A Few of My Favourite Things !

In the name of research, I have also sampled cocktail buns from the Box Hill bakeries. The round one on the left is from Cakeworld and the skinny one on the right from the Carrington Cake shop.

As you can see, the Cakeworld one resembles the Montague Bleue in shape and size but with a little more glaze and sesame seeds. The taste however is almost exactly like the Maxim offering – not too rich but lots of dessicated coconut. I felt that the Maxim version was probably a little softer and fluffier though.

The Carrington cocktail bun is preferred by Thanh however they must have been having an off day. The bread is quite dark and the taste leans towards being slightly burnt. The bun itself is quite dry and almost stale tasting however the filling itself is pretty decent. It reminds me of the Montague Bleue filling as it was quite buttery, however it did not taste salty at all.

What’s the verdict?

Personally, I would still go with Maxims in Melbourne or Montague Bleue in Sydney. Of course, someone else may like to weigh in on this as well…

That’s the question I am going to ask if I am ever refused entry into a food institution from now on…

Actually, this had me in stitches wondering how many people flicking through the magazine would have been scratching their heads saying “Who?” – referring, of course, only to my own name (cheeky grin).

Well, from scientific journals to the AGT – where to next?

I love food. I enjoy reading recipes, visiting restaurants, checking out gourmet food products, cooking for my friends and I’m not the only one. That’s why you are here, right? I do feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to do all of those things above but it’s time now to have a care for those who are not in as privileged a position as we are. Those around the world who are unable to afford food on a daily basis, let alone three meals a day.

Is this a problem that is too large to solve? Absolutely not! A couple of weeks ago in Melbourne, a group of top Australian performers and international acts including Bono, helped raise awareness about reducing world poverty through the Make Poverty History concert . This time, the food blogging world is out to do our bit to help those less fortunate. Initiated 3 years ago, this annual event known as Menu of Hope aims to raise funds for different charities each year. This year, the funds that we raise are going towards the United Nations World Food Program.

The good news is that YOU and I can do something to help. Food bloggers the world over have been busy sourcing prizes for you and there are some incredibly delicious-looking ones indeed! You can bid for prizes in the Asia Pacific region by visiting Grab Your Fork for the round-up of great donations.

Thanks to some generous donations, I’m putting up three prizes that you can bid for:

Two $50 vouchers for Chilli Padi (prize code AP23 and AP24):
Drop by the restaurant in Melbourne Central for some lovely mod asian cuisine before or after the movies. Even better, visit their Chilli Malam hawker stall the next time you are looking for a post-midnight snack after partying with friends. You can order roti, nasi lemak and other yummy hawker-style dishes. They even sell their own Chilli Padi stocks for making laksa and mee siam – perfect for a quick dinner after work

A $100 voucher to spend at Koko Black (prize code AP43):
Chocolate salons have been popping up all around Melbourne but Koko Black is a stand-out amongst these. The chocolate is made in-house and their hot chocolate is rated as one of the best in Melbourne. I think their house truffles are absolutely divine and the mint chocolate is another favourite of mine. I’ve also recently used the 74% Koko Black dark chocolate for some Alice Medrich desserts and will post about them this week. Try out their chocolates for yourself by purchasing a raffle ticket for this voucher. Can you IMAGINE how much chocolate you could get for $100?! (PS- if you’re interstate and are not able to visit Melbourne for any reason, I could possibly be talked buying a selection and posting it to you).

But why stop there? Why not put some bids in for prizes from other regions as well? Who knows, you may win a gastronomic tour of London or Tuscany that will make your next overseas trip more exciting!

After visiting the round-ups for the Asia Pacific region, you should then…

1. Go to the donation page at (http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIII)

2. Make a donation, each US$10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for AP01 and 3 for AP02.

3. For US donors, if your company has agreed to match your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we may claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

5. Raffle tickets are available until 22 December 2006. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the results of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Our friend the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.)

If you would like to bid on prizes from other regions, please visit the following for the round up of prizes:
US West Coast: Becks and Posh
US East Coast: Amateur Gourmet
US (the rest): Kalyn’s Kitchen
Canada: Cardamom Addict
Europe and UK: Davidlebovitz.com
Latin America: Cooking Diva

DONATE NOW and HELP US FEED THE WORLD’S HUNGRY!

This morning saw us down at the Abbotsford Convent as part of the first national Slow Food, A Taste of Slow – Australia 2006, festival. First off, our usual stop at the Collingwood Children’s Market on what was forecasted to be an overcast day with showers. As you can see however, the sunny blue sky held sway. Get ready now for loads of photos!

The animals at the Collingwood Children’s Farm always has lots of young visitors:

You wouldn’t think by looking around that we were just 5 minutes drive from the city centre:

Brightly coloured pasta:

Green eggs with ham anyone? (or is that duck egg blue?):

Golden and dark sultanas, currants, almonds, pepitas:

The BEST butter made fresh at The Dairy Shop. They cut it like cheese for tastings!:

Try the ‘Dark Nut Cove’ with roasted hazelnuts, pistachio, caramelised sugar & fine dark couveture chocolate from Cocoa Rhapsody:

Get yourself a coffee here but don’t be fooled into joining the queue for the pancakes next door. The high demand often has them churning out golden brown pancakes that are uncooked in the middle:

At the Abbotsford Convent, we started with freshly shucked oysters. Mmmm:

The Convent Bakery with delicious artisanal breads baked in the woodfired masonry ovens built in 1901:

Egg and bacon roll with relish!

