foodfortina

El Loco at the Pop-up House, and Yogurt World - Day 16 of Tina's Week Food Tour!

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:24:00 +0000

Like my Mexico and Adriano Zumbo posts, where I invited a special foodblogger friend along to indulge in good food with me, this time I invited the gorgeous Priscilla @foodpornnation , and back when the El Loco Pop-up House in late January got around on the interwebs, we decided to come here.

El Loco has been quite a big name around the Surry Hills area. Every time I take the option of walking to high school from Central Station up to Anzac Parade, I would pass this corner restaurant, with its colourful Mexican wall decals and cheery $5 tacos signs. I would tell myself that I would visit it, but have never gotten the chance. So coming to the Pop-up House was definitely a great way to taste their food before coming to the Surry Hills store.

Arriving at the Opera House around 1pm, we walked for a while before we got to where all the action happened. It was definitely populated and most of the seats were filled up, despite the weather being grey and gloomy. The fun and festive decor makes for a great welcoming to the pop-up store, and we ordered quite a few things to share between us.

El Loco Hot Dog - $10
Carne Asada - beef taco, salsa verde, queso fresca - $6
Surprise Taco (on the rightmost) - $6

Not having had many classy restaurant-bought hotdogs before this (yes, those high school BBQ days, which are now currently the plentiful free uni BBQ events), the hotdogs were pretty much the best thing there. Heaps of that beautiful shredded parmesan, overflowing from the decently soft and quite heavily buttered bun. We even ordered another one!

As for the tacos, well, they tasted of Asian-style cooking, and the meat was a bit tough. Not really something which enhances the fun Mexican-spirited experience that the decor of this pop-up restaurant brings.

El Loco Salad - $14

The salad proved to be a decently fresh alternative, who doesn't love guacamole and crispy tortilla bits? :) But yes they did get soggy under all that creamy avocado-y goodness, but all was well, there was heaps of lettuce and beef mince.

And we never forget some good ol' Habanero!

We opted for some refreshing mocktails - The Fire Engine (lemonade and raspberry cordial) - $4, and the Tropicana (pineapple, cloudy apple and passionfruit) - $4

Sweet, and bearing the artificial scent of the flavouring, but nonetheless cool and refreshing, with their pretty and vibrant Mexican colours and awesome names.

The experience was great - lovely pop-up concept, and it would've been an even lovelier view if the sky weren't so grey on that day, but after tasting the tacos here, I don't think I'll be trying El Loco in the future.

We then opted for dessert at Yogurt World @Sydney Westfield.

This place is 32c per 10g heaven. Frozen yoghurt just doesn't get better than at Yogurt World. This is because they have absolutely every yoghurt flavour you can think of, and over 100 different topping ideas!
It covers all the flavours and toppings that other froyo chains have, plus much much more! And even better, you can choose to swirl one flavour at once, or use the middle handle to have 2 flavours in one swirl of yoghurt, and it looks really pretty too!

And yes, salted caramel froyo for the win. Nowhere else has salted caramel froyo!!
It was definitely a fun food-filled day for both of us :)

Superbowl, Chinatown + Family Fun Night - Day 15 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:14:00 +0000

Wow was that a long title to type!

And my apologies for not telling you guys about my MIA-ness, but yes, uni has been getting quite busy with my many commitments, haha, but nevertheless, we're past halfway of my 12 Week Food Tour!! Woohoo, a few more entries to go!

So we decided to have a little family get-together, and what could be better than sharing it over lovely food? :)

Dad has had this promise that he made to us since Ann and I were both in junior high school (to put it in scope, I'm now in uni and my sister, Ann, is in senior high). He said, "One day, we are going to go as a family and eat cháo đêm" (night congee). And so about 6 years on, we finally get to go eat cháo đêm #betterlatethannever :)

We go to SuperBowl, in Chinatown, and the place is quite crowded at around 7pm-8pm. Hearing customers slurp some nice hot congee from their soup spoons and dipping in some crispy crullers/deepfried breadsticks/you tiau, it really invites you in :)

Seafood congee - $13.70 - complimentary you tiau/Chinese crullers
The stock is so flavoursome! The congee isn't thick and dense, but it isn't fluid and runny either - it looks and feels like the rice grains were grinded in a mortar and pestle beforehand, because the grains are very soft, small, and broken throughout the congee and that helped allow the balance between thick and thin, so just right.

Pippies in XO sauce - Market price
Addictive, mildly chilli, and the serving is generous, with heaps of XO sauce for each pippy.

Great two dishes for a chilly night out with the family.
A quick pit stop at N2 gelato and we get on some delicious Banana and peanut crumble

The crumble wasn't enough, it was a thin layer on top of the gelato, but in saying that, tossing in the crumble in the gelato might have made it soggy, so this was a really refreshing flavour :)

Another pit stop!

Takoyaki balls are always delicious street food - omnomnom them fish flakes and kewpie mayo, such lovely condiments :)

And then the Tran family drive all the way to Strathfield for another froyo run!

My sister A used to work at Yogurberry Strathfield, and so whenever Mum and Dad came to pick her up, they'd pop in for some heavily discounted frozen yoghurt deliciousness :)

Hahaha...too slow to take a pic of the froyo!

Tune in soon for another family fun day in my Food Tour!

Green Peppercorn

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:15:00 +0000

Hello everyone :) So while the posts about my 12 Week Food Tour are still going, I'll also be posting up my recent trips (post-February) to delicious places :)

So the word about Green Peppercorn has come out a few months ago, and my Instagram and Facebook newsfeed have been covered with the LaoThai glory. So when my friends decided to have dinner at Fairfield, I straight away suggested Green Peppercorn, and since some of them have been there before, they all agreed that it was a great place for dinner.

My apologies for the blurriness or absence of photos for certain dishes - one of the things I, as many of you out there may also too, dislike about dim-lit restaurants is the fact I can never get many decent photos to bask you all in the delicious dishes and all its amazing colours and get you drooling at the screen :P So without further ado, here is my review!

My friends and I came here on a Saturday night, it was quite crowded at 6pm, and it got much more crowded at 7pm. It's about a 3 minute walk from Fairfield Station, and it's next to the bar. You can't book, and you will get a table once all your guests arrive.

Once you walk inside, there are lovely apsara birdcage-lanterns and beautiful glossy statues, and they even have a tuk-tuk parked near the bar!

Grills - Charcoal BBQ Ox Tongue - Marinated ox tongue, grilled over a charcoal bbq. Served with mum’s special sauce - $10.90
Click here to see a pic of the dish - credits to Tina @ bitemeshowme
A favourite of mine. The ox tongue slices are lovely and thin, with a lovely grilled charcoal-y edge. Thinner slices than at Holy Basil, probably due our luck of getting a great chef that night, but otherwise it is definitely a great dish that you should eat at any Thai place.

Grills - Lao sausages - Home made pork sausages, lightly seasoned and grilled over a charcoal bbq giving it a crispy skin and tender centre. Served with mum’s special sauce - $10.90

For a great picture of the Lao Sausages, click here for Noodlies' pic.
Aromatic, and yes there is a slightly crispy skin. I only got to have one piece, and with the serving size, it was definitely quite pricey.
Salads - Nam Tok - Tiger Beef Salad - Thinly sliced charcoal bbq beef mixed with herbs and spices, toasted ground rice powder, red onions, chilli, mint leaves, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, shallots and lemon grass - $12.90
I like Thai salads where the beefs slices still have a tinge of pink in the middle; makes it slightly chewier but its still full of all those yummy juices and gives the refreshing salad more savoury substance. After having this dish, I am considering to have it next time I eat Thai as opposed to opting for the original Thai Beef Salad (the Yum Nua) - I think it's because I never really associate fresh cucumber and tomato as something that's inherently Thai (although they are part of every Thai salad recipe out there), and I definitely enjoyed the texture of the tiger beef in this dish more.

Curries - Gang Ped Yang (Roast Duck Red Curry) - A rich red curry of roasted duck with cherry tomatoes, pineapple, lychee, chilli and Thai basil. $16.90
The coconut cream and the fresh and tangy ingredients make this dish quite the winner. I love the feeling of mild chilli slowly dispersing inside my mouth, warming it up and making me want more, and the cream effectively balances the chilli so there is no sense of overpowering of either the chilliness or the creaminess. Love it.

Chicken Pad Thai - Stir fried thin rice noodles with: garlic, chives, red onions, egg and garnished with bean sprouts and crushed peanuts. $12.90
The mountain of fresh bean sprouts covers the padthai noodles to the point where I think there's way too much bean sprout than padthai. The padthai noodles are thinner than what I usually encounter, and the sauce was coated evenly on the noodles, and it makes for a very nice and light dish.

Seafood - Soft Shell Crab - Lightly battered deep fried soft shell crab seasoned with salt and pepper served with mum’s special sauce and sweet chilli sauce. $16.90
Image from Twee-Eats
I like a good dose of soft shell crab from time to time, and you just gotta love this nice, light and crispy batter, not drowning in oil - this dish will always be favourite of mine.

From the Drinks menu - Smoothies, Assorted Fruit flavours - $5.50
My friends ordered an array of smoothies ranging from avocado to mango to watermelon to a mix of many fruits. However, they were a disappointment. The drinks were filled with little ice shards, and it was definitely way too icy and it wasn't full of fruit like the great Cabramatta ones that are 100% creamy fruity goodness. All my friends agreed on that issue, and I'm inclined to believe that the desserts would've been a much better investment.

But despite knowing this, we were quite full by the end, but for all of you who are wanting to come here, the desserts are definitely a must-try! Already having tried the fried icecream from Holy Basil, I strongly recommend a tasting of the desserts menu (and avoid ordering the avocado and durian smoothie that isn't a smoothie). However, some of my friends who were there with me on the night have told me that the pandan creme brulee is deinitely worth trying, despite its extremely sweet nature.

Not too cheap, but not too expensive either - similar prices to Holy Basil. It's always a great investment to eat at Thai places with a group because it usually comes down to $15-20 per head (including drinks)

So head down to Green Peppercorn if you want to experience style and good food (I stress food) for a very decent price :)

Check out other reviews from these lovely foodbloggers and articles :)

Green Peppercorn:
Menu
Website

Watts on Crown and Bourke St Bakery - Day 14 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:30:00 +0000

Hello again! We're now a bit more than halfway through my 12 Week Food Tour blogpost series, and just to recap on what it is:

This 12 Week Food Tour is what I created to kinda give myself a reward for going through the HSC year. So from December 2012 to the end of February 2013 (ie 12 weeks)So the idea was, I would go out every few days to eat at a different place each time. And for every different day, I'll take a different friend or group of friends with me.

Being the post-HSC period, it was a great time to catch up with old friends, and this time I've had the great chance of meeting up with my primary school friend V. She hasn't been around the Surry Hills area before, so this was definitely a chance for me to give her a food tour :) A tour within a tour...are you thinking what I'm thinking? ("Tour-ception"! Haha, I still never get enough of adding "-ception" to things :P )

We initially wanted to brunch out at Kawa, but the weather was extremely hot, and Kawa did not have aircons, so it was stuffy inside and all the outside seats were taken. We settled for Watts on Crown instead, and it's safe to say we weren't disappointed with our decision to do so.

One page breakfast menu - quite limited, but there are some exotic options - we opted for:

Omelette with chorizo, chilli jam and coriander - $15

When I saw "chilli jam", I knew straight away I had to order it, there is something lovely about homemade jams and chutneys that I adore - my grandma has been making chilli chutney for the past few months, and I'd always pack myself a little container of chilli chutney to eat with crackers at uni.

Loving the olive oil and fresh herbs. Creamy omelette, generous serving of chorizo within, beautifully presented, and lovely generous serving size. Quite worth the $15.

Coriander and chilli corncakes with guacamole and chilli jam $14.00

Lovely interesting name, with crunchy batter and heaps of corn within each corncake, it's quite addictive, this dish. I have a thing for bite-sized crunchy food. Again, beautifully presented, and delicious guacamole to serve. Such an exotic breakfast, well worth the $14.

Wonderful service - the waitress even gave us complimentary in-season cherries!

What makes this Surry Hills cafe stand out from its counterparts? A question always posed when I eat my way through Crown, Riley and Bourke. Unfortunately the breakfast menu is quite limited in comparison to the Kawa one (this is why I like all-day menus for cafes), but the presentation of these dishes was just superb. There is definitely an aura of class about this cafe, which definitely makes it different to other Surry Hills cafes.

Next stop: Bourke St Bakery! Because a Surry Hills food tour is definitely not a Surry Hills food tour without the presence of this wonderful place :) Still ranked #1 on Urbanspoon, it's definitely a high quality cheap eats place.

Most of the tarts here would be around $4.80 to $5.

Lemon meringue - $4.50

Ginger Brulee Tart - Yep, that's right. Everytime I've come here, I've bought this tart. Best use of a $5 when you're hungry and up for a classy and unforgettable treat.

