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!

One of our frequent haunts in Sydney is a specialty dumpling shop in Ashfield. That’s what they do best – dumplings, dumplings and more dumplings! This is the place you’d go to satisfy any dumpling cravings you may have. Located at 337 on Liverpool Road, New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant is the joint you should look out for if you’re ever in the area.

This is a great place to take friends for a shared meal as the food comes in small plates. It’s almost like yum-cha, just minus the steaming hot trolleys. The dumplings are made fresh on site and on order, and they also have a wide variety of other Chinese dishes on offer. As this is a typical Chinese ‘fast-food’ joint, don’t expect great service or ambience! It’s noisy, busy and expect to share a table with other patrons!

My favourite dumplings from here are the dangerously scalding hot Pork Soup Dumplings. Encased in a doughy shell is a mixture of pork mince with chives and hot soup. The trick to eating these dumplings without suffering any third degree burns is to pop the dough with one chopstick first to release the hot steam before putting one in your mouth. One must eat these with caution!

I have learnt the hard way with these. They look rather cute and harmless but looks are deceiving! The dough they use on these dumplings is thicker than the usual rice flour version – it’s actually bread-like and chewy. They are first steamed, then lightly pan-fried to brown the base and make it crispy on the bottom which gives it a slightly toasted flavour.

They serve many types of dumplings here. Another version we ordered were the steamed crab and pork dumplings. These are very similar to the ones you’d get as part of a typical yum-cha set and has the original rice-flour casing which is softer and lighter than the casing of the pork soup dumplings. The fillings in these were pretty tasty too but had less of a ‘chivey’ taste compared to the previous ones.

The following dish was pretty interesting. Deep fried salted and spiced fish – served cold. This tasted like they used the Chinese Five-Spice mix as a marinade. The most distinctive taste I could pull from the flavour was Star-Anise. I quite liked the taste of this dish but would have preferred it if this was served hot rather than cold. Tasted like leftover KFC in a sense, besides we were looking forward to something hot.

One dish that I have ordered more than once from here is the Crispy Egg Noodles with Pork, Shitake Mushrooms and Bamboo Shoot sauce. Probably not the healthiest dish, but on the taste scale this one is probably high up on it. The egg noodles are deep fried to a crispy perfection then the sauce is poured over the top – as you have probably already put two and two together, this is a very oily dish!

This next dish was nothing like what was described in the menu. It was called satay lamb, but tasted nothing like satay! It was very garlicky, cooked in a rich soy-sauce and was served with semi-raw onions. The meat pieces were too big for chopsticks (one had to tug with their teeth!) and overall the dish was way too oily. However the lamb was tender and I think this would be better served with rice as a main.

Watch this space for more dishes to come in the future!

Dining at Albee’s Kitchen has somewhat become a weekly ritual since we discovered this little gem in May this year. Located in Campsie on the southern end of Beamish Street at number 282, Albee’s is definitely the best, and most authentic Malaysian restaurant I have tried in Sydney so far. However, let me clarify that the food at Albee’s leans more towards the Malaysian style of Hakka, Hokkien, Hainanese and slightly Cantonese style of Malaysian cooking – In other words, Nyonya-style Malaysian cooking or Straits-Chinese.

As Malaysia is a country with a very diverse culture, Malaysian food doesn’t necessarily mean Rendang, Goat Curry and Roti Canai. There are three main types of Malaysian food that I’d like to specify – Malay, Malay-Chinese and Malay-Indian. These three styles of Malaysian food represent the three main cultures in Malaysia. But having said that we cannot forget the various other ethnic foods from other cultures and tribes in Malaysia as well.

Albee’s Kitchen is a small, family run business. The ambience at Albee’s is nothing to write home about – it’s relatively cramped, and expect to share a table with other patrons. They do have a more private dining area out the back – usually reserved for larger groups or really desperate customers! The setting actually reminds me of a typical Malaysian canteen.

The ambience at Albee’s never bothers me – when the food arrives I’m pretty much in heaven! And the food never dissappoints either- Another amazing fact about Albee’s food is the price. Mains range from $7.50 – $28, and the portions are astronomical. We always end up with leftovers and doggy bags without fail! Otto has a collection of Albee’s leftovers in takeaway containers in his freezer. Definitely good value for money!

The customer service at Albee’s is great too. I got a bit friendly with one of the ladies who works there, and we usually have a little banter in Mandarin – she’s got a rather comical sense of humour. During one visit with Otto, as we were paying at the counter she said to me in Mandarin, “I notice you guys always split the bill. Is he not your boyfriend?” – That comment had me in stitches. Enough said.

My three favourite dishes at Albee’s is their Hainanese Chicken Rice and their Fish Head Curry and Asam Pedas Fish Head Curry (Hot and Sour). As I am a regular at Albee’s, you can be sure that this post will become bigger over the months!

On a recent trip back home to Kota Kinabalu, my parents took me to one of their favourite coffeeshops for brunch. Located in a shop lot in Damai, H&H Kopitiam serves really good Yong Tau Foo or stuffed tofu and vegetables. One of my favourite Malaysian-Chinese dishes, Yong Tau Foo is usually served for breakfast or lunch together with noodles or can be eaten on their own.

Armed with my giant Nikon, the shopkeeper thought I was from the local council checking up on her establishment when I started taking photos around her shop! She relaxed abit when I told her I was just genuinely there for the food… To be honest, even if I was from the council, I wouldn’t be worrying too much as the level of hygiene at H&H Kopitiam is pretty good.

The menu at H&H is very straightforward – you can either have dry or soup noodles ranging from vermicelli, egg and flat rice noodles together with their selection of stuffed tofu and vegetables. They have two kinds of soup; a clear fish broth and a spicy curry. You can opt to have a combination soup with all the toppings, or you can pick your own selection from their glass display.

They have quite a wide variety of veges and tofu that are stuffed with finely minced fish meat. The stuffed veges on display are eggplant, bittergourd, chilli and okra. The quality of the food at H&H is pretty decent – all the veges and tofu are cut in generous sizes and taste fresh.

Besides stuffed veges, they also have fishcakes, fishballs and deep fried crispy tofu. You can actually pick the number of items to go in your soup and they will charge you by item. If you’re just after a light snack, you can just order the stuffed veges and tofu without any soup or noodles.

Their most popular dish is the special curry as was recommended to me by a few people. Being a fan of all things spicy, I ordered one of these with a combination of stuffed eggplant, bitter melon, chilli, tofu and fishcakes with a serving of flat rice noodles. However, when the bowl arrived I noticed that the portion was quite small compared to alot of other noodle soup restaurants around town.

The special curry soup was very tasty but I found it too oily, as you can see in the photos. There literally was a thick layer of oil on the top and to get to everything else in the bottom of the bowl one had no choice but to drink the oil too! The oil is from the coconut milk they use in the curry soup base. As it gets cooked, coconut milk slowly unleashes all its fatty goodness upon its bowl-mates!

This is probably the first time I have eaten a curry soup like this in Kota Kinabalu. The other curry soups I have tried were either Laksa or Tom Yum whereas the H&H Curry Soup had a very stong curry leaf flavour to it and wasn’t sour like Tom Yum. Despite being too oily, it was still delicious and I would definitely be going back to H&H to try the other dishes on offer. Meals here are very cheap and range from RM4-7.