Over the past 5 years, Le Colonial Vietnamese Restaurant in Westpoint, Blacktown NSW has been a favourite venue for family gatherings of many Filipinos. It was a Vietnamese restaurant indeed serving authentic Vietnamese dishes cleverly concocted by no less than a Vietnamese chef from Cabramatta. She was lovingly called “mommy” by the food servers. But […]
Category: Food
Don’t have much time for lunch? Try Dim Sum!
Dim sum is a type of Chinese dish that involves small individual portions of food, usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. Dim Sum is usually linked with the older tradition of Yum Cha or drinking tea. In the bustling City of Blacktown, most people are busy and barely have […]
There’s an Asian Store in the Hills Area
There is in fact a newly-opened Asian Store conveniently located at Stanhope Shopping Village. It is in the same commercial complex where you find Coles Supermarket. Sari-Sari Asian Store is just across the road and facing Stanhope Sports & Leisure Centre. Aptly named “Sari-Sari” (the Filipino word for anything and everything), products available are not […]
Dining at Wagaya is akin to eating in a high tech Tokyo restaurant
by Dino Crescini It was a lazy Friday evening and nobody in the house wanted to cook or prepare dinner. So my wife and I were invited by my daughter and her husband to dine out. After a 40-minute drive via M2 and Cross City Tunnel, we found ourselves in the heart of Sydney – […]
China’s contaminated food scandal widens
by David Barboza, International Herald Tribune SHANGHAI. Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation’s animal feed supplies, posing health risk to consumers. The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different […]
The Chef recommends…..
Australians are busy people. New migrant arrivals from the Philippines discover that domestic helpers are scarce and not affordable. Only the super wealthy can afford to hire them and pay wages in accordance with Australian standards. After a stressful day at the office, we rush home to cook, then wash the dishes, do a bit […]
Coffee anyone?
After a meal, I usually yearn for a hot cup of cappuccino. It somehow gives me that satisfying feeling of relief. It also keeps me awake. At WestPoint Shopping Centre, I usually go to Gloria Jeans because they give me a ten per cent discount upon presentation of my Seniors Card. I therefore pay a […]
They eat “Pagpag”
What is ‘pagpag’? If you don’t know, read on! For the poor who live in slums around garbage dumps in Metro Manila, it is food – actually leftover pieces of chicken or morsels of meat swarming with ants and other impurities. Yes, it is food that they call ‘pagpag.’ (Pagpag means to shake off.) They […]
How not to run a Filipino restaurant
I do not claim to be a food connoisseur and I certainly do not have the expertise of Neria Soliman when it comes to cooking. But I happen to love fine dining and have been fortunate enough to savour the culinary wonders served in 5-Star hotels in many parts of the world.