Yummy Potato & Leek Soup

Last night, I found some leek (possibly about 1+ weeks old) and potatoes (god knows how long) left over in my fridge. I usually only find time to go grocery shopping once every fortnight. So my fridge tends to be stocked with rather old veggies most the time.

It was however, enough to make my fav Potato & Leek soup. Perfect for these freezing winter nights. Here is the recipe. . .

Potato & Leek Soup
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4 large potatos (peeled, sliced thinly)
1 leek (washed, white and light green parts sliced thinly - discard the rest)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 peice of bacon (sliced & chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (smashed and chopped finely)
2 Cups of Chicken Stock (just enough to cover the potatoes)
1/2 Cup of Thickening Cream
Fresh Herbs (Optional - But I had some chives leftover)
Butter & Olive Oil
Cayenne Pepper (for seasoning)
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. In a soup pot, melt butter in olive oil over medium heat. Add Garlic, Bacon, Onions then Leeks. Sauté until onions are soft and starting to brown. Be careful not to over cook the leeks.

2. Add the potatoes and pour in enough stock to cover the potatoes. Add water if necessary. Continue cooking over medium heat until potatoes become transparent and soft. Use a potato masher to break up the potatoes slices.

3. Remove half the contents of the pot to a blender and process until desired consistency. Reduce to low heat.

4. Add the processed contents back into the pot and mix together. Add Cream and stir.

5. Stir in Chives and add salt & pepper to taste.

6. Serve soup and season with some cayenne pepper.


Enjoy ~ !

For On-Jai

On Jai... Something for you to drool on until the end of this week. :)

This dish is actually pretty hard to find in Sydney (especially the good ones). We actually found this at a sandwich bar in Ashfield. Funny thing is that we sat there the whole morning and everyone who came in was ordering the above dish (which they make once every fortnight), and not one sandwich was sold.

Best Vietnamese Pork Roll

In my opinion, this place has the best Vietnamese Pork Roll in Sydney.

This place is so good that no matter what time I go to pick up a $3.50 pork roll - it is always packed. Which means you have to line up. Something that you don't usually see in Sydney, unless you are lining up to get into a night club.

Presenting... Hong Ha in Mascot. Or quite simply the 'Pork Roll Place'. Everyone in front of me had either ordered a Pork roll or Chicken roll.. or (like my bf) both.

We went there at 11am, hoping to beat the lunch crowd...But still... it turned out pretty much the same.

This photo doesn't really do the line-up justice. The counter is a bit further back, and behind the counter were 5 ladies busily working whipping up yummy pork rolls by the minute. Which meant I only spent about a total of 4-5 minutes in line.

I did manage to take a photo of my pork roll before I gobbled it all up. :)

Paté, Mayo, 3 different types of pressed pork with salad, spring onion, corriander and gravy.. all encased in a crunchy fresh bread roll.

So craving for one right now... Grrrr....

The Quest - Findings 1

In an attempt to try to complete our quest of finding the 'best steak' in Sydney. We stumbled along this restaurant in Northern Sydney (courtesy of Google search). Gaucho Grill in Kirribilli is an Argentinean Steak house offering steaks which are.. to die for... !

The house specialty is the 'Baby Steak' although at 500g each, there isn't anything 'baby' about it. The restaurant is pretty small, it has about only 6 tables. No bookings are taken, so its on a first-come-first-served basis.

Note: This place is for serious carnivores only !

The house specialty is only available from 'blue to medium-rare'... So its either oozing with blood or just slightly on the red side.. red not pink. I normally go for medium-rare anyway, so its fine for me.

Oh.. and the Chimichurri sauce. Which is this paste made out of herbs, chilli, parsley and garlic (available in hot or mild), goes really well with the steak and chips. I couldn't finish off the 500g steak (pete ended up taking over), but I still managed finish off my remaining chips by dipping them into the sauce. So yummy ~~ !

Overall 8.5/10 .. but so far its the best I've had in Sydney. We'll probably go try the GPO place next, but this is one place I will definitely go back to.

Sugar Hit

October is Good Food Month in Sydney, which means that for $15 you can go to any participating Hotel and try out their dessert plate accompanied with a glass of dessert wine.

