Ramen Ya [cheap and good]

Ramen Ya
In the little alley between GPO and Myers in Melb CBD
(Next to Kenzan)















$10 Bento! $10 Ramen! I was very impressed by the quality of food Ramen Ya put forward with just $10. It is almost impossible to spend $10 at other Jap restaurants and get decent quality food. We ordered the chasiu ramen and sukiyaki beef bento - both were very good. The ramen soup was tasty, well seasoned and not as MSG-ful as other places. I usually develop a rash when I drink/eat anything with MSG (Mekong is the worse so far), but hey, this one didn't even make my skin itch! I also wonder if the noodles were hand made because the texture was very 'Q', unlike the ramen noodles we find elsewhere (for e.g. Ajisen Ramen). Similarly, the bento was excellent. Although it is a very simple bento box, the beef had great texture and its flavours were a few levels ahead the stock-standard beef bentos around.

Chasiu Ramen

Sukiyaki Beef Bento - comes with gyoza as a side

Conclusion: If you feel like Ramen or Bento and you want something cheap and descent, Ramen Ya is the place to go! 8/10!

Cafe Trevi on Lygon [Bad service]

I went to Cafe Trevi on Lygon last weekend and it was a bad experience. Firstly, they gave us cappuccino instead of hot chocolate. Secondly, I found a strand of hair in the cheesecake that we ordered and the waitress insisted that "Darling, it's not hair, it's the stuff they put in when they bake". Well, hair is hair, just like how you can't argue that a kangaroo is a giraffe. As I insisted that they give me a new slice, they weren't happy and gave me a slice that was half the size of the original one (I haven't even taken a single bite from the initial one). When I asked for the bill they just plopped the thing on the table. The cake costed $8.50 a slice and was not yummy at all. Waste of my time and money. I can make much better cakes.

Cafe Sweethearts - [Eggs eggs eggs]

Cafe Sweethearts
263 Coventry Street, South Melbourne


Cafe Sweethearts for me is the come-to place if I am craving for perfectly poached eggs covered generously in hollandaise sauce. They offer a wide selection of 'egg dishes', e.g. eggs with salmon, eggs with chilli, eggs benedict, eggs this, eggs that..., but the bottom line is that nothing is more satisfying than watching the egg yolk ooze out. MMMMmmmmm...and Cafe Sweetheart never disappoints in that respect. Coffee is not great (I must confess I am not a coffee person), and the meal portions do vary from time to time.


Eggs Florentine - ~$15.90
Poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, bacon, wilted spinach and sauteed mushrooms.
verdict: one of my favourites! I felt the hollandaise sauce is one of the best I've tasted - it has a great balance between the sourness of the lemon and the saltiness of the butter. The mushrooms are also very juicy and flavourful. Love it.  

Eggs Florentine

Chilli Eggs - ~$15.90
Poached eggs with bacon, and chilli sauce. Great combination of flavours that will kick-start your morning. If you're wondering, the chilli isn't very spicy.

Toast with bacon, mushrooms and poach egg - $10
The sauce-less version of egg florentine with one less egg (costs $5 less than the other ones). I got 2 big rinds of bacon!!!

Conclusion: If you are craving for eggs, Cafe Sweetheart is the way to go. We give it 8/10 for the egg dishes.

Snow Pony - [Not too shabby]

Snow Pony
95 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, VIC

I adore banana bread. I am normally not a huge bread fan, but bananas just make the bread awesome. I tried baking them a couple of times myself, but I still haven't got the texture right.  In search of the perfect banana bread, we headed to Snow Pony. Snow Pony is the sister store of Porgie and Mrs Jones. I've never been to Porgie, but I think Urbanspoon likes the Pony better. The cafe is very spacious (even has a back courtyard!), but it was packed when we arrived. Nonetheless, it's a nice and cosy place for a lazy Sunday brunch to catch up with friends, or just, you know, stare into space. :)

note: Life size snow pony!!!

First up --> the coffees...

Mocha 
verdict: the mocha they served today was a bit burnt, leaving a bad aftertaste in my mouth. No wonder they were advertising for baristas.

Chai Latte
verdict: I have had better Chais around. Not memorable. 

 
Second up - The real deal
(p.s. forgive me i forgot the actual names of the dishes) 


Banana bread with pistachios, berries compote and mascarpone cheese -- aud $14.90
verdict: Nice! Arguably nicer than the one in Las Chicas. I thought the banana bread was almost perfect. It was fluffy and moist, not too sweet, with the right amount of banana. I felt the pistachio and berries added a lot of textures and layers to the dish. The only thing is the small amount of mascarpone cheese didn't contribute much to the dish, I'd like to see more of it sandwiched between the bread.

Lemonade scone with chantily cream and jam -- aud $3.50
verdict: Well made scone but I must say I did not taste the 'lemonade' explosion that people have been raving about. My theory of scone-indulgence is to eat it with a huge dollop of cream and jam on top. ^___^ I really liked the cream...but $3.50 for a scone? Hmmm I may have to think about it next time. 

