Efendy - We Love Sydney

With life being so hectic, I haven't had a chance to catch up with Moishii for awhile. When I spotted that Efendy was part of the We Love Sydney promotion, I just had to book us in for dinner and a catch up! The first time we went to Efendy, we absolutely loved the food, but way over ordered! I was full to the stage that I was almost sick! hehe This time, we were smarter with our ordering!

Me hitting the wine ASAP!!!!

We ordered the Meze for 2 and a main each. We opted to not have any salad, bread or dessert! The entree and main alone will fill you to the brim! The Meze menu is updated daily which is great to know, cos I really wanted to try something different from last time!

Duck Gozleme

This kinda reminds me of Peking Duck rolls. An ode to the Asian side of Turkey? I had no complaints about this, except I wanted more! lol

King Prawns wrapped with noodles and deep fried on a capsicum/tomato sauce

I think this was my favourite meze. The prawn absolutely burst open when you bite into it! And the lovely crunchy noodles, smothered in the sauce just made it heavenly!

Champagne marinated fetta with peppercorn and dill

The cheese was lovely and creamy, not salty at all! If only I can find something as good at our local shops...

Fried mussels with walnut sauce

In Turkey, all along the water side are little stands of people selling these mussels. They basically look like mussels in the half shell with a crumb like topping, eaten with a squeeze of lemon juice. People will walk up, buy 1 or 2 mussels, eat it on the spot and then leave. Now I've never tried this in the 3 times I've been to Turkey. Mainly because the stands are out in the open, under the blazing sun! I wasn't exactly keen on making friends with salmonella...maybe when I go in winter.....

These mussels does not look anything like that they sell in Turkey. However, if what they sell in Turkey tasted as good, I'm sure I'll be making a beeline to those stands the next time I'm there!

Eggplant, potato and tomatoes topped with yoghurt

Lovely cold side dish. I really wanted to order some bread to mop up the sauce at this point!

Slow braised shoulder of lamb with burnt yoghurt

This almost tastes like a moussaka with the lovely tender lamb and the thick burnt yoghurt. The sauce was really lovely in this dish, I just wished they had served it differently so I could add the orzo pasta to it to soak everything up.

Orzo and a spicy tomato salad

We ended the meal with a few pots of mint tea to help with our digestion.There was no way we could fit any dessert in. We couldn't even finish the main as much as we both loved it! All of this cost us around $90 after the We Love Sydney discount! An absolute bargain when you consider the lovely food, the generous serves of wine and a great friend to chat to! (It also gave us a chance to start planning our next trip!)

Efendy
http://www.efendy.com.au
79 Elliott Street (Corner of Darling Street)
Balmain NSW 2041
Ph: 02 9810 5466

Bento madness!

With all the family here during December and all the xmas preparations I had to do, there was basically no time to do any fancy bentos. Most of these are from late November to early December.


Left: Nam Yu (Fermented red beancurd) stewed potatoes, boiled rice topped with nuts and lentils marinated in chilli oil
Top right: King Prawn and scrambled egg stir fry
Bottom right: Carrot and cucumber salad


Impromptu Bibimbap - bugulgi beef, sauteed carrot, beansprouts, shitake mushrooms and lettuce (I didn't have any spinach)
Fresh mango

Left: Cold Somen (To be served with zaru soba sauce), bunny egg and ham rolls
Top right: Greek Salad
Bottom right: Beans, asaparagus, carrots, semi sundried tomato and ham rolls

Left: Leftover Valencia Paella from Encasa
Top right: Oranges and cherries
Bottom right: Cherry tomatoes, cucumber and sliced goats cheese. I dressed this with a little raspberry balsamic vinegar


Top left: Lamb Kofte
Bottom left: Raw baby corn, cucumber and cherry tomato salad
Right: Cha Soba, mandu, snowpeas and boiled cocktail potatoes

Top left: Cucumber, snow peas and cherry tomato salad
Bottom left: Pan fried chicken and wedges with bbq seasoning
Right: Chilli fried rice with baby corn, beans, peas and tofu fish


Top: Fake crab and omlette roll, home grown beans and cucumbers, snowpeas, cherry tomatoes and boiled cocktail potato
Bottom: Tomato fried rice with diced vegetables and grilled Toulouse sausages

