Food - Sydney Trip

This Sydney post also has been delayed for long time. Just to share a few delicious food that we enjoy eating during our few days stay there.

1. Sydney Fish Market
Sydney fish market is well known for it's fresh seafood product. Though some might thought this place is abit touristy, but it still worth to pay a visit to enjoy the freshness of the seafood there.

 Cheese-baked crayfish fresh from the market. Choose the way you wanna to cook it.

 Fresh Oysters

Fresh Shashimi Abalone. No regret to order this. Yummy!

The market is open daily from 7am- 4pm and to go to Sydney Fish Market, easiest way is to take Sydney Light Rail. More details about the market, you can log to the website Sydney Fish Market

Sydney Fish Marker

Bank Street & Pyrmont Bridge Road, Sydney NSW 2009

2. Chinese Yum Cha at Marigold Restaurant

Yum cha at Marigold Restaurant is a must visit for us each time we to Sydney. They served a yummy and decent Hong Kong style dim sum. The restaurant is located at near Chinatown and if you plan to go over weekend, be early or call to book table in advance to avoid disappointment.

 Clockwise: Braised chicken feet, steam rice roll, stuffed tau fu pok

 Steamed Beancurd

Must order: Siu mai

One thing I like about yum cha at Marigold is their variety of food available during the yum cha session. Above are just a few of the foods that we ordered as we are too busy enjoying our food, no time to snap more photo on the food :)

Marigold Restaurant (Marigold)

Level 4 & 5
Citymark Building
683-689 George Street Sydney 2000

 That's all for now. For those who plan to visit Sydney soon, hope you will have a pleasant trip!

Afternoon Tea - Colonial Cafe, Hotel Majestic Kuala Lumpur

Wao it's have been loooong time since I update the blog. Been abandoned this blog for almost a year with so much things happened around. Cut the story short, right now we are temporarily back to Kuala Lumpur and I'm 8 months pregnant =).

To get the blog back on track, let's start with something simple to share with everyone. After so much comments on the Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur, we decided to pay a visit to this British colonial hotel to try out their afternoon tea.

Picture courtesy of Google

This beautiful hotel is located at the centre of Kuala Lumpur, just beside the historical KTM railway station. For the afternoon tea, customer can choose to enjoy it at 3 locations, 1) Colonial Cafe  2) The Drawing Room or 3) The Orchid Observatory. Each location come with different prices and of course different environment as well. Orchid Observatory is a great one as customer can enjoy the afternoon tea or have a chit chat with friends surrounded by beautiful orchids.

Picture courtesy of Google

Below is the photo of our afternoon tea set of that day. My favourite was their warm baked and fluffy scone. I would say so the best scone I had in Malaysia apart from the yummy ones that I ate in Australia. It goes perfectly well with the jam and fresh cream. Yum! The desserts and savory sandwiches are equally good as well. The set below is for 2 person and yes, it looks small portion for 2 just like I thought when I firstly saw the tier rack. But the end, we end up having some left over and need pack home =P

 Apart from this 3 tier rack, we also are being served with a box of savory pastries of the day.

 For drinks, we are served with black coffee and tea. It's really a good experience overall and complete my day of the weekend.

It is recommended to call in 3-4days in advance to book a table to avoid disappointment as they have limited tables on each location. For more information of the afternoon tea, you can visit their website Colonial Cafe

Hope you enjoy the post and as a disclaimer, review above is based on my own experience.

Chinese New Year : Pineapple Cookie / Tart Recipe

Happy Chinese New Year 2104! Time really fly when I recall back how I spent my Chinese New Year first time away from my home country. Me and hubby was at Melbourne during last year CNY. Though we are at a western country, but the CNY atmosphere was not lacking compared back to Malaysia or I should say Melbourne had a merrier CNY celebration =)

Well, for CNY, pineapple tart / cookie it's has been a "must have' for me. Been making these cookies since I was in secondary school and revising the recipe to a perfect one. What is perfect pineapple cookie for me? A 'perfect' pineapple cookie for me is, it shall melt once put our mouth. So below is the recipe which would like to share with you during this festive season. I know it's kinda late to make cookies 2 days before the day, apologize for that. Hope you like this recipe!

Pineapple Tarts / Cookies

Ingredients:
(A)
250g magarine / butter
50g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp Ghee / pure cow butter (This is important)

(B)
400g plain flour
20g cornflour

(C) Pineapple Fillings (Boiled to thick)
500g chopped pineapple, strained
250g castor sugar
1/4 tsp pineapple essence
** Alternatively you can use ready made pineapple paste sell at baking shop.

