epiQure Launch at Rockpool Bar and Grill

epiQure is the new Qantas food and wine club. You can use your Qantas frequent flyer points to buy wine as well as attend food events, further earning more frequent flyer points. The Melbourne launch party for epiQure was held at Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne, as Neil Perry is the Qantas ambassador and designs their in-flight meals. I went along with my friend Jordan, dressed up in our nice suits looking rather sharp. The function started off with canapes and champagne in the bar area. We mingled with society's high flyers, and Jordan even helped show another gentlemen how to use his mobile phone camera to take a photo with flash.

Canapes
Anchovy, smoked tomato and toast
Goats cheese tortellini with pine nuts and raisins
2000 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne



Neil Perry kicked off the meal by talking about epiQure and also his involvement. Neil was very well spoken, having done speeches a lot I'm sure. I got the opportunity to quickly get a photo with him as he was walking around. I asked him what he was up to, and he mentioned how busy he was flying around between his various restaurants. He definitely has an amazing work ethic.


When we were seated, I found I was sitting next to fellow food blogger Claire and opposite THE David Blackmore of David Blackmore wagyu. I was so thrilled to be sitting opposite David and his wife Julie, half owner of the business (I didn't forget Julie). Both were so generous with their time and fielded all my questions all night. I learned so much about meat and wagyu. Obviously Jordan and I asked the obvious questions. Yes, Wagyu cows do sometimes drink beer and get massages when they have joint and muscle problems. Beer and massages are not usually part of their normal regime. Although, David has allowed his farmers to have a beer every time a cow needs beer, so possibly beer consumption in David Blackmore wagyu may increase. On a serious note, David did tell me that what makes his wagyu tastier than others is that his cows are full blood (with blood lines that can be tracked back 70 years), while some other brands of wagyu are only half bloods. As there are no official certification standards in Australia yet, you have to do your research to find out about the meat you're buying. Remember the old adage that you get what you pay for.

Baby beetroot salad roasted, jelly, raw with barrel aged feta dressing
2010 Penfolds Autumn Riesling
2005 Penfolds Bin Aged Release Riesling

Onto the first course. It was a simple beetroot salad with jelly and feta. Unfortunately, of all the dishes on the table, mine was the only one missing the feta and jelly. So basically I got a beetroot salad. It was well cooked beetroot I can say at least. All the meals that night were matched by wines from Penfolds. For this first course, I really enjoyed the Autumn Riesling. It had a light and fruity note. The aged riesling was sharper and serviceable for me.


Blue fin tuna tartare, Moroccan eggplant, cumin mayonnaise and harrisa
2010 Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay
2007 Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay

The next course of blue fin tuna tartare was really nice. Blue fin tuna is always good but I liked it with the punchy eggplant. To go with this course, there were two Chardonnays. I really don't like Chardonnays as I find them rather bland and dull. However, the Bin 311 was quite good and the Reserve Bin A Chardonnay was sensational. I must have rich taste as I only realised the cost when Steve Lienert (Penfolds senior red wine maker) started speaking and said that the Bin A retailed for about $70 a bottle. It was really a great wine, and Steve said Penfolds had only started to really concentrate on making Chardonnays. Imagine what they might produce in a few years time.


Rich and noble prawn congee, star anise scented peanuts, Chinese fried bread and chilli oil
2010 Penfolds Bin 23 Pinot Noir
2008 Penfolds Cellar Release Tempranillo

The rich and noble prawn congee (with tongue in cheek prosperous Asian name) was more like a risotto than a traditional congee. The congee had some good flavour from the sweet plump prawns. A Pinot and Tempranillo were served with this course. The wines were well matched with the food and each complimented the other.


