The Occasional Epicure

Welcome, Courier-Mail readers!

2006-04-18T07:22:00.000+10:00

The Occasional Epicure received a small mention in today's Courier-Mail "GoodLife" liftout! Welcome to my cosy - though occasionally neglected - Brisbane-based food blog.

For those who don't have access to the newspaper, here's the online version of the article, albeit without the "Essential reading" sidebar which included yours truly!

Stay tuned for a thrilling expose about Ginger Nut biscuits :) , but in the meantime, please stick around and check out some past highlights...

-- An adventure making Portuguese custard tarts

-- Brisbane Lions cupcakes - I might need to make these again this season if things don't start to improve soon!

-- Some yummy self-frosting cupcakes

-- An interesting sandwich combination for a French groom in Singapore

-- Dining at my favourite Sunnybank restaurant

Thanks again for visiting, and I hope you enjoy discovering the tasty world of food blogs!

food and drink cupcakes restaurants Brisbane

Four things meme

2006-03-11T08:22:00.000+10:00

My blog's name has been very accurate lately, but a tag from Helen has motivated me extract the digit and post! Thanks Helen!

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:
1. Bakery sales assistant - early mornings + nice smells
2. Recruitment coordinator
3. Marketing assistant for a lithotriptor manufacturer
4. Events officer

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Amelie
2. The Castle
3. Love Actually
4. Pulp Fiction

Four Places I've Lived:
1. Sunshine Coast, Australia
2. Singapore
3+4. Nine different houses in Brisbane, Australia (I'm happy that my share housing days are finally over!)

Four TV Shows I Watch:
1. The Bill
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Neighbours - sad but true
4. The Biggest Loser (Australian edition) - I can't help it, this show is always on!

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. Tasmania
2. Hong Kong
3. Thailand
4. Malaysia

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. "The BoM" Bureau of Meteorology - Brisbane rainfall radar page - this was a godsend in my old windowless office! :)
2. News.com.au - so trashy
3. Ben Lee's blog - my very favourite musician writes about his travels and spiritual discoveries
4. Cute Overload - I can't help it!

Four of My Favourite Foods:
1. Cakes - all kinds
2. Steak sandwiches
3. Singapore chilli crab
4. Anything containing ginger (after all I did grow up on the Sunshine Coast - the world's largest and best ginger-producing region)

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. New York (news flash: we've booked our flights - eight months to go!)
2. Macau, eating
3. Galapagos Islands
4. Wheelhouse Apartments, Strahan, Tasmania

food and drink meme

Queensland Multicultural Festival

2005-10-26T21:22:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago RJ and I went along to the Queensland Multicultural Festival. It was one of the first really hot days of the summer, and we arrived at about 12.30, hungry and stinking hot!

The first thing we did was head straight for the food. I had the very best intentions of wandering around checking out all of the fantastic multicultural offerings and snapping heaps of fantastic photos, Grab Your Fork-style. (No-one documents an outdoor food event quite like our friend Augustus Gloop!) However when I saw the absolutely enormous crowds I quickly realised that it would be pretty much impossible to meander around the stalls calmly snapping photos and making a well-considered decision about what to eat for lunch. I had to pick a stall and get into a queue - stat! - if I wanted to get something to eat.

I headed for the satay tent - not that adventurous, I admit! RJ took off saying he'd spotted something-or-other that he had to have. Being packed in with all those other satay lovers was kind of stifling, made even more uncomfortable every time the wind blew a big gust of hot air over everyone!

However! It was worth the wait! The satays were cooked over hot coals, and when they were done they were whacked into a big batch of sauce where they waited until they were fished out and served with rice and a spring roll.

The best chicken satays - ever

By the time I'd secured our satays RJ was halfway through a favourite food of his that he has never thought to tell me about before! It is this delicious Hungarian snap fried bread. It was crisp and delicious! And next time I see it for sale somewhere I'll be jumping in that queue!

Cute pink shirt RJ!

My favourite part of the day's entertainment was the lion dancing

We survived the heat and had a good day. And hopefully my next festival photo-taking attempts will be just a little bit more fruitful! :)

food and drink festival Brisbane

Oaty date slice

2005-10-14T22:22:00.000+10:00

Winter in Queensland is long gone. I love eating porridge for breakfast every day when the weather is cold, but once there's a hint of warmth in the air it's straight back to cereal and cold milk. This year I miscalculated when the porridge days would end, and finished up with an oversupply of rolled oats.

I needed help! Who could suggest a use for these lovely and healthy grains? (Are oats classified as a grain? Somebody, please advise!) Anyway, the lovely AugustusGloop came to my rescue with an old favourite recipe of hers, from her grade seven home economics text book no less.

I also had a bag of dates in the pantry that I'd bought to make some scroggin which didn't quite eventuate. Wouldn't you know it - AG's recipe included dates too! Everything was just falling into place!

