Stalactites - Lonsdale St

My friend and I lamented over lunch at Stalactites how we have put on weight during the festive season in December, January and March (Chinese New Year) which cannot seem to come off. 

Stalactites was probably not the best place to be commiserating about our weight, being surrounded by yummy plates brimming over with succulent meats and hot chips.

Nevertheless, we discussed the crazy diets we had heard friends are on, and the outcomes of those diets. Someone was doing the 6 day fruit and vegetable diet, and lost 2 kgs. Someone else was doing the paleo diet, weight loss total unknown. We decided to go with a balanced diet diet.

To start, we ordered the vegetarian platter. There were trio of dips, cheese, spanakopita, dolmades and potatoes. The hummus, eggplant and tzatziki dips were delicious.

We also ordered a mix gyros of chicken and lamb. I thought I would like the lamb better than the chicken, but it ended up being the other way around. The chicken was juicy and tender.

Stalactites is the only restaurant I know that is open 24/7 and serves delicious food. We enjoyed our conversation and the food there.

Niew Amsterdam - Hardware Lane

We already knew what we wanted to order even before setting foot in Niew Amsterdam. I wanted the clam chowder and pork belly, while Gaz will just eat the bits and pieces I leave on the plate!

We were both looking forward to enjoying a rich, tasty clam chowder and biting through a crunchy crackling. Unfortunately, the restaurant had run out on quite a number of dishes that afternoon, including the clam chowder.

But what the restaurant didn't tell us was that they had run out of crackling as well!! Well, either they had ran out, or someone forgot to add the crackling onto the tray before they brought the dish out. Either case was not good.

Since there were no clam chowder, we ordered the Reuben sandwich which came with salad and chips. Gaz thought it was well seasoned and the corned beef in the sandwich delicious. Indeed, the dishes here are not for the 'skim milk' or 'lite yogurt' people.
The salad is well dressed, chips well seasoned, beef tender. Read oil, salt and fat. Aren't all delicious food unhealthy?

This is my tray of pork belly.  As can be seen, there is no crackling. Where are they!! The pictures on the net for this dish all had crackling. On the tray were two cubes of pork belly, pickled veges, salad, potato salad and four pieces of bread with sauce.

Lots of carbs here, no crackling. The pork was tender and delicious, albeit a little porky smell. I enjoyed the potato salad. I would have liked crackling though. Did I say I missed the crackling?

I appreciate the American style cuisine and I enjoyed the dishes we had. But I felt 5 kgs heavier leaving the restaurant!

Circa - St Kilda

Circa has long been on our list of restaurant to visit and we are glad that we were able to visit it a few weeks ago.

We ordered:

Spanner crab salad. This entree was beautiful to look at and tasted wonderful. Each bite was a different taste and texture. There is the saltiness of the spanner crab, creaminess of the dressing, sweetness of the greens. Pretty perfect.

Burnt octopus with beef jerky. What a combination, right? The octopus was cooked beautifully. It was tender and very flavourful.

Cobia with cucumber. Another entree we enjoyed very much. The fish was done ceviche style, it was very refreshing.

Flinders Island lamb with celeriac puree. The lamb was cooked medium rare. The meat melted in the mouth, it was good. We avoided the fatty bits which haven't rendered.

Wagyu and mustard powder.

Blood plum ice cream. Very sour. Would not order this again. Was also quite surprised that the wait person did not mention anything about the dessert being sour.

Overall dinner was wonderful. We were seated by the window so we could admire the sunset views. Unfortunately, the dessert was too sour for us but there were plenty else to praise in this restaurant.

Monk & Me - Camberwell

We went for an advanced screening of a new movie titled 'What We Did on Our Holiday' this week. It is a BBC comedy film and will be released on 12th February in Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It was funny and poignant. The three child actors in the movie performed very well and I especially liked the youngest. She is such a natural, and the script was nicely done too.

After the movie, we went to Monk & Me for dinner. It was just as well that we already had something to eat before the movie because the portion sizes in Monk & Me are quite small.

We ordered Char Kuey Teow and Seafood Laksa. With my seafood laksa, I wondered if it was a collection of bits and pieces of leftover noodles from half eaten laksas. I had difficulty finding more noodles to eat after just two mouthfuls. The broth was tasty but there was a bit too much coconut cream. There was a decent amount of seafood in the laksa. There were prawns, squid, and fishcakes.

The char kuey teow had a good smoky smell, almost similar to the hawker fare one gets in KL. It was spicy but not too spicy for us.

The prices are higher than other Malaysian restaurants but I suppose that is normal for the Camberwell area. The restaurant is not enclosed rather, it has large doors that are entirely opened up during opening hours giving a true blue Malaysian coffee shop feeling,  especially on a balmy day.

Monk and Me certainly has the ambience and portion size of a malaysian coffee shop, but unfortunately the price is about 8 times more expensive.

Vegetarian Roll

These vegetarian rolls are so yummy that I want to make them more often than what I do. Now that I have a julienne peeler, it is a lot easier to make these rolls.

You'll need:
1 pack of dried beancurd sheet (they come in one big sheet all folded up and breaks easily so be careful when unfolding)
2 carrots, julienned
100g of enoki mushrooms, separated and cut in half
About 10 pieces of dried cloud ear mushrooms, rehydrated and cut into thin slices
About 5 pieces and dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and cut into thin slices

Stir fry all the vegetables in a non stick pan with two teaspoons of oil, and a tablespoon of oyster sauce (or vegetarian oyster sauce). Add salt if needed.

Beancurd sheet

Stir fry until vegetables are cooked, then let cool.

Unfold the dried beancurd sheet, and cut into rectangles of around 15 by 22 cms. Wet a towel and wipe both sides of each rectangle before wrapping the rolls. The reason for this step is firstly to make the beancurd sheet pliable for wrapping, secondly to clean the sheet and lastly, to wipe away excess salt from the manufacturing process of the sheet.

Lying the sheet flat on a board, pile about two tablespoons of filling on the end closest to you, fold the sheet over the filling once. Fold the the two sides upwards and inwards then continue rolling until you reach the end of the sheet (you should be able to roll about 3 or 4 times before reaching the end of the sheet).

Shallow fry all sides until golden. Alternatively steam to minimise oil usage.

This dish involves quite a bit of preparation, but it is delicious and beautiful to look at.