Xiao long bao, those immaculately shaped pork dumplings bursting with steaming hot porky broth, are perhaps the most famous type of dumpling in Sydney. Din Tai Fung offers the holy grail of pork dumplings, with each crafted to a precise weight and diameter and filled with tasty pork marbled with gelatinous bits, have mouths drooling and queues forming at every joint. 

The lesser known relative to these dumplings are pan-fried pork dumplings, brimming with a similar filling and hot soup but with a fluffier bun wrapper and a bottom fried to golden crispy perfection. These are bigger, meater, more filling - call it the plump, loving auntie of xiao long bao.

Of all the carbohydrates in the world - oats, rice, bread, noodles.... Can you guess what my favourite carb is? It starts with an N and ends with oodles. Yep, oodles of noodles!! Whether it be slippery translucent rice noodles, chewy wheaten egg noodles or thin squiggly vermicelli, nothing tickles my tastebuds more than a big bowl of noodles. Pure bliss for me is slurping away at a pile of noodles, never failing to get a little bit of sauce or soup on my shirt every time in the midst of all my enjoyment. They are my absolute favourite comfort food. Of all time. Full stop.

If the title exists, I am a noodlie. Among my favourites are beef brisket noodle soup (with tendon, of course), Pho, vermicelli salads and Tsukemen. Tsukemen is a type of dipping noodle, similar to ramen but served cold with a small bowl of soup of the side. This style of ramen is typically eaten in the warmer months in Japan as it is more refreshing and less heavy than traditional ramen, which is why I love it so much. To eat Tsukemen, you take a few strands of noodle, dip them into the soup and slurp them up. This way the noodles stay al dente and you can appreciate their wonderfully chewy texture, as well as control the amount of soup you get in each mouthful. All the deliciousness of ramen, but without feeling too hot or heavy afterwards!

Living in the inner west, I don't really get a lot of opportunities to try all the wonderful eateries I often read about and drool over in the inner city and city. That's why I love weekends and the holidays, because that's when I really get to go out and eat. I recently had a course in Darlinghurst and got really really excited because over the three days I'd be there, I'd get to go out every day for lunch and try all the places I'd always wanted to go!

One of these places was Miss Chu, near busy William Street in Darlinghurst. This is the original Miss Chu tuckshop, which has since expanded to have numerous tuckshops in the Sydney CBD, Bondi, Manly, Melbourne and even London. Being labelled the 'Queen of Rice Paper Rolls', this small Vietnamese hawker-style eatery and takeaway shop offers both quick takeaway munchies - think rice paper and spring rolls, yum cha style dim sim and peking duck pancakes- as well as sit down noodles and salads, traditional Asian desserts and drool-worthy tropical beverages.