A Few of My Favourite Things!

Please Update your Link!

2006-11-16T16:45:00.000+11:00

I have moved to a new home!

You'll be redirected automatically in a moment (thanks again to Matt!) but please remember to update your links: http://myfavouritefoods.com/

I Have MOVED!

2006-10-13T13:45:00.000+10:00

Well, it's been some time since my last post but I have just been flat-out with work. But enough of that because I leave for Malaysia tonight! Hopefully there will be lots of this (minus the wine glasses):

In other exciting news, I'm moving! There is no way that I could have done this on my own but I was fortunate enough to have had heaps of technical help from Matt. Amongst other things, he has patiently answered what must seem to be some very basic questions to him for me and also scanned through my posts for those errant div tags. It always surprises me in a very pleasant way when bloggers whom I've only met online are willing to spend their time giving a hand, whether it's with something like this or with recommendations/tips or exchanging of food parcels. So, a big THANK YOU to Matt.

Please update your links and bookmarks and visit me at my new home. See you soon!

Wattleseed Pecan-Crumble Espresso Cupcakes

2006-09-22T18:18:00.000+10:00

I had recently come across some wattleseed at my not-so-local supermarket. This bushfood which is harvested as a seed from a plant member of the Acacia species, was originally used by Australian Aboriginines as a valuable, nutritious food source. They ate it raw, dried or incorporated it into their baking. Roasted and ground, wattleseed has a nutty flavour with coffee undertones.

As I don't often come across native foods, unless it's sold as a speciality item at markets, I wanted to make something with it. I decided on cupcakes and wanted to pair it somehow with pecans because I think the flavours match really well. In the end, I made a pecan crumble to sprinkle on top and for the surprise part, I would fill the cupcakes with an espresso frosting to enhance the coffee flavour.

I used a basic cupcake recipe from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess and added about 2 tablespoons of this native spice. Chopped up pecans mixed with some raw sugar on top then into the oven they went. Once cooled, I made an espresso then used it to mix some icing sugar into a paste. This went into a piping bag with a sharp nozzle and was piped in through the base of the cupcakes. This is not a particularly fluffy cupcake so it took some effort to get the icing in. If you look carefully at the photo, you will see that I didn't end up with much of the frosting inside but this turned out quite well because it wasn't overly sweet.

These babies were really good. An unusual flavour that reminds you of coffee but not quite as strong as coffee/espresso cupcakes. Can anyone enlighten me on why my cupcakes have a little hump in the centre though? I've never had this happen before.

Head over to Alanna's for all the surprises in month's Sugar High Friday round-up!

Wattleseed Pecan-Crumble Espresso Cupcakes

125g SR flour, 125g butter, 125g sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tablespoons wattleseed, 2-3 tablespoons milk. Crumble: chopped pecans and a sprinkle of raw sugar. Frosting: Espresso and icing sugar

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla extract
Add dry ingredients and mix.
Add milk to form a batter with a 'soft dropping' consistency
Spoon into muffin tin, sprinkle pecan/sugar mixture on top and bake at 200C for 20 minutes.
Mix the espresso and icing sugar into smooth paste and pipe into middle of cupcakes through base

Technorati Tags:shf, sugar high friday, wattleseed, espresso, pecan crumble, cupcake, shf23

Spring Steak Sandwich

2006-09-20T12:02:00.000+10:00

Spring has sprung here in the southern hemisphere and the weather in Melbourne this week has been especially lovely. Sunny blue skies and warm breezes beckon our pale, warmly bundled bodies to spend more time outdoors enjoying the blossoming trees and green grass. Ah, I love spring...

Of course, the change in season also signals a change in the type of food that we want to eat. Our favourite foods in the last couple of weeks have leaned more towards picnic fare.

Slashfood's Sandwich Day is giving us yet another opportunity to indulge in this spring fancy of ours, allowing us to celebrate the humble sandwich. We choose to use rib-eye steak rounds (upon recommendation of the butcher) sand a cute little ciabatta roll, both from Queen Victoria Market, spreading the lightly toasted roll with Olio Bello's tomato jam and serving it with tomato and lettuce.

We sat with the balcony door flung wide open (if you can fling a sliding door!) and had this sandwich with a side serve of salt & vinegar chips. Finally, wash it all down with an Asahi.

Technorati Tags:sandwich day, steak sandwich, food & drink

Blog Party #14: Kid's Party

2006-09-19T09:45:00.000+10:00

The only kids running around our place are our two darlings. Well, sometimes A & I behave like kids too so I figured that we could legitimately join the Kid's Party that Stephanie is hosting for Blog Party #14. The idea is to create cocktail foods, by which Stephanie has described as finger foods, dippers or mini meals. I guess this would count as finger food as this wouldn't make a meal for anyone whatever size it came in.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to use my new cookie cutters and what better way than to create puff patry animals that kids would love. After cutting out the shapes, I sprinkled smoked paprika and grated gruyere over the top before baking. Very moreish even just by themselves but if I had to suggest a drink to accompany these little bites, can I suggest something we made as kids? Cold lemonade with fresh cherries bobbing on top!

I suppose I should call them Puff Pastry Animals & Boys but as boys can sometimes be little animals too, I've just lumped them together. Is that bad? ;-)

Technorati Tags:food & drink, blog party, kids, parties, children, appetisers, blogging

HHDD #5: Alsation Onion Tart

2006-09-17T21:17:00.000+10:00

Our friends, P & S, who moved to Australia from Strasbourg about 2 years ago recently returned home. But before they left, S gave me her mother-in-law's recipe for making tarts. The recipe for the pastry listed 250g flour, 125g margarine, 1 egg and in a post script, S instructed me to add some sugar if I wanted a 'sweety pie' instead!

When Tami announced that this 'Hey Hey It's Donna Day' theme as savoury tarts, I rummaged through my folders to pull out the handwritten sheets. I also remembered the Alsatian onion tarts that we enjoyed on our trip to Strasbourg, so it didn't take long to decide what filling to make. Caramelised onions, bacon, creme fraiche with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

We brought this along yesterday when we went for a drive through the Pyrenees region - mmmm, perfect picnic food!

WCB 67: The Queen is Served...

2006-09-17T15:16:00.000+10:00

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Amar at Cat Synth this week.

Celebrity Splogger?

2006-09-15T08:50:00.000+10:00

Ed and Matt have (separately) written about a certain, self-claimed 'celebrity' chef who has sent unsolicited emails to many of us. Have a read here and here - what are your thoughts on this? Did you recognise it for what it was immediately? Maybe I'm just a little naive but I really thought he was being friendly in letting me know about his articles but there was just this niggly little feeling that this wasn't going to form into the usual blogger friendship...anyway, have a look at the more articulate ramblings of these guys ;-)

Funtastico is Fantastico!

2006-09-13T21:25:00.000+10:00

While in Perth a couple of weeks back, the concierge at our hotel recommended that we dine at Funtastico. 'An unusual name' we thought. Well, we wanted to check out Subiaco anyway, so why not!

We ordered the Spaghetti Marinara al Cartoccio,which consisted of fresh fish, clams, calamari, prawns, scallops and mussels with Napoletana sauce, baked in a “cartuch” and served in the “cartuch” at the table. Basically, this required them to bring the bag that the pasta and seafood was cooked to our table and emptying it into the plate in front of us. Bold, strong flavours and we relished every mouthful of it. We also had another smaller dish which I cannot for the life of me remember now, but I do remember that it was good too ;-) We finished up with the sticky date pudding recommended by our waitress but the pudding got zapped for a little too long in the microwave.

Nevertheless, we had such a lovely meal at Funtastico that we dropped by again for lunch the next day! We had been eyeing the wood-fired pizzas that we saw delivered to tables surrounding us the night before, so we selected the kervella pizza - rocket, kalamata olives, goat’s cheese and cherry tomatoes on a puffed up, thin base. This was accompanied by a rocket & radicchio with walnuts and a blue cheese dressing. The rocket was still gritty from not having been washed thoroughly so this was sent back to the kitchen. Our pizza arrived not long after and it was FUN-tastic. Unlike the salad, the rocket on the pizza was fine but a beetle deposited on one of our pizza slices probably landed there when the rocket was scattered on at the end.

The manager (or possibly owner) absolutely refused to allow us to pay for the pizza despite our argument that we had enjoyed the rest of the pizza. That's unusual indeed!We're going to be back.

12 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, Perth

Phone Number: 9381 2688

Fax Number: 9381 8492

Email: eat@funtastico.com.au

A Taste of Slow: Abbotsford Convent Weekend

2006-09-09T21:55:00.000+10:00

This morning saw us down at the Abbotsford Convent as part of the first national Slow Food, A Taste of Slow - Australia 2006, festival. First off, our usual stop at the Collingwood Children's Market on what was forecasted to be an overcast day with showers. As you can see however, the sunny blue sky held sway. Get ready now for loads of photos!

The animals at the Collingwood Children's Farm always has lots of young visitors:

You wouldn't think by looking aroudn that we were just 5 minutes drive from the city centre:

Brightly coloured pasta:

Green eggs with ham anyone? (or is that duck egg blue?):

Golden and dark sultanas, currants, almonds, pepitas:

The BEST butter made fresh at The Dairy Shop. They cut it like cheese for tastings!:

Try the 'Dark Nut Cove' with roasted hazelnuts, pistachio, caramelised sugar & fine dark couveture chocolate from Cocoa Rhapsody:

Get yourself a coffee here but don't be fooled into joining the queue for the pancakes next door. The high demand often has them churning out golden brown pancakes that are uncooked in the middle:

At the Abbotsford Convent, we started with freshly shucked oysters. Mmmm:

The Convent Bakery with delicious artisanal breads baked in the woodfired masonry ovens built in 1901:

Egg and bacon roll with relish!

Cheeses & honey from Tasmania:

We picked up a jar of tangy, piquant Desert Lime Jam which we are hoping to put to good use in a jam drop cookie soon:

Stephanie Alexander signing copies of her new children's cookbook:

The spring market garden planted by children from Stephanie's Kitchen Garden. The produce was harvested and turned into salads for this weekend's activities:A gentle giant - bull mastiff:

If you were not able to make it today, come down for the final day of the Abbotsford Convent Weekend tomorrow from 10am - 5pm to enjoy some great food.

Abbotsford Convent, St Heliers Street, Abbotsford. $12 entry fee.

WCB 65: Soaking up the Sun

2006-09-03T20:47:00.000+10:00

Spring is finally here and Bella is following my example in taking in the warmth on the still occassional warm days when the sun's rays are getting through.

Thanks to Bonnie for hosting WCB this weekend!

Shoya Wanna Eat There?

2006-09-03T11:48:00.000+10:00

Our friend waved to the maitre d' who was at the next table with another waiter standing next to her, wanting to ask about a dish on the menu.

Maitre d': (abruptly) "Wait! I'm busy here."

Probably not a good start to our night here but we persevered with our order which was taken by the maitre d' herself. After that, we were left with trainee waiters as she spent the rest of the night playing the sycophant to the guest at the next table, who appeared to be a food critic or restaurateur from Singapore, and his friends.

Don't they train wait staff during the week anymore? It was the second night for one of them and his hands were trembling so hard when he was placing our plates and condiments down that I thought I was going to end up splattered with soy sauce.

We were presented with a amuse bouche of overcooked fried fish to whet our appetites... The sashimi moriawase, petit awabi sashimi (abalone) and salmon toro sashimi came out one after another. I had been looking forward to their sashimi all week, understanding that it's meant to be of top standard at this establishment. I don't think I'm being harsh by saying that I've had as good if not better at food courts.

The next dish turned out to be the gyu-tan koshu-ni, an ox tongue stewed in Japanese seasoning and red wine. However our waiter did not have a clue what it was when we asked him. There was no "I'm not sure but I'll find out for you" -

Waiter: I don't know...
Us: Is this the ox tongue?
Waiter: Maybe

Anyway, it was sliced thickly and eaten as a sandwich between a mantou bun was the best dish of the night - with or without the mantou. The scampi kinokoyaki, grilled scampi topped with some thinly sliced shitake and anoki mushrooms, was garlicky and sweet. Pretty perfect too. We were also delivered a plate of mapo lobster which we had decided against, but figured it was too much trouble to let them know. Deep-fried lobster pieces (slightly overdone) with cubes of tofu surrounding it, it wasn't spicy enough for our tastes.

We even went so far as to order dessert -

P: I'll have the black sesame and green tea ice cream
A: The black sesame and green tea ice cream as well, we'll share (waving in my general direction)
T: The pannacotta please.

The four scoops of ice cream came out on a big platter, garnished with three slices of pannacotta. Silence. Then a request for the desserts to be separated. 10 or 15 minutes later (I think they were waiting for the ice cream which had already started melting, to harden up in the freezer again) two plates came out with two scoops of ice cream and only one slice of panncotta each. Sigh...it felt like a long night. The maitre d' served us some complimentary plum wine at the end of the night but somehow this didn't go very far in helping us feel better. So, my question is SHOYA you wanna try this place?

SHOYA Nouvelle Wafu Cuisine
25 market lane melbourne 3000 vic

tel: 9650 0848　fax: 9650 0950

The Food Bloggers Guide to the Globe

2006-09-02T15:57:00.000+10:00

When I first read Melissa's post calling for foodbloggers around the world to compile a list of 5 things they would recommend everyone to eat, all these great food thoughts came tumbling into my head. Even though there was no need to be tagged before posting this meme as everyone was invited to make their contribution to this list, I really, really wanted to be tagged! After waiting and waiting and waiting (yes, I'm impatient by nature), Julie was generous enough to pass the baton on so now I can finally post my list.

