My Sydney Trip – A Feast of the Senses

Posted by angie on Aug 13, 2008 in australia, review, sydney | 2 comments

On my last day in Sydney, my friends and I treated ourselves to a cultural feast of the senses. Being an enormous fan of the musical scores from the Phantom of the Opera, it was a must-see to watch the show – even if I was still a bit sick.

After visiting the Bankstown Food Festival (see previous post), Lina and I rushed down to Star City’s Lyric Theatre to watch the 2pm matinee! We were supposed to meet Maguro there, but as usual she was running late – risking the threat of lock out. *shakes head*

Anthony Warlow wasn’t performing as the Phantom due to medical advice – and was replaced by his understudies. But despite Warlow not performing, his understudy preformed magnificently so we didn’t really miss out anything at all.

What surprised all of us, including Maguro who had seen the Phantom of the Opera in the West End, was that the show was incredibly high tech – which was probably why it was in Star City and not the Opera House or any other venue.

I think the musical was almost perfect. It was almost perfect because although the acting and singing was great, sometimes the singing was slightly out of tune. I’m also not sure but I think some of the dancers were slightly out of time and not in sync by a few seconds. Despite this, I would totally recommend for everyone to see this high tech version of the Phantom of the Opera, even if you’ve already seen it before. The high tech features are totally worth it, in my opinion. It is on for a few months more, and costs approximately $50 for full-time students or $110 for adults.

Watch it or else I’ll make sure the chandelier comes down on you!

After the magnificent show, Lina made a mad dash back to work and left Maguro and I to our own devices. Amazingly, I remembered how to get to Cockle Bay Harbour from Star City. But what I found hilarious was that our directionally challenged friend took out a map from her pocket to try and find out what way to go.

As it was my last night in Sydney, I wanted to catch the ferry as I hadn’t done it this time around. Unfortunately it was a total nightmare. Not only was the ferry 10-20 minutes late, but the ferry which was unloading passengers decided not to pick up any passengers. I’m not sure it would have made a difference to get a couple of people on the boat instead of making them wait for the next boat to arrive though. I guess it just wasn’t supposed to be.

Walking off my anger/disappointment, we ended up at Liverpool Street’s Spanish Quarter, where we dined at Casa Asturiana. Casa Asturiana is a modern two-level Spanish restaurant which specialises in Asturian cuisine. Their menu consists of a tapas menu, house specialities and mains, and desserts.

As Maguro wasn’t that hungry, we ordered a 5 tapas – Baby Eggplant, Tortilla Espanola, a small Spanish Salad, Pulpo A La Plancha, and Pinchito De Plancha. 5 dishes for 2 people may seem like overdoing it, but tapas is the traditional way to sample Spanish food in small portions.

The Spanish Salad ($11) came out first, and I think Maguro was quite disappointed by it. The salad was basically sliced tomatoes, red onions, and olives, with a dressing of pimiento, olive oil, and vinegar. The salad was pretty average, and could have done with a little bit more dressing. I didn’t know how much the salad cost, but now that I do, I’m mystified why one or two sliced tomatoes with olives and a bit of dressing cost that much.

Next came the Tortilla Espanola and the Baby Eggplant. The Tortilla Espanola $9.50) which is a Spanish omelette created from potatoes, onions, and eggs. Now, I don’t normally eat eggs but I felt that this dish was edible. It sort of looked like and tasted like an egg quiche but without the pastry.

The Baby Eggplant ($9) was 3 pieces of a large eggplant that was lightly battered and fried until golden. This dish was ok, but a bit too oily as I could see the light glistening in the oil.

 

After this was the Pulpa a la Plancha and the Pinchito de Pollo. The Pulpo a la Plancha ($13) was barbecued octopus with a slice of lemon on the side. Unfortunately the octopus was overcooked and thus very rubbery.

Fortunately, the Pinchito de Pollo ($10) was far better than the barbecued octopus dish. The Pinchito de Pollo was 2 skewers of chicken, pimiento, and onions. I think the chicken was slightly over done, but hey, at least it wasn’t burnt!

Maguro and I both agree that we wouldn’t rush to visit Casa Asturiana again. I don’t think it was particularly very good value for money. Hopefully the other 4 restaurants in the Spanish Quarter are far better than this one!

On Friday and Saturday nights the restaurant has flamenco dancers and guitarists, but we must have missed them on our way to have dessert at the world’s 2nd only Lindt Chocolate Cafe. But I ended up kicking myself as I didn’t bring my WYD Pilgrim Pass or my official WYD Sydney Travel Guide book thing as there was a special offer for WYD Pilgrims. Nooo! *kicks myself again*

We ordered a dark chocolate tasting degustation for 1 ($18.50) and a Hot Chocolate Lava Cake ($13). Ordinarily, I would not have ordered so much as a semi-lactose intolerant person, but I felt like I was doing it for the cause.

The Hot Chocolate Lava Cake was a plate sprinkled with icing sugar, with a muffin with hot ganache pouring out of it, and a spoon of vanilla bean ice cream. This cake which is new to the menu was fairly average compared to cakes I’ve had that are similar to it, as I felt that the cake itself was a bit of a let down.

Thankfully, the dark chocolate tasting plate for 1 was fantastic. The plate is enough to share between two… unless you’re an absolute chocaholic! Plated up for our delight was a dark chocolate truffle, dark chocolate nut pieces, chocolate ice cream, dark chocolate topping, and a chocolate cake. OMG it was so good! Ice cream in Sydney is actually pretty bad – so I was ecstatic to find a place that actually serves good ice cream. I vote this dish item a huge “YES!” from me!

Casa Asturiana
77 Liverpool Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9264 1010

Lindt Chocolat Cafe
Shop 104 – 105 Cockle Bay Wharf
Darling Harbour NSW 2000
(02) 9267 8064