Last week we went to the Sofitel Wentworth which had the 'Chocolate Assiette' on offer.

Chocolate assiette - a delicious tasting plate consisting of white chocolate crème brulee, Valrhona bitter chocolate parfait and praline and a berry & milk chocolate terrine, with Brown Brothers Botrytis Reisling

Sounds good ?

Well... It looks good too... :p~

Rise @ Darlinghurst

Last saturday, I went with a couple of my friends to the Rise restaurant at Darlinghurst. Rise by Hideki Okazaki is a Japanese restaurant with a touch of 'fusion'. Overall I would say the food was quite delicious. Of special note is their Soft Shell Crab Tacos, Truffle Infused Tuna Sashimi, Oyster Tempura and their Green Tea Creme Brulee dessert.

Their service however, is on a totally different level.

The cute Japanese waitresses were definitely a nice sight to look at. But weren't really practical when it came to chasing up a missing beer we ordered. After a couple of minutes (unsuccessfully) trying to explain to our waitress that we were still missing a beer, we decided to just order 3 extra ones instead. Not just to simplify things or because we were just alcoholics. But because the rest of us with beers had already finished our first ones. And it would just be easier to order more than to continue to explain to the waitress that we were still missing one from our first order.

I would definitely give the panfried tuna a miss. It was over-done and definitely not 'raw'. The wagyu beef or salmon probably would have been a better choice, as the guys who did order the beef were raving on about it the whole night.

The size of the dishes were rather small but still good value for money. We had a group of six (and a baby) so there was rather a long waiting period between entrees and mains. I guess with the size of the restaurant, it would probably be better to keep it to small groups of 2 - 4 people. As we were cramped in the passage way to the toilets.

Overall, good food, cute waitresses but bad service.

Sago with Coconut Milk Dessert

Due to popular demand (ok.. maybe only two requests), I've decided to post online my recipe for Sago with Coconut Milk dessert.

Ingredients:
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4 Soupspoons of Sago (can be replaced with Tapioca Pearls)
4 1/2 Cups of water
1 Can of Thin Coconut Milk
1 Pandan leaf (tied into a knot)
1/4 Cup of sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
1/4 Rockmelon (cut up into small 1/2 cm cubes - you can substitute this with watermelon or honeydew)

Method:
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Pour coconut milk into a saucepan, add the pandan leaf and bring to boil while adding in the sugar. Stir constantly. Add 1/2 cup of water into the mixture and continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes on low heat. Remove the saucepan and place into a basin of cold water. Once the coconut milk reaches about room temperature, poor the contents into a large bowl and refridgerate.

While the coconut milk is cooling, bring the 4 cups of water to boil in another saucepan. Add in Sago and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Stir constantly so that the Sago won't stick to the bottom of the saucepan. After 5 minutes, turn the heat off and place the lid over the saucepan for 10 minutes. Once you remove the lid, the sago should appear all transparent (Don't worry, you haven't lost all your Sago!!). Run cold water over the saucepan while pouring the contents into a seave and continue to run cold water over the sago for a couple of minutes.

Stir the sago into the coconut milk and continue to refridgerate. Cut up the Melon into small cubes and add into the sago & coconut milk mixture.

Your Sago and Coconut Milk Dessert is now ready to serve !


Notes:

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• The pandan leaf can be removed prior to refrigerating the mixture.
• The dessert is ready to serve once you add in the melon. However, you can continue to refrigerate it.
• If you are using watermelon instead - it doesn't mean 1/4 of the watermelon (unless the watermelon is tiny!) You should only need about 1-2 cups of the fruit - depending on how small you manage to cut up the cube pieces.
• Try tasting the coconut milk mixture before refrigerating it. Add more sugar if it isn't sweet enough.
• If you are not worried about calories and prefer a creamer tasting dessert, normal coconut milk can be used instead.
• You must stir the coconut milk constantly while simmering it. Otherwise the mixture has a tendency to 'spit' !
• The Dessert should last up to 2-3 days if kept refrigerated.
• The whole process takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.
• This recipe serves 2-3 people

Hope this is easy enough to follow.. Have fun !

