating being terrible, the service was not that great either. They were rushing us through our meals and then at the end they took forever to pick up our bill. I swear i was holding it up in the air for about five minutes after failing to attract anyone's attention.

Although I had a bad experience, I don't want to deter people from going there, although I definitely won't be going back. There are too many other good Indian restaurants to try!

Maya Da Dhaba
431 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills
Ph: 8399 3785

Ice Cube Seafood Grill

Some of you might know that I have a few friends from school that whenever it is someone's birthday the others take them out for a dinner at a surprise location.

This time it was Kristy's birthday, so we took her to Ice Cube Seafood Grill. Located at the bottom of the Imax theatre in Darling Harbour. The place was packed and buzzing with people. Even though the huge restaurant was full (it seats about 180 people), the service was still excellent. We decided to share a couple of entrees to start with.

Oysters Kilpatrick - $3.30 each (min. 6)

Naomi and I shared this plate of oysters. I love oysters, kilpatrick and natural are both good. I hadn't had kilpatrick for a long time, so it was a nice change from getting them fresh. Really plump and tasty oysters too, yum.

Seared Scallops on Spiced Avocado and Gazpacho - $17.50

They were really good sized scallops for the price, and was told that they were delicious. For mains there were a numerous amount of choices. If you couldn't find something you liked, then there's something wrong with you! With seafood there were so many choices it was hard to choose. You could get things from the frier, or things from the grill, lobster 3 ways, all sorts of things. I decided to go with salmon....yes i know original for me.

Grilled Atlantic Salmon w/ crushed Potatoes - $25.50

The piece of salmon was huge and cooked nicely, but i would have liked some sauce to come with it, cause i did find it a bit dry. The potatoes were to die for, so tasty. I could have eaten more of that!

Moreton Bay Bugs w/ crushed Potatoes - $27.50

Kristy, Kylie, and Naomi all went for the bugs. These looked pretty good too. They came with the yummy potatoes too.

Grain Fed Beef Sirloin on roasted pumpkin and red onion w/ Shiraz jus - $32.50

Steph got the steak, which looked nice, but would seem more suitable for a colder night. We also got a side of chips and rocket and Parmesan salad which were both $5.50 which is great value!

We decided to order a couple of desserts to share. Kylie wanted a coffee too, so she got the affogato. This has to be the best affogato i have ever seen, probably the most expensive too!

Affogato - I think about $12

It came with some chocolate mousse and a shot of frangelico. Steph thought it was one of our desserts and just started eating the mousse! The mousse was good though!

Crunchy chocolate brulee w/ peppermint ice cream - $13.50

This was a bit different from what we were expecting. Inside the brulee it was more like a tiramisu texture. Was delicious though. The peppermint ice cream was the best. The first bit that i had had a big chunk of chocolate in it which just melted in your mouth!

Lemon Curd Tart w/ King Island Cream and seasonal berries - $13.50

This was awesome. My favourite kind of desserts apart from chocolate ones would have to include lemon of some sort, lemon cheesecake, lemon meringue pie, etc. I love the sweetness and the tartness together. Only negative i would have about this is that it should have been a bit bigger...

Kristy and Me

The 3 sisters, Steph, Naomi, and Kylie

Lots of other tables were getting the seafood platters for 2 which looked amazing. They are $135, but i reckon you could definitely feed 3 or even 4 from it. If you go to the website and join their mailing list you get a $40 voucher, which i did but forgot to use, so I am definitely going to go back there for the platter!

Ice Cube Seafood Grill Bar
Ground Floor IMAX Theatre Complex
31 Wheat Road, Darling Harbour
Sydney
Ph: 8267 3666

Open for lunch and dinner 7 days 12 noon - 12 midnight

Delhi 'O' Delhi

Finally it is starting to feel like Spring in Sydney at the moment. Wednesday night was a nice balmy night and Erskineville was buzzing with people sitting outside at the local pubs. I haven't really been to Erskineville before, but it has such a nice village feel to it. After a few beers at the pub Frankie and I headed to a relatively new place on Erskineville Road called Delhi 'O' Delhi. Inside the restaurant it looked very fancy from which the prices on the menu didn't reflect which was good. Seeing as it was a nice evening, we took advantage of one of the two tables in the courtyard.

As soon as we sat down we were taken care of immediately with our wine being opened and poured, glasses of water brought to the table without asking, and a complimentary serve of pappadums.

We had a look through the menu and ordered a mixed platter entree to share as we decided what mains we were going to get.

Mixed Platter - $9.90

The mixed platter consisted of Seekh Kebab (Lamb mince skewered and grilled in clay oven), Murgh Malai Tikka (chicken thigh fillets in yoghurt and cashew nut marinade), Palak Ke Kebab (Spinach and roasted lentil patties, these were really good), and Machli Basil Tikka (Fish fillets marinated in hung yoghurt, fresh garlic and chargrilled). Everything tasted wonderful. The fish fillets were quite spicy, but I like spicy food so it was good. After we finished the entree we were asked if we were ready for our mains, which I thought was considerate, rather than some places where you are still eating your entree and then your mains come out.

Chicken Tikka Masala - $11.90

Usually I will always get butter chicken, as it's my favourite Indian dish, but thought it would be good to try some different dishes. The problem is that I wanted to try everything! That's the problem in going out with just 2 people, you can't try as much. The tikka masala (chicken morsels sauteed with tomatoes and fresh coriander) was chosen first and what a good choice! The chicken was so succulent and very tasty.

Baghare Baingan - $10.90

Next up was sauteed eggplant simmered in piquant peanut, tamarind and sesame seed sauce. This was quite spicy which probably the piquant referred to. Very good though and I love eggplant. We also got some sides of cucumber raita, mango chutney, and tomato and onion which were all $2.

Plain Naan - $2.50

Is that like the puffiest naan bread you have ever seen?? Naan bread is so good. I love all types of naan and always have to get it whenever I have Indian food. I definitely want to come back here and try more of their dishes, hopefully with more people! Apparently the chef used to work at Oh Calcutta as well. The waiter was quite cheeky too, which makes the night entertaining. The restaurant is BYO and licensed. I think we paid either $6 per person or $6 per bottle. Don't know as there was 2 of us and 2 bottles of wine, so not sure how they calculated it.

Delhi O Delhi
3 - 13 Erskineville Road (off King St)
Newtown
Ph: 9557 4455

Open 7 days 5:30pm till late

Pho Bac Hai Duong

If anyone has been to Marrickville the first thing they will notice is the long stream of Vietnamese restaurants along Illawarra Road. I can't believe how many there are. Frankie said that he has been to them all so it was up to him to choose which one we went to. After going to both bottle shops in Marrickville and finding they were both closed we found a bottle shop in a pub and then headed to Pho Bac. I love the freshness of Vietnamese food and I also love how you get all the different condiments on your table so you flavour dishes to your liking.

Vietnamese Pancake - $9.50

We started off with a Vietnamese pancake which I hadn't had for ages. I never used to like this cause I wasn't a big fan of bean sprouts, but I have learnt to like them. The pancake was so crispy and fresh and the sauce was perfect. I couldn't eat this without the sauce though. Everything on the menu was so cheap that we decided to get 3 main items and share them.

Salt and Pepper Squid - $13

You can't really see but the salt and pepper mixture was chunky and had bits of chilli through it of which i ate a big bit of. The batter was probably a bit thicker than you'd expect, but it was still really good.

Combination Omellete - $11

This had pork and squid and vegetables in it and tasted so good with the hoisin sauce. I love hoisin sauce...yum.

Chicken in Anchovy Sauce - $11

I had never seen this dish before, so I was keen to try when Frankie suggested it. It didn't really taste anything like the anchovies that you usually get on pizzas. It was sweet and salty and really good. I would recommend this highly, although i didn't get to eat much of it cause I was stuffed from all of the other dishes.

If you are planning on opening a shop in Marrickville, I wouldn't suggest a Vietnamese restaurant, that's for sure. Maybe a bottle shop that is open past 8pm on a Monday night perhaps... One down twenty five to go!

Pho Bac Hai Duong
304 Illawarra Road
Marrickville
Ph: 9559 5078

Open Mon to Sun 10am - 9:30pm

Sydney Food and Wine Fair

I was quite worried the day before the food and wine fair as the weather was terrible, but luckily for me and everyone else heading to Hyde Park, it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Mum and Dad met me at my apartment and then we caught a taxi to Hyde Park. We got there about 11:15 (we weren't eager or anything...), but it was a good idea that we did cause it gave us a chance to look at all the stalls and see what they were offering without panicking that everything was going to sell out. We were also able to get a nice table in part shade part sun. So it came to 11:55 and mum urged me to get in the line for food before the queues started getting big. So I was in charge of food and Dad went off to get the wine. I had spotted a few things I would like to try, but when I saw Arun Thai's offering of crispy chicken with sticky rice and papaya salad I was sold.

4 coupons - $10

Luckily Mum told me to go when i did cause when i asked for 3 orders of this i turned around and there was already a big queue. This was so good! I hadn't had papaya salad since I had been in Thailand and i must say that this is one of the best that I have had. It was so spicy which was good, cause I hate it when they don't make food as spicy as it should be to try and accommodate non spicy liking people. It was well worth the $10 as well.

4 coupons - $10

Another thing that i saw while wandering around was the scallop and noodle salad with pork belly and you get a cocktail with it, from Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay. I thought that was a bargain until i saw it. Luckily Mum got it before I did! So I was on to find something else and felt like something light after the Arun Thai meal, so I thought Oysters!

4 coupons - $10

Now I am not sure if these were from Sailor's Thai or Salon Blanc, I thought Sailor's Thai, but they were both next to each other and I got a bit confused. There was nothing really to rave about this though. Oysters with just lemon would have been a lot nicer.

4 Coupons - $10


Dad finished with these rice paper roll type things from Prasits/Northside Thai. They were filled with pork and prawn and noodles, and they were absolutely delicious.

4 Coupons - $10

Mum finished her savoury items with this sampler plate. I am not too sure where she got it from, but as she doesn't like beetroot she gave me the item with beetroot. It tasted really good with the sweetness of the beetroot and apple and creaminess of the feta.

1 coupon each - $5

I had walked past the Bourke St Bakery stall a few times and saw the array of tarts they had on offer and knew what i was going to get for dessert. I heard someone else ordering and they told them the tarts were 1 coupon each, so I decided to get 2! The one on the left was a chocolate mousse and raspberry and the one on the right was lemon curd. These were delicious. They just melted in your mouth. Very light as well.

3 Coupons - $7.50

Mum got her dessert from either Milsons or Verandah (again with the confusing signage). It was a panacotta with mixed summer berries. The panacotta had a coconut milk flavour which was nice, but the blueberries were less than desirable.

That was it from the food side of things and we were still left with a lot of coupons, they were not put to waste though with all the different wine stalls!

Sydney Food and Wine Fair
Hyde Park
Annually on the Last Saturday in October

Greek Islands Taverna

Frankie and I tried to go to this place one night before on a Monday or Tuesday night and found that it was closed, so it was a Thursday night and knew for sure that it would be open. As you enter the restaurant which is down a side alley off the main street, you feel like you are in restaurant somewhere in Greece. The place is very colourful and welcoming. The menu is varied which is good, but also bad as it makes the decision of what to order tougher! There are a lot of mixed plates which were appealing, but they were for 4 people, and although we were hungry, we weren't that hungry! So we decided on getting a few hot and cold mezes to share.

Medium Greek Salad - $9

First to come out was our greek salad. You can't go to a greek restaurant and not get it, it is of course the best salad ever. Look at all those different colours and flavours in there. Yum! How good is feta cheese, well how good is cheese in general, but feta is definitely my favourite. Has to be good feta though, not the plasticky feta that you sometimes get in take away salads.

Taramosalata - $6.50

Look at that colourful dish of fish roe. It's making me hungry now. This was nice and thick and creamy. It came with some fresh bread to spread on, but i was spreading it on everything!

BBQ Octopus - $13

Now this is where the photos get a bit blurry. It could have been the wine, it could have been that i ddn't set the camera up properly, who knows all I know is that the food was good. You could really taste the chargrilled flavour of the octopus. It was also served in bit sized pieces which was great, cause nothing is more attractive than having a octopus tentacle sticking out from your mouth. After a while these became a bit tough though, so best to eat them early.

Saganaki - $not sure

The description of this was melt in your mouth cheese and melt it certainly did. I have never had this dish before and i am so glad we ordered it. It was a gooey lemony tomatoey taste sensation. As with the octopus though it is good to eat this fairly quickly while it is still stringy.

Chicken Liver - $not sure either

This was the last of our dishes. Normally the form in which I eat chicken livers are in a pate, which is the best, but this way was very good too. I love all this type of food where you can just pick at things and drink wine and then have a break and then eat some more. We were wondering if this was going to be enough, but ended up leaving a lot behind as we were stuffed!

