Japanese Feast!

This was the Japanese Feast we had for the whole day on Black Saturday.

We were supposed to be away for the weekend with some friends but was cancelled last minute. So we planned to spend the day at the beach since it was forcasted to be a nice warm summer day. But on Friday, weather forcasted temperature going to hit max 45degree. Victorian Premier John Brumby advised us not to travel unless really necessary. It sound really bad so we decided to just relax and stay cool at home. We totally had no idea it was going to be such a historical Saturday.

On Saturday, we drove to Victoria Market to stock up the fridge. Expecting the weather to get really nasty, we actually started our day unusually early. We won't the only one who did that! The market was crowded with people by 8.30a.m instead of the usual 9.30a.m.

CL wanted to have Japanese food for lunch and I just found a Japanese shop Suzuran located at Camberwell and decided to check it out. It's a Japanese grocery but also a takeaway sushi store. We spend close to an hour shopping for grocery + waiting for our takeaway sushi.

Sashimi cost $25. CL ordered $10 Salmon, $10 King Fish and $5 Tuna. They were really thick slices and fresh!

2 sushi sets which we picked from the menu. Sorry can't really recall the price for each.


Seaweed+Octopus
CL loves eating seaweed. I bought a huge pack for $7. The potion on the picture is slightly more than half the potion I purchase. Can't remember how much I pay for the octopus but from memory, it wasn't expensive too.

Look at the sushi!!! The tuna slice is so much bigger and longer than the rice dough. I was shocked when I realised and wanted to show it here. This wasn't the only piece, every single sushi has the rice fully covered by either the fish/prawn slice.

I was ecstatic when I saw Takoyaki in the freezer. I haven't had them for more than 3 years!! Finally I managed to find them in Melbourne. I bought slow cooked them on the stove, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and katsuobushi. It was heaven!!!!!

As for dinner, CL planned to go Lygon and have some Italian food but we were too lazy to head out in the end. Plus the weather was still really warm. Instead, we had Kabayaki-don for dinner.

I cooked some Japanese rice, made some Tamagoyaki and reheated the Unagi which we purchase at Suzuran. I also cooked some tofu miso soup, sliced up some cucumber and tomatoes as shown in the picture on top.

I only paid about $2 at Suzuran for some Salmon belly which nobody eats. Apparently it's full of fish oil high in Omega 3 which is good for the health. Since we eat almost anything and everything plus it's cheap, why not give it a try? I washed and wipe dried with kitchen towel before popping them into the oven griller till crispy. I will definitly buy more on my next trip to Suzuran.

As I'm writing this post, CL is suggesting to pop into Suzuran tomorrow again. Must be the pictures....hehe.

Pecan Cookies & Brownie

Last week, I was itchy to bake. So I decided to bake some Pecan Cookies with CL loves since I have all the ingredients in the pantry. Thinking it uses Oats and Pecan as the ingredients, surely it's better than baking Chocolate Chips Cookies right? I even replace half of the plain purpose flour with wholemeal flour. Also replace more than half of the required pecan with hazelnut coz I ran out. Hmmm should I still name this as Pecan Cookies?

I actually made the dough the night before and place them in the fridge to harden it. This process will result in a more crunchy cookie instead of soft and chewy.

Dough just taken out from the fridge and really to be slice.

Sliced and ready to be bake.

Instead of half the ingredients, I decided not to this time. I ended up with not only lots of cookies but also house smell delicious! Took some and share among with my colleagues and the whole box of cookies were gone before lunch. Didn't realized so many of them turn up in the office that day, if not I will had bought in more.

This recipe is definitely a keeper as everybody who ate it love it. :)


I also tried baking Brownie. It was requested by CL one evening for dessert with Vanilla Ice Cream which we had in the fridge. Flipped through some of my cookbook and I pick the one in Nigella (How to be a Domestic Goddess). There are still a lot of recipes which I want to try. Just waiting for the opportunity.

I'm guessing I had under baked the brownie. It was still slightly sticky, soggy when I served it. But it was heaven having it warm with cold vanilla ice cream!

Cooking anything special???

*back dated post

"Are you cooking anything special" was a question CL asked my 2 weeks ago. The night before, I attended the company post X'mas party alone on the 31st Jan (I know we are hopeless having a X'mas party in end of Jan) as CL was scheduled to work for the weekend. I ended up home really late that night, it's was a really good chance to hang around with all the colleagues and do some catching up. So when he asked me if I'm making it up for dumping him at home, I started thinking what I can cook.

There wasn't much in the fridge as we haven't being to Victoria Market since the week before X'mas. Our favourite butcher was closed for a month so we decided our next trip will be a month after X'mas.

I knew he was craving for Japanese food and also seafood. After flipping through some of the cookbooks I had, I knew what I can tried. With a shopping list in my hand, I drove myself to Box Hill to get the ingredients.

1st dish is Miso Tofu. This is the 2nd time I tried cooking this dish. Very simple and easy. I used the same miso paste on the fish (see below) 1st and add the leftover with some sugar before brushing it on to the tofu while pan-frying.

2nd dish is Tamagoyaki sushi. This is my 3rd time cooking the Tamagoyaki. A lot of praactise needed. I find that the layer are too thick + I fried the eggs using a round Scanpan Fusion 5 instead of a Makiyakinabe. Still wondering should I get a makiyakinabe for my kitchen. As for rice, I used the sushi mould which I bought few months ago from the Japanese store next to Prahan Market. Find it require a lot of rice to fill the mould up, definitly need to get a smaller mould when I have the chance.

3rd dish and also the main dish is Miso Grill Fish, slamon & barramundi. This dish is very simple to cook. Just need to brush the fish with miso and grill them under the hot oven. Fast, simple and nice.

CL was rather surprised when he walk into the house and saw all the nice food on the table and I'm happy that he loved the dishes I prepared. :)

Should I / Shouldn't I ???

I just received an email from Borders. Attached with it is a 30% discount voucher with any purchase. I'm very tempted to make another purchase but I don't really have anything in mind. Recently came across this wedsite from a Melbourne food blogger which I love and I'm making use of it now! Hoping to find my next target. I also saw they are selling Jamie Magazine from the email but it cost $12+. That's pretty expensive isn't it? But I'm super tempted!!! Maybe I will buy his 1st copy and see whether do I like it.

Jamie cookbooks have being my bedtime story for the past few weeks. I personally owned 2 of his cookbooks Jamie's Dinner and Cook with Jamie. Both bought from Borders with discount vouchers, without it I find them too expensive. I'm a sucker for discount. I'm still trying to be more organise and try more of the recipes in the book. So far CL loves all the recipes I tried.

Last night I started Jamie's Italy which I borrowed from the Library last Saturday. Yes, I became a member of the local library beginning of the year. Getting the hang of it and hopefully I can save some $ from stopping to buy books and space. I still have a full box of story book lying around in the house coz my bookshelves got kidnapped!

Craving for CNY goodies

Nothing exciting happening in life. It's just sleep, eat, work, surf FB, blogs etc. A lof of LaLa Land food blogs started on CNY goodies. Me personally aren't baking any pineapple tarts this year. Don't really have the energy (I know full of excuses) + it's only me who is eating. But I was very tempted to get some love letters when I saw them a few weeks ago at Box Hill but I will be the only 1 eating. What is it doesn't taste good???

Granny used to make them every CNY and sis and I easily can finish a whole tin by ourself. I'm starting to miss some of the CNY goodies which both my grannys made like honey combs and kuih bangkit which I myself never had the chance to witness the process of making them. Did tried making love letters with mum years ago and OMG it's definitly not easy + we made them in a very traditional way using charcoal stove.

Oh I seriously crazing for all the unhealthy, fatty CNY goodies. Maybe I'm able to buy some tomorrow when I'm attending the Lunar Festival at Victoria Street. If not I just have to get CL to make a quick stop at Box Hill and get some.

Beach Time!!!

I was complaining to CL that though summer already started a month ago but we haven't had the chance to make a trip to the beach. Coz the weather has being damm too bloody cold!!!
Finally I spotted a chance which was yesterday. Weather forecast was 28 degrees and if it's strong sunlight, it should be warm enough. We decided to take the chance and packed for the beach!

It wasn't a hard decision to make when it comes to which beach should we go. Last summer we being around quite a few and the beach we both love is the 1 in Philip Island..

We departed the house pretty early as we are having a dinner appointment. Plus we always have the habit to start early to beat the traffic. It took us almost 2 hours to drive to the destination coz of the slight heavy traffic.

CL was pretty hungry by the time we reached. So we decided to picnic at the car park instead.

Me having my sandwich behind the car boot.


These are the food I prepared. Egg mayonnaise and Chicken (leftover) for sandwich. Carrot, Cucumber and Celery stick with dips and banana. Healthy meal?

We had fun lazing around, chatting, suntanning, reading books and getting wet! I wasn't prepared to go into the water at all but CL was super keen and kept pestering me. He threaten me by saying if I'm not going to then he will stop bringing me to the beach. What's the fun when you go to the beach but no get wet. Since he's the driver, I suppose I should accompany him right?

Initially I kept screaming when I step into the water coz it's too cold! It took us a while to get used to the water temperature. But we had fun playing with the huge waves and I'm gald CL manage to convince me to join him.

Korean BBQ

We met up with Stan and Elsie(S&E) for dinner after X'mas for dinner. They bought us to a Korean Restaurant(no idea what it is call) along Victoria Street, opposite Victoria Market. Luck Elsie called before hand and booked a table coz the place has endless crowd. Noticed that the staffs and patrons are mostly Korean which is a good sign. Plus S&E's recommendation never fail to satisfy us.

We ordered a BBQ set meal which is enough to feed 6-8 people but there's only 5 of us! So you can imagine what our tummy look like after the meal. I didn't have my camera that day. All these photos are taken by Elsie :)


Different types of kimchi which are available to top up after finish. It taste different from those available from the Oriental supermarket. This taste so much fresher and nicer.

Seafood pancake. I will have to try making this some day. Always thought I have to dice the spring onion but this prove me wrong.

Starting to BBQ.
Note: This is a very traditional style of BBQ. It uses charcoal which mummy uses to boil soup back in Singapore. I never seem it available at the shops here so I was really surprised when I saw them using it.
The service was really good. The wire mesh used during cooking was changed very frequently so that we won't be eating any burned food.

More beef. There are a few more dishes that comes with the set menu but we were too busy eating. It also came with a seafood hot pot, braised pork belly and spicy octopus.

This is a place which we will definitly go when we have craving for Korean food. Yum-Yum.

Kitchenware

It's time to change the old Jamie Oliver tefal frying pan which we when I first landed in Melbourne. The non-stick layer isn't really a non-stick anymore + it's peeling off.

This time round, I chose a Scanpan Fusion 5 frying pan. CL paid for it :)
This is a slightly bigger and much heavier pan. I'm beginning to love this pan because it's easy to heat up plus retain heat really well. Does takes a bit of time getting use to coz it doesn't have the non-stick coating. CL still prefer a pan which is non-stick but since I'm the 1 doing most of the cooking and kitchen is my territory. He let me chose it. We are still hunting for a smaller frying pan with non-stick coating for him though.



He also bought me another Scanpan item during the boxing day sale. It's a 7 liters pot. I always wanted a big pot for me to boil chicken stock, fish stock etc. Since I have the space to freeze the stock, it should be economical rather than using packet stock.

Grill Pork Ribs and Salmon

Few weeks ago, during out usual marketing trip at Victoria Market, I bought a beautiful slab of pork ribs from my favourite butcher ("we dun yell to sell")and also 1 whole salmon (left with bones and head intact).

As usual, I went pass a tray of fish body parts which nobody appreciate and wondered what I can cook with. A very nice fishmonger lady taught me to grill it with garlic. We decided to give it a try and bought 1 which only cost us $2.60!!!

Since I'm going to use grill the fish, I decided to grill the ribs too since it's a waste to chopped it into pieces and dump into a big pot of water to boil soup which I usually do. It's also a good chance for me to try out the griller.
There isn't much trouble preparing the fish, I chopped it into 3 big pieces so that it can fit into my 2 baking tray. Wash it clean and season with garlic, salt and pepper.

As for the ribs, I went into my cookbook collection. Found a suitable 1 in Jamie Oliver "Cook with Jamie". The dish name is Blackened Barbecued Pork Fillets. But I see no harm changing the pork fillets into pork ribs. Preparation is easy too. Just dump all the ingredients and marinade.

It's also simple to cook. I pre-heated the oven, covered the salmon with aluminium foil and place them into the oven. When the fish is done, I remove the foil and grill it for a min to crisp it. As for the ribs, I place them under the griller and kept on brushing the leftover marinade as what the recipe stated to build up a sticky, blackened glaze.

The Salmon is delicious! It's full of fish oil and surprisingly it's full of flesh! I'm definitly getting more on my next marketing trip.


CL loved this dish! I love the glaze as it's sweet. I will try using pork fillet next time and I bet it goes really well with steam rice. Maybe I can cook the left cover marinade and use it as gravy. Yum Yum!!

1st Blog in 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR! How did you spend your last hour of 2008?? I went for the midnight fireworks which was spectacular!

I definitely haven't being blogging a lot for the whole of Dec. I have being lazy + busy with work during the x'mas period. Although others are starting to wind down, attending parties and gathering. I, in fact was getting busy with work. I wasn't really in low moral when others were drinking and having fun while I'm stuck in the factory with required me to strip to my undies and grown up in blue suit. Because I finally see the finishing line after being stuck with the project for bloody 2 years!

I did still manage to try out new recipes which all turn out really nice and photos are still stored in the camera which I'm too lazy to download + upload now. Hopefully I will get to them this weekend.

2008 passes by so quickly that I have no idea what I had achieved in 2008.
Going thru the blog entries, this is the list I came up with.

1. Moved out from the city and into the suburb. It's actually nice and we are loving the place! A real motivation to save more and purchase a house of our own.
2. CL's bought a new car = I became the owner of our new car
3. Starting driving to work = driving more (which I still need to work on for 2009)
4. Spend a full 1 month with my lovely parents. Did some travelling with them
5. Went to Great Barrier Reef again(kinda of disappointed that the reef are so damaged) and did some diving
6. Hit a roo at Grampians (actually CL hit it in his brand new car!)
7. I lost an uncle
8. We did quite a bit of driving around Victoria. Covered Bright, different beaches in Victoria, Hanging Rock, Great Ocean Road, Grampians, Lakes Entrance, Warrnambool
9. Started handcraft : kitting and crochet

Don't think I miss out anything.
Well, I did manage to fulfill half of my 2008 wish list.

1. Stay healthy and stop gaining weight(think this might be easy rather than trying to lose weight) definitely is still on my 2009 agenda.
2. Save $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
3. Be a good housewife (not as if I'm not good but I believe I can be more organise if I want to..hehehe)
4. Cook more!!!! (I have being cooking more but need to start trying out more recipes)
5. BLOG MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No point making a long list if I can't achieve it right?