Charismatic Food Blog

More Malaysian Eats

2012-01-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

I've been in Malaysia more often these past few months. Some great meals at Pasta Zanmai [Japanese and Italian fusion] and Ipoh [the hometown of my mom]

Teriyaki Chicken. A normal dish, but done in a tasty way!

Stir-fried udon with sea-food

Steak slices

Unagi with rice

Black sesame, green tea, and Chocolate ice-cream

Liz and I

Pasta Zanmai

Kai-See Hor-Fun [Shredded Chicken + Flat Noodles]

at a famous shop called Gong-Heng in Ipoh

Beef balls

I'm enjoying one of the best dishes in Ipoh

Ipoh Yong Tau-Fu

[a variety of veggies and tofu stuffed with fish. Usually boiled or fried]

Roast lamb + Soft fluffy mantou [bread rolls]

Penang/Kulim Hawker Food

2012-01-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

Vegies wrapped in pastry.

'Chai Kuih'. It's delicious.

Another type of 'Chai Kuih'

Lor Bak, 滷肉

Meat wrapped in tofu skin and fried + an assortment of other meats/prawn fritters/sausages

Penang specialty. It's pretty good in Alor Setar.

Hungry

蚝煎

Oyster Omelette

A hawker food feast

Otak-otak (椰醬魚）

Northern Malaysian specialty

The controversial shower-cap Char Kuay Teow lady

It was actually quite good

Cendol on Penang road

>_<

台南小吃－ “ 喉野！！" DAY 3

2011-06-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

台南小吃－ “ 喉野喔！！" DAY 2

2011-06-12T22:00:00.001-07:00

台南小吃－ “ 喉野喔！！" DAY 1

2011-06-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

I spontaneously decided to take 雙雙 and Edison [from Hong Kong] to Tainan for a food/relaxation trip. Needed a

Hua Lien Food （花莲美食）

2011-04-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

The pictures speak for themselves. In my opinion, Hua Lien food is way better than Taipei food. It's more fresh and tasty, and I even liked all the types of food that I rather not touch in Taipei.

混沌/云吞/ wantan

It was really good. I don't even like wantan in Malaysia.

The dumpling skin was delicate and thin, the pork was very fresh

Fresh oysters cooking...

Oyster Omelette

Clam soup and oyster omelette

Me eating experimentally

It was surprisingly good!

Taipei has been ripping me off!

The cooking process

Fresh oysters and eggs all laid out in their glory

Night market scenes

My lemon and ai-yu drink

Coffin Bread - 棺材板

The bread is filled with meat and fried

Hua Lien

BBQ sticks

All the different types...

Tasty...I'm happy

And so is Sophie...

Open wide!!!

Shilin Night Market －士林夜市

2011-04-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

I can scarcely believe that I waited this long to visit Shilin Night Market :P. It is one of the oldest night markets in Taipei. I've visited a lot of another night markets, but somehow, most locals aren't keen on Shilin, so I've never dropped by. I decided that after being in Taipei for such a long period of time (at least from the perspective of a tourist) that it was time to drag my other foreign friends and see how bad or good the food was...

First stop was for black pepper sausage.

It was HEAPS nice. Very tasty and peppery

Bun with ice-cream. Average.

The ice-cream was the low-grade, cheapo type.

煎包／Fried dumpling

I've had much better in other night markets.

This batch wasn't hot enough, and it was kinda soggy

Poser

Nonono, it's for the sake of taking the night-scene

Indian rolls - in progress

Alibaba roty, so it's called....

Whee, the guy tosses it up

I had the garlic chicken roll.

Should have gone for the curry. This was average as well

Spring onion/leeks wrapped with BBQ-ed meat

It was a long wait for those rolls

Verdict: Average.

Had much better in Hualien night market

Chua Ping [Shaved ice], and Touhua [beancurd]

This was pretty good.

I didn't try the oyster omelette, the oyster noodles, or the Taiwanese steak. I'm not fond of these types of food unless they are very fresh and well-cooked [like in Hualien], so going by what I had tried above, I decided to stop tasting more average-tasting things.

Now I agree with the locals. I think I'd rather visit Rao-He, Shi-Da, or night markets in other states than Shilin. The food is basically average.

Enjoy the pics though :)

Ipoh food feast

2011-04-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Some of family hail from Ipoh, a city in Malaysia known for its food, valleys, and pretty girls :)

We head to Ipoh for a vacation from time to time. Here're some food pics from this town of abundance. Ipoh offers a lot more stuff, like 'nga choi kai'/bean sprout chicken and all that. But I'll leave that for another time.

河粉 /Hor Fun/Flat Rice Noodles

Ipoh makes all kinds of noodles really well.

Smoother and springier than other places in Malaysia

Fish balls

Ipoh is also famous for really fresh and bouncy fish balls.

Fried fish cakes/tofu

Again, an Ipoh speciality

This was just the nescafe/milo I had with everything :)

It's not really an Ipoh thing...

More fish balls, stuffed vegies, and tofu

蛋挞 / Egg tarts

OH, these ones have layers and layers of flaky crusts!

YUM, one of my favourite desserts!

Mun Chong restaurant, one of the well-known Chinese restaurants in Ipoh

FRESH FRESH succulent prawns steamed in a little wine and egg

SOOO good that my sister who normally doesn't like prawns was asking for seconds

Stewed leg of lamb. Canton-style

With mantou/fresh buns

One has to order it 24 hours ahead

Tasty and tender meat was falling off the bone. 'Nuff said

Lee and Lee Noodle House

2011-03-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I always drop by Lee and Lee for breakfast when I'm back in Alor Star. Just like the taste of the noodles, particularly the Hor-Fun. And I have them dry [sort of dry. Minimal sauce], not in soup.

