Sydney Today

 

So almost 30 months since the Covid pandemic began, downtown Sydney shows the intensity of lacking meaningful infrastructure, as it always has been.

The attention seeking Crown Casino skyscraper at Barangaroo can be admired from road, ferry, train, yacht and more.  Its building height  can highlight the excesses of a city I once fell in love with and was proud of.  A city's pulse and reputation is not in having a questionable gambling centre, or new highways usable only by dishing out expensive tolls, but by the joy and purpose in the hearts and minds if its denizens.

Sydney now is not a practical or user friendly place.  Its over commercial emphasis has superseded most other priorities.  It is not the quality of friendships, sense of security and ease of commute that defines Sydney, but the density of dwellings, making enough money to sustain livelihoods and self preoccupation that overwhelm a Sydneysider.

Greater Sydney residents can be as totally varied and so different, depending on where they reside and work.  There is no stereotyped Sydneysider, just like yum cha at Yummys in the heart of Cabramatta can be not just the same as in corporatised Rocks area of the city ( the former option is more tasty).  It is a hassle for a Westie to try to get to the beach, while the northern beachers can find it confronting to visit the suburbs condensed with specific migrant backgrounds.

It is impossible to find a space in a downtown public car park at certain hours on certain days.   One has to prebook car spaces as if they are dinner tables.  After hours parking can be as high as Aud 30 per vehicle entry.

The number of vehicles and dwellings have exploded, yet the related supporting infrastructure has not changed much.  Trams offered around the city centre are replacements for discontinued bus services.   Thank goodness the ferries still run around the Harbour and nearby coastal suburbs.  The variety of culinary choice is still generally there post Covid lockdowns but Sydney in my opinion still is behind Melbourne in that respect.

Office workers have mostly not got out from WFH arrangements.   Small businesses in outer suburbs have prospered better than downtown Sydney as Covid infections continue.  The tourism sector and handful of universities around Central station have been impacted by international politics and border interruptions.

Sydney downtown lacks the extent of  hotel accommodation befitting of an international city.   The annual events for a city of this size remain muted in number - is it due to a stagnating number of venues and facilities?  Its potential growth as a world class financial centre can be stunted by the duopoly of the banking sector, telecommunications choices and unrigourous taxation inflexibility compared to its traditional rival cities.

Sydney's continuing lack lustre can be underlined by its lack of village communities.   A great city does not just depend on gatherings around its barista cafe hubs.  It is what local councils do more with the hipster and night gathering spots that diffeterentiate large from great cities.  If authorities do not work on a more embracing sense of belonging to the daily routine, individuals are less likely to mix and get to know each other.

Maybe the history of Sydney has left too much to a free market evolution, rather than through an enlightened guidance.  Even the roads of its city centre just developed in a rather rough fashion, compared to the grid planning in Adelaide and Melbourne.

Parts of greater Sydney can be favourites in treatment by ruling politicians.  The contemporary Metro trains and their accompanying huge sized car parks plus deep underground stations in the North-west contrast with  outdated outlets of the same Sydney Rail elsewhere with non-ergonomic stair cases.  Most outer suburb residents have to put up with long distance driving, compared to the walk around truly urban lifestyles of inner city 20 somethings.

Attending a concert or sports event involves a logistical exercise that has not changed in as many years.  Sydney truly is a federation of several towns, so many different migrant cultures and yet no truly shared embrace of collective sociality.

#yongkevthoughts

A Series of Operatic Acts

 The parade of comical obsessions continues.

First it was with hotel quarantines.

Then they moved on to no singing and no dancing.

Next was a fixation with toilet paper purchases.

Ah, they then were addicted to QR code scanning.

Contact tracing became a competitive sport, with boasts of even a gold standard 

Lockdown fever was not imagined......

Not satisfied, they penalised those who were detected 5km lingering away from home.

Soon disclosure of exposure spots was deemphasised and then disappeared.

Soon, it was to have proof of being "fully vaccinated" and the drive for individuals to have booster shots as soon as possible.

Then the fad came to let go and be totally free.

They emphasised case numbers are not important as dehumanisation continued. 

Hospitals, medical staff, small businesses and frontliners were left to deal with the reality and the mess. 

With opening up, it is the opera with testing proofs, validity of test results and how timely we receive them.

