Categories
Malaysian

Warung Taming Sari – Arncliffe NSW Restaurant Review

After a somewhat cursory eSafety check glance from a nearby JDM mechanic, we tucked into some pretty good Malaysian food at Warung Taming Sari.

The nasi lemak with chicken curry ($15), pictured here with extra bergedil ($1), was pretty good. It was everything you could ask for in a nasi lemak, and helpfully for my weak constitution was not too spicy at all. My partner enjoyed gnawing at her giant drumstick, which meant that she was too distracted to have much of the laksa.

A note on the bergedil ($1), a small potato ball that we added on as extra to the nasi lemak. Though I don’t have any other experiences to compare this to, this small potato ball was dry and minimally flavoured. I would not get it again, and judging from this experience I am much less likely to try it again at any other store either.

The curry puffs ($3 each), came in a number of meaty and non meaty options. The meaty options included chicken, beef, and lamb. There were only 2 meaty flavours left available, and though I don’t recall which 2 of the 3 flavours we got, it doesn’t really matter, as they were tepid out of the pie “warmer” and both tasted the same. I can’t even really tell the difference in this cross-sectional comparison (hastily cut together to keep both in focus in the one image). Can’t recommend.

Disappointments aside, this chicken laksa ($15) was great. It didn’t look like much, but the rich texture and flavour of the soup, the soup soaked tofu, and the perfect ratio of noodles to other toppings made this an excellent bowl. I had no problem demolishing the majority of this whilst my partner was preoccupied bone-gnawing. Yum.

Warung Taming Sari
Cnr Queen &, 30 Firth St, Arncliffe NSW 2205, Australia
+61 439 693 298

Categories
Café Korean

Little Couple Cafe – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

Unlike Rockdale’s former Angry Gnome (RIP), a café named in keeping with the appearance of its owner, Little Couple’s small but cute space near the train station in Campsie is staffed by two seemingly extremely normal sized people.

I rarely post photos of spaces or decor on this blog. I’ve always felt that food always comes first, and that no amount of flowers or lit up branded signage can make up for bad food. However, I really liked how Little Couple was able to maximise the usage of their fairly small space, by providing a nice elevated seating area overlooking the kitchen, above what I presume is their pantry. The airconditioning was a nice reprieve from the 40 degree sun, and it was just a nice place to be. Sadly the mango smoothie ($7.50) pictured in this interior design review we honestly didn’t love. It felt a bit too sugary.

In terms of food we had this LC Beef Wrap ($15), a very reasonable sized toasted wrap with a large portion of bulgogi beef, spinach, tomato, cheese, and aioli. Each bite was juicy and yummy, and based on the quantity of meat supplied as well as the location of their shop, one local Korean internal medicine specialist we discussed the wrap with believes that they must be losing money on each wrap.

The K-Toast ($7) featuring buttered bread sandwiching a cabbage omelette and sugar and tomato sauce I loved less, mostly because I had misread it as a crab omelette. Taken on its own merits it was fine, but not something I’d get again.

Overall thoughts That bulgogi wrap, with this cafe’s prime location, has got to make a great grab and go for train commuters. I only hope their business model can sustain it, because local internal medicine specialist CJP thinks it might not be able to.

Little Couple Cafe
1/199 Beamish St, Campsie NSW 2194, Australia
+61 416 302 724

Categories
Chinese

JML Dumplings – Wolli Creek NSW Restaurant Review

This place was really hard to find, owing to the fact that their Google Maps location points to a different and completely unrelated dumpling restaurant, whose staff were at least gracious enough to point us in vaguely the right direction.

We started with some soy/tea eggs ($2 each), for which unfortunately the marinade had not penetrated into the yolk, leaving a tasty white with a boring hardboiled centre.

The Shepherd’s Purse & Pork Wonton Soup ($12.80) had a nice filling (though not particuarly better than the frozen dumplings I’ve been getting from the grocery store lately) as well as a nice wamrth and lightly salty umami flavour to the soup, but suffered from an unusual and unpleasant thickness in the wonton skin, making it more of a meal and a chore to eat this meal than a wonton soup should be.

