Twosome Story, Clayton

Twosome Story is a cafe/restaurant located on Clayton Road in Clayton. The store is rather narrow and the front is dominated by an area for the staff with a coffee machine and cake fridge showcasing the cakes and desserts for sale. We saw a number of people dropping in for their dessert fix after dining in one of the many restaurants that have mushroomed on the Clayton Road strip.

Although the desserts were tempting, we were there to try out their Korean BBQ offering. The waitress told us that they had only been offering Korean BBQ from Oct 16 onwards. The BBQ section consists of 6 tables with the electric griddle pan. It was full with customers like us who were on the Groupon offer of $39 for two persons.

We could choose from the beef, pork belly or chicken bbq set. Each set came with a sweet potato pancake, cheese and corn mix, a pot of soup, dressed salad, lettuce, rice, and side dishes. We could also choose either Korean beer or soft drinks so Gaz had the beer and I had a soft drink.

We chose the beef set where the beef skirt was grilled and wrapped in lettuce with some garlic slices; and beef bulgogi, eaten with steamed white rice. The cold dressed salad cooled our tongues down.

The BBQ part of the restaurant was full when we arrived and we had to wait for a long time for the table to be cleaned and for us to be seated. Luckily, once we had ordered, the food came pretty quickly but in dribs and drabs. For instance, the meat came and was grilling but the lettuce was still in the fridge.

The service was good, but harried. It probably didn't help that the servers also have to take time to help grill the meat on the tables and still have to serve food and respond to customer requests. Towards the end, we just had to cook the meat ourselves because the servers were too busy.

Although the flavours did not especially stand out, the quality of the meat was good (none of the thin, fatty cuts) and we were very satisfied with the generous portions and variety of food. 

Australian Open 2017

January is always a very exciting month - the much anticipated Australian Open is on, it is the start of a new year, the days are longer, warmer and sunnier and it feels like youth could go on forever in this weather. If you were Roger Federer, it certainly does look like age is no limitation to what one can do!

Returning from half a year of rest after injuring his knee (from drawing a bath for his kids, of all things!), he has played well and with resilience to reach the final of the 2017 Australian Open. He is 35 years old and is is in a sport where players in their 20's are considered to be in their prime.

We saw him practice in one of the outer courts while at the Australian Open last Sunday. There was a large crowd around the court, and on the bridge overlooking the court. Everyone was trying to see him, gawk at him, take pictures of him, admire his moves, so much so that neither of us could get a spot to catch a glimpse of him for the longest time.

We almost did not make it to any of the courts to watch any players play. Although we went to the Australian Open, we caught very little tennis action. Who wants to sit down quietly in cramped, hard chairs watching a tennis match when there are so many other interesting things to do outside of the courts!

Here are some interesting places we visited at the AO: 

1. Woolworths tent - The Susmmer Sensorium is on! Visitors have to pre-book their spaces (limited to something like 30 people per session). Once ushered in and seated, we were each given a cold towel which was wonderful in the heat! In the fully enclosed tent in the shape of a dome, a multimedia presentation is projected onto the ceiling of the dome. The presentation showcased the natural produce from throughout Australia and as one watches, servers placed tasting boards with those ingredients in front of us.

 

We had small bite sizes of entree, main and a dessert course, paired with fresh juice. It was quite an interesting experience - who would have thought that one could get a serviced dining experience in the AO? 

2. Blackmores tent - Each person gets a turn at one of the 6 machines that asks which areas of health are you concerned. The answers are in a multiple choice format with choices like hydration, etc. After typing in your email address and depending on the answer chosen, a sample sachet of Blackmores' superfood powder is dispensed from the machine. If you thought there was no opportunity to try the other flavours besides the one you chose, not to worry because the other flavours are sprinkled over yoghurt, on breakfast mix, in a juice to be sampled by everyone. Flavours include wild blueberry, coconut, cacao, supergreens I think the powders are packed with nutrients and great for people on the run but I found most of it bitter so I would rather have the original stuff. 

