DIY High Tea on Saturday

Apart from some cakes from Brunetti's, the rest were home made by my colleague and her friends. Home made high tea with the ladies... so very elegant and adult!

A week in the life of ....

These few weeks have been hectic. After our holiday in Hanoi in February, we really needed to catch up with our friends. I realised that I don't really talk about what I eat on a weekly basis... Let's give it a try and see if it is interesting for you or not.

Here is a brief of where we've been in the last week:

Monday: Lunch was a sashi don from Don-Don on Swanston Street. For dinner, I made a beef stew using Harumi Kurihara : Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking cook book. It was a little bit salty, so I think I will cut down on the soya sauce a little.

Tuesday: Lunch was at Groove Train, Melbourne Central. My colleague recommended the smoke salmon salad there, and indeed it was fantastic. Roasted potatoes in a smoke salmon salad - yum!! For last minute dinner out, we were recommended to go to Olive Tree Bistro in South Melbourne for steak. It's near Tempura Hajime. We cheekily went to Hajime to see whether there were any spots before heading to Olive Tree. No luck... The steaks at Olive Tree were not bad... 400g steaks!!! .

Wednesday: Lunch was at Tokio, in the city. Love their ebi-don! For dinner, we ate at home, not very healthy but had roast chicken drumstick, Vietnamese style stir fried mung beans with onion, bean sprout, and mince pork, with fluffy rice. Made a mojito but didn't have soda or lemonade so substituted it with white wine... hehehe

Thursday: Lunch was at A1 Cafe on Russell Street, one of my favourite Chinese cafe. I had the lemongrass chicken and pork on rice. Delicious! For dinner, I had a work function at Centro Ristorante, South Melbourne. It was nice to catch up with my colleagues socially. I had the fish of the day, which was grilled ocean trout. That was followed by banana souffle. I liked to banana souffle better than my main.

Friday: I usually have home-made dumpling in my fridge when we don't want to eat out... So Friday night dinner was simple, boiled pork and shrimp dumpling and edamame with a little twist - sprinkling of sesame seed, dried sea weed and sea salt ... Best edamame so far is from Fuji Mart.

Saturday: Lunch was at Aka Tombo Sushi Bar in Prahran. My sister ordered the Sushi & Sashimi Bento, and I had the Tempura Bento. Aka Tombo can do no wrong :) I think next time I really want to try the special bentos that you have to pre-order... For dinner, my sister was kind enough to cook for me. We bought mussells and other ingrediants from Prahran and she cooked a lovely batch of steamed mussells with a chili coconut tom yum sauce to go with it. She's got magic hands :) I made rosemary and garlic roast potatoes to go with it (following Stephanie Alexander : The Cook's Companion recipe) and some roast corn corbs. Why I made rosemary potatoes for an Asian dish, I don't know. *Sigh*

Sunday: I love the weekend, don't you. Yummy food all day long.... We had yum cha at David's, Prahran. The tea there is really nice. We had the Jasmine and Pu-Er tea. Sometimes the dumpling can be over steamed... but the atmosphere there is just so inspiring. After that my cousin bought a roll for his sister at Amici Bakery Cafe (-love their breakfasts) while I went to look at a few houses around the area before heading off to a baby's 1st birthday. H was very cute and endearing.

That was all for last week.... this week also promises lots of yummy food, good company and good wines.

Have a great week!

double aka tombo

Recently, my family and I had the pleasure of going to aka tombo sushi bar in Prahran.
As usually, it was after a long discussion of:
Who’s hungry now?
When will we be hungry?
What do people want to eat?
Where should we eat?
How are we going to get there?
….we settled for aka tombo…I say settled because we called a number of places prior to aka tombo before we thought of it and reserved our table.

In the end, I am sure we would not have enjoyed ourselves at another restaurant as much as we did at aka tombo.

We arrived at 6pm, while the chef was still preparing his shiu-mais (or scallop dumplings with crab roe). They looked delicious so we ordered them. They were absolutely scrumptious, better than any shui-mais I have ever had… so fresh and delicate!

We then received our sushi and sashimi combination for 2 people. Kingfish, salmon, squid, prawns, tuna and unagi temaki (eel handroll)…. We ate all the daikon radish slivers, cucumber slivers, pickled pink ginger as well :P We also had kingfish sashimi with plum sauce and rocket . The flavours really complimented each other. Everything just so fresh and complimented each other. We also ordered a plate of tempura moriawase. The tempura batter was fried to perfection, very light and crispy. Have you ever had tempura with sea salt? This is what I prefer now, some places will also serve you green tea salt. Ask for it if you want to try it… completely different taste and it preserves the crispy and crunchiness of tempura.

I watched chef Kageyama prepare the sushi, the shiu-mai, tempura and sukiyaki. This guy can do everything really well… rare quality. We also saw him making a take-away teriyaki chicken on rice (whatever that's called). It smelt divine! The aromas immediately told my stomach to make room. We endeavoured to come back to aka tombo if ever the need for take-away arises.

We ended a beautifully crafted meal with brown sugar ice cream…. Delicious and so good for you :P

Makes me want to buy the ice cream machine even more!

This place has been reviewed by a lot of websites and blogs… I know I know… but I never got the chance to go there until now. I’m grateful for my sister, always reminding me of these places at the right time.

The story about aka tombo, luckily, doesn’t end here….

Thursday night I caught up with a good friend of mine, who was Japanese. She and I have never been to the newly opened aka tombo tapas and sake bar in the city, so we made an effort to go there.

Its concept is completely different aka tombo sushi bar as its name suggests. If you like sake and/or sho-chu (Japanese vodka) you will love this place. This place is quaint, and great for if you want to dine alone as well.

Service is paced so you get to enjoy your chosen liquour. Prices are reasonable… but serving is essentially tapas style ranging from $7 to $10. Lots of variety.

Between the two of us, we had:

-Two delicious slices of mentaiko with our Northern Japanese beer (can’t remember the name) and Peach Shu-Hai
-Jaki and Rocket salad with yuzu sauce
-Something similar to Takoyaki with a clear broth as its dipping sauce
-Pork giblet and gobo stew
-Kurobuta (black skin pig) katsu with mild BBQ sauce and mustard
By this time our beer and chu-hai was replaced by sho-chu and cold sake. (Many sake can be drank cold or hot, as the season goes, hot is usually drunk in winter and cold is drunk during summer)
-Ebi tempura with green tea salt
-Yakisoba

They have really transformed the place from the previous restaurant. The space is now elegant, yet funky and spacious. I love the “art work” on the wall, great DIY idea.

Both restaurants are highly recommended.

Aka tombo Sushi Bar
205 Greville St
Prahran VIC 3181
03 9510 0577

Aka tombo Tapas & Sake Bar
17 Liverpool Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9654 6727

Cavallini

Cavallini is such a beautiful cafe... even when buying biscuits I wanted to linger and absorb everything... I could live here, seriously!

The photos don't do it justice.


Queens Parade or what is called "Clifton Hill" shopping strip, in Fitzroy North, is a gem. Park your car at Blondies, stroll the stores along the street and then wonder around the corner to the other quirky stores, from Swords Selection, Cavallini, ........ I could happily wonder around here all morning or all afternoon.

During my drive from Queens Parade to Prahran via a GPS assisted short cut, I passed Smith Street and Church Street, both lined with (as many of you would know) very unique and intriguing shops and cafe. Aren't we blessed, Melbourne...

Cavallini Artisan Bakery Patisserie Espresso Bar

354 Queens Parade

Fitzroy North

03 9486 3883

Ripe Bananas

Having bought some bananas a few weeks ago... they have been sitting on my fruit bowl slowly going black... Panic set in, I had to do something with it... So I made banana pancake for breakfast.... then I made a banana cake.....all recipes were based on Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.

Banana Pancake

250g plain flour

60g butter

a pinch of salt

1.5 cups of milk

3 eggs

2 (over) riped banana sliced

Instructions

• Put flour into a large bowl and make a well.
• Warm butter, salt and milk until the butter melts.
• Break the eggs into the well and work in some flour.
• Add warm milk mixture and whisk until smooth.
• Refrigerate for 1 ~ 2 hours before cooking.
• The result should be a mixture like thin cream. If not, add more milk.
• For cooking, wipe the pan with some butter/olive oil, what ever you prefer.

Moist Banana Cake

125g softened unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 ~ 3 mashed ripe banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
A pinch of all spice
1/2 cup of milk or buttermilk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Beat in eggs, banana and vanilla.
• Sift dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with the milk.
• Spoon into cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until cake tests clean.

Omah's

Omah's was a great little Malaysian restaurant that we went to with cost- conscious friends on Thursday night. This year, Omah's has been awarded 3 stars for The Age Cheap Eats 2007 guide. A few friends have said that they were great but I found the food at Omah's nothing out of the ordinary. Not to say that it isn't good, some dishes such as the beef rendang and
large wok-tossed Tamarind Prawns (with chilli, onion, & crisp apple) were really delicious with just the right blend of spices. But the spring rolls tasting plates were unfortunately very ordinary. Perhaps we didn't order the right things.. as apparently their soft shell crab and fried calamari are great but we didn't order them.

On the upside, their dessert is absolutely delicious! With 8 people, we were able to taste various desserts. - Tabioca (Cassava) pudding with coconut milk and eggs, pandan sago with coconut milk and palm sugar, and Banana fritter served with a drizzling of palm sugar & vanilla ice cream. The Pandan Sago was out of this world... I really want to replicate this at home! Have to buy palm sugar!

If you are in Port Melbourne, if not for dinner do drop by for dessert... especially for the Pandan Sago.

Omah's

136-138 Rouse Street (off Bay Street)

Port Melbourne

03 9676 9918

Fully Licensed but can BYO Wines

Takeway Menu Available

Ratings
Cost: Around $30 each including drinks

Food: Simple Malaysian Cuisine

Top Dish: Pandan Sago with Coconut Milk and Palm Sugar

Atmosphere: Upscale Hawker Style

Service: Reasonable service and friendly staff

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Long Lunch with Yuki

It's always nice to go out for a proper lunch with good friends. I'm one of the people who just hates having sandwiches for lunch... Lunchtime should be spent indulging your belly and making the day special.

After a few SMS back and forth, Yuki and I finally found time to catch up last Thursday. She loves yumcha, so we decided to go to Oriental Tea House... It use to be called Ay Oriental Tea House (as I have mentioned before)

Oriental Tea House is a little more pricier than your typical Chinese Restaurant with you likely to spend about $20 each, even for lunch. As you can see from the photo, we had a lot.... Never order dimsum when you're hungry... the waiters don't stop you ordering too much either.
I kinda wish they have a tick-it-yourself order form, because the names of some of those dimsums are long and I am sure the waiters would appreciate it too... as they are the same people who serve people buying tea in the tea salon area. Come lunchtime, it can get pretty very busy.

I like Oriental as it's not as nosy as having Yumcha at some other Chinese Restaurants, and no trolleys to worry about. Did you know that at most Chinese Restaurants you can actually pre-order your dimsums before the trolleys come.. This is great if you are in a rush, but I understand that some like the novelty of looking at what's available on the trolley and trying something new.

Every time I've gone to Oriental, there is always people eating alone, nothing wrong with that and they look pretty comfortable as well.



The desserts at Oriental, is pretty standard, i.e. mango pudding, coconut cake etc. Well, Kokoblack is close by and I ran out of chocolate, so we opted to go to Kokoblack for some hot chocolate.

Their menu has extended to include dessert sets. The table next to us had the Belgian Spoil -
which was a chocolate platter with chocolate cake, two Belgian chocolates, a shortbread,
chocolate ice cream and chocolate mousse. Pretty good for $10.00! Yuki had the chilli hot chocolate and I had the creamy plain one. Before we left we had a look at their Easter chocolates. Oh boy, I wanted a dark chocolate bunny for my Aunty... the smallest one was $35 (TT). The little 3 pack dark chocolate bunny ganache was cheaper so I bought a few for my colleagues and they said that they were delicious.

After lunch, I rolled back to the office, content.

Oriental Tea House

322 Little Collins Street

Melbourne

03 9654 8399

Ratings
Food: Freshly steamed dimsum when you order

Top Dish: Marinated Spare Ribs

Atmosphere: Simple and airy

Service: Fast to give you the menu and sit you down but you have to wave them down. Give yourself plenty of time to get the bill as well.

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Mucking Around

I've been doing a bit of this and that these few weeks.... Mainly stressing about a dinner party in Hampton last Sunday. I was in charge of the dessert, and I decided to use the pannacotta and crostoli recipes from Maurizio Terzini: Something Italian. The pannacotta recipe is not easy as I found out.... My first attempt, without any proper measurement and not all the ingredients... came out too creamy and little stiffer than I wanted. I even wasted cream because I whipped it too hard with a hand beater and turned the cream to butter... I had to send M out for another tub. Likewise, the crostoli had a bitter lemony taste to it.... Armed with the right ingredients, I was suppose to prepare the dessert on Saturday ready for Sunday but had been so busy doing other things that I remembered at 12am Sunday that I needed to make the pannacotta for it to set properly in time!

So in my pajamas, I made the pannacotta...while waiting for the pannacotta mixture to cool, I hand-whipped the cream.... I think this is really the only way to whip cream.. it takes a lot of effort but the result is worth it - smooth soft cream at just the right consistency. I actually changed the recipe a little - decreasing the sugar, adding one 1/2 more vanilla sticks and instead of 8 gelatine leaves I used 7. I also put the Bortylis in the cooking part rather than at the end. I read an article in Epicure today about the Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato 2006... I might make a pannacotta with lots of that... as it sounds delicious... "A naughty pale pink with sweet grapey, apple flavours, seductively presents as a subtle, low 6.4% alcohol, mouth tingling, crown sealed fizz. Drink this summer when young and fresh. Yummy with strawberries and ice cream or just to sip on around the pool."


OH yes, the pannacotta and crostoli were a success... (I served chilled thin slices of riped mangoes with it) even after a multi-course dinner they was a refreshing dessert and helped us slow the absorption of some very delicious red wine that night. Anna and Dave made fantastic side dishs and slow cook mains... My favourite was the roast duck where the meat just fell off the bones and melted in your mouth. Second was the dumplings modified from a recipe from Harumi Kurihara: Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking... Of course third was the pannacotta!

Here is the official menu from Sunday:


*We didn't make the linguine because we decided that there was too much food already.

No pictures from the night, sorry... we ate everything too quickly...

8 Days in USA - January 07

8 days of US and we're back in Melbourne again! Where did all the time go?!?!

Los Angeles was fantastic, eventhough I didn't get to do all the things I had planned for Michael and I. But we did get to do some touristy things the first day we arrived, i.e. the Hollywood Sign, Gauman's Chinese Theatre, Avenue of The Stars, Bel Air, Beverly Hills etc.

Outside Gauman's Chinese Theatre

Outside Kodak Theatre

In Hollywood, we found one of my favourite American fast food joint - Popeye's and ate there for lunch. Dodgy people coming in and out, I was a bit scared but loved the food. In my opinion, better than KFC .

Travelling around visit the gorgeous houses of Beverly Hills and Bel Air, you can imagine what a life! It was a pleasure just to "OOhH" and "AHHH" outside their magnificent houses and beautiful cars. We saw two SLRs - can you imagine!

On Rodeo Drive, don't know how but we managed to enter Harry Winston, as it is normally by appointment. The gentlemen in there were very polite and allowed us to try whatever we wanted. I tried on a 6 carat cherry red ruby with pave diamonds around it and on the band worth USD250,000. I really didn't want to take it off... So beautiful! Lucky M took me to have dessert at Beverly Wilshire The Blvd, then I calmed down a bit.

