Chocolate & Spice

Back to Life.....

2007-01-25T13:29:00.000+11:00

Back to reality!

Strange how certain lyrics keep playing in your head....but that refrain just kept resonating in my mind since A and I arrived home.

It's been over a month since I had the luxury of time to sit down and upload a post - it's been a whirlwind of activities from the hubbub of our last week before leaving Melbourne, the long drive to Sydney (with some drama on our departure day when the car wouldn't start but that's another story altogether), the usual Christmas and New Year festivities to finally coming back to Singapore and settling back in. A and I have been running on a lot of adrenaline and sleepless nights in the last month!

Because our last month has seen us in 3 different locations, it's taken a while for reality to sink in that I'm back for good; well, it's come and knocked me on the head when I got back to work last week with quite a few projects (all urgent) and meetings scheduled. Leisure time in Melbourne now seems so far away!

Now that I have a little down time at work after completing one mad deal involving an over-nighter towards the end, it seemed the perfect opportunity to re-visit this blog which kept me endlessly amused in Melbourne and which will hopefully see my imput now that I'm back home.

I don't foresee that many of my posts are going to be food-related, given that I haven't made it to the kitchen at all since I got back but we'll see. There's some interesting events in the pipeline such as a girlfriend's wedding shower which my pal, G and I will be catering for, which I hope will take me out of the office a lot more. And after 6 months away, there's a whole slew of new restaurants that I've yet to check out.

So keep checking in from time to time....

Musings

2006-12-15T10:52:00.000+11:00

Now that we're just a week away from leaving Melbourne for good, I find myself in a nostalgic mood reading my past posts and the places we've visited, the experiences we've had, the people we've met here and the friends we've made. I guess at the beginning, 6 months here sounded just about right. From where I am right now at the wrong end of those 6 months, it's simply not enough time...

The past few weeks saw me mooching about feeling all sad and sorry that our time here is nearly at an end. And this is when Melbourne is at its best - a couple of weeks ago, the tail-end of spring heralded warmer days and the promise of a hot Indian summer - now that summer has started, I'm enjoying the long light-filled days to the fullest. I'd still like to be here when summer goes into full swing - I think about the fun events like movies in the park yet to happen in the Botanic Gardens, the food produce that summer brings and which I'll see appearing over the next few weeks in the local market, and the Christmas and New Year celebrations here which A and I will miss. We're somewhat consoled that we'll be spending Christmas with A's family (our first together in our years as a couple) and ushering in the New Year in Sydney.

Part of this sad moping about the house was brought on by a culmination of missing family and friends in the run-up to Christmas and the thrill (and slight guilt of not being home at this time) of experiencing Christmas somewhere else other than in Singapore. And being the sentimental sniffy person I am, I've been moping about leaving a place which has been the source of much personal happiness for A and I this year.

I suppose the bright side of our short stint here is that this is just the beginning of many more trips back here in future, A's office being reassuringly forthcoming with dates for trips down next year. For now, it's time to pack up the apartment, enjoy the rest of our days here and have fun at all our farewell parties and look forward to coming home in January 2007.

I've always believed that a lot of the fun in life derives from treasuring the past, enjoying the present to the fullest and anticipating what the future brings. I'm looking forward to coming home and seeing what 2007 brings both of us - our 6 months here has served its purpose in letting me recharge myself fully and face work and given me ample time to indulge my interests. To all our friends and family who have been checking in on us periodically through this blog, thanks for keeping us updated on everyday life in Singapore (such that we feel we haven't really been away!) and for keeping up the contact. We've missed you hugely and we're coming back soon!!

Clearing out the fridge isn't easy!!

2006-12-14T17:42:00.000+11:00

I read once here about a certain food blogger's difficulty in finishing up his lasagne sheets. With just a week to go before we leave Melbourne for good after our 6 months here, I am faced with the same problem with the dates still lurking in my fridge after 2 rounds of Sticky Toffee Puddings and my attempt at Date Scones the other day. And what I have left isn't quite enough for another pudding for the Christmas gathering at Allan's folks next week in Sydney and I don't fancy making anymore goodies to stuff our face with this week!! *SCREAM*

With all the boxes and bags we have to load the car with next Saturday when we leave for Sydney, I'm sure we'll find room for yet another small bag but it vexes me no end that I can't seem to finish these dates. It's no solution telling me to eat them plain (as I hate the taste of plain dates if not masked with other flavours) - that'll be A's job.

Back to Date Scones. It's a simple recipe, perfect for Saturday morning brekkies when it's pulled out fresh and steaming hot from the oven. Alright, who are we kidding here? No one I know who reads this blog gets up early on Saturday, much less to bake! But honestly, if you do happen to have any leftover dates in the fridge, set the alarm clock and give this recipe a go. Although these scones keep relatively well, they are definitely best fresh and hot, with the aroma of sweet dates mingling with the freshly ground nutmeg. I had one smothered with butter as soon as it came out of the oven and it was oh so yummy....

This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander's lovely cook book, The Cook's Companion.

Date Scones

(makes about 10 - 11)

Ingredients:

150g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (this is essential, do not skip!)

pinch of salt

20g unsalted butter

2 tbsp sugar

150g dates, stoned and chopped

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 210'C and grease a baking tray.

2. Sift flour, nutmeg and salt together, then rub in butter. Add sugar and dates.

3. Combine milk and water and mix into flour to form a soft but firm dough. Knead together quickly, then press out on a floured surface and cut into squares or use a cutter to cut out rounds.

4. Bake for 7 minutes then reduce heat to 180'C and cook for a further 8 minutes until golden.

Pie for a Guy

2006-12-12T19:32:00.000+11:00

Perhaps this is too much of a generalisation but I've rarely met a guy who doesn't like pies/tarts or anything with pastry in it. There's probably something about the combination of crusty pastry and oozing filling that makes for a sublime 'party in your mouth' (I got this off one of the celebrity chefs, Jason Roberts, on ReadySteadyCook...yes one of those cooking programmes I catch over here).

A, being a true Aussie at heart, loves pies much to my horror ("Sweetie, there's a ton of FAT in that meat pie you're chowing down..."). I'm not a big fan of pastry, both making it or eating it. Making it - it always seems that the weather in Singapore is never condusive to making it although my efforts here have met more success. Eating it - I find that most commercial pies have way too much pastry, making for a tough chewing experience and thenafter, sitting like a lump of lard in your tummy.

I've always wished I had a light hand with pastry; so do most cooks I know. I recall back in school days, my classmates in the cooking class would shudder with horror when we learnt that the lesson for that day was "Sausage Rolls" or "Strawberry Pie" or anything related to pastry. These days, I've taken a more relaxed approach to making pastry instead of stressing over getting the dough to bind and find that this seems to be the best way to making a successful pie! Probably because one doesn't handle the dough as much!

Looking back on my posts, I've done a whole gamut of cakes, biscuits and the likes but very little pastry of late. So I thought it was time to change that and set aside an afternoon to make a Roast Tomato, Bacon and Spinach Tart, one of my preferred choices at cafes I frequent. Made well, this tart will be a nice light lunch for hot afternoons when you don't feel like cooking! This is a slight modification from the recipe in one of my reliable cookbooks, Everyday Cooking.

Roast Tomato, Bacon and Spinach Tart (serves 8)

Ingredients:

1 x 25cm Shortcrust pastry shell (using your own recipe or ready-made)

4 Roma tomatoes

oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

1 onion, diced

6 bacon slices, diced

4 eggs

125ml (1/2 cup) cream

3 tbsp grated parmigiano

chopped parsley

80g spinach, blanched and chopped

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, sprinkled over the cooked spinach

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180'C.

2. Cut the tomatoes into wedges and place on a baking tray. Brush with oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and chilli (if using). Roast in a preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and golden brown.

3. Heat a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add a generous splash of oil, the onion and bacon. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring often to prevent the bacon from catching.

4. Whisk the eggs together with the cream, grated parmigiano, parsley, spinach and salt and pepper.

5. Arrange the tomato wedges in the base of the cooked pastry shell, add the onion and pancetta mix and pour in the egg custard.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the egg custard is set.

Some comments:

The shortcrust pastry should be blind-baked before the fillings are added. To prevent the egg custard from seeping into the pastry and toughening it, brush the shortcrust pastry with egg yolk before blind baking to seal. This may be repeated once during the baking process.
You'll probably have pastry left over, as with the fillings. Don't waste them - make mini tartlets by using a muffin pan as your base instead!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

2006-12-06T19:03:00.000+11:00

I must say that a pudding for dessert isn't the best idea after an indulgent weekend away in Daylesford and eating at the Lake House or when the weather is in the high 30's as its been this week. Still, we're looking at the run-up to Christmas and what better way then to get into the mood with a pre-Christmas pudding! I missed out on getting some beautifully produced puddings from A Pud for All Seasons, both at the Slow Food Market (at the Abbotsford Convent a couple of weekends ago) as well as when we went up country for the weekend and passed by their factory at Elphinstone. So I decided to make my own seeing that I had a bag of dates in the pantry and a recipe flagged for some time to try!

A and I both have a fond weakness for sweet sticky desserts and sticky date pudding happens to be one of our favourites. I've always thought that there was something Christmassy about having a date pudding – with all that lovely caramelized and slightly spicy overtones it connotes!

I thought dates and it's lovely sweet nuances would definitely put us in the mood for all the gift-wrapping after dinner and happily set to making it seeing I had just 16 more days till we leave Melbourne and a whole bag-ful to finish up. Yummy goodness and perfect comfort food, it's perhaps a tad heavy for a summer evening seeing that all the berries and stone fruits have come into season. But making a sticky date pudding is also an exercise in simplicity and will keep nicely in the fridge for those tricky moments between meals when one's tummy craves for a little sustenance.

A is of course thrilled that I have finally decided to make a sticky date pudding and that must have been the reason why he returned earlier than expected with a "Pudding...where's the pudding?" instead of the expected kiss on the cheek!

This recipe comes from a fabulous cookbook, The Cook's Companion, by Melbourne's doyen of cooking, Stephanie Alexander.

Sticky Toffee Pudding (serves 8)

Ingredients:
170g dates, stoned and chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml boiling water
60g unsalted butter
¾ cup castor or brown sugar
2 eggs
170g self-raising flour
½ tsp pure vanilla
** 100g dark chocolate chips/ chopped bittersweet chocolate (optional)

Sauce
400g brown sugar
1 cup thick cream
250g unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean, split

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180'C and butter an 18cm square cake tin.
2. Mix dates and bicarbonate of sofa. Pour over water and leave to stand.
3. Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Fold flour in gently, then stir in date mixture and vanilla and pour into prepared tin.
4. Bake in centre of oven for 30 – 40 minutes until cooked when tested with a sker.
5. To make the sauce, bring all the ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove vanilla bean.

6. Pour a little sauce over warm pudding and return it to oven for 2-3 minutes so sauce soaks in.

7. Cut pudding into squares and pass extra sauce.

The Cookie Monster

2006-11-29T22:52:00.000+11:00

That's A's alter-ego. Actually, A's alter-ego should now rightfully be named the Big Bump (think really hard why...), what with all the happy munching that's been going on in this apartment of late. It's gotten to the state of "now you see it.... now you don't" with the boxes of cookies, sliced cakes and muffins I have around the apartment. A, as one can tell by now, really loves his sweet stuff and is always delighted to come home to the smell of freshly baked goodies in all forms.

Before.....

But what A can't resist most of all are Krispy Kreme donuts - the 8 we had left after giving some away to our friends, Jackson and Michelle, has disappeared in a flash of an eye. A loves donuts in all forms and donuts have a sentimental place in our history; when we first started dating, as we were at opposite ends of the Singapore CBD and couldn't meet for a quick morning coffee, we used to send an email mid-morning to say hi and accompanying our short email conversation would be a donut from Starbucks with our coffee. It became a ritual for a while until my skirt started getting tighter!

After!

So imagine our delight when we discovered that the legendary US Krispy Kreme donuts were available at Sydney's international airport (the first outlet outside the US opened in Sydney in 2003) and we used to lug boxes of these sugar delights back home every new year after the holidays. Krispy Kreme has since made it to Melbourne with the fourth outlet set to open at Melbourne Central Station in December 2006 after outlets at Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, Chadstone Shopping Centre and one in the CBD at the western end of Collins Street. Right now, when an attack of the munchies comes on, A just needs to walk to the other end of Collins Street from his office to get his sugar boost - a fair walk I'd say for a growing cookie monster and certainly easier than lugging a box on the plane!

Another lazy weekend away

2006-11-27T13:26:00.000+11:00

The lovely view from a lookout on Arthur's Seat of the Mornington

Peninsula - Sorrento where we are headed is located around the curve

A couple of weekends ago, A and I drove down to the Mornington Peninsula to spend part of the weekend with friends from Singapore. As always, we will happily take up any excuse to see a different part of Victoria and this is a lovely one indeed. It has many wineries, great restaurants, lovely sea views, quaint townships that straddle the divide between country and city very well (since they are mostly well-equipped with fantastic bakeries, coffee joints and boutiques).

Since our friends were staying at Rye, we decide to stay close by at Sorrento, which has a lovely beach-side location, plenty of interesting shops and a long beach front for walks. Unfortunately, by the time we reach Sorrento, I'm scarcely fit to walk anywhere much less check out any shops! It was as much as I could do to make some small talk with our host, John, at Dougal's B&B while A attends to all the checking-in matters and when I could finally crawl into bed for a snooze, I slept blessedly for an hour. All this because of a splendid afternoon lunch at the Vines of Red Hill....

Vines of Red Hill

Lunch at the Vines was the big highlight of our weekend, other than catching up with our friends of course! One of my invaluable resources here has been the 2007 Age's Good Food Guide (to Melbourne and regional Victoria); it's helped us plan our trips around Victoria, taking into account which restaurants are along the way. I would also have bought the Foodie's Guide to Melbourne & Regional Victoria 2007 but on flipping through, realised that I already knew many of these shops. We've been quite fortunate that our neighbourhood has many of the great food places/shops/purveyors listed inside. So when the Good Food Guide listed Vines as the only Chef's Hat rated restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula, we decided a visit should be on the cards.

The view from the restaurant terrace

Situated in the vineyard area of Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, the Vines overlooks neat rows of hanging vines and is ringed with wild lavendar. It's a lovely place for lunch especially out on the terrace on a sunny day and I can imagine it would look beautiful at night with lots of candles flickering. Unfortunately, the Vines was booked out for a wedding the day we got in so we had to settle for lunch, which worked out quite well with our plans in any event since we would only be meeting Val and Justyn on Sunday instead. Certainly, it would have been quite perilous to drive back to Sorrento after dinner since we had to traverse windy roads past Arthur's Seat (the kind with near 360' pinturns!!) and these are roads for clearheaded drivers, which we weren't well... not after we had such a wonderful lunch at the Vines!

From the word "go", lunch was a close to 3 hour long session of indulgence. Chef Steve Davidson's food is beautifully presented, in generous but not overflowing portions, and delights with every mouthful. However, because the portions looked just right and each bite wasn't cloying or overly rich, we had underestimated the capacity of our stomachs! After finishing the entrees and the mains, we thought we could manage a dessert each and that was the absolute killer leaving both of us a little glassy-eyed albeit nicely sated. Here's what we had:

Entrees

After we order, our server brought out a bowl of freshly baked bread (really yummy stuff!) and a trio of salted butter, olive tapenade and light fruity olive oil, the latter being locally grown in the Mornington Peninsula.

That day was turning out to be a rather hot day so we decided to skip the soup on the menu(although butternut pumpkin soup is a favourite of mine) and order something else.

A decided on the spatchcock, which came with its roasted breast with livers, foie gras and herbed brioche gratin and rolled leg ballotine with rocket, together with truffle infused polenta and port-reduced shallots. This was simply yummy - the smell of the truffle subtly whets one's appetite for the spatchcock, which is very nicely done (not too dry as smaller fowls tend to be if overcooked). The polenta had the nice texture and almost similar taste to very good whipped potatoes and was perfect sopping up the jus on the dish. A of course, was delighted by the generous nugget of foie gras nestled in the polenta and just as I thought he was going to polish it off, had the presence of mind to leave me half of it to try. That took some self-control since he simply loves foie gras (to the horror of my mom)! A had the Vines' house label shiraz, which robust flavours was the perfect complement to the intense flavours of his entree.

My dish seemed rather simple in comparison, certainly with none of the complex flavours that A's had. However, executed well, oysters are the perfect starting point for any meal and the chef definitely got this dish right. While I'm not usually a fan of oysters (preferring to have just 1 or 2 and not half a dozen), this dish sounded light and cool for the hot afternoon. Freshly shucked, the 6 Coffin Bay oysters were served with lime marinated yellow fin tuna, Yarra Valley salmon caviar and avocado and herb salsa. The accompaniments to the oysters didn't overpower its natural briny taste and instead added depth and interest to each bite - each caviar roe bursting with flavour as you chew the oyster, the lime adding a slight tart taste to the overall sweetness of the avocado and tuna. The Vines house label Gewurtztraminer, being light, fruity and slightly sweet, was a lovely accompaniment to the oysters.

By now, A and I have these slightly blissed out looks on our faces, and when our server comes over, she smiles when she sees we have mopped up every scrap of our dishes and receives our effusive praises graciously. Thankfully, she allows some time to lapse before bringing out our mains so A and I have time to take in the scenic views of rolling vineyards, wildflowers and lavendar bushes and catch up on the events of the week.

Mains

When our server brings forth the mains, A is almost hopping with delight at the supremely large portion of the rib eye on his plate. Generously portioned, his char-grilled Mornington Peninsula grain fed rib eye came with a double potato and prosciutto stack, green beans, local horseradish cream and a light shiraz reduction. Simply done, but very effective on the taste scale, a lot of the credit must go to the chef for using fresh local produce and bringing out the best of each item.

I had decided earlier to order the duck breast, which would be served pink and comes with baby beetroot, cress and walnut salad, butter beans, corn and duck leg pancake and a Jasmine tea reduction. This is superb - ordinarily, my appetite for very rich dishes is a small one and I don't always eat the entire duck breast, preferring just to pick off someone's plate or have it as an appetizer instead. This time, I polish off my plate (with the exception of several pieces of duck reluctantly surrendered to A) and mopped up every scrap of jus with the flavourful duck slices. Although it comes slightly overdone, the pieces of duck breast are tender and juicy and sop up the Jasmine tea reduction perfectly well. I liked the reduction in particular (a not unusual combination with duck given that there is the classic Chinese tea-smoked duck) and how the reduction only had a faint hint of Jasmine tea.

Dessert

By the time we finish off our mains, we are both slightly stuffed and definitely pondering if dessert is a good idea. One look at the menu and greed takes over prudence - I can't resist trying the slow baked chocolate tart with passion fruit ice cream and pistachio biscuit and since I refused to share mine with A, he chooses the local apple and puff pastry tart with malt cream and Red Hill honey ice cream. Both are the perfect end to our lovely meal. The dark chocolate tart in particular, gives an intense shock to the system with each mouthful and the slightly tart passionfruit ice cream offsets the richness of the chocolate.

A's apple puff pastry tart is really good as well and lends credence to the saying that sometimes, the simplest things turn out the best. I often wish my puff pastry would turn out as nice and flaky as this one, but I guess that's why there are pastry chefs and there are home cooks like me! We leave the Vines with some reluctance to dispel the magic woven by the food, the peaceful setting and the perfect weather - too often, we have been caught out by the weather on our trips out, which mars slightly an otherwise lovely experience, but today, we are lucky on all counts.

Owing to our heavy lunch, dinner that night is a simple fish and chips from the chippie shop in Sorrento after spending the evening walking the Sorrento foreshore and catching the sunset. We play Trivial Pursuit in our B&B after and retire early for the night.

The next day, we enjoy a lovely breakfast and have a good time chatting with the other couples at the breakfast table. In what is becoming a common occurrence so far, we rose from the table quite late at 11 am (and A and I had been the first ones at 830am too!) and quickly clear off to meet Val and Justyn for lunch at Stillwater at Crittendon in Dromana.

Again another lazy afternoon, but this time, we go easy on the food (mainly just entrees and desserts) and instead polish off 3 bottles of very good sauvignon blanc. After all, the focus this time was on catching up with our friends and 3 hours go by really quickly before they have to scoot off to view a house down at Portsea and we arrange to meet at the National Golf Club at Cape Schank for coffee with ocean views later on in the afternoon.

With a couple of hours free, A and I go check out the various produce places and load up on locally produced apple juice, first harvest cherries and Desiree potatoes. Visiting produce farms and sampling their wares in each region we visit is one of my favourite activities, and recalls to mind my childhood holidays with my parents spent picking strawberries and visiting orchards. We also visit the Gordon Studio Glassblowers with very lovely sculptural glass pieces and with very little time remaining before we have to drive to Cape Schank, we stop by the Red Hill Art Gallery to browse the pieces. The friendly owner offers to show us his farm and before we know it, we are taken to see his very very cute alpacas and A has a go at feeding them. One alpaca in particular catches our eye, it looking very much like an Ewok and for the most part, they are docile and relatively friendly (with A at least who is holding the feed) although they do occasionally spit and hiss and kick at each other.

We end off a lovely weekend trip taking coffee with Val and Justyn at the National's clubhouse overlooking the putting greens with the spectacular ocean views in the background playing off the setting sun.

The all-important contact details:

Vines of Red Hill
150 Red Hill Road, Red Hill Mornington Peninsula
Tel: (03) 5989 2977

Chef's Hat - 1 with a rating of 15/20
Definitely call ahead (suggest at least 1 or 2 weeks in advance) to reserve a spot as this place seats just 80 and fills up quickly for the prime Saturday night bookings. I had called the week before and was told that Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were fully booked. Also, as this is a popular wedding venue, there may be nights which the restaurant does not open to the public either. The dishes we had were from the menu for the 17th to 19th November so next time you visit, there is likely to be something new!

What keeps me busy most days

2006-11-25T23:05:00.000+11:00

I'm commonly asked (as is A) what I do with my time here now that I'm not working. Initially, keeping myself occupied and filling the hours was a tough task, me waking up promptly at 7:30 am and fidgeting around the house and checking my email every couple of hours. Now, it's a breeze finding activities to do to fill the hours every day!

