257 Home Kitchen

I actually hardly come to Eastwood, so didn't know this restaurant existed. Came here with relatives for some Shanghainese food. This place is well lit, clean with modern decor, and staff were quite attentive. Not gonna lie, I don't really eat Chinese food out since I feel like places aren't really clean, in terms of food/table stuff.

food spread

names of stuff we ordered

didn't have heaps of soup, but decent bit of meat inside and skin was quite thin

love a pan fried bun with a crunchy base

I found it was really cool how they just get a live fish then add some batter and deep fry it, so that the skin ends up 'popping out' and can pull a part out and have deep fried fish. The sweet and sour sauce went really well with it. Would recommend, even though it's turning something healthy into not healthy at all...

Dishes in general were quite nice, well portioned, not overly salty and decently priced.

The Cuban Place

First time having cuban food, although I’m not really sure what Cuban food entails. It's sort of like Mexican but not really. You actually go upstairs to go to the entrance, which had surprisingly quite a lot of seating and relatively expansive for a CBD restaurant. Thanks Dandelion for booking the group dinner. It was a ‘surprise’ location for dinner, and she took us here since they had 50% everything from a Dimmi deal, and it’s also nice to try something different (this post is more than 2 months delayed...)

food spread

 

entrance

Didn't realise this restaurant was just behind the QVB on the other side of the road.

Can't bribe me to give 5 star reviews. also, it's only a draw to win, you don't even get a voucher if you give 5 stars. only honest opinions here.

I think we sort of over ordered since it's half price and we wanted to try a few things. Didn't take a photo of the menu at the time, only a photo of the receipt.

Drunk crab taco-$14

It's not cheap for a taco, but you do get a whole soft shell crab. The crab was deep fried well, and the taco (tortilla?) was nice and soft. Paired well with the guacamole and tomato.

Toastadas de camaronês-$16

This was a prawn and octopus (?) on top of a tostada. This was quite nice as well, but expensive since you only get 3 pieces.

Linguine with tomato and quinoa sauce, okra, parsley & a duo of Parmesan and Manchego cheese-$16

The linguine was pretty average. It didn't have much flavour, not much sweetness from the tomato and under seasoned, just like my mum's 'healthy' and bland cooking. I also think Dandelion could make a better pasta with her mad cooking skills.

Pescado varadero:Sustainable fish of the day with Varadero sofrito confit, kipfler potatoes and crispy leek-$34

They didn't say what fish it was, but we figured it was barramundi. It was just on the tad bit overcooked, but I liked how it was garnished with crispy leeks. There was a decent amount of potatoes hidden under as wel..

Quesadilla chorizo-$22

Loved the toasted wrap/bread stuffed with cheesy chorizo, one of my favourite dishes from the night. The chorizo wasn't overly salty either.

Lamb-$32

Lamb was booked well and not dry. From memory, it was well seasoned and tomatoey in flavour.

Pork ribs cuba libre-$36

These ribs were just a tad bit dry, but they did come with a pesto/mint sauce. Meat would have been cooked with more marinade.

Yuca chips-$8

Had to Google what yuca was. It sort of tastes like taro and polenta but without the grainy texture, and it's quite light inside. Tasted quite healthy with a good crunch and not drenched in oil.

dessert

Lava Galleta: white chocolate and macadamia cookie with guava ice cream-$15

Wish the scoop of ice cream was bigger, since we ordered this dessert mainly for the ice cream. The guava flavour was subtle but quite nice. The cookie was too sweet.

Cafe y Caramelo: coffee and chocolate mocha dome with candied peanuts, sweet peanut roll and salted caramel ice cream-$15

This dessert was also overly sweet, and couldn't really taste the coffee in the dome cake. We shared this between 5 people and still found it sweet. The ice cream was already melting when it got to our table, and had more caramel than salt which didn't help with the sweetness. Candied peanuts weren't;t really necessary.

Total price of food was $208, so after half price for 5 we paid around $20 which is cheap for dinner and the amount of food we had. Full price, I wouldn't go again since the food wasn't amazing.

Ben and Jerry's Day, Carriageworks, Park Royal

I must admit, I was on a roll with free food today, and never had this much ice cream in one day (apart from maybe last year in Tokyo). free Ben and Jerry's day today, and looking back at past post, this is actually my 3rd one. Went in first yr, this yr and last yr for Ben and Jerry's free cone day. Throughout the years they have given out free tubs in the city, so I have managed to get more free ice cream from them. I actually do occasionally buy their ice cream when it's on sale at the supermarkets.

First time going with no uni and arriving just after 12pm, meant there were literally no lines. The line moved so quickly even at 12:30 that I couldn't finish my ice cream in time while relining up. Last yr it was about 15min/scoop, this yr was 4 scoops in 25min (i.e. new record). Ended up getting 5 scoops, and was super full at the end. The serving size seemed bigger than previous years as well, but maybe cause I was there early. Was secretly hoping for smaller serving sizes so I could try more flavours lol.

1. Caramel Almond Brittle (non dairy)

The salted caramel wasn't as prominent, but I found the almond brittle a bit too sweet/chunky. It was quite smooth for an almond milk based ice cream.

2. P.B & cookies (non dairy)

This one was hard to eat, since you try to lick it and it topples over since the ice cream isn't binding everything together. It's very peanut buttery, and overwhelmed the vanilla base and cookie chunks. It's a really heavy and sweet ice cream.

3. Berry Berry Extraordinary

I've had this flavour a few times, but I needed a sorbet to cut through the heaviness.

4. Cocoa Loco

Oops, forgot to take a photo of this, and forgot to save my snap chat. This was a lot lighter and smoother, and did taste like chocolate milk. I remember I had the Frozen Flakes, the other cereal flavour last year, but now trying the chocolate cereal version. They didn't have the flavour from last time here, so some flavours do change regularly.

5. Salted Caramel Blondie

By this stage I was actually stuffed, but I still wanted to try this one since it had blondies in it. The salted caramel was super thick and heavy, which made it hard to finish. Surprisingly the brownie bits weren't actually that sweet.

6. Lemonade

BW came just as I was pretty much stuffed, but thank goodness we got a lemon sorbet to help cut through all the sweetness and just add some acidity. It was a bit icy and not as smooth as the berry sorbet. 

flavour card

I'm sure I've had more flavours than the ones I've ticked, but forgot the name of the flavours I've tried. 

On the way to Carriageworks, passed by insect ice cream. i've had some a few weeks ago, but the flavour I wanted ran out, so even though I was super full from 5 ice creams, I still love trying weird things and decided to get some, plus there wasn't a line. I don't mind eating these sorts of insects since they're all farmed, rather than 'wild,' whereas if a fly touched my food, I would tend to not eat it since it's wild/alive.

Strawberries and swirls

This was the one I had a ew weeks ago. The meal worms were tasteless, and added a nice texture without being overly crunchy.

Scurry Berry and Choc Hopper

 

I wanted to try the Scurry Berry one last time, and luckily they had it there. There's just so many insects in it, why wouldn't you want to try? The ants did look a bit larger than normal, and there were so many crunchy bits in it. The grasshopper also had larger chunks in it, but I didn't really finish the ice cream since it was just average chocolate. You can't taste the flavour of the bugs cause the sweetness in the ice cream covers it. The insects are all 'dry' and just have a crunchy texture.

Carriageworks

I've never been here before, and always see photos of markets here, but really, who has the time to go to markets at night time? Night time is prime time for study time

Biennale at Carriageworks

big canvases

Different projections

Baseball bat

This was my favourite, you use the baseball bat to hit the wall as loud as you can. Since it's in a warehouse, the sound echoes. I hit it once softly, then bashed it again, and wanted to keep hitting it cause I got too excited, until the person was like, only allowed one go, and the wall has to last till June. Didn't;t manage to make a dent in it though....I like interactive artworks/destroying stuff you're allowed to haha.

 

I thought this was part of the Biennale, but got here too late since they were deconstructing these massive cloths with paints on it. It was still here on the weekend, but I should've done my research to know that this artwork was part of something else.

Catching peak hour trains at Central is so cray. Like even though I live in a whole, at least I get a seat, and the people aren't rushing/pushing, and there is decent air con on the bus. Didn't realise trains were so crowded, even though every 3mins they go to Parra.

Park Royal function centre

Decided to go to a CPD event, even though I wasn't officially invited, but the person organising it still let me go even if I'm still a student. Yay for free 3 course dinner and drinks. So many smart opthals there. There were quite a lot of people, around 120ish, 10 ppl per table. Event was sponsored by an IOL company amongst others, so not surprised the last talk about IOLs was the longest. The last time I was here was about a year ago when the Park Royal just opened and we had our work dinner there. There were drinks on arrival which is always nice. I think most people were driving so not many people had alcohol, so I felt weird have a couple of glasses.

Entree: confit ocean trout w/ celeriac and dill puree, beetroot mascarpone and baby leaves

Trout was cooked well, but I found the puree lacked some flavour. The beetroot looks pretty but wasn't the flavourful either, but that's ok since I'm not a beetroot fan.

Main: slow cooked lamb rump w/ thyme infused crushed potatoes, grilled artichoke and porcini jus

there were shared steamed veggies sides

I think cause there's so many people, it's hard to get the food piping hot. There was a decent chunk of lamb, but i still feel like it was a bit dry since I ended up using all the sauce and wishing there was still more. The sauce wasn't actually salty either, so although it looks like a generous serving, the slightly overcooked lamb needed more of it. You could see the thyme in the potatoes, but couldn't really taste it. Ended up having sparkling wine, red wine, and a lemon lime bitter, but it didn't have a slice of lime in it, whereas other people's did. 

Creme brûlée tart w/ caramelised poached pear

I didn't want the other dessert with the crumble and ice cream since I already had heaps of ice cream before. This tart is nothing like the Bourke St Bakery creme brûlée tarts, and I can make a better brûlée than this. There wasn't a hard top to crack through, and the tart itself was more solid and cheesecakey/bit floury, rather than a smooth custard. Didn't finish the pastry either. I tried a bit of the crumble which was more moist and soft, and not overly sweet.

I think if I did move out of Sydney for work, I would miss out on all these free CPD events and food.  Sat at the back corner, which meant we got our food last. They pretty much talked for 2.5 hrs while we ate. Ended up bumping into some optoms I work with. 

Let's hope I don't get diabetes...