Eating our way across Sydney part 1

Some of you may have been wondering where I went for the last week. No, I was not giving birth to my crack baby or lying in a post-NYE alcoholic stupor. I went to Sydney. With the GFC hitting (not a recession in Aus :P - hai Amandine!), Lydia's firm was forcing ppl to take leave during the low season, so after a short convo, she booked us tickets to go north. Why did she take me? Well given the frequency with which I'd been up there over the last few years, I know my way around. Oh, I also eat a lot and am happy to share my food.

People asked me exactly what we were going to do over there given that it's tourist high season and I'm a notorious sun/beach hater. Well now. My answer to them was EAT OUR WAY ACROSS THE CITY. Oh, and take a break from work. (I hear Pooey say *what work?!*) The theme of our holiday was thus this song. I couldn't find a video that would allow me to embed it so I suggest you just go there and listen. And then repeat. We heard it on the first day of our trip while perusing some clothes and knick-knacks in a store in Surry Hills. The chorus which translates to I don't want to work, I don't want lunch, I just want to forget, and then I smoke seemed almost perfect - apart from the fact we were totally going to lunch and neither of us smoke.

Having touched down around lunchtime, after dropping our bags off at our serviced apartment we decided to take a walk down Oxford St. and onto Surry Hills. It was noted that as two girls walking down the main gay drag of Sydney together, we might have been giving off a certain impression, but hey! :P We had lunch in Don Don, a Japanese restaurant Pooey took me to to 6 or 7 years ago. Lydia reported that it was still good (she had very fresh sashimi). I was less impressed - I ordered chirashi sushi don and the photo claimed there would be raw squid and tuna, although a slip of paper said there was no tuna. However, when I ordered it, the waitress told me there was no squid either! WHUT?! I ate what turned out to be salmon and prawn with rice but a part of me mourns the lack of squid. *sigh*.

For dinner we hit the Sydney outpost of the Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung.

We can see into the kitchen where they are hygienically wearing face masks.

Lydia serenely awaits the dumplings

Steamers as decor

Xiaolongbao!!!

Dan dan noodles!!!

Chili wontons - WTF?! Why are those wrappers not egg-based?!?!

Better than Hutong? I don't know. Everything tasted fine (and tasty) but while the wrappers were thin on the xiaolongbao, it felt strangely sticky in my mouth and again, WTF with the wrappers on the wontons not being egg-based? Also, good thing I speak French because when told how expensive the meal was, I was able to say in a different language *What?! That's expensive for dumplings!* Otherwise, I highly recommend it!