EDIT: Sydney CBD store has closed, Chatswood location is still open

My love for ice cream beats my love for fried chicken and for cheese so when new kid on the block Aqua S opened up in Regents Place (Shop 27, 501 George St, Sydney), I was eager to fulfil my dessert stomach’s cravings. This beauty is the sea salt soft serve with caramel popcorn, popping candy, toasted marshmallow, dark chocolate cone and a cloud of fairy floss!

Aqua S is directly opposite Chanoma and it’s crazy to see how popular they’ve gotten these past 2 weeks! I’m sure the highly Instagramably presentations don’t hurt either!

So first, pick yo flavour. The first round of flavours were Lemon Tea, Sea Salt and Biscotti. The Sea Salt flavour with stay as a permanent flavour and every 2 weeks there will be new flavours. It’s $3.80 for a chocolate cone or a small cup, $4.30 for a large cup.

Then toppings time! There’s popping candy, fairy floss, caramel popcorn and grilled marshmallows. It’s $1.50 for 1 topping, $2.50 for 2 toppings or the All You Can Eat for $4.20 which is all the toppings though I find the name misleading cos I would totally just pack on a heapload of marshmallows until the marshmallow to ice cream ratio is whack. Oh and yeah, you don’t have to get toppings, whatever floats your boat!

I loved watching them make the fairy floss! It’s my dream to one day own a commercial fairy floss machine. The itty bitty ones at the shops take too damn long to heat up for the amounts that I can consume.

Swirls!

I fricken love toasted marshmallows!!! There’s just something about the caramelised edges and oozy innards that makes me feel like I’m eating my childhood dreams…

The Lemon Tea soft serve is my fave because it’s sour, refreshing and zingy! It didn’t need all the toppings but hey it sure is purdy 😛 The soft serve melts incredibly fast so as soon as you’ve taken a photo I’d recommend staying put!

On another visit I had the Biscotti but in a cup and they’d put the popcorn on the bottom which was impossible to get to but since then they’ve sprinkled the popcorn on top which is ace. I wasn’t as keen on the biscotti flavour mainly because when I think of biscotti I think of biscotti packed full with nuts and this soft serve didn’t really have a particularly strong flavour? I still ate it though because, ice cream.

Oh and if you can’t decide between 2 flavours you can get them twinned! But only the sea salt can be twinned, if you want the 2 new flavours you can get them half/half.

Though personally this is my all time fave combo- Lemon Tea with 2 toasted marshmallows 😀

Round 2 of flavours was Dark Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake. I’m not a huge fan of dark chocolate unless it’s in cake form so I go for the strawberry cheesecake instead which is fruity and kinda reminds me of strawberry sundaes at maccas haha it totally needed a sprinkle of biscuit crumbs though.

Round 3 brings us Taro and Mandarin. The Taro is pretty incredible, smooth and creamy with an intense mega taro flavour.

I loved the Mandarin because it was super refreshing like the Lemon Tea though I’ve heard people say it tasted like vitamin tablets haha

I skipped Round 4 of Tomato and Tiramisu because I couldn’t quite bring myself to try those flavours and I didn’t want to be disappointed… So onto Round 5 flavours which was Creaming Soda and Watermelon! The Creaming Soda just tastes like childhood and even more so when it’s in soft serve form!

I wasn’t too enamoured by the Watermelon flavour, I still say the watermelon gelato at Gelatomassi in Newtown holds the keys to my watermelon loving heart.

Round 6 is Tofu and Orange Mango! I wasn’t weirded out as some people by the idea of tofu soft serve because I consumed my weight in tofu soft serve when I was in Japan. The tofu flavour leaned more towards the Chinese style soya bean drink instead of the tofufa dessert but that’s cool I enjoyed it as did everyone on Instagram haha

The Orange Mango was ok, I would’ve preferred if it was just Orange or just Mango, I’ve never been keen on orange mango combined as a flavour. Stay tuned for more updates!

Aqua S
Regents Place
Shop 27, 501 George St,
Sydney
NSW

Trading Hours:
Mon – Sun: 12pm – 10pm

EDIT: CLOSED

FOOOODS! So one fine day a bunch of us kicked off the new year by meeting for brunch at newly opened Brewristas (73 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe).


We spy Kevin, part owner of Brewristas tending to his cold drip towers, syphons and pour over station and know we’re in for a caffeinated treat.


We order 3 bottles of Brewrista’s hand crafted cold drip coffees- Cold Brew ($9), Brewmonade ($10) and Brewtea ($10). I’m not an expert of coffee by any means, I know what I like and don’t like so Raff has been slowly teaching me the different methods and importance of the beans sourced. I liked the Cold Brew which tasted clean and sweet, the Brewmonade (cold drip with home lemonade) was refreshing but I found a tad on the sweet side. I loved the Brewtea the most (cold drip coffee with cold drip tea), although I’m not sure if it’s because Malaysians always drink Cham, a combo of coffee and tea so I thought this tasted familiar. Anywhos check out Raff’s post here for more detailed descriptions on the coffee 😛


On another visit with Toan, I couldn’t resist the Vietnamese Ca Phe Sua Da ($5), iced coffee served over condensed milk and it’s bloody good, as is anything with condensed milk.


