A Few of My Favourite Things !

We went to the Taste of Melbourne on a Friday afternoon again this year to avoid the crowds, and what a lovely way it was to spend a rainy afternoon. Thanks to Green & Black’s, entry was free so we just had to buy crown currency to use at the stalls. Despite concentrating solely on food and skipping all the wine stalls, we still managed to spend a leisurely three hours at the impressive and gorgeous Royal Exhibition Centre. My friends who went the next day, and did all the wine stalls as well as the HSBC VIP Lounge, stayed until they got kicked out at 4:30pm.

Onto the food then and in order of appearance:

Mezzo Bar & Grill’s organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce. So delightful that the woman standing across from us felt a need to share with us how much she enjoyed hers. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that Mezzo has gone Italian since reinventing itself after Oyster Little Bourke.

Melbourne Wine Room/Mr Wolf‘s Livornese seafood stew. Just one whiff of this could have sent me to heaven however I nearly broke my tooth on that bread stick! Such an appropriate dish for a cold, grey day so more of the broth would have been welcome. That said, it didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the stew, especially as we watched the queue crawling slowly towards The Palace for Luke Mangan’s Wagyu Burger. Being the most substantial dish and for just 10 crowns may have explained the lines, but we had been forewarned that the burger was nothing special.

Mmeh, The European’s duck tortelloni with pea puree & truffle oil really did not do it for me. One bite and I was happy to leave the rest to A. who ate it more out of hunger than desire.

Thankfully, it was a completely different story when we got to Comida Bebe. We chose to eschew the more popular Paella Fiesta for the baby chorizo glazed in cider, served on a skewer with candied and fresh apple and topped with an apple toffee sauce and boy, was it worth it! The chorizo was smokey, chewy and mouthwateringly moreish. They really should do more than just pop-up here and there.

Next door was the Libertine/Le Traiteur stall where the entire menu had my eyes popping. As I was getting quite full though, we skipped the pissaladiere feuillete and smoked duck, apple & walnut rilettes for the game consomme and truffled rabbit agnolotti – clear broth spiked with amontillado sherryl. A very delicate dish that A. enjoyed more than me.

Onto the opposite side where the (IMO) most eye-catching stalls had been set up – Longrain and Longrain Bar. Although the yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish looked tempting, I immediately wanted the salted Western Plains pork prawn sweet roll with pickled vegetables. Unlike Circa’s try-hard version of the banh mi last year, this one hit the mark and was one of my favourite dishes of the afternoon. Crackling pork skin with sweet chilli sauce – I could have had 3 of these if I wasn’t so full.

We also had their vanilla tapioca pudding with poached pears and jackfruit.

Charcoal Lane is restaurant, supported by Mission Australia, that enables Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to obtain comprehensive hospitality training. A good enough reason to try their food and visit the restaurant, right? But what makes it better is that the food is actually well-worth tasting. We only had the seared Kingfish, red curry, puffed rice and coconut dish but it’s enough for me to want to schedule in a dinner there soon.

To finish off, we had the pistachio ‘panna cotta’ with caramel salted popcorn from Sarti. Salted caramel is really taking off in Melbourne in a BIG way but so few places get it right (I think the only place that A has give the thumbs up to is the creperie in Hardware Lane). Unfortunately, this was one of them. The popcorn did not taste of salted caramel at all but it was saved by the amazing pistachio panna cotta.

Well, we finished up at the restaurant stalls but, of course, there were a few other things we had to taste =) The original Monaco Bar was one of my favourite ice creams as a child so when I first read about Pat & Stick’s ice cream range in Gourmet Traveller about, oh, 6 years ago I knew that I had to try it. Unfortunately, their products were not stocked in Melbourne so I’ve had to wait until now for one of their sandwiches. Apparently the Caramel Pecan is one of the more popular so that’s what we got. It was good but, really, it could be SOOOOO much better. The cookie could and should have been nuttier and it reminded me of the cheap peanut cookies that you can get at Aldi. I hope the rest of the range is better but I’m more inclined to make my own next time.

