I Eat Therefore I Am

Are You A Front Or Back Shucker? - How To Shuck An Oyster

2011-12-13T21:17:00.001+11:00

Are you a front or back shucker?

I believe that quote came from @theprovenance, a fellow oyster fiend. It made me chuckle.

I absolutely love oysters. I could eat heaps of them, 48 being my record in one sitting. When I first started eating them, I used to eat them steamed, usually covered in black beans, ginger, spring onions and soy. Obviously you can tell that I first ate them at Chinese restaurants. Slowly, I started to try them in other forms, baked cheese, kilpatrick and finally, raw. And I found out that I prefer raw the most, with it's natural "taste of the sea". You can read up about my various oyster flavour combinations here and here.

When I taste raw oysters at restaurants, it always tastes so much better than the ones I buy from fishmongers. It's because restaurants open their oysters on the spot, retaining all the juicy goodness. Who knows how long an oysters sitting on the fishmonger's window shop has been opened for right? And even if you ask them to open on the spot for you, unless you're going to eat them right away, they still dry out when you get them home and the juice spills. I've always wanted to open my own but it looked quite difficult. It wasn't until my Steer Boot Camp experience where I learnt to open oysters that I made up my mind to buy an oyster knife.

Oyster knives aren't oyster knives as they say. There were so many different types. They vary in the blade material, blade length, handle material, handle size, handle length. After much research on various forums, I finally settled on buying the Dexter Russell Oyster Knife. This knife has a plastic handle and a 7cm blade. People were divided over whether to have a flat blade or rounded blade. Both parties claimed their knives worked better. I settled on the rounded blade knife as you can see from the photo below. Also people were divided as to what length is best. Some said the shorter 7cm is better as it works for more types of oysters while some claimed the 10cm gave better leverage. The problem with the longer knife is it's hard to use on small oysters, and that was the deal breaker for me as I love eating a number of varieties that are quite small.

Shucking an oyster is not super easy, but after a dozen or so, you'll get the hang of it and be shucking them quite quickly. As for the question of whether to shuck them from the front of the back, I found the back safer and easier for myself. I tended to miss the front thin lip and the knife go flying towards my fingers. The back is also not without risk so it's best to wear some gloves while also using lots of wet dish cloths to keep the oyster secure.

I attack the oyster by having the knife at about a 45 degree angle and then inserting it at the back tip of the oyster. I found that the triangular shaped back of the knife really made it easy to pry the back oyster tip open. So that's a plus for the triangular type shape. However, a negative was that when I went to twist my way to the front of the oyster to pry off the top shell, the triangular shape made it harder.

I did stab the oyster quite a few times when I first started and found that even when the back tip was unlatched, it was hard to push the knife all the way to the front. Finally, I found it was easier to go down one side of the oyster shell and release the abductor muscle at the front first, which then easily let me pry the whole top shell off. Once the top shell was off, I like to cut the oyster out of the bottom shell as it's easier to eat. A poke around with my fingers removed the little bits of shell, making sure to retain all that wonderful juices that make the oyster so so sweet.

And there you have a skill that I really think is worth learning. The oysters just tastes so much nicer when freshly shucked. Add a splash of lemon and tobasco and you get food perfection.

PM24 - Degustation Meal Slightly Disappointing

2011-12-10T08:30:00.000+11:00

I don't think there is a person I've ever talked to that didn't like Philippe Mouchel's old restaurant The Brasserie, especially the weekend lunches which were the best value in town I think. So it was with much sadness when The Brasserie closed and I couldn't get those weekend lunches anymore. However, when it was announced that monsieur Mouchel was opening a new restaurant, PM24, in the city, I was delighted.

I didn't rush out to the restaurant and instead gave it time to settle a bit before I went. There were a lot of glowing critic and blog reviews, so I felt a bit disappointed when my experience wasn't as good, especially when I was promising excellent things to everyone.

I visited on a weeknight with my work mates John, Jordan and Xiaofeng, who was visiting from overseas. He wanted French food so I suggested there was no better place to try that than PM24. We went with the degustation meal as suggested by the waitress, which I regretted. The degustation meal seemed to be the simplest dishes, bistro style, whereas the a al carte dishes actually looked a lot better. So I may try that next time instead.

The degustation meal started with a Soft Boiled Egg in soup, which as great as it was, I wished I had eaten less than a quarter of it. It was so rich and I was a quarter full once I had finished it. I wonder why they serve something so large and heavy as a starting dish. We then moved on to this very nice Charcuterie Platter for four. Again it was deceptively filling as there were two types of pate and terrine. It was good but extremely rich.

To further add to the richness, we were served two massive Cheese Souffles next to share between the four of us. Oh man, what is going on I was thinking. Everything was so sickeningly rich that I was losing my appetite. Again the souffles were good but we hardly touched them as we just needed something a bit lighter and fresher. Following the souffles were my favourite Snails in Garlic. These were so good, just like the old days at The Brasserie.

By the time the entrees were done, I think we were all completely full already. When the Fish of The Day arrived, a Barramundi, we all just nibbled at it. While the fish was cooked extremely well, it was doused in this super rich hollandaise type sauce. What was happening here. When did Philippe's food become some one dimensional and super rich? Luckily I told myself, there was the lamb to come. Visions of Cumulus Inc or The Point or The Brasserie's lamb perfections were filling my mind. Instead, everyone was super disappointed. The lamb was not cooked well and quite chewy. Worst still, it had no ounce of flavour in it at all. So despite there being three lamb fiends at the table, we didn't get through even half of the lamb and just left it there.

Luckily desserts perked us all up. The Creme Caramel was super smooth and good. The Chocolate Marquis was amazing, luscious, velvety and intensely chocolate. The Pastries with Fruit was crispy and moreish. And the sorbets were refreshing and light, perfect finish.

We were seated in the small area near the front bar. It felt a bit isolated from the rest of the main room at first but after a while it felt quite private and nice, at least at night. I think I would hate that spot in the day time. Service, was excellent and staff were friendly and knowledgeable.

Overall, I must say I was slightly disappointed with the food. I was expecting big things and I don't think PM24 delivered. The degustation meal at least seemed to be quite lazy bistro standards, not all done perfectly either. I was expecting more from a Philippe Mouchel restaurant. I would go back to try again as it's Philippe Mouchel, but if it was based on this meal alone, I wouldn't.

Overall Rating: 13/20, Food was good at times but also extremely rich and quite plain at other times.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Easy Tiger

2011-12-07T19:30:00.000+11:00

So when The Age's Epicure, thy reputable culinary publication section, described Easy Tiger as below, I just had to go.

Remember the first time you tried Thai food? You’ll have that feeling again when you taste Easy Tiger’s. Put simply, it’s wow. Top-notch ingredients, fresh flourishes, smart service, funky little room, matching wine list: See you there for the Sunday night banquet.

When you read something like above, you can't help but go with high expectations. I love Thai food and eat quite a lot of it from cheap to expensive across Melbourne. I was expecting Easy Tiger to be something so experimental and different. What I found was good, but definitely not like eating Thai food for the first time again.

The four of us, Bruno, Sarah, Logan and myself started the meal with entrees of the Betel Leaf with Prawn and Spring Rolls. The betel leaf entree was good but I felt was inferior to Longrain's. The spring rolls, which I was ready to write off, was very good.

For mains, we went with a Green Wagyu Curry, a Red Lamb Curry, a Sticky Beef Ribs, Stir Fry Chicken Noodles and Rice Cakes with vegetables. The green curry with the wagyu was good, and quite spicy. The flavour was nice but nothing mind blowing different. In fact, I have since tasted a Thai Green Curry at Siam 1 that blows it out of the water. The use of wagyu beef didn't really add to the dish as you can't even tell it was wagyu. The red lamb curry was extremely spicy and I liked it. It was quite a dry curry and the meat was very tender.

The ribs that we had were super sticky and sweet and I rather liked them, but the others didn't much care for them. I liked the sweetness but I guess it's not for everyone. I do have quite a sweet tooth. The chicken stir fry was good, with excellent wok breathe. However, as I was telling everyone, at near $30, I could get three similarly good stir fry chicken noodle dishes at Springvale.

The final dish was a stir fry rice cake. Again, there was great wok breathe and the dish was tasty. I just think that I'm the wrong clientele. The prices are aimed at Smith Street types willing to pay for the latest funky restaurant rather than myself, where I'd rather pay a third the price to eat the same dish on a plastic table and plastic plate thrown at me by the waiter.

Desserts was a simple dish of mochi balls in coconut milk, a clear highlight for the night. Overall, I found the meal good but by no means so unique that I felt like I'd never tasted Thai food before. Many of the flavours are stock standard combinations now. It wasn't the restaurant's fault that my expectations were so high that they weren't met. While the food was good, I wouldn't go back due to the prices. The meal cost about $140 each, with 3 beers on average per person. For that price, I'd rather eat at a host of other cheap Thai restaurants, even if the service and ambiance at Easy Tiger is nicer.

Overall Rating: 13/20, Food is good but I'm unwilling to recommend it as I think there is far better Thai food for cheaper elsewhere.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Portello Rosso - Banquet Meal

2011-12-01T22:30:00.001+11:00

Even though I've lived in Melbourne for most of my life and I love to eat so read up about many restaurants, I'm still forever being surprised by great restaurants hidden amongst one of Melbourne's many laneways. Portello Rosso is such a restaurant, and my friend Hien has been raving about this restaurant to me for ages. We finally met up to eat there when she could squeeze me into her busy jet setting career.

We went on a Sunday night and had the banquet meal. I think the cheapest banquet (which was $40 when we went but is now $42) is only available on Sunday, but I may be wrong. I think this banquet is more than enough food and it's insanely good.

We start the meal with some fantastic garlic bread, where you rub the garlic in oil into the bread yourself. Lovely marinated olives also accompanied the bread. I'm not a big fan of olives so let Hien eat most of that. Entree were classic Spanish tapas of Tortilla, Prawns in Oil and Grilled Scallops. All were great, especially the prawns and I don't really like prawns that much.

Beautiful massive Meatballs (2 each *snigger with childish laughter*) and the most moreish Pumpkin and Beetroot Salad were next up. By the time I finished these two dishes, I was getting quite full already. But there was much more yummy food to come so I pushed on as the next dish was Pork Belly. And these pork belly were super moist and crispy, served with a almond and garlic puree. On the side, there was also a brilliant Potato Bravas.

By this point I thought I was completely done, but then this ultra fragrant Seafood Paella arrived. Somehow I managed to push on...AGAIN...and eat almost half of this wonderful paella. The rice was just the right consistency and had the crispy bits at the base which I love. There were nice chunks of seafood and meat mixed through it.

Thankfully, while the rest of the meal was paced quite quickly (we were on a 2 hour sitting), the dessert was delayed for a bit to let all the wonderful food settle. The dessert that arrived was some simple churros. I really love churros but don't find too many good ones around Melbourne. I would have to say that these are the BEST (yes, big call) churros I've had in Melbourne. They were so crispy and soft inside. The flavour was just that perfect golden brown (if you could taste a colour that's what these taste like). And while most places serve a dark chocolate sauce for churros, this thin white chocolate sauce was stunning.

We were seated upstairs in this cosy nook and I loved it. Although it was cramped up there, I loved the atmosphere and it felt like I was eating in a small tree house with the sloped ceiling. The waitress we had was very friendly and joked and laughed with us while efficiently removing our dishes. She even helped us select the sparkling cider which was awesome. I wish I remembered the name of that cider.

I would happily recommend Portello Rosso as the dishes I tried were all excellent in flavour and perfectly cooked in texture. With drinks included, the meal only came to $50, which is a great price.

Overall Rating: 16/20, Beautiful simple Spanish food done extremely well.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Cupcake Central Workshop - Masterclass

2011-11-23T21:30:00.000+11:00

First, stare at my foodporn cupcake for 30 seconds.

Have you done that? Did you look for a full 30 seconds?

Is your mouth salivating?

No? You're crazy, get outta here.
Yes? I can tell you the cupcake tastes as good as it looks.

It looks damn fine I can hear you saying. Well yes it is, and I made it.

But you can't frost Thanh? Well that was the old me, who could only bake nice cupcakes but whose frosting looks like someone dropped it onto the cupcake. The new me can frost...a bit.

*** Adjunct: See the cupcake photo, that was shot on my iPhone 4S. Amazing quality isn't it. Love the camera on my 4S. ***

So where I have picked up my newly acquired frosting skill? It was from the Cupcake Central Workshop Masterclass. Thanks to the wonderful Sheryl at Cupcake Central Workshop, no home baker need ever hang their head in shame with their woeful frosting efforts again.

At the masterclass, you get to see how they make the cupcakes at the shop, with helpful tips to give you the best results. All ingredients are on show as Sheryl believes in her products and only uses the best quality ingredients and has nothing to hide. Her recipe, as she will tell you, is adapted from the Magnolia Bakery's and all baked fresh that day. Magnolia Bakery cupcakes are my favourite and default recipe for cupcakes. Their vanilla, chocolate and red velvet cupcake recipes produce divine light fluffy cupcakes. Cupcake Central's cupcakes are just as divine and light, with the red velvet my clear favourite and the best I've had anywhere (I've yet to taste the Magnolia Bakery red velvet made from the actual shop).

While the cupcakes are baking, Sheryl will show you how to frost them and mould icing. She will show you a variety of frosting styles and does it so expertly that you fall into the false assumption that it's easy. Her shops signature frosting is the "blob" as I like to call it. I'm sure there's a nicer name for it. It's a very elegant frosting style, but you can also do small spikes, flat swirls, ridged swirls or as Sheryl says, if all else fails you get out a knife and spread the frosting on. You will also get to knead icing in various colours and make your own shapes. Then you decorate your own cupcakes, which you get to take home. The cupcakes below are done by Sheryl and her team.

These.....are my cupcakes that I decorated. So I did a few classy ones with single spikes and elegant sprinkles. But I also went fun, fun, fun with a massive big rose and three XXXs.

When you leave, besides taking your own frosted cupcakes home, you get to take a Devil's Food Cupcake mix too. That's what I used to make the cupcake above. The mix is so easy to use, a child could do it. Everything is clearly written and you're given all the tools and ingredients. You just need to supply your own milk, butter and eggs. How easy is that. The results of the devil's cupcake are stunning. The cupcake itself is super moist and light, and the frosting, oh man, you'll be licking that off your fingers. Just one tip, the small bag really is the cupcake mix and the big bag is the frosting. The labels are correct.

The workshops are ideal for any amateur bakers. It's heaps of fun and you also learn something along the way. They can also make great gifts for friends and family as gifts.

Thanks to Sheryl and the Cupcake Central Workshop team for inviting me to the class.

The Point - Exceptional Degustation Lunch with Executive Chef Justin Wise

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000+11:00

If you have been reading this blog for a while or know me in real life, you would have heard me raving constantly about The Point restaurant in Albert Park. It is one of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne, delivering exceptional food, service and one of the best views in a city restaurant. Chef Scott Pickett was also one of my favourite chefs, for his food and personality. I even got to see another side of the funster when he got serious in the kitchen on a Saturday dinner service. Hence I was both excited to hear that Scott was leaving The Point to start his own small restaurant, The Estelle, but also disappointed that I would to no longer taste his food at The Point. When I was invited by The Point to speak to, and try the food, of new Executive Chef Justin Wise, I must say that I worried. I was worried about what I would have to say to Justin if the food wasn't as good.

However, all my fears did not surface. I feel almost like I'm cheating on Scott when I say, *whispers* "the food is even better at The Point with Justin in charge". There, I said it. The food, in my opinion anyway, is even better now at The Point. That's a tough call considering The Point is already a two hatted restaurant, but yes, that's my opinion. Let me explain my thinking a bit later.

First, let me introduce you a bit to new Executive Chef Justin Wise. With the rise of the new "celebrity" chef, a lot of people, including myself, choose to go to a restaurant based on the name of a chef alone and his previous work. I must admit that I have never *gasp* (how can I call myself a chef groupie) heard of Justin before. But speaking to Justin during lunch I found out that he has been head chef of The Press Club for a number of years. So hence I felt rather silly asking him how he felt about the pressure of heading a two hatted restaurant. However, Justin just answered the question genuinely and said that since his name is now behind the restaurant, it was still more added pressure.

Having the privilege to speak to Justin for about 4 hours was a real luxury. I think through those four hours, I got a small glimpse into Justin's motivation, work ethics and creativity. Asked to define his style, Justin believes his skill lies in using classical techniques, but interpreting the food in modern ways that appeal to a large audience, and above all else, always using the best quality produce in season. Justin has already made immediate changes to the menu and insisting on using the best produce. This though, does not mean he is so focused on the food such that he loses sight of the business side. In fact, he is one of the most business savvy chefs I've spoken to. He has grand plans for The Point and has already put them into action. He is trying to appeal to more females in the main restaurant with his change in menu, shedding The Point's "blokey" reputation. He has also redone the decking in the cafe, changed the menu and working on drawing crowds to an exceptional space in what is currently a mostly unoccupied cafe on weekends. With the lake as a backdrop and traffic everywhere, for the cafe to be empty is a crime. With the functions areas, he's also insisted on updating the interiors, while also improving the food by directing for all function food to be created in the main kitchen. That was always one of my gripes, that the reputation of The Point was soiled when people said they didn't enjoy the food, when what they tasted was the function room food prepared by the B team. Justin fully agreed and said the brand as whole needed to be consistent.

The kitchen and chefs, have also been whipped into further good shape. The kitchen, and restaurant, is spotlessly clean, with Justin insisting that all equipment and surfaces be thoroughly clean in his first few weeks at The Point. The chefs have also been cut into a lean mean machine, with only those chefs who could perform still there; Justin bringing in a lot of his own team. I think the new discipline was most apparent when my favourite apprentice chef, Johnno, used his finger to taste a sauce and Justin pointed out a spoon to him for food hygiene purposes. I'm not saying that Justin is a humourless drill sergeant who is barking at everyone. Instead, at least out of the kitchen, he seems like an easy going fun guy. He does admit, and very few chefs do until you see them in action, that in the kitchen, he is a tough task master. He said he will help out chefs and teach them, but if they haven't learnt it after 4-5 times, they do need to be talked to.

I could cover a further 5 pages about Justin about his childhood ambition to always be a chef, about learning to cook from his Ukrainian mum, but you would be bored by then. Let me say that, despite not having a resume studded with stints all over Europe in Michelin restaurants, Justin has had very sound working experiences as head chef at The Press Club and Maze. He seems to have a very level head and balances both the food, but more importantly, the business side very well. He has long term plans to stay at The Point, so you know he's putting all his efforts into turning the restaurant into the best it can be. It's early days still, but from the food that I sampled and the discipline and enthusiasm I saw, I think he's well on his way to making it even more successful.

Let me now start on the food. I sat down to an assortment of dishes which feature on the degustation and a la carte menus.
The first three entrees I had were

Roasted quail, braised leek, black garlic and truffle dressing
Hiramassa kingfish tataki, finger lime and nuoc nam dressing
Spanner crab, grapes, fennel pollen, horseradish and walnuts

The quail was my favourite dish of the day and that's saying something. I'm not much of a fan of quail, eating deep fried quail but cooked to nonrecognition, but this dish still tasted like quail and was simply sublime. The quail was crispy on the outside, but so smooth and tender on the inside still retaining wonderful flavour. The pairings with the acidic leeks, soft potatoes was great, with the black garlic and truffle peaking through. The other two entrees of kingfish and crab were again light and bright. I was worried the nuoc nam would be too heavy for the kingfish and dominate the dish and told Justin this when he talked about the dish earlier in the day. But luckily, Justin only used small drops to help lift the super sweet kingfish. Crab salads can be totally destroyed when chefs slap far too much mayonnaise in it such that you drown the crab flavour but again, the light touch by Justin ensured the highlight was definitely the super sweet Queensland crab.

As you can read in my previous posts, Scott's Lamb Assiette was my favourite dish at The Point. Justin has also done a lamb dish

Murraylands grain fed spring lamb, charred baby leeks and vincotto dressing

This lamb dish was excellent, of equal deliciousness to Scott's. Three cuts of lamb, loin, saddle and rump I think, were cooked in different ways to highlight each of their flavours. Justin has also included sweetbread and peas. A very light vincotto sauce lets the meat shine through. Whereas Scott was more into heavy sauces, which were nice, I prefer this lighter touch with a softer sauce. Even the addition of a bloody mary wafer added to the lightness of what is a heavy meat dish.

Kangaroo. Uuggghhh I hear you say. That was my thoughts too. I can't say I've eaten any good kangaroo meat before, all super tough charred lumps of protein. I was very skeptical but Justin assured me customers were liking it. I was served the

Kangaroo loin, Tasmanian native pepper, bush tomato, cardamom and carrot terrine

The kangaroo was so tender and had good flavour. Obviously it is gamer than beef. I liked it, but would still prefer a steak. I found the kangaroo a tad on the salty side when eaten alone, but when I ate it with the carrots, was perfect as that was sweet. Bush tomatoes are excellent and people should use it more.