Cheeses & honey from Tasmania:

We picked up a jar of tangy, piquant Desert Lime Jam which we are hoping to put to good use in a jam drop cookie soon:

Stephanie Alexander signing copies of her new children’s cookbook:

The spring market garden planted by children from Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden. The produce was harvested and turned into salads for this weekend’s activities:

A gentle giant – bull mastiff:

If you were not able to make it today, come down for the final day of the Abbotsford Convent Weekend tomorrow from 10am – 5pm to enjoy some great food.

Abbotsford Convent, St Heliers Street, Abbotsford. $12 entry fee.

Melbourne has certainly been churning out the festivals & events while the Commonwealth Games are on. On the weekend, mum & I strolled up to Carlton Gardens where the Victorian Producers Market had been set up, next to the heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building.

There were lots of local produce on show and on sale but we didn’t pick up much as most of these stalls are the same ones that participate at the farmers markets around town but it was a beautiful day for wandering through, sampling and smelling and chatting.

There were even some prehistoric creatures keeping us company as we checked out what they were cooking on stage:

Obviously, I was not the only one who thought that it was a good idea to check out this event.

On Monday, I also popped down to the Culinary Pro Am competition they are holding. Kind of like Iron Chef without the quirky host and the terribly bad but hlarious voiceovers. I watched one of my hero-chefs, George Calombaris, who is about to open his new restaurant The Press Club in a few months, take on and defeat Teage Ezard with his Cypriot-inspired dishes. Check it out if you are in the city area – the finals are coming up on Saturday.

Chinese New Year festivities came to an end with the full moon on Sunday after 15 days of celebrations. One of our favourite events during this time of year is the Hawker’s Stall market that is held on the banks of the Yarra River in front of Crown Casino.

The usual Chinese acrobatic, musical and martial art performances are held on a stage specially constructed for this event however, for us, these merely serve as a backdrop to the main event.

We tried some fragrant nasi lemak and tender chicken and beef satays. We also had something that I thought was labelled ‘Pulut Inti’ – glutinuous rice with spicy shrimp filling. Can someone tell me if this is the correct name? The coconutty chendol was just right for quenching our thirst on this warm Sunday afternoon, my favourite part being the gula melaka syrup they squirted onto the shaved ice as a final touch. Also, I finally got to have my ice kachang. I’ve been looking for this dessert everywhere, but no one was serving it because it has not been warm enough. I’m really not a big fan of sweet corn, but I love flavours of rose water and evaporated milk mixing together – divine!

The Bredel Market in Strasbourg consisted of a number of undercover stalls that sold bredel, bredel and more bredel. This stall was an exception as they were demonstrating how to bake kugelhopf, a light yeasted bread that usually contain raisins and lemon peel and is topped with almonds. The ones they were making on this day contained chocolate chips.

Our compact digital camera broke down while we were in Prague. Although A. was finally able to fix it so that we could take some photos with it at a later stage (ie. I had to place my hand under the lens as I turned on the camera in case in it fell off, then soom to a certain point in order to focus), at this point we were shooting with a Kodak disposable camera (gasp!). When I took photos of the white-haired gentleman who was shaping the bread, he couldn’t believe that I was using a disposable camera because he hadn’t seen one in ages!

Strasbourg, a city that used to belong to Germany but is now part of France, is well known for its French-German cuisine. In addition to hosting France’s oldest Christmas market, this lovely city is also the birth place of Christmas trees, the tradition of cutting and decorating of which began in the 1600s.

Having heard about the beauty of their hometown from P & S, who are themselves currently living in Australia, we decided to spend the week before Christmas here. We stayed in a quaint and extremely pretty section known as La Petite France, whose timbered houses could have come straight out of a fairy tale. I felt like Gretel (of Hansel & Gretel fame) and was mightily tempted to try breaking off bits of the gingerbread-like houses to see how they would taste! La Petite France can be accessed by any one of the many bridges that cross the Ill River. In the photo below, you will see the pedestrian bridge that has been roped off and rotated 90 degrees to allow the boat through:

The most well-known Christmas market in Strasbourg is probably the one held under the imposing gaze of St Nicholas cathedral, but it is by no means the only one. We visited at least five other markets around the city area, some small and others large and one, the Bredel Market, which sold nothing but bredel (cookies), kugelhopf and pain d’epice.

We spent our time in Strasbourg wandering the streets, especially the elaborately decorated ones around St Nicholas (one had Baccarat chandeliers hanging overhead for the length of it). We drank vin chaud, pomme d’epice or jus d’orange chaud and ate crepes, the most delicious of which was the one served with lashings of caramel made with salted butter. Here’s a picture of the Raclette Crepe that A had for lunch:

We also had to try the Alsatian Tarte Flambee, also known as Flammekueche, a thin crust pizza topped with with bacon, onion and a creamy fromage blanc that is baked in a wood-fire oven (thanks for the suggestion, Fab!):

At the other end of the market, we spotted rows and rows of Christmas trees that were being sold to residents to put up at home & to decorate:

One of my favourite sights was of the men capturing the trees and trussing them up like prisoners:

We also spotted another type of Christmas tree but unfortunately we didn’t think one would make it home whole:

Gingerbread decorations and other goodies: