Kazbah at Darling Harbourside, Sydney CBD

Think of tangine, hummus and tabouli. I was first introduced to Middle Eastern food by a mate Fred in Canberra – Fred has a rich French and Lebanese background, and so was the perfect person to do me the favour of opening my eyes to such cuisine.

I am now conscious of the variety of ingredients utilised in such fare, ranging from nuts, cereals, fruits, meats to grains – and how they are combined - to present such outcomes as saffron poached pear, tzatziki dips, harissa marinated and grilled octopus or lamb kafta – never ceases to amaze me. At times, I still get so confused with some familiar Greek dishes in the menu, but I reckon I should view all such dishes as cousins, inter related perhaps by geography and commerce. In the Wollongong area, the name Samaras stand out for such similar cuisine, located along Corrimal Street in the CBD area.

I had heard about Kazbah’s breakfasts and recently I had an opportunity to check this out at Sydney’s Darling Harbour (above pictures). The view by itself was inviting, the pace was easy on a lazy weekend morning and the décor interesting. I was taken aback by the choices just in the breakfast menu – sweet couscous, lamb mince, warm rice pudding, omelettes, pancakes and more.

Eventually I knew I had to try the combination that offered pork belly shish kebab, chickpea fritters, crème fraiche, baby spinach, roast tomato slices and poached egg – all topped up by
a capsicum sauce. (image below is the result of my half way going through this particular dish!)

Kazbah also operates restaurants at 379 Darling Street, Balmain and inside the Top Ryde Shopping Centre north-west of Sydney. This restaurant
emphasises on a n Moroccan theme.

My overall impressions of the Kazbah at the promenade in Darling Harbour’s Harbourside are:

Atmosphere: Relaxed and helpful

Location: Good views but a bit touristy for me

Taste: Exotic for me but Delicious!

People Engagement: I am happy

Service: With a smile

Best Time to Visit: Breakfast or Brunch

My Fav Dish Experienced: Chickpea Fritters with belly pork shish kebab and Poached Egg

Would I Return? : Yes

Chat Thai - Campbell Street, Sydney CBD

Chat Thai has a network of cafes and restaurants in the greater Sydney area, although I reckoned that the authentic original must be the outlet located at 20 Campbell Street, in the heart of the city centre’s Thai quarter. Here, amidst aromatic and exotic stuff from the nearby grocery and fresh food shops, I am brought back to memories of Bangkok, listening to the accentuated articulations of Thai words and expressions, feeling the buzz of commerce and wondering how the stage musical Love Never Dies, from the Capitol Theatre across the road, (picture above) fits in to this rather Asian-accentuated street of “Thaitown”.

The coconut milk flavoured ice cream (image below) is a must to finish up any meal. It is delicate, elegant and mild on the palate, a contrast to any spicy or chili-laden or sour dish you may have eaten for entrees or as the mains. I also eyed pandanus and pumpkin themed dumplings and the papaya salad "som thnam" guaranteed to give a kick in the palate, but I did have my share of well marinated chicken satay. (Image above). The satay was accompanied by a peanut sauce which was thicker, heavier and more consistent in texture than Malaysian versions.

Staff are quick to the step and service, echoing most Thai food outlets in Australia, heavily keen on obtaining as many table turnovers in customer patronage during the number of hours opened. The ambiance is rather dark and suggests much of wooden panelling. I was recommended to this Campbell Street place because of its rather high relative authenticity in cuisine and street food. I could not get a place to sit during the normal meal hours and had to resort to visit during Chat Thai's equivalent of “happy hours”, when you could taste its smaller servings of selected dishes for AUD 5 a quip between 2 and 5pm. Unlike most other Thai restaurants, Chat Thai has more variety in its offering of desserts, the menu of which changes daily at 6pm. Above, the entrance to the Campbell Street outlet and below, drinking water is served in unique bowls.