My first dessert (I do love dessert so two is better than one) was the

Candied and pickled beetroot, blueberries, coffee, sheep's milk yoghurt

Oh. My. Goodness. This dessert blew my mind in the same way as Attica's Terroir did. The mix of sweet and sour and texture was sensational. Using red and yellow beetroot and cooked in two manner provided an amazing contrast. The beetroot were the foundation and then built upon layer by layer. There were frozen blueberries, mint granita & frozen mint leaves giving a cold and fresh element. There was a hard pistachio cake giving crunch and nuttiness. There was a raspberry sorbet and sheeps milk yoghurt giving an acidic and sour element. There were soft chocolate squiggles, chocolate dirt and popping candy for a rich taste. Amazing. I would rate it one tiny bit under the Terroir because I wanted more acidity to further cut through the sweetness. But that's being extremely nit picking. It is an amazing dessert and a must try. It's like art on a plate as well.

So while the previous dessert was complex in taste, texture and styling, this dessert was equally brilliant in its simplicity executed perfectly. I had a

Banana souffle, caramel fudge and condensed milk ice cream

So I'm not the biggest fan of sweet souffles. I rarely find them appealing as they seem to be thin airs of nothingness, a bit like eating a Krispy Kreme donut, and I hate those. Now I finally know why I haven't loved souffles before. Restaurants were making it wrong! Justin explained most restaurants made their souffles by just using egg whites, as it was a more stable mixture and easier to make. Instead, the correct method was to use a cream patisserie. So Justin insists his team make their souffles with a cream patisserie base. And what a difference it makes. While still light, there was a bite to the souffle. Lashings of banana is swirled through the souffle and tastes so good. Then to my surprise, there was a centre of oozing caramel right at the base of the souffle. Woweeeee, I felt like a little kid finding a surprise. Coincidentally, that's exactly what Justin said he wanted to do, to remind people of their childhood days when they ate lollies and were surprised with the centres. A condensed milk ice cream on a chocolate dirt accompanies the souffle. While great, I think the souffle alone is all that is needed, such is it's simplistic brilliance.

That wraps up a sensational chat with Justin Wise and an equally sensational meal at The Point. I give full marks to the food and the direction it's going. I believe it's better than the previous menu even. So if it's a two hatted restaurant before, where does it put it now? 2.5 hats is my opinion. It still needs some extra oomph in other departments (service, table setting, interior design) to lift it into the three hat realm, but that can definitely be done. I will continue to go to The Point and spend my money to have a wonderful dining experience. I highly recommend you try out the new menu as well.

I thank Justin and The Point for giving up their time to host me and feed me. I ate complimentary of The Point.

Giveaway - Bodum Glass Teapot and Glass Cups

2011-11-16T20:36:00.001+11:00

As I wrote in my post for Dahon Tea Lounge, there's a severe lack of tea lounges in Melbourne. While Melbourne is well known for it's coffee culture and you could visit a different cafe each day for a year and drink a great coffee, you would be hard pressed to say the same for tea for a one week duration. As I'm Asian, I really love my tea. And by tea, I'm not talking about Vanilla Creme Brulee flavoured tea. I like my tea to be from actual tea leaves that I put into a teapot or cup and taste of the real leaves. I love Asian teas the most. Give me green, red, black, white and flower teas any day. I drink 2-3 big glasses of tea every day without fail.

When I was asked by Kitchenware Direct if I wanted to road test any Bodum kitchenware, I gladly accepted. I picked a super funky glass teapot and double walled glass tea cups.

Let me start with the teapot. It's a really fine glass teapot, so looks amazing. It holds 4 cups of tea (about a litre I think) and has a stainless steel strainer with a plunger, like a coffee infuser. The strainer forms a seal with the pot, and the plunger forms a seal inside the strainer. What this means is that you can put the tea leaves into your pot, and when it has gotten to the concentration you want, you push the plunger down and it seals around the tea and stops it brewing. Genius. I don't like super thick tea so I really love this feature. But you know what the best feature of this pot is, IT DOESN'T FREAKING DRIP. Seriously, I've lost count of the number of times I've cursed at teapots because they dribble more than a 6 month old baby. How hard is it to design a spout that doesn't drip. I mean, I've seen it in some pots so it's definitely possible.

To drink the tea, you can use the double walled glasses. They are all hand blown so there's a unique look and feel to every glass. I love how they look and the double walls really do work in keeping them cool enough to hold when there's hot tea in it. I also use them to eat yoghurt and ice cream. I guess if you really must, you can use them for coffee too.

GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

Thank you for your wonderful entries. I've learnt the following from everyone

* I don't want to be near Vivian when there are animals around
* A lot of you seem to have fears based on bad childhood experiences
* I now know the word "scandalicious"
* I think Georgia and Karen are even more accident prone than I am
* Kim can spell her way through a tap dance
* I don't ever want to be stepped over by a cow

After all of those fun stories, the random lucky winner is....Agnes.
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So here's the deal. You see the teapot and two glasses in the photos, well, you can win them.

HOW TO ENTER

How do you enter I hear you asking loudly? As I love finding out more about people and their weird ways, just post a comment below and tell me anything about yourself. One random winner will be drawn.

For example, you can tell me how you hate traffic light car windshield washers, or tell me about how you placed 1st in your grade 4 chess tournament, or that you were once on Deal or No Deal. Oh wait, that's all me. Tell me something about you.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog@yahoo.com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 2 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Wednesday November 23rd 9pm AEST. The winners will be announced on Thursday 24th and published on this same post.
- I will contact the winner directly to inform if you have won.

Thanks to Kitchenware Direct for providing the prizes.

Passionfruit Melting Moments - Bill Granger Recipe

2011-11-10T20:30:00.000+11:00

Having flicked through Bill Granger's books before, I knew that his recipes were quite simple. I used to think that equated to not being tasty, but when we did the Bill Granger Holiday cooking the books, I found some of the dishes quite good. I gave the Holiday book a more thorough read and when I saw the Passionfruit Melting Moments, I knew I had to try making them.

I have made melting moments before when I first started to bake. The results were awful. Dry, tasteless pieces of pastry. However, fast forward 4 years and my baking skills have improved immensely. I found this recipe to be super easy to make. And the results, magnificent. I've made these over 10 times now and always get people asking me what the "secret" is. I tell them there's no secret, just butter, flour, icing sugar and cornflour. Bill writes that he doesn't use custard powder in his recipe as the flavour and texture is compromised for the sake of the colour. I haven't tried adding custard powder to see what it tastes like, but definitely the colour is more muted rather than the fluorescent yellow you see in cafes. Taste wise, these melting moments are sensational. They're very short and crumbly and go perfectly with the passionfruit cream. I've made them as Christmas gifts and other gifts and people love them.

Tips wise, I recommend a few things:
- Do not overbake them. They will continue to cook when you take them out of the oven. So when they have the slightest hint of colour, take them out immediately. They taste far nicer without that slight burnt flavour.
- Try to divide the batter evenly into small balls otherwise some will burn while others are not yet cooked. I find it easiest to place all the balls on the tray and then with my fork continuously being dipped in flour, squash them all in one go.
- They're extremely fragile once baked so handle them carefully. Get them off the tray immediately and onto a rack to cool down.
- A little bit of passionfruit cream goes a long way. Don't try to put too much icing in. Just the smallest teaspoon of icing is enough.
- I used canned passionfruit so it's a bit sweeter but that seems to work perfectly. Strain the seeds out of the passionfruit pulp and just use the flesh as you don't want chunky bits in the biscuits.
- I find the biscuits keep well in an air tight container for about a week, if they last that long. I usually make 3 batches at once rather than just one batch.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my friends and I do. They are so easy to make and I'm sure you will have most of the ingredients in your pantry already. I always keep two cans of passionfruit handy in the pantry at all times when I'm in need of an "emergency" hit of sugar.

Passionfruit Melting Moments
From Bill Granger Holiday book.
Makes about 15.

INGREDIENTS

250g unsalted butter, softened
60g icing sugar
225g plain flour
80g cornflour

Passionfruit Cream

60g unsalted butter, softened
125g icing sugar
1 tablespoon passionfruit pulp, strained to remove seeds

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
3. Sift together flour and cornflour, add to butter mixture and beat well.
4. With floured hands, take a small tablespoon of mixture and roll into balls. Put balls onto tray and flatter slightly with the back of a fork dipped in flour.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden, then cool on a rack.

To make the passionfruit cream

1. Beat the butter until completely smooth.
2. Gradually add sifted icing sugar and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the passionfruit pulp and beat well.

Assemble the melting moments by sandwiching the passionfruit cream between two biscuits.

Cooking The Books - David Chang's Momofuku

2011-11-07T20:00:00.000+11:00

In the continuing Cooking The Books (CTB) meetups, someone, let's call her Penny for arguments sake, suggested that we try David Chang's Momofuku. While a challenge sounded like a good idea before looking at the book, once we all saw the recipes, we were cursing like mad. All the recipes took numerous days to make and lots of ingredients, some hard to find. Anyway, we soldiered along and did our best.

You can check out previous Cooking The Books meetups below:
Cooking The Books - Jamie's America
Cooking The Books - Bill Granger's Holiday
Cooking The Books - David Thompson's Thai Street Food
Cooking The Books - Nigella's Kitchen

The cast for this meetup were:
Michele, Cherrie, Agnes, Kat, April, I-Hua, April and Penny.

Here is what David Chang's Momofuku book looks like. A simple cover masks the complexity that lies beneath it.

I chose the easiest recipe I could find in the book, the Pan Roasted Rib Eye steak. As it was, the flavours of the steak were good but I overcooked it so that it was a tad dry. In contrast to my dry steak, Kat made a delicious Hanger Steak with red kimchi puree. The hanger steak was so tender and moist and had a wonderful flavour. I must try to get my hand on hangar steak from the butcher and cook it in future. Kat also made some brussels sprouts with bacon, which weren't too bad. Penny went for a high difficulty task and made Brick Chicken. This required boning out a whole chicken, not easy. It tasted good, but I didn't think it was worth the effort. For me personally, I'd rather just roast a chicken on the bones and get a similar result.

Pork featured a lot. Agnes made the Pork Buns, roasted pork belly sandwiched inside mantous with pickled cucumber and hoi sin sauce. It was indeed good, but I think the buns themselves were more a highlight for me rather than the pork. The way the pork was cooked is inferior to simply roasting it with an oven and getting that crispy crackling.