A lot of my friends are now calling me a "domestic goddess", hopefully with the image of the luscious Nigella Lawson in mind! I guess it's because a lot of my time now revolves around cooking and food and shopping for food. I spend many happy hours walking past the swanky boutiques on Chapel Street until I reach its extreme end in the district of Windsor to wallow in the op shops with their extensive collection of vintage cooking books (how quaint are recipes for good old 70s and 80s classics like prawn cocktail, avocado and trout pate with Melba toast and Steak Diane?!) and browsing the shelves at a favourite shop, Flavours Herbs and Spices, for spices, herbs and other cooking equipment. Walking back along Chapel Street, I look at the lovely cakes at Patterson's Cakes, and the many other old-fashioned cake shops (with garishly decorated cupcakes) along the way. Sometimes, I pop to the Prahran Market to check out the produce at the organic supermarket there although by now I do most of my shopping at the cheaper Chinese produce market (the Fresh Supermarket on Chapel Street, Prahran). Other times, I swing by special providores such as Oliveria - a Melbourne institution (particularly amongst chefs) specialising in olive-based products and is best known for its range of olive oils.

I am usually unable to resist buying something new to try and a week back, having run out of olive oil (the normal kind from the supermarkets), I finally decide to try the olive oil sourced by Oliveria from various parts of the world - ranging from Spain, Australia, Italy and even France. These oils are decanted from huge stainless steel buckets into individual packets and because they are packaged under Oliveria's own label, the cost of trying these oils are significantly lowered.

First, one has to decide on the type of olive oil one wants - spicy, fruity, mild.... the various attributes of olive oil is unending. Buying olive oil can be akin to buying wine - you definitely have to try some before deciding. After sampling a variety, I decide on the Chef's Choice olive oil, which I'm told is a popular choice amongst many Melbourne chefs. Later that night, drizzled over a rocket salad and served separately with some of my Tomato Powder (from New York) as a dip for bread, I can see why this olive oil is in demand!

I don't just spend all my time drooling over the produce in specialist shops or a lazy afternoon reading the latest cookbooks at Borders (just a short 10 minute walk away!) or cooking up dinner. For the past couple of months, I've been faithfully tying on the apron and whacking on the oven to try my hand at a variety of bakes - cakes, slices, muffins and biscuits. I'm way past the first time I made pastry after many years, although there are some near misses (like the time I tweaked my Chocolate Peanut Cookie recipe with orange marmalade instead and turned out a dense chewy cookie, which thankfully A still loved).

The latest recipe I try is a Double Chocolate Muffin from the Everyday Cooking book I'm so attached to. Originally a Triple Chocolate Muffin (how's that for chocolate overload?!), I leave out the white chocolate chips and chocolate fudge icing the recipe calls for and instead add in freshly chopped dark chocolate with the dark chocolate chips I'm using. I don't have any more chocolate in the fridge to make the icing so I use my beloved Nutino instead. Instant yums!

My Double Chocolate Muffin

(makes 8 - 9)

Ingredients:

150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
50g (1/2 cup) cocoa
90g (1/2 cup) soft brown sugar
165ml (2/3 cup) milk
60g (4 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
90g (1/4 cup) dark chocolate chips and dark chocolate chopped up, mixed
Chocolate fudge icing or Nutino for icing

Method:

Preheat oven to 180'C and line 8 x 125ml (1/2 cup) muffin pans with paper cases.
Sift the flour and cocoa together, then add brown sugar and stir through. Whisk the milk, melted butter and egg together.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix and whisk together until it forms a smooth batter. Fold through the chocolate chips and bits.
Spoon the mix into the prepared muffin tins and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden brown.
Allow to cool, then top with Nutino frosting or the traditional chocolate fudge icing if desired.

The prepared mix all ready to be bunged into the oven

The muffins before the Nutino icing is spread

These muffins are probably not something you'd want to eat every day, but these are no doubt fantastic once in while!

Check out Oliveria at:

Pran Central Shopping Centre, Shop G36
Corner of Commercial Rd. & Cato St, Prahran
Tel: (03) 9510 0690

The Great Ocean Road Part II

2006-11-24T12:20:00.000+11:00

A trip down the Great Ocean Road won't be complete if one doesn't partake of the culinary delights that each town offers. Indeed, besides the sights shown in my previous post, some of the best moments on our trip revolved around our creature comforts.

First of all, it's definitely important to choose a comfortable B&B (bed and breakfast) with the all important "full country breakfast" included. A and I don't usually have a big breakfast most mornings but we do enjoy partaking in this particular pleasure of staying at a B&B. It was a little difficult with the accomodation choices for our trip, which took place over the long Melbourne Cup weekend, as either quite a fair number of accomodation choices were fully booked up or else required a minimum 2 - 3 night compulsory stay. Still, if it hadn't been for these difficulties, we wouldn't have stumbled upon one of the highlights of our stay.

Timboon House

Timboon House (circa 1855), a heritage Victoria-listed property, is located at Camperdown, which is about 56km north of the Great Ocean Road. We had a night's stay there on my birthday, as I could not find any suitable accomodation nearer the Great Ocean Road. Despite the 45 minute journey up north, A and I were delighted to come across this historic homestead in the late afternoon sun and to be warmly greeted by our affable host, John King and his Jack Russell terrier, Mr. Darcy.

Our pretty bedroom

Timboon House is beautifully proportioned with antique furniture and Laura Ashley-like furnishings and is set amidst peaceful, matured rose gardens. I liked the incredible details each bedroom presented, from the clawfoot bath in the spotless private bathroom, the little bon bons next to the water jug, and particularly the antique light pull next to the door (pull once to switch on the light, pull a second time to turn it off!). John was also extremely helpful with suggestions for our trip and dinner that night and over the course of the night and the next morning, proved to be an engaging and hospitable host. We spend part of the afternoon enjoying a very prettily arranged afternoon tea on the patio with John and chatting about travels (and his visit to Singapore last year), food, work and passing the time quite nicely indeed.

The welcoming dining room all neatly set for breakfast

By the end of the evening when John calls up to us to ask if we still want coffee and a nightcap before turning in, we're starting to wish we had booked ourselves in for the next night as well. Especially when we descend the stairs the next day to the dining room, with the strains of classical music playing and a crackling fire going, to see the spread laid out for us in the dining room!

The cereals and poached fruits table all nicely laid out

My lovely brekkie!

Both A and I love a big breakfast on weekends but rarely do we go the whole hog with cereal, poached fruits and yoghurt, toast and preserves and the cooked portion. We do here, as the peaceful night we enjoyed in the comfortable bed upstairs whetted our appetite. A stays with the traditional eggs, bacon, mushroom, tomato and sausage combo while I decide to try John's suggestion of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on rye toast. We pass a lovely morning at the breakfast table chatting with the other couple about Melbourne and their part of Victoria, which turns out to be Red Hill in the Mornington Peninsula. We push back out chairs from the table around 10.30 am but not until the couple gives us tips of where to go during our upcoming weekend on the Mornington Peninsula.

We leave Timboon House to the accompaniment of a volley of goodbye barks from Mr. Darcy. There are B&Bs and there are those B&Bs that rise above all others - Timboon House is one of the rare few that we would consider coming to stay at again and again, by virtue of the host of creature comforts, its peaceful setting and most of all, its cheerful and welcoming host (and dog).

After a good night's rest, I would say the next important consideration would be getting a good meal. A loves his food and can happily eat anything as long as it's not too badly cooked but he's increasingly starting to take an interest in visiting way-off places just for the food! We were relatively blessed on this trip to experience 3 differing dining experiences with the freshest regional produce available.

The Bend Cafe

Our first stop for the night was our B&B, Whispering Seas B&B at Glenaire. This is about 20 minutes from Apollo Bay (our original stop) and was one of the few B&Bs who would take us for one night. Our host Susan Collingbourne points us in the direction of the Bend Cafe for dinner and warns us that while Paul would feed us well, "he's a bit of a character!". I knew from reading some articles on the internet and an earlier article from The Australian, that Paul, the chef at the Bend Cafe, had been dubbed "a reluctant chef" and "possessing a wicked sense of humour" and we would soon find out what Susan meant!

You can see the Bend Cafe with its green roof in the distance

Making our way down to the Bend Cafe that evening, both of us were hungry and looking forward to dinner. Paul greets us with a beer stubbie in hand (in fact, when he's not behind the grill, he has a beer bottle firmly in hand that whole evening!) and tells us to sit anywhere. I look around for a menu and read the 'instructions' on the blackboards next to the kitchen and around the cafe with amusement when Paul rolls up to tell us that what he's got in the fridge and how he plans to cook it!

Paul behind the stove and his amusing instructions on the blackboard. If you can't read it, it says "Your conversation may be monitored for future training purposes: If you do not wish to participate, please inform your server and thank you for your cooperation. In a rush ---> MacDonalds - Colac 63km, Torquay 127km, Warrnambool 131km DRIVE SAFELY"

No menu in sight and with no idea about the prices, this is a leap of faith on our part and we decide to fall in with his suggestion of "the heavy meal" - a roasted lamb rump stuffed with feta cheese served on grilled aubergine, potato cakes, mushrooms and tomatoes. Following his query whether we had any food preferences and our reply that "we eat everything", Paul grumbles that "Americans say they eat everything and I serve them feta and they dig it out of the lamb and leave it by the side of their plate..." and by his stern look, we take it that we should not commit such a sin. A plate of bread and pesto appears on the table and when we are asked if we want wine, no wine list is presented - instead, it's "Do you fancy a Cab Sauv, Merlot or Shiraz?". Shiraz it is. We make ourselves comfortable with the newspapers as appetizing smells emanate from the kitchen and Paul banters with us and the other guests.

Not too long later, our food comes out together with a generous pouring of the shiraz A wanted. Taking mouthfuls of both, we realise that even without a menu or a winelist, Paul's food and drink is more than plain good - it's hearty and very very tasty! The unknown shiraz is plummy with every mouthful of lamb we take. Quite stuffed, we end off with a slice of freshly baked cheesecake for dessert and a cup of coffee each. We never find out how much each item cost as the bill came totalled up and we paid a reasonable sum for the amount we had. Come to think of it, we never found out what the mysterious shiraz A drank as well.....

The Dining Room at Dublin House Inn

When I was booking our accomodation at Port Fairy, I had made calls around to our first choice, the 2 Chef's Hat rated joint serving up Middle Eastern-inspired/Mediterranean cuisine, Portofino on Bank. Unfortunately, Portofino is closed on Mondays and we rue our chance to eat at this highly-lauded restaurant.

We opt instead to visit the Dining Room at Dublin House Inn instead, being lured by the premise that the menu involved quite a fair bit of seafood! Our arrival in Port Fairy and the subsequent afternoon spent visiting the galleries was marred by the constant drizzle and dreary skies, so we were greatly cheered to find upon arrival at Dublin House Inn, that we would be seated next to the fire blazing in the fireplace.We decide to go with seafood for both our entrees and mains and here's what we had.

Entrees

A decides on the special appetizer of the day called "Flavours of the Sea", which has a trio of small starters - Scallops seasoned with Piri Piri spices, smoked Timboon eel, seasoned oysters battered and fried.

I opt for the Marriner's Linguine, which is al dente linguine tossed in a garlicky, semillon-based sauce with mussels, scallops, smoked eel, oysters and prawns.

Mains

A has the catch of the day, which is a duo of Tasmanian salmon and freshly caught local Ling, served on a bed of green olive potato mash and with a green salad with Roquefort dressing. No picture unfortunately as the various pictures I took turned out too dark.

This is my main dish - Zarzuela or a Catalonian Seafood Stew, served with olive tapenade and something similar to gremolata (I forgot what it was but think its called picada).

We end off with a shared dessert as by this time, we are both full to bursting point on the really generous portions. Although we decide on a steamed cranberry pudding with orange caramel sauce, homemade vanilla bean icecream, mascarpone and cranberry compote, I am intrigued by another dessert with Persian saffron cotton candy, which is a common fixture in Middle Eastern desserts that I've heard lots about but never tasted. I decide to try my luck and I ask the server if we could have the pudding but as I couldn't stomach another dessert alone, would she be so good as to let me have a taste of the Persian "Fairy Floss" and she very nicely accedes and comes back with a big portion the size of a fist!

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the food there, particularly as the seafood was really fresh (quite a fair bit was freshly caught that morning). I liked the Zarzuela very much, which was tangy and spicy and definitely a wonderful dish to have on a cold evening. Best of all, service here was attentive and flexible and definitely a crowning touch to the wonderful food. Warm and cosy, the Dining Room is blessed with an extremely professional and accomodating host in Michelle and a very competent cook in Nick. Another place to mark in our diary for a return visit in the future!

Wisharts at the Wharf

The next day after our meal at Dublin House Inn, we eat a hearty breakfast and make a trek to Griffiths Island to see the island in the daytime (after our teeth-chattering visit the night before in the light drizzle to catch the shearwater birds return to their nests at dusk). Tramping around the island works up an appetite (even after the substantial breakfast) and we decide to fuel up on fish and chips before heading onto Tower Hill Reserve for another ramble on our way home.

Wisharts at the Wharf is your typical unpretentious chippie shop, save for the chilled display case showcasing the catch of the day and all the fish used in their fish and chips, all freshly caught and unfrozen. This is a rarity in any chippie shop and indeed, we had been quite let down by the fish and chips we had bought in Port Campbell a couple of days before as the fish had all the texture and taste of frozen fish.

When fish and chips is nicely done, nothing quite compares to tearing open the paper its wrapped in, having it steaming hot and doused liberally with vinegar and salt, and then bathing your face in that aroma. Not only is the fish really fresh, the batter is light with none of the oil-laden sogginess lesser chippie shops would have. Sitting on the deck overlooking the River Moyne and enjoying our hot treat, this was a simple but lovely way to wrap up our holiday.

All the details you need:

We stayed at Timboon House, located at 320 Old Geelong Road, Camperdown Victoria. For more details, contact John King at (03) 5593 1003.

We ate at these places:

The Bend Cafe

3225 Great Ocean Road, Glenaire Victoria
Tel: (03) 5237 9102

Definitely phone ahead to check with Paul if the cafe will be open for dinner as opening hours are not fixed, although the Bend Cafe usually opens on Friday and Saturday nights for dinner. Ask him nicely and he might just decide to cook for you that night!

The Dining Room at Dublin House Inn

57 - 59 Bank Street, Port Fairy Victoria
Tel: (03) 5568 2022

Wisharts at the Wharf

You can't miss this - just walk along the River Moyne to the wharf in Port Fairy and you'll find this little fish and chips shop with outdoor seating. A swankier restaurant just across the carpark also serves the same but at a higher price.

Resin Jewellery Class # 4

2006-11-23T21:17:00.000+11:00

Today's the 4th session of our 5 week course and having mastered the basics, we're left pretty much to our own devices. Some of us work on casting our remaining pieces of jewellery or little bits and bobs in resin - this is the easy bit. Most of us take the chance to use the heavy duty machines available to start on polishing and refining the earlier pieces we had cast.

Gayle using the sanding machine to file the rough edges of her bangle

1/2 to 1 hour of solid elbow grease using emery paper (to smoothen the rough edge of the resin piece) and the leather polishing cloth (to give shine) takes just minutes on these machines so it's no wonder we're taking the opportunity to start the finishing process. I've cast quite a number of bangles and smaller items, all of which have not been sanded or polished. Unfortunately, I spent too much time mixing up a new batch of resin to finish off my pieces that I only manage to finishing sanding and filing one bangle (with another 4 more to go....).

Edit at the polishing machine

Part of the fun I've been having in class is checking out what everyone else has been doing since I'm the boring one, casting bangles (ha, some of you might think you're getting bangles for Christmas but not at the rate I'm progressing with the finishing process!) and small shapes with the intention of stringing them as beads (again I stress intention). Many of the other girls are thoroughly creative, particularly Edit, who's been putting in the hours at home casting new rubber moulds and resin pieces and coming to class with very interesting ideas she's managed during the week. Viliama proves to be quite thrilled with some of Edit's pieces, modelling them below in an improvised necklace (mine is the tiny little yellow triangle object).

The Great Ocean Road Part I

2006-11-21T10:23:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago over the Melbourne Cup long weekend, A and I took a trip down the Great Ocean Road to celebrate my birthday. The trip also marks our first road trip together (seems like 2006 is a year of firsts for us). Taking place over 4 days, we saw quite a lot of sights, met heaps of lovely people and ate some really good grub so I thought it might be better to split my posts into 2. This one is going to focus on the sights and the second on the creature comforts of the trip.

According to tourism statistics, more people travel the Great Ocean Road to visit the Twelve Apostles than Kakadu and Uluru combined. As one of the most popular highlights of any visit to Australia, the vast part of the Great Ocean Road stretches from Torquay all the way to Portland (about 4 hours drive via the inland route on Princes Highway from Melbourne).

With all that distance, the environment that one traverses on a trip down the Great Ocean Road would be incredibly diverse, ranging from the Surf Coast (Torquay to Apollo Bay - for the biggest waves a surfer can desire) to the Shipwreck Coast (Cape Otway to Warrnambool - the coastal bits where many shipwrecks occurred in the 19th century). Travelling just half an hour north from the Great Ocean Road would lead you to rainforests, waterfalls, volcanic territory and quaint country towns. So a trip down the Great Ocean Road would have enough varied activities for a group with different interests.

Better yet, one now has the option to either drive down the Great Ocean Road (which most visitors choose) or to walk part of it in the Great Ocean Walk, which covers about 91km from Apollo Bay to Glenample Homestead near the 12 Apostles. We drove of course….

Our trip took us as far as Port Fairy, which is about 290 km west of Melbourne. The beauty about travelling the Great Ocean Road is that you can decide how far you want to venture as there are many turn-offs along the way leading north up to the inland route back to Melbourne. On hindsight, I did wish we had taken it a little easier and not ventured so far this time around as most of our days were quite packed. It's also prudent to remember that driving times between attractions will also take slightly longer owing to the winding roads and occasional offroad conditions (particularly at the national parks).

Still, we packed in a nice variety of activities ranging from exploring the quaint fishing village of Port Fairy and the other little country towns we passed through, climbing up the many lighthouses along the coast, trekking through rainforests to see waterfalls, attempting to see glowworms at night and aborting the same as it was terrifyingly dark and our torch was but a tiny beam of light in a pool of black, visiting a migratory bird sanctuary island (at night in the pitch black again and then the next day when it's light) and a wild-life reserve set in a dormant volcanic crater…..

I could go on and on about the fun we had, the places we'd visited and the people we met. Instead, here's a selection of some of our memories:

The views and townships we passed through

We saw plenty of views from the many lookout points along the Great Ocean Road. Here is just one of the many beautiful views on offer.

Each of the towns we passed through had their own character. We were lucky when we rolled into Apollo Bay on Saturday that their weekly market was in session - so we took the chance to buy some excellent jam and check out the wares on offer.

A buying some yummy watermelon, lemon and orange honey jam in Apollo Bay

Camperdown is an excellent example of an old country town and nowhere is it evident that it is also cattle country than by this sign displayed next to the town's historic clock tower.

Port Fairy is a charming (if slightly sleepy) fishing village, which has been gentrified by the arrival of retired Melburnians. Lots of very good cafes and top notch restaurants (which I will post about next) would be found on the single stretch of shops down its "high street" and Port Fairy has fast acquired a reputation as a foodie town - indeed, there are no less than 4 restaurants in Port Fairy listed in the Age Good Food Guide and the Australian Gourmet Traveller but seeing that we only had 1 night there, we had to settle for just one of those 4 restaurants! Other attractions include a thriving artist community scattered around the town, fresh seafood hauled in by the fishing vessels and a migratory bird colony on a nearby island. Take a lovely stroll down the River Moyne and better yet, book one of the B&Bs (bed and breakfast) places with a view overlooking the river. Unfortunately for us, the weather when we were there was rainy, overcast and extremely cold.

A view of the many B&Bs along the River Moyne - we stayed in Gobles Mill House (the grey building with the red roof)

Further along this stretch is the port where fishermen pull up and the fishermen's co-op where you can buy fresh fish, crayfish and even abalone (in season)!

Driving back along the Princes Highway, we were treated to a different type of view altogether of rolling hills, golden pastures dotted with sheep and cows and miles and miles of these dry stone walls. If you look closely, you'll notice that these walls have been constructed without the aid of cement or any binding agent. Drystone-walling is an artform in itself, handed down from generation to generation and nowhere is this art more in evidence than in the countryside surrounding Camperdown and Colac.

Lighthouses a plenty

Split Point Lighthouse

This being the part of the coast where ships from England and Europe used to pull in, lighthouses abound plentiful. All the lighthouses we visited continue to be in operation, save that with advances in technology and the light beams now being automated, a lighthouse keeper is no longer required. It was quite fascinating to read about the history of the pioneer lighthouse keepers and the solitary and spartan life they led, which was evident from our visit to their homestead in the lighthouse grounds.

Cape Otway Lighthouse - the oldest lighthouse in Victoria

The lonely lifestyle of a lighthouse keeper and his family is most evident when we visit the lighthouse on Griffiths Island (an island next to Port Fairy), which is now a protected migratory bird sanctuary. The lighthouse stands as the last bastion against the howling winds and the huge waves of the Southern Ocean and when night falls (as we experienced it one night when we went to watch the migratory birds called "muttonbirds" or shearwater birds come back in droves from feeding time), all is pitch dark in this part of the island except for the great beam of light. Oftentimes, the small footpath connecting Griffiths Island to the mainland would be flooded at stretches, leaving the lighthouse keeper and his family cut off on the island.

Here is A plodding along on our walk around Griffith Island to the lighthouse at its extreme point

Inland attractions

The Otways region is rich in flora and fauna and we took the opportunity to visit a few of the rainforest walks in the national parks and check out some of the noted waterfalls.

At the Triplet Falls - I only managed to capture one of the 3 waterfalls owing to vegetation being in the way

Taking one of these walks (there are many to chose from with different gradients of difficulty) is a good respite from the ocean winds and views and is just a short 30 minutes north from the Great Ocean Road. We're also fortunate that we came just before the summer rush so much of our treks in the rainforest is blessedly quiet and peaceful - very Lord of the Rings as A put it.

Soaring views of the treetops

Anyone intending to do a "glowworm" trek at night at Melba Gully or Kennett River is definitely encouraged to check out these places in the daytime. A and I went to Melba Gully our first evening and couldn't find out way from the carpark to the start of the trail in the pitch black darkness, even with the help of our torch and the car's headlights. Needless to say that in the dark, one does get a little disoriented and everything takes on an extra sinister aspect so not seeing anyone around (but several cars in the carpark) was enough to spook us badly so that we slunk back to the B&B without having seen any glowworms.

The Twelve Apostles and Lord Ard Gorge

One of the most famous attractions along the Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles probably need no introduction. Lord Ard Gorge is another beautiful rock formation further down from the Twelve Apostles, and is also where the sailing ship, the Lord Ard, was shipwrecked, leaving only 2 survivors. The sinking of the Lord Ard is retold every night in a lights and laser show at Flagstaff Hill (at Warrnambool).

