Review: Spicy Fish Restaurant (Melbourne's China Town)

A no fuss restaurant ideal for in between shopping or if you are looking for a quick lunch. Not too bad, taste-wise but a tad too oily for me. Reasonable prices and large portions too.

English Breakfast

We had a three-day cottage stay in Melbourne, first time experience for the kids. The stay came with continental breakfast. But I thought I would make the family a hearty full English breakfast instead. With the wonderful meats and sausages available not to mention the inexpensive variety of mushrooms, breakfast was the meal to look forward to for everyone. Of course, the cold weather did much to work up an appetite.

Review - Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant, Melbourne City Center

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Out of the many Vietnamese joints in the city center, we opted for this one since they proudly proclaimed in their signage that Bill Clinton had two bowls while there. Well...if its fitting for the President...Haha..so walked in we did without hesitation. And we were not disappointed.
But the highlight of the visit to this joint, was not so much the food but rather a drink which my son ordered - Jack Fruit Smoothie! I was apprehensive at first if it could even taste nice but goodness me...I must say this is the best smoothie I have ever tasted, especially if you are into jack fruits. Told myself I must really get some jack fruits on my return and get this unique concoction done with my very own smoothie machine. But as usual I had a bout of procrastination and so have yet to get round to it. Look out for it though cos this is a must try for Kitchen Trails.

Review: Lygon Street, Melbourne City Center

When my brother told me that I should never miss a trip to Lygon Street since the kids are crazy about Italian food, I did not really pay too much heed. But boy, was he right. Best spagetti carbonara I have ever tasted....creamy and rich with just the right amount of milk and cheese.

West Lake Restaurant, Melbourne's China Town

The West lake Restaurant in Melbourne's China town - a must try if you are there. Be sure to book in advance as their dim sum hours can be really jam packed. Among the many varieties that we tried, (burnt a hole in Dad's pocket that day due to the high exchange but worth every dime), there were two dishes which I thought were out of this world and different than what we would normally get over here. One was squids (just the tentacles) fried in some form of salted batter - real chewy and goes really nicely with a jug of beer, my hubby says. And the other which was a hit with the kids, was scallops and crab meat baked in cheese. Just heavenly. It was pricey but we just could not give up the chance to order seconds with this one. Pity our local dim sum joints don't offer these. Hmmm...me thinks the Kitchen might just take up the challenge.....one fine day (kids' frantic persuasion in the background)......thrilllingg!

In Cold Storage

This blog has been in Cold Storage for a while and I really must apologise. It's not that the kitchen has been out of action - noooo - on the contrary, we've been having quite a bit of activity, thrills and spills alike, over the last couple of months. Only thing is, yours truly has been really forgetful with the photography plus the food seems to get gobbled up even before I can get hold of the camera. Well, this chef was away in Australia for the most part of the year-end hols anyway, and 2010 seems to be such a hive of activity on so many other fronts that blogging had to take a back seat. I'm really trying to keep the kitchen news flowing though, so bear with me.

Home made Kaya Pau/Sweet Paste Bun

I made pretty good home-made kaya, a recipe I inherited from my mum. Its rough in texture, not smooth and quite unlike the one you normally get from outside which is smoother in texture and loaded with starch. In fact, I would say it beats the ones you can get from all the kopi tiam joints hands down. And since the kaya spread on good old toasted bread, seems a hit with the kids, I figured why don't i try some pau with kaya filling for them. Well, as you can see, I wasnt too successful with the looks (the pau turned out rather pimply) but kids gave them the thumbs up for taste. Another kitchen thrill, definitely!

Mee Bandung

I love Mee Bandung but I always find the ones in eateries a tad too sweet for my liking. So decided to try my own. My....didn't realize Mee Bandung can taste this good. I'll be making this more often from now on.

Kerabu Bean Sprouts

This is the first of a series of "kerabu" that I intend to try in my bid to go healthy with raw stuff.

Mexican Sausage Potato

This is a dish that is very simple to make and gets gobbled up within minutes. I just found myself the "must have" dish for the week!

Home Made Lo Mai Kai

Lo Mai Kai is a favorite with my hubby. He never misses ordering this whenever we have our weekend dim sum. So it was a must try for Kitchen Trails. Last weekend, I carried out the experiment amidst a lot of reservations. Used my pie foils to do them. Wanted to add some chinese sausages but ran out of it. So ended up with just mushrooms and chicken. For the first time, the kids did not refuse Lo Mai Kai. How satisfying.

A Hearty Nasi Briyani Meal

My sons have all followed after my husband and I in their taste for food...we are all very much into spicy food. Needless to say, Indian rice and curries rank very high on our list of food preferences. For a change, I decided to forget about eating out this weekend and decided to cook us all a hearty nasi briyani meal. I just used normal rice, which turned out quite okay. The second helpings made the work done today all the more satisfying.

Kueh Kochi Santan

Used to love this when I was small. Stopped eating this for a while and recently started patronizing a stall in USJ 2 which sells very good ones. Since my eldest son loved this very much, I decided to give it a try. It didnt turn out as soft as I wanted it too although the taste was just as good. May have gone a little wrong with the water concentration. This one is earmarked for another try some other time.

Home Made Snowskin Mooncake

Moon cake prices - do a survey and you'll find the prices exorbitant to the point of being ridiculous. Much as I think they are overpriced (say what you want about fantastic packaging and creative flavours), it is hard not to get some as the kids really love this annual delicacy. However, after some success in making my own moon cakes yesterday, I think I can forget about paying through my nose for moon cakes now. Plus the kids can have their fill of moon cakes anytime they like.

I brought a recipe book which is dedicated entirely to moon cakes just yesterday. It has five sections ranging from baked moon cakes, to jelly mooncakes, pastry mooncake, shanghai mooncakes and the snowskin variety. I knew well not to be over ambitious and started off with what I believed would be the simplest to pull off, this being my very first try - I settled on making snowskin with red bean filling. I was hesitant to buy the wooden mould which was quite pricey at the baking ingredients shop, so settled on getting a plastic mould (the one used for jelly moon cakes). As you can see, the flower motif didnt come out too well. I can imagine how nice it would turn out had I used the real wooden moulds. I used pandan juice as coloring and flavouring (never like the essence taste used on those that are on sale). The moon cakes turned out a nice light green shade. The snowskin was a great success - smooth and soft as it should be even after refridgeration. Next step is to do the traditional baked mooncakes and if that turns out well too, I'll be ready to get the wooden moulds.

Home Made Ang Koo

I love Ang Koo fried with egg. But when you do it yourself and straight off the steamer, I really don't mind having it fresh as it is. Mum used to have the wooden Ang Koo mould but as with many other things, she had given away to a relative years back. Much as I love this nyonya kueh, I have procrastinated on making it because of the lack of appropriate tools. However, I wasnt about to let that deter me this time, so I went ahead. As you can see, it doesn't look too great but tasted really smooth and soft. Used natural pandan coloring and flavour and grean pea filling for this one.