Agent Hippo

Go ALL BLACKS!!!

2011-10-20T11:48:00.000+13:00

Last week, All Blacks met Wallabies in the RWC2011 semi finals, and All Blacks managed to win the game with 6 (Wallabies) to 20 (All Blacks). The whole New Zealanders were partying after the win as according to the news.

Meanwhile myself and my partner were watching the game from our cosy living room without the disturbance of people blocking the screen as compared to you watching it outside at any other places.

This coming Sunday is the final of Rugby World Cup 2011 in Eden Park, Auckland. All Black will be playing against French!

Who will be the WINNER?

Every New Zealanders will definitely wants their country to win the World Cup as they have waited since 1987, where the All Black won the first Rugby World Cup. That was about 24 years ago. There's no wonder it NZ is being described as the Land of Long Wait by the newspaper. Even the Steinlager did an advertisement specially for the world cup featuring the long await winning moment by one of the All Black supporter. Watch it from the Youtube. The advertisement really resembles the much anticipation by the New Zealanders.

Hence let's hope for the best that All Black will win the Rugby World Cup 2011!

GO ALL BLACKS!!

Rugby World Cup 2011 Opening Night in Auckland City - 9th September 2011

2011-10-11T15:02:00.000+13:00

This year, New Zealand is hosting the Rugby World Cup event throughout the country. Therefore there were a few opening night events happening around the country. Of course, the main one was at the Eden Park stadium where the first game kicks off with All Black vs Tonga at 8.30pm. Apart from that, Auckland City did had some activities going on too.

Therefore, my partner had taken a day off from work to bring me down to the city to experience the once in a lifetime experience of Rugby World Cup 2011 Opening night in Auckland city. This is a big hit thing in New Zealand because the New Zealanders are so passionate about rugby. All Black is a men's national rugby union team that represents New Zealand in international rugby union competitions. It is also one of best team around the world. Therefore, we went down to the city early in the morning to avoid the heavy traffic.

As we walked along Queen's Street that afternoon, we saw a lot of Tonga's and All Black supporters down in the city. There's one particular MPV that created noise along Queen's Street as it drove down to downtown. The MPV was covered with lots of Tonga's flag and it honk it's way down.

By the time we were at the Quay Street, it was around 12.30pm, and there were already quite a lot of people queueing up at the entrance to the Queen's Wharf. Since the Queen's Wharf only opens at about 4pm, we adjourned to our usual place, Barabra cafe, for some coffee and drinks.

Sitting by the cafe, we managed to watch some rehearsal going on before the opening night. The rehearsal includes paddling Waka boat, dancing and music playing on one of the ship.

When it's about 3pm, the whole area was already jam packed with a lot of people. Especially at the Queen's Wharf and Princess Wharf, where we were that time. Before that, we actually planned to go over to Queen's Wharf to witness the opening, but due to the amount of people around the city, we decided to just station ourselves at Barabra cafe till the end of the opening event.

The opening event started with arrival of Maori's Waka boats moving from the Princess Wharf to the Viaduct Basin. Once the event started, all area was jam packed with people. I couldn't even get a glimpse of the Waka Boats till I actually climbed up the sofa's arm at Barabra's Cafe. Just look at the amount of people through the picture below and you will know what I mean. Besides, if you did watched the news previously, you know how much people were there.

Only by climbing up at the sofa's arm, I managed to catch a glimpse of the Waka boat's movement to the Viaduct Basin. Besides, with that, I am able to take some clear photos without the crowds' heads.

There were also a lot of boats sailing out at the Viaduct Habour to get a better view of the opening night event activities, by looking at the photo above.

After that, I walked out from the Princess Wharf to catch a glimpse of how's the crowd like outside at Quay Street, while my partner still sitting down at Barabra cafe to save ourselves a seat throughout the night. All I saw was crowds and crowds of people everywhere.

The whole Quay Street was jam packed with people.

There's a lot of people at the PWC building and also above the HSBC building.

There's also some that would just climb up onto the bus stop's roof to catch a glimpse of the activities at Quay Street.

All in all, the city was packed with thousands and thousands of people. You can also have an aerial view of that day through the TVNZ website (http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/aerial-video-fans-pour-into-auckland-cbd-1-46-4394682).

Then at about 8pm, the sound and light show comes to live featuring Auckland's biggest and brightest fireworks and light show set to music composed specially for the occasion by Don McGlashan. There's fireworks from the Auckland's Sky Tower and also from the Viaduct Habour.

Once the fireworks ended, we walked back to our car and leave the city before everyone moves back home again. By the time we're home, we still managed to catch the second half of the game that night.

It was an eventful day.

Thai + Malay?

2011-08-27T23:41:00.000+12:00

Sometimes having to cook at the kitchen every day can makes you ran out of idea what to cook. After looking through the ingredients that were available in the fridge, I had decided to make pandan chicken.

Preparing and marinating the pandan chicken is easy. But it's not easy to wrap the chicken with the pandan leaves, especially if you would like to wrap it into a triangle shape. It was my first time making it, I am not able to wrap into a triangle shape as per what the Malaysian restaurant also does. I only manages to wrap it like a pentagon shape due to the small frozen pandan leaves that I can get here from New Zealand.

The usual way to cook pandan chicken is to deep fried it to enhance the flavour from the pandan leaves. However, this time I opt for a healthier version that was to bake it. It turned out to taste as good as the deep fried version minus the oiliness.

Meanwhile, my partner had managed to get a Malay version food - "tempeh" at an Asian grocery store nearby. Therefore, he was in charge in cooking the vegetables of the day, which was stir fried round beans with chillies and "tempeh".

My partner refer "tempeh" as the Malay version of blue cheese. Why? This is because "tempeh" is actually a soy product whereby it gone through the fermentation process which provides a firm texture with an earthy flavour as it ages. However, once you had cooked it, the "tempeh" become soft and the fragrance of it changes.

Hence that night, we had a Thai dish and Malay dish combination as dinner. Is it weird? No, I don't think so. It blends well for me.

Pandan Chicken Recipe

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3 skinless and boneless chicken thigh

1 1/2 tablespoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon palm sugar

2 teaspoon fish sauce

2 teaspoon cooking oil

1 stalk lemon grass

3 shallots

4 kaffir limes leaves

5 cloves garlic

2cm ginger

Pinch of salt and white pepper

Method:

1. Grind lemon grass, shallots, kaffir limes leaves, garlic and ginger until it is fine and evenly mixed.

2. Then add in turmeric powder, fish sauce, palm sugar, vegetable oil, salt and white pepper into the mixtures and mixed in evenly.

