Thanks to a friend of mine who brought back this joyful box of crunchy insect larva from America and the fact that Australian border security didn’t detect this coming through customs meant I got to savour these deliciously crunchy Californian BBQ-flavoured ‘Larvets’…

I asked Google and found out that these are actually mealworms, or larva from a type of grain beetle of sorts. These worms also resemble the live wriggly ones an old friend of mine used to feed his Arowana fish with. Funnily enough, you can even buy these Larvet snacks in bulk from Amazon.com! But whether it will make it past customs or not is another question…

Besides being a tasty novelty item, the packaging indicates that these Larvet Worm Snax have practically zero nutritional value. However, it would probably be a beneficial source of protein if consumed in large quantities!

After opening the plastic wrapping, a waft of wormy, wheaty, smokey, nutty goodness creeped up my nostrils. The BBQ flavouring actually complimented the worms in a strange way. I mean, the last thing you’d consider for a snack would be BBQ-flavoured worms right? To be honest I don’t think they would have tasted any worse or different without any flavouring because the worms were dehydrated and hollow, and tasted like crunchy chicken skin without the grease.

If they sold snack Larvets here, I would definitely be filling up my party bowl with them. I actually liked the taste and crunchy texture of the Larvets, and didn’t find it offensive at all. A good way to get a kick out of these is to eat a large handful and crunch away…nom nom nom…

We were always on the constant lookout for vending machines that sold ‘unconventional’ foods and other strange miscellanous items. By unconventional I mean items that you wouldn’t really expect to purchase from a vending machine on a day-to-day basis.

So when we came across this vending machine at the Mount Fuji lookout that sold dumpling soup, American hot dogs, Takoyaki balls, stir-fried Soba noodles, deep fried rice balls and french fries, out came the spare change!

Out of all 6 items, I’m not really sure why we picked the most ordinary food item on the menu – French fries (Or potato fries – whatever you call them) – but hey, it was novelty enough buying anything from that machine! It was interesting to see how this apparently simple technology worked.

So in went Naomi’s 380yen (around $4.50) – Or rather, a large bill (yes, it returns your change). It took just one press of a button on the item of your choice, and a 3 minute wait for the fries to be heated up before we heard a tumbling sound followed by the appearance of a fancy box of french fries in the opening of the machine:

It was hot alright, and when we opened the box my sunglasses fogged up from the steam! The fries were well, fries. They looked and tasted like the real thing and even had the ‘burnt edges’ taste. The only thing I didn’t like was that the fries were soggy. Looks like the Japanese still need to work on their crisping technology! Some ketchup would have gone down well though.

Yet another bizarre find – this time from a vending machine. I had some spare yens so I gave this little beast a try – Sweet black coffee jelly in a bottle. The stangest thing was that I had to shake the bottle to ‘activate’ the jelly so it turned into a thick  fluid. It tasted like coffee alright, so that was a plus. But the texture was an assault on the senses. Cold. Jelly. Sludge.

Needless to say I was left feeling slightly queasy..

This kept me awake for a few hours as it was nearly midnight when I ate/drank this. The drink was surprisingly high in caffeine! At least I got my 200yen’s worth for trying something new…

It was over 35 degrees, humid and hot as hell. These factors were hard to avoid while walking down a street in Kyoto in the middle of a Japanese summer, but as the below photo demonstrates, the sheer joy of one finding the ultimate in edible coolants:

We came across a stall outside a tea shop selling green tea ice cream floats – With a Japanese twist of course! Soft green tea ice cream dunked in a cup of chilled green tea! It was the perfect summer coolant. Yet another brilliant idea by the Japanese!

Forget energy drinks – Collagen-enhancing drinks are all the rage, only in Japan! And I thought I’d seen my share of the bizzarro. I was wrong. All the pharmacies in Japan have a ‘health drinks’ section – and that’s where I found this Collagen beverage.

In fact, I have even seen this particular bottle for sale at some everyday convenience stores like 7-11. I would give you more detail, but I can’t for the life of me read Japanese. From what the bottle says, one of my assumptions would have to be that it contains 1000mg of Vitamin C. Who knows what the other 3000mg is!

I am assuming that this product would somehow  increase one’s collagen intake? Improve skin texture? Decrease wrinkles? Improve your overall wellbeing? I didn’t want to risk having a trout pout during my trip, so unfortunately I didn’t sample this! It was still an intriguing find though, I must say!

I wasn’t really sure what to call it, but that’s exactly what it was – Soba Noodles in a bun!

