panda & cakes

cute blog award

2012-01-28T10:57:00.003+11:00

Thanks to the lovely Mashi for awarding me with the Cute Blog Award. You've become a close friend and confidante and well, it all started with this blog!

What is your go to make up product?
Moisturiser

What was your favourite trend of 2011?
Macarons! Please let there be more Macarons in 2012.

What is your favourite dessert?
Any form of tarte tartin.

Favourite colour?
Blue

What is your middle name?
MW

What was the last song you listened to?
Lucky - Colbie Callait

Cats or dogs?
Dogs

Tell us something about yourself that you haven't told us on your blog.
I've lost count of the number of cookbooks I have (clearly I have too many!)

Here are the rules:

Link back to the person who awarded you
Answer award questions
Tell us something about yourself you haven't told us in your blog yet
Award as many blogs as you think are worthy of this award
Make sure you let those you award that they have received the Cute Blog Award

I'm awarding the following blogs:
Sweets by Vicky
Spoon, Forks & Chopsticks
Foodie Pop
Char post
Tea Thymes
Geebambino

Thanks for always popping by my blog and leaving such lovely messages. I love your blogs (even if I'm a little quiet when it comes to leaving messages in return).

mt. fuji sushi @ falcon st., crows nest

2012-01-24T22:52:00.000+11:00

So life has been treating me well, albeit keeping me a little busy. I've also started the year with a resolution to cook more and eat out less and so far, I can't say that I've had much progress but I'm trying. I mean well though which I think counts for something. If anything, have cut back on the elaborate meals and finding some cheaper local haunts which are well worth their weight in gold.

Google had Mount Fuji Sushi in Crows Nest with a 4 out of 5 star rating; the boy and I figured we couldn't go wrong if the eating population of Sydney had given it such a good rating. Snapped up one of the tables in the back (there's only half a dozen or so of them) and ordered a selection of items across the menu.

Agedashi tofu arrived promptly at the table - tasty and a good sized serving to whet the appetite.

Fried dumplings - crispy on the outer and very tasty on the inner.

Large Sushi Plate. The sushi pieces are a tad small so treat this one more as an entree rather than main.

Chicken Terayaki - dainty trips of chicken with a good sized portion of rice accompanying. Some places really pile on the rice and you end up getting full on just the rice alone.

The boy is always full of expression and makes me laugh.

Pork Tonkatsu with the restaurant's special sauce - very crispy and succulent.

It seemed like a lot when we were ordering but being a late dinner for us this particular Friday night, we demolished all the dishes quite comfortably. The place appears quite popular with people popping in and out to dine in and takeaway. They only have 3 staff running the entire restaurant and I'm suitably impressed by how efficient and on the ball they are. Extremely friendly, prompt service and great tasting food. Prices are ever so reasonable also!

hungry duck @ queen st., berry

2012-01-16T22:11:00.000+11:00

With the craziness that is life, I almost forgot about this blog of mine. It's been there by my side for the last 5 years but there's days when I have the memory of a fish and keep eating and 'floating' around and well, thanks mum for reminding me today that it was time to update my blog.

Continuing where I left off, Berry was really a godsend of a holiday over the Christmas & New Year break. So very relaxing, just away from everything, friendly people in town, delicious food and a few nifty little purchases here and there. The boy did do a bit of research prior and booked us a dinner at the Hungry Duck in advance and well if perchance you are visiting Berry, I would recommend that you get yourself a booking too!

Crumbed quail eggs - crunchy tasty morsels.

The boy was plagued with a bit of a stomache bug but insomuch that he still managed to eat all the food that came to the table.

Raw Wagyu Beef & Avocado, topped with roe.

Duck Spring Rolls with honey sesame sauce and chili ketchup. A few tables around us all ordered this dish and I have to say, it's extremely tasty but watch that squirt of hot oil as you bite into it; best to nibble at it slowly.

Steamed kingfish with vinegared chili broth and lemongrass. The broth is somewhat drowned in chilli oil and looks like it could be hot but it really isn't and drinking the broth actually doesn't make you that thirsty.

The most interesting and most unusual dish of the night would have to be this one - Alpaca tempura. We learnt through our waiter that night that chef David Campbell has been working in conjunction with the local Alpaca farm to get this meat on the table - the meat has a really subtle flavour with the texture in between pork and chicken; very tender and well worth a try.

Mushroom & Asparagus Stir Fry - tad towards the salty side.

Chilli Chocolate Tart.

Rhubarb Tarte Tartin.

Compared to the boy, I was back to good eating form after having the same stomach bug the few days before. Happily digging away into my tarte tartin which I think is such a tasty (and fatty) French dessert.

We had lovely service that night and all the dishes we had were ones that I would order again. Given I were to go again, I'd probably stick to ordering a la carte. The table next to us ordered the banquet (there is a 5 course and a 9 course option) and whilst the 9 course looked considerably filling, I think ordering a la carte is probably better value and you get to choose all the dishes you actually want to try. And in the end it is Asian food and something about bits and pieces of food doesn't come across to me as the correct way to eat Asian food - but that's probably just me being pedantic and being Asian.

berry woodfired sourdough bakery @ prince alfred st., berry

2012-01-04T22:04:00.000+11:00

Is it odd to sit there with a loaf of fresh bread and keep eating and eating it until it's gone? And what about thinking about all the condiments that you can have with fresh bread whilst you're eating it - a generous slap of fresh butter, a generous dip of olive oil, freshly made jams, a lathering of peanut butter or even a slight smear of vegemite and butter is occasionally something that the heart desires. I really do love eating bread.

Woodfired sourdough served with olive oil and salt at the Berry Woodfired Sourdough Bakey.

It's a busy little place here, waited about 15 minutes to be seated at a table.

A somewhat lighter lunch than usual - a duck leg salad.

A slightly more filling Poached Chicken Salad.

Oh - a third course of dessert at lunch is often something I think about too. Who says you can only have dessert after dinner?

A must visit in Berry!

After the Berry Tea Shop, this is my second favourite place in Berry. It's a great place to rest your legs for the afternoon in the comfort of delicious food. You can also get baked goods on the go but note they sell out earlier so get in there quick if you can!

the berry tea shop @ albert st., berry

2012-01-02T22:45:00.000+11:00

Hello there readers and Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, ate lots, and spent plenty of time with family and friends. I managed to do all that and picked up a slight stomach bug on the way, then passed it on to the boy but thankfully both he and I have entered the new year both well and kicking.

So much seems to have happened over the last month; a fair few friends visiting from overseas, dinner outings and catchups, a failed attempt at macarons (very sad!), friends back from holidays, the beach (finally the weather warmed up!) organising and tidying, I don't know about you, I actually feel a bit exhausted. Thankfully, the boy and I managed to squeeze in a short trip to Berry for a few days prior to the new year and had a spout of R&R, sampled plenty of local produce and watched way too many DVDs.

Let me introduce you to The Berry Tea Shop; the one shop were I walked in, sat down for a cup of tea and circled around and around the shop looking at things and nearly pulled out my credit card and bought up the whole shop. I didn't actually but I was tempted.

Scones served with jam and cream, best eaten with a cup of tea. The boy sampled the Darjeeling First Flush and I went for a pot of Madame Earl Grey. Both very lovely!

The boy thinks I put way too much cream on my scones. I don't think I put enough. There's still plenty of cream in that little dish. Should've just put it all on.

My favourite wall in the shop!

Spoke briefly to the owner at the counter (who's from the UK originally) and what a lovely shop with a lovely owner who is madly in love with his shop too! I didn't end up buying any tea (as I have a crazy amount at home which I need to really get through) but couldn't help picking up a Robert Gordon Cup & Saucer set in a floral print, a set of lace coasters and a most adorable teapot tea infuser.

I was hoping to duck back in for another cup of tea on the trip but didn't get round to it. If by chance you happen to go before I head back, say hello to the owner for me and have a cup of tea on my behalf. Ooh and do let me know what things you buy there - I would like to know!

zenq @ victoria ave., chatswood

2011-12-18T20:13:00.000+11:00

Ok, so nothing really new here. We've seen Meet Fresh and the queue for that is humungous if you go to the one in the city and well, now there's ZenQ; a dessert place offering a very similar menu. To their credit, ZenQ do offer a wider menu selection but in the end, if I were to compare the hero dishes at both places, I'd have to say that Meet Fresh do it slightly better.

Signature Dessert No. 1 - Grass Jelly with ZenQ signature q balls and pearls. I'm slightly sad that there are more q balls in there; don't ask me why, those balls hardly taste like anything but I love them and can't stop eating them.

On this particular day, the boy wasn't too impressed that I was taking yet another photo of him. Actually you can even see me in the reflection of the mirror; I'm as happy as ever!

This dish when it came to the table looked nothing like the picture on the menu - Black Sago with green tea pudding and vanilla ice cream. Would probably recommend you order with the regular sago - the black sago just reminds me of little fish eyes and doesn't really go very well with the rest of the items in the dish.

I'd been waiting awhile to check this place out (as every time I'd gone, there was always a queue). Have to say though, from what I've tried, I'd probably stick with Meet Fresh. Everything just looks sad when it comes to the table (nothing like the pictures on the menu). Maybe better luck next time!

zumbo dessert train @ the star (take 2)

2011-12-12T21:54:00.000+11:00

So I know I said I'd wait another month before I headed back to the Zumbo desert train but chance had it I was in the city, I was grabbing dinner and just happened to be grabbing dinner at the Star. It only made sense to pop back into Zumbo's to see if there were any new additions. And I can excitedly say, yes there are additions and improvements! First of all, there was no queue to get a seat on the train (but we were there at about 8pm, earlier than my previous visit), there were individual cakes on the train (making the train a lot fuller) and overall, a much larger variety of desserts on the train to select from. I continued to work my way through the list!

Peach Melba - Fresh raspberries, blood peach compote, vanilla creme Chantilly, vanilla emulsion, raspberry pistachio cake.

Ssnowmanorr - Pate a choux, bubble tea custard, lychee coconut creme legere, lychee gel, coconut crunch. Hands down my favourite Zumbo creation; such a great mix of Asian flavours and none too sweet either - I thought I would need to abandon the necktie of the Snowman which was made out of fondant but actually very palateable.

With my favourite dessert of the day!

Chocolate Coffee Brulee - Chocolate coffee brulee, chocolate sacher cake, milk emulsion and expresso melt. The shards of brulee topping ended up being to thick to eat so I left them on the plate, otherwise the coffee brulee overs a real coffee kick for the coffee fanatic.

And something for the road - a box of Macaroni Road! (available from the retail store next door to the dessert train) You will probably fall off your chair if I tell you how much it costed (well my jaw did drop a little when I asked at the counter and they told me it was $19.50, was thinking it would be closer to $10) but as you can see, curiousity killed my wallet and I bought it. Though I have to say, its awfully tasty and I'm savouring every bite!

So I've only been to the Zumbo dessert train twice but embarrassingly it seems that some of the staff recognise me from my last visit. Perhaps I'll need to prolong my next visit to keep a bit low key; I don't eat that many desserts and anyway, the record I believe is still 8 plates on the dessert train, I don't eat that much (I don't think). Anyway, great to see that the dessert train is responding to the feedback that is cropping up across the blogosphere. Look forward to my next visit and next installment of tasty delights!

shanghai stories 1938 @ victoria ave., chatswood

2011-12-11T23:06:00.000+11:00

Can it please stop raining?! Why is it even raining at this time of year?! It was on a rather rainy weekday that Mashi and I made our way over to The Concourse at Chatswood to try out one of their restaurants - Shanghai Stories 1938 (next door is a pizza place called Gusto which I'm certainly keep to try - anyone up for it?) The occasion was a belated birthday celebration for Mashi and it actually worked out to be quite a nice place for the occasion; unbeknownst to both of us, Shanghai Stories leans towards the upmarket but still being affordable and being a school day, the two of us dined like royalty on their upstairs floor which is decked out quite nicely (certainly not your average Shanghai dumpling house)

The menu features a mixture of the familiar (dumplings, pancake, noodles) but also has its fair share of fusion items (pringles, Peking Duck and Osmanthus Jelly is one of them but I had this on my second visit), family dinner dishes as well as seafood sold at market price. There's definitely all sorts to suit different budgets so assume this is what the restaurant owner has set out to offer. According to the boy, their wine list is also quite extensive and very reasonably priced too.

Snowy River Sweet Pork Ribs - this dish features on the front page of their menu (and which we also missed until the waitress kindly recommended it to us as we were having trouble deciding); it was definitely too pretty not to try and ended up being a very tasty choice.

Mixed Cold Cuts Platter - the tomato is definitely the highlight of this dish (well for me anyway, it was something new and different and the sweet taste of the tomato was not something I was expecting from eating Shanghainese food)

Sesame Pastry. Despite looking at the menu and reading about what this item was (as it was one of the highly recommended items), neither Mashi nor I were prepared for the sweet inner of this pastry, we both thought it would be savoury and personally, I do think it would've tasted better if it were savoury.

Braised fish fillet and fungus in wine sauce. I actually love this dish for the fungus and could do with it just being fungus only - but that's because I love fungus.

Soy sauce Pork Fried Rice.

Panda & Panda buns! We knew that we were going to order these ones even before we started the meal - they're too cute not to. The inner is a red bean paste and yes, they are really too cute to eat!

With a pot of tea to share between us also, we wrapped up the meal for $90. Admittedly, not the cheapest fix of Shanghainese food in Sydney or even just in Chatswood where you actually have several cheaper options. Being a special occasion and with the level of service we had that night, it was a great school night dining option. I've actually already been back for a second visit (though we sat downstairs this second time and the atmosphere is actually quite different; actually more laidback), well I guess it speaks for itself, food is solid and with such an extensive menu, it will bring you back.

coffee cake

2011-12-08T22:46:00.000+11:00

I secretly love birthdays; it doesn't even have to be my birthday, it can be anyones and I still love it. I love celebrating, I love giving presents (and of course receiving them) but most of all, I love birthday cake. For years, I've vowed to bake everyone a birthday cake for their birthday but so far I've managed in two instances, the first was for my best friend's 18th birthday and the second instance was just the other Friday where I had the day off work and baked dad his birthday cake. I'm promising myself once again that I'll make more of an effort; it really is worth it in the end.

This recipe comes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook; the very place which I'd love to visit!

Start by making a coffee essence. Put 2 tbsp instant coffee granules and 170mL water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Boil until reduced by half, then remove from the heat and leave to cool completely. Set aside a tablespoon of the essence to use in the frosting.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 450g softened unsalted butter, 450g caster sugar and cold coffee essencewith a hand held electric mixer. Add 8 eggs one at a time, mixing well until incorporated. Beat in 450g plain flour, 2 tbsp baking powder and 2 tsp cocoa powder and mix well.

Line a ring mould as per below.

Pour the mixture into the prepared ring mould and smooth over with a knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the sponge feels firm to the touch.

In the meantime, prepare the coffee vanilla frosting by beating 250g sifted icing sugar and 80g softened unsalted butter with a mixer. Combine 25mL milk and a couple of drops of vanilla extract in a separate bowl and then gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture. Once all the milk has been incorporated, add in the reserved tablespoon of coffee essence and turn the mixer up to high speed and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes). Prepare the shaved chocolate shaving by grating 60g dark chocolate with a cheese grater.

Here's the cake after 40 minutes!

Place the cake on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

When the cake is cold, put on a serving plate and cover the top with the frosting.

Decorate with chocolate shavings.

As I was making the cake a day in advance (and with it being extremely hot!), here's the contraption I made to store the cake in the fridge. Had both the mum and boy laugh at me which wasn't particularly nice - especially cause I had to keep cutting away at the skewers until it managed to fit in the fridge!

We had a big extended family dinner the next day and everyone came back home to eat the cake. Despite taking it out of the fridge for a good hour, it hadn't quite defrosted so the texture of the cake was a little hard but smelt absolutely divine. On my second piece, I actually microwaved the slice which returned the cake to its soft and spongy texture, but unfortunately the icing did melt a little. So yes, had I more time that morning of the birthday, it probably would've been better to make it then but otherwise a very lovely cake which ended up being gigantically big (nothing like the pic in the book!)