3. Marinate the chicken with the mixtures for at least 2 hour. Preferably to marinate it overnight.

4. Wrap the chicken with pandan leaves.

5. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celcius.

6. Bake the wrapped chicken in the preheat oven for 20 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Penang Style Chee Cheong Fun

2011-08-23T10:00:00.075+12:00

It was a day in a week where we will make a simple meal or a meal that doesn't involves rice. Last week, I decided to make Penang style chee cheong fun. It took me awhile before being able to successfully making a nice and proper chee cheong fun. And finally I managed to conclude to a few important tips that helps in making the chee cheong fun successful.

Tips:-

1. Make sure using a proper steamer to ensure the water is always boiling at a constant temperature.

2. Recommended to use a square tray instead of round to ensure the chee cheong fun has the same thickness after it is being rolled.
3. Make sure the chee cheong fun is thoroughly cooked and cool before rolling it up.
4. Rest the mixtures for an hour.
5. Constantly stirring the mixtures before pouring it into the tray for steaming.
6. Use a baking spatula to remove the chee cheong fun from the tray. It is easier as the baking spatula is quite flexible.

I managed to pick up the few tips after a few failures attempt. The more I made, the better it becomes. However, making chee cheong fun took me quite a few hours to get everything done as I was making 6 portions of share. But it is interesting to pick up the few tips. With that, I am able to make some other style of chee cheong fun by myself.

I served my Penang style chee cheong fun with some sweet sauce, prawn paste and chillies. Also I garnished it with some deep fried shallot and toasted sesame.

Penang Style Chee Cheong Fun Recipe
Serves: 2

Chee Cheong Fun Ingredients
230ml water
70 grams rice flour
1 tablespoon glutinous rice flour/ wheat starch/ tapioca flour
1 tablespoon corn flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon vegetable oil

Method:
1. Sieve rice flour, glutinous rice flour, corn flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Mix in water and vegetable oil and lightly beat it evenly. Ensure there's no lump in the mixtures.
3. Rest the mixtures for 1 hour.
4. Boil the water in the steamer.
5. Brush tray with oil and add a laddle of the mixtures into the tray.
6. Steam is for about 7 minutes. (I am using a corningware tray. Depending on the thickness of your tray. The time may be vary.)
7. Remove the tray from the steamer and set aside to cool.
8. Repeat step 5 - 7 with another set of tray.
9. Once the chee cheong fun is cool, use a baking spatula to roll it up.
10. To serve, unroll the chee cheong fun and cut into bite pieces. Serve it with some sweet sauce and prawn paste and garnished it with some toasted sesame and deep fried shallot.

Pineapple Tarts

2011-08-22T14:24:00.001+12:00

My baking mood is ON. After baking pandan chiffon cake and dates & ginger stickies, my next target was pineapple tarts.

Pineapple tarts are very popular in Malaysia especially during Chinese New Year. I remembered when it's near Chinese New Year, my mum will buy a lot of pineapples to cook the pineapple jam from scratch. Cooking the pineapple jam taking a long time, especially when you have to keep stirring it, and I am sometimes the victim to help my mum stirring it under the heat.

Since this Chinese New Year I didn't get to eat the yummy pineapple tarts made by my mum. I took the opportunity to bake it on one of the Sunday. At first, I only have the intention to cook the pineapple jam from scratch on Sunday. But since after done with the pineapple jam, I decided to continue baking the pineapple tarts on that day itself.

My partner helped me with the baking. It took us about an hour to get everything done. By the time it is done, it's already about 8pm. Everything turns out to be great. Before that, my partner keep teasing me to just buy the shortcrust pastry and pineapple jam since it is widely available here. But I kept insisting to make everything by myself as I believe it will taste better and also I can make it to my liking.

When my partner tasted the pineapple tarts that we had made, and he finally agrees that making it ourselves turns out to be good. And making shortcrust pastry is so easy and it taste so much better as compared to the ready made ones. This is because the ready-made shortcrust pastry is made of margarine instead of butter. That is the biggest difference.

Below are the pineapple recipe that I had made earlier just in case you need it.

Pineapple Tarts Recipe

Make: +- 30pcs

Jam Ingredients

+-1.2 kilograms whole pineapples (without skin on)

+-150 grams rock sugars

3 cloves

1/2 lemon juice

Methods:

1. Remove the core of the pineapple and grate coarsely.
2. Cook the grated pineapple with the pineapple juice in a pan.
3. Add in the cloves and rock sugar into the pan. You can adjust the amount of sugar as according to your sweetness liking.
4. Cook the grated pineapple until it is almost dry. Constantly stirring until the mixture is dry over low heat.
5. Add in the lemon juice and continuing stirring the mixtures until it is dry. Then remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Pastry Ingredients

150 grams plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon corn flour

100 grams butter

1 1/2 icing sugar

1 egg yolk

Methods

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celcius.

2. Sieve plain flour, corn flour, salt and icing sugar into the mixing bowl.

3. Rub in the butter into the mixture until it looks like bread crumbs.

4. Then add in the egg yolk into the mixtures to form a dough.

5. Roll pastry into about 0.7cm thickness and stamp out with a cutter. Press about 0.25 deep in the centre of the pastry.

6. Add in about a teaspoon of pineapple jam.

7. Lastly you can decorate the tart with two strips of pastry placed to make a cross on the top.

8. Bake in a preheat oven at 180 degree Celcius for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Elliot's Stable

2011-08-20T10:15:00.000+12:00

Saturday is always the day for me to spend time with my partner. It is also usually our outing/ dating day. And also the day where the kitchen is closed.

After shopping around in the Auckland, it's time to look around for lunch. We ended up visiting the Elliot's Stable for a light lunch. Elliot's Stable is an epicurian village which was tranformed into a distinctive marketplace.

There are a few different gourmet eateries to choose from. We chose to try Frankies Wurstbude sausage rolls with coleslaw as a side. It turns out to be yummy.

Apart from that, we also had the caramelised apple crepe from Torchon French Creperies as dessert. In my opinion, this stall is quite similar to the one that I had before in Ponsonby which I had mentioned in my previous post. Why do I say that, it's because the menu is totally the same as La Cantine du Torchon in Ponsonby.

It was a good lunch although it was a light ones.

Elliot's Stable

http://www.elliottstables.co.nz/

Wynyard Quarter

2011-08-19T15:26:00.000+12:00

Recently Auckland has another happening place going on in the city. The Wynyard Quarter was opened on 6th August. It is only the first stage of the project and more to come. However, I didn't went there until last week.

