Fish & Co., Annandale

I was very excited to hear about a sustainable seafood cafe/restaurant opening up, and even more excited to find it was opening up in my hood, the inner west! So tonight I took my mum (an Annandale local) to try it out as one of our weekly dinners together.

Komachi, Surry Hills

I took my lovely sister here as a birthday gift, using a Living Social voucher – $37 for a two-course banquet for us both. The banquet usually costs $38 each so it was a big saving.

Ploy Thai, Petersham

Ploy Thai is the best and most authentic Thai in my area by far. I often order takeaway from here on lazy Sunday nights, my usual being fish cakes ($4), green papaya salad ($7.50) and a tom yum goong ($6.50) or drunk noodles ($9).  I also have a soft spot for the sour curry with prawns (oh! tamarind joy), but sadly I don’t do usually prawns anymore due to the environmental impact. Sometimes it’s hard being good.

Eggplant cannelloni recipe

I invented this recipe to use the mixture leftover from making spinach and ricotta gnocchi.

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, Ashfield

So, I have blogged about New Shanghai before. However, the last time I went – this Chinese New Year – we were a larger group and had the opportunity to try some new dishes. Of course, we had all the classic dumplings – Shanghai style fried pork dumplings, steamed vegetable dumplings, xiao long bao (plus ginger – extra 50c) and boiled pork and coriander dumplings.

Iiza Japanese Restaurant, Newtown

I love Japanese food and I love Newtown, and while decent Japanese places in Newtown do exist (Hikaru, Asakusa) there was definitely a gap in the market for an upmarket Japanese restaurant with accompanying sake and imported beer. Enter Iiza! 

Thanh Binh, Newtown

Ah, Thanh Binh. I love the food here! I love all Vietnamese food, and usually it’s the cheaper the better – but on occasions I need to come here to order their green papaya salad and caramel claypots, which are unsurpassed in the inner west.