Happy birthday dad! Hope you had an awesome birthday!

chocolate rum-raisin muffins

2011-12-04T21:40:00.000+11:00

We're just a mere 3 weeks away from Christmas - what does everyone have planned? I'm reasonably organised this year, Christmas cards are being written (some have even made it through the postal system!), most presents have been bought and only a handful still to shop for, you can say that Christmas this year is in a reasonably good place for a change. This week I might even tackle our new Christmas tree and well, the Christmas baking has already started with this rather boozy special - chocolate rum-raisin muffins!

The recipe I used comes from The Golden Book of Chocolate. The recipe didn't actually specify the type of rum to use, usually it would be a dark rum for baking but in the absence of dark rum and a bit of Bacardi left over, I figured it should work out ok.

Had to take a snap of these cute cupcake liners found at the local supermarket - very pretty!

Plump 150g raisins in 90mL rum in a small bowl for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan. In a large bowl, mix together 375g plain flour, 75g cocoa powder, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir in 200g caster sugar. Stir in the raisin mixture, original recipe asks for 375mL cream (but I substituted this with 200mL buttermillk and the remainder in soy milk), 2 lightly beaten eggs and 90g melted butter. Stir until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes.

Cool the muffins on wire racks.

These muffins had a quite a dense texture (which I'd attribute to the soy milk) and were delectably chocolatey but at the same time, not all that sweet. As a special treat, there's just that hint of rum taste to it which I think I'd prefer over using a dark rum which can often be a bit too overpowering. Who knew you could use Bacardi Rum for baking!

sushi samurai @ military rd., neutral bay

2011-11-27T23:06:00.000+11:00

The last two months of a year are always a busy time in my household. There's three of us with birthdays within weeks of each other and to top that off, Christmas is just around the corner (presents need to be bought, tree needs to be put up and well, it takes a lot of everyone looking at each other to work out who's turn it is this year to put up the tree). Being on holidays has probably been a good thing because it's given me that burst of energy to get through it all as I have to admit, the end of each year is often quite tiring and also time for much needed rest.

So with that extra energy (which I hope will last), I've also been scheduling a fair few more catch ups with friends (as the end of the year is also a busy time of decisions, career moves and happenings) and well, I'm also guilty of not catching up with friends earlier on in the year so squeezing a few in before Christmas is better than me writing yet another Christmas card saying how we never catch up. Had a nice lovely catchup with Jen the other week with the boy and myself and went to Sushi Samurai in Neutral Bay for the first time.

BBQ Whole Squid. I'm not usually a fan but having this dish, you can say I'm converted. Highly recommend!

Crispy Chicken Salad is a bowl of deep fried goodness with a little bit of salad on the side to make you feel a little bit healthy eating it.

Sushi Main Deluxe. It actually doesn't have all that many pieces but looks can be deceiving; it filled us up considerably well and even the boy had no complaints.

Tonpei-yaki (pork and vegetable wrapped in egg). This was the one dish that really caught my eye when I opened up the menu so had to try. Best way to describe it is that its a cross between an egg omelette and okonomayaki - shame that towards the end of eating it, it did taste a little burnt as the hot plate kept cooking the sweet teriyaki/bbq sauce.

Glad to have finally tried this place which I've long heard about. Neutral Bay always seems like such a trek for a meal but when you make the effort to go there, there's actually so many dining options. Japanese food is first and foremost the cuisine you have to try when you come to Neutral Bay (well that's what I eat everytime I come here and yes, I may be a little partial to a spot of Japanese!)

Very highly recommend Sushi Samurai. Be aware though that they are quite popular and you may be asked to vacate your table by a certain time if you are in the earlier sitting. It's a bit of a shame that we had to make way for the next table because they had a rather decadent dessert menu which I wouldn't have minded trying.

cafe grEat @ victoria rd., gladesville

2011-11-21T23:11:00.002+11:00

I think I might just make Gladesville my local hangout - consistently finding some great eats in the area and just as well, I discovered Cafe grEat the other day. I'm actually not sure if its pronounced Cafe 'Great' or maybe 'gr-Eat' but I haven't typed incorrectly, that big E is in its name. For the sake of this post, let's just say call it Cafe Great to make things nice and easy.

Open for breakfast and lunch, this place serves up a range of cafe style items. Their speciality appears to be their homemade burgers which feature prominently on the blackboard outside and inside the cafe. There's about 6-8 types of different burgers, and after much deliberation, I decided on the Teriyaki Chicken burger.

The boy opts for the grEat burger which is a beef patty with egg and bacon - which ended up being our favourite of the two burgers order given it was much, much juicier.

I'm loving the coke cans with the personalisation! Have yet to stumble across my name (though I'm almost tempted every time I see a fridge full of cans to just go through each one to see whether there might be one!)

I'm about 99% sure that the cafe is Korean own and run. You'll find items on the menu like Dumpling Salad, Teriyaki Tofu Burger and Bulgogi beef burger which were rather enticing; but will have to be items I try on my next visit (if only I could eat a lot more then I could tell you how they were!)

Very friendly service, an extensive menu, plenty of magazines and papers to accompany a late weekend morning brunch/lunch, parking just around the corner, I do say that the cafe does live up its name of being great!

banana & cinnamon muffins

2011-11-20T15:34:00.001+11:00

I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere down the track that I have certain OCDs - collecting cookbooks is probably the worse of them, then its collecting recipes and last but not least, baking with certain ingredients over and over again. November 2011 has been the month of baking with bananas and here I bring you a recipe for Banana & Cinnamon Muffins from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - this cookbook has also been used to death this month (I'm actually not quite ready to return it to the bookshelf - maybe baking constantly from one cookbook is also one of my OCDs?)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 350g plain flour, 160g caster sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda and 2 tsp ground cinnamon with a handheld electric mixer. In a jug, combine 375mL buttermilk, 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Slowly pour into the flour mixture and beat on a slow speed until combined. Add 70g melted unsalted butter and beat until incorporated. Stir in 400g peeled mashed bananas with a spatula.

Spoon the mixture into lined muffin tins.

Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and cinnamon over the tops.

Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Leave the muffins to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Recipe says it makes 12 muffins, I managed to get 22. I guess it makes 12 really big muffins?

These muffins are incredibly moist and I'd actually class them in the 'healthy' basket. With it being so warm lately, I kept the muffins in the fridge to stop them from getting mouldy (as the moisture in the banana doesn't deal well with the heat). There's a recipe for Banana Cream Pie in the same very cookbook which is looking rather tasty, maybe I'll make that next!

zumbo dessert train @ the star

2011-11-17T22:44:00.001+11:00

I don't think I could ever write a bad review about Zumbo; I just couldn't. I remember asking him some very spastic questions when we attended one of his Masterclasses earlier this year and he was such a lovely guy and answered every question I had (mind you I was the one with one of his macaron recipes tucked in my bag and out I whipped out my sheet with everything highlighted and ready to ask). A little bit nerdy I have to admit but I really needed to ask the questions and after all, he is the King of Macarons in Sydney!

Again, plenty of blog posts have been made by fellow bloggers about his new store at The Star. Mashi and I wandered over there after our dinner at Jamie's Italian with the intention to try out the dessert train and the dessert train we did try. This ended up being a hectic 45 minute wait but I'm not complaining, I waited about 2 hours to go to an art gallery in Florence so by comparison, 45 minutes is really nothing. I actually didn't even notice the time pass cause we ended up chatting with some of the pastry chefs behind the train who were more than willing to tell us about the record set by a couple who ate 8 plates in the one sitting and them giving us recommendations for the plates that we should try. Zumbo - You do hire such lovely staff!

We finally got our seat! To be honest, 10 minutes of our waiting time was due to everyone on the train finishing up and leaving in the one go, leaving the 2 staff managing it have to clear and sort out all the checks. We were the first to sit down after they got through that crowd.

Watermelon Yoghurt - The orange custard on this plate is absolutely divine (a big bowl of orange custard please!)

The two of us eat a lot - it makes us happy!

Plenty of people outside the store ogling in and/or just waiting in line to get a seat on the train.

Carrot Cake - a rather healthy choice and one to quickly gobble up as its topped with a cinnamon ice cream.

Hazelnut Dacquoise - Hands down, my favourite for the night. The couple sitting next to us agreed too as they started asking us about the desserts we had. Plenty of crunch and yum, yum, yum!

There's actually 10 items on the menu but on the Friday night we went, we only spotted 6 moving around on the train. The staff we spoke to when we were waiting did mention that they're still fine-tuning the desserts and getting it right. Apparently the Almond Croissant is worth a try so will be heading back there for that when I can.

I did actually think that we'd get through a few more plates but three plates ended up being more than enough (plus we had our nice Jamie's Italian meal sitting in our stomaches). My first and foremost suggestion to Zumbo (if you happen to be reading this) is to get more plates on that train - even if it its just a single macaron on a plate because the plate of four that's on the train at the moment is a lot to eat if you are wanting to try a few other desserts (actually Mashi and I did ask the staff if we could doggy bag some macarons but we were politely told no...boo hoo). Would be good to also have a hot beverage or dessert wine to accompany and yes, somehow that queue could be better managed but honestly, what's with the eager beavers pushing in (when clearly there's a queue)!

jamie's italian @ pitt st., sydney

2011-11-16T21:41:00.000+11:00

There's been a good couple of reviews for Jamie's Italian across the blogosphere and if you haven't been to Jamie's Italian, suggest you stop reading now and actually make your way over there. Mashi and I headed over there on a Friday night, thinking that dinner service opened at 6pm but arriving at the restaurant, realised that the queue was already forming and the inside of the restaurant was nearly at full capacity. We joined the line and were kindly explained the waiting times - they were 30 minutes for 2 people, an hour for 4 and 1.5 hours or more for groups bigger than 4. Our wait was much shorter than expected; maybe 15 minutes and yay, we were inside!

There's plenty on the menu to tantalise the tastebuds and does take a bit of time to look through. We ordered a single serve of the Meat Antipasto to start whilst we decided on the rest of the menu. How cute are the cans of tomato holding up the antipasto platter!

We were both eager to try as many things on the menu but unfortunately only got around a small selection. A serving of arancini balls which comes with a tangy chilli salsa and a dusting of parmesan cheese was certainly a good choice (only thing is that there's only three of them in that can, you'd think there'd be at least four).

An entree serve of Mushroom Ravioli; packed with flavour and full of mushroomy goodness.

Veal Saltimbocca and a serve of Posh Chips (chips dusted with truffle and parmesan cheese; a match made in heaven).

Our waiter that night was very pleasant (and cute too!) so made the meal very enjoyable. It did get quite noisy as the meal progressed (music definitely got a bit louder) so finishing the meal, it just made sense to vacate our table and move on. Mind you, there was still a queue standing outside when we finished.

Yes I'll be coming back but probably not too soon; might just wait for the crowds to die down. Our lovely waiter did let us in on the fact that the very Jamie Oliver is due for a visit to the restaurant next February - might save my visit for then!

banana loaf

2011-11-15T21:49:00.000+11:00

As strange as it sounds, one of the highlights of my Europe trip was finding bananas selling for 1 pound a bunch - how very cheap! Actually on our first day there, they were handing out free bananas and um, I may have been a little delirious from the flight, and well I did chase down the man in the banana suit and got a picture with him too! (I'll get around to explaining myself one day but so far I've managed to get a good collection of photos with people dressed up in assorted food related suits).

Fortunately it looks like banana prices are finally dropping back down in Sydney. Noticed how Chatime had a sign up advertising 'Do you remember how banana taste?' (there was something grammatically wrong about the sign which bothered me when I saw it and its somehow stuck - seriously someone should do something about that sign!) But yes, bananas are back down to about $3/kg so mum and I picked up a nice big bunch to eat (and well, usually the case is that they start to brown very quickly so I end up using them for some baking).

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 270g brown sugar and 2 eggs with a hand mixer. Beat in 200g peeled mashed bananas. Add 280g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tsp ground ginger to the mix. Mix thoroughly until incorporated. Pour in 140g melted unsalted butter and beat until all ingredients are well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a prepared loaf tin and smooth over the top with the spatula. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 8-10 slices.

Best way to eat banana bread (in my opinion), is to toast each slice in the toaster and serve with a generous glob of butter. Be mindful to slice the banana bread so that it actually fits into the toaster and whatever you do, don't stick a knife or fork into the toaster if it refuses to come out. Better way to do it is unplug the toaster, tip the toaster on its side and using your finger to prod it out (careful not to touch the hot metal components of the toaster). Occasionally I have had to completely turn the toaster upside down and a whole barrage of crumbs have come down with it (so yes, it does pay to clean/empty your toaster of crumbs regularly).

Anyway, this recipe is from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook; a collection of some very reliable recipes that consistently come out beautiful from the oven - love it!

rengaya @ miller st., north sydney

2011-11-14T21:32:00.000+11:00

October to December is always a busy time of year in my household. We kick off with my brother's birthday, then it's by dad's and before you know it, it's my birthday and then it's Christmas and the new year. Any plans to stay in shape quite frankly go out the window and lots of yummy food and cake are to be had. This year we celebrated my brother's birthday at a Rengaya in North Sydney - a classy find and most certainly a restaurant that I'd recommend.

Our starter of Wagyu Beef Tataki Salad.

Premium Sashimi Selection. I always wish that Sashimi Platters were bigger - they are never quite big enough!

Wagyu Ox Tongue and Assorted Vegetables pictured below, cooked at the table.

Waiting for the food to cook - I have plenty other photos of all the raw meat dishes we ordered (Wagyu being the speciality here) but figured pictures of raw meat didn't look quite appetising to post (don't ask me why I even take the photos in the first place!)

Something a little bit different I found on the menu; Stone Pot Cha-suke - Grilled rice ball, bonito flake, dried seaweed, pickled plum, salmon flake, wasabi and japanese stock in a hot stone pot.

And last but not least is their colourful and wondrous selection of desserts. We ordered two to share amongst the four of us. Pictured are the WA (Japanese Plate) - Green Tea creme brulee, warabimochi with black syrup, shiratama zenzai served with tea. Shiratama Cream Anmitsu - Kanten with shiratama and sweet red beans topped with vanilla and green tea ice cream served with black syrup and seasonal fruits.

An extremely flavoursome meal, great atmosphere (with plenty of space in between tables for your own privacy) and plenty more menu items to draw me back for another feed. We managed to find street parking just right outside the front door but otherwise there's a carpark just on the side which they buzz you in when you call to say you've arrived. Pricewise, it's a little steep but one to keep in mind for that special occasion.

milk chocolate & craisin oatmeal cookies

2011-11-13T21:58:00.000+11:00

Coming back from holidays, I came back to a half metre high pile of mail, magazine subscriptions and cookbooks that mum had kindly collected for me - probably the most exciting was a copy of Adriano Zumbo's recipe book which left me quite giddy with excitement! However, just as exciting was this copy of '100 years of sweet baking memories' featuring a collection of recipes all using one of my ever favourite ingredients...condensed milk.

My favourite condensed milk recipe is probably condensed milk and butter spread over toast - I wouldn't say its healthy but its pleasantly sweet and a treat for any day. Well unfortunately my special recipe didn't quite make it into the book but you'll find how versatile condensed milk can be from the range of recipes offered.

Here's the cover! I decided to make the 'White Choc & Cranberry Cookies' but substituting white chocolate for milk chocolate and the cranberries for craisins.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper. In a large bowl, cream together 200g softened butter, 220g brown sugar and 125mL sweetened condensed milk. Add 1 egg, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and beat until light and fluffy. Add 225g plain flour, 180g rolled oats, 165g cranberries and 190g milk chocolate bits. Mix well. Place heaped tablespoons of mixture onto the prepared trays and press down each one with a fork.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from trays and cool on a wire rack.

Give it a couple of minutes before you dig in - this gives time for the cookies to harden and provide that extra little crunch.

I did toss up whether to use milk chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips and ended up asking mum who thought the milk chocolate would work better. I guess white chocolate and cranberry is one of those matches made in heaven and when you're stuck without white chocolate, milk chocolate would make the closest substitute.

