Papparich, Parramatta (II) - featuring Poh Ling Yeow!

Can you believe it's nearly the end of October? Neither can I. It feels like yesterday that I posted up my initial PappaRich Parramatta review when I was approached once again for another lunch at the restaurant - with Poh Ling Yeow this time. Although I haven't been watching Masterchef (in fact, not that much TV at all) in the last few years, I still remembered the first season very well and it's good to see her making her mark in the food industry. Considering I was at the peak of my stomach bug at the time of the actual event, I was actually hesitant on pigging out on this occasion but then I was too tempted at the thought of meeting Poh in person...for lunch!

On the day, Poh was making a special appearance at Westfield Parramatta earlier that day where she demonstrated some of her favourite Malaysian dishes at a pop up restaurant. After demonstrating the dishes, the people at the pop up restaurant got the chance to sample the finished product. Looked very cool from afar.

Lychee Cincau ($5.90)

While it may not looked pretty, Poh said that this was one of her fave PappaRich drinks out of the extensive beverages menu. 

Ribena Melon ($6.90)

It was a warm day so I went with the fruity Ribena melon (mainly because I do have a soft spot for Ribena drinks). It may look simpler than the many other beverages at this restaurant, but I personally enjoyed its lightness. Plus I do like the lychees stuck on the straws.

Pappa Fried chicken skin ($8.90)

We started off on a high note with PappaRich's signature fried chicken skin zomg. While the fried chicken skin was a tad chewier than my last visit, it was still addictive to the point that I kept popping many of these babies into my mouth. Dammit fried chicken why do you have to be so bad for me?

Pappa Fried Chicken Wings ($8.90)

There was more fried chicken goodness happening when the wings arrived to our table. While the skin does have that tempting crispiness, the meat had that juicy and well-cooked texture, which was what I personally preferred when it comes to chicken wings.

No matter which Malaysian restaurant I go to, the roti was always a must order for entrees to share. This time we went for the basic roti canai, which I always enjoyed for its flaky, crisp yet soft texture. We did note that it was a bit sweeter compared to rotis at various other Malaysian joints but it was still tasty for me especially when using the dipping sauces.

Satay Chicken ($12.90 for 6 pieces, $21.90 for 12 pieces)

The satay chicken was well cooked and easy to chew this time around though I still enjoy dipping the roti into that satay sauce.

Before the mains were served, we got to check out a live Teh Tarik demonstration. It's amazing how he was able to pull this off so perfectly. I struggle at pouring a drink out from a low distance let alone that high.

Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken ($13.50)

My pick of the main dish this time was the traditional Nasi Lemak with curry chicken. Apart from the red sambal (?), it wasn't as flavour intensive as the other dishes I've had previously at PappaRich, which was good for the tummy at the time, though the veggies did cool me down a bit. The curry chicken was deliciously tender and not too spicy and the rice wasn't too soft or hard. 

Pappa Char Kway Teow ($13.50)

I sampled a bit of Mel's main dish pick, which was the Char Kway Teow. It was slightly spicier though from what I've heard on what CKT was meant to be, I presume this was the norm. Really liked the taste of the noodles as well as the smokey flavours and aroma from the renowned dish. 

Dry Kway Teow with Steamed Chicken ($13.50)

When I spotted this dish on the other table, I know I had to try a sample. It's saucier and slippery than the traditional CKT but I do like the twist on this dish. Regretted not ordering this as my main dish of choice but I was happy with what I got. 

Dry Curry Egg Noodle with Steamed Chicken ($13.50)

Another dish that I am very keen to try on my next visit was the dry curry egg noodle. Didn't get to sample this but wished that I did since it looks mighty tasty especially with the rich sauce. Like the other main plates, this looked very filling though also great to share with a large group. 

Pappa Chicken Rice with Steamed Chicken ($13.50)

Biryani Rice with Red Chicken and Sambak Eggplant ($13.50)

This was another dish that I also wished I ordered if I had a bigger stomach. Did not look like a dish I would expect at a Malaysian restaurant but it looks yummy. Can imagine the huge range of flavours from various components of this plate.

Assorted vegetarian dim sum dumplings ($4.90-$6.90)

If you are a vegetarian and the amount of meaty dishes have put you off, don't fret. There is a menu full of vegetarian dishes including the vegetarian versions of fried mee hoon, char koay teow and four different types of dumplings catered for this market. 

By the end, we were too stuffed to have dessert but we did have lots of fun taking selfies with Poh. All in all, I had a good time at PappaRich on this visit. Especially discovering dishes that I didn't even notice on my first visit. While the queues are still crazy, the prices are decent enough to get you full by dinner. If you are not familiar with Malaysian cuisine, PappaRich offers a generous range of dishes to explore your taste buds whether you like laksa, curry, nasi lemak or roti. 

Disclaimer: The Random Foodie dined as a guest of PappaRich Parramatta, courtesy of Wasamedia. Opinions are however, my own. 

PappaRich Parramatta
Shop 2185A, Westfield Parramatta
159-175 Church Street, Parramatta NSW 2150
(02) 9633 3387
http://papparich.net.au/

Taste the Mediterranean with Bakers Delight and De Bortoli Wines Launch

Recently I was invited to the launch night promoting the new Meditteranean Delights Turkish breads from Bakers Delight and exploring a broad range of wines from De Bortolli Wines. This event was held inside a intimate dining room at Cafe Nice in Circular Quay. When you stepped inside, it feels like you have been transported to the Mediterranean or even an exotic place somewhere in Turkey especially with the cushions, lamps, aromas and a tray of various herbs and spices to taste.

For a limited time only, Bakers Delight has released a new line of Mediterranean Delights Turkish breads which are Sea Salt Flakes and Chilli and Garlic. Both types of bread were soft, chewy, light and flavoursome. The Chilli and Garlic did have a slow and spicy hit after a few bites while the Sea Salt Flakes was mild and not too salty though it was still flavoursome on its own. We got the chance to sample both types of bread from this range with a variety of dips including the delicious olive oils from River Flats Estate and La Barre plus La Barre's special blood plum vinegar.

Sea Salt Flakes Bread with Olive Oil and Vinegar 

Chilli and Garlic Bread

Throughout the evening, we were treated to a selection of canapes served with bread from the Mediterranean Delights range. My personal faves that got me grabbing for seconds were the creamy, sweet Pate de foie de canard with fig paste and the simple yet tasty Prosciutto di parma and Reggiano. 

Antipasti platter with a selection of dips and vegetables

Baby peas with goat's cheese and mint 

Pissaladiere 

Prosciutto di parma and Reggiano 

Pate de foie de canard with fig paste

Braised peppers and white anchovies

There was also the chance to try a couple of dishes from Cafe Nice including the succulent and creamy duck pate accompanied with a couple of slices of sourdough bread. It was tough sharing this one plate with a group of us but we managed to sample enough to enjoy the taste and flavour of this classic French dish. And this is coming from a former fussy eater who avoided pate during her childhood.

Duck pate with sourdough bread

The other dish we tried was a Salad Nicoise, a healthier alternative after eating a dish like duck pate. There were loads of fresh ingredients to take in with this colourful bowl of greens though the star would have to be the soft boiled egg. 

Salad Nicoise

There was also a selection of wines from De Bortoli Wines available for tasting that night. While we sample each glass, there was also a sommeliere who explained the differences between each wine from this brand. Personally I'm not a wine expert so here's some notes I was able to gain from each glass on the night, courtesy of De Bortoli Wines.

2013 BellaRiva Pinot Grigio - this white wine (seen above) was light and aromatic in flavour. It has a fine, pear-like, fruity and nutty taste with a bright colour and good texture and complexity. Perfect to drink on its own.

NV Rococo Yarra Valley Premium Cuvee

NV Rococo Yarra Valley Premium Cuvee - this was served as a sparkling wine on the night and was noted for its pale colour with green tinges. It had a biscuit-like aroma with citrus and white pear type of flavour with a soft creamy textured palate. It wasn't as light as the Pinot Grigio but it had a sweetness that complemented well with the canapes served that evening. 

2013 BellaRiva Merlot

2013 BellaRiva Merlot - this had a dark red with purple appearance. The overall palate was a soft, smooth and juicy texture with rich flavours where you could sense black fruits in the ingredients. This was personally my favourite from the night with its smooth, fruity yet balanced flavour. I can imagine this would be ideal to have with red meats.

2011 BellaRiva Sangiovese Merlot

2011 BellaRiva Sangiovese Merlot - this was a red wine with good garnet edge. Unlike the Merlot, this wine had a rustic, complex and earthy aromas. It has a dry, brooding, autumnal and savoury palate that would be suitable for a meal on a cool night paired with rich dishes such as red meats and pasta.

All in all, it was a cozy and fun evening catching up with other fellow bloggers as well as meeting the team from Bakers Delight and De Bortoli Wines. While I wasn't hopping on a plane anytime soon, the event really felt like I was back in Europe exploring the classic Mediterranean dishes and sipping lots of wine especially with the lovely, vibrant atmosphere. 

Bakers Delight's Sea Salt Flakes and Chilli and Garlic Turkish breads from the Mediterranean Delights range are currently available for four weeks only so remember to head to your local Bakers Delight branch for a sample before its too late. 

Disclaimer: The Random Foodie attended the Taste the Mediterranean Launch event, courtesy of Keep Left PR. Opinions are however, my own.

Taste of Sydney 2014, Centennial Park

Once again, another March full of so many food festivals and special events had come and gone. This means that Taste of Sydney is over for yet another year. It's one of those events where you know that it will do so much wallet damage but you just want to try everything that your stomach could handle.

Like last year's event, Taste of Sydney 2014 used crowns as their main method of payment for food and drinks with money being transferred and stored in a Crown Card. The general dishes were priced at 6 to 12 crowns while the Icon dishes were much higher such as Jonah's fruit de mar seafood platter costing 40 crowns!

There were the usual favourites such as the Taste Kitchen and Chef's Skillery table where chefs share their culinary dishes and cooking tips. Some of the chefs could also be found doing presentations at the Tasmanian Pavilion, which showcases various food and wine producers across the Tasman sea. There was also cooking classes and wine/beer/cocktail matching master classes if you want to a more hands-on experience.

Rowie Dillon at Taste Kitchen

There were also the usual drinking areas like the very popular Rekorderlig Cider Bar where you can try as many ciders as you want (or your tummy and wallet could handle). You can also try the alky at other drinking areas like the Galliano tent, the Patron XO stall and the Bundaberg Distillatorium whether you want vodka, Patron Margaritas or beer. If you just want to try the wine, there are various stalls across Taste of Sydney which did wine tastings. They also use only crowns which can either be good if you have a few crowns remaining and you are too full, or frustrating if you wanted to use them on the dishes which were expensive enough already.

Rekorderlig Tent (ordered an Apple and Blackcurrent cider but forgot to take a photo...sorry guys)

Strawberry Margarita with Patron XO

Entertaining the customers at the Galliano Tent

There was even numerous food exhibitors appearing at the festival for your shopping needs whether you want olive oil, sauces, sweet treats, herbs and spices and cheese. The Salt Meats Cheese stall was one of the more crowded stalls where you get to taste and buy olives as well as cheese and/or meat platters.

There were lots of new restaurants featuring at Taste of Sydney this year with many of them taking out the top prizes. A shoutout to Chow Bar and Eating House for coming in first in the Best of Taste award with the Beggar's Chicken with silken lemon tofu and vinegar red peanuts (Icon dish - 12 crowns). ToS fave Porteno came in second for the charcoal grilled entrada (more on that later in the post) and newcomer Aki's Indian Restaurant were placed third. 

At first, I wasn't sure if I should have the famed suckling pig by 4Fourteen/Four in Hand again since I've had similar dishes over the previous years but it just looked so appetising after observing so many people ordering this dish as well. Once again, the suckling pig was juicy, succulent, sweet and great to share. The girls really enjoyed it though personally I preferred more crushed apple or the previous year's version with coleslaw and hot sauce for the extra flavour boost as it didn't taste as flavoursome as I would have liked.

Suckling Pig with Smoked Potato Salad and Crushed Apple (12 crowns)

The below dish from regionl NSW restaurant, Biota Dining, popped up on my instagram feed quite heavily over the duration of the festival so it was no surprise that I had to get it. Plus it looked like hot and spicy chicken from KFC or the fried chicken at Naruone and Hartsyard (and you all know what I think about fried chicken ;)). While it may not be your usual fried chicken with its use of cornflakes for the fried batter, it was incredibly thick, crunchy and crispy - plus very messy to handle! Because of the crunchiness, the corn and local garlic creme balanced the overall texture with its smooth, thick and creamy sauce.

Hay Smoked Chicken Legs - cured and smoked chicken with corn and local creme (12 crowns)

Chur Burger was one of those stalls with incredibly long queues thanks to their delicious burger offerings and the recent gourmet burger popularity. It's one of those stalls where you really want to try everything off the menu. My pick was their Icon dish, the wagyu rossini burger with shaved fois gras, truffle and Madeira jus. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) the truffle ran out so they decreased the crown payment from 18 to 8 crowns. This didn't bother me because I love wagyu beef anyways. The brioche bun was soft plus the beef was juicy and cooked medium rare and was quite rich and filling. While I ended up paying 8 crowns instead of 18 for this burger thanks to the lack of truffles, the serving size was small especially when you can get bigger burgers at the restaurant for $10. 

Wagyu Rossini Burger with shaved fois gras, truffle and Madeira jus (18 crowns with truffles, 8 crowns without truffles)

Another Taste of Sydney fave, Efendy, plates up some tantalising Turkish dishes including the intriguing panfried lamb testicles (10 crowns. I'm not joking about this dish). I decided to be tame and went with the charcoal lamb kebap instead which was delicious, flavoursome and easy to fall apart. It was matched with warm hummus that was tangy and added a spark to the overall dish. One of my faves from this year's festival. 

Charcoal Lamb Kebap, Warm Hummus, house pickles, organic chickpeas and pastirma (12 crowns)

Because fregola dishes are hard to find, the below dish was one that I was looking forward to the most. I really enjoyed the fregola dish that Popolo did last year but this year's offering was a bit ordinary in terms of flavour and too creamy and lumpy for my liking. The seafood parts including the calamari, prawns, cuttlefish and mussel were the saving grace for the dish though.

Fregola, calamari and cuttlefish ragu, prawns and mussels (16 crowns)

When I attended ToS on Friday night, the one stand that had the insanely longest queues was of course, Porteno - even longer than Chur Burger. There was porbably at least 100 people waiting to get served so sadly I bailed out for this session. Returning back again on a wet, damp and muddy Sunday, there was no queues (yay!) but my feet did not survive the muddy grounds.

It was fun watching the staff at Porteno including chefs Ben and Elvis working hard at the grill. 

Looking at the dishes, it was no surprise that there was so many people lining up for the many delicious offerings. I was initially planning to get the lamb from Asado but the award winning charcoal grilled entrana wagyu skirt steak ended up being my dish of choice. Cooked medium-rare, it had a tender yet slightly chewy texture as I cut through the meat though it was also so yummy to eat. Loved the zesty chimichurri and the sweet peppers for the extra flavour to this succulent and droolworthy dish.

Charcoal Grilled Entrana - Wagyu skirt steak with BBQ peppers and chimichurri (12 crowns)

Since I go weak at Mexican food, Rojo Rocket was too far for me to get to and it was on Thursday and Friday nights only, I pretty much pigged out at this restaurant. With the cheery staff and colourful costumes and decorations, it was no surprise that this restaurant won the Best in Taste award for 'Best Dressed'. The sashimi tuna tostada was refreshing to have on a warm evening though it was quite spicy as well.

Tostada de Atun Fresco - Sashimi Tuna Tostada, avocado, onion and chipotle (12 crowns)

The pulled pork taco was juicy and not too soggy. The restaurant used soft corn tortillas which is my preferred way of eating tacos. Gobbled this up so quickly that I didn't realised it was gone so soon.

Taco de Cochinito - pulled pork taco, corn puree, salad and salsa roja (6 crowns)

This year, Taste of Sydney hosted IconPark, an online restaurant and bar concept funded by the people aka YOU. Hundreds of entries signed up for their chance to launch their own restaurant on East Sydney's 78 Stanley Street in the duration of 3 months but there is sadly only one winner. There were six finalists showcasing their dish at Taste of Sydney for the hungry diners to decide online including Blackcats, British India Trading Co, Min Joo Social, Ruby's BBQ, Sedgwick Ave and Stanley Street Merchants. As of today, the winner has since been announced which was Stanley Street Merchants. Looking forward to trying the food and drinks at this joint when it opens in April. Personally I think they are all winners.

The IconPark marquee tent has attracted countless attendees and has been one of the biggest hits at Taste this year. You do have to decide on which dish you want to get before entering inside the tent. My first choice was Ruby's BBQ for their serving of Southern USA smoked BBQ. Ruby's BBQ reminded me of Porteno with an American Hartsyard-like touch with their smoked BBQ beef dish. The beef was so tender that it fell apart instantly as my fork touched it. Though there didn't seem to be as much sauce as I thought, the coleslaw was much needed after consuming so much meat. 

Ruby's BBQ: 16 hour slow smoked BBQ Beef with Coleslaw and Ruby's Homemade BBQ Sauce (10 crowns)

Another finalist that I was keen to try was British India Trading Co (cool name btw) mainly after seeing a bit of presence from fellow bloggers. This concept is more unique whereby it serves a fusion of British and Indian-inspried plates and ingredients. While the short-rib was well-cooked, the overall spicy flavours with the combined use of okra, cardamon, ginger and tamrind sambal were quite strong and exotic for my tastebuds. 

British India Trading Co: Cardamon and Ginger Spiced Short Rib, Mustard, Carrot Butter, Okra and Tamarind Sambal (10 crowns)

By the end, we were so stuffed but you know what we all say about desserts. The Cut Bar and Grill's cherry ripe dessert had been on my mind for the entire festival. And it's only 6 crowns! So glad that I got  to ordered this. When you bite into the coconut coated chocolate bar, you can taste that lovely crack from the hard chocolate coating and the smooth chocolate (mousse?) and cherry filling inside. Sooo good! 

Cherry Ripe - Chocolate sphere, coconut and cherry (6 crowns)

With my stomach having a massive food coma, I can say that I really enjoyed the many dishes, drinks and various products that Taste of Sydney offered. I have noticed that there didn't seem to be as many sweet dessert dishes with only a handful of restaurants offering them while others delivered an entirely savoury menu. Since it was pouring on the weekend, it would be nice to see more seating areas especially on wet days but I guess there would be so much logistics involved in making that happen. Since there is already an entry fee, I personally found it to be an expensive event especially when you want to try so many dishes from numerous restaurants. Having said that, I did have loads of fun trying and exploring everything that the festival offered and will definitely return when it comes back next year. Looking forward to see what's next in store for Taste of Sydney 2015. Bring it on!

Check out my recaps of Taste of Sydney 2013 and 2012.

Don't forget to hit up The Random Foodie on Facebook for more photos on various dinner outings and events as well as the occasional news.

Taste of Sydney
Brazillian Fields, Centennial Park
http://www.tasteofsydney.com.au/