Kevin’s Balls ($10) are filled with roasted pork belly, tofu, spicy kimchi, sweet potato and encrusted with shin ramyun. I was worried it’d be too much novelty and no taste but was pleasantly surprised with how (dare I say this..) MOREISH the balls were! The noodles provided the glorious crunch factor and housed the juicy pork belly within. I didn’t really taste much sweet potato which was a shame because I heart sweet potato but it was probably used more as a binder for all the ingredients in the ball than for flavour.


We order the Grilled Eggplant Stack ($14) with grilled zucchini, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, basil, thai pesto, sweet potato puree and bocconcini with additional Chorizo ($3) because hey, CHORIZO EQUALS HAPPINESS! The eggplant was totally the star of this dish though (I REFUSE TO SAY HERO), each slice was fat and juicy with a nice smokiness to it. I loved the itty bitty bocconcini scattered around but would’ve loved more mainly because cheese is awesome.


Porky Pig’s Hotteok ($15) is a honey jam pancake sandwiched with crispy bacon, a poached egg, spicy guacamole, rocket and a mango & habanero mayo. The honey jam pancake is more of a muffin stuffed with honey jam, I know some people aren’t quite on the sweet and savoury combo bandwagon but as for me I’m firmly in that wagon and happily driving away.


Innards shot of the pancake! It kinda reminded me of this fried lotus paste bun desserts I used to eat growing up, I’m attempting to access my memory with the name but am failing and google isn’t helping for once (edit: Heong Peng!). The dish doesn’t really need the mango & habanero mayo once the gooey egg yolk is pierced and smothers everything in sight with its golden river of happiness. It does get a bit rich but hey you’re worth it.


Coconut Poached Chicken Salad ($16) with spinach, fennel, coriander, watercress, topped with fried shallots, drizzled with a pomegranate infused lemon dressing. Truth be told we ordered this salad out of a feeling of guilt because we all knew that our nutrient intake could always use a boost and for a salad this was pretty tasty especially with the juicy pops of pomegranate seeds. My tastebuds were super confused with the tender strips of coconut chicken because I’m so used to the flavour of coconut + chicken to be in a laksa!


Ultimate Nutella Frappe ($7) is made with heaps of Nutella, vanilla ice cream, a double espresso shot and ice, all blended together. I was buzzing from all the caffeine I’d already consumed so opted for the frappe minus the espresso shot because I’m weak haha and ohhh boy is this drink rich! Definitely one for the nutella lovers!


Of course what’s a meal without dessert? The Tiramisu Pot Plant ($10) is cute as a button and equally delicious. Layers of ladyfingers are soaked in Brewrista’s espresso with sweet mascarpone mousse and topped with chocolate biscuit crumbs for the ‘dirt’.


A lot of the cafes in Glebe close quite early but Brewristas is open from 1pm to 10pm on weekdays, from 10am to midnight on Saturday and from 10am to 9pm on Sunday. I’ll definitely be back for my next caffeine hit!

Brewristas
73 Glebe Point Rd,
Glebe
NSW

Trading Hours:
Mon – Fri: 8am – 2pm, 6pm – 10pm
Thurs: 8am – 2pm, 6pm – 12am
Sat: 9am – 12am
Sun: 9am – 9pm

I love ice cream. My increasing sensitivity to lactose has not put a damper on my adoration of ice cream and if you opened my freezer right now you would see containers and boxes all wedged in tetris style to fit in as much ice cream as possible. I have been lusting over this incredible ice cream sink from Terrigal Ice Creamery (6/18 Church St, Terrigal) for about 2 years now as the boy refused to let me order this to eat just between the two of us pfft!


Luckily the rellies have migrated over from Malaysia to Sydney and we introduced them to our favourite beach in Terrigal before I convinced them that they needed to partake in the age ol Aussie tradition of ice cream by the beach. I just didn’t mention how many scoops they were about to consume 😛 Terrigal Ice Creamery is 1 street away from the main beach with plenty of street parking available.


Wall of flavours!


The ice cream sink is $35 for 15 scoops, I was given an order pad and instructed to write the 15 flavours we wanted in our sink.


I’d first heard of the ice cream sink from @ffichiban, eater of all things epic and at last! My preciousssss! My selections were: maltesers, death by chocolate, hokey pokey, rainbow, salted caramel, oreo cookies & cream, white chocolate & raspberry, cookie dough, hazelnut, Ferraro Rocher, pecan caramel, macadamia, strawberry summer, apple sorbet, lemon sorbet and the whole shebang was topped with wafers, flakes, chocolate fudge and whipped cream.


The staff come out and take a photo of everyone who orders the ice cream sink and it’s displayed out the front which I think is a nice touch.