Then there was the Green & Black’s chocolate fountain. A pile of skewered marshmallows to hold under the flowing river of chocolate, it was funny watching a woman tentatively reaching her skewer towards the waterfall and pulling back just before it touched. So good that I had two and would have gone back for a third before heading out the door before remembering that this afternoon was already going to mean extra gym time.

We enjoyed Dello Mano’s gourmet brownies so much last year that I made a beeline as soon as I spotted their sign. Of course, it helps when you have an owner like Bien who is passionate about their product and wants you to enjoy it as much as they do (unlike a certain fussy helper at the King Island Dairy stall).

We bought a few chocolates from The Chocolate Master but haven’t tasted them as yet as we are fairly chocolated out right now.

Who else has been and blogged (so far)? I have to slowly make my way through all these posts over the next few days…
Jeroxie
I Eat Therefore I Am
Travelling in Mary Janes
My Food Trail
Iron Chef Shellie
Green Gourmet Giraffe
Kitchen Wench
…It Pleases Us
Melbourne Gastronome
MEL: hot or not
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
Sweet Cherrie Pie

Did anyone NOT watch the Masterchef Finale? And did anyone NOT love both the finalists, Adam & Callum – whom both have blogs now.

Seeing as we had not done a potluck since our Neil Perry special, I decided it was time for us to have a Masterchef cook-off, the idea being to cook a recipe from the Masterchef website and bring it along for all to try. As I didn’t bother asking what anyone was making, I was a little concerned that we would end up with four desserts and one entree and we’d have to order in pizza – not that there would have been anything wrong with eating four desserts for lunch. Fairytale ending…

We started with Adam’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal. So good.

This was followed by George’s Open Beef Kofta and George & Gary’s Chicken Winglets, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad (I took the photo before the winglets were placed!)

To end the meal, we had George’s Braised Tomatoes with Smoked Chocolate Mousse – my effort – and a Fruit & Cheese Platter.

These eye-catching cupcakes were so popular last time I baked them that I decided to do them again for a 1st Birthday Party. Everyone wonders how you get the cake in the cones and the answer, of course, is that they are baked in there. Exactly the same as you would normally bake cupcakes but substitute cupcake cases for flat-bottomed cones. My dilemma came in the form of transportation. These cupcakes were top-heavy with the weight of the frosting so how could I ensure that they got to the party venue intact? Lightbulb moment! I remembered that we used to melt wax into birthday candle holders to make the little candles stay. Of course, I used something far more delicious than wax. I painted the bottom of the cones with melted chocolate and stuck them onto my cupcake tray and let the chocolate set overnight. Those cupcakes didn’t budge the next day when I was carrying them to the car but then I was beset by doubts about whether they would come off when the partygoers tried to remove them. I needn’t have worried after all. A few jiggles and the cupcakes were theirs for the tasting.

This is very last minute so you’d better get on your bike if you’re interested in free entry to the Taste of Melbourne. I have 4 double passes, courtesy of Green & Black’s, valid for Opening night, Thursday 26th or Friday 27th to be won. A great opportunity to sample (yes, one of my favorite words) dishes from some wonderful Melbourne restaurants as I did last year. You’ll also receive a little Green & Black’s gift pack – yum, yum!

Simply leave a comment sometime over this weekend or early in the week. This competition is open to people in Australia only.

You can also purchase tickets here.

Session times:
Thursday 26 August – 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Friday 27 August 12.00pm – 4.00pm and 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Saturday 28 August 12.00am – 4.00pm and 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Sunday 29 August 12.00pm – 5.00pm

This post is very, and I mean VERY, late. This cake was baked 10 months ago for A’s birthday and since then we have celebrated Christmas, moved house, had our son’s 2nd birthday party, had a new baby and celebrated my birthday. I was reminded of this cake when someone from Green & Black’s contacted me this week with tickets to the upcoming Taste of Melbourne (more on this in the next post).

