Fooshion

Taylor Thai

A new Thai restaurant has finally opened in Erskinsville and it was said that the ex-chef of Spice I am Darlinghurst has been recruited. The location is definitely not packed like Newtown or Darlinghurst, apparently Erskinsville is still quite ‘untouched’ when it comes to food. The restaurant is beside the lobby of an apartment at 12 Eve St, I sense the residents hungry for Thai. 

It was the grand opening on 16/11/2012 and fresh beautiful flowers were flaunted on top of the table to greet the customers. Enough of the interior, now moving on to the real deal: the food. How is this thai different from Spice I am? Well, it is definitely more spicy & authentic, but you can adjust your desired level of spiciness. We preferred authentic hot Thai food and our orders were:   

Chicken Pad thai 

Pad Kra Pao (minced beef with chopped chili & holy basil)

Choo chee Fried fish curry 

Normally fried fish curry would be sweeter than the usual curry, and the fish that was supposed to be ‘fried’ becomes rather ‘soggy’ and looks more like drowned with no crisp left. Taylor’s was exceptionally different, the amount of curry sauce was perfectly enough, the taste exploded in my  mouth—- best Choo Chee fried fish curry I’ve ever had. And I’ve been to so many Thai restaurants in Sydney already, from Chat Thai Chinatown to Newtown’s Thai restaurants. This has become one of my favorite curries and it was spicy and flavorsome. In addition, the fish was still crispy and so the food really did agree to its ’name’. 

Pad Prik Khing (Crispy Pork Belly)

Of course Thai food will never be complete without PORK, and the most awaited menu was served- Pad Prik Khing! 

The taste was delicious, a mixture of thai herbs and chopped chili with the ever-crisp pork belly. As guilty as you can be, guilt will not be enough to stop you from eating this dish. 

Overall, the whole experience was YUMMS! and cheap! Surprisingly most of the menus ranged from $5.90-$13.90. The lunch deals ranged from $9.50-$10.50 and you can get a rice with stir fried pork belly or other kinds… it is THAT WORTHWHILE. So tummies, fasten your seat belts and people wear your biggest jeans because quality food does come with favorable price when it comes to Taylor’s Thai. 

02043/12 Eve Street, Erskineville NSW 02043

(02) 9565 5666

Lunch opens from 11:30-3.30

Dinner opens from 5.30-9.30 

Makassar, Indonesia

Firstly, apologies for the sudden disappearance in this blog. I was going back for my holidays to Indonesia and this time round I had to accompany my family to Makassar which is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. 

Then again, I come back weighing 3 kgs extra! So you know how good the food is and what I have in store…

In Makassar, it seems that one chili on the table is not enough. They’ve got 7 different ones and each had their own taste. My favorite would be the one with the basil and mixed with some sort of pickles, it was sour the way I like it. 

Fried Ifu mi 

Ifu mi is noodles which are fried firstly and then poured with gravy, meat (chicken & prawns in this case) and veggies. The crispy noodle with gravy is simply sensational.

Nasi goreng merah (brown rice)

Tom Yum Goong

Nope. It’s not your ordinary tom yum soup, this one is completely different, it is probably 10x spicier and don’t you just love those kinds of tofu? I have no idea why I prefer those than the usual. 

Chicken satay with saus Padang 

Saus Padang is—- as expected spicy. It’s very popular for spiciness and it usually comes with seafood such as crab and mussels. However, this one was chicken, it was not as good as the seafood but it was still scrumptious. 

Jakarta, Indonesia Part IV

WARUNG BALIKU 

At night, my little sister kept on nagging for some good food. My picky little sister demanded for duck from Warung Bali-ku, a Balinese restaurant near our house. Since the place is not exactly ‘environmentally-friendly’, my mum called for delivery. 

Lauk (Side Dishes): Kangkong belacan, onion grated chili, chili sambal and salted peanuts

The side dishes were delicious especially if you mix them all together and eat it with the mains.

Bebek Goreng (Fried duck) 

The crispy meat is to die for, it is crispy yet soft. This is my little sister’s favourite. 

Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk

This dish was my favourite, I loved the tender chicken meat that is soaked in gravy with many herbs, onion and chili. 

Jl Pluit Indah Raya No. 25, Jakarta

Phone:(021) 660-6388

KUE TERNATE 

Ternate is a small city in the Maluku Islands, most of my aunts and uncles were born there. This cake is a traditional Ternate cake, it has minced pork and a little bit of rice vermicelli (so-un). Its taste is quite sweet and the crust is very chewy.