The Wynyard Quarter had attracted a lot of attentions from the locals and tourists. There's a few things in the Wynyard Quarters that perhaps attracted a lot of people there.

Firstly is the Viaduct Events Centre which may future host many events that are happening in Auckland. The first event that will be hosted there is the New Zealand's Fashion Week that is happening on 29th August 2011, Monday, until 3rd September 2011, Saturday.

Besides, there's also heritage cargo shed and fishing boats tied up beside the Viaducts Event Centre. The information booth is also being made from an empty container. Even the public washrooms are also being made from a container.

Along the Wynyard Quarter, there's also ten new restaurants and bars available there. Some of it are yet to open. The restaurants and cafes include Marvel Grill, Gelatiamo, Rushworth, The Conservatory, Jack Tar, Urban Turban, I Sushi & Yakitori, Live Seafood Restaurant & Bar, and Pescado. Of those that had opened, there was a long queue at the Gelatiamo where everyone wanted to grab a gelato during the sunny day.

Trams also return to the city after 50 years. There are two 1920s heritage trams on the 1.5km circuit around Wynyard Quarter. The trams are running in a 15-minute clockwise circuit along Jellicoe, Halsey, Gaunt and Daldy Streets.

Those are the few things that attracted a lot of people to the Wynyard Quarter. You can visit too if you happen to be down at the city of Auckland.

Risotto & Dessert

2011-08-16T12:00:00.002+12:00

It time for a break from Chinese food for dinner. Hence on Friday night, I decided to cook mushroom and pancetta risotto for dinner served with the baby carrot that I had bought earlier from the farmer's market.

Since risotto is something that does not need much preparations, I decided to make dessert to go with the dinner. My partner suggested to make some steam puddings. Therefore, it's my responsibility to find a recipe of steam puddings. I was searching high and low for the steam puddings recipe through the Cuisine Magazine that my partner had collected since May 2006. After spending an hour looking through all the magazine, I managed to find 2 puddings recipes which were coconut bread pudding with fresh pineapple & mango puree, and date & ginger stickies.

Between the two recipes, the bread pudding is a steam pudding and meanwhile the date & ginger pudding needs to be baked. My partner preferred to have date & ginger stickies this time. Hence I am off to the nearby supermarket to buy the ingredients needed.

Preparation of the pudding was very easy and takes about 20 - 30 minutes only. Then you just bake it in the preheated oven for another 15 - 25 minutes. And it's ready to be served. I served the pudding with some berries coulis which provides some sourness taste to compliment the sweet pudding. The pudding turns out to be a very delicious and not very sweet to my liking.

Date & Ginger Stickies (Recipe from Cuisine Magazine)

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

60g butter, plus extra for the tin

200g dates, chopped into small pieces

3/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups boiling water

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

2 eggs

1 teaspoon banilla essence

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degree Celcius fanbake.

2. Butter 12 small muffin tins with a little extra butter.

3. Put the butter, dates, baking soda and water in a large bowl.

4. Soak this mixture for a couple of minutes. The mix in the sugar and golden syrup.

5. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla then fold in the sifted flour and baking powder.

6. Mix in the ginger.

7. Pour the mixtures into the muffin tins to about 2/3 full.

8. Bake for about 15 - 25 minutes or until the cakes feel firm in the center.

9. To check whether the cakes is fully cooked or not, insert in a skewer in the center and if it comes out clean, it means it's fully cooked.

10. To serve warm, heat up the puddings in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Polar Blast hits New Zealand

2011-08-15T12:21:00.000+12:00

It's already the mid month of August, which means the winter season is almost to an end. However, this week there's another polar blast that hits New Zealand causing heavy snow falls across the country.

According to the local newspaper article,New Zealand Herald, it is one in 50 year event and warned that it could last for a several more days. Even some parts of Auckland may have snow falls.

So far, I have not seen any snow in Auckland, but this morning there's hail around the area where I lived. Hail don't happens often. It come and go very fast, maybe in just 1 - 2 minutes. Previously hail does happen in sometime last month, but I missed the chance to take a photo of it. Hence this morning, I quickly grab the camera and opened the room's window took some photos of the hail that happened outside our house through the cold blast.

Once I opened the window, I managed to see a group of hail on top of the roof just outside my room. Quickly I snapped a photo of it.

Then looking down, I saw my car also being scattered with hail on it, and quite a few sits on top of the screen viper.

The hail stones don't last for long as the rain and sun actually melted it away very quickly.

Today is definately a cold day. While I am typing this blog, I can feel that all my fingers are freezing and I definately in need of a glove for now.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2011-08-12T10:05:00.031+12:00

In a day where I don't have to cook for dinner as my partner and I will be having the leftover food from the accumulation of 2 days dinner, I took the opportunity to bake a pandan chiffon cake.

It is my first time baking it. While I was at home, my mum used to bake orange chiffon cake quite often. Meanwhile I am the usual one who was helping to extract the orange juice for my mum baking.

I personally enjoyed eating chiffon cake and I can have 2 -3 pieces each time. Also in my opinion, it's the easiest cake to bake after all. Besides, my partner had always been waiting for me to bake it since the first time I mentioned it.

Therefore, on Wednesday, I decided it's time for me to bake pandan chiffon cake.

It took me some time to extract the pandan juice from the frozen pandan leaves. (Only frozen pandan leaves are available in New Zealand) After an hour plus of the preparations, it is time to set the pandan chiffon cake into the oven.

Once it was set into the oven, I kept peeping it with my finger crossed hoping that it will be successful. And after about 40 minutes, it is proven that I had successfully baked a pandan chiffon cake. It looks and taste nice though minus the pandan flavours. Perhaps the pandan juice were too diluted or I may need pandan essence to further enhance the flavour. However, I am very satisfied with the results that I had.

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe

Makes: 2 x 18" cake tin

Ingredients A
8 egg yolks
60 grams castor sugar
140 grams self raising flour
4 tablespoons pandan juice
6 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Ingredients B
8 egg whites
140 grams castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Methods:
1. Separate the egg yolks and egg whites into two different mixing bowls.
2. Add in the sugar (from ingredients A) into the egg yolk and whisk with hand.
3. Then add in the pandan juice, olive oil and vanilla essence (ingredients A) into the mixtures and mix it well.
4. Lastly add in the self raising flour into the mixtures and mixed it to become a smooth batter and leave it aside.
5. Beat the egg whites using a mixer until it is foamy.
6. Add in cream of tartar and mix well.
7. Gradually, add in the sugar and mix well.
8. Beat the egg white mixtures until it is white, stiff and shining.
9. Preheat oven at 175 degree Celsius.
10. Slowly add in the egg whites mixtures into the egg yolks mixtures. Gently fold it in using a spatula. Mix it well.
11. Pour the mixtures into the cake tin and bake it for about 40 minutes or until it is brown.
12. Once the cake is done, topple the cake upside down to cool.