Now if we do not have symptoms, we are asked to not add to the testing queues.

We shudder when they change definitions of close contacts and lower standards and periods of self-isolation for infectees, frontliners and travellers.

The Sydney NYE gala and fireworks are back again in grander fashion.

Are we missing something here?

And so this is Christmas Again

 

For two years, we have complied.

We took it on the chin, limiting ourselves to the kilometre distance pronounced by authorities.  We got used to face mask, even when we instinctively knew we did not breathe normally when wearing them.

We made our hands dehydrated so often when we were asked to daily use hand sanitiser.

People who went on the ship cruise of their life time came home to die of infections caught aboard the high seas.  Elderly people in commercially run aged care facilities -  and crowded economically challenged households - were sitting ducks as well.

So many lost their livelihoods and incomes, while those who imposed public policy on the masses continued to have their pay packages protected.

Small businesses and retail had to close, earning pittance in suburbs all over, like through takeaways.  The big commercial players in town prospered as discretionary monies were over spent on groceries, homewares and online purchases, to name a few.

Taxpayer monies are said to subsidise more of multinational companies than the battler and struggling families in this Great Southern Land.

Family members and friends were separated, at times inhumanely, when celebrities and those with political connections were given exemptions in travel bans, compulsory quarantines and not touching each other.  It was becoming clear there was one rule for the privileged - and another for the rest.

We were told repeatedly that the advice of the science was always taken, but told to us so often, it was increasingly obvious it was not.  Medical people seemed to revolt but they were then managed.

Commercial hotels are not fit purposed as medivac venues in the centre of large cities.  Alpha and Delta breached whatever protocol that was practised in reality.

Christmas 2020 was a dog's breakfast of border controls, cancelled bookings, emerging red zone hotspots, arbitrary and egoistic decision making by the powers that are - plus lots of reactive ineffective measures after the enemy came in and was allowed to romp through the ripe greenfields for infection.

Frontliners became exhausted, discouraged, uninspired and/ or infected.  Protestors were manhandled and criticised.

Most of us were not allowed to go overseas, unless you got approval from travel exemption permits made at the discretion of Canberra.

Delta arrived in mid 2021 and struck cruelly across western Sydney - and Walgett in western NSW, with its large indigenous Australian community - when given ten days of permission to roam from Bondi.

Most of us hunkered down for lockdown till early October 2021, when we were told the saviour of vaccinations would sufficiently protect us.

Delta escaped from the gold standard contact tracing city of Sydney to Melbourne and Adelaide during the winter of our discontent in the Antipodes.

It was then early December 2021.  Omicron had invaded for a few weeks now - and now most of the movement restrictions, which we complied with faithfully for such a long time, were gone.  It is claimed most of the population has been double jabbed and can rest easy and feel protected on this achievement.

Yet in the days leading to Christmas this year, there has been a significant spike of infections, especially in the very state with the most movement freedoms.  We are next asked to take booster shots of vaccinations whose viability cannot be questioned.

Then someone blinks - and we are asked to face mask, observe two metre rules at public indoor hospitality venues and QR code again - and reminded to take the onus of self responsibility going forward.  

We were told long ago now about the gold standard of contact tracing.  When that collapsed mid year 2021, exposure sites were no longer publicly listed but we were still encouraged to test and test.

When Omicron arrived, we are no longer told clearly if new daily cases are Delta or Omicron.

We are now reprimanded to not go for PCR testing if we do not have symptoms, contrary to the encouragement to do so a few months ago.  It is emerging that resources and personnel are not sufficient to handle the demands on particular days.

We are now urged to live with that thing, reminded that everyone will eventually be infected and we are to just go out to spend money for the economy.  Why were we not told this earlier, especially having been put through the wringer of severe lockdowns, negative mental health and forced physical restrictions?

Somehow there is a trail of things seemingly made up along the way, or a strong gut feel that someone somewhere every time does not have any solid idea about this matter.  Or maybe it is all playing out to a predetermined script in some playbook only held and known by a few.

My jabbed arm is so sore.   I do not know what or whom to believe anymore.  I am going to deeply kiss in public after the NYE fireworks at Sydney Harbour - then line up for a test, feel compassion for our overworked frontline workers and do not trust the texted message of my test results, which can be incorrect (refer to the news of how SydPath pathology at St Vincents Hospital, Darlinghurst, east Sydney, first provided incorrect negative results to 400 persons when they are really Covid positive).