BOGOR 

On wednesday morning, I decided to visit my grandmothers’ graves in Gunung Gadung which is located at Bogor, a city in the West Java province. After the visit, we went for lunch. 

Laksa Bogor

The taste was sweet and creamy. The Laksa had chicken, tofu, egg, spinach and bihun in it. And it was sprinkled with lots of ‘bawang goreng’ (fried onion). 

Soto Mie Bogor

This dish tasted quite plain, but after squeezing 2 limes, it tasted better. The soup had tomatoes cooked till very soft, beef and lumpia (fried spring roll). 

Comblong

Comblong is a kind of sago cake that has been fried with sugar. When you bite on it the sago stretches, it is so chewy that you feel like chattering your teeth to feel its  bouncy taste. The sugar coating made it sweet and very delicious. 

ANGKE

Angke is a famous Chinese restaurant in Indonesia that I’ve been very fond of ever since childhood. As you can probably see, I’ve been visiting the places/restaurants that I had grown comfortable to. Angke has two branches, one in Ketapang and the other in Kelapa Gading. Usually I would eat at the one in Ketapang, but this time I went to eat in Kelapa Gading because the place was newer. The restaurant serves Hakka food. 

Es Jeruk Nipis (Orang juice)

Lindung Cap Fumak (Fried eel with vegetables)

Mun Haisom (Sea cucumber)

Babi Hong 

There are no other words than ‘fantastic’, Angke’s food standards had never went downwards. I loved the sea cucumber, it costed Rp. 300,000 but was so worth the try. The gooey mun sauce and jelly-like sea cucumber were outrageously good. 

Angke, Ketapang

Jl. Zaenal Arifin 

Complex Ketapang Indah

Phone: (021) 634-3030

Angke, Kelapa Gading

Jl. Raya Boulevard West

Palm Ivory Square

Phone: (021) 458-66333

BIHUN BEBEK

My grandfather brought me Bihun Bebek (duck) takeaway, he said that it was good for health since the soup was cooked with lots of kichi seeds (a kind of red and small vegetable seed) and Wan Sui leaves. The Wan Sui was very aromatic and I liked how it tasted when you drowned it in soups. 

There was the jelly-like pig’s blood again. The dish tasted like medicine soup but it was tasty. 

Se Joung

Fooshion travels to Campsie, one of the hearts of Korea town in Sydney, to visit literally THE best BBQ place (well I have tried several BBQ places) in whole of Sydney: Se Joung. 

There were the 6 of us, a full house of Fooshion family, and we ordered the Gal-bi, Pork Chul Pan, Octopus Chul Pan and Tofu Chigae. The waitress was very polite and the place and service was still very much traditional, you’ll see what I mean about the service. The place still had the setting of sitting on Tatami while enjoying scrumptious food. Then the side dishes were served.

From back to front: Spinach with chili paste, Kimchi, White radish soaked in vinegar, eggplant and bean sprouts with mentimun. 

After a while, the lady came and served us with Gal-bi. As mentioned above, the service was still very traditional because unlike other BBQ places, Se Joung’s waitress assist its customers in cooking the BBQ meats. 

Gal-bi

The Gal-bi was sweet and tender, a soft tousling pleasure to one’s taste-buds. It was enjoyable to eat it wrapped with lettuce. Next the pork chul pan came. 

Pork chul pan

Then came in the octopus….

The pork belly was DELICIOUS, for pork lovers, you’ll go head over heels. The octopus was squishy, in a good way. However, I am prone to seafood allergies. Thus I could not enjoy the octopus to the epitome of pure contentment, so I am unable to judge the taste. But my older brother and father mentioned that the pork was 100x better than the octopus. 

Tofu Chigae

This was my favorite for the day, I have tried many tofu chigae (tofu beancurd soup) and this one definitely beats my previous favorite from Cafe Cya. I loved how soft and silky the mixture of tofu and egg was, this was FOODGASM. The spicyness was just right for me and the taste was overwhelming, I ended up monopolizing this dish.

After the whole food-fest finished, our tummies were just so happy. In addition, the cost was not as expensive as we thought it would be, compared to the other Korean restaurants in Sydney CBD such as Arisun, Madang or BBQ city. This place is therefore HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

68/72 Evaline St, Campsie

Open Daily 11am-11pm 

(02)97184039