The week in brief

This week: more exciting than the previous week (I told you!). Sweets at the Immigration museum, ramen, Easter treats at Phillippa’s and fried chicken 2.0.


On Monday night Alastair and I trotted along to the Immigration Museum to attend a preview evening for an upcoming exhibition and festival on sweets.

I’ve blogged it already (whoa!) so check out the post and enter the competition. ๐Ÿ™‚

After overdosing on sugar at the Immigration Museum, we decided that we *really* needed to eat dinner. Alastair and Thanh had a psychic moment when they both decided, separately, that they wanted ramen and that we should go to Dontoo. Awww, friends! (Ramen friends!)

I shared a bowl of ramen and gyoza with Alastair. The ramen was nice but the soup seemed really sweet to me. The gyoza were fine – nothing to rave about.

The following night I headed into the city to attend an Easter preview event at Phillippa’s (disclosure: it was a freebie). Naturally, there were hot cross buns. ๐Ÿ™‚

But not just hot cross buns. We were also fed canapes made with various Phillippa’s breads, and drank cider and wine from Bress. Also on the table were a couple of lovely looking simnel cakes (which weren’t eaten. I wasn’t disappointed since I don’t like fruit cake).

The pain d’epice / gingerbread was one of my favourite things there. It had a really nice balance of spices and soft texture. I tried a piece spread thickly with butter, and another piece with Gorgonzola and chestnut honey. Swoon.

On Friday night, Alastair and I went into the city for a friend’s birthday drinks. Around 10pm we decided we should probably eat dinner and headed to Snag Stand. I know, I know, almost every time I’m in the city I go there.

We decided we’d share a hot dog – this was the Vietnamese nem nuong – a grilled nem nuong sausage with fresh herb salad, chicken pate, mayo and fresh chilli on a rustic roll.

It was nicely spicy and I really enjoyed the freshness of the salad. Alastair liked it so much that he declared it his favourite but personally my heart still remains with the chilli dog.

(Don’t tell me that’s not nem nฦฐแป›ng – I know it’s completely bastardised and that’s what they called it, mm’kay?)

After scoffing down our hot dog, we decided that we needed another one. And chips. (Shhhh we’d been drinking.) This time we tried the American classic – a wood smoked frankfurter with yellow mustard, tomato sauce, onions and sweet relish in a brioche bun. Simple, but good. I really liked the frankfurter in this one.

And to prove that it’s not all hot dogs all the time, this was dinner one evening. Steamed broccoli, grilled tomatoes and pork chops. Easiest dinner ever.

And finally, today I spent the afternoon perfecting my fried chicken. Remember how I raved about the Thomas Keller fried chicken? Well, I have improved it – fried chicken 2.0 aka AFC / Azza Fried Chicken is AMAZING. Even better than the original. Yes, it’s true.

I’ll post Azza Fried Chicken next week – just wait. It is bloody fantastic. Yes, oh yes.

Right, that’s it from me. Hope you all had a lovely week too. ๐Ÿ™‚