In the making of this list, my husband had to be consulted because (a) I am the least decisive person in the world and my list would consist of at least 15 or 20 or more of some of my favourite foods in the world and I would be utterly helpless when it came to whittling them down to just five and (b) it's not just what you eat but who you eat it with that counts for me and my ultimate companion for trying new things and exploring new places is of course, my husband.

So, here is our list of five things to have before you die:

Macarons from Pierre Herme - Yes, I'm sure that this is going to get quite a few mentions but we could not leave it off the list, especially the caramel à la fleur de sel ones that A. would make a special trip to Paris for.
Indonesian Layer cake from Amsterdam - we came across a bakery/cheeseshop that sold wedges of this rich butter cake spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardomom, cloves. Can't tell you the address I could probably find it again when we are next in Amsterdam.
Salted-butter Caramel crepes and Blue cheese Saracen - there were many many stalls selling crepes at the Christkindelmarkt in Strasbourg. One of the smaller stalls had just two people behind the stand, a stout, moustached gentleman making the crepes and his daughter helping with the hot drinks. They were taking a short break when we went by but something about the stall compelled us stop and wait for them to return. What a great decision that was - the most amazing salted-butter caramel crepe. Pity we didn't get the chance to have another. We have been searching for salted-butter caramel crepes since but it's like finding a needle in a haystack!
Prosciutto pizza with egg in Etoile, Paris - On our first trip to Paris, we met up with friends at a little pizza place between conference sessions. He was having a pizza that we had never seen before, just thinly sliced prosciutto with an egg cracked into the middle just before taking it out of the oven. So simple but mind blowing. We have returned to this pizza joint every trip since but always at the wrong time - either too early or too late.
Tea from Mariage Frere - you just have to try the tea blends from this place. There are just so many choices but I have no doubt that each is as enticing as the next.

I'd love to hear from:

The intrepid Aussies at Sticky Rice
Ginny of La Petite Chinoise
Michele of Oswego Tea
Martha & Tejal of 2 Tasty Ladies
Arthur of Arthur Hungry

Sunday in Sydney

2006-08-27T09:53:00.000+10:00

This is the last of our Sydney posts. We managed to score some great Sydney weather, the kind of mild sunny day that is complemented by the gentlest of breezes. Perfect for a stroll through The Rocks where the Sunday market takes place. At one of the first stalls we across, there was a fantastic looking garlic ciabatta that called out to us. The stall holder directed us to the Fine Food Store within The Rocks Centre. We bought a loaf of the ciabatta, seduced by the golden caramelised whole garlic cloves but alas the bread itself was disappointingly stale. The shop was cute tho...

From the Rocks, we made our way down to Chinatown, stopping by at the sardine-packed St Honore Cake Shop on Sussex St to pick up some treats, including the Szechuan pork bun below. Definitely worth pushing your way through the Sunday lunch-time crowd to snag a bun or two or three.

At the other end of the arcade way is Mother Chu's Taiwanese Gourmet, where we had lunch- a taiwanese seafood combination soup and an interesting sounding savoury bean curd soup. I'm used to having sweet bean curd soup, Tau Foo Fa, at yum cha but have not come across a savoury version before. I think I'll stick with the sweet from now on as this broth had aas much flavour as tepid tap water. Actually, both dishes could have done with more seasoning. I think we may have ordered the wrong things as other tables seemed to hold all sorts of delicious-looking dishes...

Free Lunch, Anyone?

2006-08-22T20:35:00.000+10:00

How can you eat at a top gastronomic institution like this one every single day and have someone else pay for it?

Here's how....I'm sure the lingerie helps!

Best Cioccolata Calda in Melbourne

2006-08-22T14:05:00.000+10:00

A team from The Age's Epicure department tracked down and tested this dense, creamy Italian hot chocolate brew that is cioccolata calda to announce that the best of the best can be imbibed at the Lygon Street institution, Brunetti's.

I can personally attest to fact that Brunetti's cocoa, milk and sugar concoction, which is made by their in-house chocolatier and kept churning in their heated cioccolatiera, is very good indeed, however having not tried the others I cannot definitively name it as the best ;-)

In your opinion, who makes the best cioccolata calda in Melbourne or Sydney?

PS: Unfortunately, despite mentioning that two places did not rise up to standards due either to their uninspiring brew and bad service, the journalist does not name names. Too bad for us as we won't know which places to avoid :-(

Tetsuya, The Man

2006-08-19T12:15:00.000+10:00

During the course of our meal, we even had the honour of meeting THE MAN himself. Apparently Tetsuya is often away due to other engagements, however when he is in the house he does make it a habit to greet his diners. We were fortunate enough to have him come by our little table for two to say hello. We could also see heads from surrounding tables turning around and whispers of 'That's him. That's Tetsuya'. Boy, did we feel special!

Of course, he didn't stay long. Just long enough to wish us a good meal and to recommend that we take our time and enjoy. Just long enough for us to get the impression that he is a down-to-earth and humble guy despite his impressive international reputation.

Tetsuya's, The Restaurant

2006-08-19T12:06:00.000+10:00

Long have we waited for this moment - the chance to dine at Australia's best known and most highly rated restaurant, Tetsuya's. This year, the Restaurant Magazine rated Tetsuya's 5th in the world after El Bulli in Spain, The Fat Duck in Britain, Pierre Gagnaire in Paris and French Laundry in California. Time and again, I had tried to book a table only to be told that they were full for the night. This time, knowing that we had a trip to Sydney coming up I booked well in advance for our dinner on Friday 4th August.

We hurried by foot from The Rocks to Kent Street, eager for this culinary experience to begin. Finally locating its gated entrance, we walked down the driveway to be greeted by about four or five attendants who were presumably waiting to park cars. We were seated in a room with only 6 tables but there were at least 6 waiters for that section alone.

Warm Sweet Potato Soup with Feta & Rocket

Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar & Ginger (additional item)

Tartare of Tuna on Sushi Rice with Avocado

Tuna Marinated in Soy & Mirin; Soft Smoked Ocean Trout with Asparagus; Marinated NZ Scampi with Chicken Parfait & Walnut

Spring Bay Scallop with Wakame & Lemon

Tetsuya's Signature: Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon & Fennel

Ravioli of Queensland Spanner Crab with Tomato & Basil Vinaigrette

Roasted Breast of Quail with Soft Polenta & Shiitake Mushrooms

Seared Fillet of Veal with Wasabi Butter

Strawberry Shortcake; Beetroot & Blood Orange Sorbet

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with White Beans & Dates

Floating Island with Praline & Vanilla Bean Anglaise

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Orange and Chocolate Sorbet

Coffee

The whole meal was worth every cent but which dishes did I particularly enjoy: the tartare of tuna was easily the best I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, the barely cooked scampi, the confit of tuna which is marinated in oil then cooked in a very low oven, and oh the quail ...smacking of lips... I was almost too full to have dessert by the end of the savoury courses but when they arrived, well that was another matter. I could have had an entire bowl of the strawberry shortcake although it probably wouldn't look quite as elegant served like that! The lightness of the floating island surprised me, as did thin stripe of chocolate and raspberry within. We had a special dessert at the end of all that too - thanks, A!

WCB 62: Bella loves Bally

2006-08-19T11:36:00.001+10:00

Bella loves getting into and under and inside things like bags, boxes, blankets and she even managed to get stuck in behind the pantry drawer once when, not realising she had crawled in from underneath when I wasn't looking, I slid the door shut. Here she's in the bag while Tasha looks indulgently upon her playful sister.

This week WCB is being hosted by Heather.

Good Living Growers Market & Sydney Fish Market

2006-08-16T12:02:00.000+10:00

The day started off promisingly enough despite the weather report warning of impending showers and so, with grey clouds looming, A. & I bravely set out from our hotel at The Rocks in Sydney's CBD. Following Helen's impeccable and detailed instructions to "head down George Street (away from the Opera House and towards Chinatown) until you get to Market Street (walk = 17min or bus it). Turn right at Market Street and continue down the hill, up the ramp and along the pedestrian bridge over the water", A. & I found the Good Living Growers Market in Pyrmont with no trouble at all.

With great foresight, we headed straight to the coffee stall to pick up one cup of coffee and one sweet milky tea. It started drizzling as we stood in line for our hot drinks, then two stalls further on, it poured! We took shelter under a large unbrella that the busker had set up, happily nursing our hot drinks. Hey, being Melburnians we're used to the weather being unpredictable.

The rain let up not too long after and we were able to browse through the market stalls quite freely, sampling Pink Lady apples, lamb burgers, spiced macadamias, dried fruit & nuts, cheeses, honey, olive oils and the odd french pastry or two (okay, we had one whole escargot and palmier):

Amongst other things, we 'somehow' (read 'courtesy of A.') ended up with a bag of apples. What's the big deal with that, right? Well, we were heading back to Melbourne the following day and Victoria has strict rules about bringing in fruit from interstate. I don't think we've eaten quite so many apples in one and a half days before.

Having had our fill at the market, A. & I , made our way towards the Sydney Fish Market on Bank Street, Pyrmont. It was still early enough in the day for the market to be relateively quiet. I expected the market to be a lot bigger than it actually was so it didn't take us long to look around and decide that next time we would stay somewhere with cooking facilities. We had an early lunch of tuna kebab and, of course, grilled fish and golden chips.

Bye, Lime Leaves...

2006-08-13T22:27:00.000+10:00

Oh no! We were picking up some things from Safeway QV earlier this evening and on our way out of the complex walked through QV square. To our horror, we noticed that Lime Leaves, the modern Malaysian restaurant with communal tables, is no more. It has been replaced by Wagamama.

We've eaten at Lime Leaves about 4 or 5 times but I hadn't gotten around to blogging about it and now it's too late. I would never have ordered 'hawker-style' dishes because they are way more expensive ($16 to $20) and not as authentic as what you would get from somewhere like Penang Coffee House or Rich Maha. However we have been quite pleased by most of the other dishes that we've tried including the crisp-sealed calamari with wild ginger flower dipping sauce and the roast duck salad with nashi pear, green apple, sprout, carrot, mint and lime leaves. I cannot remember the other dishes and they are not on the menu that I'm holding but they were very good. And it's one of the very few Asian restaurants (and in particular Malaysian restaurants) that leans more towards the fine dining end. As much as I love the grottier places around town, it's good to have that choice available especially if you have friends or relatives who are, ahem, shall we say a little fussier?

Lime Leaves also had two of the best cocktails that we'd come across...sob, sob...

Wedding Dinner at ZINC

2006-08-10T20:55:00.000+10:00

Well, the wedding reception itself was held at ZINC at Federation Square. I have to say up front that I'm not normally someone who enjoys the food that is normally served at reception centre BUT I was highly impressed by ZINC.

The entree of Prawn and Coconut Timbale made with fresh West Australian scampi(there seems to be a theme here!), shredded lime and spiced prawn sauce, did not make for a promising start. I didn't enjoy the mouth-feel of the very mousse-like but bland timbale although A. thought it was fine.

Luckily I gave the main course a chance though. I had a roast eye fillet of beef with caramelised onion and red wine sauce and blue cheese and spinach tart. The steak was cooked to perfection - rare in the middle, beautifully tender - and the blue cheese in the tart gave it a gutsy flavour.
A. had the signature dish called a 'Pair of Pears'. To be honest, I couldn't actually figure out why this name until I went home and downloaded the photo - DUH! Roasted half-boned quail and chicken with pasta dura filling, handmade gnocchi, and lemon thyme jus. The pasta dura filling had a smoky quality that paired very well with the chicken. Overall a greta dish although I did think that the chicken was slightly overcooked.

For dessert, we were served an old-fashioned dark chocolate self-saucing pudding with vanilla ice cream. I certainly don't feel as strongly as Ed about restaurants that serve vanilla ice-cream if it was really creamy vanilla-beany ice-cream however I was left rather uninspired by this one. But...the chocolate pudding, with its steamy, runny chocolate interior hidden by a crusty top, more than making up for it. The buttery shortbread was an unnecessary addition to an already rich enough dessert.

Pre-Wedding Dinner Sapore

2006-08-04T18:10:00.000+10:00

Some wonderful friends of ours, C & P, tied the knot last weekend! Before the wedding though, P had a quiet 'Hen's Night' a few weeks back with some close friends and family. 7 of us gathered at Aurora Spa Retreat to have our cares massaged away while Prue was treated to their Guku Cocoon Signature Teratment and cocooned in Jellybush honey. Some of our group even caught a glimpse of Guy Sebastian before he was led off for his treatment!

We were then off to have drinks at Lionel's - the idea being that we woudl be detoxing with the spa treatment, then toxing right back up again with champagne... - then dinner at Sapore. I don't remember the details about our dishes but here are some photos to share. Our waitress a little put off when we wanted more time to look at the menu, but otherwise the food was perfectly acceptable. I started with oysters while P had salt and pepper calamari, then grilled West Australian scampi for the main while P had gnocchi.

Chocolate Fix

2006-07-16T13:20:00.000+10:00

Take a walk down Lt Collins Street, heading towards Elizabeth St. When you spot the Ay Tea House, turn right into Hub Arcade, mosey right down to the end and you will find the Chocolate Fire Cafe. Most of the produce seemed to centre around dried fruit dipped in chocolate but the very chatty owner is looking to introduce 6, yes count them, SIX new lines each week. Where Koko Black is dark timber, elegance and ganaches nestled neatly under a glass counter, Chocolate Fire Cafe is colourful and bright with the dried fruit forming straggly lines. They also offer pringles thickly coated with milk chocolate and plan to feature chocolate-dipped pretzels soon. I didn't try the hot chocolate but the ower assures me that "...it's very popular with the Asian students" and that some have claimed that it's better than Koko Black's, which was voted Melbourne's best hot chocolate by the Herald Sun - big call!

