Category: Cuisines

Categories
American

Chooksy’s – Bomaderry NSW Restaurant Review

Chooksy’s, Nowra and Bomaderry’s answer to Wollongong’s esteemed Chicko’s, was on our must visit list during my partner’s recent stay in town.

First, the hot chips ($4). These were seriously good, next level. They were freshly fried with an incredible amount of crunch that persisted for well into half an hour after we got them. A colleague of mine had mentioned that she had thought about purchasing the restaurant (apparently up for sale at time of writing), but that perhaps she didn’t need to as her friend had worked at Chooksy’s and knew the secret recipe for the chip seasoning, though I suspect the actual secret to these chips are how freshly fried they are each time. Amazing.

The cheesy potato bake ($6) was really as described – cheesy and potatoey. Not too salty, which was good, but definitely one for my partner’s love rather than mine.

Interstingly, Chooksy’s does all of their burgers as either a wrap or a burger. We had an Extreme Chilli Chick ($13) as a wrap, which was actually extremely chilli. It was a chicken schitzel folded into a wrap with jalapenos, lettuce, onion, and two types of extremely hot sauce. I must admit that we underestimated just how extremely chilli this wrap was going to be, and it was nigh inedible for my poor weak tongue. Perhaps someone else would enjoy it.

This Salt & Vinegar Chicken Tender ($2.20) was quite bad. It didn’t give the impression of real meat that came from an animal.

Quite surprisingly, Chooksy’s fried chicken ($3.20 per piece) was actually unavailable the first time we visited, at around 2PM on a weekday. They were all sold out, and so we had to go back a second time to experience the promised delight. Their fried chicken was actually quite disappointing, perhaps moreso in light of our second journey, with a sad moistness after just ten minutes in the bag, and not much discernable flavour apart from saltiness. I would not rate this chicken above the Colonel’s.

The Chippy Chick ($13) as a roll I also felt like took some good ingredients and put them together only to make them worse. This roll consisted of a chicken schitnzel, hot chips, and liquid cheese and gravy. Unfortunately the combination of these winning ingredients, (especially their chips, which as mentioned above are usually great) made everything a bit moister, less crispy, and more mushy than desired. A surprising disappointment, though definitely much more edible than the Extreme Chilli Chick.

THOUGHTS
In the face of other options and in a somewhat health-conscious state, I would only recommend the hot chips at Chooksy’s, which I believe are of the top tier of hot chips in all of NSW.

Chooksy’s
1/429 Princes Hwy, Bomaderry NSW 2541
(02) 4421 8884

Categories
Bakery

Buttercrumbs Croissant – Five Dock NSW Restaurant Review

My mother wanted me to look at an apartment I couldn’t afford in Five Dock. We had pastries we couldn’t afford instead. Allow me to explain:

The Corn & Cheese ($7), true to its name, was an open pastry topped with corn and cheese. It gave a memory of pizza, what with its cheesiness and a slight hint of capsicum. The pastry was quite flaky and excellent.

The Vanilla Tart ($7) was really just fine. A bit runny, a bit fancy, what with its expensive black dots (included).

The Cherry Cream Cheese ($6.50) was the cheapest and my favourite of the bunch. Both my partner and I love a good sour cherry.

The Hot Dog Twist ($7.50) tasted lik esomething you could get for $3 from Breadtop but with laminated pastry. I don’t even particularly like those hot dog buns, don’t think I’ll be getting this again.

The Sticky Nuts ($7) I found to be unfortunately a bit too sweet and sticky for my taste, though I did very much enjoy the huge mountain of croissant dough underneath the caramelised sugared layer on top.

Overall thoughts
I honestly didn’t know before going that this was a Korean bakery not that any of the items that we had was particularly Korean. Tenacious Bakehouse remains my S-class Korean pastry shop of Sydney. Maybe if we didn’t eat out so much we could actually afford to buy residential property.

Buttercrumbs Croissant
Shop 1/189 Great N Rd, Five Dock NSW 2046
0421 339 389

Categories
American

SoCo Kitchen – Wollongong NSW Restaurant Review

Hearing-to-eating time at this restaurant was around 18 months, waylaid by COVID-19 closures, my partner finishing up in Wollongong and moving back to Sydney, and then finally facilitated by a trip down the South Coast to Shoalhaven for my work.

