Categories
Middle Eastern

Pazar Food Collective – Canterbury NSW Restaurant Review

Pazar Food Collective identifies as an Inner-West restaurant, which as someone who lives two minutes down the road I think it’s a bit laughable. As I told our dining companions on the night, the only people who consider where we live to be the Inner-West seem to be real estate agents. Regardless of which highly-priced clique of Sydney we were or weren’t in, we had a pretty good meal. Prices noted below are inclusive of a 10% weekend surcharge, which, given they’re only open Thursday-Saturday, I think bears mentioning.

We started with this wood baked sesame nigella bread with salted wild oregano butter ($17.05 – $13.20 without the butter). Both the bread and the butter tasted good and fragrant, with a density that might just be in keeping with its own style. Though I enjoyed the bread, I do wish that there could have been a cheaper or even no-cost option (like a flatbread or something, especially because we ended up getting multiple servings, given that such a large number of their entrees are so sauce focused.

People liked the muhamarra ($18.70), but I didn’t. It is a dip that that the menu describes as consisting of roasted almonds and walnuts blended with blistered red peppers, pomegranate molasses, and chilli. It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t like it – I think it was a bit loose and watery textured, though clearly no one else around the table had any problems with it. Bread was essential, and again a bit of pita would’ve gone a long way.

I am a lover of meet, and yes the sujuk with hummus and blistered tomatoes ($25.30) was enjoyable. The sujuk was helpfully presented as a mince rather than as slices of sausage, which made a lot of sense for a dish that ultimately surmounted to a multi-textured dip. I tend to eat quite a bit of sujuk during my Western Sydney culinary adventures, often without enjoying it, but I must say that this time I was thoroughly impressed by both the flavour and texture of the mince. Similar to the last dip, the reds were again blistered to this time produce cherry tomatoes that brought with them discrete pops of juice and flavour. The hummus didn’t really register for me. It was merely a creamy carrier for the other tasty ingredients rather than the focus of the dish.

Wow, another sauce, and need for another bread. The braised Japanese eggplant ($23.10) with roasted red pepper tomato sauce, garlic labneh, and chilli crisp did nothing for me. Apart from the slices of eggplant itself (which did not feel extremely Japanese to me) this tomato and capsicum dish felt more or less the same as a combination of the other two dips. Quite missable in my opinion.

We chose to have both the mains to share between us. This is the wood smoked roast lamb ($51.70 – 2 person serving size), atop a bed of bulgur pilav and garnished with pickled chillis, sumac herb and red onion salad. Though I wasn’t wowed by the meat, I did enjoy the bright pickled chillis, herbs, and lemon, which helped to keep mouthfuls of lamb moist and flavourful. This was my first time having bulgur pilav, which from what I can gather by my mouth and by Google is a wholegrain dish very similar to but distinct from wholewheat couscous and quinoa. It had rice energy.

Tied favourite with the sujuk mince was this terribly photographed harissa roasted chicken ($40.7). This half chicken, roasted on charcoal, was super tender and flavourful, marinated in a tahini lemon sauce, and served with chilli garlic and green chilli toum. Each bite of the chicken was really superb, and though it didn’t need the salad to help keep it fresh and moist, its presence was appreciated because it gave me something to eat whilst I respectfully let my co-diners have their fair share of the chicken. Strong recommend on this one.

Comments
This restaurant really has a lot of saucey and dippy entrees for a place that only offers $13.20 servings of bread. It would really make a lot more sense to just have bottomless pita, but it would probably cut into their bottom line and $13 bread sales. The sujuk and the chicken were particular standouts. We also had some pretty good sangria, which I promise I only had a couple of sips of.

Pazar Food Collective
325 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury NSW 2193, Australia
+61 411 727 874

Categories
Bakery

Dulcet Cafe – Sydney NSW Restaurant Review

The Galaxy Mousse Cake ($78) from Dulcet in Books Kinokuniya is one of four or five new full sized cakes I’ve had this year, chosen by my partner who does not generally enjoy a classic sponge.

It is a very dense mousse based cake, chocolate on the inside, and not too sweet. The layer of raspberry and cherry inside the chocolate gave it a bit of black-forest like quality, which was enjoyable.

It was not a transcendent experience, contrary to what some online reviewers will have you believe. As someone who constantly chases novelty, I don’t think I’d order it again, but I do think it was relatively good as far as non-sponge cakes go.

Dulcet Cafe
Located in Books Kinokuniya, Level 2/500 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8084 4456

Categories
Café

Yellow Deli – Katoomba NSW Restaurant Review

I worked at the base of the Blue Mountains for two years in my youth, and despite asking my partner on a regular basis we never made the trip up. It would take another two years for her to actually want to go of her own accord, an opportunity that I jumped at – not only to climb an awful amount of slippery steps, but also to eat at the famed Yellow Deli.

The Yellow Deli, according to the internet, is a kind of global chain cafe run by adherents of certain subgroup of Christians. Though many of the online reviews for the cafe deplore the group’s alleged “child abuse”, on further reading it appears that they refer to the use of physical discipline, which whilst I don’t believe is really OK, kind of just sounds like growing up as an Asian kid.

Common amongst the Yellow Delis is this extremely rustic aesthetic, with fit outs of recycled timber, hanging lanterns, and leather-on-chairs. It felt like something you would find in rural New Zealand, though I guess just as appropriately at a town in the mountains.