My small selection of chocolate-dipped fruit took a loooonnnng time to purchase and for once this was not due to my indecision. The lady behind the counter resolutely kept her back to me, determined to show a very inexperienced new girl how to get a box ready for delivery before actually serving a customer in front of her. After waiting patiently for 10 minutes then asking her if this was a bad time and should I come back later in the afternoon, she replied huffily "Oh, are you in a real hurry?" then sent the new girl, who was absolutely clueless, to serve me. Hmmm, me thinks this area needs some improvements before they are ready to compete with all the other great chocolate places around Melbourne.

Go to Chocolate Fire Cafe if you have a really sweet tooth because you will need this to enjoy the combination of concentrated sugars in the dried fruit and chocolate. Or, go there if you want to test their claim about having the best hot chocolate. Koko Black is just around the corner so you could even do a head-to-head comparison!

Chocolate Fire Cafe
Shp8/ 318 Little Collins St Melbourne 3000
(03) 9663 5881

I had heard about Monsieur Truffe before but I only got the chance to visit his stall at Prahran Market two weeks ago. Charming us with samples of decandently dark truffles, the lovely Monsieur Truffe encouraged us to try the various flavours but we quickly fell for the chocolate caramalized almonds and brought a pack home with us. A. reckons that these are the best chocolate almonds around - big thumbs up!

Antipodean Blogging

2006-07-05T22:05:00.000+10:00

I love receiving packages in the mail! The feeling of anticipation when you know a parcel is on its way, especially when you don't know exactly what it will contain.

I was fortunate to receive not one but THREE great packages, although I have to apologize for only having photos of the contents of TWO. Barbara's was the first to arrive: pinapple lumps, sea salt flakes, Whittakers Peanut Slab, candles & mud soap from Rotarua, dried blueberry snacklets, freeze-dried Kiwi fruit nectar all wrapped up in a hand-woven red basket. the package arrived at work and everything edible was gobbled up so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to take a photo. Sorry Barbara! And thanks for the lovely parcel.

Nicola's parcel arrived not long after that and I was so delighted to receive a huge tea towel with a recipe for pavlova (who really invented it first?), organic coffee, some Whittaker bars in white, milk and dark chocolate, a Pinapple Lumps and a Giant Toasted Marshmallow chocolate bar and a Cotterill & Rouse Tamarillo Chutney that I can't wait to use. And look at the two great food magazines! I was so tempted to pick up the Dish magazine the last time I was at the newsagents but I'm so happy that I resisted now.

And today, a hefty little pack from Jules! His blog focusses on wine so I wasn't sure what to expect but look at the bottles; EVOO from Hawke's Bay, an interestingly named Rocket Fuel sauce which I'm really looking forward to tasting (is it like a sweet chilli I wonder), Telegraph Hill Lemon & Herb olives, Kaitai Fire chilli pepper sauce and Gernot's Gold lemon & ginger marmalade. Wow! My husband has already claimed the chilli sauce and olives :-) Thanks so much, Jules!!!

Chicken Dumplings

2006-07-04T23:02:00.000+10:00

Dumplings are ubiquitous in Asian cuisine, from the dainty steamed morsels that we enjoy at dim sum lunches to the oversized tai pau filled with chicken, pork, mushrooms and egg. As I am starting to realise with a number of other food types though, dumplings are not unique to Asian cuisine. We found this out on our visit to Prague earlier this year whereupon ordering houskove knedlíky with our goulash, thinking that we were be tasting a unique Czech dish, we discovered much to our surprise that they tasted (& looked) exactly like mantou buns.

A quick search reveals that dumplings abound - there is the Russian perogi, German klöße, Austrian knödel, Japanese takoyaki and British dumplings just to name a few. Of course, this list does not even start to cover dumplings of the sweet variety. Chinese steamed paus filled with sweet red bean paste, lotus paste or egg custard (A's favourite!) are also popular, especially as a dessert following yum cha. In other cultures, sweet dumplings often consist of fruit wrapped in dough.

My personal favourite in the world of dumplings is char siew pau (also known as roast pork bun), both the steamed and baked variety. Whenever I walk past Nam Loong Restaurant on Russell Street, the stacks of bamboo steamers cradling warm fluffy char siew paus call out my name. My head turns to gaze in through the window as I move past and it takes real strength not to succumb.

I had some chicken fillets in the freezer to use up so I pulled out the trusty 'Making Dumplings' book to look up the dough recipe again. Last time, I made it with a mix of whoel wheat and white flour, but this time I followed the recipe straight - 500g flour, 40g sugar, 2 tsp dried yeast, 1/4 tsp dough improver, 260-280ml water and some oil. Knead and leave to prove until double in size. Meanwhile, I cooked and cooled the filling of chicken with corn and peas in char siew sauce.

The fun part is filling the dough! I remember watching mum expertly dollop a spoonful of filling before nimbly wrapping the dough around and pinching it together at the top. I guess it must have eventually sunk in because I don't think mine look half bad :-) They tasted pretty good too - nice meaty bits of real chicken. I used the two pieces of left-over dough to make kaya paus - mmmm, these were great too, especially for dessert!

Ah, Melbourne!

2006-06-28T17:55:00.000+10:00

My First Half Marathon

2006-06-23T18:03:00.000+10:00

What would you think about if you had 2 hours to do nothing but think?

Well, I thought about what a wonderful morning it was to be outside, that I would be going to the Good Food Show that afternoon, about how much I love my wonderful husband who was still in bed and how blessed I was to be able to do this:

Run to the G, Half Marathon

Would I do it again? If you had asked me immediately following, I think it would have been a resounding 'NO'. My left knee was hurting and my left foot was in pain - my overall impression was 'this activity is not good for your joints!'. Five days later, having fully recovered from listening to Kylie Minogue's last album for 45 min straight (accidentally set it on this just before starting and couldn't see menu as IPod was strapped to arm) and from the muscle tightness, I would definitely reconsider that response. Actually, it could almost become addictive...

Fish Head Curry!

2006-06-20T20:40:00.000+10:00

Rich Maha specialises in Malaysian, Indian and Sri-Lankan fare from their bain-marie and ala carte menu. Although they have delicious hawker-style offerings, the real attraction for my family has always been the fish head curry for take-away from either the Vermont South or Hawthorn restaurants. We would order it, bring a pot for them to fill then take it home to enjoy (read on to discover why). Discovering that they opened a CBD branch just a few weeks back, I immediately contacted some like-minded friends for a Fish Head Curry night and the responses were fast and furious, mostly with comments like "Yum - count us in!".

Now, this Indian curry smells fantastic and will leave you wanting more but it should come with a warning label! It is a highly confronting meal, especially if you are new to it, as googly-eyed fish with sharp teeth stare out at you from the pot. It is certainly not a dish to have if you are in any way squirmish about real food for true connoisseurs will slurp and suck their way through the bones in search of the flavoursome flesh. I must admit that I much prefer soaking up the rich, orangey and very liquid curry sauce with my roti and satisfying my apetite that way instead. I get all the flavour without the additional labour :-)

To cater for my vegetarian friend, I made a mild dahl and gado-gado. I also made the star fruit chutney from Mangoes and Curry Leaves by Alford & Duguig. I love the presentation of this side dish and the flavour certainly complements the spiciness of the curry.

Rich Maha

Vermont South: Shp 3/ 499 Burwood Hwy, (03) 9887 7663 /(03) 9802 6658

Hawthorn: Hmm, I'm thinking this one may have closed or changed hands as I can't find the address inthe White Pages

Melbourne: Equitable Lane

Buttermilk-Honey Banana Bread

2006-06-12T14:19:00.000+10:00

Way back mid-last year, a Paper Chef entry caught my eye and this recipe has been sitting in my 'to try' folder for some time. I love banana bread and would normally use mum's recipe but buttermilk just conjured up such cosy feelings and images for me that I had to try this recipe out...with a few modifications of course!

I used one mashed banana and about 4 dried ones, all chopped up into little pieces, and also added not just dried dates but apricots and sultanas as well. With the additiional dried fruit, I really should have cut out the sugar entirely as it turned out to be just a tad too sweet for my tastes. What a great loaf otherwise though - moist with a good crumb.

Btw, A. loved the sound of buttermilk so much that he considered having it on his cereal but upon tasting a little, found that it not to be rich and creamy as he had imagined, but thin and sour instead!

Buttermilk-Honey Banana Bread

2 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, 1 mashed banana, 1/3 cup buttermilk, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 ¾ cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 30 g butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup chopped dates, 1/3 cup chopped dried bananas, 1/4 cup dried apricots and sultanas, 1/4 cup walnuts

Beat the eggs with the sugar for about 5 min until thick and light.
Add mashed bananas, buttermilk, walnuts, honey, dried fruit, oil, butter and vanilla.
Add sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into loaf tin and bake at 170C for 60 min until top is golden brown.

Almond Crescents: Pancake-Style

2006-06-05T12:24:00.000+10:00

Is there to be no end to my culinary disasters? Actually, as much as this one did not work out, it actually did work out in the end.

Have you tried those Greek almond cookies that are shaped like a crescent? Well, A. has been telling me how much he loves these. One of his friend's mum used to make this and they would have it warm from the oven - mmmmm, heavenly. I really wanted to recreate this memory for him so I googled a few recipes and set about making the dough. I really can't remember which recipe I ended up using now, but the dough was so soft that it could not actually be shaped into crescents and I ended up forming quenelles. Into the oven they went and, boy, did they smell fantastic! One look through the window though would have shown you that they melted into puddles so flat that you would have mistaken them for brandy snaps instead of the almond crescents they were meant to be. One bite into the cookies though and we were the ones melting! They actually tasted a lot like brandy snaps and were heavenly served either alone or with a great vanilla icecream, a dessert that A. has named 'Shards of Delight':

WCB 52: Favourite Plaything

2006-06-03T19:22:00.000+10:00

To celebrate one year of WCB, I'm going to share with you Tasha & Bella's favourite plaything. You've seen some of their toys in the previous posts before. You already know that they love to play with bags, to chew on things, to fight with each other, but of ALL the toys that we've ever given to them, they seem to have the most fun with pipecleaners.

This is a kitty tunnel that dad bought them and they really like this too...but not quite as much as the pipecleaners!Celebrate WCB with us here!

WCB 51

2006-05-28T17:16:00.000+10:00

Winter is very much upon us now and I think our clever kitties have discovered that we turn on the electric blanket in the evening some time before we are ready for bed because they don't always seem inclined to spend time with us on the couch in the evenings. They appear to prefer the warmth of our bed to the warmth of our company. Here's another way of staying warm though - by wrapping themselves up in the blanket that we abandon when we are ready for bed!

Chocolate-Ginger Checkboard Cookies

2006-05-26T21:41:00.000+10:00

Oooooo, I feel so bad! But yes, I am going to, um, sorta cheat but I'll call it taking a little shortcut! I'm combining my entry for Sugar High Friday and Donna Hay Day with this little contribution. I present the Chocolate Ginger Checkerboard Cookie!

The theme for this SHF, which is being hosted by Ruth, is ginger - an ingredient that I use to absolutely loath. I could not understand why mum would want to cook with it all the time. I'd find it in soups, chicken dishes, vegetable dishes and I'd insist that she fish out all the pieces so that I would not accidentally encounter it during my meal. I didn't understand how mum could enjoy eating the bits of ginger that she had removed from my plate but, y'know what, some tastes can be and are worth acquiring. I love ginger now, although I tend to use it more in savoury dishes than sweet.

I've been thinking about making the Chez Panisse Gingersnaps that Clotilde blogged about some time back but after reading that this Donna Hay Day's challenge was Checkerboard Snap Cookies, I got thinking. More specifically, I got thinking about crystallised ginger pieces coated with dark chocolate. Translate this to the checkerboard cookies - how about dark chocolate squares matched with ginger-flavoured squares. And why not add some small ginger pieces to the ginger squares? Hey, why not go all the way and add ginger to the dark chocolate squares too?

So, I amended the basic recipe to include 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves and 2 tbs cinnamon and 1 tbs stem ginger pieces in half of the dough and cocoa and Green & Black's organic dark chocolate with crystallised ginger pieces in the other half.

These cookies smell like gingerbread but for me, the dark chocolate parts were the best bit about these cookies - intensely chocolately with a hint of ginger. I would add even more ginger next time so there's a real zing to each bite.

Chocolate-Ginger Checkerboard Snap Cookies

185 gms butter, 1 cup of caster sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 eggs

Beat buter, sugar and vanilla until smooth
Add flour and eggs, beating until smooth
Halve the dough and add 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1 tbs Green&Black's dark chocolate with crystallised ginger pieces to one lot. Add 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves and 2 tbs cinnamon and 1 tbs stem ginger pieces to the other half.
Divide each half into 2 lots and shape into logs. Place a ginger log next to a chocolate log, then top ginger log with the other chocolate log and top the chocolate log with the other ginger log.
Slice into 4-5mm thickness with sharp knife and bake 10-12 min at 180C.

SHF, Donna Hay Day, ginger,

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2006-05-25T20:48:00.000+10:00

Mussels are so incredibly easy to cook, it's hard to go wrong. After debearding them and giving them a once over with a brush, these mussels were thrown into a pot with some sauteed onions, parsley and white wine, steamed until they opened. Serve immediately with a crusty baguette! Mmmmm....

