Cheese cake

Yes the exams are finally over. Actually they've been over a while now but I haven't had the time to update my blog. Plus my internet has been down for the past few days. It's actually still down so I had to go to the school's learning hub to get internet. Anyway I haven't actually posted much recipes lately and I finally took a picture of my cheese cake before it got devoured by my friends so I figured I'd just blog about it. It's a really simple recipe that still tastes pretty good. The topping is optional and I'm actually still kind of working on that to make it taste better.



Cheesecake Recipe

2 blocks of 250g cream cheese, softened (I use philadelphia cream cheese)
2 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla essence
Biscuits, crushed (I usually sure short bread or digestive)
Butter, melted

1. Mix the crushed biscuits together with the melted butter. Line your baking pan with baking paper. Press the mixture to the bottom of the pan. This makes the base of your cheese cake. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees c. You can put it in the oven for a few minutes to let it bake if you like.

2. Mix softened cream cheese together with eggs, then add vanilla essence and lastly the sugar. Mix it until smooth.

3. Pour the cream cheese mixutre over the base and spread it out evenly.

4. Bake in oven for about 30-40 minutes. The cake will start to rise after a while and may start to brown and crack if left in the oven for too long. I guess it doesn't look so nice that's why I normally try to cover it up by putting a topping. I should actually work on it cause maybe it doesn't need to be baked for that long? After its done leave it to cool and then throw it in the fridge for a few hours till its nice and cold.

(Didn't have enough cherries to cover the whole cake =X )

Anyway the topping is pretty simple. I normally use canned cherries or blueberries with syrup. I just heat up the syrup in a pot over the stove and add in sugar and some thickening agent like cornstarch. Don't let it boil cause it tends to create bubbles. I normally throw in the cherries or blueberries at the end and mix them in before I take the pot of the stove. Leave it to cool and then put it in the fridge. Pour over your cheese cake and viola! Alternatively you can use something like cherry pie filling. Works the same I reckon.

This recipe can be used to make small cheese cake tarts too. Great for serving at parties. Just get some cup cake cups and fill them up with the biscuit and cheesecake mixture and bake. Don't fill the cup to the brim since you need some space for it to rise. Should be able to fill about 30 cup cake cups or so depending on the size of the cups.

Bento Japanese Restaurant

Ok yet another place I was supposed to blog about a long time ago yet never got around to doing it. Bento is a Japanese restaurant located in Launceston city just behind the food hall located next to the Village cinema along brisbane street. It's a small shop that serves relatively cheap Japanese cuisine. Went there for lunch quite a few times when I was in the city. If I remember correctly, they have three types of bento boxes which range from about AUD$7-13. They also serve different types of sushi and sashimi, as well as a variety of side dishes like chawanmushi and agedashi tofu. I've never been there for dinner but there is a dinner ala cart buffet which costs about AUD$18? Should be pretty good for poor and hungry students. Haha.

Above is the teriyaki beef and chicken bento. It is served with some seasoned seaweed and coleslaw. The beef is tender but do note that the sauce is quite salty. I think this applies to most of their beef dishes. Their chicken dishes tend to be pretty good though. Rice is soft, a bit sticky and fluffy, which is good compared to some other places over here.

The next bento was the tempura and tofu bento. The tempura was decent, two pieces of prawns and some vegetables. Guess you can't really go wrong with tempura in terms of taste unless you over-fry it, leave it out for too long or get something thats gone bad. The tofu was supposed to be agedashi tofu, but I think they served the wrong kind of tofu. Kind of looks like the kind of tofu they use in yong tau foo which they stuff fish paste in, which is more firm like tau gua (is there a english term for this?). Also served with rice and coleslaw.

For some reason most asian food is expensive in Tasmania and Japanese food is no exception. A sushi roll normally costs between AUD$1.60-$2.50 in Melbourne and Sydney, but it costs AUD$3.50 at Bento. You can also get sushi boxes which costs AUD$7. Well compared to other Japanese restaurants in Launceston, Bento is something students would definitely frequent more because of the price. It's not the most authentic kind of Japanese food but its still pretty decent. Good for the budget conscious that still want a decent meal.

