red mint @ murray st. pyrmont

The day had creeped up on both of us with J a lot more prepared than I was (sorry!) but it was just a bit over two weeks ago that J&I celebrated our 6 years. The mention of it at work seems to have made a few jaws drop and comments about how it's such a long time. Well J, I'm glad that we've made it and glad to see that you still put up with me with a smile on your face. 

To celebrate the occasion, J booked a table at Red Mint (next to the Little Snail) in Pyrmont. When I asked J whether or not I should cab it from work, he said it would be fine for me to walk. And so walk I did and it ended up being a 2km trek which gave me a huge appetite for dinner. 

Red Mint is a classy Vietnamese restaurant seating offering a combination of modern and authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Here's the Iced Coffee with the coffee coming to the table in a percolator (I love these things, and since my couple of times eating at Pho Sam in Epping, I was proud to be able to tell the waitress that I knew how this worked.)

Red Mint Tasting Plate for two. There was a huge list of entrees to try and this was the perfect solution -  a combo of roast duck betel leaf, oysters, goi cuon, cha gio and bo tai chanh.

For mains, we had the Cari Ga (traditional Vietnamese curry with chicken, extra hot) and the Bo Luc Lac (scotch fillet cubes seared with black pepper) with a serving of rice.

We probably could've stopped after ordering the mains but then we saw the 'Goi Sen' and after checking with the waitress, it would make sense to have some vegies. The Goi Sen is a lotus stem salad with yamba prawns and pork. This dish was very unusual and I can only say, try and let me know what you think. The lotus stem is crunchy and well, the combination of ingredients works.

I debated awhile whether or not have dessert. Our friendly (occasionally shy) waiter tempted me with the one that had Dragon Beard Candy but after eating all of the above, I was quite bursting at the waist and feeling quite uncomfortable. J suggested we could probably take a walk and eat dessert elsewhere but even that did not happen. 

Thanks Red Mint for celebrating our 6 years and making it such a pleasant evening. You guys were so down-to-earth and friendly and I really did enjoy the food. Keep it up and I promise I'll be back for dessert next time.

Happy 6 years J!

chocolate chip muffins

One of my most used recipe books actually isn't anything fancy, it's not by any particular author (actually it's by a collection of authors) and the recipes are so user friendly that I find myself pulling it out for the kitchen time and time again. It's 'Taste of Home - Muffins & Quick Breads'; a collection of recipes by household cooks/bakers in the US. Each recipe fits in a 12x10cm sheet with a colour photo on the back, all measurements are in metric cups and spoons and I can personally guarantee that the recipes always work out with minimal effort.

This particular weekend I had a craving for Chocolate Chip Muffins and picked the recipe by Kelly Kirby in Westville, Nova Scotia.

On top of the muffins is a sprinkling of dark chocolate chips, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon.

Best enjoyed with a cup of tea!

This was a nice variation of the regular Choc-chip muffin and I won't hesitate to make this one again. There's still a bundle of recipes for me to get through though in the book (and might I add the growing pile of books I have at home). And well with the cold weather creeping in and so many places selling cheap cookbooks, mum and I have been stockpiling on them, so hopefully more cooking/baking posts to follow.

noodles + rice

It boggles me that I spent 3 weeks in Thailand eating street food and came back perfectly fine. Yet today I'm at home with the doctor diagnosing me with gastro and the most likely cause of it being a cocktail function I went to at the The Art Gallery on Monday - how strange...

So more street-food in Thailand which costed us probably just under AUD$5 for two. The cart was outside 7-eleven on the same street as our hotel in Bangkok and there were a handful of reasons why we came here; a) it was too hot to walk any further and b) it was recommended by an ex-pat who thought he'd lend us a hand when he saw us standing by the cart trying to work out what food there was to eat. You'll find that a lot of the street stalls in Thailand don't have an English menu nor do the vendors actually speak it.

Barbeque Pork Egg noodles.

Braised duck with half a boiled egg and rice. I love duck!

Both the noodles and rice were delish! I could've probably done with a bigger serving but the heat sort of puts you off eating too much. Trust me, it was probably good that we had these small meals because the number of buffets we started eating more than made up for it. Anyway, thanks to the lovely man that helped us order this meal; just letting you know that both your recommendations were yummy and J&I enjoyed it!

kaya toast + iced coffee

J finally admits that he reads my blog and asks 'Where are the rest of the Thailand posts?' Well here's one of many and I'd say would be one of my Top 3 food highlights of the trip.

I'm not great remembering names of places but here was the place we found ourselves in after an hour or two at MBK (would I be correct to say, Bangkok's shopping centre - there is floor after floor off shops and each level stretches out further than the eye can see). It's great that they have food places scattered throughout the shopping centre as we were in dire need to rest our feet.

Iced Coffee & Kaya Toast - so simple and so tasty!

Admittedly, iced coffee and kaya aren't the healthiest of snacks and should be eaten in moderation. 

And yep, pretty much this place only sold kaya toast and drinks. There were varying versions of the toast. Here we had it sliced, you could've also got it as a block or a block that's chopped up in little cubes which you then dip in kaya. I wish we had a place like this here in Sydney.

recipes from the fridge

The great thing about our fridge at home is that there's always food in it (except for the times when mum is away and my bro eats all the food and no one is there to replenish it but in general, I only need to open that door and I'll be able to find myself something to eat). This happened to be the Sunday after a family BBQ and our fridge was particularly well stocked up with odds bits and pieces. Mum had also bought that $40 Gourmet Food Showbag at the Easter Show and my cousin was telling me how good the pies were.

After 20 minutes, here is what I managed to cook up. In hindsight, I should've microwaved the pie for a minute before I stuck it in the oven. My cousin was right - the pie is so good! (but my salad wasn't bad either!)

J said he wasn't full and requested for more salad. I'd used Feta which he didn't like so I omitted that and replaced with some leftover sausages that had been cooked on the BBQ (just whizz in the microwave for about a minute, let it cool slightly and slice). For those interested, inside the salad was Baby cos lettuce, mushrooms, tomato, cooked sausage and an Italian dressing (store bought). I won't be prescriptive with portions because all I did was just start chopping and throwing things into a bowl.

And yes, J did manage to finish the bowl - who says salad doesn't fill you up! And really, it only took a couple of minutes to make and tastes extraordinarily good!