bday dinner number 2 was at rise, darlinghurst. me and noods realised that this would be our 7th visit and i was excitedly looking forward to some awesome food but sadly the waiter stopped us from taking photos.. well he said limit them so i decided to see how it felt to eat at a restaurant without documenting every single thing i was eating and oh boy was it painful!


i managed to snap this earlier on… plates of sashimi awaiting my hungry stomach…


auds and me


amie and me [nomnom!]


me and noods <3


therese, me, lauren


and the one and only shot i have of any of the food lol pannacotta with marinated persimmon granita


auds and me =D


cakey


that aint a knife&#8230;


da boys


and da girlies

Ashfield is best known as Little Shanghai among the Chinese community and although it is nowhere near us we’ve heard great stories about the dumplings at New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant (273 Liverpool Road, Ashfield).


i took this foto arond lunch time but the brightly lit restaurant glows from the street at night.


all night these dumpling ladies stand behind a glassed-in room and were hard at work folding, poking and squishing meat into the noodle skin to make the wontons and dumplings. it was kinda hypnotic&#8230;


Famous new shanghai steamed mini pork ($6.80) yeah that was the name on the menu. if you have nothing better to do go and grab a takeaway menu and highlight all the spelling mistakes (the mothership counts 17mistakes). eh but anyways moving along now. the dumplings, also known as xiao long bao are fantastic, the noodle skin was just thin enough that it was almost translucent yet still able to hold the magical soupy innards. wait a bit before biting into one or you will surely burn your mouth! or do what my bro does and stab it and save the soup for later&#8230;


Shallot pancake ($4.80). Crispy and very morish the fried pancake was chocablock full of shallots


Famous new shanghai pan fried pork bun ($8.80). 10 whole buns arrive all soft and fluffy on the outside and porky goodness on the inside


Egg pancake with fried dough ($4.80). we ordered this mainly because it sounded funny&#8230; it was ok the fried dough just tasted like those cruellers you get at yumcha? and the egg pancake was pretty much just a thin crepe with a bit of shallots


Special steamed mini crab meat and pork ($9.80). more dumples! look how the bottoms have poofed out like they want to explode and release its soup to escape our hungry stomachs


and the star of dinner: Deep fried crab with yolk of salted egg ($26.80). have you ever had the salted egg yolk in the mooncakes? yeah imagine that coating on crab&#8230; mmm salty goodness!


the only way to eat crab&#8230; NOM NOM!


Deep fried bean curd tofu in yolk of salted egg ($12.80). and because we couldnt get enough of the salty eggy goodness we ordered the tofu and while it was pretty good with super soft tofu innards in a crispy coating we thought it needed more of the salted egg coating


Mini pork wonton soup ($4.80). hurhur so cheap! less than $5 and you get a whole bowl of wontons swimming around happily


and because noods is still hungry&#8230;


da family

twice a week for the past month i have been ringing zumbo land asking what flavours of macarons they have and then on sat after mosman markets i managed to convince the boy that a drive to balmain was very important to make me happy heh. as we drove past i spied an a4 paper in the window and my heart skipped a beat thinking that maybe the sign said they were closed


but instead a new range of fabulous cakes greeted me all colourful and shiny and preeetty they were


sadly my favourite wheely good has disappeared but that was soon forgotten as i did a happy dance while deciding on which cakes would leave their shiny cabinet and make the journey home with me oh the decisions!


can i get the macarons in a box i asked counterboy. he paused for a split second before asking how many i wanted. 15 i smiled oh and could i also get some cakes&#8230;


my babies!


pile o babies. i like how king zumbo has the random flavoured macarons- some work, some dont but its all about tricking your tastebuds into thinking its eating something thats not just a normal biscuit. the first on the pile of macarons was olive oil which i found interesting and slightly nutty on the first bite but a tad too oily aftertaste. my least favourite was the earl grey. it really tasted of tea [duh] um but it was way too strong for my immature tea-hating tastebuds.


my favourite was the banana caramel macaron, it was slightly wonky shaped but appearances can be deceiving. at first i was unsure if i should buy it for i hate all things banana flavoured but it was shiny! and golden! so i bought 4. heh. and boy was i glad! it tasted like banana squeezings! the caramel leaned towards a butterscotchy flavour which made me want to eat a banana split covered in butterscotch sauce


and coming in at a close 2nd favourite is the rice pudding macaron! i know weird flavour huh? but it was awesome! a light dusting of cinnamon on a pale crispy shell sandwiching a creamy vanilla filling with granules of rice that reminded me of passionflower/serendipitys’ sticky rice icecream. oh yes it was awesome.


