Jamie's Italian (Sydney, Australia)

It's been a long wait to have the opportunity to dine at Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Sydney. Jamie's Italian has been open for quite a while and luckily my friend invited me to have dinner there two weeks ago. 

We arrived early so we got a good table. The place is darkly-lit in the evenings and even becomes darker as the night progresses. The ambiance is perfect for intimate dinners with loved ones. 

We started with the complimentary selection of Italian bread: house-made focaccia, sourdough, ciabatta, tortano and wafer thin carta di musica. The bread is drizzled with basil olive oil and it came with an EVOO and balsamic vinegar for extra dipping. I enjoyed this bit as I do like munching on good bread. 

For our antipasti, we chose to have the Stuffed Risotto Balls made of smoked mozarella and porcini arancini. Arancini is the Italian equivalent of fried rice. In Italian homes, they turn their leftover risotto into balls coated in flour (and sometimes in egg too) before going into the deep fryer. Our Risotto Balls came well-coated and hot, with smokes oozing out as we cut the ball in half.  The risotto is smooth and glides easily on the mouth. However, I find this dish a bit bland even if I dipped it on the fresh tomato sauce that came with it. 

The wait for our pasta dishes took a long time to arrive. So long that I wish I ordered wine so I can savour it while catching up with my friend.

For my pasta dish, I chose the normal serve of Spaghetti Vongole. I commend the al dente pasta and the fresh cockles of this dish. However, the flavours were a bit lacking that I had to put salt and pepper twice. The flavour of white wine and chili underwhelmed my tastebuds.  The Husband wasn't supposed to join us but since the pasta dish took awhile to arrive, he was able to catch up with us and eat half of my pasta.

The highlights of our meal were the desserts. I enjoyed their Poached Winter Fruits which came with Vanilla ice cream and honeycomb. So fresh! It was a mixture of sweet and tangy inside my mouth. I loved this!

Jamie Italian's Warm Brownie was another hit for us especially to my Husband. It's rich in chocolate flavour and the sweetness was just right. 

While I wasn't totally blown-away with our dining experience, it wasn't also a let down. I did enjoy dinner because I was with great company. The quality of food was good and staff were accommodating to us. There were just a few misses that had to be noted. Will we come back? Yes. I wouldn't mind trying out their other offerings in the future. But maybe not too soon.

Jamie's Italian
107 Pitt Street, Sydney
Phone: 02 8240 9000
Booking a table is highly recommended

KOFOO Korean Food (Sydney, Australia)

The Husband treated me to Korean dinner on my first week back at work. We passed by this Korean restaurant named KOFOO in Sussex Street before we went on vaycay and as always, we got interested. 

It was a Thursday night but the place was not busy. We found it to be one of the biggest Korean restaurants in Sydney so even if there were a few customers, it didn't look cramped. 

Upon seating, we learned that KOFOO is a franchise brand from Korea, where they have more than 200 branches. They take pride in offering 120 dishes, made fresh daily. 

The place is hip and young but still observed how the usual Korean cuisine is enjoyed--with Banchan dishes!

I ordered the Spicy Pork Belly (Jeyuk Deopbap) which consisted of rice with pork belly marinated in spicy sauce and a siding of vegetables. This dish was very spicy. Not for the faint-hearted. The meat was soft and the flavour lingers even if you have drank lots of water. 

 The Husband had the Bulgogi Bento which came with rice, egg, potato wedges and stir-fried kimchi. We enjoyed this more than my dish. The Bulgogi was sweet and tender. 

KOFOO is a place where people can enjoy well-prepared food at reasonable prices. Other than their food, the rustic and yet warm ambience gives us that modern Korean feel which we find comforting.

KOFOO Korean Food
347-353 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: 02 9261 2465

We Got The Cinema Theatre All To Ourselves

This is just something for the books and an experience that the Husband and I won't ever forget.

We were supposed to go up the mountains last Friday but changed our plans due to the awful weather (unpredictable rains!) so we decided to book tickets to the latest Star Trek movie. It was a Friday afternoon and we saw a few people lined up at the counters. When we got inside the theatre, it was us and only us. Wow!

At first I found it quite scary to be just us alone in the huge theatre. I think the big space and darkness overwhelmed me. But once I got over it, it was sooooo much fun watching a movie like Star Trek with just us inside the theatre. I got to laugh and scream as loud as I can. We had no inhibitions as to how we'd react. Plus, the Husband and I didn't have to whisper our side comments during certain scenes. It felt like we're just sitting in our lounge room only we had a bigger screen!

Good thing the Husband brought his little flash with him that he was able to take a photo of me inside the theatre. I told him this happy circumstance might never happen again so we should have a photo. 

And by the way, Star Trek Into Darkness was an entertaining film. It was definitely worth watching on the big screen.

The Blessing of Spending Time With Friends

The best way to go back to "our normal" is to spend time with friends again. And that's what we started doing two weeks ago. One week of recuperation from flu and one week of getting on top of work at the office, I'm back at socializing again.

I feel very grateful that since we came back from holiday, we've gotten "Welcome back!", "I miss you!" and "Let's catch up!" messages from our dear Sydney friends. It sure is nice to come home to a place where friends welcome you back with open arms. So after working out our schedules, it's about time we start seeing our friends here--because we miss them too! 

Annie and her delicious macaroons. We haven't seen each other for a long time so I'm very glad we had the chance to re-connect. We met up for tea after work and caught up on what's keeping us busy. A sweet bonus was being gifted with two boxes of delicious macaroons. She baked them herself and it tastes as good as the ones we buy from Manila (pang Goldilocks levels!)

My Sweet Memory (Cafe) moments with Jackie. She's my ever-dependable coffee-date-in-the-city-after-work kind of girlfriend. Every chance we get, we try to squeeze in an hour just to sit down and catch up. That's why the moment I was physically well, we blocked our scheds for a quick coffee klatch. Update galore kami ng aming Manila vaycay (she also vaycayed in Manila recently).

Tintin, Jamie and Me. Since Tintin moved to Sydney, we've been foodie mates ever since. Two weeks ago, we had a date with Jamie Oliver--well, not the person, just his food. We had a lovely pasta dinner and a fresh fruit dessert on a rainy Thursday night. It was nice to know that Tin is enjoying her new-found life in Sydney. It's refreshing to see Sydney thru her eyes.

Fun Thursday with Friends (a.k.a. Gala Galore). Last week, I took half a day off work just to spend time with girlfriends who were also on a day-off that day. Ganyan ang true friends--nagda-day-off para maglakwatsa LOL. We started off with lunch at Chef's Gallery, went around the shops at Westfield, had tea at Laduree, dinner at Lamesa and ended the night at Badde Manors. It was so much fun! We spent the whole time just talking about girly stuff, wifey and mommy stuff, relationships, etc. Lahat na! 

As we get older, moments with friends are a luxury. I'm glad I have girlfriends who message me from time to time just to know how I am. I'm grateful we have friends who also believe in the importance of nurturing friendships by spending time with us.

Not only do I feel normal now after two weeks of seeing friends but my "homesick-from-travel" heart feels healed. Now I can't wait to see all our other friends soon.