I chose a Thai version of the well known ChiuChow street food – kueh chap. (picture above) The proof of quality of this dish is in its broth stock, tasting both herbal and mildly salty at the same time. The ingredients gracing the soup can be confronting – pork intestine cuts are an inclusion – but go well when you just have hard boiled eggs, slices of pork shoulder, dried tofu pieces and slippery tubes of rice sheets.

Other Chat Thai outlets in the Sydney region are located at Level 6, Sydney CBD Westfield Pitt Street; Randwick’s Carrington Road; Manly’s East Esplanade; and the CBD's Galleries Victoria at 500 George Street.

My overall impressions for Chat Thai at 20 Campbell Street in Sydney's Haymarket are:

Atmosphere: Can be crowded and noisy

Location: Street wise

Taste: Some of the dishes are based on an acquired taste, but generally I found the food rather authentic

People Engagement: Smiling and Friendly

Service: Quick and attentive

Best Time to Visit: 2pm to 5pm

My Fav Dish experienced: Chicken Satay

Would I return? Yes.

A Monday Morning

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages" (William Shakespeare)


On the Monday morning here in eastern Australia when a political challenge was being held in Canberra, the 84th Oscars ceremony was concurrently being held on the west coast of the USA in Tinsel town Hollywood.

Both events shared common themes of drama,expression and reaching out to the public as observers. Both events exuded emotion, use of media and had lead-ups to the actual function. One involved the complexity of politics and the other rode on the magic of movies. Both events involved individuals who took the most personal risks in career and self-belief, or had endured much in arriving at where they are today socially, financially and professionally.

There were many amongst people I know who could not have cared for the outcomes of either event, but I did spend some time watching, on the side, the reactions of individuals and their ensuing speeches.

The event in Canberra struck me as one of alienation, aggravation and allegation.
The clear aim was to break intent of the perceived opposition and utilised much of the proverbial hanging of dirty laundry in public.

The one in LA showed outcomes from persuasion, persistence and performance. This nurtured hearts, determination and personal growth.

On balance, I sensed more sincerity from the people in LA, who, ironically, may be seen to dabble more in make believe - and yet provided me the most satisfying impact in producing positive self-worth, hope and inner nourishment. Maybe the Oscars, once again this past week and consistently in the past, appealed to me better visually and conceptually, in graphics, through music and in engaging my senses.

In contrast, the Australian Labour Party in-fighting displayed instances and flashes of non-reliability, personal viciousness, negative articulation, changing tact and surprising intensity of emotional attacks. I am convinced once again that political animals of any colour never assure me where they actually stand, even if a few personalities, in the past week, have shown greater strengths and better character than most.

No politician that morning came across as fully sincere, compared to this year’s best actress winner Meryl Streep. Meryl had, in the course of her acceptance speech, highlighted and recognised that she will never be on that stage again; emphasised that with this opportunity, she wanted to first thank the most important two persons in her life; and said that many in America may not welcome her Oscar win for the third time, but who cares, whatever, anyway. Oscar ceremony host Billy Crystal held the crowd’s attention in ways better than parliamentarians - and the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences always knows how to elegantly farewell their best and most memorable in the segment on celebrating the past year’s departures in the movie industry. In LA, there was humour and wit, missing conspicuously in Canberra that morning.

The media in Australia had been overly obsessed with the workings of an internal political party caucus. Some may say that Hollywood is also too pre-occupied with themselves. The politicians that day made passing references to the interests and welfare of voters and the nation, but foremost one could instinctively understand where their passions and energies mostly lay. At the same time, there were no outward social or community causes espoused on stage for the underdogs in society at this year’s Oscars.

Yet, on balance, it is what politicians do or decide that has the most impact
on our everyday lives – although we do seek relief, in various degrees, in the refuge of movies. And there was this acknowledgement, that day at the Oscars, that the power of good movies can change the way, we, as individuals, voters, parents or community members, think, transform, are encouraged and can act to better our lives. What do you personally choose to do? It can be difficult to reconcile the realities of political impact on the everyday Joe or Jane with the promise of movie dreams. For me, words are mere language, unless converted into action and realised for the ultimate user - whatever you call them, voters or the audience.

