Speaking of Cupcakes..

In my daily catch-up-with-the-world hour that I take at work every morning, New York Magazine is the first thing I go to for seeing what's up in New York, after emails and news in three continents.

As I love cupcakes (really, whoever says they don't is kidding themselves), this article I found today in NY Mag was fun to read. You might find it fun too.

In my walkings around this big town, I have sampled cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop as well as Buttercup Bake Shop, of which Buttercup was by far better. It was smaller, moister, less sickeningly-just-sugar-in-everything sweet. The ever famous Magnolia has yet to be tried, but the word is that the hype outweighs the product by much. We shall see.

But by far the funnest cupcake place I have seen is this place, called Baked By Melissa, in SoHo. (or is it NoHo? Lower East Side? Really, all the neighbourhoods in Manhattan tend to mould into only a few: Upper East, Upper West, Midtown, Below Midtown). Anyway, about the cupcakes. They were being sold out of a tiny tiny teensy window on Spring St. between Mercer and Broadway. Open 11-8 everyday, the funnest thing about this place is that it sells really teensy TINY cupcakes, they're probably about the same size as a AUD$1 coin - probably smaller.

Though probably a tad more expensive if you really are comparing to the bigger cupcakes out there, Baked By Melissa sells itself on the idea that "[when] You wander into a sweet selling bakery thinking maybe you'll order something... But when that door shuts behind you, you suddenly need to taste everything in sight". Thus the miniature cupcake was born, and you really can eat them all in one tiny delicious little bite. Flavours include Cookie Dough, Red Velvet (so delicious and moist, though really, with a cupcake that small, it's difficult for them to be dry, I'd imagine), Cookies & Creme, S'mores, Peanut Butter and Jelly (JAM), the ever American flavour of Peanut Butter Cup and Tie-Dye.

We tried Red Velvet, of course, Cookies & Creme and S'mores. They were all good, but I was really hankering after the Peanut Butter Cup, which was sold out. Oh well. Red Velvet was particularly good in my opinion, but then again, this town tends to do Red Velvet particularly well. Buttercup Cake Shop does a great version as well. Prices at Baked By Melissa are 3 for $3, 6 for $5.50, 12 for $10, 25 for $20, 50 for $37.50 and 100 for $70. So, really, it's just cheaper if you buy 100, plus they're so tiny it doesn't really count.

Baked by Melissa is right next to Cafe Bari, and the cupcakes look like this:

(Taken from http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/)

This interview with Melissa Bushell, owner of Baked By Melissa, gives you more photos and more info. Om nom nom.

The Best Pizza in New York

The claim of Best Pizza in New York is not one easily won. When I googled 'best pizza in new york', over 13 million websites claimed to know something about it. I, however, have taken to scouring NY Magazine, a much more complex (and confusing) version of The Age's Epicure, Yelp, Time Out magazine and Chowhound to guide me in locating delicious and usually (preferably) cheap food.

As we all know, New York, and indeed America itself, is a mish-mash of every single kind of culture, religion, peoples, races, languages that you can find. Much like Australia, the cuisine has evolved hugely, such that the only thing we can really think of as being "real" American food is probably deep fried and originating from the deep South. New York, however, was very much influenced by the Italians and pasta, sub sandwiches and of course, pizza, has become a main staple food. Seriously, impossible to find anyone who can say they dislike pizza. And who would? Really, who?

On the subject of famous pizza joints, New York certainly has a lot to contribute. I stumbled onto this website, which, while may be a bit dated on the subject of 'best' pizza, certainly lists many of the now famous worldwide pizza places that have become must-see tourist destinations. I myself have certainly had my fair share of pizza since I arrived in New York. Boy I Am Seeing, otherwise known as Yank, lives in New Jersey in a college town, which generally means that dinner tends to involve pizza, fat sandwiches (more on that later), sub sandwiches, hot dogs and other guilty type (albeit delicious) foods. Time honoured tradition dictates that since pizza = cheap, college/university kids therefore must = pizza. Though perfectly acceptable for a meal, whether this be dinner time or 3am, college-town pizza usually doesn't equate to 'best'.

The first time Yank and I blundered into Brooklyn, we were going to a bar where a friend was playing a gig. We headed over from Manhattan a couple of hours early, thinking we might find somewhere to eat before going to the show. My little NY guidebook pointed us to Grimaldi's, which coincided with the website, which made me happy, so off we went. After walking around for an hour (always look up directions before leaving the house), we finally found our way there.

Grimaldi's is located just on the waterfront, right under the Brooklyn Bridge, which makes for a very scenic environment indeed. However, unfortunately for us in March, just by the water tends to be a bit chilly. But no matter. When we got there at 7.30pmish, the lines were - literally - 100 people waiting outside. I forgot to take a photo of the queue, unfortunately, but it was quite amazing. After waiting for about 10 minutes, we decided it wasn't worth it given our time constraints and went somewhere else.

Last Friday, I got out of work super early and Yank suggested a repeat of Grimaldi's, mmm. We arrived at quarter to 5ish and despite that, there was still a queue of about 10 people, which, hello, significant improvement. 15 minutes later, we were seated. Grimaldi's has tables packed together inside, which makes for a quite loud meal and also doesn't allow you to get up much during your meal, as you will probably be forced to make 2-3 people get up as you inch your way out.

Famous Grimaldi's in Brooklyn

We were told it would be a 30-40 minute wait for the pizza, as even at 5pm, it was completely packed with people. Which, okay, fine. Mental dock of 10 points. We ordered a plain whole pie (no slices at all, whole pies only - this is a bit of a phenomenon in the States, as you can buy slices pretty much anywhere) with anchovies and mushrooms. It came steaming hot and delicious after I went slightly crazy waiting for it while watching everyone else's pizzas come out before ours.

So this photo doesn't really do it justice (it was dim and something's wrong with my camera flash), but seriously. Best. Pizza. Ever.
The crust, OMG, was slightly salted, but crunchy and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, cooked to perfection, and superthin. Toppings were good, though I've been told the pepperoni is amazing so I must try that next time. Very hot, very smoking and very very delicious. Worth the $20 plus taxes. Must be the coal oven. There is literally nothing wrong with this pizza (except perhaps that the slight sogginess of the tip of pizza slice.. minor) The crust reigns supreme and I eat it all. Nom nom nom.

So for those of you who might be visiting, small pie is $12, large is $14 (just get the large, take the leftovers home and eat it cold, still delicious). Unfortunately, no slices, no reservations, no delivery, no credit cards, take-out only if you wait in line with all the rest of everyone else. Boo. But I really cannot recommend it enough, if you also have a spare 2 hours somewhere and nothing to do.

And just to top it off, afterwards, you can mosey along next door to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, like everyone else does, for a $3.50 per scoop of a possible 6 flavours: vanilla chocolate chunk; chocolate chocolate chunk; butter pecan; strawberry; peaches & cream and coffee. Add $1 for obligatory hot fudge that is made with 72% cacao content chocolate and possibly best richest hot fudge I have ever tasted.

Take the above, and add below and a walk along the Brooklyn Bridge - what do you get? The perfect New York afternoon.

New Beginnings

Dearest readers,

For those of you who are still out there, hi! It's been a while.

About a year ago, I had decided to abandon The Secret Foodie due to a variation of factors, but mainly due to huge changes in my life that upheaved the life I had come to know for four years. During that time, I realized that I had to concentrate on me, myself and I. So I did, and I went away and concentrated on me, which had mixed results admittedly, but it was what I had to do.

So now, a new year later, I had relocated to a new country, a new city doing new things with my life, having moved on from foodblogs, reading, posting or otherwise. But a few days ago, I was running through the Internet doing research when I came across an article on food blogging, which led me to Melbourne Gastronome, which led me to her post about coming to New York in June (incidentally, where I am currently located), which led me back here.

Right now, I am sitting in my office in Manhattan, New York, where I have been since December of last year doing Important Things In The World, but mostly, having eaten a lot of new food, experienced a lot of new people and new things. And once again, I'm excited, really I am.

