Full-O-Full

Saturday 17/09/11

Last Saturday I felt like a full time munching machine, I had full day of eating and my schedule started from 10am-10pm. What a day ... 12 hr of eating adventures. How did I do that?

Breakkie

Breakfast @ North Sydney Produce Market, I had bacon & egg roll with tomato relish plus banana bread courtesy of Theo from Fleur De Lys. He gave me 1 full loaf of his superb banana bread. I shared Theo's banana bread with a few friends...IkeMalada & Cupcakeholics...they all love it & impressed by how moist the bread is, thanks again for your kindness =)

If you are in the hunt for the best banana bread in town, please try Theo's award winning banana bread  (Fleur De Lys patisserie) - you wont be disappointed ! It is superb. Visit him @ Pyrmont market (1st Saturday of the month) and North Sydney Produce Market (3rd Saturday of the month), he'll be there rain, hail or shine to serve you with his big smile.

Lunch

IkeMalada cooked for me yayyy...she cooked Indonesian style chilli beef, freshly pounded chilli with shrimp paste sauce, and sayur asem (Indonesian style tom yum, with corn, french beans and peanut).

Indonesian style chilli beef, tasty & really tender. It was surprisingly not that hot. I like the idea of nothing is wasted..according to Ike the remaining oil from the chilli beef can be used to make chilli fried rice. I have registered myself as the guinea pig for the chilli fried rice.

Chilli sauce with tomato, coriander, shallots, shrimp paste - freshly pounded by her mom

Sayur Asem - Indonesian version of Tom yum - with french beans, corn, cabbage, peanut - sweet, sour, salty, and a little chilli kick

Dinner

We went to Made in Italy in Pyrmont before our movie. 

Bring on the carbs ...

I was hoping they have Spaghetti Vongole (white clams with olive oil and garlic) and guess what... they didnt have it on that night, ARRGHHH. I nearly burst into pieces when the waitress told me 'it's not available - and it's been a while'. When are you going to be available again spaghetti vongole? I miss you badly, please call me when you are back from your holiday trip =(

Pappardelle with porcini and italian sausages, I am not sure whether I was full or whether they have generous portion but I struggled to finish the whole plate for once. Pappardelle was light and tasty.

Fettucini Marinara

Ricotta Cake with Vanilla ice cream and sponge finger biscuit

Macaroons Photos

I had a day full of macaroons world - making it from scratch, taking photos, testing different flavours etc at friend's house. I pretended to be a food stylist for a day with idontcryieat and Ike Malada. Lots of fun and giggles!!

It was such a fun things to do but....it is not as simple as I thought, you need loads of imagination, trial and error, different props, background, arrange different colors, perfectly shaped macaroons, colour balance etc. Is there a special school to be a food stylist/ is there a course? Let me know if there's any...and please have a sneak peek of our macaroons in action (done by amateur aka myself, using my baby pocket camera)!

All macaroons are hand made by Ike Malada with 1000% TLC and if you are interested to order her yummo macaroons click here.

Photo 1 - simple and clean but I think we need vibrant colors, a little dull for my liking =(

Photo 2 - too much yellow...

Photo 3 - Bird nest idea by idontcryieat...i wish we use a completely flat plate

Photo 4 - Bird nest style by idontcryieat, same comment as photo 3 - arrghhh why did we use this plate =(

Photo 5 - Natural style - me likey

Photo 6 - not bad..but why there's some shadow hehehhee...

Photo 7 - We aded some beetroot powder to give extra oompphh to the overall color combo

1945 Indonesian Restaurant

 Updated 12/04/13 - 1945 is no longer operating, what a pity !! =(

*************************************************************************
Most Indonesian restaurants can be found around Eastern suburbs (Kingsford, Randwick, Maroubra, Kensington). I am a little surprised to find an Indonesian restaurant, called 1945 ** in Pyrmont area (near Star City casino). It is actually a really good news for me, if  I need to get my Indo dose fixed I can jump to Pyrmont after work.

I describe 1945 as Indonesian style tapas, dishes come small and we can order as many as we like to try a bit of everything from the menu. If you are unfamiliar with the dishes, I will recommend the Rijsttafel menu (set menu) to save you time in deciding what you want.

