I wanted an adventure, and I wanted something different. Not those dressed-up-to-the-nines fancy dinners in the best restaurants – those are not really my type. There are other factors that will make a great meal, and I was determined to have a memorable time there.

In the twelve days that I was in Australia, you’d not believe the amount of food that went into my stomach; I refused to stand on the weighing scale now – I probably gained an additional five kilos, everyday it was food, more food, and even more food. Besides stuffing myself full with everything that I can grab, and enjoying the magnificent scenaries there, I got to talk with  a lot of backpackers while staying in hostels, and also met up with the amazing Sydney food bloggers – they are definitely the highlights of my trip.

Sydneysiders love Bills, and I love the Sydneysiders for the way they enjoy their breakfast. Bills is a cafe opened by the famous chef Bill Granger, the concept is easy – serve the most gorgeous scrambled eggs and tasty ricotta pancakes in a simple cafe, and voila, you get all the people coming in for breakfast.

‘You have to try the eggs while you are in Australia’, gushed one of my friend a while ago when I told her I’m going to Sydney. Sydneysiders really love their breakfast, on a normal weekday there’s so many places serving brunch. Because of the differences in culture, you can hardly find much places in Singapore that do that but here, you’d thought that the people do not need to work and it seems like they do not have to work when I saw so many of them slowly enjoying a laid-back & causal breakfast at 10am where most people are supposed to be in the office, working.

There was however, no Eggs Benedict at Bills, so I had their popular Scrambled eggs on sour dough ($16) – and it was good! The one sprig of leave in the middle somehow seemed to make the eggs glowed with radiance, and there’s the just-right consistency in the texture and taste of the eggs. The butter slides off the toasted golden-brown sour dough easily, and the scrambled eggs just goes so well with the toast. The portion would probably deceive your mind that you need to order something else as add-ons, but by the time I was done, my stomach was so full that I couldn’t possibly eat anything else, well, maybe except for the delicious-looking ricotta pancakes that everybody is craving about.

‘Come to Sydney for fine restaurants and go to Melbourne to experience the cafe culture.’ I’m not entirely sure on that statement, since there’s dozens of wonderful cafes just in the surry hill/balmain area. One of them is Cafe Nookie at Cleveland street. Technically speaking it is not a cafe since there’s no seats for dining in, customers take away the self-brew coffee from the good hands of owner Ben. Cafe Nookie is more like a coffee-in-the-hole kind of place, and it’s definitely the smallest cafe in Sydney, pretty cool eh?

I walk through the streets of Surry Hills and my heart fluttered with a sort of feeling that I couldn’t quite describe – I’m so in love with this place. There’s plenty of trendy fashionable boutiques, and chic cafes just around every corner. The whole place is so quaint and dainty that it doesn’t seem to be in the city area.

Cafe Ish is exactly like how I will like a cafe to be, white walls with sunlight coming through the windows, serving nice coffee and comfort food. Howard & Teresa brought me here for lunch, and we took some time glancing through the menu before deciding to order Eggs Benedict, Emu damper, & Soft shell crab omelette.

I think the reason why we can embrace cafes freely rather than fine dining restaurants is because deep down inside everyone of us, most people have a dream to open a cafe, someday. A small-ish, causal chic cafe which serves comfort food, a place where people return and chill out all day, a place almost like their own home. It is not difficult to see why Cafe Giulia is immensely popular with the locals, they serve a wide array of food that includes eggs, salad, pasta, sandwich, burgers; comfort food with a reasonable price range. Coffee is another hallmark of a good cafe. Here, they keep it simple to mocha, and ice coffee, with an impressive selection of fresh fruit juices.

This is the first part of my Twelve days in Sydney series, to be continued . . .

Bills
359 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9360 4762

Cafe Giulia
92 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9698 4424
Tuesday to Friday 6.30am – 4.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 8.00am – 3.00pm

Cafe Ish
83 Campbell Street
Surry Hills

Cafe Nookie
268B Cleveland Street, Surry Hills
Tel: 04 0135 6072
Monday – Friday: 7:00 am – 4:00 pm

Food blogs, your one-stop website for all the juicy information of the latest restaurant in town, the nice places to dine at  and not to mention gawking at all the delicious-looking photographs to keep you hungry.

Most people will not know how the life of a food blogger (floggers) is like, well that is unless they have a friend who happens to be a fellow flogger. Behind all the glamorous life behind our seemingly never satisfied stomach, it is not that all smooth sailing, or rather eating at all.

Floggers are not-so-slim people! Myth or fact? Of course that’s a myth. Many of my flogger friends are classified under the acceptable weight section. There is totally no relation between a flogger and being slightly oversize. It really depends on individuals. Some of the lucky folks will never get fat no matter how much they gorge, while there are some who will put on weight easily.

One of the favorite aspects of being a flogger meant that people around me always ask for recommendations on where-to-go for food. I love to tell everyone the nice place to dine at, well that is what ladyironchef is about right?

We started off by sending our spies on the lookout for the target. Espionage is vital, browsing through our fellow flogger site, reading the newspapers, and of course, the word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and readers.

Arriving at the restaurant, we took out our bulky Dslr, which will attract some curious glance from the other diners. And not to forget the innocent question from the restaurant staff, our reason for taking photos. Taking pictures is akin to a scene of the Formula One car passing by in a millisecond, I have to snap the photos of all the food frantically. Otherwise i will incur the wrath of my dining companions who complain openly that the food is turning cold.

After some hasty moments, the rest take up their positions to start tucking in while I scanned through my precious to see the shots. Once in a while, I will shout Stop before they damage the food, for another re-take of the previous scene, much to their dismay.