Following AG's hot tip, I left this in the oven for a bit longer than the prescribed 15-20 minutes - about 35 minutes all up - and the slice turned out beautifully.

It's sweet and chewy and oaty and a bit datey. Mmm!

It looks like Weet Bix but tastes a million times better!

food and drink baking oats recipes

The Occasional Gardener - sunflowers

2005-10-10T19:22:00.000+10:00

My current herb garden has passed its prime, but my sunflowers have finally bloomed! They're so pretty I just had to share these photos.

The bees love them!

sunflowers garden gardening

Choc chip cookies

2005-10-08T11:22:00.000+10:00

My friend Matty B is famous for making these delicious choc chip cookies. He has been baking them for years and is always a Most Welcome Visitor!

Several years ago he gave me the recipe. This is the exact wording he used. I love how it's such a "boy" way to describe baking instructions :)

It makes about 36 cookies if you don't eat too much raw cookie dough!

Niki's choc chip cookie research project got me thinking about CCCs again, so I decided to whip up a batch the other day. If I'd taken them out of the oven when the timer rang at 12 minutes they would have been just right, but I thought they looked a bit pale and left them in a couple of minutes longer. They were still fine, just a little bit crunchier than ideal.

The finished product - yum!

Cookie close up

The cookie bounty - they didn't last long...

Niki, please feel free to add these to your "to be baked" list! I'm happy to be doing my bit by contributing to this important research! :)

food and drink baking chocolate cookies recipes

Singapore - Laksa

2005-10-05T21:22:00.000+10:00

In August 2004 RJ and I visited Singapore for my friends' wedding. It was way before I had ever even set eyes upon a food blog. But because food is one of my favourite things about Singapore, I ended up taking some photos of things we ate.

One of Singapore's most famous hawker centres is Lau Pa Sat. Situated right in the heart of the financial district it's a bit of a tourist trap, but still seems popular enough with the local office workers too. Lau Pa Sat is open 24 hours and features over 100 food stalls, so you can pretty much eat whatever you want whenever you feel like it.

This day, I only had eyes for one dish...laksa. Laksa is a firm favourite of mine from back in my working-in-Singapore days. My colleagues used to laugh at me because I wouldn't eat the bits that they thought were the most delicious - the fish cake, fish balls and cockles. They used to say "Ask the uncle to leave it out - he'll be very happy with his bigger profit margin!" My favourite ingredient is the fried spongy tofu that absorbs the delicious coconut milk-based curry soup, closely followed by the prawns, hard boiled egg, beansprouts and noodles.

It's really hearty comfort food. Eating a hot spicy soup for lunch in a country famous for its year-round heat and humidity probably doesn't seem like a great idea, but it really is!

In my five-year away-from-Singapore gap I had, of course, tried the laksa on offer at Australian restaurants. It's almost never as good, because it costs four to five times more and it never seems to capture the right flavour and mix of ingredients. That's why I just had to have it at least once on my trip back last year!

A trip down memory lane at Lau Pa Sat

The other fantastic thing about Singaporean hawker centres is the freshly squeezed juice. It's made on the spot and sets you back less than $2!

Oh, and the other thing in this photo is the ubiquitous "small packet tissues". There are so many uses for these in Singapore that you'll wonder how you ever got by at home without carrying them everywhere!

food and drink Singapore laksa travel

Freddo Frogs

2005-10-01T11:22:00.000+10:00

When I posted about eating frog porridge in Singapore my friend McHills was somewhat disgusted. Her husband, the hilarious and talented Jimmy Trinket, offered me a prize if I could guess which movie this line came from:

Nothing's more suspicious than frog's breath!

Of course I recognised the line instantly (wink, wink) as coming from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I had kind of forgotten about it all until one day McHills arrived at my office and presented me with my prize - a supply of the more palatable variety of edible frogs.

Thanks Mr and Mrs Trinket!

Found!
Also, hello to my colleague, Ms L, who casually mentioned the other day "I found your blog last night"! I think it would be weird to suddenly find a blog about the exact baked goods that you had actually eaten, but Ms L took it very well! I'm looking forward to reading her blog one day soon!

food and drink frogs chocolate Cadbury

Malaya Corner 4

2005-09-29T22:22:00.000+10:00

In which your intrepid correspondents visit - yet again - Sunnybank's finest, Malaya Corner.

My mum was visiting for the weekend so we decided to introduce her to Malaya Corner. Oh, and she saw my blog for the first time, too! (This was handy because she actually reminded me to take a photo of her dinner before she ate it!)

Good old Malaya Corner was bustling as usual, but we still got a table immediately and set about deciding what to eat. We had to have the kari puffs again - just so my mum could try them! We also ordered tahu goreng (fried tofu) for entree. It was big chunks of tofu deep fried and served with crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and some kind of hoisin-like sauce. I forgot to take a photo! Oops - we'll just have to order it again another time!

Because RJ's sambal chilli prawns had been so delicious on a previous visit, I decided to try the sambal chilli chicken. It had just the right amount of chilli flavour and heat. I think I still prefer the prawns that RJ had, but this chicken was pretty tasty!

Sambal chilli chicken

My mum went for the nasi goreng. It was full of all kinds of goodies. I tried a bit of the chopped tofu, but it was a bit dry and chewy. Mum said that the rest of the dish was nice. It was a huge serving too!

That's my mum in the background! She unintentionally teamed with the theme by wearing an Oriental print shirt!

RJ has long been dying to try the Malaya Corner char kway teow. We both love ho fun - flat rice noodles - and this delicious dish combines them with prawns, dark soy sauce, and a fantastic smoky flavour. Once again, the serving was pretty huge. RJ gave it the thumbs up but said it could have been a bit more spicy.

Char kway teow

It goes without saying that we'll be back!

Other Malaya Corner visits:
Malaya Corner, Sunnybank
Malaya Corner 2
Malaya Corner 3

food and drink Sunnybank chilli Brisbane

The 23rd Post/5th Line Meme

2005-09-26T20:22:00.000+10:00

Barbara from Winos and Foodies tagged me for this meme.

The instructions are...
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas...
5. Tag five people to do the same.

I was pleasantly surprised to realise that I even had 23 posts! Here's the fifth sentence from that post, Choc Hazelnut Friands:
"I took these on a recent visit to my mum's place, and I only ate one!"

This photo and sentence out of context makes it seem like there were only two friands in total. There were twelve! And I only ate one! I wish I'd eaten more.

I learned a very important lesson from this friand experience. If you're going to bake delicious goodies to give away as gifts, make sure you keep some for yourself at home too!

It seems like everyone in the blogosphere has already completed this meme, so I won't tag five more people. But if you haven't already and you do feel like delving into your archives, consider yourself tagged!

food and drink meme friands

Self-frosting cupcakes

2005-09-25T10:22:00.000+10:00

I first saw these cupcakes on Niki's blog, Esurientes, where they looked delicious! She had found them on Nic's Bakingsheet. Then they kept cropping up everywhere else:

ChichaJo at 80 Breakfasts has made them twice

Lushlife at Not Just Desserts

Barbara at Winos and Foodies

So I thought, "why not see what all the fuss is about?" And I'm pleased to report that these humble cupcakes lived up to the hype!

Like Niki, I used Kraft Nuts About Chocolate instead of peanut paste or Nutella. When I'd first seen it at the supermarket I wasn't that interested, since chocolate and peanut spread could - of course - never be as good as everyone's favourite chocolate and hazelnut spread Nutella. Could it?

Before I whacked this stuff on my cupcakes I thought it would be a good idea to eat a spoonful first. Wow! It tastes just like a liquid Snickers bar! I could probably eat a whole jar if I wasn't careful!

Yum!

The cupcakes turned out really well. The cake itself was nice and vanilla-y and the Nuts About Chocolate frosting was fantastic. They look really cute and taste great. They were pretty quick to whip up too. Please visit Esurientes for the recipe.

If you end up baking these cupcakes or know of anyone else who's blogged about them, please let me know and I'll update my little list! I think it's cool that this same recipe has been baked around the world.

More happy self-frosting cupcake bakers:

Violet at and the dish ran away with the spoon

Factobrunt at Too Young to be Grumpy

food and drink cupcakes baking chocolate

Sugar High Friday #12 - Custard

2005-09-16T06:22:00.000+10:00

I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of custard. Besides the egg tarts at yum cha, I usually only eat custard once per year - and that's the ready-made kind poured straight from the carton onto my plum pudding on Christmas day.

Which is why the Sugar High Friday theme chosen by Elise at Simply Recipes was good. It gave me the motivation to try out a recipe for Portuguese Custard Tarts, which is something that I wouldn't usually get around to making.

The whole tart making experience was fun, even though it seemed to take forever and mess up my whole kitchen. I'll tell the story using photos and the recipe (from Sweet Food, published by Murdoch Books)...

Ingredients
155g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
25g copha (white vegetable shortening), chopped and softened

Hold on! What on earth is copha? Well, non-antipodeans, I am pleased to reveal that this strange Australian ingredient is vegetable shortening made of solidified coconut oil. Mmm, sounds delicious doesn't it?

Actually, I was really annoyed when I saw copha on the ingredient list! I only needed 25g, but it only comes in a 250g packet. And the only other recipe that calls for copha is
chocolate crackles! What a shame! I will have to whip up a batch of these top Aussie treats to use up the rest of my copha block.

Also, how authentically "Portuguese" can this recipe be? I get the feeling that copha is not stocked by the shopkeepers of Portugal/Macau/other famous custard tart destinations...

30g unsalted butter, chopped and softened
250g (1 cup) sugar
500ml (2 cups) milk
3 tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon custard powder

What a gourmet rebel I am - using a recipe with custard powder!

4 egg yolks

Apparently you can freeze the whites, so I did that and I'll use them in my next batch of friands.

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
Sift the flour into a bowl.

Goody! This is the easy bit.

Add 185ml (3/4 cup) water, or enough to form a soft dough. Gather into a ball, then roll out on baking paper to form a 24cm x 30cm rectangle.

This is when I started to realise that these custard tarts could turn into quite an interesting part of my baking self-education. The dough was not really all that dough-like, but I rolled it out anyway.

Rolling the dough

Spread copha over the surface.

Hmm. The copha didn't want to melt in the microwave! I thought it would melt like butter but even after a full 60 seconds it was still hard. I nuked it a bit longer and finally spread it over the "dough". There were some significant copha lumps.

Melt, damn copha!

Roll up from the short edge to form a log.

Right-o. I sprinkled a bit of flour around so I could get a grip of the edge. The quick'n'easy rolling that the book seemed to describe did not occur. It was more like squishing the dough back into a big lump.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle again, and spread with the butter.

At least the butter melted in the microwave!

Roll into a log and slice into 12 pieces.

My 12 pieces weren't very uniform in size! Oops!

Working from the centre outwards, use your fingertips to press each round out to a circle large enough to cover the base and sides of twelve 80ml (1/3 cup) muffin holes. Press into the tin and refrigerate.

I just whacked each lump of dough into the muffin tin and pressed it onto the base and up the sides.

Pastry shells

Put the sugar and 80ml (1/3 cup) water into a pan, and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Mix a little milk with the cornflour and custard powder to form a smooth paste, and add to the pan with the remaining milk, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir over low heat until thickened. Put in a bowl, cover and cool.

It seemed to take forever for this custard mixture to thicken. Just when I started to think I'd done something terribly wrong, it finally thickened up!

Preheat oven to 220C (425F). Divide the filling among the pastry bases.

Custard-filled shells ready for baking

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the custard is set and the tops have browned. Cool in the tins, then transfer to a wire rack.

Fresh from the oven!

The finished product

Makes 12.

Overall these were pretty tasty. The pastry was hard and crunchy and I don't think that's how it's supposed to turn out. The custard filling was sweet and delicious. If I could just improve my pastry-making skills, I'll be onto a winner!

Check out the round-up of all the custardy recipes from around the world now up at Simply Recipes.

food and drink SHF Sugar High Friday custard baking recipes

Childhood food memories - meme

2005-09-07T13:22:00.000+10:00

How exciting! I have been tagged for my first meme and now I feel like a certified, real blogger! And even more exciting, I was tagged by AugustusGloop from Grab Your Fork who was tagged by the Adam the Amateur Gourmet who was tagged by Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini (probably the most famous food blogger of all - she was even included in TIME Magazine's 50 coolest blogs!)!

Anyway, enough of the "!" and on with the meme. Growing up on Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland meant that I was surrounded by plantations of sugar cane, Macadamia nuts, avocados and pineapples (including really big ones).

Funnily enough, none of these local agricultural goings-on really had much impact on my childhood food consumption.

Instead, let me tell you about my most significant memories surrounding food.

1. Cheezels

OK, I'm starting out with a story that I hardly remember myself, but I've heard it so many times from my mother that I can picture it in my mind anyway.

When I was born in the late 70s my parents were kind of hippy idealists. I'm not quite sure how to describe them, but they didn't want my brother and I watching "American garbage" on TV...so we didn't have a TV. They didn't want us drinking soft drink and eating junk food...so I tasted McDonald's only once before I was 17.

At my cousin's birthday party when I was two or three there was the usual junk food selection spread across a table. Apparently I stood there, dumbstruck, looking at a bowl of Cheezels. I asked my mum, "What's that?" to which she replied, "Some people say it's food." So I picked one up and popped it in my mouth. I obviously liked what I tasted, because after all the other kids helped themselves to some snacks and ran off to play in the garden I stood there putting a Cheezel on each finger and then eating them one by one, totally mesmerised by the colour, the texture, and (most likely) the salt!

I still love them!

2. The lettuce leaf

My mum was big into feeding my brother and I a healthy diet. She seemed to have a "no negotiation" policy when it came to finishing our veges at dinner time. We had to eat everything on our plate before we were allowed to leave the dinner table.

I always hated lettuce. Even now I'm not a fan. On one particular occasion I had finished everything else on my plate except one lettuce leaf. I really didn't want to eat it! It was a horrible brown mignonette lettuce! I couldn't bear the thought! I didn't like the flavour, the colour or the texture!

So I sat there and looked at it. My mum sat there and looked at me. I thought I could get away with it. But there were no exemptions from the "finish your veges before you leave the table" rule. This lasted for half an hour. I couldn't win. I ate the lettuce and I was finally allowed to go.

3. Eating sugar

Back when I was little, I used to eat sugar straight from the sugarbowl, which was kept on the shelf next to the teabags and the tin of instant coffee. It was raw sugar - nice and crunchy!

