A-Plus Kitchen 讚記廚房 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

A-Plus Kitchen (讚記廚房) is the place where I usually come to satisfy my craving for stir fried instant noodles. They have a very good one here and this one with delicious pork cutlets is my personal favorite. I can never stop myself from ordering this whenever I come here. It's just perfect to go with their iced milk tea.....



Food Rating: 4.5/10
Price: $$
Address: Shop B, G/F, Winfield Commercial Building, 6-8 Prat Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2311-6833

Tang2 廳2 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After a 10-day hiatus in Australia, it's time to come back to my office and plan for my next trip. Following 10 straight days of western food, needless to say I was craving for some Chinese cuisine right about now. So I decided to get some expensive "cha chaan teng" food at Tang2 (廳2) for my first official meal.

First up was a pretty decent sweet corn soup and that was soon followed by a cup of Hong Kong style milk tea. I haven't had one for ages!!!



Signature baked pork chop on rice (馳名焗豬扒飯) - On top of the baked pork chop cutlets and rice was a layer of tomato purée and a bit of burnt cheese. I recalled this being a little salty last time but the seasoning was much improved this time around. Thought the rice could have been a little drier for a much tenderer bite but it was good to get this one out of the way. Oh, I miss my cha chaan tengs here!!!



Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: Unit G09C, G/F, Cheung SHa Wan Plaza, 833 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok
Tel: +852 2341-5788

Gelatissimo The Rocks (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★☆☆☆☆

I hate rainy days and honestly, who won't when it has ruined your day at the Rocks! Perhaps a couple scoops of gelato at Gelatissimo can get my mojo going again...



Not really a wide selection there.....



The picture on the right showing the gelato donut suddenly caught my eyes. That's what I'm getting with my salted macadamia gelato...



This certainly didn't look like what was shown in the picture nor what I had in mind. It looked more than it's been running over by a bus! That looked awful.....







Food Rating: 3/10
Price: $$
Address: 73 George Street, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-9251-3744
Website: www.gelatissimo.com.au

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Café (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★★☆☆

Time really flies. It was almost 8 years ago when I was last here at this branch of Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe. I didn't remember it being so popular that I had to wait for almost half an hour for a table.



Belgian chocolate shake (AUD$12.5) - Pretty rich and flavorful to a point where I couldn't take on any of their cakes. 






Price: $$$
Address: 91 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-8274-7500
Website: www.guyliancafe.com.au

Nick's Seafood Restaurant & Bar (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★☆☆☆

I was going to spend the remaining hours of my trip at Darling Harbour admiring the sweeping view of the harbour but rain was pouring down so hard that it took all the fun away.



I picked yesterday's lunch venue (Automata) so it's someone else's turn to pick and we ended up having seafood at Nick's Restaurant & Bar this afternoon. I guess that's not a bad choice considering we didn't make it to the fisherman's wharf for seafood on this trip.



I had no objection having our lunch here although all the large tour groups that the restaurant has been entertaining could have done a better job keeping the noise down (Photo taken before the tour groups arrived). This is the reason why I never go to restaurants that deal with tour groups.



Nick's seafood chowder (AUD16) - And we started off on the wrong foot with Nick's seafood chowder. A namesake chowder that didn't really get a passing grade from all of us. Yes, there were a lot of mussels in there but that's all the good things I could write about it.



Mornay Sydney Rock oysters (half dozen - AUD20) - Not bad but at the same time, not mind blowing like those I've had back in Vancouver down at Lonsdale Quay.



Kilpatrick Sydney Rock oysters (half dozen - AUD20) - Much better than the Mornay in my opinion. Same oysters, just that I like the creamy and cheesy one a little more (Again not mind blowing as I expected the oysters to be a little fatter).



Prawns and chorizo spaghetti with pesto sauce (AUD?) - This came with a set so I had no idea how much that would cost us individually (as it's not available on the a la carte menu). I thought the prawns and chorizo were fine but the pasta was badly overcooked and the pesto sauce.....let's not even go into that.



Fish and chips (AUD36) - Probably the only dish that all of us did enjoy. Very nice, crispy batter and I like the firm texture and distinctly sweet flavors of the snapper fillet. Always good not to pepper this with salt and seasoning.



The longer I sat here, the more I realized how much of a tourist restaurant it was (trap?). Would I come back again in the near future? Very unlikely.





Food Rating: 4.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: The Promenade, Cockle Bay Wharf, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 1300-989-989
Website: www.nicks-seafood.com.au

Maranellos (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★★☆☆

My Sydney trip is finally drawing to a close and it's my last chance for a dinner gathering with the relatives before I fly back to Hong Kong tomorrow. As most of us were already in
Maroubra, the logical choice was to find a place in the neighborhood that's convenient for everybody. And someone ended up picking this Italian restaurant called Maranellos at the Pacific Square Shopping Mall.



Tomato bruschetta - I have to admit I was a little surprised with the authenticity of these dishes. Didn't really expect such hearty Italian food in this residential area. 



The wood fired Italian bread with cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves was seriously good.



Fettuccine carbonara - Eggy fettuccine pasta tossed with bacon, egg and shallots in silky cream sauce. Not bad.



Bucatini lobster - Cooked in a pink sauce with a touch of chili and spinach. Everyone was raving about a generous portion of lobster meat but I was more surprised with the spicy kick of the pink sauce. That was pretty hot.



Supreme pizza - This was what I saw when I came back after patting my little nugget to sleep. Just two slices of the Supreme pizza left!

There were toppings of mushrooms, capsicums, onions, ham, cabanossi and olives. Fairly decent.



Time to go back to the hotel and pack my bags now. It will be another week before I see my little one again.





Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 51/737 Anzac Parade Maroubra, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-8347-0733
Website: www.maranellos.com.au

KOI Dessert Bar (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★★★☆

Many of us have already heard of Reynold Poernomo before, the posterboy from MasterChef Australia 2015 who scored a perfect 30/30 with his dessert in one of the episodes. The fact that he didn't end up winning it all won't matter anymore. The important thing that matters most, he has created a place for us to enjoy his masterful creations - KOI Dessert Bar.



This is the perfect stopover after lunch at Automata and a quick tour of its next-door neighbour Spicy Alley.



These pastries will most definitely make our trip to Chippendale even more worthwhile.



The two-storey space boasts a ground-floor patisserie-style café and lounge that looks more like a florist at first glance.



We decided to go upstairs where the main dining room was and tried to figure out how to divide up these treasure.



Coconut Kalamansi (AUD$9.5) - One of the most photographed cakes from KOI's impressive collection. The combination of coconut mousse, kalamansi curd and chocolate sable was a very good one with a nice balance of sweetness (coconut) and acidity (kalamansi).



Mango Yuzu (AUD$9.5) - More sweetness and acidity came our way in the form of mango and yuzu. In the middle of the delicate mango mousse was a layer of citrusy yuzu curd creating a pretty nice contrast of flavors. The almond sable on the bottom provided a lovely bite at the end.



Strawberry Pillow (AUD$9.5) - Almond sable, strawberry mousse and lychee jelly. Very nice again.



Tiramisu (AUD$12) - I initially wanted to go with their liquid tiramisu which would have been a little difficult to share among the four of us.



I kind of expected this. A deconstructed tiramisu with mascarpone cheese, lady finger, espresso sponge, coffee jelly and honeycombs. They got all the flavors right but I thought the flavors weren't nearly as exciting as what was offered with the previous three cakes.



I was glad we managed to squeeze KOI into our tight schedule. It's definitely a place that's worth coming back again (and again).





Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$
Address: 42–44 Kensington Street, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-9212-1230
Website: www.koidessertbar.com.au

Automata (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★★★☆

Chippendale is a trendy, up-and-coming suburb that is attracting a lot of attention these days with its hip cafés, restaurants and galleries. Personally, I'm not really a hipster which helps to explain why it takes me so long to come here for the first time.

Automata is my first destination in Chippendale this afternoon. Secretly, I have been looking forward to this meal for a long time. I have heard a lot of great things about head chef Clayton Wells. After working at David Chang's Momofuku Seiobo, Peter Gilmore's Quay and Tetsuya Wakuda's Tetsuya, Wells teamed up with Singapore-based business partner Loh Lik Peng two years ago to open the hotly anticipated 60-seater Automata at the restored The Old Clare Hotel.



