The idea was to eat, eat, and eat, but plan b, or rather the lack of a proper plan, meant that we start at Plan B. We started off easy, but it was surely one of the best burgers that I’ve.

It took everything that I got to resist ordering another burger for myself, and missed out on all the stuff that was about to come – and so three hungry dude shared one burger.

Plan B by Becasse is famous for their wagyu beef burger, and at just ten bucks, you must try this burger! What is wagyu, anyway? When even the MacDonalds in Sydney sell Angus beef burgers, you probably think it’s not a big deal.

But the real wagyu burger, comes in the form of a thick beef patty, everything was kept simple; there’s no exotic ingredients like foie gras, nor were there redundant sauce – it was so good that you could feel the sauce gushing out! Interesting, beetroot was used, and it provided the contrast from the other burgers.

Plan B, 204 Clarance sheet, have you taken down the address?

It will be disappointing if one did not step into any pub/bar when in Australia. The folks here simply love (read: adore, head over heels, cannot do without) drinking. Be it a glass of the fine wines from the vineyard, or a pin of beer straight from the brewery, say cheers! There’s a strong drinking culture here; it’s not surprising to see people drinking during lunch time, or 3pm in the afternoon.

I was glad when Richard proposed that we make a trip to his favorite pub, Bavarian Bier Cafe for some beer to chill down the hot afternoon heat. Since I always have a sweet tooth, I went for the Mango, which had a smell consistency of the fruit. The taste however, did not have such a strong mango flavor.

No one in their right mind will pass on the chance to have German Sausages, and so we ordered a platter to share. There was a krunching sound when I bite the cracking roast pork, as with the German food that I visualize, it was hearty, tasty and definitely not enough.

‘Deep-fried sushi?’

Richard casually asked if we are keen to try it out, but I could sense the excitement in his seemingly-subtle-tone.

‘I don’t know, I’m not so sure.. about this’

And the next thing I know, we were standing in front of Kana Express kiosk. This is one place where most people wouldn’t have heard of, much less try the snacks here; an oblivious kiosk by the corner of a back alley.

The sushi was done Korean-style, and there’s other popular Korean snacks like spicy rice-cake, but our focus was on these two words: Deep-fried, & sushi.

As the guest, or so they said, I was entitled to the first bite. It was edible. I think one’s enjoyment of this sushi comes from the revelation of deep fried to the mind. On it’s own, the sushi tasted very tame, but the addition of the fiery hot chili sauce enhanced the flavor greatly.

I love summer. I really do.

Summer, is the perfect excuse for us to indulge with ice cream, and more ice cream. We dropped by Passionflower, a dessert cafe which exotic ice cream flavors. The choice of vanilla hazelnut & burnt caramel was made by me, the former was evidently the favorite, and I liked the nutty taste in the vanilla ice cream, while the latter had a strong burnt caramel taste.

Summer, is not summer, without ice cream.

I stole a glance at Krispy Kreme when we walked by the shop, and was immediately dragged in and convinced to have one (just one) of the original donut. This should be the definition of how a good donut taste like: glazed with a layer of sugar, yet not to the point of being cloyingly-sweet, there wasn’t any hint of oilyness that a poor donut will have. One, simply isn’t enough.

Our original plan was to have tonkatsu at a nearby Japanese restaurant, but it was closed by the time we got there, so we went to Harry’s instead. I’m sure, any reputable guidebook will list the pies & hotdog at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels as one of the must-try in Sydney. Tiger pie is particularly famous, but to be honest, I’m not very certain of it. Mashy and meaty, maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the hotdog, it was a shame that we only had one to share. I’d imagine one to hold the big sausage with both hands, and put the whole thing into the mouth!

While on the way to Max Brenner, we passed by Le Patissier and decided to stop here for some sweets instead. For a small place, they have quite an array of desserts to choose from. I wanted to try vanilla pastry cake but it wasn’t available that day, so we had the Lemon Ganache. The sourish lemon ganache provided a good counterbalance to the sweet chocolate layers, but the whole cake was too dry, and I’m not a big fan of kirsch that’s also present in the cake.

When the fork first sank into the Creme Brulee, we already came to the conclusion that it failed. And unsurprisingly, the surface of the dessert was not caramelized properly; it was either a leftover, or they had torched and caramelized too early. However, the custard underneath was actually quite decent, and there’s even vanilla beans used.

* * *
Just in case you are wondering again, yes, we ate all of these in one afternoon.

Plan B by Becasse
204 Clarence Street, Sydney 2000
Tel: 9283 3450

Bavarian Bier Cafe
24 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: 02 8297 4111

Kana Express kiosk
Corner of Central Street

Passionflower
580 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Krispy Kreme
Queen Victoria Building
429 – 481 George Street,
Shop 95 – 97 Lower Ground Floor,
Sydney, NSW 2000

Harry’s Cafe De Wheel
Haymarket, NSW 2000
Next to Paddy Maguires Pub
Tel: (02) 9281 6292

Le Patissier
50 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9299 0015

Central, Parramatta, Blacktown, Springwood . . . My thoughts drifted off as I read my book, and watched the station passed by. Soon, I lost count of them, and my eye lids became heavy as though she had sang a lullaby softly in my ears…

I hit the blue mountain next, an area known for her magnificent scenaries. It’s a very beautiful place; fantastic view up in the mountains, with the three sisters being the highlight.

There’s just something old fashion about Katoomba that seduces me, right from the start when I arrived on the train station, to the country-like signage and shops around; everything was so laid-back and time seemed to pause and slow down.

I stayed in a hostel called the Flying fox, it was quite unlike the other ones that I stayed in before. Here, everyone knows everyone as it is quite a small place, people come and go but most of them don’t really leave – they’d come back. Here, you have a bunch of friendly folks, it’s akin like having a mini United Nations; Germany, Canada, UK, Italy – people from all over the world staying under one roof.

Shall I tell you about the mountains, and the splendid view at the three sisters? No, the lonely planet or any other reputable guide will do a better job in educating you. I’m also sure you’d not want to listen to how I went on a four hour mountain hike with a German dude, wearing less than proper shoes and ended up having blisters all over my foot, and having the irritating flies (summer time) bugging me the whole afternoon. All you need to know: get yourself to Echo Point – the tip with the breathtaking view overlooking the three sisters.

One of the place in the town of Katoomba that serves burger is Greco’s. The shop is like a fast food restaurant, one of the room-mate told me they served pretty decent burgers at reasonable price.

It’s kind of sad that it took me until now to realize, a beef burger taste absolutely wicked with the addition of a slice of BBQ pineapple, the beef burger probably isn’t very appealing with the thin patty and flat buns, but when you up-sized it to the lot ($7), all’s good. The extra egg, bacon, pineapple added volume to the otherwise ordinary burger. Initially, I felt that the burger looked way too small, but it was only when I tried to put it into my mouth, and failed then I realized how big it was.

Further down the street, there’s a Chinese-operated takeaway shop that goes under the mundane name of Blue Mountain Seafood Fish & Chips. Surprisingly, their fish & chips ($7.5) are really quite good; the batter was crispy and not over oily – one of the better fish & chips that I’ve had. The next day I tried their beef burger ($5), but it was somewhat ordinary, I preferred the burger from Greco’s.

There’s also another small town in Blue Mountain where chocolate comes from. I should make myself clearer; Leura is a small town in Blue Mountain that is five minutes away from Katoomba, and they have a famous chocolateria, probably one of the finest in Sydney and her name is Jodie. If you are a chocolate lover, and you’ve spent some serious time researching about them, you will definitely know about her chocolates. I’m sure you probably heard of Adriano Zumbo when you Google for ‘desserts’ & ‘Sydney’, and Jodie actually beat Zumbo in a recent competition. I don’t really give a hoot to such competitions – whichever chocolate that I like, is the best chocolate.

I went to Jodie’s Josophan chocolate boutique first. Stepping into the shop, the lovely chocolate scent greets you, and all around, are chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates. Besides different type of chocolate blocks that has contain nuts like hazelnut, almond, macadamia nuts, their specialty chocolate comes in very unique flavor too. I got a box of four which contains peanut butter cup, hazelnut praline, Kahlua kisses, and hot chili.

Heading across the main street, I stumbled upon Jodie’s standalone cafe next. Hot chocolate, sweet desserts, and breakfast items – that’s Cafe Josophan for you. Chocolate is much more effective than therapy, and no appointment is required.

Their cake selections were actually smaller than I expected, with about five to six cakes available to choose from. I’ve the Mexican Chocolate Cake ($10.5) that came with a scoop of ice cream, it was essentially made from a recipe using 70% cocoa solids chocolate. As much as I like sweet stuff, another cake would be too much to handle, so I went for the house made Belgian waffles ($11.50 for 2 waffle). Sweet heavenly chocolate drizzled on the thin waffles, served with fresh cream, pretty much the breakfast I’ve in mind. But the waffle wasn’t warm and crispy enough. Pity. I’d love to go for the hot chocolate, and flourless chocolate torte if I ever re-visit again – talk about chocolate overdose.

Dining out in Australia is very costly, so I went to the butchery and got myself a steak and two sausages – for just $3.50. It was nearly dinner time then I realized I totally forgotten to marinate the steak. Oh boy, I hastily sprinkled some pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon powder – whatever spices that seem edible.

Proceeding to barbecuing the meats, it was pretty exciting (and smokey) to watch the meat changed from red to light brown, and then a darker shade of brown. It was trial and error since I did not know how long to cook the steak, but it was easy peasy with the sausages as I waited for them to turn slightly charred on the outside.

Even the steak was slightly overcooked, it was still damn awesome. The two sausages were glorious too, you could see the glittering of oil on the surfaces, and they tasted so, so good! Under the influence of beer, and sitting in the backyard with a breeze blowing gently – this simple dinner suddenly became one of my best meals.

* * *

Greco’s
55 Katoomba Street
Katoomba NSW 2780
Tel: 02 4782 3689

Blue Mountains Seafood Fish & Chips
191 Katoomba Street
Katoomba NSW 2780
Tel: 02 4782 2964

Cafe Josophan’s
187a The Mall
Leura NSW
Tel: 02 4784 3833