Chocolate Tart - $4.50

The pastry is the best part about these tarts, and each one of these tarts are full of flavour and creamy delicious texture. It's really hard to forget to come back to Bourke St Bakery once you've stepped foot into it. I would know :P

Afterwards, I took V to Gelato Messina, and that concludes out mini food tour day together :)

Watts on Crown
Website
Facebook page

Bourke St Bakery:
Website
Facebook page

Windows Coffee, Bankstown - Day 13 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 04:55:00 +0000

I really like that chilled atmosphere that comes with a Viet cafe. It's a different chilled to the casual aura you get from a hip Surry Hills cafe or a coffee catchup at Starbucks or Gloria Jeans. It's more rowdy, usually situated in a popular street of a Viet area, where people walk to and fro and many Vietnamese men sit and drink their strong iced coffee with the lovely condensed milk taste. With a simple shop design, cluttered seats, fresh fruit smoothies and dessert shakes decorated in little Thai umbrella toothpicks and little tapioca jelly jubes, all this sums up the feel of the Viet cafe vibe.

This cafe, Window's Coffee, is situated in a quite recently opened Bankstown shopping precinct called Liberty Palace. Liberty Palace opened in early 2011 and is home to many grocery stores, Asian CD/DVD store, and a wedding reception and function destination which is located upstairs.

Viet smoothies are the bomb. Made fresh and oh-so-creamy. Avocado-durian smoothies are to die for, and that's my absolute favourite smoothie flavour. Fruit in all its entirety. And nothing else, just pure creamy fruity heaven...Mmmmm...

The durian flavour (and fragrance) is one that is acquired, and fortunately for me, I've loved it ever since I first ate it as a toddler.

My last smoothie purchase at a Viet cafe was at Cafe 86, and it was a lovely experience. It's that really down-to-earth, casual day out with friends, with an added Vietnamese vibe that is the coffee with condensed milk and these lovely Asian flavoured fruit smoothies.

The typical Viet restaurant/cafe setting with the fish pond and the Christmas decor left untouched from the Christmas season.

Ice cream - $4 a scoop, $6.50 for 2, pictured here is a special icecream deal, I don't remember the price :(

They prepare the icecream by squeezing in some sweet red gel that doesn't taste too nice, I'm not sure what the flavour is, it's possibly glace cherry flavour, but it proved to be nice decor. And little watermelon cubes and a mini Thai umbrella toothpick as the finishing touches. Black sesame ice cream is always a lovely treat :) Asian icecream flavours available (eg redbean), and are always refreshing.

I came with my parents the first time, and a few weeks later, I went with The Boy to buy these lovely smoothies. They are $5 each, and you can choose up to 3 fruits.

The Boy went for a banana and mango smoothie...

...while I went for an avocado and durian one :)

There are quite a few variations of the Avocado smoothie, I love avocado and mung bean together as well. But avocado-durian wins for me, hands down :)

And beware, these smoothies are a meal's worth, as they come in very large cups and are quite filling - but definitely a super healthy alternative!

Liberty Palace is located near the Bankstown Old Plaza carpark, which poses a disadvantage as it is quite far from Centro Bankstown, but it is down the road from Pho Pasteur and Dong Ba

In terms of quality, the smoothies are really the best purchase, apart from the coffee. These types of smoothies aren't accessible everywhere, but you would usually be able to find them at a Vietnamese juice stand, which is common in Cabramatta.

I would only come here again for the comfortable interior of the cosy couches and the aircon, as it is quite far away from the central Bankstown Old Plaza area, and there is a Cafe Nho at Bankstown as well, which would be a closer alternative, but Window's Coffee has more seat space, and is much more aerated if you're not keen in being in a crowded area with too much cigarette smoke.

Their Facebook page

Harvest Box

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:23:00 +0000

Being a foodlover isn't easy. I knew that when going on my 12 Week Food Tour, I was going to have to compromise my waistline and increase the amount of exercise in my daily routine. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the 25 days of eating out (PS. I'm going to post Day 13 very very soon!), there's always the urge to cut back and eat healthy on some days. And thank goodness for Harvest Box.

Nuts are a great source of protein. And that means you feel fuller for longer! Protein is great for a lot of healthy lifestyle diets (The Dukan Diet, ie the one I used to lose 5kgs before formal, does use this principle of eating lean protein which helped me lose 3kgs during the first week of the diet!) And with one of the 4 snack packs provided in their 17cm x 23cm box that gets delivered to your front door on the days of the week that you choose it to come to you, you will actually fill your stomach, and end your cravings on that junk food that should be reserved for eating in moderation.

And I'm totally nuts about nuts. Salted pistachios are my weakness, and Harvest Box do cater for this, too :)

These little snack packs are handy to have at work, school or uni, and yes, they definitely cure that 3.30-itis :)
So it's actually quite a big box of nuts - you're getting about 160g worth of nuts, in a mix, delivered to your door, once or more every week, depending on the frequency you chooose

Hurry in, there is a promotion happening on their website ! And here's links to their Facebook and Twitter if you wanna find out more, and there is also a review of Harvest Box if you click here :)

Thanks heaps to Harvest Box who have sent out a box for me to sample, and to my lovely readers, you should all try some for yourself! It's a simple and easy process, just sign up and choose the days you want Harvest Box deliciousness to be sent to your door, and you can cancel whenever you don't feel like having weekly nuts anymore. 100% value, Australian nutty freshness and yumminess, with no strings attached :)

Disclaimer: Foodfortina was not sponsored by Harvest Box to write this blogpost. A full sized sample box was provided for this review blogpost. All opinions of Harvest Box products are my own.

Mamak and N2 Gelato, Chinatown - Day 12 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:47:00 +0000

Hi everyone! So as you know, my food tour has been going on for a while now, and it has just finished at the end of February (it was 12 weeks from December to February) :) I went on 25 days of food-loving fun, and I'm now up to my 12th post!

So I've just finished my first week of uni, and I've been composing this post throughout a few maths lectures and breaks, as well as this Friday night. This week has been awesome fun, meeting heaps of new people and joining heaps of clubs and societies :) Joining Food Lover's Society was definitely no. 1 on my list, and I've also joined Photoclub, which will hopefully help me to become a better photographer, yay!! :) Next week, Simon Park from the heart of food will come along as the guest speaker of our first sesh of food photography!! So I'm heaps excited!! :)

So I came to Mamak with The Boy and a few of our friends for lunch, and Mamak's doors open at 11.30am. We came at 5 to noon, and we had to wait for about 10 minutes for a seat. From tweeting my foodblogger friends the night before, they said the line gets much longer around dinner time, so remember to come about half an hour earlier than your expected time and you'll be fine :)

Teh ais - Iced Milk Tea - $3.50
It was a pretty warm day, so I opted for this rather than the recommended classic teh tarik aka Malaysian sweetened tea with a frothy topping. I reckon I should've just either chosen teh tarik or not at all. This was a decent drink, made from milk tea powder, and I believe EasyWay does it better, just because the degree of sweetness is just right in the EasyWay milk teas.

Roti teleur - Classic egg roti - $6.50
Hand modelled by my lovely friend Anton :) Soft and fluffy, due to the egg yolk that's been scrambled and scattered as little bits throughout the light roti. Man those dipping sauces are addictive! You could do the dipping like how you'd dip a small piece of bread, but if you're gonna down those delicious dipping sauces, you should hold the two opposite ends of the piece of roti and make a small scoop-like shape. Even better, you could follow Fouad's Lebanese bread eating guide to make a scoop!

Roti planta - A rich buttery roti - $6.50
Much prefer this one over the roti teleur. The butter leaves a lovely aroma and lightly salted taste throughout the roti - butter's just one of those ingredients that can make a dish so much better eh, slightly sinful but it was a small serving between the 8 of us, though I do remember taking much more than my share's worth... :) It's best to eat this while it's warm, because the butter liquefies and makes the roti a tad soggy and hard to rip if you leave it for a while. And yep, heaps of those same delicious dipping sauces! Peanut, satay, and a bit of chilli satay on the side.

Mee Goreng - spicy wok-tossed hokkien noodles with eggs, prawns, fish cake slices and fresh bean sprouts - $11.50
A slight feeling of disappointment came upon me when I realised this wasn't the good ol' Migoreng made restaurant-style. Maybe that was because I was turned off by the name "maggi goreng", the next noodle dish on the menu, which was in fact the "Migoreng made restaurant-style" that I would've loved to try. Nothing outstanding, not much prawns or fish cakes either, and slightly spicy.

Nasi goreng - Malaysian-style fried rice with spicy sambal, eggs, prawns, french beans, assorted veges, topped with fried shallots- $11.50"Dad. Why did they build the Great Wall of China?" "That, that was...during the time of the Emperor Nasi Goreng. And, ah, it was to keep the rabbits out. Too many rabbits, in China.” Everyone remember that hilarious BigPond ad? Well, that ad came out when I was about 10 years old, and that was the first time I heard the phrase "Nasi Goreng", and now, thanks to Mamak, I finally understand what that guy was talking about :P !! It should really be nicknamed "the better version of fried rice", for it's coated evenly with sambal sauce (aka a chilli based Malaysian sauce) and so it's soft and moist; a great dish.

Ayam berempah - Bite-size chicken pieces stir-fried with whole spices - $16
There was a weird powdery gritty texture to the outside of the chicken pieces, but the dish was well seasoned, not quite outstanding. The servings were much much more than bite-sized, and there were 8 pieces for us to share as well :)

Ayam goreng - Malaysian-style fried chicken. Marinated with herbs and spices and full of flavour - ($14 for 4/$4 per piece)Light crisp batter, but slightly oily. Sorry, nowhere near as crunchy as Arisun, but the soft tender chicken and the lovely marinade make up for it.

Chicken satay - Grilled over flaming charcoal for that authentic Malaysian flavour. Served with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce - $16 for dozen

Whoa, step back and watch this delicious magic unfold!! A huge bowl of peanut sauce and small bite-sized chicken skewered grilled to perfection, a must-try once you come to Mamak!

Here is my friend Abeer and his chicken-satay-hand-modelling skills :P

Next stop? Dessert! Just a minute walk away, it's that gelato place that has been getting heapsss of press and blog reviews. Science just makes food all the more interesting eh :P As if I haven't had enough of those liquid nitrogen ice-cream pracs they hold at uni open days where we get a chance to feel like a chemical engineer and finish with a scoop of free icecream, I just love food with a little scientific twist to it! :P Yes, it is none other than N2 GELATO.

What makes this gelato place different to other gelato places is that 1. it's gelato that's been made on the spot by pouring liquid nitrogen to instantly freeze that whole milk and cream (and if you guys wanna get a 30 second run down of the difference between gelato and icecream, click here), 2. the decor is weird and wacky with a dark interior and frames of anatomical diagrams and clocks, and a cupboard full of voltmeters and ammeters and the like, and 3. this is legit the only place you can find walrus flavoured and fish flavoured gelato.

I take my hat off to the geniuses behind this wacky list of gelato awesomeness, and at $6 a cup's worth (it's about 3/4 the size of the 2-scoop Gelato Messina one - GM is $6 for 2 scoops), it is definitely great value. For my Facebook followers, I'm sure you all know how very much I love Gelato Messina (I share wayyy too many of their gelato-foodporn Instagram pic updates!), as I very much like the fresh and fruity, and seeable-flavour content in the GM ones, but the mad scientist interior steals the show here :)

There's blueberry cheesecake, mango, and sour cream chocolate flavoured gelato :) And that white one in the back of the 4 cups is "cocoa nibs"; little choc pieces in a creamy vanilla gelato, oh yummm!!

My friends enjoying their gelatos while The Boy opts for a mango gelato milkshake, which was very nice as well, but it had that typical filling milkshake feeling after a short while.

So whether it's finally realising that Nasi Goreng is a fried rice dish rather than an ancient Chinese Emperor or it's time to get some science-y fun to your food, head down to Mamak and N2 and for lovely Malaysian dishes and a wacky dessert experience!

Giovanni's, CBD

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:50:00 +0000

This year, The Boy and I wanted to keep things simple, but add a bit of class. It's our 2nd Vday celebration, and so we decide to forget about the traditional gifts and flowers and chocolates (I'd like to refer you all to 83rd&4th's Vday recipe post and her comment on Vday) and go for something much more special and much newer to us - our first ever dinner date together.

The Boy, being fond of Italian cuisine, decided back in January to let me choose our dinner location, on the one condition that it should be Italian. So after talking to my fellow foodblogger friend @FoodPornNation, she told me about La Rosa, the sister restaurant to the famous and star-quality Pendolino. After telling The Boy about it and perusing its menu online, it got him very excited, which made me even more excited to show him the place :)

However, unfortunately, our plans didn't turn out as we planned, so we decided to opt for a different place, and we stumbled across Giovanni's. We didn't think much of the reviews, and we wanted to surprise ourselves, and the menu looked pretty decent. The Boy is one for classics - he would always opt for a pizza and pasta dish every time he went to an Italian restaurant, and having been to Italy, that's pretty much what he did over there too.

Giovanni's is just a small walk down from Circular Quay, and it's next to the restaurant with the number 225 at its front, although Giovanni's location is 225.

Having an early dinner date proved to be great, because the restaurant was not crowded, and we got a great window seat, and the service was excellent.

Starter - Calamari Friiti: lightly dusted calamari served w. garden salad, chips and tartare sauce $18.90
They gave us more salad and fries than the star of the dish, so I felt that it was more than a slightly overpriced. It would have been better if the calamari rings were slightly fried, and that there were more rings to share.

Garlic bread - 2 pieces per serve - $3.90
Garlic bread - heaps of butter on some decent bread, toasted to crispness, and the garlic isn't overpowering, which is definitely a big bonus for a date!

So I got a little excited over the pizzas named after star signs. It was either we chose his star sign, Sagittarius, or mine, Leo, and the Leo pizza proved to be the much more interesting one :P We chose:

The Leo Supreme: to feed the hungry lion! - 6 juicy fresh prawns, sliced pepperoni, quality sliced ham, loads of mushrooms, onions, fresh olives and capsicum $27.90
We substituted the prawns for chicken - The Boy loves chicken. I preferred the thin crust pizza bases that Mammas has, but this base reminds me of the homely cheese and bacon type bread but thinner, it was definitely an enjoyable pizza.

Meat Lasagne - layers of homemade pasta and 100% beef mince topped w. bolognese sauce and served w. salad or fries - $20.50
The lasagne was super creamy - this was definitely the winner for me for the night. It could've been a tad larger, but it was definitely great to eat with the fries, and topping it up with that lovely fine parmesan cheese :) Having not had lasagne for around 6 years, this was definitely a delicious classic dish.

Towards the end, it did take more than a little while for the waiter to return to us with the bill after we requested it, but otherwise, I give Giovanni's a thumbs up for its great classic dishes. I do believe, however, that they were slightly overpriced. However, overall, Giovanni's was an enjoyable experience of some well done classic Italian dishes.

Pho Minh and Cafe 86, Cabramatta - Day 11 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:33:00 +0000

The four month post-HSC break is now coming to an end, but it's definitely opening such exciting pathways, especially with this whole O-Week hype that's been happening at my future uni :) I've been MIA mainly venturing my way through this, and guess what soc I joined? :D Food Lover's Society for the win!! Despite the common cold bug which decided to stay dormant for 4 fun months, and revive its way through my system the day before O-Week started, I still managed to skip jump and hop through the days :) Lots of freebies and awesome activities are defs a great start to uni!

And so without further ado, I proudly announce that the post for day 11 of my food tour has finally come!! :)

Late last year, I joined a competition run by Cabramatta, A Taste of Asia, and I won a $20 voucher to Pho Minh. This was definitely a great chance for me to go visit Cabra again with my family, and $20 is enough to pay for 2 bowls of pho!

Not situated on the main Cabra eats street that is John Street, it took a few more minutes to find this store. With a modest exterior, and a name that implicitly screams "we make great pho here", my family rock up here around 11.30am.

A cosy restaurant, cluttered with many empty tables, that aren't filled up to the brim during early lunch, but people start to come in from around 12pm. It was quite a warm day, but not sweltering enough to decline a good ol' bowl of pho :)

Having grown up eating pho countless times as made by Grandma and Mum, it was something I've almost taken for granted up until the past few years when I realised how many of my friends tell me how awesome and delicious Viet food is and how much they want to eat it everyday.

On the large scope of Sydney, there aren't that many Viet food joints around, and I've always lived with the idea that the Viet food at home is the best Viet food I would find around here, unless I go over to Vietnam, and yes, the street food there is amazing!

Complimentary plates of fresh gia aka bean sprout, and a plate of lemons, chillies and rau hung que aka cinnamon mint or basil.

Grandma, Mum and my sister Ann buy the Phở Bò Tái, $9.50

It's the classic Pho dish, wherein the thin raw beef slices are thin enough to be cooked by the hot stock.

Dad got the Phở Đặc Biệt - $11.00. It's basically the same as the first one, but with beef balls.

There's a lot of stock in the bowl, and half of it is the pho noodles, and there is enough beef pieces to satisfy. They use the same stock for both, and the stock is tasteful with the classic and distinct pho taste of the many herbs and spices used to create this beautiful flavour.

However, there is none of that beautiful aroma associated with pho that can only be achieved when making pho stock using the cheesecloth-bag way, where you place the special assortment of herbs and spices and let the slow-cooking (or pressure cooker) do its job, infusing the lovely fragrance of star anise and ginger and cinnamon and all that beautiful flavour into the stock. Pho is meant to be a beautiful multisensory experience, which these Pho bowls did not capture (ie they used Pho stock balls).

For variety (the adventurous eater that I am, opting to try something other than Pho in a restaurant with Pho in its name for the sake of aiming to review a larger portion of the place's menu), I ordered the Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang - $9.50

Generous serving size, but there's a lot of stock and so it wasn't as filling as I thought it would be. Piping hot, and I'm loving the generous inclusion of chả cá aka Viet 'fish sausage' (it's a processed fish meat that's seasoned with fish sauce and then made into a cylindrical form which can be conveniently cut into slices and eaten in meals such as this dish above), and the spoonfuls of freshly cooked chả thịt (the irregularly shaped pieces of processed meat, which are a different kind of processed meat, and you can buy them from Asian butchers in their plastic containers)

So yes, this place hasn't changed the fact that I still much prefer home-cooked Viet food to Viet restaurants, but I'm definitely still eager to try more Viet restaurants in the future.

This place is great for a quick-fix pho, and the service is very friendly.

So after having eaten a meal that was not quite so filling as expected, Dad took us down to Cafe 86, and it does seem like this place is very known to the locals. There are heaps of tables and chairs out upon the shopfront, which is hardly a shopfront because it did take up a lot of the space of this wide alleyway.

Complimentary trà đá - iced tea. Think "iced version of that tea you get at most Yum Cha places" instead of "that flavoured Lipton stuff".

I order an avocado and durian smoothie - $4.50. This is a popular Viet favourite, and it's seriously something I recommend you all to try!! Durian is an iffy Asian fruit because before one can appreciate its creamy awesomeness, one has to get over that apparently strong fragrance. But the creaminess and sweetness of the durian coupled by that thickness and uber-creaminess of the avocado makes for one big yummy (and very filling, I must add) treat!

This $4.50 glassful is actually a meal's worth! But it was soooo delicious, that I finished it in less than 5 minutes!!

And prepare for this jumbo glass of creamy coconut-milky goodness! It's basically a mix of a whole heap of fruits and jellies and things you'll find in Viet sweet soup desserts, and it's topped with a few bits of preserved orange peel - trái cây dập - $5.50

Grandma ordered this trà cung đình aka Kingdom tea - $4.50.
It was such a lovely sweet tea with the beautiful sweet taste of the chrysanthemum tea, and the lovely Asian raisins, it is a great treat, apart from the fact it became overly sweet because of the obvious added sugar. However, the waitress assured us that they do cater for customers if they ask for less sugar, which would've made this

It's that really chill Viet cafe vibe that really hits home, and these distinct Viet smoothie flavours are beautiful and creamy and delicious :)

And trust me, these smoothies are very filling, and $4.50 for a meal? That's like cheaper than Macca's, and soooo much better tasting!

Service is great and friendly, and there were many tables and chairs, and they were all taken up, so it's a pretty popular coffee joint that lives up to its name with great smoothies and teas. It's casual places like these that do make me want to venture more into the Viet food world outside of home :)

Arisun, Haymarket

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:28:00 +0000

Hey everyone, this post isn't part of my 12 Week Food Tour because it was the venue for my close friend Fiona's 18th. You've seen her in a few posts of mine, she's been there with me through a bit of primary school, a bit of infants school, and all of high school. She's also in love with food, and we've been on some trips together :)

Also, I've invited the lovely Jess X, the girl behind this caramel slice recipe, to review this place with me. We're going to do a shared review, my writing will be in black, and Jess' in blue :) I've eaten at Korean restaurants about 3 or 4 times before, while this is Jess' first time, so if you're new to Korean food, or if you have tried it a few times, there's a review for everyone! :)

Whilst I by no means consider myself to be a connoisseur of fine food, nor possess any significant culinary expertise, I was delighted when Tina offered me the chance to appear as a guest reviewer on her food blog. Unfortunate climatic circumstances (ie sudden Sydney downpour) dictated that a previously planned dinner at Yulli’s on Crown could not come to fruition, however a group get together for our dear friend Fiona’s 18^th birthday at Arisun provided a wonderful opportunity to collaborate in sharing our Korean cuisine experiences with you – Enjoy!

The clutter of seats in their large outdoor area

Jjajyangmyun - black bean noodles $11.00

All snipped up and mixed :)

Having not had jjajyangmyun in more than 2 years, this is a great homely Korean favourite, and I think people would appreciate this dish more once they've seen its frequent starring in Korean dramas. Definite soy bean paste flavour, and there is something special about this dish in that it's not quite savoury, but it's actually a tad sweet due to the paste. For those who are new to this dish, it might be quite bland and not that outstanding, but it is a classic favourite, and it's definitely something I picture as a staple korean dish, apart from kimchi.

I’m hesitant to commence by admitting my discriminatory ways when it comes to food, having only sampled a small mouthful of jjajyangmyun, partly owing to the fact that it looked like a big dark mass of noodly mess. I found the taste to be rather interesting, as Tina pointed out, simultaneously savoury and sweet that was sustained in its aftertaste, however proved to be rather monotonous and devoid of different layers of taste striking your tastebuds as you progressed through the dish.

Japchae - potato noodles $13.00

Also known as "glass noodles" due to its translucent nature, these noodles are also a Korean favourite, we call them "Korean noodles" when we eat it at home. Slightly savoury and a tad chewier than vermicelli, these noodles are tossed in vegies so its a great light starter dish. There isn't a potato-ey taste to them though, which might be a let-down for those who haven't tasted this dish before. I found the mound of rice to be unnecessary for this dish, as I liked the noodles on their own.

Having never sampled japchae before, the entrance of these potato noodles into my mouth did not set off romantic fireworks and an elaborate choir in my mind. Whilst they were very much beyond edible and had a pleasant taste and combination of textures, I felt like the simplicity of the noodles and fried veggies combination wasn’t anything new in the realm of Asian cuisine, and yielded no striking originality that allowed me to appreciate the dish on a deeper level.

I would certainly have loved it in the context of a cooked-at-home-on-exchange-in-Korea-dish, but feel like edibility alone provides little credibility in the context of assessing restaurant-quality food.

Dokbeokki hot pot - chilli rice cake hotpot $30.00

Given it was quite warm of a day, I wasn't looking forward to the hotpot, but I was definitely looking forward to eating dokbeokki. This dish is also a Korean street food favourite, and Fiona was super excited to eat them again after having some at our school's Languages Festival.

Despite it obviously being instant noodles straight from its packet, it's great how those noodles soak up that chilli sauce flavour. The dokbeokki is soft and cooked to perfection, along with the usual hot pot additions of fish balls and vegies. There is something lovely about Korean chilli, it doesn't spike as soon as it enters your mouth, but it warms a very very mild and sweetly warm sensation.

Upon arrival of the waiter at our table, I was rather alarmed by the size of the dish and accompanying utensils that were about to strategically placed in front of us. By strategically, I mean positioned in the centre of the table to ensure the chilli-infused steam (and gas fumes from the portable stove) would blow gales of spice into the faces of those sitting directly adjacent this grandiose hodge podge of nutritious Korean chow. Not that it wafted, no, no romanticism to embellish this fittingly in-your-face dish.

Despite my slight disdain at the simplicity of the ingredients, the first sample proved to defy all expectation as I realised the beauty of such simplicity whilst slowly chewing a singular rice cake dipped in the chilli soup base – such a foreign sensation, a chilli devoid of tongue-numbing spice, yet with a distinct aroma reminiscent of Asian food markets and hot soup by the fireplace on a cold Winter’s day. That was the wonder of Arisun’s Dokbeokki Hot Pot.

One does not know where to start when confronted with such a beautiful mixture of whole eggs (I do question why they were not chopped into smaller portions, as it is a rather daunting to attempt to fairly distribute two entire eggs between eight people), cylindrical rice cakes, an array of various vegetables, and the centre-piece of the display: an entire chunk of instant noodles, in all its nutritious glory, a symbol of the love and dedication to quality food preparation exhibited by the chefs of Arisun.

Rice & Kim Chee - $2 a serving of rice, and 2 complimentary dishes of kimchi

Tina did not originally include these two side dishes on the agenda for review, however I found that our sentiments could and would not have holistically captured the Arisun experience if these two elements of our meal had been omitted. The kimchi was exactly what was expected - crunchy and chilli fermented Korean cabbage, complementing all our dishes very well. Having said that though, it is near impossible to get kimchi wrong (unless you are my mother).

Korean BBQ beef stir fry $24.00

I love how you can tell half the dish is pure beef, and that it's not all just vegies. The dish is well seasoned, such a generous serving size as well.

A generous serving indeed of stir-fry with beef at its core, it proved to be quite a flavoursome accompaniment to both the rice as well as the different types of noodles that we had on the table. I could find no fault with the taste of the dish, however at times I found the beef to have been too heavily flooded with the sauce and that perhaps a more judicious approach to seasoning could have yielded a more subtle flavour that didn’t detract from the ingredients themselves.

Arisun's original fried chicken $30.00

Freaking amazing!!! Super duper crunchy, not drowning in oil, so much different crunch to the Colonel's KFC. I love it how the chicken stays super crunchy even thought it's dressed with a lovely sticky sweet sauce. We shared this dish through 8 people and it was by far the best - compliments and crunches left, right and centre!! Get your napkins ready, or lick your fingers clean, because you'll be coming back for 2nds and 3rds with this irresistible chicken. The winner of the night! If there's one thing you return to Arisun for (that is, it's actually really the only thing you'd return to Arisun for), that'd be all the deep fried chicken dish options on their menu, and not to worry, because they have quite a few!

Such a highly acclaimed dish, yet I did not get a chance to sample it!

Arisun, all up, is a place known for its chicken, the other Korean dishes are decent but not outstanding (mainly because every Korean restaurant kinda has those, and they all do it the same way). Decent service, ie it was expected that they'd help us with the hot pot. I get the vibe that this place is good for that evening catch-up with friends over drinks and deep fried chicken (something that is well promoted in Korean dramas, though they do so with the lovely sizzling beef.)

Essentially, I’m rather disappointed that I had visited a restaurant renowned for its fried chicken and failed to sample it – perhaps resulting in a rather mediocre review. I enjoyed every dish, but as Tina said, it was nothing more than enjoyable. There was no pizzazz or spark of originality that would prompt me to return. Service was acceptable, save aforementioned incident with positioning of hot pot, however the layout of the restaurant was not optimal as the tables were not only much too narrow but also did not accommodate for the space required by larger groups such as our own party. I also experienced the misfortune of a smoker seated at the adjacent table ashing his cigarette and said ash partially landing in my wine. All in all, decent restaurant that serves much as a vehicle to enjoying small talk and laughs with good company.

Co-reviewed by Jess @himalayancat on Instagram

Check out other lovely blogposts and get hungry for some chicken! :D

Recipe: The Batman Trilogy cake

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:23:00 +0000

Hello all :) So for those who have kept up with my Instagram (follow me @foodfortina !!), you may have noticed that I was posting up a whole streak of baking photos and then I suddenly stopped. Well, that, my friends, was my being in the process of putting together this surprise cake for The Boy. Hold on everyone, it's going to be a mega-long post, filled to the brim with tasty cake/brownie recipes, delicious layers, and a huge chunk of Nolan Batman goodness :)

Over the past few months up until the day before the party, I've been setting aside a lot of baking ideas to bake a special cake for The Boy for his 18th. I've been brainstorming and compiling different layer ideas, and have held at the back of my mind the idea of baking something with a level of meaning to it.

Meaning.

'It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.'

Levels, layers...

'Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.'

Love, fear, anger...

'They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I've looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge. Me.'

Nolan's Batman Trilogy was the perfect choice. The Boy's been into the series since its Inception in 2006, and Following on from the trilogy, I knew I had to have his birthday present Batman-themed. I purchased a few of the top Batman comics from Book Depository, but I also wanted to bake him something to surprise him :)

There were so many elements I had to consider.

What should the cake look like?

A Google image search of Batman cakes only reveal those that are normal sponge cakes covered with colourful fondant, resembling a Batmobile or Batman's face, etc. All relating to the cartoon version of Batman. But I wanted to have something more dark, more deep and meaningful, and where better than to get inspiration from the lovely Nolan and his Batman trilogy?

While searching for inspiration, as I have through blogs like Poires au Chocolat, I knew I had to bake something Batman related. I didn't want the layers to be just sponge cake layers with chocolate ganache in between. I wanted to combine a few techniques and textures, and allow him to go through a tasty progression while acknowledging the Batman aura that I am attempting to instill into this cake.

What the cake should look like:
- The shape of the cake: A Google image search of the typical Batman logo revealed a picture with about 50 different adaptations of the logo, and there was one that resembled Nolan's Batman logo (top right, 2nd one down).

Except cake layers of this shape would've been very difficult to assemble. So I stuck to the classic round cake tower shape, and I was pondering for a very long while as to what I could do to the cake to make it scream BATMAN all over. Luckily for me, my friend Baxter posted his sketch on Facebook and allowed me to use it as the finishing touch for my cake :)

- Size of the cake: Since I wanted to combine many techniques and have many layers, the cake will be quite dense and packed full of flavour and calories, so I decided to make a minicake. That way, not only will it be easier for me to make a few minicakes out of each cake batter recipe and therefore have space for trial and error, it will also be a more memorable cake for The Boy, instead of turning his sugar radar on red and leaving a not-so-nice memory of the cake.

- Flavour choices: Obvious flavour choices included:

chocolate, because I don't have any black food colouring to symbolise Batman, so dark brown is the darkest I can go. And besides, The Boy lurves chocolate.

caramel, because he loves caramel too

- Layer choices: I wanted to combine so many elements into this one cake, so I've thought about having dense brownie and/or mudcake layers, but also starting off with lighter layers.

Layers and their meanings:
After changing my thoughts and ideas constantly, and eventually I came up with the idea of having him eat through the layers in the order of the Trilogy, where the top of the cake will be Batman Begins, and the bottom of the cake will be The Dark Knight Rises (attention! For those who haven't watched the movie, there may be spoilers if you read onwards!):

Batman Begins:

The origins story, the beginning of Batman becoming an icon. The introduction of Scarecrow, who contaminates the water system with that hallucinogenic fear poison, to which Ra's Al Ghul used the microwave machine which vaporises water. To interpret this, I had to look at two key components: the fact this movie was the starter of the trilogy, and the aerated nature of the poison. So I thought about having a light airy chocolate sponge layer as an introductory layer to the cake.

Dark Knight:

The Joker was introduced, and so was Two-Face. More blood, more fighting, more deaths, more depth, more dichotomy - more everything. The contrast between the characters of Batman and the Joker as well as Batman and Harvey Dent was something I wanted to represent in my cake. The colour red was definitely striking me, and so I chose to have a thick Red Velvet cake layer in the cake, to sharply contrast the Batman begins layer. I also wanted the contrast of colours to symbolise Two-Face, so I thought about having a Blondie layer to contrast the chocolate that was already there.

The Dark Knight Rises:

The last movie of the trilogy, there was a lot of end-of-the-world type darkness, and this movie was also deep and layered with its interesting characters, and the element of surprise when it is revealed that Miranda Tate is actually Talia Al Ghul. To capture this, I wanted to have another thick layer to symbolise the depth of the movie and its ideas, and I also wanted to surprise The Boy, by adding popping candy, or 'pop rocks', into this layer of the cake.

There were a few issues I've had to tackle:
- Too much chocolate; the rich and creamy overload will prevent him from being able to even finish the cake. Solution: tangy lemon cream to balance out the richness.
- Layers might not balance properly, and how to stick the layers together. Solution: salted caramel spread, chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting was used to stick the separate layers together, as well as a layer of lemon cream. Also, the base will be a hard biscuit base, to allow the cake to have a solid foundation.

General tips for the different layers, gathered from a few sources:
I made the cake over the course of 3 days, so I had to find which layers would best survive when stored. I decided to make the sponge cake and biscuit layer on the first day, the brownie and blondie layer on the second day, and the red velvet and fillings on the third day.

Here are some tips for storage:
- How to store sponge cake: Most of the sources agree that storing in an airtight container in either room temperature or a fridge will last the cake for up to a week. Since it's currently summer, room temperature doesn't seem to be a good idea, so I'm resorting to refrigeration, despite this article explaining that this dries out the sponge cake. However, the texture I'm looking for is light and airy, so I'm not really interested in the the moisture content.
- How to store brownies so they are still moist and dense and fudgy/chewy: Here is the link. You need an airtight container, preferably a plastic food storage bag or a Tupperware container. Place the brownies in the plastic food storage bag with a dampened and crumpled paper towel and then force the air out of the plastic food storage bag. This will prevent as much oxygen as possible from entering into the chamber where the brownies are held, oxygen being the unfortunate agent that will cause them to dry out. The dampened paper towel will supply additional moisture. Brownies taste better the next day. Cool in the pan then set aside, uncut, overnight in an airtight container or 2 layers of foil.

OK! Without further ado, here's the whole process of making THE BATMAN CAKE:
Note - I am going through the cake from top layer to bottom layer, because I wanted The Boy to eat through the Batman trilogy chronologically, so the top layer would signify an event/character from Batman Begins, and the last layer would signify an event/character from The Dark Knight Rises.

1st Layer: Light airy sponge

This layer symbolises the introductory nature of the first Batman movie, and the aerated nature of the poison.

I've tested with 2 different recipes:

Recipe 1: Genoise recipe. A genoise is basically a variant of a normal sponge cake, and this site has a great explanation to distinguish between them. It is less sweet, and this is something I'd need since my cake will be packed with lots of chocolate.

I used half the cake batter amount given in this recipe. And I baked it for the same amount of time needed for the whole cake batter amount. What a mistake that was. My cake came out tasting slightly less sweet (which was expected), but it wasn't light and airy. It wasn't dense either. But it wasn't light. It was like cheap filler sponge cake, with an almost foam density and texture. So that was my fault, but I didn't feel like reusing the recipe. After I put it in a sealed container and placed it in the fridge for about 2 days, when I took it out, it still felt like a thick piece of foam that smelt funnily like plastic. My fault for not Following the recipe, and not knowing my oven well enough :S

Recipe 2: Maggie Beer's fool proof sponge cake recipe, and I shall adapt it by adding cocoa powder. Her technique asks for bicarb soda and cream of tartar to act as leavening agents, and it's a corn-flour based recipe. According to various sources that explain how to make the sponge cake light and airy, it mainly involves sieving the dry contents at least 3 times, and use an electric beater to aerate the egg mixture. From my mistake in recipe 1, I decided to bake the full batch for this recipe. Also, her recipe says "beat until thick and meringue-like", so I'm guessing that means once you reach soft glossy peaks.

Feather-light sponge cake

You'll need:

50g (5 tablespoons) cornflour *
10g (1 tablespoon) vanilla custard powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
100g (scant 1/2 cup) caster sugar

Method:

Preheat over to 170°C. Butter a 20cm x 5cm deep round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Sift together cornflour, custard powder, cream of tartar and soda twice.
Beat egg whites and salt in an electric mixer until bubbly. Gradually beat in sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until thick and meringue-like. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Fold in sifted dry ingredients gently but thoroughly, do it in two batches.
Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and place in middle of oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cake feels springy when touched lightly in centre.
Remove from oven and cool for about 5-10 minutes in the tin on a wire rack, away from draughts, then carefully slip cake out of tin and peel off paper.
Invert cake on a clean tea towel lined wire rack and cool completely. When cold, split the cake in half horizontally, spread the bottom sponge half with jam, then top with the cream. Place the other sponge half on top and dust lightly with icing sugar.

Additional tips, and summary of tips for the perfect, light and airy sponge:

Fold ingredients with a wooden spoon or spatula
Sift ingredients at least three times
Beating the eggs as per instructions, because this step is the aeration step, which will help the cake rise
Often, the use of leavening agents such as cream of tartar and bicarb soda will help the cake rise.

Look at that lovely, aerated, soft and fluffy bit of cake :)

2nd Layer: Dense Red Velvet sponge

This layer represents the introduction of the Joker and Two-Face - both these characters serve as contrasting figures to Batman.

You'll need:

2½ cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
50 mL red food colouring
120 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter and flour two 23 cm round cake pans, or three 20 cm round cake pans.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix food colouring and cocoa powder to form a thin, smooth paste. Set aside.
In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl frequently with a spatula. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk.
Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.
In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Add it to the cake batter and stir well to combine.
Working quickly, divide batter evenly between the cake pans and bake at 180°C for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. To remove the cakes from the pan, place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, then gently lift the pan. Allow cakes to cool completely before icing.

Recipe notes
Wear an apron and be careful with the red food colouring – no matter how hard I try, I always end up staining something! If you prefer a sweeter or stiffer icing, more icing sugar can be added (up to four cups) but this will reduce the cream cheese taste.

Tips for ingredients:
Buttermilk: If you don't have buttermilk readily available, just take 120ml of milk and add a tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to it. Let the milk mixture stand for at least 5 minutes, and there you have it :)

3rd Layer: Blondie

This layer symbolises the emergence of two important characters within The Dark Knight - Harvey Dent and The Joker, both of whom have blonde hair.

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe, as it was the simplest out of all the ones I've searched up, and I added choc chips, and this symbolises the heroic potential instilled within Harvey, who was a symbol of justice, but was soon depleted after his encounter with the Joker.

You'll need:

8 tbs (1 stick, 113 grams) butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose/plain flour

Method:

Butter a small pan (20cmx20cm should be fine)
Mix melted butter with brown sugar, beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in choc chips.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I like it a tad gooey, so I took it out after about 20mins. Cool on rack before cutting.

4th Layer: Brownie/Mudcake

I wanted to represent the fact that the troubles and turmoil within Gotham are becoming deeper, denser and darker. So I had to search for a simple fudge brownie recipe.

I used Martha Stewart's fudgy brownie recipe

You will need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter an 20x20cm baking pan/heatproof glass dish. Line pan with baking paper, leaving a bit overhanging on 2 sides. Set aside.
Place butter and chocolate in large heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water (ie the bain marie/double boiler technique commonly used to melt chocolate); stir frequently until chocolate and butter are melted, about 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat; let cool to room temp, ie about 10-15 minutes.
Stir sugar into cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Whisk in eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition.
Whisk in vanilla.
Gently fold in flour and salt.
Pour batter into prepared pan, and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Bake until cake tester inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, ie about 40-45 minutes, however if you want to be sure you don't burn the brownie, a little more moist crumbs is fine to keep the dense and moistness of the brownie.
Transfer pan to wire rack to cool completely.
Run knife or offset spatula around edges of the pan. Using parchment, life brownies out of pan and onto rack.