The dishes on Automata's five-course tasting menu (AUD$88) promises a lot of (pleasant) surprises.



A peek into the open kitchen...looked like everyone was working real hard behind the scene!



We started things off with a couple of snacks first. The crispy salmon skin and pork's neck with smoked rosemary and enoki mushrooms were not the best-looking amuse bouche we've seen but both of them proved to be very tasty.



Next up was a very refreshing dish with fresh plums and dried tomato served in a chilled shiso and kelp broth. There were different levels of acidity there coming from different ingredients resulting in a pretty interesting after-taste.



Warm mussels were served on a bed of soft stracciatella cheese, along with marjoram and black garlic. The contrasting flavors and textures were further enhanced by the sweetness of the mussel juice. Pretty nice.



The wholemeal and malt bread which was still warm from the oven, was seriously good!



I was hoping I could get a crack of their signature smoked eel but that wasn't meant to be. Instead, I was having octopus with fennel, squid ink, xo chili and red vinegar as my seafood course.



Despite not getting my wish, I was quite happy with the results of this dish. Was a little surprised how well the octopus, squid-ink, xo chili and red vinegar all came together. The octopus was super tender and not even a slight bit of rubbery texture in there.



Most of us was having lamb rump as our meat course. The slices of lamb was nicely matched with some eggplant, miso, brown butter and tamari. Not bad but I was told that some of them turned out to be a little chewy.



I didn't feel like having lamb today so I ended up swapping it with a few pieces of skirt steak. It's pretty much the same supporting cast and I found it working well with the skirt steak. Always love my skirt steak with a rosy pink centre and even better when the meat was rich and flavorful. No complaints from me there!



Dessert was a simple coconut sorbet topped with little scoops of rock melon and sprayed with black sesame sauce.



That's a nice wrap although I thought I would have room for at least 1-2 more dishes!



At first glance, I thought the industrial chic décor was a little cold to start but slowly I grew to like it more.



Automata offers a unique contemporary cuisine that's innovative, adventurous and exciting. It might not be for everyone but it's ideal for those who appreciates originality and flair.





Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$
Address: 5 Kensington Street, Chippendale, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-8277-8555
Website: www.automata.com.au

Casa Asturiana (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) ★★☆☆☆

We had a pretty long day strolling around the city so we all agreed not to get too picky about tonight's supper. Northern Spanish cuisine near our service apartment suited us just fine tonight when everyone aimed to crash early.



My little nugget wasn't in a particularly good mood tonight. He's been pushing and shaving me ever since we arrived here (Trying to explain all these blurred photos.). Perhaps he didn't like Spanish food?



The decorations here sure look interesting but I have a feeling that this would turn out to be a tourist trap. Let's hope I was wrong.



Casa Asturiana is billed as a rustic Spanish eatery serving tapas, paella and sangria; all of which are meant to be shared. So let's share some sangria to start the meal, shall we?



Fried eggplant (AUD$10) - Love the ultra thin batter. It was crispy on the outside and moist inside. Very nice.



Chorizo / Grilled Spanish pork sausage (AUD$12) - There's a version of this cooked with cider but being someone not particularly adventurous, I went with this simple version which was grilled. That's pretty decent.



Braised baby octopus (AUD$15) - The baby octopus was marinated with olive oil, garlic, paprika and vinegar. Didn't do it for me.



Pork and meat paella (AUD$50) - We had two paella on this night but I only got the chance to try this one with pork and meat before calling it the night. I thought it was just average at best. Thought the rice would be more fragrant and flavorful but I was wrong.

(It said pork and meat on the menu but isn't pork a type of meat too? Just curious...)



Well, I ended up going back to our hotel for shower before I could finish this meal because my little nugget took a wild swing at a couple of drinks and poured them all over me. I was soaky wet and had to get myself sorted out. And I thought I just called it the day and crashed after shower.





Food Rating: 3.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 77 Liverpool Street, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-9264-1010