So on a Saturday night, after putting my son to bed, I finalised the preparations for the party. I had made mini burgers, and was serving them with peking duck rolls and assorted mini dim sum.

Guests started rolling in and food was rolling out. The doorbell rang and the singer that I had inadvertently stumbled upon when visiting the city library one afternoon came in to play a set for us.

Finally, the candles were lit and the cake was placed in front of the birthday boy. He chose this cake from my Alice Medrich bittersweet book after flicking through and looking at the pictures. I looked at the photo and thought ‘That looks easy enough’ and ended up having to purchase a $69 roll of plastic liner to make the the thin chocolate layer surrounding the cake as none of the stores sold smaller rolls.

We also had a smaller family celebration earlier in the evening but they didn’t want to stay for the main event. Here was the cake we had:

Strawberry Celebration Cake

Soaking Syrup
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup rum

Cream Filling:
2 cups mascarpone cheese
1 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Genoise

100g Green & Black’s Dark (85%) organic chocolate, melted

2 punnets strawberries

1. Pour melted chocolate along a strip of plastic liner that fits exactly around the inside of the cake tin and spread with spatula. Lift strip and fit ito tin with chocolate facing the inside. Refrigerate until set.
2. Combine ingredients for soaking syrup in saucepan and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool then add rum.
3. Combine ingredients for cream filling in large bowl and whip until the mixture is almost holding stiff peaks.
4. Cut the Chocolate Genoise into 2 layers horizontally and fit bottom layer into chocolate-lined tin. Brush bottom layer with 3 tbs soaking syrup and spread half of the cream evenly over the cake layer. Arrange and press strawberries into the cream. Cover the strawberries with a litte more cream.
5. Moisten the top later of cake lightly with 2 tbs syrup and fit it, moist side down, into the tin Press into place and moisten top of cake with the rest of the syrup. cover with remaining cream and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
6. Remove sides of springform tin very carefully and decorate top of the cake with cream, strawberries and chocolate fans. Carefully peel plastic strip off the cake and serve.

Over summer, I started stalking the Ben & Jerry’s van in hopes of scoring a free scoop of ice cream. How hard could it be given that the van would be trundling through the city streets and surrounds and I’m living right by the Yarra River. All I had to do was watch their Twitter space… well, I tried and I tried. I tried to get them to come to my work place, I tried to get them to come to my mother’s group, I finally managed to catch them at Alexandra Gardens where they were settling in for an evening of festivities only to be told that their ice cream had not frozen yet. What??? What kind of lame excuse was that? Don’t they bring them frozen already?

You can imagine what a surprise it was then when I was offered a tasting of the three new flavours available in the pint-sized (not quite 500g) tubs – Phish Food, triple Caramel Chunk and Half Baked. Yes of course I would love to taste them because as many times as I’ve come across Ben & Jerry ice cream stands in my travels, I have never once had a scoop of the stuff. Why not? Maybe there are just too many flavours on offer, defying me to choose just one or two.

So, there I was one Friday afternoon trying to feed my one week old newborn when a rep rocks up to my front door with a freezer bag. There’s no time for an immediate tasting when there’s a hungry tummy to be filled. Fortunately, my parents, brother and his girlfriend were coming to dinner that night – a ready-made judging panel.

Phish Food: Too sweet and marshmallow pillows making it too gooey. Total score – 55

Half-Baked: Too sweet and a preference was indicated for cookie bits instead of cookie dough. Total score – 59.5

Triple Caramel Chunk: Lovely crunchy bits (I especially liked the chocolate covered fudge!). The most popular out of the three with a total score of 73.

Triple Caramel Chunk was unanimously voted the favourite and the general consensus was that all three could do with less sugar. It is an American brand after all, so maybe the Australia palate is not used to ice cream that is so ickily sweet, or maybe it’s just my Asian-Australian family speaking!

