Hostel Food

Gee it's been a long long long time since I last updated my blog! I'm sorry guys I've been so busy with assignments I don't have time to enjoy, cook good food or even have enough sleep! Think I'll die of exhaustion soon! Haha. Anyway, I haven't uploaded some pictures yet so when I do that I'll blog more. Once I submit my assignments next week I guess? Well lets just talk about hostel food for today.

The picture below is what you get during dinner times at the hostel. Soup, mains, dessert, coffee and soft drinks. You can have stuff from the salad bar too but I'm not a big fan of raw veg. This meal here is thai chicken curry. All our meals are served with rice and winter vegetables, normally carrots, peas etc.


Well you can't really complain about the food I guess? It's pretty decent and the desserts are usually quite sinful cause you have all the cream that goes with it. And you usually have a choice of mains so it's not that boring, but after a while you will have eaten everything that's been served I guess. I gotta be careful man, the desserts are making me fat!

Me Wah Restaurant

Haven't had much time to blog lately, deadlines for assignments are drawing nearing. And I'm actually studying really hard for some reason, I don't think I've ever put in this much effort into my studies before! I'm quite proud about it! Haha. =D

Let's blog about a restaurant this time. Actually went to this place when I first arrived in Tasmania this time round. Dad said we were at this restaurant the last time we were in Tasmania too. I'm not sure, some how mom and I couldn't remember but he was quite insistent. Well anyway, Me Wah Restaurant is supposed to be really famous for good asian food in Tasmania. Some of their awards include Tasmania's best asian restaurant from 1999-2007 and Tasmania's best overall restaurant in 2007. They're quite crowded on weekdays and usually fully booked on weekends. So go early or make a reservation if you intend to patronize them. It's a really popular place.

It's weird that the whole time my parents were with me in Tasmania, we only ate chinese food. Think it suits my parents tastes better, but they also said as a poor student I won't be able to afford all these luxuries when their gone. Haha. Well I can't complain I think I'm really lucky.

First up we have some sichuan hot and spicy soup. It was not bad but I guess you can compare it to what we get back home? Not as spicy and it's lacking the vinegar I think. But I don't think you can get it better at other asian restaurants here.

Next up was the salt and pepper pork ribs. This was really good! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. And the balance of salt and pepper was perfect. Not too salty or anything like that. Mom loved it too.

I love seafood in Australia, it's always so fresh. Well most of the time at least. Every seafood dish I've had so far in Tasmania has been great. This seafood combination was no exception. It was full of scallops, fish, prawns etc.... Man just makes me drool thinking about it! Sweet seafood in a savoury sauce. Best on rice man!

Last dish was stir fried duck with snow peas. This dish was a let down I think. It was way too salty. The duck meat was a little tough too. Didn't go down well, had to drink a lot of chinese tea to curb my thirst.

Overall I think the food here is pretty good, except for the duck which was too salty. Even though it was almost a full house but the food still came pretty fast. The staff were really friendly too. Oh yeah, for some reason rice in Tasmania is expensive! A bowl of rice costs $2.50 here! 5 times the price we normally pay in Singapore! And this is in AUD. Sometimes I wonder if I can BYO rice. Haha. Well, till next time! Later~

Stir Fried Pasta

Next up on the menu is stir fried pasta. Another one of the dishes I adapted from the restaurant where I worked at. It's a bit like aglio olio I think. And basically you can throw in whatever you feel like eating, its up to your creativity I guess?

Ingredients needed:
Pasta, cooked al dente
Red and green capsicum, sliced (for more colour add yellow too)
Button mushrooms, sliced (fresh or canned)
Meat, sliced (up to you, I used sausages though)
garlic, minced
onion, sliced
chicken stock (powdered or liquid)
crushed black pepper
oil

1. Oil pan and fry garlic, once browning throw in your onions and fry til translucent.

2. Add in your capsicums, mushrooms and meat. Fry til meat is cooked.

3. Add in your pasta. Add in chicken stock and black pepper to taste. Mix well and serve.


If you want a vegetarian alternative, substitute chicken stock with salt or vegetable stock and omit meat from dish. Can be served as a one meal dish. Total time taken should be last than a 1 hour.

pan fried potatoes

This is a dish I adapted from the restaurant I used to work at. I cant get it to taste exactly the same but I think it's another simple easy to cook dish.

Ingredients needed:
Potatoes, thinly sliced ( I normally soak them in water for a while but you don't have to )
onions, sliced
butter
crushed black pepper
chicken stock powder
sugar
dark soy sauce

1. Boil the potatoes in water for a couple of minutes to cook them a little. You can also put them in the microwave for like 3 minutes or so with some water. Sometimes I omit this step if I'm lazy, the potatoes will just have a harder texture.

2. Heat pan and add butter. Once melted add the onions and fry til they become translucent.

3. Add in your potatoes and continue to fry. Add in a bit of sugar, chicken stock powder (or liquid), dark soy sauce and crushed black pepper to taste.


Well that's all there is to it! It's also great for snacking. Enjoy!

Cheesy mushrooms

Hmm lets move on to simple dish part 2. This time its cheesy mushrooms. I based it on the same concept as how you would do your portabello mushrooms.

Ingredients needed:
Fresh button mushrooms, sliced
Mozzarella cheese
butter

1. Butter the bottom of your pan and lay mushrooms on top. Add cheese on top and bake until cheese turns brown at around 150 degrees.

And it turns out.... Viola!

Easy? Well its just a very simple dish but I think it's pretty yummy! You can add in some bacon to add move flavour and bite to the dish.