Unfortunately, when we reach the Twelve Apostles, nature conspires against us and the skies go all dark and broody. Hence our dramatic stormy looking shots!

As our tummies are rumbling and we need to turn off the Great Ocean Road to get to Camperdown for the night, we decide to skip the rest of the rock formations after we visit Lord Ard Gorge.

All the animals we spotted

The nesting burrow of a shearwater bird but no bird in sight!

On the plus side, fauna was in abundance on our trip. We started off with a sighting of koala bear mothers and their cubs in the trees when driving along the winding road away from the Cape Otway lighthouse. Cars would progressively pull over to the roadside to stand beneath the trees to check out one of Australia's national icons in the wild. Ignoring the threat of snakes in the bushes (actually, A told me that there aren't any snakes in bushland but he was WRONG!), we plunged into the scrub to check out that koala mama's extended family. Luckily I was toting my long range lens and was able to capture quite a few shots of the happy family.

Emu chicks

We spot plenty more animals along our drives, including what looked like a hedgehog ambling along the highway (A tells me its actually an echidna). The bumper crop of sightings comes on our last day when we check out the shearwater bird colony on Griffiths Island and visit the Tower Hill Game Reserve.

The shy echidna who hid his face everytime it heard my camera click

We don't see very many shearwater birds (being out fishing the whole day) although we do see evidence of their 'homes' - they nest in burrows much like puffins do. What's quite interesting to us is that every year, these birds fly 15,000 km from their wintering grounds in the Aleutian Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula to Griffiths Island to next. Individual birds return to the same nest burrow they occupied the previous year and what follows is several months of housekeeping, feeding and nesting. The young are eventually left by their parents who make their way back to their wintering grounds and these young chicks are able to eventually find their way back there without the guidance of the older birds! Griffiths Island is also an ornithologist's paradise, with its proliferation of sea birds, To our surprise, I spy a joey in the midst of this island (A thought it was a rock initially until it move).

No shearwater birds to be seen but there is a joey!

Later on that afternoon, we went for a ramble in the Tower Hill Game Reserve. Tower Hill Game Reserve is noted for being located in a dormant (not extinct!) volcanic crater. Noting that the signboard warns us to be careful of poisonous snakes (leading me to scold A thoroughly for misleading me about snakes in Australian bushland), we make our way through the scrub and have lovely views of the volcanic crater.

The ditzy koala finally ensconed in the right tree

Along the way, we spot emus and their chicks, an echidna hiding in the bush and a ditzy koala in the carpark. What amused me most, prior to spotting the koala ambling on the ground (a rare occurrence as they are mostly treebound during the day) was that A said something about spotting a strange-looking dog. One glance told me it was a koala and I grabbed my camera, yelling to him to follow at the same time. Apparently, the koala had climbed up a wrong tree instead of a eucalyptus and proceeded to do the same thing again in our presence before finally finding the correct tree to join his mate. It must have been a little disconcerted to find an audience observing his ditziness!

Seeing so many animals in the wild was a nice ending to a great trip. Indeed, the ditzy koala provided many laughs on our long drive back home.

Resin Jewellery Class # 3

2006-11-17T13:07:00.000+11:00

This week's class proves to be quite exciting since we get to unmold some of the pieces we had cast the previous week. Here's a selection of what Jimmy and I had done... nothing vaguely Dinosaur Design about our creations but we're definitely proud of what we managed to achieve!

This week, we learn about finishing techniques, which range from sanding to filing to polishing with leather and a polish agent. After Viliama demonstrates how to use the various sanding machines (a scary process involving lots of noise, dust and screeching sounds), we all fan out to attempt more resin works and polish the various bangles and objects we had created over the past couple of weeks. After spending 10 minutes working the file over my bangle, my tingling arm tells me that I'm not going to get anywhere near making Dinosaur Design - standard jewellery anytime soon!

I'm looking forward to unearthing more of my pieces next week, one of which is a bangle which I tried to do a swirly pattern through. That's the fun bit about each class, not knowing what to anticipate for the next week! Keep checking in to see what else I managed to achieve!

New York # 6 - Eating our way around the city

2006-11-16T14:12:00.000+11:00

The charming courtyard at La Lanterna di Vittorio,

one of my fondest memories of eating out in New York

I realise I am really behind in finishing all my posts on New York, having promised a while ago to post my Top 10 New York memories.... its just that while I was working on all the posts, life goes on and so many other great topics to post about came up. I guess I should finish this soon as I have a couple of entries on our trip to the Great Ocean Road and with our forthcoming trips to the Mornington Peninsula and the Daylesford & Mt Macedon area and their spectacular restaurants and seasonal produce, there'll be heaps more material to post about!

Anyway, eating our way around New York is a gargantuan task as the city boasts countless great restaurants, venerable institutions and other humbler eateries. After all, this is the city that boasts 40,000 plus restaurants and growing! This is when the 2007 Zagat Guide on New York City Restaurants comes in handy. Find yourself wandering on the East side somewhere along the 60s after museum-hopping? Flip to the relevant section of the Zagat Guide and there'll definitely be more than just a couple of recommendations for you to choose from.

We've eaten our way through several excellent steakhouses to small cheap and cheerful outlets in Hell's Kitchen, the posh and nobby Balthazar's as well as quaint little coffeehouses and bistros with delightful open-air courtyards in Greenwich Village and SOHO. You've be spoilt for choice dining out in New York; this city is definitely a smorgasbord of choices and different cuisines. Just bring fat-day (but glamourous) outfits for those last few days of your trip and you should be alright!

Some regrets I had about our eating out in New York? Not having enough time to make reservations at Thomas Keller's new institution, Per Se, missing a chance to try the legendary porterhouse at Peter Luger's and generally missing all the other little nuggets of good food simply because we didn't have enough days (or bigger stomachs) to eat and eat and eat. Just as well that I leave some places to look forward to on my next visit to New York!

Here are some of the highlights:

Pam Real Thai Food

An unpretentious eatery in Hell's Kitchen, we decided to pay this place a visit one night when we were craving something Asian and that would likely not come in Flintstone-sized portions. This was a short walk away from our digs in Times Square and had an adequate but enthusiastic rating from the Zagat's so I thought we would take a chance and head here.

Pam's shopfront is nondescript so I almost walked right past it. Settling in, we note it's a place for a quick and easy meal, although it's not a place to linger in since the noise level is incredible. The bonus is that prices were also on the cheaper end of the scale (New York being a really expensive place to eat out after you add on the 15-20% tip!) and the food was simple but tasty. Best of all, when I requested for "Thai Spicy", they came through with the spice levels kicked up a notch and also brought me the little green and red bird's eye chillis for added kick.

Some dumplings looking suspiciously like "siew mai" but tasting slightly different. Simply lovely!

Dessert that evening comprised roasted sticky rice

and Thai-style "creme brulee" made from mungbeans

It was good enough to return another night with our friend Greg and A's cousin, Sara, and as the main restaurant was full that night, we were directed to its newly opened sister restaurant in the next street called Pam Real Thai Encore. Same food, same price but in very much more glammed and funked-up surroundings (and infinitely quieter) so we got the better deal that night for sure.

Pam Real Thai Encore

402 West 47th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenue)
Tel: 212 315 4441

Momofuko Noodle Bar

An innovative take on the traditional Japanese ramen and other Asian/Japanese-inspired dishes, Momofuko (meaning "lucky peach") was opened by a Korean-American chef, David Chang, who's classical training at Cafe Boulud certainly stood him in good stead for his own venture! This came recommended by my NY-based friend, Cal so one Sunday afternoon, having time to kill before the matinee performance of the Spelling Bee, A and I took a cab down to the East Village to try the ramen.

Bright, cool setting with comfortable bar chairs and funky music (I think the Wu-Tang clan was playing that day), Momofuko Noodle Bar is definitely not your quintessential noodle joint. Although it's all hip and happening and located in the East Village, it's not a nobby joint and no one will think twice if you turn up in your sweats after a workout at the gym.

We both ordered the Momofuko Ramen, which features the Berkshire pork combo and poached egg. I wasn't sure about the inclusion of peas in this dish (seemed to be a very American thing to do) but I couldn't quibble about the quality of the pork in that dish! Using only Iowa Berkshire pork (known to be flavoursome and rich), served two ways, lean meat and the fatty bits (yum), this was definitely a treat as I like rich fatty pork. But unfortunately, the size of the dish and the richness of the pork made for slight nausea on my part that day, probably because I had overindulged in steak 2 nights in a row and was still recovering from the flu bug that struck me a couple of days ago. A of course, didn't have any problems polishing off his bowl and the remaining pork from mine.

We also tried their version of "kong ba pao" (stewed pork in fluffy white buns, a very popular Hokkien Chinese dish in Singapore) except that we ordered the pao with sauteed shitake mushrooms instead. I wasn't very thrilled about this dish since I just saw it as a poor imitation of "kong ba pao", gimmicky and not at all so tasty as to rave about it but other patrons didn't seem to mind, one guy wolfing down 2 orders for his lunch! I guess next time ordering the paos with the Berkshire pork may be a better choice instead.

That was about all we had room for in this visit; examining the sample menu on their website, I see that there were heaps more dishes (not on the menu that day) which would be featured from time to time, so that's always a reason to go back!

Momofuko Noodle Bar

163 First Avenue

Tel: 212 475 7899

From checking out their website, it seems that a new joint called Momofuko Ssam (serving Korean finger food which David Chang dubs an "Asian burrito" in this Time Out article) opened at 207 Second Avenue (at 13th Street) a couple of weeks before we landed in NYC. Something else to check out the next time we're in town!

Balthazar Restaurant

One of NYC's institutions serving up French bistrot food, we ended up at Balthazar's for dinner one night with some of A's colleagues after quite a few attempts at securing a reservation. All mirrored glass, white linen, banquett seating and dim lighting, and well-attended by the chic, well-attired crowd, Balthazar looked like any French brasserie transported from a Parisian street. Everyone seemed much pleased with their choice of dishes; I chose 3 quintessential French bistrot dishes to try, Chicken Liver & Foie Gras Mousse with Red Onion Confit & Country Bread, Steak Frites (with maitre d' butter) and Creme Brulee.

You can hardly see the huge pot of mousse but it was really good!

I have to apologise first that the photos are so horribly unclear as the dim lighting in Balthazar made it difficult to get a proper photo. Of the 3 dishes, only the mousse impressed, being smooth and creamy, and boasting a robust and clean liver taste throughout. I thought the Steak Frites was quite ordinary as the butter didn't seem quite intensely flavoured as some others I'd tried before, although the saving grace was the Frites, which came appropriately crisp and thin. Someone who ordered the Moules Frites said it was quite tasty but I can't verify that as I'm not in the habit of sharing food with acquaintances and declined to try their portion.

The disappointing Steak Frites

I had a pleasant ending with the Creme Brulee, which was yummy, but nothing spectacular.

Some comments about the service at Balthazar - I thought the waitress who waited at our table could have been more attentive and definitely the manager, who scolded the Indian busboy (who was incidentally the only nice waitstaff that night) clearing our table loudly within ear shot of diners could do with an attitude change. This would be an adequate dinner venue I guess.... just not for me.

Balthazar Restaurant

80 Spring Street (on the corner of Crosby Street)

Tel: 212 965 1785

Other restaurants worthy of mention:

Jane

100 West Houston Street

Tel: 212 254 7000

My friend Cal took us to this restaurant when we first met up. I gather he's taken all of our friends passing through New York to this place as well as we all shared pretty fond memories of the food served here. Cuisine here is "New American" which emphasizes lighter cooking styles and smaller portions. Definitely good grub, average restaurant prices and I hear that they do a killer Sunday brunch (complete with cocktail of choice). I will remember this place for its friendly bartender who on learning I was still nursing the flu, promptly recommended an Irish remedy and offered to make it up (I declined when I heard it involved rum!).

La Lanterna di Vittorio (The Fireside Caffe)

129 MacDougal Street

Tel: 212 529 5945

This lovely joint which has an open-air courtyard and an airy charm about the place seemed like just the cosy joint Felicity would have taken Noel for a dinner date, being a short walk from the NYU dorms (alright, remnants of my Felicity addiction)! Try and score a seat in its candle-lit courtyard for a dinner date - it's quite a lovely surprise walking into the courtyard after seeing how hugely built-up NYC is. Serving up a good selection of thin crust pizzas and paninis and having a pretty lengthy wine list, we came here with Cal for dessert and coffee after dinner at Jane. This is where I had the yummy chocolate hazelnut "sweet pizza" and which probably triggered my Nutella/Nutino cravings....

Steak lovers of USDA prime grade, dry aged beef would definitely enjoy the following:

Keens Steakhouse

72 West 36th Street

Tel: 212 947 3636

Proudly declaring itself to be the home of the legendary mutton chop since 1885, Keens is one of those old clubby restaurants with weather leather armchairs, dark polished wood panels and distinguished waiters impeccably turned out in their whites.

One of the unique features about this restaurant is the numerous church pipes lining the ceiling. Another must be their mutton chop, which to say the least, was HUGE and comes with a lovely 1cm thick slab of mutton fat. A, who loves his meat, struggled valiantly to the very end to polish off his dish, and I will definitely concur that the mutton is very nicely done and immensely tasty here. Just share the dish between 2 people, or else pay the consequences as A did when he awoke at 5am and felt his body temperature rising!

Our visit stands out in my memory for the sheer amount of food consumed. We were taken there by one of the "chiefs" in A's NY office, who clearly loves his food. Amongst the dishes ordered that night, together with plenty of beer and Calvados, were a Large Chilled Seafood Tray (boasting a dozen oysters, mussels, crab claws, clams and prawns), a non-stop flow of poached white asparagus (YUMMY!!), the legendary Mutton Chop, my delicious Aged Prime T-bone steak (which I managed to eat just half) and a 3 pound lobster complete with an endless flow of melted butter. Dessert concluded with more sin on our plate in the form of Chocolate Mousse and Hot Fudge Sundae.

Walking the 10 blocks back to our hotel that night wasn't easy after that gargantuan meal but we managed it somehow!

Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House

1221 Avenue of the Americas (at the McGraw-Hill Building)

Tel: 212 575 5129

From its location in the McGraw-Hill Building (incidentally where A's head office is located) to the polished mahogany bar, its chandeliered ceiling, smooth wooden balustrades and plush carpetting, I can see why Cal described Del Frisco's as a mecca for movers and shakers in the professional fields. Indeed, the night we were there, the bar was chock-a-block with expensively suited WASP figures although there were some folks in white jeans who were clearly from out-of-town. Another strange experience was that we were virtually the only Asians in that joint, quite a surreal feeling in cosmopolitan New York. Cal said the waitstaff would be quite easy on the eye and definitely as our server, Brad, walked up, I silently amen-ed his colleague's comment that this place boasted a "Masters of the Universe" selection of waitstaff!

This was a special treat for A, being his birthday dinner so we didn't spare any expense in ordering ourselves a bottle of Bordeaux "Greysac" and heaps of really lovely food to load the table - Crab cakes with Cajun lobster sauce, their famous Macaroni & Cheese, and the Prime Porterhouse for A and the Porterhouse Chop Lamb for me and finishing off with the dessert of the day (I can't remember what it is thought).

Appropriately tipsy and full to the belly, we stumbled over to the W Hotel (quite hip and happening and also the location from where the Fab 5 from Queer Eye for a Straight Guy view their combined makeover of the straight guy for the day in one of their plush suites) to meet up with some friends for a nightcap. A birthday A won't forget for a while!

When the Weather Outside is Frightful

2006-11-15T15:49:00.000+11:00

It's only a couple of weeks to go till summer rolls around but we're seeing wintry conditions these couple of days here in Melbourne. Since Monday, there have been intermittent showers and cold snaps culminating in a marvellous downpour complete with hailstones today (marvellous for the drought-stricken farming regions in Victoria that is, not so much for this shivering girl typing away with cold feet in booties). The temperature right now, despite the sun peeping out, is hovering somewhere about 8'C so I'm definitely glad to be snug and warm indoors.

Back in Singapore, days like today would be a welcome respite from the sweltering heat and if one is fortunate enough to be snuggling on your couch with a book, definitely an opportune period for doing nothing more than snoozing and reading and perhaps indulging in some pampering treats for the tummy.

I had earlier in the day started off with a pampering treat (purely by accident since I had made the appointment a while ago) when I went to try the Skin Quench facial at Aesop's South Yarra branch seeing that it was a short 7 minute walk away and was glad to be cosseted with warm oil and wrapped in blankets as the wind howled outside. Of course, the walk back home was enough to take my breath away so after lunch and working on some projects, I decided to treat myself to a cuppa and a couple of slices of the Orange Marmalade Cake I'd made last night.

Not the neatest slices of cake ever but these are so rich, they're better cut into smaller slices to enjoy

Made from a recipe from Campion and Curtis' Everyday Cooking (my favourite cookbook right now), the blurb to the recipe promises that a slice of this cake would be perfect for autumnal afternoons with a pot of tea. I decide today's weather qualifies as vaguely "autumnal" and reach for a couple of slices of that comforting cake. All rich buttery goodness, with a tinge of orange cutting through the richness, it needs only a freshly brewed cup of coffee/tea and a good book (which by luck, I had just bought a copy of "Every Living Thing" by a favourite childhood author, James Herriot).

Orange Marmalade Cake
(Serves 6-8 persons)

Ingredients:

220g soft butter
180g (3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp) caster sugar
Zest of 1 orange, chopped or grated
3 eggs
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
60ml (1/4 cup) orange juice
½ cup orange marmalade

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Butter a 22cm springform cake tin, line the sides and bottom with greaseproof paper and butter lightly.
Cream the butter, caster sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Carefully fold in the flour, along with the orange juice. Finally, fold in the marmalade.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Test the cake by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready; if it doesn't, cook for a further 5 minutes and test again.

Another perfect treat for today (if I had any left after A took the remaining one to the office this morning) would have been the Jam Donut Muffins I made on the weekend. Bored stiff waiting for A to finish his work so we could go for dinner, I rummaged around in the fridge and scanned Everyday Cooking for a suitable recipe.

Here's the recipe for Jam Donut Muffins, to which the Campion and Curtis team described as tasting just "like a donut but with only a fraction of the work". A had to ask me to explain many times over why it was called a Jam Donut Muffin but whatever it is called, it sure is a good munch! You can substitute the jam filling with Nutella or in my case, my beloved Nutino…

Jam Doughnut Muffins
(Makes 10- 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

250g (12/3 cups) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
185ml (3/4 cup) milk
Raspberry jam / Nutino
75g melted butter
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar, additional
1 tsp ground cinnamon, additional

Method:

Preheat oven to 180'C. Line 10 – 12 x 125ml (1/2 cup) muffin pans with paper cases.
Sift the flour, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, caster sugar, egg and milk together. Add to the flour and stir well until combined.
Half-fill the prepared muffin tins with the mixture, add ½ tsp of jam/Nutino to each muffin and cover with more batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until risen and golden brown.
Mix the melted butter, additional caster sugar and cinnamon together. When the muffins are cooked, remove them from the tins and dip their tops into the cinnamon and sugar mix, then place them onto a rack to cool.

You can see how much filling I've stuffed the muffins with!

Dipping the muffins into the cinnamon sugar mixture

Just a suggestion – it's tempting to stuff as much filling as you can past the recommended ½ teaspoon but do so at your own peril. I had half my muffins burst and spill its contents onto the muffin tray because I was overzealous in chucking in at least 1 teaspoon of Nutino or jam!

Our weekends in Melbourne

2006-11-12T19:16:00.000+11:00

The contents of my many emails to friends and family (and vice versa) these last couple of months have invariably ranged around the topic of "What are you up to this weekend?". Friends and family have written to me about attending cake-making classes, fun dinner dates, weekend getaways and visiting some of the new eateries that have sprung up in town during my absence. In turn, I tell them about the latest bit of Melbourne A and I have explored, a short synopsis of a weekend to Melbourne's regions, the parties or exhibitions we've attended or the latest restaurant visited.

Of course, not every weekend will be chockfull of special events and activities; some will instead feature nothing more than lounging around and catching up on reading, having convivial conversations over a lunch table with friends or a simple lunch/dinner date with A at a nearby eatery. Here's a selection of the "simple weekends" we've had in Melbourne these past few months….

Lunches with friends & colleagues

Colleagues from the Melbourne & New York offices

Checking out Campari at Port Melbourne with A's colleagues from the Melbourne and New York offices one lazy Sunday afternoon and visiting Station Pier nearby after lunch.

Tusk

An impromptu Saturday afternoon lunch at Tusk with Michelle and Jackson, who have been very hospitable to us during our stay. Michelle has been a source of great comfort seeing that I don't have any other girlfriends here and have been missing girltalk and commiseration over coffee sorely these past few months.

Beachcombing at Brighton beach

View of the CBD from Brighton

It was too windy that day but we managed to walk a short section of the beach path linking the beachside suburbs of Albert Park, Middle Park, Brighton and so on.

In and around the Botanic Gardens

Footprints of an Aboriginal chieftain and his grandchild in the RBG

Early one Sunday morning, we went for a Walk on the Wildside with our guide, David Plant and saw the different animal varieties, including many different birds, which have made the Royal Botanic Gardens their home. We didn't spot the large eagle (reputedly the height of a small child) but did see many of the garden's other denizens such as possums, swans, moor hens, birds and the lot.

Other than such activities (Walk on the Wildside being my third guided walk in the RBG), A and I spend a lot of time in the RBG just lounging in the sunshine and catching up on the news in the Age. I just have to say this about the Age, it is simply one of the best newspapers I've read – the Saturday edition weighing in at close to 1kg (just like the weekend edition of the New York Times), it comes chockfull of insightful articles on politics and the arts, and enough international news to keep me happily reading for the next couple of days.

Not having a garden with this apartment in Melbourne means that we have been treating the RBG as pretty much "ours" and have been enjoying the greenery there as often as we possibly can. We're not the only ones… these women were there for a hen party and of course, many couples choose to come to the RBG for their wedding photos. Quite a few others organize family picnics in its extensive grounds, while some others engage in a game of lawnbowling. While it sounds like every Melburnian finds their way to the RBG every weekend, the grounds are extensive enough for every one of us to find our own piece of garden.

Having yum cha lunch in a funky tea house

One Saturday, we decided to see what the fuss about the Oriental Tea House was all about. For a traditional tea house funked up and given a modern (read Westernised) twist, the food proves to be pretty good, with a good selection of new-age dim sums and our traditional favourites (like chicken feet, char siew pastries and egg tart). Of course, the bill when it arrives, similarly mirrors the funked up image!