Cook's Note: Brownies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Base: Biscuit base

This pop-rocks-filled layer represents the many surprising elements within The Dark Knight Rises where we find out that Miranda Tate is in fact Talia Al Ghul, Talia and Bane are in love, and Detective John Blake is Robin.

Recipe: the base of Heston's exploding chocolate gateau. I swapped the neutral popping candy for tropical punch and fairy floss flavoured pop rocks because those were the two flavours I bought in Michael's presence. He didn't understand what it was for. He didn't have the slightest thought that I would be baking a cake for him. Containing pop rocks. Haha, surprise indeed. I just hope it doesn't taste too weird. Also, because I don't have a food processor, I just used the easier technique of crushing the biscuits with a rolling pin, and

You'll need:

150g all butter shortbread biscuits
30g unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp white caster sugar
25g neutral popping candy

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Place the shortbread biscuits on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Place the biscuits in a food processor and add the melted butter and sugar. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine sand in texture.
Gently stir in the popping candy. Place the mixture inside a 15cm cake ring placed on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten using the back of a spoon then put to one side to set.

6th layer: Surabhi's brownie recipe

Surabhi has been one of Michael's closest friends for a long time, and I wanted to connect this friendship of theirs to the few ideas of genuine human connection and familial subplots within The Dark Knight Rises - Bruce Wayne's memory of his parents through the flashback to Batman Begins, and Talia's revenge for her father, Ra's Al Ghul.

You'll need:

200g butter
200g dark (cooking) chocolate, in pieces
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tbs cocoa powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 190oC. Line baking tray with baking paper
Heat butter, chocolate & sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Transfer to large heatproof bowl to cool.
Add eggs and vanilla to chocolate. Mix. Sift flour and cocoa and stir.
Pour mixture into pan. Bake for 15-20 mins and allow to cool. Let stand overnight.

Fillings:
The recipe links are provided:

Filling 1: Salted Caramel - taken from my sister's friend

Filling 2: Chocolate Ganache - just a simple recipe requiring chocolate and cream.

Filling 3: Lemon Cream - just to cut through the dense richness of the chocolate layers

Filling 4: Cream cheese icing - the classic to go with red velvet cake

Mirror Glaze: Basically a combination of dark chocolate, vegetable oil, and a bit of cream, there are many recipes on the net for it, but I forgot to bookmark the one I used for this recipe

The final assembly:
Since I didn't have food processor, and my biscuits were too buttery, the biscuit base batter didn't stick together like Heston's, so I ended up using Surabhi's brownie recipe for the base.

It's a one-portion cake, consisting of 6 layers and 4 fillings, topped with a delicious and simple chocolate mirror glaze, and finished off with a nice Batman sketch cut-out

Note:
I have linked the pictures to their constituent sources to acknowledge them
Anyone notice I name dropped a few Nolan movies throughout the post? :P Hehe, I always attempt to fit in the phrase "since its Inception" somewhere or other :)
P.S. To The Boy: Hope you like this post :) Great to know you read my blog, hehe.

Claire's Kitchen - Day 10 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 05:01:00 +0000

Yes!! I'm very proud to announce that this is the last entry for my 12 Week Food Tour that was part of my December 2012 eats! Remember that my food tour lasts from December all the way until the end of February, and this is day 10! So on average, I've been eating out once every 3 days! That's quite a record for me, during high school I managed on average about once a week.

My awesome cousins S and A, and A's husband R, invited me out to celebrate the end of my HSC, and it was my first time going out with them.

I was really excited, as I haven't heard of this restaurant before. Keeping my excitement instilled, not checking any blogs or reviews of this place in order to surprise myself, I arrive here with my cousins after having a post-HSC afternoon tea at my high school.

I did not guess from the name that this would be a French dining restaurant! Oh là là! They have it all; hot French waiters with their lovely accents and slightly incomprehensible English - part of the authenticity, I love it! Service points, 11 out of 10! :P

Complementary bread rolls

Couches and dim-lit, I was really feeling that fancy and classy vibe.

Les Entrees - PARFAIT DE FOIE DE CANARD EN PETIT POT $18
Duck liver parfait with crouton and grape chutney

First time having foie gras, thank goodness this was the place I had it. The foie gras here is so splendidly rich, creamy and smooth! It had a thin layer of duck lard atop to keep the freshness intact. And eating it with the super crisp bread pieces and the lovely berry chutney that had a fragrant wine aroma about it really gave this dish an amazing multisensory experience that I can still remember even after more than a month on from coming here.

A and S dig in!

A with her passionfruit and mint cocktail

My cousins decided to shout me a mocktail to celebrate :) ! A very fancy rendition of an apple and pear smoothie - I even got a dash of cinnamon!

Cheers!

POUSSIN ROTI AUX 40 GOUSSES D'AIL $35

Roasted spatchcock with sweet garlic puree and kipfler potato
(R's dish)

This much fancier and more tender meat than that of the regular chicken brought out its aromatic stuffing very well. It was a hugeeee serving, despite a whole spatchcock being smaller than a whole chicken.

CREPE BRETONNE AUX CEPES

Vegetarian- entree size $22 / main size $30
French crepe with sauteed Blue Mountains pine and slippery jacks mushrooms

(My dish)

The pastry has a lovely crispy edge, and it is soft, fluffy, thin and an even thickness throughout. Lovely sauteed mushrooms brings out its warm creamy flavour, and the main size was not extremely filling, so it was a perfect portion size for me. A definite higher-than-decent eat, a haute-couture crepe for sure.

CANARD EN CROUTE $34

Duck and Pinot Noir pie with melted brie under the puff pastry crust

(A and S both ordered this)

My cousins A and S love a good pie, and it is exactly what a good savoury pie should be; rich and creamy with that lovely flaky and crispy pastry, with the cheese just underneath the pastry to enhance the buttery taste of the pastry upon your tongue. At the end of the meal, I was really wishing my stomach would've been big enough to fit 2 main courses, the pie was very wonderful :)

After this lovely dining experience, I am definitely nostalgic of the 5 long years I've studied French, and I am indeed planning to learn more about this deliciously awesome culture - I actually do follow a few foodblogs that are about living in France or French food: David Lebovitz, eat.live.travel.write, just to name a few. I would definitely love to travel there one day!

Claire's Kitchen has a bar upstairs, the service is amazing, and the food is equally as wonderful. It does come at a price of about $50pp including drinks.

Umms and ahhs, and many lovely comments throughout the meal - this was definitely a dinner to remember.

Photos courtesy of Richiepoor
Website: Claire's Kitchen
Facebook
Menu

Volcano's - Day 9 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour!

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:24:00 +0000

The city of Bankstown is, simply put, quite limited in terms of the number and range of restaurants. We have Centro Bankstown's food court, and 3 Maccas all a 5 minute walk away from each other. There are also several Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, but since I'm Viet myself and my family prefers to eat Viet at home, I rarely go out for Viet food so that pretty much eliminates more than half my possibilities of eating my way through Bankstown.

Over the years, there have been a few new restaurants, such as @Thailand, but most of the time, the changes are minimal. However, being a local, and being a foodblogger for a year, I've started to want to get to know my area better, in regards to its other cultures and their cuisines.

We do have events throughout the year such as the Moon Festival, Children's Festival (which is celebrated on the date of Vietnamese New Year), and Eid, all held at the local park.

Bankstown Bites was a food culture event that started just a few years back, and already it has attracted many names such as MKR 2012's Helen and Steve, Masterchef's Justine Schofield, and Anh Do, who was raised in Bankstown.

We also recently had the Tet festival event, held annually also, but usually those events have the participation of many stalls that aren't Viet or Viet-food related.

Volcano's is a steakhouse in Bankstown that is proudly Australian owned. All the meat is halal, and they have a range from creamy pastas to burgers to delicious ribs.

The Boy and I chose this place because it's very easy to get to from where we live, and we saw a promotion on Facebook for $10 lunch deals.

It was quite a hot December day, so I settled with a Iced Mocha, $5.95, while The Boy chose his classic favourite, the Caramel Milkshake, $5.95. I have built an appreciation for caramel milkshakes because he always buys it, but I get full after a few sips. But to reason with coffee and chocolate would be a mistake. I'm a sucker for anything infused with a bit of coffee. Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, ice, mocha, chocolate syrup, all dusted with a bit of cocoa powder, why refuse? :)

Michael and I opted for the $10 lunch deals. First we went for their signature pasta dish, the Molten Lava, $10.

Rich creamy sauce, it was a divinely decent eat given the amount we paid for. However, it was expected that the chilli was muted, and the sauce looked more red than pink, it tasted like tomato sauce with a mild chilli note.

I love places that bring fries to justice; decently crunchy outside, with a soft fluffy inside. I'm not one for soggy fries (so KFC fries are the sore losers on my list), and this place manages to make fries that aren't dripping in oil, with a decent crunch, and quite a generous serving for the $10 deal.

The chicken is grilled and seasoned well, with soft batter crumbs so it had a soft exterior, with a hint of that lovely fresh note from the parsley.

Definitely a decent filler and something different from Viet food in the area of Bankstown. I would consider coming here again mainly due to its close proximity and its great value prices.

Recipe: Les Rochers Coco avec les copeaux de chocolats, aka choc chip macaroons

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:00:00 +0000

The little French soul inside of me jumps in delight when she see les macarons in the window of a patissier, she always opts for un pain au chocolat at her local bakery, and cries when she hears the sweet melody in Marion Cotillard's La Vie en Rose.

Having learnt French for five years, and living with my dear grandma who has written recipe books, including a French pastry book, it's like my love for all things French was meant to be.

This little French soul became even more French when she learnt the difference between the macaron and macaroon in early 2011.

So when I saw the fresh and unused egg whites in the fridge, and a whole heap of dessicated coconut in my pantry, I knew exactly what to make.

This recipe is soooo easy, and it takes less time than cake mix!

Recipe: Les Rochers coco avec les copeaux de chocolats, aka choc chip macaroons

Adapted from Taste's coconut macaroons

You need:

1 cup of dessicated coconut (fine or coarse, it's up to you. I had fine dessicated coconut in my panty so I used that)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg white
1/4 cup or a few pinches of dark chocolate chips, a pinch of white chocolate chips, and a few more for decor (I like to use the Nestle Choc Chips because they're in a nicely piped shape, and they hold that shape throughout the baking process)

Makes 16 bite-sized spheres, just a tad bigger than a Ferrero Rocher.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
In a bowl, lightly stir/whisk the vanilla extract into the eggwhite, don't beat the eggwhite.
Add dessicated coconut, caster sugar, the dark choc chips, and the pinch of white choc chips into the same bowl, and mix with a spoon/whisk until well combined.
Scoop out a bit of macaroon mix, and roll into a small ball. With the spare white choc chips, press one onto the top of each macaroon ball.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until the outsides of the macaroons become a caramel colour. Then turn off your oven and leave the macaroons in the oven for the residual heat to bake it to completion for about another minute.

The result? A lovely caramelised and slightly crispy and crumbly outer layer (crumbly due to the addition of the choc chips) with a softer and sweeter coconut-y innard.

These bite-sized coconut-y babies are a lovely treat. And they'll be gone in a flash.

And I mean it.

Ooh, and a tip with the baking? Get to know your oven.

I learnt the hard way.

Haven't been baking much these holidays as I would've liked. But I'm glad my 12 Week Food tour is still rolling throughout February, so those posts will be coming up throughout March :)

Coffs Harbour - Part 1 - Featuring Charlie's Restaurant and Bar, Coffs Harbour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000

After the HSC, the 4 days I spent at Coffs Harbour with my train crew have been one of the best periods in my life so far. It was my first ever trip to somewhere that's not in the Sydney area, and not including school camps or overseas trips.

We stayed at a beautiful resort north of the main Coffs Harbour city area after a 9-hour train trip, looking upon the gorgeous natural scenery. While this meant we were away from a lot of the restaurants and activity centres, this resort was so peaceful, and we spent our budget making food with each other :) Love cooking with friends like this :)

On the first night, we took the convenience of walking to Charlie's Restaurant and Bar, and we ended up choosing the nice bar option because it was outdoors and the air was nice and cool, and the restaurant was a lot more than a slightly overpriced.

Lemon and lime bitters, hand modelled by Yowie :)

Roast chicken and fries - tender chicken, not enough sauce. A tad soggy.

Beer batter fish and chips - Great batter, not too oily.

Seafood linguine - Mmmm, this dish is super duper creamy, so it's great if you have a few bites, but it's too creamy for me to finish this dish, not to mention the addition of the uber creamy and filling feeling of eating seafood.

Steak and chips - I am definitely impressed. After the sorta disastrous steak dish from The Boy's formal, I've been cautious of steak dishes. One of my friends ordered this dish, actually. And it was juicy, tender, and flavoursome - the fatty juices and aromas all just right, almost as aromatic as lamb. My first time eating bar food, I must say, this place really does nail those classic dishes.

Wedges - super freaking crunchy. I am in lurveee :)

The next morning, off to Woolies we went. Scrambled eggs and bacon on toast - a classic :)

Getting ready for our trip to the beach - Yvoon packing us sandwiches for the day

This is Yowie - the guy who took most of the photos on the trip, so unfortunately he wasn't in many.