We found this interesting combination of carbohydrates at a cafe in Tokyo. It was pretty much a white bread bun sliced open and slathered in thick mayonnaise, then topped with Bolognaise-flavoured Soba noodles and some pickled ginger!

As the noodles were dark brown, we thought it would have been flavoured with soy sauce or something. But strangely enough, it tasted like Bolognaise, albeit artificial.

My friend Josh didn’t like it, so I snatched the bun off him and wolfed it down. I enjoyed it – I figured I wouldn’t see or taste anything like this often so what the heck – I couldn’t let it go to waste!

The Japanese are full of quirky ideas when it comes to, well, everything. Especially pre-packaged food. One of my favourite convenience store purchases in Japan was none other than a quick fix of ‘pocket’ sandwiches! Each time I stepped foot into a convenience store, I just HAD to get a bag or two – sometimes even sneaking them into my bag quickly after I paid for them. It was getting embarrasing that I had some sort of fetish for these and had to hide it from the group!

At 200yen a pop (around $2.50), these cute little bags of fresh and fluffy white crustless sandwiches are just simply a genius idea. They are widely available at various Japanese convenience stores like Family Mart and 7-11, and come with different fillings – Egg mayo, tuna mayo, peanut butter, strawberry, blueberry, chocolate (gasp!), and custard (double gasp!). They were always fresh when I bought them – even after leaving them in my bag for a day or two! Japanese technology…

I nicknamed them ‘pocket’ sandwiches because of the way the fillings are ’sealed’ shut between two slices of bread, sans the crusts. I never like crusts, so the discovery of this sandwich ‘niche’ changed my life forever. The white bread they use is very soft and fluffy – my favourite pocket sandwich has to be the egg mayo, while the tuna mayo comes a close second! The perfect sandwich, satisfying in so many ways…

I tried a really good Macedonian restaurant recently. I’ve never really tried cuisine from that part of the world before and needless to say I was really impressed! We went to Europe Grill in Newtown twice – the first time for the pre-planning of a friend’s daughter’s christening lunch, and then the lunch itself! So I was really lucky to get a chance to eat there not once, but twice!

Europe Grill is located on the quieter end of King Street heading away from the city at number 506. When I went there for dinner the first time, it was a Monday night and was very quiet. There was only another family in the restaurant and the staff were obviously very attentive! It’s family-run from what I could tell and very traditional.

I can’t really compare the food to any other European cuisine as it is really quite unique! I really enjoyed the food at Europe Grill immensely but I actually preferred the entrees to the mains. I initially had written down all the Macedonian names for the dishes but I have lost the piece of paper so plain English descriptions will have to suffice!

These are the entrees we had:

They also serve Macedonian and Croatian Beers:

Now on to the main course!

As Europe Grill specialises mainly in barbeque and grilled food, they have an open grill where you can watch the chefs cook. The mains we had were very straightforward – we basically ordered a whole bunch of different meats from the menu and they brought it all out on one giant platter for everyone to share.

I had a huge shock when the platter came out – it was HUGE!

We were completely and utterly stuffed by the end of the feast, we didn’t even think about having any dessert!

One fine Saturday evening, Otto had a little dinner surprise for me up his sleeve. He was nice enough to take me on one of the Captain Cook dinner cruises around Sydney Harbour. This was definitely something different compared to our usual ‘cheap-eats’ Saturday evenings at our local! The cruise we went on was called the Starship Dinner Cruise and the boat departed from King Street Wharf, just outside the Bungalow 8 bar. When we arrived there was already a large group of people gathered at the dock waiting for the boat to arrive.

The boat was pretty huge and was a good 3-levels high. From my guess-timation, there were probably around 100 diners onboard. The cruise involved a three-course dinner while the boat cruised around Sydney harbour for 3 hours or so. The service onboard wasn’t too bad, except we had a Korean waitress with a thick accent and it was quite difficult to make out what she was saying! We were served a complimentary glass of sparkling wine immediately after we were shown our table – which was by the windows and we had a great view of the city while we cruised and dined.

There were about 25 tables in the restaurant, all donned in classy white tablecloths, fancy champagne glasses and a million different kinds of forks, spoons and knives! I never know which ones to use… We kick-started the course with some bread and an Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar dip, which was then followed by our entrees. One thing I found though, was that each course arrived too quickly and there was not enough space to relax (and digest) between meals!

