Third Wave Cafe, Prahran

Beef Ribs - $25.00

Russian Sampler Plate - $26.90

Admittedly, this mushroom parcel thing was fantastic

I was invited by Third Wave Cafe to come drop by their newly opened cafe in Prahran. I took Mum to the tasting as well as she happened to be in town during that time. Our experience when we walked in was pleasant. Greeted with a large sea of natural light that filled the entire room. Not bad.

Our meal was off to an alright start. Chose the ribs cause that sounded delicious and also decided to try the Russian platter because we don't think we've seen anything like that anywhere before. We asked the waiter to explain the elements in the Russian platter because they weren't in English and we didn't know what they were. He couldn't tell us as well because he didn't know. Never mind. Ribs were a tad dry but we were quite forgiving as it was a huge chunk, which is always hard to keep moist. 

Very unfortunately, the meal took a sour turn when the waiter made a rather rude remark to us. He asked how we found the food. We were honest to say that we found the food to be quite enjoyable (despite the tough and dry beef) with the slight exception of the Russian dumplings. The skins were WAAAY too thick -- just thick flour, little filling and barely any sauce on top. When we expressed politely that our preference was for it to be slightly thinner (since he asked for our honest opinions anyway), he replied by saying "Well, these aren't meant to be like Chinese dumplings anyway." Wow........... Just, WOW. I don't normally get offended by things but this really struck a chord. Mum and I looked at each other in disbelief. What? Just because we're of Chinese heritage our minds are so narrow that we can't appreciate any dumplings that isn't from our culture? Okay, even though I've never been to Eastern Europe myself but I did have the Russian dumplings made by a true Russian at Pelmini Kitchen which was literally a 3min walk down the road from there at the Prahran Market. Now, THOSE ones were incredible and I recommend people to try next time you're at the market. Everything about them was delicious, nothing like the one at Third Wave.Whatever. This waiter obviously didn't know what he was talking about because on a separate occasion we asked if they made their own house jam. He told us that they did but we later realised it was clearly store bought as we had to break open a seal and there was a label from the supplier. WHATEVER, GUY.

Without being too touched by the previous remark, I tried to maintain completely objective about my thoughts on Third Wave Cafe. I still didn't really like the place. Why? There were 8 pages and almost 70 food items in that menu... Seriously?? Too much!! There was so damn much to go through that we scanned the menu so quickly that we weren't really processing what they had. It's like they put everything they could think of under the sun in the menu. Everything gets lost.

Honestly, what this does is make it hard for people to identify what the specialties are. You know, dishes that as soon as you see it just jumps straight out of the page. And trust me, most truly successful restaurant always has that 1 or 2 dish that everyone just raves about... Specialties. 

In fact, I couldn't even tell what type of restaurant they were. There was American... Australian... Middle Eastern... Russian... Mexican... Etc etc etc. I don't think any business can truly strive if they don't have any focus. It really did give me a sense that they weren't sure what they were doing. I mean, what is their identity? I don't believe that any establishment that fails to possess an identifiable value proposition to the customer segment will ever succeed. For example, imagine coming across a sign that says, "Hi, we make good Chinese, Mexican and African food. Come try.". Would you want to dine there? I sure as hell wouldn't.

To be honest, they really could have done much better with the Russian Platter if they handled themselves better. That dish definitely piques a lot of interest (which is a good start to begin with) and with the right approach, it can really create a strong identity because it's good to be famous or known for something. Branding. Too bad they failed to explain and execute the dish when we were there.

Like I said, I remain completely objective about my experience of Third Wave as most of it had nothing to do with that comment. Price is fair for its portion. But the food wasn't anything I would rave about. Yes to mushroom parcel only but no to dry and tough meat or chewy dumplings, thanks. Plus, they've lost my interest with their lack of focus in their vision for their cafe. Oh, and better treatment and language from a staff that actually knows what they're talking about would be much appreciated too.... Just sayin'

Disclaimer: Winston dined as a guest of Third Wave Cafe. All opinions are honest and based on own personal experience at the time.

