Left of Field Take 2

Coming here for Better's birthday (back in March lol, yeah, super behind on posts), and also a catch up with high school friends. Saw people I haven't seen in years. Thanks again Better for the food! The food was alright, but the company was better. Here's some snaps of the food. Probably had one too many bowls of chips.

food spread

this granola was a bit burnt with a weird after taste and we ended up returning it. The coconut panna cotta wasn't really a panna cotta. They offered to replace it with another dish I think.

too bad the yolk was pretty much cooked through

I've had these pancakes before, but this time it was a pavlova/fruity flavour

thanks friends for waiting for me to get my flatlay shots

They also do alcohol here as well

Sedap

Always walk past here going to Aqua S/Chanoma (now known as O Matcha), but never actually went here until now. It does feel like Malaysia with shared tables, stools, and super crowded inside. It has some hawker decor but cleaner than actual hawker stalls in Malaysia where when I went, was scared of getting food poisoning lol.

food spread

Nasi Lemak beef rendang-$14

I managed to have the beef so wasn't too overly spicy. I'm not an expert in Malay food, but beef was full of flavour and not just chilli, and decent chunk of meat.

Char Keoy Teow-$14

I found this had more beef and other ingredients than actual noodle like Chinese sausage which is normally expensive. It did make the dish quite salty so luckily we shared it. It was more on the oily side, but I guess with 'hawker style' street food, noodles are oily. It feels bigger than it looks.

Roti canai-$5.50

Roti was so fluffy and they have a decent serving of it.

Lime Lychee-$6 and Teh Tarik-$3.50

The lime lychee drink was sweet, but there was some sort of lime juice to make it not overly sweet like canned lychee, The teh tarik could've had a stronger tea flavour, but still a nice drink and relief from the saltiness and chilliness of the food.

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.

Yasaka Ramen

Last year when I would occasionally get a lift from uni to Town Hall, I would drive past this ramen place. I didn't even know it was a popular ramen joint in Sydney (I'm still 'under-educated' about Asian food in my home city). Got there on a Tuesday night at around 7pm and there was a line, but only about a 15-20min wait so not too long. I thought they only had downstairs bar seating, but turns out they have tables up stairs.

 

food spread

Yasaka ramen w/ tonkotsu shio base-$14.80

I normally go for the shio base as a baseline comparison for other ramen places. The broth is one of the thickest I've ever had. The first few sips are good, but if you try to drink it, it's way to thick, heavy and salty. 

Grilled kakuni ramen w/ tonkatsu miso base (signature ramen): delicious slow cooked soft pork bone flame grilled to give it a crispy texture on the outside while still soft and juicy in the inside-$19.80

Two large chunks of meat here which were so flavourful. The miso base was also tastier but more salty. I liked the bits of corn to give it some sweetness and relief from all the sodium.

ramen lift

The noodles are a bit harder and have more bite to them. I think I prefer a slightly less dense noodle, but really depends on personal preference. My favourite is still the Micheline star Tsuta from Tokyo. It's a lighter base and noodles were perfect for me. I guess different regions in Japan do slightly different ramen, so if you like thick broths, this is the place to go. 

Mas.Que

Made the trek to St Leonards for brunch since I saw the waygu dish. It's a masquerade themed cafe with different masquerades inside. They did open the windows so occasionally there were some flies trying to get near the food. Each table had different animal shaped salt and pepper shakers which I thought was pretty cute. On the day I think we had a new waiter since she wasn't sure what the popular dishes were and had to call the main guy over to our table.

food spread

The magical: natural colour drink with homage flavour and lemonade-$8

 

love the colours

 

after stirring 

The ice in the middle is some flavoured thing so that when it melts, it deepens the colour. The person told us to slowly poor the extra blue coloured tea in it, and some acidity change causes the colour change and you see the different colour levels turn into a gradient. This drink reminded me of Ribena/blackcurrant, but with some bubbles from the lemonade. 

Fig Prawn Tartare Crossaint-$22

Love how the croissant is just spilling with filling and a decent amount of fig. It is pretty expensive for a croissant, and I found there was way too much sauce for the pastry, but I liked the freshness of the flavours, and the tartare wasn't too heavy, just only a lot of it. They use Luxe croissant and it was nice and flaky and buttery. 

Sparkling bubble pop: angry green apple with lychee bubble pop-$8

Super cute emoji bag. It wasn't too sweet since the bubbles helped to cut back on the sweetness. The lychee pops all sank to the bottom of the bag, but it was fun to eat and drink.

Wagyu Tataki & Soba-$25

#yolkporn

They used wagyu sirloin M6+, and super thinly sliced. It was pan seared, but this dish wasn't a hot dish. Beef was well seasoned and could taste the quality, and the homemade soba sauce gave nice flavour to the soba without being too salty. Love how to egg yolk just dripped down from a height.