Tom Yam Chicken

Ok lets start talking about food I've cooked for a change. It's been a really long while since I last posted a recipe on my blog. And since I've been doing quite a bit of cooking while I'm in Tasmania, it seems befitting for me to share some simple to cook recipes with everyone. Today I'm gonna blog about tom yam chicken. This dish is simple to cook and can even be made into a one meal dish if desired. Anyway I always use a lot of estimation in my dishes so I don't really have exact figures. I'll try measuring next time so I apologize for not being able to give figures now.

Ingredients needed:
Tom yam paste
chicken, cubed/diced/strips (you can use breast meat for a healthier alternative)
chilli, sliced (depends on how spicy you like it, I like it really hot)
bamboo shoots
coconut milk (I suppose you can use yogurt or coconut milk substitute, but I've not tried those)
button mushrooms, sliced (canned or fresh, its up to you)
onions, sliced
garlic, minced

1. Heat up your frying pan. Once hot add some oil and fry garlic, adding your onions once garlic starts to turn brown. Fry onions till they change colour.

2. Add in your mushrooms and bamboo shoots and fry for 2 minutes before adding in your chicken.

3. Add in tom yam paste and coconut milk, followed by your chilli and continue to cook until chicken is done.

If you want it to be a one meal dish you can throw in other vegetables like cabbage, xiao bai cai, bean sprouts etc, and serve on top of rice or noodles.


This dish can easily be done in 15-20 minutes including preparation time. Of course to save time you can buy cans of pieces and stems mushrooms, cut up chicken pieces, minced garlic in a bottle etc to reduce your preparation time. Simple and delicious!

Food Hall Fish and Chips

I used to think that food courts were something associated with asian societies but I guess I was wrong. In Launceston we have what we call Food Hall! Located along Brisbane Street, just after Village Cinema, it serves a variety of food there. You can choose from western grill to thai to chinese and indian. Of course, who will forget an angmo classic... Fish and chips!

Tasmania is supposed to be known for their seafood by the way, they export a lot of their produce. And this stall supports the local industry. So gotta try something right? Angmo land must eat some ang mo food. Well, I didn't exactly settle for fish and chips because the seafood platter caught my eye.

When you order food here, they give you a queue number. So you wait around for your number to be called and you go collect your food. Seafood platter looked pretty good when they served it. Came with a large portion of fries and salad and coleslaw. You also get stuff like calamari rings, breaded scallop, breaded prawns and fish.

Well can't determine how fresh the seafood is if it's deep fried, but its good and sinful man! The fish was a thick cut, the scallop even had it's roe and calamari was well... Calamari! Just note that food courts in Singapore you'd probably spend about SGD$5 or so for a meal but here it's different. The seafood platter cost me AUD$12 if I'm not wrong. At least it was satisfying. Couldn't finish the fries though, was too much for me. Lucky I had friends who helped me finish it up.

Hoong Fatt Chinese Restaurant

Ok short post this time. Just going to mention this chinese restaurant located in Launceston. Called Hoong Fatt, it's probably one of the only few chinese restaurants in Launceston. Up til now I've tried 5 chinese restaurants here and I reckon that's about all they have. I might be wrong though, would need to explore more to get a definite answer.

Anyway, Hoong Fatt Chinese Restaurant is a small restaurant located close to the city. Can't remember the exact name of the street but it's next time Brisbane Street. The cute thing apparently is that the father and mother run the grocery store next door, and the son and his wife run the restaurant.

I'm not sure how their meals cost at lunch time, but at dinner time it's an all you can eat buffet for AUD$8.90. That's pretty cheap actually, hard to find such value elsewhere. And if you like, they have an add-on to your buffet meal which allows you to take their dim sum (they call it dim sim), a soup, dessert and a drink for just AUD$12.10. It's a bit like an Angmo zhi char stall. Don't expect a lot of variety though, probably only abt 12 dishes to choose from. Surprisingly a lot of Angmos go there to take away food. And they all usually go for the fried rice... Anway, food here is not the best, but for hungry students such as myself, it represents great value for a low price. Eat ahhhhhh!!!

Puffy

I forgot to blog about this place while I was still in Sydney. At the Hurstville train station there is this shop called Puffy I think? Can't remember the full name but anyways, every time you walk into the train station you can smell the aroma coming from this shop. A very alluring smell telling you to go and try their stuff.

Anyway, after walking past the shop for so many days, finally on the 2nd last day of my stay in Sydney we tried their puffs. Don't be surprised but they have durian puffs here!

Well ok it's not exactly a puff. The pastry is more like a biscuit, kinda crispy. And the durian is actually durian ice cream but the you still get the strong taste of durian. It's not everyday that you get to eat this kinda asian stuff, though I've heard that you can buy frozen durian or something like that. This puff was not bad, they actually have a lot more stuff on their menu but I didn't have the luxury of time to try other stuff. Maybe next time when I'm back in Sydney. Quite shiok eating this while walking the streets in winter!

Noodle House

Ok while I was in Hobart for one night, my parents and I went to look for food after checking in at the motel. So we chanced upon this shop called Noodle House. Better eat all the asian food I can first before no chance right? Heard that there aren't many asian food shops in Launceston.

So popped in and found the place to be a popular place for take outs. It's just like in those dramas you watch where the actors eat from the boxes. Not many tables in the shop anyway and I realised that Angmos like to take away and eat at home.

After taking a look at the menu we decided on what we want to eat. Portions in Australia are super sized and usually we can't finish one dish by ourselves, so we normally share. Makes more sense and we don't waste food this way anyway.

Always nice to have a hot soupy dish in a cold country. Feels shiok when you drink the soup. That's why we ordered tom yam noodles. It's not authentic tom yam, don't have the taste of lemon grass and not very spicy. But still quite sour and tasty. Can't expect too much from an angmo country right? Lots of ingredients inside and the noodles are also pretty nice.

The other dish we ordered is called the Hotbox. I thought it might be spicy or something but it turned out to be like hongkong mee or something. The shop did have a nice and spicy chilli sauce that complemented the noodles though. The noodles had chicken and pork inside and was a bit on the sweet side. Noodles had a springy texture which was good. Though I was disappointed that it wasn't spicy but at least I enjoyed it.

As they always say, don't expect food in Australia to be cheap. Each plate of noodles costs an average of AUD$8 here.

Noodle House (Hobart)
Along Argyle Street if I rem correctly

Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant

Ahhhh I have finally come to blog about my beloved turtle soup! Just a couple of days before I was due to depart I met up with some of the nsfs from my old office and Angie for a farewell lunch at Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant. Ser Seng is just located a few shops away from River South Nam Hoe Prawn Noodles.
For some reason I really love this place, ever since Daryl (dawg!) brought me here a couple of years back I have not failed to come back for their wonderful turtle soup. The only draw back about this place is that it's rather inaccessible, or rather, I'm just pretty lazy to go sometimes unless someone drives. Anyway, I like going with Daryl also because he has a bottle of XO there, when you add some to the soup, its heavenly!!

So some important points to note when you eat here. If you want to be adventurous you can get the internal organs and eggs. They have 2 types of eggs available. One is a larger, soft creamy runny yolk like textured egg, and the other is small and hard like hard boiled eggs. I prefer the runny ones, those are really rich and delicious. Of course thats a personal preference. Also, I'm not sure how it works for the XO and whether you can just bring your own over there but since Daryl is a loyal customer he gets to keep his bottle there.

Reasons why I love their turtle soup? Because their soup doesn't have the fishy smell like turtle house, their meat is nicely cleaned so you don't get weird fatty bits and their soup is probably the best I've tasted! Very rich and full of herbs flavour. The only draw back? They're quite anal about topping up soup. Even for loyal customers like Daryl, the boss only allows one refill of soup, and they only top up about a third or half a bowl of soup. You could try asking for more, but their standard answer is.... The soup is very heaty, cannot drink too much. So you have been warned, don't keep your hopes up about multiple refills of soup. As with all turtle soup stalls, food here ain't cheap. A small bowl sets you back $13. 3 runny eggs costs $2. For the more squirmish, you can have black chicken soup instead.

Ser Seng Herbs Restaurant
Tai Thong Cresent (Near River South Prawn Noodles)
Opening Hours: 11am to 7pm
Close on Monday

Miki 24

Ok another backlog entry, this time to Miki 24 at Joo Chiat. This place doesn't open till very late, think they close around midnight or so. Anyway, their bak kut teh and fish head is supposed to be pretty good. Had to give it a try before I left Singapore.

So went there with Terence, Krystal and her little sister. At first the plan was to eat the bak kut teh, but we realised they have a 4 person set meal so that made more sense. You get to choose 4 bowls of either bak kut teh or kidney soup, 1 ter kah, preserved vegetables and beancurd skin.

Bak kut teh was nice! The meat was tender and the soup was nice and peppery. And as with most places you get free top ups of soup! Yum!

Krystal and her sis had kidney soup but I managed to swipe a piece of kidney from Krystal. Tasted pretty fresh. Some how I like kidney more than liver. Less porky taste i guess. The texture is also nice. The soup tasted different from the bak kut teh one though. Not so nice, I reckon the lettuce in the soup kinda spoiled the taste.

Ter kah is fatty as usual in a rich and salty brown broth. The meat was pretty tender, some places tend to over cook their meat, resulting in it being tough or chewy. Certainly very unhealthy though.

Tau kee and mei cai also very standard items served with ter kah or bak kut teh. Nothing much to say about them actually, except that the mei cai wasn't very salty which is good.

Waiting time was quite fast and service was also pretty efficient, but it was pretty late and not many people at the stall that night. Heard they can get quite crowded during dinner time. I also like the fact we can keep adding soup, drank so much that night that I was just full of liquid! Haha. Should try their fish head next time, Terence said it's pretty good.

Miki 24
Located at Joo Chiat, next to Mellben Seafood
Opening hours: Lunch and dinner till midnight

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

Ok after a long long time away from my blog, I'm finally back to blog again! I'm now in Tasmania freezing my ass off but got so much back log to blog about. So instead about talking about some of my current eating escapades I shall backtrack to a few weeks ago before I left. Went for lunch with my relatives to Shokudo. It's a pretty neat place, actually you can say it's a Japanese styled Marche.



So you're given a card some what like Marche which you use to make purchases, and after which you check out at the cashier at the end of your meal to pay. They have many choices of food so you can slowly walk around and take your time to decide what you feel like eating.

Above is the oyster omelet, japanese style! Can't say much about this, because you can't compare it to the hawker style as it's different. Quite hard to go wrong with eggs too, unless you're a really bad cook. The oysters were not bad.

My brother said these kinda drinks were around since a long time ago but honestly I've never seen them until recently. Was pretty fascinated after watching those japanese anime and drama so I bought one to try. It's a peach soda by the way. Nice stuff!

Then we had pan seared tuna, cooked on the outside and raw on the inside. I like this dish, very unique. Had this kinda wasabi sauce on top of it or something. Tuna was thick cut and fresh too.

This is beef hotpot, slices of tender beef with vegetables and a kind of noodles. The stock was pretty sweet but it was quite delicious!

Spicy ramen was pretty standard, nothing to shout about as there wasn't much ingredients though I quite like the soup stock even though its not very authentic jap. It was pretty spicy. Noodles were just so-so only.

We also had our sushi and sashimi platters which were pretty decent. Raw fish is quite fresh. Thinking about the sucky sushi I ate in Australia makes me miss home. =(

Tempura was light and crispy. Everytime I eat tempura I am reminded about the painstaking process that goes into preparing these food stuff. When I worked as a cook in a Japanese restaurant many years ago I had to massage the damn prawns to get them straight!

I didn't get to take photos of some of the other stuff we ate, like the chawanmushi or rice stone pot but those were pretty good too. We ended the meal off with some sweets and I did capture a photos of their choco banana crepe. I think their crepes are not bad, very thin and soft.

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar is located at the basement of Raffles City and opens for lunch and dinner. Gets pretty crowded at dinner time so go early or make a reservation.

The Palms Cafe

After a whirlwind week or so... I've finally arrived down under! Currently in Sydney and the weather here is cold. Can't imagine what Tasmania is like since it's sposed to be even colder! Taking a shower at night is not funny man, you shiver like crazy! Gotta get used to this stuff soon.

Actually I have quite a bit of backlog to blog about but I decided to blog about this cafe I went to eat at today with Aunt Rosemary and my parents. Called The Palms Cafe, its located in Stanwell Park.

Its a cosy cafe which serves your western type meals. Mom and Dad decided to share the Moroccan Carrot Soup and French Dipped Sandwich, while Aunt Rosemary opted for the Meat Loaf and I had the Spaghetti with Tiger Prawns.

The moroccan carrot soup was very thick and rich. It has an indian curry taste to it. Sort of like dhal or chutney, so you can taste the herb and spice flavours. It's also quite tangy, and has a smooth consistency. Served with a side of toasted bread which made a good entree.

I didn't get to taste this one. This is the french dipped sandwich, filled with steak, cheese and mustard, and served with a side of greens. It was quite long so my parents shared it. You gotta dip your bread in the sauce served with it, so hence the name french dipped sandwich. Quite duh right? Haha...

The spaghetti with tiger prawns was cooked a sort of dry fry style. Something like what I've made before in Singapore. It's fried with garlic, chilli and tomatoes. There were also some croutons inside. The spag was al dente and they were very generous with their prawns. I think I had like 7 prawns there. The dish wasn't spicy even though there were chillies. Had a slight tangy taste too because of the tomatoes.

I took a swipe of Aunt Rosemary's meat loaf too. It was served with some tomato based sauce, bread, mash and greens. It was very juicy and tasty. Went well with the sauce.

Dessert time and after browsing through their desserts we ended up with their Apple and Mixed Berry Crumble and Lamington. Apparently this is the original kind of crumble, whereby the mix all the topping with the fruit to get this messy mixture. It was very tasty and yummy though I must say. Topping was made of rolled oats, and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Wasn't too sweet and had a hint of sourness to it. Great thing it was served warm!

Their lamington is really unique. Normally the lamingtons I've eaten before are all very sweet and quite dense and rich. This one here was more of a sponge cake coated with chocolate and coconut. Really good though I must say. At least you don't find it so sinful. Haha.

They have really good coffee in Australia. At least at the places I've drunk at so far. Their latte here was not overly bitter, and not weak either. Good stuff cannot bluff! Argh all I've been doing the past 2 days in Australia is eat and eat!

Don't expect prices of food in Australia to be cheap. A meal here would prolly cost you an average of AUD$15-$20, but the food served is good. Not sure what time they open until, but they're pretty popular at lunch time.