The menu is listed in old style Indonesian (talking bout my grandma's era, Dutch time) & English. At first, I was reading the Indonesian titles, it was kinda fun and exciting to read old style Indonesian....then my brain seems to be digesting the meaning of the titles at turtle speed. It was hard hahaha, I read it perfectly then I need extra minutes to translate the real meaning of the titles. So I gave up and read the English titles instead.

Apologies for not taking fantastic photos, we actually ordered many more but the rest of the photos are quite blurry, blame my baby camera for posing a strike.
If anyone got good tips on taking food photos @ night, please share it with me/ email. Thanks....=)

** 1945 is a very special year for Indonesians, it is the year of our independence after a long period of Dutch colonialisation. Our independence day is 17/08/1945. Several Indonesian dishes are influenced by Dutch.

1945 menu

Tahu Isi - Fried stuffed tofu (vegies inside), fried to perfection, crunchy & using fresh oil (yeah..I am a little paranoia when it comes to fried stuff hehehe, somehow I can tell if they use recyled oil)

Sayur Asem - Indonesian version of Tom Yum soup, sour, sweet, salty & fresh, suitable for vegos

Emping - Indonesian bitternut crackers, served in a traditional basket, it's not bitter at all

Sambal Udang Petai - Chilli prawn with Quail Eggs and Petai

Nasi Putih - Steam rice served in basket, really cool, feel like dining in traditional villages

Babi Kecap - Pork in Sweet Soy Sauce, I best describe it as Indonesian stewed pork, can we add boiled egg?

Urap - Salad, a little different from Gado2, sauce contains tumeric, I personally prefer urap than gado2

Ayam Bakar - Grilled Chicken, really tender and tasty

Maha Melbourne

27/07/11

X flew to Melbourne to dine with me yayyyy. What a saviour ... saving me from being stuck in the hotel with room dining. X is the crazy lot, flew to Melbourne last minute & has to fly with Qantas no less - not cheap I can tell ya (well I need to convince X to take Jetstar/ Virgin Blue in da future), did nothing for the whole day, stayed at the hotel sleeping, reading some books (whilst I was working), playing with Ipad, then dinner with me. The next morning X flew back to Sydney (whilst I was still working again...). I felt so entertained whilst in Melbourne.

I kept screaming that I want to dine somewhere nice, somewhere unique that I cant find in Sydney and X quickly organised our dinner @ Maha (by George Calombaris - Masterchef judge).

Initially I was not too excited coz I used to be anti exotic food. I had really bad food poisoning from it a couple years ago. Anyway, my dining experience @ Maha has totally changed my view about exotic food ... all I can say is I love Middle Eastern food now. There is nothing that I do not like. Presentations, service, quality of food are excellent. I like everything !! Maha dishes are exotic with modern twist and  I am glad X picked Maha coz I will go back to try different dishes if I visit Melbourne again.

Maha Melbourne

We ordered Soufra (4 courses with wines)

Dips - beetroot, soya beans, zucchini, olive, hhhm if no one around I can lick each bowl sparkly clean

Nice fluffy warm bread rolls

Deep Fried Mr Porkie - crispy outside, tender & juicy inside

Pipis with ?? ooppss bad memory cant remember the sauce

Salad with crispy Turkish bread, really refreshing

 

Rice salad

Wagyu beef with Oxtail dumplings & chestnut puree ... ohhemmmgeee, this is heaven, I wish I didnt have to share it with X, the dumplings were excellent

Dessert platter - Filo pastry with orange sauce, ?? cant remember what's in da cup oopps sorry again, my fave - donut with rose jelly inside

Melbourne Photos

27-28 July 2011

My short Melbourne Trip, managed to squeeze 2 hours sight seeing during my trip.

Helicopters touched down in the city

Melbourne morning traffic @ 8.54am

Rent a bike, the best way to explore the city

$2.50 to rent a bike...bargain !!

Grand Hotel - 120 yrs old, Victorian style & heritage listed, beautiful building indeed

Melbourne Tram 1

Melbourne Tram 2

Melbourne Tram 3