3-Cups Chicken & Stir Fried Brocollini for Dinner

2011-08-11T15:04:00.001+12:00

Tuesday was another night where I have to prepare the dinner again. Looking through the recipe book and websites, I had come to a decision to cook 3-cups chicken with the 2 boneless thighs that I had bought earlier.

This dish suppose to be cooked using a claypot, but I used only an ordinary cooking pot to cook it. This dish turns out to taste a little like a hokkien dish called "muar eu kay" which literrally means sesame oil chicken. Before cooking the chicken, I marinated the chicken with some baking soda powder for 10 minutes before cooking to keep the chicken meat soft, tender and smooth.

Meanwhile, the vegetables for the dinner was brocollini. Instead of just steaming it, I stir fried it with some dry scallops.

And at the same time, I also prepared "tong sui" (sweet chinese dessert) for after dinner. I prepared a "lor han quo 罗汉果" (also known as Buddha's fruit/ monk fruit) with dried longan and snow fungus.

Deep fried red kumara was a thing that my partner had prepared to go with the dessert.

It turns out to be a very full and satisfying dinner to myself and my partner.

Lor Han Quo, Dried Longan and Snow Fungus Sweet Dessert Recipe

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 pcs of lor han quo 罗汉果

1 pcs of dried snow fungus

2 handful of dried longan

4 pcs of dried honey dates

About 1 litres of water

6 teaspoons of dark molasses sugar

Method:

1. Boil the water.

2. Wash the lor han quo and crush it. Then put the whole fruit (with the skin on) into the boiling water.

3. Also add in the dried longan and boil for about 30 minutes.

4. Then add in the dark molasses sugar and boil for about 10 minutes.

5. Rinse through the snow fungus and remove the core of the fungus. Cut it into bite pieces.

6. Lastly add in the snow fungus and boil for another 10 minutes and it is ready to be served.

Dry Bak Kut Teh

2011-08-08T21:55:00.001+12:00

It's my turn to do the cooking for this coming 2 months as my partner's mum is back to her hometown. Before that, I had been wondering what should I be cooking for dinner. Till yesterday, I decided to cook a Klang version of dry bak kut teh.

In Malaysia, especially my hometown in Klang, bak kut teh is almost available at every corner and every hour (from morning till evening). Malaysians have the choice of having bak kut teh for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even supper. One of my ex-Executive Director always having bak kut teh for breakfast as it is one of his favourite. I remembered I did join him a few times for breakfast.

Bak Kut Teh (肉骨茶), is literally translated as "Pork Bone Tea" in hokkien dialect. According to Wikipedia, Bak kut teh was introduced to Malaya in the 19th century by Chinese coolies and workers of Hokkien origin. The dish is reported to supplement the meagre diet of port coolies and as a tonic to boost their health.

There are a few different version of bak kut teh. The Hokkiens' version uses dark soy sauce which is why the soup base is darker in colour as compared to the Teochews version. which is lighter in colour with more peppery taste. Apart from that, in around 1996, another Hokkien's version of bak kut teh was being introduced, which are famously known as the dry version of bak kut teh.

The dry version of bak kut teh flavour is totally different as compared to the soup version. The dry version of bak kut teh is being cooked with additional ingredients such as okra/ lady fingers, dried chilies and dry squids, which resulted to a more tangier and sharper taste.

In Klang, there are lots of famous bak kut teh places that you can visit in Klang. And I would recommend you to a few places below which I personally find it very tasty as compared to the rest.

Lai Choon, located in Jalan Pekan Baru, Klang
Mo Sang Kor, located in Pandamaran
Seng Huat Bak Kut Teh (also famously known as under the bridge), located in Pork Klang
Ah Tao Seafood Bak Kut Teh, located in Teluk Pulai

After doing some surfing, there's a few reviews on the restaurant mentioned above that you can also read through by clicking on the link above.

For my dry version of bak kut teh, I served it with some Chinese cruller (油条) and stir fried cos lettuce with fermented bean curd (豆腐乳) as the side. Meanwhile for my rice, I garnished it with some deep fried shallot and some cut spring onion/ corriander garnish for the soup broth.

Below are my "Dry Bak Kut Teh" Recipe for your reference. Hope you will enjoy eating it.

Serves: 4

Soup Broth Ingredients:

2 pack of prepacked bak kut teh spices (recommending Tean's Gourmet brand)

500g pork belly

300g pork ribs

400g canned mushrooms (whole)

12 pcs deep fried beancurd (also known as tau fu pok ,豆腐卜/ 豆腐泡, in hokkien dialect)

2 pcs whole garlics

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons wolfberries

Preparations:

1. Boiled a pot of about 1.5 litre water.

2. Add in the 2 prepacked bak kut teh spices into the boiled water and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Using another new pot, boiled another half pot of water. Then use the boiled water to boiled all the pork belly and pork ribs for about 5 minutes. (This method is to remove all the unwanted smell from the pork and also the bubbles that it will create.)

4. Then, add in all the pork belly, pork ribs, wolfberries, salt and dark soy sauce and simmer for about 40 minutes.

5. Add in deep fried beancurd and canned mushrooms into the soup. Simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

Dry Version Ingredient:

10 pcs dried chilies

2 pcs birds eye chilies

8 pcs okra/ lady fingers (depending on the size and your preference)

Handful of dried squid (also known as jiu hu in hokkien dialect)

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon of salt

500ml of bak kut teh soup broth

Preparations:

1. Remove all the pork belly and pork ribs from the soup broth.

2. Rinse the dry squid with water.

3. Heat the claypot with some oil.

4. Fry the dry squid until it is fragrant.

5. Then add in the dry chilies and bird eye chilies. Fry until it is fragrant.

6. Add in all the porks into the claypot.

7. Then add in dark soy sauce, salt and about 500ml of the soup broth into the claypot.

8. Simmered it until it is almost dry, then add in okra and stir fry till it's cooked.

9. Serve with rice and the soup broth together.

Sansui Japanese Cuisine & Bar

2011-07-19T11:41:00.000+12:00

I am back again to Sansui Japanese Cuisine & Bar after our first memorable experience there. You can read my first experience that I had blogged earlier here.