The cookies ended up tasting great - just the right amount of softness and bite to them. The oats had cooked nicely in each cookie making them still taste a bit healthy whilst being a treat. The boy took a few camping and some into work and before you know it, they were all gone!

danks street depot @ sydney international airport

2011-11-08T22:44:00.001+11:00

So chance had it that the first meal of my trip was none other than Sydney's famous Danks Street Depot! It's long been on my list of places to visit and when I saw the sign (shortly after we checked in our bags), I made a beeline for the counter and told the boy that we were eating here...well it wasn't as if we were doing anything else and it could've been forever till I actually got my act together and visited the original Danks Street Depot.

It's times like these which make me happy!

No busy queues on a Saturday morning; plenty of seating too. I'm one of those travellers who perpetually get to the airport too early so there's always plenty of time for a nice sit-down meal.

From memory, they were offering their burger for $12.50 (from a usual $19) so we snapped up one of those and also got ourselves the Reuben sandwich. Both came with chunky handcut wedges and I loved the tangy ketchup that came with the burger. Since I've seen the Reuben sandwiches which they offer over in the States, this one we ordered didn't have quite as much sliced meat in it but was still rather tasty.

It took about 10-15 minutes for the food to get to our table and about the same amount of time for us to chomp away. Ended up still being early and sitting there watching our plane being fuelled and prepared for our flight.

Definitely a high and mighty start to the trip! Mind you, we were served a meal shortly after boarding the plane so the Danks Street Depot meal (which we ate about 11.30am) really wasn't quite necessary but was pleasant nonetheless. I will definitely make an effort to visit the original Danks Street Depot but hey, it's just as convenient to pop in just before an international flight!

blueberry & vanilla financiers/friands

2011-11-07T22:16:00.000+11:00

After unpacking my bags and settling back into my bed for a good night's sleep, the first thing I did after coming back from holidays was to get into the kitchen and bake this tray of blueberry & vanilla financiers/friands. My parents had gone out that particular morning and needless to say, when they got back from the shops, they were gobsmacked to find me up nice and early, bouncing around the kitchen and not jetlagged nor still slouched in bed. I tell you, the trick is to watch as many movies as you can whilst on the plane so you fall asleep through them - that seems to be how I managed to get out of it.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Grease 9 holes of a friand tray. In a large bowl, whisk together 4 egg whites until frothy. Add 140g sifted icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 50g sifted plain flour, 90g almond meal, zest of 1 lemon and fold everything together gently. Spoon into the prepared tray and push several fresh blueberries into the top of each cake.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave in the tray for 5 minutes.

Remove from the tray and let the friands cool on a wire rack. You might need the help of a skewer to help pull the friands from the side of the mould (do so lightly).

I actually didn't get around to trying Financiers (what the Parisians call them)/Friands (what we call them here in Australia) when I was over in Europe; spent most of my time eating macarons and more macarons (OMG they were so good!) However I did end up going to Fortnum & Mason for afternoon tea, which is precisely where this recipe comes from. Will get to posting about my afternoon tea in due course but have to say, their recipes are just as yummy as they are to have there as they are to make at home.

So glad to be back home with a kitchen to bake!

gingerbread muffins

2011-11-06T12:26:00.000+11:00

Since coming back from holidays, the one thing that seems the most crazy is that there's only another 8 weeks till Christmas. All the Christmas displays are up in the shops, mum is asking me to think about Christmas presents for the cousins, and well, I even got lured into buying a pack of 50 Christmas cards the other day at Kmart and that only costed me a dollar! (So a card and an envelope for just 2cents each?!)

I picked up one of those Christmas baking recipes for free at the supermarket just yesterday and well, I don't think I'll be making a Christmas pudding anytime soon but it did make me think, why is it that they only give you Christmas pudding and Mince Pie recipes each year. Surely everyone has enough of those recipes if you're like me and pick them up from the supermarket every year? So in the spirit of Christmas, I thought I'd offer you this Gingerbread Muffin recipe which I thought tastes every bit like Christmas and something just a little bit different just to mix things up. Recipe is from Food Lovers 'Bread and Muffins'.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin pan. In a small bowl, combine 100g unsalted butter, 100g soft brown sugar and 3 tbsp molasses. Microwave on low until melted together.

Add 125mL milk to the butter mixture and stir in 1 large egg. Sift in 150g plain flour, 1 tbsp ground ginger, 2 tbsp ground cinnamon and 1 tsp baking soda. Stir gently until combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cases (you should get about 10 standard sized muffins). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the muffins are risen and firm.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

So here you have it, a taste of Christmas in a muffin! Will definitely get round to doing a bit more Christmas baking this year so hopefully here's to a good start!

will be back soon, i promise!

2011-11-02T23:05:00.000+11:00

Hello there! Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still around. I've had a rather lovely holiday in Europe for 6 weeks, ate a tonne and fortunately haven't come back too round around the waistline but have still eaten enough to warrant some extra exercise time at the gym (which is where my attention's at at the moment). Have been a little quiet on the blogging front since coming back - I think it's always the case that you want to stay on holiday; especially when you've had a long one so blog posts will resume shortly when I get back in the mindset of doing work and merely stringing words together in a coherent manner.

Thanks a bunch to those who left me comments whilst I was away. You guys make me love coming back to this blog - really appreciate it and you are the loveliest people in the world! I have yet to properly catch up on all your respective blogs and will do so promptly.

I will return shortly!

Panda x

peanut butter & choc chip muffins

2011-09-05T22:11:00.000+10:00

I'll always remember this batch of muffins. I made these on a Monday night and it was by no means your regular Monday night. It was the night I was dialling The Fat Duck in London to make a reservation for dinner/lunch. I wasn't quite so lucky the prior two times I tried and this was my last go at it before I had to park the idea for another trip (which to be honest, probably would've been another couple of years down the track). 30 minutes in, the phone line still wasn't connecting and not much luck an hour into it. Had dinner and with the irritation levels high, I thought I'd get busy in the kitchen and make myself a batch of muffins to calm the nerves.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tin. In a large bowl, sift together 150g plain flour and 1 tsp baking powder. Add 100g caster sugar. In a large jug, mix together 6tbsp smooth peanut butter, 100ml grapeseed oil, 1 egg and 175mL milk together with a fork. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mix and stir gently to combine. Stir in 100g chocolate chips. Divide the mixture equally between the muffin cases.

Bake for approx. 20 minutes until the muffins are firm and golden. In the meantime, I kept calling and calling The Fat Duck Reservation line.

And by the time the muffins were done, I still hadn't gotten through.

Leave the muffins to cool on a wire rack. I ate one to put myself out of my misery. These muffins are rather tasty and I love how peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, especially when topped with melty chocolate chips.

With the muffin eaten, I tried the reservation line for the one last time (mind you this was a good 2 hours and 20 minutes after the reservation lines had opened) and yay, I got through and got myself a booking! Every thanks goes to this batch of muffins which kept me sane. Like I've said before, I find baking really calms my nerves and keeps me relaxed - though now I'm giddy with excitement and ever so looking forward to this meal. Will report back!

crumb italian kitchen & pizzeria @ majors bay rd., concord

2011-08-31T22:21:00.000+10:00

My two eating hotspots at the moment are Concord and Gladesville. Both suburbs are meccas for good food, have plenty of street parking nearby and the quality of the food has been top notch! A few weekends ago, the boy and I headed off to Concord (we sort of alternate between Concord and Gladesville now) and after a short wander down the road, ducking into restaurants and checking out their menus, Crumb got our attention and we sat down for a yummy and somewhat large-portioned lunch.

I really should write down what I eat when I go to restaurants so I can at least blog about them properly but I always forget. Hopefully my descriptions are enticing enough for you to go check it out! Anyway, here's our calzone of tomato salsa, cheese and ham, served with a garnishing of rocket. It's twice the size of any calzone I've ever had. The crust was crisp and the filling very juicy, but did get cold quickly cause we just couldn't eat quick enough. Also, I think the menu said this was meant to have prosciutto but it's definitely ham (but good ham).

Penne Pasta with Prawns & Mushrooms with a tomato cream sauce (served with parmesan cheese). Really enjoyed this one and certainly wouldn't have minded eating this myself and not sharing with the boy!

Very quick and attentive service and sitting where we were, we could see the kitchen in action and these guys were quick. From order to table, I reckon it would've been about 15 minutes max. You could see the pizza dough being rolled and stretched; these guys have the art of it down pat!

The interior of the restaurant is classy. We didn't have any wine that day but the boy's eyes were wandering around the room admiring their wine collection (you see the boy knows these things cause he used to work at a liquor store. I, on the other hand, have no idea.) Maybe we'll come here next time and have a glass of wine too!

jaffa muffins

2011-08-29T21:38:00.000+10:00

People don't understand me. They ask me what my favourite cake is and I'll tell them that I like muffins - they're my favourite cake in the world! I see a few confused faces looking back at me and then follows the comments of 'but they're so dry', 'I on the other hand prefer this cake...', 'Are you sure muffins are your favourite cake?' Well they are, they come in ever so many combinations, you can mix up a batch in no time and they're always really tasty. Some people make a bad muffin, I don't like them so much but the ones I make are really quite good (not to blow my own horn or anything but they are). I blame those people who make bad muffins who give muffins a bad name.

At the moment, I'm on a bit of agenda to use up some baking ingredients I have at home. Partly because a recent trip to Costco left me with purchases which I can't quite store in the pantry and currently crowding the dining table much to my dad's dislike... ah well! The second reason is I'm on holiday soon so will be a little quiet on the blog front.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tin. In a large bowl, mix together 300g plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, a pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, combine 200g caster sugar, 1 large egg, 180mL milk, 125mL vegetable oil, 2 tbsp finely grated orange zest, 2tsp vanilla extract and mix well. Stir in the orange mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir in 180g dark chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin liners.

Bake for approx. 20-25 minutes until golden and risen.

Cool the muffins on a cooling rack.

And the last step to all my recipes is... dig in!

The chocolate chips I used were the ones I bought from Costco. They made my muffins taste awfully American - I think it's cause the chocolate was a lot bitter than the ones you get from Nestle here and that's what I associate with American chocolate. Every bite of it just shouted out at me - this tastes American (as bizarre as it sounds). That bag of chocolate is huge and I hardly made a dent to it making this batch of muffins. Officially on the hunt for more chocolate chip recipes. If you have any good ones, please throw them my way!

tudari korean bbq restaurant @ eastwood

2011-08-28T14:29:00.000+10:00

I'm very close to being able to say that 'I've tried every single Korean restaurant in Eastwood'; recently adding Tudari Korean BBQ restaurant to the tried list. I guess this post is a little misleading, whilst a bbq restaurant, I didn't actually end up eating bbq, opting for one of their hotpots instead which was absolutely perfect for a cold night.

Korean side dishes are one of the things I look forward to to start a Korean meal. This place trumps them all in terms of the number of side dishes on offer; 14 in total. Free refills too and we didn't even need to wave down a waiter, they just came to the table and grabbed the empty dishes and replaced them. They're all tasty side dishes too save maybe for one (this one which had dried little fishies in it; the sight of their eyes always puts me off).

With the partitioning in between each table, there's plenty of privacy. Perfect for the boy and I as we ate our meal and sipped happily over our bottle of shochu, giggling away. The shabu shabu hotpot more than adequately fed the two of us as you can see.

I couldn't help but order one of my favourite things in the world - dumplings! A larger serving than what I thought it would be but were very tasty. Could be that we were eating too slowly so the skin of the dumplings did dry out a little but we cleared the plate regardless. Actually, I think the boy and I always clear our dishes regardless of how full we are.

With a bottle of shochu between us to share, dinner only came to about $60 between the two of us which I thought was incredibly good value. Service was very friendly, the seating comfortable and with parking just outside the front door, there's really not much to put you off coming back. Even the boy didn't complain about the Korean BBQ smell which you tend to get from eating at Korean restaurants (regardless of whether you eat bbq or not), seemed like the restaurant was quite well ventilated. I never thought I'd comment on the ventilation of a restaurant but I have to say, I'm not a big fan of eating Korean when you know you'll go home smelling like barbequed meat!

vanilla honey cookies

2011-08-27T15:41:00.000+10:00

I get very excited when it comes to food; and I mean food in all shapes, forms and sizes. Going to the new Costco in Auburn was an absolute ball; all your everyday foods in not so common sizes! I spent a good couple of hours in there going down each aisle, bumped into quite a few people whilst I was at (so yes there are people just as crazy as me) and I really think it is the rage that everyone's been talking about - makes an average day at the supermarket all that bit better!

Here's a rather happy snap of me and my 1.5kg block of unsalted butter.

Everyone's trolley had a bag of Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups so I packed one into mine. Otherwise, time to stock up on some of my usual baking ingredients. Should last me a good while!

So coming back from Costco, I had a bit more inspiration to bake (it's been a little quiet on the baking front I have to admit) and my eyes went to the Vanilla Honey Cookie recipe in 'The Golden Book of Cookies' which mum picked up for me near her work one day. (I love mum - she knows exactly what I like!) Hopefully here's to more baking as life does seem rather flat when I don't bake.

In a large bowl, combine 350g plain flour, 100g caster sugar, 1 large egg, 90g softened unsalted butter, 2 tbsp water, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tsp vanilla extract and salt to form a smooth dough. Press the dough in a disk, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line baking trays. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick. Use a knife to cut out squares. Brush with a little milk.

Bake until just golden at the edges, approx. 10-15 minutes. I know I really should bake cookies one tray at a time but I never to do it. I just accept the fact that the bottom tray will cook a bit quicker and brown faster so keep an eye out on them and swap the trays or pull them out earlier if required.

Transfer to racks to cool.

I couldn't pinpoint what these cookies tasted like! They're only very subtle in flavour, at one point it reminded me of those Mexican milk buns with the crunchy top which you find at Chinese bakeries. My mum had a taste and said it reminded her of a flat scone. Either way, these cookies taste more like bread/scones than it does a cookie. I guess you could call it a bread scone but cookie portioned? They were addictive to nibble on nonetheless. Anyway, I did buy myself about 10kg of flour from Costco so will be busy baking and baking away!

easy one bowl apple tea cake

2011-08-03T22:06:00.000+10:00

This actually isn't the first time I've made apple tea cake. Usually I prefer to try new recipes and new combinations of ingredients but when I first spotted this apple tea cake on Mashi's blog, I was intrigued by the blobs of dough which were dropped on top that the recipe literally shouted out at me for me to try (surely this recipe wasn't the same as the one I tried last!) You see, I'm actually quite picky when it comes to choosing a recipe (the criteria ranges from needing to be a new recipe, the recipe to be slightly healthy, colourful, must have fruit, must keep well - sometimes it gets ever so hard to narrow down to one recipe and I end up not making anything at all.) This was perhaps one of those rare opportunities when I stumbled across the recipe and no questions asked, my heart was set on making it.

The original recipe is actually from Not Quite Nigella who made it with pear. She says in her recipe that you can easily substitute with apples and being that these were handy at home, off I went with the recipe.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper. In a large bowl, mix together 3/4 cup wholemeal flour, 3/4 cup self-raising flour, 3/4 cup caster sugar, 125g melted unsalted butter, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Press three quarters of the mix into the base of the tin. Scatter 1 diced apple on top.

Place small pieces of the remaining dough on the surface of the apples. Sprinkle with a generous dose of cinnamon.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Strictly you should allow to cool before slicing as it's delicate when warm. I didn't really follow this instruction and dug right in - well it tastes good! With the wholemeal flour in this recipe, it gives the loaf quite a nutty texture which I really liked.

The one thing which might come across as a little odd is that there's actually very little dough when you first mix all the ingredients together. Just keep in mind that the self-raising flour will make the loaf rise (and trust me, I was hanging by the oven making sure this was happening so you can say that I'm speaking from experience). Thoroughly enjoyed this loaf and it's super duper easy to make!

cafe sydney @ customs house, circular quay

2011-07-31T13:20:00.002+10:00

June and July are the busy birthday months and when it comes to birthdays, it's always nice to celebrate over a meal. For Amz's birthday this year, she picked Cafe Sydney overlooking the harbour (it's a view you can't complain about, particularly on a sunny/blue skied Sunday afternoon), our meal was absolutely sumptuous and well, it's not often that we girls (and our respective boys) get to sit down and catch up.