Beverly Wilshire Hotel

Voss Norwegian Water and Dessert at The Blvd, Beverly Wilshire

We ate a lot in US. I still can't believe the serving size. Our brunch at the popular The Cheesecake Factory on Colorado Avenue, Pasadena was no exception.

Look at my latte! Brunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Old Pasadena

Vietnamese food in LA is definitely better than anything that I have tasted to date.

7 Course Vietnamese Beef Banquet

Hama Sushi in Little Tokyo

Francis Ford Coppola's Sofia Mini Blanc de Blancs Champagne

6 Flags Magic Mountain was fantastic. I definitely would get the Flash Pass again, which gives you priority access to the front of the queues of rides. This allowed M to ride Tatsu (the newest ride in the park) 4 times within 30 minutes.

Tatsu - The Ride. You start and finish with your head facing the floor

Our Lunch at the Mooseburger Lodge in 6 Flags

Snacking in 6 Flags

Chiu Chou Noodle Soup (Noodles are from my Uncle's Factory)

This trip, I got to try the "Best burger in LA" - The In and Out Burger. We couldnt' believe that there was only three different burgers that they serve - Hamburger, Cheese Burger and the Double Burger. The beef patty is cooked fresh and not made from frozen beef, the french fries are real pieces of chopped potatoes that still has the skin on it. All you can drink soft drinks. I didn't have enough that I had to have it again on our last day in the US. YUMMM!!! (Apparently there are "Secret Menus" that you can order, including the Protein style burger, Animal style burger, sauce on fries etc.)

Vegas trip was surprising easy... pretty much a straight road once you hit San Bernadino Hwy. Do not bother going to any outlets but the Fashion Outlets at PRIMMS.. save your money and shop there... Do make sure that you have a full tank before you head out... As petrol at one of the petrol station on the way cost USD$4 a gallon! Highway robbery I know. But it was funny that some guy in an Audi was getting upset over the price and questioning a resting policeman whether it was legal to do that.....

Our GPS called "Never Lost" - Yeah Right / Beautiful scenery along the way

Lucky that we arrived two days before my conference started, so that we could go to a nice meal at Picasso, The Bellagio; Grand Canyon light plane tour and some gambling!

Our Light Plane / Grand Canyon / Hoover Dam

While I was working hard at the conference, M was also working at.... at the golf courses.

On the last night in Vegas, we were able to walk around the Strip and watch the Bellagio Fountain.

The Venetian / The Mirage / Vegas Traffic

Balley's Paris

Great ending to a wonderful journey.

Da Noi

Yesterday night after a big dinner at Pacific House in South Yarra, we went to Da Noi down the road. We drove and didn’t really have to as it wasn’t that far. Such a nice little Italian restaurant.

I’ve heard good things about their Sardinian dishes but have never been. Apparently, it is up to the chef what you eat but they do enquire about your dietary preferences.

At least, last night we got to try some of the desserts there. We ordered a tasting menu that turned out to be one of the three menu desserts except for the biscotti.

First time I had Grappa as well… it smelled like Muscat but definitely didn’t taste like Muscat. It was beautiful though… a bit strong at around 45% alcohol but nice grapy after taste.

Back to the dessert, the meringue was lovely, and the mint and chocolate tart was balanced and delicious.

Da Noi
95 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141
03 9866 5975

Krispy Kreme in Melbourne

Oh boy, this brings back memories of the first time we queued up for over 30 minutes for Krispy Kreme donuts in Sydney and overdosed on the fat after eating one too many. Now they have invaded Melbourne! Okay okay I know that a lot people like them, including my brother-in-law who waited for hours on its opening day for one box of donuts... so here is the location of the Melbourne store if you don't already know:

Krispy Kreme
Fountain Gate
Westfield Fountain Gate
Narre Warren
(Access via Narre Warren North Road)
Melway Ref: 110 E4

From the Website: Oh boy, they will open a store in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong in August 2006 as well For more info: call Krispy Kreme Hong Kong on 27920970 or e-mail: info@krispykreme.com.hk.

Mishaps in the Kitchen

Recent "unsuccessful" stints in the kitchen

I had some fresh creme in the fridge that I wanted to use so I decided to make pannacotta, one of my favourite desert. Unfortunately, no vanilla bean or normal gelatin.. so had to make do with orange blossom flavouring and green gelatin.. yes green.... It turned out okay... just a little more gelatin next time I think...*sadly* if it weren’t green it would have been more yummy!

Next time I want to try Bills' recipe of rose yoghurt pannacotta... bought lovely vanilla beans yesterday... expensive but well worth it - smells divine!

Great pannacottas so far:

- Brunetti's vanilla pannacotta with white and brown chocolate – yummy!

- Grosso Florentino's rose pannacotta

Last night, I made fried calamari and prawn rocket salad with garlic & rosemary angel-hair yesterday… man did I splatter when I fried the seafood! Hmm.. should have separated the egg dip and takoyaki powder (yes I used left over takoyaki flour !) It was a funny sight! But it turned out quite yummy!! HAPPY!

Happy Chinese Moon Festival!

Monday is a popular Chinese holiday - Chinese Moon Festival where the largest and fullest moon of the year can be seen from all around the world. The tradition is to go out with lanterns in order enjoy the moonlight and admire the moon. Before you step out, have a lovely cup of tea and a moon cake, which is a pastry that is baked with white lotus paste and more often than not egg yolk. Very rich I know...

It is a tradition to give moon cake although nowadays a lot of people are sick of moon cakes, so many companies have tried to make them more enticing by changing the filling, e.g. with various type of nuts, changing the packaging, adding other items like tea as part of the package.





This year, our favourite moon cakes are from Kee Wah, Hong Kong... who have created such lovely packaging that you just can't resist buying them! They have chinese poetry on them and the packaging can be described as Chinese Minimalism - Ultra modern yet ultra Chinese.

Seriously though I only had a little bit of moon cake this year..... but the tea that came with the moon cake is delicious - tieguanyin tea. Kee Wah has put out a lot of traditional Chinese pastries in wonderful packaging as well, like taiwanese style pineapple cakes, mango cakes and pineapple and walnut cakes. Yumm!

Definitely a must if you want to get some souvenirs from HK!

Earl Grey Grand Classic

There is a Japanese tea merchant that I like to go to in South Yarra on Toorak Road called L'Epicier. It opened a smaller shop in the QV building, quite hidden away, behind 3 Degrees Bar on the second floor. The service is still the same and the variety is still there. This is more convenient for me but you can only have a cup of tea and their home made cakes at the South Yarra shop.

My favourite at the moment is the Earl Grey Grand Classic , it's a little bit more aromatic than an ordinary earl grey... but it is at the same time light and full in flavour. You have to try it to understand what I mean !

The store actually originates from Japan. I saw a very crowded one in Tokyo at a mall near a JR station.

20/03/2007 Update: The store is no longer called L'Epicier. It's beeen changed to L'Epicien.

Hiyoko Cakes

I received a wonderful gift from Hikki yesterday - a whole box of Hiyoko cakes that she bought from Japan! It was a thoughtful belated birthday gift... I was so touched that I set out to have two right away.. and brewed some lovely leong-jing tea to go with it . *sigh* while I was savouring the delicacy, I pondered what a blessed life I have... so fortunately to have a wonderful group of friends that know how to make me so happy!

Anyways about the Hiyoko cakes, they are my favourite cakes in the world.. It is made by a company originated in Fukuoka city, in Kushu. The soft centre ingrediants are hazelnut puree, eggs and sugar.. The outer-layer is a thin fragrant soft pastry. The pastry itself is shaped in a little chick - hence its Japanese name. Every time, I have one I can't help but kiss it before I take a bite. It is too cute!

At "Hiyoko Land", there are a lot of yummy creamy cakes as well.

Hope you get to taste one in your lifetime, because it is a real treat! Or if you are in Melbourne, remind me to let you try one, if I forget!