3. ANZ tent - There was a looong wait for this tent, and two queues - one for the ANZ hand held battery operated fan and another to play an interactive tennis game similar to the Wii. The game is a hit with the kids (keyword here is kids... not adults not moi). You could get a video of yourself playing the game, and a picture of yourself striking a winning pose at the end of the game sent to your email if you don't mind giving them your email address. 

4. Jacob's Creek - A very pretty looking display of pink roses provides plenty of photo opportunities for the girls. They also serve froze, like a wine granita. And give out rose macarons which were yum. 

5. DMA concert - awesome live band playing in the background, us sitting on the grass with a cold drink... just wonderful!

There were different 'quarters' such as English quarter with white garden seats and swings, Paris quarter with a model of the Eiffel Tower, US quarter which gave the grounds a community feel and proides plenty of photo opportunities to remember the AO. 

With all those attractions on the grounds, it seems like the tennis has become a secondary attraction in the AO!

Hosier Lane, CBD

A little bit late, but Merry Christmas from minion Bob! We visited the ever changing Hosier Lane on the weekend and spotted these gems:

Quote by French General Ferdinand Foch

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter - Denis Diderot

I love the last quote by philosopher Denis Diderot... How nice it is to hear a flattering lie than to ponder over a miserable truth. Look, I know my arms are huge and there's nothing much I can do about it other than starve the rest of my body to whittle my arms away... so let's not ponder over that.. But how nice it is hear a flattering white lie about how slim I look in that outfit...

(I'm sure Diderot penned his quote with other examples in mind... but let's keep it light here, shall we?)

Kinn Thai, Knox Shopping Centre Wantirna

Kinn Thai is a very popular Thai restaurant in the Knox Ozone area. So popular is this restaurant that some friends travel half an hour to this restaurant just for take aways.Customers who live in nearby Wantirna and Wantirna South should be so lucky, as Kinn Thai now offers free delivery to those two suburbs.

We enjoyed the soft shell crab in chilli jam although the sauce was quite sweet. The soft shell crab was crispy and the sauce was very tasty.

Soft shell crab with chilli jam

Grilled beef

The grilled wagyu beef was quite bland. The beef was not marinated beforehand, and the dipping sauce did not do much for the dish. This may have been a lower grade wagyu because it did not melt in the mouth and some parts were very chewy.

The waitpersons were attentive and friendly. They will recommend dishes when asked, and also topped up our glasses with water without being asked. Overall, we enjoyed our dining experience in Kinn Thai.

Vegetarian Beancurd Roll

With Chinese New Year fast approaching, these vegetarian rolls would be perfect to celebrate the first day of CNY. Usually we eat only vegetarian food on the first day of CNY as a tradition (right after we return from the temple where I usually have to fight the crowd to retrieve my shoes from the entrance - I learnt to always wear an old pair of shoes or a least favourite pair on CNY or other festivals to the temple).

Besides being tasty and meat free, these vegetarian rolls can also represent gold bullions and so is an auspicious dish to have on the table.

This dish benefits from having a julienne peeler. Otherwise, be prepared to spend half a day hunched over the chopping board... Julienne peelers cost less than mandolins and are much easier to use and clean.

I usually use julienned carrots, sliced re-hydrated shitake mushrooms, sliced black fungus and re-hydrated mung bean noodles. I have also used enoki mushrooms when I ran out of black fungus, for the crunch texture in the dish.

Carrots, shitake mushrooms, black fungus, mung bean noodles

Stir fry all the ingredients in a pan with some salt and pepper.

When the filling has cooled, wrap some two tablespoons worth with the dried beancurd sheet. The beancurd sheet can be quite salty, so I usually wipe them down with some wet kitchen towels before wrapping. I also cut them to size before wrapping.

Gaz prefers I pan fry these rolls for the crispy texture but I sometimes steam them for a healthier alternative. They do not take long to steam or pan fry, as the filling is already cooked.