Night Noodle Markets @ Hyde Park, Sydney

With the Sydney Tower watching over a canopy of colourful paper lanterns that welcome visitors to the Night Noodle Markets, the crowd was beginning to swell.

I was fortunate, as the queue was still short at Jackie M's stall. I quickly joined the queue, placed my order and patiently waited for my number to be called.

My plate of Fried Radish Cake ($15), although a tad pricey, was a plateful of authentic Malaysian street food awesomeness. Good wok hei, big portion, fresh bean sprouts, generous serving of radish and yes, good dollop of sambal.

And that was the only thing I had that night, other than a cup of hot chocolate courtesy of C. However, I did take my time to walk the entire market to see who else had set up stall - my first time at this event, after all. Previously, I only go for The Good Food Month's Let's Do Brunch (now Let's Do Lunch).

So, let's start with the stall next to Jackie M (her stall was the first one) and just follow the loop of all the stalls at Hyde Park. There were Kinn Dining and New Shanghai...

Rolls Vietnam and Ippudo Sydney...

Dim Sum Station and Chat Thai...

There was a section of the park that had the violet canopy of jacaranda blooms. The cool weather provided much relief from the heat in the past week.

The Coffee Tram...

Coopers... ah, booze, perfect to usher in the weekend...

Okay, continuing with the loop... Bar Pho and Mamak...

Fei Jai...

Interesting, the first ramen burger to be sold in Sydney apparently...

The smell of cinnamon at Mini Pancakes was so tempting as I walked past. Too bad I only had my camera with me, no cash.

Junior Thai...

Spanthai...

St. Honore Cake Shop...

... with colourful mochi balls...

Rekordelig...

Thai Thai Express...

Ever Green Noodles...

Bombay Central...

Poklol... sorry but I had to laugh with I read it aloud - sounds like one of my 3-year-olds or a super Cina person trying to say pork roll...

Zilver Restaurant...

Lets Do Yum Cha...

... and their very friendly angmoh staff... :)

Mizuya...

Serendipity Natural Ice Cream...

Viet Yum...

Thais R Us...

Shanghai Stories 1938...

East Ocean Restaurant...

Longrain...

Din Tai Fung and their army of dumpling makers...

Himalayan Yummy Kitchen...

Streets of Saigon...

Thai Riffic...

The Eight Modern Chinese Restaurant...

Chinta Ria...

I found it interesting that the first and last stalls were Malaysian stalls. Hm...

And with friends, family, good food (and a comfy spot to sit on), what's there to complain about? This is the last week for your chance to join in the fun, so make your plans now, people!

9-12, 14-19, 21-26 October, 2013
Monday & Tuesday 5:00pm to 9:00pm
Wednesday 5:00pm to 10:00pm
Thursday & Friday 5:00pm to 11:00pm
Saturday 4:00pm to 10:00pm

Birthday yum cha at Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant

As I was in KL for my birthday, my housemates decided to make the following weekend that I was back in Sydney a special weekend for me. What prompted us to have dimsum? Well, Michael's urge for it, really. So I did a quick online search for some yum cha places and was introduced to Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant, which Sydney Morning Herald ranked as the best in Sydney.

But being #1 is what SMH thinks. What did we think? Well, let us have a look at what we ordered that morning:

Fried rice noodle...

... with peanut sauce and sweet sauce...

... fried radish cake (which I think has more radish in it than flour - good!)...

... lean pork and century egg porridge (so typically Chinese, eh?)...

... Xin Wen's favourite (she nearly ordered another serving): the enormous chicken feet!

Pork ribs in black bean sauce, which we thought had less preservatives than most other restaurants...

... combination beancurd sheet roll...

... steamed prawn and pork dimsim (siu mai, which Michael mistakenly ordered as har mai). Just look at the size of the prawns!

Steamed prawn dumplings...

... and steamed spinach dumplings...

Bright lighting and comfortable seating aplenty, what made the place great, to me, was the friendliness of the waitpersons. All of them were prompt with service without being haughty and were warm in greeting. I mean, honestly, how many places in the city would personally bring a dish of something to you when you ask for one? They would brush you off by telling you to wait for the next trolley.

We paid $66 for all of the above. If you ask me, it was very reasonable especially when the portions were huge. Come on, admit it, the places in the city would have you seeing more of the basket than the food. Here, the dumplings and what not were so big that we could not see the bottom of the basket!

Looks like now we do not need to train into the city for yum cha every time!

* Thanks to Michael for letting me use his mobile phone to capture the photos.

Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant
9-11 Crofts Avenue, Hurstville, NSW 2220
02 9585 1633 (Tel)
Daily 10:00am - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 11:00pm