So, I think I'm ready now.

Hello world, how have you been? I can't wait to tell you about hot dogs, diners and the greatest city in the world.

¡Viva México!

Hello blog-world, it's been a while. I apologize for my prolonged absence, it's been somewhat of a hectic year so far... but I'm ready now, I think, after having somewhat settled myself. BUT I have so much to tell you all.

First up, Mexico. In early March, a few friends of mine were heading off to Mexico for a conference and had decided to take the opportunity to travel around the country beforehand for three weeks. I was understandably jealous.. so to send them off before they went, we went to Taco Bill the night before they flew out for dinner. Now, I realize that of all the Mexican/Latin American restaurants we could have chosen in Melbourne, anything, ANYTHING at all would have been more authentic than Taco Bill. Think Los Amates, Mi Corazon, whatever. But we love(d) how tacky it is, and we just wanted a big ass margarita and some nachos, so Taco Bill it was. It was, of course, your typical pseudo-Mexican affair - nachos with salsa, melted cheese and sour cream; burritos, tacos and quesadillas wrapped with chicken or beef, lettuce, cheese and tomato on rice and beans. Being no food snobs, we loved it, and loved also the huge huge margaritas they serve. Made us all very happy, I should say, though I'm not sure if the staff really felt the same about us.

However, Taco Bill is not the end of my Mexico story. Because by 2am the following morning, I had hopped online, found a space on the same flight as my friends and was packing frantically so I could fly out with them in 10 hours time. The adrenaline was pumping and I was too busy packing and making sure I had everything sorted before we got on the plane, but once I was served my complimentary drink 20 minutes after takeoff, I started to freak out majorly. C did a wonderful job of calming me down though and got my adrenaline pumping again when we got to LAX.. and after that, I was just ecstatic, it was the most spontaneous thing I've ever done and probably the best thing I've ever done as well.
In my 10 days there, we spent a few days in Mexico City, then down to Acapulco, then Huatulco before I boarded a bus to head back to Mexico City to the airport and the girls went onwards. We saw amazing sights, was completely immersed in the whole culture, tried every food we possibly could, saw as much as we possibly could. And good lord, we ate. Things are ridiculously cheap, to the stage where if we paid more than 50 pesos for a meal (around $5), it was expensive. The food is good, the tequila amazing and the beaches almost as beautiful as back home.

So, the food... Mexico City saw us eating at roadside taco stands where I'd love to tell you what was in them, but unfortunately I don't speak or read spanish, so ordering mostly consisted of pointing and thus I don't actually know what I ate. Only that it was good. One of our group was a bit worried about food contamination, but pffth I'm asian, I'll eat most things roadside or not, and frankly, in my opinion, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Other memorable meals included eating at cantinas, which, according to Wiki, traditionally refers to a kind of bar normally frequented only by males for the purpose of imbibing alcohol and partaking of appetizers (bontanas). Apparently, according to Lonely Planet, they often traditionally had signs that expressly prohibited entry to women and children and although some of these restrictions are beginning to fade, it is still viewed as.. not inappropriate, but more, unusual, for ladies to be seen visiting a cantina. However, as I previously mentioned.... no hablo espanol. So in we went, and for 25 pesos ($2.5), the price you pay for a Corona, we got a fish stew, deep-fried whole fish, bread rolls, stewed pork and some rice. Plus a picture with mariachi's. Awesome. If you ever get the chance, take advantage of the tourist thing and do it, it's the real authentic experience and you'll be glad you did it.

Other meals included the more typically known enchiladas and quesadillas (maize tortillas wrapped around chicken, beef or pork, with cheese sometimes, covered with salsas and moles, or sauces); the best tortilla soup i've ever eaten; lots of rice; even more mole and beans. By the end of the trip, I was quite sick of the maize tortillas, but it's true what they say, nothing beats authentic food. No more Taco Bill for me anymore.

Another amazing find was our introduction to cajeta, a sweet caramel made from goats milk, giving it a rich flavour. Traditionally, it's eaten as a spread or filling, but is also wonderful on its own. We were given a little dish of this candy heated up so it was gooey and delicious, and a few spoonfuls each was more than enough to satisfy our sweet teeth.

If you take anything away from this post, let it be this: go to Mexico. Delicious and wonderful things, people and weather await you. Despite what some may say about safety and pollution and otherwise... personally, I don't think these things should stop anyone from exploring the world. The world will be what it is and if you don't take chances, you're not going to live life as fully as you can. So be spontaneous, live and eat. Even if the stuff you eat does come from the side of the road.

After coming back from Mexico, I was left with massive wanderlust without the ability to actually do anything about it. I had planned on heading to Europe with C (again) this July, but finances and other factors meant that I'm now in Hong Kong visiting family instead. Capitalizing on the Mexican thing, however, I really wanted to do something with Mexican food at some point. Today is J's birthday, so 2 weeks ago when we were all still back in Melbourne, I invited B & J and a few others around for a Mexican fiesta involving fun and food. We had 10 in total, and since J LOVES tacos (he is American), I decided to make tacos with a little bit more of an original twist. Dinner thus involved a menu of 40 burrito wraps, 20 taco shells, lots of lettuce, tomato and cheese, guacamole with extra avocado, chorizo con queso (chorizo and cheese), a simplified version of chicken mole and kangaroo fajitas. Lots of food, but delicious it was.

I took a look on the internet to see if I could get some easy versions of these recipes. The chorizo dish I got from here, and it turned out quite wonderfully despite me using just normal chilli flakes (albeit quite a lot of it), instead of the more authentic poblano chile. The kangaroo fajitas was basically just kangaroo steak sliced into strips, then sizzled with onions, garlic, capsicum and my own spice mix of cumin, coriander, chilli powder, chilli flakes and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I just improvised and it turned out woderfully.

My favourite, however, was the chicken mole, which had a bit of an interesting twist to it. Mole, a Mexican sauce commonly used in many Mexican dishes was first developed in Puebla City in the 1680's, in a convent, no less. Since then, the neighbouring state of Oaxaca has become famous for a particular type of black mole which includes the special ingredients of special spices and chocolate. Mexican chocolate in itself is unique in that it contains large amounts of spices within them, namely cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. In searching for a simpler, but similarly unusual recipe, I found the following recipe. It is very very easy to make, and since it was a sauce, I sort of just went by a chuck-everything-in-in-rough-amounts kind of approach. It turned out beautifully, but I suspect this is a kind of recipe that is hard to mess up.

Easy Chicken Mole
2 tbsp olive oil
6-8 boneless chicken breasts (though I just bought chicken thighs and cut them up into smaller pieces)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
3 cups salsa (I used hot)
1 cup chicken broth
3 tbsp chilli powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp peanut butter

1. Heat oil in a skillet. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and brown the pieces in the hot oil in a single layer until golden brown on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Pour out all but one tablespoon of fat from the pan and add the onion. Cook until softened. Add garlic and continue cooking.
3. Add salsa, chicken broth, chilli powder, cocoa powder and peanut butter. Stir till blended.
3. Bring sauce to a boil, then return chicken pieces to the pan, covering them in the sauce. Lower heat and cook uncovered, basting the chicken pieces occasionally with the sauce until cooked through and the sauce has thickened.

N.B. The original recipe, found here, says to let the sauce thicken for 30-40 minutes, but I found a mere 20 minutes was quite good with the pan covered. But it was always going to taste good, really.

Yet more to come (really!) - Tjanabi, Sydney and Hong Kong.

Summer Lovin'

Since returning to Melbourne several weeks ago, I've been through a lot of ups, downs and downright scandalous things. In between, however, I've also played, ate, shopped and frolicked in the streets and gardens of Melbourne city. Though the weather itself has been slightly temperamental, the brilliant days of sunshine have definitely helped restore my spirits a bit. I've managed to pack my weeks with fun at home with the boys, late nights, dancing, bars, and of course, food.