Method
1. Beat (A) till creamy and slowly stir in (B).
2. Put in the dough in mould and press out pattern
3. Spread the pineapple filling (C) and roll up. Brush top with beaten egg.
Bake the cookie at 160 celcius for about 25 minutes.

Bangkok - Land of Smiles Part 1

It's been quite a while since my last post. I actually went back to Malaysia for good, yes! =). Went to Bangkok, Thailand last week for a short trip. It was my first trip to Thailand and was excited to see everything in this land of smiles. Basically I just went for a 4 days 3 nights trip and went to couple of main attractions in Bangkok. Shall do some review in the upcoming posts.

First Meal in Bangkok
Cuisine Type: Local Thai Food
Shopname: Thai Food Very Good And Very Cheap by Im-chan
Address: Sukhumvit Road, near Soi 39

EST - Local Cola brand

Thai Noodle in Pink Sauce

Pad Thai with Chicken

Oyster Omelet

One type of taxi in Bangkok

Melbourne Good Food & Wine Festival

Hi everyone, winter is approaching Melbourne very soon =). Weather here has been really chilling and breezing but it does not stop us from our activities. There will be long weekend for everyone us here due to the Queen's birthday that falls on coming Monday and the same time the long waited Good Food & Wine Festival is finally here in Melbourne! Melbourne is the first stop for the festival and next follow by Sydney (June 28-30), Perth (July 19-21) & Brisbane (November 8-10).

If you guys never been attending to this festival before like me and a food and wine lover, do pay a visit as it really worth it. We had a great time at the festival today while sampling lots of nice food and beers and wines too!

Apart from sampling delicious food, we coincidentally went to the Barrilla booth with a initial intention to join the crowd to see the Italian chef, Chef Andrea preparing some delicious pasta. Learnt a few tips on handling pasta but never we know that after the chef finished cooking session, we are given a 20minutes for a hands on class at the kitchen at the booth prepared by Barilla. I was so excited about it and start getting ourselves ready to prepare exactly the same pasta (minus the taste) :p that chef  Andrea showed us earlier.

All the ingredients already prepared by Barilla staff and we are required to prepare a Casaresse with mussels and clams in Barilla's  Arrabbiata sauce. It was so fun cooking in the kitchen with 60 people with everyone has it's on stove, utensils and ingredients. It started with nervous as everyone was clumsy in the kitchen, sounds really like we are in the My Kitchen Rules. Haha! We really have great time cooking and at the end of the class we got to taste the yummy delicious cooked by ourselves and also received a Barilla's show bag with lots of goodies from them. Thank you Barilla! You made my day so special and meaningful =)

Final Output: Casaresse with mussels and clams in Barilla's Arrabbiata sauce

Barilla Show Bag

For the rest who have not been to the festival, do get to the website (http://www.goodfoodshow.com.au)  for more details. You can purchase the tickets online or you can buy at the site.

McDonald's Kitchen Open Door - Registration end 13th May 2013

Just got to know that McDonald Australia is opening their kitchen doors on 25th May 2013, just ONE day for Maccas fans like us to to go behind the scene to experience how your favourite Big Mac or Double Cheese Burger being made!It will be 30minutes guided tour and best of all it is FREE! =) What a good opportunity for us to earn and learn how these amazing guys work to provide the best food for us.

All you need to do is just visit their website at https://opendoors.mcdonalds.com.au/ for registration and choose the nearest participating McD outlet and tour time. For those who are in Australia and interested to participate, be quick as the registration  close at 9am on 13 May, 2013.

One of the rules of this tour is photography is not allowed. Hopefully I could talk to the management to snap few good pictures to share on the blog. That's all for now.

Tokyo Must Eat Part 2: Ramen - Takoyaki -Yakitori!

Tokyo Must Eat - Part 2

Apologize for the long delay post on the Tokyo Must Eat Part 2 as I need some time to get through the numerous of photo that we snapped during the trip =). Hope you enjoy Tokyo Must Eat Part 1. As promised, below is the list of food that not to be missed when you are at the Land of Rising Sun! Hope you enjoy the photo.

List of Must Try & Eat
4. Yakitori
I guess everyone shall familiar with yakitori which also know as grilled skewer. It is a popular food among the Japanese especially as a snack with beer after long hours working in the office. There is a alley in Shinjuku with many small eatery shops selling yakitori and other small snacks. The alley was named as "Shinjuku Yakitori Alley". You could find different type of yakitori at this place ranges from different meat, seafood and also vegetables. Please bear in mind that most of these shops do not have any English or pictorial menu. It is truly a typical Japanese after work eatery area. Fortunately the shop that we went have a English menu and they charge a small amount of 200yen per person as entrance fees. We ordered a combination of 5 skewer and a yakisoba. Price is not cheap but worth a try. We enjoy the food with surround by the locals.

