Arisana- eastwood

One of my well known characteristics is that I'm very sensitive to the cold. At school, in winter, you'll often find me with at least 4 layers on (2 of which are thick wollen jumpers) and will not take them off unless it gets hot enough that most people aren't even wearing jumpers. In summer, you'll sometimes still see me with a jumper on, even if I'm sweating until someone points out that it's too hot to wear a jumper- in which case i'll take it off (not that it makes too much of a difference).

This is quite different to my mother and sister who are extremely sensitive to the heat. Summer leads to a lot of inactivity and my mum dreads any baking or ironing that needs to be done. So on another typical hot summer day in Sydney, we, for some crazy reason walked from one side of Eastwood to the other (from Chinese side to the Korean!). This of course ended up with a lot of sweat and we had hardly enough energy to take any more steps. The reason for this craziness? Food. Or rather my want of Korean food (I just happened to drag them along!)

By the time we reached the other side, out criteria in choosing a restaurant were not in the food itself but in the level of air conditioning. The shops with their doors closed were most likely to have air con but the newer looking restaurants did look cooler than the old ones.

This was the reason we ended up at Arisana.

Like most Korean restaurants, they gave us the (free) appetisers. I never liked pickled radishes before- the spicy ones were hot and tasted very rasidh-y. Although, in a strange way, it was still nice. The yellow ones were much sweeter- I'm much more familiar with these ones as we buy them at the Asian supermarkets (we usually put them in sushi!) Interestingly, we saw people sprinkling vinegar onto it- maybe that's the traditional way to eat it?

Interesting, the menu at does not comprise of only Korean food, but also Taiwanese food! And, the menu was in Korean, Chinese and English! (Although it's mostly in Korean) The food was reasonably priced- most of their dishes were around the $30 but we went for the less expensive options of noodles/rice which were around the $12 mark.

Fried Dumplings $10

The dumplings were nice- crisp and crunchy. However, they don't stay like that for long. We were distracted by the other food that came, and by the time we got back to these, they had gone soft.

Seafood Rice $13

The food comes really fast. The seafood rice comes as a pile or rice and a pile of seafood (and vegetables). The dish ia quite big, and cold possibly feed two (normal appetite-d people)and tastes really good. The seafood 'sauce' tastes like fish soup and is quite runny.

It also comes with a soup which at first looks like borsch but then it doesn't taste like it- it doesn't have a strong tomato taste (despite its colour) and is quite hot. To me anyway (to normal people it probably isn't that hot...) It tastes delicious though.

Sauteed Black Bean Noodles $12

One of the Korean dishes on the menu, the black bean noodles, is by far the most popular dish in this restaurant. When we walked in, the first thing we noticed was that each table had at least one bowl of these unique black noodles. So, out of curiosity, we ordered one too.

Mix mix mix!

The black bean noodles- there's a few variations of these from plain black bean noodles $9 to other things $12. We chose the sauteed ones becuase there is a picture on the menu. Unlike the other ones, the sauce comes separately from the noodles.

The problem with eating food from different cultures is that at time, you don't know how to eat it properly. Luckily, we witness a guy sitting a another table pouring all the sauce over the noddles and then mixing it, so we copy him. There is a lot of sauce though, and we don't end up eating all of it (the sauce, that is) because there's so much. The saucewas delicious- there were lots of onions which I like but not an empowering onion taste. It wasn't too salty, was slightly sweet and came with meat and cucumbers which tasted delicious. Served with thick noodles, the serving was actually a lot larger than it had seemed left us very full!

We leave, feeling very satisfied (and bloated) knowing very well that we will be back again. Maybe for dinner (as I think, the lunch and dinner menu are the same), and most likely dragging my father along too!

108 Rowe St
Eastwood NSW 2122
(02) 9858 2300
Open Daily 10:30am-10pm

Yellow Cookies

I'm the type easily tempted by a slight discount on cookbooks and bakeware. Often, I find myself wanting to buy a discounted cookbook of which I know I'll probably never use- but the pictures are so tempting! Just last year, after christmas, we were shopping at Target when I came across a christmas cookie cutter and cake tin set, with a really cute rolling pin and brush reduced to only $4! Having never baked sugar cookies before, and rarely baking butter cakes I knew that I'd probably never use it. But a girl can never have enough bakeware and so I purchased my first ever set of cookie cutters- and funny shaped cake tins.

As I had suspected, they lay in the cupboard for almost two years, which is partly because it's strange to make christmas shaped bakes when it isn't christmas. Until Star day at school turned up. Because one of those cookie cutters were star shaped! You might remember the yellow cupcakes I made for the same occasion- the theme was yellow, but I thought star shaped yellow cookies would be perfect!

...........Or not so yellow


With butter cake, butter cream and now sugar cookies, I ended up using quite a lot of butter and sugar. Good thing that I didn't have too many left for myself or my family! The house smelt like butter, my hands were all oily and so was the whole kitchen- mainly the tabltetop. The trays, bowls utensils took forever to wash. But it was definitely worth it!

This was the first time I made sugar cookies as I personally prefer choc chip cookies type cookies aka the type which you just throw onto the tray and bake. Personally, the sugar cookie appeals to me only in the decorating, no so much in the actual cookie itself. Inspired by the numerous blogs I'd read which had beautiful sugar cookies iced with royal icing, I decided to give it a try.


The original plan was to make royal icing and pipe some patterns onto the cookies. But then I decided against it at the last moment, scared that I would give everyone food posioning (with the raw egg whites, salmonella and everything) so I decided on just normal sugar icing made of icing sugar mixed with water/milk. The coobook had made it look exactly like royal icing. Much to my dissappointment, it looked like anything but royal icing when i made it.