I am going to take self responsibility.  I make my own health risk assessment in being mindful or careless about the whole matter.  I will relish fresh ventilation and see politics behind every public health pronouncement.  I will self manage by using my own intelligence.  I will not be a plaything of Big Pharma, control freaks and snake oil salesmen.

#yongkevthoughts

The Marigold Revisited - Haymarket NSW

Horizon Restaurant, Cabra-Vale Diggers NSW

Panda Yum Cha, North Ryde NSW

 

I was given a real treat in joining friends for a Cantonese Yum Cha (drink tea) or Dian Xin (Touch of the Heart)
at my old stomping ground of the Macquarie Shopping Centre, near Macquarie University.

Panda Yum Cha, North Ryde NSW

Steamed choices can be more healthy.  The Siew Mai or Prawn-Pork dumplings on the right stood in a class of its own here. Forefront of photo are bundles of glutinous rice, with shrimp and pork bits, wrapped in lotus leaves before they are steamed in their bamboo cradles.

Fong Chau or Phoenix Claws - they are really braised chicken feet cooked with chili black beans and a Char Siew sauce, amongst other things. An item of a definite acquired taste, but this dish boosts immunity, restores our own skin regeneration, strengthens our bodily joints and moderates blood pressure.

The success of a Yum Cha dish is in its texture of bite, flavour and choice of fresh ingredients.

My top preferred dishes, all small serve, at yum cha sessions generally are:

1. Siew Mai (steamed prawn pork dainty dumplings).

2. Char Siew So (Baked pork buns with lovely pastry).

3.  Stir fried flat noodles with caramelised wok heat with tender meat slices of your choice.

4.   Roast duck slices served with thin bread sliders and 

garnished with sauce and veg.

5.  Fish maw steamed in wrapped soy bean rolls.

Designs That Greet You - Newtown, Sydney NSW

A Sort of Christmas Message

CHRISTMAS 2019

My long time gardener, Glenn, has moved on to different pursuits.   I have cut down the stocks at my home food pantry  - in fact, I even managed to change my 

day-to-day nutrition, on a consistent basis, for some time now.    There seems to be more choice in contemporary society, but it has not meant a rise in in the quality of what has been offered.   The fish in my home tank are weary hardy, continuing to do their swims, both horizontal wise and vertically, providing me, still, with some measure of inspiration.

The 90 minute long commute by train to the Sydney Basin gets increasingly crowded.  Some commuters selfishly continue to prevent others from sitting next to them on three seat rows.  Those who deserve seats for a rather long commute have to stand or ask the more able to move over.   Occasionally, there are signs of human civility in public but ethical standards are lowering or people are not talking at all to each other but staring at their portable screens.

Such train rides are useful real life laboratories that showcase the best or worst of human behaviour.

I still drop by to visit specific neighbours once a week, maintaining our friendship face to face.   Mates observe that there is more gusto in my step.   There have been scandals and minor dramas in my resident village, but such is the vibe of human habitation.    Yet there is so easy communication with the world beyond my village.

Once again, I came across iced landscapes, hazy skies and little rainfall.   Bondi,Watsons Bayand North Sydney returned to my life with getaways and chill outs with good mates.   I loved walking at twilight at these places, feeling the outdoors, appreciating the changing ambiance and enjoying the company.

The persistent ageing of infrastructure in my adopted city was punctuated by the opening of a gleaming new metro line not far from my previous suburb, but it can still be disheartening to have to put up with the quality of the rest of public facilities.     Public toilets are not kept clean, a shame that Australian attitudes bear when compared to what we find in Japan, Singapore and China.  What a visitor first sees – the airport, main rail stations and roadsides with litter for example - can be embedded in their impressions no matter what the related excuse is.   

Eating out has cost more this past year, no matter what the inflation statistics issued by Canberra tell me.   What was originally street food is now charged by some at exorbitant prices. There are more barista styled cafes in the Illawarra  - does that mean there are more coffee drinkers?   