My gorgeous Frankie

Greek Islands Taverna
Shop 2, 360 Homer Street
Earlwood, NSW
Tel: 02 9558 3334

Mamma Maria

So i got these free tickets in the mail the other day for the Joe Strummer movie - The future is unwritten, so decided to use them last night at the Dendy in Newtown. I had never been to the Dendy there before, and was amazed that you were acutally allowed to buy alcohol and bring it into the movie! The chick behind the counter was not amused when Frankie asked for a bottle of champagne and she said you can only get glasses, we don't want people drinking out of the bottle in the cinema...like we were going to do that! Anyway the movie was really good and by the time it was finished we were ready to eat!

I don't really know Newtown that well, although there are heaps of places that I would love to try out, so I told Frankie to pick a place and he chose Mamma Maria. He had been there the week before with his parents and said it was really good. Also the movie finished about 9pm and this place is open until midnight, so we didn't have to rush our dinner either.

Crumbed Brains

Frankie said that we had to get this for an entree which i was happy about, cause I hadn't eaten brains for ages. When I was little and living in Albury there used to be this sandwich shop called Yums which we used to get sandwiches from all the time and my favourite were the brains, avocado and bacon. So good, anyway these brains were delicious. They were in a creamy tomato sauce with red capsicum and onion and garlic. Can't remember how much they cost but the food here was very reasonably priced.

Chicken Samir - $15.90

For mains I got the Chicken stuffed with ricotta and something else. Can't really remember the particulars, but I remember that it was damn good. The sauce was tomatoey (is that a word?) and garlicky and really good. The vegetables were cooked to perfection also and seasoned just right. I always love a meal where I don't have to add any salt and pepper to, and i love my salt too.

Veal Dawn - $15.90

Frankie went for the Veal Dawn which was stuffed with mushrooms and artichokes and had a creamy mushroom sauce. I tried a bit of his and it was very nice, although i was glad i went for the choice that i did.

Greek Salad

We also ordered a greek salad (at an Italian restaurant i know) which was good, not the best i have ever had, but it was still good. This was a medium sized salad too, which was plenty for the two of us. We also got some garlic bread, which reminded me a bit of pizza hut garlic bread, but

better. It was BYO as well, which is always a selling point for me. Overall a very good restaurant, a very family feel to it also and cosy. I will be looking forward to going back!

Mamma Maria
239 King Street (Cnr Church St)
Newtown

Ph: 9516 4428
Open Dinner Mon to Sat 6pm - Midnight

Sabayon

I have been so unmotivated at the moment to post or take pictures of food I've eaten, but I know I need to get back into it, cause I know how I would feel if all the people that did their food blogs stopped taking photos and posting them. So this is going to be a short one, but will be getting back into it soon.

For Father's day (yes I know it was a few weeks ago...) I met up with Mum and Dad and we headed down to Canberra to visit my sister and her husband. Instead of celebrating father's day on the Sunday, we decided to go out for a nice meal on the Saturday night instead. Now I used to live in Canberra, but that was during my Uni days in which we didn't frequent many restaurants, so Laura had the job of booking the restaurant.

She chose a relatively new restaurant called Sabayon which she had been to previously with her parents in law. I can't remember too much about the detail of each meal we had, but the prices were around $17 for entrees and $30 for mains. We all decided to have a entree and main course each.

Dad and I both went for the duck which had foie gras in it. It also came with a beetroot relish which complimented it excellently. Dad didn't have the relish though, cause both he and mum can't stand the stuff whereas my sister and I will eat them out of a tin.

Seared Tuna

Scallops

Prawns with Ravioli

Salmon

For main course I got the salmon. I am not a big fish fan for fear of bones, but i love love love salmon. This also came with mussels which were the most beautiful mussels I have ever had. Normally when I eats mussels I find them too tough and stringy, but these just melted in your mouth...yum. One thing I have to say though is I did find a bone in the fish, which got stuck in my throat! I panicked a bit cause I have never had a bone caught in my throat before and thought i was going to have to rush to hospital or something (yes i am a bit melodramatic..) but mum and Teighe just told me to eat some bread (although i was so full it was an effort to eat) which got rid of it thank god.

Can't remember what type of fish this was..

Chicken

Pork Chop


Steak

Laura and Teighe

Dad, Mum and Me

Sabayon
Melbourne Building
West Row
Canberra City
Ph: 6247 8212

Open Lunch Mon to Fri Noon - 3pm
Dinner Mon to Sat 6pm - 10pm