Mamak in Chatswood

I have been going to Mamak in the city once a week & I still don't know why I go back there week after week when there's so many other delicious food around!

Anyway so we were in Chatswood and thought what we could try out and heard that Mamak opened its second new store there so why not give it a try! So that's where we ended up!........... AGAIN....

Nasi Lamak with Fried Chicken:


Roti Chanai:


Mutabuk:


Chicken Satay:


This photo from the wall shows the Mamak in the City:


Address:
Shop P9, 1-5 Railway Street Chatswood(02) 9411 4411

Artisan Bakery in Crows Nest

Visited a church in Crows Nest today & since I'm HARDLY out this way we decided to have a quick bite nearby on a hot and sunny day! There's definately many choices of cafes here in Crows Nest & it was quite hard to pick one to try.

However, I came across this Artisan Bakery & decided to check out what they have inside....and then i spotted scones!! Yap I love scones! They had a selection of scones that includes pumpkin and pine nut, orange with chocolate, raspberry and white chocolate and last but no least savory scone. I decided to try the pumpkin scone to go with my soy mocha and it was really light and nice. I regret not having my camera with me to take pics to show but what I liked about this scone was the pumpkin bits inside and the crunchiness of the pine nuts. Normally I would have thought that a pumpkin scone would just be orange and made with pumpkin puree, but this had actual chunky bits in it and it had a light texture as well which was great, not too heavy and too buttery!

They do a range of pies, quiches, sandwiches, breakfast, and other delicious bakery that includes tarts, cakes, croissants!

I would definately pop by again if I head out that way!

St Malo Bakery - 83 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest – (02) 9906 6256

Taiwan Cuisine

So tonight being a Friday we decided to try a new place in the city & found our way to this Taiwanese place called Taiwan Taiwanese Cuisine on 52 Dixon Street Haymarket in Chinatown.

This place was very interesting as you get to order your meal, and pay for it through this computer screen, it really amazes me the different types of concept each country embraces from the inside of the restaurant, to the types of food available - I heart this experience!


Once we ordered, it didnt take long for the food to come, so in a way, the food came out one at a time so if you want your food altogether it's better to order the one that takes the longer to cook first.

Here's a very typical taiwanese pork mince and mushroom rice:


Chicken fillet in pepper sauce that we thought it was way too pepperish for our liking! Thank God we ordered milktea coz that was the only way hubby could drown the taste of pepper overload!


There were many side stewed, grilled, deep fried dishes to ordered but we decided to give this stewed mushroom a try, it was very tasty but again on the peppery side but I like pepper! (Poor hubby)


Overall this place is pretty good if you want to order size dishes to share and can satisfy both the hungry and not so hungry. The milktea here was pretty good, I had the red bean milk pudding milktea which I really enjoyed.

There are noodles, main dishes, teppanyaki, soups, rice dishes that are available to try. It's not that cheap but I would say it's probably comparable to the other dining along Dixon Street.

Burwood

I've been very lazy with taking pictures of food lately wherever I've tasted new places. However I thought i'll just post some of the new places I've tried over the last few months of being here in Sydney and thought it was pretty yummy and would definately return again! I've tried 3 restaurants in Burwood & my favourite at the moment would have to be

Botoli Restaurant, Burwood
66a Burwood Rd, Burwood

They do a range of food & each dish that we've ordered was satisfying and we were pretty impressed with it. They do a yummy steam tofu egg dish with century eggs inside, DIY paper rice wrap springroll like vietnamese style, tasty noodles, eggplants etc etc. This place is good to come with a group of around 4-5 to really try a range of food there. The deco inside is pretty dull but have been here twice already and each time we were happy with the service and food.

If you feel like hand made noodles and dumplings here is a simple pretty decent price meal to have try:

Beijing Station Noodle, Burwood
Address: 135 Burwood Rd, Burwood

They do yummy hand made noodles and because I really like dry noodles such as mee pok, kuching mee, zha jiang mian etc I really liked the dish I ordered with is fried beef noodles. The picture will defintely do it justice because the way I just explained it was pretty boring lol!

They also do beef noodles soup which was very tasty and tasted abit like bak ku teh and the taiwanese beef noodles soup. So if you like that this noodles is definately worth a try. Being a Beijing restaurant they do also do pancakes (jian bing) which was very fresh and soft and I really liked it & thought how nice it would be with some curry! Other dishes they make include dumplings fried, pan fried, boiled and are all very tasty!

I'll definately want to go back again, it's quite a small little place & it was packed when we got there so definately seems like a pretty popular place!

I must remember to take some pics when I dine there again!! arrghh =p

Some extras in your food

Yesterday I had sushi from Asagao in the foodcourt just by our place & I was savouring each bite of the teriyaki chicken avocado rice roll when by mid way I saw a piece of dark thick hair with it! I was grossed out because it was quite big and obvious & it's my second encounter in 2 weeks with funny things in my food that I was pretty tired of it. Just to give you an example, 2 weeks ago while having one of my fav ying yang cha (coffee & tea combination) I was digusted to find a piece of insect leg floating around in my drink! I drank it anyway taking it out thinking it's just some dirt but then I found more as I continued drinking.........so I S.T.O.P and thought of cockcroaches, and all kinds of insect that the leg belonged to! ARRGGHH the image is still so vivid in my mind! Ok so to cut the LLOOOONNNGGG story short, I asked for refund and surprisingly they gave it back but I'm NEVER going back there again!

Ok so to continue from the sushi story...hubby returned the sushi asking for a refund which we got & a few minutes later a lady came from that sushi shop and gave us this:


I don't know what to make of this but it was a nice gesture for them to do so especially when we don't expect anything even a refund. It just goes to confirm how dirty Sydney is and it can exist even in what you think is a clean area!

So what extras have you found in your food lately?

Silken Tofu with soy sauce

Always wanted to make tofu dishes because it's easy and pretty healthy right? So here is another simple dish that you can make up and it was very tasty too!




Ingredients

1 packet of chilled Soft Tofu, drained
2 1/2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Peanut Oil
3 Shallots, sliced
2 stalks Scallions, chopped

Method

In a small saucepan, fry the shallots with peanut oil until golden brown in color. Remove the shallots and place them on top of the tofu.

Turn the heat off and pour in the soy sauce into the oil and let it sizzle for a while. Pour the oil and soy mixture on top of the tofu and sprinkle with some scallions. Serve immediately.

Mini oreo cheesecakes

I'm never a big cheesecan fan and always quite afraid to try making cheesecakes because i'm not sure how it should turn out etc etc. I have made small oreo cheesecakes before which turned out fine but came across this recipe on http://kokken69.blogspot.com/2010/07/cookies-and-cream-cheesecakes.html and wanted to make them for dessert tonight! What I like about these is how they are in tiny portions so you don't have to finish a big slice and you can have them as little finger food in parties too!

Here's the simple recipe which I changed alittle because I had more cream cheese mixture to use so I could have more cookies to use:

Recipe

9 cream- filled Oreo Sandwich (whole)
4 Oreo Sandwich , coarsely chopped
227g Cream cheese (I used phildaphia)
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg beaten
1/4cup Sour cream
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 135C
2. Line muffin pan with cup cake liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup
3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla extract.
4. Drizzle in egg and mix until well coporated. Mix in Sour cream and salt. Fold in chopped Oreo.
5. Scoop cream cheese mixture into each cookie filled cup. Bake at 135C for 22mins.
6. Cool down on wire rack in the muffin tray. Refrigerate for at least 4hours before removing from cup cake liner.

Oreos being placed at the bottom of each muffin cup:


Finished mini oreo cheesecakes:


I was going to drizzle some oreo sauce that I have but didn't want to oreo kill it so perhaps next time i'll give it a try!

So go ahead and try these it's so simple and yummy!

Stir Fry Spagetti with minced pork

One thing I love about left over pasta or packaged noodles is simply frying it up making it a quick and easy tasty meal!

I really my stir fry noodles with minced pork because of the fragrant smell when fried with minced garlic and yummy chinese green veges and fried eggs! I normally use hokkien noodles but I had left over spagetti so I used that instead.

I also like how I can simply put in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame sauce, salt, pepper and very often sweet chilli sauce (because it's my fav sauce) and simply toss the wok and as if I'm making some kind of quick art and out comes colourful stir fry!

Amsterdam

During our Europe trip we also stopped by Amsterdam and really enjoyed the vibrant character Amsterdam has to offer. Apart from the red light district and the "coffee shops" which doesn't sell coffee, I really enjoyed cycling everywhere and trying new food!

Here is a few food I thought reminded me of Holland and I don't find much of them anywhere else:

Dutch Breakfast with thinly sliced raw beef on a toasted bread with eggs similar to eggs benedicts but with beef not salmon, pretty intersting:


Mini dutch pancakes called Pofferjes served with powdered sugar and butter:


Raw Herring: Dutch fast food can eat the whole fish like this man below or eaten with raw onions and/or pickles:




Dutch Apple cake/pie:


A selection of Dutch beef stews that we had in a very dutch restaurant:

Italy

I've been quiet with the blog lately due to travelling around Europe! It was an amazing trip with lots of yummy food, wine, coffee, gelatos and interesting bakeries!

One of our destination was Italy, we visited Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice with Florence being one of my favourite! There were plentiful of pizzas, pasta and gelatos everywhere! Gelatos and caffe creme were my dessert after every meal!

The pizza was sold by grams and so they slice it up, weigh it and you pay for how much it weighs. The best pizzas I've had in Italy was in the small pizza shops that only sells pizzas with very little seating inside.

One of the many pizzas in Rome:


Unleaven bread with mushroom sauce, cheese, smoked ham and aubergines in Florence, this was one of the yummiest meal I've had which probably played a big part on why I liked Florence more than other places!


Inside:


Lagsana in Florence:


Seafood Pasta in Florence:


Pizza rolls in venice:


I really miss the tasty food there but not the price, everything is very expensive and double in price if we choose in dine in. There won't many chinese places to dine at so I'll definately miss my asian food if I was there any longer.