Author Archives: Insun

Our accommodation was only 5-10 minutes to China town when we stayed in Sydney. I think it might have been New Year’s day when we went to this Korean restaurant for brunch.  The reason why we were looking for Korean food was that we eat a rice cake and dumpling soup on New Year’s day in Korea. Since I cannot cook one myself in hotel, we headed out to China town to find a restaurant that does it for us.

We found a cool looking one called ‘Kofoo’, which is shortened form of ‘Korean food’. I loved a modern pub style interior and friendly staff. Sitting there looking at Korean posters and listening to Korean songs made me feel I was in Korea for a bit. Sydney is definitely more multicultural city and you see so many tourists from all over the world on the streets. So I felt like I was in different country.

By the time we got a table, it was almost 11am..11:30am.. Starving! Menu didn’t have a rice cake soup though other dishes sounded pretty good to us. We ended up ordering 4 dishes between two of us, thinking we were starving, first of all, and dishes would be small. We ordered dumplings for entree, bibimbap for me, soybean soup for Daniel and beef tartar to share. It turned out to be a lot more than we thought it would be, though we managed to finish all. It tasted more westernised Korean food than traditional as I expected. For business, yes – you need to make changes for the locals, though I have to admit it is quite disappointing to me every time I go to Korean restaurants here. Staff was pretty attentive and friendly overall. This restaurant apparently started in Brisbane as a little food stall, then opened up this restaurant in Sydney almost a year ago, and now expanding further to franchise business – good on them.

I read in the Western Australian news paper a couple of weeks ago what Matt Preston, a famous food critic in Australia, said that Korean food would get more attention in 2014. I cannot agree more. Being a healthy tasty cuisine among Asian foods, it offers a variety of fermented vegetable dishes, like Kimchi, using lots of chilli, garlic, ginger and all good stuff. If you struggle with Western diet due to too much gluten, oil, sugar, etc, definitely Korean food is a way to go. I really hope Korean cuisine shines more this year,which means there will be more improvements in the quality of food and service in restaurants as well. And I dream…I could be one of them:)

It was my birthday yesterday. Well it was my mother-in-law’s big 60th a day before, so it was kind of a continuation of that celebration I guess. We went out to this nice restaurant for dinner with in-laws last night. This restaurant is located at the end of China town in Melbourne. You can see a big sign of Wine Bar, Punch Lane on the street. Size of the dinning area was just right, not too big nor small. Antique furniture, wine bottles at the back of the wall, jazz music, very attentive waiter, good atmosphere. Food was good too. Freshly baked bread with e.v.o.o and sea salt to start with. I couldn’t have bread though everyone said it was really nice. For main, I had a barramundi and clams in ‘crazy water’. Daniel had a duck breast with pickled cumquats with green bean salads on the side. Fish was cooked perfectly melting in my mouth though sauce was a little salty for my taste. Green bean salad was crunchy and refreshing compliment very well with mains. Dessert was watermelon, meringue and rose sorbet with ‘happy birthday’ writing on the plate to cleanse the palate before we left. Sweet of my hubby, booking a nice restaurant and organising a birthday dessert for me. Big thanks to him! I enjoyed a nice food and company last night.

Seriously Melbourne is in my heart. I’ve visited probably about 6 times over the years. I never get sick of this city full of culture and fashion. I cannot explain exactly what it is, but there is something that makes me come back again and again. Well..I am very excited and looking forward to moving to Melbourne as soon as things get organised quick enough. People complain of unpredictable Melbourne weather. Well while we were staying for 3 days, yes we had a cold rainy morning, sunny afternoon, windy and cold evening. However, I reckon I can deal with a little crappy weather for all the other good things about Melbourne:) My heart is pounding already just thinking about living there!