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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Friday 31 March 2006

Melbourne dining (cabaret, Chinese, Viet)

Dracula's

On a friend's recommendation, we'd planned to go to Dracula's on our trip to Gold Coast, but since that got cancelled, we decided to take the opportunity to visit the Melbourne venue (there are only two). Dracula's is a cabaret restaurant, and it was fantastic! It cost us $63p/p but it was so good. The food (3 course) was good and the entertainment was excellent. When it comes to comedy, I find that I'm quite hard to please (relatively to Rob who laughs at almost anything ;P). But this show had me in stitches and tears.

We couldn't take any photos on the inside, so I had to settle for photos outside the venue...




Shanghai noodles and dumplings in Chinatown

On my first trip to Melbourne way back in 2003, my friend G took me to a Shanghai restaurant in Chinatown to try the noodles and dumplings. I loved it, and got her to bring us there again. I can't quite remember the name of the place, and it's not on Little Bourke Street itself, but on one of the smaller alleys that comes off Little Bourke. Gotta ask Germ for the name and address of the place.. Anyway, a plate of noodles or dumplings is around $6each. We shared three plates between Germ, Rob and myself and we had trouble finishing them. I remember having trouble finishing three plates shared between four girls. Pretty cheap, very filling and yummy but probably not very nutritious :)

The fried noodles:


Steamed dumplings:


Fried dumplings:



Vietnamese food somewhere in Richmond

My friend YP took us to Richmond for a wander around and lunch at one of the many many Vietnamese restaurants in the area. Here is where we tried 'pho' (beef noodle soup) for the first time. I tried the chicken version and Rob went for the beef pho. Quite tasty, but I suspect that they used MSG in the soup..






Phew! Long post. I can finally go to sleep...

Photos of Melbourne trip

Wow, I have finally gotten around to putting up photos taken on our trip to Melbourne. Took me almost two months, but it's better late than never!

There were a number of chalk art on the ground just outside the Crown complex - this is one of them:


Fireworks at Crown Casino as part of their Chinese New Year celebrations:


I just had to bring Rob to watch the pretty impressive fire show that Crown puts on every hour after dark. So much wastage though...


The huge clock at Melbourne Central - this place has changed so much since my last visit in April 2005. Nothing looks the same. Except for the building inside this building, and the clock that plays a song when it strikes the hour (I think it was Waltzing Matilda?).


The interesting 'hug mug' used for hot chocolate at Max Brenner. Max Brenner is like a chocolatier cafe, with stores only in NSW and VIC. Quite pricey, but we had to try it. We had a dark chocolate drink with orange flavour. So yummy :)


Federation Square:


Rob was amazed at the size of Queen Victoria Markets, and how organised it is - an area for buying jewellery, clothes and other junk, another area for the fresh produce, and yet another area for the delicatessen-type stuff. He was pretty impressed at the size of the area reserved for the fresh meat market, and here he is standing in the corridor of the fresh meat area:


Here, he's enjoying a Turkish burek that we bought in the deli section of the markets. I can't remember which filling we went for, but it was quite yummy..


We found out a couple of weeks before our trip to the east coast that Rob's mum had also planned her Melbourne trip which coincided with our stay in Melbourne. We met up at Crown Casino and took a wander around Melbourne Aquarium


In the jaws of a shark:


With the Yarra River behind us:

Monday 27 March 2006

The Grill @ Duxton, Perth

The month of March is Perth's Food and Wine Month, and there are restaurants in and around the Perth area that are offering $15 lunch and $25 dinner deals for the month of March. Most of them offer only a main course meal (usually from a selection of two choices) and a glass of wine for the said price, so obviously not all are good value for the price (especially not for us non-alcohol drinkers), but there are a handful around that gives entree or soup or dessert in addition to the main meal. The Grill at the Duxton is one of them, and I wanted to try it out. The last (and first) time we were at the Duxton was on our wedding night back in August 2004 (a lovely gift from a group of my friends) and I thought that it would be nice to go back there and have a romantic date. So I booked a table for two for Saturday dinner, and informed Rob not to make any other dinner plans for that day.