Crown Chef Chinese - Wollongong NSW

This restaurant has since closed. I have been unable to locate an authentic Chinese restaurant for several years in Wollongong CBD. What I usually find are blends of East and South-east Asian cooking, perhaps due to the practicalities and realities of the market here. The underlying penchant for Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Indonesian and Cantonese cuisine from the mainstream market's perception of "Asian food" somehow has resulted in a fusion of all these styles in a typical Asian cafe or restaurant in the Australia outside the capital cities. I do recognise that food is an evolving development in order to thrive, to be relevant and to attract. Based on that, I still have to make trips to Hurstville, Sydney CBD Chinatown, Eastwood, Ashfield, Parramatta and Chatswood in the greater Sydney region to have a taste of real food from China. So I am delighted recently to be introduced to a close authentic outlet ten minutes from my home in a relaxed, informal and modern setting - the Crown Chef. Above image, spiced marinated lamb on a hot plate from Crown Chef in Wollongong CBD.

Howard had selected the lamb whilst William had ordered the long beans stir fried with shrimp paste and chili cuts. We had ordered steamed rice to accompany the dishes and relaxed in comfortable chairs in this recently opened restaurant beside the Lower East Cafe. The staff was smiling friendly. It helped to speak Mandarin but this was really not a necessity. The beans dish had wok heat aroma and the lamb bites were tasty. Howard deemed the dishes we called for as still southern Chinese cuisine but there was a variety on the menu - I would go back.

Parking was relatively good along the non-mall side of Wollongong city's main strip of Crown Street. I could see Lebanese, Italian and modern Australian fare in outlets outside the windows of the Crown Chef. My choice of dish ordered (above picture) was pork belly braised in soy sauce and offered with bok choy and lychees, a mild combination but easy to eat. The prices asked per dish were in mid teens.

Cho Express, Hurstville

In the Sydney suburbs, I had never expected to find several retail outlets around a train station, but I did at Hurstville, south of Sydney CBD. There were supermarkets, bakeries, noodle outlets, herbal medicine shops and more. What caught my attention was the constant queue at a small take away cookery, a branch of Cho Express. The service was methodical but fast. Staff mostly spoke in Mandarin, but they had big display photos to make it easy to order. Most dishes available were under Aud10 each, and what was also interesting were the various combinations of salads, some pickled, mostly cut in thin slices, one with mayonnaise, some with tofu and many with chilis. (picture above) Marta and I ordered savoury dishes to take back to Wollongong - I could not resist the stewed pork and prawns with onions, whilst Marta had seaweed salad and sweet potato balls. I also noted that the staff mentioned to us how long it took, in minutes, to deliver our food orders.

Taiwanese food is a blend of Fujian, Hakka, other mainland Chinese provincial, Japanese, Dutch and indigenous inspirations. Dumplings, mushrooms, milk fish, pork balls, Taichung sun cakes with a molasses filling in side, thin noodles like mi-suah, oyster omelettes and hard boiled eggs stewed in soy sauce are some of the well known dishes from this island.

The wave of popular desserts from Taiwan - with themes of milk, glutinous rice dough balls and various types of teas and fruits - was also found in a back lane of Hurstville near the rail station. Called the Espresso Lane Cafe, it uniquely also offered Australian mainstream cafe dishes like big breakfasts, burgers and toasts. We ordered the tofu pudding in syrup and the beans (red and green) boiled in milk (image below). Servings were huge, and I noticed the mainly Taiwanese crowd enjoying the savoury dishes.

Unplanned and unanticipated, it had been almost 24 hours immersing in Taiwanese things and stuff. The evening before I had viewed the 2010 movie, Au Revoir Taipei, a delightful piece from director Arvin Chen,that reminds us that, at times, the true and important things in life have been right in front of us all along, whilst we had dreamed of hopes overseas and far away. Jack Yao puts up a convincing appearance as the main character Kai, who is lovesick and wants to be reunited with his girl in Paris, but somehow finds himself involved with street gangsters, noodles and a book shop girl named Peach.