♡ Kimmie Bites | Food blog, Sydney Australia ♡: street food

Belly Bao, Newtown

"Street food but not as grandma remembers it" 👵🥟

Hey all! In today's post we're going to talk about Belly Bao which I went to recently with some of the girls and we all LOVED it. Huge thank you to Terry for finally taking us here.

Belly Bao is located in the heart of Newtown and features so many innovative dishes all made from bao dough! These dishes include regular bao, dessert bao, "baogers", "bao noodles" and Belly Bao fried chicken.

Just right next door to Blooming Lotus!

It was a very warm and quiet Friday afternoon, perfect for us to find a really nice seat near the back.

I really like the inside of Belly Bao which is so quirky and tropical! It has such a fun, relaxed and comfortable feel that I feel like you could do anything from taking the family out to having date night here. It completely helps that the service is so welcoming and friendly.

We're handed the menu but Terry who has been here multiple times ends up ordering for the lot of us, with the exception of the regular bao.

How great is it that there is a trusty bottle of Sriracha on each table!

Coke $4.50

A glass bottle of Coca Cola with a separate glass full of crushed ice.

We only manage to have a quick chat while waiting for our food before our dishes begin to arrive one by one. Great timing!

Curry Cheese Fries $9

While their regular fries are served with a delicious truffle aioli, these curry cheese fries sounded much too good to pass up! No regrets ordering this as well. The golden shoestring fries are similar to that of Mcdonalds but it's the Japanese curry sauce, melted cheese and finely chopped white onion that completely elevate it all. Yum, yum and yum!

Four BBC (Belly Bao fried Chicken) Wings $14

w/ salted egg $3

These chicken wings were HUGE. And so freaking good. The outside is super crunchy, while the inside is hot, juicy and tender. We opted for the salted duck egg add-on and there was such a generous amount spread on each chicken wing. The egg is very creamy, savoury and rich and together with the fried chicken creates such an umami flavour! The wings can definitely stand alone without the add-on, but if you're feeling like a little more indulgence - do it.

Spicy Bao Noodles $10

w/ Pork belly $3

This blows my mind so much! One, because these are thin flat noodles made from the same dough as regular bao!!! And Two, they are so delicious!!! I got a little worried about the spiciness since I'm not great with that kind of stuff. And I admit it was spicy and I did reach for my drink, but it was so good I had to keep having more. The sate chilli and soy sauce is so more-ish. We added extra pork belly but without that, it's also great how the dish is completely vegan. It's a huge serve so really excellent to share.

P.s. I love my friends for looking out for my coriander-hating ass. If you look in the background, Terry picked off all the coriander while telling me she has my back 😍

L to R: Slow braised beef short rib bao $7

Soft shell crab bao $8

2 x Crackling roast pork belly bao $7

Wooooow, BAO DOWN BITCHES. This is where it happens, this is what we thought we were just coming to Belly Bao for! These hand held bao are pretty big. Nearly the size of one of my small hands, and completely generous on the filling.

Fiona and Anne-mary shared three while the bao I opted to try was the Slow Braised Beef Short Rib bao. I would've loved to try the pork belly but I'm always up for trying something different to get more interesting angles. This bao came with additional kimchi, spring onion and sesame mayo. The first thing I noticed was it didn't hold very well at all. From the moment it was set on the table, the middle of the bao where it folds over had already begun to split. This was not made any better by the shredded beef rib meat which was quite saucy/wet therefore making the rest of the bao soggy and fall apart faster. The beef itself was quite dry despite being saucy but I did like the sweet flavours it had. The kimchi and mayo I couldn't really taste. The bao wasn't that soft either compared to others I have had in the past. Overall I wouldn't order this one again. Anne and Fiona really enjoyed their bao though so maybe it's just the beef that doesn't live up to the expectations.

In the end, I really enjoyed dining at Belly Bao. With the exception of the braised beef bao, everything that I had was extremely amazing and I personally felt it was such great value for the price. I also loved the relaxed atmosphere of the place because it made it easy to catch up with my friends and I felt like I could take my boyfriend and family here too if I wanted to.

