Peanut butter topped brownies

Peanut butter topped brownies

There are some foods that work so well together. One combination that I adore is peanut butter and chocolate. With my tastes tending to savoury items, I don’t generally eat much chocolate, but I do make an exception for these brownies (and Reese’s peanut butter cups… YUM).

This recipe is very simple although mine took a while to bake (probably because I was using a deeper, narrower pan). I’ve made these brownies before and they are always very popular with their slightly salty layer of peanut butter. This time it came out very rich and fudgey, and even though the slices were small, it was pretty sweet. Next time I make them I will reduce the sugar, but I’ve left the recipe as is below.

Peanut butter topped brownies

Adapted from Should You Eat That

Makes 12-18

150g dark chocolate, chopped
100g unsalted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
75g (½ cup) plain flour
2Tbsp cocoa powder
200g (¾ cup) crunchy peanut butter
½ cup crushed peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC and line the base of a 16 x 26cm pan with baking paper. Let the paper hang over the ends so it is easier to get the brownies out once they are cooked.

2. Put the chocolate and butter in a medium to large mixing bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Then microwave in 15 or 30 second bursts until just melted. Stir til all melted and smooth. Add eggs and sugar to the chocolate mixture along with combined caster sugar, and give a brief stir. Add plain flour & cocoa powder and stir until just combined (don’t overmix). It makes quite a stiff batter.

3. Spoon the mixture into prepared pan. If your peanut butter is quite stiff, microwave it until it’s fairly runny. Spread the peanut butter over the brownie mixture.

4. Sprinkle the crushed peanuts over the top of the peanut butter, pressing it in slightly into the mixture.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes. It is ok if slightly undercooked. Cool slightly before removing from pan. Let it cool before cutting into slices.

Gold Leaf: yum cha

Tea

Yum cha early on a Sunday afternoon was a common occurrence for our family. Wellington may be a terribly long way from Hong Kong, but there is a Cantonese community, as well as several good yum cha restaurants. Yum cha was always a busy, bustling affair with trolleys full of steaming baskets being squeezed past packed tables. Ordering dim sum off a menu and cooking to order may ensure fresher food, but the atmosphere just can’t compare.

Yum cha in Cantonese literally means “drinking tea”. It’s the custom of eating small servings of food, dim sum, and is a tradition on weekend mornings. By the way, dim sim, is different from dim sum. In Australia, a dim sim is a Chinese inspired dumpling style snack. Dim sum is the Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea, and yum cha is the term that is used to describe the dining session.

In the years we have been in Melbourne, we have been on the hunt for good yum cha. Gold Leaf was recommended by a friend of my Bro’s, and it turned out to be a good recommendation. I booked a table for 11am, and when we rocked up around 10 minutes before this time, they hadn’t started seating guests yet. We waited in the entrance with a couple of other groups, where live seafood gulped unhappily in tanks off to the side. Above us was a huge crystal chandelier suspended below the gold ceiling that Alastair contrarily said looked like the chandelier at my parents’ house.

Not long after we were seated at a table, trolleys full of food started coming past and our table filled up quickly with plates of steamer baskets.

Chicken feet

Chicken feet / fung zao

In this dish, chicken feet are fried, marinated and then stewed. The end result are feet that are puffy, rich and the sauce is generally a slightly spicy, black bean sauce. The texture is very gelatinous. There’s not much meat on chicken feet and it’s mostly skin and tendons. The trick to eating them is to take the foot into your mouth and slurp the skin off the numerous small bones, spitting them out as you go.

Scallops

Scallops on bean curd

This looks like minced scallop meat sitting on tofu. I’m sure I ate a piece, but I don’t actually recall it.

Ham sui gok

Deep-fried crescent dumplings / ham sui gok

In these dumplings, seasoned ground pork is covered in a wrapper made with sweet glutinous rice They are then deep fried, resulting in a crispy, sweet and salty morsel.