The year was 1986. I was eight. Don't ask me why now, but my mum and I were really keen to go and see Elton John in concert in Brisbane. We had been putting our spare coins aside in a jar to save up for our tickets. Then one day I was in the kitchen helping myself to another serving of sugar and got busted by my mum who really hit the roof! She said, "That's it! I've warned you before and now we're not going to see Elton John!" And she took the jar and all my hard-earned coins away. I was devastated!

In the end we did end up going to see Elton John. It was my first concert and I remember having a fantastic time. I don't eat sugar like that anymore.

4. Mum and the sweetened condensed milk

By now you might be thinking that my mum was very strict and tough. Of course, she just had our best interests at heart and was doing what mums need to do to keep their vege-hating, sugar-scoffing kids in line. Now we're the best of friends.

One day, I realised that - in addition to being my mother - my mum was a normal person too. Innocently wandering towards the fridge one day I saw that my mum was standing there with the door open. Not that unusual, as the was the only cook in the household. What was unusual and made my eyes light up was the fact that in one hand she was holding a tin of Sweetened Condensed Milk and in the other hand was a teaspoon. I couldn't believe my eyes! My mum was eating Sweetened Condensed Milk straight out of the tin! When she saw me, her face took on the same super guilty look that I probably sported when I got busted eating sugar.

5. Hog's Breath Steak

This event took place after I had technically left my "childhood", although my culinary appreciation was still in its infancy. I was 18 when I first visited the Hog's Breath Cafe in Airlie Beach. I ate the Hickory Smoked Prime Rib.

I was amazed. Until that day, "steak" had just been the meat in the "meat and three veg", less than 1cm thick and often coated with pepper. Hog's Breath was responsible for making me understand just how tender and delicious steak can be. I've never looked back!

Who's next?
I'd like to hear about the childhood food memories of:
Fanny from foodbeam - I'm sure she's got plenty of yummy French food memories to share
Barbara from winosandfoodies - an Aussie wine-lover in New Zealand
Pseudo Chef from Cook & Eat - a food and cat fan from Perth

food and drink meme family memories

Singapore - sabo-ing the groom

2005-08-31T21:22:00.000+10:00

Last August RJ and I visited Singapore for my friends' wedding. It was way before I had ever even set eyes upon a food blog. But because food is one of my favourite things about Singapore, I ended up taking some photos of things we ate.

At our friends' wedding the happy couple visited each of the 30 tables of guests to take a photo and receive all of our good wishes. Tradition dictates that some guests (young hooligan friends, prankster colleagues etc.) can attempt to sabo the couple. Sabo (pronounced "sar-bo") is an abbreviation of sabotage used in Singlish.

Of course our table wanted to get into the spirit! We came up with the brilliant idea of making a chocolate and chilli sandwich for the groom to eat. During his speech he had said that he would always take good care of his new wife. So we asked him to prove that he'd do anything for her and eat our sandwich...

Chilli choc treat for the groom

The sandwich was washed down with a glass of red wine and a Coke. He was a very good sport about it, especially considering such a thing would never happen at a wedding in his native France!

food and drink Singapore travel chilli wedding

Fresh Tassie Strawberries

2005-08-29T19:22:00.000+10:00

Here are some more fun food photos from our terrific Tasmanian honeymoon! While on the road to Port Arthur we found a strawberry farm. You could pick your own or buy some ready-picked.

Strawberry sales office

We opted for the ready picked version as we were in a bit of a hurry. We wanted to leave plenty of time for seeing the historic site at Port Arthur. We were welcomed by two very cute dogs - you can just make out one of them in this picture.

Fresh strawberries

This tray of strawberries was about $5 if memory serves me correctly. (It was only a few months ago! My memory is starting to pack up already!)

Yummy berry

Back in the car we enjoyed these berries all the way down to Port Arthur.

If you're going to Tassie, I really urge you to spend a day at Port Arthur. It's fascinating, moving and melancholy and an important reminder of Australia's convict heritage and the people who eventually helped to build our country.

food and drink strawberries Tasmania Port Arthur travel

Singapore - Kickapoo

2005-08-28T17:22:00.000+10:00

Last August RJ and I visited Singapore for my friends' wedding. It was way before I had ever even set eyes upon a food blog. But because food is one of my favourite things about Singapore, I ended up taking some photos of things we ate.

I was introduced to Kickapoo by my Singaporean boss back in 2000. She went to great pains to teach me the correct pronunciation: kick-a-poe, not kick-a-poo!

When I set eyes on Kickapoo again during our 2004 trip, I had to buy some and get RJ to try it. It's fruity and refreshing!

And the name is so damn funny.

Joy Juice!

food and drink soft drinks Singapore travel

Yuen's Supermarket, Sunnybank

2005-08-27T10:22:00.000+10:00

After our dinner at Malaya Corner, RJ and I made our now-customary postprandial trip to Yuen's Asian Supermarket. It's so cool that it is open at night and just a few doors down from our favourite restaurant!