Wood fire roasted Burrawang chicken with baby carrots and pea sauce
2008 Penfolds Bin 389 Shiraz Cabernet
2007 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
2008 Penfolds RWT Shiraz

This dish, which David and Julie informed me, was delicious from when they ate it at the Sydney launch the night earlier. And so it was. I don't know what was done to the roast chicken, but it was so tender and flavoursome and one of the best roast chickens I've ever eaten. But dear readers, from this point on is where my mind was blown, not by the food as usual, but by the super amazing Penfolds wine. Truly a meal to remember for the wines. With this course, we were served the Bin 389 Shiraz Cabernet, the St Henri Shiraz and the RWT Shiraz. Before I ate the chicken, I sampled all three wines. I found I liked the Bin 389 the best at the beginning, with a super smooth feel and more vibrant flavour. However, once I ate some chicken and went back to the wine, everything was different. I found the Bin 389 to be more bland. Instead the St Henri came to life and was very good, and the RWT was just amazing. It now possessed all the aromas and flavour of a perfect red. I loved it so much and kept alternating between the RWT and the chicken. I could eat a whole chicken like that. I really want to buy a whole bottle of 2008 Penfolds RWT Shiraz and drink it with a roast chicken, well, not share the drink with a roast chicken, but actually eat the roast chicken while I drink the wine. You know what I mean. The English language can be rather strange in its wording sometimes.


While I was still savouring those amazing wines in my mouth, there was a short break in the meal. I took the chance to get a photo with David, who generously spoke with me all night about beef, the food industry, science and his business. David then got up to the microphone and explained about his beef and why it was so good.


Slow cooked David Blackmore Wagyu short rib, charred, with red braised shiitake mushrooms, yam and ginger puree
2001 Penfolds Grange
2004 Penfolds Grange

Next up, we got to try David's wagyu. As David explained to me, the short rib is a cut that sometimes people ignore, but is very tasty and extremely rich. Hence you cannot eat a lot of it at once. The serving we got was just perfect I found. Indeed the meat was rich but full of flavour, working well with the Asian ingredients. And for the moment of utter swooning, out came the Grange, 2001 and 2004. Yes, the Grange are hyped up like no tomorrow, and yes, they are expensive, but they are the best wines I have ever tasted and from which I will compare everything. I know that 99% of wines will never live up to the Grange and I just have to carry the memory of these two wines as I won't be tasting them again too soon. I'm not sure how to even describe them. While I loved the 2001 originally, again after eating food, I loved the 2004 far more. The best description I can give of the wines is to imagine the smoothest, silkiest, aromatic, fragrant and complex wine you've ever tasted, and then multiply it by 10. It went down the throat so easily and the flavours kept swirling around in my mouth. I'm not trying to sound like a wine wanker but it really was that good.



Sharpe family strawberry mascarpone cake
NV Penfolds Grandfather Tawny

With the memory of the two Granges still in my mind, it was onto the last course of the night. The strawberry cake was delicious and went perfectly with the super sweet grandfather tawny and finished the night on a great high.


That concluded the most mind blowing meal of my life, due mainly to the red wines which were matched with good food. The Penfolds top end red wines are brilliant and I hope to buy the Bin 389, St Henri and RWT again to drink. One day, I'll even fork out the money to buy a Grange. For now, I live on my wonderful memories.

My guest and I dined courtesy of epiQure.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Rasa Malaya vs Homer Simpson

272 Blackburn Rd
Doncaster, VIC 3109
Ph: 9842 4797

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Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
***********************************************************************************************

For my last post on this series about Malaysian food, I was thinking what other way could I use to promote it when I've already drawn on such heavy weights as Star Wars, Lady Gaga and Hollywood Movies. Well, after much thought, there was only one candidate who could promote Malaysian food better than anyone else, Homer Simpson. Homer is a food icon. He of "Mmmmm Donuts" and an endless pit of a stomach that could make a buffet restaurant kick him out. Homer also has a love of beer, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chocolate, pancakes, and little known by most people, Malaysian food.

Homer likes to start his meals with Lobak. These deep fried parcels of goodness from Rasa Malaya are extremely delicious and come with a slightly hot dipping sauce.


After entrees, it's a matter of bringing as much food to Homer as possible. He loves Roti Canai, with the flaky roti being really great. The curry has quite a good flavour too. While eating his Roti, Homer would also sample some Belachan Fried Chicken, Chilli Beef and Stir Fry Squid. The fried chicken was a bit lacking in flavour, the squid had a sweet spicy sauce and the beef being his favourite with a robust flavour.


Crispy Fried Chicken is surprisingly served with prawn crackers. The two flavours don't exactly meld together but each alone does taste good. The chicken was nicely fried and went well with the dipping sauce. A plate of Fried Eggplant was a highlight, with soft eggplant packed with chili flavour.


