Number 5

Last night we had dinner at Number 5 which is said to be one of Auckland's best fine dining restaurants. We thought we would give this place a try before we leave on Friday to Sydney & say that we've been to a fine dining in Auckland if anyone ask =)
When we first entered the restaurant it seemed abit quiet but the service was great! The table that we sat at was by the window and the chairs and lighting made the whole place glamourous and high class! The waitress really knew her wines and she was very good at selling the food as well.

The food was well presented and the portion was nice. Every bite that I took went well together and makes you want to take the next bite again! The meat was very tender and the wine was delicious! I had a Spatlese riesling that the waitress recommended & it was light and definately sweet! Definately would recommend this wine for those sweet wine lovers!

We ordered panfried pork fillet black pudding, pumpkin gnocchi, spinach leaves and port apple coulis, market fist of the day which was pan fried hoki with mash potatoes and beans and we were too full to order any desserts but we couldnt resist not having one so we chose this chocolate fondant with vanilla bean ice cream and orange tuille.

The dessert was quite sweet but hubby enjoyed it so it's all good. The chocolate sauce that came oozing out of the pudding had a very strong orange flavour to it so don't order this if you don't like orange chocolate!


I would definately come back here again if we had the money and splash it on more wines while we are at it!

Food: 10/10
Service: 10/10
Price: Pricey but worth it for a romantic date or just to pamper yourselves ;p
Location: 5 City Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Website: www.number5.co.nz

Early Saturday morning

It's been awhile since it was just me and Liz hanging out & since we are both early birds (coz I can't see to sleep in!) we decided to have breakfast at Jones (Liz's fav cafe). When I meant early, I really meant early because we were the FIRST customers of the day! After we ordered, it became busy.
We had their mochas which was special because instead of the normal cocoa powder or syrup that they mix with their milk, they put a heap of chocolate buttons at the bottom of the glass and then top it up with the milk which gives it a richer chocolate taste.


Their banana chocolate bread is also very nice toasted but i felt quite sick with overindulgent of chocolate for the morning


After breakie we decided to go for a walk to the markets and we saw some really interesting carrots that were purple and yellow: you can cook it and eat it the same way as normal orange ones =)


There were the usual cheese, veges, fruits, coffee, wines, turkish delights, fritters, olives, bread, but my sweet tooth led me to one of these small macaroons. Somehow, they did not look as BIG & as NICE & definately did not taste as good as the Sydney Lindt ones I had.

I look forward to checking out the markets in Sydney and see what they sell there. It was a great morning spending time reflecting about the year and enjoying each others company. Oh and Liz taught me red bean soup today, don't add the sugar while it's boiling otherwise won't soften! Thanks, I finished the red bean soup she gave me & it tasted like the ones in the restaurants, I was satisfied!

Growing up fast

Time flies so fast for sure after you turn 21! Last year just recently 2 of my cousins are engaged (from the same family)! I am SOOOOO happy for them & it seems like we were all in uni yesterday spending time together jamming & complaining about uni & exams! We were discussing about budgets, invite lists, & the lot...involving family & going through the planning and preperation process reminds me of mine & how great of a feeling it was!

Well it's been 3 years now since my wedding day & it definately still feels like it was not long ago when I was arranging for my music, reception, flowers, food, church etc etc...now I can enjoy and help hehehe


So...Sam & Jo's wedding is in December,Lin Ern & Ben's in January which means more trips back here = more airfares but it's family & I wouldn't miss it for the world unless I have a baby or something and I can't fly but hmmm who knows. This year seems like it will go by so fast and before I know I would have been in Sydney for nearly a year & both cousins MARRIED and SOON not yet but SOON they'll all be having CHILDREN too!!! WOW really starting to feel like we r all going thru life fast!

It's nice to reflect & talk about the good old fun days & wish that we can re-live that time but because the future is so promising and everyone is progresing & moving on in life, it's good to look to the future & enjoy what we have now & who we with because TODAY can NEVER be repeated again...so I have to tell myself to CHILL, & not think so much about stuff that actually doesn't matter & will not add an hour to my day at all!

Zarbo

It's been awhile since I've been to Zarbo in New Market & it's always food galore when I enter because they have nice scones & cabinet food & coffee is not bad too!

Zarbo is similar to NOSH or JONES were they have a cafe as well as a deli with fresh bread, cheese, spreads, chocolates and gift basket to buy!

