The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Another family birthday, another cake from somewhere in Sydney – this time from Maki’s Patisserie, the bakery run by the Japanese daughter-in-law of an Auburn Singaporean restaurant patriarch.
Ordering was simple via text message and payment via bank transfer, and pickup was from within Peranakan Place Nonya Cuisine, a Parramatta Road restaurant I’ve driven past hundreds of times but never eaten inside.
As I waited for my cake to be brought out, I had a nice chat with the (very nice) owner of the Singaporean restaurant, and promised him that I’d try to eat there in the future.
We had the Strawberry Shortcake (small – $51), which was a deliciously light sponge, with multiple layers of cream, strawberries and a diplomat cream and strawberry topping. It was very moist, creamy, and fit the bill of being not-too-sweet – perfect for the East Asian palate.
I haven’t thought about this place in a decade, but digging through old photos for this fortnight’s low effort nostalgia post led me to this photo of bukkakeontama ぶっかけ 温玉, which cost an unreal $4.90 in the 2015 era. This was my first bukkake experience, and just delicious – such a simple meal with plain, muted flavours that brought the creaminess of egg and the bounciness of the noodle to the forefront.
Great quality to price ratio at the time, and even now it is only $9.90 in 2026. I wonder if it still good.
Menya Mappen Shop 11/537-551 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
It’s extremely rare thing for doctors to go on strike, and probably something that many in power thought would never happen again in NSW, the last time in the 1980s (led at the time by a young doctor now known as CSY) relegated to fleeting mentions in review articles in the MJA[1].
I was proud to have been a small part of the doctors’ walkout on the 8th of April this year, when, even though I wasn’t actually rostered to work that day, I attended rallies both in Western Sydney and at the Ministry of Health’s lavishly appointed headquarters (beautiful staircase in that building) at 1 Reserve Road, St. Leonards.
The protest of it all aside, it was quite nice to see a number of my friends and colleagues that I had worked with over the years, all gathered in one place to protest the untenable state of working conditions and compensation in the New South Wales public health system – a product of both successive Liberal AND Labor governments, which has led to the ongoing attrition of both junior and senior doctors from the state public health system into private practice, as well as public hospitals in other states which are able to offer better staffing, conditions, and on average 30% more in terms of remuneration. Though a Labor party win was once thought by some to be the panacea that would fix the crumbling health system, I do love a bipartisan effort at neoliberalism and keeping the workers down.
Politics aside, one of the people I ran into at the strike, at the rally, was a former frequently featured co-diner on this blog, WKS, and we took the opportunity of being on the forbidden side of the bridge to catch up over a meal at Ryo’s Noodles.
Ryo’s Noodles, I suspect, had never seen such a large turnout for lunch on a weekday, as various small groups of doctors had filled up almost their entire venue capacity, and then some, with a number of people in scrubs still waiting outside for a table even as we left.
The gyoza ($9) were pretty good, juicy, filled with pork and cabbage, fried and crispy, though possibly a little bit burnt, more burnt than I would have liked.
The karaage chicken ($12), a classic, no notes.
The ramen itself, soy sauce flavour ($20.50) I felt was kind of overhyped, and did not reach the criticisable level of the sides. Ryo’s Noodles had been part of my consciousness for the past 5 years since I first started this blog, and at the end of the day I felt that their star item was just not bad – a bit saltier than I would’ve liked, with good chaashu but otherwise definitely not life changing as some have influencers have sold it online.
Bucking the trend of Korean-run Japanese restaurants in Sydney is Miko Miko, a relatively new Chinese-run Japanese restaurant in the coastal suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, replacing the long standing LUCK SUSHI. We paid a visit to them relatively late on a Wednesday night, to see if they were deserving of all the extremely mixed reviews that they had received on Google Maps.
The salmon sashimi (3 pieces for $7, $14 as pictured) cannot be faulted. It is difficult to do wrong when your only job is to purchase and then slice some fish, and it hit the craving that my partner had that led us to this restaurant in the first place. The grated fresh wasabi, rather than the el cheapo fake stuff from the tube, was noted and appreciated.
The gyudon ($18.80) was really quite good. The beef had a rich flavour, and the portion was adequate to flavour all of the rice. The egg yolk was perfect in its consistency, and again soaked through the rice once popped to flavour almost every grain. The pickles added an appropriate brightness, and I wonder if I could make this at home, though I wouldn’t know what to do with 980g of pickled daikon and 980g of pickled ginger.
The assorted tempura ($15.80) was fine, and though I did not love the prawn, I thought the eggplant tempura was really delicious. Tempura is not something that is easy to do at home, in view of all the oil required, though I do think the portion was quite small for the price asked.
Thoughts Visiting a Japanese restaurant run by Chinese people, with almost the entire breadth of Japanese cuisine on the menu gave me pause, but ultimately their food was quite alright. I don’t know that I’d get the tempura again though, as good as the eggplant was.
This medium muscat grape drink with lychee ($10.50) was actually very yummy, but was it worth 15 minutes of my life spent at work to pay for it, and then another 5 minutes standing around waiting for it to be made?
Probably not.
I do love muscat grape though – the kasugai premium grape jelly beans are out of this world.
Ogu Ogu 127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
(tagged as bubble tea because even though it’s not bubble tea, that’s the general vibe of it)