April also made a pork dish, Pork Sausage with fish sauce vinaigrette. The pork is like Vietnamese nam, minced pork mixed with herbs and spices. The dish was quite good, but inferior to Vietnamese nam which is grilled on a BBQ to give a wonderful smokey flavour and eaten in the same way wrapped in lettuce and with a fish sauce vinaigrette.

I-Hua outdid herself and contributed with three dishes. A Roasted Rice Cake was good, but it was the Pork Belly with mustard seed sauce and Momofuku Ramen that stole the day for me. The pork belly was pickled I believe, so had a sour note to it. Eaten with the pickled vegetable, it was a slow burning dish that got more and more addictive. The ramen on the other hand, was sublime and sensational from the outset. The broth was extremely rich, the way I like it.

We finally get to desserts, my favourite part of every meal. There was much anticipation as Michele and Cherrie had spent two days to make Cereal Milk and Fried Apple Pie. On paper these things had me drooling. However, the final results were a case of trying to reinvent a classic that failed for me. The cereal milk was a funny sour tasting thing and the caramelised corn flakes and avocado puree didn't really make it any better.

With the Fried Apple Pie with Cinnamon Dust, Miso Butterscotch and Sour Cream, again I was underwhelmed. The frying really didn't add anything to the dish. The traditional method of baking a pie means the apples are much softer and the pastry equally crisp. You can't go wrong with cinnamon and apple pie, but the miso butterscotch sauce was a weird thing that didn't work. Sour cream is not nearly as good as vanilla ice cream.

Finally, when you're out in the wild, beware of bloggers that attack....with their cameras.

So that wraps up another meetup. While there was much anticipation regarding the Momofuku recipes, I found that quite a few of them paled in comparison to similar dishes cooked in more traditional methods for less effort. Maybe our execution wasn't up to scratch and I'll only know if I get a chance to dine at the restaurant. But for now, I'm happy to bake my apple pie and eat it with ice cream.

Christmas In July

2011-11-05T17:24:00.000+11:00

Christmas. What does it mean for most people? Celebration of Christ, reconnecting with family, exchanges of presents, a time to review the year that's passed. Well for me, Christmas definitely means food, and lots of it. So imagine the wonderful idea of Christmas in July. A perfect excuse to eat indulgent food and drink lots of alcohol.

So when Agnes and Kat decided to have a Christmas in July party, I was there. Others to come along were Kat, I-Hua, Adrian and Celeste. My post on this wonderful gathering is so late that it's now relevant to use a guide for food ideas for the real Christmas. See, I knew what I was doing.

Our wonderful Christmas in July hosts, Agnes "Nigella" Sporkette and Kat "I don't want my photo on any blog so take MiniKat instead" Spatula.

We decided to go all traditional food for this event. That was fine with me, as it meant wonderful meaty items like Roast Pork with Crackling, Turkey Drumsticks and succulent Roast Chickens. Look at the beautiful butt on that chick.....en hehe. I'm available for hire as a comedian for any parties or corporate events.

If you must, you can have some vegetables too. Red Cabbage with Apples, Carrots in White Sauce, Minted Peas and "the Devil's vegetable" Brussels Sprouts disguised in bacon bits. Lastly, maybe you can try some Roast Potatoes baked in duck fat. Technically that's still a vegetable right? Yummmm.

If you're a talented cook like Agnes, you can also make a wonderfully delicious chestnut stuffing that you can serve as well. Look how enticing all the food looks. Wash downs all the amazing food with some egg nogg and mulled wine, or any alcoholic beverage of your choice really.

If all your efforts don't go so well, just douse it all in alcohol and set the food on fire. It's sure to make it delicious.

Huge thanks to the wonderful hosts Agnes and Kat. I hope the real Christmas meals are as good as this one.

Tai Pan - Yum Cha

2011-11-01T20:30:00.000+11:00

239 Blackburn Rd Map
Doncaster, VIC 3109
Ph: 9841 9977
Tai Pan

I had been to Tai Pan for yum cha ages ago. I remembered that it was quite good but the huge crowds really put me off it. However, I'm glad that I got to go back and try the yum cha again as it is good and not too expensive. Tai Pan is located in Doncaster and the majority of the clientele is Asian, which is a good sign for me. Asians are the most critical when it comes to Asian food as well as price. Being mainly occupied by Asians also means the weirdly structured two tiered restaurant can get really noisy during yum cha service. We arrived for the second sitting at 1pm and there was a mad crush in the foyer where people from the first sitting were leaving, and those from the second sitting were waiting to get on.

Ten minutes wait later and we were seated at a large table in the far back end of the second tier. This semi-sectioned off area is probably as quiet as it'll get in the restaurant. It's also got lots of great natural light streaming through the windows and affords a view of the surrounding houses below it. While everyone else was already seated, the special guests of honour, Kevin and Krystal, made their entrance in grand style. They were returning from holiday and looked really nicely tanned and happy. Look at their staggered celebrity entrance, brilliant.

Food wise, we managed to cram a lot of food really quickly onto the table in a short space of time. I've only posted photos a small portion of the food that we ate. I have to say that nothing was bad and everything was either good or really good. Their fried items like the Scallop Basket and Prawn Wontons were crispy and delicious. Steamed items in the form of various dumplings were all very flavoursome and had big chunks of springy seafood still in them.

You have to love a place (well I love a place) that does great eels and chicken feet. These are probably the "weirder" items that hardcore yum cha-ers like myself adore. The eels were gelatinous steamed in a beautiful XO sauce. The chicken feet were soft and the sauce had great flavour.

I'm also impressed with yum cha places that help you cut up items, as shown below with the Harm Su Gok (gelatinous rice mince dumpling). It means that many people can share one dish without the usual trouble of trying to cut things up.

To end the meal, we had the obligatory BBQ Pork Buns, which while I could taste were better than most places, still didn't love. I have a hatred of Char Siu *gasp* and until recently at my trip to Hong Kong, had not tasted any good char siu or BBQ Pork buns before. Everyone else thought the BBQ Pork buns here were good, with a soft exterior and good meat inside. The egg tarts finished off a good meal, with flaky warm custardy goodness filling our bellies.

Service here is marginally better than other yum cha places. Don't come here expecting Michelin service, or if you are easily offended. If the waiter looks away from you while taking your order, that's normal. At least they're quick on replacing the tea here and to clean things up. The food, as mentioned, was nice, with nothing outstanding in my opinion. The fried items stood out for me as they were all very crispy without that oily feeling. Price wise, I remembered the meal cost about $20 each, which is quite good.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Good yum cha dishes but can be very noisy and crowded.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Dahon Tea Lounge - King of the Pork Baguettes

2011-10-19T21:39:00.004+11:00

Shop 5, 111 Cecil Street South Melbourne
Melbourne, 3205
Ph: 9696 5704
Facebook: Dahon Tea Lounge

A tea lounge. Now that's a novel idea for Melbourne. While there are more lounges that cater to coffee lovers than you can count in Melbourne, not many appeal to tea lovers like myself. Well, thanks to friend and fellow food blogger Cherrie and her brothers, I now have a tea lounge to go to. I was lucky enough to score an invite (ok I harassed Cherrie for months about it) to a small launch party at Dahon.

You can't go to a tea lounge and not drink tea right. There was beautiful blossoming tea and numerous tea blends to try. There's more tea than you can poke a stick at so I'm sure you'll find something to your liking. Once you've picked a tea, you can relax in the comfy couches or at a table which will also enable you to eat some food. The lounge is nicely decorated with bright, light colours which I find cheery and relaxing.

Food wise, again there are numerous choices, but it's the Filipino food that I like best as it's not that easy to find good Filipino food in Melbourne. Having been to Cherrie's house and tried her Filipino cooking, I wasn't in any fear of eating bad food. For me, my favourite savoury item was by far the Filipino BBQ Pork Baguette with pickled vegetable. The pork was definitely the hero and oh so delicious. Putting it into a baguette with the pickled veg made for a perfect combination where you can't stop eating it.

Next up, we have the Chicken Adobo, which is even recommended by the Black Eyed Peas. Check out the video below at the 23 second mark. I dare you to watch the clip and not be chanting "Filipino, Filipino, Filipino, Filipino" by the end of it.

The Chicken Adobo was served with tomato rice and went down a treat. The Mini Spring Rolls were excellent and even the Filipino Noodles were good. I generally do not like vermicelli that much but these were quite good, with the acidity helping make them better. Throughout the night we ate a tonne more food, from different baguettes, to other types of spring rolls and BBQ Pork Skewers. All were delicious.

With dessert, there is a rotating range of items at the lounge. Of course you can sample some, cakes, slices and cupcakes, but for my money, if the Leche Flan is available, you have to get that. It is simply divine. A luscious smooth caramel custard that will just make you want more and more.

If you love tea, or good food, get yourself down to Dahon Tea Lounge and try it out. Heed my advice and grab a nice refreshing tea, seat yourself at a table and order lots of Pork Baguettes, BBQ Pork Skewers and 3 Leche Flan and eat till you can't eat anymore.

Thanks Cherrie and the whole Dahon crew for hosting me and feeding me such good food and drinks.

Cumulus Inc - Banquet Meal

2011-10-14T08:30:00.000+11:00

I had been to, and thoroughly enjoyed Cumulus Inc upon my first visit. I had meant to go back so many times that I lost count. Sometimes I was thwarted by the wait, and sometimes by the distractions of other newer restaurants. Finally, I got a group of 10 together and found out that you can make a booking there for large groups of over 8 people. The condition is that you must have the banquet meal, which I initially wasn't too happy about as there were so many dishes I wanted to order off the a la carte menu. However, this turned out to be a massive blessing in disguise being forced to have the banquet meal.

Let me start by saying that the banquet meal is E.P.I.C. Every single item was amazingly delicious and we all went too hard at the beginning. By the time we got to the star dish of the lamb shoulder, everyone was so full that we couldn't even finish the shoulders. Anyway, I digress. Like all good stories, let me start from the start.

The meal started with some really addictive nibbles. Spiced almonds were really tasty but it was the Padron Peppers that had everyone hooked. As some of you may know, Padron peppers come in spicy and mild forms. It's like a Russian roulette biting into one. You never know what you'll get. The spicy ones are quite hot indeed, with a nice fiery burn. We all had some much fun biting into the peppers and everyone liked the taste of them, even the spicy ones.

Entrees consisted of Kingfish Sashimi on Chips, Natural Oysters, Prosciutto, Bresaola with Beetroot and Roasted Eggplant. The kingfish sashimi was super fresh and wonderfully zingy. You can never go wrong with fresh natural oysters in my opinion. The two cured meats were of a high quality. However, it was the roasted eggplant that thoroughly surprised me. It was so moreish that we all couldn't stop eating it. Wonderfully soft and smooth, combined with herbs, paprika and a creamy sauce.