Spending Christmas and New Year in my Hometown

The spread I prepared for my family for Christmas Day lunch

As you might've seen if you follow me on Instagram (@winceeee), I spent 3 weeks over the Christmas and New Year holiday to visit my family in Kota Kinabalu (KK), Malaysia. It has been years since my WHOLE family has been back together at the same place/time and the last time that happened was during my brother's wedding several years ago. Since then, we've had a new addition to the family: my little nephew Aiden =)

It was a really cherished time for me. I had lots of time to reflect on various aspects of my life over the break. 2013 was definitely the most unforgettable year yet. Starting full time at a job that I love, meeting so many new friends (whilst saying farewell to many) whilst continuously sharing my passion for Food with others. I've had so much fun but taking time off really allowed me to reevaluate how I can continue to lead a more positive life in as many ways possible. Hopefully, this positivity will spill over to those around me as well. 

Anyway, it was a really blessed and fulfilling holiday and I loved every minute of it. So much has happened (and was eaten) but here's just a snapshot of some meals I had at home as well as snippets from a few family road trips that we took.

Christmas Lunch:

Once again... Easy Roast Pork with Crackling. I highly recommend people try out my recipe for roasting the pork with milk -- the jus is incredible! 

Check out my recipe: here

Smoked Chilli Mussels that I bought from Dannes Delights in Victoria Market

Garden Salad

Tasty Lamb Stew with Pasta. Recipe to come.

Winter Solstice Festival (冬至) Dinner

Mum's Ham, Abalone and Kailan Jade Chicken. Recipe to come.

Mum's Braised Chicken, Mushroom and Sea Cucumber in Superior Sauce. Recipe to come.

Sister's Glutinous Rice Balls with Peanut Filling in Ginger and Pandan Syrup

Road trip to Keningau

BEST Char Siew or Chinese Roast Pork in my life. Fantastical. 

Mixed Pork in Chinese Yellow Rice Wine Soup

Mixed Pork in Preserved Cabbage, Tomato and Tofu Soup

Mixed Pork in White Pepper Soup

Dry Bak Kut Teh

(All meals above were from Restoran Lima Ribu 5000 in Keningau)

Grilled Fish with Sambal

Seafood Curry

Road trip to Tamparuli

Steamed Pumpkin Bun

Imperial Pork Chops (排骨王)

Stir fry Mixed Pork

Crispy Fried Whole Chicken

Tamparuli Noodles

New Year's Day Lunch

Roast Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Anchovies

Another simple meal I prepared for my family 

Buttery Mash with Fried Onions and Mushroom

Adapted from my Buttery Mash Recipe: here

Buttered Red and Purple Carrots, Cauliflower, Peas

On a separate occasion, Mum made the most delicious Baked King Tiger Prawns with Garlic and Cheese. It was crazy good and the size of my entire hand

Hope you're all of to a smashing start to 2014. Happy New Year!

For a snapshot of what a festive dinner is normally like in my family as prepared by Mum, click: here

For a snapshot of what the food scene in Kota Kinabalu is like, click: here

Operator 25, Melbourne CBD

A few months ago, I got an email form the owners of Operator 25 asking if I wanted to come by and try their brunch menu sometime. I do enjoy getting invites like these because they always give me an opportunity to really chat with the owners or visionaries behind these establishments. Always a joy to hear their stories. It was quite generous of them to let me take 3 other friends to dine for free. Together with my good friends Kel, Sarah and Devon, the 4 of us stopped by Operator 25 one pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Located at a nice, quiet street in the CBD... Like

When we arrived, we were greeted by one of the partners, Val, who showed us to the table they had reserved for us. The fitout was pleasant. Obviously newly renovated but still had its charm.

I enjoyed the coffee we had and felt like we were off to a good start.

I like seeing nice flower arrangements at cafe tables...

Baked Eggs with Great Northern Beans, Chorizito, Goats Curd and House- made Corn Bread - $18.00

House Benedict with Cold Smoked Salmon, Potato Rosti, Poached Eggs and Chives Hollandaise - $18.00

Heirloom Tomatoes, Pan Fried Potato Gnocchi, Black Olive Tapenade, Goats Curd and Parmesan Crisps - $16.00

House Suckling Pig Burger - $ 19.50

with Savoy Cabbage, Balinese Marinated Pork, Chilli Mayo, Coriander on Brioche Bun with Sweet Potato Fries and Pork Crackling

As soon as I saw the menu, I knew immediately that we HAD to order the Balinese suckling pig burger. Everything sounded good but this dish really jumped out of the page. It was the only item in the menu with an oriental twist. One of the owner who was chatting with us explained that this was because one of the chefs was from Bali and wanted to share a dish inspired by his hometown. I like this personal connection that the chef had with this dish, which he wanted to share with the rest of us.

Pork crackling...!! Such a cheeky addition

I think every successful restaurant needs to have at least a signature dish and I believe this Balinese pulled pork burger is it. The burger was seriously delicious. Every mouthful was a delight with strong Indonesian flavours, which we enjoyed. The sweet potato fries on the side was perfectly crunchy and sweet. So good especially when dipped in that aioli. Plus, I found the tiny piece of pork crackling that they placed on the plate to be so cheeky and fun. 

The only other comment I will make was that I kind of preferred for the bun to be grilled or toasted slightly. The reason was because the pulled pork was soft, blanched lettuce was soft and was overall quite a soft burger to eat. Having that crunch from a toasted bun would've added a completely different element to the dish, which I believe would've complemented the other ingredients well. But hey, that's just my personal preference.

Coconut and Tonka Bean Sago, Mango Curd, Mango Cubes and Pistachio Crumbs - $9.00

That aside, the other dishes were tasty too. Baked eggs had a number of dimension of flavours, which worked well together and was great to have with the corn bread. The pan fried gnocchi with tapenade reminded me of a similar dish I made a few months ago. Very fresh and colourful. Good vegetarian dish. We enjoyed the house benedict but did find the hollandaise to be rather salty that day. The dessert had all our favourite things in one (mango, coconut milk, sago) and was just a great finish to our meal.

To sum up, my friends and I definitely enjoyed our meal at Operator 25. Even though, there were some minor items that I felt could've been improved, it was still a delicious meal overall. Melbourne has been notorious for not having enough brunch places in the CBD so I'm very glad to see Operator 25 fill that hole in the market. Good menu, food and location. Personally, I actually enjoyed the food here a lot more than The Grain Store (which I found to be a little too complex for my liking). The team at Operator 25 are doing a great job and I hope they keep up the good work. Definitely look forward to coming back again soon.

Disclaimer: Winston and friends dined as guests at Operator 25. All opinions are honest and based on own personal experience at the time.

Dad's Grilled Chicken Wings (with Chinese Rose Wine & Five Spice Powder)

I live alone in Melbourne so I actually do think about my family a lot, especially when I'm cooking for some reason. I often think, "Oooh, I think Mum & Dad would enjoy this" or "Oh man, what's that dish that Mum used to make and how do I make it again?"

Most people would already know that I would choose ANY homecooked meal (even if it's as simple as having a simple onion omelette with rice) over eating at a restaurant any day. I do honestly think my love for homecooked meals is stemmed from how I was raised. Almost every single day (even up until the time I finished high school), we would wake up to a nice, hot, cooked breakfast waiting for us in the kitchen. Our breakfast would often be accompanied by freshly made juices or soya bean milk every morning. Yes, soya bean milk from scratch. 

Then, we would have a small container of food to bring to eat at recess in the morning. After that, we also had freshly cooked food from home delivered to us during lunchtime. And finally, we would also come home to another great homecooked dinner at the end of the day. Dinner every night was always deliciously well balanced. There would always be at least one meat, one fish, one veg, one carb (rice, duh) and also a soup. 

To cope with all of this, we had helpers growing up. Mum has always been a great cook but she also had a very busy career so only cooked on special occasions and relied on the helpers we had to run the daily chores. She normally teaches our helpers how to cook the food and then leaves it up to them to do it.

I have always felt very fortunate about my childhood. But I definitely am not spoilt. I don't take for granted any of their hard work and appreciate it very much. It is also because of this that I too have been so inspired to have well balanced homecooked meals as much as I can (often even after a long day). And I too, want my kids to have the same upbringing as I did. Also, I really do enjoy cooking for others as well because I want to bless others with the same blessing I received growing up.

Whenever we're in Malaysia, Mum definitely looks after the cooking. On the other hand, Dad takes charge when he's in Melbourne. Mum and Dad absolutely loves going to the market every single morning to buy fresh food to cook for dinner that night. Dad gets so excited by all the sights (and prices) of the food at the market and cannot help but feel so inspired to cook. He never plans what he's making and it's different almost every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We only eat out on weekends whenever Mum and Dad are in town. Dad really does love cooking so much when he's in here that he can be in there for hours and I've caught him humming to himself while he does it. It's really cute.

Now you see why I really do take after my parents in many ways including their love for food (and nutrition) and also their enthusiasm towards homecooking.

Okay, enough about my life story. Dad created this dish one evening when he was in Melbourne when he was just being adventurous with things he could find in my pantry. It was so delicious that I requested for him to make it for me and my friends several times after that.

After my parents left Melbourne, I still couldn't help but crave these chicky wings that Dad made. It was such an interesting mix of flavours, like nothing I've ever tasted before but it was SO delicious. The key ingredient is the Chinese Rose Wine (玫瑰露酒), which I bought when I made Char Siu or Chinese BBQ Roast Pork from scratch for the Chinese New Year Dinner I prepared earlier this year (see the blog post: here!). 

I love Dad's recipe so much that I've started making it a lot whenever I have friends over for dinner.

This Chinese Rose Wine can be found at a well stocked Asian Grocery and is mainly used in Pork and Chicken dishes -- delicious!! 

This was taken when Bryan, Jo, Luke and I would have our occasional simple potluck catchup dinners. This was taken when it was my turn to host our potluck =)

2 months ago, I also decided to cook for my neighbours who all had exams every night for a week. This was one of the dinners I prepared. 

We had Dad's chicky wings, Chinese beetroot soup, steamed egg custard topped with pork mince, steamed pomfret, fried iceberg lettuce. 

Just over the weekend, I had a #chickenpotluck with my dear friends I-Hua and Aaron (who were the generous hosts!), Shellie, Bryan and Jo. It was a very fun night of food and laughs

As you can see, I really do love cooking Dad's chicky wings. It's very different, which makes it fun to share but still utterly delicious. I remember my Dad every time I make this and often can't help but share a little story about Dad to the people I'm making this for.

Besides that, it's seriously easy to make. Quick to cook and close to no effort required. I often make this as part of the meal when I am busy preparing other dishes when having people over for dinner.

Hope you give this a go too!

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Dad's Grilled Chicken Wings (with Chinese Rose Wine and Five Spice Powder)

Ingredients:
1kg chicken wings
1/2 tbsp five spice powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese rose wine *
1/2 tsp salt

* May be substituted with Chinese rice wine

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl or tray. Cover with cling wrap and leave it to marinate in the fridge overnight. 

2. Take it out from the fridge a few hours before cooking to turn the chicken wings before placing it back into the fridge until ready to use.

3. Preheat oven to 200°C. Remove the chicken wings from the fridge and place on a wire rack on a tray. 

4. Bake skin side up for 12 minutes. Turn the chicken wings. Bake for another 10 minutes. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.