XLB

Shanghai pork buns / xiao long boa

I’ve spoken about Shanghai pork buns before. Traditionally the bao are eaten with ginger infused vinegar, so we received a little dish of vinegar as well. There didn’t seem to be much liquid inside the bao but the filling was tasty.

Fried pork buns

Fried pork buns

The buns were pan-fried crisp on the outside with a soft layer of meat underneath. We got another little dish of vinegar to eat with these as well.

Prawn noodles

Beef rice noodle / cheong fun

These are thin rolls made from a wide strip of rice noodles, that are usually filled with shrimp, pork, beef, and occasionally, fried dough. The rice noodle sheets are made from rice flour and water, which is then steamed. Sweet soy sauce is then poured over the dish upon serving. I always order the beef version. There’s also a fried version of cheong fun that I like where rice noodle sheets with shrimp are pan fried, and then covered with a thick, hoisin type sauce.

Tripe

Tripe

My Bro said yes to a bowl of tripe. I think we were the only ones at the table who ate it. It was flavoursome and not too chewy.

Har gao

Prawn dumplings / har gow

Har gow are a very standard yum cha dish and I reckon that if a restaurant’s har gow are good, then the rest will be good too. These dumplings have a thin, translucent rice-flour skin cloaking baby shrimp and some minced meat. The wrapping should be tender and silky, and the filling should taste fresh. These were good.

Dessert tofu

Dessert tofu / dou fu fa – silky tofu

After all this food, we were starting to get full. But when the cart with the wooden bucket of dessert tofu / dou fu fa came past, I knew I could fit a bowl in! Dessert tofu is a silky tofu served with a sweet ginger flavoured syrup. Silken tofu has a high moisture content and the texture is similar to a custard. It’s delicious.

Egg tarts

Egg tart / dan tart

We waited for ages for the egg tarts and basically we weren’t leaving until we got them. After waiting all that time, the tarts were just okay. The pastry was very puffy and flakey, but the egg custard wasn’t as sweet and eggy as I like.

There was also other desserts on offer – a whole cart was dedicated to items like mango jelly and coconut jelly.

Unfortunately we missed out one of my most favourite dishes – lou mai gai / sticky rice and chicken wrapped in a lotus leaf. I don’t recall it being on offer, but it may have come past at a time when we had a lot of dishes on our table. We kept waving stuff away so we could eat what we already had.

Prices of the dishes ranged from $4.30 for small, $5.40 for medium, and $6.40 for deluxe. Reasonable prices, along with the best dim sum we’ve had in Melbourne so far, might make yum cha a more regular occurrence for us.

Gold Leaf
491 Ballarat Road
Sunshine
Phone: (03) 9311 1863

Singapore: Newton Food Centre

Newton Centre

Newton Food Centre is a major food centre that was first opened in 1971, and is widely promoted by the Singapore Tourist Board. Apparently it has a reputation for being touristy and expensive. We went there for dinner on our last night in Singapore, solely because I discovered that our hotel was just down the road.

The food stalls are set up in a horseshoe configuration, around a plaza full of table and chairs. We were obviously tourists, so pretty much as soon as we entered stallholders descended upon us, showing us pictures of their food. It was fairly confronting, but no match for some of the souvenir markets that we perused in Africa. For example, when we were at Victoria Falls, market holders kept putting items in our hands, almost begging us to buy them. “I haven’t sold anything in three days!” was a common plea. Annoying, but kind of funny, were the stallholders at Victoria Falls who asked, “Have you got anything to trade? Your shirt? Hat? Pens?” They seemed desperate for anything, to the point where one of our group traded his socks for a souvenir – socks that he had been wearing at the time.

After doing one lap of the centre (brushing off touts the whole time), it was time to decide what to eat! So we decided – and boy, did we get sold. I blame Alastair and his weakness for seafood. Seafood was a lot more expensive than everything else, and subsequently, it wasn’t a cheap meal. But what the hell. It was our last night and we enjoyed it!

