Mid-week Dinner Party

When we catch up with my good friend Adri, we usually end up somewhere like Glenny or Box Hill for dodgy dumplings and fried noodles. Last week, however, I felt like something altogether more special, so decided to cook dinner at my house.

I wanted to make something relaxed and simple (no spinning sugar or boning pheasants for me!), but still a bit different from what I've been cooking lately.


A relaxed, yet special mid-week supper for 3

Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken
Lemon-roasted potatoes
Petits Pois à La Française
Heavenly Cheesecake with Balsamic strawberries


The chicken and potato recipe are from Tyler Florence's Dinner at My Place. I picked up a super-cheap (remaindered) copy at a discount bookstore the other day. I find it strange that Tyler never really took off here in Australia - his recipes are great! His shows are pretty good too, although he does talk a lot. And loudly.

The menu suggested in the book is entitled "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner", and contains a rotisserie roast chicken (I don't own a rotisserie, so a normal roast chicken it was), with roasted potatoes and a butter lettuce/pea salad. I wasn't too sure about the salad, so I ended up making the always-pleasing petits pois à la française.

For dessert, I took the opportunity to make a dessert I've wanted to for ages - Joanna Weinberg's deconstructed cheesecake from the book Relish. Like me, Adri is a big fan of crunchy cheesecake bases, so I knew it would be perfect.

It was all quite straightforward to make - I did the shopping the day before, and started cooking when I got home (luckily I had an early finish, and was home by 5!), and had time to set the table and have a shower before Adri arrived just after 8.

A tip from Joanna Weinberg - set the table first, so your guest(s) feel welcome even if the food is not ready. Work has been pretty stressful lately, so I wanted to create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere. (Placemats and napkins were a gift from my bro and Su for my birthday last year.)

But back to the food. I started in the arvo by making the cheesecake. The base is just crushed digestive biscuits (McVities rule!), mixed with melted butter. I always add a dash of cinnamon to cheesecake bases for a lovely homely aroma. You bake it for 10 minutes, and then let it cool and set in the fridge.
I made the topping at this time too - beating together equal weights of Greek yoghurt and cream cheese (the recipe calls for mascarpone, but that was way too expensive), and some castor sugar. I added the seeds of a vanilla bean as well. I waited 'til the last minute to assemble it though, to make sure the base stayed lovely and crisp.

For the fruity topping I chopped up a punnet of strawberries, added some balsamic vinegar and castor sugar, and let it sit in the fridge to enhance their glowing rubied shine.

The chicken, when not made on a rotisserie, is your regular roast chicken - stuffed with garlic, thyme, bay leaves and lemon, and roasted right on top of the potatoes. The potatoes themselves had rosemary, oil, thyme and a few lemon wedges added. After the 1.5 hours roasting (which gave me much-needed time to relax!), the potatoes that were sitting directly under the chicken were quite soggy, and there was a lot of fat in the bottom of the tray. So while the chicken was resting, I put the potatoes in a separate tray, and then back in the oven to crisp up.


Peas! Cooked with sliced lettuce, spring onions and stock. Yum yum.

And here we have the winner winner chicken dinner:

(Playing with the new SLR - focused at the front, fuzzy at the back - yay!)

After dinner and much chitchat we got up to prepare the cheesecake. Adri described the cheesecake as "heavenly", and I much preferred that description to the wanky "deconstructed cheesecake", hehe.

It does look quite heavenly, with the billowing clouds of vanilla cream.

We then piled the juicy strawberry pieces on top and dug in.

Wow, wow, wow! It was amazing! The crunchy base, the rich creamy topping, the sharp strawberries. I'm glad we assembled it at the last minute, as the strawberries started bleeding into the cream, making it look rather unattractive. It was so easy to make, and rather elegant, in a messy and relaxed kinda way.


All up the ingredients for the dinner cost $40, which was pretty good going considering we'd easily spend that much if the 3 of us were to go out for dinner.

When we catch up with my good friend Adri, we usually end up somewhere like Glenny or Box Hill for dodgy dumplings and fried noodles. Last week, however, I felt like something altogether more special, so decided to cook dinner at my house.

I wanted to make something relaxed and simple (no spinning sugar or boning pheasants for me!), but still a bit different from what I've been cooking lately.


