One Tea Lounge and Grill-Take 4

I don't often 'repeat' restaurants, but this place is probably one of the exceptions. Finally won a food competition thanks to this photo from Night Noodle Markets (NNM) earlier this year, so decided to use the $50 voucher to try the new summer menu. It was also an excuse to over order and to try some things I never got around to trying at the NNM earlier this year and previous years. I've tried most of the things that always stay on the menu despite the season, It was quite quiet for a Thursday night, unlike when I came on a Monday night in August when they had the matcha ramen special. Love how they include lots of photos for some items on the menu.

entree/snacks

Salmon Tataki: lightly seared salmon with matcha yuzu-$12

Salmon was seared well and fresh. The matcha and yuzu both could be stronger, but you can taste more of the yuzu than matcha. Still a nice combo of flavours on salmon.

 

Peking duck fries w/ waffle fries: shredded duck with housemade spicy hoisin sauce and fried shallots-$18

I've always wanted to try these at NNM, but I hardly every order fries as a side, so would feel bad ordering it, but since I had a voucher, can justify ordering this. Duck is my fav protein, and love the combo of using peking duck as a topping. The amount of duck was decent and also included some skin in. The waffle fries were nice and potatoey, but a tad oily. The sauce did have a nice kick of chilli but it was bearable. Wished there were more shallots to help try to lighten this dish.

matcha coconut chicken: tender chicken thigh with matcha coconut cream served in a brioche toast box with grilled vegetables & matcha rice-$29

 

curry in a toast box!

It's a very Taiwanese thing to have a toast box, then they cut up the inside and fill it with the cut up bits of bread, but normally its sweet. First time having matcha curry inside a brioche toast box. It was a nice amount of matcha and creaminess from the coconut in the curry and chicken was cooked well. Wish they gave a bigger portion of rice and veggies though. The matcha rice had a sort of seaweed flavour to it, those people who don't like matcha because of that weird flavour would understand. I guess I didn't mind having that different matcha/seaweed flavour in the rice since it helped contrast a bit to the matcha coconut curry.

dessert spread

Matcha heaven on fire-$23

Our most popular creative dessert show as you watch the orange liqueur burn the candy floss heaven to reveal a beautiful matcha terrarium filled with matcha castella cake, caramel walnut, meringue & red bean azuki mousse

 

She lit the orange liqueur to pour over the fairy floss, then melted it more with the blow torch to reveal the inside

inside

Yes, you are paying for the theatre of the dessert. The matcha cake inside wasn't too strong, but the matcha sauce was quite intense with a bit of orange liqueur in it to make the dessert more matcha-y. Could also dip the fruits in the sauce as well. I did find the candied walnut s way too sweet, and there were heaps of it so couldn't finish it all. The red bean mousse had a slight nutty flavour in it which was interesting. You can't actually eat the fairy floss since it just melts and sticks to the table/plate.

Matcha hokkaido cheesecake: a perfect balance of texture & taste with the famous creamy hokkaido cheesecake paired with matcha along with candied candied lemon, berries & cream-$16

Love the creaminess and cheesiness from this cheesecake, whilst still being light. Still struggled to finish it since we did order 6 things between two...Good balance of matcha in this cheesecake, and the fruits also helped cut come creaminess. 

Cookie shots: delicious crunchy cookie shots with a hot creamy beverage

 

inside after I added some matcha liqueur 

cheers

 

matcha and red velvet with matcha latte

I have to admit, this is a copy of Dominique Ansel's cookie shots, who had a chocolate cookie in the form of a shot class, and filled with vanilla infused milk. His cookie shots are more refined with a thinner pastry all around and coated with choc inside. These ones have a relatively thick cookie base and wall, so the actual volume inside inside that big, and filled each 'shot glass' around 3-4 times with the match latte which I found was quite weak and more towards the milky side. The flavours in the cookies were a bit too sweet afterwards since they're coated with white choc inside to prevent the hot beverage to melt or seep through to the cookie. The red velvet sort of tasted like it, but again the white choc flavour was more prominent. It's still decent for Sydney standards.

Love the inventiveness of the food here with a bit of theatre. If you love matcha, then this is the place for you.

Kakawa Chocolate

Sydney (and Aus) is always a few years late to the trends worldwide, but we finally have decent ice cream sandwiches! It's in a tiny shop which also does hand made chocolates and other edible gifts in a slightly newer side of Sydney where new restaurants have emerged.