Dinner @ Harry's

Harry's is located directly upstairs of a local surry hills pub. And Yes, its one of those dodgy types you find in certain parts of Surry Hills. There is a huge neon sign board above the pub which reads which unconvincingly reads "Best Singaporean Chilli Crab". As we walked up the creaking wooden stairs, I began to have second thoughts. Would I end up with yet another bout of food poisoning ?! Again ?!?

At the end of the staircase we see a stack of plastic crates all piled up. Each crate holds two huge freshwater mud crabs. Which upon close inspection were all still alive - Slightly more convincing now. So I gave my Cuz the We're-here-already-might-as-well-try-it-look and walked in with her.

And I was glad I did.

The Chilli crab was great and according to the Singaporeans and Malaysians on the table, it did taste like authentic Singaporean\Malaysian Style. The Sambal Kangkong (Chilli Chinese Spinach) was definitely one of the best I have ever tasted. As it was agreed by all around the table. The sauce was thick and the Belachan was so yummy we ended up ordering an extra plate of Kangkong.

The night past away quickly to the sounds of crab crunching, sucking, slurping and laughter all washed down with beer. We were all thankful we weren't deviated away by the restaurant's first impression.

We also ordered the Fish head curry and Chilli Pipis. The boys managed to eat another bowl of rice just with the curry sauce !

At $50/pp I would agree it is borderline expensive given the location. It would however, be best to give the Pipis a miss and stay with what Harry's does best - Singaporean Chilli Mud Crab & Sambal Kangkong !

Big

This is my lunch for today... :p~

I actually don't think this photo does the sandwich justice.

This sandwich is BIG and Thick .. and really Yummyyyyy !

I feel like such a pig... but atleast it is healthy alternative.. :)

Omega @ Sydney

Last night I meet up with my Only-Eat-Expensive-Food friend (to protect his identity I shall just refer to him as Mr M) for dinner after my work drinking session. Tonz (my Warcraft buddy), Pete and his friend also decided to join us for dinner. Mr M suggested to go to Omega (the much-talked-about Best New Restaurant in the 2005 Good Food Guide) as he wanted to try the Greek food there.

To my surprise Pete didn't object. At first I thought he should know better than to think Mr M would suggest to go to a average priced restaurant. As our last encounter with him had left each of us with $120 less in our wallets. And Pete grumbling all the way to the car.

But this time, Pete seemed genuinely wanting to try out that restaurant Mr M had suggested. I knew Greek food is one of Pete's favorites. But still I felt something was not quite right. It wasn't until we reach the restaurant that I realised he has had 4 bottles of beer already (during his own after work drink session). His limit is usually around 2-3 standard drinks. Going over that limit would explain why he would be so agreeable to everything. As we walked downstairs, I wondered if he was drunk enough to pay for my share as well.

The restaurant itself was stylish and classy. I recognized the chairs they used were once on display in SPACE furniture.

As the bread and houmous dips were placed on the table, Pete asked the waiter if they had any Tarama (A Traditional Greek dip made from fish roe). But the waiter didn't actually know what it was. Moments later the same waiter emerged from the kitchen to let us know that they didn't have Tarama. But he also pointed out (in a stern voice) to Pete that he had pronounced it wrong. It was Ta-ra-ma instead of what Pete had said which sounded more like Da-ra-ma. To my amazement Pete nicely replied that it is actually pronounced more like Da-ra-ma in Greek. The waiter didn't make a reply to that, but let us know that the Moussaka has Taramosalata which is made from Tarama and walked away.

I wouldn't know which one is the correct pronunciation. Frankly, I wouldn't care either. But I would hate to be told that I had pronounced it wrong. Especially by someone with that kind of tone in their voice. It left a sour taste our mouth, and we haven't even ordered yet.

All of us actually sat in silence after the waiter's comment. If Pete had gotten up to go I think I would have followed him.

But he didn't, so we continue to browse through the menu and ordered our meals.

I had the Moussaka (eggplant with scallops) for my entree. And it was perfect. The scallops were done just right. The yellow fin tuna that followed for my main was slightly cold and rather tasteless. The Snapper with blue swimmer crab, that Tonz gave me a piece of, was a lot better. (Should have ordered the Snapper). I had the Halva chocolate for dessert. But I found it was too bitter for my taste. Mr M also commented that his lamb was only just passable.