It certainly was nice to be back at the Duxton as we have fond memories of our last visit here. We know that the breakfast buffet spread is excellent, and were quite eager to try the dinner a-la-carte selections. We were pleasantly surprised to find that with the $25 dinner special, we can choose from four main meals, and four desserts. Each of the main meal costs around $28 and desserts are around the $15 mark. I didn't check the price for a glass of wine, but with just the food, $25 is a pretty good deal.

The service of the waitstaff were good, friendly and professional. The atmosphere of The Grill is intimate enough for a romantic dinner for two. You wouldn't come here in a huge group of say more than 8 people (although the place can accommodate that size) - the quiet setting is perfect for catching up with friends in smaller groups (you don't have to yell to be heard, or strain to hear what other people are saying).





And we come to the food. I do think that the food here is overpriced. Honestly, we probably would not consider dining at The Grill if it wasn't for the $25 dinner special. It's a hotel restaurant, and food are priced much more than they are worth. For around the same price (without the special deal), I'd much rather go to Tsunami.

Main meals

I had grilled snapper on chickpea mousseline with mussels and thai green curry. The fish was prepared well, and the mild curry went well with the mousseline (it's a yuppy foodie term for chickpea mash).



Rob chose the salt and pepper squid served on a rice noodle salad. This was a very mild-tasting dish. The batter coating did not stick very well to the squid, and the cold noodle salad was actually quite bland.



Desserts

Brownie pave served with berries (supposed to come with vanilla gelato which was accidentally left off my plate, but I wasn't too fussed about that). Tastes just like brownies.



Semifroddo with cocoa-dusted pastry sticks. Neither of us had tried semifroddo before - very much like ice cream, but a lot creamier and less sugary. I could only have a couple of spoons of this before it got too rich for me.





Overall, I had a really nice time. It's good to take the time out in our busy lifestyle to have these special romantic dinners just by ourselves now and then (trying to make it a monthly thing).

Sunday 26 March 2006

Chocolate Chip Coconut Biscuits/Cookies

We love our treats. And I love making them and this weekend, I made a batch of choc chip biccies. Biscuits are so easy and simple to make - the ingredients list is usually quite short and chucking them together is pretty straightforward. Anyway, here's a recipe for the biscuits I made and Rob loves them!

Ingredients

90g butter (softened to room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup raw sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
90g (or more!) dark chocolate chips/bits (can use chopped chocolate too)
Milk as needed

Method

1) Preheat oven to 190degC.
2) Cream the butter, vanilla extract and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
3) Beat the egg into the mixture.
4) In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, coconut and dark choc bits.
5) Gradually add the dry mix to the wet mix and mix well.
6) If dough is dry and crumbly, add milk a little at a time as needed until dough is no longer dry.
7) Roll tablespoonfuls of the dough, flatten slightly and place on a baking tray that has either been lightly greased or lined with baking paper. Makes about 20.
8) Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Tuesday 21 March 2006

Lemongrass Restaurant on Francis St, Northbridge

I don't 'go out' to eat Thai food. In fact, prior to this outing with my friends, I think I've only ever been to one Thai restaurant and that was more than four years ago. There's nothing wrong with Thai food - I guess it just seems so ordinary. Thailand is Malaysia's other neighbour hence Thai food tend to be quite similar to Malaysian food, and I grew up eating that sort of food. Malaysian cuisine has more variety than Thai food though, due to the fact that Malaysians comprise of three distinct races (Malays, Chinese and Indians) and hence different cultures and types of food available. Naturally, if I had to pick between Malaysian or Thai food, I'd go for Malaysian.

Coriander features in a lot of Thai food. It's okay in small amounts, but I find that coriander is never used 'sparingly' in Thai food. And I'm not a big fan of coriander. Maybe that's why I subconsciously avoid Thai restaurants?

