Category: Sydney Blog

The Malaya with Berfu

We had so little time left with Berfu. So, we took her to one of our favourite places for dinner: The Malaya. Here’s what we had:

Vegetable San Choy Bow (above) before all wrapped up. Water chestnut, onion, mushroom, carrot and shallot stir-fried. Served in a lettuce leaf.

Salt and Pepper Cauliflower (above).
Cauliflower florettes lightly battered, deep-fried and tossed in fresh chilli, salt, cracked black pepper and shallots.

Szechuan Eggplant (above). This is pretty much everyone’s favourite. Marinated eggplant stir-fried dry style with shallot, cashew nuts and dry chillies. Served on a bed of Chinese water spinach.

Sayor Masak Lemak (above)
Malay style vegetable curry cooked with fresh chilli, lemongrass and coconut milk.

Sago Pudding (above). Sago and coconut pudding flavoured with palm sugar and topped with coconut sorbet.

Chatkazz with Berfu

We promised Berfu that we would introduce her to Indian street food one weekend. So, we visited Chatkazz in Harris Park.

Our mocktails: Mojito and watermelon juice for John.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSns14A809k&feature=youtu.be

Chatkazz is always busy as you can hear at the background.

We had Pani Puri as well but I didn’t take a photo of it as it’s not the most photogenic dish. This one is Dahi Puri.

Chinese Bhel was spectacular, again.

Khaman Dhokla (above)

Chhole Bhatura (above)

Chatkazz Indian Sweet Shop
On our way back, we popped in to Chatkazz’s Indian sweet shop and waited to be served for quite some time. Every other person was served but I guess you need to be Indian to be treated fairly in that shop. Anyway, in the end we had a box of sweets to take home like jalebi, ladoo, pista barfi, kaju and mango cakes.

I love the box!

Restaurant Review: Bliss & Chips, Newtown

We have been wanting to try Bliss & Chips since they opened in 2015. On one of those days, we just happen to be in Newtown and were ready to have a late lunch. There it was: Bliss & Chips.

For those of you who don’t know what kind of a place Bliss and Chips is… It’s a vegan fish and chips place. I remember talking to a girl at Cruelty Free Festival one year. She told me that she had plans of opening a vegan fish and chips place but I doubt that this is her place. She was Eastern bloc whereas this place has an Asian feel to it.

They do battered faux-fish and seafood, deep-fried pizza, breakfast, burgers and desserts. There is a list of the sauces up on the menu because you order them separately. They have their menu on three boards on the wall as well as on the tables. The boards are in such chaos, it took us ages to decide what to order.

We had the ‘seafood’ basket (2 fish cocktails, 1 crabstick, 2 prawns, 2 calamari). I must admit, they were heavy, bland and all four-variety tasted pretty much the same to me.

We also had some extra ‘fish’ as seen in the photo below. They were no different to the other stuff in the ‘seafood basket’ at all.

You need to order your chips separately, like we did. And it costs $5 for regular size and $9 for large.

Our adopted daughter at the time had some quinoa tabbouleh and sweet potato wedges. She said the sweet potato wedges weren’t cooked properly. They had larger chunks in the mix and of course they were still hard inside after being cooked.

I must admit, everything has this tacky and cheap feel to it at Bliss & Chips like the menu (photo below) and the board. This is what I do not like about some of the vegan eateries. Because we’re vegan or vegetarian doesn’t mean that we have lower standards. On top of that, everything—pretty much everything—is deep-fried; you never feel good afterwards.

While everything being cheap looking, the food isn’t. You pay for your sauces, chips and pretty much everything that is supposed to go together.

I wouldn’t go back to Bliss & Chips in a hurry but if you must go, Bliss & Chips can be found in this address:
215 King St, Newtown
NSW 2042
No website

Berfu got me flowers today!

I have a large bunch of flowers from Berfu. They’re just beautiful!

The Rocks with Berfu

On our way to Newtown, we decided to drop in and show Berfu the weekend market at the Rocks. There was a chocolate festival on and it was packed. But we still had a look around.

Harbour Bridge view from The Rocks or Bridgie, shall I say?

The Oaks with Berfu

At The Oaks with Berfu having pizza and lots of chips.

Dinner for the evening: Vegetable Frittata, Celeriac Salad with Green Salad

I was walking back home after my singing class and decided to pick up some ingredients for dinner. I found a vegetable frittata and designed the side dishes around it in my mind while I was still at the supermarket. The sides were going to be some green salad as well as my famous garlicky celeriac salad with walnuts and fresh dill. So, I picked up all the ingredients and put them together when I got home. It was a delicious meal and everyone enjoyed it, too.

Introducing Berfu to the wonders of Indian cuisine at Nilgiri’s

People who know us really well know darn well that we are a huge fan Nilgiri’s. This is the place I write about excessively on my food blog VegFusion and this is the place we take our guests and friends because we know that we’ll be looked after very well by Ajoy Joshi and his lovely wife Meera.

This time round, we took Berfu there for an exquisite meal and it was her first time at an Indian restaurant at this caliber. We asked if there was a favourite dish that stood out during the night, she said “They were all fantastic dishes, I can’t really pick one!” She loved them all basically.

Here’s what we had on the night:

Starters

Pappadums and Dips (lemon pickles, raita of the day, sweet mango & nigella marmalade)

Cauliflower and Broccoli Pakoda

Bharwan Mirch (paneer-filled banana chilli, spinach batter, garlic chutney)

Moong Dal Samosa (pepper-flavoured pastry, spiced mung lentils, mashed potatoes, tamarind chutney)

Vegetarian Mains

Zeera Aloo (chat potatoes, cumin & green chillies)

Achari Gobhi (cauliflower florettes, ‘pickling spices’ nigella & cumin, mustard oil & fresh ginger)

Sukhe Baingan Tamata Tari (baby eggplant, coriander tamarind and dry coconut sauce)

Desserts

Gulabi Jamoon

Coconut Kulfi

Mango Kulfi

Sunday brunch at Delante with Berfu

Sometimes, we have late breakfast or brunch at Delante on Sundays. We love the place and their vegetarian breakfast options, too. This time, we took Berfu with us and she enjoyed her pancakes.

Our Japanese Dinner

It’s just us girls tonight. So, I picked up some sushi, gyozas, pickled ginger and beancurd wraps.