Ichimaru

I don't know what happened to the post I wrote about this little Japanese restaurant we go regularly on Saturday nights called Ichimaru. Here is a picture of one of the meals we had. The dragon rolls are very very good!

Eating out alone

We had a few chances this past month to go out for lunch by ourselves (without the kids). Simon was off work and looking for job (he just found one so will start work soon), and I work 3 days a week. Sam is in daycare four days a week this year so I can have a day 'off'. On my first 'day off', both Lara and Sam were sick, so we had to cancel our plan to watch a movie. We also realised it was too ambitious to watch a movie and go out to eat on the same day, because Lara needs to be picked up from school at 2:30pm. Yes 2:30. The off day is extremetly short anyway.

We managed to eat out a couple of times after that and it was great. We had a nice relaxing lunch at the local Thai place last week. This week we went to the Cooks Garden and had steak'n' chips (simon) and zucchini flower stuffed with prawns (me). You don't need to keep 'stop eating' to feed someone small or not keep to the conversations because the kids keep interrupting.

It is very nice to eat out in peace and quiet sometimes.

The picture shown above was taken at a vietnamese place in late Jan. I think Lara was with us at that meal (but no Sam). We love Sam to bits but a 18-month-old is a lot of work at meal times!

Yum char

We had a yummy yum char lunch on Friday after Lara's ballet. We timed the outing according to Sam's sleep routine and didn't have to wait long for food. We ordered 8 dishes, incuding a plate of soy chicken, a plate of white bait and other dumpling dishes. Lara didn't stop eating during the meal and Sam sat throught the whole meal and ate more food than any 10-month old I know! We really enjoyed this simple outing after some stressful time ealier this month.

We made a swift decision at the beginning of June to take Sam away from daycare. Sam's now on his 6th course of antibiotics and has another cold. I worry about his recurrent ear infection and wanted time for his ears to recover. The decision was made quickly but not lightly. We didn't know what the consequences of this decision meant. And for the 48 hours afterwards, unexpected events made things even more uncertain for us. Now we know Simon and I will both work part time for the next couple of months so we can look after Sam between us. We will find out if this arrangement works and see how things pen out after that.

Sam sucking on a deep-fried white bait @ yum char and Lara looking very pleased with a full tummy!

Grandma's Birthday

We celebrated Mother-in-law's 70th birthday this weekend. Lunch at "The cooks garden" was very nice. Most people had either the fish 'n' chips or steak 'n' chips. Food was delicious but it was a warm day and too hot to sit outdoors. Miraclously, Sam slept through most of the meal leaving us free to enjoy our food. Afterwards, we went back to Grandma's place for mudcake. Everyone enjoyed the lovely cake from Pattisons. Happy birthday Grandma!


The steak and chips was not cheap at $34, but I heard it was delicious!


My baby calamari, chorizo, and spinach hot pot.


Lara loved her fish and chips. Fish was very tasty and fresh.

Three meals

04/08/2010 - Cozy Thai
Knowing that we probably wouldn't be eating out for some time, the night before I was induced, we ate at a local Thai restaurant. The food was quite westerised so Lara was able to eat the Massumam curry and curry puffs. We also had chilli basil stir-fry(not hot) and Pad Thai. Needless to say, we were a little anxious about what was in store for us the following day.



07/08/2010 - Hospital meal:roast chicken with veges.
Hospital meals were ok, the portions quite small. I had to order side sandwitches a couple of times to satisfy my hunger. I also ordered the occasional jelly and ice cream for Lara as treats when she visited at night. Food was bland, but at least I didn't have to cook any of it myself.

29/08/2010 - Yum char.
Our first meal out after the birth of Sam. Lara's grandparents and wei-po came along too. Sam slept through most of the meal. He grizzled and Lara started to feel unwell again (she had temperature the night before) towards the end of the meal so we had to leave in a rush. No pictures were taken.


On a different subject, not to do with eating out but food-relalted. Mum is here and she's been cooking pork trotter soup, chicken soup etc ,to help increasing my milk supply. Feeding is almost a full-time job itself especially in the first couple of weeks when I fed all hours all day. It was great to have hot steaming soup all the time and not to worry about cooking at all!

Sambal and Tamasek

I currently have a craving for spicy (Malaysian) food. I love having laksa or stir fried noodles with lots of chilli for work lunches. We seek out Maylaysian restaurants to go on the weekend. We went to two in the last couple of months.

Sambal (North Ryde)
Sambal was close to where we live but hard to find. We missed the entry(via MacDonald's) and had to make two equivalent U-turns on big busy roads to get there. We didn't book and waited sometime for a table. Food also took sometime to arrive. We had salt and pepper squid, prawn laksa and Hainanese chicken rice for Lara. The laksa was very ordinary. I liked the chicken rice but Simon preferrd the squid. The food was quite alright but not memorable.

Tamasek (Parramatta)
Still has the best laksa we know. We went on a Sunday and luckily found a parking almost outside the restaurant. We took a walk along Parramatta river first and arrived at the restaurant around midday. It was not overly busy, we sat down, ordered and food arrived only a few minutes later. We had Hainanes chicken and char kway teow (with chilli on the side) in addition to the prawn laksa. It was a good combination of food with different flavours. Char kway teow was quite sweet and Laksa frequent and spicy. The only complaint was the cold chicken pieces (I would preferred them warm). We also took away two frozen containers of beef rendeng and had one mid-week. Oh it was the most delicious rendeng we have ever had! And we have more in the freezer!

Tokyo Ramen

Lunch today was at Tokyo Ramen in Hornsby shopping centre. We had take-away sushi from here often but this is the first time we eat in. The shop was tiny with limited sitting and it was very busy when we arrived just after mid-day on Monday.

