Ippudo, Central Park

With the recent hot weather, a ramen store would probably be one of the last places you’d expect to find me. But I’m not the only mad one- there’s plenty of diners also at Ippdo Ramen restaurant at Central Park!

I’ve heard many great things about Ippudo, especially when it just opened in Westfield’s Sydney just under two years ago. Much was said about the crazy long lines and the great ramen, and the one time I managed to make my way over to have a look, I was too hungry to wait in the line. The lines have died down by now, but they’ve also opened a second branch in Central Park which is much closer to uni for me!

So what’s the hype? I’m told that Ippudo’s noodles have won multiple awards in Japan, with its founder winning the title of ‘Ramen King’ after winning the ‘Ramen King Championship’- a Japanese TV show, similar to Iron Chef but for ramen only. Though I can’t say how the Australian version compares to the Japanese one, they do take their ramen very seriously, with their own noodle factory supplying the restaurants daily with freshly made noodles and gyoza. Fun fact: the thickness of their noodles are made depending on the temperature of the day!

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Vegan Chocolate Mousse Tart

Woo-hoo! Last exam for uni ever done and dusted!

And with warm (literally) welcome to the summer holidays, I'm ready to party, chill out and enjoy the last 3-month summer break I'll ever have. As much as I looked forward to finishing my degree in the past 4 years, I know I will definitely miss these long holidays!

I was originally going to post something cold and summery today because the weather lately has NOT been the type for anything other than icy cold drinks and salad, but then I realised that I had some unfinished uni-related business that I still needed to post. If anyone remembers from these posts before, I'd cooked up a four-course meal for a uni assignment that I'd thought would give me the content to blog more regularly during that particular month. Well obviously that didn't happen, but you really don't want to listen to me blabber on about how fail I am at managing this blog and other life related matters at the same time......

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Sushi Hotaru Sake Bar, Town Hall

I've sung my praises about Sushi Hotaru before, one of my favourite sushi trains in the city, so when the lovely Sue invited me to tasting at Sushi Hotaru, I was only too happy to accept the invitation! :)

I usually prefer going to the Bathurst St branch over the TGV one because it’s usually quieter and it’s pretty much the same thing- $3 sushi, awesome touchscreen menus and plenty of tasty sushi dishes to choose from!

Monkey Magic

Whilst we usually sit down and dig in straight away, we’re more thirsty than hungry on this occasion, so drinks first! With names like ‘Monkey Magic’, the drinks menu seems a little more like a cocktail menu than your average sushi train drinks menu. We’re not sure where the name comes from but the Monkey Magic is a combination of soda, lychee and kiwi. It’s a great thirst quencher, and though we don’t quite taste the kiwi, we really love the flavour of lychee.

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Black sesame coconut mochi

I'm not really the forgetful type, so when there's something that I just can't seem to remember, no matter how hard I try, it really bugs me. Most of the time, if I think about it long enough, I eventually do remember it, but then there's times when it never comes to me. Like these mochi- not that it's important, but I can't seem to remember where I used to have mochi as a kig! Was it yum cha? Was it from a bakery? Was it home made? All possible but still no closer to remembering.

It's not something I had often as a kid, and to be honest, the only memories I have of eating any type of mochi are the frozen sort that we used to buy from the 7-eleven downstairs from my grandma's place in HK when we used to visit. Infact, it was those mochi balls that inspired me to make (ice cream) mochi for the first time years ago.

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Cowbell 808, Surry Hills

If cafes with quirky names which don't really seem to mean anything related to the cafe itself are your thing, then check out Cowbell 808. If it's not really your thing, check it out anyway, because the food is great!

It's another one of those dreaded exam periods again, and to make things a little more exciting, I made a study date with a friend at uni with a lunch at Cowbell 808 to energise us for a long day of hard work. It's a short 10 minute bus ride from uni, and quite easy to get to, though not exactly close, but it was good to get away from uni for a bit.

Mocha $4

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Spring Fruits Asian Cream Cake

If there's one thing I learnt from making this cake, it's that I really need to learn to read labels before buying things!

I'd made a quick visit to the local supermarket to buy the cream for this cake, but being in a rush, I picked up the low fat version, and bought it anyway since it's healthier anyway. Bad decision. The bottle clearly says not for whipping, but I didn't want to waste it so I attempted whipping it up and failed, of course. I got it to sort of whip up in the end by adding some gelatine, but it's really not the same.

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