Two Sticks - Yunnan China - Haymarket - Sydney, Australia

Two Sticks - Yunnan China

Why has it been so cold these past few weeks? We've been fairly lucky with many days of clear skies and warm temperatures last month so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I can't wait till Spring kicks in as the days will get warmer.

On an awfully cold night, having soup is the perfect dish to heat up the body.

Two Sticks Restaurant is located on busy George St, close to the World Square shopping centre. With its central location and affordable menu, it's destined to be popular. They specialise in Yunnan cuisine, an area far south-west of China.

On a Friday night there is a queue but that's predicted.  The turnover is fast as diners eat and then go.

From the outside, the restaurant looks quite spacious but upon entry, there are many tables and chairs which have been tightly packed together in a small narrow enclosure. We find ourselves cramped, with lack of leg room and space between us and the tables next to us. It's loud, noisy and chatty, and that's what I like about it. Though, you may find yourself having to raise your voice for your dining companions to hear.

Its modern looking wooden interior has hues of yellow and black, and is positively a stark contrast to the typical Chinese restaurants.

There is a variety of items on offer including appetisers, mains and desserts. Their mini-pot noodle soups are what most diners are here for. The appetisers are aplenty and we find ourselves having to limit our order as they all sound delicious.

'White Cut Chicken ($4.80)' is poached chicken served with ginger shallot oil and sesame. Surprisingly, it came out warm just like how we would have liked it to be. I loved the addition of the ginger on top and it tasted very much like the shallot oil sauce you would get at a Cantonese BBQ store. The chicken was wonderfully tender and velvety smooth.

The 'Fried Chicken Wings - Spicy ($3.80)' aren't your typical chicken wings. It's coated in a Danshan chilli powder and then fried to a crispy, golden colour giving it a nice crunch and juicy insides.

The 'Dried Fried Beef Jerky - Spicy ($4.80)' is unfortunately over fried leaving it extremely dry, tough and hard to bite. The chilli's were extremely spicy so eat with caution.

'Yunnan Signature Rice Noodle Soup ($11.80)' or as they call it 'Crossing the Bridge Noodles', is as the name suggests, their signature dish. On most tables, we witness at least one of those pots, so it's got to be good right? It's like a mini version of the hot pot where items are added separately.

The wait staff bring out a tray containing a number of items including the ceramic pot with soup, bowl of noodles with beansprouts and shredded bean curd, quail egg, meat plate consisting of paper thin raw chicken and pork, and a side of condiments. The meat and egg is quickly added by the staff into the steaming pot of soup to cook for two minutes.

Then the rest is left to your discretion on what and how much you want to add. There goes the springy noodles, pickles, chilli and coriander.

I love how the noodles are ultra smooth making it easy to slurp with the tasty soup broth that's light and not too heavy on the palate.

If you're after an authentic, satisfying and quick meal, then this is the place to go. Not only are the prices affordable but the portions are decent.

It's been a rather busy month for me and I'll be jetting off to Singapore again and Vietnam at the end of this month, so do wait for the travel posts once I get back. It's been over 12 years since I last went to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and I hear it has changed drastically in terms of modernisation and growth. I can't wait to try the foods I've been craving for these many years such as the deliciously crispy banh mi's, broken rice with pork chops, Vietnamese coffee and the list goes on and on.

Where?
694 George St
Haymarket NSW 2000
Australia

Opening Hours
Open 7 Days a Week
11:30am - 11:00pm

Website
https://www.facebook.com/Twosticksaustralia

Petaling St Malaysian Hawker Food - Haymarket - Sydney, Australia.

Petaling St Malaysian Hawker Food

I’m a big fan of Malaysian cuisine as I love how the food is not only tasty, wonderfully flavoured and extremely easy to eat, but there is just an endless choice to choose from. 

Petaling Street Malaysian Hawker Food Restaurant is located on busy George St in Haymarket, the fourth branch, with this being the first in Sydney and the rest located in Melbourne. Petaling Street is a famous street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, well known for the abundance of restaurants specialising in hawker-style food and that is where this restaurant gets part of its name from. My friend C from Penang is a big fan of this place, choosing to dine here anytime she finds a chance to as it reminds her of the food she gets back home.

The food here is the real deal. You’re getting authentic Malaysian dishes at reasonably cheap prices. Please note their portion sizes are much larger than average so do not over order like we did. The good thing about this restaurant is you don’t have to queue as they've got plenty of seating inside. If there is a queue, the wait time is not long, but I've never have had to queue here.

Their menu is spread over two huge A3 sheets of paper and there are even additional sheets containing specials! The options seem endless. From the popular Malaysian dishes such as the Hainan chicken, satay chicken, bak kut teh to more adventurous dishes such as Marmite ribs. We tend to order food that we have tried before and on this occasion it was no exception.

‘Satay Chicken Sticks’ is grilled. Not sure what cooking technique they used here but unable to see or smell any char. 

'Roti Canai Chicken' was spot on. Superb buttery roti was absolutely scrumptious with the chicken curry. One of my favourites for the night.

‘Roast Chicken Rice’ is a winner. My favourite of all and the item I tend to order when I come here. The skin has been roasted to perfection giving it a crispy skin and tender, juicy meat within.  The rice here is not soft like it usually is but has a crispier texture from the garlic bits. Soup has a nice chicken flavour.  Not bad but not the best either. I liked how they served the traditional chilli and ginger sauce on the side.

The ‘Hainan Chicken Rice’ is the most anticipated but is unfortunately a letdown. Everyone is scared off by the pinkness of the chicken meat fearing it may be undercooked. It barely gets eaten. 

‘Mee Goreng’ is nice but not as good as the version at Mamak. To me it lacks that flavour hit. Shockingly, Tutor Girl has never tried this before and prefers the packaged Mee Goreng in instant noodle form.

The ‘Nasi Goreng’ is basically fried rice with the addition of sambal. At this point we’re just too full. I forced myself to try this for the sake of it. Nothing special as it lacked the flavour hit once again.

Various drinks including 'Iced Lemon Tea', 'Ribena with Lemonade' and 'Coke with Lemon'.

The food is good here with some dishes being better than others. Rather than having to travel all the way to Malaysia, you can have it here, though it may not be as cheap or great as the actual fare in Malaysia. We all enjoyed the dinner but might have been too full to fully savour the taste of each dish and the added heat from outside usually deters one from eating too much.

Where?
760 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Phone no: 02 9280 1006

Opening Hours
7 Days a Week
11am - Late

Website
http://www.petalingst.com.au/

MillioRe Korean Fusion Restaurant - Haymarket - Sydney, Australia.

MillioRe Korean Fusion Restaurant

 

It was the final exam for the semester and we were supposed to go Chat Thai to celebrate the end of exams as a group. One that night however, it was raining so heavily, so we decided to cancel the dinner for another day. My Malaysian friend C and I were hungry nonetheless, so we went to have dinner regardless. The queue for Chat Thai was shocking. More than 10 ten groups of varying sizes had their names on the list so we opted to go across the road to try something else. 

C loves Malaysian food as she originally from Penang, Malaysia. We usually go to ‘Petaling St Malaysian Restaurant’ as it is one of her favourite places. We were so close in going there again but since we were close to Capitol Theatre we went there instead. 

The first restaurant that captured our attention was ‘MillioRe Korean Fusion Restaurant’, bustling with young Koreans and families. Loved how they had Korean drama on the TV’s. For those who know me well, I’m a big fan of Korean drama.

 

There are many items on the menu, I emphasise many here. I don’t tend to eat Korean food as I prefer to have Japanese food but I'm starting to like Korean food much more. They have the traditional Korean dishes from rice bowls to hot pot. But one thing they don’t have here is fried chicken. 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I particularly love about Korean food is the side dishes they bring out also called Banchan which means 'side dish'. No matter what you order or how much you order, they always give you side dishes. Even though I haven’t been to many Korean restaurants, this place definitely servers a cracker of side dishes. My favourites were the green vegetables coated with sesame oil and the kimchi. Polished it all off.

 

The ‘Soft Tofu Stew ($11.00)’ comes with a bowl of fluffy rice. The soup was bubbling away in the hot bowl as the waiter brought it out and from the picture you can see all the steam evaporating and blurring my phone camera! Perfect comfort food for cold and rainy days like these.

 

 

The ‘Prawn Rice Bowl ($15.00)’ comes out looking too good to eat. Sitting within a hot plated bowl, there are a number of ingredients including rice, mushrooms,  beansprouts, carrot, cucumber, prawns and egg. This is all mixed together with the side of chilli sauce. Very yummy and similar to making your own fried rice. A bit unadventurous but the important thing was it tasted delicious.

Honest home style cooking as you can taste the authentic flavours of their dishes. For those who want to try Korean beer or soju, it is priced reasonably well here.

Really enjoyed the food that we had and would definitely come back to try some other things. Cheap prices for  great quality food. Definitely one of the best Korean restaurants I've been to in the City.

