Keeping track!

Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Joe Hisaishi & Studio Ghibil

JB Hi-Fi had a 20% discount off all DVD and CDs – coincidentally on the day we went to the Town Galleries Victoria branch.

and i bought DVDs that i’ve always wanted to get.

P1000626

I got 3 Studio Ghibli Collection DVDs. Laputa in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle.

I’ve watched all and they are so so so beautiful. The animation is really something. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single one of these animation.

and other than the wonderful animation – the music struck us too.

Joe Hisaishi is a master at what he does. His music is so so so enchanting. I can’t imagine someone actually composing and imagining the music inspired by the animation in front of him.

All 3 had great music – but i’m going to share with you guys a favourite between me and fish. (btw, i went ebay and got 4 of his albums – opps)

I hope you guys enjoy this beautiful tune from Howl’s Moving Castle.

and i might just continue thinking about which other animes i wanna get. =)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Sick.

Being sick is so no fun.

I hardly get sick. but unfortunately. i am.

and i have an essay due next week. perfect timing!

being sick makes me feel sick. it makes me feel bad. like i shouldn’t be lying in bed. and doing nothing the whole day. (although i do like to do that.. hehe)

but but. it makes me feel nice too.

having fish look after me. cook porridge for me. cover blankie for me. all good.

i don’t feel up to going to uni. and that’s worst. cause i’ve already missed some tuts. as the aussies asy it: bloody hell.

i’ve just got to cross my fingers and hope my teacher will be nice =)

and i wanted to go out on tuesday. but i got sick on monday. and i wanted to go to a farmer’s market on saturday – but i don’t think i will be well enough then.

i’ll just have to stay home all week then.

i just want to get well soon soon soon and the most important of all. that fish do not fall sick. ever.

Being sick makes me feel cold. and i’m sleeping with a heater. when the weather is perfectly cool. what a waste of good weather. i’ve been grabbing onto all the blankets i can find.. haha

ok. enough of sick talk.

i still have 2 more restaurants i haven shared pics with you guys yet. will be doing that. as soon as my nose starts working again!

Sleep tight!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

WOW Bulgogi, Kensington

A few few days ago, we wanted to eat Kaki Lima – but it was closed.

so we decided to head on down the road to a relatively new Korean restaurant WOW Bulgogi.

P1000430 
They use traditional Korean utensils which is not a problem. until i realise that the chopsticks are flat. they are not round. and i had a big problem with that. i found it extremely difficult to use. hahaha.

P1000432
And that’s the bbq on our table.

P1000437
This i like. their cups used when they serve you water are kept in a sterilizer. Very good.

P1000440
Me and hui tried a can of this sparkling white grape soda. Nothing special but cheap $2.

P1000444
Can you see it? The walls are faked! They are merely wall paper! hahaha..

P1000445
Green Salad which came with something. Their salad dressing was very delicious.

Oh by the way. don’t be alarmed, we ate a lot that day.

P1000446

some of the side dishes..

P1000449 
My beef bulgogi. I don’t love love it. i don’t hate it. but i wouldn’t order again. simply because – that’s way to much meat for me.

P1000450
Shi Hui’s sujebi i think. She didn’t complain so i guess it wasn’t too bad.

P1000452 
Fish’s bibimbap. He likes it. He says it’s good and moist. and he will definitely eat it again!

P1000454 
Japchae! I love Japchae. The one is isn’t the best best. so it’s not too bad. so this will be what i order when i come here next time.

P1000455
Kimchi Pancake. Not a big fan. Preferred Seoul Ria’s Seafood pancake to this. Although the presentation is beautiful.

P1000456 
We had slices of pork belly to bbq. we sniped them into bite sized pieces and they were good. as pork belly should be.

P1000458 
and we had beef tenderloin as well. The thing with beef is, you must really look after it and make sure it doesn’t overcook.

That’s all that we ate. it was a very filling dinner. i would be back again. but we now know what is good and what we would and would not order again. so it will be way lesser next time!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Kaki Lima Restaurant, Kensington

This is a new restaurant that opened up around March this year i think. and it’s delicious!

Before that, there’s a restaurant called Abang Sam that opened further down the road – which we dined frequently – the problem is, the food there is never consistent. It’s highly dependent on the chef. It’s never bad, but sometimes the food is heavier in sauce, or spicier, or more fragrant etc..

but but but.

kaki lima is great!

P1000569 
It has a very nice simple elegant feel to the place.

P1000561
That’s the menu. Good stuff.

P1000579
Our first dish that came in Pandan Chicken. The chicken is marinated with herbs and steamed in pandan leaves. The flavour of the pandan leaves is totally sucked into the chicken and it is delicious.

P1000582
Fish got Mamak Fried Noodles. It’s not a very big portion but it tastes very good. and there’s no beansprouts. Fish liked it a lot and i think i shall order this next time too!

P1000583
I ordered their Nasi Lemak Special. It comes with either Beef Rendang, Chicken Curry or Fried Chicken. I chose the Beef – it was bad, but it wasn’t great. I would definitely choose their chicken curry next time – cause i’ve tried that before. and their curries are great great great!

Their fish curry with eggplant is AMAZING! we didn’t have it today – but we’ve tried it twice and we love it. They use fish fillets which is hard to find in Singapore, which usually uses fish heads instead.

P1000587
Chicken Satay! Their satay is better than Abang Sam’s one. The flavour is similar but here they cook it better. Abang Sam has a tendency to be overcooked and uncooked at the same time. Cause sometimes the meat still looks quite pink but the other is very charred.

and the satay sauce served here is way nicer and their satay rice is hot. It’s kinda weird in Abanng Sam where the satay rice they serve it cold to you. and not room temperature. like it was taken out of the fridge not long ago. haha

P1000590
And fish still wanted a roti canai. Basically just 2 slices of plain prata and a bowl of chicken curry.

We’ve already established that their curries are delicious, so no problems there. the prata is quite nice. It’s thick and fluffy and quite good. I hate to say this, but way better than Abang Sam too.

P1000593
And to end it all – a nice cold bowl of Cendol. Nothing i love more than coconut milk, coconut sugar and ice.

They also don’t use red beans but instead use kidney beans which are salty and not sweet. and i actually quite like this – i do love sweet red beans too. but this is interesting.

P1000577 
and they have this cute little clock on the wall! Very cute!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Herb Roast Chicken!

I’ve been contemplating this. for a while.

I want to try to roast a whole chicken. but i have like a mini fear of bones. which is also why i don’t eat chicken with bones – i can’t see myself chewing on the bone to get the meat – it just ewws me.

But… i saw The Pioneer Women’s Herb Roasted Whole Chicken and i really wanted to try to try it out for myself.

and so. i bought a Lilydale Free Range whole chicken one day. Chucked it in the freezer and decided it was time.

P1000544
Ta-da! My first ever roasted chicken.

I washed and massaged the chicken.. haha. not really, but i was quite rough with it, so i supposed that’s a massage.

I pretty much followed her recipe.

Made my herb mix with sage, rosemary and thyme. Together with salt, pepper and a mixture of butter and olive oil.

P1000521
After washing the chicken, give is a good wipe down to dry the chicken. I dried it and left it on the counter to dry a little – this is important to ensure you get nice skin.

P1000517
That’s my chicken after countless washing – in and outside the cavity. I also sniped off the butt – or i think it is the butt. It doesn’t look like a part that i’ve ever seen and it was quite disgusting looking actually – so 2 snips of the scissors and into the bin.

P1000523
Just before going into a very hot oven. I followed her instructions of 230 degrees. but when i checked the oven.. it was not burning but it was smoking like crazy. and we have a sensitive smoke alarm, so i let the smoke escape slowly and reduced to temperature to 200 degrees instead.

Oh – and see the butt. I stuffed 3 cloves of garlic, half an onion and half a lemon.

P1000547 
Hehe.. see the butt.. the lemon is going to pop out soon!

P1000550
I don’t touch bones remember – so our roasted chicken is always expertly shredded by Fish. He shreds the chicken flesh and i keep the carcass to make chicken stock for another day.

The onions are what we' stuffed in the cavity.

So.. what did we do to the leftovers?

I made a simple chicken mayo and mashed up the garlic which was stuffed into the cavity into the chicken mayo.

Toasted some plain butter croissants, sniped them into half and stuffed the mayo in.

Lunch for Monday!

The chicken was not the most moist – but it had a good subtle infusion of herbs and the flavour can definitely be tasted in the meat of the chicken. 

So, final verdict:

It’s great to eat. It’s simple to cook. Not that difficult to clean the chicken.

So So So… i think i might make this again – but i will keep looking for new recipes to try!

P1000548
Chicken!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Yuki Japanese/Korean Restaurant, Sydney

This is a restaurant that was introduced to us by one of Shi Hui’s friend.

and we actually quite liked it. we ate once a long time back. and a few days ago, we wanted to eat Japanese food but couldn’t really decide where – so we thought of this place and remembered that we liked their sushi.

P1000483 
The place is simple and relatively small. It was quite empty for dinner. but for some queer reason – they have a second floor. and everyone that came in were Korean and they all requested for the second floor. I think the second floor would be quite packed. and i don’t understand Korean, so i have no idea what’s going on upstairs.

But.. back to downstairs.

The place used to be closed with a sliding door, but i think they’re introducing Korean bbq now – so they’ve opened up the area more to get better ventilation. The white tables – the ones in the pic – are normal tables, which we sat in. There are some that are brown and come with an inbuilt bbq plate.

P1000482
The menu is not big in range – but big in size. This menu is all Japanese food. I’m not sure where the Korean food is – but we noticed that they gave another menu to Koreans and there was Korean food being served.

Back to Japanese food. We were not too concerned, as we just had Korean BBQ a few days ago – which i will blog about soon.

The menu has your basic sushi, sashimi, bento and ala carte food items. There’s not a lot to choose from – but what they have is good.

 P1000487
This is good good good. Salmon Avocado Roll. which is what drew us back.

There are 8 nice big slices for $15.50 – we know, a little on the expensive side.

but delicious.

the avocado was slightly hard – meaning it is not fully ripe yet – but it was ok. Way better than what i had @ UNSW – the avocado was extremely hard and bitter – definitely not ripe @ all.

P1000493  
But this. this has to be the highlight of the day.

Chicken Katsu Roll for $9.50

The chicken katsu is still warm and crunchy and tender. It comes with slices of cucumber and capsicum – which are very nice complements. The outside is covered with seaweed flakes – which are surprising very good. It lends a subtle but distinctive fragrance to this sushi.

ha. something happened with this dish. our waiter that day really couldn’t speak English very well at all. so i think he heard Chicken Katsu Roll as Chicken Katsu Don. both are the same price.

but me and hui were looking forward to the sushi and i don’t think we could have finished the rice. cause we weren’t very hungry.

but the waiters were very nice – they took it back without complains nor funny faces and promptly got us a chicken katsu roll instead. Great service.

P1000488
and we love our tempura. $11

It’s nice and crunchy – just the way tempura should be.

I don’t remember exactly what it has. but there’s prawns, yam slices, pumpkin slices etc.

It has an oily mouth feel – like the taste of oil – which me and fish like – as long as the oil is still fresh. hui isn’t that into it. but she digs in all the same.

oh. but they are quite stingy with the sauce though. If you can see the bowl between the blue cup and the sake cup. yes. that’s how small the sauce is.

i suppose you could ask for more – they are very nice people.

but as my philosophy goes: when it’s freshly fried, no sauce necessary – this actually started with MacDonald’s fries.

P1000490
and Fish got himself a Chicken Katsu Bento. $13.50

It comes with rice and miso soup. A good meal in my opinion.

Fish tried the salmon sashimi and he actually liked it. and obviously the katsu was great. and i stole a slice of onion.

We (me and hui) were interested in getting some salmon sashimi of our own. and since hui previously expressed interest. Why not?

and so we ordered a plate of salmon sashimi.

P1000495
It came in this funky coloured plate. haha.

It was good. we have not had sashimi in a long time. $8.50

the only thing is. the slices were relatively thick. but they were small. even smaller then the ones in fish’s bento. weird. but it was gobbled down quickly.

P1000496 
and if you love your sashimi up close – here you go.

my first comment was – it looks like the salmon’s hiding behind a bush. ha.

P1000501(Oh. and this is like our first nice pic taken together by Miss Shi Hui!)

That’s all that we had. and we had a great time. great dinner.

and sometimes – at least for us – that’s all that matters.

Do you love Books?

Ok. this is blatant advertising – but i’m only doing it because i have enjoyed the products and services of this company. and i want to share it with all of you.

If you look just right below my blog’s banner. There is a banner for The Book Depository.

This is a online book store which has a great variety of books and cookbooks (obviously).

The best thing is .. their prices are one of the lowest i have managed to find and and and…. they offer FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE. Amazing!

So.. just to illustrate my point. I bought:

The “I” Diet by Susan B. Roberts for AUD$14.90

@Fishpond.com.au (where i used to buy my books) AUD$22.90

The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater for AUD$24.91

@Fishpond.com.au AUD$39.90

So.. i do think this is my new favourite place to buy books. Obviously you can’t get the book in 3 days like you might with Fishpond. I usually get it within 14 days – which i don’t mind.

And.. good for me.. they charge in 5 major currencies: USD, Pounds, CAD, Euro and AUD. So i don’t get any international transaction fee. Great.

I’m not sure how much Singapore banks charge for their international transaction fee, but if it is worth it – it sure is worth a try.

My post office isn’t the most reliable – actually Australian post itself has been said to be not that reliable. I usually get 95% of my online orders. Once or twice the postman forgets to leave a card – or just leave a card without trying the intercom. This time – i had a cookbook that is not here yet. 

So i emailed the people @ book depository. and i think i must be in luck or their customer service is 100x better than their Australian counterparts, but i got a reply in 3 mins.

The person who replied my email said he was terribly sorry. and would either send out a free replacement or give me a full refund. Wonderful.

I was thinking about which one to choose. and i chose a refund. I didn’t seem to be missing the book much. so i thought i might as well get a refund. and if i really wanted the book, i could always buy it again @ a later time.

