East Ocean Restaurant - 29 January 2011

One of our favorite chinese restaurants is the East Ocean Restaurant located in China Town.

On Saturday night we attended to take delight in a Peking Duck dinner. As always, the food was just as we expected - fresh, extremely tasty and, dare I say it, finger licking good!

I think the photos really tell it all.

Peking Duck

Up close of my parcel of delight - sauce, duck, spring onion, cucumber!

We decided to try something new, in this case, Tasmanian green lipped abalone. It was cooked with garlic and spring onions and what a delight! Texture was a little tough, flavour of fish/scallop. Definately worth trying again!

Green lipped tasmanian abalone

Yep, its delicious!

Part 2 of our duck meal

Ohhh I can taste it now!

Delicious!

The meals always finish with fresh fruit, watermelon today, and chinese pastires, I loved these ones!

Sofitel Sydney - 2011

We have found in recent times that the Sofitel Hotels suit us to perfection. So when it came to a trip to Sydney where else could we choose to stay?

View of the outside of the hotel, our room was one floor from the top, far right

We were up on the 16th floor and had the luxury of a private check-in on the 5th floor, definitely the way to travel!

Entry foyer

Entry foyer

Entry foyer

View looking down from our room.

And the neat courtyard below where we could go and sit and relax.

Our room was comfy, everything we could possibly need for a short stay. 

DIVINE bed and easy chair

This was the BIGGEST bed ever!

I took this photo from my bed at night... its the centrepoint tower!

We also had access to Club Sofitel where we could take advantage of snacks and drinks at any time for no charge, free internet access, lots of comfortable chairs and relaxing spaces where we could rest our weary travelling/sightseeing legs. I would highly recommend taking advantage of the Club facilities.

Relaxing with a glass of champagne

Afternoon Tea

Peter in the lobby

Club Sofitel - one of the sitting rooms

Club Sofitel - another sitting area

Buffet breakfast

Museli, yoghurt and berries for breakfast

Orange juice, sourdough bread, smoked salmon and cream cheese for breakfast

You can find the details of the hotel here: Sofitel Sydney

Aria, Sydney - 28 January 2011

After our wonderful dinner at Aria in Brisbane whilst in Sydney we decided we would head to Aria, Sydney for dinner. It turned out to be an excellent choice.

We started the night with a glass of french champagne, the real stuff. I don't think I can go back now!

Our starter... leek and basil cold soup with a yoghurt foam....

For entrée I had the Scallops (who can ever go past scallops?) spiced and roasted with a salad of heirloom carrots, young coconut and a coriander and yoghurt dressing.

Peter enjoyed the salad of baked golden beetroot with goat's cheese, walnuts, beetroot mousse and baby chard leaves.

My main was the roasted breast of pasture fed chicken with truffled 'mac and cheese' which was a bit of fun (that's it there in the middle!), with pine mushrooms and leek. The chicken was moist and delicious.

Peter chose for his main the duck (well, who can ever go past the duck?). The smile on his face said it all, it was divine.

We had our wines matched to suit our meals, what a difference that makes, and how much more we enjoy the experience when we do this.

Dessert - yes we still had room, built on our already delicious meal. I had the Savarin with champagne poached peaches with mascarpone and amaretti biscuits. This was fresh, light and delicious, and a great way to finsh the meal.

Peter meanwhile couldn't go past the Aussie favourite of the 'pav', in this case accompanied with black cherries, tonka bean cream and a pistachio sorbet.

We finished our dinner with coffee for Angela, and Mariage Freres tea for Peter, accompanied with almond macarons, chocolate truffles and turkish delight and a glass of desert wine.

We had such a lovely evening we decided we would come back on for our last dinner in Sydney on the Sunday night. I wonder what we will have to eat then!?!

FYI on the Mariage Freres tea. We indulged in this wonderful tea when we were in Paris in 2010. Since then we have been lucky and found it in one or two establishments. They have been creating wonderful teas since 1954 and I must say, they have it perfected. You can see their art here: Mariage Freres