Restaurants that are not top class can still put up minimum spend requirements on customers. Specific eating outlets, churning out food that are not particularly inspiring, can still impose limits on the length of time you occupy a table, as the owners insist on having three revenue sessions per evening.   Yum charestaurant cashiers can unashamedly ask for tips when you pay the bill.   Wait staff can carry fancy laptops to take your order but may not be sufficiently well trained when interacting with customers.   The personal space between meal tables can get too close when operators pay expensive rents.   China town in Haymarket is dominated by other demographics and cuisine  - no longer Cantonese.    The food business is still pockmarked by underpayment to staff, lots of hype and high rental costs.

Commercial food in parts of the Sydney Basin became more East Asian, highlighted by such exotics like Mala Tang(spicy numbing soups) and more outlets of bubble tea and Taiwan dessert.    I seem to consume more east Asian, Greek and Italian culinary instead of my intended favourites of Spanish,  Sri Lankan and Serbian.     Oh yes, there were several occasions of savouring those Portuguese custard tarts and sashimi.

Hong Kong Palace, first Cantonese restaurant of some standard in my region closed down after several months.   There have been recent closures of my other fav restaurants  - Botolliin Burwood, Cornersmithin Marrickville, Sha Keein Woollaware, Costa Azzurain Fairy Meadow.     Yet at the same time, I rediscovered the inherent joys of crafted cheese in Sydney’s Shire, fusion at BillsBondi, contemporary styled Korean bakeries in Eastwood and home cooking.

Has the outside world become more risky and dangerous?   Every generation of Earth time has faced its peculiar set of scenarios.  Mankind may have been good at bettering technology, but has to improve in acting beyond both individual and collective selfish egos and narrow mindsets.   Every news event can be boiled down to this inherent cause.    We are not unique, we are just an animal species that got real lucky in competition with other life forms.  

The balance of power amongst nations has shifted.  Managing this optimally requires visionary leadership, sufficient time and new ideas.   Perhaps the more things change, the more remains the same.   May I wish you and family the best of this festive season.

Kindly Yours,

Kevin Yong 

Vinh Phat Restaurant, Cantonese Yum Cha, Cabramatta NSW

Preceding my recent visit to Vinh Phat, I had my imagination and expectations already fired up for a few months  by now.


The restaurant, located in the heart of Cabramatta, south-west of Sydney CBD, had been recommended and occupies an upper floor, not far from the traditional Chinese gates of the nearby mall.  I had seen queues of more than hundred individuals line up patiently at lunch time on weekends, the eager customers spilling out definitely on to the outside 
pavement and then up the stairs.


So what was it that created this demand for the cooking here?


At this stage I have not had a dinner at this venue, but at one lunch time, I did flip through the menu, which emphasised on lots of seafood cooked Southern Chinese style and on duck, all icons of a sumptuous dinner.  Here I offer my reflections of this Yum Cha session with two mates, one who only restricts his consumption of exotic East Asian to prawns and chicken, while the other friend has a more eclectic taste.

The two types of dumplings served for us were of generous size.  They were freshly made and the quality showed when we bit into them, they had excellent texture and the skin was thin enough.  They reminded me of the Siew Mai at Sunny Harbour, Restaurant, Hurstville NSW.


The fried rice had aromas of sufficient wok heat, but to me lacked the eggy over lay that I prefer and find at Sha Kee Restaurant, Cronnula Sharks Club, Woollaware NSW.

 The Har Cheong or steamed prawn rolls showed finesse, was tasty and provided a slurping satisfaction.  Asian uncles and aunties would of approved.


Interesting enough, Vinh Phat oferred chicken spring rolls  - I prefer those from veg or pork.     The chicken was snugly packed within the deep fried rolls and turned out to be all right after all.


Best of all was the serving of mango pancake, two on the small plate  - the egg white mixture enveloped the mango in a sophisticated style and was the fitting end to a session of Dim Sum, a touch of the heart.  This may possibly be the best mango pancakes I have tasted in the greater Sydney region.

This was a Yum Cha or drink tea session as well  - and we had chosen the well smoked but still smooth Pu'Er blend, which was a good change from what you get in most Chinese lunch time gatherings.   The venue was almost full house by 1pm, with a solid Asian demographic, emphasised by elderly couples, family groups and Millennials.   People were walking up the stairs seemingly every minute.


As expected, the tables were placed tightly against each other in such an establishment.  The washrooms were clean and the lighting just right.  The audio level of chatter corresponded with the size of the lunching crowd.   The trolley ladies were friendly, spoke both Cantonese and English and moved about their offerings with a purpose.