This time we were back again on our second visit. This time instead of ordering the dinner set, we ordered from the ala-carte menu. By this way, we were able to try out the different things that are available from the menu.

We ordered an appetizer which was the deep fried fish bone. So far, this is the only Japanese restaurant which serves this type of appetizer. As according to my partner, this brings him back the memory of his time when he travelled to Japan. Because this was one of the appetizer that he enjoyed back then in Japan. By just looking at the photo below, you can imagine how crunchy it is. Every bite of the fish bone will produce the crunchy sound (krop-krop-krop).

Then we ordered a healthy seaweed salad. In the seaweed salad, there's a few variety of different seaweed were being added in. Some were red in color, some were dark green and some were light green.

Next to come was the homemade pot stickers dumpling which is also known as the gyoza.

We tried another type of sushi this time, which was the California roll. It was being served in a platter plate that provides 9 little squares. There were 8 pieces of sushi, and the balance of 1 little square is being used to accommodate the pickled gingers and wasabi. This presentation is indeed very creative!

Then it comes the sukiyaki hot pot. This sukiyaki hot pot contains some beef, vermicelli, tofu and garnished with some spring onion and carrot.

And last dish to arrive was the lightly manuka chip smoked Aoraki salmon. This dish arrived with a little bowl cover. Inside the bowl were full of the manuka chip smoked whereby the salmon fish being infused with. Once you remove the bowl cover, the smoke were being released. However, once you put the salmon into your mouth, you will be able to taste the manuka chip smoke.

We had both the sukiyaki and lightly manuka chip smoked Aoraki salmon with rice as our mains.

By the time we had finished all our food, our tummies were fully filled as well. Therefore, we give the dessert a miss this time. Besides, we had tried most of their dessert during our first visit.

Sansui Japanese Cuisine & Bar

Swanson Street

Auckland

Phone: 09 377 1347

Website: http://www.sansuinz.com/

Mentatz

2011-06-27T11:30:00.003+12:00

Walking around the city wondering what will be our lunch for that day as we had already decided to have Japanese for dinner later. My partner suggested us to walk around Lorne Street to see if there's anything interesting as there's a few little restaurants/ cafe around.

As we walked past, we thought we shall try out korean at one of the restaurant. But we were quite hesistated to go in as there isn't any crowd around, as we thought it may not be as nice. Hence we further our walk down and ended up having Japanese again for lunch at Mentatz. However, it will be quite different with the dinner that we wanted to have as Mentatz specializes in tonkatsu ramen.

Since Mentatz specializes in tonkatsu ramen, we both ordered ourselves a bowl of ramen to try it out. I had ordered myself a spicy miso based broth ramen with pork cutlets. I can't recall what is the name of the dish already. Meanwhile for my partner, he ordered a tonkatsu ramen.

We were both impressed by the freshness of the ramen and the broth. It is definately a good lunch during the winter.

As according to the Japanese Restaurant booklet that I had gotten earlier, it mentioned that you can get your noodles done to your own liking: medium, well-cooked, etc. Besides, Mentatz provides patrons with the very Japanese custom of kaedama: if you've brought appretite to spare with you, finish your first lot of noodles and - leaving the broth still in your bowl - utter the magic words, "Kaedama kudasai", and you will be provided with another serving of noodles for the reasonable price of $1.50.

Mentatz Japanese Restaurant
28 Lorne Street,
Auckland

Tel: 09 357 0960

Karin Japanese Restaurant

2011-06-23T10:00:00.000+12:00

It was one of the Sunday night where the chef at home is not cooking, given us the opportunity to try out Karin Japanese Restaurant in Parnell. It wasn't so much recommended by my partner, but I wanted to try it at least for once.

Usually on a Sunday, Parnell area are not very crowded. But because it was the Queen's Birthday public holiday on Monday, Parnell turns out to be quite happening places to be. Finding a parking at Parnell was kinda difficult, but we were lucky to be able to get a parking nearby the restaurant.

We didn't make a reservation at the restaurant hence when we arrived at the restaurant, we gotta wait for 5 minutes before the table is ready for us. Lucky it's only 2 of us that night, hence we don't have to wait for long. However, should you need to wait for your table, there's waiting area provided outside the restaurant.

Since it was dinner hour, the restaurant was crowded with people. Besides, I saw there's lack of manpower serving food and clearing up the tables. It's as if there's only one man running around clearing the tables and serving the food. Hence, I told my partner that we better order our food fast as we didn't know how long do we have to wait. Hence quickly we ordered our food.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I actually observed around the restaurant. No doubt this restaurant provides a very relaxed, casual and family dining atmosphere, but looking at the poles that are around the restaurant makes me feel uneasy. There are a few poles being build around the sushi bar table, which caused the sushi bar table being abandoned. Why do I said so? Because I saw most of the bowls and plates which had been cleared from the tables were being placed all around the sushi bar tables instead of sending it down to the kitchen. Besides, the poles made the place looks very untidy and cramped.

After waiting for about 20 minutes, our food arrived.

The first to arrive was their futomaki rolls. In Japanese language, "futo" derived from "futoi" which means fat. Therefore, the futomaki rolls that we were served was super jumbo rolls compared to the futomaki rolls that we had before at Sharaku. Their futomaki rolls consists of grilled eel, cucumber, tamago, avocado, ginger and fish flakes. These ingredients were the caused of the super jumbo futomaki rolls. Though it is a super jumbo rolls, the total combination of the rolls was good and fresh.

Next, was the takoyaki - 5pcs of battered octopus served with Japanese style Worcester sauce. When it arrived, I told my partner that it was a mini takoyaki. The usual takoyaki that I saw and ordered before were bigger compared to this. And the best takoyaki that I ever had was the one that I had before at the Japan Day in the month of March.

As for our main, we ordered a grilled salmon wing served with grated radish and lemon and a garlic chicken steak rice set to share.

Overall, all the food served were okay and this is a place for you if you are looking at simple Japanese meals.

Karin Japanese Restaurant

237, Parnell Road,

Parnell,

Auckland.

Phone: 09 356 7101

Basalt

2011-06-21T10:21:00.006+12:00

After hanging aroung Clevedon area, my partner had been driving around Maraetai, Whitford and Beachlands area via the scenic routes. The scenic routes was nice and pretty that you get to see the beaches along the way.