Delectable mushrooms(香菇) and bean sprouts (豆芽)

Curry sauce noodles topped with prawns

Dry noodles with prawns, chicken and mushrooms

My favourite Hor-Fun with chicken and mushrooms

Out with friends around Taipei

2011-02-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

Playing around with some apps that hopefully make the food look more interesting. The first set of food comes from a restaurant at Maokong mountain. You take a gondola there and just relax on this look-point of sorts.

Crab stew with egg tofu. Lovely combo.

Smoked chicken marinated in tea leaves.

Moi with a set of food. 280 NTD/RM 29/ 10 AUD

Bamboo shots, tomatoes, pickles

A colourful version of the lunch-set

These next 2 sets are restaurants around Taipei. One I've blogged about before - 老友记， the HK restaurant. The other I can't remember, but I went with life-group friends for lunch on Sunday.

贵妃鸡 - Concubine chicken?

It's really fat and delicious

Moi with food

皮蛋瘦肉粥－ Century Egg Porridge

牛腩干捞面－ Beef Brisket and Dry noodles

Teppanyaki Sirloin Steak and Cabbage.

The steak was awesome and soft!

Friends eating together

Ode to Alor S(e)tar food. Loves loves loves

2011-01-24T21:16:00.000-08:00

Why the (e)? The government can never decide if they want to it to be 'Star' or 'Setar'!!!! They have changed it back and forth so many times. How annoying is that? But anyway, the food is awesome. I love local food. There are some things you just ca't get anywhere else in Malaysia or around the world.

Roast pork at Lao Teik Kee. MAN! Always go back for this.

DELECTABLE! Not too fat. Crispy and not smelly.

Bitter-gourd and pork rib soup at Lao Teik Kee

SLURPS

THE MOST FRAGRANT FRIED RICE at Lao Teik Kee

Fried with Char Siew, prawns, spring onions, egg...yumyumyum!

Fresh steamed fish that is available in most Chinese restaurants in Malaysia.

Glass noodles, fried Siamese style. The flavour is hard to get anywhere else in the world.

So....flavoursome!!

3-colour iced tea. I always order this at Red Bubble Cafe at my hometown.

Tea+condensed milk+ gula Melaka [Malaccan sugar syrup]

Yee Mee on a sizzling hot plate

Deep-fried squid [sotong]

Tofu on a hot plate

Prawns marinated and cooked to perfection

Curry fish head....ahh.....loves.....

RAMLY BURGERS FOREVER!!!!!

2011-01-14T00:30:00.000-08:00

This post is a tribute to my beloved Ramly (Ramli) burgers! Only available in Malaysia [Singapore has banned it]. I love the taste of the special burgers. Meat patties, seasoned with curry powder, wrapped in a thin omelette, doused in lashings of mayonnaise and tomato/chill sauce, laced with lettuce, onion and carrots.

A typical mamak area

Dilapidated poster

Liz and Dad

Neslo = Nescafe and Milo. SLURP

Some odd drink....Forgot

Honeydew drink

The burger sans tomato sauce. I don't like too much sauce.

Just like the egg, cheese and mayo.

All the vegys at the bottom

Moi

Liz and I ordered another one, and asked for it to be sliced up.

But THIS way of slicing was unexpected. Looks like a pizza

Another view

Busy at work

The omelettes frying...

Seasoning...

Wrapping the patties in eggs

Pricing....

No. 8 Curry House

2011-01-13T23:41:00.001-08:00

No. 8 Curry House is a well-known place in my hometown that serves.....wait for it.....yes...CURRY!

HAHA. Sorry. That was kind of lame. But it has really good curry. Not the bland Japanese curry that Taiwan serves. But REAL curry. It's not always terribly spicy. BUT it's always well-flavoured.

Renovated restaurant. Pretty nice and cooling

Artistic shot of tea in metal cups....

Me!

The famous curry fish head

Mutton curry. REALLY GOOD STUFF!!

Malaysian-style fried chicken. It's yumyum

Beans. Need SOME vegys

Squid

Beef Rendang. ALSO GOOD STUFF

FEAST

Eating at a HK-style restaurant

2011-01-13T23:20:00.000-08:00

Rubecca's friend, Sam from East Malaysia came over for a holiday. He treated us to this really nice HK-styled dinner in the East Side of Taipei. The East Side is a popular shopping and eating area. It's a little bit more expensive than some other areas, but I like the area a lot because it's less crowded than the really 'bargain' areas, or the uppity areas around the 101.

Occasionally, I miss HK-style food. Taiwanese food is really different in taste and flavouring. To be honest, I prefer Malaysian and HK food to Taiwanese food. Heh.

Delectable roast pork

I miss roast duck!

Some of the spread

Sam and Rubecca

Mandy, Charis, Rubecca, Sam.

Beef balls

Me!

HK-styed dessert. Guiling Gao 龟苓膏

Pineapple polo buns, wreathed in mist...that's coming from......

THIS. Some odd dessert.

The odd dessert sans mist/steam

Peanut soup

Black sesame soup. LOVE IT.

Nicest Japanese dinners in Taiwan （竹北）ZhuBei Area

2010-12-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

Classy place

Kinda pretty

Appetisers

Chicken rolls. Yum!

Closer look

Salad

Nice tour guide and uncle

Look at the sashimi....drool

Dumpling in clear gravy. LOVELY!

Crab rolls. Salivating.....

Pretty plating....

Rice with salmon roe

The best beef! Soft, tender, melt-in-the-mouth...

Crab!

HUGE oyster baked with cheese and white sauce

Roe

Dessert. Fresh and light tiramisu.

2009 Taiwan trip Hakka dishes 客家菜

2010-12-02T00:56:00.000-08:00

216 食堂

2010-11-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Salad

OH! OH!

The STAR of the table, salmon belly sashimi that MELTS in your mouth!

One of the best I've tasted.

Another fatty fish....sweet flesh!

Prawn and bamboo roll

Refreshing and crunchy!