These Buffalo chicky nuggz ($13) were excellent. More like actual pieces of fried chicken than nuggets, these are made of proper pieces of chicken breast rather than mystery mincemeat. The pieces were big, juicy and moist on the inside, with a pleasantly sour and not too spicy buffalo basting on the outside. The side of blue cheese dressing that it came with was alright, though didn’t have such a strong blue cheese taste, really more of a creamy thing. Overall these were huge, however, and excellent. They triggered me to fry my own chicken at home whilst writing this review.

The Cuban pork bites ($12) were the first dish that I had heard about from SoCo, and the actual reason that I had been keen to visit. Though I had been keen, I ultimately didn’t love them. I found them a bit dry yet oily, and not so tasty. While the bowl looks small, the fact that it is full of pork belly means that it is actually quite a substantial entree. If you can only choose one though I’d strongly favour the Buffalo chicky nuggz instead.

I’d never had or even seen gumbo on a menu before, and so we had to get the SoCo Gumbo ($31 including $6 for prawns) to cross that experience off the bucket list. It was a rich and dark stew with a bit of beery bitterness, filled with vegetables, chicken thigh, house-smoked andouille (pork sausage), and a few big prawns. It was really ok, a good experience to have had, but not mindblowing in a way that I would think that I’d eat it all the time. My partner did surprisingly enjoy the andouille, which was a bit unexpected for a woman who does not usually eat parts of the animal that are not muscle.

The gumbo was served with two pieces of cornbread that deserve their own mention. Incredibly heavy, rich, and reasonably sweet these drenched in oil breads were more of a deep fried dessert than a carb in the regular sense. Very tasty, but definitely only in moderation. I can definitely see myself dying an early cardiovascular death if I were to keep eating these.

I thought this bathroom had quite a witchy vibe. My partner didn’t agree.

Overall not bad, pretty-good, worth a stop-by. I wanted some burgers but we just couldn’t eat any more. There really aren’t that many places to get Gumbo and other specifically Southern dishes in NSW and I think they have carved out their niche well. Do note that the restaurant is tiny, so if you’re set on eating here it’s best to call ahead.

SoCo Kitchen & Bar Wollongong
Shop 4/63-65 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
0447 556 816

Categories
Bakery Japanese

Kurimu – Port Melbourne VIC Restaurant Review

Ignore the location heading – Kurimu is a chain bakery, so it doesn’t really matter where I got this particular original choux ($4.20) from (Westfield Hurstville NSW, by the way) – it would be like going to a Breadtop and writing about a particular outlet, as if there were significant store-to-store variation in the high uniformity products that they produce.

This original choux was a really great snack, with a crunchy buttery almond-coated exterior and a super smooth creamy filling. The most important factor for any dessert, its sweetness level, notched a perfect “not too sweet” from both me and my partner.

Really worth a try the next time you walk past a stall

Kurimu
Multiple Locations – see website.

Categories
Chinese

Silver Territory Seafood Restaurant, 京唐海鲜酒家 – Burwood NSW Restauarant Review

We’ve been to Silver Territory an unusual number of times (4 within the last 6 months) with our friends WHJ XWO CJP and NT, but they have yet to disappoint, both in terms of a regular succulent Chinese sit-down meal, as well as for their yum cha offerings.

I will bore you only with some brief dot-pointed thoughts, after which you may feast your eyes on some photos:

  • Our first visit was meant to be for their evening yum-cha offering, but we found that this only happened on certain nights of the week, and we had to order from a usual formal Chinese menu instead. This was actually quite good, the kind of dinner my parents would have.
  • Of the sit down dishes, the king prawn omlette I thought was really good and creamy.
  • Of the yum cha dishes, their chives and prawn dumplings were good, their chicken feet were good, in fact most things were good.
  • Perhaps the goodest or most interesting was their radish cake, a yum cha item that will gain a spot as a featured item below, chopped up into bite sized portions and stir fried rather than served as large slabs. Much oil, much wok hei, much delicious.

Verdict

This restaurant is not better or worse than any other yum cha establishment in Burwood. Solid, in fact, and usually a shorter queue but more rapid and Chinese style service than Royal Treasure Seafood Restaurant in Emerald Square.

Silver Territory Seafood Restaurant, 京唐海鲜酒家
208 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
0431 886 552