What Should I Eat?

They should totally make one of these for Australia.

I have to tell you something.

I’m scared that by the time I come back there’ll be too many new Fug entries for me to keep up with :(

“What the fuck!”

I went shopping. Bought a S&B top and Cue dress. I couldn’t find pictures of either of them from the respective e-stores so I took some! The top is black so the photo doesn’t capture much, but here’s the dress:

Neither my room nor my hair is very tidy today so I cropped what I must.

NB: Buy a new camera.

C bought me macaroons today. I’ve never had macaroons before but that’s not for lack of trying. On several occasions I actually craved them in the way that you crave things you’ve never experienced, and it always happened inside supermarkets, most of which don’t sell macaroons.

When I received my Adriano Zumbo macaroons they were quite melted. In fact, even the outside of their plastic wrapping was covered in a layer of grease. The first one I had was delicious. C said he bought me one of each flavour and this one was green although I couldn’t identify what it was. I was curious about the rest so I took another. It was date-y and salty and a little strange but still palatable. Then later at C’s house I tried the third, which I thought was chocolate because it was dark brown but it didn’t taste like chocolate. Neither did it taste like anything else. The fourth was salt and vinegar. I threw out most of it. The fifth was caramel in colour but tasted only of sugar. The sixth is sitting in the fridge and I’m too anxious about what it might be to eat it.

Next time I want to go myself and pick out some more normal flavours. But thanks C <3

In other news, some Aussie guy has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates for saying “what the fuck” when a stranger who grabbed his wrist at the airport turned out to be a plain-dressed policeman. What the fuck! Full story here.

“How can we put one of our own in jail for swearing? Kevin Rudd swears.”

Hear, hear.

Restaurant Review: Dolcissimo

Dolcissimo
98 Ramsay St, Haberfield
(02) 9716 4444

C and I went to Haberfield in this sickeningly humid weather for Pasticceria Papa but thought we should probably have lunch before dessert. There wasn’t a lot of choice in Haberfield, mostly pizzerias and cafe food, neither of which I ever crave. I got all excited when I spotted a Thai restaurant opposite PP but it was closed. C got all excited when he spotted a pasta place a couple of shops down from the Thai place but it turned out to be a wholesaler rather than a restaurant.

We were a bit lethargic and sweaty so we decided on the first place we spotted that served food. It was a place called either Cafe Molinari or Dolcissimo, we couldn’t tell because they had different signs bearing both names. Anyway, it was quiet because it was like 3:30 pm, and we were sitting outside browsing the menu when C decided to check Dolcissimo’s reputation on eatability.com (and that’s how we found out it wasn’t Cafe Molinari after all).

This is some of what they said:

“The food was average to bad. After all the poor service I laughed which apparently really ticked off the one of the waiters and he swore at us.”

“My advice if everything else is closed, eat toast at home.”

“The pizza was not bad, but I think I’d prefer Dominos. The dishes were definitely average. Or a little worse.”

“Unless you feel like poor service, average food and an average night out, give this one a miss.”

So we sat there thinking “oh shit”. Suddenly the waiter seemed less friendly and the prices too high.

Entree: Baby spinach with garlic in olive oil

Since all the reviews said the food was extremely oily, I expected greasy spinach. However, the spinach was nicely cooked and flavoured and there was a giant piece of lemon sitting on top when it arrived and C and I love lemon so we squeezed the shit out of it and my verdict is that the spinach was extra tasty. 7/10 but I’ll take off one mark because for some reason, when I ate spinach after having some of the pizza, it tasted overwhelmingly fishy. I can’t explain it, but I regret not finishing the entree first. 6/10

Main: Pizza Mama Mia with extra mushrooms

Mama Mia had pepperoni, onion and mushrooms on a tomato base. C wanted cheese on only my half of the pizza, but when I told him to tell the waiter himself he retracted his request and agreed to have full-cheese. I was a little worried that in the very likely situation where the pizza is too cheesy for C, I’ll either have to eat it all, or pay a ridiculous $20 to have half of it thrown away. However, C really liked it and so did I. It had perfect amounts of everything and the mushrooms were delicious. We had no trouble finishing it at all. 9/10

Drink: Lemon-lime bitters

The same as anywhere else.

Verdict: The food was really great, and service was prompt and not exactly friendly but certainly not impolite. I think this is because a) it was 3:30 pm and we were one of the only three occupied tables in the restaurant, and b) after reading eatability we had no expectations at all.

