Misky Cravings @ Fairfield Heights

Whilst browsing through the restaurant section of Time Out Sydney I came across a review for the restaurant called Misky Cravings in Fairfield Heights. I love trying new foods, (well in most cases) no matter how strange or daring they may seem, and the closer they are to home the better. So after an afternoon of fun with some friends, we were hungry and then I remembered Misky Cravings and off we went!


Walking The Boulevarde of Fairfield Heights trying to find the restaurant and then entering the arcade and voila! Misky Cravings, with a lovely sign saying "Yes! we are open". Misky Cravings is a peruvian restaurant, which means they use ingredients of Peru, with a mix of Asian flavours. The restaurant is big enough to cater for approximately 40-50 people and has only been open since July 2011. Upon arrival, we were seated and given menus, and there was a great sound of South American music which created a lovely vibe.

ChiCha Morada 

We were all terribly thirsty and had no idea what to order and just ordered what sounded cool and traditional. The Chicha Morada is a non-alcohol drink that is made from fermented purple corn, fused with fruits (apples and pineapple) along with spices (cinnamon and cloves). It has a great taste, and is very refreshing.

Yuquitas ala huancyna

Our entree was deep fried cassava (a potato like vegetable) with a side of a slightly spicy and delicate cheese sauce and a hint of yellow chilli. The cheese sauce is what made the dish, I was expecting something warm and melting, but this was cool and refreshing. Strangely nice and addicting!

Aji de gallina

Delicious creamy sauce made of diced chicken, garlic, onions, pecans, mild chilli, parsley served with rice. The sauce sounds heavy, but it was suprisingly light.

 Lomo saltado

Strips of beef with onions, tomatoes and traditional spices flambe on high flames with chips and rice. This dish has a lot of carbohydrates, so if you are off carbs for any reason, do not get this dish. The spices of the beef worked really well with the sweetness of the onion and tomatoes. 

Tallarin saltado de carne

Pasta with beef sautéed with onions, tomato' shallots, flamed with white wine in traditional spices. The pasta was cooked well, and the serving was huge! The beef in the dish was different to the lomo saltado as it was more saucy and had more of a tomato taste.

Picarones

Picarones are sweet Peruvian doughnuts made from pumpkin, sweet potato and honey seed. It was topped with a honey sauce and tasted absolutely delicious! It had the texture of youtiao (which is the Asian style bread dough sticks, usually eaten with congee). Each dessert serving is 4 doughnuts. It was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside, one of the best things I have tried in a while.


The overall experience at Misky Cravings was wonderful, and the staff were very welcoming. The owner came and talked to us and told us about the reason her and her husband opened up the restaurant and the tastes behind Peruvian food. It is definitely a place that I will go to again.


Good food, good times!

Sydney Food Bloggers' Picnic 2012

I have only been food blogging for roughly 6 months, and to my amazement I have been recognised by different organisations such as Delivery Hero and The Chef Project, and to add more too the list I was invited to a Sydney Food Bloggers' Picnic 2012 hosted by the some of the top bloggers in Sydney being Suze from Chocolate Suze and Helen from Grab Your Fork.  I brought a never fail recipe of feta and eggplant meatballs with tzatziki.

Feta and egglplant meatballs with Tzatziki (Recipe link here)

The picnic had a great turn out of approximately 70 bloggers! And we were lucky enough that it didn't rain for the amount of time we were there. There was an endless banquet of food with a balance of sweet and savoury, including pandan cupcakes, home-made marshmallows, seafood paella, various wraps & sandwiches along with other interesting foods including beer and bacon cake! 

Food a plenty

Little picnic bugs made by bellyrumbles.com

Pandan cupcakes

Mini quiches

There can't be a picnic without fairy bread

Aniseed pork in wonton cases and mini chocolate pie

Prawn and muscle paella

Brown butter apple pound cake with maple cream cheese frosting

Roast beef baguettes

Tomato and cheese loaf

Chicken and muscle paella

Trying each others food with Yvonne from excuse me waiter

Mmm bacon wrapped stuff

Pop-up bar from simonfoodfavourites

First plate of food =9

Chocolate tarts made by Muppy

Vegetarian scrolls

Vodka infused ocean trout, horseradish dill cream & cucumber

Drink made by the pop up bar

One of my favourites, home-made custard puffs

Doughnuts with maple butter cream

Dessert plate one: custard tart, baklava, caramel biscuit, marshmallow and apple pound cake

Dessert plate two: savoury pikelets, walnuts, reese peanut butter cupcake, chocolate cupcake, green tea biscuit,
chocolate brownie, caramel biscuit and beer & bacon cake

New food blogger friends from excusemewaiter, oh-ayana and missklicious

A photo with the lovely organised and top bloggers Helen and Suze

Photo from Simon theheartoffood

It was such a great experience to meet all different people with the common interest of food. As James Beard says "Food is our common ground, a universal experience".


Good food, good times!

Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant @ Cabramatta

As per usual Cabramatta is filled with wonderful food and of course Iron Chef is one of these locations. During the day between 9/10am to 15/15.30 (depending on the day) they provide a wonderful Yum Cha service which often has line during the peak time of 11.00 to 13.00.


However, this post is about there dinner service. We had dinner at Iron Chef for a special family occassion which was composed of 13 people. It was a great night filled with fun times with the family and a whole bunch of great tasting food!

Selection of crispy skin suckling pig with bbq pork, roast duck, soya sauce chicken and jelly fish platter

This was a great starter as it has a selection of all the special starters on the menu. It was a large platter which the staff then separated for individual servings.

Complimentary soup

Peking duck with hoi sin sauce

Peking duck is one of Iron Chef's specialities, everyone who tries Iron Chef's Peking duck, absolutely enjoy it. There used to be a special on Tuesday nights where there was 50% off Peking Duck, but I am not sure if that special still occurs. 

Roasted young pigeon

Sang choy bow

The Sang choy bow was made with the left over duck from the peking duck, mixed with rice and bamboo.

Salt and pepper crab

I love crab, and with that I loved this dish. I was devouring every little bit of crab meat that I could grasp my hands on. It was filled with flavour and had a tinge of spicy to it which made it delectable!

Wasabi beef

 The wasabi beef combines the wonderful taste of wasabi with a sweet teriyaki like marinade. It adds a Japanese twist to a basic Chinese dish.

Salt and pepper crispy tofu

4 types of Chinese vegetables steamed in bamboo basket

Braised soft e-fu noodles

Steamed fish

Dessert: Che with assorted biscuits

Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant is a lovely place for the morning Yum Cha service. But the dinner service was wonderful. The staff were constantly available to cater for all our needs. It is a restaurant for all occassions, and should provide different food for everyone taste buds, and new food experiences for those who stay on the safe side.

Good food, good times!

Manmaruya @ Campsie

Happy New Year everyone! Better late than never =D. After having an awesome start to the new year I thought I should finally update my blog with my favourite Japanese restaurant.

Manmaruya  is a small Japanese restaurant located on the main strip of Campsie. Upon my first experience a couple of years ago I fell in love with it and continue to go back when in need of a good Japanese feast.

Honey and lemongrass pork bento box

This was the first time I had tried a bento box at Manmaruya, and I was not disappointed. It came with a side of rice, sashimi, fried gyoza, seaweed salad, miso soup and normal salad. There was a great balance with the strong taste of lemon grass and the sweetness of the honey. The gyoza  was shallow fried which resulted in a crispy outside and a lovely inside, compared to normal pan friend gyoza which often feels oily. 

Ox tongue bento box

This was my sisters boyfriends order and he loved it, but to me the ox tongue was a bit bland in terms of flavour but the texture was fine, without it being too chewy.

Tan tan ramen

Tan tan ramen is a pork mince ramen with egg, bean sprouts, seaweed, bamboo topped with fresh shallots. It is an easy ramen to eat as you don't have to bite into or tear a part the meat. Simple is best, and is a great dish for any first time ramen eaters.

Medium sushi platter

You can't go to a Japanese restaurant without trying any sushi. The sushi platter was composed of various sushi's using fresh ingredients. Got to love sushi!

Overall, Manmaruya has great tasting food at affordable prices and has been mentioned in to 2011 SMH Good Food Guide. The service is fantastic and the desserts are nice and simple. Dinner services start at 5.30pm, and the restaurant doesn't take reservations for Friday and Saturday nights so I would advise to get there as early as possible to avoid waiting.

Good food, good times!