Beach near our resort

Stay tuned for Part 2! :)

Adriano Zumbo's Dessert Train @The Star - Day 8 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 01:58:00 +0000

Hello peeps, and welcome to Day 8 of my 12 Week Food Tour! :)

As I'm still going on the tour, and I'm still chillaxing with these great post-HSC holidays, these posts will take a while to appear on the interwebs, but I hope you've had fun joining me on this trip of mine as I venture around Sydney :)

4 months, it's amazing what one can do given that amount of chillax time...Suits, anyone? :) Right now it's my favourite show, and I can't wait for Community to come out on Oct 19th!! :P

Having watched Skyfall, The Hobbit and Django Unchained during these holidays, it's made me realise how many great movies are out this 2013 - I can't wait to watch Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, and THE GREAT GATSBYYYY :)! Because knowing that Leo DiCaprio was filming scenes within a 2 minute radius from my high school IS JUST FREAKING CRAZY to comprehend!!!!!! Oh man, we were studying the novella in class as Leo was filming...that was simply unjust!! Our English teachers should've just organised a tour around Fox Studios for us to study up on Gatsby, that would've been great!! :)

The soundtrack to this upcoming movie is simply divine, the trailer looks amazing, and quite accurate to the book, I am so excited to see it!!

In the meantime, I shall treat your eyes to these amazzzziinngg delicacies from the "Voldemort of the V8 cake" (haha, already quoting Matt Preston from that recent Masterchef Professionals episode) - Monsieur Adriano ZUMBO!! :)

Yep, we all know how much I love Zumbo. The Boy knew I loved it so much he bought me the official Zumbo book for Christmas last year! I've been wanting that book since end of 2011!!

So when I was planning for my Food Tour, I couldn't possibly miss out on a chance to go visit the "King of the Croquembouche" (Matt Preston, we love you :) )

So I decided to go all out and trek 1.5 hours to Pyrmont to get my hands on his Dessert Train awesomeness! I invited Choc Chip Uru along, and she's a lovely teen foodblogger and amazing baker of Go Bake Yourself, that I found through via Daisy's blog Never Too Sweet.

My Day 8 of the Food Tour was actually just a short while before Christmas, I'm currently up to Day 20-something of my Food Tour, so yes, I'm still in the process of composing them, but I promise you I won't leave out any details! :)

The price system is very easy to follow, it's just like a sushi train! $5 or $6 dishes, colour-coded, and ready at your service!

1. Corn, saffron, mango and spice cake
The mango puree is uber sweet and corn and saffron actually go very well together. Crunchy sweet corn layered with earthy spices of cinnamon and nutmeg. Spice cake isn't melt-in-the-mouth, it's similar to the density of a typical store-bought carrot cake.

Not that great of a start to the dessert train, and the presentation of the dessert was in a jar with very blurry sides, but the dessert porn just keeps on coming, so our hopes were still high.

2. Chocolate coffee brulee

The lovely bubbly foam feature adds a lovely touch of flair to this dish - we had to eat it before it de-bubbled! Chocolate, coffee, brulee. The three elements, each presented separately, yet work so well together. The taste is 100% accurate to its name. Dense fudgy chocolate cake square, the coffee mousse cigar so creamy and whipped finely, and a lovely small piece of caramelised sugar to decorate.

3. Twisted annunziata and pear gel and compote

The lovely crumble with bitter pieces of crumbly who-knows-what and a dash of sea salt enhances the bitter dark chocolate so well, giving it a nice sweet finish, complemented by the sweet and slightly tangy pear.

4. Violet Crunchie

Violet scented vanilla bean mousse, with honeycomb buttercream, and a thin delicate piece of tempered dark chocolate, and handmade aerated honeycomb, with such a soft melt-in-the-mouth texture as opposed to the harder and crunchier store-bought aerated honeycomb in the likes of Crunchie.

Everytime I took a small spoonful of the vanilla bean mousse, there’d be a lovely fragrant after-scent of violet. Definitely a multi-sensory dessert experience.

A great deconstructed version, taking the best bits of the Cadbury Crunchie and the Nestle Violet Crumble, and upping the game to a whole 'nother level.

5. Cherry coconut

By the time we saw this plate, we knew how great Zumbo was with presenting deconstructed versions of classics, only 10x as delicious :)

Desserts in jars are definitely the 2012 trend, and dessicated coconut puree with cherry compote, some lovely chocolate cake crumbs and a swirl of whipped cream.

After our 5^th dish, my stomach starting calling out “sugar dial’s slowly turning red now!!” It was great to have the desserts in reasonable portions. I remember downing the one-portion Happy Birthday Cake and getting a massive spike on my sugar dial while merely a quarter of my way through the cake. My stomach hurt but the cake was soooo delicious I kept going!!

6. Chocolate Namelaka

By the time we reached our hands out for this plate, something told me we’d be game to cover the entire dessert train range of dishes :)

Uru and I of course need to get our game up and trial all these dishes to review them for you guys :)!! It would be very unwise to skip a dish :)

Immediately when I saw the piece of aerated chocolate, my mind wandered back to the aerated chocolate Heston made for his deluxe black forest gateau.

Deliciously fudgy cakey chocolate cake square, with dark chocolate sauce sitting on a bed of crumble with a dash of sea salt to bring out the lovely sweetness of the chocolate. This dish was definitely one of my favourites!

7. Hazelnut Dacquoise

Oh man, Zumbo sure is king of divine deconstructed dishes, isn’t he. This dish screams “Ferrero Rocher, step aside, sister!”
Super silky smooth and creamy with a lovely crunchy contrast, this was a very lovely take on the hazelnut chocolate classic.

(Photo courtesy of Choc Chip Uru)

8. Watermelon Yoghurt

Lifting the plastic cover up, the distinct bitter aroma Greek yoghurt hit us, and yayy more bubbles! There was a yellow custard-like blob, and a cute little meringue.

The meringue was very powdery and gritty, but it was a melt-in-the-mouth little thing, with a gritty texture to it. While it was refreshing, this palate cleanser didn't do it for me.

9. Pine and Nut Splice

There was a hint of mint fragrance in this dish, except we couldn’t pick out where it was. It either in the puree or the cream, but it was certainly a nice kick in terms of sensory dimensions.

To be honest, I liked different elements of the different dishes. The pineapple puree. The super creamy dense orgasmicness of the twisted annunziata enhanced by the slighty salted crumble. The exotic little meringue infused with a lightly fragrance.

After 9 dishes, I was happy to find that although I did feel the sugar level rise to a high, my sugar dial did not spike, leaving me feeling full due to the number of dishes, not the sweetness of them.

We were so full from the dessert train that we both decided to feast away on foodporn instead :)

Lovely Christmas-y goodies!

Zumbo's macaron wallpaper - definitely lickable-worthy!

Oooft, a deluxe gingerbread house, miam miam :)

Chocolate Santas!!

Harro!! :)

Me and the lovely Choc Chip Uru from Go Bake Yourself :) This is her review here.

Killa Burgers - Day 7 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:10:00 +0000

A 30cm diameter burger, filled bun to bun with a slab of juicy beef mince, fresh slaw, deep fried wedges, smothered with a special and deliciously creamy and unique mayo sauce and a large squirt of tomato sauce to finish.

Comes with thick fluffy fries and a good ol' fizzy drink to quench that fatty thirst :P

Yep, the Killa Burger challenge. Devouring this in under an hour? Psshtt, puh-lease, of course I could handle this in one sitting.

With my friends, of course :)

This here is the chicken variety, with freshly shredded iceberg lettuce and cheeeeeseee :)

So Day number 7 of my foodie tour was with my "train crew". They've been there since the start of my food blog, and I was so glad they were really excited to go on this Food Tour with me :) I let my friends choose the venue, and Killa Burgers it was. It's situated in the Burwood Heights area, about a 10 to 15 minute walk from Burwood Westfield.

There was a guy who did the challenge in 32 minutes!!! Check it out on the Wall of Fame once you come!

The burgers here are definitely not what you should be up for if you just want a decent meal portion. However, these burgers are so much value for the buck, they are hugeeeee!!! But one sixth of a burger is definitely extremely filling, not to mention the hot chips. But the novelty of this place is what keeps people coming back. Great to take a whole group of friends along to share it, just like I did! You can find 30cm burgers nowhere else!

And my apologies again for the 9 days being offline. Been going to more food trips, and I have so many food tour dates to blog haha :) I've been on more than 15 food tour trips so far, so stay tuned for more posts!

Minipost: Wrap up of 2012

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 03:15:00 +0000

How has your 2013 started? Hopefully all has gone well, happy and warm gatherings with family and friends to welcome the new year. It really is an exciting time of the year, when we're hyped up with the beautiful fireworks and a rush of New Year's resolutions come to mind. I personally have never set myself any resolutions, because goals and such can be created anytime throughout the year, and I've had heaps of those going on for a while.

Apologies for my recent hiatus from the bloggerverse, I've been spending lots of time offline with friends and family.

The end of 2012 has definitely been a blast for my friends and I. After the exam block finished, there came the Boys' and Girls' formals, followed by a lovely wedding that was also held where we had our Girls' formal. The morning after, a group of friends and I embarked on a trip to Coffs Harbour, and while they stayed for about a week. Having been my first legitimate trip to a place outside of Sydney, besides those school camps and overseas trips to Vietnam with the family, this was such a fun trip, that I'll be blogging about very soon :)

The Boy and I could only stay for four days because we had scholarship interviews awaiting us back at Sydney, on the afternoon of our arrival back at home. After that, we treated ourselves to Skyfall, which premiered that morning, so we were quite excited, and I was glad the movie lived up to The Boy's expectation - having that Joker-esque twist and all.

And speaking of The Joker, The Boy's 18th was a few days after that and I baked him a Batman cake, which I promise to post about very soon - I've actually been working on that post for a few weeks now, and I'm really excited to share my cake-baking journey with you!

Haha, yes, he had two birthday cakes, both of which I supplied. This one was for sharing; it's the Black Forest Torte from The Cheesecake Shop.

Then came my 12 Week Food Tour :) I love it when my friends get excited about joining the Food Tour with me, this support is the reason why I'm continuing with it through the 3 months :)

I have about 7 places still waiting to be blogged about, I'm very sorry about the delay - I guess I've just been having too much fun offline and out with friends, and finding jobs and other such things that post-HSC peeps do. And watching Castle. My friends Nicky and Abhi got me hooked onto watching this amazing TV show - I'm currently halfway through season 2, can't wait to finish it by the end of this week!

I've also been out a lot, mainly reunions with various groups - family gatherings, outings to the beach, karaoke and hiking and such. A group of friends and I celebrated the end of the world on the 21st Dec by jumping off rocks into picturesque lakes, and getting a massage from a 4m waterfall :)

Yep. That's the 4m waterfall. It's actually huge when you're standing under it, and mannn, trying to balance on that slippery moss was damn hard to do, but it was definitely heaps fun! Credits to CC who took this pic, it's featured in her blog Lights Guiding as well :)

To wrap up 2012, I've gotten the marks I needed for the course I love, I've received a few monetary offers from the uni of my choice, so it's all going as planned, and I'm really excited for this year - the new world of uni with my friends and I, and seeing where my food journeys take me next. There'll be more chances for dining out, and definitely more opportunities to record more covers for my YouTube channel. I've been investing my 2012 time into foodblogging, but I hope to get my channel back on track in this new year :)

So although I haven't really made any New Year's resolutions before, this year I'd like to see myself:

grasping opportunities that come my way, and never being afraid or shy to try something new
making more food memories, as well as recording more covers
making the most of my time in 1st year uni, joining different clubs and societies and making good use
maintain a healthy weight for majority of the year with lots of exercise, despite my love for food.
venture into the realm of cooking!! I've been baking most of the time I'm in the kitchen, so a little cooking know-how would be great!

So that's the wrap for what you can expect this year, and see you at my next post! :)

Happy 1 Year Blogiversary to foodfortina :) - And my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!! :)

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:28:00 +0000

Welcome to 2013 @ foodfortina :) It's my first post, and I'm here to share with you guys the good news that foodfortina has just hit one!

It's definitely been a great ride, and if it weren't for my friend CC who encouraged me to start this blog, I wouldn't have had all the fun I've had throughout my HSC year, and I wouldn't have thought to take advantage of being around the Surry Hills area daily either!

I hope to be making more fun-filled food memories and blogposts this year, especially with my plan to join UNSW's Food Lover's Society, and studying food chem in 2nd year :)

Thank you to all you guys who have been supporting me through this first year, I know that many of my readers are from my grade, and it's always really nice to hear that some friends of mine read my blog :). Like just the other day, my friend Nicky was telling me how he looked through my blog to find a place to go to catch up with his friend. And my other friend Lora, who has also enthusiastically told me about her visit to Westfield Chatswood a few days after I tried a dish at Fogo Brazilia Churrasco.

A big thank you to my dear blogger friend Shanshan from Food is our Religion, who helped me lay my foundations upon this awesome foodbloggerverse, and a big thank you to The Boy for putting up with my frequent food talks and baked goods obsession - then again, most of it goes to him anyway, haha.

