Tuesday, November 3, 2009
So far this week
She said:
Ha! I'm back!! I know I'm too active:D So for the projects that I planned out for this week. So far, I've been good and followed according to my plans.
Yesterday:
I decided to make an extra dish since the boy's sister will have dinner with us. So i get to make more food! Wheee
My extra dish - Fried cabbage: This is my family's recipe. Well, at least that's how my mum does it. I am absolutely a cabbage hater even though it is so beneficial for one's health. But this way of making it, any person would be glad to devour it, seriously! Its the only way I'm willing to eat cabbage. Of course, the boy slurped it up! Wheeee
He said
its swotvac in uni...and what this means for the boy and the girl is usually lots of takeaway and deliveries....oily, unhealthy, overseasoned food.... but man am i glad that this year the girl has managed to find time to cook up some simple but yet tasty home cook meals this time..two days in...this is what we have had thus far:
Verdict: i dont usually eat vegetable...but i ate like 70% of the plate right away..guess how good is this...
Curry chicken and potatoes: The simplest and easiest recipe. I'm loving the result and the fact that I can simply whip it up anytime.
Verdict: best curry chicken by the girl thus far...amazingly tasty...yummiliciousnessssss
Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of my "crystal" egg. The boy slurped it up within a minute of putting in on the table. Sigh... *hits boy head*
Tonight: I ended up sleeping the whole day. *I DON'T KNOW WHY!* Thank goodness I'm intending to make pasta. You can whip this up in less than 30 minutes and its yummilicious.
Cajun chicken pasta: Extremely tasty if you're a fan of creamy pastas
How was the pasta?? lets just put it this way..it taste better than 80% of the stuff u can find on Lygon St..(for me at least..and there is always the 20% of good restaurant on a particular st=)...good job by the girl...and also special thanks to the girl for cooking with less salt these days...its really thoughtful of her...what a lovable girl...lovesss
Procrastination rox
She said:
ok this is a post with absolutely no purpose at all. The only reason its up is PROCRASTINATION. I couldn't bring myself to look at the piles and piles of white paper with black carbon stuff on it so I reverted to the colourful world of food blogs and pictures. It is then I finalised my main projects for this coming week.... whooo HE is gonna grow biigggerrrr.... heeee
Projects for the week
Monday: Curry chicken and steamed "crystal" egg
Tuesday: Cajun Chicken pasta and shrimpcargo
Wed: Hainanese chicken rice (with the rice balls!)
I know that the balls are just rolled up rice but I get excited over it I don't know why.. hmmmm
Thurs: Wu xi spare ribs and scrambled egg with prawns. Also, HIS special request-mango sago dessert
Friday will be market day and I'll bother about the projects for the following week then.
Ok... that's all the time I have to blabber..... What do YOU do when you are procrastinating?
EDIT: Hello!!!! I'm back for another round of procrastination! (at this point, you start thinking "this blog will become really active in the next few weeks" YES YOU ARE RIGHT)
Ok so back to my happy zone. I'm gonna share with you a few other things we tried last week.
Shrimp Carbonara - Note: the traditional and best way to do a carbonara should NOT include cream! This isn't supposed to be a heavy dish.
Three cheese mac & cheese: The boy liked this version alot more than the previous version. Unfortunately, I didn't have the correct flour at hand for my bechamel sauce and it ended up slightly grainy :( But its definately a keeper!
Macaroni Soup: I wanted something soupy and a girl should always be able to whip up a soup or two right?? Haaa! So I made a simple broth and added in some carbs and of course the healthy VEGETABLES!
But isn't that a little too plain? YUP! We needed some artery clogging tasty goodness. This is one I really want to share!
Taiwanese Pork Chops! Personally, this was extremely flavourful and I can see myself making it for a long long time. Which is why I want to share the recipe with you!
Taiwanese fried chicken/pork
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 egg yolk
1 cup sweet potato starch
1/4 cup corn starch
Seasoning:
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons cooking wine
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 Tablespoons garlic powder
1 Tablespoons 5 spice powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
frying oil
Instructions:
To prep the chicken breasts, butterfly them, and pound them with a meat pounder until they’re evenly flat.
In a large bowl, mix minced garlic, soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar, half of the 5 spice powder, white pepper. Marinate the chicken in this sauce overnight.
Next day, add egg yolk and corn starch into the marinated chicken and mix it well. This is what keeps the coating from separating from the chicken.
On a plate, mix sweet potato starch, rest of the 5 spice powder, and garlic powder. This is the coating for the fried chicken.
Place the marinated chicken breasts on the plate one by one and coat it completely with the mix. Let it sit for about 5 mins before frying so that the sweet potato starch has time to stick onto the chicken.
Heat a pot of frying oil under medium heat. Make sure the oil is not bubbling or else it will cook the meat too fast. If you’re using a deep fryer, do not exceed 160 C or 320 F.
Fry the chicken until golden brown and remove from the oil. Turn the heat to high or around 180 C or 360 F.
Dip the fried chicken back in to the hot oil for about 10 seconds to give it crispiness.
Place it on a metal rack to drain out the excess oil, then cut it.
Can you guess what this is? Till next post!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Newtown Circus Night
She said
So exams are coming, assignments are still piling and the worst thing that can happen.... home sick! You start craving for food from home and its so unavailable.... So i wanted some wisma hokkien mee (oh the hokkien meee.... drool) oh and some chicken wings from newton circus! hehehe....
So that's what we're having for dinner tonight. The mee turned out pretty alright and HE was slurping up a huuuge bowl of it with a satisfied smile! That was when the wings were still browning to get that delicious charred surface... (recipes thanks to a very impt friend sze ! :D)
When the wings were donne...... woooah.... HE went berserk! He took a small bite and half the plate was gone within a minute... hehehe... yummylicious! home away from home, I'm a happy girl :D
He said
SO the girl went a bit homesick when we were doing our grocery shopping.meals planning this week, so it is singaporean cuisine for dinner tonight. I only had this hokkien mee(which is defined rather differently back in my beautiful hometown of KL-i bet malaysians wud all know wat i mean)a couple of times while visitting the girl in singapore, but man was the noodles well done, extremely tasty and noodles were bouncy when it was served...what a treat!!
The chicken wings...whats there to say...the plate was empty within minutes...it was simply perfect...i think today is the first time that i fully understood why the girl always insist on marinating the protein she uses hours before cooking them......applause to the girl!!!! and oh...we shall also thank szelin for the great recipe..Heres some pictures of our amazing dinner....:
Sydney Day 2
Sky Phoenix
77 Castlereagh St
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9223 8822
She said
Having been in Melbourne for a few years, a question that I find hard to answer is "Where can you find good yum cha around?". My answer: SYDNEY! Sky Phoenix turned out to be the most authentic I've tried around here (closest to the ones made in my home town; I don't live in hong kong but hey it's more authentic than the ones here!)
Looking at the dim sum, you can tell that the strong flavours of hong kong cuisine are imported adequately to the land down under. The roast duck was absolutely the star. The guilty yet irresistible duck skin was melt-in-your-mouth perfect ! Fighting for the limelight was the egg tart. The flaky yet light pastry accompanied with the silky egg filling gave the meal a perfect and light ending.
The only downside: It can be rather pricey.
Rating: 4/5
He said
Well as the girl says, this place sure serve up some awesome dimsum, and some really authentic ones too. This is perhaps the best it could get for yumcha in Australia i supposed The dumplings were well done, the har gao(prawn dumpling) and wu gok(taro puffs) in particular were outstanding. And also not to miss were its petite little egg tarts(the girl had a picture of me eating them, they look even smaller in my gigantic hands), which had a sweet sikly smooth center and a shell that is just light and crunchy-a match made in heaven~
Overall rating: a yumcha must go to in sydney, 4.5/5
Cupcakes on Pitt
2/323 Pitt St
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9264 4644
She said
The little gem that we found on our second day. So I managed to convince (or bluff if you must) HIM to take a long walk to phoenix and I succeeded. It was not a short walk but it sure was exciting. If we hadn't decided to walk instead of drive, we wouldn't have noticed this cupcake place on the way back. There is just this thing about sugary, colourful and pretty things staked in large numbers that catches your eye no matter what. This definitely falls in that category. Not to mention, there is the JUMBO cupcakes displayed at window extending its creamy arms attracting you to walk into the store to discover its fellow 'little ones'.
So we stepped into the store and my camera went out of control. So many picture perfect objects so little time! After taking home a few, we digged into the most creamy luscious frosting atop a moist yet small cupcake base composing to a perfect bite in terms of taste and texture!
Rating: 4.5/5 - MUST TRY
He said
Well it is day 2 of our trip, and i got conned, yes i would like to use the word CONNED, to take a walk from our hotel to the dimsum place which is like, miles away. TO add to my misery, it was uphill all the way and it was HOT, reported@31 degrees celcius at noon. But man was i glad that we took that walk, just as we were walking on Pitt St(one of the main streets in Sydney city center), we chanced upon this little cupcake shop:
The picture would tell u most of the story, basically they sell little cupcakes with many different kind of toppings(up to 39 flavours to choose from if i am not mistaken) , but they also do many custom-made, large cupcakes for weddings and other occasions. Some of the cupcakes were so pretty i actually thought of carrying one or two of the big cupcake back to melbourne as souvenirs!
Pier Restaurant
594 New South Head Rd
Rose Bay NSW 2029
(02) 9327 6561
She said
OOP! One of the "big boys" in our itinerary. Pier is one of the 3 restaurants that made it to the world's top 100 list from Australia, not to mention maintaining a 3 hats rating from forever ago. The food?
Dining in a glass box out in the deep black sea, the atmosphere was romantic and tranquil. The food was obviously of a standard that could to be compared to our ordinary restaurant. The pairing of ingredients and precision of execution blew me out of the water. The produce were so fresh you expect a guy fishing in the kitchen for live fish right there and then!
The only problem: We were trying our best to take pictures of the food (cause its my habit) but at the same time, we were trying to look cool! The other successful looking guests (that looked alot older) didn't seem to share my habit so we were really embarrassed! Oh wellz, you can do anything as long as you have the confidence to pull it off right? heeee
Rating: 4.8/5
He said
Well yeah, this is the our first stop on the top restaurant food tour, and the weather aside(it was raining heavily when we arrived), it was a really pleasant dining experience. The place of course, fully deserves all the rewards and ranking stuff they have been receiving. The place was close to being perfect in many sense, location,tick. Ambience,tick. Excellent service, tick. Good food, tick tick!
The attention to detail and combination of flavours and textures that was served to us on the night was simply perfect. The excellent kingfish tartare, the lighter-than-air lobster bilini, the foei grais and sea scallop 'agedashi, the rasberry souffle, the quince tart...i can go on and on....But all in all, the dinner was simply perfect, and seeing the girl smiling after every bite of the food was served up and the excitement on her face when the dishes arrive on our table made it that bit more special...truly a night that i would remember for a long time to come..
And this is for the female readers and dessert lovers out there, the place has an inhouse pastry chef, which could only mean one thing-a dessert menu to die for!!! THE RASBERRY SOUFFLE=WORLD CLASS
Sydney Day 1
Zushi
239 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
(02) 9357 3533
She said
We're back from Sydney! We definitely achieved our 'gourmet' trip this time round. Upon arriving in Sydney, we took a little break and went off to our first planned meal, Zushi. Zushi caught my attention when it was announced to be the food channel "Australia's favourite restaurant". So did it live up to its name?
Merits: The food was fresh and REALLY affordable. Check out the sushi plate that had toro on it for $24 AUD! The boy was in awe.... and devoured it within seconds. The soft shell crab roll had two whole crabs in it and the tempura was the highlight of the meal.
De-merits: The udon was the only disappointment of the meal. The soup was more like an instant soy base and the noodles lacked texture and did not have a "springy" bite.
Overall , the ambience was relaxed with the dim lights and soft music in the background.There was no pretentious tension and staff were friendly. Judging from the pictures however, it was not the ideal place to take pictures.
Rating:
3.5/5
He Said
Finally, a chance to blog and tell u guys abt our long awaited tip to Sydney during the mid semester break. Our aim: to indulge ourselves with great food and the first stop: Australia's favourite restaurant(as voted by viewers of food channel), Zushi~
It sure was a big name to live up to, and it sure has some high expectations to fulfill as the boy here, am a big fan of japanese food and have actually been to some pretty good japanese restaurants over the years, so how did zushi fare on my scale(personally feel the girl is kinda harsh with a 3.5 rating, she, afterall, ate the whole plate of tempura king prawns without giving me any...)
Hence heres my view on the restaurant:
Merits:
i)the ambience: relaxed but yet classy in some sense. Bt definitely no crazy tension like u would get in a fine dining restaurant. The setting was modern too, with a huge mirror on both side of the walls making the place seems a lot larger than it shud be.
ii) The ingredients, one word:fresh
iii)VALUE FOR MONEY: something the manager actually stresses on while being interviewed by food channel, and he sure kept to his word, the food was worth every penny, the portions were generous and the quality was more than acceptable, and i had 3 slices of tuna belly on my sashimi platter which cost only $24, need i say more??
Demerits:
i) cant help but complain a little about the sushi making skills of the chef, the fish was fresh for sure, but the proportion of rice to fish slices on the nigiri sushis are kinda off, maybe a sign of the chef not being a classically trained japanese sushi chef.
ii)the udon-i think the girl have told u all about it by now...lol..but the tempura sure made up for it...=)
Overall, a pleasant dining experience, will surely visit again sometime, for its spider roll and tempura, but locating somewhere to park might be a deterrent to that.
Rating: 4/5
Gelato Messina
Shop 1/ 241 Victoria St,
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
02 835 41 223
She said
What a wonderful surprise. After loading up at Zushi, we were walking back to the car when we found this dainty little place right next to it. Isn't it enticing to walk by a store with piles and piles of colourful, soft and luscious sugar-packed cream after a satisfying meal. The sweet tooth in you will be screaming for joy. As you can see, with such a variety, HE had to make the decision for me. We ended up with erm.... I forgot what we had but it was very very good! Real strong flavours coupled with 'melt in your mouth' texture. Yummylicious!
Rating: 4.5/5
HI there again, well as mentioned above by the girl, we walked by this place after zushi and it is hard to resist the many different buckets of multicoloured cream staring at you. So we decided to give this place a try, as a little treat after our meal at zushi.
Well i hope everyone would be thankful that, unlike the girl, i do have a pretty good memory when it comes to little bits of useless information like what flavour of icecream did we have on that night, as we can now share a little bit more of our food journey with everyone.
There were easily 30-40 different flavours up for grabs there, and after consulting with the friendly staff, we went ahead with a double scoop of pannacotta + honeycomb gelato...both were good, and i personally would go back there again whenever i am in sydney just to try out a few other flavours....lets hope the place do not move anytime soon.
rating: 4.8/5
Well thats it for day one, do scroll above to read more on our trip to sydney(its a four day trip), see u on the next post!