We also had this:

I recently bought "The Soup Peddlar's Slow & Difficult Soups" by David Ansell, who shares with us his first season of serving soup to those in his neighbourhood and 35 soup recipes. I have to admit that I've skipped past all the reminiscing and straight to the soup recipes. I flipped through a number that sounded promising but how could I go past the 'Armenian Apricot Soup'? Kinda like a watery dahl but with the sweetness of apricots instead of warmth of spices. I did add a few dashes of white pepper to cut through some of the sweetness but all-in-all the soup was quite delicious.

Armenian Apricot Soup

1 tbs olive oil, 2 onions (diced), 3 carrots (chopped), 1 tbs groud cumin, 3 cups red lentils, 10 cups water, 375g dried apricots (chopped), salt & white pepper

Saute onions in carrots in olive oil for around 10 min.
Add cumin and stir well before decreasing heat and sweating vegetables for 10 min
Add lentils and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 min until softened. Top up water as required
Remove from heat and stir in apricots, remaining water and season. Puree until smooth and serve hot (although I think room temp is fine too)

Greatest Shave- Coca Cola Chicken & Pasta Bake

2006-05-21T23:00:00.000+10:00

We held an office lunch and took part in the World's Greatest Shave to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation a couple of weeks back. It was a pot-luck lunch so everyone brought something along to share. A. marinated some chicken wings and drumettes which I helped him to bake in a slow oven with a couple of glugs of Coca Cola (yes, you read that right!). Mmmm,dish of the day! Just have a look at that picture - doesn't it make you drool? I made a pasta-bake with a bolognese-type sauce that included peas and sweet corn, and buffalo mozarella melted through.

So, now A.'s hair is short - down to a 1 - and I think he looks great, as always! My hair got a colour - blue and glittery-silver vertical stripes.

WCB 50: Pretty Picture

2006-05-19T18:51:00.000+10:00

Before drawing this picture, my niece wanted to know whether 'the cats' would rip the paper to bits with their sharp claws if I gave it to them! As you can see, they gave the drawing due attention!

I like lying on my stomach to read (even tho' I know that this is so bad for my back!) and the cats, especially Bella, like to cuddle up in front of my chest, between me and the book/newspaper that I'm perusing. Sometimes though, they will actually attempt to sit ON the newspaper itself and give me glances as if to say "Look at ME!". I'm well aware of this being a most effective way of getting attention as I myself as a toddler used to sit on the exact article in the newpaper that my mum would be reading! How naughty of me...and isn't it nice to know that my kitties take after me? Heh heh.

I've been slack with WCB lately and I even missed the big news, but we're back & we wish Clare & Casey the best!

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-19T01:22:00.000+10:00

Look what I got for Mother's Day! Aren't my parents the best? te hee hee

After getting up extra early on a Sunday for the Mother's Day Classic, a fun run around Melbourne's Botanical Garden, we rushed around to Sydney Road to pick up some Lebanese sweets to share when our families came over that afternoon. I didn't get photos of the Knafi, a Lebanese pastry made with clotted cream and topped with pistachios and syrup, but we normally order it in a huge tray that measures 50-60cm in diametre. We normally have this with kaak, a type of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds. This dessert is popular for celebratory-type occasions such as the day after a wedding. I'm always astounded by the similarities in food between cultures and for those who are familiar, kaak is almost exactly like the Asian 'Ham Cheem Bang' (sorry, my terrible guess at the spelling!) minus the cinnamon. Hmmm, I wonder who came up with it first?

A Tale of Two Hotels

2006-05-08T18:42:00.000+10:00

When we are away on holidays, I usually start missing the comforts of home after several days of suitcase-living. I miss the freedom of being able to throw a simple meal together for dinner or even to boil some hot water as many hotels do not offer tea and coffee making facilities. My preference is to stay in a self-catering place or in an apartment, but when this is not possible for whatever reasons, I like to find a hotel that provides as many of the facilities that will allow me to do most of the things that I do at home. For example, exercise goes a long way in making me feel less jet-lagged so I will try to find a hotel that has a gym. I enjoy drinking hot water first thing in the morning, so having a kettle in the room is good.

Before booking a room, I will check the hotel reviews in Trip Advisor. These are far more accurate than going by the pictures shown on a website (which can be very deceptive!) or the facilties that the hotel lists on its website.

On this trip, A. & I found a fantastic hotel in Prague that I had to write about. Designed by Eva Jiricna, Hotel Josef has a brightly-lit and very contemporary interior. We were initially given a room in the older part of the hotel but upon requesting a room at the front, our belongings were moved to a room in the newer part of the hotel while we were out sightseeing. When we asked for a kettle, one appeared at our door as soon as it was made available. We were mistakenly told upon checking in that our breakfast was included so they provided us breakfast free of charge the next morning. The service was just outstanding at this place and nothing appeared to be too much trouble. The front-of-house staff always had a friendly smile ready and greeted us upon our return.

We had quite the opposite experience in our next hotel, the Regent Petite France in Strasbourg. I don't really like the ieda of putting out a 'bad' review of any place and I don't think that I have anything really terrible about this hotel. I think it's just that the indifferent service was so contrasting with our Prague experience that it felt like a real let-down for us.

Let me give you some examples:

1. we were watching one of their pay TV movies on night when the movie suddenly stopped playing. My husband spoke to reception and was told that the movie had finished because the video had stopped. When he explained that it had in fact not finished, the receoptionist asked 'Are you sure?'. Well, it's kinda obvious when you haven't seen the end.

2. The front-of-house never greeted us once when we came downstairs or when we returned for the evening. Now, in a place where almost everyone greets you with 'Bonjour' when you pass in the corridors, it did make us wonder why the staff wouldn't even bother looking at us. We did notice that they were quite good with the other guests, who generally tended to be slightly more mature with young or teenage children. Was it a case of being biased against visitors who did not look like they should be staying at a stuffy hotel?

3. I noticed that the hotel advertised a fitness centre when making the booking. On the first morning, I wandered down to the first floor for a quick workout, and well, it turned out to be a LOT quicker than I expected. I walked into a dimly lit room to see 2 deck chairs in the middle of a small room. There was a decrepit bike at one corner that had seen better days and a sauna next to it. I'm not sure why the deck chairs were there given that it was obviously not for sunbathing - the window coverings could not be open and there was barely any direct sunlight into the room. But, seeing as the bike was the only form of exercise equipment there, I hopped on. When I described it as decrepit, I really do mean it. You had to change gears by flicking a metal rod out of one setting then pushing it into the next gear setting. The best thing about it was that it started making a clack-clack sound whenm I started cycling, which increased in speed as I cycled faster. I managed about 30 or 45 seconds before almost falling off the bike 'cos I was giggling so hard. Fortunately no one else was in the room :-D I then called A. and told him to come down and check out the great gym

Anyway, we didn't stress out too much about the second hotel, but it really confirmed to us what a great place Hotel Josef is. I would definitely recommend this hotel if anyone is staying in Prague and we will be staying there again in the future. Thanks to all the staff there!

View from our second room at Hotel Josef

Manakeesh Four Ways

2006-05-04T22:14:00.000+10:00

I was thinking about the Manakeesh (pronounced 'm-naeesh') bi Zatar from Sydney Road and decided that some home-made ones were in order. After mentioning this to A., we decided on M'naeesh bi Za'atar, bi Feta, bi Salami/Tomato/Jibne (cheese) and bi Zaytoun (olives).

I followed the recipe from Arabesque by Greg & Lucy Malouf and also compared it to a different one that was pretty much just flour and yoghurt. I much prefer this recipe as the dough is more pliable and the other dough tasted a little too sour for my taste.

Lebanese Bread
(based on recipe from Arabesque by Greg & Lucy Malouf)
500g mix of plain and stoneground flour, 20g salt, 30g yeast, 20g white sugar, 1.5 cups warm water

Mix yeast, sugar and water and let sit 5 min until foamy.
Add this to flour & salt mixture and mix with dough hook. Knead for 5-10 min until smooth, glossy dough forms.
Cover with cling wrap and leave in warm spot until dough doubles in size.
Knock dough back & divide into 16 balls. Roll each out into a round ~15-20 cm in diam.
Top as you like and bake at 180C for around 10 min.

Marron Chaud!

2006-04-28T17:03:00.000+10:00

One of my most enduring memories of Europe is the mouth-watering aroma of roasting chestnuts. Wandering through the Christmas markets of Prague and Strasbourg, we would often find ourselves gravitating towards the stands where chestnuts were being roasted over red-hot coals, drawn by their wonderful, warm and inviting fragrance. Then when you finally have a cornette of hot chestnuts in your gloved hands - ah, what bliss! Of course, my wonderful husband would then have to de-glove in order to peel the chestnuts while they were still hot.

As we find ourselves settling in for the cooler Melbourne months, our thoughts turn once again to 'kastany', as they are known in Prague, or 'marrons chauds' in french. Although our winters are not nearly as cold, I've noticed chestnut stands popping up around the city over the last few years. I'm not sre how well they do in terms of traed, but I'm quite happy to roast chestnuts myself at home and A. is still quite happy to peel them for me so I don't burn my fingers :-)

Slow-cooked Beef Short Ribs

2006-04-26T23:44:00.000+10:00

Okay, remember my great-looking ribs which did not taste as good as they looked? Well, the leftovers turned out WONDERFULLY!

The day after our dinner with W&W, I placed the left-over ribs in a Le Creuset pot, sprinkled lightly with some 5-spice powder and filled the pot up half-way with water. The ribs were slow-cooked in the oven for several hours until the meat was meltingly tender. I pulled the meat off the bone with a fork and served it with noodles. Just fantastic!

Well, I guess I know how to cook them next time :->

Vanilla Babies

2006-04-25T23:50:00.000+10:00

We attended a Brit Milah, which according to Wikipedia is "a religious ceremony within Judaism that welcomes infant Jewish boys into a covenant between God and the Children of Israel through ritual circumcision performed by a mohel ("circumcisor") in the presence of family and friends, followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah)", this morning.

Yep, we went to an (ahem) circumcision ceremony. It's really lovely to be invited to celebrate such a significant and happy occasion, and I'm saying happy because C. suffered some complications which resulted in her being hospitalised and E. being born some two or more months prematurely. C & J were only able to bring him home from hospital the Saturday past.

That's all wonderful and all, but let's not overlook the fact that we were at a circumcision ceremony (raised eyebrows). It may be perfectly normal and acceptable and even expected for some communities to celebrate events like these but can I say that this was definitely a first for me?

Anyway, in celebration of E's exit from hospital I baked some Vanilla Babies! Here they are holding hands:

Vanilla Babies

donna hay 'Modern Classics Book 2'

185g softened butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 1.5 tsp vanilla extract, 2.5 cups plain flour, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk

Beat butter, sugar & vanilla until smooth, then add flour, egg & yolk to form smooth dough
Knead dough lightly, wrap in clingwrap and refridgerate for 30 min until firm.
Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 5mm
Cut shapes with cookie cutter and bake for 10-12 min until golden.

Barbequed Chilli Ribs

2006-04-24T17:45:00.000+10:00

I appear to have been on a chilli-kick lately. Could this all have resulted from that one time when, due to a friend's intolerance for the addictive hot stuff, I was prevented from adding any chilli to our pasta sauce?

This time, I was keen to turn some beef short ribs into sticky, chilli-coated barbequed ribs...but things don't always turn out the way that I hope. After surfing through a couple of recipes, I couldn't decide whether it would be better to cook them in the oven or just under the grill. I was going to opt for the grill but these pieces of beef short ribs were quite meaty and thick and I was worried that they would not cook through properly just under the grill. So, what did I do? After marinating the ribs in a mixture of hoisin, soy sauce, chilli bean sauce and some other ingredients that I forget now, I baked them in the oven for ~15 min then under the grill so that the outside would be brown and sitcky-looking. The ribs looked fantastic - you can see for yourself in the photo - but they were hard to cut through and slightly dehydrated. Anyway, not much I could do on the night. We had them with steamed edamame and chilli-fish from Infinity Cafe.

For dessert, Chocolate Ripple cake drizzled with the same Caramel au Beurre Sale as featured here. I first learnt how to make this dessert in primary school from a neighbour and never would have thought before that that there could be a dessert that was so effortless and yet so addictive. I wonder if this would work just as well with gingernut biscuits?

Garlic-Chilli Prawns & Stir-Fried Vegetables

2006-04-23T17:09:00.000+10:00

I was happy to get back into the kitchen after the lead-up to Easter, when we were busy with music practices and so on. I get a lot of enjoyment daydreaming about what I feel like having for dinner and then gathering all the ingredients for the meal when I get home from work (unless I'm bone-tired, of course, in which case I'll wish dinner was already waiting).

We had some big juicy prawns in the fridge, wanting and waiting to be transformed into delicious meal. Something simple like crisp garlic-chilli prawns served with stir-fried vegetables with lap cheong, topped with black sesame seeds. Mmmmm....

Kitchen Gadgets!

2006-04-21T18:55:00.000+10:00

I found these bag clip thingies at the Korean Grocery store opposite Victoria Market. Aren't they fantastic? :-D

Pasta Marinara

2006-04-18T19:45:00.000+10:00

The meals that I cook tend to be on the spicy side because both my husband and I love chilli. However, I had to really restrain myself for this meal because C. does not do spicy. Boy, was this difficult! I managed to sneak in a piece of salami that A. managed to snag in his dollop of sauce and I say 'sneak' because it was chilli salami! Fortunately, it wasn't spicy enough to really be detected (or at least, C. didn't SAY anything about it!) but, I was just trying to increase his tolerance slowly :-P

I made pasta again on the weekend and after holding back the last time, boy did I go heavy on the chilli flakes and the pimentos we picked up from the organic stall at Victoria Market! In fact, so much so that I had to tone it down later on - OOPS!!!

This time, I went with a marinara sauce. In other parts of world, the term 'marinara sauce' - which originated from the Italian 'all marinara' or 'sailor style' - refers to a spicy tomato-based sauce that includes onions, garlic and herbs but not meat. However if you order a Pasta Marinara in Australia, be ready for a tomato-based seafood dish.

Yet again, there is no recipe for this sauce but it's pretty similar to the last one, except for the addition of the above mentioned ingredients for their chilli kick. Oh, I forgot to mention last time that I also tend to add one or two anchovies in my sauce. After all the ingredients go in, my favourite part is allowing the sauce to simmer on a really low heat for the afternoon so that it fills the house with a mouthwatering aroma. Just before serving it with the past, I threw in some prawns, mussels, shrimp, octopus and fish.An the pasta itself? Fresh parsley, oregano and basil fettucine from the Donini's on Lygon Street. What a great meal, served with a slice of toasted sesame seed and sea salt ciabatta!

I think the flavour of the pasta would come out more with a simpler sauce so I may try that next time - any suggestions?

WCB 45: Shopping Bags

2006-04-16T16:33:00.000+10:00

I love shops in which the assistants fold your clothes neatly in tissue paper and slide them gently into heavy paper bags. Makes the shopping experience even more worthwhile. Of course, once we get it home we normally leave the bags lying around for the cats to hide in, ambush each other from and generally to use as they wish. Look at how much they enjoyed this Bally bag!

If you'd like to participate in WCB as well, head over here and leave a comment.

Hot Cross Buns!

2006-04-15T14:13:00.000+10:00

This was my second attempt at hot cross buns this week. The first recipe that I followed was from Nigella's Feast and it did not turn out well. Maybe it was something I did or didn't do but I would love to hear if anyone has had succes with that recipe.

This time, I modified a Delia Smith recipe - the first of her recipes that I've tried - and it was a winner! I left the dough to prove overnight instead of 1.5 hours, but that's just because it suited our day, then moved from the fridge to our bench yesterday morning before we went to the Good Friday service. Mum, dad, W & W came over after the service to share in a bowl of mum's duck porridge - yummo! In the meatime, I punched the dough down, divided it into 12 round portions and left it to prove again before piping the cross on and baking.

The result - fresh, spicy, fruity and full of flavour, quite unlike the first lot I made which did not rise very much and was therefore quite dense as well as flavourless. I did not have any mixed spice in the pantry and so substituted with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. I don't remember the exact amounts of each spice that I sprinkled on, but it was definitely more generous than the 1 heaped tablespoon of mixed spice that Delia recommends.

In fact, we did a little taste-testing of this against hot cross buns, both fruit and choc chip, from Browns and choc chip from Bakers Delight and I'm happy to report that both A. & I felt that mine trumped the commercially made ones :-) The homemade ones had a better flavour and were slightly denser, giving them nicer mouth feel.

Hot Cross Buns

50g caster sugar + 1 tsp, 1 tbs dried yeast, 450g strong flour, 1 tsp salt, a few tsp of ground cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/clove, 125g mixed dried fruit, 40ml warm milk, 1 egg, 50g melted butter. For cross: 2 tbs flour + boiling water to create paste for piping. For glaze: 2 tbs sugar, 2 tbs boiling water.

Stir 1 tsp caster sugar into 150ml tepid water and sprinkle in dried yeast. Leave until frothy.
Sift flour, salt, spices together and add tge remaining 50g sugar and dried fruits. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture, 40ml tepid milk, beaten egg and melted butter. Mix into a dough, transfer to a clean surface and knead until smooth & elastic (around 6 min).
Place back into bowl nd cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place until it rises to double its original volume (place in fridge if leaving overnight). Turn it out & knead it back down to its original size.
Divide dough into 12 portions and arrange on baking sheet. Slash a cross across each one with a sharp knife. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for about 25 min.
Mix the flour and water into a paste suitable for piping and pipe a cross on each portion of dough. Bake at 220C for 15 min, watching carefully that they don't burn.
Brush buns with the glaze as soon as they come out of the oven.

Run for the Kids 2006

2006-04-13T23:57:00.000+10:00

A few weekends ago, I watched the Commonwealth Games marathon runners wind their was through the streets of Melbourne. I was there at Carlton Gardens to take pictures of the participants near the beginning of their race and I was there at the end when they sped along the Yarra River towards the MCG. I wondered how it must feel to have to maintain a strong state of mind for such a long race and what the cheers of the spectators would mean to the runners, especially when it's starting to feel like it's been a long day.

Well, last Sunday, I got the chance to have a little feel of what it's like at the inaugural Herald Sun/Citylink Run for the Kids! Fortunately, I had had the foresight (uh huh) to register early on for the 14.7km, which traversed the Bolte Bridge and the Domain Tunnel, as they closed registrations off at 20,000 participants after an unexpectedly overwhelming response. The event ended up raising more than $400,000 for The Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal! A huge thanks to the organisers, marshalls, volunteers and cheering spectators.

Placed 4748 in the 14.7km.in the 2006 Herald Sun/CityLink Run for the Kids
in a time of 1:19:07

These photos are borrowed from here.

WCB 44: Baby Kittens!

2006-04-08T22:55:00.000+10:00

I can't believe that Tasha & Bella were ever so little! They were around 6 weeks old at this stage and we didn't get to take them home until they were 3 months old. It would have been really nice to had them home at this age, but I guess we ended up with better behaved cats this way.

More kitties at Eat Stuff!

A Simple Meal with Friends

2006-04-08T22:27:00.000+10:00

We had our friends, P&C, over for dinner last week. It was just a simple Friday night meal, nothing fancy or troublesome but just an easy-going, lovely time for catching up. I picked up a few things from Lygon Street - chicken & veal ravioli from Domini's, anti-pasto from King & Godfree - and Victoria Market - foccacia, so the only thing I really had to prepare were the tomato sauce and dessert.

I began the tomato sauce by slow-cooking some onions and garlic with a small piece of salami (for a subtle smoky flavour). A tin of passata and some fresh tomatoes were tipped in and these were closely followed by some oregano. The sauce was left to simmer for some time before fresh basil was torn and stirred in. The fresh ravioli was added to the tomato sauce and served with foccacia studded with rosemary and sprinkled with seasalt and a fig-fresh goat's curd-rocket salad. The tomato sauce complemented the ravioli perfectly - YUM! And was happy to have accidentally received the single piece of salami:

A: "I REALLY liked how you added salami to the sauce!"

Me:"What salami? Oh, THAT salami! I forgot to fish it out!"

For dessert, a Mocha Coffee Cake drizzles over with melted dark chocolate and Joel Durand Caramel au Beurre Sale and topped with a single coffee bean. Recipe to follow shortly.

WCB 42

2006-03-25T15:24:00.000+11:00

Bella is giving me her usual bedroom eyes look while Tasha is curiously trying to figure out what's going on from the back. Spending afternoons with them is so much fun because they try to cuddle up as close to us as they can, then settle themselves down into a comfortable position.

Check the other cuddly creatures out at Eatstuff.

Yoghurt and Pistachio BabyCakes

2006-03-25T09:40:00.000+11:00

Has anyone else been enjoying fresh pistachios lately?

I've just discovered these at Victoria Market this season and love peeling off the soft pink-green outer shell to reveal the harder shell of the nut that we normally associate with pistachios. The same colours are reflected on the inside, with the paper-thin pink skin covering up a bright green kernel.

I had some fresh pistachios in the fridge and knew that I wanted use them in this recipe as soon as I came across it. Although Gini used labne (Middle Eastern strained yoghurt), I just went with a natural fat-free yoghurt.

:-o I just realised, as I'm typing this recipe out, that I completely left out the 1/2 cup of EVOO that shold have been mixed in together with the yoghurt! Trust me to get a recipe wrong, but hey maybe it was actually right this time because the cake turned out to be light, fluffy and moist. It reminds mw of a chiffon cake. I think I may just leave out the olive oil again next time :-p I didn't grind the pistachios so finely that it was like using pistachio meal, so it was lovely to get the crunch of some pistachio pieces as you eat the cakes.

Yoghurt & Pistachio BabyCakes

1 cup raw unsalted pistachios, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 eggs (separated), 1 1/4 cups sugar, 3/4 cup yoghurt

Roast pistachios at 150C for 10-15 min then rub in the folds of a clean tea towel to remove the outer skins (like Gina, I didn't go out of my way to get all the skin off and it didn't seem to pose any problems). Increase oven to 175C.
Grind finely in a food processor then add flour, salt and baking powder and process briefly to mix.
Beat egg whites with 3/4 cup sugar to form stiff peaks. Remove to another bowl.
Beat egg whites with rest of the sugar until pale yellow. Add yoghurt then mix in pistachio-flour mix with a spatula.
Gently fold egg whites into batter and pour into lined cake tin. I used most of the batter in a 20" round tin and the rest into my new silicone mini muffin tray.
Bake for 40 - 50 min until skewer comes out clean. With the babycakes, I baked for around 15 min.

Victorian Producers' Market & Culinary Pro AM

2006-03-24T08:18:00.000+11:00

Melbourne has certainly been churning out the festivals & events while the Commonwealth Games are on. On the weekend, mum & I strolled up to Carlton Gardens where the Victorian Producers Market had been set up, next to the heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building.

There were lots of local produce on show and on sale but we didn't pick up much as most of these stalls are the same ones that participate at the farmers markets around town but it was a beautiful day for wandering through, sampling and smelling and chatting.

There were even some prehistoric creatures keeping us company as we checked out what they were cooking on stage:

Obviously, I was not the only one who thought that it was a good idea to check out this event.

On Monday, I also popped down to the Culinary Pro Am competition they are holding. Kind of like Iron Chef without the quirky host and the terribly bad but hlarious voiceovers. I watched one of my hero-chefs, George Calombaris, who is about to open his new restaurant The Press Club in a few months, take on and defeat Teage Ezard with his Cypriot-inspired dishes. Check it out if you are in the city area - the finals are coming up on Saturday.

Ten Ren Tea Noodles

2006-03-20T20:24:00.000+11:00

A number of tea houses have popped up around the city recently, most of them selling just tea but there is one that also serves tea-based hot meals and desserts. We tried the pork noodles served in a tea broth and some tea-flavoured dim sum, serving it with a simple salad once we got the food home. the broth was lovely and had just a hint of tea-smokiness about it. The dim sum was okay, the skin being slightly too think for my liking. We also bought their plum jelly for dessert, but for the life of me I could not taste any tea flavour in it at all. We may think about trying the black tea jelly next time.

Ten Ren Tea (Melbourne) Pty Ltd
146 Swanston St Melbourne 3000

Marathon in Melbourne!

2006-03-19T11:25:00.000+11:00

Well, the crowd is certainly of the opinion that the marathon runners are all tiny people, both the men and women. Does being compact help you to be faster I wonder? I'm heading back out now to watch the end of the race.

Passionfruit & Mango Pavlova

2006-03-18T17:05:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a farewell picnic for some friends who are returning home to Strasbourg after spending a couple of years working here. For the afternoon tea, I made the very Australian (or New Zealand depending on who you listen to) dessert - a pav.

I followed Stephanie Alexander's recipe, which she promises will result in a crisp shell with a marshmallow interior. I got the crisp shell but not much in the way of marshmallowiness so I should probably reduce the cooking time from 1.25 hr to 1 hr. To decorate, turn upside down, dollop some softly whipped cream then top with luscious mangoes and passionfruit pulp.

Stephanie Alexander's Pavlova

4 egg whites, pinch of salt, 250g castor sugar, 2 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp white wine vinegar, few drops of vanilla extract, 300 ml cream, passionfruit pulp & diced mangoes

Preheat over to 180C
Beat egg whites & salt until satiny peaks form
Beat in sugar, a third at a time, until stiff and shiny
Sprinkle in cornflour, vinegar and vanilla and fold lightly
Spread onto baking paper within 20cm radius circle and smooth tops & sides
Place in over and reduce temprature to 150C. Bake for 1 - 1.25 hr (depending on your oven)
Turn oven off and leave pav to cool completely.
Turn upside down and top with whipped cream & fruit

Welcome to Melbourne!

2006-03-15T21:09:00.000+11:00

There are exciting things happening in Melbourne right now. The Commonwealth Games opens tomorrow night and there are a number of events taking place as part of the cultural activities of the Games. One of these events is the Urban Dream Capsule, where four men will reside in the Bourke Street Myer windows for 14 days. Their lives will be on display to the public 24 hours a day. This display takes up four windows, the left most is decked out as a kitchen, the next as their dining area, then their bedroom followed by the bathroom.
HI GUYS!

The Baton Relay ended with a street party yesterday evening:

And if you can't get a good spot to film what's happening in stage, on top of a bin is as good a place to set up your camera as any:

My First Meme...

2006-03-14T22:20:00.000+11:00

Sarah has tagged me for this meme and it's the first one that I'm actually posting about. Here goes...

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:

Waitress at Malaysian restaurant
Waitress at Indian restaurant (for about 3 shifts until a. they took a big tip from me to share with the girl who worked not on the same night but the night before, b. I saw them cutting the mouldy parts off strawberries which were then served with kulfi, c. they scraped the uneaten basmati rice from the guest's plate back into the rice cooker)
Service assistant at Myer
Research scientist

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:

Pride and Prejudice
Eat Drink Man Woman
Love Actually
can't think of a last but I used to watch Anne of Green Gables every school holidays if I could!

Four Places I've Lived:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Melbourne, Australia
hopefully somewhere in Europe in the near future (are you ready this, A?)

Four TV Shows I Watch:

Iron Chef
Cold Case
NCIS
Sex and the City (when it was still on but now I watch the series on DVD)

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:

Bintan, Indonesia
Calgary, Canada
New York, USA
Sicily, Italy

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

The Age
Food Porn Watch
Blogger
work website

Four of My Favourite Foods:
* this is a hard one because I don't know where to start. I have so many favourites...

Char Siew Bao
Roti Chanai
Pretty much any fruit (esp tropical)
Sashimi

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

* Of all the places I've visited, nowhere would be as good as where A. is right now :-(

Four Tags to Continue This Meme:

* Has anyone NOT done this one yet? Let me know...

WCB 40

2006-03-12T12:03:00.000+11:00

When you're lazing in the sun, what else can you do but clean yourself?

The round up for this WCB, can be found here.

Ispahan Tiramisu

2006-03-11T23:36:00.000+11:00

My entry for this SHF, hosted by spitoonextra, focussess on cream. Cream is made by allowing full-fat milk to settle, allowing the higher-fat layers rise to the surface and be skimmed off. When I was little, I did not like cream in the least. Ice-cream was fine, but cream on its own? Uh uh, not for me. On the other hand, A. thought cream was the bee knees and one of the treats he used to buy at fairs was a cylindrical waffle cone filled in the middle with pure white, creamy cream.

Now, although I still don’t love cream the way A. does, I can see how it can add depth to savoury dishes such as beef stroganoff (not that I've ever had this before). And of course, as most of us would know, cream is an essential component of many desserts. Imagine chocolate ripple cake without cream. It would just be…um, a pack of chocolate ripple biscuits. Okay, you can dunk it in milk and it would be pretty good but once you sandwich a row of these biscuits with whipped cream, it turns from just a pack of dry chocolate biscuits into something wonderful – a dessert that would not be out of place at a birthday celebration.

I was flicking through my copy of Yoshoku when I came across their Tokyo Tiramisu, which sounded perfect for a summery dessert. After pondering upon this for a couple of nights, I was inspired by the memory of the Ispahan from Pierre Herme. Why couldn’t I make an Ispahan Tiramisu instead?

I didn't have time to make any rose macaroons so I had to make do with the normal savoiardi biscuits. The sponge fingers were carefully placed on the cake tray and brushed with lychee syrup until fairly well saturated. Whipped cream flavoured with some Eau de Rose from Fauchon was piped on top of the row of fingers, then raspberries and lychees scattered over the cream. This was topped with another layer of savoiardi biscuits and rose-flavoured cream. For the decoration, I piped out the outline of a heart in Valrhona Ivory chocolate and once set, placed this gently on a pile of red rose petals. Mmm, lovely, light and a wonderful melding of subtle flavours.

sugar high friday, shf, food and drink

Lo Han Vegetables

2006-03-07T21:24:00.000+11:00

I imagine that black fungus, aka cloud ear mushroom, is one of those foods that I would not have enjoyed much as a kid because I don't remember eating a lot of it. Now, however, I love the crunchy bite it adds to stirfry dishes and the satiny feel of it on my tongue. In Chinese herbal medicine, this fungus also has a reputation for improving circulation and thinning the blood out - kinda like wine, I guess. The black cloud ear fungus also has a close relative known as - wait for it - white fungus which is much more frilly in appearance and can be used in sweet soups as well as savoury dishes.

Both black and white fungus can be found in dried forms in any Asian grocery store and are reconstituted by soaking for 30 min in warm water. The woody parts can then be trimmed off before cooking them. This dish is my version of Lou Han Vegetables and I've listed the ingredients that I used below:

A few pieces of reconstituted black and white fungus, some shitaake mushrooms, a can of button mushrooms, sliced carrots, green peas, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, cornflour

Sitr fry garlic
Add carrots and peas, followed by shitaake & button mushrooms. Add some water or stock and simmer for a few minutes
Add black and white fungus and simmer for a little longer
Thicken sauce with cornflour mixed with a few tablespoons of water
Serve on top of brown rice (or whatever you prefer)

Mum's Banana Cake

2006-03-04T15:27:00.000+11:00

Mum is a wonderful cook, excelling in both savoury and sweet dishes. However, in the days before I had developed any interest in food, I did not have a real appreciation of this. I ate her food everyday so it just seemed normal to me and, in fact, my brother and I use to beg for the meat-and-3-veg dishes that all our friends had for dinner or, horror of horrors, even McDonalds! (I can't even remember the last time I had burgers from there)

As good as she is now, I still remember the story from mum's teenage years of when she attempted a banana cake for a friend's birthday (or something). She had baked this before, to acclaim, however she left out the eggs by mistake this time. The banana cake rose beautifully and smelled delicious however, to her utter embarassment, it promptly crumbled and fell apart when they tried to slice it. If only her friends could see her now!

She has, of course, mastered the art of baking this cake now and I can certainly remember this being baked on a regular basis when I was younger. I think it must be particularly popular in Malaysia as I've seen it in a few cookbooks. I love the moist 'banana-iness' of this cake and it has remained one of my all-time favourites.

Mum's Banana Cake

125g butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 large eggs, 1.5 cups SR flour, 1/4 cup milk with 1/4 tsp bicarb soda and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence added, 2 ripe bananas

Cream butter and sugar until pale.
Add eggs one at a time
Add flour and milk alternately
Mix in bananas and pour into 20cm lined tin
Bake at 180C for 45 min (bake for 20-25min for cupcakes or for 1 hour for double batch)

WCB 39: Beauty Shot

2006-03-04T15:26:00.000+11:00

I've been watching 'America's Next Top Model' and I think this is what they call a beauty shot. A closeup photo of the face. Tyra Banks says that it's all in the eyes, that they should be fierce.

Do you think Tasha has what it takes to be America's next top model?

WCB 38

2006-02-26T13:21:00.000+11:00

Our television cabinet contains shelving to hold the audiovisual equipment. These shelves are about 25cm high, plenty of room for holding what it's designed for, however a cat would have to almost get down its elbows and knees to fit in there.

But, we have very determined cats. The other afternoon, while entertaining friends, I heard a scrabbling noise and turned to see two remote controls come flying off the shelf. Bella had managed to crawl into the narrow space head first and was busy making space for herself and rotating her body around to face the front. I think she looks uncomfortable but she seemed to be quite content.

Visit Eatstuff for the round up of WCB 38.

Iced 'The Rouge Metis'

2006-02-25T12:22:00.000+11:00

You don't need to be a tea connoisseur to have heard of Mariage Frere, with many bloggers having waxed lyrical about their divine products.The post that caught my attention however was posted on Kuidoare where J. posted a photo that displayed the teapot of my dreams. It was the very shape that I had been searching for, with the platinum glaze and the cast iron lid only adding to its beauty. Whether I would be able to afford it or not, I knew that A. and I would have to visit Mariage Frere while in Paris even if it was just to gaze upon the teapot.

The sweet scent of mingled tea flavours assaults your olfactory senses as soon as you step foot in the door. The number of teas on offer is quite overwhelming but we managed somehow to choose four different types, including the Marco Polo.

We have only tried two so far, The Blanc au Jasmin and my favourite - The Rouge Metis. This red tea is very sweet smelling and contains berries, lavendar, currants. Although it tastes great brewed in the usual fashion, we love chilling it and serving it cold from the fridge with red tea ice cubes. It's perfect for the humid weather we are currently experiencing.

And yes, we did travel home with the teapot :-)

Our Singaporean Food Adventure!

2006-02-22T10:02:00.000+11:00

Okay, I think this is the final update on my trip. We had a brief stopover in Singapore on the way home &, of course, went in search of some good food!!! We managed to fit in kaya toast & nasi lemak for breakfast, spicy soup noodles from a halal food stall during a break from shopping and some noodles accompanied by really tender beef brisket from Lau Par Sat that was on the bland side.

Of all the meals we had though, the most memorable one from this trip was at Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant. I searched out this place after reading about it here. Despite the warning to show up either really early or really late to avoid the crowds, only two other tables were taken when we arrived. As there were only two of us, we only wanted to order the crab beehoon, however the chef/owner seemed a little put out and kept recommending other dishes that we might like to have as well. I love suggestions (which is why I like reading other people's reviews), but when I'm made to feel like I have to order something...well, that doesn't go down as well. We ended up with a half-dozen steamed prawns, crab beehoon and gai-lan knowing that there was no way that we were going to finish it all, with the chef himself all but admitting the same. But, hey, you don't want to displease the guy who was going to be cooking your food, right?

The prawns were juicy and tasty and the gai-lan suitably garlicky, but the highlight was the crab beehoon, which was loaded with flavour. I did find that he was quite heavy-handed with the oil but maybe that's why everything tasted so great. It was disappointing however to see half the meal being left behind because there was just too much of it. I was glad later on in the night that I hadn't eaten more though because the food made us soooo thirsty!

Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant

659-661 Geylang Lorong 35

Tel: 6744-9778

WCB 37

2006-02-19T18:47:00.000+11:00

They must be dreaming about being big cats, sitting amidst the long grass in the savannah, surveying their kingdom. Maybe having just finished off a recent kill... a gazelle perhaps?

One of my favourite cheese sandwiches...

2006-02-17T00:03:00.000+11:00

Chinese New Year Celebrations: Hawker Stalls

2006-02-14T23:10:00.000+11:00

Chinese New Year festivities came to an end with the full moon on Sunday after 15 days of celebrations. One of our favourite events during this time of year is the Hawker's Stall market that is held on the banks of the Yarra River in front of Crown Casino.

The usual Chinese acrobatic, musical and martial art performances are held on a stage specially constructed for this event however, for us, these merely serve as a backdrop to the main event.

We tried some fragrant nasi lemak and tender chicken and beef satays. We also had something that I thought was labelled 'Pulut Inti' - glutinuous rice with spicy shrimp filling. Can someone tell me if this is the correct name? The coconutty chendol was just right for quenching our thirst on this warm Sunday afternoon, my favourite part being the gula melaka syrup they squirted onto the shaved ice as a final touch. Also, I finally got to have my ice kachang. I've been looking for this dessert everywhere, but no one was serving it because it has not been warm enough. I'm really not a big fan of sweet corn, but I love flavours of rose water and evaporated milk mixing together - divine!

Broccoli Soup

2006-02-12T21:18:00.000+11:00

During his childhood, my husband was fortunate enough to do quite a bit of travelling with his parents. His mother, a journalist, was often invited to conferences and young A. skipped school to tag along to exotic places such as Turkey, Syria, Greece and Jordan, living out of a suitcase from one swanky hotel to the next. Part of this experience, of course, meant that room service meals became the norm.

In general, these meals tend not to be ground-breaking in their execution nor are they, generally-speaking, comforting home-styled dishes. However, there is one dish that has remained in A's memory, one meal that he has spoken of often with fondness - broccoli soup. Now, he doesn't remember exactly where they were staying at the time (he was only 8 years old, after all), but thinks that it was either at The Sheraton in Istanbul or The Marriot in Athens. Both A. and his mum enjoyed the soup so much that they put in a second order for it.

It almost sounds like too simple dish to invoke such strong memories but seeing as it's been with him all these years, I wanted to recreate the soup for A. This task was, of course, made difficult by the fact that although he remembers that it was a wonderful soup, there aren't too many other details to go by.

I started out by steaming two heads of broccoli and boiling several small potatoes until tender. The onions and leeks were cooked until softened, then 2 tablespoons of flour were added and cooked for a few minutes. The onion/leek mix, broccoli and potatoes were added, together with salt, pepper, dried basil, to about 4 cups of vegetable stock and pureed until smooth. The verdict: we both loved the way the soup turned out - thick and creamy without the need for any dairy. This one's a keeper!

New Year Celebrations in Paris!

2006-02-09T22:02:00.000+11:00

Yes, this post is way late, but I'm still catching up on posts from our trip...

We spent New Year's Eve in Paris but instead dining at a swanky restaurant and joining the Champs Elysee crowd for the fireworks, we chose to have an intimate dinner for two at our hotel room. That morning, we left our bottle of Veuve Cliquot to chill (the balcony was colder than our bar fridge) while we gathered our menu items from a little place located on a little side street just off Rue St Honore. They had scallops, sea urchin, prawns, crabs and a host of other delicacies to tempt us but we (only) ended up purchasing a cooked lobster, seaweed salad and some caviar.

The hotel kindly provided us with dinner plates, champagne glassess and cutlery, and we were set to go! We laid everything out on a tray and sat on the bed for a simple, fun hotelroom picnic - just the two of us.

We chatted, read and watched television while waiting for the countdown, then rushed out onto the balcony when the clock struck 12, with me wrapped in a thick blanket, to clink our glasses of champagne and gaze at the firework display.

Wasabi Pea-Crusted Barramundi

2006-02-06T20:31:00.000+11:00

It looks like I'm not the only one who has been getting into wasabi peas lately and this is a snack that is definitely moreish. Whilst the peas are not as potent as wasabi paste itself, the vapourising heat can still catch you out unexpectedly. Cuttlefish and shrimp flavoured peas are also available but where would the excitement be?

We loved the fresh barramundi fillets from Garfield Fish Farm last time and picked more up over the weekend. The fillets were coated with crushed wasabi peas (mixed with some cuttlefish peas), salt and freshly ground Sze Chuan pepper before being pan-fried. Crunchy texture of the skin contrasts with delicate white flesh, but with fish this fresh it's hard to go wrong.

WCB 35

2006-02-05T16:07:00.000+11:00

We brought back some organic produce from this morning's Farmers Market at St Kilda as well as bread from both Phillipa's (Chocolate Cherry Loaf) and Baker D Chirico (Pane di Casa) only to discover that Bella is a real foodie...

Pistachio, Raspberry & White Chocolate Biscotti

2006-02-04T12:29:00.000+11:00

I bought the December issue of Bon Appetit before leaving for my Europe trip, with the idea of baking some Christmas cookies for family & friends. I read through the magazine and only ended up ear-marking a single page. This recipe drew my eye each time I flicked through the magazine, the full-page picture showing off the bright green pistachios and ruby red dried raspberries against a pale biscuit, but I just didn't get the chance to bake before jetting off.

When I finally managed to turn my oven on last weekend, this was the first batch of cookies that went in. Although you need to bake it twice, these are some of the easiest cookies that I've ever made. The dough takes all of 5 min to combine before being shaped into 2 logs. The logs are cooled after baking, then sliced and baked again. I used some Pariya semi-dried sour cherries that were a little too alcoholic-tasting to just snack on in place of dried raspberries. These tasted wonderful in the biscotti but they lacked that brightness of colour that would have contrasted so well against the base. Oh yes, I also substituted the coconut extract for the almond extract because I really dislike the flavour of almod extract.

I cannot commend these biscotti highly enough! Definitely my favourite out of the 3 types of cookies that I made this weekend - although the vanilla salted peanut cookies come pretty close. What made them even more incredible was the chocolate that I used to coat them - Callebaut 54% Dark and Valrhona Ivory White. Expensive? Yes, but I think it's well worth it!

Pistachio, Raspberry & White Chocolate Biscotti

3 cups AP flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar, 3 large eggs, 2 tbs olive oil, 2.5 tsp coconut extract, 3/4 cup shelled pistachios, 1 cup dried raspberries/strawberries, 1/2 cup white chocolate

Beat sugar, eggs, oil and coconut extract until well blended.
Add flour/baking powder/salt mixture and beat until smooth.
Stir in pistachios, dried fruit and white chocolate
Drpo dough by heaping teaspoonfuls into 2 12-inch long strips on baking sheet and shape with wet fingers into 3-inch wiode log.
Bake at 175C for 30 min until lightly browned and firm to touch.
Cool logs for 30 min then cut each into 1/2-inch thick slices. Stand upright onto baking sheet, spacking about 1/4-inch apart, and bake for 20 min at 170C.
When cool, dip into melted chocolate and chill 30 min until chocolate is set.

Hediard

2006-02-03T12:59:00.000+11:00

Pastries and Macarons from Pierre Herme

2006-02-01T18:15:00.000+11:00

Okay, I'm still catching up on our holiday adventures!

Instead of busying ourselves with tours of galleries and museums and visiting the Top 10 sites listed in guide books, this time we defiantly struck out in search of new foods to try instead. We visited La Maison du Chocolat, Laduree and Pierre Herme and tasted their intricately-decorated pastries for the first time.

Of the pastries, my personal favourite was probably the Plaisir Sucre for two reasons. One, the sensational chocolatiness minus any cloying sweetness. Two, the construction, as well as the differing textures, of the layers which consisted of a hazelnut dacquoise base topped with a milk chocolate spread, dark chocolate ganache and thin dark chocolate sheet twice over, whipped chocolate cream and finally another thin dark chocolate sheet. Maybe one day I will feel brave enough to try making it at home, as Keiko has done. The Surprise Yu dessert, stewed and raw apples with yuzu with yuzu cream enclosed in meringue and wrapped in orange cellophane, is also pictured here (back) but this really was not to my liking. The other pastry worth mentioning is the Isphahan (not pictured but you can see what it looks like here) from Laduree, fresh raspberries and lychee and rose-flavoured cream sandwiched between pink meringues - unusual and summery flavours.

Of course, we also had to try the much-heard of macarons. We picked a number of flavours from both Pierre Herme and Jean Paul Hevin, but our favourite by far was caramel à la fleur de sel (A: "I would go back to Paris just for these!"). Fortunately, A had the forethought to ask for two of these! The most unusual and strongest flavour was truffe blanche et noisette. Although the earthiness of the truffle flavour was certainly unusual and unexpected in a macaron, it did not prevent us from enjoying it.

Meet the Bloggers

2006-01-30T17:05:00.000+11:00

Ed of Tomato has written an excellent article, "Eat my words: Meet the bloggers: the gastronomes who have set their sites on satisfying our increasing appetite for recipes, rants and restaurant reviews", for the most recent issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller, in which he espouses grass-roots food writing and encourages the relatively young Aussie food-blogging world. To Ed's credit, although two international bloggers are mentioned - Chez Pim, one of the most widely read blogs internationally, and TSOGB - the main focus is on the growing Australian blog world.

Aussie blogs that scored a mention include: Grab Your Fork, Australian Gourmet Pages, Cat on the Bench, Sarah Discovers How to Eat, The Breakfast Blog, Tomato and yours truly. I have to admit that I'm not so sure about having a photo in the mag though (with full name included!). Until this point, I've been fairly protective of my identity (as, I can see, have many others) and I'm not sure what to think about this...

For those who have come to this site from the GT article, welcome & happy reading!

Hello Neighbour

2006-01-29T21:58:00.000+11:00

After a long work week, I was finaly able to indulge in some baking: vanilla salted-peanut cookies from the special 'Christmas Cookies' edition of Better Homes & Gardens and melting moments fromThe Best of Singapore's Recipes, Tea Time Delights.

I used my cookie press to shape the melting moments instead of just forming little hazelnut-sized balls of dough as suggested and I have to say that it's easier to press dough out of some of the stencils than others. My wrist and forearm is still sore two days later from forcing the dough out of the stencil with the many small holes! After presing about a dozen cookies, I swapped over to make the ones you can see above.

I sandwiched some of the melting moments with Christine Ferber's Confiture au Petales de Roses, one of three jars of her jams that we picked up in France. I heated the jam, add some gelatine powder and then cool before smearing it onto the flat of one cookie and gently pressing the flat side of another against it.The exquisite rose flavour in this confiture not only complemented the butteriness of the melting moments, but lifted them to another level altogether. I may be tempted to sandwich more of the melting moments together...

Vanilla Salted-Peanut Cookies

3/4 cup shortening, 2 cups packed brown sugar, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 eggs, 1 tba vanilla, 1.5 cups AP flour, 2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup flaked coconuts

Beat shortening with eloectric mixer until soft before adding brown sugar, baking soda and salt and beating until combined.
Beat in eggs and vanilla, then flour.
Stir in oats, followed by peanuts, raisins and coconut.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls ontocookie sheet and bake at 190C for 7-9 min until lightly browned. Makes ~60.

Melting Moments
455 g SR flour, 225g sugar, 225g butter, 2 eggs

Mix flour, sugar, butter and eggs in large bowl to form soft dough
Place into cookie press and push dough out onto cookie sheet
Bake at 150C for 20-30 min until golden.

Gong Xi Fatt Cai

2006-01-29T19:20:00.000+11:00

On the eve of Chinese New Year, families traditionally gather for a reunion dinner. This year, we invited some work friends over to have dinner with us at mum & dad's. Mum kindly cooked up a feast for us, starting with Yee Sang, which we tossed enthusiastically to help bring in prosperity and good fortune!

We also had two kinds of noodles, tender octopus, spicy wok-tossed prawns, cold chicken with peanuts (courtesy of A and Ant's Bistro), baked chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, stir-fried beef, shop-bought roast duck and chicken curry puffs:

Following a breather of good conversation, dessert was brought to the table: homemade pineapple tarts, coconut macaroons that we had brought back from Strasbourg, miniature curry puff-shaped, fried sweet that is filled with peanuts and sugar and a homemade snack that I don't know the name of - a thin batter that is either fried of baked in a mould that creates 8 holes in the centre then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Of course, there is always a fruit platter:

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!

WCB 34

2006-01-29T12:27:00.000+11:00

This photo was taken in the middle of the day, when Bella & Tasha can usually be found napping. We recently found out while watching a documentary about lions that big cats sleep around 20 hours each day. Our not-so-big cats sleep for most of the day too, going directly into nap mode after breakfast. Although they will occasionally wake to take a stretch or to have a sip pf water, they can quite easily nap from morning until around 4 or 5pm. They chase each other around for a little after dinner before falling onto our laps in exhaustion to catch some z's, then do some more exploring in the middle of the night before sleeping til dawn. What a life!

I love the way that Tasha has her chin jutting out so that it hangs over the side of the bed. I think she's learning how to pose for the camera!

For this WCB, please visit boo-licious at masak-masak for the round up.

Our Favourite City - PARIS!

2006-01-27T23:12:00.000+11:00

Our first visit to Paris coincided with a conference that I was attending. When we emerged out of the train station just at the end of Rue des Acacias, where our hotel was located, we were struck speechless by our first glimpse of the Arc de Triomphe, the structure more imposing than suggested by the ubiquitous postcard pictures. We spent any free time away from the conference on the Champs Elysee, soaking in the Parisian atmosphere. Being our first time in Europe, I was eager to visit all the museums and art galleries in case I never had the chance to return, resulting in our subtly pushing into the long, sometimes 1.5 hour summer tourist queues (terrible, I know, but have you seen the lines?), speed-walking through museums and art galleries and breezing through the other major attractions Paris had to offer. The Contiki tour that we joined following the conference also did not allow us much time in each country we passed through, so we only caught tantalising glimpses of all Europe had to offer. As a direct result of our initial whirlwind tour of Europe, our subsequent visits saw us avoiding museums and art galleries like the plague. On our second trip, we attended a conference in Florence but found ourselves drawn back to what was quickly becoming our favourite city. One evening, we were exploring the St Germain area when A. decided that he wanted to select a bouquet of flowers for me from this place:

So, he made me wait on the other side of the narrow street while he choose some flowers. There wasn't much else to do except watch people lining up and selecting their bread from this bakery:

After an age (and a half!), I was presented with a tightly-packed bouquet of pure white, gloriously-scented roses. We sat down at the restaurant next door for a meal of fresh seafood before walking across the Pont Neuf then along the Seine.

Not long after we had started strolling along the river, A. got down on one knee to propose. To be quite honest, I don't remember a word of the speech that he made (and neither does he, nervous as he was!), but I knew without a doubt that I had found my soulmate in this wonderful man, and so overwhleming was this thought that I promptly burst into tears. Of course, the answer was yes and the last (almost) three years have been amazing!

Fast forwarding to this trip: nowadays, we prefer to limit our visits to one or two cities instead of rushing around like headless chooks trying to fit everything into a short trip. An embarrasing amount of our sightseeing takes place in grocery stores, fresh food markets, delis, pastry shops, bakeries and the like (blush). More on this topic in the next post...

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

2006-01-26T19:15:00.000+11:00

This post has been a LONG time coming! I've been busy with work and also lazy about posting about our dinner here because these photos do not do any justice at all to the food. Let me quickly add that this is not a reflection on my photography skills although I have a long way to go in this department, but rather a problem with taking photos at close range with a disposable camera.

So, why was I using a disposable camera in the first place? Well, during one of our outings in Prague, we pulled out our compact digital to take a photo of ourselves in the snow. It was very chilly, and I can now tell you from experience that it is difficult to handle a camera when your hands are enveloped in thick, warm woolly gloves. It's easy to have the camera suddenly slip from your hands to hit the hard, icy ground and become damaged...and for you to have to purchase a disposable camera so that you can continue taking photos on your trip...

We arrived in Paris from Strasbourg at around 6:00pm and immediately proceeded to promenade down the Champs Elysee, enjoying the ambience of this romantic city once again. After strolling around for about an hour, we started to look for a place to eat. We wandered over the Pont Royal to St Germain des Pres in search of dinner, but being Christmas night there were few people on the streets and fewer places that appeared to be open. We walked down a rather deserted Rue de Bac past one or two brightly-lit bistros that were silently waiting to be filled. As we turned onto Bd St Germain, we spotted red and white lettering on a black sign that read 'L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon'. We crossed the road, not knowing whether we needed a reservation or even if they were serving meals that night, however we were quickly and warmly welcomed into the cosy restaurant to sit at the bar facing the open kitchen. We ordered a couple of degustation-sized meals and although the photos are not in focus, the food was certainly our main focus that evening:

La lisette sur une tarte fine au parmesan

La sardine au confit de tomates

La chataigne en fin veloute au fumet

La langoustine en ravioli truffe, au chou

L’agneau de lait en cotelette au thym

Le chevreuil, mignonette a l’aigre doux

Our waitress was most agreeable in helping us to make our choices (and relaxed about me taking photos of food & kitchen) and kept a close eye on our progress to ensure that each serving came out immediately after the previous one had been cleared. They didn't rush our meal at any stage, but the pace at which the next dish was served was such that we wished there was more breathing space between. Our dishes were as good as you would expect from any top restaurant, but the goat was a real stand out for me as 1. it's not something that I would normally have and 2. it was so tender and rich that it reminded me of liver, almost. This was closely followed by the langoustine ravioli and the anchovy tart.

PS- A big hello to David & Mark from the Orange County if you are reading this!

Truffled Eggs!

2006-01-18T23:03:00.000+11:00

We bought a truffle in Paris. And then we wondered what we were going to have it with and how we were going to have it, given that we were staying in a hotel with no cooking facilities. Well, I knew that I wanted to try it with eggs, so we bought some organic eggs from the food emporium in Galleries Lafayette.