Soon after we finished our bread, our waitress came back to our table and showed us the menu. The menu was divided into three sections: Entrees, Mains and Dessert and each category had 3 options to choose from. For my entree I went for the Prosciutto-wrapped Chicken Breast served with Italian Potato and Asparagus Salad with a Balsamic glaze. I thought the portion was just nice for an entree, but presentation-wise the entrees were served on really small bread plates. The entrees would have looked better on a larger plate I think! It terms of flavour and texture I thought the chicken was a little too bland and dry, and more dressing and flavour would have worked better as the potato and asparagus seemed a little lonely without a generous drizzling of dressing. The chicken morsels were probably left in the fridge too long because the Prosciutto was stiff and the fat had coagulated.

Otto opted for the Smoked Salmon, Fennel and Celeriac entree. Compared to my chicken entree, the portion of his dish seemed even more measly than mine! It was barely 3 mouthfuls! This dish also lacked presentation – With such a small portion of food on an equally small plate, they should have at least made an effort to maybe roll up the smoked salmon into little roses or something. Instead they looked like they were hastily torn into little pieces and chucked onto the plate without any thought of creative presentation. I’m generally not fussy with food presentation but for the price we paid ($100++ p/p) and dining at a venue such as this, one would think the food presentation would be of high calibre as well, no?

For my main, I ordered the Scotch Fillet with Field Mushrooms and Wedges roasted in Duck Fat. Okay, I’m not exagerrating but that piece of Scotch Fillet was the best piece of Scotch Fillet I have ever had in my life. I had it medium-rare, and it was cooked to utter perfection. I couldn’t believe how tender it was! It absolutely melted in my mouth and was so delicious! It was even better than some Wagyu steaks I have eaten in the past. The red wine reduction was rich and complimented the steak well. The wedges were nice and tender too but I couldn’t taste any hint of gamey duck flavours on them though. The size of my main was enough to keep me full, but not gasping for air and sucking in my stomach in that LBD I wore to dinner! Verdict on main? 8/10.

For his main, Otto went for the Grilled Salmon Fillet on baby Fennel with Tarragon & sea salt roast crisp skinned Pink Eye Wedges drizzled with Lemon Beurre Blanc (Phew! What a mouthful). The Salmon wasn’t overcooked or dry which was a plus! I liked the taste of the Lemon Beurre Blanc as it complimented the fish well. The size of the Salmon main was on par with my steak as well. Otto liked his dish, but he said it wasn’t the best piece of salmon he has had.

For dessert Otto had the Chocolate Tart and Panna Cotta. I had a taste and I found this pretty average to be honest! I have eaten better chocolate tarts from the local cake-shop. Again, the presentation was lacking and the treats looked miserable on that small plate. They really should have put in more effort in sprucing up the dishes a bit more to match the breath-taking views of Sydney harbour!

When I got my dessert I wasn’t expecting a medley of three different desserts on one plate! There certainly was variety in this one. I liked both the Tiramisu and Panna Cotta. The Tiramisu was extremely moist and creamy and was sitting in a pool of creamy sweet lemon sauce which was quite different. The Panna Cotta was served with a passionfruit concentrate which gave it much contrast while the Kahlua tart tasted very similar to the Chocolate tart that Otto had except with a hint of Kahlua.

Overall, the food was average. However, I did enjoy my steak and wedges; I reckon they should really work on the presentation and quality of the food. Nevertheless, the whole experience on the cruise was enjoyable. After dinner, we went up to the top deck to take in the night view of Sydney harbour which was pretty amazing – The cruise lasted about 3 hours and we docked back at King Street Wharf at around 10PM or so. If you’re after something nice to do on a weekend I’d definitely recommend trying out one of these dinner cruises, they’re actually not too bad! Great for dates =).

One of our many random dining excursions led us to a really cheap Vietnamese restaurant in Marrickville. Located at 304 Illawara Road, Pho Bac is nestled between a few other Vietnamese restaurants, so make sure you check the signs before entering!

The food was good and great value for money. Mains range from $7.50 – $25 and the portions were just right. I’ve been here for both lunch and dinner and they can get really busy. However, The restaurant is quite small and can get cramped during peak hour.The service isn’t too bad, the ambience at night is quite warm and they don’t have the horrible fluorescent lighting you can expect from many Asian restaurants!

Although I’d go back to Pho Bac, Thanh Binh in Cabramatta is still my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney! Here’s a little sneak peak of a few dishes we sampled. As usual, I will be adding more photos in future after a few more visits to Pho Bac!