Homer would finish off his meal with Char Kway Teow, a Malaysian classic. This char kway teow, like most of the other dishes was fiery hot. He loves it like that. There was no holding back with the spiciness, which is fantastic. The Seafood Hor Fun was the mildest dish and serviceable.


The atmosphere at Rasa Malaya is bustling and feels really comfortable. The tight seating, old decor, mis-matched plates and waitresses dressed in Singapore Airline hostess costumes made for a fun night where you feel transported back in time. The food was really good and so cheap. It's no wonder they are so busy. Homer would go back to eat there any day.

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Omah's vs Lady Gaga
*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars
*Vote for my previous post, Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

Malaysia Kitchen Facebook Page
Malaysia Kitchen Twitter

I dined at Rasa Malaya courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

Image of Homer Simpson copyright ofFox Broadcasting Company.

Giveaway - Beautiful Bakeware + Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe

I was asked by Kitchenware Direct whether I wanted to review some products. They gave me free choice of anything. After some consideration, I decided I wanted to try out some bakeware items that I've always wanted. Making the decision to review bakeware was easy. Picking the actual bakeware took me a week, as there were so many options my head was spinning. So many things caught my eye but finally I decided on some items.

To test out these items, I knew that I wanted to make my favourite Pandan Chiffon Cake. I've always loved that cake but have found it to be a bit too dense and was hoping to see if a proper chiffon tin would improve it. By chance, I had brought the cake to April's house for a dinner. She loved the cake so much that she got the recipe from me, and then improved it. She then developed her own Pandan Chiffon Recipe, which she said produced a super fluffy cake. So of course I had to try it to test out these bakeware.

Firstly, let me show you the money shot of the amazing end result. The pandan cake was super fluffy and delicious. I decided to ice it "Thanh Style" by using my normal pandan fudge recipe and then decorating it with dessicated coconut. I find the fudge makes the cake even more moreish and prettier as well. In the photo below, you can see the hyper green cake sitting on a beautiful cake plate to show it off to it's full beauty. I hadn't heard of cake plates before but I'm sure going to be buying some now.


One item that I've wanted for an eternity but just didn't think was an essential item and hence never bought is a cake stand. A cake definitely looks far more stylish placed on a cake stand rather than a plastic plate. I found the stand actually was useful, aesthetically and practically. I was able to leave it on the kitchen bench and when guests came over the weekend, the whole cake was demolished so there wasn't a worry that the cake would need to go back into the fridge. Obviously, if you don't eat the cake as fast, you will need to transfer it into the fridge, but it will still be conveniently displayed and ready to eat for a day or two.


Another item that I never quite bought was a cake server. I mean, you can use a knife to cut the cake and then a combination of a knife and fork to transfer the cake. But I will say that the cake server does work well, ensuring the cake can be transferred and not destroyed. I would still probably continue using a knife and fork to transfer my cake.


When you go to make the cake, two tips I can give you is that when you think the egg whites and yolks are beaten enough, continue beating for a few more minutes to be extra stiff and voluminous. Second tip is when you go to mix the whites into the yolks, make sure that it mix the whites through properly. When I first started making this chiffon, I was far too worried about beating the air out of the mixture and always under-mixed, leaving the cake light at the top and dense at the bottom. Nowadays I know to mix well until the colour of the batter is completely uniform. Once the mixture is ready to go, I transferred them into two cake tins I again always wanted. I used to make my pandan chiffon cake in a standard round tin, but I love the look of the proper chiffon/angel cake tin more and I think it does make it rise higher. I also made my pandan cake in the square tin for a bit of fun. Square tins just have that sophisticated look to me. It probably doesn't work for a chiffon cake but I can't wait to make a chocolate fudge cake using the square tin.


Once the cakes were baked, I cooled them before icing them. If you've seen and eaten my cakes before, you will know that my icing isn't exactly good. It's so hard to ice a cake properly, and the turntable is again something that I've wanted. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to spin the cake around and ice it rather than twist my arms into all sort of contortionist styles. I also got a spreading knife with the bend in it. I have a flat spreading knife already but I will definitely only be using this bent spreading knife to do all my icing. This bend in the knife allows you to hold the knife in a comfortable position and then just spin the turntable. The final results, you can see for yourself in the top photos.



