Christmas 2012

Christmas has come and gone again! Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times in the year, not because of the presents but because it is a time where the whole family (usually) comes over to our place for a home cooked dinner by moi. I get to try new recipes on voluntary guinea pigs!

These are the recipes I tried this year:

Whole snapper baked in salt dough. The salt dough becomes easier to handle after being refrigerated. Encased in the dough is a whole snapper, stuffed with lemon slices, dill and thyme. I made the mistake of scaling the fish therefore the salt in the dough (1:1 ratio) seeped into the flesh making it incredibly salty.

However, the best thing about this way of cooking (besides the presentation) is that it keeps the fish warm for more than an hour post cooking. This enabled me to cook other dishes in the oven and still have warm food on the table all at the same time.

Seared scallops on bed of seaweed salad topped with mayo & wasabi peanut crumble.

Prawns with capsicum in XO sauce.

Roast chicken. The cavity is seasoned with five spice, preserved kumquat, chinese wine. The resulting gravy was delicious! The skin was bathed twice with a honey and vinegar solution to achieve a crispy skin which Gaz mistakenly ruined by pouring its juices over the skin after it finished roasting!!

And now... the piece de resistance...! Heston Blumenthal's popping chocolate gateau! I used a 21cm cake pan so the mousse was a little thin. I improvised with the leftover ingredients and created a second layer of mousse on top. The three layers of biscuit base, dark choc and milk choc mousse can be seen in the pic below.

I was a little worried that the pop rocks would be out of fizz when the cake is finally served because it popped during the mixing, and pouring of the mousse onto the base. I could hear it popping away and quickly stuffed it into the freezer and crossed my fingers. However, it still popped, and wonderfully too! I loved it for the little twist it served to my guests!

Rustic Food

Recently, while flipping through one of the many food magazines that grace the newstand every week, I noticed that most of the pictures of food have been arranged by the food stylists to reflect a rustic feel. This look is characterised by discoloured enamel serving dishes, dull looking metal utensils upon worn napkins or old, dirty chopping blocks. All these are laid on railway sleepers lookalike, which are covered with one or two ingredients from the food photographed.

I wonder if this is a cost cutting intiative... Getting props from neighbourhood hard rubbish collection days should be cheaper than buying new props for the photo shoot.

When I look at these pictures, I am not thinking, 'Hmmm.. What a pretty looking Balmain Bug Risotto with Pumpkin Seeds, I must make that for dinner tonight!'. Instead, I am thinking, 'What a nasty looking rusty spoon! And for goodness sakes, someone wipe those pumpkin seeds from the table, how untidy!'

Chipped dishes and oxidised utensils are not the most hygienic, I am sure one would agree. I much prefer delicious food served in clean and unbroken vessels!

Think A Circle

My head hurts... Speaking in the language of the materials I have been learning the whole day today, my PPE turnover has hit the max, and requires a reinvestment to achieve a higher output rate... In other words, I've absorbed too much information today, I need more space in my brain to absorb the rest of the info tomorrow!

What an intensive day it was today, but I have also learnt heaps... Look beyond the numbers. Some people say numbers do not lie... But they do... If you do not know what measure you are looking at. Always ask the what if questions. Think a circle, be different and add value.

Tuk Tuk Station, Box Hill

Box Hill has changed so very much from the last time we were there that I could hardly keep my jaws closed while walking through the main street. New restaurants and cafes have popped up overnight like mushrooms on a wet bark.

We saw Food Republik, for which we firstly mistook for a nightclub as there was a line of people outside waiting for entry into the place. I almost made a detour there but decided to stick to our original plan of dining at Tuk Tuk Station.

Tuk Tuk Station is also a new restaurant in Box Hill. It serves Thai food, and from all accounts are cooked authentically. It must specialise in take aways during busy lunch hour because there was a large bain marie right near the entrance which took up almost half the restaurant. Inside, the seating were a little akward but service was good.

We ordered a beef curry. The beef was a little tough but there were no other complaints.
 

My favourite dish of the night was the chinese broccoli with crispy pork. It looked like normal stir fried kailan with oyster sauce but the oyster sauce was infused with red chillies! Gosh, it was spicy! It added a nice little kick to what would otherwise be a bland vege dish.

We also ordered one serve of coconut rice and one serve of steamed rice, when only one serve would do just fine for the both of us.

There seem to be a few of these local thai restaurants popping up in the suburbs. Nothing fancy, just good value eateries serving good Thai food. And this is exactly the kind of restaurants I like to go to!

Sydney Trip

Recently we went for a short trip to NSW. We booked a serviced apartment in The Quest, World Square in the CBD. Despite some negative reviews on the Net, we were very happy with the location and quality of the accomodation and thankfully, no charges for unused minibar items!

For lunch, we went to Din Tai Fung in World Square to taste their famous xiao long bao. We also ordered their crab dumplings and drunken chicken. The skin on both dumplings were so delicate and they taste delicious.

I wanted to try every restaurant but of course, we had limited stomach space. We did try Gumshara Ramen, which was recommended as authentic Japanese ramen. The pork bone broth has been boiled for a long period of time till it becomes thick and milky. It was delicious, but towards the end of the meal it became quite salty. I still think that the best ramen we ever had was our first meal in Japan.... I wish we had seconds, but that time we did not have enough ramen eating experience to compare.

We did the obligatory visit to Sydney Opera House where I had booked two seats in a classical music concert. Just so we can experience the inside of the Opera House as well as the outside... Gaz took the opportunity to get some sleep during the concert...! We also wandered into the Contemporary Art Museum. I did not think it will be my cuppa tea but surprisingly, I liked most of the art displayed. There was a large Lego 'canvas' where pieces of Lego were assembled to look like a piece of abstract oil painting which I really liked.

The next day, we took the train to Katoomba. We bought a $50 Trolley Bus discovery tour. The ticket entitled us to hop on and of the bus at any one of the tourist points, and a one way ride on all the Scenic World rides in the Blue Mountains.

Scenic World is a private enterprise run by a family who has been in the Blue Mountains since the end of the mining days (coal used to be mined in the area). They turned the mine trolley into a passenger train ride, and added a cable car ride with views of the Jamison Valley, Wentworth Falls, and Three Sisters. There is also a skyway ride and a walkway.

The most enjoyable part of the Scenic World for us was the boardwalk. The boardwalk meanders through the floor of the forest, pointing to disused mining equipment still stranded on the forest floor at parts of the walk. We saw a lyre bird (this bird can mimic noises it hears from its surroundings, even camera sounds!), various species of trees and this particular magpie... I was so hungry from all the walking that I was eating a bacon roll we'd brought along with us. This clever magpie followed us during our walk, hoping to get a bite!

After the rides, we went for a two hour bush walk where we saw beautiful, expansive views of The Three Sisters (above) and the Jamison Valley. The walk was not easy and we were the only ones on the trail, which made me a little nervous... especially since the trolley bus driver told us that certain parts of the walk has been closed off due to falling rock danger.

The walk eventually led us to Leura Falls (below) where we cooled ourselves  and boarded the last trolley bus back to the town centre and took the train home.

I was very grateful that we had the time to go for a short trip to refresh ourselves and opened our eyes to beautiful Mother Nature. I thoroughly enjoyed our trip.