Before I go to Sydney end of the month I have to catch up with friends and enjoy the cafes here. Had a great brunch time with Yu Hwee & will definately miss our daily catch ups & she's my coffee buddy and God given encourager and sister who has helped kept me close to God. Thank God that I'll be flying back and forth hopefully and there is always skyp =)

I went for a normal Flat white instead of my usual soy mocha:


Sweet French toast:


Mocha:


And I cant not try a scone! I know I have to really stop this scone addiction coz its BAD lol so I thought try bacon n cheese instead of the usual dates! Scone as you can see is more cookie like sigh feeling guilty now from eating it Blah...anyways I wont find much scones in Aussie that's for sure!

Albert cooking LIVE

We were privilegded to see Albert cook LIVE for us at Elizabeth & Marcel's place with the aroma of fried rice and noodles flowing into the house! He had spectators & paparazzis too!


Here are the dishes he prepared:

Bee Hoon:


Char mee:


Hokkien Char:


Fried rice:


Elizabeth also prepared chocolate self saucing puddings topped with cream and raspberry sauce...it was really rich and divine. It was like drinking real hot chocolate from the cup!


It was such a great night with live music and great fellowship just sitting in the presence of God's family and making me feel more like I don't want to leave Auckland. God's family is everywhere, it's just having people like Elizabeth and Marcel to open their homes and share their hearts that others can feel belonged & experience the LOVE of God.

Egg tart turned strawberry cake

My sister CW wanted to learn how to make egg tarts before I head off to Sydney, so we went to buy evaporated milk and came back home to find that there was no plain flour....so we improvised lol and looked through a recipe book to find a simple butter cake & to make it different we threw in strawberries!

The cake turned out nice with the layers of strawberries inside the cake, not too mushy not too hard it was great and everyone at home gave great feedback =)


This cake was nice warm, even better with a dop of yogurt or cream. I would definately use this recipe again and perhaps try with other fruits/fillings.

Christmas Day

Spending time with family & friends is such an important feeling and place to be at Christmas. Christmas is really demonstrated by the love of God that he gave his only son to come to earth so that we may have life and to have it to the fullest, although there are many times I do not live to that fullest.

Christmas is also where there is an over abundance of food, and good food...food that are home made and always taste better than outside! I had so much food over the last few nights it's crazy! No wonder people always have new year resolution of being healthy, losing weight etc lol must be all the food during this season!

Anyways talking about food, here is a Christmas cake that my sister in law Charmaine baked & Siaw Hui decorated it with beautiful choir boys and a tree. It was VERY impressive! Well done girls!


The figurines:


The inside of the cake:


We were blessed to be able to join Dorin & Jeff's family at their new home and taste her mum's great baking! Fruit cake to me has not always been at the top of my favourite cake list although I must say after trying this one that she made...I think i'll only come back for this! It's light and moist, and taste between malay cake and fruit cake....and without any shame, I had to take some back with me!


A more tradional fruit cake:


and you can't get away without the good old bbq!


Merry Christmas!

Transition

It's been awhile since I've last blogged about food, that's because I guess I've been away and living in my own world of transition.

It's been 2 weeks now that I know for sure we are leaving for Sydney. The decision making process, the worries and excitement were all hard to digest in the first few days. However, now it just feels like a long transition period of waiting...waiting to go there and get settled. I know I should enjoy this period of not worrying about being in a new place and getting to spend time with family & friends here.


Many doors were closed here and when the opportunity to move to Sydney for hubby's work came up it was a quick and peaceful decision...well it had to be quick anyway because hubby only had 4 days to decide!

During this I learnt and got reminded that

1) When God closes the doors I don't need to be dismay but to keep living and trust that he has the best time and season for us to live in as he knows best.

2) God never threw us into the deep end. When he asks us to step out onto the water, he just wants see our heart of surrender and our trust in him. Leaving Auckland is definately not easy for me as I've always been here, my childhood, my family, my friends, my church, my life. It seems easier to just stay where I feel comfortable. This is when my heart says it's time to step out and expand my territory!

3) When God moves and opens a door he moves fast,he won't wait around until we are ready to say yes or make our move...so don't miss the oportunity but in his peace take up the faith and GO!

4) He is more concern about us in the process of how we made the decision rather than the outcome.

I'm sure there are many more lessons learnt & will update on progress and updates on our move.

As for food and all, Sydney has so much more variety than in Auckland & not a surprise I've already sussed out most of the asian bakeries!

Cardrona speights ale house - Happy 25th Nette!

Haven't been blogging for awhile, yesterday just checked out another place to eat. It's called Cardrona Speights Ale House in Mt Eden.
If you have the entertainment card it's definately not bad trying: buy one get one free meal. Also, at the moment sunday special lamb shanks half price so not bad at all! Enjoy the food, sun outside the deck and with a glass of cold beer!

