Healthy Food: Duck Pancakes

Sunday, December 11, 2011

York Lane: Tapas & Wine Bar, CBD Sydney (8 Dec 2011)

York Lane, Wynyard, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.yorklane.com

Laneway tapas and bar

Thanks to Richard Elliot for organising a casual lunch catchup at this laneway café he spotted serving a tapas style menu. It’s quite a cosy place with repurposed items like airline trolleys as shelving, railway sleepers as flooring and furniture offcuts becoming stools. The laneway location, creativity and intimacy oozes a Melbourne vibe to me but the service cheekily says ‘this is what Melbourne would want to be like’, and perhaps he’s right, but I'm thinking we're still catching up. It’s smaller than Grasshopper Bar and around the same size as Grandma’s Bar and joins the growing number of small bars around Sydney.

The hand-written menu seemed quite well-priced at first but you’ll need to order a few things to fill up so I think it’s more suited to side snacking with your wine or beer rather than a reasonably priced lunch spot for one. The Haloumi & Pea Fritters with Tzatziki ($9) was pretty tasty and I wondered if slices of grilled haloumi could be another dish worth having on the menu. Four pieces are served with the Duck Pancakes with Hoisin Sauce ($12) filled with fresh salad. I quite liked the Chorizo Hot Pot with cannellini beans, fresh tomato & basil ($12) although wished it came in a sauce of some description to soak up with the crusty bread included. We’re prewarned the Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Sauce ($10) takes 15 minutes to prepare which are quite flavoursome and the chilli deceptively increases over time on your palate. There were a few stray little feathers on my wing which could have perhaps been better cleaned off though. I’d recommend the Pork Belly with Chilli Jam ($12) if you’re after some decent crackling and nicely flavoured meat. Bite-sized pieces of joy for the pork lovers. My Mocha ($3.50) thankfully had a good balance which helped finish off the meal with a sugar note.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Friendly and accommodating service, Repurposed decor and furniture is done well and good for the environment

CONS: Seating can get a little uncomfortable for extended period of time, The smell of a laneway is sometimes not the cleanest

WORTH TRYING: Pork Belly with Chilli Jam, Buffalo Wings, Mocha

DAMAGE: $73.40 for three

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Handwritten menus — now that's dedication to doing it on the cheap

Drinks on offer including beers, wine and spirits

Haloumi & Pea Fritters with Tzatziki ($9)

Duck Pancakes with Hoisin Sauce ($12)

Chorizo Hot Pot with cannellini beans, fresh tomato & basil ($12)

A bit of sauce would help to dip the bread in

Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Sauce ($10)

WORTH TRYING :-)

Some of the wings had a bit of feather still left on it so hopefully they can be cleaned a bit better next time

Pork Belly with Chilli Jam ($12)

WORTH TRYING :-)

Flat White ($3.50), Mocha ($3.50)

Little plates for a little table makes it feel like a tea party

Seating and repurposed decor

Bar

Furniture offcuts, airline trolleys and railway sleepers repurposed

Crates for shelving

Wooden fruit bowls for lamp shades

Tapas style menu from 12 noon, Monday – Friday

Tips lady

A sign of understanding for the ladies in the unisex toilet

Bill $73.40 for three. Records albums ready to play

End of laneway advertising — although I think it's probably overlooked quite easily

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Misschu: Vietnamese, Darlinghurst (10 Nov 2010)

1/150 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

http://www.misschu.com.au

Dumplings with MissRude

This hole-in-the-wall hawker style eatery certainly has it's fans who enjoy alfresco dining in uncomfortable and awkward seating — I felt like an oversized kid in a primary school classroom. Everything is served in take away containers which probably isn't the best for the environment but I guess makes it a lot easier for Misschu cleaning up. After perusing the menu I started with a Peking Duck pancake ($2.20 each) which is pretty small but had a decent amount of flavour and the meat was moist although sadly you probably won't find any crispy skin. Misschu is probably best known for their Fresh Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls since their tag line is 'queen of rice paper rolls' and the decent sized Tiger Prawn & Green mango ($6 for 2) were tightly packed with ingredients. The medium sized precooked and marinated prawns were flavoursome but only one of the rolls seemed to have the green mango — not sure what happened to the other.

Just as many varieties of Steamed dumplings ($5 for 3) exist on the menu and I tried the Scallop and Prawn. There was evidence of small bits of scallop and prawn although it's a shame it's served in a takeaway box already sauced because I assume it wouldn't stand up well with travel time before going a bit soggy. While still a bit hungry I was tempted to try the Deep fried spring rolls ($5 for 4) and got up to order them from the busy yet friendly guy behind the counter. Unfortunately shortly upon returning to my table where I left my bag and bottle of water a woman (I assume the owner Miss Chu, pictured above wearing blue) had accommodated my seat with her business laptop. After explaining the situation she was very reluctant to move and implied they were two tables together and subsequently slightly moved them ever so slightly apart. The table next to her had even less leg room against the wall so my only option was to pick up my stuff and move to another table without any apology or customer acknowledgement. Since my visit I've heard more complaints about the rudeness of a particular woman which I assume is the same one — it seems the customer is never right at Misschu's establishment.

Once relocated and after a little wait I collected my Prawn and Crab net spring rolls which were served in a take away box with a small bottle of dipping sauce. It was a bit awkward to eat with the sauce since you couldn't actually dip the spring roll in the sauce but had to pour it over, and thus over the other spring rolls. I enjoyed the crispy net texture but they were a bit oily so a couple of napkins were definitely necessary. I'd be curious to try their King Prawn or Traditional Pork Hanoi if I visit again although my preference for a quick tasty meal with nicer seating and decor would be the ever popular Phamish around the corner and up Palmer Street (but only open for dinner).

Other food blog reviews:

• TWO-KG

• One Bite More#1, One More Bite#2

• Does My Bomb Look Big In This?

• kat did whaaat?!

• The Spotted Pufferfish

• The Sydney Tarts

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Specialise in bite sized snacks, Decent variety of rice paper rolls and steamed dumplings, Fairly reasonable prices but can add up quickly, Catering available

CONS: Very uncomfortable and awkward seating, Near busy traffic of William Street, One of the staff lacked good customer service, Everything served in take away containers

MUST TRY: Possibly the Green Papaya Salad and Wagyu Beef Pho next time to compare

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