Unagi roll

A fatty fish.....grilled.

REALLY good. Texture and taste was sublime!

Half the spread

'Ahhhhhhh'

松板猪肉

Lean grilled pork. VERY nice stuff.

More sashimi.....this was little chewy.

Nice nonetheless.

黑糖muaji ［brown sugar mochi］

Icy cold and delicious

No. 72 牛肉面 [Beef Noodles]

2010-11-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I was with the Home of Christ gals and we went to No. 72 Beef Noodles. It was pretty good as far as beef noodle shops go. The beef is cooked for 72 hours....so they say.

皮蛋豆腐［Century egg and tofu]

Yummy as! The flavour is quite intense so a little at a time is enough.

卤味

［Stir-fried assortments of pickled tofu, nuts, seaweed]

花干 [tofu skin] and beef pieces

干拌面＋红烧牛肉

Dry noodles in sauce and delicious beef brisket

Very nice and very filling. The noodles are better with a tad of butter/chilli sauce.

The beef was tender and tasty!

The Spread

Moi....pretty happy

Hui Ru and I

With the Gals: 龙涎居(Dragon Saliva Home?)

2010-11-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

干杯！Cheers!

Chinese decor

Food....

Fresh stir-fried vegies

鸡肉饭 Rice with shredded chicken

Yue Qi and Ying Wen

Ying Wen with 面线[vermicelli]

面线 [vermicelli]

鸡汤［chicken soup]

凤梨苦瓜鸡汤

Pineapple+bitter-gourd+chicken soup

YUMMM

Blow...it's hot

SLURP!!

Happy me.

The whole meal only cost NTD 180(RM 18, or AUD 6)

At the outback in Taipei

2010-11-19T20:28:00.001-08:00

After a long day of gigging, I spent the Sunday before last with my foodie pals at the Outback in Taipei because we were all craving steak. :)

Daphne and Ted

The delicious Queensland salad.

The purple thing is actually chicken.

Dunno why the photo turned out purple

We all had cameras. The food was the star of the night!

The ULTIMATE star.

A whole onion carefully 'flowered' and deep fried. Served with a dipping sauce.

SUCH a great experience for the palate.

A top-view

Margaritas were 2-4-1

Happy me eating an onion petal

Rubecca and I with our margaritas

Happy gal....

The steak was actually the average thing among all the dishes.

A bit tough as it was a cheap cut

Go for a better cut of meat if you want steak

Apple pie with vanilla ice-cream. Very nice.

And the best thing about it was that it was FREE!

Our table asked for free desserts for our birthday boy/gal [Rubecca and Jeff]

Cheesecake with berry sauce. Yummy!

The BOMB!

A thick, walnut filled brownie COVERED in ice-cream and cream.

My favourite for the night!

ShaanXi Cuisine

2010-11-18T05:04:00.000-08:00

It was a gorgeous dinner :)

Uncle Jian Ping took a bunch of us from the worship team to dinner at a restaurant known for its Shaanxi cuisine. Perhaps I miss the strong flavours of Malaysian food, because this meal was right up my alley.

Potato juliennes with peppers in a sour gravy

Really refreshing

Beef. Yummy and juicy

Some kind of jelly-like appetiser

YUMMY lamb kebabs!!!

Marinated in herbs and deep-fried

Fish in pepper sauce

Soup with fish-head and mushrooms

Another side of the fish in a different sort of sauce

The full fish dish...pepper fish, and the other unknown sauce

It was very good

Daphne and Ted

Joyce and Rubecca

Pig Intestines. I normally hate them.

But these were yum!

Happy face?

Uncle Jian Ping attacking the food

The delicious broad noodle with sesame seeds

The dough to be broken- 泡馍（bubble buns)

It's hard work!!

Breaking bread together :)

Uncle 'Daddy' Jian Ping

This was also a dish.

Steamed rice with lightly fried egg and soy paste and vegies.

It was very fragrant!!

The 'bubble buns' are now expanding in the soup

仙草 Grass Jelly Dessert

Something sweet to finish off! only 45 NTD for large bowl

At FGB office for music practice with my dessert

Meet ups with OZ mates..more taiwanese eats

2010-11-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Beef tendon and some doughy noodles

Soup's nice. But it was HUGE

Aymes

Kase and Leon, busy eating

Becky and her vermicelli. It rhymes!

Together....

Strictly speaking, didn't eat this with them. Some pepper chicken.

椒麻鸡腿

quite yummy

with rice....

Ode to Taiwanese Eats

2010-11-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

Sizzling steak

It wasn't that good...but it's ... ok ...

Lasagne

Sashimi at my favorite Jap restaurant

My fellow foodie buddy

The spread....YUM

YUMMY beef slices.....

Nice vegies

Yummy Teriyaki roasted chicken

Plum juice

Stew pork rice set

Stewed pork rice. 东波肉

Fried sweet bread....man-tou and condensed milk

Some egg milk-shake

Grilled prawns

Roasted lamb

Some grilled stuff...bamboo, fish etc

Lamb hot-pot!!!

Herbs

Some stuff we ate with the hot pot

Japanese beef with egg

Nigiri!!

YUMMMMM

Pesto seafood pasta

Squid-ink pasta

Some chicken and cheese pastries

Tribute to Sono...at Portside

2010-10-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

It was a tasting course to remember.....

To be honest, I wouldn't say it's the best I've had in terms of Japanese food, but still, just having the variety of courses and the general good quality was very enjoyable. The mains were the highlight!

Mase's photos were way better than mine....compact vs HUGE BIG CAMERA. So yea, mine [the last few] are obviously inferior

Appetizers. LOVELY!

Soft shell crab, rare wagyu, and oyster with roe

Moi

Green tea served in a huge cup

Kingfish sashimi...yum

Sashimi course

Croquettes. They were ok.

This salmon belly sushi on the other hand was gorgeous...

I think Mase was rendered speechless by the duck. It was melt-in-the-mouth!!!! 5 stars!

I REALLY liked the wagyu beef too.

Dessert. Cheese cake. Shot is slightly unclear.

My dessert was Matcha Tiramisu with chocolate bikkies. Quite nice. Not spectacular.

My shots are dark....This rare wagyu was intense....and very nice!

A fresh oyster is always good.

Can't let Mase get away with no shots.....

Checking to his shots

Yes, the big black thing.

My attempt at taking the surroundings....

Brisbane Food Adventures - Part 2

2010-10-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

It gets fun-ner :P

Devonshire Tea....ahhhhhhh

Moi...with the tea and scones

The Tea Centre....note to self, fruit teas are good. Flowery teas are not!

One of the nicest nights and meals I had at Alchemy.

Grilled strip-loin, cauliflower puree, herb butter, grilled escargot encased in cheese, jus...YUM.

The trout....it was pretty good too apparently.

ARGH!

Peanut brittle that zings in your mouth, dark choc mousse,

peanut butter ice-cream with nuts in it, candy floss....

To DIE for!!!!!

Mango Cheese Cake....what a cute way to present it.....

Pizza at Earth 'n' Sea.....nice...

Passionfruit crepes...mmmm

Lovely vanilla cupcake

Tandoori Fish...and rocket.zucchini salad with mint sauce.

VERY yummy

What's better than an ALL-YOU-CAN EAT Korean Bbq?

Recent Brisbane Food Adventures - Part 1

2010-10-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Recent trip to Brisbane......stuffed a year's worth of catch ups in 12 of so days. And of course, mostly over food.

The Eggs Benedict at the Coffee Club is one of the best...yum yum...the sauce is sublime. First meal!

John picking at his beef burger....quite nice

Dessert at 16th on the Park at Milton with Rach. Creme Brulee. Nice

Tiramisu with Choc Shell, double cream, and Choc sauce. Too sweet though.

Pork belly on Mash with Parmesan wafer. At the Verve Cafe with Rach.

Lamb Shanks.....At the Verve

Yummiest breakfast of French toast, maple syrup, bananas, and grilled bacon

Can't get enough of grilled scallops at Sushi Train!!!

The grilled wagyu is delicious too.

Grinding sesame seeds into my ramen....with Mei Goh here.

She insisted I needed to do this.

With Pegs at Mad Tong San. Seafood pancake and potato noodles with beef.

Alor Star Food

2010-03-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Deep - Fried Kangkong. Yum. Malaysians do fried stuff so well.

The fried vegies are still juicy and fresh inside. The batter is light and crunchy.

Chai Por Hu [Steamed Fish with Fried Pickles]

Nothing beats fresh fish steamed Chinese style. The pickles are a great addition....giving the whole dish a tanginess that's hard to beat.

Oyama at the Valley

2010-03-13T23:13:00.000-08:00

The Valley has a good array of restaurants that are diverse and serve pretty good food. Oyama is a Japanese restaurant that I was exposed to in 2004, and I fell head over heels in love with much of the food there. Warning: It's ridiculously expensive. I only went back in 2009 with my colleagues for a splurge, as they are fond of the restaurant too.

Some bits of a very nice California roll. Love it, Love it, Love it.

Oyama hand rolls are to DIEEEE for.

Some of my favourites: The Oyama hand roll [tempura prawn], the ebi handroll [boiled prawn],

the fresh scallop hand roll, the tempura scallop hand roll, the unagi [eel] roll.

What makes them so special is...well...everything: Fresh, expensive seaweed [crisp and delicious], a generous 3 scallops [or a fat tempura prawn freshly fried] in one roll [making even the last bite lovely], rice from a special recipe that the chef boasts he spent $5000 to obtain,a long slice of avocado, a generous spoonful of salmon roe on top of a lovely dollop of mayonnaise. AHHHH. GREAT STUFF.

My male friends like the sweet and sour crispy beef. It's unique. But it's not my favourite.

I miss fresh sashimi. This was a great experience!!! Savouring every delicious bite.

Other delectables included refreshingly iced plum wine and fried rice with pork belly.

Go for the sushi and sashimi. They are worth the very occasional splurge. Be prepared for very empty pockets after a big meal though.

Belle Epoque

2010-03-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Belle Epoque is a French Restaurant at 1000, Ann St. Sophia, Peggy and I stumbled upon this nice place by accident. We were wandering home after missing a bus from a evening BCC service. The Emporium [a location with plenty of classy restaurants] was pretty near by, and we fell in love with the look of Belle Epoque straight away. The interior is really lovely, and the atmosphere and service is really romantic and elegant.

I've been there twice since and here's a brief critique of the food.

Scallops. Average. Too expensive to be satisfiying. Lovely presentation though.

I didn't show the escargot[snails] though. They were nothing special.

Lamb. GORGEOUS. Belle Epoque's strong point is their red meat.

They do it with great precision and delicacy. The portions are hearty too. The polenta served with it is also sublime.

Eye-fillet with goose liver pate and mashed potatoes.

The best steak I've tasted in Brisbane so far. It's priced at a hefty $39 though.

Another shot of the lovely scallops.

Quail with truffle and ravioli.

The sauce is very nice. The truffles are of course, heavenly.

The quail is quite average.

I've had duck there before as well and I've concluded that the cook usually doesn't cook poultry that well.

Skip the dessert here and have some wine instead. Their desserts have been disappointing so far. Nothing compared to the exquisite ones of the Lab. Their white wine recommended by the waiters on the other hand, is one of the nicest I've had. Slightly sweet and tangy. Not too dry.

Conclusion: Go for the red meat and the wine. Don't bother with the poultry and desserts. Starters are a bit pricey, but they are ok. One special feature is that the restaurant opens till 2am, and you can do a 10pm booking.

Cooked this myself! Yummy!