We thought we could find a place for coffee and dessert around the 3 areas, however we couldn't. The first place that we wanted to go was quite full of people. The second cafe that we arrived at didn't serve any dessert. Lastly we went to the cafe in Formosa Auckland Country Club, again nothing!

So we ended up driving back down to Howick for dessert and coffee. Our usual place for coffee in Howick is either Basalt or Coffee, Tea & Lover. In our opinion, this two places serves good coffee compared to the rest.

For this time, we chosen to have it at Basalt.

Instead of having dessert and coffee only, we were a little hungry already. Hence we ordered two finger foods from the bar menu.

We ordered a buffalo chicken wings and bruschetta.

The buffalo chicken wings were honey and soy roasted. It tasted quite good.

As for the bruschetta, it is being served with whipped feta and tapenade. Tapenade is a combination finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil.

And finally for dessert, we ordered the caramelised lemon tart served with boysenberry compote, praline mascarpone, and candied lemon.

As our first intention is to have dessert and coffee, we actually ordered this dessert and coffee first before the two bar finger foods. Therefore, the dessert arrived first before the finger foods. We thought that the caramelised lemon tart was served with vanilla ice cream. And since it's winter here now, we thought it will be okay to have it later once we were done with our buffalo chicken wings and bruschetta.

When we were done with both buffalo chicken wings and bruschetta, we were surprise that the ice cream don't really melt. When my partner first tried the ice cream, he then realise it's actually praline mascarpone instead. Silly us! That's the result of not looking properly at the menu.

Basalt

Corner Picton Street & Moore Streets,

Howick

Auckland

Phone: 09 533 0081

Website: http://www.basalt.co.nz

Hungarian Twister - Kürtős kalács

2011-06-19T12:00:00.042+12:00

Farmer's Market is a place where I am being introduces to different types of food and vegetables that are available in Auckland apart from the supermarkets.

One of it that I recently discovered is the Hungarian Twister during my last visit at Kumue Farmer's Market which was being held once a month at Kumue showgrounds. Since last Sunday was quite a fine day, we proceeded to Clevedon Farmer's Market through the country road that we discovered recently.

In the Clevedon Farmer's Market, the same Hungarian Twister stall that I saw in Kumue Farmer's Market. And of course, I am there to buy the Hungarian Twister again. Because the queue was long that day, I am able to take photos of how a Hungarian Twister is being made.

Hungarian twister which is also known as "Kürtős kalács" is originated from Transylvania, which is also famous as Hungary's oldest pastry.

Kürtős kalács consists of a thin yeast pastry ribbon that are being wrapped around a wooden cylindrical.

Then it is being lightly spread with some olive oil.

In order to ensure that the sugar are on the pastry while it is being rolled on the sugar plate.

Then it is being send to the chimney cake oven, where the pastry are being baked to perfection. As the baking is being done, each wooden cylindrical are being rolled to ensure every part of the pastry is getting the similar amount of heat.

After the pastry is being well baked, it will be rolled on the different types of flavours (almond, chocolate, walnut, cinnamon, fairy sprinkle and etc). And in my case, I had chosen walnut for that day. Once it is rolled, the pastry is being knocked down from the wooden cylindrical.

Therefore, my Kürtős kalács is ready now.

I like to eat Kürtős kalács because it has a very light pastry texture and crispy crust as a result of the caramelised sugar on the pastry surface. Also, it is a much better option to choose as compared to donuts or churros as it is being baked and not deep fried.

Goode Brothers

2011-06-17T12:00:00.064+12:00

When it comes to having a nice meal at somewhere in the Botany area, there isn't much choices for us to choose from. Especially, we were quite fussy with our food. Counting with my fingers, I think there's only like less than 10 cafes or restaurants (excluding the fast food) that we can go to. That also depending on the time and day as some closes at certain day and time.

Goode Brothers is one in our approved list. Goode Brothers served Italian cuisine such as pastas and pizzas. At Goode Brothers, they are using quality and fresh ingredients in all the food that they served. Besides, you can choose and create your own salad or pasta with the different ingredients that you prefer. And you also get to see their chef preparing all the food that you ordered due to the open kitchen concept in Goode Brothers.

As usual, we shared all our meals. Hence, for a start, we ordered my partner's mum all time favourite, char grilled chicken breast and vegetable salad. In there, there's different types of fresh greens are available and additional of roasted capsicum, pumpkin and kumara that are being drizzled with balsamic dressing.

Meanwhile for the pizza, we ordered the Tuscan chicken pizza, where it came up to be Tuscano pizza instead. The ingredient in Tuscano pizza consist of peppered beef, mushroom, capsicum, caramelised onion and garlic aioli.

Since it's an Italian restaurant, therefore pasta is also a must to be ordered. We ordered the Italian sausage pasta which consists of Italian sausage (of course!), sun dried tomatoes, spinach, smoky tomato sauce and Parmesan. As we were also allowed to choose what type of pasta, we chosen to go with spinach tagliatelle. It was our first time trying it, and it turns out to be yummy.

And lastly, something that I couldn't resist to say no to add on to our lunch that day was the deep fried wedges served with sour cream. On top of the wedges, it was sprinkled with cheese and bacon pieces. It was so yummy that I think I had quite a few more compared to the rest.

By the time we clear up all the plates, we were very full that we need a walk after that to get the food digested a little quicker.

Goode Brothers

Shop 36, Town Centre Drive

Botany Town Centre,

Botany, Auckland

Phone: 09 272 4516

Website: http://www.goodebrothers.co.nz/

Sansui Japanese Cuisine & Bar

2011-06-16T10:00:00.088+12:00

As per planned by my partner earlier is to try out Morita, Japanese restaurant that's located at the city. However, we were explained by the waitress that the restaurant served only degustation meal for dinner which cost about NZD80 per person. Hence, we re-route to Sansui, which happened to be situated just next to Morita.

The restaurant is located behind the Stamford Plaza Hotel. As you entered the building, you will need to climb up a few steps of stairs before you reach the restaurant upstairs. Along the stairs, it had been decorated nicely like a mini Japanese garden. Therefore, you can immediately relate it with Japan or you may think that you are in Japan.

All the staffs working in the restaurant are Japanese as well. It is no surprise as you will find most Japanese restaurant employed Japanese as their workers as well.

The restaurant provides a divider among each table, creating privacy to all the customers that are enjoying their meal. Along the large window of the seating, it is also being decorated with miniature of Japanese products and some origami. The one which was being decorated next to my seating was a miniature bamboo made water well pump.

Looking through the menu, you know that at Sansui, they are promoting healthy eating as each of the food served were being explained of the benefit of the certain ingredients used.