Catching a street show while out walking!

One of many street performers around Melbourne, we caught this guy working the crowds while strolling the Sunday market at the Arts Centre.

Places to visit:

Campari

Station Pier
2 Waterfront Place, Port Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9676 9230

Oriental Tea House

455 Chapel Street, South Yarra
Tel: (03) 9824 0128
For yum cha bookings, please call (03) 9826 1068

Tusk Cafe Bar

133 Chapel Street, Windsor
Tel: (03) 9529 1198

The Piano Man (Update)

2006-11-11T23:21:00.000+11:00

This is where A and I were on November 10, together with 11,000 plus others at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

After the earlier drama of buying tickets, we finally got to see Billy Joel live in concert! Definitely a fun night and nothing quite like hearing him belt out his hits live. Starting off with "Angry Old Man", the concert kicked into high gear with very spirited renditions of "My Life" (complete with audience sing-a-long, me included), "Uptown Girl", "Moving Out" and ending off with "The Piano Man" for his second encore. We didn't have the best seats in the house, seeing most of his back except when the stage on which the piano sat rotated 360' but it was close enough to feel the energy emanating from this incredibly talented 57 year old pounding on the piano. A and I had a great night for sure!

One Day in the Life of a Domestic Goddess (wannabe)

2006-11-10T15:03:00.000+11:00

Apple chips from The Nut Spot

Today is yet another day I thank my lucky stars that I had this opportunity to take time off from the neverending whirl of working life. My time being my own nowadays, a lot of it is spent in the kitchen getting reacquainted with my old lost cooking skills….and as friends now like to note, living out my (secret) fantasy of being a domestic goddess. It's mid afternoon now as I write this, with a bowl of fresh apple chips from The Nut Shot for company, while my ragu sauce bubbles gently away on the stove. What ragu sauce you ask? Well, the ragu sauce I made from scratch just this morning.

In my past hectic life (soon to resume in a not-too-distant January), our fridge used to be a barren landscape of stale bread, milk, an assortment of unexciting jams, butter flecked with bread crumbs, the odd egg or two and usually the remnants of some manky bananas A intended to finish but plain forgot. Packets of frozen vegetables and occasionally, an unidentifiable mess from the back of the freezer complete the picture of our disorganised fridge. I'd throw everything out and troop to the supermarket with best intentions to ensure that both of us enjoy some proper nourishment. The cycle repeats itself every couple of months until I'm reduced to just buying essentials for 1 or 2 home-cooked meals on weekends, and throwing any remaining herbs, vegetable scraps away.

I recall numerous times when I'd open the door and survey the debris inside and despair of the day when I would find the time to ensure that my fridge would always be adequately stocked with pristinely organized foodstuff and fresh produce. Like any woman and her dream wedding, I have a dream fridge. Amongst all the usual fresh produce like eggs, meat, vegetables and fruits, my dream fridge would also have huge compartments to store my condiments, jams and preserves and contain tubs of frozen ragu sauce (for an instant meal), freshly made chicken stock, ice-cubes of frozen herbs (instead of the green sludge mouldering in the vegetable compartment), homemade cookies and cakes to snack on, lots of fresh fruit and bread.

Some of the new additions to my fridge from our recent trip down the Great Ocean

Road - Sourdough (L) and Scottish malt bread (R) from Cobb's Old Style Bakery in Port

Fairy and Watermelon, Lemon & Orange Jam from a market stall in Apollo Bay's farmers' market

Today sees the culmination of several weeks of organized behaviour on my part. Coming across artisanal fresh bread on our last day in Port Fairy (one stop in our trip to the Great Ocean Road), I promptly purchase 2 fat loaves of sourdough and Scottish malt bread from Cobb's Old Style Bakery. A day before that, I'd spotted jars of watermelon, lemon and orange honey jam (an unusual but yummy combination) using fresh honey from a local producer and bought a couple as well. And today, I finally set aside the whole day to make ragu and freeze all my excess herbs. So save for freshly made chicken stock, my fridge is now beginning to resemble my vision of a dream fridge.

For a while, I'd procrastinated on making ragu although it's actually a very simple exercise, as I had an idea that the preparation time involved would simply kill me. However, I'm faced with a leftover ½ bottle of wine (too old to drink), celery and carrots fast approaching its use-by date and decide to bite the bullet. Getting started, it's definitely quite tedious preparing all the ingredients (especially mincing the carrots!!) but once it's on the stove and simmering away, you have 4 hours of uninterrupted bliss.

My ragu recipe combines the best bits of 2 recipes – one from a lawyer friend who apprenticed as a chef on his year out from practice (and does indeed cook some spectacular meals!) and the other from Delia Smith.

Definitely set aside a whole day without interruptions for making ragu. After simmering gently for 4 hours, it's mid to late afternoon if you start first thing in the morning and the ragu has to cool completely before you divide it into separate bags for freezing.

My Ragu Bolognese
(Makes approximately 8 x 225g portions, each portion serving 2 people)

Ingredients:

550g minced beef (I prefer topside mince to lean meat for the extra flavoursome fat)
450g minced pork
225g chicken livers (deveined, green bits cut out and finely chopped)
3 medium-sized white onions, finely diced
8 fat garlic close, chopped
2 carrots, finely diced
2 sticks of celery (fibrous skin removed with a peeler and finely diced)
100g streaky bacon (finely chopped)
2 x 400g tins Italian chopped/whole tomatoes
400g tomato puree/paste
375ml (or ½ bottle) red wine (I used Australian shiraz for its rich and fruity overtones)
Fresh basil, as much as you'd like
3-5 bay leaves
¾ - 1 whole nutmeg, freshly grated
Sea salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method:

(1) Mix the minced meats with 1/3 cup of olive oil, 3 cloves of the chopped garlic and lots of freshly milled black pepper and leave aside while you prepare the rest of the other ingredients.

(2) Take the largest frying pan you have and heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat. Add the minced meat and brown it, breaking it up and moving it around in the pan. It is probably more manageable if you add the meat a little at a time. When the meat is browned, tip it into a standing flameproof casserole with at least a 3.5l capacity**.

(3) Add more oil and brown the pieces of chicken liver. Add this to the casserole.

(4) Gently fry the onion and remaining garlic over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, moving it around from time to time. When the onion and garlic have softened and turned slightly translucent (about 10 minutes on medium heat), add the bacon and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes.

(5) Now add the diced carrot and celery and fry till soft. If using the casserole, tip all this into the casserole.

(6) Add the contents of the tins of tomatoes, the tomato paste/puree, red wine and a really good seasoning of pepper and nutmeg but no salt yet. Allow this to come up to simmering point. Then strip the leaves from the basil, chop them very finely and add them to the pot.

(7) As soon as everything is simmering, place the casserole on the centre shelf of the oven and leave it to cook slowly, without a lid, for 4 hours. It's a good idea to have a look after 3 hours to make sure all is well, but what you should end up with is a thick concentrated sauce with only a trace of liquid left in it. Once done, remove it from the oven, add a generous scattering of salt, taste to check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. Strip the leaves off the remaining basil, slice finely and stir them in.

** You can also make do with a large heavy-bottomed pot over the stove. At step 4, fry the onion and garlic in the pot instead, and continue the rest of the recipe, except that the meat should be tipped into the pot at step 5 before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Some comments:

I prefer not to salt dishes early on in the cooking process so that I can taste the final flavours to determine how much salt is really required. Heart-smart move! Also, the original Delia Smith recipe called for just ½ whole nutmeg to be grated but with the increased quantities of meat and sauce in this recipe, I increased the amount of nutmeg in proportion.

Starting off with all the prepped ingredients

Setting the ragu to simmer for 4 hours

Midway through the 4 hours simmering process

The end result!

Where I shopped:

The Nut Spot

1c Murphy Street
South Yarra Melbourne
Tel: 9820 9994

Well-stocked with all kinds of nuts, dried fruits and fruit chips. I am glad I don't have to walk miles to get pistachios or walnuts for cakes now!

Cobb's Old Style Bakery

25 Bank Street
Port Fairy, Victoria
Tel: (03) 5568 1713

For a magnificent sticky-sweet Scottish malt loaf and lots of old-fashioned pasties and cakes made the way your grandma does hers.

Resin Jewellery Class # 2

2006-11-09T17:54:00.000+11:00

My first class for the Resin Jewellery and Sculpture course I was taking had passed rather uneventfully last week. Today's class however, proved to be quite a fair bit more exciting since I actually got to work with the resin material itself and could finally start on creating the bracelets I'd cast in moulds last week. Here's a blow-by-blow account of today's class!

Step 1 - Releasing the Rubber Moulds

The item, e.g. a bangle, which you wish to cast in resin needs first be cast in a rubber mould. To do so, one has to form a clay "container" (i.e. there is a layer of clay underneath the bangle and a wall of clay 10mm around) to contain the rubber which will be poured in a thin stream until it surrounds and covers the bangle.

On the right is one bangle that I cast, which is still contained by the clay. On the left is another bangle in its rubber mould, free and clean of clay. To get from one to the other involves using heavy wooden rolling pins to bash the clay apart amidst lots of dust from all that bashing. A final wash and dry and the mould is ready for use.

Step 2 - Mixing up the Resin mixture

Viliama, our instructor, begins by measuring 3 parts of the resin mixture to 1 part of the reacting agent and stirs clockwise to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed. Do so slowly so as not to form air bubbles within the mixture as you will have to wait till these bubbles rise to the surface and disappear before using the mixture.

Step 3 - Mix up the colours you want

We learn how to mix colours (both clear and opaque) and what types of pigments are suitable for colouring the resin mixture. No-nos are things like food dye or any type of liquid paints (unless denser than the resin mixture); surprisingly, items like paprika, tumeric and dried pigments for paints work really well in turning out a great colour. Above is the fire-engine red mixture I used for one of my bangles, which used red paint pigment we took from the painting class.

Step 4 - Pour into desired moulds

I also discover that the ice-cube rubber moulds from Ikea would also work well to contain any resin mixture! Here are just some of the resin items I will unearth next week, including the first item I started (intended to be in a sort of triptych of 3 freestanding pieces) containing memories from my recent trip down the Great Ocean Road).

Step 5 - Take a break with friends from class!

Having cast all the items we had planned for, we finish class on time today and a couple of us decide to head off for lunch at one of the funky cafes on Degraves Street before we go our separate ways. Here are 2 of my very artistically-inclined classmates, Edit (who teaches textiles and works with knits and basketry) and Jimmy (who is a graphic designer) and the wall of graffitti at Degraves Street (very common in Melbourne's little lanes in the CBD and definitely encouraged by the authorities!).

Snack Time Munchies

2006-11-08T12:39:00.000+11:00

A and I are just back from a long weekend trip down the Great Ocean Road. The long distances between the little towns and sights means many hours in the car before a suitable snack joint turns up to cater to a hunger attack coming out of nowhere. I gave this some thought before we set off as A would be doing most of the driving and I didn't want him to get cranky or distracted, seeing that he likes to snack when he's bordering on being hungry. Also, we'd be covering a lot of ground on Day 1 and wouldn't have time to stop for a proper sit-down lunch, so a picnic lunch was definitely in order.

On Friday evening, I started assembling our picnic lunch for Day 1. I whipped up sandwiches of mashed hardboiled eggs (mixed with chopped celery leaves, chopped onions, a pinch of curry powder and salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, bound together with a generous lashing of leftover cream in the fridge), packed 2 oranges, 2 slices of the One Pot Chocolate Cake I'd made a couple of days before, and 12 of these yummy cookies I'd baked earlier that evening.

What I loved about these cookies was how simple they were to make and that they didn't have esoteric ingredients which I'd have to hunt high and low for. As I said previously, I'm patient with my cooking but I'm still lazy about attempting those complicated recipes with many different ingredients! If a recipe has 8 to 10 different ingredients for each component (i.e. icing, filling, cake base), my eyes glaze over immediately. Also, I was short on time that evening, so I needed to make a batch of homely comfort food cookies without too much fuss.

It was a good time as any time to try out another recipe I'd flagged in Campion and Curtis' Everyday Cooking, my latest cookbook acquisition. The end results are really good for a simple recipe such as this one. A chomped his way through a couple that Friday night itself and these cookies were much-needed energy boosters on our long walks around the rainforest/wildlife reserve/waterfalls/lighthouses on this trip.

Chocolate Peanut Cookies

(Makes between 25 - 30 chunky cookies)

Ingredients:

125g soft butter
125g crunchy peanut butter
100g brown sugar, firmly packed
110g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
225g self-raising flour
95g chocolate chips (or as much as you can cram into each cookie dough ball!)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180'C. Line baking trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla together until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined.

After a lot of muscle work on my part, this is what the creamed mixture should look like.

Add the flour (progressively for a smoother mix) and mix together, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Roll level teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place them 3cm apart on the prepared baking trays. Flatten slightly using a fork.

Flattening the cookie balls with a fork

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from trays and leave to cool on a cooling rack, then store in an airtight container.

The finished product - yummy snack munchies!

Some comments:

I used extra chunky peanut butter from Skippy's instead of the normal chunky peanut butter. This was so chunky that there was hardly any "butter" in it; that's why it's been sitting in our fridge for yonks without being spread on toast at all! I've since found out it's perfect for making these cookies.
I like to add the flour progressively as 225g is quite a lot to dump in at one go.
I wasn't so precise with the teaspoon measuring of the dough, but chose instead to just grab whatever I liked. I ended up with chunkier cookies as a result as the balls I rolled were probably much bigger than what the recipe intended.
As not everyone is going to be so precise with their measuring of the dough mixture, baking time will therefore need to be adjusted accordingly until the cookies are done. A good test is to check if they are still soft when pressed slightly, bearing in mind that cookies do harden when they cool. If still soft when pressed, bake for further intervals of 1 minute each time until desired shade of golden brown.
I like more chocolate chips in mine so I studded most of the balls with a couple more extra chips before popping them in the oven.

Chocolate is a cure....

2006-11-02T18:49:00.000+11:00

for days like today.

For the first time in many weeks, Melbourne finally sees rain and quite a fair bit of it too with showers throughout the whole day. With my luck, it's also happens to be the day that I have to traipse around the CBD for class at the Centre for Adult Education.

Today's the first lesson for a course in resin jewellery and sculpture that I signed up for a couple of months ago. I was all excited about producing some beautiful resin bangles and receptacles like those at the expensive but oh so luxe Dinosaur Designs but was disabused of this notion early on in the lesson since we don't actually work with resin until the next lesson. We spend most of our 3 hours discussing how to cast a rubber mold (for the resin), the objects suitable for making a mold (all of my bowls failed our instructor's requirements – there went any thoughts of producing a Dinosaur Design lookalike) and then actually making the rubber mold.

We start first with creating the clay exterior and that alone took me ages and ages and even then, still needed reshaping by the instructor. I forgot to mention earlier that I'm the girl who routinely failed her craft projects in school so when I was handling the sticky stuff, that gave me horrible flashbacks of my ay sculpture that hardened into an unmentionable shape because my patience gave up before I finished it. Then came the mixing of the rubber and the active agent, and the pouring of the rubber from a height in a thin thin stream ("You're pouring too fast!! TOO FAST!!"), which suitably chastened, I managed to get right eventually after several screams of "SLOWER!!" from the teacher. 15 minutes later, my arms are screaming blue murder and I was wondering what I'd signed myself up for.

Strangely enough, I'm not half as impatient when I cook or bake, although I'm still not patient enough to sit with a tiered cake on a lazy susan and pipe elaborate twirls. Maybe it's because most of the time, end products for cooking/baking sessions don't quite take the whole day to emerge (unless you're making a Christmas fruit cake, in which case the whole process probably takes a month before you unearth the cake for consumption). Of course, I do love recipes that produce results in a snap and that's why lazy me had flagged this recipe in Allan Campion and Michelle Curtis' new cookbook "Everyday Cooking" alone for it's title "One-Pot Chocolate Cake". I was quite gratified to realise after finishing that I REALLY only had the pot, the wooden spoon and the springform tin to wash!

I've come across better chocolate cake recipes but this recipe isn't all bad, seeing that it doesn't require an electric beater or food processor (i.e. perfect for me as I have really basic equipment here!) or 12 eggs ("Eve's Chocolate Cake" from Damien Pignolet's "French" which scared me with the thought of cholesterol counting) although it does require 1 whole 250g slab of butter. And it definitely tastes much better with keeping as the recipe promised so you can make it in advance for a party! To cut down on more washing, I skip making chocolate ganache and use my new obsession, Nutino, as a quick icing instead. YUMS!

With a splash of thickened cream and sprinkle of cocoa powder (mine looks quite unartistic I know but then again, that's me - the unartistic girl! And apparently sprinkling the powder doesn't quite look the same as using a sift .....), this One-Pot Chocolate Cake does hit the spot after a frazzling morning grappling with goopy materials and getting my new Bonds top clay-streaked.

One-Pot Chocolate Cake
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients

250g soft butter
150g dark chocolate, chopped
220g caster sugar
250ml strong coffee, cooled completely
150g plain flour
100g self raising flour
50g baking cocoa
2 eggs (medium sized weighing about 59g each)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Butter a 22cm springform cake tin, line the sides and bottom with greaseproof paper and butter lightly.
Place the butter, chocolate, caster sugar and coffee in a large saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally until everything melts. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Sift the flours and cocoa together and add to the cooled chocolate mixture, along with the eggs. Beat well until all ingredients are combined.
Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake in the prepared oven for 45 minutes. Test the cake by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready; if it doesn't, cook for a further 5 minutes and test again.

New York # 5 - Broadway Madness

2006-11-01T22:03:00.000+11:00

I suppose a visit to New York is never complete without visiting Times Square and catching a show on Broadway. The first time we tried queuing for half-priced tickets to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, it was like a revisit of my experience queuing for Billy Joel tickets in August, except 20 times worse – the queue 30 minutes before the ticket office opened snaked up and down outside the Marriot hotel and around the block!

Alright, the Spelling Bee was worth queuing for since it was 50% off and the seats were great as the theatre was one of those built in a round.

We enjoyed the musical so much that we were torn between spending our last day chowing down the supposedly legendary porterhouse steak at Peter Lugers and catching another Broadway musical. Too overdone with the meat, we opted for the musical and caught The Producers. We had a rollicking good time – it was one of those rare productions which didn't sag midway through and carried a high-octane energy right to the last notes.

Earlier that day while queuing for the tickets to The Producers, we noticed a huge crowd of people across the street, apparently lining up for a chance to have lunch with some celebrities. Oh well, we laughed it off and thought that maybe Cameron, Eddie and George were in town (by the way, they were as everyone else BUT ME caught a glimpse of these individuals!!).

Stepping out of the theatre later that afternoon, we find ourselves in the midst of an auction! Curious, we stop and listen to the babel of voices and the frantic waving of hands; peering over someone's shoulder, I note that it's part of Broadway Cares – Equity Fights AIDS fundraiser when all of Broadway comes out in support of AIDS. Items on the auction block include impossible to obtain chances to appear in a Broadway production, to join in the after-production cast party or to invite 10 of your friends to join you for opening night! We listen astounded at the amounts people pay for such "experiences" including 2 separate chappies who each paid US$9,500 for opening night tickets to Les Miserables!

Not the best photo of the Chorus Line hottie but there he is on the podium!

The best bit was when one of the stars on The Chorus Line auctioned himself off – well rather, a chance to have dinner with him and attend the opening night for The Chorus Line! When this was happening, I couldn't help thinking of one of my galpals, T and C, who would have been more than happy to help raise the bids! ("GOING GOING GONE to the ladies wearing the animal print scarf and the tartan miniskirt!")

When you have no time for dinner...

2006-10-31T23:56:00.000+11:00

Today, I'm in the midst of drafting minutes for the various meetings I attended last week when the batteries in my digital recorder go flat. Hmm, seemed like a good time as any time to take a walk down to neighbouring Windsor to buy some spices for a new dish I wanted to make for dinner tonight as a treat for A, who's been busy burning the midnight and early morning oil these couple of weeks.

I decide to take the rest of the afternoon off from work to check out a couple of new shops (one is structured much like the Heeren in showcasing up and coming young Melburnian designers), buy some art supplies for my resin jewellery class on Thursday and gather supplies for tonight's dinner and baking sessions for the rest of the week.

I wander down to a now favourite haunt along Chapel Street called Flavours, Herbs and Spices, which stocks a veritable Aladdin's cave of spices, herbs and spice mixes as well as a host of enticing kitchenware, supplies and linen for the perfect hostess. I'm looking for a Moroccan spice mix, ras-el-hanout, as well as ordinary spices such as ground cinnamon, saffron and nutmeg. FHS' owner, Victoria, suggests "Meera's ras-el-hanout", compounded and mixed specially for local Melburnian chef/culinary teacher, Meera Freeman (who's well known for her Moroccan cooking classes), which comprises a ground mix of cinnamon, cardamom, cassia, allspice, nutmeg, turmeric, long, cubeb and black pepper, coriander, mace, grains of paradise (what is this?) rosebuds and ginger. I quickly spot the rest of the spices I came for and leave with a nice bag of goodies before I start poking around Victoria's lovely shop and buy yet another linen towel/apron from the Mozi range.

My buys from Flavours Herbs Spices

Having the afternoon off also means that I'm like a loony woman back home trying to unpack my stuff in the kitchen, defrost the chicken parts and check my BlackBerry to see if I've received any emails from the office. Darn… the first set of minutes have been formatted and I've got comments on my second set of minutes so it's another couple of hours taking care of everything before I surface to see that it's 815pm!

Time to get on with the spiced chicken with the ras-el-hanout mix and tomato and carrot couscous! Tonight sees a couple of firsts - the first time I'm working with cous cous and the first time I'm doing anything vaguely Moroccan. For some reason, I've never tried Moroccan cooking or even making cous cous although most of their dishes seems easy enough with all that stewing going on. Maybe it was the use of apricots in their dishes which grossed me out a little - me and my compartmentalised taste buds where savoury dishes should be savoury, spicy dishes apropos but a savoury dish with fruity twinges does send a little shiver down my spine. Strangely I don't mind this combination when it comes to pate & terrines though!

Anyway, since I've always been avowedly (as is my Italiano-phile and Franco-phile girlfriend, T) pro-Italian cuisine to date, I've sadly neglected trying dishes from the other side of the Mediterranean. By the end of the evening, I'm wondering why I haven't gone out and purchased a tagine before - cous cous and Moroccan food isn't so difficult and it's definitely tasty! (Alright so maybe my spiced chicken isn't really a Moroccan dish but I used a Moroccan spice mix!)

Tonight's dinner is an exercise in simplicity and makes an appearance in time for A's return around 9pm.

Spiced Chicken

I decide I want crispy chicken for tonight instead of making a stew (too much time!). Toss chicken parts in a plastic bag holding 4 tablespoons of plain flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of ras-el-hanout and a couple of pinches of salt. Once the chicken parts are evenly floured, bung them into a preheated oven of 220'C to crisp the skin for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 190'C for about 15 more minutes. Squeeze a lemon over and it's ready to go.

Cous cous

Prepare cous cous enough for 2 persons according to the instructions on the package. Fluff the grains with a fork and toss in a cube of butter and reheat over low heat for 1 minute. Add a handful of shredded carrots, diced tomatoes, the juice of 1 lemon, finely chopped parsley and coriander and some ground black pepper and mix well. Uunfortunately, with the amount I had to carry today, I had completely forgotten to get the coriander and parsley.

**You won't believe the appetizing smells emanating from the spiced chicken when its had its blast in the oven! It looks a little like Colonel Sander's Original Recipe but tastes way way waaaaaayyyyy better. Taking no longer than 45 minutes (prep and cooking time), tonight's dinner is perfect for those nights when you don't have a lot of time to whip up something fancy and yet want something healthy, light but filling.

My New Obsession...

2006-10-29T23:26:00.000+11:00

comes in the form of the gooey yumminess I've been scooping out of this bottle.

I came back this weekend from a week's worth of meetings in Singapore and a frenzied round of catching up with girlfriends to find the fridge bare. A was away in Hong Kong for part of the week and hadn't found time to get to the market. So in between all the cleaning, unpacking and catching up on sleep this weekend, we took a quick trip down to Safeway yesterday to stock up on some food.

For some reason, I'm having a sudden and very intense craving for hazelnut spread. Perhaps the Swedish cookies with hazelnut spread that I picked up at the Singapore Ikea earlier last week triggered this mad craving since I only managed to have a couple in the midst of my hectic schedule. Whatever I had had was enough to leave me wanting more which is strange 'cos I've never been a fan of anything hazelnut-based much less Nutella. A though, has very fond memories of Nutella and eagerly seconded my suggestion we get a bottle. So we headed first to the "Jams & Spreads" shelf at Safeway and that's when I spotted Nutino.

Touted as the perfect compliment to any snack or meal, Nutino is made in Italy from freshly roasted hazelnuts, skim milk and chocolate. Yummy... and perfect in my mind for recreating some spectacular desserts I'd had recently involving hazelnut. One yummy dessert called "Pizza con Nutella" comprised a crisp, thin pizza base topped with hazelnut spread and sprinkled with coarsely pounded hazelnuts and icing sugar, which A and I had in the open-air courtyard garden of La Lanterna di Vittorio during our recent New York trip. We had to thank our friend C for the introduction to this Italian cafe-coffee shop (as it's touted) which uses premium hazelnut spread from Italy for the Pizza con Nutella. Perhaps the close association of "Italian coffee shop" and Italian made hazelnut spread did it for me cos I picked up the jar of Nutino withouth a moment's hesitation, cheesy squirrel picture notwithstanding!

Anyway, let's just say that Nutino proved to be more enticing than Nutella and definitely much smoother in taste. I've never been a huge fan of Nutella, finding it a tad bit too sweet and paste-like for my taste. Nutino on the other hand, is smooth and creamy, balancing just the right amount of sweetness with the nutty taste of hazelnuts evident throughout. I've had my fingers stuck in that jar since we came back, spooning Nutino spread over our butter cookies, stirring it into my coffee and cream (which makes for a lovely mocha-like drink) and thinning it out with some hot cream to make a hazelnut sauce to pair with icecream. But perhaps the best way of eating Nutino is simply to make like a kid (as we all used to do with condensed milk and milo!) and sail into that jar with a spoon!

There's probably heaps of ways to eat hazelnut spread but one of my favourites is using it as a dip for bananas, strawberries and kiwifruit. I also like it as a filling to sponge cakes and maybe one day when I get that icecream maker, I'll have hazelnut icecream as good as the gelatos I've had in Italy. If any of you find Nutino in the supermarkets back in Singapore, tell me! Otherwise, I'm shipping back a box!

New York # 4 - Shopping the New York way

2006-10-20T14:12:00.000+10:00

A visit to New York wouldn't be complete without visiting their legendary temples of goods – Barneys and Bloomingdales. Having spent nearly all my money at Woodbury Common on Kate Spade bags, shoes and Le Creuset pots, I decided to steer clear of both these one-stop shops (save for a quick dash to Barneys to buy some insanely expensive skincare by Dr Sebagh, reputed to be THE cosmetic surgeon to go to for his face creams for a friend) and stick to downtown discount marts.

Century 21 is another legend in New York shopping, as are Filene's Basement and Loehrmanns. Having heard so much about it from these US magazines (Glamour, Lucky and the likes) and from friends, we were looking forward to checking it out. For all of you out there used to shopping in pristine, organised shopping centres, visiting any of these 3 outlets would give you immediate cause for a migraine. I'm not one to pass up a bargain but I do draw the line at rooting through musty, dusty and ugly clothes!

The scary escalators at Century 21 which look like they would eat your feet

Our first visit to Century 21 was on a wet Thursday afternoon (it seemed the perfect day to stay indoors) and perhaps the dreary weather contributed to our grumpy mood when we spent 2 hours digging through the racks to emerge only with undies and socks. Sure, we had a good laugh at this green velvet suit in the men's "Designer Suit" department (surely this is a relict from the 70s that got mixed up with the normal stuff). But we were sorely disappointed at the offerings, given the hype about this discount outlet (from editors at fashion magazines to friends who said it was worth checking out). Then we spoke to a New Yorker we met who told us that new stuff comes in every Tuesday, which was when she would religiously go down on her lunch break to check out. So we thought we'd give it another chance, especially when A's colleague, Tim, said he managed to dig out Todds loafers and a Ferragamo tie.

We trooped back the following Wednesday during A's lunch break with some of his colleagues (similarly determined to dig out more bargains). A was quite determined to dig up the Todds loafers he had seen the previous week but I wasn't so optimistic that it'd still be there. Nevertheless, we focused our search on the men's shoe department and lo and behold, we didn't find the Todds shoes (surprise surprise!!) but spied a lovely casual pair of soft leather Via Spiga loafers (much better than Todds in my opinion) and a great pair of Via Spiga black leather dress shoes. We got all excited about both pairs and were about to pay for them when disaster struck – someone had stupidly stuck the sensor tag on the black leather shoes the reverse way around which meant that it would be near to impossible to remove without spoiling the leather. We had to leave that pair behind. By this time, we were slightly put out by the unhelpful staff with their "it's not my business/take it or leave it" attitude.

After lunch, it was my turn in the lady's lingerie section – I spotted a Lejaby bra in a particular design I had been eyeing a year ago from Chalone but had not bought as it was a little pricey at S$159 then. Imagine my delight to find the last one on the shelf in my size and at a bargain price of US$9.90!! I also found Cosabella thongs in rainbow shades of watermelon, red and chartreuse green at heavily discounted prices too. The downside was not being able to try the bras but if you know your size well enough, or like me, had tried that particular design before, you would probably be able to find some bargains. Nothing quite like new lingerie to make a girl smile…..

My other visits to Loehrmann's and Filene's Basement turned out a very nice Ermenegildo Zegna tie and black Kenneth Cole cufflinks for A and a sleek black Kenneth Cole leather wallet for my cousin, M. All at very affordable prices, especially the Zegna tie.

I guess the moral of the story is to find the bargains, be patient and be prepared to dig. Oh and go on Tuesdays for the greatest selections!

Century 21
22 Cortlandt Street
Tel: (212) 227 9092

All Good Things Come to an End

2006-10-19T23:03:00.000+10:00

School paraphernalia (thanks to Mints for the lovely
"back to school" pencilcase so that I could go back in style!)

I'm a little sad writing this entry as school came to an (unofficial) end for me yesterday. I will have to miss the concluding lecture next week owing to work commitments which will see me back in Singapore for a week.

I've spent the past 3 months happily hitting the books for the literature course I enrolled in at the University of Melbourne as one of the "goals" to accomplish during my sabbatical. Lots of folks asked me why do a literature course and not something more practical – my simple answer was and still is that I've always enjoyed literature and I wanted to do something that would challenge my brain a little. I gave up doing an arts degree to study law so this is my opportunity to get back to my first love and without the pressure of studying for an exam, to enjoy studying for studying's sake.

Quite a few of us would at some point in our life wonder about the road not taken – whether academic, professional or personal. For me, I've always wondered whether I made the right choice to enter law school and continue into practice instead of following my initial plans of completing an arts degree and heading into journalism. I was fortunate enough to be able to dabble in radio broadcasting and writing for publications during law school and had contented myself during the first few years of legal practice that "I had been there and done that" and it was time to get on with a 'real' career. Increasingly though, I have been asking myself over the past couple of years whether I was content to stay in practice or to leave and do something entirely different. I guess studying something out of my present comfort zone goes partly to exploring these thoughts of mine.

Choosing a course way back in June was hard work - there were so many choices! The literature course I ended up going with in the end was "The Victorian Supernatural". For the longest time, A thought I was studying Gothic Literature (one of my options) and went around telling everyone so such that all his colleagues would ask me to tell them all about Dracula and Frankenstein! In a nutshell, my course focused on various texts during the Victorian era which evoked "supernatural" (i.e. beyond nature) elements and covered well-known texts such as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (a text I shuddered at) to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (I enjoyed this thoroughly).

I've had fun reading all the texts and its accompanying readings every week, preparing for class and being a student again – it made for a nice change from worrying about work deadlines, getting screamed at by clients and lying awake at night worrying about the foregoing. It was great having a sense of purpose and direction these last few months and that I've achieved something concrete during my sabbatical as part of my initial worry about taking a sabbatical was that I would spend my days in front of the telly eating potato chips and getting fat! Alright, I do watch a fair bit of daytime telly from Queer Eye for a Straight Guy (I love this programme - it's fabulous!!) to Ready Steady Cook (excellent stuff on Channel 10) but not as much as I had feared initially. Finally and most importantly, finishing this course has gone some way to satisfying my inner child screaming for more intellectual literary stimulation and quietened that part of me that kept asking "What if….?".

Spoonful of Fun

2006-10-18T21:37:00.000+10:00

With the realisation that our weeks in Melbourne will be drawing to a close all too soon and too many things/places/restaurants/shops still on our list of "to-dos", A and I decided to explore more of our immediate neighbourhood on the weekend just past. Shocking but true, we hadn't ventured further than the edge of South Yarra (into neighbouring Prahran, Malvern and Windsor 'villages') in the months we've been here - I put this down to inertia during winter and the disinclination to put on many layers and brave the gusty winds and dreary skies.

With spring weather and sunshine now, exploring the neighbourhood on foot has become more enticing - there's heaps of shops (especially vintage shops) to poke around in and lovely outdoor cafes to have a cuppa when our legs are screaming blue murder with all that walking.

This past weekend, we took a stroll (well, it was more like a reeeeaaalllly walk) to Prahran East to check out a cafe recommended in The Age Good Food Guide. From the map, it looked like it was a short walk down High Street from Chapel Street and definitely doable on foot. Well, I miscalculated since the map wasn't drawn to scale and it was MUCH further than we anticipated it to be. It didn't help that earlier that morning, we had both completed a 4km circuit of the "Tan" and were nursing slightly sore feet.

Thankfully, Spoonful was worth the long trek there. With inspired vintage decor and whimsical accessories (check out the huge Chinese wedding lanterns over the counter) emulating someone's understated pad, A and I felt right at home.

Other than the "joy" lanterns (in red) I'm not so sure the blue lanterns are

appropriate - I'm not sure but I thought they were used during Chinese funerals

Echoing the communal, laidback feel about the place, one helps oneself to water from huge tin pitchers (I think they could be watering cans in another life actually) on a stand in the corner and dig out your newspaper of choice from the basket near the counter. If you choose to, take a seat around the big dining table instead of the 2 seater-cafe tables scattered around - it helps to have the extra space when you're trying to read a newspaper while having your brekkie! Unfortunately, we got there around 2pm and breakfast was long over so we'll have to try the recommended poached white nectarines and strawberries in rosewater syrup with pistachios another time.

Don't you love the overhead lamps?

What that meant was that we'd be able to explore their lunch offerings for that day and tempting offerings they were! I'm a sucker for homemade pates/terrines/mousses and was delighted to note that the daily menu listed a duck and rosemary terrine with a bitter leaf salad, whole-grain toast and some relish on the side. A was torn between a spiced rare beef on ratatouille and potato salad and orrechiette with salmon and after some deliberation, opted in favour of the former.

A generous thick slab of the duck and rosemary terrine arrives on a ploughman's board (typically used for serving cheese) with toast and the rest. It was a little crowded eating off this but I managed not to drop the toast all over the table or drop the salad leaves into my lap. The terrine was nicely chockful of duck meat, appropriately chunky but not coarsely so and the savoury taste was set off by the sweetness of the relish. Although the terrine is probably better as a shared appetiser, it made for a nice light lunch.

With A hurrying me to take the photo so that he could start on his lunch, the photo turned out blurred - sorry about that! While A enjoyed the spiced rare beef, it was unfortunately not quite as described given that it was cooked to a degree of medium to well-done! The ratatouille was a nice tart contrast to the beef as was the chunks of the Desiree potato salad.

We were rather stuffed by the time we finished lunch and looking at the huge slices of the rhubarb cakes passing us by, decided regretfully to give dessert a pass. Which was just as well seeing that lunch was a tad bit on the pricey side (mains were $18) for a cafe. All in, Spoonful is a great place to enjoy a leisurely weekend lunch or a cosy place for cake and a cuppa.

The shop which A hovered nervously at the door owing to the profusion of girly items therein

Another reason to vist Spoonful would be to rest your weary legs after traipsing up and down High Street. There are plenty of quaint furniture and homeware shops down this stretch, including this lovely French-inspired shop offering vintage, country and shabby chic accessories and furnishings, appropriately called Vintage Living. I poke around the vintage pillbox hats with veils, ornate mirrors, dainty Sheridan teacup sets (in pink!!) and fluffy pillows but sadly decided I couldn't lug back any more breakable items. Definitely a girly shop as the owner tells me that all the guys (just as A was doing) accompanying their partners would hover at the doorway before saying something along the lines of "Honey...I'm err... just going to be out here, looking around/having a smoke/(away from all this PINK)....".

High Street also has other delights like this wedding cake shop, AB FAB, where you're invited to browse to your heart's content and to sample their cakes (by appointment only - so disappointing!) before deciding on a towering delight or a modest 1-tier beauty. Hmm... does Singapore have something like this? After encountering this shop and woo-ing and wow-ing over the pretty cakes, we come across a wedding at the Art-deco styled church further down the street complete with vintage Holden convertibles for the wedding car entourage. A thought it was a bit odd for me to stand there and be paparazzi-like with my camera so I didn't get a shot. Shucks.

There are other delights on High Street to keep one occupied, including the Melbourne store for Sambag (the Sydney store selling bags and shoes), a cute shop, Boy and Girl, stocking cute children's clothes, bags and toys and a lovely boutique, Torsa, which stocks Tocca and other US labels. I end off our ramble down High Street with a shot of this laundromat - at $1.20 a wash, that's definitely a bargain (the laundry near us in South Yarra charges $3 I believe). Until I notice that the laundromat is eerily empty, although the door swings open invitingly. Hmm....

Spoonful

543 High Street

Prahran 3181

Tel: (03) 9521 5212

Their sister store selling produce, homeware and coffee is called Teaspoon and is right next door.

Torsa
497 High Street
Prahran East
Tel: (03) 9510 5585

Boy and Girl
495 High Street
Prahran East
Tel: (03) 9525 0300

Sambag
489 High Street
Prahran East
Tel: (03) 9533 2274

Vintage Living
463 High Street
Prahran East
Tel: (03) 9529 3929

A Bountiful Harvest

2006-10-16T23:41:00.000+10:00

What are "tamarillos"?

That was the question in our minds when shopping at our local grocery mart (a new one on Chapel Street, which is cheaper than Prahran Market). We were browsing the aisles, our favourite way to decide what to buy for a week's worth of dinners, and had spotted these little egg-shaped fruit. Neither of us had tasted a tamarillo, although I vaguely recalled reading about it in The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander, so we bought some to try. Actually, my real reason for buying them was 'cos the tamarillos looked so pretty in their golden-yellow skins. Taste-wise, I thought they might be a little like persimmons.

We also bought punnets of pygmy strawberries, which were the cheapest (high in antioxidant) fruits that day in the market. Much as I wanted some peaches to munch on, I walked on by when I saw that it was going at approximately A$11.99/kilo! No doubt due to the freaky weather Victoria and Australia in general is presently experiencing, in particular the severe drought in rural Victoria which had ruined quite a few harvests, which sent prices of stone fruits (such as plums and peaches) soaring. Just like the banana crop from Queensland I suppose (almost all of the banana harvest was destroyed because of a cyclone and bananas had to be imported, explaining the eye-popping A$12.99/kilo prices in the stores!).

Back home, I flip that useful food encyclopaedia that is The Cook's Companion, a veritable tome of "ingredients and recipes for the Australian kitchen". The way the book is structured is particularly useful as each chapter focuses on a particular food item, which means I can go a little berserk in the markets buying what I fancy and come home to flip the book for a way to turn it into a great dish. It's been really helpful so far when I'm stumped with what to do with celery (the bunches they sell here are the width of Mike Tyson's arm so go figure) other than putting them into stew, pasta sauce and salads, witlof and now tamarillos.

From the Cook's Companion, here is a short excerpt on tamarillos:

"Tamarillos are grown in tropical and subtropical climates throughout the world......A tamarillo tree cops very heavily and can yield 20kg of fruit each year. There is a yellow-organge variety.....as [well as] the crimson. Tamarillos are available from late May to November."

Useful hints on selection, preparation and cooking of tamarillos:

"Ripe tamarillos should be firm but with a slight suppleness. Reject any that are wrinkled. Hard fruit will continue to soften at room temperature, and once they feel right can be refrigerated for a week or two."

"The skin of a tamarillo is never eaten. Peel it away with a vegetable peeler, or treat the fruit like a tomato and make a cross on the pointed end and immerse it in boiling water for 1 minute and then in cold water. The skin will then strip away readily. There is no need to remove the seeds which are edible."

I learn also that tamarillos can be eaten like any other fresh fruit, except perhaps with the addition of some caster sugar on the side or honey drizzled over to soften its tartness. Reading through the recipes, it seems that tamarillo would work well in salsas (one would need to cut down on the vinegar though), in cakes, in chutneys, as a topping in place of passionfruit on the classic Australian dessert pavlova and even baked in a buttered gratin dish.

My favourite recipe though would be perfect for the occasional hot sultry days I am likely to see in the forthcoming weeks in Melbourne. Someone send me an icecream maker and a food processor!! Here is Stephanie Alexander's recipe for Tamarillo Sorbet.

Tamarillo Sorbet (makes 1 litre)

Ingredients:

8 tamarillos, halved lengthwise
2 cups Heavy Sugar Syrup**
½ cinnamon stick (optional)
Juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon

Method:

Using a sharp spoon, carefully spoon out tamarillo flesh, leaving shells intact. Wrap shells in plastic film and freeze.
Put sugar syrup and cinnamon stick, if using, into a non-reactive saucepan and bring to simmering point. Drop in tamarillo flesh and cook gently until tender. Discard cinnamon stick.
Puree fruit and syrup in a blender or food processor, then pass through a coarse strainer over a bowl to extract any hard seeds. Add lime juice to taste.
Refrigerate until cold, then churn in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Scoop sorbet into frozen shells to serve.

** For the Heavy Sugar Syrup, heat 1 part water to 1 part sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

This sorbet becomes a beautiful deep rose-pink. Store any leftover sorbet in an airtight container and use within a few days.

New York # 3 - Meeting my Namesake

2006-10-14T21:55:00.000+10:00

New York also plays host to several great museums and I was looking forward to visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I generally prefer museums that aren't typically structured in the traditional style and had been happily anticipating checking out MOMA's collection of works by Roy Lichtenstein and of course, Andy Warhol. As well as MOMA's collection of modern furniture and lighting from the greats like Archille Castiglioni, Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier….

Unfortunately, by the time we got to MOMA, it was our second-to-last day in NYC and I was still recovering from the flu I caught the week before and tired out from the late nights and constant walking. I was also a little "museumed-out", having visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art the day before and the Picasso and Rembrandt exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria just before leaving for NYC. So it all got a little overwhelming by the time we reached MOMA.

What I did like about MOMA (despite the crowds) was the beautiful Sculpture Garden (photo above courtesy of YF), which was unfortunately closed the day we were there, the innovative architectural lines of the building and the beautiful view of the neighbourhood from the floor to ceiling glass windows.

I also liked that the gallery hosting the modern design classics of this century from furniture to gadgets was arranged almost like someone's really cool apartment! Here's a shot that I took to post in my book for inspiration on furnishings when I need it.

Then after practically running through the rest of the galleries after lunch (I was seriously needing a chocolate or caffeine hit but the dessert café on the top floor - Terrace 5 (The Carroll and Milton Petrie Café) is unfortunately packed with the crowds), I decided to take a break from all the art and go check out the MOMA store.

The MOMA store is truly amazing - there are little gadgets, sleek design features, furniture, jewellery, knitwear, funky bags.... my kind of shop. I'd been browsing their website for the last couple of years and have drooled over the many design classics on it. Although our luggage limit was quite generous this time around (64kg for each of us!), I remembered that I still had to lug the 2 Le Creuset cast iron pots I bought at Woodbury Common back as well and wisely refrained from buying a carpet I was eyeing. I chose a couple of postcards of the artworks I liked and seeing that I always run out of staples for my stapler, I bought a stapler which doesn't require staples but attaches your pages together using an innovative "punch-paper-and-back-fold" method. When showing A my buy later, he shakes his head thinking I'm a little addled to spend US$9 for a stapler.

After the brief sojourn in the MOMA store, I head back upstairs and return to the last gallery to look for the Pop-Art collection. Turning a corner, I come face to face with her - Andy Warhol's famous depiction of my namesake. I have poster and stickers of this but seeing it up close is definitely mindblowing. What a nice way to end off my visit!