Where?
Shop G10,
730-742 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Phone no: 02 9212 2828

Opening Hours
Sunday - Thursday: 10:00 am - 1:00 a.m.
Friday - Saturday: 10:00 am - 2:30 a.m.

Website
http://www.capitolsquare.com.au/food-beverage/milliore_korean_fusion_restaurant.php

 

Old Town Hong Kong Cuisine - Haymarket - Sydney, Australia.

Old Town Hong Kong Cuisine

I stumbled upon this new eatery in Dixon Street while walking to uni one night and from the outside it looked ultra modern but I didn’t know what they were selling. I did a few searches online and realised they specialised in Hong Kong cuisine. It was not until a few weeks ago that after walking past yet again with a friend, where we saw ducks being roasted in their oven that sparked my interest in going.
 

 

When it initially opened there wasn’t much people but now that people have heard about it or seen it, the crowds are coming in. On a Friday night, the queue was out the door but when I went on Saturday there was only a few people in the queue. They do take bookings so if you intend on visiting, it’s better to book ahead as you can’t predict whether there will be a lot of people or not.

 

Let’s just say my family have high expectations when it comes to Chinese food and they set their bar really high regardless.
 

 

I made a booking for 6:30pm a few days prior and managed to get in without any fuss. The interior is nicely furnished and rustic looking with the wooden tables, a dessert making area, a bar area and kitchen within two levels. We were seated on a four seat table on the second level and  the table was so small, that there wasn’t enough room for more than two large plates of food.
 

 

We ordered one entrée and four mains. They have a  large variety of dishes to choose from such as an assortment of congee to live seafood. Food price wise it wasn’t expensive but it wasn’t cheap either.

 

 

The first thing they brought out was the ‘Sweet and Sour Pork ($16.80)’. Portion was so small that we got an initial shock as to how small it was. Imagine a rice bowl times two. A few pieces of pork coated in a batter, fried and then stir fried. Nothing overly special about dish. Balance of flavours wasn’t right as they must have been a bit heavy handed on the vinegar as it tasted sour at parts.

 

Considering we ordered fried rice, I was expecting to get that before this dish arrived. As a result, it was left aside till the rice made its way to our table which was towards the end of the meal as the ‘Peking Duck with Pancakes’ arrived not too long after. The crunchy pork in the sauce went soft and soggy.
 

 

The star of the night was the ‘Peking Duck (Whole - 2 Courses) ($55.00)'.

 

The first course was beautifully presented and cut into one portion skin and one portion skin with meat, eaten with pancakes. This was to be wrapped together with cucumber, finely sliced shallots and hoi sin sauce. The duck was superb cause it was freshly roasted. It was marinated, cooked and oven roasted to perfection. The skin was crispy and the mean was filled with flavour as the juices were still coming out . There wasn’t too much fat as it must have been rendered away in the oven. I especially liked their hoi sin sauce as it wasn’t just your normal hoi sin sauce. It must have been made in house as it tasted different to what you get in the bottles.

 

Second course was ‘San Choy Bow' made from the duck meat. I really liked the crunchiness from the water chestnuts and the vegetables together with the duck meat. Yummo.
 

 

The ‘Xiao Long Bao ($6.80)’ was an entrée dish but came out last. They must have been confused with the order of menu items . However, it was made nicely and how it should be.  The sweet pork and soup sat within the thin parcel. Oh that porky goodness.

 

We got the ‘Old Town Fried Rice ($12.80)’ second last and I must say it was pretty good. Not too oily and not too dry. The portion wasn’t small but adequate  and this was polished off fast.

I like the glass cups that they use. 'Crown Lager Beer ($6.50)'.

 

No dessert this time around but N2 Extreme Gelato is located across the street for those ice-cream lovers.

 

Overall, a ok dining experience with ok food but nothing out of the ordinary. Service was friendly and efficient and they attended to most of our needs.

 

Better Chinese food can be found at places closer to home (Hurstville and Beverly Hills). Not worth the drive to go just for dinner but if you’re in the City and after a decent Cantonese feed then this is the place to go.

The quality of food may improve as they get a hold of how things work as they have only been open for short period of time.

 

It is more catered towards the younger diners as my parents who prefer the traditional Chinese restaurants found the restaurant to be normal and mediocre. They liked the duck but then again we can also find good Peking Duck in the South.

 

Where?

10 Dixon St

Sydney NSW 2000

Australia

 

Phone no: 02 9426 4888

 

Opening Hours

Dinner 5pm - 2am
 

Website

NA