Hope everyone will try Belly Bao sometime, so worth it! xx

Edit 3/01/2019: I also went to Belly Bao for the annual 2018 Sydney Food Blogger's Christmas Party and tried some more amazing food! Featuring an except from the post to cover more reviews of this place hehe

Baoger $13

This, I truly believe LIVES UP to the HYPE! It is one of the best burgers I have ever had. It has a juicy beef patty, melted cheese, crunchy radish pickles, onion, crispy lettuce and sauce all sandwiched perfectly between soft and fluffy bao buns. Nessy Eater and I could not stop commenting on how good this was while we were scoffing it down!

L: Yuzu Splash (Mocktail) $9

R: Jungle Juice (Mocktail) $9

I had the Yuzu Splash and it was nice and refreshing but it didn't have the strong signature taste of yuzu which was disappointing to me! It could also be a bit sweeter. Vanessa had the Jungle Juice and it was reaaallly good. It had such a good pandan flavour and from memory it also had chewy green jelly at the bottom.

Later on in the evening, Priscilla/foodpornnation also ordered the third mocktail Rose Lychee Tea with an extra splash of vodka. Not only was it so pretty but it tasted amazing. Highly recommend those!

The Gaytime Bao $9

Deep fried bao with a whole golden gaytime, bananas and caramel sauce drizzled all over. Really delicious and I would 10/10 eat again... but it was a bit awkward having to eat this super carefully with a knife and fork because of the deep fried bao

A dish that they bought out for us to try was these Mango and coconut sticky rice nigiri shaped canapes! So good, love how creative this is!

I think this was also a new dish they were experimenting with. Duck pancakes. The pancake was a bit thicker than I preferred but every thing was still really good!

TL;DR:
Price: Affordable
Quality: Really great
Service: Friendly
Ambience: Quirky, tropical and relaxed

Belly Bao

184 King Street

Newtown NSW 2042

Open Tuesday - Sunday

Tues-Thurs: 5PM-10PM

Fri: 11:30AM-3PM, 5PM-11PM

Sat: 11:30AM-11PM

Sun: 11:30AM-9:30PM

2 comments

, by Kim

Campsie

Penang Hawker, Campsie

There's so many times when I miss working in Campsie. Not the job of course, but the people, the suburb and the amazing variety of food. The thing about Campsie is that is has such a nice 'village' feel. All the shops from restaurants, grocers, fashion, variety, healthcare, banks are situated along the main Beamish Street and it makes the community feel very close knit. At least that's what I recall a patient telling me and I definitely could not agree more.

It was around a few months in that I discovered Penang Hawker while doing a morning coffee run and decided I had to try it. Since then I introduced it to colleagues, friends and my dad who all love it just as much as I do.

For Fathers Day in the weekend that has just passed, my dad insisted we have dinner at this place just so that he could introduce my mum and sister to it. I think it's his new favourite and local Malaysian restaurant.

It was super busy on this particular night but as we arrived a little later, we were lucky to get a nice table in the back! The above picture is from the last time I went here with my dad though, which was for an early dinner around 5pm.

As you can see, the inside is very cosy and humble with few scattered decorations and a wall full of pictures and artwork reminiscent of life in Malaysia. According to Broadsheet the story of how Penang Hawker came to be is a simple and uncomplicated one. Owner, Jenny Tan couldn't find a Malaysian restaurant in Sydney that she liked so she opened one. The menu is an assortment of her favourite foods as well as a fare of classic Chinese-Malaysian dishes you may find at any Penang hawker market. The style is entirely traditional with "no Aussie style" and I really like that.

We are handed our menu by the friendly server, who I believe is also manager. The staff are in high spirits and before we can even finish discussing what we should order they are back with lots of suggestions for us. It feels a tad pushy especially for someone as indecisive as me but as the server starts discussing Malaysian culture and Vietnamese culture with my parents, we all find ourselves warming up to the service.

Usually when I used to go here during lunch times, the service is not this upfront - it is more laid back. But on this special night, I find myself appreciating all the effort they put in to make our dining experience more fun and comfortable.

We start off with some drinks.

Left: Ribena Sprite Longan drink $4.80

Right: Bandung $3.80

Both drinks are very aesthetic and pretty. The Teh Tahrik was sold out this night so my sister went for the suggested drink. The Ribena Sprite Longan drink unfortunately just tasted like Sprite, nothing more or less.

As for the Bandung which is an evaporated milk mixed with rose cordial syrup, I love it. This is always my go-to drink whenever I can spot it on the menu. Except other Malaysian food places haven't been able to achieve this level of sweetness and deliciousness. Or colour for that matter, the colour is HIGHLIGHTER pink. Both yikes and wow. The first time I ordered it I didn't know what it was and was hoping it would be like Boon Cafe's Nohm Chompoo, but it wasn't and instead I found my new love for rose-flavoured food and drinks. So I highly recommend it, you must try this!

Not too long after our first dish came out, followed by the next and the next. Nothing I could do to stop my hungry family from digging in, but hey that's all part of the fun right 😂

Let's talk about this dish first:

Sweet Sauce Chee Cheong Fun $6.80

I LOVE this dish. I love this dish so much that in all the times I have eaten here, I still can't bring myself to order the version of this dish with curry sauce. And I also love curry. Oh man where do I begin. Okay, so this dish is an assortment of steamed rice rolls, fish balls, and tofu skin with a generous heaping of sweet sauce and fried onions. This is a very popular street food and I think nearly every Asian culture has their own version of it. But this is really delicious I tell you!

For the price, there is a lot on this plate and it's very substantial for a quick lunch. See my below pics:

Throwback to the time I was working in Lakemba and got this delivered over by Ubereats 😂 Or the time I scoffed it down during my 30 minute lunch break (even though it takes me and my short legs nearly 10 minutes to walk up the road) 😂 Now fast forward to me craving it right now as I type this post and look over the pictures 😂

So. GOOD.

Hainanese Chicken Rice Set $11.80

For this price, this rice set is honestly such a steal. Where else in Sydney can you get great food for great prices like this! The set comes with rice, a quarter of boneless Hainan style chicken, soup, and two sauces. The chicken is actually really good being really tender and quite silky (some pieces more than others) - never dry. It is placed over some light soy sauce, and cucumbers or tomatoes depending on the day. The rice and the soup are quite standard. And lastly the dipping sauces are delicious! One is a red chilli sauce which is not too hot and on the refreshing vinegary side, whereas the green one is a scallion and ginger one.

Malaysian Curry Laksa with Chicken $11.80

Such a huge and generous serving. First thing I noticed upon digging up my first bite is that there is a mix of thin vermicelli and thick hokkien noodles. I thought it might've been a mistake but on the menu it definitely indicates both will be served. I really like it because it provides such a nice range of texture. They taste awesome with the laksa and why choose when you can have both. This along with the bean sprouts, which I'm happy to say - there wasn't too many, is all so welcome. The bean sprouts soak up the creamy laksa broth and retain a great crunch. Chicken was so tender and juicy and loved the addition of tofu puffs and fish cake to the mix. The laksa broth was very hot, creamy and more-ish. Only thing is that I wish it was a little more spicy, but other than that - perfect!

Beef Rendang $16.80

Such a huge plate of beef rendang! This dish is a family favourite so I had to order it. The beef is very tender, juicy and full of rich and intense flavours from the aromatic coconut sauce. Also a bit of heat. Nothing not to love about this!

Steamed Rice $2 each

Roti Canai Set $7.80

Half way through our dishes, my sister declares that she wants to try the roti so we grab two of these plain roti canai sets. They don't come with sambal or anything, just a small and plain bowl of curry sauce for dipping. I think there were other options but I can't recall right now.

Anyway these roti were really good. I watched my sister scoff down an entire plate of it before trying a piece myself. While they are not fluffy or airy, they are very fresh, golden and buttery. They are also not too flakey either but I don't mind because the edges are nice and crispy and hold everything together.

Penang Fried Koay Teow $11.80

Last but not least is this beauty right here. I legit think this might actually be the best char kway teow I have ever had in Sydney because nothing else quite comes to mind. The noodles come steaming hot, fresh off the wok and has the most amazing fragrant and smokey wok-hei (wok breath). Again there is not too much bean sprouts, and a generous scatter of fried egg, green shallots, fish cake, prawn and Chinese sausage which my mum and sister really enjoy.

A look around the restaurant reveals this is one of Penang Hawker's most popular dishes. Even the table of two next to us both have ordered one each of this same dish and were happily chowing it down.

