A Few of My Favourite Things !

Like most of you, I think about food a lot. What we’re going to have for lunch, for dinner, what I’m going to cook for tomorrow, for the next day, for the next week. But most of all, I think about all the desserts that I would like to bake, the biscuits that my work colleagues are going to love, the cake I would like to share with my friends. There are so many goodies that it’s always difficult for me to settle on one thing. My mind is always leaping here, there and everywhere trying to decide what to bake next.

So this month’s SHF challenge from Jennifer, to post about our most craved dessert, just about had me tearing my hair. How to choose? How can anyone be expected to choose??? ARRRGGGGGG!

To be honest, I don’t actually have one dessert that I crave with a passion above everything else. When faced with a dessert menu, I normally chicken out of having to make the final selection by pointing out about 3 choices then leaving it to my husband to order.

But I remember one cake that mum used to bake when I was in primary school that I had the greatest fun eating. An INDONESIAN LAYER CAKEthat I could savour slowly by peeling off and letting each fine layer melt in my mouth. This cake takes the baker 2 hours in front of the oven to bake so the only ones I’ve had recently are not very good store-bought ones.

It was time. I browsed through several recipes on the internet and got mum to read hers to me over the phone. Making a couple of alterations here and there, I mixed together the batter and brought a stool over to the oven in preparation. For this time-consuming cake, a spoonful of batter is ladled into the baking tin and grilled, then the next spoonful ladled on and grilled, and so on until all the batter is used up.

Based on my internet research, each layer should be grilled for 5 to 7 minutes - WRONG!!! My cake turned out completely overdone and burnt in some sections. Imagine my disappointment after spending 5 hours baking this THING! I couldn’t let it defeat me though so I tried it again the next day. This time, I listened to mum and only grilled each layer for a mere 2 minutes, taking me around 2 hours in total - PERFECTION!

The result 36 eggs and 25 layers later…

It’s not a flashy look-at-me-I’m-so-gorgeous kind of cake but it is buttery and perfect for a pick-me-up at teatime. Especially if you eat it layer by layer.

I think I laksa you too. I’m talking about the new Allen Woo venture located right opposite Horoki and down the alley from Longrain.

We had started with a few after-work Pisco Sours and a Caipirinha at The Mill then needed to grab a bite somewhere. We settled on the newly opened restaurant on its second night - if we could get in. Surprisingly, they were barely half full at 8:00pm and we were seated at a table immediately.

The decor is very, very sparse…so much so that you could hardly term it as decor - basic table and chairs on a concrete floor with a famous Chinese poem painted on by the Taiwanese chef, a lick of red paint on the walls and pillars - that was it. Cold and draughty so bring a jacket, especially if you are wearing a dress.

We ordered and asked for all the food to come out together but the service was fairly slow given the small number of diners. I supposed it was only their second night though. We started with the Ipoh Laksa (made with hor fun noodles) with slices of char siu, chicken and prawns. Deliciously coconutty soup that had a decent kick.

Next, the ‘popular’ dry chicken curry on bright yellow hokkien noodles which turned out to not be as hot as the laksa although we were given a chilli warning by the waiter. A little like a rendang but slightly too salty.

Oddly, the oyster shooters came out after the noodle dishes tasting a little ‘fishy’ although the dressing was okay. Not our favourite.

My pick of the night was the calamari, cucumber noodle and jelly fish salad. Quite a tiny bowl of salad but it had a lovely smokiness with the calamari cooked to perfection.

We enquired about dessert only to be told that there was only one on the menu tonight, dumplings in a ginger soup. Fortunately, a certain food critic was seated at the table next to us and we managed to overhear the waiter describe three desserts to them including the black sticky rice and kueh dadar.

Although not something that I would normally order, the sticky black rice was fantastic and worth ordering again.

We joked that they may be serving the ‘Ron & Sue’ version (you have to frequent Asian grovcery stores to understand this one) but fortunately the kueh dadar came out warm, straight from the pan. They didn’t have the usual green crepe skins and they were sitting in a puddle of cognac sauce - very unusual indeed and suitable for the very sweet-toothed.

The prices were quite decent with our meal totaling $56. I’ll give them a couple of weeks to settle in before coming back armed with a warm jacket.

Laksa Me

Shop 1, Liverpool St

Melbourne 3000

Update: John Leathlean reviewed this place in the Epicure, The Age on 29 May 2007.