Zenja Cafe

Address: Bakehouse Qtr, Shop 1, 4 George St, North Strathfield NSW 2137
Tel: (02) 9746 9334
Website: www.zenjacafe.com.au

This was an accidental, random find and a real shame it is hidden on such a dead-quiet street.

My friend had a discount voucher in her mum’s “entertainment” booklet, so we decided to go there (You can get 10% off the bill or something).

They mainly serve breakfast, and breakfast was what we had. I ordered the “Poached free-range eggs with bacon on a bed of baby spinach with toasted Turkish & sautéed mushrooms(pictured below). Wow that was something – officially my favourite place to have the equivalent of eggs Benedict. It was just...perfect.

Also pictured is the Smoked Salmon version which I was told was also quite nice.

I wanted a refreshing, fruity drink with watermelon so this was a great booster for me - almost a meal in itself! Texture was in between a frappe (but not too icy) and nectar.

Definitely recommend for a great breakfast, semi-quiet, secluded destination!

Casa Asturiana (Spanish)

Address: 77 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: (02) 9264 1010

Trading hours: Open 7 days for lunch & dinner

Website: http://www.casaasturiana.com.au/index1.htm

I was craving something tomato-based and paella after being inspired on a cooking show. Spanish food at the Spanish Quarter is never a cheap meal, but you have to balance quality with price.

We literally stumbled in here after looking in at all the other restaurants on Liverpool St, and this seemed the busiest. We sat down at about 5:30pm so it was still quiet, but 6:30pm going on 7pm it was getting quite packed out. Gave us some faith in our decision.

For those who have never had Spanish food, typically most people will go and have “tapas” which are like entree-sized portions of food. You order several of them to fill yourself up. And at the same time try a variety of things. Great for a night out – instead of having a big meal which will put you to sleep, tapas is a great way to start the evening of drinking.

Below: PATATAS BRAVAS - Fried cubed potatoes topped with spicy tomato salsa. Served hot. This was possibly my favourite. The tomato salsa and potato just melted in your mouth with an exciting tang.

Below: CHORIZO A LA PLANCHA - Barbecued Spanish pork & paprika sausage. This was one of the better chorizo’s I’ve had, but I am generally not a fan due to them being overly salty. I think the paprika and just-right cooking time made it much more acceptable this time around. My fellow foodie loved it.

Below: Chicken and Seafood Paella – Cooking any sort of stewed rice requires time and patience, hence most people will leave it up to the experts. Paella is basically a risotto, but uses different rice and possibly more herbs. Being indecisive and greedy meant we chose the chicken mixed with seafood paella – not a good idea. The rice was very inconsistent – too soft on the outer edges (like, actually sloppy) and too hard in the middle of the dish. I also felt like I could taste the bottom of Sydney harbour so that was a bit offputting.

Stick to the tapas at Casa Asturiana because they were spot on and had us licking our lips...

Hung Vuong (Vietnamese)

Address: John St, Cabramatta (Just look for a sign that looks like the one above)

Admittedly this restaurant belongs to the grandma of a very good friend of mine. So what I say is biased, but there is a story behind the foundings of this place. It didn’t always used to have a shopfront on John St, in fact she used to sell fresh rice rolls, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and sweets from a small stall off the main shopping area in Cabramatta (Sydney’s unofficial Vietnamese town). It did really well (and the rice rolls were fresh!) until the local council closed down the stalls.

One thing I learnt in this process was that the business of asian food can be very dodgy. Family feuds arose from relatives or apprentices using bleach and other chemicals to “whiten” the rice noodles used to make rice rolls. So if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Moving on, my favourite Vietnamese dish is a noodle soup called Bun Bo Hue (pictured below). Pronounced “Boon Bor Weh”, it consists of a typical pho-style broth (many hours of boiling all the flavour out of bone in a vat) with chilli oil, spaghetti-style rice noodles, pork knuckle, pigs blood, onions, coriander, shallots, and that pork meat slice. It doesn’t like a culinary delight but at under $10 for a huge bowl, it’s quite a unique worldly experience. For a broth – it is extremely complex and dense with flavour. This type of broth is difficult even to replicate in a traditional Vietnamese home – requiring many hours of preparation and leftovers for the rest of the week(so don’t plan on cooking it unless you’re planning to feed a generation).

Below: Typical servings of mint leaves, soya bean sprouts and a wedge of lemon to taste (put in your noodle soup), and condiments such as that xo/satay paste.

Above: Another great cultural experience – you have to drink sugar cane juice off the side of the road. This was nice and handy – right out the front of the shop. Thank goodness they sieved it because sometimes it can be filled with sediment and cane fibres and worst case scenario – bugs. The sugar cane is fed into this juice extractor along with oranges, giving this drink a nice refreshing tang. Great in summer!