I love K-town!

Korea is taking over the world by storm: from K-pop to K-food, it seems that the world just can't get enough of what Korea has to offer. As a huge Korean food fan, I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Korean food in the Sydney CBD, in an area known as 'K-town'. Wandering down the streets in K-town is an eye-opening journey in its own right, as you find yourself drawn to all sorts of unusual foods of all shapes and sizes. After nibbling on bits and pieces from here and there along the way in K-town, I found myself craving Korean pancake and stumbled across 'Bon Gal Bi Korean BBQ Restaurant' on Pitt St (LG 375 Pitt St). The aroma drew me in like a magnet, and I knew instantly that it is the right place for something authentic-a cozy little restaurant packed with Korean diners, serviced by friendly Korean waitresses. The menu was deceivingly simply, but I was glad to see a restaurant that is dedicated to perfecting a few dishes, as opposed to over-doing it. I went straight to what I wanted: Korean seafood pancake. I was surprised to see that for only $13, I got a HUGE pancake jeweled with REAL seafood: chunks of juicy squid, tender prawns and the biggest mussels I had ever seen. The pancake was soft, with a slight chew on the inside, and crispy on the outside. While it tasted great on its own, it got even better with the dipping sauce and side dishes (oh, did I mention that they were free?). I kept on telling myself to carefully savor every mouth-full, but found myself devouring the sizeable pancake in a matter of minutes, despite the fact that I had already downed 3 Chinese pancakes, 8 king prawns and a couple of beers less than an hour earlier! The end of the pancake marked the beginning of many more culinary discoveries at K-town, and I walked out of the restaurant, already planning my next stroll to K-town: plan of attack being: no breakfast, no lunch!

Where Not to Eat - Tino's Italian restaurant in Woolooware

I have had many disappointing dining experiences over the years in Australia and overseas, but never considered taking the time to write them down until I started this blog in late 2011. Before I get to the real story about Tino's Italian resteaurant in Woolooware, I need to tell you a little story about Woolooware. Woolooware is a suburb in the Sutherland Shire in NSW, Australia, just around the corner from Cronulla, the popular seaside-suburb in Sydney South. Woolooware, being in the Sutherland Shire, has a predominately-anglo population, and the food there is about as 'vanilla' as its people. To put it simply, anything that isn't steak and chips OR fish and chips, would be considered 'exotic cuisine' in the Shire. A few months ago, a group of friends took me to this Italian restaurant called 'Tino's' in Woolooware that they had been raving about for dinner one Saturday. I was excited and terrified at the same time, because (1) I hadn't had many dining experiences in the Shire worth writing home about, (2) I was slightly worried that my culinarily-naive friends would order something truly terrifying. As much as I kept on telling myself everything was going to be fine, and I was going to have an unexpectedly-good meal, all of my worries were realised. Where do I start? hmm, let's start from the Dukkah the 'committee' ordered as an entree. First of all, there is something odd about ordering Dukkah in an Italian restaurant to begin with (given its middle-eastern origin), even for fusion-food fans like me. When the Dukkah arrived, I was speechless: what was presented to me was a very small quantity of Dukkah (so small I could practically count each seed with 10 fingers), a bowl of pale-looking olive oil that looks like it's 10th press, and a mountain of bread. You do not need to be a math genuis to know that the ratio is way out, and a foodie to know that it will be dry and tasteless. The only thing, other than the tasteless oil, to help down the dry bread was my own saliva, and the only thing I had to add a little taste to the dry bread and tasteless oil was a few seeds and strands of herbs I found stuck between my teeth. I got myself extra Dukkah (and an evil stare) after I complaint to the waitress/restaurant owner that we needed more Dukkah, and the olive oil was of poor quality. After the terrible entree, everything was further downhill from there. I had a seafood pasta for main. The quantity was generous, and that's the only nice thing I have to say about it. The seafood was overcooked, the sauce was bland/underseasoned, and too sour for my pallet, and the pasta was overcooked.

Long story short, I walked into Tino's, hoping to get a good Italian feed, and ended up getting a bad middle-eastern Dukkah entree and bland pasta for main. I walked away, thinking, this restaurant is going on my Where-Not-To-Eat list.