New York # 2 - The Day the World Changed

2006-10-13T13:07:00.000+10:00

It's a bit freaky looking at the photos of Ground Zero for this post and reading the headlines from the papers yesterday. Yet another plane crashed into a high-rise apartment on the Upper East Side, sparking fears of another terrorist incident. Fortunately and unfortunately, it was not a commercial jet but a light plane piloted by a Yankees player and his instructor. And both of us remembering various scenes from the Oliver Stone movie, World Trade Centre, which we had caught just this Tuesday past. It's just a bit too surreal.

Anyway, back to Ground Zero. I don't think there's very much to say about how affecting a visit is, even 5 years after it happened. Suffice to say, September 11 2001 was definitely a day that changed the world; many still say they remember where they were and what they were doing when news broke. I still remember coming in from an outing with friends to say goodnight to my folks and being told that an aeroplane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. Being a little confused (as Singapore also has a building called the World Trade Centre), I came further into the room to take a look at the TV headlines and stood horrified as I watched one of the towers collapse in real time. Then the ensuing panic and sleepless night that followed when I remembered that I had friends working in the big investment banks which had offices in the WTC…

We arrived in NYC on September 12 and missed the remembrance ceremony marking the 5th anniversary of 911. A's colleague, YF, however, had flown in a couple of days before us and made it there. Here are some of his photographs...

The entrance to the PATH station

The void where the World Trade Centre used to be

Relatives are allowed into the site

This is sad....

Tolling the bell for each victim

A and I made it down a week later to see the various memorials and picture exhibitions around Ground Zero and at St. Paul's Chapel directly across (which survived the collapse of the WTC without broken windows even as its graveyard was strewn with debris).

Even though the cleanup and rebuilding is progressing well and everyone around us is going about their business, we both still senses a palpable grief arising from the actual site. Confronted with the enormity of 911 at the memorial, seeing the remembrance wall put up in memory of the brave firemen who perished, seeing footage of the WTC before 911 and most of all, reading the "Missing Persons" posters put up in the aftermath of 911 by frantic relatives – all these brought a lump to our throat that dinner later that night at Balthazar's couldn't quite dispel.

For some strange reason, I can't upload the rest of the photos I want in this post so will post that separately if I do get a chance.

It's just too hot...

2006-10-12T17:21:00.000+10:00

to do anything today. Including typing up and loading the other 9 entries I'm way overdue on for our New York trip which involves me ploughing through a mountain of flyers, postcards, namecards, photographs and the likes. I did have to attend to some matters for clients in Singapore and that was painful going with the heat and my wireless connection being flippy.

Anyway, back to the topic of hot weather. Melbourne recorded a sizzling high of 33'C (a high of 35'C in the CBD) today and I'm sweltering in our little apartment (have I mentioned that already?). My early morning walk wasn't too bad but my skin was prickling a little by the time I got back around 930am this morning. Then, I stepped out to buy a couple of sushi rolls for lunch and to attend to some banking matters and nearly broiled in the intense sun. You know what one of those throbbing pulsing headaches feels like? That was my head by the time I got back and faced the oven that was our apartment. Isn't it supposed to cool in SPRING?!!

Thankfully, I'm well-slathered in sunblock each time I step out. I started out with the Solar Defense Booster from Dermalogica but that's a tiny bottle for a load of cash (about S$90!). I recently switched to SPF 50 Anthelios XL Fluide Extreme from La Roche Posay after reading about it here and at the recommendation of a dermatologist. Both have helped reduce the prickling sensation I experience on exposed areas of skin when I'm in the full glare of the sun but with the copious amounts I've been using since I got here (even in winter, the sun glare can be intense), the SPF 50 Anthelieos Fluide Extreme has been easier on the pocket (about S$35). Not only is it available in a non-greasy, lighter formula, this sunblock also comes in a fun "shaka-shaka" bottle i.e. you have to shake the bottle a few times to emulsify the sunblock ala Japanese cosmetic bottles. Nice way to start your day.

Previously unavailable in Singapore, I was pleased to note on our recent trip back that a range of products from La Roche Posay is now stocked at Guardian Pharmacies around the island as well as at the National Skin Centre's pharmacy. So don't wait, just run to the nearest Guardian to load up please! We definitely don't need those sun spots (yes even you...all of us in our 20s have started those tiny little brown dots on our cheeks!!)!

Oops.... just as I'm about to upload this post, the weather report comes on the telly and the temperature today was actually closer to 37'C!!! No wonder I feel so awful all day - this reminds me of the seriously hot summer of 2005/2006 in Sydney when temperatures went up to the late 40s! Oh sod it, I'm hot and still headachey - I'm having a slice of the yummy caramel sponge cake we lugged back from the Filipino bakery near A's home in Sydney and heaping lots of thickened cream on it. And might as well go the whole hog with strawberries as well....

Where are you reading me from?

2006-10-11T22:50:00.000+10:00

A Wedding and Another

2006-10-08T22:51:00.000+10:00

These past couple of months saw us travelling some distance to attend a couple of weddings. A and I are both at the age where weddings and engagement announcements amongst out close friends has become the norm rather than the exception (besides these 2 weddings below, we also received 2 engagement announcements this month!).

I love weddings - what's there NOT to love about dressing up, eating yummy food (and cake!) and spying on blissful doe-eyed couples! Weddings are also very sentimental events for me, particularly when they are for close friends. Alright, so at these parties, we both negotiate the tricky road of managing friends' expectations of us staging a similar occasion in the near future, but we've both been pretty adroit at sidestepping the questions!

Happy couple # 1 - SL & W

Last month, after months of juggling dates and our schedules, we were very pleased to have made it back to Singapore for the wedding of SL, one of my girlfriends, to W. I was particularly happy to be present at this happy occasion, having also witnessed the fateful Saturday morning more than 3 years ago at East Coast Park, when W met SL and their lifetime of adventure began.

Their wedding celebration lunch for friends was a low-key and intimate affair at the Olive Restaurant at Labrador Park, allowing SL & W plenty of time that afternoon to spend with their friends and loved ones. A and I spent a lazy sultry (hot to A though) afternoon catching up with the bridal couple and our friends, D (who flew in from the US in time for the lunch), G and J. Having a small affair also meant that the bridal couple weren't rushed off their feet, guests weren't subject to lengthy waits for food, nor only catching a mini split-second glimpse of the bridal couple before scooting off for the night. That and having a yummy wedding favour to take home (more in a future post) meant that all present had a great time!

Getting into their own bash proved to be a tricky affair!

We had an equally fun time at the wedding celebration we attended in Sydney this weekend (and which we just came back from a couple of hours ago). A's childhood buddy, J (no relation to the first J), had tied the knot with G (ditto), in the UK in May and both were back in Sydney to hold the traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

Happy couple # 2 - J and G

What made this wedding celebration quite special was the immense secrecy surrounding the event - J's mom had emailed us in June to check our availability and had entreated us to keep our attendance a secret. After a couple of bloopers when we thought the secret was out, we arrived in Sydney to the realisation that the secret was still pretty tightly held by those in the know. So of course, J and G were very pleasantly surprised to find that the tea ceremony which they thought would be held amongst relatives, included many of their friends and G's sisters, quite a few of whom had travelled some distance to witness the happy occasion.

I end off this post in a rather sentimental mood - happy occasions like these always bring out the romantic in me. To SL & W, J & G, congratulations and best wishes for a lifetime of happy togetherness!

New York # 1 - The Sweet Life

2006-10-06T15:36:00.000+10:00

The great thing about eating sweeties in New York was that they abound on almost every street corner. Stretch out a hand in any direction and you're likely to see a shopfront with heaps of goodies in the window. It was quite hard to resist temptation, from the Godiva chocolate store just 2 streets away from our hotel, to the dessert menu at every restaurant we visited. Of course, not everything that looks wonderful tastes just like it looks but we were lucky many times over. While the sweeties we will remember best are from some of New York's institutions, which we hadn't set out to look for, but stumbled upon in our walks downtown in the various 'villages', what made the memory of eating these sweets are that they mostly lived up to their (much deserved) reputations.

Cupcake Goodness

Sugar-packed goodness!

These cupcakes need no introduction, having achieved worldwide fame after an episode in Sex and the City. I happened to be wandering down Bleecker Street after checking out Marc Jacobs and other tiny boutiques listed in Lucky Magazine's New York Shopping Guide and had walked past their shop front before doing a double take and scurrying back to peer through their window. I nearly fell over in excitement at the shelves piled high with cupcakes iced in a variety of pastel colours and other assorted cakes. Hurrying in, it was like an Aladdin's cave of choices and when I hesitated, the girl at the counter nodded irritably to the cupcakes in the corner and told me to help myself.

There wasn't a huge selection available after a couple of pink-shirted guys ahead of me had made off with a couple of boxes between them. Thankfully, the staff replenished the cupcakes and I choose some each of the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.

Understandably, the counterstaff at the Magnolia Bakery would be jaded by the crowds snaking around the corner block at the West Village store daily to stock up on the cupcakes. Surprisingly though, the afternoon I was there (Monday at around 4pm) only had a couple of people milling around inside, which was perhaps why I had walked right past it. But even with the bored girl ringing up the sales at the counter, it was quite hard not to fall for these old-fashion cupcakes with sprinkles on sugar/buttercream icing and leave with a small box. That was all I could carry though, despite the other tempting cakes I spied, as I was already lugging bottles of fig vinegar and tomato powder and all my shopping from that morning and still had a fair bit to walk before reaching Chelsea!

I had previously read mixed reviews about Magnolia's cupcakes and was curious as to what they really tasted like. Later that night, A and I divied up the loot. A loved his for the sugar rush it gave him, while I thought the cupcakes although delightfully light and fluffy, were made too sweet from the pile of sugar icing on top. That said, I do see where the attraction in Magnolia's cupcakes lie; a whole load of them, pastel icing contrasting with your simple white platter, definitely makes for a great centrepiece at your next dinner party. Of course, this sort of visual picture mostly appeals to girly girls and some girly guys.... Before consuming one of these sugar-rushes, just remember to scrape aside half of the icing and I'm sure you'll get along fine.

A couple of days later, my friend Cal, told me that he had it from a friend that Magnolia's Banana Pudding was hands down much better than their cupcakes. I didn't think A and I could stomach downing a pudding for 6-10 persons in the few days we had left and sadly had to pass on this tempting treat. That and other cakes such as the Hummingbird Cake (described as "A southern cake with bananas, pineapples, and pecans topped with cream cheese icing and toasted pecans") and the Red Velvet Cake (the menu's blurb informing that it was "a famous beautiful cake made red with cocoa, a little vanilla, and a lot of southern mystery....with its own special whipped vanilla icing") which piqued my interest would have to be left for another trip to New York instead!

Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker Street (this is the side of Bleecker St in the West Village; cross street - 11th Street)
Tel: 212 462 2572

Italian Pastry Delights

Yummy bite sized treats

Established since 1894, we stumbled on Veniero's when we went down to the East Village for a ramen lunch one Sunday afternoon at Momofuko's (more in a separate post). While waiting for Momofuko's to open, we took a quick walk around the block and spied this old-style Italian café. Checking my Zagat guide, we noted that Veniero's was well-known for their Italian cannoli's, essentially cream-filled pastry shoehorns (these are in the right hand corner of the picture above), and fruit tarts and made a mental note to drop by for dessert after we were done with lunch.

Feeling sick to the stomach from the excellent Iowa Berkshire pork in the ramen, it was all I could do to toddle, groaning and moaning, around the corner to Veniero's, much less squeeze in more than one of these little pastries as a sweet ending to lunch. Even in my pain, I thought the yellowish custard delightfully light and not at all sweet, and the sweet pastry crisp to the bite. A box of these pastries, with milk coffee, a good book and fabulous weather under a tree, would be a perfect way to while away the afternoon.

We bought a pound of these pastries for dinner with my old friend, Cal, that night, and again to my everlasting regret, Cal had fed us so well (including 2 desserts!!) that we both couldn't fit a couple of these pastries into our tummies. So the memory of the sole strawberry/blackberry tartlets (with custard and fresh cream) we had space for that afternoon will have to carry us until we next scoot up to New York and order a box just for ourselves.

Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe
342 East 11th Street (East Village)
Tel: 212 674 7070

New York Cheesecake

No pictures for this as in our eagerness to try the cheese cake, I had forgotten that I hadn't gotten any shots! Smooth and creamy without being cloying, and a dry graham cracker crust, the mini-sized cheesecakes (we tried the classic and the blueberry) were the perfect end to our time in New York.

It was on one of our last nights in New York when we met our friend Greg, and A's cousin, Sarah, both of whom had flown in to meet us. We took them on a short walking 'tour' of SOHO on route to Greenwich for dinner at a lovely Italian pizzeria with an outdoor garden (more in another post) and had walked past Eileen's. Since I had missed the cheese cake at Veniero's for which I understand they were quite famous for, I suggested we start with a couple of cheesecakes for dessert before we headed for dinner. Understandably, the guys didn't buy my enthusiastic blurb about how we can't leave New York without eating New York-style cheesecake (I was told later that when I get into such spiels, I made for a very convincing tour guide) and made smacking sounds about how much longer dinner would be so I packed a couple of their pint-sized cheesecakes for later.

Now I'm not ordinarily a fan of cheesecake, having been subject to many friends' interpretation of this classic New York dessert. I've tried many versions from cheesecakes I've classified as gag-inducing "stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth" types to those that tried to infuse flavours like blueberry/peach/strawberries and the like to that truly horrible Japanese sponge-cake concoction at Tio Glutton (and it's predecessor, Momiji - or some equally faffly name like that). I will eat good cheesecake that isn't difficult to swallow and light on the tummy though, although it's definitely not my dessert of choice.

Having tried Eileen's, this is a cheesecake which I would happily eat again (if not all the time). If you like your cheesecake lighter in texture, these would be a good choice. Grab a mini-sized one, which is sized so as not to leave you feeling like a bloated beached whale and skip all the funky fruit-topped ones and stick with the classic. Sometimes, the simplest choices turn out to be the best.

Eileen's Cheese Cake
17 Cleveland Place (corner of Kenmare & Centre Streets)
Tel: 212 966 5585

New York

2006-10-06T11:44:00.000+10:00

The spectacular night scene from the Empire State Building - photo courtesy of A's colleague, YF

We're finally back in Melbourne after a truly fun but exhausting 3 weeks away in Singapore and New York. A and I both had a wonderful time away, particularly with all the great food we had been chowing down non-stop! Amazingly, this is the first time we've gone on a long-haul flight and vacation together; most of our holidays over the past 3 years had been snatched between work in the region or else visiting his family back in Sydney most summers. Perhaps that explains why we both had a fabulous time in New York, and also why we had unabashedly set out to enjoy ourselves without worrying too much about everything else.

So where do I start about the whirlwind 2 weeks we spent in New York, eating, shopping and sightseeing our way around the city? It seemed like everyday brought something new to get all excited over! I'd amassed a pile of name cards, menus, city attraction blurbs, cut-outs from the New York Times, leaflets off the streets so as to remember the many wonderful places we visited but looking at them right now, nothing seems to flow in coherent continuity about our time there. Our 2 weeks there seemed to have kinda kaleidescoped into a psychedelic swirl of colours, much like the Times Square billboards outside our hotel, with certain memories standing out in sharp relief. Maybe it's also got to do with the copious amounts of alcohol we (ok A) consumed most nights with dinner!

The bright lights of Times Square - a pyschedelic mishmash of billboards and surging humanity

For me, quite a few of my favourite memories of New York had to do with enjoying everyday things like conquering the labyrinth subway system, digging through the shoe section at Century 21 on a Tuesday (when new stock comes in) and eating my way around SOHO, Greenwich and the West Village. For A, he mentioned that his all-abiding favourite memory was seeing my eyes light up and hearing my squeals of excitement upon alighting the bus to start outlet shopping at Woodbury Common (what nonsense! I'm sure I didn't squeal in excitement...) but I also believe it was him straddling work and play that appealed to him. With his office situated just off Wall Street (more in a separate post), it was just like living and working in New York.

Truth be told, much as we had crammed our 2 weeks there full of activities, New York has too many attractions, whether in the way of shopping, sightseeing, theatre or eating, to ever finish. Therein lies the attraction of this city of lights I guess, that sense of infinite possibilities around the corner, as a native New Yorker friend of ours once said. In our time there, we tried to do like the locals did instead of gawking around the city like so many other mid-west American tourists. It helped that we had friends residing in New York who gave us clues on where to eat/shop/hang out so we could experience the daily life of a New Yorker. Of course we still did the usual tourist traps, after all, what would be a visit to New York without seeing the Statue of Liberty or Ground Zero?

So instead of rehashing all the usual stories about where we went and what we saw (tourist traps included), we thought it might be best to crystallise our top 10 collective memories of our time in New York into little bite-sized pieces. Now it's hard for me not to gush too much as many of these memories had evoked in me a long-dormant childish sense of glee so these will all be in separate posts to spare you the sensory overload.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday

2006-10-05T13:54:00.000+10:00

The condiments in my pantry

These are the various condiments I use nearly every day when cooking over here. The latest addition is Poudre de Tomate d'Italie or Italian Tomato Powder from Oliviers & Co, which I discovered in their Bleecker St shop in New York. That's the tiny pot in the photo above. Just a couple of pinches in extra virgin olive oil makes for a nice dip with foccacia, while a teaspoon of the same easily adds some intensity and punch to a Tomato Bean and Bacon Stew.

Tomato Bean and Bacon Stew

What with the orgy of eating we had gotten up to over the last 3 weeks, A and I thought to 'detox' our overtaxed systems with some health(ier) eating this week. Much as we both love fine dining and eating out, our secret cravings are often for home-cooked goodness like stews, soups and dishes with lashings of gravy to ladle over rice. Since we're abstaining from carbos this week, I thought this stomach filling dish, chockful of vegetables would be a perfect way to ease back into normal eating patterns after the surfeit of excess we faced in New York.

Full of tomato goodness and tender vegetables, the Tomato Bean and Bacon stew is wonderful on its own with a good slice of wholemeal bread spread with butter and hits the spot on a cold wintry night. Although it's spring now in Melbourne, this is also great for cool nights (remember this is the city with 4 seasons in one day). It is also one of A's favourite dishes. This recipe is from Nigel Slater's Real Cooking with minor modifications:

Tomato Bean and Bacon Stew (serves 4 as a substantial lunch or supper)

Ingredients:

250g/4 large handfuls cannelloni, flageolet or haricot beans (I used half a packet of the Italian style Soup Mix from Mackenzies for a mix of beans and lentils)
Bay leaves
Good olive oil
2 medium sized red onions, chopped (or any sort of onions you have handy)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
A couple of handfuls of diced fat smoked bacon e.g. pancetta (I use normal streaky or back bacon)
2 sticks of celery, chopped (including the leaves)
2 medium sized carrots, diced (I like carrots in my stews)
2 x medium sized tins (400g) of tomatoes
4 handfuls of spring greens or shredded cabbage
A handful of parsley leaves
Grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Put the beans to cook, with a bay leaf or two and a glug of olive oil and simmer till they are tender. After the first few minutes cooking, skim off the fluffy white scum that rises to the surface. The beans should be ready after 50 minutes simmering. (To expedite the cooking time for beans, you would do well to soak them overnight in plenty of cold water.)
2. Warm a little olive oil in a large, deep pan, enough to cover the bottom comfortably. Add the onions and the garlic and cook over a slow heat until they have softened but not browned. Throw in the bacon, celery and carrots and cook for a couple of minutes till the fat turns golden.
3. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the beans and all of their cooking liquid to cover everything. If insufficient liquid, add some water. Stick a couple more bay leaves in and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Add the chopped spring greens or shredded cabbage and the parsley leaves and cook for a further 20 minutes.
5. Add a generous lashing of salt and black pepper. Here I add a couple of teaspoons of my tomato powder and let it simmer for a further 5 minutes for the flavours to intensify. When serving, ladle into deep warmed bowls with a drizzle of olive oil and a scattering of Parmesan on each.

Nigel Slater cautions to leave enough for tomorrow and like the classic Italian Ribollitta, this stew tastes even better reheated the next day.

Oliviers & Co

249 Bleecker Street New York

Tel: 646 230 8373

The Drama in a Birthday Cake

2006-09-28T12:37:00.000+10:00

Birthday cake for my dad and a golfing buddy

Birthdays are always great occasions to splash out and have some fun. Besides the thrill in matching the right gift to the birthday person, there's also lots of fun planning the party and the food. I always think the highlight of the party is the moment the birthday cake is brought out!

When we were kids, birthday cakes were elaborate creations (in our time, Spiderman & Strawberry Shortcake cakes were popular) and having a cake in the figure of the cartoon character would leave you the subject of envy amongst your friends at the party.

As we grew older, the focus turned more to the cake itself and decorations were usually limited to a simple piped birthday greeting in icing. After all, we adults rationalised that the cake would be devoured in no time and I think most of us would rather forget that we're another year older! Thankfully, my mom decided to put back the fun and drama back into birthday cakes for the birthdays of family member over the last couple of years.

It started when my mom met Beng Li Sher, a couple of years ago. Li Sher had left legal practice and attended Le Cordon Bleu for their patissier course. Upon her return to Singapore, she started her own business doing custom-themed cakes, most popular of which are the cakes with hand-crafted sugar paste figurines.

Book of Life & Goldilocks & the 3 Bears

Our family has been ordering birthday cakes from her since then and each time, we have been greatly entertained at Li Sher's accurate characterisation of the birthday person derived from personal information provided to her. Whimsical flights of fantasy, the birthday cakes have since ranged from golf-themed cakes for my dad and his golf buddies, to our pet zoo on my mom's, and to Goldilocks and the 3 Bears for my niece's birthday a couple of years ago.

You probably have to look really hard

but there's a pile of cash at A's feet!

More recently when we arrived back in Singapore, we celebrated the birthdays of my cousin Mel and A with a tiered cake with figurines depicting them at their current stages in life. Mel recently graduated from university and is about to start working life (WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD MEL!), while A joined a new company earlier this year.

Li Sher's cake is a rich chocolate ganache, definitely one for the chocoholics out there. It keeps quite well in the fridge so no worries if you can't quite manage more than one slice that night! While the sugar paste figurines are definitely edible, most of the recipients of the cakes have chosen to take them home with them instead. Last I checked, my niece still looks in on the 3 Bears sitting in her fridge and our pet zoo continues to reign in ours!

Besides the figurine cakes, Li Sher also does amazing 3D cakes and cupcakes as well. At Christmas, she usually puts out a selection of Christmas cupcakes and cookies which make great gifts to friends and family. Li Sher also works with a caterer to provide an all-round catering service for any functions you may have.

Do note that as the cakes are very labour intensive creations and Li Sher is often very busy with orders, you would do well to give her sufficient notice if you require a cake!