After placing our order, we were served with warm towels.

Then we were given a plate, sauce plate and chopsticks each as we were sharing all our food. Instead of using a chopsticks rest, they use an origami chopstick rest.

For entree, we ordered a plate of edamame. The edamame was being served warm instead of cold.

As my partner looking through the drinks menu, he was attracted by this green tea cocktails. It was something new that we tried. The alcohol content wasn't very high and it was very refreshing.

As for our main, we ordered a Sansui course. It consists of appetiser, salad, steamed egg custard, simmered vege, sashimi, tempura, teriyaki chicken, rice set and ice cream.

The chawanmushi was served in a little cup with lit. The different of this chawanmushi to the others that I had was that, there's an salmon fish added into it in addition to mushroom, chicken meat and prawn. Meanwhile, the sashimi was being served in a bowl full of ice to keep the fish fresh, and there's light underneath as well. A very attractive presentation. The batter of the tempura were good as it was so light and crunchy as the same time. Bravo!

Another set of the main that we ordered was quite similar to Sansui course, which was the organic chicken teriyaki set. The organic chicken teriyaki set tasted quite similar to the one provided in Sansui course. The only difference was the tenderness of the normal chicken and organic chicken.

On top of the two main set, we ordered a crispy salmon roll. It was one of my favourite roll, whereby it's kinda hard to find a Japanese restaurant that served this roll. Finally I found it. It's available at Sansui! When the crispy salmon roll being served, the staff hold a torch and slightly grilled the salmon that was on top of the roll. In my heart, I was thinking, how on earth the salmon be crispy? Then when I tried it, it's really crispy as the crispy salmon was being wrapped inside the roll. And on top of that, fresh salmon were being decorated at the top of the roll. Yummy!

Towards the end, we were quite full already. But since this was our first time visiting the restaurant, we were tempted to try out the desserts. So we ended up ordering a dessert assortment platter and the egg of dragon in the flame.

The dessert assortment platter consists of green tea ice cream, Go! All Black! - black sesame panna cotta, tofu chocolate mousse and deep fried ice cream - deep fried daifuku. In just a platter, you get to try 4 different types of desserts from Sansui, which is almost equivalent to about 50% of the dessert from the menu. All tasted so good.

The last dessert was the egg of dragon in flame. It's actually daifuku, whereby it was being flamed up while serving. As you can see from the photo, the blue colour is actually the flame.

Overall, we were happy and amazed with the creative presentation of food in Sansui. In my opinion, Sansui is a Japanese restaurant which is quite on par to the Japanese restaurant that I had in Australia. Of course this is not in terms of fine dining, whereby it's totally different compared to Soto in Auckland.

Afterall, we found Sansui by luck! And I am happy with the standard and food quality provided in Sansui.

We will definately back to Sansui again to try out other food from their menu.

Sansui Japanese Cuisine & Bar

Swanson Street,

Auckland.

Phone: 09 377 1347

Website: http://www.sansuinz.com/

Agents & Merchants Bar

2011-06-14T15:02:00.000+12:00

Myself and my partner were looking for a place for cigar and drinks before dinner during one of the day when we were down in the city. We ended up in Agents & Merchants Bar.

It was a quite windy and chilly evening, and Agents & Merchants Bar is just the right place to be as it is quite shelthered away from thw wind. Besides, the outdoor seatings are fully equipped with heater.

At the outdoor seating, there's an antique or rather old piano is being decorated at the side end of the outdoor corner. Meanwhile, the no longer operating fire place is also available at the outdoor seating.

While my partner enjoying his cigar, I had my mochacinno. The mochacinno was served in a brandy glass instead of normal coffee glass. In my opinion, this was indeed creative. Perhaps they serve mochacinno in a brandy glass as a significant of themselves operating as a bar. That's my personal thought only!

Also, I took a quick video of the outdoor seating area from my camera for your viewing.

Agents & Merhants

Roukai Lane,

50 Customs St East

Britomart

Auckland

Phone: 09 309 5854

Website: http://www.agentsandmerchants.co.nz

Casa Del Gelato, Ponsonby

2011-06-12T15:42:00.003+12:00

It's almost winter here in Auckland, and it's always nice to have gelato/ ice cream. This is because it will not melt as easily as during the summer.

I have been wanting to have waffle since early of the year but never have the chance till recently. It was after our dinner at Gion, Ponsonby that we decided to have a cup of gelato to share.

Casa Del Gelato was (and still) having the promotion of waffle and a scoop of gelato at a very reasonable price. Therefore, we decided to take up this promotion as I had been wanting to eat waffle.

Since it chilly out there, we went into the indoor seating and took some photos while waiting for the waffle and gelato to be served.

Ta da! To my surprise, the waffle and gelato combo had arrived in less than 5 minutes. AND I am dissapointed!

I am actually expecting a freshly made waffle instead of frozen type waffle that was being warmed up before serving. Hence I am dissapointed!

However, thinking at the bright side, it's good to have a mini ones since it's already late at night.

The gelato from Casa Del Gelato is always good. And I had chosen the hazelnut gelato to go with the waffle was the hazelnut flavour.

Though I am dissapointed with the waffle, I still enjoyed the yummy gelato!

Casa Del Gelato
288 Ponsonby Road
Ponsonby
Auckland City

Phone: 09 378 8457

Kaimai Cheese Factory

2011-06-10T12:00:00.050+12:00

Yippee it's a one day trip to Tauranga time! Another opportunity to explore another part of New Zealand.

On our way down to Tauranga, we will need to go through the Matamata town, which also known as "The Land of Hobbiton". Why is it so? This is because, some of the scene that you seen in the movie of The Lord of The Ring were being filmed here.

Just north of Matamata, there's Kaimai Cheese Factory & Cafe which is also situated in the heart of Waikato dairy country. Kaimai Cheese Factory & Cafe were established in the year of 2005. And if you are a New Zealander, you may noticed that their building is a replica of an old historic New Zealand 1920's Butter Factory. Trusses and roof vents from the original butter factory are cleverly used in the design of the building.

In there, you will be able to see how Kaimai Cheese Factory produces their cheese through the large glasses window in the building.

There were also descriptions of the cheese ripening process available for reading in front of the large glass windows which gives you a better understanding of the process.

Since this is a cheese factory, they do sell their cheese to any customer that pop by their factory. There's a wide selection of cheese being displayed in the refrigerated counter.

There's also cafe in the factory itself, where you can try out a selection of food via menu or the counter itself to get a taste of the Kaimai cheese before purchasing it. Most of their food uses their very own Kaimai cheese.

