Mexicana crepes
Tandoori chicken pizza. The pizza base was like something purchased from the supermarket (or even worse), the sauce was waay to sweet, and made worse by the mango chutney.
Strawberry and ice cream pancakes cannot be faulted
Olives, giant almonds, spiced pepitas, pistacios
Lamb shank
Sword fish with grilled veg (sword fish was not as nice as Spiedos)
Red velvet bday cake
We ordered the pre-theatre menu, with a glass of wine it only cost us $35 each.
handmade gnocchi w wild boar ragout and marjoram
Maccheroni w crab, saffron, green peas was rather terrible. The pasta was not cooked enough and it was very salty
Prosciutto e rucola pizza made up for my friend’s salty and undercooked pasta
Swordfish (very tender) with capers, cherry tomato and olive salsa.
One of the best char kwei teows in Sydney
I discovered char kwei teow after watching Flavours of Singapore (万里香) on SBS which promoted it as one of Singapore’s national dishes. This take away store in the old food court under the Woolworths was a Simon Favourite, and also one which a Malaysian manager recommended. The only thing that held me back was the billions of carbs and fat it had.
So good that it often sells out before lunch time is over
Sayong Malaysian Cuisine
Food court under Woolworths Sydney CBD
Last year my friend hosted a Girls Night In for the Cancer Council. I was invited to the event, however I hardly remember it. The only thing I do remember was donating. This year as I completed my tax return and claimed my deduction, I even demanded of my friend, “How come you didn’t invite me?!” Such is the state of my memory.
This year, on account of her prior year efforts, the Cancer Council took the initiative and sent her a Girls Night In package. So my friend hosted another girly event, this time more for herself (housewarming) rather than for the Cancer Council.
I arrived early to help bake the cakes and make the sandwiches. Just as her father vacated the place, we offered him some curried egg sandwiches for breakfast, but he steadfastly refused on the grounds it was too girly. If curried egg sandwiches are too girly, then he obviously has not witnessed 8 20 something year olds sitting around a coffee table mounted with cake, all painting their nails in a myriad of colours.
Chocolate ganache fish swimming around hearts~
Brie & salmon tart
One of the girls brought pandan and taro/coconut layer cake. These were light and not so sweet, perfect for an afternoon of feasting.
These cupcakes were so….melt in your mouth. I always cut down fat and sugar from original recipes when I bake, but for the sake of guests, I followed the exact recipe and found fat is a beautiful thing
Sandwiches: curry eggs, pumpkin cheese and pine nuts, turkey mustard cranberry and alph alpha
I don’t know why I featured the crackers and carrot sticks in the foreground. The salsa and guac in the background were out of this world! They were so popular, the host took out the large Pyrex bowls they were stored in whereupon we ate them straight from the bowl (and finished them both).
Apple crumble came about only because the host bought 2kgs of apples which she thought would be needed for 1/2 cup apple sauce (needed for the banana bread below).
This is suppose to be fat free banana bread. I guess because of the moisture level, it had to be baked in two small loaf tins, which we didn’t have, so instead we baked it in one big pan in the hope the flatter depth and larger aerial space would allow it to cook through. However going against my efforts was the fact I used 5 large bananas instead of 5 medium ones. We baked and baked, perhaps for over an hour, and still it came out like cooked banana mash. I was almightily disappointed! However despite people being stuffed from the other foods, some took seconds and thirds. Then a few days later a friend told me she liked the bread and wish she took some home. (^_~)v
The last two weeks I’d been cooped up at home studying and stressing for my last batch of exams. As a result I had missed out on half of the Crave Sydney festivities. At least I was able to join the last day of Let’s Do Brunch.
I imposed the choice of an untraditional breakfast on my friends. Only because the idea of eggs / pancakes / waffles / etc was so uninspiring to me. Apart from take away kebabs, Lebanese foods represent unexplored territory and so the menu at Embers Mezze Bar sparked my interest and curiosity. Sadly although the salty and sour flavourings were acceptable and enjoyable for me, less could be said for my friends who both admitted they preferred traditional Anglo breakfast offerings.
cucumber and salsa; shanklish and tomato salsa; olives
spinach and silverbeet fatayer with lemon dressing
cooked and mashed fava beans
Omelette with labna and dukkah
This was the only dish that was not acceptable to me
The only reason I made this yoghurt was because I didn’t want to drink the milk that my mother had left in the fridge. Having it everyday was restrictive, mentally burdensome, and didn’t make me feel that great either. I also suspect that milk has something to do with the allergy looking breakout i’m currently experiencing.
There are so many posts online about how to make your own yoghurt, and they’re all essentially the same. Heat-cool-starter-keep warm-fridge. There are quite a few different ways of keeping the mixture warm during the coagulating stage. Yesterday was bloody hot for October (especially considering last week we were shivering!), and I thought I might as well utilize the free solar power that we have in such abundance. I let the pre-yoghurt sit in the sun for most of the afternoon, then when the temperature cooled, I put it in a thermo bag with a bottle of hot water from the tap.
The resulting yoghurt today was soooo soft in texture (like silk tofu!) and delicate in flavour. I had it with cinnamon (because I love it and I put it with everything, esp dairy) and mashed banana (because apparently it’s full of prebiotics which feeds the probiotics in the yoghurt).
After a positive experience at Flavours of the Philippines, I was back to taste the flavours of Malaysia. Malaysian food wasn’t such a mystery to me, as Filo food was, and in fact it’s one of my preferred cuisines. I went through a laksa faze back in uni but now I prefer the ‘cleaniness’ of Hainan chicken. Still, I admit I have not tried a lot of their dishes (I am still yet to try char kuey teow) and therefore was keen for this opportunity to fulfill this blackhole.
The options available here was much greater than the Filo buffet, however flavour wise they didn’t seem to be as good as Filo. Unlike last time, I didn’t take a photo of everything and also was much more selective with what I ate. I didn’t go for seconds and am proud to report that wastage at this buffet was minimal.
Starters
Unfortunately, of the options I tried, all were rather unmemorable.
Bean sprout, tripe rice grated coconut
Brinjal w grated coconut & Green beans w grated coconut
Top: Spicy mixed vegetable pickle; Bottom: Squid w spice and grated coconut
Lamb broth
Mains
Freshly made roti served w veg dal and a lattice pancake that was served with a boneless chicken curry. This was quite good, although the roti had gone a bit soft from sitting on the plate.
I forgot what this was called except it had yellow noodles. It had a fragrant, spicy soup, prawns, tofu, okra and bean sprouts
This photo does not do justice to this herby fried chicken. Probably the best meat dish on the menu
I thought I was eating char kuey teow, until I came home and properly read my photos of the tags. This was Penang style fried flat rice noodles, which was nice but on the sweet side.
I wasn’t game enough to try the fish head curry, how very unAsian, I know
Can’t have a Malaysian buffet without satay sticks! Beef and chicken are available.
Dessert
They had an impressive dessert spread. My friend and I shared so that we could try one of each. The kuih all became a bit of a blur after the second, different only in colour. They also had build yourself shaved ice.
The banana and sago in coconut milk was probably my favourite dessert
Also a favourite
This was the most impressive looking, but underwhelmed in the taste department
Flavours of Malaysia is held at the Grace Hotel until 21 October and is available for lunch and dinner.
We spent a beautifully sunny day at Manly last week where the Jazz Festival was held. Despite the clear blue skies, it was quite windy at the beach, so we hid the stable environment of the relative inland. At the boulevard, we listened to some Nora Jones esque music and topped up our vitamin D levels whilst enjoying ice cream from Movenpick.
Out of Africa was the only ‘interesting’ option out at Manly (in the Entertainment Book anyway), and as the day of the Festival immediately followed our meat fest at Mumu, so we were after something light. This explains the proliferation of vegetarian and fish dishes in our selection.
We first suckled on the sweet meet of oysters
The Zulu Zaluk Warm Salad was totally outside and very far away from our expectation for a salad. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the spicy and rich flavours of roasted aubergine, roasted capsicum, tomato, preserved lemon (this not so much), olives (this one only me). It was served on a ‘plate’ of a cake-like bread which I liked.
The vegetable tajine contains seasonal vegetables cooked in tomato concasse, fresh coriander and ras el hanout sauce, smothered with roasted marinated eggplant and cumin chickpeas.
Between the two mains ordered, this was our favourite. But even without the comparison, I would highly recommend this tajine – it’s not only packed with flavour, it’s also super healthy!
The signature dish of Moroccon meat balls tajine was scrapped for the fish turban tajine on account that it’s a lighter, more digestible protein. This was a terrible decision. TERRIBLE I tell you! The ‘tasty’ blue eye cod was grossly overcooked. More criminal was it seemed quite unfresh, and a fishy smell permeated what would have been their famous spicy tomato charmoula.
Jazzy jasmine rice to soak up the sauce
All in all, I had an enjoyable experience here, and it would be a place I’d return to for something out of the ordinary, although next time I come, I’d make sure my body wasn’t still processing the meat from the previous day.
Saved: $21.38
Time to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival! Consistent with what I was recently told that leading up to the full moon, we feel more hungry, we ate like a pack of hungry wolves last night. The amount of meat I consumed last night is about how much I have in a normal week! But it was so delicious, I even ate the fat 
My cousin and I shared the Tagliata T-bone, a 1kg of t-bone seared, sliced and finished with rosemary and garlic. It was recommended as the best steak at the restaurant by the waiter, and it did not disappoint
The Kimel aged sirloin was ordered because the its crust of Papua New Guinea Kimel (a coffee bean) & Szechuan pepper sounded too funky to not try. My dad was impressed by its flavour.
I thought the King Island prime rib was a little lackluster in comparison to the above two, but cousin-in-law enjoyed it nonetheless, it was probably the beef dish where you could taste the true essence of beef most clearly
Saltbush lamb shank was quite tender. The accompanying broadbean and raddish salad was also nice.
Saved: $59
Cousin recommended the gelatos at Bravo Trattoria for dessert. We ordered a lot – assortment of gelatos, tiramisu, creme brulee, Italian hot chocolate, affogato. The creme brulee received a lot of love, but I enjoyed the gelatos most.
Coffee, salted peanut (best), black seseme, rosewater pistacio
We had a garage sale last weekend. It was a lot of work for a mere $140! Part of the profit was applied to this meal. My parents were not impressed by Red Chilli Restaurant last time, but they enjoyed this visit as the dishes we ordered were not too chilli.
Our favourite from the last visit – 酸辣凉粉 – Sichuan bean jelly in sour and spicy sauce
I’m so glad my dad started taking medication for his cholestrol. At least now he lets us order fatty foods, like 红薯粉蒸肉 / pork belly steamed with sweet potatoes
双椒游水盲曹 – stewed burra (mild chilli)
Saved: $17.69
