Thursday, December 28, 2006

Books

I've just finished Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club. I really do enjoy reading. There were days where I would say NO to any social events simply because I would rather stay home just to read.


Whoaa, I'm pleased with the amount of reading I've done in year 2005. In total, I've read 12 books. I enjoyed Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of The Dog In the Night Time, Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Li Cunxin's Mao's Last Dancer and Lemony Snickett's The Bad Beginning (Book1-Series of Unfortunate Events).
Hopefully, I will be able to maintain this habit in year 2007.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Krispy Kreme

607 Collins St Melbourne, VIC 3000,37-39 South Link Dandenong South VIC 3175, Narre Warren Fountain Gate Westfield VIC 3805

Ho.Ho.Ho! Unintentional and unplanned! Irresistible! I just visited the Krispy Kreme store. Instantly, this became the highlight for the day. They do offer a range of doughnuts.
The original glazed doughnut is my favourite. In the past, I have had the flavoured doughnuts but in my opinion nothing beats the original glazed doughnuts. Yummmm. It provides a light, soft and fluffy vibe when you bite them. I bought a box filled with 6 original glazed doughnuts and had 3 of them in less than an hour. Gosh, I need to hide them somewhere before I pick up another one.
Note: I've created a collage on the pictures taken therefore part of the pictures have been cropped off.
They have cute pictures in their store. Nahh, they are not for sale. It says you're never alone with a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Krispy Kreme doughnut is the first thing on every agenda and Krispy Kreme doughnut givers are winners. WOW!
I noticed the statements noted on the box. It reads:
It is at your own liable when consuming the doughnuts, and please exercise. The nutritional information on the individual types of doughnuts is noted underneath the box.
Lastly,

Friday, December 22, 2006

Merry Christmas.....

Once again Christmas is upon us. I can't take my eyes off the Christmas trees around in town. My favourite tree is the Christmas tree with turquoise ornaments and ribbons on them. The main reason being, it is simple and I like the colour. Take a closer look, one of the Christmas trees do have white feathers on them. Wonder where they came from, white pigeon feathers? White feather dusters?Here are the 5 extraordinary Christmas trees or not a tree. They're indeed very unique, odd but nice.
Michael Jackson would be interested to see the almost black tree and the white tree (Black & White). The top left not a tree is taken from my workplace, and it is made out of business cards. The far right on the 2nd row not a tree is made of shopping bags. The middle one on the bottom row is cute too. It is made out of sticks painted with white colour and decorated with red and silver baubles and gold stars. Very creative, let the imaginary runs wild.
Merry Christmas to you (who is currently reading this). Hope you enjoy the trees, aren't they beautiful?

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Churros

Peel St, Queen Victoria Market

Yes.. I'm not dreaming. Yes, you may think that I'm insane but I'm not. Am I obsess with donuts? Maybe I'm. Does it matter?? Maybe it does.
I went to Queen Victoria Market this morning and I was there to do my food shopping. As my housemate and I were walking toward the grocer area my housemate started; "Sui, would you like to have some donuts?" "DONUTS" How could I possibly resist this invitation?? 'Okay'!
This is one of the best Churro (dusted with icing sugar) I have ever tasted.
Who would have thought that a Churro business can operate on a caravan?
It is a caravan painted with pictures and the big black cow appeared to be their icon. The queue paint a thousand words.
Do not under estimate this caravan, it has the capacity to fill 3 people, few benches to work on and a frying place. The boys would no doubt be saturated with oil within few hours. I was extremely satisfied with the Churros and I had Churros again in less than 24 hours.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Choco Churro

Shop 7212 Level 2 Highpoint Shopping Centre (120-200) Rosamond Road, Maribyrnong Vic 3032

I love donuts. Oh, let me tell you... the word donut will raise my brows. Did I hear you mention donut? It has been a while since I heard about this shop. Little is known about this shop apart from they offer a range of flavoured churros (Spanish Donut). This little piece of information has elevated my anticipation, which was as high as any mountain you could possibly find in this world.

Today, I visited the place. I decided to try their "Designer Churro". "Designer Churro" by their definition is churro filled with chocolate, caramel, custard, strawberry jam, orange, lemon, lime and passionfruit at your own choice. I chose the chocolate, orange and strawberry jam filled churro.

From top.bottom-strawberry jam, orange, chocolate

The churros were a little tough in texture and it appeared as though it had been deep fried for a lengthy period of time. The other possible explanation I could think of is the churros were left at ambient environment for a period of time. If the churros were fried on spot upon placement of order, it would make a great difference. It is a pity they do not have the capacity to do so as yet and the business is relatively new. A little dissapointed!
*Note: This is my personal opinion

However, a tumb's up for the innovation and the mission to introduce to everyone of Spanish inspired cuisine. Hmm, orange with cinnamon???

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Coconut Pancake Rolls (Kueh Dadar)

Coconut Pancake Rolls or rather known as Malay Kueh Dadar. This is often served as a teatime treat or snack and also makes a wonderful dessert (in Malaysia).

There was a Departmental (Technical) International Lunch at work and the purpose of this event was to expose ourselves to other culture's food(s). Being a part of Technical (Food Technologist) team and a Malaysian, I had to bring a Malaysia's cultural dish. For the starters, I'm not a Malay-Malaysian therefore this event posed a little challenge to me. To feed a troop of people (14 in total), I had to come up with a simple dish (entree, main or dessert) and cheap at cost. Luckily, my housemate had a Authentic Recipes from Malaysia CookBook and was written by chefs of Bon Ton Restaurant, Kuala Lumpur and Jonkers Restaurant, Malacca. Anyone heard of these restaurants??

I found a perfect dessert which was Kueh Dadar. I was pleased it worked. This is the recipe which I had ammended from the CookBook.

Batter
1 cup (150g) flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup (85ml) fresh milk
1/2 teaspoon of pandanus extract
1 cup (250ml) water
Sweet Coconut Filling
3 cups (300g) fresh grated coconut
1 1/2 cup (375ml) water
3/4 cup (150g) palm sugar shaved
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.First make the batter by sifting the flour and salt together in a bowl. Add the egg, milk, pandanus extract and water and stir until the batter is smooth. Cover and allow the batter to stand for 20 minutes.
2.Place all the sweet coconut filling ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until thick and almost dry.
3.To cook the pancakes, grease a non-stick griddle with a little butter and spoon 3 tablespoons of the batter onto it to make a pancake about 15-20cm wide. Cook over low heat until the pancake sets and browns.
4. To serve, place 3 tablespoons of the filling on one side of each pancake, fold the sides in and roll up.
* Makes approximately 10 pancakes

Monday, December 11, 2006

Patee Thai Restaurant

135 Chapel St, Prahran VIC 3181/371 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065


I went to Patee Thai Restaurant mid last week with my housemates. It is 20 years now since the business started and is one of the longest established Thai Restaurant in Melbourne. This is one of my favourite Thai places. I love the dining environment.

This is a double storey dining place. The ground floor and upper floor differs. The ground floor is no different to any other ordinary dining places, which is table with few chairs.

The upper floor is rather unique, where you could see cushions lined on the floorboard and underneath the tables. It is floorboard; therefore you’re not allowed to have your shoes on. Not to worry, shoe racks are provided.

We had 2 entrees and 3 main dishes. The entrees-Prawns Tom Yum Soup and Thai Fish Cakes. The mains-Cashew Prawns, Pad Thai (Thai Fried Noodles) and Lamb Masaman Curry.

The Prawns Tom Yum Soup is great. The soup is translucent, and in my opinion the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves contributed to most of the flavour.

The Fish Cakes were excellent. It had a smooth silky texture, fish mince with chopped broad beans and perhaps finely chopped cilantro too. It was served with sauce, which was probably fish sauce, lime juice, and finely sliced red chillis.

The Cashew Prawns were stunning. It was a jumble of prawns, cashews, vegetables (onions, brocolli, capsicum, spring onions) with mild chilli paste sauce like.

The Lamb Masaman Curry was perfect; the lamb cubes were perfectly done and tender. The curry had a sweet after taste, my suspicion was honey was a minor ingredient used.

The Pad Thai Noodles was a noodle (rish noodle) dish with prawns, bean shoots, chives, tofu, egg and crushed peanuts.

It is a truly excellent place, the food would bring me back. It is a relax atmosphere. Besides, the service is impeccable. The gentleness of the waitor/waitress makes you feel welcome. What more could i say about the place but EXCELLENT!!

Even the billing tray caught my attention. I must be insane. Fresh warm towels and dark mint chocolate were served after meal. It brought a vast satisfaction and consolation to the $$ amount spent.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Caffe Moravia

622 Burke Rd, Camberwell, VIC 3124

This is one of the popular caffes on Burke Rd, Camberwell. Weekends especially, in the mornings there is a continuous flow of people into this caffe.

On one weekend, I decided to have a casual lunch there. I had 2 small slices of pizza. “Pizza Margerita”. Oh, this pizza does not have a slight content of alcohol. It has tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and napoli sauce. This is the first time I have ever had pizza with basil on them. The pizza is lightly toasted upon order and is served with spring salads tossed with balsamic vinegar. This is a light meal, plain, simple and not even a slight hint of oil! Wonderful for weight watchers.

Prior to leaving, I bought a piece of flourless almond biscuit. ‘Flourless’?? I wonder what is in it. Butter and Sugar? It goes really well with a cup of tea or coffee. Interestingly, the biscuit has apricot ‘paste’ like on top of it. Ideal for afternoon tea.





Summer

Summer’s here. The days are longer than usual. The weather is great, nice, sunny and most importantly, it is still under control.

Dreadful days are on its way, high soaring temperatures, 40◦C. Regardless of the temperature, it would not dampen anyone's spirit. “Beach! Bathers! Barbecues! A bottle of icy cold beer! Basking in the sun! Tennis!

To celebrate the start of summer and to make life more interesting, I decided to start blogging. My summer project! I enjoy writing. Being a food lover, food will always be my main focus. Nevertheless, I will also write on other things that interest me.

Source: The Age November 25th, 2006