Yum Cha Ending Without Dessert

Belated Post
19th April 2009

Kam Fook restaurants in Sydney are very famous, well known. During our (me & CL) uni days, we only manage to Yum Cha at Kum Fook during special occasion like after our exam or someone birthday as we were so tight on budget. As for dinner at Kam Fook was totally out of question. I love their yum cha. Last time I had yum cha there was 2 years ago at Bondi Junction,Sydney with my parents.

When I found out Kam Fook is coming to Melbourne, I got excited. It was supposed to be opened end of 2008. But we ended up waiting for months till April 2009. Why the long delay? Who knows. But it only proved they definitely earning a lot/at least enough to cover their lose from the restaurants in Sydney.

We planned to do some shopping at Westfield on Sunday morning and at the same time try the newly open Kam Fook Yum Cha if we manage to get a table. We were happy when we had no trouble getting a table, in fact the place was pretty empty. Bet their opening news has not really spread.

1st impression was actually pretty good. Tea was served fast and trolleys of food came fast too.

First we had Char Siew Bao, Chicken Feet and Pork Spare Ribs.

Chicken Feet was good. Full of flavour and not over cooked. It doesn't break into parts when I lifted it up using my chopstick. As for the spare ribs, nothing fantastic, the usual.

Char Siew Bao was disappointing. The filling was nice, not too sweet, not too dry nor wet. BUT the dough was not soft and fluffy enough. It was quite compressed and dense. :( I admit, when it comes to Char Siew Bao, I super picky!!!

Next was Congee (pork and century egg). The serving was HUGE! BUTTTT another disappointment!!!! It look thick but it wasn't! After a few stir, it all became super watery. Plus it was bland, tasteless. *faint* 1st time we adding soya sauce to our cooked food.

Follow up was Siew Mai and Har Gao. *shake head* I don't really remember what the siew mai taste like except it was dry. Definitely didn't leave good/ bad impression on me. As for the har gao, it was definitely dry! The skin was dry the filling was dry. Both oversteam???

After 6 dishes, we conclude the food wasn't as good as Tai Pan nor Golden Dragon Palace which were only 5 mins drive away from Kam Fook. So food wasn't their selling point.

As for their service, it all went downhill after we were seated within 15mins. Patrons started coming in, more tables were filled. We were being ignored! Trolleys stopped coming our area after they saw us stopped eating. What's there for us to eat when we had finished all the food we ordered and waiting for more????

Noticed we aren't being served, we decided to skip everything and go for the dessert. Saw the trolley, spend 15mins waiting but it never made it to our table/area. In the end, I had to asked a waiter who was topping up hot water for our tea what desserts were available. His answer was " I call the gal to push the trolley over". (For those who aren't familiar, only waitress served food/push trolleys/take order. Waiter job scope is set up table/clear table/ top up hot water for tea.) We spend another 15mins waiting for the trolley (can see we desperate for our usual dessert) and I finally told CL that forget it, we should just leave. I was sick of waiting!

That was our 1st time of Yum Cha ending without mango pudding for him and taofu fa for me. Ending our Yum Char after 6 dishes and adding soya sauce to my congee. *shake head* :(

I won't be going back there again unless someone who I can trust tell me they had experience a enjoyable Yum Cha there.

At the end of the day, we bought 2 slices of cakes as dessert which we had at the comfort of our own home. Btw, the cakes were delicious!!!! Tried their cakes before and knew it will not disappoint me at all. Sorry don't remember what's the stall named but it was just beside the Westfield Food Court. It also served pretty cute little cupcakes.

Where has my time gone???

I haven't being blogging for the past few weeks and I just found out last night when I was looking thur the pictures from my camera. I'm just to busy (more like lazy right?) Seriously need to be more organise and discipline.

I have being trying very hard to start my day early, reaching the office after 7am. Clock a bit more time on the project as it's pretty tight schedule + they kept changing the requirement *sigh*. Not really enjoying work at the moment actually. Well, other than suck it up and concentrate on work what else can I do????

My best buddy and godson came for a short visit, 7 days (our 1st guest since the move).
Me and Godson
It was really last minute, she confirmed her trip on Monday and flew in overnight on Friday. I didn't manage to spend a lot of with them as I need to work. So it's just the evening which we chilled out at home after dinner. I think they enjoyed the trip and I hope they did. :)

I definitely learn something from their trip. Really ponder when I and CL will be ready to start a family. We know it's not the time now but when? Hmmm don't think we will ever have an answer for it. At present, we love our freedom too much. (He definitely agree with me on that)

I preparing to have a tight schedule month ahead. For work, it's finishing up the project and commissioning(Cadbury want to start production 1st June). Outside work, I'm attending a wedding, bbq, yum cha, dinner gathering all organised by Club Alfred. Also at the same time start preparing, cleaning, shopping for my in-laws arrival in June.

Fried Carrot Cake & Rojak

I was really productive in the kitchen last week. I baked brownie, chilli paste, carrot cake. (oh shit, don't remember what else I did without photos)

I had sudden craving for fried carrot cake therefore suggested to CL to make some ourselves for dinner. Opps, I forgot to take some photos of the final product of steam carrot cake before cutting them up for frying. I was too busy making chilli paste and calling mummy to double check the ingredients required.

White version of Fried Carrot Cake
Black version of Fried Carrot Cake (not very black but nice)

CL helped me to fry both version of the carrot cake and he did a good job! The carrot cake was soft, all of flavour plus homemade chilli paste. It taste better than served at cafe/restaurant.

We also added a few more ingredients to our Rojak. Added turnip, bean sprouts, tau pok (bean curd skin) and also the usual cucumber, pineapple and You Tiao. It was a huge bowl of Rojak when I mixed everything up. CL says " this is somthing which 1 + 1 not = 2"

The next day, we had leftover carrot cake for breakky.

Brownie

CL requested for Brownie again and I baked them in a heart shape bake tin which I don't know where to slice when served. It's the smallest bake time I have. If I baked them in the square shape tin, the brownie might be too flat like the previous time.

Don't really remember did I used the same recipe as the previous time but it's definitely from the same Nigella cookbook. I did cut down the amount of sugar as I find her recipes a bit too sweet for our tastebuds.

I can't stop myself from licking the spoon and bowl once I placed the tin into the oven. It's delicious just by licking it. The recipe state to bake for XX minutes and to constantly look out for it as brownie tend to over bake very quickly. I ended up extending the baking time even though I only bake 1/3 the amount of the recipe. The middle was pretty gooey when I took them out from the oven. CL was surprised it was so gooey and I was guessing it will harded when it cooled. If not I just have to pop them back into the oven. I thought this time round, the brownie will be a success as it did get hardern as it cool.

BUT I was wrong! When I cutted them up and serve with Vanilla Ice Cream, it was still uncook in the middle. Definitly better than the previous time but still not fully correct. Hmmmm I seriously wonder why.

Fatt Kueh

Came upon this recipe for quite some time now but didn't really manage to try them. I followed the recipe very strictly as it as my 1st time but it still didn't turn out right. I did have my doubt when I mixed the coconut milk with the rice flour. It's suppose to be a smooth batter but mine turn out to be like a dough. Suspecting the coconut I used was cream instead of milk even though the packet did state milk. It's too thick to be consider as milk.

The Fatt Kueh did "explode" but it's not soft and fluffy. As for sweetness, it's just right to my tastbud. I will definitely give them a try again as they are really simple to make but I got to make sure I uses coconut milk not cream.

Greek Shortbread Bicuits,Kourabiedes

Our very lovely greek neighbour, Irene baked these Kourabiedes for Easter and she gave us some.

The first time I tried them was during Christmas period when she baked over 500 of as gifts for her family, relatives and neighbours. She told me she do it every year but the amont decreases every year too as she's finding a bit hard to produce so many biscuits alone.

This Easter she baked a small amount for her family and we were offered some because we are her family too :)

They smell great! I only need to remove the cover and I can smell it immeditaely without bringing my nose close to it! It's crunchy coz of the nuts but also extremely sweet because it's covered with icing sugar. She told me it's also very fattening so can't have too much.

I had quite a few as CL finds them too sweet. I know I will be the only 1 eating them like the batch we had during Christmas. Therefore I bought the rest in to work the next day and shared with a few colleagues. They all enjoyed it a lot!

Back to craft projects

As the weather turns cold and daylights got shorter, I'm back to doing my craft work. Crocheting my old granny square rug which I started last year and stopped.

I just started knitting a scarf for my MIL last night (we are expecting them in mid June, another excuse for me to knit). It's a very simple basic stitch so it shouldn't take me long. Plus it only 4 balls of yarn knitting two balls at the same time. My aim is to finish both projects before june so that I can put both into good use during this coming winter.

BBQ Chicken - Nando's Style

CL had craving for Nando's style bbq chicken after I had shared with him my Nando's takeaway lunch few days ago. He suggested to marinate some chicken and popped them onto the barbie for dinner. It sound good to me, nice, simple and easy.

I already had a whole chicken in my freezer. I dropped by Coles, get some Nando's Peri Peri marinate sauce and saw some cheap but still fresh cabbage. Therefore decided to make some coleslaw as salad. Also grabbed 2 corns to put on the barbie.

It didn't take CL long to start the fire this time. Kinda of experience now. :)

I chopped the chicken into half to speed up the cooking process and have more "burn" parts to eat. I also popped in a sweet potato for lunch the next day.


Dinner for the night. CL definitely didn't had enough to eat as it was too delicious. The corn was cooked just right. It was juicy and sweet without any burned at all!

Almond Biscotti

Almond Biscotti, it was my 1st time baking them.

1. CL was scheduled to work night again and I had all the free time during the day.
2. I haven't bake for a long time.
3. CL's and his colleagues can have fresh biscotti to snack through the night.
4. This recipe I came upon doesn't require any butter nor oil. Or all biscotti's recipes doesn't include butter or oil?
5. It looks really simple and easy to make.

With some many excuses to try baking, why not? Don't think I need more excuse.

I tried taking more photos as I bake/cook now. I'm still not very good at it and kept forgetting. I'm still trying my best.

After the 1st bake, slicing them and laying flat on the tray preparing for 2nd bake.

Two trays of biscotti in the oven during final bake.

End result

1. It was too hard. The dough was too wet and hard to moulded into shape so I added more flour. I must had gone a bit too far.
2. The sweetness was just right.
3. CL's colleague suggested to slice them thinner.

Overall the review I received was pretty good. I was very surprised CL's colleagues finished everything (he was feeling hungry at around 5am and wanted some biscotti but found an empty container instead). I thought it will all goes into the bin because it was too hard. But it was actually pretty nice to munch on bit by bit. Even my colleagues gave pretty positive remarks. I will definitely try it again.

Prawn Noodle Soup & Rojak

These 2 days was a rest and relax weekends for both of us.

On Saturday morning, we went to had some really nice Yum Cha at Tai Pan. It was our 1st visit but we did read about it on the Good Food Guide 2008. We decided to give it a try since it's near our place, can't be bother to drive to far. The restraurant was crowded when we got there but it didn't take them long at all to orgainse us a table for 2. Right after tea was serve, trolleys of food came one after another. Within 15 mins the whole table was full of the usual dim sum which we both love.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures at all as we were just too hungry!!!
The pork and century egg congee was thick which I prefer but not CL. Char Siew Bao was super soft, not too sweet and not too much colouring added. Har Gau was pretty average, had much better ones elsewhere. Spare ribs was super soft (hmmm....wonder how much meat tenderiser powder did they use). Feng Zhua was really nice, the "toes" didn't fall into pieces when I pick the feet up with my chopstick and it's full of flavour.

We actually wanted to order another plate of Char Siew Bao but we suddendly had craving for pineapple bun when the trolley came. The pineapple bun was amazing! It was stuffed with custard cream and not too sweet. As for dessert, we had Dou Fu Hua, Mango Pudding and Mango Sago. Although the dou fu hua is not as smooth as some other restaurant but it was full of soy bean smell and taste. The mango sago was very refreshing for us as most of the yum cha places we visited serve Rockmelon sago.

That was for breakky cum lunch, as for dinner I decided to try cooking Prawn Noodle Soup from scratch without any packet paste.

Prawn Noodle Soup
Soup base was chicken stock which I boiled and freeze. It was further boiled with pork ribs + fried prawn shells with garlic. Season with pepper, rock sugar and dark soy sauce. The soup was easily left on the stove for more than 2 hours.
Noodles, fish cakes, shelled prawns, bean sprouts and kang kong were all cooked in boiling water and drench with soup stock. I was very pleased with the result but not CL. He felt that the stock wasn't thick enough!!! Honestly, I had no idea what I can do to make it better. Suggestion anyone???

Rojak
This afternoon, I tried making rojak. My first try, I didn't do any cooking or baking. I just mix and piece everything together. We only bought a few ingredients, cucumber, pineapple and You Tiao which I heated it up using the oven to make it crispy.
With lots of shrimp paste, sugar, fresh lime juice, tamarind juice all mixed together to form the dressing. Dump in all the rest of dry ingredients and mixed it all up. Sprinkle some crashed peanuts on top before serve. In less than a few minutes, we were digging into a huge bowl of rojak. Yum Yum!!!