Hilton Hotel Sydney - Glass Brasserie

Level 2, 488 George Street

Sydney, NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9265 6068

Ann was nice enough to get me to come to a sugar hit with her, and she chose the Hilton's Glass Brasserie for us. Our booking was at 9, and we had finished dinner at 7.30.. so we were sitting in the hotel lobby for a good thirty minutes (after a quick stroll up & down George st to walk of dinner). At ten to nine we thought, meh - lets just head up.

We were seated in a corner booth (yay for both of us getting booth seats), and were asked if we wanted tea or coffee. We both went for tea, i chose the chamomile & Ann chose green tea. Both came with a tiny shortbread cookie.

I really liked the simple tea pot, cup & saucer, makes for pretty pictures hehe. Not long after we got our tea's, we got our sugar hit plates.

item #1

This is the order i had them in! The first, a marshmallow (which had been blowtorched) with a shot glass of raspberry chocolate fondue. Heavily dipping my marshmallow into the slightly bitter (but oh-so-good) fondue, i had left over to scoop up with my now empty paddle-pop-sort-of stick. Really, these portions are way too small, i wish i ordered two hehe.

item #2

Second, was a ball of early grey ice cream rolled into a cookies & cream biscuit, served on a white chocolate pandan parfait. This came last on my yummy list, the flavours didn't mix well for me, but i did adore the pandan flavour in the parfait.

item #3

This, was heaven in each spoon that went into my mouth. I've never had anything sooo melt in your mouth, warm gooey goodness. I savoured each spoon, for as long as i could, and wished that i could do a tim tam ad on it - a never ending cup of chocolate fondant. I definitely want to try & make this at home (i have ramekins yippee!)

This was my first & unfortunately my last sugar hit (possibly only for 2009). It scares me who many calories i'm paying $20 for, ever since i started my food blog the number on the scales has just slowly risen, just like the exchange rates lately.

Ann however, went to a few others: Shang gri La, Swissotel, & Azuma Kushiyaki. However much i am jealous, i'm glad i didn't cave in, and smile at all the calories i saved myself *sigh*

Azuma Kushiyaki

Ground Floor Regent Place Shopping

501 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

T: (02) 9267 7775

F: (02) 9267 7776

After seeing a post from Katherine here, & a few weeks later a dinner date with Ann, i decided to come here to try out some Jap food (and was also looking forward to having the quail eggs yum).

The last time i walked past with friends, looking for dinner, they were booked out (we ended up going to some dodgy dumpling place in Chinatown) so i made sure i booked well in advance for tonight.

rock style chopstick holders

Yaki Nasu $7

We both wanted just a light dinner due to:

a) low on $$

b) we were sort of on a diet

c) we had a sugar hit at 9pm :P

So i was questioning part b) if we were going to part c) :s I had never been to a sugarhit before but seeing a lot of foodies were going, i thought i'd go see what all the fuss was about (post on the sugar hit coming up shortly)

The eggplant came out sort of cold, served in a bowl of light sauce, topped with bonito flakes & a splodge of grated ginger.

Quail eggs with Kushiyaki sauce $3 (per skewer)

Quails eggs was what i was after, so i ordered 2 skewers (so i can have one all to myself!). They were colored & flavored in sauce, and didn't last very long on the plate hehe. I LOVE these little critters, and remember once i went to a 'hot pot buffet', and ate (no joke) more then 40 eggs Lols.

Green tea soba (served cold) $15

We both shared the soba noodles as well.

Above:before sharing. Below:after sharing.

The noodles were cold, and perfectly cooked. Something i should think about buying for home, as a quick and light dinner/lunch.

We didn't order any drinks, and the bill came to a measly $28 (woohoo). When the bill came, the waiter also came to inform us that there was a minimum dining charge of $35, but they would leave it be for this time.

I was thinking "are you for real?" this is the first time I've encountered anything of this sort. I think it's silly to put a minimum dining amount ..... what do you think?

Vasandha Bhavan

Shop 19, The Crescent, Homebush NSW

Phone: (02) 9746 5530

I wanted to thank Jen for convincing me to enter into her Julie & Julie competition (of which i won a Julie & Julia pack with lots of gooodies), so i wanted to shout her to lunch! She refused, but agreed to go to lunch with me anyway hehe so here we are at Homebush, at a restaurant that my workmate had always suggested me to go. So when an Indian suggests and Indian restaurant, you know the food will be traditional and real. After all, he was born in India and lives there for the majority of his life.

Mango Lassi $3

There were only two sorts of lassi, the other was plain i think- i was hoping to have rose (that's my favourite!). It came in a tall glass, really too much to finish, but really refreshing on the palate, and was a perfect cooler for the food we had lined up.

vegetarian thali $11.90

For just under $12, what Jennifer got was a real bargain! 3 small portions of different curries, and a larger portion of a mixed vegetable curry, served with raita, rice & a papadum. The platter was too large to fit in one photo hehe. It was massive, and Jen was trying really hard to finish it.. but being Indian food, being so calorie dense, i advised her to take away for a mid afternoon snack..

Samosa's

Now here's a dilemma! Jen took photo's of the menu, and these babies were $4.90 each?? No way.. i really don't remember them costing that much. & on my take away menu i snapped from the door- show's $1.50. So i really have no idea how much they were, but they were undoubtly one of the nicer samosa's i've had. Pity they came sauceless (unlike at Billu's in Harris Park).

These were damn crisp on the outside (yet did not ooze bad oily stuff unlike some nasty foodcourt samosa's i've had in the past), and were stuffed with a lot of veggies & seasonings. Quite filling, and the reason why i had to take away half my main.

kashmiri naan $3.50

I love anything coconutty, so this naan was my definite pick! Thin and crispy (maybe a tiny bit too crispy), with bits of almond as well, this paired well with my cream based curry.

malai kofta $9.50

My curry was served in a metal dish with cute golden handles. What looked like a small serving, was really hard to finish & i really didn't want to stuff myself silly (portion control, diet, plan to un-expand my waistline) so i took home half.

A very creamy curry consisting of cottage cheese & potato dumplings (i made a little mess trying to dissect the dumpling for photographic reasons). I like how the curry was not just full of oil, (well if it was it was mixed through completely hehe) but i've had curries before which just tasted like i was eating oil.

I also ordered a cocnut chutney to go with my meal, totally un-regrettable as it was the best chutney i've ever had! It came out chilled, and was so refreshing. I think i finished off about three quarters of it, (i really like to overdose on my condiments). I love the texture of coconut, and could see some finely crushed almonds in the mix as well i think.

To finish off our meal, Jennifer shared with me her desert (part of her $12 meal) which was gulab jamun (wiki: made of a dough consisting mainly of milk solids (often including double cream and flour) in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater or saffron) which was served cold. Not enough dessert if you ask me!

Indian is something i don't have often due to its high calorie content, but it is certainly one of my favorite foods to indulge in. Our next lunch date (hopefully soon) will be at Billu's in Parramatta which i have already been to, but they have such an extensive menu i could just keep going back again & again!