Singapore Chom Chom Melbourne

G'day from down under! I realise it's been like 4 months since I last blogged, guess its just been me being really really busy + lazy + lousy internet connection that takes forever to load pictures that caused my long absence. Anyway, although I haven't been actively blogging, I have been actively cooking so I guess if I can keep this up I will be blogging quite a bit. I have been living in Tasmania for the past two semesters, and it's almost time for me to head back to Singapore. Can't believe how fast time has flown this past year, its quite amazing when you suddenly think about it and realised you're leaving for good. I kind of have mixed emotions about this place really as there have been good memories as well as some not so pleasant ones. But overall I think this Australian journey was a good experience for me.

Surprisingly this semester I have been rather adventurous in cooking, trying my hand at some local Singapore dishes such as chicken rice, hor fun and roti prata. I will blog more about those in my future posts so stay tuned. This time round I'm going to blog about something I ate last year in December before heading home to Singapore for the christmas holidays. Yes, it's a long time ago but since I have some backlog I reckon I should clear it up first.

This restaurant is called Singapore Chom Chom, and as it's name suggests, it serves Singaporean cuisine. It's pretty popular as it is always quite packed at lunch time. I never went there for dinner before though so I'm not sure about the dinner time crowd. I guess if you miss home and crave for some char kway teow or ba chor mee, this is a place to go to. Don't expect Singapore hawker quality food or prices, but at least some of the dishes are decent. My friend Cow brought me here on my first day in Melbourne and we had chye tao kueh (carrot cake), ba chor mee and claypot rice.

The chye tao kueh was apparently a new addition to the menu or so Cow said. Pretty small portion with not much ingredients except for some egg for about $5-6. Taste wise was ok though. Would have been better if it wasn't so sweet and a bit more spicy.

Next up is the ba chor mee. Again as I mentioned earlier, you can't expect the food to be the same as our hawkers back home. You get to choose the kind of noodles you want, like meepok, mee kia, kway teow, chor bee hoon etc. It was topped off with bean sprouts, minced pork, pork slices, fish cake slices and an egg. What I did like about this dish was the noodles as it had a nice texture and bite to it. It was also a large portion as compared to the chye tao kueh for $8.80 or something like that. Only thing was the chilli which was a bit lacking in its "oomph" factor. I asked for it to be extra spicy but it was quite disappointing as it wasn't spicy at all. The "chup"(sauce) was kind of sweet in fact.

Lastly, Cow ordered the claypot rice which was quite good. Had the burnt bits of rice stuck to the claypot that I know a lot of the older generation like my parents love. It was served with pieces of chicken and some vegetables. I think that there was some lup cheong (chinese wax sausage) as well. Claypot rice was tasty and pretty nolstagic. Careful when eating though, its pretty hot!

Subsequently when my family came to Melbourne we visited this place a few more times and I did get to try some other things like their laksa, char kway teow, fish ball noodles and prawn noodles. I think of the lot the the prawn noodles was probably one of the better dishes served. A rich stock with big prawns and pork ribs and some slices of fish cake. Can't compare to my favourite Wah Kee but still good nonetheless. Enough to satisfy me till I got back to Singapore. Sometimes like in summer you can also get desserts like ice kachang and chendol I think, though I didn't try any of those.

Singapore Chom Chom
188 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Ying Thai Restaurant

Greeting everyone! Happy new year and Happy Chinese new year! A bit belated and its been a month since I last blogged about anything. Been slacking off recently haven't I? Many things were happening this past month or so since I've arrived back in Singapore! Once I arrived back there was christmas, then new year and more recently Chinese new year. Not to mention I have summer school as well so I had to spend time doing my assignments. Anyway this time round I'd like to talk about a Thai restaurant I went to while I was in Melbourne called Ying Thai.

