Miss Chu has taken Sydney by storm, this isn’t new news.  We can’t seem to get enough of her.  The original store is a hole in the wall on the Corner of Bourke & William Streets in Darlinghurst.  Since the opening of that first store, Miss Chu’s cuisine can be found in three other locations in Sydney and two in Melbourne.  She is doing something right.

Even though I have heard her food is great, I wasn’t excited enough to go out of my way to pay one of her establishments a visit.  Why?  I just couldn’t get excited over something I make all the time at home, rice paper rolls.  It was a visit of a close girl-friend to Sydney that finally got me to Miss Chu’s.  She really wanted to go and I was happy to join her.

Staff at Bondi are friendly and helpful.  If it is a nice day try and secure an outside table, inside is a little dreary.  They have traditional rice paper rolls, but mix it up with non Vietnamese fillings as well.

Beside rolls you can order a choice of steamed dumplings, deep fried spring rolls, warm vermicelli salads, stir-fry dishes, salads and soups. Read more →

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The Mahjong room is operated by Hong Kong born William Hui along with former Red Lantern Manager Drew Kohing.  William opened the Mahjong Room with Erika Chan back in 2002, and has been on my  ‘to do’ list for a very long time now.  Mainly to head there on the last Saturday of the month for their popular mahjong lessons which are accompanied with yum cha.  You would think I would have gotten there by now!

My recent visit to the Mahjong Room didn’t see me partaking in a game or two.  Instead I visited to try their new Open Rice Open Table menu.

“Open rice” means to start a meal in Cantonese.  “Open table” is a popular Chinese term which translates as opening up a table for mahjong.  An addictive tile game played in China for thousands of years.  And from what I have seen can end up being quite noisy and a lot of fun. Read more →

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If you have been watching MasterChef Professionals, you may have seen the Italian challenge earlier this week.  There was a restaurant challenge and the challengers had to ensure one of their dishes included Barilla pasta.

The lovely people at Barilla decided to challenge me as well.  I received the recipes under embargo before the episode aired, and was challenged to choose one to cook, but add my own twist.

I couldn’t help myself and ended up playing around with both recipes, Orecchiette Vongole and Casarecce with Rabbit, Cavolo Nero, Almonds and olives.  I hate to blow my own horn, but I love my twists on both recipes.  My version of the rabbit rocked, and I will share it with you guys shortly, but today I share the Orecchiette recipe. Read more →

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Mr Wong is the latest gem in Justin Hemmes’ Merivale crown.  The old Tank nightclub has undertaken an amazing transformation into a Cantonese restaurant with a 1930′s shanghai teahouse look and feel.  On entering you are instantly transported from the downtown business district of Sydney, to another place in another time.

With three chefs wielding their knives, Mr Wong’s kitchens are packing a lot of talent.  Executive Chef Dan Hong (Ms. G’s & El Loco), Head Chef Jowett Yu (Ms. G’s) and Dim Sum Chef, Eric Koh, from London’s Michelin Star Hakkasan.  There isn’t one kitchen, instead placed around the two floors of Mr Wong you will find a dim sum kitchen, main kitchen and roast meats counter upstairs, and downstairs the bar, giving the area a Chinese speakeasy vibe. Read more →

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A late start to meetings had us meeting up with the Fuminator for an early lunch in Ginza before our working day started.  Actually the Fuminator’s day had well and truly started earlier that day back in the office.  Moi, on the other hand, spent the morning traipsing around Ginza shopping.  I looked at it as my duty to inject monies in to the Japanese post tsunami economy. Read more →

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The first thing that strikes me about New Shanghai is the decor, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the decor.  I feel like I am transported to a little alley in Shanghai in the 30s.  Sitting on the wood and red accented stools at wooden tables you feel like you are sitting outside shopfronts in a small bustling alley.  The bustling comes from the busy wait staff whizzing by to attend to the full restaurant. Read more →

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Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

Sara….. Belly Rumbles…. well hello there, that would be me!

What an honour and privilege to host this month’s Daring Kitchen’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge.   It was also quite nerve wracking with months of recipe testing and trying to make everything perfect. 

A quick explanation for those of you that aren’t familiar with the Daring Kitchen or how the Daring Cooks’ challenges work.  Each month the challenge is hosted by a member of the Daring Cooks’ Group.  The host posts the challenge on a specific date in the members area.  It is kept a secret from the public.  The members participating in the challenge all reveal how they went on a specific date,  through their food blogs, the 14th of the month. 

It is a global community and, to be honest, I was nervous oh what people would think of the challenge.  All feedback was positive, but I can’t wait to read how everyone went.  A big hug and thanks to those who participated this month.  Also a big hug to Lis and Audax for their help. Read more →

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Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

It is winter in Australia and this was a great challenge for the really cold days and nights we have been having.  I tend to crave noodles, pasta and the likes when it is cold.  Actually I think that is pretty normal behaviour.

I saw that Steph had included a recipe for spätzle, bingo!  I knew what I was going to make.  I love spätzle.  I think it stems from my Grandmother and my trips to Germany.  Even though my grandmother was Latvian, noodles and dumplings were on high rotation in her kitchen when I stayed with her.

Mac was out of town on business, so it was dinner for just Josh and I.  I had some leftover beef and mushrooms in red wine and thought it would be a lovely match to the spätzle.  I was right, it was. Read more →

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“The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.”

You may have noticed that Belly Rumbles has been a little quiet on the content side of things of late.  I have had a pretty mixed emotional start to the year,  some was expected some was not.  I have lost two people in my orbit to cancer within days of each other and another (a pivotal part of my family) which I may discuss in later posts, is now undergoing unexpected aggressive treatment for the disease.

On top of this my darling dog Sally has also been undergoing treatment for cancer, with the removal of three tumours and a skin graft that was undertaken yesterday.  It has been very hard as the operations have been tricky but successful and she has been living at the surgery for the past two weeks.  We had her home this weekend, but she went back yesterday for the skin graft and another 5 day (at least) stay at the clinic.

Then I also have the fact that one of my major support units (my parents) moved to Queensland this week to live. Read more →

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