To drink we had a Hazlenut Dande Mate Latte, which was creamy and nutty and quite pleasant. I will comment here only about the experience of having the drink, and not about any of its purported health benefits.

To eat we had a bowl of chilli con carne ($13), served with jalapeno bread and whipped butter. Whilst the chilli didn’t taste so different from any other chilli, we did appreciate the inclusion of large meatballs within it, though it meant that the meat was focused in discrete areas, and once gone so did we lose our desire to continue eating the rest of the chilli. The jalapeno bread was quite good though, sweet and still warm, and well paired with the butter. It was quite a lot of food for the price.

The reuben sandwich ($13.50) was unfortunately not an advance on the classic, served with housemade potato crisps but otherwise generally uninspiring.

The deli rose sandwich ($13.50), was however quite good, with two types of beef (roast and corned), provolone, onions, butter, and tomato amongst other things. I enjoyed the onion roll here more than I did the light rye bread of the reuben, with its increased softness and textural palatability. This sandwich was also just more moist than the other, with the tomato, although ultimately reminded us strongly of something from Subway. Pretty good though.

COMMENTS
I think the main draw for the Yellow Deli, apart from the obvious, is its sick interior. We had just seen a video about some 1000 year old pub in the UK, and whilst we don’t have any such historic buildings here in the colonies, you could totally imagine this place to have a history like that. Food-wise, nothing particularly special, but out of the things we did eat we liked the deli rose sandwich the most. Most things were a bit too salty for me.

The Yellow Deli Katoomba
214 Katoomba St, Katoomba NSW 2780
(02) 4782 9744

Categories
Chinese

Chan Kun Kee 陳根記 – Rhodes NSW Restaurant Review

I went to Chan Kun Kee with my semi-Italian friend who has a Hong Kong girlfriend for lunch based on a commenter recommendation. The publishing of this review has been expedited in honour of that.

This Hokkien/Fujian Fried Rice (福建炒飯) ($22) was pretty good in terms of quantity and flavour, though I’m not sure about the use of seafood extender and kind of wish they had used the ingredient known as ‘actual seafood’ instead.

The Beef Served in Sichuan Style Chilli Broth (水煮牛肉) ($18 – lunch deal with a bowl of rice and can of drink) we got as a lunch meal deal, however the rice that it was meant to come with did not come, and we forgot about it by the end of our meal. The quantity was really very good for the price, something that left me wondering whether or not we should’ve just ordered the next meal as a lunch combo as well.

The Deep-Fried Pork Chop with Wasabi Sauce (Wasabi 沙拉豬扒) ($22) was also available as a lunch deal, for a cheaper $18 price, but we ordered it as a separate item in the hope that the serving may be bigger. Judging from the size of the sichuan beef, we’re not so sure any more. This was certainly an interesting flavour concept, not something that I had had before. The wasabi sauce was creamier than I had expected, almost as creamy as the kind of sauce that you would put over Portuguese fried rice. It was pretty good! I would have it again.

Overall I felt that the meal was pretty good, and sharply priced, as long as the portion size is the same for their lunch menu as it is for their normal menu. I would’ve ordered other options, but they were out of essentially all chicken dishes for lunch that day.

Chan Kun Kee 陳根記
Shop 5/42 Walker St, Rhodes NSW 2138

Categories
Middle Eastern

Kabul House – Merrylands NSW Restaurant Review

We celebrated my partner’s birthday like four times over the course of a fortnight. One of those times was at Kabul House in Merrylands. I showed up about 90 minutes into the thing after a day shift at work, but I feel confident in my assessment given that we ordered a huge new batch of food for me to have by myself, whilst everyone else watched.

This is the half platter ($65), a huge dish of 2 shami kebab (minced lamb), 2 chicken kebab, and 2 tikka kebab (lamb cubes), as well as bread (pictured below). My partner, who ordered for me as I drove from work, wanted to give me the option of trying as many things as possible, but didn’t realise that it was possible to order half this amount of meat for half the price. This is definitely too much meat for one human, and this was after finishing work at 9PM and not having eaten anything that entire day apart from two soy coffees and a protein shake in the morning.

As far as the meat quality goes, I enjoyed the chicken the most, as it was juiciest and most tender, followed by the shami kebab, for similar reasons. The tikka lamb kebab was a tiny bit tougher and drier, and definitely decreased in palatability as it cooled down a bit, whilst the other two remained good throughout the course of the meal. I consider myself pretty good at cooking chicken, but I wish I could cook chicken like this.

This is bread, which came with the half platter. It is not the best Afghan bread I’ve had, but not the worst. The best Afghan bread I’ve had to date was from Gulistan Take-Away in Box Hill VIC on the 16th of September 2017.

We also had some chopan kebab ($16 for one 4-piece skewer), which were barbequed lamb chops, which everyone else raved about the tenderness of but I didn’t love.

The aashak (aushak) ($25), described on the menu as “10 fresh chives stuffed dumplings topped with yogurt and lentils” was really good. I think it’s vegetarian, but I didn’t even notice. I’d not had this before, but really loved the creaminess of the sauce, the slight bit of texture of the lentils, as well as the moistness and chive flavour of the dumplings and the overall package. I think unless you have a specific aversion to one of the ingredients in this dish, this is something you have to try if you eat here. I devoured the leftovers the following night.

Overall thoughts
I really enjoyed the aashak dumplings, and think they were the standout of my meal. The meat was not bad, but I actually think that the lamb tikka at nearby Kabab Al Hojat was better.