Scrambled eggs with goats cheese on toast -- aud $12.90
verdict: Loved the way the eggs were cooked. Together with the goats cheese it was thick, smooth and very satisfying. The bread was a bit too hard for my liking and  I'd love to have tasted more herbs/spinach on the dish.

Conclusion: I'd definitely come back for the banana bread and eggs, but Snow Pony is not a place for good coffee. I'll give it a 7.5/10. 

Guest 'Chef' #1: Simple Siew Mai

Siew Mai is a Must Eat when we go for Dim Sum. I have never thought of making Siew Mais before as they seem so delicate and quite difficult to make. I remember watching the Dim Sum episode in MasterChef Australia where the contestants flew to Hong Kong. One of their items was making Siew Mai, and they struggled quite a lot + their Siew Mai didn't look like Siew Mai. My boyfriend found a really simple and quick Siew Mai recipe yesterday and in less than 1/2 hour the Siew Mais were ready. They may not look as pretty as the ones in the restaurant by they were delicious! Not so difficult after all *grins*

Siew Mai (according to the boyfriend)

makes ~30

Ingredients (only a rough estimate)

Wanton Skin

500gm Mince pork

200gm Prawns, diced

+/- 3 Water Chestnuts, minced with excess water squeezed out

1 Egg, beaten [egg wash]

1/2 Carrot, diced [topping - alternatively you can use salted egg or fish roe]

Seasoning: (to taste)

Light Soy Sauce

Sesame Oil

Oyster Sauce

Pepper

Salt

1 Egg white

1 tbsp Tapioca/Corn flour 

Methods:

1.  Combine mince pork, prawns, water chestnut and seasoning. Mix well with chopsticks (use a pair of chopsticks and mix the meat in a uni-direction or use a mixer with paddle attachment), until the meat becomes sticky.

2. Brush one side of each wanton skin with egg wash

3. Place 1 tbspn of the filling onto the center of each wanton skin

4. Fold the skin such that the sides are nicely pleated and only the top of the filling can be seen. Sprinkle with chopped carrots

5. Place Siew Mai on a plate lined with parchment/baking paper. Put in steamer and steam for 10 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

6. You can freeze the remaining uncooked siew mai for a few months, and just steam them for longer (15-20 minutes without thawing) next time.

uncooked Siew Mais

Siew Mais before steaming. Place on a piece of parchment paper.

After 10 minutes~ Tadaa~!

Really loved them! Will definitely bug my bf to make them again! 

Hope you will like them too :)

Easy Portuguese Egg Tarts

I have been craving for Portuguese egg tarts for a while but couldn't bring myself to pay AUD$1.80 for an egg tart. Too expensive! Back home an extremely yummy egg tart would probably cost ~RM$1.00. Hence i decided to make some myself :)

After going through a couple of recipes I landed on a very simple/quick recipe that my friend Wendy uses. To make things really easy I used ready made puff pastry, stuck them onto cupcake papers and baked them in a cupcake tray. I must say they don't look as pretty as the ones sold in the shops (especially the pastry >.< ), but gosh they are as delicious! Another beauty of making them yourself is you can control the amount of sugar going into those tarts. The whole preparation took <15 minutes so it is perfect if you have limited time and would like to have a quick snack!

Easy Portuguese Egg Tarts (courtesy of Wendy) 

makes 18 egg tarts with regular cupcake trays. 220 degrees Celcius for 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

200g Whipping Cream

300g Milk

80g Sugar

3 Eggs

3 Egg yolks

1/4 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 large squares of ready-made puff pastry

some sugar for sprinkling

Methods:

1. Place the whipping cream, milk and sugar in a pot and cook on medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Do not allow the mixture to boil (maintain ~70degree Celsius).

2. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and whisk in the beaten eggs, yolk and vanilla essence

3. Leave mixture to cool slightly

4. Prepare the pastry shells - mold the pastry onto the cupcake cases and place them in cupcake trays. Poke a few holes at the bottom of each pastry shell.

5. Pour in the mixture into the pastry shells, filling until 1~1.5cm from the top. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each egg tart. Bake in preheated oven at 220 degree Celsius for 25 minutes. The custard will puff up quite a bit in the oven so don't be surprised! The top should have a nice 'burnt' glaze when the egg tarts are ready. 

6. Remove from oven + cupcake trays. Leave them to cool slightly before eating!

Before entering the oven

Don't worry. The custard will puff up quite a fair bit during the baking.

As soon as it comes out the custard will start to sink.

Tadaa~! End product. 

Hope you will like this recipe! 

I shall try making normal egg tarts some other time!

 

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream and Candied Orange

I promised a friend some yummy cupcakes and chocolate ones are her favourite!!! I have made several versions of chocolate cupcakes in the past and I found the cupcakes from this recipe to be incredibly rich and moist, yet fluffy (just how I like them!). In comparison to other recipes, this one actually demanded very good quality chocolate and many more ingredients, but I think it paid off well. :)

It took me quite a while to decide what frosting/decorations to go with it and I finally settled at the idea of a 'Jaffa' cupcake i.e. chocolate + orange combo; something I haven't done before. I was very worried the frosting & candied orange will overpower the chocolate but I felt the candied orange actually pulled the flavours together beautifully. Texturally it was great as there were 3 different layers. Big success for me! Try it out and let me know what you think *heehee*.