Located along Lygon street, I guess not many people will think about going there to eat Thai food since Lygon street is known for all the Italian restaurants! But being away from home brought about cravings for food that always satisfied my taste buds and hence one day my friend brought me here and the rest is history. I think I ended up going back to this restaurant about four times to satisfy my craving for spice! =X

Anyway, Ying Thai is a pretty authentic Thai restaurant and you will find many popular thai dishes served here. On my first visit to the restaurant we just had tom yam soup (obviously a must have at any thai restaurant!), khao pad nam and pad thai.


When ordering the tom yam soup you can choose the level of spiceness, and there are a total of 4 levels of spice. I never tried the most spicy one before, but third level of spice is quite spicy already. I think getting the most spicy version will prolly kill my taste buds, but the hot version is just nice for me. Caused me to break out in sweat while eating it but shiok nonetheless! Spicy and sourish, you could also taste the subtle hint of lemon grass in the soup. It was also full of yummy seafood like fish, prawns and calamari, as well as mushrooms and tomatoes. Great for getting the gastric jucies going for the main course!

Next up is another familiar thai dish called pad thai, which is a type of stir fried stick noodle. It's sweetish and sourish, and is served with chicken, egg and some vegetables and topped with nuts. The stick noodles are pretty similar to kway teow which is a type of flat rice noodle, though their stick noodle is thinner. It was a big portion, and even though its meant for 1 person I think it's pretty difficult for your average asian to finish such a dish. It was delicious though!

Lastly we ordered khao pad nam, which is a thai fried rice that is fried with luncheon meat I think. It was very tasty as well though I guess it's not something I would really order all the time as its mainly just rice and luncheon meat. Also a very big portion even though its meant for 1 person. Luckily my friend is a big eater so we didn't have a problem finishing all the food.

I also managed to try other things which were pretty awesome too, but I forgot to take photos. The pandan leaf chicken, fried fish and vemicelli salad were all noteworthy mentions. Overall I think this is a good thai restaurant to visit when you're in Melbourne and craving for some thai food. Of course, after you finish your meal you can also cleanse your palate or cool down your burning tongue by having some gelato at Freddo's which is just a couple doors down!

Lord of the fries

And now I present to you.... the lord of the fries! As it's name states, the fries can be considered the King. Lord of the fries is basically a fast food take out shop that serves fries! They do have some burgers and hot dogs as well but I think the main highlight is still the fries. There are two sizes for the fries, either in the cone (smaller) or box (bigger) and you have a variety of sauces to choose from to add on your fries. Of course you gotta pay for the sauce though. If I'm not wrong they have normal sauces and premium sauces so there's a slight price difference. In November when I was in Melbourne they even created a special sauce of the month called Obama sauce to celebration his victory. Haha they're pretty creative but too bad I didn't get to try that sauce.

Anyway the magic of these fries are that they are only cooked once you've ordered them, so they come out fresh and hot! They are also the thick cut kind of fries unlike the thin skinny things you get a macdonalds and burger king (hungry jacks in Australia) so there's a lot more potato inside. Caution when eating cause it can burn your tongue. The sauces they serve are also yummy and there were so many different types that I didn't have time to try all of them. Maybe when I visit Melbourne again I will? Pretty fattening though! The sauce above in the picture is a Vietnamese sauce or something which is supposed to be sweet chilli mixed with mayo and something (which I can't remember what). Sorry I think my memory is failing me!

I'm not sure how many outlets they have in Melbourne and whether it's available in other parts of Australia but you can find one stall at the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders street next to the doughnut shop and another just outside Flinders station.

Koko Black

If you ever visit Melbourne, make sure you pop by Koko Black. It's first shop opened in 2003, and since then they have opened another 6 more shops I reckon, mostly in Victoria. Anyway, I'm not much of a chocolate person, chocolates are things I can do without as I don't get those chocolate cravings. I don't mind eating them, but I don't necessarily need them and won't kill for them. But this is a bit different. After this I will never look at hot chocolate the same way again!

After finishing my school term I was in Melbourne for a month and a half. My brother told me about Koko Black insisted that I have to try it, so my friend Cow brought me there for my virgin experience. I reckon I visited Koko Black at least 5 times if not more. I guess that's how good it is? The first time I tasted their hot chocolate my eyes suddenly lit up! There is definitely something different about it. The rich taste that tickles your taste buds and palette is just amazing! It's not too sweet either and doesn't make you feel too thirsty after drinking it unlike some other chocolate drinks. It was simply divine so to speak. It certainly is great on cold days like many of the days I spent in Melbourne. Why is it so cold in summer?? Doesn't make sense! The ice chocolate is also another hit. Think hot chocolate plus a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate ice cream with chocolate shavings on top. It's equally good I tell you. If you have two people you can get the combo, forgot what it's called but it includes 2 hot chocolate plus a chocolate platter which consists of chocolate ice cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, chocolates and chocolate short bread(or something like that). Prices for drinks are about the same as how much you would pay for a frappe at Starbucks or Coffee Bean. Ah this place really is to die for, so remember to visit it when you go to Melbourne!

website address: www.kokoblack.com

Honey Garlic Soy Fatty Pork

Apologies everyone for my long absence! I lived through the past month more or less without internet access so I could not update my blog. However, I do have many things to blog about now, so stay tuned!

Before I left Launceston we were trying to clear up all our stuff in the kitchen and so my friend passed me a bottle of Honey Garlic Soy Sauce from Master Food. I just cut my pork rashers into strips and marinated them before pan frying. I cooked them for some time so the outside is a bit crispy and the inside is tender. Tasted pretty good and went well with rice. For some reason it reminded me of zhi char, in particular this guiness stout pork thingie I ate before though the taste is different. I should experiment with the stout next time. Need a bigger fire though.

Ingredients:
Pork Rashers
Master Foods Honey Garlic Soy Sauce
extra garlic if you like
onions are optional

Thai Express Launceston

Long time since I blogged about something I ate. Anyway this is long overdue, I just never got around to blogging about it. There is a food court in Launceston called Food Hall along Brisbane Street and there's this stall called Thai Express. I doubt it has any affiliation to the Thai Express in Singapore though. Ate there quite a few times but after awhile I always seem to eat the same dish. Maybe because I'm a poor student and it's the cheapest one on the menu, but it also tastes good.

It's just called Thai soup noodles and you have a choice of chicken meat or fish balls. It's served in a clear broth with bean sprouts and pad thai noodles. The noodles are soft and slippery and you just slurp it up with the soup and meat. Great for a cold day! After adding the chilli flakes the soup becomes spicy yet some what salty. Not sure if it's MSG or something that makes it taste good but I just drink up all the soup anyway! Haha.

It's best when you add the chilli flakes to it to make it really spicy. Shiokness! Asian food is kinda hard to come back in Launceston so this is one of the kinds of comfort food for me. And at a steal of just AUD$6. I've never eaten something like this before back in Singapore or Thailand for that matter, so I'm not sure how it stacks up to food back home but I think this dish is still decent for Asian food in Launceston.

"Zha Jiang Mian" minced pork noodle

Hi Folks! Exams are over and it's been a really long time since I last blogged about food. Haven't had the time to do so till now. My friend Benny and I were quite bored and decided to experiment on making our own kind of zha jiang mian while we were in Launceston. Of course you can't compare it to the types you get in restaurants or anything but I think the taste is still pretty good. This was a real experiment as we just threw in all kinds of sauces and substituted the noodles with somen.

Ingredients:

Minced pork
Shitake mushrooms (dried or fresh should be fine)
Somen noodles
garlic, minced
Sweet dark soy sauce (or normal dark soy sauce, just add some sugar)
Light soy sauce
Sesame oil
corn flour
chilli powder (if you want a bit of spice)

1. Heat up pan and add oil. Fry garlic till a bit brown then add in minced pork and continue frying till colour changes.

2. Add in dark and light soy sauce to taste. The first time we made this I think we also added in a bit of powdered chicken stock and fish sauce (might not be so important though). Also add in sesame and chilli powder if you like. Add in some water for the sauce.



3. Throw in mushrooms and continue to stir the mixture. Allow the sauce to bring to a boil and let it boil for a while. Mix some corn flour with water and add it to the sauce to thicken it, making sure that you continue to stir the sauce while mixing in the corn flour. Concurrently while you're doing this you should be boiling water to cook your somen noodles.



4. Once your noodles is cooked and the sauce has thickened, mix your noodles with a bit of sesame oil, then pour the meat sauce mixture over it and serve.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Yes one exam down! Time to take a break and blog about some more food. This time round I have a guest showing me how to make his version of fried rice. In the kitchen we have Jay or Jin Kyu from Korea showing me how to cook kimchi fried rice using the left over kimchi which I made the last time.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of Kimchi
1 cups of Rice
2 eggs
1 onion, sliced

optional items:
carrots
baby corn
potatoes
tuna
other meats


1. Heat up pan and add oil. Cut up the kimchi into small sized pieces and fry.

2. Fry for a few minutes before adding in your rice and mix together.

3. After frying rice for awhile start to throw in all your other ingredients like carrots, potatoes and corn and continue frying.

4. Crack eggs into bowl, add in onions and beat it up. Jay actually wanted to do something like what we call pattaya in Singapore which is to fry an egg and wrap it over the rice but he was lazy and tried a lazy man style but failed so he ended up just mixing in the eggs with the rice. Once eggs are cooked you can take it off the stove. Alternatively you can remove the rice from the stove and fry an omelett and then put the rice back in and wrap the egg around it.

(Hugh trying to be helpful in the kitchen)

And finally the end product as shown below! Presentation looks good huh?

Basically the process is pretty similar to how we would normally cook fried rice. It's just mainly the ingredients put inside, the core ingredient being kimchi of course, which is enough to flavour the dish. It's important to add the sauce from the kimchi into the rice of course, and you can also add in some gochujang for more heat. You can top it off with some tomato ketchup. Thanks Jay!

Dark Sauce Pork

My first exam is tomorrow but I decided to take some time off to blog about something new I've learned here in Tassie. Picked up this recipe from a Singaporean friend of mine called Linus who got it from his mother I believe. Lets just call it dark sauce pork or dao yu bak.

Ingredients:
300g pork (I used pork rashers which is basically 3 layer fatty pork), cubed or pieces
dark soy sauce
pepper
salt
approx 1/2 to 1 tbsp of sugar
chilli powder or flakes
10 whole clove herbs
10 cloves of garlic, smash it a bit

optional items:
hard boiled eggs
firm tofu, cubed
shitake mushrooms, sliced
onions, sliced

1. In a bowl mix together the pork with dark soy sauce and some pepper, making sure that all the pork is coated in the soy sauce. Leave it to sit and marinate while u prepare your other ingredients. If you want you can leave it the marinate for a few hours to allow the pork to soak up more flavour.



2. Once you're ready to cook, add some oil in your pan and fry your garlic till they start turning brown. Add in your pork and continue frying till it changes colour.

3. At this point, add in some water. Depending on your preference you can make this dish more saucy or watery. Add in the cloves, chilli flakes/powder, a bit of salt and sugar. (Adjust the amount of chilli or sugar according to your taste preference, some people prefer it more spicy/sweet whereas others don't) You will probably need to add in more dark soy sauce as well. Cover and leave it to simmer on lower heat. Stir occasionally.

Linus said that how long you leave it over the fire depends on you. The longer you leave it on the softer the meat should be I reckon. If you don't have the luxury of time then just make sure the meat is cooked and you can take it off the stove. I keep it over the fire for about an additional 30 minutes after the initial frying.

4. Approximitely 15 minutes into the simmering process you can add in stuff like hard boiled eggs, firm tofu and shitake mushrooms. Throw them in earlier if you don't intend to keep it over the stove for so long. On my most recent attempt at making this dish I also added onions which I thought were quite nice, but that's because I love onions. Be sure to stir it around now and then throughout the process, this will also allow the sauce to coat the eggs and tofu and change their colour and enhance their flavour.