Top left: Teriyaki chicken and mandu
Bottom left: Blanched home grown Choy Sum
Right: Sliced cheong fun (Rice noodle roll). I bought along a container of udon soup to eat this in. I love sliced cheong fun in soup to replace normal noodles


Left: Cut veggie box of home grown beans and cucumbers, carrots, beetroots and cherry tomato and bocconcini skewers
Right: Turkish style bulghur and paprika chicken

Left: Salami and lettuce roll (I figured it was the easiest way to pack lots of lettuce into my meal without making a salad). Cherry tomatoes and cucumber
Right: Turkish Bulghur and beef rissoles

Left: Not the most pretty looking, but definitely tasted fantastic. Lamb kofte on rice with pan fried garlic mushrooms and eggplants
Right: Garlic eggplants, cherry tomatoes, home grown cucumbers on a bed of home grown lettuce. (Definiately making the most of our garden!)

Despite my bento efforts dwindling to nothing, but I can tell you, its about to make a MAJOR comeback! A few months ago, I sent my sister in Singapore a VERY long email asking her to go to Daiso and help me stock up on everything that can possibly be used for bentos. And this is what she brought over:


MUhaUAhaUAha Bento heaven! The only thing was that she didn't buy me a bento box! Well, she bought me a tinyyyyyy little bento box which is barely enough for a snack (Considering I'm not good at packing the box tightly). But besies that, I've got every kind of sauce containers and bottles, countless types of rice moulds (star, heart, triangle, round etc), dividers and even a new thermal hankerchief like thing for the bento box.

I also cleared out all my food supplies in December to make room for my sister's cravings, so I'll be building all of that up again over the next few weeks. So hopefully there will be a few new variations to my bento repertoire.

A new bento box!

So when S asked me what I wanted from Japan, I immediately yelled "BENTO BOX!!!". I gave the rough specs of what I wanted. "Decent" lunchbox size, microwaveable, 2 layers / compartments if possible and must be "Japanesey" in looks.I think this was perfect! I love sakuras and bunnies!

My new bento box from Japan

I knew to christen the bento box, I needed something special, this was the best I could do the day I got back from our country trip:

Top: Leftover chicken and mushroom pide, sujuk pide (Turkish sausage), grape tomatoes and a "car" boiled egg.
Bottom: Cucumber, asaparagus and ham rolls, carrots, beans, semi sundried tomatoes and olives.

The only thing with this box is that its not that water tight. The top layer comes with a pretty water tight fitting lid, but if I put that lid on, I can't fit in alot of my salads. I've basically been wrapping both layers with glad wrap and I'm limiting this box to mainly liquid free stuff.

My parents were also away on holidays a while back, so I decided to pack a little breakfast to eat on the train to work. (I am so glad they're back now!) I bought this little box about 3 months ago, but never had a chance to use it as it was too small for lunch. However, its a great size for a light snack.



Left: Strawberries and grape tomatoes
Right: Leftover chicken and mushroom pide and sujuck pide



Left: Lady bug tomato fried rice on a bed of home grown organic lettuce. I also pan fried the left over bits of lamb in lots of cumin.
Right: Salad with tolouse sausage, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, beans, asaparagus, semi sundried tomatos and olives.

I like to use really strong flavoured stuff like the olives and semi sundried tomatoes to avoid using a dressing for my salad.

Breakfast box - Same as above, just smaller

Turkish box

Left: Bulgur cooked with tomatoes and lamb kofte
Right: Fresh sliced beetroot, cucumber, carrots and beans. I bought along a small container of hummus. The beetroot was really nice raw, however, one of the bigger beetroots was really bitter. Next time I'm going to use the baby beets only.

Breakfast box

I did a quick stir fry of egg noodles with ham, wongabok, bok choy, carrots and bean sprouts with a dash of oyster sauce. So very very nice. Almost as good as my mums!

Uighur Cuisine

Despite eating our way through the Good Food and Wine show, we didn't actually have a proper meal. I had congee for breakfast whilst my friend had nadda. After the show, we decided to find somewhere close to eat and rest. Remember that Uighur Cuisine was literally around the corner, we quickly ducked in and found one of the last free tables (and it was only 5:30pm!).

Uighur people are mainly a tribe of Turkic people living in Central Asia. They speak their own language with their own flag that is almost identical to the Turkish flag, except it is blue.


The menu was quite confusing since I've never had Uighur cuisine before, but looking at the pictures and what was ordered on other tables helped us decide on what to order.

Pork and vegetable dumplings

These dumplings were lightly pan fried so they were crispy on the bottom but still soft and chewy on the top. The filling was quite light and tasted of coriander and celery. Doused with black vinegar, these went down a treat.

Uighur handmade noodles with lamb and vegetables

The noodles were lovely and chewy, although my friend reckoned they were TOO chewy. My main gripe with this dish is that when I order a LAMB and vegetable noodle, I expect to see LAMB, VEGETABLES and NOODLES. In this entire dish, we found ONE piece of lamb, and about 3 bits of what we think was lamb that fell off the main piece. I also didn't really fancy the vegetables as I found them to be a bit too overcooked/over pickled. Probably not a dish I would order again.

Spicy lamb skewers

These would be the highlight of the meal. 5 skewers of chunky lamb, spiced with chilli and cumin. Fresh from the grill, they were deliciously tender. However, once they cooled down, they became a bit tough and chewy. I would recommend that you eat these ASAP once they arrive.

The food overall wasn't too bad. I've never had Uighur food before, so I can't really compare it with anything else. The dumplings and noodles closely resemble Chinese cuisine, whilst the lamb skewers remind me of the lovely shish kebabs you get in Turkey. A very interesting cuisine that I wouldn't mind trying again.

Uighur Cuisine
Shop 1, 8 Dixon St
(Corner of Liverpool & Dixon St)
Sydney, 2000

Ph: 9267 8555

Efendy in Balmain - Modern Turkish

When I first heard about Efendy and their Modern Turkish cuisine, I knew I just had to go try it. And who else but my partner in crime? It took me and Moishii ages to find a day that suits both of us since we're so busy all the time. But the day finally came around, and all he had to do was drive through a thunderstorm to pick me up! We arrive at Efendy's and find a car parking spot right outside the main entrance:


We're seated, literally in the corner of the restaurant. I'm actually tucked into a corner where I can barely get out without knocking the table over. The good thing though, was that it was quite warm in my corner.


We had a quick look at the menu before we went, but we still didn't know what to order. You see, we almost wanted to cancel dinner because we wanted to save money. We all know what happens when we save money right? So our plans of a main each kind of went out the window when we saw the mezze platter. So it became 2 mains and mezze. Then we got a bit carried away and ordered other stuff as well....

Fresh baked turkish bread rolls with pepper olive oil and olive and chilli dip

Mezze for 2

Cerkez Tavuk - Circassian chicken dip, garlic, walnut aioli and paprika oil

This was unbelievably good. I actually found a recipe for it a few months ago and emailed it to Moishii, who said he's never heard of it before. But what was served definitely didn't disappoint. The dip was creamy and aromatic and I treated it more like a salad than a dip by shoveling it down my throat.

Mercimek Kofte - Lentil, bulghur and spice kofte on cos lettuce

For some reason, we thought this would have raw meat in it. Just shows how much we actually bother reading. This was lovely with a squeeze of lemon served with the cold crunchy lettuce.

Patlican salata - Smoked baby eggplant, grilled capsicum and pomegranate salad

This was twist on the traditional babaganoush. The dip was much chunkier than you're used to, and the ruby red pomegranate seeds bursting in your mouth was the perfect contrast you needed.

Borek - Spicy lamb, feta and capsicum filled pastry

This is nothing like the borek we have in Turkey, but it was delicious! It was closer to a Lebanese ladies finger, but hey, I wasn't complaining.

Gozleme - Feta cheese with parsley rolled in thin yufka pastry

This was nice, but it can't compare to the ones you get at the Glebe markets.

Ahtaphot - Grilled baby octopus marinated with grape pekmez, chilli and oregano

Tender smokey grilled baby octopus. MMMmmm the left over sauce was perfect to mop up with the hot crusty Turkish bread.

Our intention of "saving" money on this dinner, somehow involved us ordering a salad to go with it?

Efendy salad - Rocket, brown Turkish fig, feta and walnuts

I really loved this salad. The pepperiness of the rocket, the creamy feta and the crunch of the Turkish fig and walnut made the perfect salad. This is something I'm going to make again in my own time.

By this stage, we were getting quite stuffed. But when I saw my main put down infront of me. Oh gosh...

Ordek - Confit of Duck leg, Anatolian cheese baklava, poached quince and zeytinyagli fasulye

The duck was alot firmer than I would've liked a confit to be, but the cheese baklava more than made up for that criticism. If only they served more of it!

Kuzu Incik - LAMB SHANK slow cooked in pomegranate and saffron, chickpea and barley pilaf

This was Moishii's, and although it was a bit spicy for him, I think he enjoyed it.

You think we'd be full by this stage, but the stupid switch got flicked on in our brain so we both ordered dessert. Not to share, but one each as we assumed it'll be the same size as the mezze.

Chocolate Baklava - Dark chocolate mousse, baklava wafers, Pedro Ximenez spiced sour cherry compote, salep ice cream

This was more like a chocolate brownie between baklava sheets. It was so rich and decadent, that you really needed the sour cheery to cut through it. The ice cream was also fantastic, it tasted like orange blossom ice cream which I devoured. We really should've shared this, as we barely got through half a plate each. Moishii was tempted to hide the food in my handbag, Mr Bean style.

Turkish tea and turkish delight to end it all

I was so full at this stage that I couldn't even sip water. I could be in the desert, dehydrated and ready to die, and I still wouldn't be able to sip water to save my life. Our "lets save some money and not go nuts with food" plan when down the drain with a $180 bill. But it was so SO worth it.

Efendy
http://www.efendy.com.au
79 Elliott Street (Corner of Darling Street)
Balmain NSW 2041
Ph: 02 9810 5466

Day 34 - Last night in Istanbul with the taxi ride

We've given up trying to go to the Princess Island and making it to breakfast. Today was our last harrah in Istanbul. Of course, we start the day off at Maestro:

Strong morning tea to wake us up at 2pm

I went for a Kofte platter

Breakfast plater for Moishii

Cheapskates are skimping on the bread

Our bill comes in a little treasure chest

As we walked out, we took some last minute photos with the waiter/bible basher:


We also got a photo of the car parking guy. I don't know what exactly what he does. He stands in the middle of the road trying to help people park cars, but no one goes to Maestro except us??


We run back across the street to the hotel to grab our stuff when we noticed that the Lobby has turned into a store room. Looks like a Korean tour group has checked in, and they've bought a crate of instant noodles with them!!!


We had a little plan hatched, which involved us visiting a photo shop. More on this later.

Seeings it our last day, we decided that we need to hit the Grand Bazaar for any last minute shopping. We start making random purchases, before finding ourselves at the Greek Scarf guy's place where we played dress up again. This time round, he doesn't even hide the fact that he's looking down my top. He shakes my hand and doesn't let go so he could get a better look.


Out of nowhere, one of his friends popped up and took a photo with me as well. I finally had enough and Moishii had spent all his money on his Sultan's coat that we ran off to look for Jewelery guy. Apparently his wife is in labor and he'll need to run off any minute to go see his baby. In the meantime, we went nuts buying last minute gifts. I even scored myself a really nice amber pendant where again, he tries to rip me off. I'm not too sure what happened, but there was some negotiation, a free necklace thrown in and an popped button.

He sent his little monkey off to do work for him whilst we finalised our purchases. He comes running back all happy and smiling like Odie from Garfield. Apparently the first day at work, this guy smashed his glass counter top. Nice.


I also found a really nice hand beaded shawl with 2 peacocks on it that I wanted to buy my mum. Moishii reckons his mum would like it as well, so we both agreed that we didn't want to pay more than $30 each. We pick our scarfs and start the negotiation. The conversation went something like this:

Me: How much?
Him: $70 each. Very nice!
Me: $60 for 2
Him: No no!! Too cheap! Scarf expensive!!
Me: $60
Him: I do you special, $100!
Me: $60 *starts walking away*
Him: $90!! Come back! Come back!!
Me: $60
Him: I make no money! I do it for $80
Me: $60
Him: *Turns to Moishii* Say something to her!!!!!
Me: $60
Him: Ok ok. $70! *Starts to put the scarves in a bag*
Me: $60 *Takes $60 out and stands there*

He actually took the $60! LOL He even begged Moishii to stop me from being so ruthless. Like he would help. It was hard enough for him to stand there and no laugh!


We also went back to our Original Scarf Guy, who we found out was call Zulfu (This caused a 15 min laughing fit) because I wanted to pick up some hats as souvenirs for my workmates. After ripping us off yesterday, he went and just grabbed the hats I wanted and shoved it into my bag free of charge. They only cost him $2 each anyway....besides, we printed out a photo of us together and gave it to him.

On our way back to the hotel, I spotted this old lady selling hand knitted woollen socks. I thought it would be nice to buy them for my grandma. Even with the old and homeless I had to bargain. Moishii says shame on me. I say I know good value when I see it!

We get back to Maestro where it was time for lunch. I mean, its only been like 2 hours. Bellboy actually joined us this time round. Mind you, he rocked up, ordered a heap of food and drinks, ate and left.

Shepards salad

Guvec with rice and salad

To entertain us after lunch, we pulled out the lovely photos we got developed that morning, and decided to leave Maestro a good present:


We had a massive argument in the shop as to how many photos we needed to print out. I said 3, Moishii wanted to use up their paper supply!!

Left in the table tray

We went back to the hotel to do our packing before heading out to dinner in a few hours. Not before leaving our mark behind:

Moishii's hand luggage.......

My final packing

We realised we had a whole heap of stuff we didn't want to take back since they were heavy and easily replaced when back in Sydney. We threw everything into a big care package which we were going to regift to Moishii's friend. Oh, we also threw in a picture of Christine.

Once that we done, we grabbed our stuff and headed towards the ferry.

View of Istanbul from the ferry

Once we got off the ferry, we practically got ran over and beaten up before we managed to get a taxi who did an illegal U-turn across 4 lanes of traffic before getting completely lost. We eventually found the restaurant, which was past an army training base. There were warning signs all over the perimeter about us being shot if we trespassed. Lucky we made it in one piece, just in time to see Seyda making a grand entrance.


The restaurant we went to was really nice. It was a huge modern Turkish restaurant overlooking Istanbul and the sea. I didn't exactly know what was going on, so I just left the order up to the 2 of them.

Russian salad

Babaganoush

Strange, but very yummy puffy bread. Its all air inside

One half of the restaurant

Adana Kebab

Shish Kebab

Lamb Kebab cooked in yoghurt

View from the restaurant

Free snacks when waiting for a cab

So the 3 of us jump into a cab, where the plan is to drop Seyda off at her apartment, when we'll go catch the ferry. So Seyda sits at the front, and me and Moishii sits in the back. As the cab pulls up outside her apartment, Seyda half climbs to the back of the cab to give Moishii a hug goodbye. Because I'm sitting directly behind her, she gets out of the cab and walks to the back door of the cab. Just as she opens the door, the cab driver starts to drive off. So here I am in a moving taxi, with an open door that Seyda is just hanging on to the handle. We started screaming for him to stop the cab before she gets dragged under. We scream at the cab driver, say our goodbyes before she closes the door and we're ok to drive off again.

2mins later, Me and Moishii has absorbed the fact that Seyda almost got dragged under the cab, and it would've been partially my fault. Then we started arguing as to whether I should slam the door shut to save myself or would I be dragged under as well in my attempts to save her. This started a massive laughing fit where we were sitting at the back of the cab, snorting into our sleeves to stop ourselves from laughing out loud. I swear we can't go anywhere without causing an incident. I CAN'T SAY GOODBYE WITHOUT ALMOST KILLING SOMEONE! haha

We jump out of the cab to realise that the last ferry of the night is going to leave in 1min. We run to get our tickets where Moishii almost punches someone in the head for being too slow before we did the 200m dash and leaped onto the ferry.

Now that we were safe and sound and had a good 30mins to get back to the hotel, we decided to amuse ourselves. We started leaving photos of Christine on the boat.

We walked back to the hotel and decided to go to Maestro one last time.

Apple tea

And just to keep ourselves amused, I went into the toilet to leave another picture of Christine behind.


We went back to the hotel and saw reception guy there. We grabbed photos and Moishii started talking to him, actually, I think Moishii was trying to keep him distracted as I started planting photos of Christine in the postcard rack.

We ended the night with more packing before we crashed into bed. Not before the couple next door started going for it again.