me and noods didnt know what to get our parents for xmas so we decided to take them out to dinner but we had to time it becos of noods’ mum and her chemo becos it kills all her tastebuds in the first couple weeks after treatments. Waqu (32 Falcon Street, Crows Nest) where the food is all about ‘the harmonising of opposites, east meets west’ is offering a tasting menu for $39

shiny


looks normal on the outside huh

Cold Soup

Broccoli Cream Soup. it was actually quite cold that day and i was hoping for hot soup… but no matter it was tasty and even tho it was creamy it was quite refreshing. and i liked the pretty drizzle pattern so much that i forgot to stir and found the broccoli bits drowning on the bottom

Assorted Small Eats

Deep fried soft shell crab taco; Beef tataki, ponzu jelly and flying fish roe dressing; Chargrilled eel fillet and eggplant, yuzu pepper, roasted garlic aioli tartar. i loooved the beef tataki it was so soft and my tongue just wanted to squish it and suck out all the life out of it…the eel was also very tasty and i guess had i eaten the whole tower all at once i wouldve liked the eggplant combo but as it was i tend to eat layers one at a time and wished i had more eel and less eggplant… the taco bit of the soft shell crab was a tad oily but deliciously crunchy and salty and meant a good contrast with the creamy innards of crab fleshhh

Sashimi plate

Chef’s selection of salmon, kingfish and whiting. the salmon and kingfish was of fantastic quality as i expected- smooth and buttery soft, but the whiting made me have to chew and chewing requires effort

Entree. we had a choice of 3 entrees

Crispy fried paradise prawn with basil tartar sauce. mmm crispy prawn goodness


Salt grilled barramundi fillet with pink salt, green tea salt and curry salt. i thought the different clusters of salt was a great idea, if you didnt like one flavour you can try the others or you could combine the salts. my favourite salt was the curry salt but i liked the idea of green tea salt. the fish and salt was a bit plain and couldvd used with some sauce but i guess that wouldve taken away the novelty of flavoured salts


Pan fried salmon fillet with creamy terriyaki sauce. my entree. not sure if i liked this. the salmon was a perfectly soft piece of fish however i wasnt a fan of the sauce because terriyaki and cream does not mix

Mains

Salt black pepper angus beef steak with creamy mashed potato. the steak mightve looked small but it was a very tasty and juicy bovine slab of meatyness. and you see those small whiteish chip things on the bottom of my plate? i thought they were mini biscuits or almond flakes but nooo they were fried garlic slivers!


Roasted whole quail with tamaril ginger sauce. my dad loved this and kept raving about it all night even though i think he was still hungry lol the quail was very tasty and yes tasted like chicken


Crumbed deep fried bangalow pork with miso sauce. my mums. this kinda tasted like pork katsu… or pork schnitzel… but it was crunchy and my dad ate half if it

Dessert

White sesame creme brulee. since i love black sesame i got this but i was pretty upset that creme brulee was cold since i like them either warm from oven or room temp but it was still good and had a decent amount of blowtorch crunchy carbon bits


Green tea mousse with green tea icecream. out of the whole table my dad was the onli one to order this and the green tea icecream was sooo nice no powedery bits just smooooth creamy icecream and the mousse was interesting it was more like malaysia kuehs mmm tasty

When i was in primary school, my mother would bring my brother and i to her friends house and we would play with their kids. usually some form of sport like handball and we’d whack that ball against the wall of the outdoor shed in which my ‘aunt’ (all chinese kids are brought up to call all older people aunty/uncle) would cook fishhead curry, laksa and best of all pandan cake. for years she would cook in that shed until one day she opened a restaurant in parramatta and later, much later, Sambal the Malaysian Food Experience was born!


the restaurant is located at Eden Park, Shop 7, 285-297 Lane Cove Rd, North Ryde and can be quite hard to find if you dont know the area well (near a maccas)


shiny


Mamak Mee Goreng ($10.80). thick egg noodles stir fried with prawn fritters, fried bean curd, eggs, squid, prawns and bean sprouts in a spicy sauce. the brother unit has been working there since it opened doing, in kitchen speak: ‘the pass’ ie final inspection of food, garnishings and figuring out which table it goes to. the highlight of working there is he gets to eat whatever he wants and so hes become very knowledgable in what to order lol i worked/helped out for a grand total of one day before realising i still cant stand customers/people no matter how much i want to


Chicken Laksa ($9.80) mmm laksa with no bean sprouts and only egg noodles hehe yeah im fussy but it was tasty stuff… strangely enough i like the coconut milk in laksa soup but i cant stand fresh, shredded or desicated coconut in anything


Prawn Laksa ($13.80)


Mamak Rojak ($11.80). kinda like a salad but with deep fried prawn fritter goodness

me and noods have always passed Daniel’s Restaurant and Cafe (Norwest Business Park, Shop 1, 11 -13 Brookhollow Ave Baulkham Hills) on the way home but ive always thought it looked dodgy cos of the bright red neon sign on the outside but appearances can be deceiving…


like this sandwich board outside… i take one look at it and go hmm betcha onli salads and steaks…


boy was i wrong… all cosy and preetty inside


hee preety water bottle


complimentary appertiser! bonus! free food! potato pancake with prosciutto and blue vein cheese and the other topping was prawn and potato


lobster rissoto ($22). i dont normally order pasta entrees because i get full so easily but we were using the entertainment card so we thought we might as well not look like cheapos hahaha the rissoto was cheesey and creamy with huge chunks of lobster throughout and a crispy salty mini lobster resting on top surrounded by a whole garden of sugar snaps


beef carpaccio ($17). soooo good. paper thin slices of beef with extra virgin olive oil and blanketed in shavings of fresh parmesan cheese and these super tasty fried capers


char grilled beef fillet ($32) mmm that was one tasty slab of meat too bad i dont like olive jus or uber hot chilli sauce and too bad my tasty cow was covered in both…


lamb tenderloin ($27) lamb was juicy and tender but fetta cheese bit too salty


meringue nest with summer fruits ($11) dudeeee sooooo goooood i lurve double thick cream w00t look at that river of creamy goodness


i cant remember what this was but it was chocolatey and hazelnuty and noods felt sick after eating it hehe but it was a good kind of feeling mmm

the boy likes his raw fish. i remember a time so long ago when i could eat as much as i wanted without having to share but woe is me he is now more sashimi obsessed than i…




salmon, kingfish, eel, spicy scallops, tuna, salmon roe and california rolls with salmon