Essentially this dish should have a somewhat salty, sweet and spicy flavour to it, with a hint of the clove herbs. Great with rice or you can do those kong bak bao kind of thing too I reckon. I'm just wondering if next time I should try adding some corn starch to thicken the sauce further... As well as trying to let it simmer for an even longer time, might taste even better! Well, experiment another time I guess! Hope I did justice to Linus mom's recipe. Thanks for this great recipe man!

Potato Salad

Since I have the time now shall blog about another dish as well just in case I might not have time to blog about these things for a while more since exams are looming. Just a simple potato salad dish to serve as a side dish or appetizer.

Potatoes, wash (skin on or skin off is up to you)
Bacon bits
Eggs, smashed or cut into tiny pieces
Spring onions, chopped
Mayonnaise
Crushed black pepper

1. Boil your potatoes till they turn soft

2. Drain the water and let them cool down

3. Cut the potatoes into bit sized pieces

4. Add in bacon bits, eggs, spring onions, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix well and serve. You can also keep it in the fridge if you want it cold.



Alright that's all from me today. Over and out!~

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Hola! It's been a long time since I last blogged, partly because I keep forgetting to take photos of stuff I cook, the amount of assignments piling up and the sucky internet in my room. Well, time to blog about another simple dish you can make to impress the girls! Haha. I'll just call it stuffed portabello mushrooms. What you need is....

5 Portabello mushrooms
100g Bacon, cut into little pieces
garlic, minced
spring onions, chopped
mozzarella cheese

1. Heat up pan. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and fry garlic till it starts turning brown, add in your bacon and spring onions. Fry till bacon changes colour. (Doesn't have to be totally cooked, but you can fry it longer to get it crispy) Alternatively if you don't want to fry the bacon you can just put it raw on the mushrooms and cook it in the oven.

2. Now just lay the bacon on top of the mushrooms.


3. Next put the mozzarella cheese on top and place them on a baking tray or dish.

4. Pre-heat your oven to abt 180 degrees for about 10-15mins. Throw in the mushrooms.

Once the cheese melts it's done but you can leave it in longer so the cheese will brown nicely. Just be careful not to let it get burnt.

Kimchi Jjigae

Now that we have made kimchi, we can use it to make kimchi jjigae or kimchi soup. I forgot to take pictures of the kimchi jjigae i made, but heres the recipe I tried. Proportions are based on single serves so just multiply accordingly.

Approx 1 cup of kimchi
1/2 tbsp of gochujang (korean chilli paste)
1 to 1 1/2 cup water
Meat (beef or pork or chicken)
tofu
vegetables like onion and leek
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of chicken stock (my korean friends use this korean beef seasoning I'm not sure what its called)
A little bit of sugar if you like (my korean friends sometimes use coke or sprite instead)

1. Fry garlic and meat till meat is turning brown.

2. Add in veg and kimchi and continue frying. Add in gochujang when veg has slightly softened.

3. add in water, stir and taste. The soup should be on the sourish side, you can add in the chicken stock and sugar to balance out the taste. If you want it more spicy, add in some chilli flakes or chilli powder. As long as it tastes good to you thats fine, do your own fine tuning if you like.

4. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to allow it to simmer. I like the veg to be soft so I normally cook it quite long. Throw in the tofu at the end, allowing it to cook for a few minutes before removing from the stove.

And there you have your kimchi jjigae! Serve it with rice, or you can cook noodles and throw it in.

Kimchi

Having made quite a few korean friends here in Australia, and seeing that kimchi is expensive here in Tassie, I decided to experiment making my own kimchi when I had free time. The result? Well my korean friends said it's good! So I shall post up the recipe that I used to make the kimchi.