2009-07-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

Dinner at Mario At The Dining Room with Colleagues

2009-07-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

Happy me!

Corny poses with Travis.

Tom and Travis

Tiramisu! Lovely stuff.

Choc mousse slice in dark and white chocolate.

Absolutely sublime pasta.

Best pasta I've tasted, complete with truffle, duck and porcini mushrooms

Beef cheeks with potatoes. Nice and tasty.

Shoya. a 2nd visit. And it's even better!

2009-04-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Kev and I went to visit Shoya, a Jap Wafu Cuisine restaurant in Melb again. It was even better than the last time. $32 bucks this time for the UME lunch set. But it included Unagi and Green Tea Ice cream this time.

Part 2: The $28 Jap Buffet, thanks to Jefferson and Pingkie. THANKS!!

2009-04-28T07:12:00.001-07:00

See my happy face. Salmon!

See Rach's happy face. OYSTERS!

Jeff's happy face can't be seen. But he loves his unagi.

Beef and asparagus. Very refreshing and nice.

The Miracle Oysters.

We actually obtained it from the table next to us because they pre-ordered 12 and only wanted 6. Then there were a few more miracles. Haha.

The happy four

I was trying to be artistic.

We ate 3 - 4 lots of this! SO much.

Tempura. Rach was thrilled.

Melbourne again for OC. Food journey, part 1.

2009-04-28T07:05:00.001-07:00

Couldn't resist putting a pic of covenant fren Peggy. Noodling at Pacific BBQ on Lonsdale. GREAT ROAST DUCK.

Charcoal bamboo buns anyone? From Bread Top

Melinda and her roast stuff at Pacific BBQ.

Max Brennar's Choc Souffle. VERY RICH. Bit too rich.

De Souffle.

More food pics

2008-12-17T19:18:00.001-08:00

The whole family

Raspberry fusion chicken.Mom's fav

With the sisters and mom.

Hanabi pics at last. Soft shell crab with potato pockets

Chicken Karaage

Miso scallops

The yellowfin feast

Pork sirloin with beans and lemon butter

Yellowfin Restaurant

2008-12-15T18:15:00.001-08:00

Salmon and potatoes with lemon butter

Seafood platter, yummy!

Yellowfin restaurant at Broadbeach. We thoroughly enjoyed the meal there. The fact that it was 50 % off made it even more delicious:). Here's the list of stuff the 10 of us ate.

Seafood Platter: With grilled prawns, cold prawns, oysters, beer-battered fish and chips, smoked salmon, delectable tempura calamari...it was pretty good!

Pork encrusted with herbs and nuts, with green beans and lemon butter: The pork was juicy and tender. It was REALLY nice. The encrusted herbs and nuts was delectable.

Pan-fried salmon with potato wedges and lemon butter: Parents gave this a thumbs up!

Yellowfin tuna with mashed parmesan potato: This was average. It used to be better with avocado and kafir leaves.

Spaghetti marinara with scallops, mussels, fish and prawns:Very fresh and well done.

Lovely meal!

SSS stands for Sublime Seared Scallops.

2008-12-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

I went to Sushi Train in Sunnybank. It's my favourite destress food area.

They had a new dish. Fresh raw scallops that are seared with the benzo-thingymajic, laced with mayo and served on little bits of rice.

Gorgeous. Cheaper than usual too. $4.50 for 4

Thai feast

2008-11-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

Thai food is generally more expensive in Aus. I have no idea why it should be more expensive than other Asian food. But it's generally quite good quality.

Allister, Rachelle, Dan and I had dinner at Thai Orchid Square yesteryday night. As a celebration of getting my PR, it was my shout that night:)

Here are the dishes:

Chicken Green Curry: The green curry was rich and 'coconut milky' and filled with bamboo shoots, chicken, grean beans and chilli. Nice!
Crispy chicken and cashew nuts: Sweet and had great texture. I love cashews in food. And crispy chicken with onions and spring onions taste great.
Pork stir fried with chilli paste and green beans: Soft pork, not chewy at all. The chilli paste was not hot and very flavoursome.
Pad Thai with seafood: Mussels, calamari and squid and egg made the rish noodle dish delicious! IT was a tad too spicy though. Dan enjoyed the very stinging bite of dish.

All the food was really tasty! Everyone at the table really enjoyed it. Praise God for his provision.

Sandwich delight!

2008-11-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

I made a nice sandwich a few days ago. I had some pesto chicken because I had been eating fettucine with pesto chicken, green beans, avocado and pine nuts all week. It is inexpensive and real tasty!

Therefore, I took out 3 slices of wholemeal bread, buttered and grilled them. Sliced up a tomato, heated up the pesto chicken and popped the chicken on the bread in the grill as well. Then I fried an omelette and filled it with a tablesppon of mayonnaise.

THe sandwich was then layered: bread, chicken, tomato, bread, omelette, tomato, bread.

GORGEOUSNESS! Would have been even better with avo.:)

Artsy, hippy, really good! The VERVE

2008-10-28T07:04:00.001-07:00

I haven't updated this blog for some time. Dorcas, my little sister, has been asking me about my lack of posts. She even suggested that I should compare home-cooked food and restaurant food if i wasn't eating out that often nowdaways. Hehe. Funny girl.Well, last Monday, I did have a good meal out. Ok...here goes.

The VERVE is on Edward St, in the basement of the Metro Arts Building. I used to rock up there at 10pm for 'graveyard shift' gigs. with my jazz-funk band. They paid us 20% of the bar tab and a few drinks. It was my first few steps into gigging.

It's a little, dimly lit place with many different paintings on the wall. The vibe is casual and quite hippy.

Later, I discovered that the food there was very interesting. It's basically Italian food with a twist.I've since eaten there a few times and it's been quite good. So here I am giving them free plug.

I was there last Monday night with Matt and Daniel Russell, 2 uni mates of mine. It was good catching up. We decided to order a traditional seafood chowder, an eggplant gnocchi, a lasagne, pork fillet with parmesan mash and rocket, and a chocolate slice.

CHOWDER

It was very very good. Creamy soup flavoured with fresh herbs. It had chunks of fish, prawns, scallops and mussels in it. It was served with crispy, buttered herb bread. Thumbs UP!

EGGPLANT GNOCCHI

It was served with an interesting Italian white cheese that's in little sticky balls. Matt is vegetarian, so he was pretty pleased. The flavour of the sauce was very unique. Not just generic tomato. I liked it. But I quite prefer some meat with pasta, or seafood.

LASAGNE

This was rich, but quite standard

PORK FILLET

The mash was excellent. The pork fillet was well grilled, and it was served with a plum sauce that was very nice and sweet. The rocket served with it gave it an extra tang.

CHOCOLATE SLICE

It was more like a chocolate round cake. GORGEOUSLY soft and covered with really gooey, tempting sauce. It was warm and there was a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to go with it too. AH...loveliness.

I have found that with the Verve, as a rule of thumb, they serve good seafood and fish dishes, good pasta, and good pizza. Generally, the meat can be a bit dissapointing and generic. Their soups are also good. However, try to opt for the less creamy dishes as they can be a bit heavy on the palate and leave on feeling a bit stuffed.

I enjoyed it heaps this round thoough:)

The best 28 dollars spent!

2008-10-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

Charis having tempura prawns and vegies served with a dipping sauce...yumyum...

Hello All. Finally, Simon's passed the photos over to me.

Simon's bro took us to this restaurant called SHOYA. It's an expensive Jap place that the Iron Chef has visited 4 times. Simon's bro persuaded us that this is the best 28 dollars one can spend on food. Curious, Derrick and I who were planning to go and have yum char, decided to tag along with them. Apparently they have a gorgeous 8-course lunch for $28.

This is us. It's not a good shot, because the ambience is actully quite nice.

But this looks quite mesy and plain.

This was our 2nd course. Smooth steamed egg with prawns and chicken. It was a very good starter! The first was a little pickled fish appetiser that was quite nice.

AHHHHH...the fresh fresh sashimi! Sword fish, tuna and salmon. it's beautifully served on a frozen half on an orange to keep it chilled. GORGEOUS!

Sushi that was topped with fresh sashimi! Again, very fresh and very delicious.

Derrick had a slightly different course. He had fried tofu as well. It was good! Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside!

As the picture at the top shows, we had tempura as well.

Then there was beef teppanyaki steak.It was a bit bloody tasting, but it was nicely marinated, grilled and sliced up. Sizable portion too.

Fried rice was served next, but that was the only dish that was pretty tasteless and ordinary.

Lastly, we had miso soup to wash it all down.

Had so much fun! Wanna go and do it all over again!Praise God in heaven who richly gives us many things to enjoy!

Melbourne part 1

2008-09-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry this has taken so long but my dear mission trip mates took their own sweet time to pass me the photos. I'm still waiting for most of them.

But here are some pics of the adventures we had there.

Peter, Derrick and I met at Max Brenner's. Love the dark chocolate hugmug. I had the orange flavoured one.Derrick is surprisingly fond of chocolate, and went for the thick italian hot choc which is super sweet. I found it too sweet anyway.

Pacific BBQ is one of the good BBQ chinese restaurants around the city. When I heard that it was known for its duck, we scooted straight there.

Here's the duck and roast pork. It was very nice. Crunchy, tasty, not too fatty.The noodles Simon opted to have were very nice too.

Well. Then we went to an Indon restaurant. It was too oily. So i didin't take any pictures of the food.

More to come later with Simon's camera:P

Girl's JG Connect

2008-09-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

And this is me. I did not like the ice - choc. It was icey and watery.

Give me Max Brennar's and Koko Black anyday!

Doyin. I forgot what she drank.

This is Jess on the left. Happily Enjoying Gloria Jean's iced chocolate.

A post on the The Lab at Conrad.

2008-09-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

I had dinner at a restaurant called The Lab at the Conrad Hotel. The Entertainment Book makes such things possible with 2-4-1 mains.

Stepping into the place, we had to wait a little while to be seated, though we had seats reserved. But the waiter was French and he was very polite. 'FLAP', and a folded napkin floats unto your lap without you noticing.

Glancing around, I realised that most people were a tad more dressed up than most places. Strings of pearls, cocktail dresses, suits...I felt glad I had actually popped on a dress and heels.

A nice surprise were the hot bread slices that were served promptly to us. The bread was soft, with a crisp crust. The dishes of butter were pretty and white. The butter melted immediately on the bread. I think that all fine-dining areas should serve bread and butter for a starter instead of CHARGING for it. Thumbs up for the great service!

We opted for the Red Eye-Fillet with wine-jus and parmesan mash; and the Grilled Seafood Plate. Mains took a while to come. The night was busy.

My main was the eye-fillet. It was almost 2 inches thick! Medium-rare. Gorgeously done. The jus was very good, flavouring the little carrots and brocolli. The mash was soft and buttery. Very well-flavoured. I would have preferred the steak to have a teensy weensy bit more flavour, but overall it was very professionally done.

The other main was moreton-bay bugs meat, prawns, scallops and stirfried potatoes. The sauce was a little too salty. The prawns were overdone, so a little tough. But the bug meat and the scallops were perfectly sweet and tasty. Portions were a little small overall.

The crowning glory was the dessert. At $10, the freshly backed belgian chocolate souffle was served with coffee ice-cream and a red berry sauce. Have you ever had anything that tasted totally moist and wet, yet it was hot. And yet it wasn't wet to touch. My dining partner described it as eating hot chocolate mousse. Ahhh...HEAVENLY!! The coffee ice-cream and berry sauce sat supremely well with it as well.