Yakitori - Chicken heart, meatball, gizzard, thigh meat, skin

Yaki Soba

5. Takoyaki
Takoyaki is also one of my favourite Japanese snack. I used to buy these balls from Jusco Mid Valley when I'm back in KL. Thus, I would never miss this snack when I saw this Takoyaki chain near our hotel. Made fresh, these balls really really yummy with generous of bonito flakes and mayonise on top of it. You could choose with different fillings. Typical fillings is with octopus, FRESH small octopus. Takoyaki is common in Japan and it can be found at any eatery stalls along the street. Worth a try!

Takoyaki

6. Ramen
Ramen! Ramen! I still miss the ramen that we had near our hotel so so so much. It taste so good and I remembered the first night we arrived at Tokyo, we immediately went straight the this ramen shop for a hot bowl of "char siu" ramen. It was so warm as the night was chill and after that we had a good rest after a long haul flight. For a nice bowl of ramen, it is not only the soup base and ramen play an important role. The char siu and the soft boiled egg are equally essential. Not many ramen shop could produce a good and tasty piece of char siu. Not in Malaysia nor Singapore. Char siu at Japan really taste different! The ramen shop have been my regular visit whenever I stayed at the hotel at Ninggyocho. I"ll post another post on the hotel we stayed in Japan, hopefully will be a helpful guide for one who plan to visit Tokyo soon.

Ramen

7. Oden
If you a steamboat / hot pot fans like me, then you must like oden. Oden is a Japanese winter dish that contains different type of ingredients such as fish cakes, shells, eggs, konyaku, daikon and more boiled in a soya based dashi soup base. Oden can be easily found at any 24 hours convenience store such as 7 Eleven or Family Mart. They are sold in food carts with skewers of the ingredients simmering in the broth. Don't underestimate by its look. It really taste much more better that it look.

Oden at Food Cart

Oden - Skewer of clam shell, konyaku, round fish cake. Yummy!

Seoul Soul - Nice & Cheap Korean Cuisine

Seoul Soul
Melbourne is always well known as home of various cuisines around the world. Korean cuisines is one of food that can be easily found in Melbourne and often served with authentically by Korean.

We found the Seoul Soul, a Korean tapas in Richmond after church service, hungry for lunch. I personally was impressed by it's slick interior design. Not only that, we also were attracted with their lunch set "Lucky Bucket" which looks interesting. Thus, we decided to give it a try. Let's the photos below do all the talking.

Nicely Interior Deco

Lucky Lunch Bucket - Beef Bulgogi

Bibimbap

We also notice that they serve BBQ meat in their dinner menu and we plan to drop by next visit for a try. =) Food taste at Seoul Soul was not bad and affordable. Definitely worth a try!

Seoul Soul
323 Victoria St
Abbotsford, VIC 3067
Tel: 0478 768 760
http://www.seoulsoul.com.au/

Food rating: 3.5/5 (This is based on my individual taste)

Sweet & Sour Chicken - Is it your favorite?

Sweet & Sour Chicken Recipe

I guess craving for certain food does not only apply for pregnant mummy but also to all the ladies at any time =). Sweet & sour chicken used to be our all time favorite dish when we are at Malaysia. But when I'm at Melbourne, I never cook it at home bacause I thought the cooking process will be tedious as I need to deep fry the meat and consume a lot of oil. But I was wrong, I just fry the meat within a small pot with just right amount of oil to cover the meat. It works!

I got this sudden craving which at one hot weather at Melbourne, when I was busy figuring what to cook for dinner of the day,I thought maybe I shall give it a try.  I have included 2 recipes here, one of them is using the instant sweet & sour sauce from Kantong which I found it taste perfectly nice as the homemade sauce. It is best for anyone that short of time but want to cook a delicious meal at short time.

Ingredients:
300g of pork belly / chicken thigh / chicken breast
** I found that pork belly & chicken thigh is better option in terms of meat tenderness 
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1/2 tomato

Marinade:
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 egg
a pinch of pepper

Sauce:
3 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cornstarch

OR
1/2 bottle of Kantong Pineapple Sweet & Sour sauce (Kantong only available in Australia, I think)

Method:

1. Cut meat into small cubes and mix in all the marinade ingredients. Marinate it for at least 1 hour inside fridge.
2. Cut onion, green pepper & tomato into small pieces.
3. Heat up a amount of oil in a pot. Amount of oil to use: Enough to cover the meat is OK. Dredge meat cube with cornstarch and fry the meat till golden brown & cooked through. ** Don't use too high heat as it might cause the outer skin to turn brown but meat inside is under cooked.
4. Heat up 1tbsp of oil to fry onion, green pepper& tomato. Add in the sauce mixtures and bring to boil over high heat. Turn of the heat and quickly stir in the cooked meat.