1 Chinese Cabbage
Leek
Spring Onions
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 knob ginger, minced
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup chilli powder (gochugaru)
1/2 cup fish/prawn paste or sauce (I used chinchalok prawn paste)
1 heaped tbsp corn flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salt to 1 litre of water

1. Soak cabbage in salt water for at least 5-6 hours, if not overnight.

2. Remove from salt water, rinse in fresh water 2-3 times.

3. Mix corn flour with water and heat over stove till the mixture thickens. Allow mixture to cool.

4. Add in chilli powder, sugar, prawn paste, garlic and ginger and mix well.

5. Cut cabbage, add in leek and spring onions and pour chilli mixture over the veg.

6. Mix well. I heard that the traditional method requires you to use your barehands. My korean friends say this gives it more flavour. Of course you can always use gloves to leave out the extra flavouring.

7. Store in containers for 3-4 days in cool place, after which put it in the fridge.

Above is me using my barehands to mix the kimchi. Someone commented that thats gross, I shall not mention names. But well, its traditional man! Maybe to add more flavour next time I shall not wash my hands first! Hahaha =X

And after mixing everything together... There you have it! Your own kimchi to wow your korean friends. Haha. Store the kimchi in containers and keep in a cool place for 3-4 days before putting it in the fridge.

Apple Crumble Pie

It's been a long time since I last posted an entry, realised my blog is collecting dust! My bad cause after finishing all my assignments I took a well deserved break. Well, it was a good thing too because I was cooking more and actually fine tuned this apple crumble recipe which I've been wanting to post. I also took the opportunity to make kimchi! I will post the recipe next time though. By chance I think I have made my crumble more delicious, more like those you see at cafes. Not sure if I was lucky or something, I actually just went by agaration (estimation) for the crumble bit.

Apple Crumble Pie

Filling
8 Apples, skinned and sliced thinly
1/2 cup raw (brown) sugar
3 tbsp of flour
cinnamon (up to you)

Crumble
1/2 block Butter, melted
2 cup (approx.) Flour
1/3 cup (approx.) Raw (brown) sugar
cinnamon


1. Skin all your apples, remove the seeds and slice thinly.
2. Mix apples in a bowl with the flour, sugar and cinnamon
3. Lay the mixture on your baking tray or dish, spreading it out evenly.
4. Mix melted butter with flour and sugar. I roughly used about 1/3 a cup of sugar and about 1 cup of flour I think. Basically when you mix the ingredients together it should not be too wet, and should start to get sort of clumpy and crumbly. You can add more flour to the mix if you think it is still too wet.
5. Pour crumble mixture over apples, making sure it is evenly distributed
6. Pre-heat oven to 190 degree
7. Bake for roughly 35-40 minutes


And viola! Yummy apple crumble that is best served with a scoop of ice cream! I used my handphone camera to take the picture so it's not so clear, my apologies for that. But the end result is certainly very very yummy, of my 3 attempts I've tried here in Australia, everyone said this is the best. =) Finished in an instant!

Praties

In the heart of Mowbray you will find Praties, the ideal potato meal. As it's name suggests, this shop serves potato fast food. I'm not sure if we have this in Singapore, except for at delifrance? I'm not really sure.


Anyway they have about 10-15 (cant rem e exact number) different types of potato topping to choose from, in three different sizes. If you don't have a big appetite, don't be big eyes like me. I thought the portions looked small so my friends and I ordered 2 large potatoes and one small serving of nachos. The 3 of us couldn't finish it and had to ta bao (take away). Haha.


This dish above is the rajahs curry potatoes. Was slightly spicy, but tasted more like japanese curry rather than an indian curry. But the taste was still good. My mind's abit fuzzy but I believe the curry contained carrots, potatoes and beef. Lots of filling as you can see from the picture.

The nachos were good too, was served with something like a bolognaise sauce and topped with melted cheese and sour cream. Really sinful man! I wonder if the nachos were like those bought in super markets or home made, but I reckon it's like those in super markets. But still very yummy!

Well, this is probably healthier than regular fast food, but I just wonder how much healthier. The food is good and so are the milkshakes! Thick and creamy, reminds me of macdonalds milkshakes back home when I was young. The ones they serve now are horribly disappointing! Expect to pay something anywhere from 7-12 dollars for a meal, depending on the size of potato and if you order drinks or not.

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.

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!