For those customers not willing to venture outside their Aussified tastes, the selections can be limited, but there was enough variety if you are keen on braised chicken feet, fish maw, steamed yam cakes and the like.   What was disappointing to me and a fellow luncher was the absence of roast pork cuts.   There was a belly pork dish at dinner time, but this may echo the lack of varied meats at Vinh Phat when compared with seafood.


Would I return for the dinner menu?  Most probably yes.  
My impressions of lunch here are as follows.

Ambiance  7 out of 10
Taste  8 out of 10
Staff Engagement  8 out of 10
Culinary Variety  7 out of 10
X Factor  7 out of 10
OVERALL    7.5 out of 10


Vin Phat Restaurant is at level One of 10-12 Hughes Street,
Cabramatta NSW.   Best to go there by train on weekends, vehicle parking can be a challenge nearby.

Haphazard and Hopeless in Haymarket

Rough edges, sudden bumps, grey blotches.
Unfriendly fences, bored workers, negative vibes.
Paths keep changing, dust in the air and no one cares.
There is a warzone for quiet battles, long delays in completion and accumulating hidden costs.

The character of a once vibrant place has been degraded.
Its denizens wander like zombies, the throbbing soul of the earth beneath scarred.
The promise, the beauty and the delivery as seemingly hopeless now as snow on Sydney streets.

"Haphazard and Hopeless in Haymarket"
Laying new tram tracks, Sydney 2017-2019

Ten Differences Between Wollongong and Sydney NSW

Ten Differences Between Wollongong and Sydney

1. Going to the Beach.

On the Illawarra Coast, it does not involve a major pre-planned exercise just to get to the sand to soak in your toes, have a surf and get back home in under 15 minutes.
In Sydney, you over plan your route and time yourself to find vehicle parking. Then you sit on the sand to watch over your belongings, pay top prices for snacks and get stressed just trying to get home.

2. Utilising Public Transport.

No prizes awarded to guessing which place has more regular trains or buses.
You have to know your time table well to make the most taking the Illawarra line of the railway network. You overwork your smart phone or watch at least two down loaded movies while sitting on your bum to get home. Even worse, you may have to stand all the way on trains fron Martin Place or Central in Sydney CBD to Sutherland, Thirroul, North Gong or Wollongong stations.

3. The Intensity of Road Traffic, if you are driving.

The Illawarra Coast is abuzz with over eager and self obsessed drivers only at certain hours of the day. Saturday mornings at Fairy Meadow, rush to work along the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, when school bells ring at the end of the student day along Memorial Drive and when tradies with barista coffee cups compete driving on the highway to southern Sydney before dawn on weekdays.

In greater Sydney, everyone expects traffic congestion.

4. Late Evening Shopping and Eating Out.

We know which region leads in these parameters. Sunday evenings are particularly disquieting for the Wollongong CBD.

One can have a satisfying dinner out in Wollongong and come home in as short as 5 minutes.

One can have an elegant dinner Sydney side and only come home 90 minutes after leaving the restaurant.

5. Choice of Cinema Complexes and Shopping Centres.

Everything that greater Sydney has, Wollongong may not have.
Everything that Wollongong has, greater Sydney has more.

6. Income Levels and Purchasing Power.

The ultimate dream for a Wollongong based family is to earn in Sydney, spend in the Illawarra Coast and view the moonlight over the beach on a week night. (Refer to No.1) 

7. Pockets of Fresh Air and Privacy.

Nothing beats the experience of having the ocean breeze over whelm you and your body at a look out point. Refer again to No. 1.

8. Diversity in Culinary Adventures.

The Illawarra coast stands out in barista made coffee, Italian restaurants and Aussie seafood.
Greater Sydney offers you so much variety in foodie journeys. Melbourne may not agree......

9. Liberating physical opportunities for health, exercise and fitness.

Wollongong is a university town, with a fair proportion of demographics in the twenty something age group, lots of coastal trails for cycling, a penchant for the performing arts and has escarpment hiking trails.

Greater Sydney has a larger population, where distance and traffic can discourage a greater appreciation of the outdoors. The down side of a higher density of residential living is offset by the benefits of a better transport network. Greater Sydney provides activity opportunities beside a few major rivers, has more reserves and charges for parking at its beaches or bays.