Lemongrass Restaurant has a nice decor and presentation. It is quite spacious so you can fit large groups in here. This restaurant is targeted towards people who likes pretty things and have money to spend, although the prices are still quite reasonable. Obviously you can get authentic pad thai for half the price at food courts, but here you're also paying for the effort that goes into presenting the food. I'd give this restaurant a 10 for presentation. Service at the restaurant is good and the waitresses and manager are friendly and quick to attend to your needs.

Taste-wise, well, the food tastes like Thai food. I'm pretty sure the cooks are Thai (confirmed when I peeped into the kitchen on my way to the ladies'), so the food is authentically prepared. Like I said, I'm not big on coriander, so my rating of 7 for the food is biased towards that. Overall, since the taste of the food is much more important to me than how it is presented, I'd say that you can probably get the same quality of food for much cheaper elsewhere. If presentation of the food is important to you (e.g. trying to impress a date), and you like Thai food, then this is the place for you.

Lemongrass Chicken ($16.90) - I remembered thinking that this was yummy, although the sauce that went with it wasn't too memorable - if it was, I'd remember it, right? It was a mild dish.




Grilled Pork ($15.90) - we thought this was beef! We're pretty sure we got beef, although we ordered pork. Oh well, guess we will never know! Quite nice, although for the price of the dish, I'd expect more meat in the dish.




Pineapple Fried Rice ($15.90) - look at the presentation of this dish! The fried rice itself was okay, but probably not worth the price on its own.




Tom Yum Red Soup Prawn ($18.90) - coriander overload! This tomyum soup was quite a bit sweeter than the tomyum soups that I'm used to. Spicy, but not sour enough to be called tomyum.




Tamarind Prawn ($17.90) - this had thick sauce that was probably a bit too sweet to use in a main dish. It was still nice though.




Steamed Fish Fillets - Lemon ($26.90) - quite sour - more so than the tomyum soup. And I thought that the coriander was overpowering in this dish.




Pad Thai Chicken ($14.90) - the fried noodles were served with a layer of omelette wrapped around it. Presentation was good, but the noodles on its own would probably be not worth the price on its own.




As always, the company was good, and I had a great time catching up with my friends.







Monday 20 March 2006

Chicken Filo Parcels

Bought some filo pastry because I felt that I needed to try cooking more different foods. I was quite apprehensive at using this pastry because filo pastry is notoriously difficult and fiddly to handle. Yes, even the packet-bought ones - I don't even want to venture into making filo pastry from scratch. You have to work quick because the pastry can dry out very quickly leaving you with brittle pastry that is unworkable. Have to brush pastry with butter/oil/margarine/water - opinions differ on what to use, but it appears that most would say that only butter works and not substitute butter with anything else. Honestly, I don't see why you can't use olive oil (healthier than butter) or even water because they serve mostly the same purpose of moistening the pastry while you work with it. I used sesame oil because I love the fragrance of sesame oil, and I don't like butter. My dislike of buttery stuff is also the reason I chose to use filo pastry and not other pastries that can be quite buttery.

This is my first time using yoghurt or mustard in my cooking. My yoghurt maker (xmas pressie from my sis - thanks Hon) finally made really good yoghurt (previous ones were either too watery, too lumpy, too sour or not sour enough for my liking). We have some chardonnay mustard given to us, and I was curious to try mustard with chicken.

Thaw the pastry in the fridge for 24hrs. Not at room temperature because quick thawing can cause the pastry sheets to stick to each other. Make the chicken filling first before even thinking about opening the filo pastry packet. In fact, prepare everything first and turn on the oven before touching the pastry. I found the following websites contained helpful tips on handling filo pastry:

http://www.yasou.org/food/phyllo.htm
http://lldzines.com/phyllo/phyllo-print.htm
http://www.dilip.info/filo.html

Verdict? Rob loved it. I think he mostly liked the novelty of having something different. I liked the sauce - the yoghurt gave a nice creamy texture without being overly rich like how some creamy sauce can be. I'm not big on mustard, but the mustard went well with everything! You can definitely taste the mustard, but it wasn't overpowering. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out except that there was probably too much sauce, some of which leaked out while baking. Will I do this again? Probably for a party, but it seems too much effort for a meal at home for Rob and myself. Although I have to say that the chicken filling recipe (on its own) would be great with rice, pasta or couscous!