If you have been tempted by the Pandan Chiffon cake, you can have the recipe for free below. Enjoy as it's the most delicious cake and my favourite of all time. Thanks to April for her wonderful recipe. There's very little changes to my original recipe but somehow the results are so different. We were hypothesizing that the reduction of oil, reduction of flour and increase in coconut milk is what has made the cake more fluffy. But we don't know. If you have any clues as to how to make cakes fluffier, I'd love to hear it.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

INGREDIENTS
6 egg whites, room temperature
125 g caster sugar
6 egg yolks
80g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
165 ml can thick coconut milk
2 tbsp oil
1 ½ tsp of pandan essence
120 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder (or 120g self raising flour and leave out the baking powder)
1/8 tsp salt

METHOD
1) Preheat oven to 160C.
2) Whisk egg whites for about 1 minute until foamy, then gradually add caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. If you turn the bowl over, the whites should not drop out. Set aside.
3) Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence till light and creamy. Should take about 5 minutes and mixture should be pale and tripled in size.
4) Mix oil, pandan essence and thick coconut milk in a separate bowl and add it slowly to egg yolk mixture while whisking slowly.
5) Stir in sifted flour and salt to egg yolk mixture and fold gently until combined.
6) Add one third of egg whites to green mixture and fold to loosen up the batter. You do not need to be too gentle at this stage. Then add the rest of the mixture and fold extra gently as not to deflate the batter.
7) Before pouring the mixture into the tin, give your batter a few sharp blows by banging it on the table. This will get the big bubbles to rise to the top and burst. Pour mixture slowly into ungreased ring pan.
8) Bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. If the top browns too quickly, put some aluminium foil over the top.
8) Cool completely in the tin upside down.

Pandan Fudge Icing
This can ice one cake thickly or two cakes thinly.

INGREDIENTS
600g coconut cream (99% or 100% stuff, look on label)
80g caster sugar
20g custard powder
1/2 tsp pandan flavouring
Dessicated coconut to decorate

METHOD
1) Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat.
2) Stir till it thickens. Immediately coat cake with the warm fudge.
3) Decorate with dessicated coconut.


GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

Thank you for entering. Lots of varied answers but the correct weight of the cake stand + cake plate + cake server is 1440g exactly. That makes Michelle Chin the winner with a guess of 1450g. Congratulations Michelle. I will contact you directly.
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Along with the free Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, I am giving away some of the bakeware items for you, my dear reader, to win.

You will win the Cake Stand, Cake Plate and Cake Server
+ +

HOW TO ENTER

Leave a comment with your guess to:

How much is the combined weight of the cake stand, cake plate and cake server, to the nearest gram.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 5 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

PLEASE HELP VOTE FOR ME

While this is not part of the entry conditions, I would really appreciate if you can help vote for my entries to the Malaysia Kitchen Competition. Just click on the three links below and click the Facebook "Like" button. Thank you.

*Malaysia Kitchen Post 1 - Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 2 - Omahs vs Lady Gaga
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 3 - Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Sunday August 28th 8pm AEST. The winner will be announced at 9pm and published on this same post.
- The winner is the person with the closest answer. Should more than one person win, I will randomly draw the winner from those finalists. I will contact the winner directly to inform them they have won.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies

240 Blackburn Rd
Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Ph: 9802 3763

***********************************************************************************************
Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
***********************************************************************************************

Food and movies go together like bread and butter. But there's a problem, it's always French food that gets all the glory. Movies such as Chocolat, Ratatouille and Julie & Julia all feature French food as the central star. Even Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman famously flung that escargot across the restaurant. Well, I plan on changing that. I have some ideas for featuring Malaysian food in Hollywood films.

300 Calories

Imagine a film, with these ancient warriors, who love to eat Malaysian entrees. They could be feasting on Satay skewers, chicken and beef, or Lobak, mince wrapped in bean curd skin and fried. The satay skewers were ok, with the sauce quite good but the meat a bit tough. The lobak was delicious and everyone loved the fried parcels.