ATTACK! I loved the hokey pokey the most, followed by the Ferrao Rocher and then the salted caramel. These 3 were rich and sweet but not in the teeth-decaying-cloying way. The nieces had never heard of rainbow ice cream before and went silent as they attempted to extract that crazy neon hue. I’ll wait a couple of years before I ruin it for them and tell them what flavour rainbow really is heh.


School holidays means another trip to the beach and another visit for ice cream!


More chocolate was requested so we ordered: cookie dough, hazelnut, New York chocolate, Ferraro Rocher, pistachio, Bacio, chocolate, watermelon, chocolate chip, death by chocolate, milk chocolate, rainbow, pecan, snickers, cookies & cream aaaand of course the whipped cream, fudge, flake and wafers!!!


That Ferraro Rocher is the bomb! We weren’t too keen on the pistachio which had more of an almond extract flavour but eh 1 dud out of 15 is ok. One by one we ate as much ice cream as we could before slumping down in our seats with defeat. Except for Noods. He likes a challenge.

EDIT: CLOSED

I freaking love Malaysian desserts, from the multi coloured Kuihs to shaved ice with random fruits and fillings. But if I ever see freshly made Apam Balik I am over the moon with happiness and so when I heard Mamak had opened a new restaurant, Hawker (345 Sussex St, Sydney) with a focus on Malaysian-Chinese dishes and my beloved Apam Balik I knew I had to get there immediately. Below are dishes from my 3 visits 😀


We start off with drinks. Barley Ping ($4) is my fave drink because the iced barley drink helps negate the burning whenever I eat spicy foods. Noods orders the Kat Chai Suen Mui ($4) which is calamansi lime and preserved sour plum with ice- it’s ok but he laments that the drink isn’t sour enough for him.


Food comes out in no particular order but it does arrive quite quickly thankfully because I was bordering on hangry. While standing in line we’d been impressed watching the cooks make the popiah skins from scratch, so we definitely had to order the Popiah ($8) which came packed full of yambean (jicama), shredded omelette, minced tofu, cucumber and crispy shallots. Growing up in Aus, the mothership would let us diy our popiah and would deep fry pork fat to shove into the popiah and I would always see how stuffed I could make mine without making it explode. Hawker’s Popiah is pretty tasty but ah how I wish there was pork fat 😛


The Or Chien ($16) is a fried omelette studded with plump Sydney rock oysters. I loved the gooey starchy innards but would’ve liked more of a char and more crispy edges to be just like the omelettes from proper hawker street stalls in KL. I’d totally order this again though as it was deeeeelicious especially with the briny and creamy oysters!


I was looking forward to the KL Hokkien Mee ($14), stir fried hokkien noodles in a rich aromatic black sauce, with prawns, cabbage, pork slices and crispy pork fat. Yes purely because I heart pork fat. But alas! We found maybe 2 itty bitty pieces of pork fat noooo the sads! I’ve seen pics on Instagram where there was heaps of pork fat so maybe we just lucked out.


The Char Koay Teow ($14) was pretty good, the wok hei game could be better but overall it was a decent CKT. There was a whole bunch of prawns, lap cheong sausage, fresh bean sprouts AND COCKLES!!! It’s been ages since I’ve seen a CKT with cockles!


The Ikan Bakar ($16) was under the Snacks section but this portion of the grilled stingray was extremely generous! There was heaps of juicy, sweet flesh with a good amount of smokiness.


Noods loved the Assam Laksa ($12) which had bucketloads of flavour. The thick rice noodles had the perfect bite and bounce and we couldn’t get enough of the spicy, sour fish based soup with shredded fish, cucumber, lettuce, pineapple and mint. Definitely one of our fave Assam Laksas in Syd.


The Curry Laksa ($12) was spicy but not oh-god-farewell-tastebuds-spicy with curry chicken, snake beans and tofu puffs in a spicy coconut milk based soup. I’m not keen on the mix of both egg noodles and vermicelli but I have issues haha


Dessert time! Apam Balik ($6/2 pieces) is a crispy pancake with crushed peanuts, butter and creamed corn and it is all kinds of AMAZING! I could eat this every day! Aaaand most likely will 😛


Innards shot!


Goreng Durian ($8), deep fried Musang King durian fritter served with vanilla ice cream. This was the bomb!!! The durian was ripe and still retained its texture after being fried and wasn’t just a lump of mush. It was pungent and fragrant but definitely one for the durian lovers. There’s also Goreng Pisang ($8) aka fried banana too.


The restaurant does get quite loud so we’ve started eating there only before or after the rush period because I am turning into a cranky nut.


The waiters are a bit hit and miss, not quite up to the multi-tasking stage but always super friendly and genuinely wanted to know our feedback on our meal. We’ll definitely be back, especially for desserts! Hawker has been packed all 3 times I’ve visited these past coupla weeks and I reckon it’s only a matter of time before the queues stretch down the street Mamak style.

Hawker
345 Sussex St,
Sydney
NSW

Trading Hours:
Mon – Sun: 11:30am – 2:30pm, 5:30pm – 10pm