A relaxed, yet special mid-week supper for 3

Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken
Lemon-roasted potatoes
Petits Pois à La Française
Heavenly Cheesecake with Balsamic strawberries


The chicken and potato recipe are from Tyler Florence's Dinner at My Place. I picked up a super-cheap (remaindered) copy at a discount bookstore the other day. I find it strange that Tyler never really took off here in Australia - his recipes are great! His shows are pretty good too, although he does talk a lot. And loudly.

The menu suggested in the book is entitled "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner", and contains a rotisserie roast chicken (I don't own a rotisserie, so a normal roast chicken it was), with roasted potatoes and a butter lettuce/pea salad. I wasn't too sure about the salad, so I ended up making the always-pleasing petits pois à la française.

For dessert, I took the opportunity to make a dessert I've wanted to for ages - Joanna Weinberg's deconstructed cheesecake from the book Relish. Like me, Adri is a big fan of crunchy cheesecake bases, so I knew it would be perfect.

It was all quite straightforward to make - I did the shopping the day before, and started cooking when I got home (luckily I had an early finish, and was home by 5!), and had time to set the table and have a shower before Adri arrived just after 8.

A tip from Joanna Weinberg - set the table first, so your guest(s) feel welcome even if the food is not ready. Work has been pretty stressful lately, so I wanted to create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere. (Placemats and napkins were a gift from my bro and Su for my birthday last year.)

But back to the food. I started in the arvo by making the cheesecake. The base is just crushed digestive biscuits (McVities rule!), mixed with melted butter. I always add a dash of cinnamon to cheesecake bases for a lovely homely aroma. You bake it for 10 minutes, and then let it cool and set in the fridge.
I made the topping at this time too - beating together equal weights of Greek yoghurt and cream cheese (the recipe calls for mascarpone, but that was way too expensive), and some castor sugar. I added the seeds of a vanilla bean as well. I waited 'til the last minute to assemble it though, to make sure the base stayed lovely and crisp.

For the fruity topping I chopped up a punnet of strawberries, added some balsamic vinegar and castor sugar, and let it sit in the fridge to enhance their glowing rubied shine.

The chicken, when not made on a rotisserie, is your regular roast chicken - stuffed with garlic, thyme, bay leaves and lemon, and roasted right on top of the potatoes. The potatoes themselves had rosemary, oil, thyme and a few lemon wedges added. After the 1.5 hours roasting (which gave me much-needed time to relax!), the potatoes that were sitting directly under the chicken were quite soggy, and there was a lot of fat in the bottom of the tray. So while the chicken was resting, I put the potatoes in a separate tray, and then back in the oven to crisp up.


Peas! Cooked with sliced lettuce, spring onions and stock. Yum yum.

And here we have the winner winner chicken dinner:

(Playing with the new SLR - focused at the front, fuzzy at the back - yay!)

After dinner and much chitchat we got up to prepare the cheesecake. Adri described the cheesecake as "heavenly", and I much preferred that description to the wanky "deconstructed cheesecake", hehe.

It does look quite heavenly, with the billowing clouds of vanilla cream.

We then piled the juicy strawberry pieces on top and dug in.

Wow, wow, wow! It was amazing! The crunchy base, the rich creamy topping, the sharp strawberries. I'm glad we assembled it at the last minute, as the strawberries started bleeding into the cream, making it look rather unattractive. It was so easy to make, and rather elegant, in a messy and relaxed kinda way.


All up the ingredients for the dinner cost $40, which was pretty good going considering we'd easily spend that much if the 3 of us were to go out for dinner.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

3 Dinners: Healthy (again)

Been a while since I did one of these "3 Dinners" posts. But then, it's been a while since I cooked at home consistently. (Oven chips don't count). This post's theme is "healthy".

Vegetable Jalfreezi

This one is from Jamie's Ministry of Food, and seemed like one of the healthier curries we could enjoy - no coconut milk or cream involved. I found the Curries chapter of this book really useful. Jamie suggests using bought curry pastes (good for time-poor or beginners, but also has recipes for making curry pastes from scratch).

As you'll see from the first picture in this post, I went for the more laborious version. (I also couldn't find Jalfreezi curry paste at the supermarket. I got a jar of Jalfreezi simmer sauce, but I'll save that for a time when I need a quick quick dinner).