Two salads arrived next. The Frekkah salad pictured below was wonderfully fresh and combined lots of great flavours and had an equally interesting mixture of textures. A Cauliflower (can't stand cauliflower normally) salad was my favourite dish thus far. It was done in an Indian Manchurian style of sorts, stir fried with lots of spices to have a caramelised flavour, freshness from herbs and the addition of pomegranates is genius.

The main star of the show, the Lamb Shoulder arrived next. It was the most tender, moist and flavoursome leg of lamb I've ever had. All 10 of us could not believe how tasty the lamb was. There were crunchy bits, caramelised bit while all the time being tender and full of flavour. It was served with Roasted Sweet Potato, which were delectable as well. The lamb was so yummy but we were all so full that we couldn't finish it. Such a waste. Tip for next time, remember to not finish all the earlier dishes and save room in the tummy for the lamb.

For dessert, I was crossing all my digits and hoping for multiple servings of the madeleines each. Instead, we got a Mandarin Sorbet with Chocolate Mousse, Meringue and Chocolate Dirt. I didn't like the dessert at all, but that's because I hate the combination of citrus with chocolate. I didn't mind the sorbet and the mousse by itself was ok too (a bit too dark and bitter even for my liking) but the whole dessert together did not work for me. If you like citrus with chocolate, you'll love this dessert.

That concluded an amazing banquet meal. I'm so happy that I got to try it. Most of the dishes that we sampled cannot be found on the menu and can only be eaten via the banquet, meaning you had to have a large group. The banquet was a steal at $80 and with drinks, it was about $100 each. A thoroughly simple yet amazingly satisfying delicious meal. Trust Andrew McConnell to be able to make the ordinary extraordinary.

Service at any Andrew McConnell restaurant is impeccable and this was no different. The staff were friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. The atmosphere at Cumulus Inc is always wonderful, but I especially love the bench seats that we were at along the far brick wall. This allows you to see all parts of the room, from the front bar, the middle tables, to the back kitchen area where the meticulous team prepare so many wonderful meals from a tiny area. All these elements combined with the great food make for a most wonderful meal.

Overall Rating: 16/20, Great simple food done extremely well. Wonderful service and atmosphere.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Donwoori - Best Korean BBQ in Melbourne

2011-10-13T08:30:00.000+11:00

My name is Thanh, and I'm an addict, a kimchi addict. And for me, the best kimchi I've tasted (I haven't been to Korea or have any Korean friends who have invited me to their house for dinner) is from Donwoori. Donwoori (aka #secretkorean prior to the secret being let out) was first accidentally found by Agnes. And thank goodness she found the place. Ever since I saw her first tweet about the place, I quickly hauled my ever increasing body mass to this delightful little restaurant. This place is one of those hidden gems that you sort of want to tell people, but at the same time want to keep secret so you can go there without too much of a queue. Seeing as Agnes blogged it already, I may as well.

The restaurant is tiny and sits opposite Victoria Market. It's next to two other Korean BBQ restaurants and you might think it's part of the restaurant next door. But it is the corner place with a tiny sign. It's very small inside and probably sits about 20 people. The largest table seats 6 so I wouldn't go here with a group of 10 friends.

The restaurant does Korean BBQ as well as some cooked dishes. I usually order a combination of the two. The Korean BBQ here is amazing delicious and cheap. One of the set meals is $38 for two people and you will be completely full. There is a pork set menu, or beef or combinational one for 4 people. You can also order individual meats by the plate

Each set menu also comes with a soup. There's a soy bean soup but the standout is definitely the spicy beef and kimchi soup.

Service here is brilliant as they will constantly tend to the meats for you. They cook it and cut it up and keep changing the hotplate so everything is not all burnt. They also, get this, ask you if you want to refill your banchan constantly. Absolute win. The kimchi, as stated is sensational. But the pickled daikon and pickled vegetables are really addictive too. You can wash the food down with a few choices of beers or some sake.

There you have a wonderful meal for way under $30 (with drinks), full of delicious meats, soothing drinks, great service and endless kimchi to your heart's desires. Donwoori has well and truly replace Hwaro as my favourite Korean BBQ place and I've been back six times since, loving it more each time.

Overall Rating: 16/20, Fantastic Korean BBQ for a great price with excellent service.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Taste of Melbourne 2011 - Is It Worth Going Next Year?

2011-10-11T17:33:00.001+11:00

This year, I was again fortunate enough to score an invite to the Taste of Melbourne festival courtesy of Hot House Media. The festival was once again held in the amazingly beautiful Carlton Exhibition Building. I really love fine architecture and this building oozes character in spades.

With my invitation, I was given a free press pass (or should that be bloggers pass? or are bloggers press now?) which gave access to all areas, and 20 crowns, which equates to $20 worth of money to buy food. As with last year's Taste of Melbourne 2010 bloggers event, we were shown around a few different things. We started our tour with a look at the back kitchen area of Sarti. I'm so amazed at how small a space they get to work with and still pump out tens of thousands of dishes of food for everyone.

A taste session at Rekoderling enabled us to drink every flavour of their cider. Whilst I had liked their cider, I had initially described it as less cider-y than my favoured Bulmers cider. Finally, thanks to injerarufus from Twitter, I can clearly put my finger on what the ciders can best be described as, alcopop. They were sugary sweet and so easy to drink and you could hardly taste the alcohol. I personally don't mind the pear flavour but still love a more real tasting cider with that distinctive zing and tang.

A stop by the San Pellegrino Cafe enabled us to dine on some nice pizza and admire some beautiful photographs that people had submitted to their competition.

We did the Art of Sensology class again this year and made mojitos, my favourite cocktail of them all. My mojito turned out perfectly and I have been making them at home quite a lot.

A cheese tasting class was really good as we sampled cheese back to back and could taste the different textures and flavours. I personally loved the Double Brie the most, being luscious, silky smooth and with a good creamy taste.

A chat with one of the nation's most esteemed chefs in Jacques Reymond was an absolute pleasure. You could feel the passion, energy and hard work exude from him. He told me that you always have to work hard for anything you want and go out and grab it yourself. His parents instilled this work ethic in him in which he has passed onto his kids. He also stated that he was quite a hard task master in the kitchen and in fact his chefs call him "Rambo". That made me laugh, and Jacques himself laughed at it. But I'm sure if I was in the kitchen working with him, I would be deadly serious as you can just tell that Jacques is a man of action and not words. You don't succeed for so long by being soft and lazy.

Onto some food. Below is The European Pork Parcels and Sarti Slow Cooked Suckling Lamb. Both were nice but by no means exceptional.

Stokehouse Seared Scallops were again nice, but it was the Eton Mess, with Rhubarb, Violet & Rose Geranium that got my tastebuds tingling and wanting more. The addition of violet made this dish stunning. My pick of the dishes at this year's festival.

St Katherine's "KFC" Fried Chicken was highly recommended by Pat as the best fried chicken he has tasted. While it was good, I didn't think it was exceptional. Libertine and La Traiteur Cassoulet was cooked well but rather bland.

Other dishes that I tried were the Sarti Panna Cotta (good), Mahjong Black Peking Duck wraps (ok) and Millswyn Peanut Butter and Jelly parfait (not as good as I imagined going by the description).

So would I go back to Taste of Melbourne next year?

Yes if I got a free entry ticket. I felt this year's festival was not as good as last year's in terms of the quality of the food. By quality, I do not mean this year's food were badly cooked or not fresh. They simply did not have that "wow" factor. I think the Taste of Melbourne idea is a great one, but wonder if it works in reality. The problem with fine dining is that it takes time to prepare, in a proper fully functional kitchen. In the environment that the restaurants are given, I'm already amazed at what they can produced. However, it will always only be a poor imitation of what they are truly capable of. They can only do simple dishes that can be reheated quickly, in small portions that fit inside a cup or plastic bowl. There is not much room for creativity.

The pricing of the whole festival is also wrong, but is no one's fault. The entry fee of $30 is quite steep already, and that doesn't get you too much. You can attend the Gourmet Traveller's Taste Kitchen, Gourmet Traveller's Chef's Table, Nespresso session, De Detrich Cooking School, Jindi Cheese Class and Yarra Valley Regional Group Tasting Table, but the numbers for those are limited so you might not get in. Then to pay between $8-$12 for each small dish can be quite costly. I spent another $50 on top of the free crowns I got and that was because I'm quite a small eater. That's $100 already if you add my ticket price, 20 crowns. The cocktail class was another 10 crowns, making it $110 all up if I paid for everything. Again I don't blame the restaurants or the festival organisers. I'm sure the logistics of putting on those stalls cost far more than what they make from selling the food. However, the reality for the consumer is that, in my opinion anyway, it's better to spend $150 at any one of those restaurants and truly try out their food and dine in a relaxed enjoyable manner. The four hour sessions may seem long on paper, but when you're in queues constantly trying to buy food, it goes by quite quick.

The layout of the festival this year was truly awful. For me, the food stalls should all be in the most prominent position in the bottom area of the building. That's what people are mainly going for. Putting some food stalls upstairs severely restricted traffic flow as people crowded around the stalls to try and buy food. A simple, pay and get a ticket system should be used. Pay for your food, then step aside to a quieter area so you don't block traffic while waiting for your food. When your number is called, come and grab your food. Simple LED number displays (like at the deli section in a supermarket) would easily suffice.

The buying of crowns, while supposedly making it faster to buy things, is a good idea but should be taken one step further. Each restaurant should be able to issue crowns. So for example, you can rock up to a restaurant, buy one item that costs 12 crowns, give them $50 note and they can refund you 38 crowns. This means you don't have to go searching for a crown seller when you've run out and want to buy food. Surely the crowns have been devised to fasten up transactions by removing the exchange of small coins, but large notes exchange is really fast, especially if you get refunded crowns.

The placement of the VIP lounge this year was an absolute joke. If I had paid for the privilege of being in that VIP lounge (about $100 I think), I would have been livid. It was hidden in the furthest upstairs corner that you can find. It was so dark and sombre in there you would think it was a funeral. Unlike last year when it was in the bottom level smack bang in the centre, brightly lit with a band playing, chandeliers, comfy sofas to sit on, a throbbing bar and full of fun, this year it was dead in there. Even to get to the area, there was only one access point where you had to go completely around the top level. This took about 15 minutes as there were lots of people. Then even when you're at the front area, you needed to walk around the back to get in. If you wanted to buy food and bring it in, this exercise took about 30 minutes, plus you had to be a member of Cirque du Soleil as you needed to balance all the food, weave around hoards of people and carry the food up the stairs without spilling anything. Total F.A.I.L in my opinion. Put the lounge in the best areas downstairs smack bang next to the food stalls and the action. If I'm paying that much money to be in that VIP area, I want convenience and luxury combined.