10. Access to fly away.

The lllawarra coast is around 50 to 65 km to Kingsford-Smith Airport, but getting there mainly involves transversing a highway or taking the public train.

Most residents of western and northern greater Sydney face more challenges in time and traffic to reach Kingsford-Smith.

Both regions have secondary airports but the Illawarra Airport at Albion Park is under utilised.

#yongkevthoughts

Taiwan Markets, Chatswood Mall NSW

Vegetarian pastries, including mooncakes.

Red is the colour of celebration and festive joy.

Freshly prepared pan cakes with moulds, dough and flavour.  Memories of the Shih Lin night markets in Taipei.

A happy Sunday morning!

Puppetry is a treasured tradition and craft in Taiwan, echoing influences from the Chinese mainland.

This fresh sugar cane stall is often operating at the Mall markets.

The Indigenous culture in Taiwan gave rise to the Polynesian nations.

Takoyaki, snacks which are popular in Osaka but which also reflect the Japanese past in Taiwan.   These pan fried  or grilled dough balls are usually combined with octopus (Tako) and are yummy bites on the go in street markets.

Koi Dessert Bar Chippendale NSW

Not since Adriano Zumbo has there been such a huge adoration for a Patisserie chef in Sydney, Australia.    Reynold  Poernomo is young, slim and full of dreams.   He has an eye for the aesthetic, the detailed and the captivating - not just visually, but in arousing our template and inherent urge for the forbidden culinary world.   Human beings need relief from the mundane, the usual and the routine.    Reynold provides this at the Koi Dessert Bar in downtown Sydney in the revamped village hub of Kensington Street in Chippendale.


The menu creates more excitement with names from fairy tales and Nature.    The Forbidden Fruit suggests of a recreated apple, looking so red perhaps because of use of the raspberry Sorbet, but when you get digging into this, there are other treasures to discover - chocolate mousse, lime zest and raspberry gel, all sitting on a chocolate looking and tasting soil.    There is a definite pleasure to contrast the richer chocolate with the lighter but still sharp raspberry.


Some other dessert offerings are more direct to figure out -  Peach Please is dominated by peach jam, but is actually a rosemary flavoured yoghurt, enhanced with a Heillala vanilla mousse and sprinkled with a raspberry powder.   This turns out to be rather harmonised both on the palate and to the eyes.   Heilala vanilla is a brand found in Australia, often used in bakeries, noted for the vanilla seeds present and useful for light coloured recipes like Cream Brulee, custards and shortbreads.


T. Time suggests very East Asian, with a core of black tea ice cream, garnished by mandarins, chocolate pebbles,  a five spice hazelnut sponge and the French Creme De Meaux.

A central Koi Kitchen prepares the pretty and petite delights.    Back at Kensington Street, the openness of the goings-on at street level, with a hive of activity of mostly energetic staff, suggests an inviting world of what is happening behind the display.   It is a cobbled and paved lane in front,  as if a private enclosure, and you have entered an inner sanctum of Reynold's.


Cocktails, licensed bar offerings and a dimension of a way about town permeate upstairs.  It is as if you have climbed  up a traditional two storey house in the South Sea islands, but this one is surrounded by glass on most sides.    You can look down at a small flowering garden below.    The romance you have been caught in, blurry eyed, downstairs can continue in an affair upstairs.      

Mousse, sponge, Panacotta, gels, tarts and jelly.   Asian reminders like Matcha, sesame, Yuzu, coconut, green apple and lime.    Aussie standards like Pistachio, caramel,  white chocolate and yoghurt.    The compulsory little flower petals sitting on top of things that catch the eye.   Shapes that persist -  globes, pyramids, towers, rectangles and squares.


Colours do arise from the tropical origins of where Reynold's extended family came from.   Purple, yellow, orange and more.  They can at times remind me of the Straits Chinese kueh, but this a world away with Euro influences, fusion encouragement,  East Asian beauties and the best of new fangled ingredients.    Hidden in the delights is a reminder of the Bika Ambon, usually made with tapioca, sugar, coconut milk, yeast and eggs, but also versatile to combine with cheese and chocolate flavours.    At the same time, Tonka beans from Central America and the northern parts of South America are also used at the Koi   - the power of the beans is in their Coumarin, which is also utilised in the perfumery industry.