If you’re listening, B&J’s, next time I’d like to try the iconic Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey flavours (cheeky grin). They always seem to be the ones getting a mention in books & movies. Are they the most popular flavours I wonder…

I’m heading to a surprise baby shower for a dear old friend this afternoon. I’ve just realised that I am without a car , it’s a windy Melbourne day and I have to carry a cake and present with me. Luckily, another dear friend has kindly agreed to pick me up on her way – whew, it really is blustery out there and I can just see a gust of wind snatching the cake box out of my hands and dumping it on the foot path.

We were told by J’s sisters to bring a dish so this is what I’m bringing:

It’s a four-layered cake (alternating hazelnut-buttermilk and strawberry-buttermilk) sandwiched with a Tokio jam and buttercream frosting as it holds better than whipped cream. I made two double batches of Nigella’s buttermilk cake, adding hazelnut meal to one double batch and strawberry puree to the other. The addition of hazelnuts has made the cake even better as it’s holding it’s moistness very well. I didn’t add enough strawberry though so the other batch is lacking in that soft pinkness that I was aiming for. I guess there’s enough pink in the frosting to make up for it. The baby blocks are sandwiched with Nutella. I’m not sure that it’s a very cohesive design but that may be because I made it up as I went along. I was going to make 3 baby blocks and have the last one sitting on atop the bottom two, but ran out of marzipan. Anyway, I wouldn’t have been able to close the cake box if I’d done that.

Off to join in those baby shower games…

I’ve been a slack little blogger! I have been doing the occasional surfing through the Australian blogs but honestly there are simply too many for me to keep up with everyone now. Of course, I’ve still been taking the odd picture here and there – either of something I’ve cooked or when I’ve been out for dinner. I just haven’t been putting any of it here.

Then this week, I took my 2 year old to Prahran Market and saw someone peeling apples in preparation for her demonstration of A Thousand Layered Apple Cake. I had seen her before on Masterchef and a photo from I can’t remember where, and just this week was reading about the gourmet sandwich bar that she and her husband were about to open up on Bourke St. It was none other than Jackie Middleton, who also confessed that she had fallen off the blogging bandwagon, although not nearly as badly as I had.

I’ve been distracted by all the things you do with a toddler but I have been doing some important baking which is due in 2 months. Yes, a rather long time in the oven isn’t it?

I got to do some cooking for little people this week as our playgroup has decided to do a foodswap on Monday. I figured that there would be a few meatballs and frittata recipes so I went with fried rice, cooked with peas, corn and good ol’ spam – the way I remember it from my childhood. I used to dash on some tomato sauce for additional flavour….. mmmmm. To accompany, chicken nuggets marinated overnight in yoghurt then dipped in beaten egg and flour peppered with five spice powder – enough to tantalise but not overwhelm delicate taste buds. Some of the chicken nuggets were dredged in dessicated coconut instead of the five spice mixture. Either way, they turned out great and one piece even obligingly too on the appearance of a drumstick.

There’s a bridge that runs from Flinders St Station to Southgate that I walk across all the time. I discovered recently that there’s a little area under the bridge that you can take the stairs down to and it brings you right up to the water level. It’s a great spot for watching the boats cruising past. WHile down there with my son, I noticed a little beach house building that was for hire.

It’s now been hired and transformed into ‘South Island Cafe’. Not a convenient location for a pram-pushing mum like me but a cool spot if you feel the need for a caffeine jolt part-way across the bridge. You’re not going to know it’s there unless you see the sign that they place just at the top of the stairs leading down. But now you know…

We have been awaiting the opening of Old Town Kopitiam in QV for the last few months, especially after spending a couple of weeks in Malaysia recently and reacquainting ourselves with the joys of kaya toast. Finally made it there for breakfast this morning, which actually turned out to be lunch when I couldn’t get out of bed before 10:30am. This also meant that we had to forgo the kaya toast in favour of something more substantial – roti chanai with curry sauce, Siamese Laksa and ban chang kueh. All great and we’re heading back really soon to try the rest of the menu.