So, if these blabbering seem to tickle your fancy – just click on the banner up the top. and you will get transported there!

I hope you guys like it as much as i do.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ton Ton Ramen – Gekikara Ramen

image

Not the best picture. I know. I took it off www.tontontakeaway.com.au

I will take a better picture when i go have this again. Like extremely soon!

Cause it’s absolutely delicious!

From the website:

A very spicy “Tonkotsu” soup topped with Barbequed Pork and Leeks

I wouldn’t say very spicy – maybe for the typical Australian yes. but for me at least, it was the right spiciness.

It wasn’t so so spicy that your tongue burned and you couldn’t taste anything. but yet, it was spicy enough that my nose started to run.

but it was very very delicious!

Fish had to do his thesis today – so i went out by myself. and i was looking forward to eating their Spicy Nira Ramen actually.

The spicy nira ramen is very different. It is not soupy – it is a thick sauce – like Lor Mee. It is slightly spicy, with meat and a huge huge amount of spring onions.

The spicy nira ramen – looking at it will make you full. eating it feels like it has a lot more noodles as compared to the traditional ramen. but it’s not – it’s just because it’s so thick and saucy that it feels like it.

But they’ve placed the Spicy Nira Ramen on a weekly roll now and it’s only available next week. so i was forced to choose something else.

and this reminds me – i actually haven told you guys the name of the ramen i just ate.

It’s Gekikara Ramen – but they just call it Geki Ramen for short.

It’s using their Tonkotsu soup base – which is already slightly spicy. I guess they add more spice to it and i love their bbq pork.

I usually don’t eat my pork in places like Ramen Kan. They give 2-3 rounds of cha siew which i usually pass to Fish. but here. if you’re nick picking – you could say that there is comparatively lesser meat. but they chop it into bite sized pieces – you got pieces of soft flavourful meat and pieces of pure melting in your mouth goodness fats. yum yum. i fished though everything to get all the pieces of meat.

The soup is very tasty too.

Ramen Kan’s tasty too – but the one at the city is too oily and the one at Bondi tends to be very salty.

The one here is perfect. Some might say not as ‘porky’ but i like it.

When i eat something as good as this; it just makes me happy the whole day and night long……..

yummmmmm…….

Mizuya Japanese Restaurant, Sydney

We like Mizuya.

It’s good. but expensive.

The pictures i got this time weren’t great. i kept forgetting.

P1000397
Ordering is through a computer. no fuss. no communication problem. great.

P1000401
Fish got a Mojito. which wasn’t tooo bad.

P1000403 
We were having dinner with shi hui’s friends and she and her friends had not arrived, so we ordered a plate of fried chicken skins.

P1000404
This was ordered by shi hui’s friends. A California roll. nice. better than their salmon avocado.

P1000405
One of hui’s and fish’s favourite – eel. I’m not a big fan but they say these taste really good. i took a bite. they were.

P1000407 
My fav fav fav fav. soup in a teapot. Dobin mushi. Mizuya’s is a seafood broth. with pieces of chicken, mushroom, fish and a prawn head.

The meat weren’t very tasty already. but the soup was. so so so light. so so so flavourful. loved it.

P1000409
This. haha. is not how the dish is served.

we had wagyu beef with ponzu sauce. and i ate that with grilled miso onigiri.

that’s what this picture is.

rice. beef. ponzu w/ radish.

P1000414 
and this is the grilled miso onigiri. not really to my liking.

P1000412
This is delicious delicious! shi hui and her friend’s tried this. and it was too good. i had to order one for myself.

The chawanmushi was very delicate, very wobbly. the stock used was sublime.

there’s no edamame in this – we just added it for the picture. haha..

P1000415

This is Fish’s fav! Deep fried wagyu beef. he says it tastes like deep fried hamburger. haha.. it really is good. very fattening too i’m sure.

it comes with tartar sauce, plum sauce i think?, and curry salt.

I love the mixture of beef, tartar and curry salt. nice.

We obviously ate a lot more. but i didn’t take pictures of all.

this is an expensive restaurant to eat in.

but i’ve found a way to make it cheaper. rather.. more affordable.

I shall create my own set dinner.

Ponzu Wagyu Beef - $14
Plain Rice - $2
Chawanmushi - $4.80
or
Dobin mushi - $6.80
Ice water - $0
Green Tea and Vanilla Ice cream w/ dango balls and red beans - $3.80

This will give me a total of…. $24.60 at the cheapest.

which is ok with me. for an occasional treat.

The place can get a little noisy – it was built for many people – there are very little 2 ppl table. we always get seated at the 6 person table. not that i’m complaining. but it can get noisy esp when there are people celebrating something.

and the staff are all Japanese. very nice and you never feel like you’re being rushed to eat your meal.

It has karaoke facilities as well. i doubt i’ll ever try it. but i guess it’s nice to know.

=)