Finally, to the food stalls. I guess once you go to too many festivals, you see the same stalls crop up time and time again and have sampled all their stuff so you already know what you like and where to buy it. It becomes a bit boring and I didn't really bother trying out too many things. Obviously, if the Taste festival is the only thing you go to each year, you'll love sampling all the food stalls goods.

So there is my impressions of this year's festival. The layout really lessened my enjoyment of it, but the food was also not as great as last year. As stated earlier, I would go next year if I had a free entry ticket, but else I would rather spend my money at one of the restaurants and have a fantastic meal rather than a standard meal. The idea itself of trying out fine food from many restaurants is great, but I'm not sure how it can be made to work. For me, I'd rather go to a festival like the Sydney Road Festival 2011 where there is no entry costs, there's a carnival atmosphere with live music all day and cheap delicious food that I can snack on all day.

Thanks to Hot House Media for inviting me to the festival.

Off on Holiday for Next Two Weeks. See You Soon.

2011-09-23T19:00:00.000+10:00

I'm super excited to be heading off to China and Hong Kong for the next two weeks, eating my way to fatness. There will be a lack of posts during that time, so why don't you check out my archives for some interesting reading while I'm away. See you all soon.

Giveaway: Win a Subscription to Baked and Delicious Magazine Valued Over $1000

2011-09-13T20:30:00.000+10:00

I love to bake. Just look at my recipe index and compare the number of baked recipes to the savoury items. If you ask anyone that knows me, they'll tell you that I have a very sweet tooth and can't get enough of cakes, biscuits and desserts. I own far too many baking tins for my own good, having moved a bulk of them to the garage now. However, not a single one of my cake tins are made from silicone. I've been tempted many times to buy a silicone mould, coming close with a madeleine tray once, but the high prices usually stop me.

I've heard that silicone moulds bake much more evenly, easier to clean, no rusting and light. When Baked and Delicious offered to send me an issue of their new magazine to try out, I jumped at the chance. The magazine is sold every fortnight and subscription gets you a copy of the magazine, which comes with a different silicone mould each time.

I got Issue 3 of the magazine, which came with a green loaf "tin" mould. Upon flicking through the magazine, I found that there were 2 recipes in the magazine to use with the mould. Other recipes looked to be quite traditional and classic recipes. There's a sachertorte recipe in there that I'm dying to try out next. There's lots of photos of what the end result should look like, which I always prefer. I just can't seem to visualise recipes without a photo. There's also step by step instructions for some recipes for novices and advanced students if you're new to that cake.

So firstly, here is my cake. Do you think it looks as good as the photo in the magazine? I'm pretty bad at food styling so took queues from the magazine photo.

So let's talk about the magazine and mould. I must say I was surprised that the recipe still asked for the mould to be buttered and floured. I assumed that the advantage of silicone was that it wouldn't stick? As it was the first time I was using a silicone mould, I didn't want to risk the cake being a disaster and floured the mould. Next time I'm going to try not buttering and flouring. Does anyone know if it will still stick without the butter/flour? I found the mould tended to sag out due to the weight of the batter, which a tin wouldn't do. This had the benefit that, despite the cake might be a bit "fat", it doesn't all spill out over the top and look super ugly. It retains a fairly flat top, which I like. The cake was cooked through really well, and was faster in time than my normal tins. With my normal tins, which are much smaller, a butter cake would take about 60-75 minutes in my oven. This cake took about 55 minutes to cook all the way through, maybe even slightly overcooked. That in part was my fault, as I found I had the oven temperature too high (must always look at the oven thermometer rather than trust the oven setting) and then dropped the temperature down for the last 30 minutes. Flipping the cake out was super easy, as was cleaning the mould as I didn't need to be careful not to scratch it. The lightweight is actually handy, much easier to store. Trust me, once you have accumulated about 40 cake tins (all very large), weight and storage start to become issues.

As for this Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe, it was good. I'm not a fan of lemon desserts at all. I don't understand lemon tarts, lemon meringues, lemon slices or lemon butter cakes. So don't let my view on this cake taint your views. Others who I gave the cake to liked it. I will say that this cake didn't have a fine crumb and was a bit coarser. What I did love though was the syrup that went over it. Something about that kept making me go back for more cake. The golden syrup mixed with the lemon juice turned this cake from something I wouldn't eat much of, to something I did like. The recipe is super easy, although I think the magazine is a bit generous with it's preparation time estimates. The recipe estimated 15 minutes of prep time. I think I used up my 15 minutes to get out the equipment, measure out the ingredients and zest and juice my lemons. My final measured preparation time was 45 minutes, which is typical for a cake like this. If only I had sous chefs to grab and measure everything for me and then also clean up *sigh* :-)

Overall, I did like the silicone mould and think the magazine has nice and simple recipes that I would attempt. Hence, I am happy to recommend this magazine for you to try. It will be fun to try out the various moulds from each issue and the recipes that use them. Below, I have a giveaway for one reader to win a subscription to the Baked and Delicious magazine. If you don't happen to win, you can subscribe to get your hands on the magazine.

GIVEAWAY

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Thank you to everyone for entering the competition. So many great cake experiences. After much consideration, I have decided to award Elisa the winner. It was such a wonderful story and I have a soft spot for Gâteau aux framboises and learning French.
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I have to give away to 1 reader, a full Subscription to Baked and Delicious magazine, which includes 60 issues of Baked and Delicious (each comes with a silicone mould) and 4 exclusive secret gifts, the total worth being $1,105.

HOW TO ENTER

I ask you to do two simple things

1) "Like" my Facebook Page

2) Leave a comment and answer the following:

What is your most memorable cake experience.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 2 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Monday September 19th 8pm AEST. The winners will be announced on Monday 19th and published on this same post.
- The best answer as deemed by myself will be chosen as the winner. I will contact the winner directly to inform if you have won.

Thanks to The Defectors for organising the prizes.

Giveaway: Win 1 of 9 Yearly Subscription to Wine Companion Magazine

2011-09-10T17:45:00.000+10:00

Balanced, Clean, Dull, Elegant, Harsh, Mellow, Powerful, Sharp and Vigourous.

You could mistakenly think that those words are to describe a person, but they are actually to describe wines. Wines are complex items and can be very intimidating for most people. I profess to very knowledge about wines, even though I really enjoy drinking them. As with most people, I started drinking alcopops as a teenager, liking their sweet tastes which actually masked the alcohol. Beers were a constant feature during university given their abundance at various university events. However, now as I have some money to enjoy fine dining, my liquor of choice is definitely wines to match with the food. The depth and diversity of wines really help to enhance food, as well as being enhanced by food.

I enjoy red wines far more than white, except I am NOT drinking any f**king Merlot!. I like to drink new wines all the time and make notes on the ones I like. My vocabulary to describe wines is rather limited. I can usually only identify a few distinct flavours and know whether I like the wine or not. So I'm very interested in the new Wine Companion Magazine that will be launched soon. As an offshoot to the wine Bible James Halliday's Wine Companion, the magazine is targeted at a younger audience who like to learn some more about wine. The magazine hopes to make wines more assessable to their audience while still imparting useful information.

The magazine features
- tasting tips and tuition
- tasting notes on wines
- internationally rated wines
- travel stories through the wine regions of Australia
- recipes and tips on food and wine matching
- interviews with wine and food producers

The magazine is released every two months from October 28th, 2011.

Image of cover is a mock-up only.

GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

The winners are: Emma, Miss Melbourne, Celeste, April, Vida, Ecliss, Leaf, Agnes, James.

I shall be contacting you directly about the prize.
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To celebrate the release of the magazine, I have 9 Yearly Subscriptions to giveaway to my readers.

HOW TO ENTER

Leave a comment and answer the following:

Tell me with a bit of detail about a wine and food match that you enjoy.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 5 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Friday September 16th 8pm AEST. The winners will be announced on Saturday 17th and published on this same post.
- 9 winners will be randomly drawn. I will contact the winners directly to inform them they have won.

Thanks to Q Strategies for organising the prizes.

Old Kingdom - Surrey Hills

2011-09-06T20:45:00.001+10:00

683 Canterbury Road
Surrey Hills, VIC 3127
Ph: 9898 3343

You mention Peking Duck in Melbourne, and inevitably talk will turn to Simon's Peiking Duck. I really love Simon's ducks but not everything at Simon's is the best. And also, if you don't like an oily duck, you may actually not prefer Simon's. If you are looking for an alternative to Simon's, I would suggest the newly relocated Old Kingdom.

Old Kingdom used to be where Simon "Duck Nazi" Lau worked before he left and started his own restaurant. It used to be a dark crowded restaurant, but is now a light, modern, clean, comfortable place. The restaurant does not have the usual Asian feel and instead is minimal in decorations, opting for a light decor. Tables are spaced quite far apart so you can have some space. While the decor is not typical of other Asian restaurants, the menu is similar. Their Peking Duck is their speciality, and cost wise is the same as the other restaurants. You can choose between just the duck or also with the accompanying noodles and soup. We chose the full three courses.

The duck here has a really great flavour and I would rate it just marginally below Simon's. The flavour is excellent and skin is crispy. While Simon's duck skins are crispy, which I prefer, his ducks are also oiler. The duck here is less fatty and oily, which some people prefer. The pancakes here are of the flour variety, thin and soft. Again, some people may prefer this over Simon's eggy pancake.

For me, the items where Old Kingdom are far superior to Simon's is the sauce for the duck, the noodles and the soup. The sauce is this fragrant plum/hoisin mixture with a hint of chili. It is fantastic and really lifts the whole Peking Duck. The noodles are also really bouncy, light and fresh. The soup is clear and full of duck flavour instead of being cloudy and muddled in flavour.

I realised that I haven't posted as many photos of myself and my friends lately. So I've decided to change this and get back to what this blog was about, talking about my life and all the people in it, with food mixed in between.

Service at Old Kingdom is quite good, and I like the ambiance there. I prefer the roomier cleaner feel of restaurants. I would definitely recommending trying out Old Kingdom and I would happily come back here for Peking Duck. It's a worthy alternative to Simon's Peiking Duck.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Great Peking Duck in a comfortable environment.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

epiQure Launch at Rockpool Bar and Grill

2011-08-28T21:34:00.002+10:00

epiQure is the new Qantas food and wine club. You can use your Qantas frequent flyer points to buy wine as well as attend food events, further earning more frequent flyer points. The Melbourne launch party for epiQure was held at Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne, as Neil Perry is the Qantas ambassador and designs their in-flight meals. I went along with my friend Jordan, dressed up in our nice suits looking rather sharp. The function started off with canapes and champagne in the bar area. We mingled with society's high flyers, and Jordan even helped show another gentlemen how to use his mobile phone camera to take a photo with flash.