Food Review: Gumshara Ramen

Gumshara Ramen
Eating World Harbour Plaza
Shop 209, 25-29 Dixon St
Haymarket, Chinatown

“Our soup is made by traditional Japanese way to cook which only uses fresh pork bone and water, NO MSG is used. The richness of the soup comes from the marrow of the bone and the soft bone. It contains a lot of collagen, which is essential to maintain a and smooth skin.”

Tonkotsu Noodle

The soup was thick indeed. It was like ramen-flavoured congee. As C and I slurped the first few spoonfuls we were giving each other the ZOMG!!! eye but after another few spoonfuls the richness became a bit overwhelming. However I did find that if I gave myself breaks I could go back to drinking it and feel ZOMG again.

You know when you’re eating roast pork from the bone, and there’s the sticky collagen found under the skin and around the joints? Imagine that flavour and then add the flavour of cartilage to it and liquefy that thought to hot viscous ramen broth. It sounds a bit fabulous.

The noodles. If you’ve ever watched Naruto you might remember one episode where the ramen chef makes a super delicious ramen for some clan (obviously I’ve forgotten details of the story). The soup is mindblowing, but the noodles, despite being great under normal circumstances, is outshone by the Godly broth. That’s how I felt about the tonkotsu ramen.

The seaweed, the shallots, the two pieces of bamboo shoot and the egg were all outdone by the soup. The only thing that matched the broth in its awesomeness was the ribboned pork slices. The flavour of the soup came from the richness of collagen rather than saltiness. The pork on the other hand was salty as hell and I suppose for this reason made a really great compliment.

And the last thing I think I’ll mention is how very FILLING this ramen is. I’ve exceeded my spending quota of the week and used my last $6 to buy C Boost juice this morning. Between 5:00 am and 6:30 pm I ate: two pieces of sushi I scavenged from MJ, one sip of instant soup (before 19 consecutive scripts walked in, after which the soup was congealed goop) and a fun-sized Cadbury Boost. I was RAVENOUS when I finished work and the thought of travelling to Chinatown from Milson’s Point was too much for me so I asked C to buy me a satay chicken stick from the Thai place next door, so you know, I’d have enough energy to step onto a train. We ate the chicken but that only made me hungrier and by the time we arrived at Gumshara Ramen I wanted to jump over the counter and into the stock pot. Then C decided we should order one bowl to share, and I decided C had lost his mind, but then after eating what felt like two strands of noodles I was full. Collagen is filling.

C reckons Gumshara rivals Ryo’s, but I think I still prefer the latter. 8/10.

Food Review: Maccas

Yeah, I know.

No, I’m not drunk.

Main: Mighty Angus

This reminds me of the new Maccas radio ads where some dude tries to make a booking for two for Maccas and asks if he needs to wear a suit because the new Angus beef burgers are so fancypants. Anyway, I didn’t think the beef pattie tasted significantly fancier than the regular patties, except maybe a little less chewy. The sauce was great. Verdict? After partying, what else could you possibly expect? 10/10

Nuffin’ Muffin

C’s friend baked him a giant cake for his birthday. After tasting it and finding it grudgingly delectable I swore I would go home and bake the greatest cake ever.

However, I’ve always been a muffin person when it comes to baking. Muffins are much easier to be made pretty, and because they’re muffins they still look cute even if the icing is a little roughly smeared or if one side of the muffin top is bigger than the other. Cakes, on the other hand, are either PERFECT or SHIT. When I buy birthday cakes I have a hard time choosing one that has every figurative hair in place and I can only imagine that being a perfectionist if I was to bake and decorate a cake myself I’ll be up until the unholy hours of morning with ganache in my hair and purple bags under my eyes and an icing gun filled with the eighth batch of chocolate frosting (because I wasn’t satisfied with the consistencies of the first seven) in my shaking hand.

Restaurant Review: Becasse

Becasse Restaurant
204 Clarence St, Sydney
(02) 9283 3440
Website

We were in Maitland routinely watching Masterchef one night when they showed the contestants not eliminated that week have lunch at Becasse. I wanted to go since then, and last night I finally did.

The restaurant was perfect-looking. I took the seat with my back facing the kitchen and spent part of the night looking at it over my shoulder because it was a kitchen that made you want to throw away your career and become a chef. I tried to find a photo of it from their website but it looks so much better if you were there.

We decided that C would have the degustation with recommended wines while I have à la carte because he had his mind set on the milk-fed veal with confit potatoes while also wanting degustation so I suppose we compromised or not really since he ended up having it his way.

By the way I apologise for the poor-quality photos because I didn’t want to blind the whole restaurant every ten minutes especially considering how dimly-lit it was and without flash my camera is NOTHING.