We had Agedashi Tofu (deep fried tofu with a sweet gingery sauce),Gyo-za, Tempura Udon and Negi Shoyu Ramen. The tofu was hot and silken, with very tasty sauce - extremely good value at $4. The tempuras was piled up high on top of the noodles. Many Japanese places' tempura eggplants were bland and under-done but here it was soft on the inside and very tasty. I didn't try other tempuras but from the number of orders on other tables, it was definitly a very popular dish. The Nigi Shoyu Ramen (with a dark soup) was not what I expecxted, but nice nonetheless (quite hot).



The food though not gourmet, was good quality homestyle food. We are keen to try other dishes there.

Sunday lunch

After over two months of staying at home and not doing much, my energy level is slowly increasing. The mind is strange - when I was lying in bed feeling sick, my brain was busily thinking about all the things and places we would do and go when I get better. I couldn't eat anything, but I imagined all the food I am 'going to' eat when I get well .... We went out to eat for the first time in 2 months last weekend, and I made the first roast in 2 months yesterday. Today we had lunch at a little cafe in Terry Hills flowers market.

The place has a large enclosed play area so kids are well catered for. The service was quite slow (asked 3 times to get some water) and it was warm sitting outside (it would be better inside with air-con). The food was alright except FIL's lemon sole was over-cooked and MIL's steak sandwitch came with tomatoes and dressing (to their credit, they did re-make the whole dish). Despite these, I still felt that I had a good time. A little fresh air and a different environment do wonders sometimes.

Lebanese takeaway 07-03-09

The dips were very nice and bread very fresh. Only the meat was less satisfactory, a little tough. Overall a yummy but light meal.

Morning tea 2-Jan-2009

Wedding anniversary meal

There are a few things that warranted celebration recently, wedding anniversary (nine years!!) being one of them. Lack of time to think about where to go, we booked the first restaurant that came to mind and not too far from the city - Kobe Jones. The food was unforgettable a couple of years ago. It seemed to be have gone downhill after that. Anyway, we thought we would give it another try.

One of their signature dish "Special No 1" was magnificent 2 years ago. It's the kind of dish that could keep me awake at night thinking about it. There was this melt-in-your-mouth crab salad and fish wrapped in seaweed and baked in an amazing cream sauce. A friend told me the cream sauce tasted like a "Nobu" sauce. Well, it definitely looked like they have changed hands or chefs. "No1" is still nice tasting but definitely less creamer and the seafood taste is more prominent. There also seemed to be quite a lot of empty tables, though it was not too late into the night, it was not a good sign.

We did enjoy a leisure meal just the two of us and got to see the sunset at Darling Harbour before the meal. What more could you ask?

Lagoon Restaurant

We spent a nice and relaxing afternoon at Lagoon Seafood Restaurant in North Wollongong with Parents-in-law on the weekend. The restaurant is located at the grounds of Stuart Park with access to beach and water/lagoon view. Our plan was to entertain Lara on the beach between courses, but the day, though sunny, was too windy to be outdoors. Lara wasn't too bad and managed to sit until the end of main meals. We were all too full to have desserts so we took turns taking Lara for a walk around the restaurant lounge while drinking our coffee.


(I love this photo of Grandma and Lara sharing a drink of water - we were waiting for our entrees and garlic bread to arrive)

My entree of crab and ricotta ravioli was delicious! Husband decides he will have this dish as a main next time we come. Lara loved it too. The other entrees of ginger and shallot scallops and smoked salmon terrine were nice too I was told. All seafood was fresh and nice-tasting.

Here are photos of the mains we had (mainly for me to drool over when I'm hungry later:)

MIL's king island chicken.


FIL's lemon sole.


My John Dory and Scampi.


Si's tempura seafood

Christmas lunch

Lunch was held at the Bavarian Bier Cafe on York St in Sydney for the near-completion of a project and to celebrate Christmas of course.


I had the Bavarian platter with a glass of Rose.
Pork belly was good (love the crispy skin), sausages were nice, but Schnitzel was very average. Purple cabbage and onion rings were nice as condiments. Sour cabbage tasted strong at first but grew on me later. It was alright for a work lunch. Food was very salty though, so drink lots of water.

I was full towards the end of the meal, but still managed to clean the plate.

Japanese lunch

Photo: Ichiban Boshi Japanese noodle shop (Town Hall).

We went to see our financial advisor last Friday. We made the mistake of going into the city by train. It was so noisy on the train that Lara didn't get much sleep, and woke up a little grumpy. We managed a very quick lunch before our appointment. We basically ordered the first thing we saw on the menu without studying it.

I had Karaage Ramen (deep fried chicken with noodles) and Husband had Katsu curry (chicken) with miso soup. I was pleasantly surprised by their noodles. It tasted home-made and cooked al dente and just right. I heard good things about this place before and wanted to go many times, but each time was deterred by the long queue waiting outside. Husband thought it was OK but he had nicer Katsu somewhere else. I will definitely go back for the noodles.

To check out the menu and see nice pictures of their dishes click here.


Photo:Karaage Ramen


Photo: Katsu Curry

Luxury weekday lunch

I caught up with a friend for lunch a couple of days ago at this tiny sandwich place in a little ally next to the Establishment Hotel near The Rocks. I don't know the name of the place, but most people work at that end of town know this place well. Their huge sandwiches (they are very very big in size) with very fresh ingredients are very popular and there's normally a long queue after 12. Their sandwiches are one of the best ones I have ever had.

At $13.50, it was not a cheap weekday lunch, but it was worth every cent!

This was my roasted vegetable salad with whole meal bread.

Lunch at Temasek

Lazy Sunday lunch at Temasek in Paramatta today. Yummy!

Mixed Entrée.


Husband's Mee Go Reng.


My Prawn laksa.