Well. It was a good meal. Recommended for quality but not quantity.

Watch this space!!

2008-09-02T17:38:00.002-07:00

I have plenty to blog about for the last Melbourne trip....after I finish this week's round of hectic activities.

Stay tuned!

Hanabi Fusion round 2

2008-07-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

:) It was a random meet up. I was desperate for a dinner partner and called Jos...who conveniently was able to have dinner and catch up. Yay.

Don said he heard of the blog and easily persuaded Jos and I to try his new crumbed crab balls. They were delicious. The ball was not full of batter like normal crumbed food, but it was packed with strings of sweet crab flesh...nice...

Jos was craving for chicken karaage. It came out very beautifully presented. The only thing lacking was a bit more salad [that's the problem with japanese food in general. Not enough vegies with the meat, fish and carbs]. I also would have preferred the batter to be slightly more flavoursome.

My own miso butter marinated chicken with vegies was very unique. I rejoiced because of the vegies. And I really liked the miso and butter marinate. A very special, tangy chicken stir-fry was the result. The portions were generous.

As for dessert, Jos opted for her ice-cream 'naked' a.k.a. with nothing added. I opted for mine 'half - naked'. I asked for a little lychee jelly.

Still haven't tried the soft shell crab....that's for next time.

Sydney Fish Market!

2008-07-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

Sashimi. GREAT TASTE...

Lobster!

seafood platter with octopus, fish, scallops, prawns, oysters...

Fresh Oyster....

The whole feast...with wakame seaweed...

Scallop. YUM

I've discovered something new about myself. If I am tired, and if I don't eat properly, my emotions sink and sink and sink to the point of extreme gloominess. Most of my time in Sydney, I was very tired[10 hours of meetings, rallies and workshops a day. whew!], and I had barely anything proper to eat. My palate was jaded with white bread[i normally have fibre-rich wholemeal]. And I was struggling to have any meat, fruit or vege in my diet. Depressed....

However, Aunty Choon Sia, host, did leave some leftovers one of the nights for me. HEAVEN! Rice with chicken curry and choy sum. Simple, but I was starved.

Anyways.....we went to the fish market on the last day [the only day of sight-seeing]. Sean, Charmaine and I ordered heaps...

It was fresh and good. But we ordered too much I think...hehe....I wanna go back and savour it slowly.

Coz I'm 23 and someone else is 23

2008-06-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Birthday meals galore this week!

Freestyle Tout.
Verdict?A little above average. The deserts are highly priced, $14.90. But they are extremely filling. The mains are a little small and also expensive. The taste was ok.

The winner of the night was the special Rainbow Trout stuffed with sultanas, cheese, spices etc. It was VERY VERY good. I kept asking Alvin and Ming for extra tastes of it. The flesh of the fish was rich and tasty, flavoured very well with all the stuffings and grilled. Excellente!

The bittersweet choc tart with choc mousse and ice-cream I had was quite good. However, I don't have a sweet tooth. Too much desert can make one feel abit too full.
Recommended if you have a sweet tooth.

Toscani's
Jos and Mei took me to have breakfast on saturday.

Jos had this Mediteranean breakfast that was really nice.
Paoched eggs on bruschetta, with sundried tomato sauce, pesto and haloumi cheese. It was VERY nice and rich. Haloumi cheese is one of the best tasting cheeses in the world. The poached egss were beautifully done. Put it all together with the drizzled sauces in one satisfying bite!

I had pesto chicken pasta. The dish had fresh mushrooms, sun-dried tomatos, generous diced chicken, delicious pesto sauce. I really liked it.
The only down sides were:They could have added pine-nuts [they go so well together->persto and pine-nuts] and the fettucine was a little overdone.

Mei had BLT which wa quite standard.

The coffee had the thickest froth that withstood the dropping of my sugar packet on it[it did not sink!].
Overall, a good experience!

KOREAN BBQ
Peggy had her celebration at the Korean BBQ in Pinelands plaza.
I never ate so much Kimchi in my life!

Obviously, the grilled chicken, pork and the beef slices were very good.
Highlights were the spicy tofu soup with an egg in it. It was rich, slightly spicy, and very good with the rice, and the steak they gave you as part of the meat dish.

The sides were interesting. The mashed potato had too much sugar in it. The Kimchi was good. The seaweed was good. The pickled onions I didn't touch. Hehe.

Cream Puffs
Papa beard cream puffs are the best!I introduced them to Baba as part of our brisbane 'tour'.
Vanilla is still my favourite though the choc fondants and the green tea puff is also very good.
Peggy likes the raspberry fillling.

Completely scrumplicious Caxton!

2008-05-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

I was invited out for a gorgeous dinner tonight, and I give it 4.75 stars![why not the complete 5 I'll explain later].

I have been wanting to go the Caxton for ages, since dec 2007. However, something always came up and prevented us [us = whoever was with me at that time, which comes up to quite a few different people]

This time, it worked! We got there. We had a completely gorgeous meal. The caxton grill was quite a pretty place, and the staff were generally polite and helpful.

I decided to be lavish and order oyster shooters. For my sister, Liz's benefit, oyser shooters are fresh oysters in little shot-glasses with Bloody Mary [tomato juice and alcohol]. They were really nice. I am not a big fan of oysters like some ppl I know, but to 'skull' Bloody Marys and lemon juice with the oyster was really really good!

Next, we ordered New York Sirloing steak[thick steak at least an inch thick]. This came with chips/baked potato, salad, freshly made Hollandaise sauce [cream and eggs], mushroom sauce as a side, and crowning glory of Moreton Bay Bugs and prawns.