Sister was recently in town for a few days between ending job A and starting job B. Whilst it was extremely nice to see her given our interactions with each other tend to amount to 3-4 times accumulatively per year, it did lead me to understand why sometimes I think it's better that Sister and I live in different cities (Sydney and, well, Melbourne of course). Nonetheless, I was very excited to have her here, and it also gave me the chance to do things I would never normally do on my own. Surprising, considering I do a LOT of things in Melbourne, both touristy and not.

Case in point: the last day she was in town, Sister and I woke up sore and achy from a night that started with "just one drink" and ended up 2am on Swanston Street considering whether or not to visit Hungry Jacks (we didn't, by the way. It was too.. just plain bad, even for me, and I am queen of eating everything, even bad food. I went home and had some homemade coconut bread instead. More on that later.). We dragged ourselves on the tram out to Chapel Street, I hidden behind dark glasses the entire way and she communicating only in groans for the entire tram ride. Brunch at a non-descript cafe involving wedges, pizza and black coffee definitely helped get our spirits up. By the end of the day, however, my shopaholic sister had gotten the best of me and I was reduced to my original state, dragging my feet as I walked. Finally, she suggested we see Prahran Market just to take a look. That definitely perked me up. I was entranced enough by the fresh pastas and cheeses offered by the delis, but I really got excited when I spotted Monsieur Truffle. I tried a bit of their kalamansi truffle as well as their original, and they are both absolutely out of this world. C once donated me a chilli truffle given to her by a lovely friend, S, and that one tiny truffle was enough to send me to chocolate heaven. This is what real chocolate should be. Eat your heart out, Cadbury. If that wasn't enough, imagine how I felt when I saw Crabapple Bakery sitting in a corner of the market. I think my actual reaction involved grabbing Sister's arm and spouting gibberish for about 10 seconds. One bite of Sister's musk flavoured cupcake was enough to send me to a further level of sugar heaven. I wasn't sure it was wise to continue with the eating, given we had reservations at Fifteen that evening. My point of this post? I love Prahran Market. But I'm sure all you Melbournites already knew about those wonders :)

Still to come: Fifteen review, my various attempts at a wonderful coconut bread recipe, Poor Man's Curry and mexican cooking classes at CERES.

Yesteryear

She didn't always like us.

I'm quite certain this was true. I've been told the story by my mother about how when my sister and I were just a 2 year old and her month-old baby sister, she would talk to us and play with us whilst my mother accidentally eavesdropped from the other room. Talking to us about how she was prepared not to like us, how she was actually disappointed when we were both born, because we were girls. She was brought up in an era that taught her girls were inferior -even herself- and that to be born a girl was the worst gift, and that the best thing you could do make up for your mistake was to bring a son into the world to continue the family name. So she didn't like us. But my mother also overheard her telling us that after all she'd prepared herself to not like us, after the intial disappointment, she also discovered how adorable she found us. How unexpectedly loving she found herself being towards us.

But no matter how she felt, her duty called and she was always there: after school to make our snacks, taking us to the park, buying us a treat of hot chips, looking for me when I got lost; being our chaperone, our keeper. Years of living together, a family of six, was both a blessing and curse. It could be the best times we've had together and hell at the same time. We would brawl as a family, all six of us yelling at each other until it was over. Then hours later, we would all be eating dinner together again. Sulking, but still together. Because that was what families did. They stuck together. And that she did. She kept us together.

Bitterness kept her caged for years. When her body began to be ravaged earlier this year, bitterness was what she clung onto. Why me? she would cry, even before when she was well. Why has my life been so unlucky? Why does everything happen to me? Why me? It was all she had, isolating her from the world, friends, her children, daughter-in-law, granddaughters. At some point, though, she began to let go. She began to see that when it came to the end, as it was increasingly becoming apparent, it no longer mattered that her husband had died after only 2 years of marriage, that she was left with a 1 year old and a 3 month old baby, no real money or job to speak of. She was talented, having been the first in her family - and a girl too! - to go to university. Not that a university degree in economics was any match for the still-sexist society of 1950's. Though she was poor, she had her dignity and pride. That, she kept throughout her life, even right till the end.

I was her companion. I gave her small mercies, unknowingly so important to her, like going to the markets, carrying her groceries, checking her bank accounts, just being there. And in return, she gave me her native tongues, several dialects of Chinese that benefit me to this day; my dry skin and allergies; my cheekbones; my temper; my mind; my penchant for mahjong; my love for Chinese food. She taught me the meaning of scrimping, how it was to live in harder times than we were fortunate enough to be born in. A pity I didn't also get her slim, strong, long legs, her endurance, her resolve, her wisdom. But she taught me how to be a family, how to be polite, how to have the proper manners. She showed me determination, wit, strength of will. She didn't always like me, nor I her, but no matter what, she always loved me. A grandmother's love for her granddaughter never wavers.

In the last months, her body grew weaker, but her spirit prevailed. Though it was inevitable, her departure still caught me unaware. Still does. Like she's just gone on holiday. I guess in a way, she has. Only this time, I have to go looking for her.

In memory of her, our family returned with her ashes to China. And we, of course, ate. Po Piah is a native Fujian delicacy. Aside from inheriting a rough knowledge of the Hokkien dialect, I also inherited a love for these freshly made spring rolls. They are eaten at family gatherings, where the ingredients are spread out on the table and everybody rolls their own in accordance with how they want it - spicier, moister, crunchier. The po piah "skin", or thin wheat flour pancake, is used to contain a delicious filling of cooked vegetables, thinly sliced beancurd, chopped chinese sausage, crumbled sweet peanut candy, shredded omelette, sprinklings of ho ti (a finely shredded version of seaweed with smatterings of sugar and salt), and finally, hoisin sauce to hold the pancake together. I've eaten many versions of this, where the ingredients and contents can vary from country to country. But to me, this will always be the most authentic way of eating it. One day, when it doesn't hurt so much, I will try and make my own in the best way I know how. And I know she will be proud of me for just trying.

Courtesy of here

D.O.C. - Denominazione d'Origine Controliata

After a long week of studying with a few more weeks of study, essays and exams ahead of me, I've taken to getting up early in the mornings to get to the library first thing in the morning so I can work all day and afford to take nights off. So when B asked earlier today if I was free on Sunday morning for brunch, I asked whether he was free tonight for dinner instead. Fine by me, he said. After a failed attempt at convincing a few more friends to join us, I met him at 6.30 and headed down Lygon Street in search of a good feed.

We had planned on the un-original yet reliable Tiamo 2, but seeing the masses of people milling around the entrance on this comfortably cool spring night, we decided to search elsewhere. Stopping at the corner of Faraday Street, I suddenly recalled the new restaurant that Cindy and Michael, as well as Claire, had recently reviewed. Intruiged by the sound of a pizza and mozarella bar, I slyly suggested we try it out (as B, like most, don't know that my ulterior motives for trying out new restaurants is so I can come home and blog about them!).

D.O.C was still only half-full when we got there, so getting a table was the easy part. Perusing the menu, we were informed by the menu that D.O.C was named after the phrase used by various agricultural government bodies that set and oversaw the standards of some Italian foods, such as cheese and wine. The menu plugged "simple Italian food", and that was exactly what we got. B and I decided to go all out, and ordered something from the Mozarella Bar, which we thought was an entree, but turned out to be a main instead. B ordered an Assagio Di Salumi, an assortment of cured meats, and I went with the Bresaola, air cured beef. Both were accompanied by a ball of Australian Fior Di Latte mozzarella cheese and salted biscuits. B later mused that the mozzarella personally wasn't all that spectacular for him. I grudgingly agreed; though I was very enamoured by the idea of a Mozzarella bar, I had to admit perhaps my tastebuds weren't quite up to speed as to be able to appreciate the mozzarella for what it really was. Nonetheless, the cured meats were truly mouthwatering and eating a mouthful of mozzarella with melt-in-your-mouth meat on top of a chunk of the savoury biscuit was really an experience.

