The Hungry Excavator

My Chinese New Year memories...

2012-01-31T02:18:00.027+11:00

Every single year, my family and I would fly back to Mum's tiny hometown of Tawau to spend Chinese New Year with the whole family. So many good memories... Like playing card games and firecracks with all my cousins non-stop since we were kids. Weird story, we also used to love digging up yam straight from the ground at the jungle of a backyard of my cousin's house and then roasting it with fire we had started with twigs from scratch. LEGIT STUFF. This was extremely fun for us. Love our modest childhood from simpler times. Now, THOSE were the days... One year, all the cousins and I also put on a special dance/drama performance prepared on our own as our parents and Late Grandma gathered around to watch in the living room. It really was quite hysterical...

*photos would be so embarrassing right about now*

My favourite memory would also be of my Late Grandma (or "PoPo", as I call her), pulling up a stool next to me, to spoon feed me plain rice in soup in the afternoons. She only did this (without me asking) because she knows that I was the perpetually hungry and peckish one of her grandchildren. It's so simple, yet delicious. But what I loved most is that she would gently blow each mouthful of rice before feeding it to me, till the temperature was just right. Sounds a bit like Goldilocks eh? I felt so loved from every spoonful. Then I would reply gleefully by saying, "Hao Sit, PoPo!" or "Delicious, Nana!". This happens every year I return, without fail.

It's memories like these that really make me miss my Late Grandma so, so dearly till this day....................... It's been 7 years ='/

Though, I must say that ever since my Late PoPo passed, CNY has been drastically different. We don't return to Tawau anymore for a number of reasons (but nothing bad, don't worry). Instead, we now have our own tradition here in Kota Kinabalu with glorious food prepared by my lovely mother.

They're just a treat. It's not the same, but just as special. One thing is for sure, we don't eat out. In fact, most of it are dishes that would only be served this time of year and every meal was SOOO delicious!!!

ANYHOO, here's a snapshot of the CNY dishes we ate this year. To all of you from a "non-Asian background", WELCOME to my humble Chinese family dining table and I hope you enjoy......... And Happy Belated Chinese New Year aka Year of the Dragon to you all!!!

1) Reunion Dinner, aka CNY Eve or "Tuan Yuan Fan"

Deep-Fried Tiger Prawn Fritters

Steamed Chinese Cabbage with Dried Scallops

Mum's signature: Chicken, Abalone and Ham "Sandwich" with superior Abalone Sauce

Note: Only top grade, corn fed (more fragrant skin), free range, bare neck (smoother meat) and aged chicken from a local farmer is used

YUMMY! Delicious mouthful of food from each layer

Braised chicken, chinese mushrooms and sea cucumber

Stewed all day, sauce was really unbelievably good

Shark's Fin Soup

(I'm sorry!!! These were bought many years ago, we've stopped buying them, I swear!)

2) 1st Day CNY Brunch

It is a tradition for our family to eat every single one of these vegetarian dishes for this meal each year. Recipe passed on to Mum from my Late Grandma. I have to make this for my vegetarian friends in Melbourne.

Stewed vegetables (beancurd skin, beancurd puffs, black moss fungus, carrots, mushrooms, dates, bamboo shoots and glass noodles) in fermented red tofu

LOVE THIS!!!

White radish soup with dates, mushrooms and (the only "meat" allowed this meal,..) dried oysters

"Nian Gao" aka "Sticky Cake" (made with glutinous rice flour) Fried with Egg

Mum had her Sister (who barely comes over) and her family from Tawau too, glad to share the meal with them

3) Other meals here and there...

Mum's Twice Fried Duck with Plum Sauce

TO DIE FOR!!! One of my favourite childhood dishes ever!!

Every time I ask Mum how she makes this and my other favourite dishes, she just goes, "Very easy waaan...! Just do this, throw in that, dot dot dot... and DONE!". Not very convincing lol

HK Imported Cured Meats and Pickled Shallots

One of my favourite things to eat!!

HK Kailan Vegetable with Oyster Sauce

Hakka "Kiu Nyuk", a Pork and Yam dish in fermented tofu sauce

My dad's prolly the biggest fan of mum's roast chook lol

Mum's signature Duck in Plum Sauce again... MMM!

Chicken Soup with Sea Cucumber, Mushrooms and Quail Eggs

"Lou Sang"

A traditional dish containing preserved vegetables, rice crisps and raw fish topped with sour plum sauce. Each element representing something symbolic for the Lunar New Year

Tossed with chopsticks by every one at the table. The higher you toss, "the more fortune you will receive"

Anyway, I'm glad to have shared MY family's CNY tradition with you. Tell me, what's CNY like in YOUR household? Any fond childhood memories that tugs your heart strings? Would love to hear about them! =)

"Knock You Naked" Brownies

2012-01-29T02:49:00.001+11:00

"Knock You Naked" Brownies, cleverly named by the one and only, Pioneer Woman

Wow... I cannot begin to describe how incredibly scrambled I feel at this moment. You see, I JUST took the brownies out of the oven to shoot 15 minutes to go and have got less than an hour to churn out this post to meet the deadline! @_@

So, I've been looking forward to participate in this event called the "Sweet Adventures Blog Hop" after being inspired by all the marvellous entries by fellow bloggers since the beginning of the event. For all of you unfamiliar with this event, it's basically a fun way for bloggers all around to share a food that they've created based on the theme of that month.

For last month's Christmas edition of the blog hop, I had it all planned out way early on and knew exactly what I wanted to make. Been looking forward to it for so long. Even went out to buy all the ingredients and kitchen utensils JUST to make that dessert. Unfortunately, when the day came for me to make that dessert for a Christmas dinner our family was hosting, I fell incredibly ill. Was bedridden for 4 days and unable to eat anything but porridge that whole length of time. Sad, I was...

THAT'S WHY, I am super rushed but I'm determined to finally get my entry in after all my hard work. KYAAAAAAAAA!!!

So when it came to this month's blog hop, themed: Death by Chocolate, I knew it would be a fun one to do. It was actually my upon my brother's request that I make brownies for him. And the first place I went to look for a recipe was, The Pioneer Woman's website, no questions asked. I knew that this woman would be THE place to go to if I wanted easy, delicious yet creative recipe ideas. Also, she's known to be a bit naughty, naughty when it comes to Chocolates or Butter, which is sorta fitting towards this month's theme, no? And the moment I read the title of the post, "Knock You Naked" Brownies, I was sold.

What's great about this brownie recipe is that it was a layer of caramel + choc chips in between. BUT, I couldn't find any caramels here in KK so decided to make a Butterscotch Sauce, which I've made in the past for a Sticky Date Pudding dessert instead. The sauce was absolutely delicious and I knew would make a great substitute, maybe even better, than the original caramel sauce.

Anyway, the addition of Butterscotch Sauce + Choc Chips in the middle does give this, otherwise plain brownies, so much more character. Definitely slightly more on the rich and fudgey side, if that's yerr thang. But, again, the theme is DEATH by chocolate lol. I enjoyed the piece that I had and can't wait to go back for another one after dinner. This time, with a nice cold glass of milk by my side to wash it down. Bliss...

Hope you enjoy, and GONG XI FA CHAI to all you wonderful people out there who's celebrating Chinese New Year today. Am sure you're all eating too much for your own good so keep it up!

Cheers,

Wince =)

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"Knock You Naked" Brownies

(adapted from this recipe by The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

1 box German Chocolate Cake Mix *

1 cup finely chopped nuts

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Butterscotch sauce (see below)

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Powdered sugar/melted white choc for decor

* I used Betty Crocker brand

Method:

Preheat oven to 180degC. Prepare the Butterscotch Sauce with the recipe below, set aside. In a large bowl, pour the cake mix and chopped nuts in. Create a well in the middle and pour in the melted butter. Stir the mixture from the middle. Halfway through, mix in the evaporated milk in the middle as well and stir through until totally combined. Mixture will be very thick.

Press half the mixture into a well-greased/lined 20cm square baking pan. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and set aside.

Pour in the butterscotch sauce and sprinkle all the chocolate chips on top until even. Turn out remaining brownie dough on work surface. Using a spatula, form a large square approximately the size of the 20cm tray. Then, remove from surface and set on top of the caramel and chocolate chips.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature. To decorate, either generously sift powdered sugar or, like me, melt some white chocolate in the microwave and pipe them loosely all over the surface. Enjoy =)

Butterscotch Sauce

(taken from this recipe by Hunger Hunger)

Ingredients:

4 tbsp unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

large pinch of salt

Method:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon. Stir frequently over low heat, 3 to 5 minutes. Be sure to get the sugar that's sticking to the sides of the pot. When sugar caramelises, it will bubble, turn out more liquid and look like thick sand.

Add all the cream and use a whisk to stir once in a while over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Remove from stove and let cool.

Whisk in half the vanilla extract and salt, taste and add more to taste.

For more info on how to join a blog hop, click here:

http://hungryaustralian.com/2012/01/15/death-by-chocolate/

Chicken Parma Casserole Recipe

2012-01-19T23:14:00.016+11:00

Chicken Parma Casserole -- A new twist on a classic Aussie favourite!

My group of uni friends and I sorta (unintentionally) started a tradition every time it came round to the exam season. We would meet together at my place every day to study the day away, and come dinner time, some would help me in the kitchen to prepare dinner for every one that night, while others would wash up after and we'd all chip in for dinner. Good system. Dinner would always be in front of the TV in the living room over an episode of either The Office, Modern Family and more recently, 30 Rock. (FUN!) Then, we'd continue all the way till almost midnight and the cycle repeats itself the following day. Normally, we'd do this for almost a month.

A tradition that we upheld for the last 2 years of our undergrad. It was seriously awesome. That's why, ironically, exam season is actually my highlight of every semester! These guys are so fantastic that they even make studying fun. Maybe it's cause we're not actually studying half the time ahem ;p. I kid, I kid... We strike a good balance between fun and work time and happy to say that all of us graduated with Honours. Yayeee... Happy days...

And coming up with what to cook 6 BIG ASS eaters each night proved to be slightly challenging, but fun. Whatever it was, it had to be quick, healthy and FILLING. One night, I actually stumbled upon this youtube video while I was meant to be, uh... Studying lol. One thing led to another and I spent the whole night watching recipe and cooking videos on the Internet. Well done, Wince. Well done...

