Ryo's Noodles

"Let's have lunch at Ryo's."

The first time I went to this Ryo's noodle place was only roughly two or three months ago but I still remember the taste of the delicious soup in my month. When R suggested to go there for lunch, I agreed straight away.

Remembering the first time we went there, we need to queue up in front of the little shop at the corner of Falcon and West St for a little while. As I was really hungry and do not feel like been in the queue, we hurriedly go to the noodle place. Luckily, they just opened their doors and we're the second customers. The place filled with customers quickly within a short period of time.

Salt flavor pork soup with mix veggies and meat

This is the second time I tried this noodle place and once again I ordered the same dish I had previously. The sour flavor chicken soup ramen with prawn mince balls and veggies. Yes, I know what you may be thinking, how boring ? Ordering the same dish again? But hey, how often do you go to a Japanese noodle place that offer to serve a sour flavored soup? I love it so much, I would not mind having it again and again.

Sour flavor chicken soup ramen with prawn mince balls and veggies

When the soup first arrived, you can smell the sourness straight away. The smell was so strong, the effect of smelling it, is similar to having too much wasabi on your sushi. In a split second, I have doubted if I would be able to finish this bowl of ramen. The flavor of the soup was quite mild, together with the ramen and prawn mince, it seems to be a great combination. The doubt faded away with me happily eating the entire bowl of noodle. On the other hand, the person whom sitting right opposite me ordered the same thing but by the looks on his face, he does not look impress.

Beside the soup flavor ramen, there are lots of other choices of ramen soup as well as side dishes. All sounds very temping and I bet they would be as satisfying as the soup flavor soup I had.

Ryo's Noodle

125 Falcon Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Phone: (02) 9955 0225

RISE restaurant

"Where should we go for dinner? " I always have lots of restaurants that I would love to try but when asked the question, often it takes me a while to come up with any ideas. This time we decided to try RISE restaurant's Omakase degustation.

Spicy pork belly salad with tofu & bean sprouts namuru

Sweet corn soup with scallop mousse

When the first dish arrive, the fragrance of the dish smells beautiful. The combination of tofu with pork and bean spouts goes really well. Then it comes the weet corn soup with scallop mousse. Scallop mousse sounds very tempting, however when I tried the soup, it was a bit on the creamy side for my liking while I can't taste much of the scallop.

Assorted sashimi

Soy flan, shiitake sauce /rice paperroll of cured salmon and mango/ blanched scampi, green papaya & citrus pepper mayo

Oyster tempura , soba salad & ponzu sauce

I enjoyed the soy flan with shiitake sauce. It was really smooth and silky with the sauce gives some extra flavor. Oyster tempura was crispy but the soba which was sock in the ponzu sauce was very sour.

Roasted duck breast, stuffed zucchini flower tempura and hoisin sauce

Finally the main - roasted duck breast. The duck cooked beautifully, beside the zucchini flower, there were also eggplant underneath the duck. This dish comes with rice which is great to mop up with rest of the sauce on the plate otherwise the dish seems to have far too much sauce.

Last but not least-dessert. Coconut granita with coffee custard with some black pearls. Overall, I found that this restaurant like to use different sauces on their dishes, however some seems to be too overpowering for my liking. With the price of $48 for this degustation, it is worth the try .

RISE

23 Craigend St,

Darlinghurst NSW2010

Phone (02) 9357 1755

www.riserestaurant.com.au

Azuma Kushiyaki -Sugar hit in November

Yes, I bet lots of food bloggers have mentioned about sugar hit during October already. But the difference this time is I'm having sugar hit in November ! Yes November! Probable you would wonder doesn't sugar hit only occur during October Sydney International food festival ? To our surprise, Azuma Kushivaki have extended their sugar hit period due to high demand and popularity .

Where's the novelty of having sugar hit which suppose to only occur during October? Is this part of the strategy during this credit crunch period to obtain as much customer as possible, or taking the opportunity to promote their restaurant? Doesn't matter what's the reasons behind, I still take this opportunity and am not complaining at all ;) Thanks Rita and Ada for organizing it !

East meet West - Dessert Tasting Plate

I love the presentation of the dessert, came in two bento like boxes. Somehow separated food into different compartments seems to intrigue me more than just presenting on one plate.

Mochi (Glutinous rice cakes) with Kinaki ( healthy topping made of soybean powder), served with Vanilla ice cream and Japanese brown sugar syrup

We all seems to hesitate a bit when it comes to which one should we try first. First response was to try the not so sweet to the sweetest , but I have no clue how to figure that out. End up I decided to go with the ice cream first base on the description, as it sounds more interesting and I could get involve by deciding the amount of syrup to pour into it. (However, I got so excited having Rita to take photos of me pouring the syrup, I ended up pouring the whole glass of syrup into it. Clumsy me !)

Followed by Vanilla cheesecake and Belgian chocolate mousse. They seems a bit average to me , while the last two , the green tea rolled cake with chestnuts was delicious while the Nori seaweed cookies remind us of a particular type of biscuits we used to have as a child. Suddenly, we all have an urge to get some of those biscuits from an asian grocery stores. I might just do that this weekend.

Azuma Kushiyaki

Regent Place

501 George Street

Sydney NSW2000

(02) 9267 7775

www.azuma.com.au

Taiki Japanese Seafood Restaurant

Under a Japanese friends' recommendation, describing the standard of this restaurant among her top lists. I cannot resist but to try it myself as in my list of " Angela's good food " theory - if want to try a cusine, best to ask people from that country.

Otoro- Tuna Sashimi

Agedashi Tofu- Deep fried bean curd with eggplants

Braised "Kurobuta" pork belly with mustard and vegetable on the side

Cubed marble score 9+ Wagyu steak with stir-fried vegetable on the sizzling plate served with TAIKI steak sauce

Each dish is uniquely tasty . "Otoro" is the top grade of tuna, fatty meat taken from around the fish's belly area. It is expensive but it worth every cents as it is sooooo succulent and almost seems to melt in my mouth. The Agedashi tofu lightly battered, brings a twist with eggplant embedded in between the tofu. While Braised pork belly brings a sense of sweetness, with every bite seems to shredded naturally.

Once again, my theory proves I'm right.

Taiki Japanese Seafood Restaurant
96 Longueville Road
Lane Cove, Sydney, NSW
(02) 9428 1007