The steak was done as required, beautifully medium rare. Deep pink, but not runny or bloody. Most restaurants never get it quite right. It was flavoursome and full of texture.
The MB Bug[a kind of shell fish that's like crab, Liz] was one of the best i've eaten. The flesh was sweet and fresh and abundant. VERY GOOD!
Chips ....the best i've had for a long time. Crisp and Flavoursome. the baked potato was good too. Very soft. Went excellently with the sauces.
Hollandaise and Mushroom sauces were quite unique tasting for such generic sauce-types. The mushroom was especially good and had a nice, winey, garlicky flavour.

2 let downs

One of the prawns I had was not too fresh.
The music from the pub upstairs was pounding like crazy. Not the quiet night out that some would like.

BUT, I must say it was well worth the money[though I didn't pay...thank you:)].

Highly recommended.

A post for KAFE MEZE

2008-05-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I had an unexpected meal out. I was planning to attend Andrew's farewell[he's going to europe for 9 months with his gf. Lucky Bloke!]
I was wondering how I was going to go home after, as the busses to my place are pretty nonsensical on Sundays.
Well, I hung out and played with Elise and Alicia [babies in afternoon service] till the service ended. Caught up with ppl like Ray, Gerald, the Joseph Gals like Sandra, etc.Bumped into Kevin Choo, who was attending afternoon service because he was on duty for KFC in the morning.

We decided to have dinner at Kafe Meze before my farewell function. It' a little greek restaurant in WestEnd.

How's the food?Pretty good!

A tip to anyone who wants to visit there. Don't order set mains. They aren't worth the money. Order the little dishes and wraps. HEAPS good.

We had

Tsatsiki dip and pita bread.....this was soso. A little too sour for my taste
Cold potato salad, very refreshing with different herbs.
Fried meat balls. YUM. Best meatballs i've tasted for a while. Crisp, but soft on the inside. Not rubbery.
Lamb Souvlaki wraps with haloumi cheese....ahhh...very nice. We had one each.

Recommended! The whole thing cost about 20 dollars for various dishes. They also have grilled seafood like cotopus and scallops!Whheee...worth going back for and using the entertainment book voucher!

Turkey sandwiches?

2008-05-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

I really like turkey breast sandwiches.

This is something i made for Peggy and I.

Turkish Pide bread, sliced into half, and into the length you want.
Butter
2-3 slices of turkey breast
Spinach
Avocado
REAL mayonnaise. Not the nonsense that is 99% fat free.Hehe.

Butter the bread liberally, and place turkey breast on it
Spread a little mayo on top.
Grill it till the bread is slightly crispy on top, but the side facing down is stil slightly soft
Take out of grill, place some spinach leaves and half a fanned avocado on top.
Shower some cracked black pepper over it.
YUMYUM....

Hog's Breath? Nahhh.....Try something else.

2008-04-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

Peggy, Sophia, Dan and I went to Hog's Breath tonight because Peggy found 2 for 1 vouchers in the asian newspapers.
I've been to 3 different HB outlets throughout Brisbane. I've tried their steaks 4 times, so I think I'm qualified to judge on the quality of their steaks.

Verdict:Average. Disappointing. And EXPENSIVE.

For the $33.95 [normal price for steak and 3 prawns], I can be enjoying some really nice main in a far classier restaurant with better presentation and tastier ingredients.

Good points:
The steaks we had were good-sized. THIS TIME, they were done medium-rare like we ordered them[hasn't always been the case]. The curly chips were good.

Bad points:
The steaks lack internal flavour and they stinge on sauce. If your steaks are flavourless, then they should at least provide good sauce.

The price is ridiculous for a simple, unelaborate meal.

After tasting many different steaks across the town, I rate Hog's Breath steaks as very very average. There are many other places with better value for money.:).

For good steak places, try

Normanby Hotel
Central in surfers paradise
French restaurant at the Emporium in the valley
Coffee Club at Brunswick

Hanabi Fusion

2008-03-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Jos and I decided to catch up after months of not doing so since her proposal.

I love my dear sister.:)....it's so fun to be absolutely wack in our speech and actions.

We had dinner at the new 'place to be' in Hope Brisbane Christian Church. HANABI FUSION.

Started by Ambrose, Don and John Park at 28 Grimes St, Auchenflower.

Our experience? Interesting.

Jos had the Salmon pan-fried with pickled rice and otakotak sauce. Salmon was lovely. Sauce apparently different from the last one she had here. A bit too sweet.

I had the teppanyaki beef tower with shitakke mushrooms and rice. I liked the beef a lot. Very tender, very flavoursome and there was quite a lot of it. I thought it would have benefited from having sauce flavoured with the shitakke mushrooms though. A little dry to have rice without sauce.

Green tea ice-cream at the end was excellent! Very chunky, yet smooth and fresh tasting. Not too sweet. and the Lychess added a tang.Highly recommended.

Not a bad experience. 7 out of 10.

I would like to go back and try the soft shell crab with potato pockets though!

It'll be interesting to see Don extend the menu next time.

Food at home

2008-03-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

I splurged to buy some good food yesterday for Peggy, Daniel and I. To COOK it at home. I think I will try to do this from now on. It's a lot cheaper.

500g of fresh prawns with butter and garlic and Thai Marinade
an avo
3 lamb chops
rice[brown and jasmine]

All this cost me 17 dollars[already hefty for a meal at home for 3]. But it would have cost 17 EACH. OR 30 each even.

Next time, I'll grilll my own porter house steaks, make my own seafood sauce, and strir fry my asparagus in butter, and slice up some avo.....OOOOOOOOO......my mouth is watering.

yes.....we enjoyed our dinner very much.Finished it with some bubble tea in Sunnybank. AH....

Food. Glorious food.

2008-02-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

I've decided to have another blog that describes my food experiences. :) . Ya...I'm a foodie. Currently eating too many fried things, too many cookies and exercising too little. [I AM trying. 30 m walking and jogging 3 times a week]. Still. I walk far more in Brissy...haha....and eat more grilled, stewed, healthy stuff.

Well....it will not last long....
Hope everyone will share their food experiences with me too!