Oh, great. Now every one knows that I obviously take most of my photos on my carpet floor lol. Can't remember the last time I used a store-bought pasta sauce (prefer making my own) but the flavours intrigued me

SO glad I did because this recipe totally caught my attention and I couldn't stop thinking about it ever since! Everything made so much sense and it deconstructed my all-time favourite pub food, The Chicken Parma, in a way that it's so much simpler to prepare at home. All it took was a little creativity and improvisation.

First, this recipe is baked, not fried. Also, the crumbed coating is cleverly substituted by using some croutons. Everything else is just assembled straight out of the bottle/packet and NO prep is required at all. TOO EASY! Also, don't forget that chicken parma is actually MEANT to have PARMesan cheese, not just Mozzarella! (A misconception that most restaurants still make today). That's why it's called Chicken PARMa, no duhhh... The only thing I meant to do was really PILE on the Mozz but I sorta ran out that day. Oh wellzzz...

Anyway, I recommend that you give this dish a go. It is so fun, different and interesting because it's a Chicken Parma CASSEROLE. We enjoyed it. Plus, it's so simple like you wouldn't believe and I guarantee that ANYONE can make this! Took less than 10 minutes (tops) to put together before whacking it in the oven -- DONE. Perfect for Exam dinners when time is of the essence for cooking!! From one student to another... Definitely going in the books under "Simple Meal Ideas". Also, this recipe has a lot of "sprinkling" and "spreading" involved so you can easily adjust amounts to preferred taste and size of tray.

I personally love this and can't wait to make it again. Enjoy!! =)

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Chicken Parma Casserole

(serves 6 big eaters)

Ingredients:

6 cloves garlic (pressed)

2 tbsp olive oil

chilli flakes to sprinkle

4 chicken breasts

dried herbs to sprinkle

cracked black pepper

1 bottle pasta sauce (approx 350g)

2 1/2 cups Mozzarella cheese

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 bag croutons (approx 80g) *

* Couldn't find croutons so used mini toast chips instead

Method:

Preheat oven to 200degC. Press the garlics into the tray and add the olive oil. Sprinkle desired amount of chilli flakes and mix all around with a fork.

Place the chicken breasts on the tray (make sure no gaps). Sprinkle dried herbs and crack some black pepper all around. Pour pasta sauce onto chicken and spread evenly.

Sprinkle half the Mozz, then half the Parmesan. Spread the croutons or mini toasts evenly.

Sprinkle remaining Mozz followed by the Parmesan. Finish off with more dried herbs.

Whack it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Rest for 5 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long). Serve with some mash and veg and ENJOY! =D

"Before & After", clearly not enough Mozz but still yum. The smell of cheese, herbs and garlic through the air was amazing =)

Chicken Parma Casserole + Simple Mash with Truffle Oil + Blanched Veg for dins

The good stuff...

Great thing about this is how moist and juicy the chicken was. Lots and lots of sauce too, YUMMO =D

Ibuki HOUSE Restaurant, East Bentleigh

2012-01-10T20:00:00.028+11:00

Quite possibly the most unassuming "restaurant" in Melbourne, no?!?!

Hello!

How are you all doing? I don't know about you, but for a lot of us, our graduation dinner is almost just as anticipated as the ceremony itself. You know, a special celebratory dinner, in the company of loved ones, some with families that flew in from overseas. So, a lot of thought was given into thinking of where to take close friends/families out for dinner that night.

So, I've been hearing my cousins speak of this really cool Japanese "restaurant" that they've been eating at for years, called Ibuki. Always SO curious to try but could never got the chance! Not a lot of people I know has heard of this house restaurant before even though they've been open for more than 20 years! That's why when we were trying to think of where to go for my graduation dinner, this place immediately came to mind. On top of that, it was an even special night for us because we didn't just want to celebrate my graduation, but Cousin J's graduation from Masters as well as Cousin C's 21st birthday. YAY!!!

Me folks and sis outside the house. Never know if I look like Mum or Dad ;p

What's really cool is that this restaurant is actually served by a Japanese chef in his own home! Also, it's an omakase concept (i.e. chef given free-reign to design the menu) worth usually around $60-80 per person, which is NOT BAD AT ALL, as you will later see what we were actually served. But there are conditions to eating here. My cousins told me that they used to have to book months in advance (absurd!). Also, each booking has to be for a party of 10 because they only take in one table per night. How can you NOT be intrigued by this restaurant =O

How crazy is that?! But now, they've changed things a little bit. All you need is several weeks and they take in 3 tables per night now. One for a group of 10-12, 4-6 or 2 only. Much easier to make a booking now. Phew!

One last thing about Ibuki is that it was virtually non-existent anywhere on the Internet. Not on Google, Urbanspoon, blogs or anything. NADA! Also, don't mistake this for the other Ibuki Restaurant in the city on Urbanspoon. So, forgive me if I feel really, REALLY excited to (sorta) be the first to share with most of you (who's hearing this for the first time) today one of our family's favourite eateries, that has sorta remained "hidden" among us for so long. Have added this restaurant to Urbanspoon, so you can find deets there. ENJOY!!! =)

Assorted Sashimi including Lobsters, Abalone, Salmon, Kingfish and Marinated Tuna

What a luxurious and majestic plate of sashimi! Literally made us go, "woooow" as soon as we stepped through the door and saw this waiting for us at the table. Plenty to go around and everything was fresh. Again, lobster and abalone... Feast for the eyes too! @_@

Raw beef and oyster platters

The beef was soft yet had simple and fresh flavours. I liked it and the oysters too. Nommm =)

Assorted sushi platter(s)

There was actually another tray of slightly different sushi besides this but I didn't get a chance to photograph it. This meal really had something for everyone. We were pretty darn full at this point to be honest. LOL weak~

Scallops Mornay with Bacon Bits and Saffron

Another dish that got us excited as soon as it was served. Unfortunately, this looked better than it tastes. Way too salty. Still, A+ for generosity.

Chawanmushi

The custard was a bit too soft and delicate that you could barely feel it in your mouth, almost had to sip it down. But, the broth behind it carried a stronger but natural Dashi taste, which I enjoyed. Mmm...

Optional course: Pipi and chicken claypot rice

This course was actually not part of the omakase but requested because our cousin knew all of us are hard core Asians through and through. We need rice somewhere in our meal. Seafood was sweet but found the rice a bit too wet.

Seafood Soup with Abalone, Crab Claw, Mussel and Fish Cake

I liked this. The meal took a lighter course from this soup onwards. Naturally sweet and the soup felt so warm and soothing down the throat.

Assorted Tempura

Don't think I've seen a Tempura Lobster Head before! Just for decoration purposes but looked really cool. Surprisingly, my favourite thing was the tempura yam/taro haha =D

Shabu Shabu

To be honest, I've always been more of a Sukiyaki than a Shabu Shabu kinda guy. We were pretty much full to the brim at this point. Which, I guess wasn't really fair to the dish. Was okay.

Japanese crepe with Red Bean/Black Sesame Ice-Cream; Complimentary fruits/truffles

Whoops, didn't really stitch the last photo properly lol. Anyway, crepe was chewy and I enjoyed the red bean more than the black sesame (surprisingly). Last dish of the day and foahhh, so full by that point. /endofmeal

Picking our glasses for our WARM sake

Seriously awesome beer!! We all couldn't get enough of it and ordered so many of these. Smooth and good depth of flavour. I don't drink beer that often *ahem* but I found this pretty outstanding. Can't find this in any Dan Murphy's, Coles/Woolies Liquor! Please order this if you happen to go.

Trying to give you a view of our table, the restaurant and also the work station. Very cosy.

Happy 21st Birthday, C!!! Lots of photo taking after that, woo-hoo =)

"We are family, come on every body and sing!"

Final group picture to cap off a truly magnificent evening =)

Food wise, was it the best Japanese meal I've had? No. But would I go back? Yes. Would I still recommend it? Oh, YES! Especially for special occasions.

First of all, the food served was really not what you would get in your usual Jap meal, which makes it perfect for special occasions like this. A bit more extravagant but the price was more than justified at $80 per pop, as you can see! Also, the drinks were really reasonably priced because we were there for hours and ordered countless rounds of sake and beer but it didn't amount to much, honestly.

Food was okay. But to us, the best thing about this place was the venue itself. It was private and intimate, that's why we felt so comfortable to just sit around and catch up for hours, while ordering rounds and rounds of drinks in between. You don't get to do this or even feel this way at any other restaurants. Really ideal for long dinners with close friends and family.

Overall, it was such a lovely evening spent with my family. We were there for hours and had so much great conversation and even better laughs, reminiscing on old times. So, so rare for all of us to gather like this and there were so many things to celebrate so I truly appreciated that night. Family really is everything, after all.

Just wanted to thank my wonderful relos for yet another fantastic meal (LOVE our family dinners!), my family for flying to Melbourne and also to Dad, for his generosity in picking up the tab for all of us. Looking forward to many more cherished meals like this with the family in Melbourne.

That's all for now. PEACE!!!

Cheers to 2012!

2012-01-03T05:48:00.003+11:00

Hello, friends!

I apologise for getting off a bit slow and behind on the blogging front the past few days, but I'd still like to wish ALL of you a very warm and HAPPY NEW YEARRR!!! I truly hope that whatever unhappiness that you faced in the past gets left in 2011 and that you bring with you whatever hopes and aspirations you have to this brand spankin' new year. This is what I'm telling myself, at least =)

So I've been back to my hometown of Kota Kinabalu (KK for short), in Malaysia, since the 30th December and will be around till end of Feb before I fly back to pursue another year of Masters in Melbourne. Lots of flying (and you can bet even more eating) in between as I'll be making trips to KL, Penang as well as Kuching during this time too, w00t!

2011 really was an amazing year for me. A couple of highlights include:-

1) Summer Exchange to Singapore

(photo creds to Nguyen)

AWESOME experience! Formed amazing friendships with people from uni that I've never met before as well as our counterparts from NUS. Living in Singapore for a month was amazing.Good food everywhere and I loved the energy. It was also because of this Exchange that I got to do one less subject (WOO-HOO!) in my final semester of undergrad. It's only because of this reduced workload that I decided to relaunch this blog in August =)

2) Celebrated my 21st Birthday

(photo creds to Aun)

What an unforgettable night it was. Felt so blessed to be able to share it with 60 of my closest friends and family at an amazing venue (function room of The Metropolitan Hotel)! I was a really, really thankful because I also had several friends flying in from interstate and even more changing their air tickets just to make it for the event. Also, my friends had organised games, performances, speeches and there was even a video. Shucks, the whole night was flippin' fantastic. Even got more gifts than I've ever received. Basically, some of my friends called it a"Wedding Style" lololol. I really can't tell you how thankful I feel to have the most amazing friends ever! (Thanks SO much for everything, guys. LOVE YOU ALL!!!)

3) Adam Liaw interview for Meld Magazine

Was asked to be the official photographer for an interview that Meld Magazine was doing with Adam Liaw earlier this year. It was good and all, but DANG, you wouldn't believe what a dork I was the whole time hahaha. I couldn't help but feel so star-struck. It wasn't because I thought of him as a "celebrity", but this was one cook that I've really admired and respected for a very long time. So, meeting him in person and having him sign my cookbook was really something I'll remember for a very long time =)

4) Food Trip to KL

While I went back to Malaysia in July, I decided to stop by KL for a few days to catch up with some of my pals. Actually, that was just an excuse for me to fly there to gorge myself silly with KL food. This picture was taken over an amazing meal we had at this small Malay village that served super delicious and authentic Malay food. Loved it so much!

5) Food Trip to Sydney!

(photo creds to Ann)

Been to Sydney a few times before that for different reasons, but decided I wanted to go back for one sole reason: The FOOD! We really had a blast (over)eating during those few days and I take to heart each experience that I have with my friends. Our most memorable meal? DEFINITELY Porteño, Surry Hills... WEEE~!

6) Grad Trip to Cairns

4 years of pursuing our Engineering degree was really a tough journey. So, the group of us decided to go on a grad trip almost immediately after our FINAL exam of undergrad. Really breath-taking experience diving in the Great Barrier Reef (though no one warned us of the sea sickness!). Was also great cause we've been so burned out that we really had lots and lots of time to just chill and hang with one another. Probably the last time we got to do so before we all go our separate ways =(((

7) GRADUATION!!!

MAN. If I knew how hard this course was gonna be before I signed up, I prolly would've chosen something else. But it really is because of these bunch of guys that really made the WHOLE experience so fun and enjoyable (despite the workload) each and every day. We share so much laughter and fun conversations each time and have become so comfortable with one another. Really have grown a lot together and I absolutely love each and every one of these guys to BITS!!!

8) Became an Uncle =)

Elder brother and his wife welcomed their first newbown child in September and our whole family's lives has never been the same. This kid has brought so much joy to this family like you wouldn't imagine. I'm such a proud (and sometimes clingy lol) uncle now and I can't wait to see(and hopefully play a part in helping) this kid grow to an amazing person one day.

Finally, I really do want to thank you guys for giving me a chance to do what I do on this space. I never knew that when I relaunched The Hungry Excavator in August, I would enjoy it as much as I do now and more than that, get to know and connect with so many truly remarkable people in this community. There's a few people that I'd particularly like to give a shoutout to for helping me grow so much as a blogger the past few months.

Leaf, for always showing so much kindness to this community, your words mean more to people than you know! Christina, for being so selfless in sharing your wisdom and guidance. I have so much respect for you, thanks! Julie, a really good friend that I've come to know over the months. I hope you know much I appreciate your support and please never stop blogging! Yasmeen, one person that I always enjoy having cultural exchanges with over the Internet lol. It's friendships with people like you that make blogging such a fun and enriching experience! Hannah, dear bubbly and fun-loving Hannah. You've got such a friendly personality that you never fail to bring a smile to people's faces through everything that you do! And last but not least, Marie-Anne, for your continual support from very early on. You've been nothing but encouraging and I really do feel like I've found a long lost friend in you =). Thank you SO much for everything!!

Again, 2011 has been such a blast. But I know 2012 is gonna be so much more kick ass. Hope you're all having a smashing start to the year!! Will blog again soon!!

Peace!

Wince =)

OZKitchenware Giveaway WINNERS! =D

2012-01-03T05:47:00.001+11:00

HELLO!

What a fantastic week it's been reading all the amazing entries you guys submitted for the first ever giveaway on The Hungry Excavator, as sponsored by OZKitchenware. To be honest, it was really, really hard trying to pick just ONE winner. So many great entries to choose from!!! I really wished I could pick two or three winners, heee...

A VERY HUGE "Thank You" to every single one of you who has taken time out to browse, enter and even share the competition to your networks the past week! This giveaway wouldn't have been such a huge success if it weren't for each of you. Thanks again... I truly hope you had as much fun in doing so as I did hosting this giveaway.

But in the end, after much thought and deliberation, I have decided that the winner of the $200 OZKitchenware Gift Voucher is:

Vivian - vxdollface

*round of applause!!!!*

And here was her entry with a creative way to bless those around her with a product from OZKitchenware:

This year I've been a really good girl and would love Santa's elves at OZKitchenware to leave a crepe pan under the tree or hanging from my stocking pls :D http://www.ozkitchenware.com.a...

I would wake up early Christmas morning (even though I'm really meant to unwrap gifts on Boxing Day) and take it for a whiz to whip up breakfast for the family since mum gets up early every morning to do so ^^ CREPES FOR ALL!! All day every day xD lol. Then when friends or relatives come over, I can make them Japanese style crepes filled with strawberries, chesecake, and berry coulis (cause syrup is a no no)!

Congratulations on winning your prize, Vivian! Am sure you'll have loads of fun picking up kitchenware that you can use to continue to bring smiles to all your friends and family! ;)

ALSO, the winner of the UBER cool Scanpan Spectrum 6-Piece Steak Knife Set that was selected at random is:

Wee Xin Long

Congratulations to you as well, and thanks for "liking" both The Hungry Excavator and OZKitchenware FB pages! Now, you have a great excuse to invite your friends over for dinner just so you can show off your new steak knives! ;p

Winners, you will be contacted very shortly with instructions of how you can redeem your prize.

Thank you again everybody for participating in this giveaway the past week and also OZKitchenware for giving me this wonderful opportunity to host your competition. Hope you all have a great time enjoying the rest of your holidays!!

Cheers!

Winston =)

OZKitchenware Christmas Giveaway!!!

2011-12-19T21:17:00.016+11:00

Hello there dear friends,

EXCITING NEWS. Today, I am hosting my FIRST ever giveaway here on The Hungry Excavator. HURRAHHHHH!!! I'd like to thank each of you for all your visits/clicks since I relaunched this blog in August to bring it to where it is today. Thank you.

Just in time for the festive season, the lovely people at OZKitchenware has approached me to host a giveaway competition for them. And the prize? A whopping generous $200 Gift Voucher to spend on ANYTHING you like from their website! WAO WEEE~~! I remembered the first time that I logged on to their website and literally spent half an hour or more just browsing through all the kitchen products that I wanted to get.

I'm sure that most of you already have kitchenware items in mind that you'd like to get for your home, so this is perfect for you because $200 can go a LONG way. I know that I constantly have at least 3 kitchen products that I'd like to get off the top of my head and I don't know why. OZKitchenware is a great place to browse for kitchen items because they carry all the great brands such as Scanpan, Cuisinart, Chasseur, Global Knives, and so on. They've also set up a helpful Christmas Gift Guide, so please check that out!

But what I LOVE most about this giveaway is that it encourages people to think about how THEY can demonstrate love and generosity to those around them, all in the spirit of Christmas! So here's how you can win this awesome $200 Gift Voucher! Simply answer the following question:

"What kitchen product would I like to get from OZKitchenware this Christmas and how can I use that to bless others around me?"

To enter, simply:

Leave a comment with your answer below (try and post the link of the product so that other people who may be interested will know which product you're referring to!) by just signing in as "Guest" with just your name and e-mail. That's it! And the entry with the best answer will win!

BUT WAIT! That's not all! We are ALSO giving away this UBER cool Scanpan Spectrum 6-Piece Steak Knife Set!!! All you need to do to enter, is either:

(i) Mention @ozkitchenware on Twitter, OR

(ii) Like BOTH The Hungry Excavator and OZKitchenware Facebook pages!

How fun would it be to own a set of these in your kitchen?! I want one too!!

The winner will be chosen at random and if you're already a fan of these two FB pages, you will be automatically qualified. TOO EASY!

This competition is open to people residing in Australia only and closes on 11pm, 27th December 2011.

So what are you waiting for?! Start sending in your entries for this awesome prize. Good luck and Merry Christmas to you all!! =D

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-12-13T00:43:00.028+11:00

A REALLY delectable afternoon snack =)

This holiday so far has really been about cooking and experimenting with recipes that I didn't have the time to try during semester. Which is why I've been baking a lot recently, of all things. And if you know me, baking is seriously not my forté. I've failed so many times in the past that I'm surprised I actually let myself bake again. BUT, I'm glad I did because I must say that I am very slowly, getting the hang of it (as well as my oven) with lots of practice and helpful recipes. Also, I find that it's a great way for Mum and me to bond in the kitchen =)

Also, VERY happy to announce that I've finally tested out this Cake Flour Substitute (which I've included in a separate post) that I came across on the Internet a long time ago. And let me just say, it works AMAZINGLY WELL. Very happy with the results. Try this out next time you happen to come across a baking recipe that calls for Cake Flour =D

So, Mum's been having a number of baking adventures back in KK as well recently. Only that she does it at Aunty E's house and she couldn't stop raving about this Carrot Cake Recipe so I decided to give it a go! I LOVE a good carrot cake. Though, I wanted to do it in cupcake form because I imagined it would be more fun to eat. Also, I can't remember the last time I actually made cupcakes, so here you have it. Oh, and we've reduced the sugar, butter and squeezed out some of the carrot juice to suit our liking.

Mum e-mailed me this recipe not too long ago (during my finals, actually. LOL MUM). It was taken from a cooking class conducted by a pastry chef of a hotel in KK. Interesting. Honestly, making this recipe for myself, it really did turn out to be one of the BEST carrot cakes I've ever tasted! If I must say so myself... It's not me, it's the recipe.

It was so light and soft, but jam-packed with the sweetness of the carrots as well as the fragrance of the walnuts. Texture and flavour wise, this recipe really is an absolute winner. Also, I liked that the frosting had a higher concentration of butter, which made it almost like a Buttercream, but not quite. Easier to pipe/spread onto the cake after.

I've tried the carrot cake recipe from the Masterchef website before and though it was good, it didn't even come close. Compared to this, that one was rather stiff and a tad dry. ANYWAY, if you're looking for a really, really good carrot cake recipe, give this one a go and I promise you won't be disappointed. So easy to make, too!

Hope you get to try this out and share it with your loved ones sometime soon! Peace! =)

_________________________________

Carrot Cupcakes

(makes 24 cupcakes or 1 big cake)

Ingredients:

50g + 10g (for garnishing) chopped walnuts

250g sugar

270ml cooking oil

4 eggs

240g cake flour (or 60g corn flour + 180g plain flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cinnamon powder

340g (or 2 large) carrots, grated *

* TIP: Briefly squeeze out juice from one of the carrots. Otherwise, too moist

* Squeezing juice from 1 of the carrots

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan until fragrant, set aside. Cream sugar, oil and eggs in medium speed for 8 minutes.

Sieve cake flour, baking soda, baking powder into the mixture and fold. Add in vanilla essence, cinnamon powder, grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Fold to combine.

Line a 4 x 3 cupcake tray with paper moulds. Spoon batter into moulds until 2/3 full (or 2 scoops per mould with an ice-cream scoop). Bake for 25min or until cake tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Repeat with second batch of cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

150g cream cheese

75g butter

75g icing sugar

zest of 1 orange/lemon *

* For carrot cakes, orange goes better IMO but totally up to you =)

Method:

Cream all ingredients until smooth. When cupcake is cool, spread or pipe frosting on top. Garnish with more chopped walnuts and ENJOY =)

The PERFECT carrot cupcakes. OH! And I got a new cake stand from Big W, hur hur hur...

So, SO yummy... MMMMMM!!! =)

Cake Flour Substitute

2011-12-13T00:07:00.005+11:00

Cake Flour.

An ingredient very, very commonly used in baking recipes from the US and many Asian regions (and I guess other parts of the world, too). AMAZING ingredient to have in your pantry as it yields very soft and light sponge cakes with very delicate crumbs. Mainly due to its lower protein levels compared to the other wheat flours.

For the longest time, I've been stressing out about how come I can never find this ingredient in Australia! Fortunately, I came across a substitute from this baking forum and decided to give it a go with this Carrot Cupcake Recipe.

Let me just say, it worked SO well. Absolutely perfect!! The cake turned out so beautifully and I can now proclaim that: This cake flour substitute is true, tested and works a 100%!

________________________________

Cake Flour Substitute

Simply substitute cake flour ingredient with 1 part corn flour + 3 parts plain flour.

For example: If recipe calls for 240g cake flour, combine 60g corn flour with 180g plain flour.

Works like a charm. Hope this helps. Happy baking, all!! =)

Green Tea Cheesecake Bites

2011-12-06T17:52:00.015+11:00

"Accidental" Green Tea Biscuits

Lots of people know that I LOVE canapes or bite-sized foods. I always seem to find them more delicious because they're much more moreish when food can be eaten whole, one after another, in just one bite. Eating them by hand is a huge plus, too ;p. If it's good, I can keep popping them babies in my mouth like there's no tomorrow. Anyone share the love for canapes?

So when a mate had a potluck for his 21s a coupla months back, I volunteered two canapes for his birthday: 1 sweet and 1 savoury. And phew, was this recipe a load of work or what. It's not that it's complicated, but I had LOTS of screw ups in the kitchen that day. Fortunately, some of them actually worked even better as a result! Let me share what I've had to learn the hard way...

FIRST! Rookie Mistake Number 1: Mistaking the teaspoon measurements for TABLEspoon.(LOOOOOOOL). BUT, this was one mistake that worked well in my favour. Because of that, the green tea flavour was much more stronger and what we enjoyed most about these lovely cheesecake bites. However, I did add too much gelatin but most people didn't mind, because it wasn't that bad anyway.

Lesson: This much green tea is highly recommended

Next, mashing the biscuits into crumbs. First, smashed in ziplock bag with my hand, but found it hard because of the air pocket inside. Then, pressed them in the same bag with a small pot. BAD. The ziplock bag started having holes and crumbs spilled everywhere. Later, I got exasperated and just crushed a few at a time in a metal bowl with a pestle. PERFECT. It was really even and still crumbly, yet not too fine. Next time I did it, I tried a blender but this was an even WORSE idea. Biscuits came turned to fine powder, and we want CRUMBS. Made it totally pasty when mixed with melted butter, no crunchy texture.

Lesson: Crumb with pestle few at a time, or in cheesecloth with rolling pin

Another thing I did wrong was neglect to read the initial recommended size of tray to use. I just grabbed the massive steaming plate I had when in fact it was meant for a tiny brownie tray(smaller than an A4 paper!) which is why my first attempt turned out sooo thin. Still, lots of people enjoyed it so I decided to call them, "Accidental Green Tea BISCUITS" instead hehe.

Lesson: Read the recommended size/portion for any recipe!

Bought a piping kit for the first time for only $2.95 at Coles lol

ANYWAY, lots of errors in the kitchen that day but totally no regrets! I learned from figuring out what was wrong and also from making improvements on them. Hope you guys can learn from my mistakes too.

Was so dissatisfied with my first attempt I immediately made another batch the next day before the party despite the much effort of making another trip to the supermarket, making and cleaning again. Happy to say both seemed warmly received. Then, I made this cake again for my cousin's birthday few months later. You can also leave the whole cheesecake as it is or choose to cut them up to serve.

Whole Green Tea Cheesecake. First time decorating a cake lol hmmm...

Anyway, made lots of adjustments to the recipe and now I can't tell you how extremely happy I am with the taste, texture and quantity of the entire cake now! Also adjusted the quantity to make it more manageable, i.e. using whole packets of ingredients. Isn't it annoying when you're left with like, 2/5 or 3/8 of a packet of ingredient and not sure what to do with them after?

Finally, I've tried my best to lay out the recipe in a way that's much easier to comprehend. Just know that there are 3 main components to this cake: A) cream B) cream cheese C) green tea milk before mixing them all together.

Hope you guys enjoy this recipe! Really recommend this for your next get together/potluck as they really are quite delicious and addictive to eat! Happy cooking!! =)

_________________________________

Green Tea Cheesecake Bites

(adapted from this recipe by Raspberri Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

250g Arnotts Nice biscuits

150g unsalted butter, melted

300ml pure (whipping) cream

250g cream cheese

1/2 cup caster sugar

150ml milk

3 tbsp matcha (green tea) powder *

3 tsp powdered gelatin

* Found that Yahweh Asian Grocery sells the cheapest Green Tea powder amongst the other Asian Groceries in the CBD =)

Method:

Grease a 20cm square baking pan and line with baking paper, ensuring that two ends of the paper hangs over the edges of the tin. Place biscuits in food processor or mortar and pestle to crush (4 biscuits at a time) until fine crumbs. Stir in melted butter and mix until well combined. Press tightly into thin single layer in prepared pan and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Beat cream in a mixing bowl using balloon whisk on high, and then turn to low as cream thickens until it reaches soft peaks. Set aside.

Place cream cheese in a separate mixing bowl and beat on high until smooth. Add sugar and beat until well combined. Place gelatin in a separate bowl with 4 tbsp water. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat milk until it just comes to boil (bubbles form at inside of pot), remove from heat and whisk in green tea and gelatin powder to dissolve (make sure no lumps!).

Add C to B and beat until smooth. Fold mixture into A until even. When no one's looking, scrape some off with your fingers, lick and hear yourself go, "MMMMM...." from the delectable green tea goodness. Finally, pour mixture over crumb layer and spread evenly. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Remove from fridge and slice into equal sized squares. Top with fresh whipped cream and/or berries and serve chilled. Can be stored for two days in the refrigerator.

PERFECT for all green tea lovers out there =)

4-Day Sydney Food Itinerary

2011-12-05T18:03:00.012+11:00

Hey all,

Following up on my previous post, which wraps up the last of my Sydney posts from our trip in September, I thought it'd be nice to also share with you guys our detailed Foodie Itinerary during our 4-Day Trip.

Note, this was a result of many, many hours of research on the Internet as well as personal recommendations from dear food bloggers in the community. In the end, our list of places to eat were too long but we tried our very, very, best to fit as much as we could into those 4 days. It really was a non-stop eating trip and it was EPIC. When we weren't eating, we were just lazing around on the grass. Total fatties.

Anyway, I hope you guys find this list useful, especially if you're planning a trip to Sydney and unsure of where to eat! Cause I know that's my number one concern whenever I'm traveling somewhere: "Where and what to eat". Please do not misconstrue this as a dictation of "The Very Best of" Sydney. I have no authority to suggest such a thing. More as a guide for people planning a trip to Sydney so you don't have to take it word for word! Though, I must say that we were really, really happy with this Food Itinerary. I am merely sharing with you all food that we enjoyed when we were there and hope that you'll like them too =)

Happy eating, everybody!

Blessings,

Winston =)

______________________________

4-Day Sydney Food Itinerary

Day 1:

Lunch:

Chat Thai, CBD *

Snack:

Gourmet Food Hall, Westfield CBD

Dinner:

Porteño, Surry Hills

Supper:

Meet Fresh, Chinatown

Day 2:

Coffee:

Workshop Espresso, CBD

Lunch:

House, Surry Hills

Snack:

Bondi Surf Seafoods, Bondi Beach

Hurricane Express, Bondi Beach

Dinner:

Suminoya, CBD

Day 3:

Brunch:

Bills, Surry Hills

Snack:

Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills

Gumshara Ramen, Chinatown

Chatime, Chinatown

Dinner:

Marque, Surry Hills

Day 4:

Coffee:

Workshop Espresso, CBD

Lunch:

Din Tai Fung, CBD

Snack:

Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier, Balmain

* We actually ate at Makoto during this slot but I decided to suggest somewhere else because I didn't actually enjoy my experience there that much this time, which is why I didn't bother to blog about it too. Really unfortunate case because I enjoyed it a lot in the past that I went there 5 times in my past 2 trips (and even bumped into Guy Sebastian there once lol) but found that standards have dropped.

Maybe you can substitute this with something else you'd like to try. I hope to go to Chat Thai in December and heard so much about it. If I like it, I'll amend this Food Itinerary to that permanently. Peace! =)

Marque, Surry Hills

2011-12-05T02:49:00.000+11:00

Quaint little restaurant almost unnoticeable from the outside but charming on the inside

After weeks of planning, we've already decided very early on that what better way to end our EPIC 4-Day Sydney Food Trip than with a nice degustation dinner on our very last night at a 3 Hatted Restaurant. (Now you know where all my savings went, lol). Being a student that lives on a budget, I've never brought myself to spend such a huge chunk of my hard earned savings from my part-time job on a meal like this. That's the reason why I've never actually had a degustation dinner before until then.

As it was going to be my first time (and I doubt I'll be able to afford a meal like this again for a very, very long time, heee...), you can imagine the countless hours I spent on the Internet (at home and also in lectures looool) researching for the PERFECT place for us to go. There were lots of great choices that we considered. Tetsuya's, Est., Quay, Marque, Rockpool... You name it.

In the end, it came down to either Tetsuya's or Marque. And for a number of very good reasons, we finally went ahead with Marque, being:

1) PRICE

- Our 8 course meal (+1 for pre-dessert) was only $150 whereas most other places go up to almost $200 for their degustation or on average $120 for only 3 courses, which made this extremely worth it IMHO

2) Awarded Restaurant of the Year in 2011 by the SMH

3) French cuisine (more unusual compared to Japanese or Modern Australian)

I've been so eager to blog about this meal since I been back and I'm so excited to share with you my experience here today! Great way to wrap up the last of my Sydney posts. SO, here goes the most unique and unforgettable culinary adventure of my life! ENJOY!!!

Eager faces all-round, hur hur hur...

We took LOTS of photos of each other to entertain ourselves before the meal, lol

Complimentary Brown Rye and White Sourdough with House Butter

So good that my friend, S, couldn't stop asking for more. It was funny because the waiter was so happy to keep bringing more because he considered it the biggest compliment to them lol

Course #1:

Bonito with Foie Gras & Olive Truffle

Interesting starter! Every element brought a very distinct taste to the dish and the thin, crisp potato was a perfect shell for all of that. Bonito fish was definitely the star but everything else complemented really well. D-d-d-delicioussss...

Eating with our hands at a fine dining restaurant, yeeerp... SO GOOOD

Course #2:

Almond Jelly with Blue Swimmer Crab, Almond Gazpacho, Sweet Corn & Avruga

Man, this was amazing because the smell of the corn immediately filled the air as soon as it hit the table. The swimmer crab was SO umami sweet, best I've ever tasted. Though the mousse and custard felt almost the same, but tasted completely different in the mouth. Add the lovely jelly-like texture of the caviar, it was such a great dish overall. One of my favourites that night!

Course #3:

Yellow Fin Tuna with Campari Turnip, Ruby Grapefruit, Radish & White Soy

The Amaranth grains were actually from the Himalayas. There, the locals use it as source of protein but the restaurant bought the seeds to grow it themselves. Was a very interesting concept of a dish. How I interpreted the dish was that the star was really the Tuna, which acted as a vessel for all the other elements on the plate, each representing the flavours of the basic tastes.

Bitterness from the campari turnip and grapefruit, sourness from the round wheat, saltiness from the Amaranth grains (which were incredibly delicious, btw!), and also spiciness from the peppercorns

Course #4:

WA Marron with Paprika, Wakame, Avocado & Lemon

Already so happy from the first 3 courses, I had no idea that we were JUST getting started. This was hands down my FAVOURITE dish of the night!!! First of all, my jaws dropped as soon as the waiter presented this dish before us. One of the most remarkable food I've ever seen -- LOOK at that!

HOT-DAYUM!!!

My oh my, the marrons were sooooo good!!! And buttery too. I highly suspect that they used the French sous-vide method to prepare this because it was SO incredibly moist and succulent. The seaweed was great and chewy too without bearing too strong a flavour of the sea. The purple potato (which was thinner than paper!) was just a great accompaniment to the prawns and just looked so friggin' cool. I also enjoyed the crepe-like texture of the lemon sheets a lot too. ABSOLUTE WINNER, seriously.

Course #5:

Smoked Duck Egg with Sorrel, Green Strawberries, Tea & Toast

The herb puree was UNREAL and so was the uber delicious toasted brioche (which basically tasted like a giant crouton, lol yum). Foam was REALLY fun to eat too because it disappeared INSTANTLY in your mouth but didn't fail to leave its flavour behind. What a play of textures! Cooool... And I was thoroughly surprised, yet entertained to see the strawberries pickled this way. Enjoyed this a lot too.

Beautifully rich and viscous consistency of the duck egg yolk

Course #6:

Spatchcock with Mullet Roe, Sauteed Lettuce, Cucumber & Dill

Another mind-blowing dish! Most of us considered this one of the top dish that night too (and there were so many to choose from!). The meat of the spatchcock -- WOW!! For some reason, we didn't taste any of the fibre or rough texture even though it was the breast meat. Instead, it felt like it was all coalesced together into one piece of soft, moist meat. Amazing.

The cucumber ball and cabbage tasted damn good too, so sweet and crunchy and with that sauce, mmmm.... And foahhhhh that skin was crazy delicious and tasted FRIGGIN' good LOL!! The seawater gel really tasted like water from the ocean, coool...

Course #7:

Blackmore Grain Fed Wagyu Sirloin with Beef Tendon, Wasabi & Spring Peas

COOL way to serve the Blackmore Wagyu!!! The meat was raw and uber thin, but placed on a really warm plate just to cook it ever so slightly. The little peas were just bursting in flavour and the shards of fresh wasabi contained the smell but not really the heat of our regular wasabi, which was nice.

The meat was truly delicate and fresh with beautiful, fatty marbelisation and it's no wonder they chose to serve it like that. But, the best part of this dish really has to be the tasty, gelatinous tendon you see at the bottom left of the picture. YUM

Optional course:

Carles Roquefort, Beetroot, Guava, Rose Petals & Raspberries

Three of us decided to share this additional course between us because it sounded so interesting. The cheese wasn't as pungent but just nice actually and the crumble was delicious. Lovely~

Pre-dessert course:

Sauternes Custard

This course was complimentary and I'm glad they didn't give us your usual sorbets as a palate cleanser. This beautiful custard, which was made with French wine with rather strong alcohol on top, was perfect to soften the pellets before entering the dessert course. We really enjoyed this!

Course #8:

"Tomberries" with Chocolate Jelly & Crème Fraîche

The candied raspberry sheet were so delicate and fruity. And OMG I couldn't believe that round ball there was actually a tomato! Hence, the "tomberry" name. Totally unexpected but tasted soo good and subtle, yet rubbery on the outside. I like how the dark chocolate was nicely balanced by the syrup and crème fraîche. Interesting flavours from the chocolate, to the raspberry, crème and tomato.

Some tea to wash down the great meal

Complimentary petit fours:

Apple Ginger Pate, Salted Caramel Chocolates, Lemon Drops & Bitter Bon Bons

First of all, I love how much thought went into even the petit fours that they served. Designed to have a consistent progression of flavours from left to right. Apple ginger pate was YUM. The lemon literally bursts while the chocolate actually collapsed in the mouth.

Decided to take a picture of our very final bite of food that night, haha...

Last group photo with the Head Waiter to end our night

Final thoughts:

Really enjoyed the whole experience from beginning till end. The food was great and so was the company. But I'll be honest, some of us did think that even though the food was great, it wasn't as "WOW" because they were sorta expecting a molecular gastranomical experience. Something involving the pouring of liquid nitrogen or frozen pellets of food, that kinda stuff.

I, personally didn't see it that way at all. Every single detail was really well thought out. What I liked most is that NOTHING on the menu comes close to anything you can find anywhere else. Totally original and full of surprise, one after another. We weren't given a menu to keep us in suspense and were clueless about what we were gonna be served next! It's also great that when asked which were our favourite dishes that night, most of us had different answers.

Also thought that everything was perfect and saw that they went to extra lengths just to source ingredients from around the world, even if it's just for a tiny element of the dish. Mark of their truly well deserved 3 Hat accolade and worthy of their title of "Restaurant of the Year". Milessss ahead of all the other restaurants in the 2 Hat league.

Finally, I also noticed that even though the service that night wasn't as "formal" or "professional" as what you'd expect from a Hatted restaurant (like the ones we received from Vue De Monde or The Press Club), but I enjoyed the meal even more because of that! It felt less robotic and made the mood even lighter because they were so friendly and cheerful. We felt so comfortable that we were exchanging so many jokes with the staff throughout the night. Personally, I prefer it that way and appreciated it even more!

Looking past the "lack of liquid nitrogen & stuff" and bearing in mind that our amazing 8-course meal was only $150, you can see why I HIGHLY recommend Marque Restaurant for degustation dinners. It was so great and it's times like these that really make me count my blessings and think of my parents.

I hope you guys get the chance to dine here someday too! Take care!!

Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier, Balmain

2011-11-22T04:03:00.011+11:00

Enjoying my wonderful purchase from Zumbo outdoors, at a nearby park, with friends. Life is Good.

So, guys. SORRY I've been away the past week and a half. Even though it prolly hasn't been that long, but it felt like forever in "blogging-time". Have really missed you guys!! JUST finished my final paper for my undergrad degree and it feels GREAT. Been looking forward to this post for a long time so I'm glad to be able to share it with you guys today.

Don't worry, after this I've only got ONE Sydney post left from our Sydney Food Trip, i.e. our last degustation dinner at Marque, so watch out for that soon! But then again, I'm going to Sydney again this December with my family, and I can't wait to bring my parents to eat all the yummy stuff Sydney has to offer! The family is positively excited because we've all been looking forward to the day when we can go to Sydney together for SO long, YAY! =D (Really wish you and your family were here, Gogo!!)

Any-hoo, Zumbo. I know I've heard mixed reviews about them but I wanted to go try it out for myself. And before I went, I already knew which two desserts I wanted to try that day:

1) Passionfruit Tart (heard SO much great things about them) and

2) Pear Dessert (just cause I saw it on Junior Masterchef) ;p

View from outside the Balmain store. Short, easy bus ride from the city

Lovely display at shopfront window

Array of desserts but I already had my eye on two things hehe

DING! DING! DING! Jackpot!!

How those 2 kids (who haven't even finished primary school yet) could make this themselves, is beyond me

L-R: Rice Pudding and Salted Popcorn Macaron

Rice Pudding Macaron:

I'll be honest, when it comes to macarons, I'm more way interested in the creative flavours than their texture. Just cause most places can make really good macarons these days (texturally). Went with the two that most caught my attention =)

The powdered cinnamon really gave this rice macaron so much character. Was also pleasant to find small, sticky grains of rice in the ganache. Interesting.

Salted Popcorn Macaron:

LOVE any popcorn desserts!!! It's great how unmistakeable the smell of the popcorns were and couldn't help but feel taken back to the times I was at the movies with my friends or family. Don't you just love it when a food reminds you of good memories in the past? =) The ganache was a bit stickier, chewier than usual but I didn't mind. These flavoured macarons rose much higher and beautifully than the others there that day too =)

Two for me that day, and a box of five to bring back for some peeps in Melbourne =)

Passionfruit Tart

Let me tell you, everyone's first reaction to this was "WOW!!". We knew that it was gonna be good, but we didn't realise that it was THAT good. Flavour of the curd was really natural and just bursts in your mouth from the first instance. The curd was so smooth too. But the best part really has to be the sweet and seriously fine, crumbly yet buttery pastry. AMAZING!! I've had lots of great pastries in the past, but none can compare. This was really hands down the best pastry I've ever had in my life!

Pear Dessert

Bought this more for the novelty of eating something that wow-ed me on TV haha. Flavours: just okay but idea and execution: still very intriguing. The pear filling in the top piece of profiterole was light and flavourful and I enjoyed the slice of cooked pear in the bottom piece. The bottom chocolate hazelnut was sandy and really delightful. Overall, choux pastry was just okay, would prefer it were thinner or more chilled.

The pear placed perfectly in the centre of the bottom profiterole. Mmmm...

On a different note, I'll be leaving for Cairns to go DIVING IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF for a week for my Grad Trip with my uni friends early tomorrow morning. Woooooo-hoooooooo!!! Oh man, it's gonna be so epic. We've been through so much together the past 4 years and we can't think of a better way to end our time in uni before we all go our separate ways. Friends for Life!

Anyway, hope you're all eating well, and doing swell. Will see you all on the flip side! Ciaoooo, chicos and chicas! =D

Gonn' on Holiday~

Din Tai Fung, Sydney CBD

2011-11-12T01:32:00.014+11:00

Just a quick post today as I'm currently in the CRUX of my exams. Also apologise for not being in touch with most of you as I normally would! Just been a bit hectic... But it'll be over soon.

So, I may be stepping on some toes when I say this, but I really do think that Din Tai Fung in Sydney is actually better than (most) Din Tai Fung outlets in Singapore and Malaysia. The main reason I say this is because in Malaysia and Singapore, there's too many outlets scattered everywhere in shopping malls that the standards for each are pretty sub-par.

Unlike the one in Sydney CBD, where it's a main, centralised establishment and every person in the kitchen is highly-trained and professional at what they do. And I don't know if the chefs in the kitchen in Sydney also come from China too. The food is better prepared and more delicious in Sydney. Well, this is just an opinion drawn from my past 3 trips to Sydney's Din Tai Fung compared with my experience when I stayed in Singapore for a month earlier this year anyway. Don't be hatin'!

"Xiao Long Bao" or Steamed Pork Dumplings -- $10.80

You can't go to Din Tai Fung and NOT order the XLBs. The meat and soup inside the dumplings were flavourful and delicious as expected, and the skin was really thin. So much so that I noticed the dumplings couldn't really hold its shape. The ones in Hu Tong, however had a more firm and chewy bite without being too thick. No, don't get me wrong. I didn't mind this at all!! Merely an observation. Enjoyed this a lot, still =)

Fried Chicken with Medium Grained Rice --$13.80

I KNEW I wanted to order this even before we went to the restaurant. It's such a rockstar of a dish without being too dressed up by "sophisticated" and unnecessary things. Let's break it down:

First, the chicken. I LOVE how Taiwanese serve their fried chickens either in nuggets or as thin and flattened patties like these (and normally in brown paper bags with a skewer to pick up the meat). What makes Taiwanese fried chicken distinct is also the batter they use. Heavily seasoned with spices, sandy and contains little round crumbs all around. It really is delicious like you wouldn't believe.

Next, the rice. At the end of the day, you really cannot deny a good fried rice, no. Especially when they're done right. These "golden" fried rice is just made up of good quality rice, spring onions and lots of egg. So simple but believe me when I say it has the potential to be one of the most delicious things to eat.

Eating this with the fried chicken, I was smiling the whole way. You have to order this and enjoy it for what it is. Basically, a good fried chicken and fried rice dish. Tasty from the first to finish.

Lychee Mint Juice -- $6.50

Was a bit hesitant to order this at first because of the price but decided to give it a shot after being recommended by a friend. And boy oh boy, did I LOVE this or what! The drink wasn't too sweet but SO refreshing from the mint. Simply delicious and no wonder it's so popular. BEST drink of the entire Sydney trip, for me.

Overall, it was another great and enjoyable meal at Din Tai Fung. If you're not too sure what to order when you're there, just get what I had. Nothing but a simple fried chicken + rice dish, with a few dumplings to share, and a side of the lychee mint as a drink. Utterly, delicious! Love it so much that I really hope I get to go back and order these exact things again!

Have a great weekend ahead! Peace! =D

Watercress Soup Recipe

2011-11-06T23:07:00.015+11:00

Hi!

Before I begin, I'm super ecstatic to announce that I've finally gotten my own domain name (yayeeee~~) and have moved my site to: http://www.thehungryexcavator.com/

It's been a long time coming so I'm glad I finally moved. Also, I've just installed a new comment platform on my blog to hopefully give a more personal and convenient experience for you guys to leave your comments (which is almost always the highlight of my day, btw). Thanks for all your words all this time, I really do appreciate every single one =)

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So one of the things that I'm passionate about on this blog is re-creating recipes of food that played a huge part of my childhood (coming from a Chinese-Malaysian background) and sharing them on this blog. I hope it gives people a sense of my identity and culture through Food =)

This Watercress Soup was really one of my favourites growing up. I never liked vegetables when I was younger (up until I came to Australia, actually lol) but would enjoy them a lot if they weren't leafy or cooked till extremely, extremely soft. Which is why I love this so much. The soup is so tasty and flavourful and I loved pouring them onto my rice and could eat so much of the veggies in the soup. They're so soft, sweet and delicious.

So, if you know of any difficult children (like me when I was younger, ahem) and are having trouble with feeding them their daily dose of vegetables, I'd definitely recommend this soup hehe.

Also, a lot of Chinese-Malaysian families like mine use dried cuttlefish + pork bones for many of our pork-based soups. It really is one of the most amazing combo of ingredients for hearty Chinese soups and if you've never used dried cuttlefish before, you really should try it! I plan to share a few more soups using these two ingredients, so watch out! =D

I was a bit worried that I couldn't find dried cuttlefish in Australia but after speaking to my friends, a lovely couple who owns Yahweh Asian Grocery (in Carlton near Melbourne University), I was so happy to find that they actually ordered them right away!

This couple is one of the most generous people I know and let me tell you, the wife is one HELL of a cook. She literally whips up a storm (once, a FEAST for more than 100 people with so much delicious food I almost passed out) each time she's in the kitchen and I trust her taste and judgement a 100%. That's why I feel at ease with the products at Yahweh Asian Grocery because I know these are stuff she uses herself and approves of haha. BEST of all, the prices are almost always cheaper, if not, comparable to anywhere else. If you like, she's got a blog that she uses to share recipes with products from their Asian Grocery, so do check them out: here!

One thing I love most about this soup is how cheap it is to make one huge pot, seriously. The pork bones I got from the market for less than $2. And the watercress was another $2. Other ingredients I already had in my pantry and can all be found at Yahweh Asian Grocery or from your local Asian Grocer. So, I do hope that you give this one a try -- ENJOY! =D

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Watercress Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 bunch watercress (around 450g)

500g pork bones

10 red dates

3 honey dates

1 dried cuttlefish *

7 - 8 cups of water

Salt to taste

* These are NOT the same as the dried cuttlefish snacks. Used in cooking and can't be eaten straight out of the packet. Red and honey dates also available at your local Asian Grocer.

Go with the packet above to be safe, or feel free to e-mail me if you've got any questions =)

Method:

Bring half a pot of water to boil. In the meantime, roughly chop the watercress to about 2.5 inches lengthwise and give them a quick wash. Soak red dates in boiling water for 2 minutes before pressing it flat with a fork.

Using tongs, hold the dried cuttlefish over a stove and burn all over until fragrant (it's okay if it looks a bit burnt). Your kitchen will smell pretty amazing right about now ;p

Once water is boiling, add the pork bones and keep boiling for 5 minutes. Switch off fire, drain, and rinse thoroughly with cold water once again (to get rid of the "smell"). Fill pot with 7 - 8 cups of water and bring to boil. Add all the ingredients and simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt to taste.

Soup in Rice -- How I love drinking my soups since I was a kid hehe. Peace! =)

Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills

2011-11-01T23:14:00.023+11:00

Hey all,

Did everyone enjoy the Melbourne Cup public holiday today? I know I did =)

Anyway, I know I said that I would just do recipes for the next month but I realised my leftover Sydney posts (except for our Marque degustation) were pretty short so I thought I'd share them anyway cause it wouldn't take up too much of my study time =D So, yeah. Will be going back and forth between reviews/recipes again hehe.

After our really enjoyable lunch at Bills, we decided to take a walk around the Surry Hills area and find our way to Bourke Street Bakery (BSB) to have some tart and pastry goodness to share. It was the perfect weather anyway so I really loved the walk there, just soaking up the sun and enjoying the company I was with =)

Almost every person I know who's visited Sydney has been to BSB so I was really excited to give it a try. Thankfully we had that nice walk to give us time to digest before eating again. Here's a look at the food we ordered and really enjoyed...

Top Left: Ginger Brûlée Tart; Bottom Left: Lemon Curd Tart; Right: Rhubarb and Almond Tart

Ginger Brûlée Tart:

AMAZING! The ginger wasn't too sharp or overpowering and was just nice and faint enough like your favourite gingernut biscuits. I thought it was creative of them to use ginger in their custard. Also, I've always loved brûlée tarts more than crème brûlée because it's more interesting to eat. You get contrasting textures from the crunchy top/pastry and then the smooth, silky custard in between. YUM

Lemon Curd Tart:

This was great too I love how silky the curd looked and taste. The curd was nice and cold and had perfectly set consistency. Flavour wise, the curd was tangy and citric and had a good balance of sweetness too. Just nice mmm

Rhubarb and Almond Tart:

Yay for sweet and soft rhubarb. But what I loved most about this was the aftertaste from the almond meal mmm...

BEST thing about these tarts was how incredibly crumbly the pastry were. They reaaaaaally made their shortcrust pastry very well, delicioso~~

Before the "unveiling" of the Pie... ;p

Beef Pie

Beef chunks weren't dry or flaky, and I enjoyed the gravy in the pie as well. It's nice getting occasional bites of chunky mushroom too mmm...

Chicken, Pea, Sweet Potato and Lime Pickle Pie

As much as I enjoyed the good ol' classic Beef Pie, I liked this one sooo much more. This pie was SOOO NICE. The chicken was fantastic and moist and there were lots of pepper too. But best of all, the sweet potato gave a lovely creamy texture to the filling and had so much flavour YUUUUM. I loved it and I would definitely recommend this.

Again, the pies were really nice and flakey and I knew that my Mum would enjoy this. I always value the pastry for pies/tarts just as much as the fillings, which was what this place executed really well and what makes them so famous! Both shortcrust and puff.

We were really enjoying our day and our time in Sydney =)

Overall, lovely dining experience was shared with lovely people. To be honest, I would actually recommend people to do the same thing we did if they were to visit Sydney too, i.e. to go to Bills for lunch before taking a short walk straight to Bourke Street Bakery to enjoy some "after lunch snacks" haha...

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

To working adults: Have a great remainder to the week "post-Melbourne Cup"

To students: All the best with your upcoming exams!!

Peace!

Winston =)

Crash Hot Potatoes Recipe

2011-10-28T21:19:00.021+11:00

Like I've mentioned before, this blog is really a space for me to share my daily personal experience and joy about food, which is what I'm going to do right now.

On a normal weeknight, my meals are pretty straight-forward. I'm out all day and do MOST of my cooking at night, which is pretty much the same as what all you working folks go through each day. By then, I really only have minimal capacity to cook nothing but seriously simple dishes. I save my "experimental" cooking more for the holidays or the weekends and stick to routine on the weekdays.

Like I said, weekdays are really straight-forward but every dinner normally consists of meat/fish + veg + carbs. But different variations of each. It's just what I've been used to for dinners growing up. Then, I will decide whether I'm doing Asian or Western that night. When it's Asian night, I'd eat (lots of) rice for carbs. For Western night, it'll be potato or pasta.

I've made so much mashed potato over the years for Western night because it's one of the first few things I learned to make for myself. Even though I've done SO many variations, mash is still mash. And I'm so bored of having mash for Western night.

That's why I go to The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog for lots of ideas and inspiration to kick myself out of my rut. She shares recipes that are just as hearty and delicious as they are easy to make, with amazing step-by-step photography and food styling. Truly a remarkable woman.

So today, I invite you to try this Crash Hot Potatoes recipe that I've been making from her site. It's crazy simple and great to make if you want to change things up a bit from your usual potato recipe. You don't even need quantities in the recipe and you'll see why. Like I said, I'm quite bored of doing mash already so I will be trying lots of different things with potatoes from now.

One last thing, the recipe calls for the use of a potato masher, which I don't have. So, what I do is I pierce the taters with a wooden spatula before flattening it with the bottom of a small pot. Not ideal but heck, it works. It may scatter because the bottom is smooth and there's no grip but I just scoop them back together, easy. All good though, because those small crushed bits just gives more surface area of crunch after they're baked, which I love. But, yes. If you do have a potato masher, it's much easier and cleaner to press with.

Enjoy! =)

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Crash Hot Potatoes

(adapted from this recipe by The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes *

Herbs of choice to taste **

Kosher salt to taste

Cracker pepper to taste

Olive oil

* Make as many as you want, as long as they can fit in the baking tray

** I used Rosemary and Dill for this, fresh herbs are preferable

Method:

Preheat oven to 230 deg C. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add in as many baby potatoes as you wish. Cook until they are fork-tender. On a sheet pan/baking tray, generously drizzle with olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the pan leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato 90 degrees and mash again. If not, pierce the potatoes with a wooden spatula and make several incisions before pressing it down with a pot. Scoop potatoes back together if they scatter.

Brush the tops generously with more olive oil. Sprinkle herbs on top and crack lots of salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Baked chicken schnitzels with homemade Mushroom & Rosemary sauce, Salad and Crash Hot Potatoes

My complete "Western meal" with meat + veg + carbs. Was totally contented and happy after =)

Strawberry Lassi Recipe

2011-10-23T21:20:00.018+11:00

So... I'm taking a little break from my Sydney posts for a while even though I've still got just a few more to go (including our degustation at Marque!). But, I really don't feel comfortable rushing through it and more importantly, my FINAL exams of my entire undergraduate degree is just around the corner.

So... Forgive me if I take a little more time off this space than usual to focus on that because it's very, very important to me. After all, almost at the end of 4 hard years of going through an Engineering degree, I'm really at the final home stretch, so wish me luck!

For that reason, I will be sharing more recipes instead until my exams are over (yay!!) because I find them much easier to blog about than reviews. Again, I apologise if my posts are much shorter and I don't visit your blogs or reply comments as regularly during this time. But believe me when I say this that I am thinking of you guys and trying my best to juggle life as a student/blogger hehe.

ANYHOO, on to the recipe. I was thinking of sharing earlier recipes from my ever-growing "collection" but strawberries are on sale almost every day now so I don't want you guys to miss out!! Though, I actually wrote this up when the weather was really warm but looks like Melb's getting cloudier/wetter so I'm hoping you keep this in mind anyway when the heat wave strikes later on ;p

I bought 3 punnets of strawberries for $4 at Victoria Market (Vic Mark for short) last week and immediately knew I wanted to make this. The thing about fruits that go on sale is that they tend to be quite ripe. Which is fantastic because the flavours are sweeter BUT can be quite easily bruised and sometimes, a bit "mushy". In times like these, I firmly believe that the one of the BEST things to do with these ripe fruits is to blend them for desserts or delicious drinks such as this Strawberry Lassi instead of eating them as they are. This is to get their flavour and not the texture.

And whenever I make Lassi, I always use Greek Yoghurt instead of normal yoghurt. I just like the consistency that comes out of it very, very much. Though thick, but incredibly smooth down the throat. It's more of a personal taste but if you haven't made Lassi before with Greek Yoghurt, I suggest you try and see what I mean =)

The end result.... Amazing. I made 4 tall glasses of these which was PERFECT for last week's sunny weather. Each day that I came home, I just reached into the fridge to have one cold, mighty glass of these "bad boys" to cool myself down. Plus, I felt really healthy because everything was 100% natural and I was having such a high intake of fruits and yoghurt each day. Mum would be proud ;p

I love that feeling so if you haven't made one of these before, I suggest you try them because they're CHEAP, refreshing, healthy and takes close to no time to make -- WIN!! On a side note, feel free to use any berries/fruits that you find on sale too, they're equally as satisyfing =)

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Strawberry Lassi

(makes 5 1/2 cups or 1.4 L)

Ingredients:

3 punnets (or 3 x 250g) strawberries

500g Greek Yoghurt

1/2 cup milk *

3 tbsp caster sugar (or to taste) **

* Add more if you want to thin it out

** Add more or less according to liking

Method:

Briefly wash before removing the cap off strawberries with a knife.

Put everything in an electric blender (or use a hand blender) and pulse till smooth. Taste to adjust sweetness and consistency. Pour into glass, glad wrap the top and refrigerate before drinking.

Optional: Garnish with more diced strawberries but totally unnecessary. I did them just for the sake of photos, so no dramas =)

Sooo refreshing... Ahhh ~ =)

Bills, Surry Hills

2011-10-21T00:46:00.009+11:00

So on our third day in Sydney, we had originally planned to go to Ms G's for lunch after hearing so much about it and seeing it on Masterchef. All the excitement died as soon as we got there and realised they were CLOSED for lunch, arghhh...

After some quick thinking, one of my friend made a brilliant suggestion to go to Bills in Surry Hills instead, which wasn't too far away. Awesome sauce. So off we went on a Maxi Cab to our next destination...

And MAN, was it a good call or what. I don't know if it was cause of the dishes we ordered, but I was REALLY surprised by how much I loved everything I ate there. So, so much. Especially after the decision to go there that was due to an unforeseen circumstance. I'll be even more bold to say that it turned out to be one of the meals I enjoyed most throughout the whole trip. Let's not waste time...

Soy Piccolo Latte

Coffee was average and a bit more bitter than usual. I don't know if you can tell from the dark colour of the foam... All good though, because I really didn't mind anyway. Just an observation... =)

Sweet Corn Fritters with Roasted Tomato, Spinach and Bacon - $18.50

GREAT! The corn was so buttery and sweet. But what I loved most was that these fritters weren't too dense and made with just the right amount of flour and very crispy. In every way, these fritters were truly perfect.

And beneath that you get these roasted tomatoes which were just divine and bursting with flavour. The bacon wasn't too dry or salty too which was great. Though to be frank, what would've made this even better than it already is, was if they served this with some homemade relish or chutney too. Still, LOVED this!

Ricotta Hotcakes with Fresh Banana and Honeycomb Butter - $17.50

By golly, these pancakes were seriously lighter than air. I only hope that this photo does the dish justice when I say that they were absolutely soft, pillowy and fluffy. Served with that beautiful butter and bananas on the side, this plate of pancakes really does set the bar high for fluffy pancakes everywhere! FANTASTIC!

I love my friends for always lending me a hand and putting up with my foodie obsession despite their hunger! ;D Photo courtesy of Miss Su

Miso Glazed Salmon with Soba Noodles, Avocado, Watercress and Apple Salad - $26.00

Shucks... Another dish that absolutely had me on my knees and I do not even know where to begin to tell you why. First of all, can you please look at how PERFECTLY that salmon is cooked in the middle?!?! Especially for such a thick chunk, the taste of the salmon that was so beautiful and nowhere dry was what first caught my attention about this dish.

On top of that, I really love soba dishes, hot or cold. But preferably hot, which was what this was and it made so much sense to be paired with the salmon. The noodles were light and refreshing with bountiful toasted sesame seeds which gave the noodles extra character in terms of flavour. Not to mention the crunchy apple salad and avocados that were given in just the right proportion to compliment the fish.

I really enjoyed this dish and actually found myself nodding to myself a lot as I was eating from start to finish.... Gosh, I miss this already.

Dishes were shared amongst three of us so we could sample more food together. Do you guys do that too? =)

Thinking back, I keep wondering to myself whether I enjoyed the corn fritters, hotcakes or salmon dish more? What a wonderful debate to have with myself, right? And honestly, I can not decide. They were each fantastic in their own way and I truly hope that they maintain their standard every time. Huge bummer if they don't.

Oh and another thing, I was having brekkie with a friend about 2 weeks ago and he actually mentioned that this restaurant was owned by none other than Bill Granger himself! WHAT?! (FYI, all opinions formed on the day prior to my knowledge of this)

To be honest, I don't even know what Bill Granger looks like or who he actually is. I've only seem his name on the Internet in all the amazing recipes I've come across through Blogs and Facebook, but his recipes really speak to me. From what I've seen, his ideas and execution of food is really what sets him apart, and I don't know even own his cookbook. He takes simple, every day ingredients and presents them in a huge variety of simple, delicious manner. I should really pick up his cookbook and cook my way through it because I have no doubt that it's a great addition to have in my home.

ANYWAY, all the Bill Granger talk aside, I don't think the food we ordered were very uncommon. However, the execution was just impeccable and what brought it home for me. I enjoyed this meal a lot and I hope you will too (that's to say if they maintain their quality, at least). Oh, and my friend shared with me this link of 50 things to eat in Sydney and guess what? The Corn Fritters from Bills made it to No. 14 -- IMPRESSIVE!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

If you'd like to talk to me, I'm active on:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thehungryexcavator

Twitter: http://twitter.com/winceeee

Come say HI! I'm always keen to connect with people through social media =D

Suminoya, Sydney CBD

2011-10-17T20:17:00.028+11:00

G'day everybuddy!

How's everyone doing? Well, I hope! So, Suminoya was one of the few meals that we were particularly excited about prior to the our Sydney trip. I mean, we were doing a Food Trip and what better way to celebrate that than to go for an all-you-can-eat Buffet. And not just any buffet... A JAPANESE buffet... Well, Japanese BBQ Buffet to be more exact. Yeaaaaaaa boy.

I was actually talking to a friend who recently moved to Melbourne after growing up in Sydney his whole life about places to eat, and one of the places he mentioned was Suminoya. My eyes lit up O_O. I actually remembered this place when I was in Sydney about 3 years ago! A friend brought us there for dinner on our last night that trip and it was GREAT. At least, from what I could remember. I immediately decided that we HAD to go there for dinner again! Even though I hadn't heard about this from food blogs or Urbanspoon.

Honestly... SO glad we did because it was actually better than I remembered it! Thank goodness... This restaurant is tucked away in a tiny alleyway just adjacent of Martin Place in the CBD. Price per person is either $41 or $49, the latter being more extensive with an additional page to the menu, which includes sashimi. You can check out the full menu: here.

We went with the $49 one because we came all the way so, "why not"? It was steep but we really did feel we ate our money's worth. Seriously.... We ate a LOT.

View of one side of the restaurant

Starters:

Salmon Sashimi

You know how when you go for buffets you normally try to eat the most expensive/valued dish you can find? That means lots of seafood and the most expensive meat you can get. Yeeeeeerp.... Sashimi is usually one of them and let's just say that we ordered a LOT of these...... Hur hur hur... We're Asians in that way ;p

Prawn Salad

Prolly the one and only veggie dish we ordered that night. Even then, it was shared. It was okay, not bad. Your usual greens with a few slices of tomatoes and a couple of tiny pieces of fried prawns.

Rice:

Eel Rice

Pretty good. Nice to eat and accompany the mains with...

Bibimba

No sauce... =(

"Salmon Flakes" Rice

Was okay. Tasted alright but a bit dry to eat (no sauce with the flaky fish)

Soup:

Beef Rib Kuppa Soup or Udon

Not sure what the name means but quite forgettable hmm...

Egg Kuppa or Soup

Simple broth with egg flowers and rice. I love eggs.

Mains:

Ox Tongue

SO GOOD! You have no idea how many rounds of these we ate....

Scallops

We like scallops...

Shabu Shabu Style Pork Loin

Nice, thin and delicious cut of meat. But we were more interested in the beef that night...

Chicken Gristle

Curious to try this. Wasn't sure what gristle was until we realised it was the cartilage. I normally love any cartilage but this was still a bit hard because it wasn't cooked or stewed as long until tender soft. BBQ-ing them seemed a bit weird...

Mushrooms and Beef Harami

Not enough fats in the beef haha...

Pork Sausage, Pork Ribs and Beef Rib Fingers

Guys... Out of all the things that we ordered that night, those beef rib fingers (whatever they were) were hands down my FAVOURITE!!! Ox tongues were a close second. I was really surprised by how tender it tasted as soon as I put them in my mouth, as were my friends. They had good marbelisation in the meat and you wouldn't believe how good the meat tasted from the little grains of fats in them. When nicely charred and cooked to your liking... Seriously, AMAZING! We immediately ordered 5 more plates of these (and many more after that) as soon as we had the first bite.

The sausage was surprisingly nice too cause after they were grilled, the skin was so dry and crispy but the meat remained moist and chewy. Mmm =)

MORE Ox Tongue

Garlic Prawns

Cooked on the grill in the plate it came in. It was Butter. Garlic. And prawns. That's all I need to say.

FIRE!!! Can you imagine how good the meat tasted after that? It needs direct contact with fire like that to be charred to PERFECTION

One of my many, MANY ox tongues that night. While I could still be bothered taking pictures

The beef rib fingers I was telling you about. SO delicious. Had a BUTT load of these as well.

More beef rib fingers, eel rice, chicken gristle and shabu shabu pork MMMM

Dessert:

Green Tea Ice-Cream

Not a huge matcha or green tea fanatic but I liked this. Especially loved that it came with a tiny bit of red beans and CORN FLAKES. Really, really enjoyed the corn flakes in the ice-cream, actually.

Lemon Sorbet

PERFECT palate cleanser. Not too sour and I liked that it was shaved super fine. Really great way to end the meal.

OVERALL, what I really enjoyed most about the food in Suminoya was not just the quantity, but the QUALITY. Honestly, I was quite surprised by it. Really top notch and not everywhere maintains this standard, especially when it comes to buffets. Quite consistent seeing as it was still just as good even after 3 years. We just kept going for rounds after rounds of the beef rib fingers, ox tongue and sashimi it was crazy. We loved it so much.

As for dining experience, I must warn that the whole restaurant was seriously smokey. So many BBQs. Don't come unless you're like us who didn't mind the smoke and even smelling like it after our meal. We expected it already. Also, the restaurant has a strict time frame policy. You can only order for 60 minutes but allowed to eat for 90 minutes.

Despite the strict policy, we really still enjoyed our dinner because the food was SO good. Also, the time frame isn't actually as bad or short as you think. But then again, we were ordering, cooking and eating non stop the whole time so we were quite happy with the time. Really enjoyed this meal and if you're looking for a good place for Jap buffet or are into Jap BBQs, you'll definitely love this!

Happy eating and take care, every one! =)

Orange Butter Cake Recipe

2011-10-11T17:43:00.027+11:00

Harrow...

So while I was trying to decide on which of my recipes to post today, I realised that I've been sharing a lot of Asian recipes lately. I'm not complaining (and hopefully you're not, too ;p) but a change would be good. Starting with quite possibly, my all-time favourite, feel-good cake: The Orange Butter Cake.

For some reason, I'm not very much of a Dessert person, seriously (which is sad to say, sorry!!). I actually struggle to finish a whole slice of chocolate cake, cupcake, muffin or more than one macaron... My sugar tolerance is just lower than most and I feel full from desserts relatively quickly and I don't know why. That said, it doesn't mean I don't appreciate a good dessert, I really do. I just eat less of it.

But then again, there's certain types of desserts that I REALLY enjoy and can eat a lot of. I hope to share them all on this blog, eventually. And Orange Butter Cake is definitely one of them. Even friends that I know who aren't really into desserts enjoy this cake a lot. Boy oh boy, you have no idea how much Butter Cake I can eat especially when they're fresh out of the oven, warm and still crusty. Generally, I enjoy less sweet, light or warm desserts.

Mum wrote down this recipe for me on a piece of paper about a year ago. Though to be honest, I wasn't very sure about whether or not I should be sharing this recipe because it's such a common cake and I'm sure everyone's already got their own favourite good old-fashioned, classic Butter Cake recipe already. And there's not much variations across all of them anyway. Another thing, baking is SERIOUSLY not my forté. But, I've been making an effort to learn and improve in that department =)

But I guess that's besides the point. All I really want is just to share with you things that I love to eat. And also, what I LOVE to use when I'm baking this cake, i.e. Homemade Butter (!!!!). Ever since I bought homemade butter from Victoria Market for the first time about 3 years ago, I've never looked back. It is soooo much more fragrant and better in flavour than even the more "premium" brands, such as Lurpak or President. You have to try it for yourself to know what I mean.

But more than that, it is almost half the price. Only $10/kg which means my usual 2-stick-block of butter is only $2.50. How friggin' cheap is that?! Good for my student wallet. I buy it all the time and use it for everything now. Unless, I've run out and it's inconvenient for me to go to the market, then I would get butter from the supermarket. But, yeah. Please try buying homemade butter if you've never done so before. It makes a HUGE difference in recipes, such as this Orange Butter Cake and the aroma just comes through so beautifully with this cake =)

"Curds & Whey", where I normally buy my butter from in the deli section of Victoria Market

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Orange Butter Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter (softened) *

175g caster sugar

200g self-raising flour (sifted + 1/2 tsp salt)

5 eggs (separated)

zest and juice from 1 large orange **

* Use the best butter you can find

** I normally prefer my Butter cakes more crumbly and fine. Some people prefer their butter cake moist. For that, use 2 large or 3 small oranges instead of one (as per picture below)

If prefer Classic Butter Cake, omit oranges altogether

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 deg C. Line a bread baking pan/20cm square cake pan with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Drop in egg yolks, one at a time until well combined. Stop beater.

Fold in half the flour, orange juice and zest until well combined. Fold in remaining flour, orange juice and zest. Beat egg whites until soft peaks formed. Fold in egg white to get smooth consistent batter (do not over-fold!). Pour into baking pan and bake for 45 minutes (or test if skewer poked through the cake comes out clean). Rest on wiring rack for 10 minutes.

Optional: Dust with icing sugar after cake has cooled. Just to look purrty.

Baked sometime last semester at 11pm during a midnight cake craving after watching Masterchef lol

Baked for family when I was back in Malaysia during Winter

Baked about a month ago as an afternoon snack when my friends came over to study =)

Moist version with larger granules didn't rise as high but more orange flavour and still just as yummy

This Orange Butter Cake was really the first cake that I actually baked successfully all by myself (phew!). If you're a beginner baker like me, I definitely suggest you to try this recipe out too. Good luck! =D