A non-alchoholic Elderflower Smash - Fresh mint and coriander shaken with organic elderflower, clear apple juice and lengthened with tonic water. I heart this mocktail - delicately sweet yet refreshing with my meal.

Garlic Naan to share. You'd order naan at an Indian restaurant but who's to say you can't order it as a starter at Cafe Sydney.

Freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters on ice with eschallot and caramelised cabernet vinegar. I actually didn't think the oysters needed the vinegar sauce, they were simply perfect with a small squeeze of lemon juice.

There's non-seafood items on the menu but as we were looking over the water, it only made sense to give seafood a go. Here's my choice of W.A. barramundi with goat cheese ravioli, butternut pumpkin, pine nut, raisin and sage brown butter

The boy chooses the Grilled swordfish with tomato braised octopus, chorizo, borlotti bean, fennel cream and lemon.

Crunchy chips on the side to share.

I'd say the birthday girl made a good choice for a birthday venue. We had a live band to accompany lunch, sunny skies which showcased a spectacular view of the harbour and above all else, fantastic company to spend the afternoon. Hope you had a wondrous birthday chick!

abhi's indian restaurant @ concord rd., north strathfield

2011-07-30T10:37:00.000+10:00

I've only been to a handful of Indian restaurants in my lifetime but I've been told that Abhi's Indian Restaurant is definitely one to try. And after being on my list of places to try for a good while now, the boy and I made our way over there on a Friday night in the dual interest of checking it out and simply grabbing a bite to eat. We made a booking just an hour out of us getting there and the restaurant was able to accommodate (there's two levels of seating space but if you're planning to come here, best that you make a booking as the restaurant fills up very quickly).

Overall impressions as I walked in - very modern and very organised. We were acknowledged as we stepped foot inside the restaurant and was briskly whisked upstairs to our table. Service was prompt, menus were in hand straight away and being quite a late dinner at the time, we quickly ordered our food.

Masala Dosa (somewhat like a samosa) - Light and crisp rice flour pancake accompanied by lentil sambar' and onion & tomato chutney with a filling of spiced potato and onion

Patiala Goat Curry - Punjabi style slow cooked goat with milled chilies, tomato, mace and garam masala, finished off with fresh coriander

Chicken Varutha A spicy South Indian chicken in a sauce of tomatoes, tamarind, black pepper, fried cinnamon and star anis

Served with Plain Rice.

A side of Garlic Naan.

The goat curry was our favourite that day. When our waiter asked us how our meal went, and we mentioned that the goat curry was absolutely delicious, he kindly went to explain to us how the goat is prepared and cooked. To be honest, I don't remember everything he said at the time but then again, how easy is it just to pop in again and order it again - leave it in the very capable hands of the chef!

I'd have to say that Abhi's Indian is very unlike other Indian restaurant I've been to - whilst the menu features most of your Indian cuisine staples, there's actually a whole suite of other dishes which I just haven't heard of and would be keen to try. Their selection of sweets looked enticing but the boy and I were belly up with food by the time we finished all our dishes. Good thing the table next to us ordered their share of desserts so I could take a sneak peak at what they were - they looked good!

buttermilk berry muffins

2011-07-27T22:34:00.000+10:00

One thing I've discovered is that you can make an awful load of recipes when you buy 1 litre of buttermilk. I used buttermilk for both batches of Fortnum's scones and in an attempt to use up the rest of the buttermilk, it only made sense to find a recipe that called for buttermilk as it's main ingredient. My friend Mashi was perfect in pointing me in the right direction. She actually suggested both a savoury and sweet recipe and well, it wasn't a tough choice; my choice would always be sweet. This recipe is from Joy of Baking.com; if you haven't come across this site, let me just say that it's an absolute treasure chest of recipes for keen bakers.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tray. In a jug, whisk together 1 egg, 180mL buttermilk, 160mL canola oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract. In a large bowl, combine 325g plain flour, 150g caster sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt and zest of one orange. With a spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry mix until just combined. Stir in 2 cups frozen berries. Fill each muffin cup almost full with batter.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack and let to cool. Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

When I was mixing this batch, I actually worried about how the muffins would turn out as even with a slight combining of the ingredients, the batter was quite firm and dough-like. I needn't have worried because the muffins came out of the muffin absolutely fine - bursting with berries (I probably used a bit more than two cups as I was trying to finish the bag of frozen berries we had) and the texture was perfectly moist and very tasty.

If you go to the original recipe, it actually tells you how you can make buttermilk from regular milk. I think I'll try that one day just to see how it goes - it would save me having to find more recipes which use buttermilk; I think I might've exhausted them already!

fortnum's scones

2011-07-26T18:14:00.000+10:00

If you are new to baking, scones are a good starting point - there's only a few ingredients and you can hardly go wrong - the only thing to remember is to never overmix. I've dappled with a fair few scone recipes and to this day still haven't come across any two which are exactly the same; and I'm talking about just a plain scone here. Of course, the 'fluffy' ones are by convention the most popular but lately I've really taken to the Fortnum & Mason recipe which produces a slightly flatter and crunchier- surfaced scone. Curious as to what you guys think if you try this recipe.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Line a baking tray with baking paper. In a large bowl, rub 85g softened unsalted butter into 250g sifted self-raising flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 tsp baking powder and 2 tbsp caster sugar. In a jug, whisk together 150mL buttermilk and 1 egg, then make a well in the centre of the flour mix and bring the ingredients together with a spatula. Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead together and roll out to 2.5cm thickness. Cut out 5cm rounds with a cutter. Transfer to the baking tray and brush the tops with milk. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until risen and golden.

Cool until warm on a wire rack.

And as the book will tell you, served with clotted cream and jam (otherwise I've mentioned this before - jam and butter works a treat too).

In case you're wondering, there's one more scone recipe in this book which I'll get around to trying - it's a savoury scone though (which doesn't seem to quite so appealing as simply a plain scone - again my weird brain working). At the rate I'm going, it shouldn't take me long to get through all the recipes which should be exciting!

good food & wine show 2011

2011-07-25T22:12:00.000+10:00

The one event which I do my utmost best to get to each year is the Good Food & Wine Show. I love anything to do with food, I love celebrity chefs, I love food freebies and the showbags of food that I'm more than likely will walk out with. I hear people say how it's the same every year and to a degree yes you'll have most of the same exhibitors at the show but in the end it's what you spend your time looking at. If it's the same as last year, I just move on and focus on something new - makes sense doesn't it?

New to this year's show was The Restaurant sponsored by Oxford Landing. The two lovely ladies from Masterchef - Poh & Marion were the featured chefs (no males in sight this year - well I suppose they were busy in the Celebrity Theatre). I love both these girls heaps so ended up trying a dish of each. Here's Poh's Dong Do Pork with Fried Rice. The skin of the Pork was quite chewy so I didn't end up eating it but the pork absolutely melts in your mouth!

Marion's Eight Hour Lamb Roast.

I discovered this year that the boy had no idea what Sippah straws were so I made sure he tried one - we were taste testing the Cookies & Cream flavoured straws which were really quite nice.

And who could miss the pallets of goods which formed the Costco display! It was actually the pallet of Kitchenaid mixers which caught my attention but here's me with the pallet of supersized mayonnaise jars.

This year I got tickets to see Matt Moran who always delivers an entertaining and informative show. The boy will think otherwise but I left the show with just a small handful of bags to end the day - a resubscription to Delicious magazine, a selection of Dilmah teas, some cheap goodies from Chalet, a selection of jams and a cooler bag of dessert goodies from the brand Gu.

In amongst all the food tastings, I entered competitions for cars, dinners and kitchen renovations - unfortunately I get a whole lot spam each year and never actually win anything but all in good fun. There's some stupid photos of me posing in photos which have made their way to facebook and well, that's it for this year! As usual, will eagerly await next year's show!

cafeism @ wilson st., newtown

2011-07-24T23:58:00.000+10:00

It actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense that Newtown is so close to my work yet I never make my way over there. Add to that I can actually walk there (it's about 15 minutes) and well, obviously the walk is too much of an effort. So I find it rather ironic that I actually spend one of my days off work trekking to Newtown (in the car) to pick up $200 worth of macarons - the macarons were very much worth it you see and really, the conclusion is that you should never ask me why I do the things that I do!

The macarons will be a story for another day. En route to the macarons was a pit stop for lunch at Cafeism on Wilson Street (actually just round the corner of the place we were picking up the macarons). Being a school day, it was reasonably easy to get a table (although I imagine it to be very different on the weekend with all the residential apartments nearby) and all in all, a rather relaxing choice for lunch (or even if you are just after a spot of coffee).

The 'ISM' Burger served on turkish bread.

Salmon scrambled eggs with sourdough toast and fresh avocado.

We were perched up on the seats by the front window so caught a glimpse of what it would be like to live around the area - a fair few people riding their bikes or walking their dogs or simply popping in for some takeaway coffee. It's actually a huge difference to King Street which runs parallel to Wilson Street further up (definitely quieter and not as much traffic here).

If only I had more days off during the week to sit down and enjoy a cafe lunch, read magazines (of which there are plenty on offer at Cafeism) and not have to think about work! Would definitely like to spend a bit more time discovering Newtown; not only are they hope to some yummy macarons but there's some awesome secondhand bookshops which did keep me busy for the rest of that afternoon.

fortnum's classic shortbread

2011-07-20T21:47:00.000+10:00

It all started back in December last year when mum bought me a tin of Fortnum & Mason Afternoon Tea for Christmas. I knew very little about Fortnum & Mason back then; just knew that they were stocked in the DJ's Food Hall in Sydney and the tea came in a very pretty tin and if anything, it was the tin that got my attention but it was ever so expensive (well not wallet breaking but still expensive for tea) that mum kindly bought it for me for Christmas. Well the afternoon tea is an absolute treat for the afternoon - delicate in flavour but just the perfect pick me up but this post isn't about tea. It's actually about the Fortnum & Mason cookbook which I subsequently picked up after I discovered the tea.

Fortnum & Mason (according to my manager) are quite big in the UK - they're a tea shop; known for the lovely hampers you can organise as gifts but they also operate restaurants/tea houses. Sounds like a place which I can spend the entire day in if you ask me! And before I sidetrack to much, their cookbook is something I've been addicted to since I bought it. The previous post I made on the cranberry and lemon scones came out of it as did this recipe for shortbread. So far so good - if you're after an afternoon tea recipe book, this is certainly one to pick up.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Line a 17cm square tin. In a large bowl, cream together 150g softened unsalted butter with 60g caster sugar. Add in 150g sifted plain flour and 60g rice flour. Knead lightly. Press the mixture into the tin, using the back of a spoon to smooth out the surface. Use a butter knife to draw a line down the middle vertically, then mark 6 lines across horizontally to make 14 fingers. Prick each with a fork.

Bake for about 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and mark again. Return to the oven and continue to bake for 30 minutes until the mixture is set.

Mark into 14 fingers again. Cool in the tin for about 30 minutes, then cut into pieces and carefully ease out of the tin. Finish cooling the shortbread on a wire rack.

My shortbread turned out pretty close to the ones pictured in the book.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days (well I packed mine and took it over to a friend).

This was my first time making shortbread and was pretty happy with the overall texture and taste. I'd probably make smaller fingers next time - found that I was snapping them in half to eat (and well ended up eating the whole finger anyway plus more so there's really no logic there). Very buttery and short in texture and surprisingly not too greasy; was thinking that it might be cause of the amount of butter. Quite honestly, it's hard to go wrong with this recipe - only 4 ingredients in it!

cranberry & lemon scones

2011-07-16T17:07:00.000+10:00

With the crazy cold weather over the last week, I've been drinking record cups of tea. I reached four earlier in the week and this time yesterday, I decided the cup just wasn't quite big enough and made myself a whole pot to sip away at. I've really grown to love tea and seem to buying a lot of it too. There's two boxes in my drawer at work, one sitting on my desk at home and countless boxes in the pantry drawer. And well, perfect with a cup of tea is the ever humble scone - easy to make and guaranteed deliciousness in a quick 25 minutes! I've been making a fair few scones lately to tie in with the tea drinking.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Line a baking tray. In a large bowl, rub together 85g cubed butter into 250g sifted self-raising flour until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp caster sugar, 50g dried cranberries, zest of 1 lemon and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg and 200mL buttermilk and then add to the dry mix. Lightly, use a spatula to bring the ingredients together to make a soft dough. Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured board and roll out to a 2.5cm thickness. Stamp out rounds using a 5cm cutter and transfer to a baking tray (push them together). Lightly brush the tops with milk.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until well risen and golden.

Cool until warm on a wire rack.

I highly recommend you eat scones with jam and cream but in the absence of cream (unless you are one of those people who perpetually have a bottle sitting in the fridge), jam and butter make a satisfactory substitute. Love how the butter goes all melty on a warm scone! Raspberry or Strawberry jam are my preferred jams. And I love how the brushed milk on the surface of these scones makes them that little bit crunchy in texture - I think I'll brush all my scones with milk from now on!

white chocolate & peanut butter cupcakes

2011-06-28T22:34:00.000+10:00

My mum has been spoiling me lately with cookbooks; added to my collection are 'The Golden Book of Chocolate', 'The Golden Book of Cookies', 'Chocolat', 'The Le Cordon Bleu Collection' (which is a collection of 20 titles) and let's not forget dad who picked up several foodie DVDs in the recent sales. Anything food related leaves me giddy with excitement and I've been eagerly pouring through the latest new additions with a fine toothed comb - selecting recipes to make and try out. My eyes fell for the white chocolate peanut butter cupcakes in 'The Golden Book of Chocolate' (which is a collection of over 300 recipes).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12 hole muffin tray. In a large bowl, beat together 60g softened butter, 125g crunchy peanut butter, 100g dark brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until creamy. Add in 1 egg until blended. Sift in 150g wholewheat flour, 50g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt and beat into the mix with 125mL milk. Stir in 180g white chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake for approx. 25 minutes.

Here's how they look in the cookbook compared to how mine's turned out.

Cool on a wire rack. I actually find it strange that this recipe calls them cupcakes, they actually taste and look more like muffins. I always see cupcakes as being a lot more moist and sweet.

This is the perfect recipe for the peanut butter fanatic - a bite into this leaves you with peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth. The white chocolate provides a little bit of sweetness but if anything, it's the peanut butter which will get your attention.

kintaro @ young st., neutral bay

2011-06-25T10:12:00.000+10:00

This particular night, we'd had our heart set on going to Ryo's Noodles in North Sydney but after missing a turn and driving too far forward, we found ourselves in Neutral Bay. There's actually quite a lot of restaurants in Neutral Bay and I guess one of the reasons why we don't go as often as we could is because it's so far away. Well chance had it that we were in the area and took our pick of restaurants to try - being that we were after Japanese noodles, it only made sense that we picked Kintaro Restaurant: a Japanese restaurant serving up home-style Japanese food.

Sometimes I think I should go to restaurants carrying a notepad and pen to write down the name of dishes. This dish had a much fancier name than I'm going to give it - I'm calling it the Baked Eggplant with Miso. Being as it's baked, the skin of the eggplant is way too tough to eat (I tried) but the inside is gloriously soft and melty and very delicious.

Seafood Hotpot which is a decent serving for 2 people. For a cold night, it was great to get some warm soup inside us.

Sukiyaki Don. They actually had Sukiyaki on the menu but given we wanted to try the seafood hotpot also, the Sukiyaki Don was the perfect item to order; this way we got to try both.

There's an extensive menu on offer here; much more so than you would get at an average Japanese restaurant. I find most of the newer Japanese restaurants simply serve up the typical Sashimi, Sushi, Udon, Teriyaki Chicken... definitely not the case here. You'll find some more foreign names popping up across the menu - that's how I came about to order the Baked Eggplant and really, it was a most pleasant surprise.