Yuen's - doorway to Asian foodlovers' heaven

I didn't take too many photos there; I don't want the owners to think I'm up to anything untoward. But I just had to snap the Great Wall of Tea.

Never go thirsty again!

Later on I also found a giant bag of this tea. It is my favourite accompaniment to yum cha. I didn't buy it, but I had to take a photo anyway...

Pu-erh tea

Important note! I have no idea why the English spelling of this tea's name is so bizarre. It is not pronounced poo-err (although some people might say that after they drink it; it tastes a bit like dirt to me, but that's part of its charm) rather, it is pronounced poe-lay.

food and drink supermarket tea Brisbane

Malaya Corner 3

2005-08-24T07:22:00.000+10:00

The third installment of the Malaya Corner adventures in which Kelly and super-cute sidekick/husband RJ attempt to eat their way through the wildly extensive menu at Malaya Corner, Sunnybank, Brisbane.

So off RJ and I trotted to Malaya Corner filled with hope and hunger for what was sure to be another gastronomic good time.

Dodgy photo of Malaya Corner

Once again we were bamboozled by the array of options on the menu. Luckily it is logically divided into rice dishes, fried noodles, noodle soup and rice porridge (in my language the latter category translates into "avoid"). So once you have decided what kind of carbs you're after you can just pursue that section and make you selection. Very good system, I say.

So many options!

I wanted to try the tahu goreng (fried tofu) for entree but RJ convinced me that since I hadn't taken a proper photo of the kari puffs last time, we should order it again. Hmm. As you can see from this photo I was convinced! Next time we will be eating the tahu goreng - I will not be tricked again by Mr Ambivalent-About-Tofu!

Kari puffs

I'm a big fan of the giant glasses of lemon Coke served here, but with a visit to the dentist just around the corner I thought I'd better steer clear. He can always tell when I've been drinking Coke! Horrible man. Anyway, we decided to go for the free self-service tea which is in big plastic jugs on the counter, next to the self-service water.

Free tea - yippee!

Having been doing some serious Singapore reminiscing lately, I decided to order the Hainanese Chicken Rice. Hainanese chicken rice is the staple standby of any newly arrived and/or culinarily unadventurous foreigner in Singapore. It's also a firm favourite of locals and other adventurous eaters. What I'm trying to say is that it's not just for scaredy-cat foreigners, but it does happen to be their food of choice.

Its simple appearance - chicken and rice - hides the delicious truth: this is no ordinary chicken and rice.

The chicken is poached and served with fragrant rice cooked in chicken broth. A yummy soy sauce is poured over the top and the meal is accompanied by a special kind of chilli sauce, grated ginger and chicken broth. When my meal arrived it smelled exactly like the many, many chicken rice dishes I had enjoyed when I lived in Singapore.

Unfortunately, the chicken was served cold, which was a bit of a shock. And I also remembered that back in the S'pore days I had enjoyed the chicken rice served with roasted chicken a bit more than the poached version, but this was only a small problem.

Hainanese chicken rice

The flavours of the rice and chicken were spot-on, but I probably wouldn't order this dish again. The cold chicken - although pretty tasty - was a bit hard to get my head around! And if I'm eating chicken with the skin on I do prefer it to be crispy and brown, rather than soft and white.

RJ ordered the Malaysian Curry Chicken with Rice. His succinct review was "I've had better." I tried a bit of the curry sauce mixed with rice and it was nice, but not very spicy.

Malaysian chicken curry with steamed rice

All in all, it was not our best visit to Malaya Corner, but we will not be deterred! We will return! The char kway teow beckons!

After dinner we made our now-traditional pilgrimage to Yuen's Supermarket, but that's another post...

Other visits to Malaya Corner:
Malaya Corner, Sunnybank
Malaya Corner 2

And because Google Maps is so much fun, I've located Malaya Corner - it's in the shopping centre on the south east of the intersection.

food and drink chicken rice curry Brisbane

Singapore - Breakfast

2005-08-21T11:22:00.000+10:00

Last August RJ and I visited Singapore for my friends' wedding. It was way before I had ever even set eyes upon a food blog. But because food is one of my favourite things about Singapore, I ended up taking some photos of things we ate.

Just down the street from our hotel was a Kopitiam food court. The word "kopitiam" means "coffee shop" but this particular capital "K" Kopitiam is part of a chain of modernised hawker centres. Not exactly the most authentic Singapore dining experience, but it was air conditioned and just around the corner, so it was the logical place for us to eat breakfast.

Having lived in Singapore for 12 months I always felt like I'd really missed out on something special because I'd never eaten the famous breakfast dish kaya toast. I'd eaten kaya on bread before - it's a delicious coconut, egg and pandan flavoured jam - but I'd never tried the toast. It was time to rectify this terrible inadequacy in my Singapore food repertoire!

Now this isn't just any ordinary spread on toast! The bread is toasted on a little grill and then each slice is cut in half (not the normal way you'd cut a piece of toast in half but through the bread to make two very thin slices), spread with butter and kaya and put back together again.

Kaya toast and lime drink

The sweetness of the kaya and the saltiness of the butter made the toast delicious. I could have eaten a big pile!

To drink I ordered an old Singapore favourite - the sweet, cordial-like lime drink. I love the picture of the quintessential Kopitiam uncle on the cup. So cute!

I believe the really "right" way to eat kaya toast is with soft boiled eggs and a cup of coffee, but i didn't really feel like eating eggs that day. I also need to leave some things on my Singapore Food To Eat list so that I've got an excuse to go back in the future!

By the way, in the background of this photo you can see RJ's breakfast - noodles with char siu and a bowl of soup. Yum!

food and drink Singapore kopitiam breakfast travel

Choc Hazelnut Friands

2005-08-18T21:22:00.000+10:00

It's friand time again! Instead of the almond meal that is used in standard recipe I added hazelnut meal. And, as all Nutella-lovers know, nothing goes better with hazelnuts than chocolate, so I whacked in a bit of cocoa and broke up some chocolate buttons and stuck them on top. I thought the chocolate was going to melt a bit more than it did, but the friands still looked (and tasted) pretty good!

Choc hazelnut friands

I took these on a recent visit to my mum's place, and I only ate one! I'm still feeling a peculiar friand craving, so I will have to make another batch soon!

food and drink friand cakes baking small cakes

Singapore - Frog Porridge

2005-08-16T11:22:00.000+10:00

Last August RJ and I visited Singapore for my friends' wedding. It was way before I had ever even set eyes upon a food blog. But because food is one of my favourite things about Singapore, I ended up taking some photos of things we ate.

We spent this particular day with my Singaporean friend D, who I had met during my exchange student days in 1999 at Nanyang Technological University. After a long day spent eating our way around the island, D took us for dinner in Geylang, Singapore's notorious red light district. It's also known for its fantastic food.

D wanted us to try one of his favourites, frog porridge. Last time D had talked about eating frogs (way back when I was an exchange student) I'd tried not to rule out the idea. That was until we reached the hawker centre and saw huge fish tanks full of frogs hopping around, croaking happily, unaware that they were about to, well, croak! At the hands of a hawker armed only with a grotty old pair of scissors, no less. So D's frog porridge plan was vetoed. And - it appears - he had waited five years to try to convince me again.

This time, he knew better than to let us see the frogs! He ordered us to sit down at the table out on the footpath and said he would go and place the order. We could hear a bit of croaking, but as our table was next to the road there was enough other noise to disguise it. RJ was keen - he is very brave - but I told Derek that he had better order me some chicken satay sticks, or else!

I was happily munching away at my satays when the frog porridge was delivered in two clay pots: one containing the rice porridge and the other holding the frog pieces. These were to be mixed together in each person's bowl. It smelled delicious! D had neglected to tell me that the frogs would be cooked in ginger and shallot sauce, one of my very favourites!

I still couldn't quite get my head around eating frog, but in the end I psyched myself up and tried a bit! I felt super adventurous! It had the texture of chicken, I guess, and the strong ginger and shallot flavour seemed to overpower any flavour that the frog might actually have had.

Frog porridge

So with that scary adventure over, D suggested that we could go across the road after dinner and eat some "Taiwanese snakes"! I began to protest strenuously until I realised a couple of moments later the my Australian-accented ears had misheard... We were, in fact, about to enjoy some Taiwanese snacks! Phew!

food and drink Singapore frogs ginger travel

Malaya Corner 2

2005-08-13T15:22:00.000+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I had had a pretty bad and exhausting day, and RJ had the smashing idea of going to Malaya Corner for dinner. Out of interest I timed how long it took to drive to Sunnybank from our place - 25 minutes, which I think is not too bad. It's definitely not too far to go for such an extensive menu, delicious meals and reasonable prices! (And there was a special bonus, which I'll mention later.)

The restaurant was pleasantly crowded and noisy. We didn't have to wait for a table and there were plenty of other diners whose dinners we could look at! The menu is so extensive that we both found it difficult to select our meals. This lead us to making a new resolution: we will visit Malaya Corner once a fortnight and eat our way through the menu! Yum! (In fact, we are going back there tonight. We'll have to wait and see we actually keep this up though...)

I was in the mood for something really delicious. Just reading the menu made me forget my dud of a day! Exactly one year ago RJ and I were visiting Singapore to attend my friends' wedding (happy anniversary T & Y!). One of the best meals we had there (excluding the wedding banquet, of course) was chilli crab at No Signboard Seafood (Stadium branch, for those of you who know Singapore).