We nestled the truffle with the eggs, wrapped them up and left them overnight: The next morning, I placed them gently in the kettle, filled it up with cold water and turned the kettle on. The eggs were left for a few more minutes after the water had come to a boil before being fished out with a teaspoon. Perfect soft boiled eggs with truffle shaved over the top! I left mine in for a little longer even and had hard boiled egg with shaved truffle.

Next time, I'm going to try frying an egg on the bottom of an iron :-)

Driving to Colmar and Baden Baden

2006-01-15T15:55:00.000+11:00

So we were driving to Colmar, just south of Strasbourg, when we saw this on the highway:

Yes that's right, there was a little pony trotting merrily down the highway, seemingly oblivious to the traffic surrounding it. What's more, it was travelling in the fast lane! Every car had to slow down and pull into the slower lane in order to get around it. A police car was driving behind the little pony, trying to encourage it to one side so that cars could drive past and resume their normal driving speeds of >150 - 160km/hour. A. had such a lot of fun driving at these high speeds - we normally get to do 110km/h max.

We wandered through its Christmas market and browsed the local produce. For lunch, we had a potato, saucisson and sauerkraut dish that was mixed and cooked in a large pan but I forget the name of it. We enjoyed the hot potato and sausage mix (it was a cold day) but I didn't much like the sauerkraut. I guess I've only just come to appreciate olives and other pickles more recently anyway, so don't take my word for it.

I wanted to bring home that 1.5 metre loaf of oven-baked bread that you can see at the back of this stall, but I didn't think they would allow me to bring it on board the plane. They were also selling pain d-epice by the kilo here.

The next day, we crossed the German border to Baden Baden (I love the name!) and Karlsruhe. We met a girl in Baden Baden who had just returned from Perth and she was so excited to see some visiting Aussies that she showed us the CD of aboriginal music that she bought in Perth and also gave us a free Christmas decoration.

Look at the churros being made here. The man was squeezing the dough into the hot oil and snipping it off at lengths of around 17cm. When they turned a golden brown, they were quickly scooped up, drained and deposited in front of his wife. The churros were generously dusted with icing sugar and filled into paper cones for a line of customers waiting eagerly to get their paws on the hot Spanish doughnuts. As we had already had our fill of other Christmas goodies, we managed to tear ourselves away from this cart empty-handed.

Step-by-step Instructions for Kugelhopf

2006-01-14T21:09:00.000+11:00

The Bredel Market in Strasbourg consisted of a number of undercover stalls that sold bredel, bredel and more bredel. This stall was an exception as they were demonstrating how to bake kugelhopf, a light yeasted bread that usually contain raisins and lemon peel and is topped with almonds. The ones they were making on this day contained chocolate chips.

Our compact digital camera broke down while we were in Prague. Although A. was finally able to fix it so that we could take some photos with it at a later stage (ie. I had to place my hand under the lens as I turned on the camera in case in it fell off, then soom to a certain point in order to focus), at this point we were shooting with a Kodak disposable camera (gasp!). When I took photos of the white-haired gentleman who was shaping the bread, he couldn't believe that I was using a disposable camera because he hadn't seen one in ages!

Strasbourg's Christkindlemarkt

2006-01-14T17:30:00.000+11:00

Strasbourg, a city that used to belong to Germany but is now part of France, is well known for its French-German cuisine. In addition to hosting France's oldest Christmas market, this lovely city is also the birth place of Christmas trees, the tradition of cutting and decorating of which began in the 1600s.

Having heard about the beauty of their hometown from P & S, who are themselves currently living in Australia, we decided to spend the week before Christmas here. We stayed in a quaint and extremely pretty section known as La Petite France, whose timbered houses could have come straight out of a fairy tale. I felt like Gretel (of Hansel & Gretel fame) and was mightily tempted to try breaking off bits of the gingerbread-like houses to see how they would taste! La Petite France can be accessed by any one of the many bridges that cross the Ill River. In the photo below, you will see the pedestrian bridge that has been roped off and rotated 90 degrees to allow the boat through:

The most well-known Christmas market in Strasbourg is probably the one held under the imposing gaze of St Nicholas cathedral, but it is by no means the only one. We visited at least five other markets around the city area, some small and others large and one, the Bredel Market, which sold nothing but bredel (cookies), kugelhopf and pain d'epice.

We spent our time in Strasbourg wandering the streets, especially the elaborately decorated ones around St Nicholas (one had Baccarat chandeliers hanging overhead for the length of it). We drank vin chaud, pomme d'epice or jus d'orange chaud and ate crepes, the most delicious of which was the one served with lashings of caramel made with salted butter. Here's a picture of the Raclette Crepe that A had for lunch:

We also had to try the Alsatian Tarte Flambee, also known as Flammekueche, a thin crust pizza topped with with bacon, onion and a creamy fromage blanc that is baked in a wood-fire oven (thanks for the suggestion, Fab!):

At the other end of the market, we spotted rows and rows of Christmas trees that were being sold to residents to put up at home & to decorate:

One of my favourite sights was of the men capturing the trees and trussing them up like prisoners:

We also spotted another type of Christmas tree but unfortunately we didn't think one would make it home whole:

Gingerbread decorations and other goodies:

Snowing in Prague

2006-01-11T21:36:00.000+11:00

I had my first white Christmas experience this year! Although there was some snowfall when we were visiting New York last year, that was nothing compared to the beautiful snowfall we had in Europe this year! The showflakes were just drifting down gently to greet us. I couldn't help but stick my tongue out to catch the flakes as we were walking around. Hmmm, do you think people would have been looking at me funny?

Anyway, one of the loveliest sweets we had was in Prague - a honey cake. It was moist, with spongy layers of cake layered with coffee-flavoured cream. It's pictured here with almond toast.

Mint Tea Break

2006-01-02T05:57:00.000+11:00

What could be better than sitting in a cosy cafe and having a hot cup of mint tea, with fresh mint no less, after walking around the sity streets of Prague?

Cafe Ebel in the Tyn Courtyard was the perfect place to do this. We watched people having croissants with jam and cream and a big Rhodesian Ridgeback trying hard not the fall asleep in the warmth of the cafe.

WCB 29

2005-12-25T06:08:00.000+11:00

We are missing our babies!

Isabella & Natasha are staying with their grandparents (my parents) while we are holidaying in Europe. Grandma & grandpa love having them over and they go out of their way to build them little play areas and cubby houses so that they won't miss home too much. In return, the girls keep mum&dad amused by chasing each other around and by hunting down blowflies that happen to stray into the house when the door is momentarily opened. They have also been keeping mum company at night when she's curled up on the couch watching TV.

I love this photo of Bella sitting in my lap then turning to look adoringly up at me:

Head over to Eat Stuff to welcome Kiri back from his recent solo adventure.

Belgian Waffles in Prague

2005-12-25T04:50:00.000+11:00

When we were in Belgium on our last trip, we missed out on trying waffles even though they were being sold on every street corner. Since returning home, we have heard from friends that Belgian waffles are pretty amazing.

Recently, an article on Belgian waffles appeared in our local paper and it included a list of the best places in Melbourne for these sweet, buttery delights. We have yet to check out these places back home, but seeing this Belgian-owned stand at Staromestke Namesti in Prague reminded me of the experience that we did not have.

These particular waffles are like giant versions of the Dutch stroopwaffles - thin, crispy waffles biscuits (cookies) with a caramel filling. The closely-guarded recipe for both the waffle dough and the buttery caramel was perfected by the guy's grandfather, who passed it onto his father, who then passed it onto him. He hopes to pass the tradition onto his own children in the future.

The waffle is made by pressing the dough into the waffle iron and cooking until done. The waffle then gets lifted out and carefully sliced horizontally through the middle in preparation for the caramel (this needs a light hand and some practice!). After spreading the caramel onto one half of the waffle, the top half is quickly slapped back on.

These waffles were so delicious when eaten immediately while still warm with the caramel oozing out with every bite. Perfect for a cold and snowy winter's night.

Images of Praha

2005-12-22T06:43:00.000+11:00

What kind of images were you expecting? Of Charles Bridge, perhaps, or Prague Castle? But this is a FOOD blog, y'see. Okay, maybe just a couple of scenery shots in the next post...

But first, here are some pictures of the food scene in Praha.

There were numerous delis that drew us in with their warmth and their colourful displays of meat-and-cream cheese topped bruschettas and wide selection of cold meats. An item that appeared in every deli was meat/veg in aspic, which I don't recall having seen in Australian delis, but maybe because it's out of vogue now (?).

Quick lunch of tuna & tomato baguette at a cosy cafe:

Lunch at Caffe Sole at the end of Havelska, serving delicious Zuppa d'Aglio containing whisked egg and finely chopped carrots & celery and a Penne Puttanesca with salami:

Prosciutto di Praha

2005-12-21T15:59:00.000+11:00

The captivatingly smoky aroma from this roast pork stopped us dead in our tracks and had us watching the guy hacking chunks of meat off the roast to serve hungry passers-by. We had spotted this stall the day before but had been lured away by the the scent of cinnamon and almonds wafting through the market. Judging by the number of people having dinner here, however, we figured that we could not pass it by a second time.

So, a hunk was carved out for us and served with the ubiquitous Prague sourdough and a dollop of mustard and ketchup. The meat was moist and tender and oh-so-delicious in its saltiness. This was definitely better quality meat than the stuffed old bohemian piglet (although that was fun to eat) and really easy to cut into bite-sized pieces after having been roasted for such a length of time.

Stuffed Old Bohemian Piglet

2005-12-20T06:10:00.000+11:00

Well, the Praguers certainly seem to like their pork! Most of the meat we came across at the market stalls were some form or other of pig. This Stuffed Old Bohemian Piglet (an oxymoron, right?) sounded and looked interesting. The meat was already shredded and was being cooked on the grill. And just to prove that it really was pork, they had the top half of the piglet sitting on the chopping board beside the grill - how attractive! The shredded meat was stuffed into a hotdog roll and we squirted mayonnaise on top (as recommended by the stallholder). The verdict? Delicious! :-)

Trdlo - crazy bread!?

2005-12-17T01:33:00.000+11:00

After our snack, we wandered to the Old Town Square in the heart of the city where the biggest Christmas Market in town is held. The atmosphere here feels so much celebratory than home with stalls selling gingerbread, Christmas decorations, roasted chesnuts, candied almonds and so on. There is a large Christmas tree in the middle of the square and a nativity scene in front of it. Everyone is rugged up in thick jackets and scarves, wandering around with paper cups of mulled wine or grog (hot rum) in their mittened hands.

We came across an unusual-looking traditional Czech pastry called Trdlo. The stallholder told us that the word 'trdlo' means crazy - I guess because the bread is loopy? Any other ideas?

Anyway, the dough is wrapped around a steel rolling pin, baked over open flames then rolled in sugar, vanilla, rushed almonds and cinnamon while it's stil hot. Deliciously warm and fragrant but the bread is just a tad on the doughy side for us (as with most of the bread here, we find). It seems very popular here though - I wonder if you can only find it at this time of year?

Golden Prague - our first bite to eat

2005-12-17T01:25:00.000+11:00

Just several hundred metres out of our hotel, we came by a very tiny Christmas market consisting of about 6 stalls. We were particularly drawn to this one by the wafting aroma of sausages being barbequed. We noticed that several Czechs, who appeared to be on their way home from work, were stopping by this stall to pick up a sausage and two pieces of sourdough bread as a snack. We figured that this couldn't be a bad idea and, in fact, it turned out to be quite a good one. The sausage skin was so crispy and you could feel the globules of fat bursting in your mouth as you chewed.

Ortiz Bonita del Norte

2005-12-09T18:39:00.000+11:00

So. We tried a high-quality Spanish tuna the other day - Ortiz Bonita del Norte. We picked it up from Simon Johnson and it is waaaayyyyy pricier than normal canned tuna. However it has placed first in a couple of different tastings and is apparently some of the best tuna available so we had to try it.

Now, I love to eat canned tuna anyway but I also value the health benefits that the omega 3 fatty acids provide. However, whilst googling up on the Ortiz brand of tuna, I came across an article which mentions that commercial canners cook the whole fish first (before skinning, boning and pressure cooking in the can), then they sell the oil that is drained from the fish, which contains most of the flavours and omega 3 fatty acids, separately. Well, that has somewhat dampened my enthusiasm for comsuming canned tuna!

Anyway, back to the Ortiz tuna. The first thing we noticed upon opening the jar were the huge chunks of snowy white tuna. I ended up placing the tuna on a very simple salad of lettuce, spanish onions and tomato dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. We also opened a can of Greenseas tuna in spring water in order to compare the taste. The verdict? The Ortiz tuna is served in much larger pieces, appears whiter and does not taste as fishy. Assuming that it is cooked only once in the jar (and I'm not sure whether it is), then it may also be healthier.

Fish Ball Noodle Soup!

2005-12-07T13:35:00.000+11:00

Given the choice, A. & I will almost always choose to have a really simple meal over an elaborate one that includes three or more courses. Our favourite cuisine is Asian and A. often requests noodle soups for dinner, both when we go out and when we stay in. Some weeks ago, I made this easy udon noodle soup featuring fresh shitake mushrooms, tomatoes and parsley. I decided to skewer the fishballs and serve it with a side of hoisin dipping sauce. Yum!

Suggestions please!

2005-12-05T12:58:00.000+11:00

Image of St Vitus Cathedral from Lava.

We're going away!!!

A. and I are spending Christmas and the lead up time in Prague, Strasbourg and Paris! SO, I thought I'd ask for some suggestions of THE places to visit - including, of course, the not-to-be-missed eating places and markets. Please drop me your suggestion - I would love to hear from you.