If you're planning to come here, there's ample parking on the side streets nearby but suggest you make a booking. The restaurant filled up soon after we stepped in. Oh - and it's very toasty inside the restaurant; making it perfect for a cold winter's night!

thai noodle hut @ victoria rd., gladesville

2011-06-23T21:53:00.002+10:00

The boy and I have been venturing further afield to look for good places to eat. Our latest suburb seems to be Gladesville where we've been to Been Read and now Thai Noodle Nut which I thought was rather damn good. The boy was a bit skeptical at first as not soon after we stepped in and sat down, the exhaust fans to the kitchen didn't seem to be working and the whole restaurant seemed to steam up and we were looking at each across the table through a mist of fog. I'm not even exaggerating here. Our vision either improved or the steam actually went away but once the food came to the table, we got busy eating so did forget about it.

A generous serving of Pad Thai. Slightly drier in texture than most other Pad Thai's I've had but delicious nonetheless.

A fiery bowl of jungle curry. I love spicy food and the more spice the better. My nose always runs when I eat spicy food so I look a bit stupid but at least I'm enjoying my meal!

Tom Yum Soup - I really want to learn how to make this. Again a spicy choice but packed with lots of seafood and mushrooms and a soup I wish came in a bottomless bowl.

The great thing about eating Thai food is that it's never expensive and you always get a meal that is packed full of flavour and leaves you with just the right amount of fullness - Thai Noodle Hut was certainly no exception. The restaurant was packed the night we went - lots of families, couples and plenty of people stepping in to grab some quick takeaway. From ordering, the food doesn't take long to get to the table. To be very honest with you, there's not much service here, you order and pay at the start and once they bring the food to the table, they don't really interfere with you. We actually left the restaurant feeling a little odd thinking we should at least say bye but the waitresses were busy behind the counter doing their own thing. But I guess sometimes that's what I'm after in meal, a good meal and very little interference from the staff asking me how my meal went - well let me just say now, it went fine thank you!

comfy apple crumble

2011-06-22T22:12:00.000+10:00

Between my mum and I, we have an awful lot of gadgets at home. The bread machine permanently lives in the laundry now as we've stopped using it, I have a donut machine, an ice shaving machine, a waffle machine, a takoyaki machine, a jaffle maker, an ice cream machine, a soft serve machine (which mum got for her birthday this year) and there's still the regular appliances like the steamer, the sandwich maker, the toaster which adorn our kitchen benches. I really didn't think we'd need an apple peeler when some of our machines at home haven't even been used but I've changed my mind, this is one of the coolest gadgets I've ever seen!

Here's the apple peeler at work. The apple goes in one side, you crank the handle on the other and off it peels and cores the apple.

The peeled, cored and slinkified green apples are now ready to be used for a comfy apple crumble. The recipe is from Jo Seager's 'Everyday Cooking'.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Coat a baking dish with non stick baking spray. Slice the 'slinkified' apples and place them in a layer in the prepared dish. Mix the juice of 1 lemon with 1/2 cup water and drizzle over the apple slices. Place the grated rind of 1 lemon, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 3/4 brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 cup rolled oats and 100g softened unsalted butter in a bowl and mix well. Sprinkle this over the apples.

Bake for 40 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

Absolutely delicious served with plain vanilla ice cream (I do recommend Connosieur).

With the cold weather, I've been doing a few tray bakes and puddings and this comfy apple crumble has been one of my favourites. Best enjoyed warm but reheats pretty well the next day - just put it back in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes. One of the things I really loved about this recipe was the hint of lemon you get when you bite into the baked apple - absolutely delectable and really one would hardly think that putting sour green apples with lemons (which are also sour) would make for such a comfort dessert (it definitely wasn't one bit sour at all!)

tara tea room @ george st., the rocks

2011-06-20T20:09:00.000+10:00

Tara Tea Room has been on my list of places to visit for awhile now. I remember reading about it here and also here. What cute little tea cosies they have! And if you're a big fan of teapots, tea, scones, jams and a lazy afternoon of being like a nanna, this is exactly the place you should be. You can actually miss it when you walk down the road so look out for the Irish Design Shop and walk towards the back where you'll find Tara Tea Room.

On this visit, the boy and I opted for two devonshire teas. Each devonshire tea comes with a pot of tea and a plate of two scones with sides of jam and clotted cream. English Breakfast is my tea of choice with the boy opting for a pot of Earl Grey for something a bit fancier.

Plain Scones and also Cherry scones were on offer this particular Sunday.

A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

The scones here come on the large side so I had help from the boy finishing my two. Taste wise, these are certainly the best scones I've had (although occasionally I make a pretty mean scone too!) I love the display of tea cosies (and was close to buying the one that looked like an owl) and tucked in where we were (away from the hustle and bustle of the Rocks markets), this was the perfect way to end the weekend. They also have different flavours on scones on rotation depending on the day/time of day so plenty to bring you back for another visit!

st. malo's bakery @ willoughby rd., crows nest

2011-06-18T09:59:00.000+10:00

Places that serve up all day breakfast, by default, are places that I always go back to. During the week, I'm usually on the run and breakfast is a rather odd assortment of foods, sometimes just a coffee, other times cereal, if I'm lucky maybe a bit of toast so when it comes to the weekend (when I have all the time in the world to sleep in and catch up on myself), a late brekkie is certainly most welcome.

A couple of weeks back, we enjoyed a late brekkie over lunch time with friends that we hadn't seen in a while. They'd recently come back from a trip and we had much to chat and talk about as a good deal has happened over the last couple of months. St. Malo's Bakery was a place that they'd heard about and were keen to try; no questions there as when you're outside the shop, the sight of pastries and baked goods will naturally draw you in.

Coffees and hot chocolates for the table.

Both boys opted for the Breakfast of the Kings (aka big breakfast) and happily ate their way through the plate - there were certainly no complaints there about the quantity or quality of the meal.

Char's choice of Mushroom on Toast.

My choice of Croque Monsieur with a side of Sweet Potato Chips. If you're not all that hungry, this dish could easily serve two.

There was plenty else on the menu that I was keen to try. What got my attention were some gigantic muffins (I have a soft spot for muffins - as simple as they are, I actually prefer muffins to other heavily decorated and assembled cakes) but probably one for next time to share with a friend over coffee. Service here was very friendly - we started late, chatted away and before we know it they were starting to close off sections for the day but they were not pushy at all for us to get out. We finally did leave though with very satisfied stomachs and a walk through the local markets and shops nearby was a great way to spend a weekend afternoon. Thanks for the company Char & Rookie!

duroo korean restaurant @ rowe. st, eastwood

2011-06-15T21:44:00.001+10:00

So I thought I'd tried all the Korean restaurants in Eastwood worth trying and then Minto shut down and reopened as Duroo Korean Restaurant. I actually liked Minto (it's a rather cute name too) so not sure what went on there but well, as one restaurant door shuts, another opens, well strictly I walk in and check it out and report back.

One of the things I use to judge how 'good' a Korean restaurant is is their selection of side dishes at the start of the meal. Duroo offers a good cross section of mild and spicy, assorted vegetables too. Great thing is that the waitress came round to top up the side dishes without us even asking.

One of the dishes I always order is Pajon (aka Korean pancake). It's a very decent sized serving here and rather tasty too - just the right amount of crunch and seafood pieces mixed in the pancake.

Bibimbap - another popular Korean dish which I love eating; the more chilli sauce in it, the better! Remember to stir quickly when it gets to the table so that the rice doesn't cook and burn where it touches the hot stone bowl.

Spicy Hotpot. Definitely spicy and a great choice for a winter's night.

In some ways, I think Duroo has come along replacing Minto but all that's really changed is the name. Duroo is more or less offering the same menu as its previous owner and like all the Korean restaurants to be found in Eastwood, the cooking and the food is solid and great value too. This definitely goes on my list of places to go back to (and well, I really only have two lists going on and to be honest, I have yet to come across a place offering bad Korean food.)

doughnut muffins

2011-06-14T21:47:00.000+10:00

As a kid, I was fascinated by the donut machine at Donut King. You'd see me hover by the side of the glass window watching the machine churn out donut after donut - it's really rather therapeutic. Now that I'm much older (and no longer a kid), things haven't changed all that much - I walked by a donut machine the other day and was telling the boy how fascinated I was by the machine; my fascination was met by a smile and a nod, I think the boy knows how crazy I am when it comes to anything food related.

I actually received a donut machine for X'mas one year - have yet to crack it open but this machine is nothing like the one you get at Donut King. When it comes to donuts, it needs oil and it needs to be fried and this machine contraption I have just doesn't quite cut it but I am curious as to how they might turn out (continuing my previous post, add donuts to the list of things which I have yet to try). So whilst I procrastinate about actually making proper donuts, I bring you a cheat's version of a donut in a muffin.

Grease a 12 cup muffin man. In a large bowl, beat together 175g softened unsalted butter and 200g caster sugar until light and creamy. Add in 2 lightly beaten eggs. Sift in 375g plain flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb soda, a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Gently fold in 250mL milk. Spoon the mix into the prepared muffin tin.

Bake in a 180 degrees celsius preheated oven for 20 minutes until the muffins are lightly brown and firm to the touch.

For the topping, mix together 100g caster sugar with 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Whilst the muffins are still warm from the oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle over with the cinnamon and sugar mix.

Enjoy warm or cold.

This recipe makes for a rather doughy muffin which isn't too unlike the texture of an actual donut. Great thing is that there's no frying involved (aka splattering oil which does scare me a bit) so something you can easily knock up when you're after a sugar and cinnamon donut fix.

strawberry & rhubarb muffins

2011-06-13T22:00:00.000+10:00

I'm one of those people who perpetually have a billion things that I want to do, I keep talking about it and sometime down the track (in some case years later), I finally get round to doing it. And as someone who claims she bakes a lot, baking with rhubarb should've been crossed off the list years ago but it was only just the other month that I finally picked up a bunch of rhubarb at the markets and finally did it once and for all.

Armed with a new ingredient, I use it to make what I know best which is none else than the muffin. Here's the recipe for 'Strawberry & Rhubarb' Muffins from a most trusty muffin cookbook I have called 'Mad about muffins'.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a 12 cup muffin tin. In a large bowl, sift together 300g plain flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground ginger and 185g light muscovado sugar. Add to the dry mix, 100g melted unsalted butter. In a small bowl, combine together 2 eggs, 185mL milk and 1 tsp vanilla essence. Fold this through with the butter mix. Fold in 30g sultanas.

Fold in 100g rhubarb chopped into 5mm diced cubes.

Add 200g chopped strawberries (I used frozen strawberries which left the muffins a little bit more moist than it probably should've be so definitely recommend fresh strawberries if you can use them). Gently fold into the batter, avoid overmixing.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin and sprinkle each muffin top with demerara sugar for some extra crunch. Bake for 25 minutes until well risen and golden.

Here you have it! A Strawberry & Rhubarb Muffin.

So if you're wondering what else I have on that list of things to do (well, baking related anyway), there's still ingredients like molasses (the jar is sitting in the pantry waiting to be used), making macarons with the Italian meringue method (egg white powder purchased), cocoa nibs (well I bought that when Wholesome Foods had their sale!), cooking with kirsch (so I finally managed to get a hold of a bottle at Dan Murphy's the other day - not every place seems to have it) and well, that list seems to keep growing and scarily enough, I keep opening up the pantry and finding something else that I've bought and just seemed to have forgotten about! Hmm...oops!

adriano zumbo's chocolate masterclass

2011-06-06T20:44:00.000+10:00

Unashamedly, I stalk Adriano Zumbo like a bad rash. I love reading about what he's been up to, visiting his cafes and generally being in places where he's likely to be in. I talk Adriano Zumbo this and Adriano Zumbo that and the boy just thinks I'm slightly mental. Such is the life of being me! Actually reading this month's delicious magazine last night, I saw an ad for the DVD release of Zumbo's show - tee hee, guess who'll be getting herself a copy? Me!

As part of this year's 30 days of Home, Food & Wine Show, the fabulous Zumbo hosted a Chocolate Masterclass which I eagerly attended with the boy and two of my good friends. Being the day before Good Friday, it was meant to be an easy relaxing night into the weekend but traffic ended up being atrocious and we ran our way to make it in time for the start of the demonstration.

Woot woot - the man of mystery, Adriano Zumbo!

Platters of delectable food went around the room as we watched Zumbo's demonstration. There were plenty of these scallops with chorizo to go around.

This was Horden Pavillion transformed into a kitchen/demonstration room. Very odd considering the same four of us were here the week or so earlier seeing The Script in concert.

An unidentified crunchy munchy.

Cute little poached eggs with asparagus and smoked salmon on toast.

Here's another one of many Zumbo photos that I took that night.

As we were at the back of the room, we spent most of the time looking at the TV screen to see where Zumbo was up to (he was demonstrating the making of a Chocolate Balsamic Tart, recipe which came in the goodie bag that got handed out at the end of the night). As promised, the audience got to try the tart but it was ever so little.

If that little boy had moved out of the way, that would've been me staring longingly at the finished tart.

The boys I went with that night shook their heads as Mashi and I rushed up to the front, lined up in the queue, eager to get a photo with Zumbo. I even went to the extent of asking him a billion questions when I got to the head of the queue (and yes, probably would've had a few people tut-tut-tutting behind me but I ignored them). Great to finally speak to Mr Zumbo!

So I did try to get tickets to the Masterclass that Zumbo is hosting in December as part of the Harvey Norman Gourmet Kitchen. Unfortunately got in too late and have been told to get in touch later in December as and when they may release a second session. Fingers crossed I'll be lucky and get myself a ticket!

badde manors cafe @ glebe pt. rd., glebe

2011-06-05T17:06:00.000+10:00

It's been one of those months where I've been out and about, catching up with friends, trying out new food places, attending events, celebrating birthdays and when I'm not doing any of those things, it's been rather relaxing to kick back with a cup of tea, read a book, watch a movie, read some new blogs and just do anything that seems to feel right at the time. I guess you could call it my yearly blog holiday where I abandon this blog catch up on myself. Anyway, time to bring you up to speed on what I've been up to!

If you're after a place that's a little out of the ordinary, let me recommend you try Badde Manors Cafe on Glebe Pt. Road in Glebe. I've walked past this cafe a fair few times but only got round to trying it one night as we were on our way to Fox Studios to meet Adriano Zumbo (well see him demonstrate anyway - not actually hang out with him as much as I wish, anyway post to follow). Little did I know this cafe only served up vegetarian food and call me slow, it was only a good few minutes into reading the menu that the boy pointed out that there was no meat on the menu! (but you must admit, there actually aren't that many places in Sydney which only serve up vegetarian food)

A refreshing house made lemonade for me.

There were four of us eating that night and we ordered all our dishes to share. A rather delicious and filling vegetarian lasagna served with slices of toasted buttered bread.

Mixed Lebanese platter - my favourite being the fried slices of haloumi (they could really just make that a dish of its own!)

A generous serving of Mixed Mushroom risotto.

Corn fritters with salsa - my favourite dish of the night.

All I can say is that I've been severely misguided when it comes to vegetarian food. Maybe through bad experiences at other places where there hasn't been enough food on the plate or the food has lacked flavour or just been so expensive for some vegies on a plate. Eating at Badde Manor's cafe was worth every penny! Each dish was packed with flavour, filling too as the four of us struggled to clean up the plates. I have my eye on the Tofu burger to try the next time I'm here.

There's actually a lot of dining options on Glebe Pt. Road. I'm waiting for Mashi to finish her exam and we can go food crawling down the road. Yip yip hooray!

been read cafe & 2ndhand bookshop @ pittwater rd., gladesville

2011-05-17T23:40:00.001+10:00

Two words summarise me quite well - food & books. I'm either eating or making food and if I'm not doing that, I'm reading a book or perusing a bookshop looking for a book. Cookbooks seem to be the compromise of the two which is why I have a fair few of them and well, when I stumble across a cafe that combines my much loved food with books, it most definitely will be a hit! Been Read Cafe & 2nd hand bookshop in Gladesville was actually a place that the boy stumbled across when he was at home reading the local paper and well, worked out well on a day when we were out and about and just happened to be in the area.