 

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes recipe (Adapted from Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook)

makes 24 regular cupcakes. bake at 160 degrees celcius for 22-25 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Instant coffee granules (Add more if you want a stronger coffee taste)

3/4C Hot water

250g Butter

300g Good quality dark cooking chocolate, chopped (i used Callebaut's 60% Dark choc)

4 Eggs

1/3C Vegetable Oil

1/2C Buttermilk

2C Plain flour

1/4tsp Salt

1&1/2tsp Baking Powder

1/2tsp Bicarbonate Soda

2C Castor Sugar

1/2C Cocoa

method:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Prepare cupcake trays with cupcake paper.

2. Dissolve coffee in hot water. Put butter, chocolate & dissolved coffee into a metal bowl and place over a large saucepan of simmering water. Stir until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. [Chocolate Mixture]

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil and buttermilk until combined [Egg Mixture]

4. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, castor sugar & cocoa and mix well until combined. [Flour Mixture]

5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture. Mix well until combined.

6. Add in the cooled chocolate mixture and mix in carefully until well combined.

7. Spoon mixture into cupcake cases, filling to just over half full!!!

8. Bake for 22-25 minutes until fine skewer comes out clean.

9. Remove cupcakes from trays and cool completely before frosting.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

3 tbsp Butter

1/2tsp Vanilla extract

3C Sifted Icing sugar

Juice of half a big orange (I used navel oranges)

Zest of half an orange

Method:

1. Cream butter and vanilla extract 

2. Add in 1C of sifted icing sugar

3. Add in 2tbsp of orange juice

Note: keep alternating between steps 2. and 3. until you achieve a desired consistency, mixing well in between. Add more icing sugar if it is too runny, or add more orange juice if it is too sweet/thick.

4. Mix in the zest when the mixture is ready.

Candied Orange Slices

Ingredients:

Remaining half of the large orange, cut into 1/4 inch thick longitudinal slices

1C Sugar 

3C Water

Methods:

1. Put 1.5C water and 1/2C sugar in a wide-based saucepan and dissolve the sugar on medium heat

2. As the water starts to simmer, lower the orange slices into the pan and place them flat on the pan

3. Simmer on medium-high heat for 10 minutes, turning them once or twice

4. Lower the heat down to medium-low heat for 30 minutes, turning them once or twice

5. Meanwhile, prepare another sugar mixture by dissolving 1/2C sugar in 1.5C water on medium heat. Add this sugar mixture to the orange slices if the syrup starts to run out.

6. When it is ready, the orange slices should still be intact but translucent, and has a nice coating of thick syrup

7. Turn off the fire and leave there for 10 minutes

8. Transfer onto baking paper carefully and leave until cooled completely before use

Assembling:

1. Pipe the orange frosting onto the cupcake (i used a big round tip)

2. Top the frosting with the candied oranges anyway you like!!!

Have fun :)   

Mamasita

My only encounter of Mexican food was a couple of years ago at Bluecorn in St Kilda. I don't know whether the food there was authentic but I didn't like it at all. Every dish tasted similar and too many beans were used. I stayed away from Mexican food since but the Mexican food that Top Chef Masters finalist Rick Bayless cooked looked so amazing I decided to give it another chance.

Mamasita is a Mexican restaurant bar and grill at Collins street that opened last year. The restaurant received great reviews from The Age but only mixed reviews from the general public.

We went at 3pm for 'afternoon tea' as we heard service can be quite disorganised during peak hours. The interior was simple, but I was not too sure why they picked that particular photo to put on the wall - a lady from the ?60s wearing bikini, with a funny dent on her abdomen. Hmm.

We ordered only three items. One of which is the "Street Style" chargrilled corn with queso, chipotle mayonnaise and lime. Queso is a type of Mexican cheese. It was the white stuff that coated the corn.  I actually had no idea what it was when I ate it as there wasn't the typical 'pungent' smell that normal cheeses have. I felt that the flavours worked very well together (especially the lime and queso) and we really enjoyed it. Cost aud$3.80 per cob.

The tacos on the other hand were nice but not fantastic. We ordered the pork and the fish taco (was too busy eating I forgot to take a close up photo of the fish one) and they cost aud$5 each. The menu said that the pork taco had roasted pork, pineapple, coriander and white onion, but I felt the flavours didn't really come through and was a bit bland. The other taco had grilled fish with lime, achiote paste & red onion salsa. I felt the latter tasted better but both tacos weren't very memorable. The accompanying salsa, however, was really good! (sorry didn't take any photos of it). I liked it more than the tacos.

Overall it was a nice snack and I really liked the corn. A bit too expensive for a snack (total of $13.80) and don't think i can be full even after eating 4 tacos (haha I'm a big eater :D). Will definitely go back and try the mains sometime.