Prawns

Out came 2 HUGE garlic prawns. These prawns were beasts! The green balls near the head of the prawns were little limes. The prawns were nice and garlicky, and we washed them down with a big mug of beer.

Chilli lobster

We had chilli lobster, which were the smallest lobsters I’ve ever seen. They were about the size of the prawns! The chilli sauce wasn’t particularly spicy, and had a touch too much tomato sauce, but otherwise good.

Char Kway Teoh

We also had a $4 plate of char kway teo, because I wasn’t going to leave the country without eating some! Traditionally, char kway teo is fried in pork fat, and it tasted so fatty and delicious I would be surprised if pork fat wasn’t used.

Satay

After all this, Alastair still wasn’t done eating, so he bought some chicken and beef satay. When he returned to the table saying that he had to order a minimum of 10 sticks, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to eat them all. Fortunately, they were just little bite size skewers. Nicely done too, smokey and a bit charred. Mhhhmm.

Oh, Singapore, so much food, so little stomach space.

Singapore food: random Japanese

Edamame

On one of our evenings in Singapore, we caught up with a friend who lives there. We met him near his workplace, and ended up in a random Japanese restaurant in one of Singapore’s many malls. We had been starved of seafood during our trip, so I was looking forward to having some sashimi.

We ordered some edamame to share. It’s kinda fun stripping the soybeans from the pod with your teeth.

Beef & tofu

I had a beef and tofu meal. Mhmmm, it was good to eat tofu again. The meal set came came with the main tofu dish, plus a cup of savoury egg custard and watermelon.

Chawanmushi

The savoury custard was quite good, if you like that kind of thing. My eyes were bigger than my stomach though, and I didn’t finish my meal set because I had to save room for sashimi!

Sashimi

The sashimi came out last. On the plate was salmon, tuna and some other random fish that I can’t recall. The salmon was good, the white fish was okay, but the tuna was awful. So, so disappointing! The texture was all wrong, all gritty and strange. Ahh well. The evening was more about the company than the food, and at least that was good.

Laksa Me

Another hot Friday night lead us wandering the streets of Melbourne in search of Laksa Me. I had a vague idea of where I was going, but unfortunately it was a bit too vague. We overshot the laneway that Laska Me resides in, which meant wandering around in the heat for longer than necessary. Damned Melbourne and its laneways!

After a bit of backtracking, we found Liverpool Street and the restaurant. I was a tad disappointed to find that there was no air conditioning in the small room. Instead, several fans whirred busily away to keep diners cool, which admittedly did an okay job. Our table was directly outside the kitchen, under the gaze of a maneki neko and giving us glimpses of the chefs through a cut out in the wall.

Service seemed a bit confused, but quite sweet. We ordered beer and water, and only the beer showed up. Rather than laksa, we opted for starters and shared mains. We started with three items, ordering two portions of each and sharing them.

Betel leaf

Sliver of Beef Wrapped in Wild Betel Leaves ($3.50 each)

This starter was a sliver of beef, pan fried with peppercorn infused olive oil, and then dressed with coriander and roasted coconut vinaigrette, wrapped in a betel leaf. We found the beef slightly chewy but it was okay. I was quite amused by the flower garnish, which was actually made from a chili.

Triangle

Vegetarian Triangle ($2.50 each)

he triangles were filled with wok tossed shredded daikon, crunchy yam bean and Asian chives, then folded in a Chinese white pastry. These were then pan fried and then drizzled with a dark sweet soy sauce.

Thai sausage

Succulent Grilled Thai Sausage ($3.50 each)

The thai sausage was minced pork mixed with rice wrapped in a cornhusk, then grilled and served with diced cucumber and crushed peanuts in a tangy Chinese salted plum sauce. The sausage was the best of the three starters – heavy with garlic and flavour. We found the starters slightly underwhelming but this was most likely due to us sharing and only having a small bit of each.