To order cakes from Li Sher and to view samples of her work, check out her website, Hot Fuchsia.

Sleep is a luxury now.....

2006-09-26T17:29:00.000+10:00

after 2 whirlwind weeks in New York City. Most nights, we lent credence to the statement that it's a city that never sleeps! We arrived back in Singapore early this morning with a severe case of sleep deprivation but with many happy memories of our time there.

Having friends in NYC (residents and non-residents joining us on holiday) and A's colleagues around meant that we were never short of company to check out the city's thriving night scene. Add this to the intense walking 'tours' of the various parts of the city I embarked on in the day while A was working and you have a surefire way of enjoying dreamless sleep later that night.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to access the blog site over there to post daily accounts of our days there. So there'll be a couple of posts over the next few weeks about the highlights of our trip - whether about the friendly chap I met at the jewellery market on the corner of Spring Street in SOHO, our yummy eating sprees ranging from excellent steak, New American fare, the legendary cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery immortalised in Sex and the City and of course the numerous shopping and sightseeing expeditions we took ourselves on.

Meanwhile, we have a few more days in Singapore before we head back to Melbourne this Saturday. Despite the surfeit of orgiastic eating we've indulged in over the past weeks, we're definitely planning to hit our usual favourite local food joints. We'll worry about the excess weight gain when we get back to Melbourne and our daily routine!

Home for a visit and yet another holiday

2006-09-07T17:46:00.000+10:00

I'm glad that today dawned nice and sunny – I would have bawled if we had to depart Melbourne in a hail of rain and gloom which had been a big probability seeing that the past few days had been rainy and cold.

We leave later tonight (well, it's really early Friday morning since our flight is just past midnight) for a much anticipated trip back to Singapore to attend a close friend's wedding, see my family and our friends and to hit our favourite local food places. Midway, we're headed to New York for 2 weeks - A is scheduled for training and conferences at his company's headquarters and I am going to catch up with my old friend C, shop and sightsee. Thankfully, a couple of our friends will also be with us for the later part of the trip so I don't spend the entire 2 weeks at Barneys!

I spent most of today packing and getting the apartment in order. In between, I took a quick walk down to my favourite cooking emporium, The Essential Ingredient at the Prahran Market, to get some olive tapenade my mom requested. I am distracted by the display of some new produce that's just in before I find what I came out for. I wasn't about to lug back a 600g or a 1.5kg jar (it will just molder in my mom's fridge) so I detour to Oliveria, an olive oil emporium just across the road (and a little bit). I've been meaning to come to Oliveria for a while, as some of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar stocked there are produced locally in Victoria. Oliveria is out of the locally-produced tapenade so I settle for a small jar imported from Italy (the irony of it). Everything I see in The Essential Ingredient and Oliveria today is tempting me to buy one of each for foodie friends/cooks back home but there is a limit of our luggage this trip around!

Here's a photo of the garden outside our apartment (aptly named Les Jardins)

I enjoy my walk back immensely, today being a really nice spring day. I see that the trees on our street have left their barren look behind with winter and have started sprouting leaves. The garden outside our apartment is also looking very well, with flowers in full bloom. I'm a little sad that we'll be missing the early part of spring, where flowers and trees start budding and blooming – we'll be back in Melbourne on 1 October and spring would be in full swing by then. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to heading home and the big Peranakan feast with family that's planned for this Sunday.

A's Baking Adventures - A Touch of Chocolate

2006-09-06T14:16:00.000+10:00

A's been expressing an intention to get his hands dirty in the kitchen for the last couple of years. I rarely take him at his word, except to help me out occasionally with slicing onions, garlic and general prep work. Other than the sole occasion that he cooked his special pasta for me (in our first few months of dating), he hasn't tried his hand at anything else since.

However, after tasting the Sultana Syrup Cake I made a couple of weeks ago and learning that the recipe was really simple, A decided he wanted to have a go at the same over the weekend. I'd also been meaning to do my first post on chocolate for some time and had earmarked a couple of recipes to try. Seeing that A would be doing this for the first time, I decided to leave Damien Pignolet's "Eve's Chocolate Cake" for another occasion and try a simple Molten Chocolate Pudding instead. It would also allow me to finally use the new pot pie dishes I bought from Robert Gordon a couple of weeks back.

We decide the Molten Chocolate Puddings would make a lovely late night dessert and accordingly, we drive over for dinner at a Vietnamese eatery on Victoria Street, Richmond, which we had heard about from A's colleague. We'd been to Bridge Road in Richmond for the outlet shopping a couple of times, as well as for lunch at Richmond Hill Café & Larder and for ramen at Momotaro's but had never headed north to the parallel Victoria Street. Victoria Street is locally known as "Little Vietnam" with Asian grocery stores, butchers and Vietnamese eateries in abundance.

Quan at 88 Victoria Street looked like any of the other restaurants offering Vietnamese/Laotian/Thai cuisine dotting the street. We had been treated the night before to enthusiastic raves about the rice paper rolls, spicy quail and salty squid and duly ordered the same dishes, together with the waiter's recommendation of Beef fried "Thai-style" with chilli and basil. The recommended dish was not only NOT Vietnamese, it catered to the Western palates that frequented the joint. What was finger-licking good however, was the spicy quail, which came in a serving of 2 wing portions dipped in a dark spicy and piquant sauce. The other dishes were tasty enough, but definitely not beating any of the concoctions offered at many of Singapore's zi-char (literally "stir-fry") places. Nevertheless, Quan offered a cheap and cheerful dinner and BYO is available (at an incredible A$0.80 corkage charge a person). We would definitely head back to Victoria Street another weekend to check out all the other offerings.

A hard at work whisking the egg yolks with caster sugar

Back to the important bit of this post – A's virgin baking experience. I start him off with the easy bits – greasing the pot pie dishes and melting the chocolate in the bain marie. I show him how to separate the egg yolks from the whites and he decides to try his hand at the last egg. I'm a firm believer in everyone trying their hand once at anything, so I hand over the egg without a bleat. Unfortunately, most of the yolk ends up on the counter and part of it with the other whites as he laments his "strong fingers"! (The eggs aren't wasted though, with the addition of another egg, they form the base of a carbonara sauce for dinner on Sunday night.)

Before....

The recipe for Molten Chocolate Puddings is easy enough and in no time, we've got the pudding ready for the oven. After 15 minutes in the oven, and a generous pouring of thickened cream over, we sat down to enjoy our dessert while watching Bette Middler on "Beaches".

After!

The Molten Chocolate Puddings turn out really well, with spongy sides and the proper molten centre. The recipe provided enough mix for 4 puddings and I put the remaining 2 puddings in the fridge. These are still yummy a couple of days later after heating the microwave (although this meant that the molten centre becomes fully cooked) as the chocolate flavour has become more pronounced. Served with a scoop of caramel icecream, this is an easy dessert to replicate at any of your dinner parties.

The next day after a huge yum cha lunch in Kew with A's colleagues, A attempted the Sultana Syrup Cake and was amazed to find the recipe easy to do (although I had to help him out with certain bits). He's thrilled to bits that he can now bake and I'm pleased that I now have an assistant in the kitchen when I attempt the more complex cakes.

Here's the recipe for Molten Chocolate Puddings, with many thanks again to Donna Hay:

Ingredients
150g dark chocolate - either cooking or eating chocolate is fine
100g unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 extra egg yolks
¼ cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour, sifted
Thickened cream to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 180'C and lightly grease 4 1-cup capacity ovenproof dishes.
2. Place the chocolate and butter in a bain marie over low heat (or a heatproof bowl set over simmering water that does not touch the bottom of the bowl) and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
3. Place the eggs, extra yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale.
4. Using a metal spoon, gently fold in the flour and chocolate mixture and spoon into the greased dishes.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the puddings are puffed. Top with the cream to serve. Sliced strawberries or kiwifruit on the side, optional.

What kept me glued to the TV today....

2006-09-05T18:32:00.000+10:00

were the many tributes on Channels 7, 9 and 10 to the life of the "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, who sadly died in a freak accident yesterday at the Great Barrier Reef. Steve Irwin had apparently been filming an episode for his daughter's pilot environmental TV programme and had been swimming above a stingray, when the stingray lashed out and he was hit in the chest with the ray's poisonous barbs.

According to news reports, there was video footage of that moment (which experts on rays said was "one in a million") which apparently showed Steve Irwin plucking the barb from his chest before collapsing.

With the many times that we had spent watching him on wildlife programmes cheat death at the jaws of a huge crocodile or the fangs of some of the most poisonous snakes (including a taipan, the most venomous snake in the world, according to an article off the website of the Singapore newspaper, the Straits Times), I suppose he had in the public mind developed an aura of invincibility. That was certainly the case with me - I was a bit incredulous when I saw the breaking news tag interrupting "Huey's Cooking Adventures" on Channel 10 yesterday afternoon.

It's a monument to the life of this chap and his efforts at wildlife conservation that his untimely death is the leading news in his home country and around the world, with tributes pouring in from all over and where politicians even delayed the start of the parliamentary session today with fitting words of homage.

Lunch amongst the Vines

2006-09-04T11:02:00.000+10:00

Now that A and I have a car in Melbourne, we are ready to explore more of Victoria and Melbourne's surrounds. A couple of Saturdays ago, we took a day trip out to Victoria's famous wine country, the Yarra Valley, to load up on vino for the rest of the year. Make no mistake, the corner bottle shop has proved sufficient so far for all our libations at dinner, but with the Yarra Valley just a short 45 minute drive away, we had been looking forward to a day out visiting the vineyards.

First stop - Moet & Chandon's Australian vineyard, Domain Chandon at Green Point, for bubbly! We don't take long as Domain Chandon is primarily known for their sparkling wine (under the Green Point and Chandon label) and we leave the cellar door with a box-load of their best-selling 2003 Vintage Brut and 2003 Vintage Brut Rose.

We visit a couple more vineyards before lunch, including Oakridge and Dominique Portet, and the car boot fills rapidly up with yet more bottles. But with the prospect of a delicious lunch ahead of us, we skip the remaining vineyards on the Maroondah Highway and gun the car in the direction of Healesville.

Having read that the Healesville Hotel Dining Room had been awarded "Country Restaurant of the Year" and 2 Hats (the only restaurant in the Yarra Valley to receive this accolade) at the illustrious 2006 The Age Good Food Guide Awards, we had decided to lunch there that afternoon. What followed was a decadent Saturday afternoon lunch lasting close to 3 hours with all the works!

After perusing the Specials board and the menu, here's what we had for lunch that day:

Appetisers

A enjoying his freshly shucked Tasmanian oysters with a classic shallot vinaigrette

A had half a dozen freshly shucked oysters from Tasmania with a classic shallot vinaigrette while I had a chorizo-stuffed squid with a warm salad of white beans, potato and mint. Nothing quite like fresh produce to whet the appetite although I felt that the chorizo-stuffed squid seemed a tad mismatched albeit tasty.

Entrees

Eye fillet with anchovy butter, rosemary fried 'taters and a watercress salad

I toyed with the thought of paprika roasted Yarra Valley rabbit but in the end A and I both opted for the char-grilled eye fillet with anchovy butter, rosemary fried potatoes and a watercress salad. The meaty aroma of the eye fillet preceded its arrival and our first bite was accompanied with sighs of delight. Very nicely done, the eye fillet paired well with the anchovy butter, the salty tang of the butter offsetting the richness of the meat. The watercress salad proved to be an effective palate cleanser for the next bite of the fillet.

A enjoyed a lovely shiraz (I forgot which one it was though) with his meal but having gotten a little heady with the bubbly at Domain Chandon's cellar door, I decided to skip the wines for that afternoon.

Desserts and Coffee

Chocolate Brulee , spiced poached pear & quince with ginger shortbread

By now, we are nicely sated and if possible, a little too stuffed to order any of the delicious-sounding desserts. But after a short interval, greed gets the upper hand and we rouse ourselves to order some coffee and the Rich Kennedy & Wilson chocolate brulee with spiced poached pear & quince on a slice of ginger shortbread. Done in a similar fashion to the classic crème brulee, the dark chocolate slice was topped with the pre-requisite caramelised sugar topping which made for a lovely combination of bitter-sweetness. The pear & quince compote allowed us a respite from the intense chocolate flavour of the brulee, with the ginger shortbread providing a nice hint of spice.

The Healesville Hotel is located smack on the main road of Healesville and not in any of the surrounding vineyards. The Dining Room overlooks a small courtyard and does not have any of the spectacular views of the typical winery restaurant. It does however, come with a whole lot of charm in its old-world ambience complete with soaring ceilings, open fireplace and French wicker chairs. Seated by the window with the sun shining in on us, A and I enjoyed a lovely dining experience at the Healesville Hotel Dining Room. Portions were generous and service was professional, unhurried and unobtrusive allowing us plenty of time to linger over our lunch that afternoon.

Although the Dining Room was only half-full for lunch that day (but fully booked for dinner as we overheard the staff telling a couple in front of us that the only dinner sitting was at 6pm and they had to leave by 8pm), reservations are highly recommended particularly for dinner as you wouldn't want to drive all that distance not to get a table. If you prefer not to tie yourself down, it is definitely easier to walk-in for a table during lunch and if you come after the main lunch crowd leaves at about 2pm. One caveat though - this is unlikely to be the case during the summer months when hordes of tourists and Melburnians alike descend on the Yarra Valley for sunshine amidst the vines.

We are almost too full to continue on our drive but we continue on our way to Rochford Wines, Tarrawarra Estate (where A purchases a couple of bottles of the excellent 2003 Shiraz and 2004 Pinot Noir under their Tin Cows label) and finally to De Bortoli wines for the sweet wines. I have a field day at the latter, getting gloriously high on their "Sticky Experience" (comprising tastings of 5 dessert and fortified wines for A$5, including Noble One) before buying several bottles of sweet wine (Black Noble, the Show Liqueur Muscat and a Windy Peak Spaetlese Riesling). We still have many more vineyards to visit but decide to leave that for another weekend and a further excuse to come back to Healesville for more great food!

Some useful links:

Healesville Hotel
256 Maroondah Highway
Healesville 3777
Tel: (03) 5962 4002
Email: info@healesvillehotel.com.au

Visit the Yarra Valley information website at http://www.visityarravalley.com.au/visityarravalley.asp

Tea and Camellias

2006-09-03T20:38:00.000+10:00

Did you know that tea is made from the newly-sprouted leaves of the camellia plant? I didn't, not until I took a guided walk at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Earlier that week, I had gone on another guided walk on herbs and spices and found it such an interesting way to see and learn more about the RBG that I had signed up for this walk immediately after.

The RBG is very much part of my routine here in Melbourne, being only 5 minutes walk from our apartment. A few times a week, I walk the "Tan" as part of my exercise regime and A and I jog/walk the same route on weekends too. Quite often on sunny days, I take a book, some cookies or a sandwich and make my way to my favourite spot overlooking the central lake for a pleasant afternoon. The RBG is an ideal place to daydream, to smell the flowers (literally), to relax and to rejuvenate in peace and quiet, having over 36 hectares of sprawling grounds. Solitude is readily available to those who seek it. But the sheer enormity of the grounds of the RBG made me realise that too many nooks and crannies lay unexplored so it seemed like a good time as any to sign up for some of their guided walks.

The Friday for the camellia walk dawned grey, wet and cold, having rained continuously the day before up to early that morning. I wasn't sure the walk would still continue but right about 9:30a.m., the sun made an appearance and I decided to make my way down.

Assembling at the RBG's Visitor Centre, our group (comprising mostly retirees and visitors to Melbourne) were greeted by our volunteer guide, Jenny, who has been in charge of the camellias in the RBG since she started volunteering in 1991. That made her somewhat of an expert on camellias as was evident from her detailed knowledge shown throughout the walk. Jenny started our walk with a display of camellia flowers in the foyer and gave us a short history of the camellia and the various species. If you look closely at the photos in this post, you'll see that camellias come in all shapes, sizes and colours.

Camellia x Williamsi "Hari Withers"

Setting out on our walk, Jenny took us around the camellia displays in the gardens, including some areas not usually accessible to the public (one of the perks of going on these walks) and entertained us with trivia about some of the different varieties. Like the orchids in Singapore's Botanic Gardens, some of the camellias had been named for important personages, although not all of these personages quite took to the particular camellia named after them! Lasting 2 hours and ending with a steaming cup of tea at the RBG's Tea Rooms, the RBG guided tour was truly an enjoyable way to spend a Friday morning and meet people.

Camellia reticulata "Sir Eric Pearse" (named after a Channel 9 newsreader)

If you find yourself in Melbourne some day, do stop by the RBG as part of the many places to visit. Volunteer guides at the RBG conduct twice daily (non-themed) walks around the gardens as well as themed walks, usually according to the seasons, such as the upcoming "Walk on the wildside" (1, 7 and 29 October) to view the wildlife in the RBG. There is also the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, located about 50 minutes from Melbourne, which highlights the natural flora and fauna of the Western Port and Port Philip Bay regions and where the award-winning Australian Garden is located. For more information on the fees and dates of guided tours, do check out the RBG's very informative website.

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Birdwood Avenue
South Yarra Victoria
Australia 3141
Tel: (03) 9252 2300
Email: rbg@rbg.vic.gov.au

Spring is in the air

2006-09-01T13:55:00.000+10:00

Everyone has the same idea - enjoy the sunshine!

It seems like spring is here, right on the dot! There were subtle signs over the last couple of days that the cold days of winter will soon be behind us. On Wednesday as I was leaving class about 645pm, I noticed that the sky wasn't as dark as it had been during winter. Yesterday, Melbourne posted a max of 22'C and the oodles of sunshine that greeted me when I awoke, just called for a lunch picnic at my favourite spot in the Botanic Gardens (together with many other Melburnians!).

Today, Channel 7 News says that Melbourne is looking at a max of 23'C! Yippee! It's time to break out my skirts (without the addition of winter tights) and sandals from their lonely place in the cupboard where they have been languishing for the last 6 weeks. Knowing Melbourne's infamous 4 seasons in one day weather patterns, I'm hoping this nice warm spell keeps up till next week. For now, I'm going to enjoy all the best parts of spring today...

Savoury Pumpkin Scones

2006-08-31T11:30:00.000+10:00

A picture of the savoury pumpkin scones as promised!

The First Time cont'd (Part III)

2006-08-31T10:42:00.000+10:00

Having spied a simple recipe for pound cake on the back of the box of Sunbeam sultanas while making the Rustic Apple Tart, I decided to try it one Thursday afternoon. A loves sultanas so I thought it would also be a nice snack for him to take to work the next day. I paid the corner bottle shop a visit for a bottle of white wine and was ready to start once I stepped back into the apartment. Not having any oranges on hand, I decided to tweak the recipe a little taking into account the ingredients I already had in the fridge.

Sultana Syrup Cake

Ingredients:
½ cup Sunbeam Natural Sultanas
1¼ cup self-raising flour
½ cup caster sugar
80g butter, melted
½ cup milk
2 x 70g eggs, lightly beaten [As the eggs I had weighed approximately 59g each (as stated on the box), I compensated for the difference in liquid with slightly more milk and 10g more butter.]

For the syrup:
Juice and zest of 2 oranges [I used the zest and juice of 1 lemon and ¾ cup of orange juice from the packet instead]
½ cup caster sugar
1/3 cup white wine

1. Preheat the oven to 180'C and grease and line a 20cm loaf pan.
2. Place flour, sugar and sultanas in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the butter, milk and eggs and mix until well combined. Spoon into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45 minutes at 180'C.
3. To make the syrup, place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil uncovered for 5 minutes.
4. Carefully pour ¼ of the syrup over cake while cooling in tin. Leave to soak in and then repeat until ½ the syrup has soaked into the cake. Invert when cold and serve with the remaining syrup.

[As my syrup was quite liquidy to start with, I ended up gently boiling it for much longer and in three stages instead. I also found that it was easier for the cake to absorb the syrup when it was more liquid instead of when it had thickened in consistency. So I boiled it for 5 minutes first and spooned ¼ of the syrup over the cake. I then gently boiled it for a further 5 minutes and spooned another ¼ of the now-thicker syrup over the cake together with the zest, which left a nice shiny glaze. I then simmered the syrup for a further 3 minutes until it was the consistency of pouring honey and served it when cool with the sliced cake.]

No guesses as to where these 3 slices disappeared to!

It must have been sugar wonderland for A that week, coming home to dinner (sticky chicken wings, sweet potato cakes and cabbage braised in white wine & butter) AND yet another delicious treat. A loves sultanas so he was happily pattering around the kitchen in anticipation of having a slice after dinner, as well as sneaking a couple of bites while my back was turned. Well, all 3 slices in the picture above disappeared by the time we turned in for the night and I packed a further 2 slices, generously drizzled with the syrup, for A's mid-morning snack the next day**. If it's not apparent by now, A really loves his food!

The recipe was simple and quick, taking no longer than 15 minutes preparation and assembly time and the results were really delicious for something so simple. The only further tweak to the recipe above I would make would be to reduce the sugar in the syrup to ¼ cup and a little bit more and have equal proportions of the wine and lemon/orange juice at ½ cup each instead as the syrup turned out tooth-rottingly sweet. A slice or two made for a great afternoon treat the next day with a cup of Earl Grey tea and my latest book, Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking.

**A reported that the thought of not having every single bit of the cake to himself (his colleagues apparently likely to pinch bits and pieces of his cake once they hear the rustle of the foil according to him) was so distressing that he had smuggled them to the meeting room during a teleconference with a client and ate them in the course of the conversation. That gave me a good laugh!

The First Time cont'd (Part II)

2006-08-30T10:51:00.000+10:00

Scones can be savoury too

A couple of days after making the Rustic Apple Tart, I spied a Donna Hay recipe in the Sunday magazine to the Sunday Herald-Sun for savoury pumpkin scones and decided to try it out, seeing that pumpkins were easily available and rather cheap in the market compared to other fruit and vegetables. I was also a little intrigued about cooking with pumpkin since pumpkins are not that easily available in Singapore and usually in abnormally large sizes around Halloween in the better supermarkets, so it would be only the second time that I used pumpkin in a recipe.

The original recipe called for a fair amount of shaved parmesan and grated cheddar cheese and chopped bacon for toppings. I tweaked the recipe a little by reducing the amount of cheese and loosing the bacon as I didn't fancy a whole load of cheese and bacon on the scone to detract from the pumpkin flavour. I also added a generous pinch of curry powder to intensify the pumpkin flavour and used a butternut or jacara pumpkin (I forget which) instead of a Japanese pumpkin, that being the only pumpkin available in the local Coles supermarket. The recipe I used with slight tweaks to the original is set out below:

Savoury Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients:
500g pumpkin, peeled and chopped
3½ cups self-raising flour
Sea salt – I used Murray River Salt Flakes
Cracked black pepper – Be generous with the cracked black pepper as it adds a slightly spicy tinge to the scones
¾ cup milk
A generous pinch of curry powder – I used Hot Madras Curry Powder from Clive of India
¼ cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 200'C.

2. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and steam the pumpkin (in a baking paper-lined bamboo steamer or any other steamer) for 10-12 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked when tested with a skewer. [I found it easier to mash the pumpkin if it was sufficiently cooked till soft and cooked it for about 20 minutes instead.]

3. Remove the pumpkin from the heat, place in a bowl and mash until smooth. Add the flour, salt and pepper, and curry powder in a large bowl.

4. Make a well in the centre and gradually add the milk, stirring with a butter knife until just combined.

5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until a smooth dough forms. [I found the mixture a little too wet to turn out and knead sufficiently and lightly kneaded it in the bowl instead.]

6. Press out the dough to form a 20cm x 30cm rectangle. Scatter with the cheese, divide into 12 individual scones and place on an oiled and lined baking tray. [As I hadn't turned it out to knead, I used 2 spoons to form irregular shaped scones on the oiled and lined baking tray. That made for about 13 scones. I then scattered the cheese on top.]

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

The end-result was a little chewier than I expected of a scone but definitely had a similar density to traditional scones (which I've yet to try). A and I enjoyed the savoury pumpkin scones very much that night with the Tomato, Bean and Bacon stew (also another Nigel Slater recipe), especially with a great wodge of butter slowly melting over the side. I also had the scones for breakfast the next day. I found it a great alternative accompaniment to stews/soups instead of ordinary bread, as the pumpkin scones are more substantial than bread. Better yet, I froze the remaining scones for a rainy day when we run out of bread. Simply wrap in cling wrap and store in the freezer.

* Note: I defrosted a couple of the scones for dinner one night and it seemed like the pumpkin flavour had become more pronounced from its sojourn in the freezer. It also mopped up the remnants of the steak juices very well. Definitely convenient to have some of these on hand to satisfy the odd afternoon cravings or for the days when you've discovered the wholemeal loaf has turned moldy!

** Sorry guys but I wasn't able to upload the photos of the scones successfully so will post those in a separate entry next time around.

The First Time (Part I)

2006-08-29T20:53:00.000+10:00

The first time for anything is an occasion you will always remember. The first time you rode a bike, kissed a guy, bought your first pair of high heels and baked your first cake. It's been a while since that last memory – that particular occasion would strike a familiar cord with most Singaporean school girls in the 90's who had to learn as part of their Home Economics class, the skill of rolling up a "swiss roll" without cracking it!

I then spent a large part of my teenage years in the school kitchen every Wednesday and Saturday afternoons putting together dishes, cakes and pastries of varying levels of difficulty as part of the lesson plans for my GCE "O" Levels for Food & Nutrition. The height of difficulty for me then was baking a fruit cake for Christmas which involved starting the whole process in September (6 hours of slow baking following 2 hours of prep!) after which I basted the cake with brandy for 3 months after – imagine the fumes when I finally cut the cake at our Christmas dinner! Rarely did I let a recipe go untested, even those on the back of flour bags/raisin & chocolate chip boxes, magazines and generally anywhere; as long as a recipe interested me, I would clip it, compile it in a file and try it out.

Following those intense years of baking and cooking, my skills fell into a period of long disuse where, like any other teenager, shopping, partying and going out took precedence over anything kitchen-related.

Time has turned a full circle and I find myself now, more than 10 years after setting down my spatula and apron, with time on my hands to play with flour, sugar and eggs again. Even enough time on my hand to compile recipes from all over including Epicurious, the back of produce boxes, magazines and favourite recipes of friends. As I haven't made anything more complicated than a peach pudding-cake in the past couple of years, and much as I want to dive right in and try all the lovely complicated-looking cakes in my cookbooks (the food blogs Nordljus, Kuidaore and Cupcake Bakeshop by Chocklit, amongst many others are big inspirations), I refrain and decided to start right from the beginning with simple basic recipes. I tried 3 simple recipes over the course of a week and will post separately on each of them beginning with the first below.

The Rustic Apple Tart

A couple of weeks ago, A was having a tough time at work, working all hours of the day (and much of the subsequent weekend) to complete a transaction after we drove back from Sydney earlier in the week. So inspired by an article I had read recently about apples, I decided to chance making a rustic apple tart with some leftover Pink Lady apples in our fridge following one of Nigel Slater's recipes from his book Real Cooking with some necessary adaptation, as a treat to cheer him up. It looked simple enough and I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already.

I love Nigel Slater's recipe books as most of his recipes are easy to recreate for daily meals. And now that I'm in Melbourne with easier access to the more easily-available ingredients for Western cooking (like artichokes, leeks and the like), it's been a pleasure trying out many of his recipes. I did hit a snag though when I tried his Lentil Soup with Mushrooms and Lemon using red lentils – one would naturally think that the soup would be orangey at the very least and not the sludge-like green mess (more porridge than soup) I ended up with. Tasty though it was redolent with the flavour of mushroom cut through with lemon, I couldn't stomach eating it although A had no problems! Thankfully, his recipes for sweeties don't usually have such tragic results.

Nigel Slater's recipe called for fruits like apples, plums, gooseberry, damson and blueberries and I only had apples in the fridge and wasn't about to trek out in the cold to buy the rest of the fruits (which would also be phenomenally expensive in winter). My only concession was to add some sultanas I had in the fridge. I was a little nervous with the pastry as I still lacked basic baking equipment and had to guess-timate the quantity of each of the ingredients (using a can of tomatoes to get an approximate idea of how much was 250g of flour). Worse still was the light kneading of the dough and rolling it out as I had to improvise using our dining room table and a wine bottle to do so and the dough stuck to the glass despite generous flouring of the surface. After transferring the dough to the baking tray, I spread the sliced apples out in a fan shape throughout 85% of the pastry, sprinkled the sultanas, drizzled some honey and dusted the top with caster sugar before folding up the edges roughly leaving part of the tart uncovered (explaining why the tart is "rustic"). It was with much relief when I finally bunged it into the oven.

I needn't have worried all that much even with all the guess-timating on my part – evidently, I hadn't lost all of my skills from those sweaty afternoons in the school kitchen! Light and flaky, the shortcrust pastry was a much better result than what I remembered from my long-ago pastry sessions – it's likely to be as a result of the weather in Melbourne being more conducive to pastry-making (without the heater, the temperature hovered around 20'C indoors, outdoors being 15'C). No picture of this as I hadn't used eggwash but milk as instructed by the recipe and I thought the resulting pale pastry too unappetizing to photograph. A didn't have any problems with it though, happily wolfing up a couple of slices with ice-cream and a generous splash of cream.

After finishing the tart, I belatedly recalled the section in Damien Pignolet's cookbook French titled "The Pastry Kitchen", which has helpful step-by-step photos and a more precise recipe for pate brisee (shortcrust pastry) and resolved to use that instead next time. I haven't reproduced either of Nigel Slater's or Damien Pignolet's recipes here as I trust that any true cook out there would have their own version of apple pie/tart using a pastry of their choice.

Comfort Food on a Cold Night

2006-08-29T14:17:00.000+10:00

Some weeks ago, A and I made a trek to the heart of Richmond for one of Melbourne's well-known cheap eats along Bridge Road. It was a trek indeed, being a time when we were car-less and before we drove A's car down from Sydney, as although Richmond was the next suburb to ours, it still entailed a 45 minute walk in the cold. A friend asked in an email "isn't that why trams exist in Melbourne?" and I secretly agreed with her (right about 30 minutes into the walk) but A and I thought it would be a good way to work up an appetite for one of our favourite Japanese dishes. There's also something in walking all that distance on a cold dark winter night, anticipating the meal ahead before emerging into a cosy café with the steamy aroma of freshly cooked ramen.

Momotaro Rahmen is one of those tiny café with nondescript furniture and a small menu which one on a cold night, might easily walk on by; this would quite likely be the case in Richmond where there is a plethora of good food from the many Vietnamese outlets on Victoria Street to the venerable Richmond Hill Café & Larder at the beginning of Bridge Road. But having read that this café served up great ramen at very reasonable prices (and therefore thoroughly deserving the tag of Melbourne "Cheap Eats"), I decided that we would have dinner there one Saturday night.

Ordering at Momotaro is quick and simple. Make your way to the cashier and read your order off the huge menu hung on the wall above to the nice lady at the counter, pay and take a number.

We both decided to order the Negi Miso Ramen which is a classic ramen with a miso soup base topped with roast pork and leeks with hot chilli sauce. One word of caution! Momotaro serves up the biggest bowl of ramen I've ever eaten; I had earlier dismissed the comment by one reviewer that the bowl in which the ramen is served was as big as her head until a bowl was set before me. When I leaned over to bathe my face in the steamy aroma, I realised that there was truth to that statement! On our first visit, both A and I made the mistake of ordering one bowl each (in addition to an appetizer and dessert to share) and paying for that moment of greediness when we pried ourselves from our chairs to face the 45 minute walk back home. Needless to say, the next time we visited, we shared a bowl of ramen instead, which, together with an appetizer and dessert, was more than sufficient for 2 hungry people.

It doesn't look as impressive here but trust me that it was a BIG bowl!

After a short wait, the ramen was brought to our table and we turned to the serious business of slurping up some goodness. With my first mouthful of noodles from the steaming bowl on that cold winter night, my thoughts were that nothing comes quite close to this. The serving of ramen was definitely value for money at A$10, given the size of the serving. I leave more than half of my ramen untouched as I was stuffed! That's probably because we had a delicious starter to begin with which was on the Specials board that night – gyoza which is a part pan-fried and steamed dumpling. I had earlier read a very enlightening post by J of Kuidaore on how gyozas are prepared and Momotaro's version was true to the method (I could see Reiji, chef and owner, cooking each order of gyoza in the open-plan kitchen).

The special gyoza for the night - see the squid-ink pastry?

The special gyoza (A$8 for 6 pieces) for that night was a nice variation on the classic Italian dish of squid-ink pasta – the gyoza wrapper was made with squid-ink pastry and came with a filling of hot chilli prawn & squid with bamboo. I'm not a big fan of squid ink pasta for various reasons; not only does it use the ink sacs of the squid for its colour and was therefore very 'fishy-tasting', it is also truly difficult to eat this dish with company with any semblance of dignity (witness ink-stained teeth and lips). This time however, the gyoza wrapper was a lightly-tinged grey (probably because not as much squid ink was used) so I thought I would chance a bite. I was glad I did as each mouthful was a sensation of tastes - salty with the tang of the ocean from the prawns and squid, slightly spicy from the bite of the chilli and crunchy from the bamboo shoots. We had tried the regular gyoza on our first visit which was definitely good stuff. But the special definitely blew our minds. Our dish emptied itself magically within the next couple of minutes and A and I didn't speak further after the first "mmmm" until we had polished all 6 gyozas off.

A enjoying a bite of the crepe layer cake

After such a huge bowl of ramen and the gyoza, you wouldn't think that we'd be able to squeeze in any more food. But I had my eye on the crepe layer cake with green tea custard (A$3.50), and had taken the precaution of ordering it upfront with our ramen. I had missed trying it out on my previous visit when someone nicked the last piece before me and had to settle for the green tea icecream (wonderful still as it was chockfull of green tea flavour). This dessert intrigued me when it was served – layer upon layer of crepes were sandwiched with a thin spread of green tea custard such that it formed a 'cake'. Served with a generous wodge of vanilla icecream on the side, A and I fought over every last bit of this dessert.

Momotaro Rahmen comes out tops for good hearty comfort food and all for around $25 for two. A and I have definitely marked this on our favourites list - it is definitely worth the 45 minute walk anytime!

Momotaro Rahmen – Japanese Noodle Bar
392 Bridge Road
Richmond Vic 3121

Phone: (03) 9421 1661

A Weekend Away

2006-08-28T13:01:00.000+10:00

On the Hume freeway from Sydney to Melbourne

A couple of weeks ago, we flew to Sydney for the weekend to visit with A's family before taking a road trip of 850 kilometres back to Melbourne with A's car. We took the direct route back to Melbourne instead of the scenic coastal route (which we will undertake in December for Christmas) and it was a great drive seeing that the Hume freeway back was largely free of cars.

Taking my turn at the wheel, I was somewhat apprehensive about long-distance driving, having up to now, always been driven around for long distance travel. After a couple of hours behind the wheel on a clear road with blue skies above and scenery changing every few kilometres or so, I now understand why many Singaporeans love to take their cars up to Kuala Lumpur for the weekend – there is something therapeutic about driving at 120km/h and singing loudly to a good selection of road trip music. While I would have loved my John Mayer and Dick Lee albums to be on hand, I had to be content with Madonna's "The Immaculate Collection", Michael Jackson's "History", "Grease!" and the soundtrack from the movie "Pretty in Pink" – all courtesy of A's teenage years and all the CDs left in his bedroom!

The drive back topped off a truly enjoyable weekend spent chowing down A's mom's luscious cooking, lounging around with our books and catching up with family in the local pub at Westmead. One particular highlight of the weekend was the extended family gathering over the usual dim sum lunch (which is always a fixture on the calendar every time we come back to Sydney) in Carlingford. This time, we were all more restrained with our orders for dim sum as we were told that we would be heading over to Uncle Edgar's place for birthday cake. And what a birthday cake it turned out to be!

Uncle Edgar's birthday cake

As a tribute to their Filipino heritage, A's aunt had ordered an ube-macapuno (yam with young sweet coconut) cake. Covered in pastel buttercream icing, once sliced, the cake comprised of 2 layers of purple ube-flavoured sponge with a filing of macapuno. I was rather surprised at the intensity of the purple sponge, having read previously on Chockylit's post on Ube Cupcakes with Bubble Buttercream that her attempts at making the ube cupcakes resulted instead in an unappetizing sludge-green colour. Chocklit left the colour natural although she suggested that to correct the colour, some drops of red food colouring might do the trick to try smash red beets (although I think that might affect the flavour of the ube!). In the case of the birthday cake, I'm guessing it must have been the former as I certainly tasted only ube in the sponge.

A slice of the ube sponge cake with macapuno filing

Colour-aside, the birthday cake was light, fluffy and definitely delicious enough for A to return for a second slice. For me, as I have never been a big fan of yam-based desserts (whether in the form of Magnolia's ube icecream or my grandma's traditional Teochew dessert, ohr ngee), it was a nice reminder of the wonderful macapuno icecream from Magnolia and coconut pies that my mom used to cart back from Manila.

I am a Shoeholic

2006-08-10T16:09:00.000+10:00

I obviously didn't learn anything from my excursion to buy Billy Joel tickets.

Having read in the Melbourne Weekly Magazine that Miss Louise, Melbourne's smaller-scale equivalent of On Pedder, was having a massive sale starting from 9 a.m. this morning, I should have timed my arrival for 8.30 a.m.... at the very latest! But as Miss Louise is nicely situated opposite A's office, I thought it would be nice to do like we do in Singapore in the mornings on the way to work and head into the city together in time for A's start at 9 a.m..

After spending the short train ride in laughing at my anxiety ("What if no size?!"), A very nicely wished me "Happy hunting!" before we parted at the junction as I happily contemplated a nice hour looking at pretty shoes.

I crossed the street and drew in a sharp breath..... as I realised that there were at least 22 other shoe-crazy Melbournians (mostly well-dressed women skivving off work) stamping their impatient feet in the snaking queue and yet more in the store starting the pillage. So much for the pleasant hour looking at shoes! I thought "Heck, I made the trek all the way into the city, I'm not going to leave without having a peek inside..." and thanked my lucky stars that the queue wasn't as bad as the ones for the MNG sales back home.

After an interminable wait of 25 minutes, I crossed the roped-off entrance and couldn't help squealing a little in excitement looking at the shoes. There is something about a crowded shop full of women and a limited supply of shoes that quickens one's breathing and ups the adrenaline. I knew what I wanted since I had peeped in the window the night before to spy out the landscape when I was waiting for A to finish up with work. Unfortunately, there weren't any Size 38s available for the shoes I (and obviously many of the other women) had been eyeing. All that meant was that I just had to have a second look around the store again.

BINGO! An hour later, I left the shop with a huge bag, having dropped a load of cash on shoes that I don't need (but definitely don't mind having!).

If you're a shoeholic too and wondering what I scored (like the girls in A's office who clamoured to dig through my bag that day), they were pale green Sergio Rossi thongs and Giuseppi Zanotti creamy white leather ballet flats with an antique-looking pin brooch.

So what is it about shoes that make some women go weak in the knees? Go see the episode in Sex and the City where Carrie's Manolo's get stolen from a house party - I totally identified with her sentiments! I've tried to explain this phenomenon to A many times over but he still thinks I'm a little gaga to rush down to the city first thing in the morning to score shoes on sale. Men just don't get it.

Miss Louise

Shop 601 Grand Hyatt Hotel

123 Collins Street Melbourne

The Long Holiday

2006-08-04T17:14:00.000+10:00

July 2006 proved to be an eventful month for both A and I. After months of discussion with family and friends and a lot of soul-searching on my part, we took the plunge to move to Melbourne for 6 months - A, to start a secondment with his company's Melbourne office and me, for a long-awaited sabbatical from my crazy long hours as a lawyer and to hit the books (for fun this time though), the shops and cook up a storm. We thought it would be a great way to wind down a hectic year, exploring a new city together and recovering some excitement in life that had been squashed out of us by our intense work schedules for the past couple of years.

My original intention when I first had thoughts last year of taking a sabbatical from work was to do the usual globe-trot, which upon further reflection (that I couldn't fit a decent wardrobe into a 20kg backpack AND lug back any of the exotic food stuff/clothes/artwork etc I was sure to discover) was quickly revised to settling in another country doing something useful. I then had brief visions of being another Jane Goodall, doing field work for enviromental NGOs until quite a few friends remarked that they would never have put me down for any trekking trips to the Amazon. They had a point, of course.

Work then got intensely busy, and not being able to arrive at any firm decision, meant that any plans to take a sabbatical got pushed to the side. I would also have to leave A, as he had just started a new job this year and couldn't possibly ask for 6 months off any time soon. Yet, I thought constantly about taking time out for myself. Fate or coincidence intervened when A told me about a contemplated posting to Melbourne and asked me to consider coming with him and take this to be my sabbatical instead. While Australia is not unfamiliar to both of us, A having grown up in Sydney and me having been in and out of Australia countless times, neither of us had lived in Melbourne for an extended period. So the thought of settling here for 6 months did prove quite exciting. After some initial panic at my end ("What am I going to do with myself for 6 months?!"), soothed by very helpful advice from my gal-pal, G, here we are, in one of the most liveable cities in the world.

Liveable it is for sure! We are fortunate that our (tiny) apartment is situated in very genial surroundings - we are within 5 minutes walk from Chapel Street for all the shopping any girl could desire, Toorak and Domain Road for some of Melbourne's venerable eating institutions and Commercial Road for the local produce at Prahran Market. And just a stone's throw too from the Royal Botanic Gardens, where we've been pounding "the Tan" (Melbournian's affectionate name for the running strip circling the Botanic Gardens) every weekend in a bid to work off all our excessive eating since we got here.

After spending the past few weeks exploring the new surroundings and checking out the local produce stores and food haunts (ok, I confess that I also checked out all the shops too), I finally set aside some time last week to reassess my 'goals' for my time-off. Flipping the pages of my diary, I note that I now have ticks for the following annotations:

"study Literature again" - I signed up for a course at the University of Melbourne and am into my 3rd lecture and tutorial.
"cook regularly" - ha, this one has many ticks against it, for the new recipes I've tried since I got here, most of which turned out quite well, except for one bad experience with lentils.
"begin that long overdue exercise regime" - a 4km walk, 3-4 times a week around the Tan is an "exercise regime" isn't it?
"lounging around in my jammies the whole day and doing absolutely nothing" - this one I got it down pat.

But I hadn't made any headway on the bit in my diary that said "record all the fun bits in Melbourne". And then some friends suggested that they would love to know what else I get up to over here and to do it the techie way - bare my thoughts on a blog. Ok...I'm sure this beats repeating myself 10,000 times in emails (and forgetting which friends I've told what!).

Anyway, I do realise that the choice of name for this blog may be a little misleading. Unlike some great food blogs out there I've been following, this one isn't going to be all about cooking, new creations and beautiful food photos (as you can tell from the subject choice in my first post!). Food posts will make its appearance from time to time for sure - Melbourne being such a foodie town, it would be a pity not to share about finding yummy chocolate truffles from Prahran Market's chocolatier, the experience of sating a chilli craving one day with a spicy Indonesian chicken dish or walking 45 minutes from our apartment to find a tiny ramen shop in Richmond. But I'm sure you won't begrudge the other random thoughts posted here too - there are so many other pleasures in life other than food ....

The Piano Man

2006-08-03T22:20:00.000+10:00

Guess where A and I will be on 10 November 2006?

Getting your hands on tickets for any concert back home in Singapore was pretty easy. Just log on to the SISTIC or TicketCharge online website and tick the right boxes, voila... you have your preferred choice of tickets to a show. Any time and all from the comfort of your home.

Down under in Melbourne, it's a different story altogether. To get my hands on these babies, I could order tickets through the Ticketek website and pay an extra $7.95 for delivery. Or I could go down to the Ticketek outlet itself. Thankfully, we live just down the road from a Ticketek outlet so when the tickets went on sale on 31 July, my 'battle plan' to get these tickets involved rolling out of the comfort of our warm bed and getting into line by 9 a.m.. Silly me, I thought getting there by 9.05 a.m. would have been alright, not wanting to be a typical *kiasu Singaporean and be the first in line. Little did I know that the counter had given out queue tickets from 8.45 a.m.! So there I was, No 18 in the queue, calculating my odds of getting tickets as by the drips and draps of the conversation swirling around me, tickets were moving at lightning speed.

Luckily, after some indecision on my part ("Gold or Silver tickets, miss? Erm.. ermm.... hmm... ok, silver...."), I scored 2 precious tickets. No choice as to seats though but we're quite near the stage, albeit a restricted view. I don't care. All that mattered as I skipped up the slope to the apartment, humming "Sing us a song you're the Piano Man", was that it wouldn't be too long before I hear that line and many other favourite ones, sung live.

*kiasu - Singapore English slang translating loosely to mean "afraid to lose". Typical characteristic of Singaporeans.

Billy Joel - Live in Concert 2006

Friday 10 November 2006 8 p.m., Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne