Walking Food Tour of Sydney - First Time Trying Xi'an Cuisine and Indulging on Japanese Sweet & Savoury Treats

Good evening fellow Steemians. I've been really fascinated with trying Xi'an cuisine for a while now and I found out that there was a very popular Xi'an restaurant that recently opened so of course we had to go!

I thought the Steemit community might be interested in seeing what other Asian food Sydney has to offer so I decided to turn it into a bit of a walking food tour. We tried a bit of everything from Xi'an, to Japanese street takoyaki, delicate Japanese sweets from Uncle Tetsu and then back home to my mums for some home-made  Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe/pancake).

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It was quite a miserable day in Sydney today so not many people were out, usually this strip is quite busy - especially at night but it looked like a ghost town this afternoon.

Yay, we're here - Biang Biang! Specialising in food from the Shaanxi province where Xi'an is the capital. It's a small-ish place with about 10-12 tables but nice and open although it was a bit chilly today so we sat inside.

The menu is available on multiple screens which are bright, easy to read and luckily for me, in English too :)

First up is the pulled pork burger called Rou Jia Mo aka the Chinese "hamburger". Inside looks simple but it's slow-cooked, very tender pork that's been flavoured with a mix of cumin, cloves, star anise and ingredients that you wouldn't usually associate with typical Chinese food but the province of Shaanxi has very unique cuisine. The meat is contained in a crusty, round flatbread. 

I give the burger an 8/10 - I really enjoyed it! The pork had a great depth of flavour, wasn't dry and complimented the bread nicely. I would say the bread was just a little too hard, just past the point of being nicely crispy. 

Next up is cold skin noodles in garlic sauce aka Liang Pi. These are chewy noodles served with bean sprouts, chilli and garlic sauce. I quite enjoyed these but they tasted even better when eaten with the Rou Jia Mo. 

The star dish of the day had arrived!! Biang Biang noodles with stewed pork. There was a generous serving of chilli, cubes of potato and some shallots.

Mixing to combine all the ingredients together was the final step and then we're ready to eat. It was 10/10!! This was by far my favourite dish of the meal. It had thick, wide hand-made noodles with just the right amount of chew and tenderness. The chilli oil combined with the pulled pork clung to the noodles and it was just a really satisfying, comfort type of food. 

We decided to wash the oilyness down with an interesting combination of Oolong Tea + Cream Cheese

It came in a cute cup that had one spout for the straw and one spout where you can remove the love-heart cap and drink it directly from this spout.

Next stop, TamoYaki!

TamoYaki offers a variety of takoyaki including the traditional giant octopus but other more interesting choices like kranksy and cheese, soft shell crab and unagi. 

We chose soft shell crab and the giant octopus 

To be honest, these weren't great - the outside skin was too thick, not crispy enough and the quality of the ingredients inside were not great either. Probably could've skipped this but I always wanted to try it so oh well.

What better way to rectify this situation than with some delicious Japanese sweet treats from...UNCLE TETSU!

Uncle Tetsu is world famous for their cheesecake which is unbelievably light, fluffy and moist. They've now expanded their offerings to include chocolate, honey, matcha flavoured cheesecakes, baked cheese tarts, madelines and a whole dessert menu of ice creams, cakes and apple pies. 

The world famous cheesecake and the other 2 alternatives.

Baked cheese tarts

You can get a sneak peek of their production facilities through the large glass windows

They've actually got a separate cafe where you can sit down and enjoy all these treats and more from a dedicated cafe called the Japanese Angel Garden

So off we went to the Angel Garden! 

They had a couple of their signature cakes on display

...and the sweet treat I was craving...

Matcha baked cheese tarts - what sight to behold. Luckily there was glass between myself and this tray otherwise I would have eaten ALL OF THEM!

They also had fresh apple pies on offer

We decided to be sensible and order only 1x matcha tart and 1x mango and apple tea cake

Look at the gooey inside centre - yum!! The flavour was absolutely spot on, very authentic matcha tasting and the freshly baked crust was the perfect accompaniment to the rich, gooey centre.

We were getting pretty full at this point so we just walked around so I could show you guys a few other cool shops such as this one that makes choux cakes in the shape of animals. Each animal represents a different flavour.

We decided to head home as my mum was waiting for us as she had made banh xeo which is a Vietnamese crepe that's very thin and filled with pork, sometimes prawn pieces and bean sprouts to be eaten with fresh greens, pickles and dipped in nuoc mam (fish sauce dip).

(Yes strangely this piece actually looks like Australia - completely unintentional but amusing all the same!)

Phew! Sorry guys that post was longer than I thought but I really wanted to share all the amazing food I ate today and to think this is only about 1% of the variety of Asian food we have in Sydney. I feel so lucky to live in a city that is so culturally diverse!! 

If you guys have read all the way down to the bottom - THANK YOU! Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know which dish you would have loved to try :)

@phamished xx