Hong Kong Style Mango Pudding

Yum Yum Mango Pudding

I have been crazy for mango pudding since I ate it at one of the dessert shop during my trip to Hong Kong. The smoothness of the pudding, nice flavor of the mango eaten together with evaporated milk really gives a "kick"and feels like in heaven! Mango lovers must try this!

Hong Kong style mango pudding is not same like other mango pudding in the market. The texture of the pudding is more soft and normally fresh mango flesh will be used in the pudding. It can be easily found in any dessert shop in Hong Kong and is a popular dessert at Dim Sum restaurant.

Since mango is in season during summer Australia, I grab this chance to make my favourite dessert. Below is the recipe for mango pudding, do give it a try as it is really for "yum" dessert especially for mango lovers!

Ingredients:
1)  Aeroplane Mango Jelly x 2 packets or (13.5g of gelatine + 75-90g of sugar)

2) 1 cup (225ml) boiling water & 110ml cold water
3) 175ml of fresh milk
4) 85ml of evaporated milk
5) 2-3 mango pureed + mango cube (if you like more mango flavor)
6) 1 egg (optional) - to make the pudding taste more rich 

Method: 
1) Add jelly powder to 1 cup (225ml) boiling water & mix well
2) Pour 110ml cold water into the mixture and mix again
3) Pour in the fresh milk & evaporated milk (make sure the mixture the cold enough before pouring the milk in)
4) Add in whisked egg & pureed mango
5) Pour into small cup or mould and chill for about 4 hours untill the jelly set
6) Serve pudding with evaporated milk.  

Hope you like this recipe! :) 

Tokyo Must Eat - Part 1

Japan is indeed a place with excitement and delicious food. I got the chance to visit Tokyo for several times during my employment with my ex-company and fell in love with every bits of this country. Never get bored with it's food and yummy delicious food is found anywhere at Tokyo even just a street food. With recent personal trip to Tokyo again, it was my longest stay period at Tokyo, 10 days. I got the chance to explore many of its nice food. Hope you enjoy the food photos taken although some of it might be look pretty standard Japanese food that we always see at elsewhere.

List of Must Try & Eat 
1. Bento Box
Deemed as one of the fast food meal for Japanese. Often come with various type of cooking style, ingredients and attractive packaging. Always fresh and available at all JR train stations. Normally we will buy this bento box before we depart to a long distance train and we will enjoy it in the train while looking at the nice scenery outside the window. It was really good.
 

                                      Gyu don - Beef Rice Box

 

Buta shoga yaki don - Pork Rice Box

2. Omelet Rice / Omu Rice

Omelet rice is another type of rice that are  popular among the Japanese. I would say it is a rice dish with both mixture of western & asian element in it. Very nice and healthy type of food.

Omelet Rice with Hamburg - Sauce: Mushroom & ketchup sauce. Yummy!!!!!!

3. Donburi

Donburi refer to Japanese rice bowl dish and is  consisting of fish, meat, vegetables or other ingredients simmered together and served over rice. Donburi meals are served in oversized rice bowls and served together with a bowl of miso soup (wikipedia). Some of the common donburi as such as tendon, unadon, gyu-don, oyakodon and many more. It's can be found at any restaurant in Japan such as Yoshinoya. My favourite donburi would be the gyudon & unadon. How about you?

 

Tendon ( Tempura rice bowl)

Buta yaki don (Roast pork rice bowl)

Airline In-Flight Meal

Some people say that in flight meals often very bland in taste and it's just another microwave heated food. I'm quite disagree with this statement as I tasted a "yum" in flight meal before when i flew with Japan Airlines 3 years back. I had a delicious & authentic taste of the gyu-don during my flight back from Tokyo. =)
During my trip to Tokyo end of last year (Nov 2012), we took up a flight with Cathay Pacific from Kuala Lumpur and stop over at Hong Kong. Although it is a long haul flight, but overall the service of Cathay Pacific was great and the in flight meal were delicious as well. Just have a look with the pictures below:

                                                                 Asahi Beer

                                                      KUL- HKG: Chicken rice

                                                     KUL-HKG: Omelet with sausage

                              HKG - NRT: Pasta with cheese with Haagen Dazs ice cream!

 

HKG - NRT : Black bean chicken rice. Yum!

                                                 NRT - KUL: Gyu-don with Kit Kat

                                   NRT - KUL: Spring onion with ginger chicken rice

                                                       Forgot the name of this meal :)

Stay tune for my next post on Tokyo Must Eat! :)