Toasted chicken sandwich with cheese and mixed salad.

The boy's beef burger which the owner humbly apologised about as she forgot to mention that she was out of burger bread and would serve on normal bread. She kindly offered us free coffees with our meal!

A lemon tart to share certainly hit the spot.

Whilst waiting for the food, I busied myself searching through the shelves of books (surely there must be thousands?) and did another round after I finished my food. Settled on these 2 books to go. A vintage copy of 'Gelatine Home Cooking Secrets' which was only $2 and 'Lunch in Paris' which was $9. I've finished reading Lunch in Paris which is part cookbook/part true story and eagerly wanting to make something with gelatine - probably very old fashioned but that's the way I roll!

I keep hinting to the boy that maybe we could have lunch here again but he doesn't seem to pick up on the hint. To be quite honest, I'd be more than happy to spend a day sitting at the cafe reading a book, searching through the bookshelves and fingers crossed stumble across a gem like my $2 gelatine cookbook and be absolutely over the moon. Ah well, till next time!

cloudy bay fish co. @ westfield, sydney

2011-05-16T19:26:00.000+10:00

Thursday nights always make for interesting nights. The boy and I will decide to meet in the city for dinner, I hop on the bus that moves ever so slowly down George Street, I'll then get off the bus in frustration because the bus hasn't moved, and after a good 20 minutes walking up the road and vowing never to do this again, I then find myself giddy and excited in the Westfield foodcourt and not being able to decide what to eat. The bus ride is definitely forgotten and my only thoughts are whether Via del corso are selling MakMak's Raisin Toast macarons and seriously wow, there are so many food choices here - where to even start?

This particular night we opted for dinner at Cloudy Bay Fish Co., one of the many new dining options to be found at the Sydney Westfield foodcourt. It's all about seafood here and well, I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

The prawn cocktail might seem a little old fashioned but certainly done well here.

Made to order are the Fish & Chips served with a side salad. More fish please but otherwise very yummy.

For those after a tipple, Cloudy Bay Fish Co. offer wine service if you sit around their bar (but note that there are only limited spots). The boy and I have our Charlie's juices which I think work a treat with the seafood.

I really think the new Westfield foodcourt is great for restaurant quality food in the foodcourt setting. I guess most people associate foodcourt for cheap food (and well, admittedly this is not the case) but if you're after restaurant quality food and can't be bothered getting dressed up and sitting in a restaurant for hours on end waiting for your food, Westfield foodcourt is the way to go. I have my eye on Becasse Bakery which has just opened up - maybe I might see some of you there on a Thursday night!

earl grey tea biscuits

2011-05-02T22:05:00.000+10:00

Is anyone else finding it a little cold? My way of combating the cold is by drinking heaps of tea. I think I've had about three today which is a bit more than usual; two were much needed to keep me warm and get me into working mode and my third cup was my obligatory 3pm cup of tea. Is that too much?

Aside from drinking tea, I find that tea makes for a great baking ingredient. I previously made an earl grey tea cake and earl grey has possibly one of the most amazing flavours. I recently stumbled across a recipe for tea biscuits using a blend called 'lady grey' but thought it was just easy enough to substitute with earl grey.

Here are all the ingredients. As you can see, it's a bit of a mixed bag of premium and no frills ingredients that I use. I can comfortable say it's perfectly alright to use no frills ingredients and deliver a spectacular product.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Line 2 baking tins with baking paper. In a large bowl, beat 150g softened unsalted butter with 115g light muscovado sugar until light and creamy. Stir in 2tbsp earl grey tea leaves until well combined. Add 1 beaten egg, then carefully fold in 200mL sifted plain flour. Using your hands, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a log about 25cm long. Gently press down on the top of the log with the palm of your hand to flatten slightly. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Using a sharp knife, cut the dough log widthways into 5mm slices.

Place slightly apart on the prepared baking trays. Sprinkle the cookies with a little demerara sugar, then bake for 10-15 minutes until slightly golden brown.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and leave to cool.

This recipe is from 'Afternoon Tea' by Antony Wild & Simona Hill (one of my recent finds at Basement Books - this shop really doesn't help my cookbook addiction but I love them nonetheless). Tastewise - these tea biscuits are nicely crispy and buttery. The extended family really loved these cookies and I was a big fan of them too. To be honest, not quite sure how they keep as all of them were gobbled up by the next day. Mum has already requested for another batch.

Since stumbling across this recipe, I've been on the lookout for Lady Grey tea to see what this blend tastes. Have yet to find it, let me know if you spot it anywhere in Sydney.

plum tea cake

2011-04-30T11:11:00.000+10:00

So you might have heard the saying, 'When life hands you lemons, go make a gin & tonic'; I remember first seeing this print on the shelf at the Donna Hay General Store and was very tempted to pick it off the shelf until I realised that it was actually part of the display. Well, life hasn't quite handed me lemons but I do seem to have a bit of a lemon of a phone. Have tried to go get it fixed but after several times trotting over to Nokia & Optus, I've just given up. On my last visit, my efforts were so half hearted that I ended up trotting into a bookshop and buying myself a cookbook - much better. 'When life hands you a lemon phone, go buy a cookbook!'

The cookbook I picked up was 'The Thrifty Kitchen' by Suzanne & Kate Gibbs. Only $12.95 from one of the discount bookshops in Parramatta and yes, I know, another cookbook for me but really, it's a rather good one. Lots of staple recipes for the every day and scattered with cooking tips for the home. I've made two recipes from the book so far and here's one of them for a plum tea cake.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Butter a 20cm diameter cake tin and line the base with baking paper. In a medium sized bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 1 egg white until stiff peaks form, then mix in the egg yolk. Gradually add 1/2 cup caster sugar, 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and beat well. Stir in 1 cup sifted self raising flour and 30g melted unsalted butter. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and top with 4-6 cut plums (cut side down).

Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Make yourself a cup of tea in the meantime (well I do anyway).

Remove from the oven and whilst hot, brush the top with 20g melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and sugar (1 tbsp) mix.

Cake innards!

Serve warm or at room temperature.

This cake is best eaten on the day it's made. Personally thought it was a rather good recipe to use up some plums that were rather sour. The sourness seems to be balanced out by the sweetness of the cake.

malted chocolate macarons

2011-04-17T21:14:00.000+10:00

I can't wait till Easter! A bunch of us are going camping and I can't wait to get out my wellies out of the cupboard, pack my books and kick back by the campfire and just read away. One of my drunken friends will probably holler by my ear (that's if it's not the boy himself) but it'll be a great weekend away as always; always good fun and full of laughs.

So where did the last couple of weeks go? I had a weekend away, work has kept me busy, lots of catch ups and generally being busy out and about and if you haven't gathered already, I'm looking forward to the break coming up and it wasn't so long ago since my last break. Oh well, I'm getting old and I'm getting a tidbit lazy and holidays are good, I can rest and just maybe, I might have some time to whip up another batch of macarons (being my favourite things in the world at the moment).

Here are my piped shells for a batch of Malted Chocolate macarons. Recipe is as per my last post, instead of the cocoa powder, you replace with 2 tbsp malted milk powder (remember to sift all ingredients).

I recently discovered Green & Black's Organic Cocoa Powder and really, there's no turning back.

Lightly dust the cocoa powder over the piped shells whilst the tops are still sticky. Leave to rest for 15 minutes - 1 hour until a skin forms across the shells.

Feet!

These Malted Chocolate macarons had a chocolate ganache filling in them. To make the chocolate filling, put 150g dark chocolate into a small heatproof bowl. Put 150mL double cream and 1 tbsp light brown sugar into a small saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and the cream has come to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp malted milk powder to the cream and pour over the chocolate and leave to melt. Stir until smooth and leave to set and thicken before using.

I could've been a little more generous with the ganache filling but was trying to be good.

These macarons were looking much better to my last batch. The feet were slightly more uniform and contained. Tastewise, they're still a little chewy and talking to a few people now, they think I should try the Italian meringue method which is apparently more stable and produces better textured macarons. Thanks for one of the boys at work, I actually got a hold of an Adriano Zumbo recipe which I'm definitely trying.

Nonetheless, this batch of macarons got gobbled up very quickly after they were made. The recipe itself is also so easy compared to the Italian meringue method which makes it hard for me to give it up (especially when I'm getting feet so easily every time!), thumbs up to the lovely Annie Rigg and her lovely book. Chocolate & Cherry macarons is sounding rather tempting as does Banoffee - what flavour to make next?

chocolate macarons with peanut butter & raspberry jam

2011-03-27T17:03:00.000+11:00

My fascination with macarons means that I have at least 6 cookbooks dedicated to making them, constant stalking of Adriano Zumbo to see what new macarons he's got in store and of course, a sizeable appetite for eating them. For awhile, I've been planning to do the course at Baroque Patisserie but after many unsuccessful attempts at booking myself a place, I ended up giving it a go at home and you know what, it actually wasn't too bad. Never has my fascination with 'feet' been so great that I actually squealed in delight watching the feet form on my macarons whilst they baked in the oven!

Start with 200g icing sugar and 100g ground almonds and blend thoroughly for 30 seconds in a food processer. For chocolate flavoured macarons, add in 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and blend.

In a large bowl, place 120g egg whites (approx. 3 eggs) and add a pinch of salt. Using a handheld electric beater, beat until they will only just hold a stiff peak. Continue to wish at medium speed whilst adding 40g caster sugar a little bit at a time. Keep in mind that the mixture should be thick, white and glossy. Add a little red food colouring paste to boost the colour of the final macaron.

Using a large metal spoon, fold the ground sugar, cocoa and almond mixture into the egg whites. The mixture should be thoroughly incorporated and smooth.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe evenly sized rounds onto a baking sheet. Tap the bottom of the baking sheets sharply once on the work surface to expel any large air bubbles. Leave to rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour until they have set and formed a dry shell. They should not be sticky to the touch. Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Whilst the piped macarons were resting, I made my peanut butter filling. To make the filling, put 75g skinned and unsalted peanuts in a roasting pan and toast in the oven for minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes before finely chopping in the food processor.

Add in 1 tbsp icing sugar, 3tbsp condensed milk, 2 tbsp unsalted butter and a pinch of salt and pulse again until the mixture turns to peanut butter.

Bake the macarons for 10 minutes. Recipe recommends that you do this one tray at a time (as the bottom of the oven is oven hotter than the middle of the oven). I take risks and look, my macarons have feet!

After 10 minutes, you should leave the macarons to cool on the tray. On the RHS is a macaron disc which I hurriedly pulled off the sheet as soon as it came out of the oven. With 5 minutes rest, the macarons actually come off the sheets much easier (see the one on the LHS).

Once the macaron shells have cooled, fill with your choice of filling.

I had mine with peanut butter and jam. The peanut butter recipe could've done with a bit of tweaking - ending up being a little hard and chewy.

I guess not bad for my first proper go at making macarons! I'm very much in love with macaron feet as bizarre as it sounds. I've learnt my lesson to sift every ingredient that I use - the main problem I had was clumps in the batter which meant I was trying to pull these out once they were piped (hence why you see the uneven surfaces on my macarons). Admittedly it's a lot of work to make a small batch of these little things but very worthwhile and satisfying throughout and at the end!

my picnic basket

2011-03-07T22:54:00.000+11:00

I've been wanting a picnic basket for awhile now. The boy kept saying I was silly to get one and yes, I do admit that it's a little old fashioned but hey, who doesn't like the idea of a picnic? And like most boys, they say one thing and do another - guess what the boy got me for Valentine's Day this year?

This picnic basket set has glass plates and cups. The wicker itself is quite delicate but I love how authentic this basket is, complete with buckle straps to close.

Prawn, Spinach & Garlic Aioli Baguettes for lunch.

Fresh homemade lemonade to accompany the baguettes.

Blueberry with Orange Juice jellies & Strawberry with Cranberry Juice jellies to complete lunch.

A big thumbs up to the boy for preparing the picnic (I was quite stoked to find that he'd prepared everything himself - so much for him saying that he can't cook!) There were a lot of baguettes which could've fed four quite comfortably and as insistent at the boy was for me to eat up, we couldn't quite finish them. It was a shame that the weather wasn't great to go outdoors but the picnic was just as nice indoors. Definitely more picnics coming up soon!

apple & cinnamon crumble cake

2011-03-03T22:52:00.000+11:00

Seems like everyone is getting married in 2011; I wonder if it's a particularly auspicious year or if it's just sheer coincidence. I was at a high school friend's wedding the other weekend and sitting at my table at the reception was one couple that got married a few weeks a ago, another couple getting married and having their reception at the exact same place in 1 weeks time, and then there was another couple having their wedding in 3 weeks. The fourth couple i.e. my best friend was there with her husband, leaving myself and one of my girlfriends (as they boy hadn't been invited) to look at each other in every effort not to feel a little odd.

Anyhow, in tandem with weddings are kitchen teas and hen's nights. For this particular girlfriend who was getting married, her maid of honour offered up her place to host the kitchen tea where all guests were invited to bring a dish to share. I ended up making an Apple & Cinnamon Crumble cake the night before to bring along.

The actual recipe is for a Pear & Ginger Crumble Cake from Linda Collister's 'Cakes & Bakes from my mother's kitchen'. With a few little twiddles, you have yourself a new cake recipe and I'm quite partial to the combo of apple and cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. First make the crumble topping - Place 60g plain flour and 1 tsp ground cinnamon in a bowl. Add 50g cold unsalted butter cut into cubes and quickly rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Add 3tbsp light brown sugar and rub again until the mix resembles coarse sand. Refrigerate until needed. In a large bowl, beat 125g softened unsalted butter and 125g caster sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time and beat well with each addition. Tip in 125g plain flour, 2tsp baking powder and beat for 1 minute until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the mixture into a prepared cake tin and level the surface. Peel and core 2 apples and mix in a bowl with 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice. Arrange on top of the cake.

Sprinkle over the crumble topping and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until the cake is risen and golden on top.

Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and cutting into slices.

Store in an airtight container in a cool cupboard or the refrigerator and eat within 2 days.

This cake is very moist and packs a punch with flavour. Only downside is that the cake doesn't seem to keep very well. Despite placing in the fridge, it was moldy by the third day (so the recipe is quite right about eating this one within 2 days!) I think the original recipe for pear and ginger is worth a try; it's been awhile since I've made a ginger recipe!

honeyed anzac biscuits

2011-03-01T22:17:00.001+11:00

Since I've been sick, the one thing I've craved for more than anything else is honey - it automatically soothes the throat and makes my day feel just that tiny bit better. And if you are after proof that I've been eating up lots of honey, our 500mL squeezy jar of honey is on it's last drizzles. And I need to actually make a trip to the supermarket and get myself a new squeezy jar. I fear that if I have no honey in the house, things might get a little odd!

Just happens to be that in the February issue of Delicious, there was a recipe for 'Honeyed Anzac Biscuits'. Recipe is by Matthew Evans and there's a cookbook by this very gentleman that I have by beady eye on!

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. In a small saucepan, heat 125g chopped unsalted butter and 2 tbsp honey over medium heat and stir until combined. Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 tsp sifted bicarb soda.

In a large bowl, combine 100g rolled oats, 150g sifted plain flour, 200gs caster sugar and 70g shredded coconut. Pour the honey mixture and stir to combine. If the mixture is very dry and crumbly, add 1-2 tsp water.

Place 1 tbsp mixture on the prepared trays for each biscuit, spaced at least 4cm apart.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden.

These Anzac biscuits are chewy as traditional Anzac biscuits should be (and that's just the way I like them). The colour on these is also great and really you won't feel too guilty gobbling up a few of these. The honey is a most welcome change to the traditional golden syrup used in most Anzac biscuit recipes and with my latest honey cravings, that's even more of an excuse for me to stock up on a supply of honey!

simple apple & mixed berry cake

2011-02-28T22:49:00.000+11:00

One of the chefs I really admire is Donna Hay. Her cookbooks were of the first lot of cookbooks I owned and many a recipe of hers has been cooked by yours truly, passed on and then cooked again. I really think Donna makes cooking simple and having used her recipes many times now, her recipes just get better. I love the fact that all the ingredients in her recipes are easy to find (if not in your kitchen pantry already), you can make do with equipment you have at home and flicking through her recipes, there's always a photo of what you're cooking so you know what to expect. Often, I have trouble deciding what to make because she makes everything look so good!

I was reading the The Sunday Life Magazine over the weekend and there was an article in it about Donna and her recent weight loss. Watching several episodes of Masterchef, I'd been a little curious to see why she'd dropped weight so suddenly (thinking it all had to do with losing weight for the show) and well, little did I know that she'd been suffering from severe back pain for months and as part of her recovery, she'd taken up running 9km a day, 5 days a week to strengthen her back. Donna - you really are an inspiration and on the side, you're looking great. Keep up the great work!

So in honour of Donna, here's her 'simple apple & mixed berry cake' recipe which I made a little while back. I'm very much in love with this recipe as I'm with Donna herself!

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 225g sifted self raising flour, 165g caster sugar, 125g softened butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 eggs and 125mL milk in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until just combined. Spoon mixture into a greased 22cm springform tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Top with 1 cored apple, thinly sliced. Add 3/4 cup mixed berries to the top and sprinkle with 2 tbsp demerara sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is cooked when tested with a skewer. Serves 8-10.

This teacake looked great going into the oven and even better when it came out! The texture of the cake was so soft and buttery and the combination of the mixed berries (this was a store bought Creative combination of wild blueberries, blackberries and normal blueberries) and the apple was a match made in heaven. I've previously found this Creative combo rather sour but it definitely wasn't the case in this teacake.

This recipe comes out of Donna' latest cookbook 'fash, fresh, simple' which has taken a permanent place on my desk, within easy reach for when I'm looking for that perfect recipe to make!

taste of shanghai @ rowe st., eastwood

2011-02-27T19:14:00.000+11:00

I've lost track of the number of weeks (or months!) since I've been sick. I've spent this weekend mostly curled up in bed or sleeping on the go and I've hated every minute of it. In a nutshell, what started off as the flu developed into a secondary infection and despite a course of antibiotics, a dry cough lingered for about 2 weeks and I'm back with the flu and still coughing. I really think it's time for this sickness to go away!

And whilst I've been sick, the backlog of photos and the blog posts have been building up and well, it's somewhat amazing the amount of food that I can still get through whilst I'm sick! For the record, I have resorted to slightly blander food in the hope of finally getting better and whilst this might feel like the worst thing in the world right now for someone that enjoys food, getting better is my priority - I can't stand another cough or another minute curled up in bed. Anyway, catching up on some eatings this year....

Taste of Shanghai has been in Eastwood for a good little while now and every night there seems to be the same queue that snakes out the door. That was also what put me off going there in the first place and good news for the restaurant (and perhaps not so good news for myself and other dining patrons), yes, you need to be prepared to wait for a table in that queue.

Seems like the renovating of the restaurant has also seen a revamp of the menu. I remember the food to be quite oily when the shop first opened but on this visit, the food was clean, crisp and certainly tasty. We tried this Pork with Bean Starch Sheet Noodle which is an ideal dish when you can't quite decide ordering between and entree and a main.

Steamed Pork Dumplings - how I love that slurp of soup when you bite into one of these but I always seem to be burning my tongue!

Noodles with sliced cucumber, pork mince and black bean sauce.

Taiwanese Milk Tea - a lot milkier than a traditional Hong Kong Milk Tea (which I swear by) but still a good cold drink for a warm day.

Seems like eating lunch at 2 or 3pm in the afternoon (or 8-9pm at night i.e. outside of standard meal times) is the only way to beat the queue here but otherwise, the usual 15-30 minute wait is worthwhile at the end of it - you just have to hang in there (as hard as it may seems). There's been times when I've grabbed a ticket and in the end, went elsewhere to eat whilst we were waiting. Other times, I've planned on going here and changed by mind at the last minute after seeing the queue. If only they could do something about it and then I could eat here a bit more often!

Anyway, don't let me deter you from coming here. I definitely recommend the food. It's the sensible me that says don't bother waiting in a queue for 30 minutes for food which I think is open for debate. I'm personally not a big fan of it but you may think otherwise.

kazbah @ top ryde shopping centre

2011-02-23T22:39:00.000+11:00

I was eagerly awaiting the opening of Kazbah at Top Ryde Shopping Centre and to mark their opening, they were offering 20% off meals in the month of January. The boy and I managed to check the place out in the last week of January (I'd momentarily forgot about Kazbah opening up and am now kicking myself for finding out so late cause I could've made much more use of that discount!) Anyway, it's open now and it's so much closer than the one in Balmain that I'm satisfied, really I am.

A berry frappe that was refreshing and a somewhat mini Iced Chocolate. Don't ask me why but the boy has a weird addiction to ordering Iced Chocolates and chocolate milkshakes wherever he goes.

There's the option of picking and ordering one dip served with bread or getting their whole selection of dips served with bread. Much more colourful ordering the latter! Within the bread basket are slices of toasted turkish bread, lebanese bread and the tastiest thing (after hot chips with chicken salt), fried lebanese bread! The bread was so very crunchy and tasty that I was tempted to send back the un-fried lebanese bread for them to make some more.

Tried to order a couple of things to try their menu. We had a goat tagine, fried lamb cutlets (which I highly recommend ordering) and a side of haloumi with lemon and rocket. Managed to get through all the food and everything was lovely as I thought it would be.

Admittedly, service was particularly slow that day. The restaurant wasn't that full, there were plenty of waitstaff and kitchen staff but food seemed to get to the table very slowly. Noticed that they were quite quick with the breakfast items but the mains just seemed to take forever. Can only guess that it's a new restaurant and everyone is still fumbling their way round trying to learn the ropes. There's 3 hours free parking at Top Ryde and both of us were quite surprised to find that after eating lunch, we'd already spent a good 2 hours (which is a rather long lunch!) Hopefully the next time I'm back, it won't take quite so long!

eastwood korean restaurant @ rowe st., eastwood

2011-02-21T22:18:00.000+11:00

I came here with my good friend Mashi for dinner one night and it ended up being such a good night (well when you put two hungry girls together who seem to be able to chat about just anything), we ended up leaving the place and forgetting our pancake which we were meant to takeaway. It was a rather good pancake too! Poor pancake, I really could've eaten you the next day!

Crazy talk aside, Eastwood Korean offers a good selection of side dishes to start the meal - a balance of spicy, sweet and ones that are neutral tasting to complement what you might order. My favourite side dish of all time is Kimchi (and I imagine it would be for most people too), I wonder why it doesn't come on a bigger plate?

We ordered the Spicy Sausage & Noodle Hotpot to share - it looks just like the one on the menu! I know it's a pack of 2 minute noodles on top but there's something so very enticing about it.

The hotpot could've adequately fed the two of us but an extra dish for a bit of variety never hurts. We managed to get through half of this and decided to take this one away. If only we remembered to take it away!

Here are the noodles cooked in the spicy soup - delicious!

Really enjoyed the meal and can see why the restaurant is always so packed out - food is fantastic and the service is quick. Actually quite surprised that we managed to get a table this time and well alas, we couldn't sit for too long as they were keen to clear up our table for the next as soon as we were done. Both of us were really intrigued by the big plates of fried chicken that the bigger tables nearby seemed to be ordering - well you'll know what I'll order the next time I'm here!

morello cherry & custard chocolate tart

2011-02-20T09:25:00.000+11:00

I'd call myself resourceful when it comes to baking at home. I try to make the most of the ingredients I have and do my best to make sure that nothing gets wasted. Partly it's also being lazy and not being bothered to head to the shops to grab that last ingredient; I just substitute it with something similar I have at home. So far it seems to work ok; I'll let you know if it ever doesn't!

This Morello Cherry & Custard Chocolate Tart was one I made with the remaining half jar of morello cherries I had. I also had the Chocolate Careme Pastry sitting in the fridge so it worked out quite well that everything was at home and I could concentrate on simply assembling the tart. Making tarts is quite a stressful business - no matter how many times I make a tart, something always goes wrong. My shortcrust pastry almost always shrinks when it goes in the oven, occasionally the liquid will seep out of the tart from the tiniest of holes where the pastry has been rolled out to thin and more often than not, I'm prone to burning myself moving the tart in and out of the oven.

Recipe is from the Careme Pastry website here. It's a pretty straight forward recipe but here are some tips.

The Careme Pastry sheet isn't quite big enough for a long thin tart pan like this. You'll need to cut and join the pastry to get the length. Make sure you roll out so that the join isn't thicker that the rest of the pastry.

Use your fingers to press the pastry into the corners/sides of the tin.

If you haven't discovered pie weights, these are miraculous little things. Line your tart base with these and blind bake in the oven. Pie weights can be reused unlike recipes which get you to use beans and rice for blind baking.

Whisk the custard filling so that there are no lumps. Make sure you strain the morello cherries so that that they don't colour the custard filling too much.

In go the morello cherries (so very adorable and plump!)

Top with the custard filling. Please, please don't overfill the tart shell like I did. It will be difficult to move into the oven.

The recipe says to cook for about 25 minutes. Mine took about 40 minutes to cook. At 25 minutes, the filling was still runny and was nowhere near close to setting. Let the tart sit in the tin to cool when it comes out of the oven. Refrain from trying to take it out as the tart shell is likely to crack and split whilst it's still warm.

I love, love, love morello cherries and currently considering stocking up on jars in bulk. They are gorgeously yummy and this morello cherry tart made a great treat at my family's christmas dinner. Careme Pastry is something I swear by (great for when you can't be bothered making your own and it's very easy to use - just take out of the freezer and defrost for about an hour to two). Tastewise, this dark chocolate shortcrust pastry was quite rich and mum did find it overpowered the custard a little bit but on the whole, the tart was yummy and I think that's the most important thing!

poh's 'the best banana cake in the world'

2011-02-10T23:21:00.000+11:00

It's pretty gutsy of Poh to declare in her cookbook that this is 'the best banana cake in the world' but after making the recipe myself, I'm convinced. It's a rather good recipe; the banana cake is fluffy and moist with just the right amount of sweetness through it to tempt you to eat that extra slice (or if you are like my uncle, you might sit there and keep cutting off slice after slice!)

Preheat oven to 150 degrees fan forced. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper. In a large bowl, cream together 125g softened unsalted butter, 115g brown sugar, 115g caster sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until pale and fluffy. Add 2 large eggs one at a time. Add in 185g sifted plain flour, 2 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda and 1/4 tsp salt and fold until fully incorporated into the mix. Add 60mL full cream milk and 3 overripe mashed bananas and fold in. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

Bake for 40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before release the cake from the tin. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, combine 50g softened unsalted butter (ideally room temperature/don't go crazy melting it the microwave - you need the butter still a little bit firm so that the final icing keeps its shape), 60g icing sugar and 2-3 tbsp lemon juice with an electric beater until pale and fluffy. Spread over the top of the cake.

Poh suggests a dusting of 35g roasted and chopped hazelnuts which I didn't have at the time but can imagine it to be quite handy to give the cake a little bit of crunch. The cake is perfectly fine without the hazelnuts and well, this is the second recipe I've made from Poh's cookbook and so far the recipes have been spot on. So easily to follow and use, and I'm constantly tempted by all the other recipes in the book; all fighting for me to look at them and cook them!

red spoon @ top ryde shopping centre

2011-02-09T21:47:00.000+11:00

I've been so busy at work lately that I can hardly hear myself think. Everything has become rather robotic and seems like I go through the motions of doing something but I have no idea what I've actually done! Can't be good!

Anyway, channelling my thoughts to things that make me happy - food! Loving all the restaurant additions to Top Ryde Shopping Centre and in particular Red Spoon. Have been here twice now for dinner and the food is absolutely scrumptious. There's plenty on the menu for me to come back for but in the meantime, these are a few things which are worth trying...

Duck Green Curry.

Seafood Pancake.

Chicken Chilli Basil Noodle.

Banana Blossom Salad.

And my favourite of them all is the Sticky Beef Ribs - could eat this anyday!

To accompany the meal, I suggest you order one of their mocktails - The Lemongrass Smash (it comes served with a stalk of lemongrass) and is rather refreshing. Should your stomach allow, dessert is an option. There's only a few to select from but they are a good size (won't leave you too full) and definitely worth trying.

The service here is really friendly. Only downside is the lighting at the back of the restaurant. You might need to squint at the menu a little bit and as the night progresses, you might get this feeling that you are eating in the dark.

chocolate cherry cakes

2011-01-29T13:27:00.000+11:00

As part of my birthday celebrations in December, I finally made my way over to Donna Hay's General Store in Woollahra to check it out. It's a really gorgeous little store, I wanted to buy too many things in there and in the end, left the shop with some pie moulds, a baking tin and a jar of grapefruit marmalade which I've been eagerly digging into.

Mum went and got me Donna's latest cookbook for my birthday, 'Fast, Fresh, Simple' and so far have made a reasonably good effort to try out the recipes. I mentioned this awhile back but I do have a whole 60L container at home dedicated to Donna Hay magazines and cookbooks and out of all the cookbooks I have, Donna's are ones which I go back to time and time again.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 125g chopped dark chocolate and 155g unsalted butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. In a large bowl, place 3 eggs, 75g caster sugar, 100g plain flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 120g almond meal, 60mL sherry (actual recipe calls for brandy which I didn't have at home) and chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into cupcake holders and press a cherry into the top.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if the cakes are cooked. Makes 12.

The photo in the book got my attention and I was glad to find that they came out of the oven just as cute.

These cakes are a cross between a cupcake and a friand. Not quite as crumbly as a friand and not as sweet as a regular cupcake. The addition of the alcohol make its quite a festive treat and even for those who don't generally like alcohol in their food didn't mind it too much, said that they couldn't taste it. The alcohol does give it a certain richness though and methinks I should head to the bottle-o and get myself a bottle of brandy. I keep coming across recipes with brandy in it!

Anyway, so here's recipe number 3 with cherries in it. I have one more to share!

cherry & hazelnut friands

2011-01-27T22:07:00.000+11:00

I received a handful of food related gifts over Christmas and the one that I've dug into very quickly is my copy of 'Poh's Kitchen' which mum bought me in conjuction with 3 Poh DVDs. I'm not that big a fan; there's just that something about Poh which makes me love her and well it's great to see how happy she is whilst she cooks. It's uncanny how she laughs at everything and it turns out her recipes are actually rather good!

'Poh's Kitchen' is half split between savoury and sweet recipes. I've tried three sweet recipes from the book now and they've all turned out really well. My first recipe was the cherry & hazelnut friands which earned me a handful of brownie points from the boy; he absolutely loves friands.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease a 12 hole friand pan with melted butter. In large bowl, combine together 60g plain flour, 185g sifted icing sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 110g hazelnut meal, 180g unsalted butter and 6 lightly beaten egg whites. Stir with a whisk until there are no lumps.

Distribute the batter into the friand tin (I only managed to get 11). Then poke in 4-5 drained morello cherries into each friand (about 400g drained). Bake for about 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the friand comes out clean.

Rest for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Try not to be too anxious and pry these out when they first come out of the oven. After resting, you'll find that the friand falls away from the sides making it a lot easier to turn out.

Have a taste and see what you think!

This is probably the first friand recipe I've made at home where the friand hasn't stuck to the pan or burnt to a crisp on the sides. Loved the colour on these friands as they came out of the oven and you know what, they taste bloody good too!

You could say that I'm a little addicted to cherries as a couple of days later I went and made another recipe with cherries in it!

dried cherry cheesecake muffins

2011-01-22T17:04:00.000+11:00

Over the Christmas & new year break, I soaked up every opportunity to bake and it worked out perfectly well that family and friends would pop in every now and help me do some eating. I did my fair share of eating also and like it happens every year, January has been a month of being good, eating well, lots of salads and more than average visits to the gym.

Out of all the things I baked over the Christmas, the one ingredient that featured prominently in all my baking was cherries. They weren't quite in season at the time (I find that you can get much plumper cherries in January) but I still had my packet of dried cherries sitting in my pantry calling out to be used (yes...food does seem to talk to me!)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan.

Chop up 100g dried cherries.

Melt 150g unsalted butter and cool slightly. In a large bowl, whisk 200g cream cheese and 150g caster sugar together, add 3 lightly beaten eggs one at a time until well combined Stir in the melted butter. Stir in 300g self-raising flour and add in the chopped cherries to the mixture.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tin.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

I personally think that muffins taste best when warm so I tend to dig in when they come straight out of the oven.

Usually recipes with cream cheese can taste quite heavy and filling but this particular muffin is surprisingly light to the taste. For me, I knew I put cream cheese into the recipe but for anyone else eating, you would hardly suspect it. So I guess if you're after your cream cheese fix and don't want to feel too guilty about it, I guess this it!

cafe topiary @ rawson st., epping

2011-01-17T16:48:00.001+11:00

I mentioned awhile back that I have that mental list of restaurants/eateries that I want to go (I probably will never get to the end of it cause it just gets long and longer) but it comes in real handy when when I'm stuck for a place to eat! One of the places on that list is Cafe Topiary on Rawson Street (just across the road from the Coles carpark in Epping) which has been on that list for over a year now and it was great to finally pay a visit.

There's a small outdoor area for those wishing to catch a bit of sun but otherwise there's aircon and TV inside. The latter worked out better on this visit as the boy was keen to keep an eye out on the cricket score.

They serve campos coffee here but I'm finding it a little too warm at the moment for a hot coffee so had their Iced Coffee instead.

Both the boy and I found the meals here rather large. This was the boy's beef burger which comes with a rather glorious looking sunny side egg.

The Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado & Tomato on Turkish is really quite a treat but also quite filling at the same time.

Like I said, the boy was keeping his eye on the TV screen.

For me, the greatest thing about Cafe Topiary was the size of their chips/wedges. Here's one of the chips that was wider than my face! (As you can see, I'm easily amused!)

We were here for Sunday lunch but the cafe offers a very extensive breakfast menu also. When I first read about Cafe Topiary, it was a mention of their breakfast menu so will need to work on getting up that little bit early to get in for breakfast. There were lots of people here when we were there at 1pm on a Sunday so suggest you get in early if you're keen to grab a table. Note that they do start closing off sections of the cafe to clean on a Sunday so you might get turned away if no tables are available.

bar angolo @ la piaza, top ryde shopping centre

2011-01-13T22:49:00.000+11:00

I'm eagerly awaiting the opening of Kazbah at Top Ryde Shopping Centre (I wonder what's the delay?) but in the meantime, there's actually quite a lot of dining options to whet the appetite. Hurricane's is also due to open up and well, it almost makes sense that they've staggered the opening of the restaurants so that you can actually try them out one by one. The thing I love the most is that now we have all these new restaurants which makes dining in my area so much more fun. So far, I've tried two of the restaurants at Top Ryde and well on my way to try the third with the buy one, get one free main voucher that got handed out the other night for Citigrill.

Anyway, just a quick post of a weekend lunch at Bar Angolo where the boy and I were keen to check out their pizza and pastas. Here's a thirst quenching House Made Lemonade to start the meal.

Introducing the Porkstar - that's the pizza. All things pork on a crispy thin pizza base - yum!

Surprisingly there are only 2 pasta options on the menu, either these meatballs or a Carbonara. Discovered an extra option on the specials menu but still a rather small selection. Not something to complain though because these meatballs and pasta were awfully tasty!

I eyed the desserts cabinet which housed a good selection of Italian sweets. With the outdoor seating, would be good to come back here for a coffee and a bite of something sweet. What I find interesting is that right next door is another pizza and pasta place. Anyway, will have to get round to try the one next door and let you know which one is better!

almond pear tart

2011-01-10T21:43:00.000+11:00

I always have the intention to bake things from scratch and things like kneading dough, whipping cream, piping icing are things I look forward to doing and probably cross my mind every other second of the day (clearly baking is a much more fun activity to do than things like work, taking out the garbage, waiting for the train, walking to work!) I actually don't even mind the fact that after a day's worth of baking something might not even turn out quite right because at the end of the day, you've achieved something and there'll always be someone to tell you you've done a mighty good job of it. I guess it makes you feel good!

So despite good intentions, most of the time I resort to speed baking which is my term for using pre-prepared ingredients and combining them to make a recipe. Take this almond pear tart recipe for example which I thought was rather tasty and earned me several compliments from the friends that helped me eat it.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Roll out 1 pack of Careme shortcrust pastry between sheets of baking paper to 3mm thickness and line a lightly greased 22cm tart ring. Trim the edge, line the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10-12 minutes, remove the weights and paper and bake for a further 10 minutes until a light golden brown. Cool

To make the almond filling, place 75g softened butter and 110g caster sugar in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until light an creamy. Beat in 1 egg, then fold in 150g almond meal, 2 tbsp flour and 1 1/2 tbsp sherry. Spread the filling over the pastry.

Arrange 1 can of sliced poached pears across the almond filling. Bake the tart for 50 minutes or until golden. Let the tart rest for about 10 minutes before attempting to remove from the tin. Dust with icing sugar. Serve at room temperature.

This tart was hardly any effort and tasted great (and to be quite honest, likely to be better tasting than if I'd made everything from scratch). I served this tart with vanilla ice cream and it worked a treat!

potato salad

2011-01-05T21:38:00.000+11:00

The amount of potato I eat is actually quite frightening and I'm surprised that I haven't quite turned into a potato yet. Well if I go missing one day, you'll more than likely find me in a potato sack cause I've turned into one! I love my crisps, hot chips dusted with chicken salt, baked spuds piled high with melting sour cream, mashed potato, roasted potato, potato gratin, have yet to try duck fat roasted potatoes (but the sound of it is already quite tasty) and last but not least, potato salad.

I came across this potato salad recipe just before Christmas and ended up making it for two separate Christmas parties. In both instances, the salad was completely gobbled up and I had several people asking me for the recipe. Well the recipe comes from Hamlyn's '200 super salads' by Alice Storey and here's how I made it...

Peel and rinse 1kg brushed new potatoes and cut into walnut sized pieces. Cook in lightly salted boiling water until tender (you should be able to slide a fork into the potato without any effort if the potato has cooked through). Rinse under cold water and let to cool.

Meanwhile, slice 250g smoked streaky bacon into thin strips. Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and cook the bacon until gold, drain on kitchen paper and allow to cool. Finally dice 10 spring onions, reserving some for garnish.

Put the potatoes, finally sliced spring onions and bacon in a large salad bowl. Gently stir in 175mL mayonnaise ( I recommend S&W Delikatessen Mayo because it tastes absolutely scrumptious). Season to taste with cracked salt and pepper. Garnish with the reserved spring onions and serve.

sorrenzo @ bay drive, meadowbank

2011-01-04T22:18:00.000+11:00

So onto Part 3 of my birthday celebrations in 2010, the boy took me for dinner at Sorrenzo - a fusion Japanese restaurant just by the wharf at Meadowbank. I had no idea there were even restaurants by the wharf and well, I gave the boy a thumbs up for a good choice. We enjoyed a rather lavish meal looking over the water and finishing dinner, it was just a short trip home. (Call me lazy but lately I've taken to dining local and it's great to find that there are a number of fantastic local options now compared to a couple years back.)

Greeted by birthday wishes as we arrive at the restaurant.

One of their sake based cocktails which were ever so easy to drink!

Complimentary Amuse Bouche.

Steamed Abalone with Foie Gras, Sumiso - one of the boy's colleagues had recommended him to try this and it was definitely one dish I would also recommend. It probably doesn't need all that sauce though but once I started dabbing at it, it got rather addictive. In general, you'll find that with most of the dishes here, they are quite heavy handed with the sauces; by all means jam-packed with flavour but might overpower the dish it comes with so suggest you dabble at the sauces in moderation.

Sushi Combo.

Kushiyaki.

Green Tea Smoked Surpreme of Duck with Cumberland Sauce. You don't see it in this picture but there's another bed of risotto sitting on the other side of the plate making this a rather filling dish. The duck was perfectly cooked with just a slight tinge of pink.

Wagyu Rib Eye Steak with Assorted Vegetables. Can't go wrong with wagyu.

Had my stomach let me, I would've loved to try dessert but after a full day's worth of eating, my stomach was well stretched beyond its limit. Sorrenzo is open for lunch so no doubt I'll be back to try some more items off their menu and I think the view would be even more stunning during the day. The great thing about the location is that after a filling dinner, you can take a stroll by the wharf to walk it off and that's exactly what we did!

black star pastry @ australia st., newtown

2011-01-03T21:58:00.001+11:00

Recently, the boy has been looking at cars and whilst he has yet to settle on a model that he wants to buy, the one that he's about to settle on seems to always follow him. Whether we are in the car, walking along the street, there's that car again and I kid you not, this has probably been going on for at least 2 months. Then again, this is not unlike my relationship with Black Star Pastry. First it was an article in the Australian Gourmet Traveller, then it was a write up in the SMH Good Living, then it was a conversation with a friend, then another friend mentioned it and finally, a good couple months later, I made my way over there to check out what it was all about.

Serrano Ham with Olive Rustic Bread. Lemongrass & Ginger Iced Tea - I highly recommend this!

Chicken & Avocado Sandwich (my favourite of our two sandwich choices).

The place was a lot smaller than I expected it to be but I suspect most of it is actually the kitchen out the back. What you see in this photo is pretty much it in terms of the shopfront. There's the one table inside which were lucky to snap up, the rest of the seating is a bench and some stools outside the shop.

Lots of really yummy looking desserts in the Black Star Pastry cabinets but with a boxful of macarons already under my belt, I settled for the chocolate eclair and custard flan. Must go back to try out the rest!

So there you have it, Part 2 of my 2010 birthday celebrations. Minus the size of the place, Black Star Pastry was everything I thought it would be - simple, no fuss yet tantalising food and desserts which I could quite easily gobble up at any time of the day. It was a tad hot that particularly day for a coffee but seeing all the people coming in and out of the shop just to grab a coffee or two, I think it'd be safe for me to say that they make a mean coffee too. Anyway, will report back when I try it out.

adriano zumbo cafe @ terry st., rozelle

2011-01-02T13:07:00.000+11:00

First post of 2011! I've been busy enjoying the Christmas & New Year holidays and can't believe another year has come around already. The last month was a bit of a whirlwind starting from my birthday, then it was Christmas parties, friends being back in the country and catching up, a mini trip to Kiama, New Years Eve and of course plenty of food and drink along the way! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and Happy New Year!

Couldn't decide where to start the year on this blog so figured it would make the most sense to start where I left off. It's been a good month since my last post and looking at my photos, a LOT of food appears to have been consumed along the way.

My birthday breakfast @ Adriano Zumbo Cafe. I had the day off work and spent it with the boy traipsing around Sydney eating and eating.

The boy's Berry Brioche.

The view from where we were sitting. Don't underestimate how long it takes to assemble a macaron tower - probably takes a good 30-40 minutes. Every now and then, I was tempted to knock on the window to tell the girl where she had left a gap but I think she had it under control.

The boy was feeling peckish and grabbed a lamb sausage roll to top of his brioche. Loved the buttery and flaky pastry!

I probably looked a bit stupid to passerbys but hey, it was my birthday and a picture with the Zumbo wall was more than appropriate.

A box of macarons for the road. Do not leave these in the car on a hot day; ended up having a few melting macarons by the time we got home - all the more reason to gobble them up quickly.

I guess you would call this Part 1 of my birthday adventures. Plenty more eating that day and then the birthday celebrations somehow carried themselves across to the weekend and beyond. Anyway, posts to follow!

kungfu ramen @ george st., sydney

2010-12-06T22:28:00.000+11:00

I can't decide what I like more; eating or cooking - both have their perks, both are great past times, both can be social activities, although both seem to add to my waistline so taking that into account, I guess I can't really like one more than the other! When it comes to eating, lately I've been on the scout for some cheaper options which are slightly kinder on the wallet. Still loving my fine dining and still have plenty of places I want to visit but in between the dearer meals, the cheaper options seem to get me through the week and I've managed to find quite a few gems amongst them all.

I spotted Kungfu Ramen on George Street whilst on the bus to heading down to QVB. Actually, the place kept getting my attention and when the boy and I decided to grab dinner in the city one Thursday, it was a no brainer that we'd come here. When I saw the sign, I actually thought these guys offered Japanese Ramen but don't be fooled like me, this place offers up a Chinese style ramen (or what you'd refer to in the language as a pulled ramen).

Ramen in Soup with Chilli and Beef Slices. This was my preference out of the two types of noodles we ordered as the chilli masked the taste of the floury noodles more than the other dish did.

Ramen noodles with minced meat, sliced cucumber and a black bean sauce (served also with a bowl of clear soup).

Pork dumplings. If I see dumplings on a menu, I have to order it and I'm glad I did!

It was a really nice and quick dinner and if you're sitting facing the back of the shop, you'll get to see the guys pulling the flour and making the ramen which is really quite a sight. I'm always amazed how these chefs can transfer a blob of dough into thin strands of noodles merely by the continuous pulling and it all seems rather easy when you watch them! Anyway, I think I might give making a noodles a miss as it's much easier coming to the guys here and having them make me a bowl!

There's plenty of other items on the menu to try and it seems like people are starting to find out about this place so I suggest you get in here quick!

apple & oatmeal muffins

2010-12-05T09:34:00.000+11:00

Last month seemed to have whizzed by with the family on holidays so only baked a tray or too here and there. I tried to be healthy with my eating (no 2 minute noodles and keeping instant reheat meals to a minimum) and these Apple and Oatmeal muffins fit nicely into that plan.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a muffin tray with baking cases. In a large mixing bowl, combine 150g wholemeal flour, 90g rolled oats, 90g brown sugar, 2 1/2 tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Gradually incorporate into the mix 1 lightly beaten egg and 200ml milk. Fold in 2 grated green apples and 100g raisins. Fill baking cases with mix (you should get 10 in this batch). Sprinkle with a little extra rolled oats.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Too often you will find me with baked good in hand, cup of tea in another and surrounded by plenty of foodie reading material.

If you're used to a really sweet muffin (which I'm quite partial too), you'll find the first bite into these rather bland and it might actually be the next day when you give it another go that these end up tasting quite nice. Otherwise, if you're not too much of a sweet tooth, I think these will suit you quite well!

charlie & co. @ westfield sydney

2010-12-04T09:52:00.000+11:00

I've long been fascinated and read plenty about Justin North and his Wagyu burger at his cafe, Plan B. If only I worked in the CBD end of the city, I probably would've had my fair share of them! Well thanks to the new Westfield and the opening up of Charlie & Co. in the foodcourt, I finally got around to trying the Wagyu burger on my last visit to the new shopping centre.

The Wagyu & Co. Burger- Wagyu burger with beetroot relish, pickled gherkin and aged cheddar on a sesame bun. The burger doesn't look all that big but don't underestimate the size of that wagyu patty - you'll be full in no time!

Looking up the menu as I'm typing up this post, I think this burger that my mum had has disappeared off the menu. It was a chicken burger with cucumber and bok choy. Mum thought the bok choy was a little odd in the burger and I'm guessing could be why they've taken it off.

Very delicious herbed fries.

Our food!

Mum and I dined in at Charlie & Co. Dining in is slightly more expensive than sitting in the foodcourt and if you're on a budget and still want to try this place out, sitting in the new foodcourt is actually not a bad idea (as it's already pretty classy).

I thought the food was great (the burger buns are doughy and do fill you up so sharing one might not be such a bad idea) but I'm sure others will contest this. The table that was sitting next to us probably had one of their worse meals starting from the burger coming to them cold (at which point the lady tapped me on the shoulder to ask me how my burger was), then their replacements burger took ages to get to the table, then the replacement burger wasn't even the same burger that they originally ordered, then the egg on their burger was cold. The waiters/waitresses were definitely too new to handle the situation and well, we left before the two ladies finished their meal so hopefully things got a bit better.

Anyway, the place is still new. I'm sure after a few more weeks when they've gotten use to the crowds (yes, be aware of the queue!) it'll a much smoother operation.