Though I failed to capture a photo of the Dumplings of Pork & Chive ($12.80) apart from a single cross sectional shot, I much preferred these to the wontons. They had a strong chive flavour to them, which is really what you want and often can’t be replicated by the frozen stuff. The skin was again a bit thicker than ideal, but this was not as problematic as it was for the wontons.

I did not think I would enjoy the Steamed Pork and Sticky Rice Dumplings ($9.80), but they came out first after the eggs, and I guess I was hungry. I’m glad the sticky rice wasn’t too densely packed, because it was a real I heard you like carbs in your carbs so I put carbs in your carbs so you can carb while you carb moment.

The Honeyed Pork Ribs ($12.80) were good, meaty, tender and juicy, but very sweet and sticky.

Overall thoughts
The price to performance ratio at JML Dumplings in Wolli Creek was good. I am a highly predictable rater, and any half decent pork and chive dumpling at a restaurant that offers them boiled will score high marks from me. Their menu is diverse, however, so even if you don’t like anything featured here there is probably something for you.

JML Dumplings
Shop 2/1 Brodie Sparks Drive, Wolli Creek NSW 2205
0481 863 226

Categories
Café

Frank & Chitch – Earlwood NSW Restaurant Review

This is a local-ish café that we saw spruiked on social media.

The Filet o’ Chitch ($18) was a pretty good rendition of what a fish burger should be, with a thick piece of battered fish, an adequate helping of tartare sauce, perfectly fake tasting American cheese, and some iceberg lettuce.

The Chili Oil Scramble ($20, $27 pictured here with grilled chicken supplement) was not as good. Though we enjoyed the housemade crispy potato hash, the egg was unfortunately not to our liking, with a hard and leathery texture rather than the softness that we were expecting. The chilli oil and other flavourings of this dish were also a bit too subtle for us, making this mass of dry egg a bit of a chore to get through. Unfortunately I would also have to recommend saving your $7 on this unspectacular grilled chicken addition.

Thoughts: Though the fish burger was alright, I have no plans to go back.

Frank & Chitch
2-4 Barnes Ave, Earlwood NSW 2206

Categories
Bakery Portuguese

The Portuguese Corner – Nowra NSW Restaurant Review

The Portuguese Corner doesn’t actually exist anymore as a restaurant, but they do still exist as a supplier of delicious savoury and sweet tarts to Nowra local coffee roaster and cafe Hyper Hyper, also known as the mother-joint of Punch the Ploughman, which has been extensively reviewed on this site already.

While Punch the Ploughman serves a variety of in-house and externally sourced (mostly from Sonoma Bakery) treats, their cohabitant venue Hyper Hyper has only a small pie warmer of delicious warm treats, with no cross-pollination between the two.

First, the Portuguese Tart ($5). A bit sweet, but served deliciously warm and gooey from the pie warmer, with an excellently buttery puff pastry that carries through to all of their savoury tarts. Pretty good, and preferred over Milkwood in Berry’s.

The Village Chorizo Tart ($6) was my favourite savoury tart. Again with lovely puff pastry, and a great umami filling. Good balance of flavours.

The Kale and Goat Cheese Tart ($6) is a relative masterclass on how to make a vegetarian quiche, and with its interesting mix of sourness from the goat cheese and vegetable flavours it is far superior to the quiche from Punch the Ploughman next door.

I did not feel that the Bacon and Spring Onion Tart ($6) was quite as good as the Village Chorizo Tart, though they clearly both come from the same school of meat-supplemented quiche. The bacon strips on top were a bit hard and difficult to eat in my opinion, though overall it was still better than the aforementioned vegetarian quiche next door. The egg was also better.

In summary these expensive little tarts (really mini quiches) are all quite good (though I don’t know how Portuguese the savoury ones are), and I can only hope that one day they may rise again and spread their joy from a place that isn’t the pie warmer of someone else’s cafe.

For now, they’re available at Hyper Hyper.

The Portuguese Corner at Hyper Hyper
85 North St, Nowra NSW 2541
0424 551 509