Of course even between four people we didn't manage to finish this huge feast so we asked for some take-away boxes. I thought it was really nice how they didn't charge us for the boxes. And even nicer that the server came back out to sneakily gift us dessert. But what was over the top was when my mum joked "Only one box?" and he snuck us a second box. Thank you so much! 🙈

Malaysian Soya Pudding with Longan

Not sure how much this is as it is not on their regular menu. However I'm sure its extremely reasonable as everything else has been. The pudding itself has such a nice and silky smooth texture. The addition of longan gives it a refreshing and sweet taste. Such a great way to end the meal!

And before I end this post, I also tried another of their dessert on different occasion:

Tau Foo Fah with Ginger Syrup $5.80

A classic Asian dessert. This silky tofu pudding comes with a warm and sweet ginger syrup that pairs perfectly. If you have never had tofu pudding, you need to try this. There is also the option for gula melaka instead of ginger syrup. But I really recommend the ginger syrup because it is just as sweet and as my mum says, ginger makes you feel warm from the inside.

So there we have it. My extensive review of Penang Hawker. A big question I have received lately is how does this compare to the other Malaysian restaurants in Campsie.. or mainly, Albee's Kitchen - one of Sydney's most beloved Malaysian restaurants which is literally only two doors down. Well, I can't say I've been there but my workmates and family strongly insist this 110% is much better. A second review coming your way as well as that for the 'other Malaysian restaurants' mentioned above!

All I can say to end this post is that I really love Penang Hawker because I feel like they serve amazing food at affordable prices. The location is great for me as well but for anyone wishing to go here, it is only less than a 5 minute walk from the station. It is also worth mentioning that they open at 5am - 7am most days for an early breakfast crowd!

TL;DR:
Price: Affordable
Quality: Fresh and great food
Service: Friendly
Ambience: Cosy, humble, can get busy at times

Penang Hawker

275 Beamish Street

Campsie NSW 2194

Open 7 days a week

Mon-Fri: 5AM-7AM, 11AM-9:30AM

Sat: 5AM-7AM, 9:30AM-9:30PM

Sun: 9:30AM-9:30PM

2 comments

, by Kim

cafe food

Boon Cafe at Jarern Chai Asian Grocer, Sydney

Located along Pitt Street right by the area of Haymarket that is considered "Thai town" is Jarern Chai Asian Grocer's Boon Cafe. Every other time I've walked past this place I literally had no idea that it was THE "Boon Cafe" that my sister keeps mentioning I should go to. I honestly thought it was just a coffee stop within a Thai grocer. Which pretty much sums it up except they also serve a large menu full of delicious Thai cuisine!

Right after watching Cirque du Soleil's Kooza with my favourite 언니, Anna we literally began wandering the streets of Surry Hills for some dinner. We had a first choice but upon arriving there it was so crowded so back to the CBD we went. I mentioned I had seen this place on Instagram and that was good enough for both of us to scuttle in. I didn't even know Boon Cafe had a dinner service!

The outside of the Cafe & Grocer

The grocery section is full of amazing goodies!! I really enjoyed looking through it because there are so many different things (specifically, Thai food) that I have never seen before and that I can't get in my local Asian grocer. These include sweets at the counter, and packaged meals in the cold display fridge. I spotted some duck with sticky rice, yuuuumm!!!

The cafe section is located to the left of the entrance so Jarern Chai is split into two. We feel so lucky that we were able to get a nice table by the window because it began filling up after we sat down!

The decor is very cosy and adorable. There's a lot of quirky things such as the bike on the wall and the interesting display above the counter.

Cutie!

Service is friendly and fast. We're first served the table water and I have to mention that the bottle is so gorgeous. We're then handed a menu and this is when we discover that they have such an extensive menu. Overwhelmed with choice!! The kitchen is busy cooking a bunch of dishes and the smell is so amazing. As this is in a grocer, we take comfort in knowing that all our dishes are going to have very very fresh ingredients.

The menu has A LOT of pictures and they are all very pretty and mouth-watering. We were almost tempted to order one of everything, except prior to Kooza we both had already eaten lunch. So maybe we were hungry but it was all in our heads? 😂

In the end we decided to share a simple pad thai because we believe it will be a great way to test how good the food is, and a green papaya salad because that is a favourite! Also likely to be our healthy intake of the day hehe.