Canapes
Anchovy, smoked tomato and toast
Goats cheese tortellini with pine nuts and raisins
2000 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne

Neil Perry kicked off the meal by talking about epiQure and also his involvement. Neil was very well spoken, having done speeches a lot I'm sure. I got the opportunity to quickly get a photo with him as he was walking around. I asked him what he was up to, and he mentioned how busy he was flying around between his various restaurants. He definitely has an amazing work ethic.

When we were seated, I found I was sitting next to fellow food blogger Claire and opposite THE David Blackmore of David Blackmore wagyu. I was so thrilled to be sitting opposite David and his wife Julie, half owner of the business (I didn't forget Julie). Both were so generous with their time and fielded all my questions all night. I learned so much about meat and wagyu. Obviously Jordan and I asked the obvious questions. Yes, Wagyu cows do sometimes drink beer and get massages when they have joint and muscle problems. Beer and massages are not usually part of their normal regime. Although, David has allowed his farmers to have a beer every time a cow needs beer, so possibly beer consumption in David Blackmore wagyu may increase. On a serious note, David did tell me that what makes his wagyu tastier than others is that his cows are full blood (with blood lines that can be tracked back 70 years), while some other brands of wagyu are only half bloods. As there are no official certification standards in Australia yet, you have to do your research to find out about the meat you're buying. Remember the old adage that you get what you pay for.

Baby beetroot salad roasted, jelly, raw with barrel aged feta dressing
2010 Penfolds Autumn Riesling
2005 Penfolds Bin Aged Release Riesling

Onto the first course. It was a simple beetroot salad with jelly and feta. Unfortunately, of all the dishes on the table, mine was the only one missing the feta and jelly. So basically I got a beetroot salad. It was well cooked beetroot I can say at least. All the meals that night were matched by wines from Penfolds. For this first course, I really enjoyed the Autumn Riesling. It had a light and fruity note. The aged riesling was sharper and serviceable for me.

Blue fin tuna tartare, Moroccan eggplant, cumin mayonnaise and harrisa
2010 Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay
2007 Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay

The next course of blue fin tuna tartare was really nice. Blue fin tuna is always good but I liked it with the punchy eggplant. To go with this course, there were two Chardonnays. I really don't like Chardonnays as I find them rather bland and dull. However, the Bin 311 was quite good and the Reserve Bin A Chardonnay was sensational. I must have rich taste as I only realised the cost when Steve Lienert (Penfolds senior red wine maker) started speaking and said that the Bin A retailed for about $70 a bottle. It was really a great wine, and Steve said Penfolds had only started to really concentrate on making Chardonnays. Imagine what they might produce in a few years time.

Rich and noble prawn congee, star anise scented peanuts, Chinese fried bread and chilli oil
2010 Penfolds Bin 23 Pinot Noir
2008 Penfolds Cellar Release Tempranillo

The rich and noble prawn congee (with tongue in cheek prosperous Asian name) was more like a risotto than a traditional congee. The congee had some good flavour from the sweet plump prawns. A Pinot and Tempranillo were served with this course. The wines were well matched with the food and each complimented the other.

Wood fire roasted Burrawang chicken with baby carrots and pea sauce
2008 Penfolds Bin 389 Shiraz Cabernet
2007 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
2008 Penfolds RWT Shiraz

This dish, which David and Julie informed me, was delicious from when they ate it at the Sydney launch the night earlier. And so it was. I don't know what was done to the roast chicken, but it was so tender and flavoursome and one of the best roast chickens I've ever eaten. But dear readers, from this point on is where my mind was blown, not by the food as usual, but by the super amazing Penfolds wine. Truly a meal to remember for the wines. With this course, we were served the Bin 389 Shiraz Cabernet, the St Henri Shiraz and the RWT Shiraz. Before I ate the chicken, I sampled all three wines. I found I liked the Bin 389 the best at the beginning, with a super smooth feel and more vibrant flavour. However, once I ate some chicken and went back to the wine, everything was different. I found the Bin 389 to be more bland. Instead the St Henri came to life and was very good, and the RWT was just amazing. It now possessed all the aromas and flavour of a perfect red. I loved it so much and kept alternating between the RWT and the chicken. I could eat a whole chicken like that. I really want to buy a whole bottle of 2008 Penfolds RWT Shiraz and drink it with a roast chicken, well, not share the drink with a roast chicken, but actually eat the roast chicken while I drink the wine. You know what I mean. The English language can be rather strange in its wording sometimes.

While I was still savouring those amazing wines in my mouth, there was a short break in the meal. I took the chance to get a photo with David, who generously spoke with me all night about beef, the food industry, science and his business. David then got up to the microphone and explained about his beef and why it was so good.

Slow cooked David Blackmore Wagyu short rib, charred, with red braised shiitake mushrooms, yam and ginger puree
2001 Penfolds Grange
2004 Penfolds Grange

Next up, we got to try David's wagyu. As David explained to me, the short rib is a cut that sometimes people ignore, but is very tasty and extremely rich. Hence you cannot eat a lot of it at once. The serving we got was just perfect I found. Indeed the meat was rich but full of flavour, working well with the Asian ingredients. And for the moment of utter swooning, out came the Grange, 2001 and 2004. Yes, the Grange are hyped up like no tomorrow, and yes, they are expensive, but they are the best wines I have ever tasted and from which I will compare everything. I know that 99% of wines will never live up to the Grange and I just have to carry the memory of these two wines as I won't be tasting them again too soon. I'm not sure how to even describe them. While I loved the 2001 originally, again after eating food, I loved the 2004 far more. The best description I can give of the wines is to imagine the smoothest, silkiest, aromatic, fragrant and complex wine you've ever tasted, and then multiply it by 10. It went down the throat so easily and the flavours kept swirling around in my mouth. I'm not trying to sound like a wine wanker but it really was that good.

Sharpe family strawberry mascarpone cake
NV Penfolds Grandfather Tawny

With the memory of the two Granges still in my mind, it was onto the last course of the night. The strawberry cake was delicious and went perfectly with the super sweet grandfather tawny and finished the night on a great high.

That concluded the most mind blowing meal of my life, due mainly to the red wines which were matched with good food. The Penfolds top end red wines are brilliant and I hope to buy the Bin 389, St Henri and RWT again to drink. One day, I'll even fork out the money to buy a Grange. For now, I live on my wonderful memories.

My guest and I dined courtesy of epiQure.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Rasa Malaya vs Homer Simpson

2011-08-26T16:00:00.001+10:00

272 Blackburn Rd
Doncaster, VIC 3109
Ph: 9842 4797

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Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
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For my last post on this series about Malaysian food, I was thinking what other way could I use to promote it when I've already drawn on such heavy weights as Star Wars, Lady Gaga and Hollywood Movies. Well, after much thought, there was only one candidate who could promote Malaysian food better than anyone else, Homer Simpson. Homer is a food icon. He of "Mmmmm Donuts" and an endless pit of a stomach that could make a buffet restaurant kick him out. Homer also has a love of beer, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chocolate, pancakes, and little known by most people, Malaysian food.

Homer likes to start his meals with Lobak. These deep fried parcels of goodness from Rasa Malaya are extremely delicious and come with a slightly hot dipping sauce.

After entrees, it's a matter of bringing as much food to Homer as possible. He loves Roti Canai, with the flaky roti being really great. The curry has quite a good flavour too. While eating his Roti, Homer would also sample some Belachan Fried Chicken, Chilli Beef and Stir Fry Squid. The fried chicken was a bit lacking in flavour, the squid had a sweet spicy sauce and the beef being his favourite with a robust flavour.

Crispy Fried Chicken is surprisingly served with prawn crackers. The two flavours don't exactly meld together but each alone does taste good. The chicken was nicely fried and went well with the dipping sauce. A plate of Fried Eggplant was a highlight, with soft eggplant packed with chili flavour.

Homer would finish off his meal with Char Kway Teow, a Malaysian classic. This char kway teow, like most of the other dishes was fiery hot. He loves it like that. There was no holding back with the spiciness, which is fantastic. The Seafood Hor Fun was the mildest dish and serviceable.

The atmosphere at Rasa Malaya is bustling and feels really comfortable. The tight seating, old decor, mis-matched plates and waitresses dressed in Singapore Airline hostess costumes made for a fun night where you feel transported back in time. The food was really good and so cheap. It's no wonder they are so busy. Homer would go back to eat there any day.

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Omah's vs Lady Gaga
*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars
*Vote for my previous post, Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

Malaysia Kitchen Facebook Page
Malaysia Kitchen Twitter

I dined at Rasa Malaya courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

Image of Homer Simpson copyright ofFox Broadcasting Company.

Giveaway - Beautiful Bakeware + Pandan Chiffon Recipe

2011-08-20T12:50:00.005+10:00

I was asked by Kitchenware Direct whether I wanted to review some products. They gave me free choice of anything. After some consideration, I decided I wanted to try out some bakeware items that I've always wanted. Making the decision to review bakeware was easy. Picking the actual bakeware took me a week, as there were so many options my head was spinning. So many things caught my eye but finally I decided on some items.

To test out these items, I knew that I wanted to make my favourite Pandan Chiffon Cake. I've always loved that cake but have found it to be a bit too dense and was hoping to see if a proper chiffon tin would improve it. By chance, I had brought the cake to April's house for a dinner. She loved the cake so much that she got the recipe from me, and then improved it. She then developed her own Pandan Chiffon Recipe, which she said produced a super fluffy cake. So of course I had to try it to test out these bakeware.

Firstly, let me show you the money shot of the amazing end result. The pandan cake was super fluffy and delicious. I decided to ice it "Thanh Style" by using my normal pandan fudge recipe and then decorating it with dessicated coconut. I find the fudge makes the cake even more moreish and prettier as well. In the photo below, you can see the hyper green cake sitting on a beautiful cake plate to show it off to it's full beauty. I hadn't heard of cake plates before but I'm sure going to be buying some now.

One item that I've wanted for an eternity but just didn't think was an essential item and hence never bought is a cake stand. A cake definitely looks far more stylish placed on a cake stand rather than a plastic plate. I found the stand actually was useful, aesthetically and practically. I was able to leave it on the kitchen bench and when guests came over the weekend, the whole cake was demolished so there wasn't a worry that the cake would need to go back into the fridge. Obviously, if you don't eat the cake as fast, you will need to transfer it into the fridge, but it will still be conveniently displayed and ready to eat for a day or two.

Another item that I never quite bought was a cake server. I mean, you can use a knife to cut the cake and then a combination of a knife and fork to transfer the cake. But I will say that the cake server does work well, ensuring the cake can be transferred and not destroyed. I would still probably continue using a knife and fork to transfer my cake.

When you go to make the cake, two tips I can give you is that when you think the egg whites and yolks are beaten enough, continue beating for a few more minutes to be extra stiff and voluminous. Second tip is when you go to mix the whites into the yolks, make sure that it mix the whites through properly. When I first started making this chiffon, I was far too worried about beating the air out of the mixture and always under-mixed, leaving the cake light at the top and dense at the bottom. Nowadays I know to mix well until the colour of the batter is completely uniform. Once the mixture is ready to go, I transferred them into two cake tins I again always wanted. I used to make my pandan chiffon cake in a standard round tin, but I love the look of the proper chiffon/angel cake tin more and I think it does make it rise higher. I also made my pandan cake in the square tin for a bit of fun. Square tins just have that sophisticated look to me. It probably doesn't work for a chiffon cake but I can't wait to make a chocolate fudge cake using the square tin.

Once the cakes were baked, I cooled them before icing them. If you've seen and eaten my cakes before, you will know that my icing isn't exactly good. It's so hard to ice a cake properly, and the turntable is again something that I've wanted. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to spin the cake around and ice it rather than twist my arms into all sort of contortionist styles. I also got a spreading knife with the bend in it. I have a flat spreading knife already but I will definitely only be using this bent spreading knife to do all my icing. This bend in the knife allows you to hold the knife in a comfortable position and then just spin the turntable. The final results, you can see for yourself in the top photos.

If you have been tempted by the Pandan Chiffon cake, you can have the recipe for free below. Enjoy as it's the most delicious cake and my favourite of all time. Thanks to April for her wonderful recipe. There's very little changes to my original recipe but somehow the results are so different. We were hypothesizing that the reduction of oil, reduction of flour and increase in coconut milk is what has made the cake more fluffy. But we don't know. If you have any clues as to how to make cakes fluffier, I'd love to hear it.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

INGREDIENTS
6 egg whites, room temperature
125 g caster sugar
6 egg yolks
80g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
165 ml can thick coconut milk
2 tbsp oil
1 ½ tsp of pandan essence
120 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder (or 120g self raising flour and leave out the baking powder)
1/8 tsp salt

METHOD
1) Preheat oven to 160C.
2) Whisk egg whites for about 1 minute until foamy, then gradually add caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. If you turn the bowl over, the whites should not drop out. Set aside.
3) Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence till light and creamy. Should take about 5 minutes and mixture should be pale and tripled in size.
4) Mix oil, pandan essence and thick coconut milk in a separate bowl and add it slowly to egg yolk mixture while whisking slowly.
5) Stir in sifted flour and salt to egg yolk mixture and fold gently until combined.
6) Add one third of egg whites to green mixture and fold to loosen up the batter. You do not need to be too gentle at this stage. Then add the rest of the mixture and fold extra gently as not to deflate the batter.
7) Before pouring the mixture into the tin, give your batter a few sharp blows by banging it on the table. This will get the big bubbles to rise to the top and burst. Pour mixture slowly into ungreased ring pan.
8) Bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. If the top browns too quickly, put some aluminium foil over the top.
8) Cool completely in the tin upside down.

Pandan Fudge Icing
This can ice one cake thickly or two cakes thinly.

INGREDIENTS
600g coconut milk
80g caster sugar
20g custard powder
1/2 tsp pandan flavouring
Dessicated coconut to decorate

METHOD
1) Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat.
2) Stir till it thickens. Immediately coat cake with the warm fudge.
3) Decorate with dessicated coconut.

GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

Thank you for entering. Lots of varied answers but the correct weight of the cake stand + cake plate + cake server is 1440g exactly. That makes Michelle Chin the winner with a guess of 1450g. Congratulations Michelle. I will contact you directly.
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Along with the free Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, I am giving away some of the bakeware items for you, my dear reader, to win.

You will win the Cake Stand, Cake Plate and Cake Server
+ +

HOW TO ENTER

Leave a comment with your guess to:

How much is the combined weight of the cake stand, cake plate and cake server, to the nearest gram.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 5 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

PLEASE HELP VOTE FOR ME

While this is not part of the entry conditions, I would really appreciate if you can help vote for my entries to the Malaysia Kitchen Competition. Just click on the three links below and click the Facebook "Like" button. Thank you.

*Malaysia Kitchen Post 1 - Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 2 - Omahs vs Lady Gaga
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 3 - Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Sunday August 28th 8pm AEST. The winner will be announced at 9pm and published on this same post.
- The winner is the person with the closest answer. Should more than one person win, I will randomly draw the winner from those finalists. I will contact the winner directly to inform them they have won.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

2011-08-19T09:00:00.001+10:00

240 Blackburn Rd
Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Ph: 9802 3763

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Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
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Food and movies go together like bread and butter. But there's a problem, it's always French food that gets all the glory. Movies such as Chocolat, Ratatouille and Julie & Julia all feature French food as the central star. Even Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman famously flung that escargot across the restaurant. Well, I plan on changing that. I have some ideas for featuring Malaysian food in Hollywood films.

300 Calories

Imagine a film, with these ancient warriors, who love to eat Malaysian entrees. They could be feasting on Satay skewers, chicken and beef, or Lobak, mince wrapped in bean curd skin and fried. The satay skewers were ok, with the sauce quite good but the meat a bit tough. The lobak was delicious and everyone loved the fried parcels.

You, Mee and Roti

Imagine a movie about a happily married couple, who have a friend that attend their wedding and in doing so loses his job. They feel sorry so let him stay with them for a while. But soon they find out that he keeps eating way more than his share of Malaysian food. Their friend will eat their Mee Goreng and Rendang with Roti. The Mee Goreng had a good texture and quite a strong flavour. The Rendang was tender but a bit salty, even with the flaky roti.

Green Pandan

The best way to promote Malaysian food is definitely with a superhero that people can identify with. So I present to you....."Green Pandan". His role is to prevent people from eating bad food and introduce them to the wonderful flavour of pandan. He can recommend dishes like the Nasi Lemak with Pandan Rice and Ondeh Ondeh. The Nasi Lemak had some belachan chicken wings, which didn't have much belechan flavour. The calamari was quite a strange addition as I've never seen it at other restaurants and it was served cold, which I didn't really like. However, the pandan rice was delicately fragrant. The Ondeh Ondeh was excellent, with a pandan exterior housing a liquid palm sugar exploding centre. The other range of kueh (dessert cakes made from rice) were also excellent. Each had a distinct look, texture and taste. I loved them all.

Titanic Kachang

The last film I can suggest is a film about a young couple, who meet on a big cruise ship that is sailing across the seas on its maiden voyage. The ship runs into a titanic ice kachang, where all the patrons then proceed to eat the delicious dessert. The kachang at Lim's was really good, with lots of condiment that combined well together.

So that's my plan for promoting Malaysian food in Hollywood movies. I'm sure my ideas would be embraced by the Hollywood studios. So where do I go to contact them about it?

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Omah's vs Lady Gaga
*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars

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I dined at Lim's Nyonya Hut courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

SBS Featured Foodie for August

2011-08-16T23:41:00.002+10:00

In case I haven't already told you for the tenth time, I have been selected by SBS to be an SBS Featured Foodie. This is a real honour as I love SBS's dedication to food, especially ethnic food. I've subscribed to their food newsletter for a long time and read about all these other wonderful foodies who have been featured, so to be pick as one was a real highlight.

Check out my full interview on the SBS Food Website. Let me know your thoughts.

I thought I'd finish off this post by re-posting the photo of myself and Maeve, one of my favourite food presenters from SBS's Food Safari.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Omah's vs Lady Gaga

2011-08-12T09:00:00.003+10:00

138 Rouse St
Port Melbourne, VIC 3207
www.omahs.com
Ph: 9676 9918

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Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
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Omah's Malaysian is one of my favourite places for mud crab, and I'm always telling everyone about it. I was thinking how I could get the message through to more people. After some brainstorming, the answer was obvious, Lady Gaga. Gaga loves food, so much so that she wore it as clothing. So my idea is to approach Gaga and suggest she wear some Malaysian food as part of her elaborate costumes.

So, what would you get if you combine delicious Lady Gaga and Salted Egg Mud Crab?
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Image of Lady Gaga courtesy of ifood.tv

Salted Egg Mud Crab High Heels

Image of crab claw courtesy of Almost Always Ravenous

The Salted Egg Mud Crab at Omah's is sensational. The salted egg coats the crab and provides a lovely flavour, without being grainy. I love to peel out the crab meat and then pick off the salted egg from the shell and eat them together. Gaga can wear the crab claws as high heels, rather than the copycat Alexander McQueen claw shoes which are clearly inspired by crab claws.

Mee Goreng Hat

Image of crab claw courtesy of Accidental Sexiness

The Mee Goreng at Omah's is very good, with a nice "wok" flavour, lots of prawns and chicken and a strong flavour which I prefer. Gaga can work this plate of Mee Goreng into her wardrobe as a hat. It works to shade her eyes, and also when she's hungry, she can nibble at the noodles.

Five Spice Mud Crab Handbag

Image of crab claw courtesy of Vintage Handbag & Purses

The Five Spice crab is as the name suggests, cooked in five spices. It also has fresh vegetables in onion, spring onion and chilli to lift the flavours. This crab is good, but obviously not as good as my favourite salted egg crab. Gaga can definitely use this crab and incorporate it as a handbag. It's far better than a Versace handbag as this crab handbag has not only colour and depth, but also a beautiful smell.

Chilli Mud Crab Bow Tie

Image of crab claw courtesy of Bauer-Griffin

The Chilli Mud Crab is probably Omah's signature crab, but in my opinion is probably their weakest. It's not terrible but I really don't like the sweet element to it. Instead, their Salted Egg (sensational), Lemongrass (sensational), Black Pepper (excellent) and Five Spice (good) are all better I think. Gaga can help show off these crabs by using it as an accessory to her crazy outfits. Here, she shows it off as a bow tie.

So as we can clearly see, delicious Malaysian food can be perfectly advertised by Lady Gaga as fashion items. Before you know it, all the cool kids will be wearing crab claw shoes and Mee Goreng hats in the streets.

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars

Malaysia Kitchen Facebook Page
Malaysia Kitchen Twitter

I dined at Omah's courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.