   
Black sesame ice cream Sandwich-$6

You could taste the sesame flavour without the ice cream being too sweet. I loved how the biscuits were soft and thin but still held the ice cream together without being too messy to eat. The biscuits weren't too buttery or sweet, but towards the end you could feel yourself a little bit bloated from the butter in the 'bread' biscuit. It's so nice and sleek, or clean cut, and just a nice little snack, other more on the expensive side.

~$3 a piece of chocolate

Made

It's nice to see home bakers open up little boutiques, since it's a lot more convenient to get to, especially if they open in the CBD rather than going to their house. Made is a collab between MakMak Macarons and Bakedown Cakery, so now I can try her cakes without having to purchase a whole cake. It's in a little alley within the building. 

cupcakes-$5.50 each

macarons-$3.50 each

display

36hour cookie-$4

Apparently the dry and wet ingredients are combined and soaked for 36 hours before being bake to make it more moist and fudge. The cookie itself wasn't really moist, but the chocolate did turn out fudgy, soft and somehow moist. It wasn't gooey though, so something worth trying, but won't try again due to the price. Yes, it's one expensive cookie, and I have had better ones (mainly in NYC...)

Pandan Coconut: pandan base topped w/ white choc coconut buttercream

vibrant green

The cupcake is quite small for the price, but it came in a nice takeaway box so taking it home without it being destroyed wasn't an issue. The cake is quite soft, not too buttery or sweet, and a good hit of pandan. The coconut frosting was also fragrant, but the buttercream was quite grainy, and you could taste the sugar granules in it, which is a no for me. The piping is quite pretty, but would have preferred more cake in proportion to the icing.

Night Noodle Markets 2015

Originally wasn't planning to go since I don't really have time, but decided to go anyway since I really didn't want to miss out on things (and needed a break from another horrid disease test, and a break before a finals next week). They had less decorations this year, but a lot more stores. It was lovely catching up and seeing friends :)

As always, things are at least $1/2+ more expensive and smaller compared to the actual restaurant. You're here for the vibe and the convenience of all the stores around you. It does cost that extra few dollars to get to some places or petrol money for food around Sydney, so it's expected prices here are higher.

I only tried things which you can't get normally, or are a special collaboration. Wanted to get skewers since I've never had them before at the markets, and for the novelty of eating them, but line was too long, and I wouldn't have been able to finish it myself.

that liquid nitrogen

Teafogato: strawberry watermelon cake smashed w/ N2 gelato w/ a tippity hibiscus rooibos tea soza and freeze dried cherries-$10

Yes, it's small and expensive, but it's different. I've actually had that gelato before at Sweet Street earlier this year. This one didn't really have any cake in it at all, and the flavour was a lot more subtle. This dessert was different, the tea was like slightly carbonated water and very subtle in tea flavour. Once the gelato started to melt, it had more flavour in it. Defs good for those people who don't really like sweet stuff. I would say this was strange but worth trying

Miso Corny: miso and sweetcorn soft serve, coriander and lime syrup, azuki beans, burnt butter popcorn and corn flakes-$12

by Devon Cafe

Only Devon on Danks in Waterloo has their soft serves, but that's too much of a detour going to uni. It's close by car, but buses are another story. In hindsight, I should have showed them the Insta photo, since this portion was small compared to it, and obviously not placed right...the cornflakes were at the bottom and lime syrup wasn't fully filled in the pipette. This had some saltiness but it was quite sweet. The corn flavour wasn't super prominent, and neither was the burnt butter. The red bean paste made it even more sweeter. The syrup was very interesting. Main thing was that it melted way to quickly. It wasn't super hot, but already started to melt when they first gave it to me. Not sure if it's the consistency or just because they had to make it at the markets...

Another collaboration! Singleton Whisky and Momofuku Milk Bar

Singleton whisky and maple cookie by Christina Tosi from Momofuku Milk Bar in New York!-$3

They were free if you purchased a $9 whisky, but I'm not really a big fan of whisky and was really after the cookie.

looks so plain, but so good

Her cookies were packaged and shipped from New York, but it retained that chewiness without being hard even though it's been refrigerated. It's quite buttery and sweet, but the whisky helps cut through without being too rich. Sah good and chewy.

that time last year in NYC. some of the stuff I purchased :) both of these items are also trade marked, like all iconic NYC desserts