Wild Yak Tibetan Restaurant

Wild Yak
350 High street
Northcote 3070
Open for dinner daily except Sun



This is the very first time I've tried something Tibetan. I have no idea how authentic Tibetan food is supposed to look like, but this one is quite tasty! Wild Yak has a quirky interior that is cosy with  excellent customer service. The food in Wild Yak feels like 'India meets China', with lots of stir fries and curries. The flavour profile is not as robust/spicy as Indian food, and is not as salty/oily as Chinese food. We ordered a selection of dishes and they all went very well with rice. The food here is something that I can eat frequently, but there is no single dish that is outstanding. The most memorable item was their "Bo Cha", which is tea with Yak butter and salt. It's interesting with the buttery saltiness, but it's not my kind of tea! Unfortunately as we were too busy eating, I forgot to take photos of the dishes. Dishes are very reasonably priced - each dish is <13.00aud
Will definitely go back and try again! I give it 7/10!

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!