heehee my giant macaron! its almost half the size of my face 0_0


cherry cherry ($8.95) aint it a beauty? i didnt even read the description of what it was i just took one look at it and registered that it was a gigantic macaron and did another happy dance. the cherry cherry is an awesome take on the cherry ripe bar but way more pretty.


its pink! the boy complained but its about 3 times the size of a normal macaron i squeal gleefully


behold the innards shot! the PINK macaron sandwiched a layer of chocolate sabayon mousse, morello cherry compote and coconut moisture. i have slight issues with coconut in general but i loved the juicy slightly sour cherry bits


tuk tuk nothing ($7.50). coconut dacquoise, coconut pandan mousse and caramelised exotic fruit. it looks like my wheely good has been replaced and while i was initially saddened i was very curious to see a cake with a pandan flavour thats not made by sally chen cakes [heh hi stan] and it was a lovely subtle flavour, soft and creamy mousse with the crunch of the meringue layers. but it is the macarons that i will be back for oh yes. the macarons call to me.

related links:

adriano zumbo cafe chocolat

adriano zumbos cakes 020608

adriano zumbo macarons vs lindt 280508

our engagement party was set a whole month after noods proposed mostly because we needed to concentrate on the good food and wine show. luckily the weather brightened up and we had a gorgeous sunny day!


lol i paid $1.50 per balloon and somehow noods managed to deflate one before it even reached my house. he claims he didnt do anything but i think he ate the helium.


nat, me and auds my fabulous helpers who arrived earli while i scrambled to get everything done on time


we have like 5 fridges in our house 0_0 and it was actually easier to just move the fridge from the garage to the backyard instead of paying and filling the eskys with ice cos we’re cheap heh noods said it was his dream to organise a fridge just for beer&#8230;


=D


me, ev, connie, kev, matty. mmm west coast


jonno&#8230; with balloons&#8230;


and because we were sooo organised noods had to leave and go off and pick up our 6 foot sub from subway north rocks.


superman! our sub barely fit on our table haha


our awesome sub from my ex boss at subway. thanks heaps emil!


satay lady!


hurhur our table of food! 6 ft sub from subway, wontons & spring rolls from baz, salad from boey, satay from zaida the satay lady, vegetarian noodles from mrs wong, ham & hommus wraps from the mothership, cheese & sourcream dip from me and wait for it:


our glorious roasted suckling pig! mmm piggy


i like knives!


noods hacking away at the pig


noods in deep concentration


my one and only pic of my family lol


somehow jonno got conned into manning the bbq heh thanks jonno!


my dad eating the piggy tail&#8230;


noods’ work friends gave us $400. IN COINS.


will&#8230;


me and baz


fiona and me


me, connie, mig, baz, matty, linds and kev


lene, viv, me and sophia


marj and me


me, ev, nancy


i couldnt hire the jumping castle cos there wasnt enough space. so i hired a fairy floss machine heehee my dad had alot of fun telling people their fairy floss wasnt big enough lol ready for a whole bunch of fotos of people with their fairy floss?


my wonky fairy floss


noods deciding fairy floss in a compacted ball was much tastier


dougs with THREE sticks of fairy floss


connie is unable to wind much fairy floss on her stick so it looks like cotton buds


trish the super fotographer and me like our fairy floss mmm


seth and me heh thanks for coming sethels lol sorry you didnt know anyone else!


soph, me and nae


joel, trish’s other half and super fotographer #2 has a fairy floss beard


john is proud of his fairy floss skills


so is linds


heehee noods’ grandparents are so cute


speech! speech!


noods’ mum tells her side of the story heh


the footies win our 20questions game and won bubbles and spent the arvo seeing who could make the biggest bubble lol


dessert time! pink and blue cupcakes by me and pavs & lemon tarts by the awesome auds. the skewered fruits and marshmallows were for:


my brand spanking new chocolate fountain from nat! this baby uses one whole kilo of chocolate but it was worth it!


heh. it was so very good =D


me and joke thanks for helping set up the fountain dude!


des comp girlies jene, alicia, sarah, me, jodie


me and john


therese, me, amie


noods and me =D

thank you to everyone who came we had a great day catching up with you all! hope there was enough food and we’ll see you again soon [wink]