Even if you do make the curry paste from scratch, it's pretty easy, especially if you already have all the spices (y'all know I do, haha) - just a lot of chopping and stirring. It smells a-mazing when you're frying off the paste and the onion/garlic/chilli mix.

Simmer those veggies with stock and tomatoes for an hour or so, cook some rice, and dinner is ready.

Because we happened to use yellow peppers (cheaper at the market), the finished product was a gorgeous Mika-style Golden Golden curry. Fabulous.


Roast Monkfish with Steamed Kipflers, Mint Salsa and Superfood Salad

Just because it's healthy doesn't mean it can't be glamorous. I found some lovely fresh monkfish at Vic Market one day, and had to snap it up. I'd never seen it here, but read about it in lots of European cookbooks. Even during my How To Eat project, the one time I cooked it, I had to substitute different fish. (And I can't believe that dinner was over 4 years ago!!!!!!!)

Ooh... fresh.

I fried the fish on both sides to get it brown, drizzled with oil and lemon zest, and finished it off in the oven. In the meantime I steamed some kipflers, sliced them, and drizzled them with a mint salsa (mint, parsley, capers, cornichons, olive oil, white wine vinegar) whilst still warm so they could soak up all the flavours. Yum yum. Served with leftover superfood salad.


Lamb Cutlets, Brown Rice with Caramelized onions and Semi-Superfood Salad

We had a couple of rack-of-lamb leftover from Father's Day dinner (still to be blogged), so in the interest of thrift, later that week I sliced them into individual lamb cutlets, and grilled them on both sides. We served it with a kinda cross between the Superfood Salad and Jamie Oliver's chop salad - i.e. put all ingredients on a board and chop chop chop until it's mixed. The chopped ingredients included spring onions, cucumber, parsley, mint, and cos lettuce. I added a few tablespoons of red quinoa, mixed seeds, pine nuts and avocado, and dressed it with a mixture of lemon juice and buttery rapeseed oil. (Horrible name, lovely oil - tastes like popcorn but full of healthy-heart oils). With that, I made brown rice, and topped it with finely-sliced red onions, cooked until soft and sweet. Asian parents don't like non-white rice, so I had to make it at least a little interesting for them!

Been a while since I did one of these "3 Dinners" posts. But then, it's been a while since I cooked at home consistently. (Oven chips don't count). This post's theme is "healthy".

Vegetable Jalfreezi

This one is from Jamie's Ministry of Food, and seemed like one of the healthier curries we could enjoy - no coconut milk or cream involved. I found the Curries chapter of this book really useful. Jamie suggests using bought curry pastes (good for time-poor or beginners, but also has recipes for making curry pastes from scratch).

As you'll see from the first picture in this post, I went for the more laborious version. (I also couldn't find Jalfreezi curry paste at the supermarket. I got a jar of Jalfreezi simmer sauce, but I'll save that for a time when I need a quick quick dinner).

Even if you do make the curry paste from scratch, it's pretty easy, especially if you already have all the spices (y'all know I do, haha) - just a lot of chopping and stirring. It smells a-mazing when you're frying off the paste and the onion/garlic/chilli mix.

Simmer those veggies with stock and tomatoes for an hour or so, cook some rice, and dinner is ready.

Because we happened to use yellow peppers (cheaper at the market), the finished product was a gorgeous Mika-style Golden Golden curry. Fabulous.


Roast Monkfish with Steamed Kipflers, Mint Salsa and Superfood Salad

Just because it's healthy doesn't mean it can't be glamorous. I found some lovely fresh monkfish at Vic Market one day, and had to snap it up. I'd never seen it here, but read about it in lots of European cookbooks. Even during my How To Eat project, the one time I cooked it, I had to substitute different fish. (And I can't believe that dinner was over 4 years ago!!!!!!!)

Ooh... fresh.

I fried the fish on both sides to get it brown, drizzled with oil and lemon zest, and finished it off in the oven. In the meantime I steamed some kipflers, sliced them, and drizzled them with a mint salsa (mint, parsley, capers, cornichons, olive oil, white wine vinegar) whilst still warm so they could soak up all the flavours. Yum yum. Served with leftover superfood salad.