Chicken Filo Parcels

Ingredients

1 tabspn olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
400g chicken breast fillets, cut into small cubes and marinated with a splash of soy, ground pepper and ground ginger for a couple of hours
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
150g mushrooms, chopped
1 cup frozen mixed veges (beans, peas, corn and carrots will do)
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1 tab mustard
1/4 cup colby cheese
2 tsp cornflour
Parsley
Approximately 6 sheets filo pastry (more sheets are better than less)
Sesame Oil (or olive oil) for brushing

Method

Heat oil in large pan, brown the onions on high heat, and add the garlic once the onions are browned.
Add chicken until stirfry until lightly browned and cooked. Add the frozen veges and mushrooms and use the stock/water to deglaze the pan (I'd forgotten to turn down the heat and the bottom of the pan was brown and needed serious deglazing). Stir until mushrooms and veges are cooked (1 minute).
Add yoghurt, mustard and cheese, stirring until combined. Mix the cornflour with a bit of water to form a paste, then add to the sauce and stir. Add parsley, salt and pepper to taste if required.

Preheat oven to 180degC. Cut pastry sheets in half crossways, layer 3 halves together, lightly brushing with sesame oil between each layer. Repeat with remaining pastry sheets.
Place 1/4 chicken mixture on one short end of pastry, fold in sides, roll to enclose filling. Repeat with remaining chicken mixture and pastry.
Place parcels on baking-paper-lined tray and bake in oven until pastry lightly browned (~20minutes).

Friday 10 March 2006

Korean @ Tookbegi Restaurant, Perth

A group of my friends and ourselves went to Tookbegi in the city for dinner. Tookbegi is a pretty small diner tucked near the corner of Hay and Pier St and probably caters mainly for take-away customers especially for the CBD lunch crowds during the working day. The atmosphere is quite cosy, although the floor space was a little bit too cramped at times. The dishes are a little bit cheaper than those at Arirang on Barrack St or at Seoul Korean BBQ Restaurant on William St, and although they are not the best Korean food we've had, the food were still quite tasty. We might come back here to try other dishes.

We ordered a few entree dishes to share, and for main meals, although we each ordered our own dishes, we had a taste from everyone's plate. The Korean names and description for each of the following dishes were taken from their takeaway menu, except for the seafood casserole, which is not a takeaway item (for obvious reasons).

Entrees

Haemulpajun - Korean style shallot and seafood pancake ($6.50). This one was yummy. Kinda like an omellete.



Dukbokki - korean rice cake cooked in chilli sauce (option to have soy sauce instead) ($6.50). This was alright - the rice cakes were plain, as to be expected, so you need lots of sauce to eat this with and the sauce needs to be quite strong. One of my friends at the table recently returned from a trip to Korea, and she said that this is a very common dish served in Korea.



Tookbegi tofu - fresh tofu with special seasoned soy sauce ($4). What can I say here? It's tofu with soy sauce.




Mains

Dakbulgogi jungsik - cooked fresh chicken in a hot spicy sauce marinate with vegetables served on hot sizzling plate ($13). My friend who ordered this said that although this place does this dish nicely, she's had nicer one at a korean restaurant (Kim Chee?) in Chinatown next to Uncle Billy's.



Nackji bokum jungsik - stir fried fresh octupus with vegetables in hot spicy sauce served on hot sizzling plate ($13). This was my order. It was very yummy :). Surprisingly, the sauce wasn't the same sauce that was used in the Dakbulgogi jungsik. I'd have thought that it would basically be the same dish, except one has chicken and the other has octopus.



Samsun jampong - spicy home made noodle soup with prawns and seafood ($12). Looks similar to laksa, but definitely wasn't as spicy. Quite tasty.



Bibim nangmyun - mixed sticky cold buckwheat noodle with spicy sauce ($12). Chris ordered this because she had the same dish while on her trip to Korea and loved it! When she ordered this, the waitress said that not everyone likes it and confirmed whether Chris wanted it. Chris said that the one she had in Korea was nicer (of course it is!).



Seafood casserole ($17.50pp (min 2people)). This one is cooked at the table on top of a gas stove, like hotpot or steamboat. At the end after all the stuff has been cooked and eaten, the soup was so yummy full of flavour from the seafood.






The company

Of course, most of the night's fun was made by the company at the table, and these are the people who made the night enjoyable.



Thursday 9 March 2006

Date Loaf

Mmmm, I love dates! So naturally I love most things with dates in them. Brumbys sell their date loaf for maybe more than $5 for a small loaf, and I thought - hey, it can't be all that difficult or expensive to make one myself, right? Correct. The recipe I used is so easy - almost as easy as making bread using the breadmaker. Much easier than baking a cake. Anyway, dates are already naturally sweet, so there is no need to use so much sugar. One recipe I looked at called for 1 cup of sugar! I used 1/2 cup of raw sugar and it was almost too sweet to be called a loaf. Must remember to cut down sugar a little bit more the next time I make it. Variations of this recipe includes adding nuts and dried mixed fruits. I added a little bit of sultanas just to try something a little different.

(Edited to add that I cut down the sugar by half to use 1/4 cup and it was just right. I also tried a really yummy variation using cocoa powder and choc bits.)

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup chopped dates (~130g)
1/4 cup sultanas (~30g)
1/2 cup raw sugar (okay to cut to 1/4 cup)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinammon
1 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degC. Place all ingredients except the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Stir until the butter melts (and enjoy the beautiful spicy aroma of the mixture). Sift in flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix well. Pour batter into a lightly greased loaf tin. Bake in the oven 180 degC for 45–50 minutes (for conventional oven. If using fan-forced oven, reduce heat to 170 degC). Yummy eaten warm fresh out of the oven, or after it has cooled down.

Wednesday 8 March 2006

Surfing's fun!

Surfing is so fun! It is also quite exhausting. Rob and I went on a two-day surf camp over the Labour Day long weekend to learn how to surf at Lancelin with Learn to Surf. You pay $95 per day and food, accommodation at a beach house and lessons are provided. You can choose from a one day lesson (includes lunch) up to five-days camp. Let me tell you - two days were more than enough. Even after the first day, I didn't know if I had enough energy to go another day!

We had to be in Perth at the Wellington bus station by 6:20am for our ride up to Lancelin. The drive takes about 1.5 hours (if you don't speed). The beach house accommodates for about 20 people, and they have an 'open fridge' policy where you can snack on what's available whenever you want. Mainly healthy food like fruits, cereal and bread but there are biscuits and soft drinks for those who wants to junk. The daily schedule is as follows:

8am: the coach from Perth arrives at Lancelin - quick orientation of the beach house and rules, filling out paperwork and suiting up with wetsuits and sunscreen. A half hour whiteboard lesson is given for first timers, more experienced ones head out to beach. Practice surfing in the water for three hours.
11:30am: head back to beach house for a quick lunch, which is usually a salad roll with the option of adding ham and salami. You will get a nice big muffin from Brumby's too (we had yummy blueberry muffin the first day, and the double choc chip muffin on the second day)
12:00pm: Head back out to the water for more surfing (or trying to surf)
13:00pm: Head back to beach house and those returning to Perth get priority of showers
14:00pm: Those returning to Perth jumps on coach, the remaining staying behind have the afternoon free to do what they want to. At this stage, you're so knackered that all you probably want to do is chill out, take a shower, have a nap, watch a dvd, read, play pool, chat - anything but going back out to the beach. This is a great time to get to know your fellow housemates.
18:00-18:30pm: dinner (we had tacos)

You learn the basics on the first day - all the safety stuff, surfing etiquette and how to catch a wave with a big surfboard. We stuck to the whitewater waves (i.e. waves already broken) since we are only wee beginners. Catching the wave is easy enough - the tough part is standing up on the board to ride the wave you've caught without falling off prematurely. On the second day, you practise a bit more on standing up on the board and you also get the chance to "paddle out the back" to catch unbroken waves into the shore. Here you have to be prepared to be dunked many times, something Rob found to be fun.

It is so exhausting - you're in the water for 4 hours each day, dragging the board out, paddling to catch the wave, standing up on (and falling off from) the board, then doing it all over again. I highly recommend doing this if you wanna learn surfing, but honestly, I wouldn't do more than two days consecutive of this stuff. It's really fun, but you really need a break in between from the sun and board-dragging.

We had such great fun getting to know the other campers, most of whom are from overseas: two girls from Finland - one doing a semester of her studies in Murdoch, the other working as an au-pere; a German-Swiss girl travelling for 6mths; a playwright from India who's in Perth for a couple of weeks to co-write a play; a guy from Newcastle (England?) and another from London. It was really interesting talking to these people - the wealth of information from different parts of the world just feeds my desire to go out there and experience it all. One of the Finnish girls have eaten beaver meat. We got two of the girls to try Vegemite - an experience that I'm certain they don't want to revisit ;P

Away from the light pollution of the city area, the stars were beautiful. When it was dark, we took a walk to the beach and just laid on the sand staring up at the Milky Way to the background sound of waves breaking on the shore. Just wonderful :)

I need a couple days' worth of rest to recover from the exhaustion, sunburn and bruises - unfortunately it's back to the daily grind of work for me. Sigh.. I can't believe how much muscle ache I have! It's all good though :)

Wednesday 1 March 2006

My version of Ayam Masak Merah

This will most probably not look like the traditional Malay dish Ayam Masak Merah (literal English translation from the Malay language: Chicken Cook Red - the 'red' is because of the tomatoes), but I did adapt this recipe from Ayam Masak Merah recipes so I'm calling it my version of the dish. I believe that whole chicken pieces are usually used, and that they are usually deep-fried first. Not having deepfried anything in my life before, and not being brave to venture near anywhere or anything greasy, I decided to use healthy skinless chicken breast fillets instead. I'm out to prove that healthy can be yummy too!

This is such a simple recipe I'm almost embarassed to post it. But the spicy chicken coating turned out so yummy that I thought it deserves a mention! The quantities given here are only estimates of what I used (I didn't use any measuring instruments - mostly went by feel), and since I didn't write down the recipe as I was preparing it thus having to rely on my memory, I'm hoping I haven't missed any ingredients.

Ingredients

400g chicken - cut into bite-sized pieces
1tabspn cornflour
1tabspn soy sauce
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
0.5 tsp ground cinammon
1tsp turmeric ('kunyit') powder
pepper
2 tabspn Oil for panfrying

1 tabspn oil
1 onion - sliced
1tsp grated ginger
3cloves garlic - squashed then pressed/minced/chopped
dried chilli flakes to taste
half can (~200g) of crushed tomatoes (most recipes call for chilli paste, tomato paste and tomato sauce - I used what was available in my kitchen)
2 tomatoes - quartered
1tsp sugar (to take away the acidic edge of tomatoes)

Method

Marinate the chicken with the cornflour, soy sauce and the spices for a few hours or overnight. The cornflour serves to keep the chicken tender during the cooking process. Heat some oil in a pan to a high heat (until the oil is smoking), then pan fry the chicken for a couple of minutes until it browns. Some of the spices will stick to the pan, so keep moving the chicken around (ie stirfrying) to prevent the chicken from sticking. Remove chicken from pan. (scrape off the crunchy spicy bits stuck to the pan and enjoy them - only if they're not already burnt black)

Heat more oil in the pan and cook sliced onion until they soften and slightly caramelised. Add ginger, garlic and chilli and stirfry for 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, the juice of which should deglaze the pan, and stir to combine. Add the chicken, the quartered tomatoes, sugar and bring the dish to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with veges over rice.