Anyway, before I get all Singapore-memory-lane on you, I'd better get back to Malaya Corner and the story at hand. I chose the Singapore chilli prawns and when I took my first mouthful I was absolutely delighted! The sauce tasted very similar to how I remembered the "real" thing - spicy and a bit coriander-y. It was so good I ended up finishing off the sauce with a spoon once all my rice and prawns were gone. (At No Signboard the chilli crab comes with little squares of white bread (crusts removed!) to soak up the sauce.)

Singapore chilli prawns

RJ also liked the sound of chilli prawns, so - not wanting to order the same thing as me - chose the sambal chilli prawns. I tried these too - for research purposes - and found them to be super tasty as well! The sambal was spicy enough without being overpowering.

Sambal chilli prawns

For our entree (which came out after we'd started eating our mains - but who cares?) we had kari (curry) puffs. The pastry was so light and crispy and the filling so flavoursome that we had already started eating the last of the four puffs before we remembered to take a photo!

Kari puff

By the time we finished our meals we were feeling full and happy. Altogether the kari puffs, two prawn dishes and two giant lemon Cokes came to less than $40 - what a happy ending! (And we'd remembered to bring cash this time. So there was no awkward wait for me under the watchful gaze of the cash register auntie while Ray traipsed around Sunnybank looking for an ATM.)

Special Sunnybank bonus!
When we emerged from the restaurant we noticed that the Yuen's Supermarket was still open! On a Sunday night in Brisbane, that is pretty amazing. Anyway we spent an enjoyable half an hour wandering around in there stocking up on all out favourites like Pokky, a big carton of Indo Mie, fried tofu puffs (for laksa - yum), 2 litres of fresh soy milk... Everything our little hearts desired that can't be procured at our local suburban Woolies!

food and drink prawns seafood Brisbane

Sugar High Friday #11 - Coffee

2005-08-12T00:22:00.000+10:00

How exciting! This is the first time I have participated in Sugar High Friday! I've been reading the entries on other people's blogs for months, but have only just got around to baking something of my own on time! The theme for SHF #11 was "coffee" so I scoured my recipe book collection and found these Espresso Cakes in Modern Classics 2 by Donna Hay.

The recipe said that it made ten small cakes, but the mixture rose so much when I baked it that it would have worked if I'd made 12 slightly smaller cakes instead.

Espresso cakes

Instead of using chocolate glaze as suggested by the recipe I made my own coffee icing with instant coffee, boiling water and icing sugar. As you can see in this photo, my cakes turned out a bit differently to the illustration!

Viva la difference!

Although I was a bit disappointed at first that the tops of my cakes had risen and then spread out so much (and consequently looking nothing like the neat little packages in the photo) when tasting time arrived, I was pleasantly surprised! The whole cake was delicious but the top was a delightfully chewy highlight. It reminded me of the muffin tops episode of Seinfeld where Elaine comes up with the great idea of starting a business that only sells the top of muffins.

Anyway, before I get distracted thinking about old TV shows, it's time get back to the task at hand - the espresso cakes. Here's the recipe!

Espresso Cakes
from Modern Classics Book 2 by Donna Hay

100g butter, very well softened
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
1/4 cup hazelnut meal
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee granules or powder, dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, hazelnut meal and coffee mixture in a bowl. Combine using electric beaters on low speed, then increase to high speed and mix until just smooth.

Grease 10 x 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins. Spoon in the mixture and bake for 25 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes then remove and cool on a rack.

Ice with the icing or glaze of your choice!

Check out the roundup of all the SHF entries kindly hosted by Ronald at loveSicily.

Technorati Tags: food and drink SHF coffee baking recipes

Wine Blogging Wednesday #12 - Drink Local. Real Local.

2005-08-10T23:22:00.000+10:00

This is the NV Rosé Pinot Noir Chardonnay Sparkling from Sirromet, a winery on Brisbane's eastern outskirts.

It's pretty to look at and refreshing to drink. It's perfect for a celebration, even if you're just celebrating the end of another working day! It retails for about $16 a bottle.

You can visit the cellar door at Sirromet and taste ten wines for $5. The day we did this I didn't learn very much about wine. This was not through any lack of knowledge on the part of our tasting expert, rather it was because we were there for a friend's hens party and we're really paying much attention.

In summary, I don't know very many technical things to say about wine, but I do know that I like this Rosé!

Cheers!

Check out the Wine Blogging Wednesday roundup at Lenndevours.

food and drink Wine Blogging Wednesday Sirromet Queensland wine wine

Herb garden update

2005-08-05T09:22:00.000+10:00

Here's a quick update on my herbs, which were so little when I first planted them.

Now they're much bigger! Surprisingly, the coriander (third from the front) has been the best grower. The basil (second from the front) did well too, but now we've eaten most of it, so it looks a little bit on the skinny side in this photo.

Herb patch

Between the herbs and the fence are six sunflowers that are growing bigger daily! I can't wait until they get really huge and start flowering!

I didn't get around to planting any chillies yet - I just keep forgetting! Stay tuned...

garden herbs coriander basil sunflowers