Bites: Sayers Sister @ Northbridge

A small parcel of land can only fit so many good restaurants from my experience.  In Vic Park, we see A Spicy Affair serving delicious curries alongside the Prophet’s Lebanese  cuisine with V Burger just opposite.  In North Perth, Nine Fine Food is just beside Nahm Thai and just around the corner, Sayers Sister.  Its older restaurant Sayers is definitely one of the best in the brunch business.  But is it’s younger sibling Sayers Sister's any good? Coming in at 11am, we had to put up with a 45 minute wait.  Ordering at the counter, we waited for another 45 minutes for the food to come out.  They were clearly a favourite among the locals.  But with a wait that long, my expectations were high.

 

Ed’s Bubble and Squeak @ $19This came arranged perfectly with a thick bacon steak at the bottom topped with poached eggs, wilted spinach, potato cake and hollandaise.  Whilst he enjoyed this for most parts, his comment as a “typical diner” was that perhaps the thick bacon cut made the dish saltier than what he would have liked.

 

 

My pick was the Lemon Myrtle & mustard seed enoki, button, field, brown & oyster mushrooms, Bacon & fried egg on toasted brioche & fig chutney (I think it was fig)The flavors here worked for me.  Brioche, and the perfectly cooked mushrooms with a whiff of lemon myrtle went nicely with the salty bacon and a hint of sweetness from the chutney.  But I think I would have liked poached eggs with this one.  A runny yolk would have wrapped the whole dish up nicely as it blends the flavors together more nicely.  Then again, that is just a personal preference.  But for $18.50, this was quite a steal!  So much technicality for a small price tag.

 

 

XL ordered the Buttermilk Pancakes with Caramelized Banana  $16.50.For $16.50, the pancakes were humungous.  And I would be extremely happy if they were executed.  But on a busy Sunday morning, these pancakes were stodgy as hell with the inside feeling sticky from uncooked batter.  When I asked, the waitress said the syrup have sipped in… I am not much of a blogger if I fell for that right?  I can immediately tell that the Sunday rush has got to them.  Even the bananas were coated in slightly gritty coating, not the beautiful caramelization I expected.  Not the best and I immediately got a refund.  I looked around the internet to see the picture of people’s pancakes here … none looked as crappy as the one she was served.  Disappointing. Very. 

 

Paying a 1.5 hour wait for decently cooked breakfast it quite a put off especially when all you wanted is a smooth sailing Sunday.  But I have to commend the efforts of the staff to keep diners away from hunger with the free muffins.  The service here was poor on a Sunday and so would be a Saturday.  For many reasons, I feel that the café is a let down due to its inability to serve the crowd.  But come any other day and you will be blow away.  So maybe next time I will either be first in or a week day.  For now, it will be Sayers.

 

WenY

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SK: Dakgalbi and Korean Fried Chicken @ Myeongdong

As Spring comes back to Perth, I am filled with the good memories winter in Seoul had.  The food for sure was  a highlight with the big city so rich in culture.  No amalgamation of the Korean restaurants in any cities can replicate the quality of the food I had or even just the variety itself seems impossible.

 

One of the nights, we went to Yoogane for what seems to be the most popular Dakgalbi or Spicy Chicken rice in Myeongdong.  It was superb! The chicken was a mix of spicy, salty and sweet with generous bits of kimchee and cabbage all tossed in a cheesy rice.  The outcome was a savory delight.  This is a winter fighter that is surely to make you sweat.  Little bits of rice that crisped up as you go make great bite for that last bit of enjoyment.  Definitely a winner by all accounts.  In fact, XL still craves for it every now and then but there is no real contender in Perth :(!  Funny how the chicken pieces which tended to be dryer than usual did not bother me even the slightest bit!

 

If the Dakgalbi is too spicy, feel free to have unlimited serves of their cabbage salad.  Super yums :)! If anything else is noteworthy, I would say that you should prepare to stink as the chicken sizzles in front of you!!

 

 

Our last night’s supper here was not one which will get a tick of approval from the Heart Foundation.  From a tick off is more likely.  But who cares?  This is TwoTwo Fried Chicken in MyeongdongEvery culture has their own fried chicken.  And so do the Koreans.  It is super crispy with all the salty-peppery seasoning to complement it.