While the others are happily enjoying their food, I’m pondering and noting down how the different dishes taste like. The real work only starts back at home. It is selection time as we scan through and pick the best photos that will make you hungry. Editing everything takes an hour, I rejoice when the photos turn out to be good, and curse when they are blur.

While thinking of what to write, I look at the photos and travel back in time to recall how the food tasted like. After much effort and time spent on writing the review, finally the post is ready to face the world.

The life of a food blogger is not as easy as it looks. Yes much as we get to go around the island trying out the different food and new restaurants, the amount of time, effort and commitment towards our blog is what you will never get to see. I will like to pay tribute to my fellow floggers, who have dedicated their time in our common cause to share the experience of food.

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The Spanish Omelette ($3) certainly wasn’t what we were expecting. Essentially there were more potatoes than eggs; I wouldn’t exactly classify it under omelette. A slightly sour zing came from the red pepper, which was soaked with vinegar. I called this, potato pie!

The mesclun salad that came with the sandwich was decent. But the Dijon mustard within the bread was overwhelming; it was akin to having a wasabi sandwich. The cheese was also not melted enough, a rather hefty price to pay for the Classic Ham & Cheese Panini ($17)

I always thought that tenderloin was associated with beef rather than pork. The Escabeche Pork Tenderloin ($16.50) was pretty impressive with distinct taste of the exotic Latin spices. Crispy skins and not overly charred potatoes were the hallmark of very good roasted potatoes. And did I mention sweet corn was a nice change from the seasonal vegetables.

Total bill was $42.95 for two person. Tiffin Club is the classic example of my kind of place. The charming and quaint environment of the café, the rustic and laid back shop house location. It is a place where I can sit down and chill all day. See you there!

Also read my review on Dim Joy here, which is under the same management and located just behind Tiffin Club.

Tiffin Club
16 Jiak Chuan road
Tel: 6323 3189

Tiffin Club is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

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Eden Cafe is acknowledged for its delicate florals cuisines to bring a whole new dining experience for the customers’ palate. Owner of the former Helio Cafe at Marina Square, Mr Clement Ng is the brain behind the floral concept at Eden Cafe.

Positioned at Club Street, just beside Ann Siang Hill, Eden Cafe is a quaint flower inspired cafe seated at the F&B robust street with other eminent neighbours like Les Brasseries, Senso Ristorante, Spizza, Seven on Club, Da Paolo II Ristorante, and Indochine restaurant. There is the make-to-order option for dinner which is very interesting. Contact Mr Clement Ng to custom-made a dinner which is unique for you.

The interior is done in very unsophisticated manner, with soft soothing music as background. The cafe has such a cozy and homely feel that my friend and i can just sit there for the whole day. It is that comfortable, just like home.

Sundried Tomato Omelette ($9.50)

Eden’s brunch menu is only available during the weekends and public holiday. It is the draw of the brunch menu which actually brings my visit to Eden. I’m always fascinated by the prospects of eating brunch at some comfy cafe on a laid-back weekend.

The brunch selections here are mostly toast and sandwiches. The omelette is the one which caught my attention. I was rather astonish when the dish came, not that i was expecting a lot, but at almost ten bucks for omelette on a toast, coupled with lots of greens, it do seem a tad expensive.

I understand that many places which offer brunch might be even pricier than this, but still paying ten bucks for the definitely-not-filling brunch do makes ordering lunch seems a more reasonable option.

Nevertheless, the Sundried Tomato omelette is quite good, with a hint of cheese within the egg, and i must commended that not many places actually have such a healthy serving of salads to go along.

Honey Mustard Chicken ($14.90)

The main courses at Eden cafe takes longer to serve, with a waiting time of about 20mins. At first sight, the chicken is certainly tiny, with two small pieces of chicken breast, which comes along with again, very generous servings of greens.

The honey mustard flavours the chicken well, although we felt that the use of chicken drumstick can add more zest to the overall dish. At $15, the honey mustard chicken is definitely not filling for folks with big appetite. If only the serving size can be bigger.

Hibiscus Soft Cheesecake ($6.90)

Desserts are where Eden really excels at. The Hibiscus soft cheesecake is one of the better cheesecakes i have tasted so far. The cheesy flavor might come a tad too strong for non-cheese lovers, but its still acceptable for me, although towards the end it might be slightly overwhelming if you finish this cake on your own.

Coated with a layer of hibiscus top, and a bright red strawberry on top, the cheesecake is done pleasant to the eye and satisfying to the palates.

Total bill for 2 comes up to $36.70. I still find Eden to be rather expensive given its minuscule serving size, and quintessentially there is nothing that fantastic about the food. The floral concept is unquestionably interesting, with the tranquil ambience of the cafe a positive plus.

But food-wise its done very simple, i guess this is the selling point of Eden’s, which sometimes make you feel that it does not justify the price tag. Nonetheless, Eden’s definitely a great place to chill and sit the whole day, and desserts are excellent which will tempt me into a recurrent visit.

Until the price drop, or with greater serving size, i’ll just come back to Eden’s for their desserts and the nice ambience. And just for information, Eden has a new sister restaurant at the hip Rochester park, Eden Sanctuary.

Eden Cafe
54 Club Street
Tel: 6536 1181

Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.

So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!

The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.

The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.

Mee Sua ($3.50)

The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.

We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.

Egg Omelette ($8)

$8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.

Crab Bee Hoon ($38)

The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?

But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.

The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.

Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.

I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.

Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup
467 Changi Road
Tel: 9001 4000