Since it's just for our morning tea, we ordered a cheese scones to go with our coffee and tea.

Usually scones are being served with butter/ whipped cream with strawberry jam. However, at Kaimai, tomato relish and butter are being served with their cheese scones. The combination of the relish goes really well with the cheese scones. Yummy.

We will definitely pop by again, should we pass by Matamata town next time.

Kaimai Cheese Factory & Cafe

Hawes Street,

Waharoa.

Phone: 07 888 6910

Website: www.kaimai.co.nz

Empress Garden, Herne Bay

2011-06-08T16:17:00.000+12:00

It's Sunday again, the difficult day to find for food as most restaurants are closed on Sunday in Auckland area. It took us quite a while before ending up with dinner at Empress Garden.

One advice if you want to dine at Empress Garden, is to always call up and make a reservation. Why? The restaurant is always almost full. Therefore to avoid any disappointment, ALWAYS call to make a reservation before hand.

As this is a Chinese cuisine restaurant, it is no surprise that red lanterns are being decorated around the restaurant to create the oriental atmosphere. The restaurant is also divided into various sections and rooms, which makes the restaurant looks cramp.

Whenever we were at the restaurant, one signature dish that we must order is no order than the Peking Duck. Not only us, you can see almost all the tables will have Peking Duck as one of their main, as this is the restaurant main signature dish. If you had ordered a whole Peking Duck, you have a choice of having it for 2 or 3 course. However, if you ordered half a Peking Duck, you have a choice of having it for 1 or 2 course.

Since there were only 3 of us, we ordered half a Peking Duck with only one course. This is because, the 2nd course that we can choose from doesn't seems interesting to us. The Peking Duck is always served with a plate of spring onion and cucumber, sweet bean sauce and pancakes. The reason why we like this dish is because we enjoy the crispy skin and succulent flesh from the Peking Duck which was always being well roasted.

This restaurant provides all day dim sum menu, where you can order it at anytime of the day. However, there's only a dozen of selection for you to choose from. It's not an official yum char place to be. We ordered a spring onion pancake from their dim sum menu to try it out. It comes with a plate of two spring onion pancake. The pancake are made from heaps of spring onion being wrapped with a thick wanton skin, and deep fried it before serving. The pancake was really crispy. However, the pastry of the pancake is too thick to my liking.

Meanwhile, for our main, we ordered a spicy fish fillet with crispy vegetable leaves. This was a good dish as it isn't very spicy and there's sourness taste from the vinegar that makes it very appetising. Besides, the crispy vegetables leaves, which in my opinion, was the "kai lan" leaves that were being sliced finely and being deep fried till crispy. It makes a good combination.

And the last main that we ordered was the deep fried stuff bean curd with mince prawn. By eating just the bean curd itself, the prawn tasted too salty to my liking. However, pairing it with rice neutralises the saltiness.

After all, it was a satisfying dinner and we didn't managed to finish all the food. We need to take away the remaining deep fried stuff bean curd with mice prawn and spring onion pancake.

Empress Garden

227, Jervois Road,

Herne Bay,

Auckland

Phone: 09 376 5550

Website: www.empressgardenrestaurant.co.nz

Punjabi Dhaba

2011-06-01T10:00:00.000+12:00

As according to wikipedia, Punjabi Dhaba literally means a restaurant owned by a Punjabi from the Punjab region in either India or Pakistan.

In Auckland, Punjabi Dhaba is another place for Indian cuisine. In my opinion, this restaurant serves better food as compared to Raviz.

I had been to Punjabi Dhaba restaurant a few times, and always forgotten to bring a camera to shoot all the food photos from this restaurant. Thanks to my partner, this time he reminded me to bring the camera during our recent visit there for a birthday celebrations.

As this is an Indian cuisine restaurant, it provides a brass made forks and knives, and all most of the food are also being served in brass thali (plates).

Since this was a birthday celebrations, there were a total of 6 adults and 2 children for that day. Hence we were able to order a little more. However, Indian cuisine is always very rich and creamy. Therefore, it's good that we didn't over ordered it too.

To kick start the dinner, we had two entrees, which were the mixed pakura and samosa. Mixed pakura is made of assorted vegetables dipped in pea flour batter, deliciously spiced and fried to golden brown. As for samosa, it is a triangular pastry filled with seasoned potatoes, deep fried until golden brown. Both the entrees were served with sweet tamarind sauce which paired it really well.

Chicken tandoori is always a must to order whenever we were there. It is made of tender spring chicken marinated in yogurt, spices and gently roasted over charcoal. This dish is always being served with mint chutney which enhanced the flavour of the chicken.

Dhaba beef curry, beef cooked with authentic and traditional Dhaba style curry, was another main that we had ordered as it was requested by the birthday lady.

Next, is the lamb tak-a-tak. It is dices of tender lamb, capsicum, and onion cooked in a spicy tomato gravy.

And the last main was fish masala, specially marinated fish cooked in onion gravy to perfection.

In Punjabi Dhaba, you can choose your preference of spiciness from mild, medium to hot. For this meal, we ordered all medium hot, so that everyone of us get to enjoy the food to the fullness. If the food is too spicy, you won't get to taste the food properly as it had affected your taste buds.

Since there were 2 kids around, one mild vegetarian food were ordered specially for them. It was the mushroom corn masala, mushroom and corn kernels cooked in special Dhaba gravy.

We also ordered two portion of Basmati rice, a Dhaba's crispy paratha and two plain naan to go with all our mains.

It was a really satisfying dinner that night.

Punjabi Dhaba
308 Te Irrirangi Drive,
Botany South,
Auckland

Phone: 09 272 2322
Website: http://punjabidhaba.net.nz/

Bistro 222

2011-05-30T10:00:00.005+12:00

It was a fine Saturday afternoon, and it's time to look for a place for cigar and coffee for my partner.

As we walk along Ponsonby Road, there's plenty of cafe and bar around that were opened. However,in order to smoke, an outdoor area is required. Therefore, we ended up with Bistro 222, which provides an outdoor area for smoking with two comfortable leather sofa as well.

While my partner smokes his cigar, I had Earl Grey tea with Bistro 222 house specialty tiramisu. This tiramisu tasted so good whereby the cake was so light and yummy. Besides, it wasn't very sweet too. Lucky I made the right choice.

Bistro 222

222 Ponsonby Road,

Ponsonby, Auckland

Phone: 09 361 3222

Website: http://www.bistro222.co.nz/