I've also been able to meet up with foodbloggers, tweeting to foodbloggers is always fun :)

I remember tweeting to RamenRaff and Tina@bitemeshowme about The Dark Knight Rises in July 2012, haha :)

And, guess what? To celebrate with you guys, I would like to give you a gift. The gift of Giftsy :) I'm going to hold my first ever giveaway!!!

Giftsy is an entirely Australian owned website, and Vince, the owner of Giftsy, has taken his time to tell us a bit about this great new online store of his:

Giftsy's roots come from two separate entities, the main entity being a well established wholesale business servicing various industries including but not limited to gifts, crafts, weddings and christenings. As the business was a family business, coupled with the fact that I had experience from previously starting and running a few other websites, it only seemed like a natural idea to develop an online retail arm, hence this is how Giftsy was born.

While the site is still quite new (launched late November 2012), our aim is to create a low cost but well customer serviced destination for all items related to weddings, such as bomboniere and wedding favors and associated accessories. Eventually we will include a much wider range of products not limited to just weddings but general gifts and crafts as well.

The online market for wedding shops is quite saturated already but with constant updating of our shop to bring new ideas and products at low costs, we hope to provide Aussies with a fresh new alternative going into 2013 and beyond!

Look at those cute cupcake wrappers! I've actually been trying to find websites that sell nice cupcake wrappers for a while now, because baking cupcakes make such great presents for friends and family, that sometimes the generic supermarket prints don't give it that special touch. These food-related gift wrapping ideas are great for weddings, and they certainly look great for any party and festive occasions as well.

And better yet, there's free shipping for purchases over $30!

Check out their website, facebook page and Pinterest page!

I'll be giving away a $20 voucher for you to use at the Giftsy store! Yayyy!! :)

Updated 22/1/2013 - For a chance to win, please post a comment below! :) Note: Due to the number of comments, I will be randomly selecting a comment from all the ones posted below. Thank you, and good luck!

~~For a chance to win, please comment/answer any of the following:~~
~~- what is your favourite post in my blog?~~
~~- name a place in Sydney I should definitely try this year!~~
~~- link me a recipe that you like :) preferably baked goods, haha :)~~

You can enter as many times as you'd like for more chance to win, and feel free to spread the word about this Giftsy giveaway, and I'll pick a random winner from random.org.

The competition ends on the 24th Jan 2012, and it's open to Australian residents only (sorry to my international readers!). So get your entries in asap!

Disclaimer: The monetary prize for this blogpost is sponsored by Giftsy.com.au. However, the opinions about Giftsy expressed in this post are entirely my own.

*My blog actually turned 1 as of 2 days ago, but I've been on blog hiatus for a while - still immersing in the great liberties of post-hsc chillaxation :)

2012 Wrap up! From one foodlover to another :)

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 04:57:00 +0000

Yesterday I had a lovely family BBQ gathering at my place, to celebrate my dad's birthday along with my high school results. Tomorrow midnight marks the start of a new and hopefully awesomer year. Time does travel fast, whether we have fun or not - I do remember this year being quite a slow yet filled journey for me, but now it's the 30th of December, and that whole year really went by fast. So today I'm taking a pause, to reminisce what the year's been like for me.

For all you foodlovers out there, I'm sure this year was a mix of highs and lows, just like every year, with some very memorable moments that you'll cherish for a long time :) . I hope your 2012 gave you a lot of happy fun times, as well as lots of food trips, taking you all across Sydney and beyond!

Most of you who read my blog would know that 2012 for me was the inception of this food blog, an idea that was encouraged by my close friend, which I took on board despite anticipating its potential consequence on what masqueraded itself as a daunting year ahead. HSC isn't actually that bad, or that big of a deal either, and foodblogging was definitely a highlight of my year - I haven't looked back since. It's been an amazing ride, a parallel world to my Year 12 study life, and do love it that they fit around each other so well - blogging and taking pictures of food and reading about food everywhere is such a therapeutic pastime, and I've been to more places in this one year than I've ever been in probably the last 5 years combined!

Highlights of my food and fun filled year would definitely be the acknowledgement that my high school is around such a great foodie area, and so I used those free periods to my advantage, and ate at many cafes - I really like Surry Hills cafes; most of them offer something unique, and that's certainly fuelled my desire to eat at many other cafes in the upcoming year.

As for cooking and baking, I didn't do much this year, but I did spend 4 days on a special cake that I made for The Boy - the post will be coming soon! :)

I also managed to write 'Zumbo' all over this year - I fulfilled one of my dreams of tasting a Zumbo macaron for the first time this year, after starting a dedicational tumblr to this freaking awesome guy and his food :). After my initial hot cross bun Zumbaron in Easter, our family had a trip to Pyrmont where I bought my first batch of Zumbarons ever, and then my sister trekked all the way there to buy me $30 worth of Zumbo goodness for my birthday. Ohhhh it gets better! About 2 weeks back, I met up with an amazing foodblogger and we sampled every dish on Zumbo's dessert train that day (post coming soon, of course!). And The Boy bought me the official Zumbo book as his Christmas cheer to round off the Zumbo-related things I did this year!

And I've also added several other cookbooks to my bookshelf - there's Bill's Basics, The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook, What the Heck is Filipino food, and Secrets of Macarons!

And as I said, I love it that food and high school fit around each other so well, so much so that I've participated in a whole heap of food-related events at high school this year :)

Post-HSC events and outings have been amazingly fun so far, and that definitely includes my 12 Week Food Tour that'll continue throughout Jan and Feb as well, so stay tuned for more of those posts!

So that's pretty much my 2012, summed up in a post, and I hope you all enjoy the last few days of this year, and I wish you all an awesomely happy, fun, and prosperous 2013!

Holy Basil, CBD - Day 6 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The four months of post-HSC fun really are the best few weeks of my life so far. More license to independence, more approval for late night shift work and jobsearching, more means to hang out a lot, and more chance to catch up with those that the HSC year and mindset simply did not allow. Now that everyone's chillax, it's more of a reason to catch up with the old friends, and catch up we did. Having kept in contact with some year 4 friends via social networking only for the recent past few months, I was able to meet up with 8 other primary school friends and all hang out :) I knew and remembered all of them, but it was a great chance for those who did not remember each other, and it was quite funny seeing people's reactions, being like "Oh hey, so that's who you are!" The ice broke easily, and we all had a great time at pool and shopping :)

I told these guys about my food tour, and they were all on board with the idea of eating somewhere quite fancy. Fancy? Outing? Large group? City? Holy Basil was definitely a popular choice to go, and it did end up being our choice for the arvo.

The lovely oriental vibe from the spectacular interior decor was thoroughly ruined by the screeching calls of Taylor Swift on loop, and the lovely dim lighting did make my no-flash settings null, so my apologies for the blurry photos in this post.

The lovely bunch from primary school :)

Laos Charcoal BBQ Chicken - Charcoal grilled chicken in Chef's special marinade that will complement with papaya salad - $13.90

Nothing outstanding. Should've bought papaya salad with it.

Ox Tongue - Marinated grilled ox tongue thinly sliced and served with Holy Basil's special dipping sauce - $10.90

Thin and chewy, love the marinade! Thumbs up!

Thai Beef Salad - Marinated beef strips wok-tossed in a salad of onion, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, mixed with herbs of coriander, shallots, chilli powder, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and mint leaves - $14.90

I did not know that cucumbers are a part of a genuine Thai beef salad. A tad grainy, but otherwise very nice :)

Roast duck red curry - Often served during traditional family feasting, this specialty dish has an abundance of flavours from lychees, pineapple, cherry tomato, sweet basil, fresh chillies, green bananas and kaffir lime leaves cooked with cuts of roast duck - $17.90

Love the contrast of the sweet lychee and pineapple and the mildly spicy curry and aromatics. Not too creamy either, so it's a thumbs up as well.

Pad See Ew - stir fried flat rice noodles with sweet soy sauce, egg and Chinese broccoli - chicken - $12.90

Every piece of noodle is coated in the sauce, and it's not excessive in oil either. Not too oily, not too dry, it's just right.

Salt and pepper calamari - Deep fried squid which has been lightly coated in a special batter, tossed in a salt and pepper mixture, and served with sweet chilli sauce - $15.90

I always get some sort of deep fried calamari whenever I have the chance. It's one of those staples that my family must have whenever we're going to a Yum Cha or Chinese seafood restaurant.

Soft shell crab - Deep fried soft-shell crab with has been lightly coated in a special batter, tossed in a salt and pepper mixture, and served with sweet chilli sauce. - $15.90

Man, this has got to be one of my favourite dishes of the arvo. Soft shell crab is such a stunner! It's a great example of something that's great when deep-fried

Fried ice cream - $13.90

And, ladies and gentlemans, what we witnessed that afternoon was something truly amazing. Thin and crispy filo-like pastry encasing a triangular piece of vanilla icecream, dusted with icing sugar over a bed of crispy deep-fried dessicated coconut and mixed nuts, served with a lovely drizzle of thick caramel sauce. Oh man, this was definitely a great ending to the Thai food feast :)

I've been wanting to come to Holy Basil since the early days of 2012, and post-HSC has helped me tick another place off my must-go list yet again :) I thank my awesome friends for sharing this awesome lunch and having a great day together, I'm so glad to be seeing most of them in uni :)

Mexico - Surry Hills - Day 5 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 10:44:00 +0000

Sorry it's been a tad quiet over here, I've been hanging out a lot with a new group of mine, as well as catching up with many old friends. And it's that time where all our HSC graduates leave for a trip to Thailand, Europe, or their home countries, for a family visit or for the pretty tours, so their trips are such interesting stories to listen to :) I'm hoping to do a bit of travelling next year, maybe to the US or NZ with my friends as an we-passed-first-year-uni award :)

I'd like to take this blogpost to personally thank a fellow Sydney foodblogger that has introduced me into this amazing internet food-world, and her name is Shanshan from Food is our Religion. She was the first blogger to show me the way around bloggerworld, getting all my social media plugins going, and communicating with other fellow foodbloggers on Twitter to expand my knowledge of Sydney food.

I invited her to this Food Tour so we could get to know each other, and she invited Rockahenry from Can't believe it's not a food blog to my event as well, and it was definitely great meeting him :) I like being in the company of those who have been around to many places and have a lot of food knowledge and a great palate, it gets me all excited about the many possible places I'll get to enjoy in the near future.

I let Shanshan choose the place we were going to go for our day of the food tour, and she told me that Mexico just opened a few days before our food tour day, replacing District Dining, very near to Central Station.

Mexican is a cuisine that I've rarely crossed paths with, I've had casual Mexican at Robocog and a bit more pro Mexican at Reuben Hills, but I know of the general vibe as portrayed by mass media; tacos and burritos, and lovely hot sauces, but naming a place "Mexico"? Well, that calls for authenticity. It was funny, telling my sister "Oh I'm at Mexico!" (proper grammar aside :P)

The interior decor is fantastic! Love the earthy colour scheme and collage of framed works covering all the walls. It was the 4th day they were open, and already we bumped into a few well-known faces; chocolatesuze and Food Porn Nation of the Sydney food bloggersphere, and celebrity chef Manu Feildel and his family.

Rockahenry was a tad stuck in traffic, so we ordered some drinks for chill time. I was keen to try this Mexican cola.

Non-alcoholic drinks - Mexican Cola - $5

Tastes like regular cola, but the after-aroma you get rising up your nose is a tad unique, it reminded me of this plastic-y foamy dought I used to play with as a child. It's still a lovely drink though :)

Sangria - choice of white, red or sparkling - seasonal fruit, vanilla, agave nectar and bacardi - $8

Shanshan said she'd had better.

And don't forget the chilli!! Hot hot hot! Tabasco and Habanero, oh dayummm these taste so good! I've never had green chilli before, and it's definitely much different to the Viet chilli, it's much hotter and a tad sharper too.

Settling in as soon as Rockahenry arrived, we ordered some individual soft shell tacos for entrees.

Soft shell taco - Wild mushroom, fennel and jarjoram, sour cream, toasted pinenuts - $6

Soft shell tacos - Pibil rubbed pork with black beans, red cabbage, guajillo, sesame - $6

Soft shell tacos - Pan fried fish veru cruz style w capers, candied olive - $6

Thumbs up to the lovely soft shell variation, for I've only ever eaten hard shell ones before. And seeing that the restaurant is called Mexico, we were all anticipating a great entree worth its money. And it definitely was.

This rubbed pork is such a nice variation of meat filling for a dish - so fancy and tender! Thumbs up to creaminess of them black beans.

Mexico's fried chicken ("not to be missed!") - $12.

It had the symbol of 2 chillis on it. And the Asian tongue of mine really begs to differ about this scale. If this dish was 2 chillis worth, then the Habanero would be worth 10. And it ain't Mexican without delicious hot sauce, right? :)

Not having been to Arisun, apparently one of the places with the best type of fried chicken, I didn't know what to compare this fried chicken to besides the KFC ones. But the coating on this chicken is damn good! Very crunchy, crispy, well seasoned, lovely sauces, another happy thumbs up!

Picture 1: Quesadillas - achiote chicken, citrus cured red onion, mint with salsa borracha - $12

Picture 2: classy quesadillas, thanks to Rockahenry's awesome hand-modelling skills :)

Sauce on that sauce, mamma!