The pizzas, however, were on a whole new playing field themselves. B ordered the Pizza ai Porcini with wild mushrooms, truffle oil & mozzarella in bianco, whilst I went for the Pizza Soppressa with tomato, mozzarella, salame, provoloine, pesto di casa & olive. The toppings themselves were good, but the pizza dough and crust really stole the night. Though just a tad salty, they were crispy on the crust whilst satisfyingly chewy on the base. The greatest thing about them is how thin they are. Though B and I could only finish about half our pizzas after having eaten our mozzarella and meats, we ruefully looked back at the table when we were leaving to look at our half-eaten pizzas, a bit reluctant to leave them, but really just unable to ingest any more.

My only complaint about D.O.C was that service seemed a bit haphazard. For some reason, my pizza came out at the same time as the mozzarella "starters", which meant that by the time we got to it, the pizza had gotten cold. What showed how truly impressive the crust was, however, was that the coldness didn't detract from how good it was one bit. It was a bit hard to attract attention after our food had arrived. I couldn't figure out whether it was because we were seated in a nice cornered nook. Plus the price was a bit steep - the bill came to $40 each for two people. That being said, I would recommend it for the experience. And as B wisely said, you can judge how good it is by the number of Italians there were, and there were a lot of Italians. Not sure if I would go again in the near future - mostly due to the indentation it makes on my wallet - but worth another shot definitely.

--
D.O.C
295 Drummond Street, Carlton
93472998
No Bookings
Open 7 nights and Sunday lunch

A taste of Spring (and a few bites of Winter too)

Spring is here. I can smell it in the nippy cloudy days where leaves are tossed down the street and into my face as I attempt to make my way to wherever I need to be. It's cold and very windy, but it's not quite the biting chilling cold of winter. Flowers are blooming, the nights are getting slightly warmer. That being said, winter is still lingering. It seems the cold fronts keep returning and Melbourne, and we along with it, are subjected to the short, periodic cycles of the days getting warmer, then colder, then warmer again. This little bee has been very busy in all the other aspects in her life, but very very slack in updating the blog. That being said, I've definitely been thinking about food - and this blog - quite a bit, and have eaten many things for the sake of writing about them later (he he).

The first thing that springs to mind is The Phantom of the Opera at Princess Theatre a few weeks ago. Those of you who have been thinking about it but haven't done anything about it, go and book your tickets now. I guarantee you, it will be a breathtaking experience, especially if you happen to have the privilege of catching the marvellous Anthony Warlowe as the Phantom. In fact, I want you to go see it so much, I'm willing to tell you that I cried. Three times. It was that good. The second best part of that experience, however, was that we had the chance to visit Longrain, which was just around the corner from the theatre. S had pre-booked, letting them know we needed to eat within an hour in order to mawwke the 7pm show. Arriving at 5.45, the place was empty and we were seated immediately. S, C and I ordered a drink, whilst R stayed on the water wagon. It being so long ago, I can barely remember what I drank (and the Longrain website doesn't help either), excepting for the fact that it was REALLY good. Like, orgasmically so. All I remember is that there was watermelon slivers in the glass, and they were very very good at the end after I'd had the alcohol, as they were infused with alcohol by then. Mmm. As for the food, we ordered 2 dishes and rice for the 4 of us. We barely managed to finish it all, as though the prices were steep, the portions were mighty generous. The caramelised pork hock with five spices and chilli vinegar was excellent, though we did have to pry the fat off the meat - but boy, was there a lot of meat. The second dish of beef ribs of some sort was similarly excellent. Both dishes were hearty and filling, especially with rice, and were just the things for ravenous little moi after a day of fasting in anticipation. Hee. We got to the theatre in time and enjoyed an excellent show.

I've also been on an ongoing hunt for cupcakes to cater for my upcoming birthday. I had originally planned on Sweet Source, who does vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with a variety of pastel-coloured icing piled high. Though they were a bit expensive, in my opinion, at $3.80, they were cute and individual and best of all, delicious. The first time I made enquiries, I was told delivery would be possible (as I don't have a car) to the venue, which was great. However, when I was putting in the order, I was then told delivery wouldn't be available. Hmph. After doing some online scouting, I decided to check out Let Them Eat Cake in South Melbourne (eliminating the famous Crabapple Cupcake Bakery for the sake of convenience, since they're so far away from Carlton). South Melbourne turned out to be a delight, despite the blustery and eventually rainy day. Let Them Eat Cake was a little bit of a disappointment. Their cakes, though highly reviewed and apparently recognised for its contribution to 'Cake' by Vogue Entertaining, Gourmet Traveller, Harper's Bazaar and our own Epicure, didn't really take my fancy. They just looked over-iced and over-hyped, and not at all the classy, simplistically decorated little cakes (like from Sweet Source) that I've come to prefer. Though I've never tasted LTEC's cakes or other items, I just wasn't all that taken by their presentation. Perusing the newspaper and magazine articles stuck up on the window outside, the wedding cakes did look nice - all iced white and pretty. Still... I just wasn't taken. Oh well. After talking to the lady for a bit, who informed me that to order cakes specially for my event would cost me $8, I was ready to hit the road and take my chances elsewhere, despite my lack of other options. Oh well, I thought.
Heading back into the city, I recalled seeing a cupcake shop opening on Degraves Lane just off Flinders Road and decided to check it out. Stepping into Little Cupcakes, I was enchanted to find a cosy little cafe with rows of beautiful little cupcakes providing a feast for my eyes. The prices seemed quite reasonable - $3.70 for a single regular cupcake and when ordering over 50, $3.20 each. I settled down to try out their $5.50 cupcake and coffee deal. Though the Red Velvet cupcake was just the tiniest bit dry, the creamy icing definately helped it go down easy. I was sold. Their flavours are Red Velvet, Creamcheese Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Mint, Banana, Strawberry and Teddy Bear (with a little bear biscuit sitting on top of the icing). They are relatively cheaper and though they could probably work on their recipe to make them just a tad more moist, they are perfect for what I need them for. I'm just itching for an excuse to try out the rest of the flavours. Has anyone else tried out this relative newcomer to the cupcake scene?

Speaking of South Melbourne, I took my first jaunt around the market when I was there last Friday afternoon. Because it was cold, I looked around for a snack to pick me up and after hearing so much about the famous South Melbourne Market Dim Sim's, I scoured the place looking for it. There was a bit of a queue, but the line moved along quickly and 5 minutes later, I was holding two large fried dim sims with a bit of soy sauce. I'm not the hugest fan of dim sim usually, as growing up in a Chinese family quickly makes you a bit of a snob when it comes to pseudo-Chinese food. Yum Cha and authentic dim sum is usually more my scene. Dubiously, Ibit into the dumpling, nearly burnt my tongue and experienced somewhat of a food epiphany. It was... good. Really good. It was piping hot on the inside, great for a cloudy, rainy day, and though I couldn't exactly discern what most of it was aside from the pork, cabbage and strangely enough, a pea, all I could think that it was just really REALLY good. If you're ever around, seriously, do yourself a favour and get yourself one. It may be deep fried and not necessarily very healthy for you, but surely one won't hurt.

One last thing. I'm holding a fundraiser for the magazine I do some work for, Right Now Human Rights Law in Australia magazine at the Moroccan Soup Bar on Sunday, 28 October. Right Now is a student-run magazine, which publishes submissions from members of the legal community, students and human rights advocates about current human right issues. The fundraiser will include a banquet feast typical of the gorgeous Moroccan Sup Bar food, as well as many prizes like wine, basket of goodies, movie tickets that you could win simply by turning up to support us. Tickets are $25, so if you're interested in human rights, or simply in tasting really great food, email me at mel@rightnow.org.au to book your ticket now and support a good cause!

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Longrain Restaurant & Bar
44 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne
http://www.longrain.com.au

Let Them Eat Cake
147-149 Cecil Street
South Melbourne
http://www.letthemeatcake.com.au

Little Cupcakes
#7, 250 Flinders Street
Melbourne

South Melbourne Market Dim Sim's
#96, South Melbourne Market
South Melbourne

Rumi

After rescheduling dinner with G and T 3 times, we finally settled on going out Wednesday night to celebrate G's conductoral debut. I've heard a lot about Rumi through the grapevine, and thought it might be nice to try someplace new. A phone call on the day of our dinner meant that I couldn't secure a table booking, but I was assured that they often left the outside tables and bar seats free for walk-in's.

By the time we got there, most tables were filled up even though it was only about 6.30. We vetoed the outside tables due to the windy weather, and settled down at the bar where we could watch the people go by. We got a lot of people waving to us through the window, for some reason. Heh. Though we were seated at the front of the restaurant, we didn't get to see the back, which obviously held more seating area than I had originally thought. The white-washed walls were decorated simply with beautiful green Arabic writing, which, I was told, was an extract from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet. The decor was simple, with wooden chairs and bare timber tables, but somehow, it worked much better than over-clutter.

After perusing the menu, G and T quickly decided to leave the ordering up to me, which I was more than happy to do. After we did so, a beautiful green glass jug of water and little glasses were brought to us, as well as cutlery wrapped in linen napkins. That really got my attention. Lord knows I love a good linen napkin in any restaurant, and in one as quirky as this, it gave me a good feeling about the food that was to come. And I wasn't wrong at all.

A little dish of labneh quickly appeared on our table, accompanied by pieces of flatbread curled into a stainless steel container. The labneh, we were told, was made from their own home-made yoghurt and was splashed with a bit of fragrant olive oil on the top. Tangy and wonderfully fresh, they were beautiful together. The sigara boregi, cigar-shaped fried filo pastries, arrived next, wonderfully hot and beautifully soft and flaky and crisp all at once with the melted haloumi and pinenut filling scalding our tongues deliciously. G and T were raving about the food at this point, and we couldn't wait for more to come.

The fried cauliflower with pinenuts, currants and onions came next, accompanied by the Persian meatballs with saffron and tomato sauce and fried calamari with a thick almond dip. The cauliflower, though fried and crispy, was not at all oily and the crisp pinenuts, caramelized onions and sweet currants were a beautiful accompaniment. The meatballs were fantastic, and though delicate in its presentation, packed a real juicy punch, especially when eaten with a whip of the fresh yogurt dolloped on top of the bright red sauce. The calamari had us all salivating for more. Deep-fried to perfection in tiny slivers with a generous shake of salt, it was very satisfying indeed.

By this point, we were actually all getting to the satisfyingly-full stage, but we had, for fear of under-ordering, decided to order a plate of rice pilaf with chickpeas and a lamb fatteh. We loved the presentation of the lamb, as it came with fried spirals of onions that were gloriously piled on top of the stew itself. We tried as hard as we could, but could only manage about 3/4 of both dishes before we had to give up. This was a shame, as I'd been eyeing the turkish delight and pistachio halva since we'd gotten there, and I'd heard a lot about the Persian fairy floss too. The only other thing I'd heard a lot about was the tangy, hot yogurt soup, which I'd really wanted to try. We vetoed it for the reason that it was hard to share soup between 3 people. Next time, perhaps. Because there will definitely be a next time.

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Rumi
132 Lygon Street
Brunswick East
(03) 9388 8255

Chicken Congee

So Chicken Congee seems to be the new thing in the foodie world at the moment. After seeing mellie's post about making chicken congee and then reading the original recipe here, I figured if I could shell out $6 for a bowl, I may as well try and make my own.

Growing up, I was not the biggest fan of congee at all. Whenever I was sick in bed, the smell of steaming plain congee would come wafting up the stairs and I would inevitably be brought a large bowl. Eaten plain, it is nothing more than literally boiled rice porridge and doesn't have much flavour at all. My grandma's favourite garnish was flossed pork, which added to it a nice sweet meaty flavour. My mum, on the other hand, loved congee with a passion and whenever we went out for a traditional breakfast at our local wet market hawker stalls, she would inevitably work on a bowl of congee with sliced pork and century egg whilst my dad and I chowed down on plates of steamed rice rolls with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Thus when my mum heard of my newest cooking endevour, she started laughing down the phone, then proceeded to call my grandma, who commented that I was "finally becoming a real Chinese person" and perhaps given that I had started to cook Chinese food, maybe I could find a nice Chinese boy instead of the gwai lo that I am currently dating. Ha. (My grandma is, however, slightly mollified by the fact that A is studying medicine, which is apparently something that works very well in his favour. The Chinese are crazy (actually - just my grandma is).

My newfound love for congee was triggered by the cold winter that has thankfully been chased away by the warm shining sun, and was also spurred on by the wonderful sliced duck and lettuce congee I had a few weeks ago at Supper Inn. Yongtze's recipe was easy enough to follow, but I substituted with whatever I had, meaning I used chicken thigh fillets and minced ginger instead of chicken breast and the traditional sliced garlic. Also, I had unfortunately run out of soy sauce. However, I can tell you all that it still tasted delicious. Congee is one of those recipes, like pasta, where you can pretty much chuck anything into it and it will generally turn out OK. It's easy and warming and comforting and easy to store in the fridge to be heated up in the microwave when you get home after a long day. Plus, it can traditionally be eaten at any time of the day. I think I'll have some for brekky tomorrow morning!

Chicken Congee
(modified from Yongtze's recipe)

1 cup Jasmine rice
Salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
10 cups water and/or chicken stock (I used a mixture of both)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 chicken thigh fillet
Sesame oil

1. Wash and drain the rice in a pot. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp vegetable oil, mix well and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
2. Add water/stock to the rice. Bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium low, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Marinate the chicken with sesame oil and minced garlic.
4. Add the chicken to the congee. Cook for 5 - 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Take the chicken out and set aside to cool.
5. Season the congee with salt and cook for another 30 minutes or so.
6. Shred the cooked chicken and throw into the pot. Cook for another 5 - 10 minutes until the congee reaches your preferred consistency.

New Experiences

After finding ourselves in the city after a lesson at CAE at 9.30 on Monday night, we were starving and frankly, the thought of food was the only thing keeping us from not going home due to exhaustion of busy-ness. C thought of Supper Inn, which excited me beyond belief. Supper Inn holds a bit of nostalgia for me, as it was the place where my parents took me the night before I was due to start orientation at uni a while ago. Also, in my two-and-half years in Melbourne, I had heard lots about the famed congee (or rice porridge) and I was itching to try it. At that point though, probably anything hot put in front of me would have been OK by me. Nonetheless, we trekked to Chinatown and up the rickety stairs, and after a 2 minute wait, we sat and ordered. C ordered a thousand-century egg and pork congee, whereas I went with the less conventional, but more appetizing (to me, at least) roast duck congee, as well as some fried dough sticks to go with it. Mmmm. The congee was flavourful even on its own, without any smidgen of MSG (or perhaps they just cooked it so well that I didn't taste it). The duck was delicious, tender and slim with barely any fat. The chinese donut, sliced into little bits, dunked into the congee was just the icing on top of the cake. Speaking of cake, we didn't have any cake, but we did have banana fritters with vanilla ice cream covered with some type of heavy syrup. I loved every bit about that meal, including the fact that it was mostly conducted in Cantonese, there were a large number of Caucasians there appreciating the authenticity of the food, and also I'd been waiting to eat this meal for a few years now. Though the congee was a little pricy ($6 each), the meal worked out to $10 for each of us, so we were pretty happy with it. Perusing the menu, C commented that a proper meal with dishes a la carte would probably have worked out to way more expensive. However, it was still delicious and I pronounce it one of the Best Meal Ever, the first of its kind here at The Secret Foodie. In fact, just thinking about it is making me hungry....

As for tonight, on the pretense of 'research', I trekked to the Moroccan Soup Bar accompanied with T, C and a bunch of other girls. We arrived at 6.20 to be told that they were all booked out (we forgot to book ahead of time), but if we could eat fast, we could have the tables that were reserved for 7.30 onwards. So we plonked down, and little glasses of sweet mint tea were handed to us as we waited for the rest of our group to turn up. I, of course, had heard all about this place for a long, long time and had, again, been meaning to try it out. We all decided to go for the $17.50 banquet, and platters of pita bread and dips were brought out to us. The hommus was a particular winner in my books, and other parts of the entree platter included marinated carrots, potatoes and olives, broccoli dip, tzatziki. As soon as we had wiped the last bit of hommus off the plate, more plates laden with beautiful looking food came out and were put in front of us. We had spicy vegetable stews with couscous, roasted eggplant, lentil stew with rice, a potato dish with rice, the famed chickpea bake and homemade dolmades. The meal became a bit of a blur, as everyone tried to juggle spooning food into their bowls, passing all the dishes around and trying to eat at the same time. Everyone loved the chickpea bake, whereas I, though enjoyable, had concluded that perhaps I just am not necessarily that partial to chickpeas. I don't know. It was still really very good though, and I loved the not-so-crispy-yet-not-soggy bits of baked pita bread in the dish. I particularly liked the spicy veggie stews with couscous. My utmost favourite part, though, was the cardamom sweetened coffee and the sweets that came at the end. We had a slice with pistachios, which was very nice. There was also a cream puff that looked rather like a spring roll which I didn't try, as I was more partial to the biscuit which was crumbly on the outside and had a nice dollop of sweet paste (perhaps date?) in the middle. Delicious. At that point, the 7.30 party arrived and we thought it might be prudent to scooch off so they could have their pre-booked table. Also we were just itching to go home to drink our bottle of wines in our bags.

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Supper Inn Chinese Restaurant
15 Celestial Ave
Melbourne

Moroccan Soup Bar
183 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North

Catching up (yet again)

Yes, I know, I've been gone a while. I'm sure my readers (all 3 of you, maybe) will have missed me, but right after exams, I went gallivanting places with no internet connection, hence my disappearing act. As I write, I am sitting in a nice little room in Oxford, England, with the sun shining in from the window onto my desk. Looking out, I see beautifully lush green grass and a babbling little brook that bubbles merrily while snow white swans float down, surrounded by mallard ducks bobbing up and down. Why am I here? C, R (another friend from uni) and I are all here at Oxford University for a month long summer school program on Int'l Human Rights Law (since we're all in law school and stuff). On our way here, C and I decided to do a bit of travelling. Ergo, involuntary internet hiatus.

Leaving Melbourne about 3 weeks ago, C and I took 3 days in Hong Kong to see my family. Noy many (if any) of you may know this, but I lived in HK for 8 years after moving from Adelaide at the age of 10, after which I headed to Melbourne for uni. HK is possible THE BEST place for authentic Chinese food of any kind, and there is just so much of it everywhere. The entire culture is built around eating, resulting in a bustling, cosmopolitan city where East meets West, especially with regards to the food. I know you guys are hanging out for the food talk, so I'll get right down into it. We literally ate and ate and ate for those 3 days. We had authemtic yum cha in the morning surrounded by lots of old retired men and women gossiping and reading the paper, as steaming bamboo containers of har gow (prawn dumplings), mini glutinous rice packets wrapped in lotus leaves, malay cake (a beautifully spongy Chinese.. well, sponge, cake) and char siu pao were put before our hungry mouths as the smells wafted into our noses. The most unusual dim sum they had was a black and white sesame seed paste bun. I LOVE sesame seed generally, and sesame seed paste filled dumplings are my favourite Chinese dessert, so this was an absolute winner in my book. Beautiful.
We also had Shanghainese food, another one of my all-time favourite cuisines (right up there with Indian). We had succulent xiao loong baos (steamed pork dumplings - the special part is that there's a bit of tasty soup enclosed inside the dumpling when they steam it, so be careful when you bite into it lest a hot stream of soup squirts out onto your clothing, or even worse, into your eye) and dan dan noodles (Shanghai 'pulled' noodles in a spicy peanut-y soup), both favourites of mine.
Our last meal was at a local restaurant in Shen Zheng, an area whose restaurants specialise in roast goose. In my opinion, roast goose is a hell of a lot better than duck. The meat is more moist, there's a great depth of flavour and when you roast it the chinese way, the honey-glazed crispy skin (fat and all) is an essential part of the taste when eaten with the dark meat. Taken simply with plum sauce, steamed rice and some green veggies to balance it out, it makes one hell of a satisfying meal.

After leaving HK, our original plan was to head to London for a week. Whilst in HK, however, we decided that this, being both our first times in Europe, would be a great opportunity to see other parts of Europe. Somehow, with the help of lastminute.com, we found ourselves a few days later in Ibiza, Spain. Now this place is known mainly for the crazy insane all-night discos, beautiful beaches, hoardes of English tourists and the origin of many a Ministry of Sound music album. Those of you who know, the original Cafe Del Mar is actually here. I'm not really into techno or house music at all, so me? I was just there for the sun. Our days consisted of waking at noon, having a huge meal with sangria, margaritas, pina coladas or daiquaris, falling asleep on the beach for several hours in the afternoon, wandering amongst the rambling windy cobblestoned streets to do some shopping, snacking on some fresh watermelon, more cocktails or homemade icecream, tanning some more, watching the sun set with yet more cocktails, then heading to a club till sunrise when we would flop into bed - then do it all over again 6 hours later. Trust me, the best and surest way of getting over jetlag. But the food, oh, the food. We feasted on paellas, fresh calamari, fish and other seafood caught earlier that morning. We had some rather touristy, b ut still excelent, Tex-Mex food - burritos with chorizo, nachos with beans, cheese, sour cream and guacamole, tacos with chilli con carne. To commemorate our last night there, C and I indulged in the best Spanish food we've ever had at El Rincon de Pepe, allegedly the first tapas bar in Spain. Whether this is true or not, it was the best tapas I'd certainly ever had, and judging by the number of locals there, it was probably true in the town of San Antonio (and possibly Ibiza). Accompanied with a lovely white wine, we started with some bread and olive oil, as well as a marinated eggplant, peppers and capsicum salad. Gazpacho then arrived, as did a Spanish spinich omelette (more like a frittata than anything else). The best deepfried baby squid then arrived, all crispy and hot and tart from the lemon juice. Mussels cooked with vinegar followed, as did lamb kebabs with home-cut fries. Full as we were, C insisted on trying at least Spanish dessert, which turned out to be a version of creme brulee. It was served cold, but with a crisp toffee top and tasted deliciously cool, feeling more like a firm custard. We rolled home after that, perfectly content.

Sunset with sangria

Paella, dispersed with beautiful prawns and mussels; and deep-fried calamari rings, eaten surrounded by a bunch of Spanish middle-aged men drinking coffees and no doubt gossiping about the 2 obviously foreign girls in their midst.

El Rincon de pepe - Best tapas EVER.

Unfortunately, all holidays must come to an end at some point, and ours unfortunately did. Heading into London was an interesting experience. I admit we were a bit biased against London, having just had the holiday of our lives in Ibiza. C was definitely not impressed with London, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. As for myself, I enjoyed the architecture, the history, the museums and found everything fascinating. The British Museum and Library was awesome, as was Westminster Abbey and Cathedral. Hamley's, a children's toy store, was fun, even for grown-ups such as ourselves. Harrod's was ridiculously overpriced, though the famed hot chocolate is apparently to die for. Other foodie highlights weren't much to speak of, except for a fantastic £4.5 full English brekkie at a random cafe - two pieces of toast generously buttered, sausage, fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans and bacon. Deliciously greasy and satisfying. C also managed to find the perfect muffin at EAT whilst waiting for our flight to Ibiza from Gatwick airport - i think it was something like bran, cherry and oatmeal. Absolutely wholesomely delicious. Despite all this, I'm not fully convinced by London. I've seen enough big cities, and with the exception of the history behind it, London seems to me just like any other big city - large, packed with people, sometimes unfriendly.

After arriving in the beautiful little town of Oxford, I have been impressed with the charm of this small town as well as the quaint little cobblestone streets and the beautiful Oxford campus that spans across the whole Oxford CBD. I'm living at St. Catherine's College, which, as a 'conference' guest, we have been getting the best treatment, and this means 3 meals a day, catered fully. Breakfast is a full smogasboard of cereals, pastries, cold meats, fruit and toast as well as hot breakfasts with sausages, beans, mushrooms, eggs and bacon. After our morning classes, we have coffee/tea with biscuits. At lunch, we have starters, then the main meal (yesterday was seared swordfish steak with some sort of creamy sauce, salad on the side, bread roll, cheese and crackers and icecream for dessert). And if that's not enough, dinner is pretty much the same as lunch. I mean seriously, yesterday was confit of duck with honey and ginger glaze, served with creamy mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy; topped off with banana cheesecake with caramel sauce. We are so well fed here that I'm positive if I eat everything, I will go home with added weight (the complete opposite of what I was hoping for), so I've taken to skipping lunch just so I will at least be hungry for dinner. That seems to have backfired against me today, as its 6.10pm (dinner's in 50 minutes) and I've been absolutely starving for the past 2 hours. It's been lovely recapping what I've been doing, but I've missed the foodie world. I'll keep you guys, whoever you are, posted on the highlights of English cuisine. Till then, cheerio!

The beautifully green Hyde Park Corner.

Cooking up a Thai storm

Last Monday was A's birthday, and since he wanted something low key and chill, I decided to cook him up a feast and invite a few friends around instead of taking him out. He has a penchant for both Thai and Indian foods, so given our Indian adventures last week, I thought Thai would be a highly welcomed choice.

I spent a day or so digging up old recipes that I thought would fit the theme. It was actually more difficult than I thought to figure out an appetiser-main-desserts menu -- mostly because I wanted to spend more time on the desserts than anything else! After some deliberation, I decided on a fairly simple, but still fun and casual menu. Appetisers would be rice paper rolls with dipping sauce, while mains would be a simple green curry with coconut rice and a pad thai.
The rice paper rolls were easy - shredded chicken, grated cucumber and carrot, some lettuce and beansprouts all went onto the paper and were rolled up. I served them with a simple plum sauce and hoisin sauce. The curry was simply a matter of chucking any leftover veggies I had, some tofu, green curry paste and some coconut milk into a pot and letting it simmer. Pad thai, similarly, was just about stirfrying rice noodles with chicken pieces and beansprouts. All done (with the help of the 2 other girls; the 3 men just sat there chatting while we did all the cooking. Don't worry, we made them wash up) in a matter of half an hour.


Desserts was the main concern for me. I really wanted to make cupcakes, because a year ago, back when we'd only been going out for a week, I made - or rather, attempted to make - him cupcakes for his birthday. As these stories usually go, I ended up forgetting to put in baking powder (this WAS in my pre-baking/cooking days). I'm not sure if he ate them, but clearly was touched enough to stick around for a while. I had yet to attempt cupcakes again since that incident, but for the sake of continuity and tradition, I decided to give it another go.

After poring over the multitude of cupcake blogs out there, I decided to stick with something simple, not too fancy, yet rich and decadent. I was initially considering these Thai Tea Cupcakes, but ended up going with these cupcakes for the simplicity and apparent "never fail"ingness of the chocolate cupcake. Sounds good enough to me. I decided to forgo the mint buttercream and ganache, since some people don't necessarily like mint. I don't understand it, but hey, they're the ones missing out. No matter. I'll just substitute. I examined the fridge for something to flavour my frosting, and eventually found some lime juice that would go wonderfully with my cream cheese. I following the recipe to a T, the only chance being I made half a batch, 12 cupcakes, instead of the full 24. Chockylit was right when she called them "rich chocolate cupcakes", because they were definitely rich. A whole cupcake with icing was almost more than I could take. Nonetheless, they received rave reviews - definitely something to repeat again sometime.


Rich Chocolate Cupcakes with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting
(makes 24 regular cupcakes)
courtesy of Chockylit of Cupcake Bakeshop

200g bar chocolate (I used pretty average quality safeway cooking chocolate, worked wonderfully for me.)
3 sticks butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
8 eggs
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 package cream cheese (mine had about 250mL)
1/2 stick butter
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp lime juice (or as much as you like)

1. Chop chocolate and transfer into bowl. Add butter, and melt, stirring until both are combined.
2. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Let mixture cool for 10 minutes.
3. Beat with electric mixer for 3 minutes, or as much as you can by hand.
4. Add egg one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds between each.
5. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and pinch salt into the mixture. Mix until blended.
6. Scoop into cupcake cups and bake at 180C for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Beat cream cheese and butter till creamy.
8. Sift in half the sugar, and beat until combined.
9. Stir in lime juice, then continue to beat in remaining sugar.

Because I only made half the cupcakes and the whole batch of frosting, I still have a little tub sitting in my fridge. I also could have done well to add more lime juice, as the three tablespoonfuls of lime juice wasn't necessarily enough to completely outdo the cheesiness of the cream cheese. Nonetheless, the cupcakes were given rave reviews. Everybody could only manage one after our meal, which was fine; more leftovers for me! I also served up a tropical fruit salad to cleanse our palates somewhat. Lychees, watermelon cubes, pineapple chunks, mango slices and passionfruit pulp was just what we needed to finish off a night of Thai goodness.

Liquid Bar - The (Real) Anniversary

A week after the 'failed' anniversary, A and I decided to give our Romantic Evening another go. This time, I declared, it would be on our real anniversary and it would be up to me to plan the date (because nothing can go wrong when I'm planning it, clearly). No bouts of indigestion, no problems with food allergies, nothing to spoil our perfect evening. Right.

(Note: Incidentally, whilst tramming down to our destination, A made an offhand comment about oil (don't ask), and something clicked in my mind - Indian food is predominantly cooked with peanut oil. Not especially helpful when the boy is allergic to peanuts, and thus the source of all our problems. Mental head thunk!)

I spent the week racking my brain, trying to come up with places that we'd both like. The boy isn't exactly only the level of food connoisseur (yet - I'm trying to change that, but baby steps), so places like Vue de Monde and Three One Two wouldn't necessarily be his scene. I wanted somewhere that was good and happening enough, but not so much that we wouldn't be able to have a quiet evening to ourselves, so Cookie (my next option) was out. He's also a bit of a vego-phobe, so Soul Mama at St. Kilda was also out.

A friend suggested that morning I try the Docklands, which sounded like quite a good idea. We made our way down there that evening to find that yes, it was definitely quiet enough. Man Mo looked interesting, A commented, and was half-full of customers. Whilst giving him a quick lesson on Asian food (I don't usually trust overly polished Asian restaurants - case in point, Red Emperor on Southbank was, in my opinion, not half as good as anything I've ever had in Chinatown), we happened upon Liquid Bar. The menu said it served tapas, and that cinched it for me.
Deciding to forgo the wine list, we perused the menu. The dinner menu comprised of tapas, starters, Coca's (Spanish pizza's), mains, pastas, salads and sides. Your average restaurant, really. In my opinion, everything except the tapas were things I could have ordered in any restaurant. The only dishes I could really have said to be 'spanified' was the Fresh Seafood Paella and the bowl of hot chilli as a side.

I had my heart set on the tapas, but A cited extreme hunger and decided to order a main of Crisp roasted chicken breast with fennel, celery, apple and spanish onion salad, finished with chorizo oil. More tapas for me, I told him. The dish itself was presented beautifully, with the crispy skinned chicken breast sitting proudly on top of the pale green salad. The bit of salad I tried (which, incidentally, is the part of the dish A didn't eat - boys) was quite tasty.

I ordered the grilled bread with dips as a starter. Tapas consisted of baby calamari with green apple aioli, saganaki fried with lemon and rocket, chorizo served warm with potato and mint salad; and sweet pork empanadas. I wish I had pictures to show you all, but photos would not have done them justice.

The grilled bread was quite a substantial dish, as they were very generous with the bread (and olive oil that was drizzled over them). The hummus was clearly home-made and very thick, whilst the tzatziki was very tart and very good with the hot bread. The calamari was fresh out of the fryer, all crisp and hot and wonderfully salted. It paired beautifully with the green apple aiolo (which had two little pieces of carved apple pieces on the side for decoration, how cute!). The saganaki proved quite rubbery in texture, but I enjoy having a bit of a chew on my cheese, especially pan-fried cheese. The lemon was a freshing tang on a moderately strong tasting cheese.

The chorizo slices were fried quite crisply, and had the little cubes of potato on top. I honestly couldn't figure out where the mint salad came in, as there was no taste of mint anywhere nor was there even a little pile of salad sitting on the side, as there was on the saganaki. The fact that they were sausage slices was probably the reason they became quite oily, but I quite enjoyed the spicy kick they provided. As for the empanadas, they came (3 to a serve) sitting prettily on a bed of what looked like a chunky tomato sauce. They provided a lovely dipping sauce for the empanadas, which had delightfully crunchy pastry.

The restaurant was very quiet, with only one or two other tables being occupied during our entire meal. The decor itself was very tastefully modern, just right for the type of night we were having. The wait staff, though not having much else to do, were very alert and came over periodically to ask if we needed water, or wished to order anything else. Usually I find this annoying, but the guy was so nice about it that we couldn't help but like him. The price was, to us poor uni students, quite expensive, but worth it for a good night out like ours. Between us, we paid about $80 for our meal. Upmarket, yes, but we figured it was a one-time thing anyway.
I didn't expect to be so full from my meal (I'd actually already picked up dessert before we even started the meal), but I walked out feeling pleasantly full. A nice romantic walk along Docklands after dinner was enough sweetness for me.

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Liquid Bar
50 NewQuay Promenade
Docklands
www.liquidbar.com.au

Rathdowne Street Food Store - Sunday Breakfast

A catch-up meal with the girls means, for us, a different place to try every time. We've done AIX Cafe Creperie Salon in the city, Red Tongue Cafe and Vegie Bar on Brunswick Street; and who could forget Gluttony on Smith Street (we should've starved ourself for a day before our meal).

AH suggested, for this particular meeting, that we try Rathdowne Street Food Store - good things had been heard about the omelette. Having hit nearly every single other cafe on the Carlton North strip, I was eager to try what was supposedly the best one of them all. 8.30am on Sunday morning found four hungry (and cold) girls traipsing into the warmth of the Food Store. Smells of freshly baked bread, cakes and muffins were wafting through the air, and stacked up on plastic trays on a corner of the cafe, having clearly been delivered a few minutes before. The loaves of multi-grain bread, little lemon cakes, gorgeous berry muffins were making us salivate.

The place itself was quite empty save a few lone breakfasters with their papers, as it was too early for the Sunday breakfast crowd. We sat ourselves in a nice little nook that overlooked the front of the store, ordering coffees and teas to warm ourselves up whilst perusing the menu. My peppermint tea was continually being filled with extra hot water, and lasted me till the end of the meal. H had the same pampered tea experience with her English Breakfast, whilst C and AH assured me their respective coffees were excellent.

We had a bit of a hard time deciding on food. AH told us about rave reviews of an omelette with goat's cheese and smoked salmon, topped with hollandaise sauce and "overbaked", which sounded divine. Some previous research I'd done showed that the ricotta hotcakes with poached pears and lavendar icecream was also highly recommended.

AH ended up going with the omelette, which, although delicious, was quite oily from the baked hollandaise sauce. The serving was quite large, coming also with two pieces of "home-made" toast, which was nothing out of the ordinary, given so many other excellent bread choices available these days.
C went with the Food Store Eggs, which (from bad memory) had two beautifully poached eggs topped with spinach and hollandaise. The eggs, C told us, were great, but she could've done with some toast or even an english muffin that might have made the dish a bit more filling. H ordered herself a muesli (no mention on whether it was home-made) with fruit compote and yoghurt. It looked quite good, and after trying the muesli, I agreed that although I couldn't tell whether or not it was home-made, it was still delicious (though still not on par with the stuff I had on Flinders Lane).

I craved something wholesome, and since it was a cold morning, went with a simple porridge with compote, yoghurt and condiments. The porridge itself was quite substantial and portioned perfectly. It came steaming hot and had a hint of vanilla in the smell, though I couldn't actually taste much vanilla and the porridge itself wasn't particularly flavoured either. Stirring in the compote, however, was more than enough to provide me with a sweet fruit hit. It was made up of rhubarb, pear and some form of berry (either strawberry or raspberr), and I particularly enjoyed the large chunks of pear throughout. The condiments came on a wooden tray with little jars of honey and brown sugar. I was perfectly happy with the porridge, compote and yoghurt on its own, but the presentation was gorgeous and the little jars satisfied my love for cute ways of food presentation.

The service was good, and although the waiter took the prerogative of leaving us alone most of the time to catch up, it made it slightly more difficult when we actually needed some service. The place itself is decorated gorgeously, small-town rustic mixed with modernised deco. The place itself wasn't the cheapest we've ever been to, but the quality of food and feel of the cafe was enough to make it worth the price. We left the Food Store warm, full and happy with our brekky and agreed that it was definitely worth a repeat when we run out of new places to try. And I'm definitely going back for one of those little lemon cakes.

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Rathdowne Street Food Store
617 Rathdowne Street
Carlton North

Soothing my baking itch - Apple Muffins

After a long week at uni, I arrived home in the early evening, thankful to be home. However, half an hour later, I was suffering from a bad case of nothing-to-do's, which quickly turned into a large case of "baking itch". This is unfortunately (for my waistline - not so much for my housemates) a constant occurence, whereby I'm suddenly seized with a great urge to improve my baking prowess and whip up something fantastic that will have the house smelling wonderful and adoring people showering compliments upon my humble self (ha). I must admit that 'improvement' of my baking skills is not quite equivalent, in my case, to broadening my horizons and trying new things. Thus, my baking tends to be quite limited to the generic muffin and occasionally, fruit crumble or pie.

Another partial reason for the need to bake was because T, one of the housies, had brought from home a bag full of apples that weren't much good for eating, but fantastic for baking, stewing or cooking. After having stewed and frozen some, I thought it might be a good idea to use some of them up. After vetoing the idea of making a pie, I googled "apple muffins" and came up with quite an easy version.

The recipe itself was easy to follow, and were made from ingredients one usually has lying around the house. The recipe itself is labelled "Apple Muffins", omitting the cinnamon - and in terms of taste, it's probably the more accurate label for it. The cinnamon can't really be tasted, even though I added quite a few more shakes than called for in the recipe in an attempt to get a more spicy muffin. Next time, I might try adding cloves and perhaps some more nutmeg.

(N.B. I just noticed that under the recipe itself, the reviews aren't very supportive of the recipe, calling it "bland" and "heavy". I wouldn't call them heavy exactly, and those who called the muffin bland blamed the lack of sugar. I personally don't like my muffins overly sweet, so the low amount of sugar was preferable for me. The fact that I had one straight out of the oven was a plus for me, as warm anything muffin, especially with apple chunks, taste great. More spices is definitely needed to add more Zing to it.)


Apple Muffins
(courtesy of AllRecipes.com
submitted by Maria Evertsen)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used Mixed Spice)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup apple, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, spices and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together milk, egg, and butter.
   
4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Fold in apple chunks.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of muffins. Bake for another 5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

(photo courtesy of AllRecipes.com)