Sydney « Eat. Travel. Bliss.

We called and made a reservation for dinner at Istana on a Saturday night, and we were very glad when we arrived that we had done that, with people queuing at the door, and a full restaurant. Istana is ordinary decor-wise, with table-cloths and decor looking a bit dated.

We had planned to order the Hainanese chicken, a curry prawns dish and a curry eggplant, wanting a few spicy things. The fellow taking our order said that the Shangtung chicken, with chicken rice, would be better. All a bit funny the way that happened, but we were willing to give it a try.

Here are the prawns we started with, cut in half lengthwise, still in their shells:

They were tasty, tasting of chili and a fish-sauce mix. Maybe it’s just my background, but I didn’t so much enjoy the prawn shells still being on, extracting the prawns from the shells. Seemed a bit fiddly.

The eggplant tasted just how it looks in the photo, not like what we expected, which was for it to be in a curry sauce.

The dishes so far were so-so, in my view. It was the next dishes that I loved. The chicken rice was so full of flavour I would be happy to just eat that and nothing else. This is not a good photo, but I have included it because it does show the glistening of the rice:

The flavour was full of chicken, edged with lemongrass. Oh so good.

The photo at the top shows the Shantung chicken, deliciously tender, but with the skin crispy. Served with a sauce which was a little sweet, and vinegary, with some chili. Also very good.

In summary, then, some elements of the experience were ordinary, but I’d go back for the Shangtung chicken and the chicken rice. Maybe some of others would also be as good.

Details

Here are the details about Istana at time of publishing this post. Call them for current details.

Web site	Istana doesn’t have a web site yet.
Address	Shop 15a, 230-238 Pennant Hills Rd, Thornleigh, NSW 2120
Phone	(02) 9481 8855
Menu	Malaysian Chinese, mains $20-35

So, where is your favourite Malaysian restaurant?

On what turned out to be the wettest March day in 27 years (in Sydney), I went with a friend to the Armory Wharf Cafe, Newington for lunch. Before going there it looked like the clouds were clearing, and in changing over cars to get there, we left our umbrellas behind. Bad move. By the time we got to the Armory Wharf it was bucketting down again. We sat in the car for about 20 minutes, thinking the rain was going to ease up, but alas, it didn’t. We decided to to make a dash for the Cafe, getting totally saturated in the short distance between the car park and the Cafe!

Armory Wharf Cafe

That was our view from inside the shelter of the Cafe. You can see the big raindrops against the dark wood.

The Armory Wharf Cafe is set on the site of Building 13 of Newington Armory. The Armory stored armaments from 1882 until about 1961.

Situated on the armory wharf, the Cafe has 180-degree views of Parramatta River. It would all look quite different on a sunny day!

The staff were friendly and super helpful, always wanting to serve us.

The Cafe building is architecturally interesting, playing on the military theme, with open air areas for better weather! With the rain I didn’t get to take more photos of the building or surrounds. It really does take advantage of the water views.

The Cafe has an interesting menu, with influences from around the world. My friend ordered the pork with green rice, a mango chutney, and roasted cherry tomatoes:

I ordered the Middle Eastern lamb confit with a cucumber, tomato and chickpea salad:

That was light and tasty. And then for dessert my friend ordered the lime creme brulee:

And I had the black forest mousse, with a light chocolate mousse at the bottom, cherries on top, served with a lady finger biscuit:

That was light, not too rich. I’d like to go back, and try another meal there sometime, on a sunny day. It would be great for breakfast, looking out across the water.

A bit about the history of the Armory

The Armory is spread over about 52 hectares on the edge of the Parramatta River in the suburb now called Newington. Newington was created during the Sydney Olympics to house the athletes, on one side of the Sydney Olympic Park.

The land where the Armory is located was granted to the Blaxland family in 1807. As noted above, it became a place for storing armaments from 1882 until about 1961. The Navy departed the Armory site in 1999, in the final stages of preparation of the area for the Olympic Games.

The Sydney Olympic Park web site has more details about the Naval history of the Armory.

Venues now available at the Amory include an Art Gallery, an Amphitheatre, and a Theatre. There is an open plan studio with space for up to 21 artists.

ArtExpress at the Armory Gallery

At one side of the Armory Grounds, you can walk through a rail tunnel to Building 18, which used to be an armaments store, and now has been set up as an art gallery. The current exhibition is ArtExpress, art created by high school students. The works there were profound, imaginative, confronting. I kept on thinking as I was looking at the incredible variety of art created that I don’t remember having anything like that level of creativity or having such a grasp on the world as these students have. Well worth seeing. There’s something about the location which adds to the separation of the mind from daily activities, to be free to absorb the art there.