Lowenbrau Keller, Ton Ton, Azuma Patisserie and MORE

YAY! I finally finished my exams! So what's the first thing I did to celebrate the end of the torturous hell know as exams? I ATE!

FIRST STOP: LOWENBRAU KELLER

Schweinshaxn (Over roast pork knuckle with Sauerkraut and Mashed Potatoes)

Hawflake girl and I already know that we're having the prok knuckle shared between us, I don't know about her but I'd been dreaming about it for aaaages LOL Sir CKWL couldn't stand the wait til we got there so he'd already eaten but still decided to try A BIT of our pork knuckle but ooooh he sooo didn't eat a bit! We ended up having to order extra mash to share because nothing beats Lowenbrau's mash and also because THERE WASN'T ENOUGH FOOD TO GO AROUNND!!! LOL

Extra side of Mashed Potatoes

Hehehe we weren't the only hungry ones that day, several times parrot flew in and tried to steal sugar. They were successful at it too! I don't know if birds are aloowed to have sugar or not but the cheeky parrots were SO CUTE!

Variation Plate (apple strudel, sticky date pudding, berry crumble and icecream with berry coulis)

Ofenfrischer Apfelstrudel (Traditional Warm Apple Strudel with Freshly Whipped Cream)

The apple strudel without the whipped cream! LOL This was the most lactose free dessert on the menu!

THE AFTER PIC OF THE APPLE STRUDEL.

*Someone* licked their plate clean of the icing sugar hehehe

I think all of Lowenbrau's desserts are pretty good, my favourites being the apple strudel, bier battered apples and the sticky date pudding (which I'd only tried from the variation plate). The icecream on the variation plate was really crap but the berry coulis was very nice, making up for the icecream.

We were clutching our stomachs and groaning when we left and I even make hawflake girl promise that she'd stop me if I wanted to buy cake later!

NEXT STOP: TON TON REGENT

Shio ramen

Ton Ton ramen

Kogashi Ninniku Ramen

Need I state the obvious and say that these were GREAT? they all look similar here though but my kogashi ninniku ramen (garlic ramen topped with black seasame) was defintely worth the frew extra dollars. The pork was sooo much more tender than the pork in the shio ramen. I'm sad to say I've only ordered noodles each time I go to Ton Ton. I will remember to try the other stuff next time!

THIRD AND FINAL STOP FOR THE DAY:AZUMA PATISSERIE

When I say Azuma Patisserie I'm talking about the cake display at the Azuma Kushiyaki in Regent (i.e. right opposite Ton Ton). This is my new found love at the moment and I think it will remain so for quite some time!

Strawberry Layered Cake & Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc $5.90

The Mont Blanc is a chestnut cream cake and features a shiny brown chestnut on the top. I'm amazed at the prettiness of the cake and smooth even piping on the outside. While I don't really like the chestnut itself, I think it's very nice visually.

Mont Blanc innards

That was actually the first time I'd had a Mont Blanc cake. Sure, I'd tried some chestnut cakes before but they were always the quare/rectangluar ones with the chestnut piping on the top and looked mor like watery poo than something you'd eat. The cream on the inside was very nice too but then there was someother sort of cream down the bottom, inside the pastry which was a bit weird. The pastry itself was very nice too.

Strawberry Layered Cake $5.90

This is definitely my favourite at the moment out of all the cakes I've tried at Azuma. Every single layer is PERFECT and the layers of songe cake were SO MOIST they were practically still wet! (Okay, that doesn't sound very nice but trust me, the moist-ness was AMAZING!) The pink layered bits you see were actually THINLY SLICED STRAWBERRIES which was a VERY NICE SURPRISE.

Saint Honore $5.90

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this was CROQUEMBOUCHE CHALLENGE. This was so cute I had to try it. This was slightly disappointing though. The choux pastry puffs tasted like they'd been sitting there for quite some time (it was the only one left when I bought it...) and the pate brisee down the bottom a bit too brown, it started to taste burnt =[ There was "the crunch" from the caramel on the puff pastries though, bring a smile to my face, reminding me of how I wished I was one of the judges the one eating Poh's croquembouche.

Mikan (mandarin) Nerikiri $4.50

These were so cute I had to try them too! LOL I'd never tried nerikiri before and whilst I didn't really like this, I know it was more due to personal preference than because it didn't taste nice. Nerikiri is a type of wagashi (Japanese traditional sweet) eaten at Tea Ceremonies.

The outside had a strong taste of mandarin peels and the inside was filled with red bean paste. I really liked how they did that little slicing of the manadarin the expose the flesh thing. They even tried to make it look like you could actually see the segments of the mandarin!

See the square container of white stuff on the left? That's soy milk pudding. I wanted to try that too but I thought I'd better not be too greedy so didn't end up getting it. Hawflake girl bought it so maybe I'll just wait and see what she says about it.

So that concludes my eating adventures on the last day of exams. Rest assured that I have not been starving myself DURING the exams though. Here's just a few pics from the during-exam-period.

Plum Quark Pastry (Luneburger)

Apple Triangle (Luneburger)

Unseeded Pastrami Roll (Luneburger)

Seeded Pastrami Roll (luneburger)

Smoked Chicken Bagel (Bagel House)

Assorted asian mushrooms hotpot (at home)

First attempt maltesers mochi (made my me)

Gosh they look terrible! But they tasted GREAT! I will try to make them again soon and post them up again along with a recipe.

Yum Cha style custard lo mai chi/mochi

These were my first attempt too. Additional pics and recipe to come later on.

Lindt Dolce/Macaroons

Me making wonton

Excuse the mess on the table...

Finished product


Sushi platter from Sho-ya

Sho-ya is a Korean owned sushi place in Strathfield. They offer *all sushi $3 per plate* everyday! Situated at Strathfield Blvd.

For more information about any of the places in this post please visit the respective websites.

http://www.tontontakeaway.com.au/

http://www.azuma.com.au/

http://www.lowenbrau.com.au/

http://www.luneburger.com.au/

http://www.bagelhouse.com.au/

http://www.lindt.com.au/1/4.asp

Shu Shin Bou, World Square

SHU SHIN BOU END OF DAY SALE! =] =]

You can't imagine how happy I was when I saw that sign! TWO DOLLAR MOCHI!! But then I looked at the usual prices ($2.75 each, $14.50/box of 4, $25/box of 12) and saw that the saving wasn't really that great. But still, a sale is a sale and this is a mochi sale! 

I bought 5 different flavours and they were (L-R from the back) :

choc chip and melon, strawberry, blueberry, brown sugar and coconut, green tea

I was told by the sales assistant that there were two ways to store/eat your mochi.

1.) For a icecream-like texture: keep in the freezer and rest for 5 min before consumption (can be kept for up to 20 days in the freezer)

2.) For a mousse-like texture: keep in the fridge, can be consumed right after refridgerating (can be kept for up to 5 days in the fridge)

I had put mines in the freezer, wanting an incecream-like texture. I really savoured every mochi, not gorging myself on all five in one day (that's what I'd usually do) because I've been a bit sick lately. 

Greentea mochi

I tried the greentea mochi first. I was sort of impatient, waiting for the 5min resting time so when I bit into it, it still had a few icy bits. The greentea and red bean flavours were very strong though, very nice!

Strawberry mochi

This was my favourite! I'd rested this one perfectly so there were no cold, hard icy bits and really did taste llike icecream! There were also bits of strawberry inside, adding a little fruity tang to it which I really liked. 

Blueberry and choc chip & melon mochi 

I was also really looking forward to these two but they didn't seem as great after I'd had the strawberry one. I actually forgot about these two after taking them out of the freezer so they rested for close to 30min! They were more mousse than icecream by that stage and there was this just-noticable coating of oilyness/cream?!? on my tongue that I didn't really like. Also I wasn't aware that the melon mochi actually had choc chips in it until cutting it open. I was expecting it to have an empowering melon scent like kasugai gummies so I was majorly disappointed when I couldn't taste any melon flavour at all. 

Brown sugar and coconut mochi

Last but not least, the brown sugar and coconut mochi. I thought this was very interesting with the separation of the brown sugar part and the coconut part. I coudn't really taste the two dinstinctive flavours though, expect for the shreds of coconut that coated the mochi. 

All in all, my preferences are as follows:

1. Strawberry

2. Greentea

3. Blueberry

4. Choc chip and melon = brown suagr and coconut 

Shu Shin Bou

Miracle Supermarket

Lower Ground, World Square Shopping Centre

644 George St, NSW 2000

Ph: +61 402 551 082

Open 11am - 8.30pm everyday 

http://www.shushinbou.com/home.php

Sushi Tengoku, Kingsford

Sushi Tengoku

121 Anzac Parade

Kensington NSW 2033

Ph: 9663 3388

Okay, so when I was still a clueless first year who finished uni at 7/8pm I'd catch the bus with Cherry-chan. Everynight we'd go past Sushi Tengoku and most nights it stop near there waiting for the lights turned green. We'd see the bright blue shop, it's tacky interior and joke that all those crazy suckers were more like in sushi jikoku (sushi hell) rather than sushi tengoku (sushi heaven). We had no idea why it would be sooo packed every night because it whole appearance of that plce was THAT BAD.

But the amazing reviews of the place kept popping up on food blogs and my friends had heard some great reviews about the place too. Everyone we asked would rave about the GINORMOUS SUSHI. So oneday last year we decided to give it a go. Sadly we were ignorant of the fact that it was only open for dinner (we went during lunch time) so ended up here instead. 

Well this year we're clued-in second years so we set out prepared with the knowledge that it opened at 5pm and were the first customers there hehehehe

The first thing that hit us was the strong fishy smell of the place...it was a bit of a turn off but we eventually got used to the smell and things rolled smoothly from there. Since it was "sushi" tengoku of course we ordered the sushi. Plus I was fully cluedd-in about the size of the sushi so we kept things to a reasonable proportion =] 

 

The salson sushi came out first and immediate we were like WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and as Nat put it, the sushi was "so big you could cry" hehehe

comparing the size of the salmon with my phone. Hehehe you can see that I was really impatient to try it. I had chopsticks in one hand, phone in the other =]

Next came the tuna & scallop sushi. You can see in the background I've still got part of the salmon sushi on my plate. I usually shove the whole sushi in my mouth but it was impossible with this one.  I doubt you'd get sashimi this big normally at other places. 

Hehehehheeeeee THREE SCALLOPS on one bit of rice. I'd seen pics of the 3 scallop sushi on foodblogs but it still didn't prepare me for the real thing. It was MUCH MORE EXCITING seeing the scallop mountain in real life! Now this wasn't the CRAZY thing.

THIS WAS.

The tuna sushi was basically a TUNA STEAK WRAPPED AROUND A BLOB OF RICE. The words "it's so big I could cry" kept coming out of nat's mouth that night LOL

Next came the unagi. This was massive too but not as shocking because you often see one massive unagi on a bed of rice. We were sooooooooooooooooooooo FULL after eating 5pc of sushi each but there was still one thing to come..

Chawanmushi

The two of us hadn't tried chawanmushi before and this probably wasn't the best way to experience it. There was a hair in there and it was so hot it burnt my tongue =[ Plus we were way too full so we only tried a bit of this before giving up. 

We were really really happy after this meal. We were grinning like little kids eating those massive sushi. Hehehe I guess big things will always have a novel value =] But will I go back there soon? I don't think so. I'm way too sushied-out!