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.

Melbourne Aquarium

Although I have been staying in Melbourne for quite some time, but we never pay a visit to the famous Melbourne Aquarium which are located at the CBD. Perhaps I'm abit skeptical on the number of exhibits in the aquarium considering the size of the building. However I was wrong when me and husband finally pay a visit to the aquarium during the Anzac day off.
 

It was a long queue at the ticket counter on that day, luckily us to skip the queue as we already bought the ticket online in advance. We are greeted with friendly staff upon admission to the aquarium which a staff asking us to pose some funny position for photograph session. Little we know that the gimmick was actually for a souvenir album with our photos in it. But we end up did not buying it although it was a nice shot as the album is a little pricey for us (AUD 35 for 3 piece of photo).

The first exhibit to greet us is the famous 2nd world largest penguin, The King Penguin and the Gentoo penguins. OMG, the King Penguin were really really GIGANTIC! I never see that kind of size of penguin before to be honest.

King Penguin

King Penguin

The penguins that we used to see at Philip Island and St Kilda beach was relatively small, perhaps just one tenth of the King Penguin size. The King penguin height is almost same 4-5years old kid or above adult knee level. These guys are from Antarctica and together with them also is the Gentoo penguin which is a little smaller. Gentoo penguin reminds me about the Happy Feet cartoon with it's feet in orange color.

Happy Feet - Gentoo Penguin

Almost as tall as a Kid!

Melbourne Aquarium has large collection of the King Penguins

Apart from the Penguin explore, there are 3 main sections to explore which are the Seahorse Pier, Coral Atoll and Shark Alive. There is a part in the aquarium where visitors could have a nice view on the daily feed by the divers. Melbourne aquarium has a large collection of sea lives including a gigantic stingray which really amazing. 

Do visit the Melbourne Aquarium where you are at Melbourne. The place really worth a visit especially on the gigantic penguins and stingray. We had a wonderful day that day. For more information on the aquarium, do visit their website at www.melbourneaquarium.com.au

Toyoko Inn Hotel Tokyo

I have been delaying this post for some time as I was busy trying different method in making soft buns =). Really hope that all Japan posts will be useful information for anyone who like to travel to Japan for trip. In this post, I would like to recommend the hotel we stayed during our trip to Tokyo last October. In fact, I have been staying in this hotel, Toyoko Inn for all my previous trips to Tokyo.

Toyoko Inn is one of the famous hotel chain in Japan and it has numerous of branch throughout whole Japan. Lately I also found out that, they also already spread their wings to Korea! As we all know, accommodation is not cheap at Japan especially in big metropolitan like Tokyo and normally the room size is pretty small. Fortunately, Toyoko Inn offers a decent room price with average of about 5900Yen per night (please check their website for latest rate).

Twin Room

What I like most about Toyoko Inn is that all the hotel is located close to the nearest train station which is important for free & easy traveler like us. Beside, the rooms are really really CLEAN and I just feel like home when staying in the hotel.

Like other hotel, every room come with a FREE internet access, electronic toilet and breakfast is included. Yes, they provide Japanese style breakfast together with western style. Love their breakfast to the max because they serve various flavours of onigiri with pickles and miso soup. What a hearty meal.

Breakfast at Toyoko - Onigiri with radish pickles, salad and miso soup

Another best part of Toyoko Inn is they have a complete room reservation system at their website with English language which make it easier for foreign travelers to reserve their rooms. Besides, for room reservation, no charges will be applied during online reservation, payment only require during check-in. This give us a flexibility for us to change the reservation in case of any changes in the itinerary.
However please do not abuse in using this facility! We should only reserve the rooms when our itinerary is confirmed and inform the hotel in advance in case of cancellation.

Besides, Toyoko Inn is offering a membership program whereby Toyoko Inn Club Card Members will get a 20% discount on Sundays and Holidays of the lodging country, and also 5% discount on weekdays and Saturdays! With this card you can accumulate points with number of nights at Toyoko and in return you could use the point to redeem a free night stay at Toyoko Inn.

Do visit their website for more information. Definitely a recommended hotel to stay when you are traveling around Japan!

Soft Sweet Bun - Worth a Try!

As mentioned in the previous post, I've been into bread baking frenzy mode. Was searching the best method to make a pillow soft bread texture. Made lots of bread loaves and buns within the month. In previous post, I posted a bread recipe using Tang Zhong method. I found that Tang Zhong method is a good recipe for soft loaves. However I found that Tang Zhong bread turn out to be slightly coarse and a little dense after a overnight. Not sure is it because of the weather at Melbourne (which is quite cold now) and because of that I continue to search recipe from the internet for a soft bread texture.

Finally I cam across to Cheah's blog and saw her post on Meat Floss bun using the gelatinized dough recipe. Her bun looks absolutely SOFT with a cotton look like texture. Got motivated by her post and decided to give it a try =). The result? Excellent! The bun are superb soft with cotton fine texture. I'm really impressed with the recipe and satisfied. This is indeed another recipe to keep beside the Tang Zhong method. Do give it a try. I'm sure you will never regret with it.

Soft Sweet Bun

Soft Sweet Bun Recipe


(A) Gelatinized Dough

1. 100g bread flour
2. 70 ml boiling water 

 Method:

1. Mix the bread flour and boiling water together till form a dough.
2. Cover the dough with cling wrap and place into the fridge for 12 hours.
3. Thaw the dough before adding it into the main dough mixture. 

(B) Main Dough

1. 400g bread four
2. 75g sugar
3. 2_1/4 tsp instant yeast
4. 1 tsp salt
5. 170ml cold water / cold milk
6. 1 egg
7. 75g butter

Method:

1. Mix all the wet ingredients (except butter) and place it into bread maker/stand alone mixer.
2. The follow by all the dry ingredients. 
3. Tear the gelatinized dough into small pieces and add in into the mixture. Draw a wall in the middle of the dry ingredients and put in the yeast.
4. Start mixing the dough using the bread maker (dough mode) / stand alone mixer. Kneading bread dough is not easy, therefore for this step, I used the bread maker to do the job. If you do not have a bread maker, you can use a powerful stand alone mixer like Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
5. Add in the butter after 3-5 minutes of kneading.
6. Bread machine will knead the dough for 1 hour and do the 1st proofing for 1 hour. Different bread maker might have different settings.
7. When the dough is ready, poke a hole in the middle to release the gas. Knead the dough briefly and form the dough into a ball. 
8. Divide the dough into small size ball based on preferred size. Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 mins.
9. Shape the dough and place the buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let rise in a warm place until double in size.
10. Bake in preheated 180°C oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Hong Kong Style Sausage Bun

Lately I have been crazy into making bread after visited Christine's blog and saw her success in making homemade bread using special Tang Zhong method. Tang zhong is a technique origin from Japan to create soft and fluffy bread.

Another motivation into making bread is that because Asian style breads and buns are selling expensively back in bread shops in Melbourne. Haha! Thus, I get my husband to get me a brand new bread maker which only cost us aud $69 and there it goes my exploration in making bread =)

HK Style Sausage Bun

Tang zhong method involves cooking flour with water over the heat till the batter reaches 65°C as a starter dough. Basically here is the recipe for HK Style Sausage bun. For more details on the steps and more Tang Zhong bread recipe, you can visit Christine's blog.

HK Style Sausage Bun Recipe ( Tang Zhong method)

Ingredients:

(A) Tang Zhong / Starter Dough

1. 50g bread flour
2. 250ml water

Method:

1. Mix the bread flour and water together until dissolved without any lump.
2. Heat up the mixture on the stove with medium heat. 
3. Keep stirring the mixture till it start to thicken. Mixture is ready when the temperature reach 65°C or alternative way to recognize is when lines is observed at the mixture during stirring.
4. Cover the mixture with cling wrap and keep it in refrigerator. Let the mixture return to room temperature before using it. It can be kept for 3 days.

(B) Main Ingredient

1. 350g bread flour (high protien flour)
2. 55g castor sugar
3. 5g salt
4. 1 egg
5. 125ml milk
6. 120g starter dough
7. 5-6g instant yeast
8. 30g butter

Method:

1.  Mix all the wet ingredients (except butter) and place it into bread maker/stand alone mixer.
2. The follow by all the dry ingredients. Draw a wall in the middle of the dry ingredients and put in the yeast.
3. Start mixing the dough using the bread maker (dough mode) / stand alone mixer. Kneading bread dough is not easy, therefore for this step, I used the bread maker to do the job. If you do not have a bread maker, you can use a powerful stand alone mixer like Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
4. Add in the butter after 3-5 minutes of kneading.
5. Bread machine will knead the dough for 1 hour and do the 1st proofing for 1 hour. Different bread maker might have different settings.
6. When the dough is ready, poke a hole in the middle to release the gas. Knead the dough briefly and form the dough into a ball. 
7. Divide the dough into small size ball based on preferred size. Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 mins.
8. Shape the dough into a slim roll and roll it over to the sausage. Place the buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let rise in a warm place until double in size.
9. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Last 5mins before the baking time end, brush in the egg wash on top.

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!

Glimpse of Melbourne City

City of Melbourne

Last week a friend of mine came to visit us at Melbourne and I got the chance to bring him for a 2 day tour at the Melbourne CBD. As he was a professional photographer back in Malaysia, I got a chance to learn up some "technique" from him on how to get a good nice shots. Below are some snaps of some famous landmarks in Melbourne.

Royal Arcade - View 1

Royal Arcade - View 2

Flinders Train Station - View from Southbank

Flinders Station

Southbank

City Circle - Free Tourist Tram

Government Offices near Parliament

 p/s: Tokyo Must Eat - Part 2 will come next (delayed for long time ;)  )