Nonya pork ribs

Nonya Pork Ribs – stewed Asian style pork ribs in a complex sweet, spicy and sour reduction. Served with Jasmine rice. ($22.00)

We perked up when the mains started arriving. The first to come out was the pork ribs. The tender meat swam in a dark, sweet caramelish sauce with a small hint of spiciness. The pork was delicious, but the sauce… I would’ve been happy to push the meat aside and just eat the sauce over a steaming bowl of hot rice.

Khao Soi Gai

Khao Soi Gai – Burmese influenced Northern Thai curry noodles ($9.00)

The next two mains arrived almost at the same time. The khao soi gai was a dish of thin, slightly crisp egg noodles topped with chicken in a rich, creamy, red curry gravy. The sauce was fairly spicy and had strong Thai flavours and fish sauce.

Dry chicken curry noodles

Dry chicken curry noodles – a hot and spicy dry creamy chicken curry on Hokkien noodles ($10.00)

We all loved the dry chicken curry noodles. A Malaysian style curry sauce smothered the thick egg noodles and boneless chicken. It was the spiciest dish on the table, and we couldn’t get enough. Another round of beer was necessary after this came out.

Sonny’s fish curry

Sonny’s fish curry – fish of the day slow poached with green bean, eggplants and okra in Sonny’s secret curry recipe. Served with Indian pickle, yoghurt and Jasmine rice. ($22.00)

The last main was Sonny’s fish curry. The fish curry was a large slab of salmon was smothered in a tangy, sourish curry that was flavoured with Indian spices and topped with yoghurt. In the context of the meal, this dish felt a bit strange. All the flavours of the other mains felt complementary, and this dish just didn’t seem to fit with everything else that we had eaten. This isn’t an actual complaint about the dish – the fish and vegetables were cooked well and the sauce was tasty.

After our hearty and sweat inducing meal we peeled ourselves off our chairs to pay our bill at the counter. The monetary damage was a reasonable $33 per person, (if sticking to laksa the bill could be much lower). We had an enjoyable meal and one day I will need to return to check out the laksa.

Laksa Me
Shop 1 / 16 Liverpool Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 9885

Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Corn fritters

Like a lot of people who enjoy cooking, I own a few cookbooks. Over Christmas and my birthday, I got given several to add to my collection…. plus I did buy a few myself!

I tell myself that I don’t need to feel guilty about my cookbook collection since I do read each one I own. I’m sure I’m not the only one who takes cookbooks to read in bed.

The other weekend it was just Alastair and I at home for brunch. I had seen a recipe for pancakes or fritters using chickpea flour, but couldn’t remember where I had read it. I tried flicking through a few of my newest cookbooks and online through my usual recipe websites but with no success. Gaaah! Don’t you hate it when that happens? In the end I couldn’t track down the recipe and had to wing it. That’s the problem with reading so many books and food magazines – you get ideas and inspiration but then you can’t remember where those ideas came from.

I ended up with corn and chickpea flour fritters. I bought the chickpea flour from an Asian grocery store to make onion bhaji and have used it a few times since. Plain flour would work as a substitute, but the chickpea flour gives a unique nutty depth of flavour.

On a side note, I have discovered that indian style chickpea flour is made from chana dal, which is a cousin of the chickpea, not an actual chickpea. There’s lots of alternative names for this flour: chana dal flour, gram flour, dal flour, or besan flour to name a few. Actual chickpea flour (ie made from actual chickpeas) is popular in Italian cuisine and is called farina di ceci.

Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Rating: 31

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: Makes about 6 medium fritters

Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Ingredients

  • 1 cup frozen corn kernels
  • 2 cups chickpea/besan flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chives
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup of milk (add a tad more if you think it’s too thick)
  • Pepper
  • Oil spray
  • Cream cheese
  • 6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered and tossed with a dash of olive oil
  • Extra chives to garnish

Instructions

  1. Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
  2. Mix together the eggs, milk, and chives, season with pepper, then stir in the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined.
  3. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
  4. Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, and lightly spray with oil.
  5. Drop 1/4 cup measures of mixture on to the frying pan, allowing room for spreading, and cook over medium heat. Turn when bubbles come to surface, and cook another minute.
  6. Put a dollop of cream cheese and some cherry tomatoes on top of the fritters, and garnish with some extra snipped chives.
https://www.offthespork.com/2008/01/corn-and-chickpea-flour-fritters/

Singapore food

Gak! Has it really been almost two months since we got back from Africa? And I still haven’t finished posting all my photos. What a slacker.

The more direct route to South Africa is through Perth, but I was pretty keen to stop in Singapore on the way back (plus I’m not really a fan of Qantas). We only had two nights in Singers, but it was great! The pace was a huge change from Africa. I was especially happy about having a nice hotel to stay in, with a good bed and a great shower…. oh, it was wonderful. We didn’t do much in our time there. We caught up with a friend, did a tiny bit of shopping, and we visited the aquarium/underwater world. Alastair likes stuff like that. When we were in Spain a few years ago, we went to three aquariums. Three! What can I say, the man likes his fish.

We did also eat a bit of food while in Singers.

Congee

I had some congee during transit, while we were waiting for our flight to Capetown. I didn’t get any sleep on the plane and was SO tired and cranky (poor Alastair had to put up with my moaning!). The congee made me feel a little bit better. It’s such a comfort food.

Congee 2

And I had congee again at the end of our trip. Mhmm, congee. I really need to make it sometime.

Pancakes

Alastair doesn’t quite understand the congee thing so he had pancakes. Pffft.

Wontons

In Chinatown, we ducked into a small stall and had some noodles. Alastair had dumpling noodle soup.

Beef noodles

While I had beef. The meat was tender, however the soup wasn’t particularly flavourful. But it did cost S$4, so I’m not complaining.

Laksa

Alastair fit some laksa into his stay. Twice. (I didn’t take a photo of his second bowl.)

Chicken rice

But for me, my visit wasn’t complete without some chicken rice.

It was interesting being in Singapore having come from Jo’burg. Jo’burg has a reputation for being an unsafe city, while Singapore must be the opposite. We only spent one evening in Jo’burg, and we were advised that it was fine, but not to wander around at night. In Singapore, on the other hand, we walked through Little India around midnight to get to Mustafa, the 24 hour department store, and felt perfectly safe. So I don’t know if Jo’burg’s reputation is worse than the reality, but I do know that every house that we saw there was surrounded by razor wire or electric fences. Plus I read a South African Cosmopolitan – in amongst the usual stories about how to get a man, what to wear this summer, etc, was an article about what to do if you get car jacked. Hmmm! Perhaps there is some truth to the stories.

Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle Restaurant

Has this restaurant been around forever? It certainly feels (and looks) like it. Even despite closing for “renovations” last year. Perhaps this is code for something else, as when they reopened, nothing had changed!

Eating here is like being part of an efficient factory line. Get in, order, eat, get out. There’s no niceties here, no waiting for you to digest your food over a drink and conversation. As soon as your chopsticks have been put down, you’ll be asked if you’re finished. Yes? Then what are you still doing here?

Let’s be honest. Camy does not make the best dumplings in the world. But they’re quick, and they’re cheap and there’s something about the place that’s good despite the daggy décor, and the abrupt service. Most occasions that we eat there, the bill comes to less than $10 per person (this occasion we were slightly over, $13.50 each, because we ordered beer). And sure, you may wait in the queue for 10 minutes, but you only wait a couple of minutes for dumplings to start arriving once you’re ordered. This time, I swear, it took one minute for our first plate of dumplings to be delivered. Obviously they’re not cooking them all to order!

IMG_01772
Fried pork dumplings (15 pieces – $6.80)

Ahh… good old fried dumplings. With a slightly chewy skin, they’re usually not too oily. These are quite popular and they’re favourites for many people I know.

IMG_01892
Steamed beef dumplings (12 pieces $6.80)

If you’re not that keen on fried dumplings, there’s also steamed dumplings. These ones are beef. They’re not bad, although I seem to prefer pork dumplings.

IMG_0194
Steamed chicken and prawn dumplings (have forgotten the price!)

As you can see, there’s not much prawn in the chicken and prawn dumplings. I don’t find them as tasty as the other ones.

IMG_0179
Chilli oil dumplings (15 pieces – $6)

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. These are pork dumplings floating in a soup slicked with chilli oil. There’s only the hint of heat in the chilli oil, despite the red slick.

IMG_01852
Mushroom and vegetable dumplings (10 pieces $4.50)

The mushroom and vegetable dumplings are my second favourite ones at Camy. They’re chock full of garlic and onion and are a little sack of dumpling goodness. Mhmm hmmm.

IMG_01922
Shanghai pork mini buns (8 pieces $6.50)

And finally the best is last – the Shanghai pork mini buns (also known as xiaolongbao in other places). The mini buns are little dumplings that are filled with meat and soup. The soup inside is made by placing a little bit of jelly inside prior to steaming. Once they are steamed, the heat turns the jelly into a liquid. Eating them can be a bit of a challenge – first, trying not to pierce the dumpling skin so you don’t lose the soup inside (hint: roll them on to a spoon), and second, trying not to burn yourself on the scalding liquid!

Although we didn’t have it on this occasion, the pumpkin cakes are also really good. They’re small, sweet, deep-fried morsels. We always order two plates and save them for dessert, managing to fit them in despite the plates of dumplings we have ingested!

Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle Restaurant
25 Tattersalls Lane
Melbourne 3000
Phone: 9663 8555

Rich chocolate truffles + a fish tank story

Original tank

From this….

When we first arrived in Melbourne, we bought a fish that started off a small fish keeping obsession. Yogi was a beautiful, blue Siamese Fighter that came in a little plastic tank.

We soon realised that although Siamese Fighters can survive in small unheated tanks, they’re actually much happier with more space. So we bought him a slightly bigger tank with a water heater. And since we had a larger tank, it meant that we could add more fish. And with more fish… well, eventually we had to upgrade to an even larger tank. Were we satisfied with that? Hell no! Eventually we bought a 130 litre tank, along with an improved water pump and more fish.

For a while we were really into fish keeping, but then we got cats. With the arrival of the cats, the fish stopped being as interesting. Gradually the fish keeping obsession eased and we stopped at the tank shown above.

The tank and its fishy occupants moved with us three times. Sadly Yogi died a couple of years ago, but one fish that has been with us for about four years is Big Fella, a kissing gourami (the pink/white fish in the tank above). Big Fella was a bargain price of $2.50 and we think that he’s probably a fish that someone returned to the fish shop. They get quite large and can become aggressive with other fish, so unfortunately this is a very likely scenario. He is most likely at least five years old. Boy, is Big Fella a trooper. He’s survived several tanks, three house moves, as well as the addition of many fish, all of whom have died apart from another gourami (imaginatively named Little Big Fella).

Yesterday, we were sitting on the couch, when there was an almighty bang that sent the cats flying upstairs. The fish tank had cracked, sending water gushing on to our carpet.

Broken tank

To this!

Oh boy! It was fortunate that the tank burst while Alastair and I were at home. It sent us flying into action – I grabbed buckets, while Alastair prioritised and unplugged my Bro’s Xbox 360. Yup, never mind the litres of water pouring on to our floor, make sure the gadgets are okay! We managed to catch most of the water in buckets and although it still smells like wet carpet in the house, thankfully the damage was negligible.

New tank

A new home

The tank is obviously worthless, so Big Fella and his friend have a new, much smaller, tank to call home. If this one breaks at least it can’t cause much damage!

Yesterday I had been intending to finish off some posts when I got side tracked into catching and mopping up water. So how about just a recipe for chocolate truffles instead? These truffles were the only sweet item I made for our orphan’s Christmas. We left them out of the fridge and they became all soft and gooey. Not a bad way to eat them.

Rich chocolate truffles

Rating: 31

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 5 hours

Yield: Makes about 30

Rich chocolate truffles

Ingredients

  • 185 ml (6 fl oz or 3/4 cup) thick (double/heavy) cream
  • 400g (14 oz) dark chocolate, grated
  • 70g (2 1/2 oz) unsalted btter, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons Cointreau (I used cherry brandy)
  • dark unsweetened cocoa powder, for rolling

Instructions

  1. Place the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Rmove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it is completely melted. Add the butter and stir until melted. Stir in the Cointreau. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for seveal hours or overnight, or until firm enough to roll.
  2. Quickly roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls, and refrigerate until firm. Roll the balls in the cocoa, shake off any excess and return to the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.
  3. Note: The truffle mixture can be made and rolled up to 2 weeks ahead. You will need to roll the balls in cocoa again close to serving time.

Notes

From Kitchen Classics: Sweet and Savoury Bites

https://www.offthespork.com/2008/01/rich-chocolate-truffles-a-fish-tank-story/

What I’ve been eating

I’ve been trying to play catch up with things ever since we got back. It took me six weeks, but I have finally caught up with all my RSS feeds. I had 1000+ items when we returned, and finally they’re all gone! Gone!!

I have a few food images that don’t warrant a full post, so here’s a quick pictorial of things I’ve been eating in the past few weeks.

Piadina slow food

Piadina Slowfood
57 Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000 VIC
Phone: (03) 9662 2277

I had a leisurely lunch at Piadina Slowfood. It was a warm day so I was able to snag a table outside. I had the pan seared yellowfin tuna with green bean salad.

Coffee

The tuna was covered in sesame seeds and just seared so it was pink and moist in the middle. The beans and salad had just the right amount of a soy and ginger dressing. I finished off my meal with a caramelly flat white. What a lunch!

Grand BBQ

Grand BBQ
Target Centre Arcade
236 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Another lunch, not quite as leisurely, was yong tau foo from Grand BBQ. You can choose 6 pieces of yong tau foo, then make a choice between vermicelli, hor fun, hokkein or egg noodles. Finally there’s a decision on soup – clear, curry or tom yum. I choose eggplant, chilli, fish cake, fish ball, stuffed tofu and a dumpling. I didn’t realise that the chilli was a spicy one. What I actually wanted was a piece of capsicum but I had a moment of decision panic. Doh! I love chilli, but this was a bit much.

The only thing harder than deciding on the six items was finding a seat. They were busy!

Nasi lemak

Chillipadi
Shop OE7, Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central
211 La Trobe Street,, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9663-5688

We had a late dinner at Chillipadi, where I couldn’t go past the nasi lemak. I loved the way it was presented, but it wasn’t quite as good as other ones I’ve had. The pickles weren’t as tangy as I like but the rendang was tasty and fragrant.

The George

George Hotel
139 Cecil Street, South Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9686 5655

I had a massive pub burger from the George Hotel. The meat pattie could’ve used a bit more seasoning, but the chips were surprisingly good. I don’t usually like thin fries much, but these were crunchy and moreish. I couldn’t finish the burger because I was concentrating on the chips.

Fritters

For dinner one evening I used left over brown rice to make rice fritters. I combined the rice with some grated vegetables, egg, a bit of flour and soy sauce, before shaping them into patties and rolling them in breadcrumbs. They were very tasty.

Beef stir fry

Another dinner was a stir fry of beef and cabbage with szechuan pepper. There was a bit too much szechan pepper and it numbed my tongue. Gak!

Fruit

And finally, I’ve been really enjoying some summer fruits – cherries, lychees, and raspberries as well as blueberries and mangoes. Delicious!