You, Mee and Roti

Imagine a movie about a happily married couple, who have a friend that attend their wedding and in doing so loses his job. They feel sorry so let him stay with them for a while. But soon they find out that he keeps eating way more than his share of Malaysian food. Their friend will eat their Mee Goreng and Rendang with Roti. The Mee Goreng had a good texture and quite a strong flavour. The Rendang was tender but a bit salty, even with the flaky roti.

Green Pandan

The best way to promote Malaysian food is definitely with a superhero that people can identify with. So I present to you....."Green Pandan". His role is to prevent people from eating bad food and introduce them to the wonderful flavour of pandan. He can recommend dishes like the Nasi Lemak with Pandan Rice and Ondeh Ondeh. The Nasi Lemak had some belachan chicken wings, which didn't have much belechan flavour. The calamari was quite a strange addition as I've never seen it at other restaurants and it was served cold, which I didn't really like. However, the pandan rice was delicately fragrant. The Ondeh Ondeh was excellent, with a pandan exterior housing a liquid palm sugar exploding centre. The other range of kueh (dessert cakes made from rice) were also excellent. Each had a distinct look, texture and taste. I loved them all.

Titanic Kachang

The last film I can suggest is a film about a young couple, who meet on a big cruise ship that is sailing across the seas on its maiden voyage. The ship runs into a titanic ice kachang, where all the patrons then proceed to eat the delicious dessert. The kachang at Lim's was really good, with lots of condiment that combined well together.

So that's my plan for promoting Malaysian food in Hollywood movies. I'm sure my ideas would be embraced by the Hollywood studios. So where do I go to contact them about it?

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Omah's vs Lady Gaga
*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars

Malaysia Kitchen Facebook Page
Malaysia Kitchen Twitter

I dined at Lim's Nyonya Hut courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

SBS Featured Foodie for August

In case I haven't already told you for the tenth time, I have been selected by SBS to be an SBS Featured Foodie. This is a real honour as I love SBS's dedication to food, especially ethnic food. I've subscribed to their food newsletter for a long time and read about all these other wonderful foodies who have been featured, so to be pick as one was a real highlight.

Check out my full interview on the SBS Food Website. Let me know your thoughts.

I thought I'd finish off this post by re-posting the photo of myself and Maeve, one of my favourite food presenters from SBS's Food Safari.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Omah's vs Lady Gaga

138 Rouse St
Port Melbourne, VIC 3207
www.omahs.com
Ph: 9676 9918

***********************************************************************************************
Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
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Omah's Malaysian is one of my favourite places for mud crab, and I'm always telling everyone about it. I was thinking how I could get the message through to more people. After some brainstorming, the answer was obvious, Lady Gaga. Gaga loves food, so much so that she wore it as clothing. So my idea is to approach Gaga and suggest she wear some Malaysian food as part of her elaborate costumes.

So, what would you get if you combine delicious Lady Gaga and Salted Egg Mud Crab?
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Image of Lady Gaga courtesy of ifood.tv

Salted Egg Mud Crab High Heels

Image of crab claw courtesy of Almost Always Ravenous

The Salted Egg Mud Crab at Omah's is sensational. The salted egg coats the crab and provides a lovely flavour, without being grainy. I love to peel out the crab meat and then pick off the salted egg from the shell and eat them together. Gaga can wear the crab claws as high heels, rather than the copycat Alexander McQueen claw shoes which are clearly inspired by crab claws.

Mee Goreng Hat

Image of crab claw courtesy of Accidental Sexiness

The Mee Goreng at Omah's is very good, with a nice "wok" flavour, lots of prawns and chicken and a strong flavour which I prefer. Gaga can work this plate of Mee Goreng into her wardrobe as a hat. It works to shade her eyes, and also when she's hungry, she can nibble at the noodles.

Five Spice Mud Crab Handbag

Image of crab claw courtesy of Vintage Handbag & Purses

The Five Spice crab is as the name suggests, cooked in five spices. It also has fresh vegetables in onion, spring onion and chilli to lift the flavours. This crab is good, but obviously not as good as my favourite salted egg crab. Gaga can definitely use this crab and incorporate it as a handbag. It's far better than a Versace handbag as this crab handbag has not only colour and depth, but also a beautiful smell.

Chilli Mud Crab Bow Tie

Image of crab claw courtesy of Bauer-Griffin

The Chilli Mud Crab is probably Omah's signature crab, but in my opinion is probably their weakest. It's not terrible but I really don't like the sweet element to it. Instead, their Salted Egg (sensational), Lemongrass (sensational), Black Pepper (excellent) and Five Spice (good) are all better I think. Gaga can help show off these crabs by using it as an accessory to her crazy outfits. Here, she shows it off as a bow tie.

So as we can clearly see, delicious Malaysian food can be perfectly advertised by Lady Gaga as fashion items. Before you know it, all the cool kids will be wearing crab claw shoes and Mee Goreng hats in the streets.

Please check out the Malaysia Kitchen Summit website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

*CLICK AND VOTE FOR MY CURRENT POST

*Vote for my previous post, Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars

Malaysia Kitchen Facebook Page
Malaysia Kitchen Twitter

I dined at Omah's courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.

Cooking The Books - Nigella's Kitchen

In the continuing Cooking The Books (CTB) meetups, this time we wanted to test out one of the queens of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson's new book, Kitchen - Recipes from the Heart of the Home. Nigella's recipe are notoriously easy but as we found out, can also be perfectly delicious. Having tested out quite a few recipes in the book, I would buy it and cook from it regularly.

You can read about previous Cooking The Books meetups here
Cooking The Books - Jamie's America
Cooking The Books - Bill Granger's Holiday
Cooking The Books - David Thompson's Thai Street Food

As usual, we cooked at the The Cooking Space thanks to their generosity. The space can be hired out for use throughout the year and it has lots of great professional equipment and even a dining area.

You can read about this meetup by
I-Hua
Michele
Cherrie

Other participants were
Kat with baby
Kat
Agnes
Celeste
Emma

Let's start with the savoury dishes. Cherrie made the African Drumsticks/Wings. I love this dish with its caramelised soy marinade.


Agnes made Beer Braised Pork Knuckles. How can you go wrong with pork knuckles cooked to a perfect crisp. I couldn't really taste the beer but maybe it helps to crisp it up?


The dish of the day, and you won't hear this from me too often, was the Mexican Lasagna. This was a vegetarian dish and contained beans, corn and various vegetables. The flavours really worked together and was cooked perfectly by Kat.


Kat (with baby) made a Risotto Bolognese. The risotto was definitely cooked well, and the flavours were quite good.


Kat (with baby) also made Pigs in Blankets. Well, how can you go wrong with sausages wrapped in pastry.


Other savouries that we had and not pictured were
-A simple Avocado Salad by Kat
-Caraway, Garlic Apples and Potatoes by Agnes. They were a really good combination.
-Turkey Meatballs by Michele. These weren't bad, but sort of dull in flavour compared to Jamie's America meatballs that Michele made at a previous meetup.
-Rocket and Lemon Cous Cous by Michele. Simple and tasty.
-Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes by me. The chorizo really gave the chicken a good kick and the herbs in it were good.
-Chorizo and Chickpea Stew by Celeste, full of chorizo goodness.

For desserts, Celeste made a Key Lime Pie. It was sharp and sweet, and I liked it. I think Celeste used regular limes so it didn't have the taste of the usual key lime pie.


Agnes made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake. As you can see from the photo, it was wickedly good but also super duper rich. One tiny slice is enough.


Other desserts we had were
-Coffee Toffee Meringues by Cherrie, which were actually my favourite dessert of the day. Light meringues were doused with a coffee toffee.
-Michele made Lemon Meringue Fool, meringues, lemon zest and cream. This was also very good.
-I-Hua made Pistachio Fudge, which were super decadent.
-Emma made a Torte Al Giandula, which techically was from Nigella's Domestic Goddess book but still totally delicious.
-Lastly, I made a Venetian Carrot Cake. With carrots and almond meal, I thought this cake would be amazing but instead was rather awful. I'm not sure what went wrong but I think it may have been that the almond meal was stale.

And that wraps us another wonderful Cooking The Books meetup, where as usual I went home so full that I didn't need dinner and needed a massive afternoon nap.

Malaysia Kitchen Summit Competition - Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars

123 Koornang Rd
Carnegie, VIC 3163
Ph: 9563 6707

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Malaysia Kitchen Competition
Malaysia Kitchen is an initiative set up by the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and aim's to increase Australian's awareness of Malaysian food. I have been chosen as 1 of 12 finalist for the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit to be held later this year. Each blogger will write 4 posts on various Malaysian restaurants of their choice, which will then be posted on the Malaysia Kitchen Summit Website and voted on by readers. The 3 bloggers with the greatest total votes will get to go to Malaysia later this year to join the summit.
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I like Malaysian food, but to test out how much I love it, I've pitted it up against my other love, science fiction. In this case, I've decided to put up Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Restaurant's food against THE science fiction movie of all time, Star Wars. I have devised 6 rounds where each side will pit themselves up against the other to fight for my allegiances. Join me in the fun and make your own selection.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Round 1
VS

First up is the fight between the two heroes. The Nasi Lemak was the best dish of the day, full of great flavour. The chicken was soft and tasty and I loved the sambal as well. To go up against the Nasi Lemak, Luke Skywalker has taken up the challenge. Luke is the hero in Star Wars and was always there to save the day.

Verdict: Although it was a close fight, the winner is... Nasi Lemak. As nice as Luke was, he was kinda boring and I'd take the exciting flavours of the Nasi Lemak any day.

Round 2
VS
Han Solo image courtesy of Solware

The next fight brings the old faithful Beef Hor Fun against another old faithful, Han Solo. The hor fun had a good "wok" flavour with good soft beef which my colleagues liked. However, the hor fun is up against the funny and charismatic Han Solo.

Verdict: As much as I like the Beef Hor Fun, nothing can beat Han Solo in a battle for my loyalty. I would have Han Solo as my side kick for any adventure.

Round 3
VS

Next up we have a battle of the beauties. Look at the glistening shiny shell of the Blue Swimmer Crab Noodles. It's just enticing me to lick it, just like I would lick..... oh sorry, I was drifting off into a daydream. Anyway, the crab had lots of flavours and the noodles had good bounce. To battle this beautiful crab, the desire of many a young teen with those glistening hair buns, Princess Leia cuts an equally sexy figure. How can you not love a Princess who can handle a gun?

Verdict: I do love crabs a lot, but I love Princess Leia in THAT bikini more.

Round 4
VS

From the battle of the beautiful, we go into the battle of the not so beautiful. The Roti Canai might have tasted really good, but that brown dull look definitely won't be winning any beauty contests. Equally not winning any beauty contests is the Death Star, the home and vehicle of Darth Vader.

Verdict: It was a close battle, but while the Roti Canai didn't have any fatal flaws, the Death Star's one fatal flaw that allows it to be destroyed with one missile shot in the right area means that I have to give the win to the Roti Canai.

Round 5
VS

This round sees some tag team battles. Representing Malaysian Kitchen, we have Roast Duck with Dry Noodles, while Star Wars is represented by C3PO and R2D2. The Roast Duck was surprisingly good, with a nice crispy skin and a soy sauce that wasn't too salty. The dry noodles also had a good mixture of flavours. However, C3PO and R2D2 are formidable opponents. They helped Luke, Han and Leia save the day many times while always being super friendly.

Verdict: As much as I like the duck, C3PO and R2D2's charms are just too great and hence they are the winners for me.

Round 6
VS

The last battle is between the Char Kway Teow and Jar Jar Binks. While the Char Kway Teow had good texture in the noodles, the flavour was lacking and the dish was very bland. To go up against this bland noodles, it's the very annoying Jar Jar Binks, a creation for the new prequel episodes of Star Wars.

Verdict: While the noodles were not so good, nothing can be as bad as Jar Jar Binks, so I choose the Char Kway Teow.

Conclusion
After 6 torrid rounds battling it out, it is a draw between Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Restaurant and Star Wars with 3 wins each. I guess I can enjoy both things equally and they can exist in harmony after all.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post.

Please check out the website to vote, hopefully for me, Thanh Do from I Eat Therefore I Am, if you like my post.

Voting period: Friday, 5th August, 2011 (15:00 AEST) – Wednesday, 31st August, 2011 (16:00 AEST)

CLICK AND VOTE FOR THANH DO

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I dined at Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Restaurant courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen.
All copyrights to the Star Wars images belong to Lucasfilm Ltd. 2011.