Lamb shanks:


Gormet Burger with fries:


Bangers and Mash:


Check out their website for more information:
http://www.cardronaspeightsalehouse.co.nz/index.html

Thanks Jeanette for having your birthday lunch there - Great food, sun, and most importantly company!

Movenpick for Mothers Day

I celebrated mothers day early this year because of the busy weekend and totally enjoyed the night with both our mums.
After eating Italian (full full)we walked over to Movenpick. I've always gone to Movenpick for Ice cream but never tried their dessert menu at all. I shouldn't have indulged anymore because I've been overloaded with coffee and chocolates over the week as well as the weekend to come but I couldn't resist.

We had...

Affagato: (espresso coffee with 2 scoops of ice cream)- my mum pronounced as avocado!
This tasted like ice coffee with ice cream, not bad at all.


Apple crepe with vanilla brownie ice cream:
This was alright but I've tasted better crepes elsewhere.


Chocolate and raspberry pudding with vanilla ice cream:
I think mud cake or moist chocolate cake would have taste nicer =)


Overall I think I still prefer eating their ice cream and better desserts could be found elsewhere such as mecca or frasers or other cafes.

Carol and Paul's wedding day

Carol's wedding was amazing! Her wedding was held at Huia beach which is about 40 mins drive from the city. The weather was part raining part sunny like a typical Auckland weather. It was beautiful as because gathered around to witness the union of the lovely couple Carol and Paul. The wedding started off with harps playing, ceremony,tea ceremony, photo taking and lots of fruits to munch on before lunch at the Huia Hall.



Her wedding gown was beautifully made by her sister Charis within less than a month! I know...they are all really talented hats off to them!
All the bridesmaid made thier own dresses.

Carol made her own wedding cake and I think her friends helped decorate it with icing. The cake was yum!! I think it was fruit cake and chocolate cake. I had the chocolate cake which was moist and delicious..


I did't have battery left on my camera so I couldn't take the food that people contributed. There were curry chicken, curry lamb, salads, chickn nibbles, wild rice, pasta salad, lots of fruits, bee hoon, and big prawns followed by slices and the wedding cake.


Carol left with Paul on his motobike.....broom brooom..quite a nice picture actually with the bride on the motobike taking off!!!

Charmaine's birthday

Today we went to celebrate Charmaine's birthday with peking duck and other food at Enjoy Inn. I havent been there in ages and things have definately changed - it's much much quieter...I remember going there everytime we have a family dinner but how things have changed.

After dinner we went back to my place for a surprise birthday cake and desserts with her life group. The life group all arrived on time and everything went accordingly! It went well - Charmaine was surprised and that was the main thing!!

So nothing new but I baked again combining all the pastries that i've tried over the last few weeks:


Siaw Hui made the birthday cake which is really yummy! It is a 3 layer cake with chocolate base, earl grey middle and a sponge cake on the top. We decorated the cake with cream and almond flakes and chocolate sprinkles at the bottom. Well done Siaw Hui! ;P


We ended the night early because it was too loud till our next door neighbour came and complained! So it's not because I'm getting old or anything, it's just that our neighbour is really quiet everyday every minute ;) The only loud noise comes from the cows and sheeps behind our unit!

Anyway, I'm glad Charmaine enjoyed herself because it's her LAST year of being a TEEN!

SUn, DvD and Baking!

Today I had a really relaxing enjoyable day baking and watching you've got mail at ken's place with nette and Hsu Lynn.

We baked egg tarts which turned out alright even though the dough was stickier and seems different to when baking at my own place. It's strange but I think baking in other people's place using thier ovens and ingredients can make such a difference! Ok maybe it's just me...need to be more accurate.

After baking the egg tarts, we decided to bake lemon cake because we had a lemoon?? Nette tried looking for other things to bake like...cheesecake....marble cake....but we didnt have some of the ingredients needed. We really wanted to get rid of the lemon and the butter that I melted haha....so so...Nette made Lemon cake which turned out great! Even Ken said it was good hehe..

While baking the cake in the oven, ken was our bartender....making us cocktails and drinks...and Hsu went to get her hair cut and came back for a second hair cut by Nette. I must say..Nette was like a baker and a hairdresser...so anyone wanting haircuts should find her hahaha

When the cake was finally done, I felt like doing something to the plain cake so I decorated the lemon cake with lemon icing to make it look pretty but turned out it was quite sweet. However, ken thought it was just right...I think he has a sweet tooth like me. The sliced lemon on top was just for deco and for the picture. The icing was flowing down frm the cake making it look like an overloaded icing cake.


Even though it looked quite WHITE, when cut it is nice inside and when eaten the texture was just right! Well dong NettE!


So as you can tell...we were pretty much "sweeten" out for the day and me drinking coffee and cocktails with it made me feel like i'm on a little holiday! It was fun..I felt like uni when it was holiday time and we just bummed around enjoying doing nothing and just relax...the best part was the sun was out and I was sitting on the bean bag getting tanned but it got tooooo hot so I migrated to the sofa. I am starting to feel SUMMER is approaching and the smell of BBQs and fish and chips!

For those of you who want the recipe for the egg tarts here they are:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 140 g Butter
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 & 1/2 - 2 tablespoons water (just enough to mix and form a nice dough)

Filling:

• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 6 Tablespoon evaporated milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 200 Degrees C

Dough:
In a large bowl, mix flour and salt and sugar together.

Blend in butter with a pastry cutter or knife until mixture resemble coarse crumbs.

In a small bowl, beat the egg with the cold water. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture to form a soft dough. Handle lightly don’t knead to get a more flaky crust.

Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

When dough is ready mould them into prepared greased muffin trays or egg tart shells. Depending on the thickness of how you want your pastry shell, divide dough in parts. I divide mine into 12 - 14 using greased muffin trays.

While waiting for the dough prepare the filling

Filling:

In a saucepan over low heat, stir water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Measure 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the resulting syrup and set aside to cool. I put this in the fridge to quicken the process.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Strain once then second time into reserved syrup and mix well. Pour into prepared tart shells or muffin tray.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is set.




YUM YUM taste like thes one in the shops!!

NOTE: Depending on your oven and pastry, I normally preheat the oven once I've prepared to mould the dough into the muffin tray so that the oven does not get too hot to burn the pastry.

Yay it's Friday

I need a job....otherwise im going abit insane but other than that it was good ken and nette asked me out for coffee so we went to Kenzie nearby. Kenzie is located on 557 Manukau Rd, Epsom. It is my weekly coffee place because it's near home.

I really like thier coffee and soy chocolate here. Basically, anywhere that does allpress coffee I like. They sell cabinet food as well as cooked food.

French toast:


Mushroom and some saussage thingy with soggy harshbrown at the bottom...


After lunch at home, went to mum and baked more red bean flakey pastry cookies and afternoon, went to get stuff for tomorrow's steam boat and I couldnt resist NOT buying Ma lai Koh from the tofu shop. I really like these kind of bread and in Malaysia/Singapore I would always look out for these and buy them for snacks. In KL in early morning markets they sell them and have different flavours like Pandan and those pink ones I have no idea what they are called!

Anyway so much food to eat during the day, I so need a job so that I can get moving and keep myself away from them!!

Ma Lai Koh can also be found in Yum Char but I think the only ones that does it is in Grand park...

I think there is a Malay type and a Hong Kong type Ma Lai Koh but I like them both!
They are so soft, so spongy, so light and rich at the same time...and not too sweet...I think the similarity is that they are both like egg steam cake. I remember having a durian egg steam cake from Takashimaya in Singapore. They could be baked too but I guess it doesnt matter how they are made as long as it's nice.


Ohh I bought Tar sar peah too because I love them too! Tofu shop charge like double the price of RM...obviously and it was brought from Malaysia. I have to stock up on them when I go back because I finished all the ones I bought in June this year all by myself...


Well i enjoyed the cake with a nice cuppa Aik Cheong Coffee packet ones always taste good....What would we do without them??? Buy more coffee frm outside or maybe drink less which is better for me...

Birthday cake

Birthday cakes are done so light and lovely at the asian bakeries.I had such a hard time choosing which cakes to buy because they all looked so good. There were blackforest, red bean, tiramisu, green tea, chocolate, taro, blueberry. Since it was only for my hubby I bought a small slice of blueberry mousse cake for my hubby from Classic Bakery. It was blueberry mousse in between layers of sponge cake. The overall taste was not that sweet so it is good for those that don't like too sweet stuff. I ended up eating most of it coz hubby not a cake fan ;)

It looks so good though.

What makes a good coffee

I have no idea what really makes a good coffee. For me, it's all about the texture of the milk, the foam, the coffee beans and of cause the chocolate and marshmallow or even better some cafes serve it with chocolate fish!

At the moment from memory I know that the cafe downstairs at 277 n columbus cafe Sylvia Park serves it with chocolate fishes!

I also like the way the top of the coffee is designed. I wonder how they do all those patterns! I know they use a spoon or toothpick but I just wonder how they do it.