 

We had two orders that night.  One was the original and the other was the garlic one.  We both preferred the original one over the garlic chicken.  It was just good old fried chicken as is.  The garlic one was way too garlicky for our liking.  A bloody fragrant bite but the raw garlic taste might be a little over the top!Some nights, I go to bed thinking about fried chicken.  When I do, I wake up happy.. and hungry.  At least after this meal, I can tick the Korean fried chicken of my bucket list!

 

People might ask me whether KFC is better or perhaps the good old Japanese Kaarage or even Malaysian fried chicken which has like 10000 variants.  First things first, fried chicken beats steamed chicken anytime.  But when it comes to different fried chicken, everyone will have a different say.  For me, I love my fried chicken and the one at TwoTwo was really good.  In fact, it was fantastic.  But each fried chicken has its own merits making me like most, if not all of them

WenY

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SK: Ulsan Bawi @ Seorak National Park

One of the best parts of my South Korea trip was Mount Seorak.  Just 3 hours from Seoul, the Seorak national park is just beautiful when covered in snow.  To get there, I got on a taxi from the airport to bring us to Dong Seoul Bus Station where we got on a bus to Seorak.  This was followed by a 20 minute taxi ride.  All in all, it cost around $100 for two people.  A night’s stay at the national park motel was a modest $80 and the room had a beautiful view.  The only thing was that it did not have a lift and we stayed 3 floors up.  As we had our luggage bags full from shopping in HK, it was a pain in the ass!

 

Anyways, our plan for the day was simple, hike Heundeul – bawi and Ulsan – bawi.  A total hike of around 6km each way.  Not much in terms of distance except its verticality. The only problem was that it was a  –27 degrees afternoon.Crossing the bridge

 

Still yet to reach Heundeul – bawi  but Ulsan – bawi was already in sight.  Or so we thought =.=!After an hour of walk, we settled around 2kms to Heundeul – bawi but it was rather insignificant. Just a big rock :(! So we set forth to Ulsan – bawi!

 

On the way up!Some of the better parts of the trail with guides to hold on to.  Little did we know that it would save our lives as we climbed up!

 

After another hour, we were really rushing against time. The sun was really against us and we quicken our pace.  Challenging really! It was so slippery and we had no shoes so we stopped by a small hut and bought some spikey attachments!  $5 each but really handy in providing grip ;)!

 

After almost 2 hours, we were at the base of the Ulsan – bawi.  Feeling rather happy, we thought that it was really near.  It was actually, just 1km more...  vertically.  And that was another 30 minutes up…Ulsan – bawi base!

 

As we were ascending the steps, we almost got blown off.  So I sat down. Keep calm, take a picture.  We clearly caught up to the sun. There was heaps more sun at the top.   The view here is truly magnificent during winter. Not sure about other seasons though!

 

Nothing much. Just a stair.  One of the many stairs….

 

At the top, the view was phenomenal.  Here is a picture of me in my unsuitable clothing and Ulsan-baw in the backdrop!  Almost died there! Still managed to fake a smile hahaha.

A mad combination of howling wind and darkness forced us to descend quicker than we had wished.  Better safe than sorry we thought, only to meet wolves/wild boars hunting along the river.  Glad we were on the other side! But after a mad 5 hour hike up and down, we were so hungry we quickly ate nearby in a local café.  The town is 10 minutes by taxi but we were too tired to move.

 

A winter staple. Dried Pollock soup!  Really delicious in this weather :)!  The Pollock is dried by the chilling winter air and used to make soups and other food stuff.  Absolutely odorless which made me like it.  ]At best, it was slightly salty with a rough texture, and felt somewhat like bacon =.=!

 

The little darling’s favourite BibimbapMeal in a bowl!

 

The obligatory side dishes of kimchee.  Cabbage kimchee and radish kimchee along with seasoned cucumber, seaweed, mushrooms and more vegetables.  Damn! Koreans are really healthy!We slept at 7pm that night.  Definitely needed a good rest as we had just flown in from Jeju to Seoul 6am that morning before taking a bus to Mount Seorak!  But still, this was a winning trip! 

 

We got to snoop around the area the next day before it become overly populated.Buddha statue

 

Mount Seorak was really photogenic!!

 

After Mount Seorak it was back to Seoul for our NYE count down ;)!  More to come but I am just so lazy at the moment haha.

 

WenY