The service was cold and pretentious all the way through the night. Especially since we had got off on a wrong foot from the beginning.

As expected, the mains were priced around the $40-50 mark. Which was rather pricey for the quality and quantity of food served.

I would definitely go back for the Moussaka, but I doubt Pete would be stepping foot into that place anytime soon again.

For the record, we split the bill accordingly. Turns out he wasn't as 'high' as I thought he was.

Billy Kwong's

Last night Pete took me to dinner at Billy Kwong. Yes, the famous Sydney restaurant from Kylie Kwong. Pete had been raving on about the house speciality Crispy Duck and Beef Brisket ever since I had met him. I have always been convinced that I could probably find the same quality of food from Billy Kwong served at some Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for about 1/2 the price. So I had always refused to go there.

But since Pete is paying.... why not ?!

The restaurant itself is actually pretty small. The miniature tables and stools make the place seem very cramped. Which actually made it quite hard for everything to fit on the table. As usual with fine dinning places the dishes the food gets served on is about twice the size of the portion of food. Therefore, the two person table we were sitting on was barely able to hold the teapot, tea cups, bowls and bone plate settings. And the food was yet to arrive.

The waitress that was serving us managed to accidentally drop and break one of the serving plates she was handing out. So it seemed hardly surprising that we heard someone drop some plate or chopstick every two to three minutes. Although all of this, kinda added to the fast moving atmosphere of the restaurant.

Just to satisfy Pete, we ordered the famous Crispy Skin Duck with Blood Plum sauce and the Beef Brisket (Wagyu Beef). Yes, Wagyu beef brisket. The Crispy Duck was a bit too much on the sweet side, but the beef brisket was good. I personally think anything made from Wagyu beef would be good. You can't really go wrong with that type of high grade beef. I mean, it would have taste great raw!

We also ordered the stir fried mixed mushrooms. But due to the size of our table, they did not bring out the mushrooms until we had finished off one of the dishes. So by the time they did, we were 3/4 full already.

Setting itself to be a Chinese eating house, Billy Kwong missed out on a very important detail. That is to keep their patron's teapot full. We had the lid off our teapot for the majority of the time. But the staff there failed to notice this little Chinese custom.

Overall, the food was pretty good. But I still think I could have found something of a similar quality in Chinatown. And yes, at 1/2 the price as well.

Food poisoning.. and now the flu ?!?

My last three days in Hk was spent in half in bed .. the other half of the time was spent in the bathroom hugging the toilet.. !! My stomach violently reacted to something I ate whilst in Macau. I really don't know what it was.. could of been the BBQ food or double layered milk pudding or even the Portuguese Tart I had.

I knew I shouldn't of been such a pig...

Now that I'm back in Sydney, I had only lasted one day before the Sydney flu bug snared me as its next victim.

*sob**

I hate being sick. Especially since I think I've run out of sick days at work already. (dammit..no pay).

Well... its not all bad. I've managed to level up two levels in World of Warcraft. That's all I've been doing. Sleep... Warcraft.. Sleep

*sigh**

I've nearly gone through another tissue box. I've just been piling all the tissues on my small table next to my bed. I have one BIG mountain of tissues now... The bin is just too far away.

Is Chilli Mussels a Perth Thing ??

Is chilli mussels really a Perth only thing ? I always thought it was an Italian thing (as it appears in nearly every Italian restaurant in Perth). But during my nearing 3 years in Sydney I have yet to come across one Italian restaurant which actually serves Chilli Mussels (the tomato sauce ones anyway).

So why doesn't sydney have Chilli Mussels ??

Is Chilli Mussels even an Italian dish ? Can someone tell me plssss ~~~

I flew back to Perth for the weekend (as it was my gran's b'day) and after being in Sydney for the past 3 years, I was craving for chilli mussels big time. The first night back I went to the Chorus Club with a couple of my old friends and about 4am (on the way home..and half drunk) I begged my friend to drive past Concas to see if it was still open.

It wasn't.

But 3 years ago its used to be open until 6am on weekends !!

However, this proves was how desperate I was...

The following day I had dinner with another friend and we went for Chilli Mussels. :P~