The icing itself did not turn out pure white as the cookbook has illustrated. Then, eventually, it got contaminated with the yellow icing (don't ask!) and so I was left with yellow, and a weird coloured icing. I tried piping patterns but the colour just wouldn't come out nicely so I resorted to sprinkling them with hundreds and thousands. Tastewise, I don't really like hundreds and thousands as I don't like the texture but it made the cookies look not as pathetic as they were.

The cookies themselves came out beautiful if a little thin- I got a little excited when rolling out the dough and so it got thinner and thinner, with me wondering why I had made so much more than the recipe said. Despite the thinness of the cookies, they tasted great- even my parents liked them (although they preferred it without the icing)! It did however end up with hard edges because it was too thin which I didn't notice until they cooled and the cookie became hard. Nevertheless they tasted good and will definitely use this recipe again- although next time I'll try royal icing!

Sugar Cookies

From Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: About 50 2-inch cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Sugar or cinnamon sugar, for dusting (optional)

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.

Working with a stand mixer, perferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute or so, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and steadily add the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated – because this dough is best when worked least, you might want to stop the mixer before all the flour is thoroughly blended into the dough and finisht eh job with a rubber spatula. When mixed, the dough will be soft, creamy and malleable.

Turn the dough out onto a counter and divide it in half. If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. If you want to make slice-and-bake cookies, shape each half into a chubby sausage (the diameter is up to you – I usually like cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic. Whether you’re going to roll or slice the dough, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of ¼ inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies – I like a 2-inch round cookie cutter for these. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the rounds onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 1½ inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.) After you’ve rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.

If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into ¼-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1½ inches between the cookies.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you’d like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Storing: The cookies will keep at room temperature in a tin for up to 1 week. Wrapped well, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Prince Restaraunt - Parammatta

Lately, I've fallen into a pattern of blogging where I blog mostly towards the end of the week and leave it until the end of the next week to blog again. It's not that I'm purposely neglecting my blog- it's just that I'm finding less time to blog, especially as I've run out of excuses to use the computer for homework.

Since most of my free time is on the weekends, it's not surpsrising that I do most of my eating out then too. Ocassionaly I tag along to my parents (and granndparents) weekly trip to yum cha. This time, it was at Prince Restaurant- the first time I'd been there since it opened. Walking in, the first thing I noticed was that the decor had not changed much from the last time I'd been here- and that was before it had become Prince Restaurant and was actually Tingha Place (which was a couple of years ago!). It must be quiet popular as it was also already three quaters full by the time we got there (and that was before 12 pm)

The most unique thing about Prince restaurant is the wide variety that it offers- which is why I quite liked it becuase when it comes to yum cha, I like to try something new (and or course good tasting too!). Another funny thing is that the trolleys that they use for non steamed foods is like those heavy duty ones usually used to put dirty dishes and stuff. It looked kinda funny.....

Beef Tripe

I love how beef tripe always comes in a serving larger than the dish- it looks so messy! As always, the beef tripe is drenched in oil, which slowly drips off when you hold it up with chopsticks. The tripe is flavoursome and not too bad. I like eating tripe more for the funny texture than the taste though!

Steamed pork bones

This is something we usually order at yum cha because it rarely seems to fail. The extremely high fat content of the meat, soaked in a pool of oil ensures that not only does it slides down your throat easily, it tastes good too!

Chinese Fried donut (or, translated literally, cow tongue pastry!)

A lover of fried foods, especially freshly fried foods this was a pleaser. Freshly fried, as the yum cha ladies were advertising, the exterior of this puffy bun is nice and crispy whilst the inside was soft and fluffy!

BBQ pork buns

The buns at yum cha are notably different from the ones you get at Asian bakeries. For one thing, they are extremely glossy, as a result of a layer of honey on top- it makes it very very sweet (whiich i like). The filling is also very sweet and they also have a high filling to bread ratio.

Fried taro balls

These are almost my favourite yum cha snack. The fried batter is light and crispy which is why it leaves such a mess after you eat it! The filling of taro and minced pork is also nice, if a little oily- but it tastes so good! Most yum cha places give only 3 per dish so this time, there's no need to share!

Seasame Prawn Rolls

Another one of my favourites is seasame prawn rolls which is a mixture of prawns wrapped in a thin pastry and then deepfried with seasame on the top. The layer of seasame make the exterior extra crunchy whilst the filling is soft and flavoursome.

Intestines =]

Or random cow's innards. Are also one of my favourites at yum cha- I particularly like the tendons, which taste a bit like a firm jelly.

Fried rice noodle rolls

Nicely fried (and freshly fried so they're hot) they aren't too bad. The only thing is that they have corn in them which I don't think goes really well with the rolls.

The awesome thing about Prince restaurant is that they have this thing in the corner where you can order fried foods (pan fried that is) so they fry it once you order. It'll be hot and therefore proabbly tastier. They also have a few selections which are not so common in Sydney. We go for these little cakes which are pretty much prawn paste wrapped in some wrapping ( I think it might bve wonton wrappers). They taste pretty ordinary though.

Mango dessert

We saw this being wheeled around on a trolley- which to me looked strangely green because of the greenish tinge that the glass bowl had. Mango sago dessert is one of our favourite desserts so we though we ought to give this a try (although this didn't have sago). It definitely did not live up to our standards- there's only one word to describe it: weird.

Prince Restaurant

100 Church St, Parramatta
(02) 9891 5777