The expectations of customers can be subject to whims, sentiment and reality.   This can apply especially when when two of the artistes and chefs behind the creations from Koi have been on public television.   


Art can be a subjective thing - has Reynold Poernomo concentrated more on presentation, ingredients with taste?    Going forward, can he can consider more on texture and theme surprise?   To be fair, there have been this teasing play by Koi of how ingredients have been converted into shapes far from their what they usually are, for example fruits rediscovered in sheets.    Reynold also does love to surprise and make us smile  - several of his dessert creations involve cracking a surface, digging with anticipation inside and then changing our perceptions.   This process sweetens our experience and increases our anticipation all at the same time.


Do the regulars prefer more variations as time goes by, while retaining the favourites?   This is not easily answered.  If you have fallen in love with one creation, you would not want that replaced, but to create more variety, that means more to be made for the display shelf.


Koi does not just offer non-savoury items and has factored in a degustation menu away from the patisserie and desserts.    The non-dessert creations, from a chef with a background of Indonesian culinary influence, come from Arnold, brother to Reynold.   Mind you, there is another brother, Ronald, in the team as well   - and he specialises in cocktails.   Three brothers , each with his own unique talent.


Back to Arnold, he was a judge in the Indonesian version of Masterchef.     The one savoury dish from Arnold  for me is the duck breast   - roasted with charcoal;  served with duck hearts, butternut pumpkin, Swiss chard leafy veg with red stalks and onions; and flavoured with orange maple cider and red wine.    


The other test of culinary skills is in the Hiramasa kingfish, increasingly popular in fine dining these days  and Koi garnishes them with salmon roe, a puree of caramelised onions and mushrooms,  kelp oil plus smoked Dashi.    Dashi is an important stock and base for many things in Japanese cooking - usually made with kelp and preserved and fermented fish like the Skipjack Tuna  - and is essential to provide the significant Umami taste.

There are four variations as to how you wish to enjoy the Koi experience.  Many phone in orders for catering to collect or take home.    Walk-ins usually wait for a seat along the street and line up to obtain what is available on the display shelf.   Before dinner time, yet others order from down stairs but get a table in better ambient surroundings upstairs.   If you come after 6pm and want to go upstairs, you have to order from the degustation menus - dessert or a combination of savoury and dessert.


There are more variations at the licensed bar upstairs.   Serious coffee lovers may make the leap with a Gotta Have Espresso Tini, where Canadian maple syrup, Japanese Mirin, vanilla Vodka and Licor 43 mix with an espresso to provide the best of many worlds.   Licor 43 is reputed to have forty-three ingredients, but generally is a light citrusy liqueur from Spain, flavoured with vanilla and a host of aromatic herbs.    Mirin has a lower alcohol content compared to its other fellow rice wines


For something refreshing, I love the Bitter Balance, where an innocent shot of Angostura Bitters makes company with Campari, dark rum, burnt orange vanilla syrup and lime juice.    The seemingly healthy Banana Milkshake is laden with Baileys and a Caramel Vodka.   And who can not help noticing the Kevin Bacon, where the theme of bacon, truly, flows through its ingredients - Atzec chocolate bitters, Choc bacon and Bacon washed Bulleit Rye whiskey, all washed with maple syrup.

On street level, at certain times, it may look like a queue for seeing a pop star.   There is not much space to wait in front of the display, yet people patiently do so  - Japanese anime  dressers,   middle class families from the North shore,  tourists,  matronly types, youngsters.     Upstairs, there is a ruffle of activity and amidst the diners, there are single ladies, couples, party goers out on the town and the university people.






Koi Dessert Bar visited is located at 46 Kensington Street, Chippendale NSW.   This is the side of Kensington Street away from George Street.
Opening hours are from 10am to 10pm every day except Mondays.  Coffee and cakes are available from 10am to 10pm, whilst degustation dinner begins at 6pm.
Contact + 61 2 9212 1230
It has been announced for another outlet opening in Ryde NSW.





My other recommended creations to try at the Koi Dessert bar are:

Nomtella, served as a dome with a Brownie base and topped with salted caramel and Espresso flavoured mousse.

High Tea combination with matching tea blends  -  I understand this is the next frontier and adventure at Koi's.