As for drinks OOOOOKAAAY MUCH EXCITEMENT HERE...

This pink drink has stolen my heart.

Nearly ordered tea but so glad I changed my mind.

I really think about this all the time.

Nohm Chompoo (Pink Cold Milk) $4.50

I'mmmm sooooo in loooove with this. Not sure if I'm late to the trend or anything but I saw the words "pink milk" on the menu as soon as I was about to order an iced tea and immediately changed my mind. Best decision ever. Nohm Chompoo is an iced milk drink mixed with a red syrup to get the pink colour. I was under the impression it would taste like strawberries but to my surprise it tastes more like candy or caramels and it's very sweet but so delicious. Can't wait to come back and order this again!

Entree: Mhu Phing $3 each

This is a sweet pork skewer served with a sauce that tastes like vinegar and fish sauce. The pork reminds me of Vietnamese nem nuong but much more flattened out and grilled. It's very tasty and these make an awesome start to your meal!

Only thing was as soon as Anna and I grabbed out skewers, one of the waitresses came around and cleared the plate without even asking. I had barely had enough of the sauce and didn't even touch the salad leaves yet so I was very sad.

Som Dtum in Dtum Thai (Spicy green papaya salad w/ peanuts and dried shrimp) $12

This is the most basic som dtum off the menu. We're so pleased with the generous mountain-sized portion and it smells so aromatic with its fish sauce, lime and chillies. In terms of taste, the green papaya is most definitely well picked being fresh, sweet and crunchy. No off-putting bitterness. There are also peanuts, raw green beans and cherry tomatoes which are a welcome addition to the freshness party. I don't even like cherry tomatoes but I really enjoyed them in this salad as they soaked up the delicious sauce. The sauce itself isn't actually too chilli or salty and is more on the sweet side. Nonetheless it's a really good som dtum and we happily ate everything off this plate. Down to the last peanut!

Padt Thai $13

Also the most basic noodles of the menu. Just simple thin rice noodles with bean sprouts, garlic, chives, tamarind & palm sugar sauce. Very beautifully presented, almost a work of art! But the portion was very small because we are slow eaters and we went through this quite quickly. The taste is fantastic though and I'd even go as far to say that it's completely on point. There are bean sprouts mixed in with the noodles, and fresh bean sprouts on top. I really wish there was more noodles though!

😍 😍 😍

Finishing our dinner we were both SO pleased with ourselves.

Good dinner place choice, good dinner plate choice.

Not wanting to leave just yet we also opted to grab some dessert off the menu. Our first choice was the pandan custard on toast but they had run out of toast for the day so we went with the croissant. All the dessert options on the menu are so yummy sounding and accompanied by amazing pictures. They have other options like condensed milk with sugar/milo which reminds me so much of my childhood.

Pandan custard on croissant $6

A warm and large croissant that is both buttery and flakey, cut in half and spread with a generous amount of pandan custard? Yes please! Got to admit we were kind of sceptical when we had to change our order to a croissant and we were kind of worried when we saw how much custard there was on it, but all those doubts went away with our first cut and bite into the croissants. The pandan custard is so light, creamy and fragrant. It is not overly sweet and we LOVE that! Can't recommend this enough if you like dessert but you don't like that super sugary feel.

There was this hilarious moment when the waiter was serving us and he was like "OH! SPIDERMAN!" while looking past me and out the window... but all I heard was "SPIDER" so I jumped and began furiously inspecting the window for a spider. Turns out there was just a Spiderman cosplayer walking by 😂

All in all, Anna and I had the BEST experience at Boon Cafe and we feel like we also made some excellent choices with our meal. It's probably the best thing in the world to share a delicious meal with somebody you love. Thank so much to Boon Cafe for absolutely topping our night!

I highly recommend this place and have also heard it is great for coffee, and catching up with your friends for lunch. Have you guys been here? Share your experience with me if so, I'd love to know! xx

TL;DR:
Price: Decent
Quality: Fresh food with great flavours
Service: Friendly
Ambience: Busy feel but the cafe side is cosy and cute

Boon Cafe
1/425 Pitt St,
Haymarket NSW 2000

Open 7 days a week

7AM - Midnight

1 comments

, by Kim

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