A very lovely thin and slightly flaky-on-the-outside quesadilla bread contrasts to the very toasted-pita-bread like nature of the Robocog quesadillas. This was very pleasant, but the dish cooled down so fast, so the light crispy flakes of the pastry got soggy quite fast. Rockahenry noted a Viet vibe to this dish, with its notes of an aromatic leaf, like mint or basil, and the salsa just brought it up a few notches for me to give it a thumbs up and approve of it as a very decent dish - decent filling, decent price, and decent sizing too :)

Specialties - Chipotle lime ceviche with lack tomatoes, red pepper, garlic, coriander - $14

The first time I heard the word ceviche (pronounced "sir-vee-chay") was when Poh made a canape of the sort way back in 09 Masterchef, and I knew it was some sort of fish dish, but little did I know that it was the lime that 'cooked' the fish. This dish must be carefully made, and made fresh, too. And when Rockahenry noted that the dish was essentially Peruvian in nature, disproving the assumed authenticity of a restaurant that would bravely name itself after a country, I did a quick search afterwards to reveal that the origin of ceviche has been a debated topic, but that Mexico has a unique range of ceviches itself, maybe not as the original creators of the dish, but they definitely did take it on board and make it Mexican, which a few other South American countries did as well. So points for authenticity? They risked it with ceviche, but for the taste, it's definitely point-worthy :)

Still being on a high-school leaver student budget, and only a tad less employed, $27 for a meal was edging towards the pricey side for me, but it was definitely a great experience, and getting to know Shanshan and Henry made the lunch worthwhile :)

Zee beautiful menu

Me with zee beautiful Shanshan :)

Here are a few blogposts to get you warmed up :)

And one thing I learnt from that day? Mexican Chilli is so freaking good.

Le Montage, Lilyfield

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:26:00 +0000

I'm taking another blogging moment to reminisce the fun-times of post-HSC 2012, a place with all my high school friends that is the SGHS 2012 Formal, held at the lovely picturesque Le Montage, the day after The Boy's Formal. My energy from the night before still hasn't died, and I had my fingers crossed that with the $100 ticket, will it be able to afford better catering? And my parents broke the news that at the end of the week, I'll be returning to Le Montage to attend a spectacular wedding function! :) Hopes were very high, and hopes of a happy formal night were even higher.

The venue is certainly quite a wonder, inside and out. Although I'm not too fussed about water views, this place definitely has a great one. After settling in, everyone was rushing out for sunset shots!

Us included! Hehe :)

I'd like to thank Sophie Z for providing me with the school formal menu a few days before the event :)

Aperitif - Welcome drinks served on arrival

Entree - Poached chicken and avocado salad with fresh witlof, roma tomatoes, cucumber and baby herbs, dressed with a chive, mandarin mayo resting in a crisp lavosh basket.

Immediately after reading the entree, I knew The Boy would like this dish - he's a sucker for chicken. Pretty looking dish with so many textural elements. Thumbs up to the crispy lavosh basket to serve the salad, and the creamy avo and mayo contrasting with the lovely fresh vegies, oh man, such a lovely starter!

Main - Oven roasted breast of chicken, wrapped in pancetta resting on a creamy risotto of spinach and mushroom finished with lemon and thyme butter sauce.

My first time tasting risotto, and I'm not a big fan, just too creamy of a consistency for me. But the chicken breast was soooo lovely and well-seasoned!!

Alternate - Char-grilled sirloin steak, resting on a bed of potato mash infused with truffle oil, served with seasonal greens and topped with a beef jus.

My god. SO SO MUCH BETTER considering last night's steak was very disappointing. The truffle oil just made the mash all the more creamier and it had such a pleasant aroma that complemented the very well made steak, which was tender and juicy and every bite of the steak left the most pleasant tastes of the infused seasoning. I love everything about this dish, and the chicken main dish was great as well - I'm so glad we chose Le Montage for the formal function!

Dessert - Montage tiramisu tower consisting of layers of marscapone with Marsala and espresso coffee soaked sibiatti biscuits, served with chocolate butterscotch sauce.

And it just got better and better. A freaking divine dessert this one is, it just went down so easily and quick! I wanted more!! And Guiseppe, the lovely waiter, was walking around holding 5 tiramisus, and after casually requesting to have more desserts, he actually came back and gave us some! :) But as the Vietnamese proverb goes, one's eyes can be bigger than their stomach, and I was quite full from the previous meals, although they weren't gigantic servings.

Girl's formal night was a little less dancing, and a little more photo-time, but nonetheless, it was a great night with all our friends.

And a few days later, Le Montage held the spectacular wedding function for the lovely couple Christina and Patrick.

And I got to bump into the lovely dessert waiter Guiseppe again!! :)

Me and my lovely sister Ann - she really knows my love of food; she bought me an icecream maker for Christmas, and a whole heap of Zumbo goodness for my birthday :). Love this girl :)

Aperitif - Welcome drinks served with a selection of canapes on arrival

Entree- Fresh Tasmanian smoked salmon tower filled with a creamy kipfler potato, avocado and cucumber salad, resting on fresh wild rocket, surrounded by a cherry tomato and citrus dressing, finished with salmon caviar and chervil

Lift up the salmon slice and the potato and avocado salad is just divine. Creamy, delicious, lovely presentation, what more could one ask for? It was a very generous serving size for an entree as well!

Alternate - Chilled Canadian scallops accompanied by celeriac remoulade and petite letteca dressing

A much smaller serving size compared to the former, with 4 scallops and a lovely dressing.

Main Course - Double roasted pork belly, rubbed with Murray River salt with crisp crackling, resting on piped buttered mash, served with wilted seasonal greens, apple and seeded mustard confit with star anise, finished with a cider and rosemary jus.

As much as I love the relative who bought the roasted pork especially for this wedding, the roasted pork belly was hard and we couldn't even cut it with a knife and fork. It was a shame because the meat tasted decent, and the sides, mash and jus were great.

Alternate - Fresh fish of the day oven baked, resting on warm potato salad, served with crisp green beans, finished with a tomato and basil salsa

Soft, very well dressed fish, so it's a thumbs up relative to the pork belly main, but I'm a pork person, so I would've loved to see that pork done well - a tender pork would've made that dish the winner for me.

Dessert - Vanilla bean creme brulee, served with fresh cream, an almond biscotti and fresh strawberry

Not exactly a brulee - no hard caramelised sugar to crack open :( - so it was more like a creme caramel, but that's the only criticism I have for an amazingly creamy dessert with the scent of vanilla throughout it.

Alternate - Toblerone semi freddo pyramid, drizzled with a crunchy caramel sauce

YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM! I have such an appreciation for anything with caramel, this was such a refreshing dessert! Simple yet amazing :)

30 seconds later...

And after the entree, they gave us a plate of freshly shucked oysters, served with fresh lemon. Then after dessert, it was fresh seasonal fruit, and Christina and Patrick's Wedding Cake.

Yum...chocolate marble cake with a generous layer of vanilla fondant!

And a cute little scented candle for a wedding gift :)

Credits for photos:
Wedding photos: Dad's camera, Canon DLSR 60D
Formal photos: Most were from The Boy's camera, and one from Lizz H and some from Lindy Chen, who is a fellow foodblogger friend of mine, and writes http://www.flouritdevourit.com/ . Check out her lovely baking recipes!

Manmaruya Noodle Bar, and Snow Monkey Frozen Yoghurt - Campsie - Day 4 of Tina's 12 Week Food Tour

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:26:00 +0000

Day 4, and Fiona, Liana and I decide to head of quite locally to a Japanese Noodle Bar in Campsie, with the name of Manmaruya. There are a few Manmaruya stores around the Sydney area, one in Hurstville, one in Ashfield, and one in Campsie for the Bankstown-Canterbury peeps.

Despite not really being a Campsie local, and only having been eating out in Campsie for three times in the past two years, Manmaruya was easy to find, being on the main road, Beamish Street, and very close to Campsie station. There's also a bus line right in front of the store as well, which we mistook for being those lining up for Manmaruya, and getting a tad freaked out because we forgot to book beforehand. Fortunately, we were able to get seats, and the store was in fact quite crowded at lunchtime.

Miso Ramen (Chicken stock) - Miso flavoured chicken soup noodle, topped with roasted pork, bean sprout, seaweed paper, fungus, bamboo shoots, corn and boiled egg - $10.80

Add $3 if you want some gyoza dumplings and salad on the side.

Fiona says the dumplings weren't crisp on the outside; she's had better dumplings. And when she's out for Japanese food, she's usually keen on buying Miso Ramen.

Kogashi Ninniku Ramen (Pork stock) - Soy flavoured soup noodle, topped with roasted pork, bean sprout, bamboo shoots, boiled egg and roasted garlic (ninniku means garlic) - $11.80

I prefer pork stock, it has a deeper taste, as opposed to the chicken stock having sweeter notes. Garlic wasn't prominent in this dish, the best part would have to be the stock for me. You get the usual lovely toppings, with only two pieces of roast pork. The yummy stock kept me coming for more :)

By the way, don't you just love it how they tell you on the menu that you're eating fungus? Haha, a tad unsightly to read, but fortunately we knew it to be just mushrooms and nothing more.

Lunch Bento Boxes - These are a great, filling, and great-priced lunch special - only $10 for a large dish with a generous serving size of everything. Liana ordered the Tontoro Shoga-yaki, which is pork cheek in a ginger sauce.

The little soft pieces of pork covered in a soft batter, and topped with this special sauce, was quite addictive. And Liana left me all the thinly sliced pickled ginger pieces, yummmo!

The prices here are decent (around the $10-13 mark), and the interior decor is quite plain, but the proximity of the store was a thumbs up for me. No ramen places in Bankstown, so Campsie is the closest we've got.

The usual (and expected) generous serving size, typical of ramen bowls, and I was very full afterwards. On the menu were a very limited range of desserts, consisting of only icecream, with the flavours that are generally regarded as Japanese in origin; green tea, black sesame and red bean.

This place is a decent lunching place, and the three of us were so full by the time we left, so we had a stroll around the area, until we all craved froyo. And where else to go than to Snow Monkey? :)

Having already visited the place before, it was great coming back and seeing those Polaroids still stuck up on the wall.

It's time to cover them all with yummy froyo!

A 2nd board is up! And what do we have here?

Thanks Snow Monkey for publishing my blogpost :) And thanks to Yowie for telling me about it :)!

Mini = $2.50 (1 yoghurt flavour), Regular = $3.50 (2 yoghurt flavours) Add 50c for each topping.

I was still pretty full, so a mini froyo it was! Except I bought 3 toppings!!

Fiona's tutti-fruitti choice :)

Another Polaroid for the wall :)

Us peeps, Fiona, me and Liana :)

Four Seasons Hotel, CBD

noreply@blogger.com (heyitsjustmeT) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 06:12:00 +0000

These past few weeks after the HSC have been truly amazing so far - escaping the city to a relaxing resort at Coffs Harbour for our post-HSC trip, dressing up for formals and weddings, and spending quality time with friends and family, all the while enjoying the company of lovely meals from all around Sydney.

They say that this 15 week break (early November to end of February) is one of the best times of your life, and so every day, I've been finding many ways to keep myself occupied. This past week, it's been watching Mad Men for the first time, reading Herve This' molecular gastronomy handbook number 2, Kitchen Mysteries, finding odd jobs, and reading plenty of foodblogs.

Although I am currently venturing to different places as part of my 12 week food tour, I am still writing up posts about those happy fun-times events that took place during the 2 weeks right after that last HSC exam, and every time I resume to add a bit more, I remember what great occasions they were, and this is the first one :)

---

The Sunday right after the 4 week HSC period ended was the date of The Boy's formal, and so, The Boy and his boys organised for a lavish Hummer service (HF Wedding Cars).

Credits to Shaun F for these photos :)

While the night was anticipated to be held at Shangri-La Hotel, just a few blocks down, apparently the light system encountered problems, and so Shangri-La called and the formal was changed to be situated at Four Seasons Hotel. We were told that the venue was more expensive than the $130 Shangri-La Hotel formal ticket we paid for, so I secretly had my hopes high for good food and stellar service.

The venue was pleasant indeed, with the usual comfy chairs and chandelier settings, but the function room was quite enclosed, windowless in other words, no picturesque water view to be near or see, but the Hummer trip there and back made it all the worth.

Credits to Daryl F for taking all the photos of the night, as well as all some of the food photos below, upon my request :)

Entree: Smoked Duck, Lentil Dressing, Orange and Fennel Salad
Small, pleasant start, lovely citrus contrast, but I didn't sense that the smokiness of the duck was there. Lovely portion size though.

Main: Sirloin Steak, Mashed Potato, Asparagus, Mushroom and Jus
While Daryl beside me was constantly complaining about the fact they chose the sirloin cut to make us steak, this dish was really underwhelming. The mash was lacking in the optimum creaminess and the steak... Well. I expected much more depth in flavour and juiciness. An average steak that you would usually pass off for at home.

Dessert: Cake, and Hand Made Chocolates
The chocolates were alcohol-infused, and they didn't give us cake. So in fact we paid close to full price to get 2/3 of a complete meal, of which the main course wasn't that outstanding.

Fortunately the night's focus was upon dancing one's heart out and hogging the photobooth, and 3 hours of dancing and an awesomely energetic Hummer ride home made it one of the most memorable nights for me this year :)

Website: Four Seasons
Address: 199 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9250 3100