Lamb Cutlets, Brown Rice with Caramelized onions and Semi-Superfood Salad

We had a couple of rack-of-lamb leftover from Father's Day dinner (still to be blogged), so in the interest of thrift, later that week I sliced them into individual lamb cutlets, and grilled them on both sides. We served it with a kinda cross between the Superfood Salad and Jamie Oliver's chop salad - i.e. put all ingredients on a board and chop chop chop until it's mixed. The chopped ingredients included spring onions, cucumber, parsley, mint, and cos lettuce. I added a few tablespoons of red quinoa, mixed seeds, pine nuts and avocado, and dressed it with a mixture of lemon juice and buttery rapeseed oil. (Horrible name, lovely oil - tastes like popcorn but full of healthy-heart oils). With that, I made brown rice, and topped it with finely-sliced red onions, cooked until soft and sweet. Asian parents don't like non-white rice, so I had to make it at least a little interesting for them!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Seven Seeds

I think I must be the last Melbourne foodblogger to visit Seven Seeds...

Seven Seeds
114 Berkeley St
Carlton, VIC 3053
Ph: (03) 9347-8664
Website
Open Monday to Saturday 7am-5pm and Sunday 8:00am-4pm. (& pub. holidays)


We decided to finally visit Seven Seeds today, after finding that Tofu Shop is unfortunately closed on Sundays. It's on a nondescript street off Queensberry st, right behind the new (and hideous!) Economics and Commerce building at Melbourne uni. Given the warehouse vibe and obsessive focus on coffee, it comes as no surprise that Seven Seeds is run by the same crew who brought you St. Ali.


When we arrived at 2pm on a Sunday, there were some tables free, but lots of people were lining up for takeaways. (It's table service if you're eating in).


Funky red light skirt thingo.

As we sat at our table, smelling the gorgeous aroma of the coffee, I couldn't help but wish that this place had been here back when I was at uni! Doing Arts/Commerce. *Sigh* Which reminds me of a song! "I wish I could go back to college", from my other favourite musical, Avenue Q...

I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God...
...These kids are so much younger than me."

So true. Avenue Q rocks. And for your amusement, here's a link to the Broadway version. I also found a Swedish version, here! It's called Jag längtar tillbaka till college. (Duncan please correct me if I spelled that wrong!)

Anyhoo... onto the food.
We both ordered lattes, which were as creamy and strong and delicious as you'd expect. Next time I'll try one of those funky Clover coffees.

The menu is a bit more limited than at St. Ali, mainly consisting of pastries, breakfasts (toast, muesli, French toast), and toasted sandwiches. The sandwiches come on super-thick grainy bread and are incredibly filling. Just half a sandwich would have been enough for me. Would it be too embarrassingly T.A. to order one to share?

Toasted sandwich with fontina, sardines and onion relish - $10.50

I liked the salad that came with it too - a very astringently dressed cabbage and parsley salad.
Toasted sandwich with ham and Gruyère cheese - $10.50


After lunch, I tweeted that I was at Seven Seeds... and who should come up and say hi but Jackie! Hehe, I knew we'd run into another Melbourne foodblogger there!

Great lunch. I'll be bringing my foodie (non-foodblogger) friends here in future to impress them with my knowledge of funky coffee places.

I think I must be the last Melbourne foodblogger to visit Seven Seeds...

Seven Seeds
114 Berkeley St
Carlton, VIC 3053
Ph: (03) 9347-8664
Website
Open Monday to Saturday 7am-5pm and Sunday 8:00am-4pm. (& pub. holidays)


We decided to finally visit Seven Seeds today, after finding that Tofu Shop is unfortunately closed on Sundays. It's on a nondescript street off Queensberry st, right behind the new (and hideous!) Economics and Commerce building at Melbourne uni. Given the warehouse vibe and obsessive focus on coffee, it comes as no surprise that Seven Seeds is run by the same crew who brought you St. Ali.


When we arrived at 2pm on a Sunday, there were some tables free, but lots of people were lining up for takeaways. (It's table service if you're eating in).


Funky red light skirt thingo.

As we sat at our table, smelling the gorgeous aroma of the coffee, I couldn't help but wish that this place had been here back when I was at uni! Doing Arts/Commerce. *Sigh* Which reminds me of a song! "I wish I could go back to college", from my other favourite musical, Avenue Q...

I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God...
...These kids are so much younger than me."

So true. Avenue Q rocks. And for your amusement, here's a link to the Broadway version. I also found a Swedish version, here! It's called Jag längtar tillbaka till college. (Duncan please correct me if I spelled that wrong!)

Anyhoo... onto the food.
We both ordered lattes, which were as creamy and strong and delicious as you'd expect. Next time I'll try one of those funky Clover coffees.

The menu is a bit more limited than at St. Ali, mainly consisting of pastries, breakfasts (toast, muesli, French toast), and toasted sandwiches. The sandwiches come on super-thick grainy bread and are incredibly filling. Just half a sandwich would have been enough for me. Would it be too embarrassingly T.A. to order one to share?

Toasted sandwich with fontina, sardines and onion relish - $10.50

I liked the salad that came with it too - a very astringently dressed cabbage and parsley salad.
Toasted sandwich with ham and Gruyère cheese - $10.50


After lunch, I tweeted that I was at Seven Seeds... and who should come up and say hi but Jackie! Hehe, I knew we'd run into another Melbourne foodblogger there!

Great lunch. I'll be bringing my foodie (non-foodblogger) friends here in future to impress them with my knowledge of funky coffee places.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Replete Providore

Flat white - $3.50

Replete Providore
302 Barkers Rd
Hawthorn VIC 3122
(03) 9818-4448
Website

Replete Providore is that cafe and catering company that all the food guides rave about. It constantly wins best breakfast awards, and despite being in a residential street, it is constantly packed. I'm sure this has something to do with it being located right in the midst of Kew's private school zone - highest density of private schools per square km in the world, apparently - so loads of parents pop in after dropping off the kids.

It came on the very strong recommendation of my friend Timmy K, so I was just able to get over my loathing of the word "providore". (So wanky!) A group of 5 of us rocked up at 1pm on Sunday (it happened to be Father's Day!), but we were lucky to get a table without a wait.

Apart from lots of baked goods at the counter - brownies, cookies, lemon slice, pies etc., there is a big shelf stocking house-made products like chutneys, biscuits and more. Bizarrely, you can buy smarties in a plastic container with the "Replete" logo stuck on it, although I'm not sure why you'd want to.

Biscotto - pistachio, almond and chocolate chip - $1.50

Y'all know I'm a big cookie-lover, and I couldn't resist a biscotto with pistachios and almonds. It was a little bit hard, but not tooth-shatteringly so, and went well with my cappuccino.

It took me ages to choose from the menu, as it all looked very tempting. In the end, I chose something very simple - avocado with marinated feta and chillies on dark rye grainy bread. I adore dark rye bread!

Avocado with marinated feta and chillies on dark rye grain bread - $13.50

This was an absolutely winning combination, and I'm glad I ordered it. A whole avocado for one serving was too much for me - I had both slices of toast, but only half the avocado. I'm totally recreating this at home for breakfasts in the future!

Beef Lasagne (without salad) - $13.50

Sandra had the lasagne, without salad. This tasted lovely, but was very, very rich.


Omelette special - brie, ham & rocket - $15.00

My buddy Timmy K ordered the omelette special, and said it was good, but that other omelettes he's had here in the past have been better.

Steak Sandwich w chips and salad - $15.00

My bro ordered the steak sanga, a typical Daniel lunch, hehe. He was very unimpressed by this - too big, too rich, too dry - and only got about halfway through it. I had nearly ordered the roast beef sandwich, and after seeing the steak sandwich, was very glad I didn't.


Soup of the day - Vegetables, beans and silverbeet - $9.50

Su got the soup of the day, which she said was quite bland, and not as good as her own homemade soup. However, she said the multigrain toast was great!

I liked Replete, but don't think its food quite lives up to its reputation. Coffee was good, prices were the higher side of reasonable, and service was friendly and fast.

Flat white - $3.50

Replete Providore
302 Barkers Rd
Hawthorn VIC 3122
(03) 9818-4448
Website

Replete Providore is that cafe and catering company that all the food guides rave about. It constantly wins best breakfast awards, and despite being in a residential street, it is constantly packed. I'm sure this has something to do with it being located right in the midst of Kew's private school zone - highest density of private schools per square km in the world, apparently - so loads of parents pop in after dropping off the kids.

It came on the very strong recommendation of my friend Timmy K, so I was just able to get over my loathing of the word "providore". (So wanky!) A group of 5 of us rocked up at 1pm on Sunday (it happened to be Father's Day!), but we were lucky to get a table without a wait.

Apart from lots of baked goods at the counter - brownies, cookies, lemon slice, pies etc., there is a big shelf stocking house-made products like chutneys, biscuits and more. Bizarrely, you can buy smarties in a plastic container with the "Replete" logo stuck on it, although I'm not sure why you'd want to.

Biscotto - pistachio, almond and chocolate chip - $1.50

Y'all know I'm a big cookie-lover, and I couldn't resist a biscotto with pistachios and almonds. It was a little bit hard, but not tooth-shatteringly so, and went well with my cappuccino.

It took me ages to choose from the menu, as it all looked very tempting. In the end, I chose something very simple - avocado with marinated feta and chillies on dark rye grainy bread. I adore dark rye bread!

Avocado with marinated feta and chillies on dark rye grain bread - $13.50

This was an absolutely winning combination, and I'm glad I ordered it. A whole avocado for one serving was too much for me - I had both slices of toast, but only half the avocado. I'm totally recreating this at home for breakfasts in the future!

Beef Lasagne (without salad) - $13.50

Sandra had the lasagne, without salad. This tasted lovely, but was very, very rich.


Omelette special - brie, ham & rocket - $15.00

My buddy Timmy K ordered the omelette special, and said it was good, but that other omelettes he's had here in the past have been better.

Steak Sandwich w chips and salad - $15.00

My bro ordered the steak sanga, a typical Daniel lunch, hehe. He was very unimpressed by this - too big, too rich, too dry - and only got about halfway through it. I had nearly ordered the roast beef sandwich, and after seeing the steak sandwich, was very glad I didn't.


Soup of the day - Vegetables, beans and silverbeet - $9.50

Su got the soup of the day, which she said was quite bland, and not as good as her own homemade soup. However, she said the multigrain toast was great!

I liked Replete, but don't think its food quite lives up to its reputation. Coffee was good, prices were the higher side of reasonable, and service was friendly and fast.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Happy Merdeka Day! or "Kaya Toast"

In 5 years of blogging (yes people, 5 years!), I have yet to do a Merdeka day post. (Merdeka Day is Malaysian independence day). I keep meaning too, but it keeps slipping my mind. By the time I realise it's 31st August it's too late to do anything special, and the Merdeka day post goes back on the To-Do list in my mind.

This year I was determined to do something, and even though it's almost a week late - here is my Merdeka Day post, about that great Malaysian tradition - kaya toast.

Kaya, in case you don't know, is a Malaysian coconut/egg jam, flavoured with pandan. It can be brown or green depending on how much colouring you add and how much you caramelise the mixture.

My mum used to make her own kaya, which was delightfully dark brown in colour, and slightly grainy, but it is quite a bit of work - and besides, what are you going to do with a massive vat of the stuff? These days we just buy jars of it from the Asian grocer. I used to love eating Mum's kaya spread between salty Ritz crackers (my amah's favourite!) when I was a kid. Absolutely compulsive stuff.

Anyhoo, to make proper kaya toast you need to start with white bread (don't even think about using artisan or grainy or sourdough). What you want is that super-fluffy, super-soft, super-Asian sweet white bread. The kind that would disintegrate if you got a drop of water on it.

I used the Japanese white loaf from Bread Top.
Toast it lightly...

... and spread with margarine (yes, margarine, NOT butter) and your kaya of choice. Serve with kopi o (black coffee) for the true Malaysian experience.

In 5 years of blogging (yes people, 5 years!), I have yet to do a Merdeka day post. (Merdeka Day is Malaysian independence day). I keep meaning too, but it keeps slipping my mind. By the time I realise it's 31st August it's too late to do anything special, and the Merdeka day post goes back on the To-Do list in my mind.

This year I was determined to do something, and even though it's almost a week late - here is my Merdeka Day post, about that great Malaysian tradition - kaya toast.

Kaya, in case you don't know, is a Malaysian coconut/egg jam, flavoured with pandan. It can be brown or green depending on how much colouring you add and how much you caramelise the mixture.

My mum used to make her own kaya, which was delightfully dark brown in colour, and slightly grainy, but it is quite a bit of work - and besides, what are you going to do with a massive vat of the stuff? These days we just buy jars of it from the Asian grocer. I used to love eating Mum's kaya spread between salty Ritz crackers (my amah's favourite!) when I was a kid. Absolutely compulsive stuff.

Anyhoo, to make proper kaya toast you need to start with white bread (don't even think about using artisan or grainy or sourdough). What you want is that super-fluffy, super-soft, super-Asian sweet white bread. The kind that would disintegrate if you got a drop of water on it.

I used the Japanese white loaf from Bread Top.
Toast it lightly...

... and spread with margarine (yes, margarine, NOT butter) and your kaya of choice. Serve with kopi o (black coffee) for the true Malaysian experience.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Market Lunch

Lunch - triple-cream cheese brie, Schwarzwälder Schinken and some doorstop thick multigrain bread

Although I love them, I don't normally do markets - they're on too early, they're too far away, and a million other excuses. However, this morning we had a very successful expedition to the Victoria Market - got there around 1:30pm, which meant it was quieter than in the mornings, and there were bargains to be had. This is, of course, awesome, but the constant yelling by the vendors can give you a headache.

"Cauliflower one dollar one dollar one dollar.........."

I was there to buy rack of lamb for my Father's day lunch tomorrow (we got 2 racks of 8 bones each for $18 all up!!), but also managed to buy monkfish, passionfruit, kipfler potatoes, Bretzels, Fleischkäse, bread, strawberries and a lot more...

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest Ham) at the Polish Deli, and I just had to buy some. I'm told that certain families in Germany don't bother slicing it, but just take alternating bites from a big chunk of ham in the left hand, amazing German Brot in the right. A very tempting idea. However, the ham there looked quite fresh, as if it had only been smoked recently. It didn't seem as chewy and dry as most smoked hams, and I didn't think I'd have a knife sharp enough to slice it. I asked the guy at the shop to slice it thinly for me.


If you haven't tried it, I'm not quite sure how to how to describe its taste - except to say it's similar to prosciutto, but BETTER. (Perhaps this is because I've only had mediocre prosciutto in the past, who knows). It is mildly smoky, and pleasantly salty, with a wonderful melt-in-the-mouth texture.

As you can see from the first photo in this post, I also had a small wedge of decadent brie (it was bought from the supermarket earlier this week; couldn't let it go to waste!), and thick slices of soy and oat bread. It certainly wasn't echtes deutsches Brot, but it did the job.

A nice little pilsner to wash down all the deliciousness...

And strawberries for dessert...
These were gorgeous, and $2 for 3 punnets. Bargain. I love how cute and small they were, and so much tastier than the flavourless gargantuan beasts you find at the supermarket. (And no, I didn't eat all of them at once... only got through about 1/3 of them).


Mmm... smoked ham...
I've read somewhere that Germany is the spiritual home of smoked pork, and I'm inclined to agree.

Lunch - triple-cream cheese brie, Schwarzwälder Schinken and some doorstop thick multigrain bread

Although I love them, I don't normally do markets - they're on too early, they're too far away, and a million other excuses. However, this morning we had a very successful expedition to the Victoria Market - got there around 1:30pm, which meant it was quieter than in the mornings, and there were bargains to be had. This is, of course, awesome, but the constant yelling by the vendors can give you a headache.

"Cauliflower one dollar one dollar one dollar.........."

I was there to buy rack of lamb for my Father's day lunch tomorrow (we got 2 racks of 8 bones each for $18 all up!!), but also managed to buy monkfish, passionfruit, kipfler potatoes, Bretzels, Fleischkäse, bread, strawberries and a lot more...

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest Ham) at the Polish Deli, and I just had to buy some. I'm told that certain families in Germany don't bother slicing it, but just take alternating bites from a big chunk of ham in the left hand, amazing German Brot in the right. A very tempting idea. However, the ham there looked quite fresh, as if it had only been smoked recently. It didn't seem as chewy and dry as most smoked hams, and I didn't think I'd have a knife sharp enough to slice it. I asked the guy at the shop to slice it thinly for me.


If you haven't tried it, I'm not quite sure how to how to describe its taste - except to say it's similar to prosciutto, but BETTER. (Perhaps this is because I've only had mediocre prosciutto in the past, who knows). It is mildly smoky, and pleasantly salty, with a wonderful melt-in-the-mouth texture.

As you can see from the first photo in this post, I also had a small wedge of decadent brie (it was bought from the supermarket earlier this week; couldn't let it go to waste!), and thick slices of soy and oat bread. It certainly wasn't echtes deutsches Brot, but it did the job.

A nice little pilsner to wash down all the deliciousness...

And strawberries for dessert...
These were gorgeous, and $2 for 3 punnets. Bargain. I love how cute and small they were, and so much tastier than the flavourless gargantuan beasts you find at the supermarket. (And no, I didn't eat all of them at once... only got through about 1/3 of them).


Mmm... smoked ham...
I've read somewhere that Germany is the spiritual home of smoked pork, and I'm inclined to agree.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Happy Birthday Georgina!!!

Our table

My friend Georgina is a very cool, trendy young lady and her quarter-century birthday celebrations were no different. We started of with dinner at Scarpetta's on Brunswick st, followed by copious cocktails at Black Pearl.

Scarpetta Ristorante
257 Brunswick St
Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9416-0969

I hadn't been to Scarpetta's before, but I really liked their dim lighting and arty pictures. (It actually is a lot cooler than the website led me to believe, haha). It's quite a narrow restaurant, with the bar on the right side, and one row of tables along the left. The food is modern Italian, and they have a great range of well priced pizze (all under $18). Other main dishes are a bit pricey - around $25-32. I can't remember the exact prices, and the menu has changed from what's currently on their website - apologies if I made any mistakes!

Top Left: Fried prawns, whitebait and calamari with rocket and lemon mayo (my starter - delicious! The rocket was super-soft and fresh)
Top Right: Sparklies and bread
Bottom Left: Steak with truffle butter and a dish of soft, creamy polenta
Bottom Right: Sausages on polenta with a deep, rich jus sauce (my friend ordered this and let me try some, hehe. I don't normally like polenta but this was gorgeous!)

Top Left: Pennette pasta with beef ragu and peas. It had a deep mushroomy taste - perhaps porcini or truffle oil?
Top Right: Seafood spaghetti
Bottom Left: My main - lasagne with confit duck, creamy bechamel and porcini mushrooms. Wonderful, but very, very rich. $32
Bottom Right: Pizza (can't remember what type), with Ming's peace sign in the background

I thought Scarpetta's was a great find. Even though we had a big table, our food all came out quite quickly and without fuss. The small space and dim lighting would make it a great place to take a date. And even though it was a little pricey, the food was all delicious. Any place that can make a version of polenta I like gets my vote!

And here are my little square mud-cakelets! They survived the trip admirably and were swiftly demolished.

Blog post about Black Pearl cocktails coming up!

Our table

My friend Georgina is a very cool, trendy young lady and her quarter-century birthday celebrations were no different. We started of with dinner at Scarpetta's on Brunswick st, followed by copious cocktails at Black Pearl.

Scarpetta Ristorante
257 Brunswick St
Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9416-0969

I hadn't been to Scarpetta's before, but I really liked their dim lighting and arty pictures. (It actually is a lot cooler than the website led me to believe, haha). It's quite a narrow restaurant, with the bar on the right side, and one row of tables along the left. The food is modern Italian, and they have a great range of well priced pizze (all under $18). Other main dishes are a bit pricey - around $25-32. I can't remember the exact prices, and the menu has changed from what's currently on their website - apologies if I made any mistakes!

Top Left: Fried prawns, whitebait and calamari with rocket and lemon mayo (my starter - delicious! The rocket was super-soft and fresh)
Top Right: Sparklies and bread
Bottom Left: Steak with truffle butter and a dish of soft, creamy polenta
Bottom Right: Sausages on polenta with a deep, rich jus sauce (my friend ordered this and let me try some, hehe. I don't normally like polenta but this was gorgeous!)

Top Left: Pennette pasta with beef ragu and peas. It had a deep mushroomy taste - perhaps porcini or truffle oil?
Top Right: Seafood spaghetti
Bottom Left: My main - lasagne with confit duck, creamy bechamel and porcini mushrooms. Wonderful, but very, very rich. $32
Bottom Right: Pizza (can't remember what type), with Ming's peace sign in the background

I thought Scarpetta's was a great find. Even though we had a big table, our food all came out quite quickly and without fuss. The small space and dim lighting would make it a great place to take a date. And even though it was a little pricey, the food was all delicious. Any place that can make a version of polenta I like gets my vote!

And here are my little square mud-cakelets! They survived the trip admirably and were swiftly demolished.

Blog post about Black Pearl cocktails coming up!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad