Namaskar India - Part 2

I've actually been back to Namaskar India quite a few more times since that first visit but I always forgot to bring my camera so didn't bother blogging about it.

I went again this week with Kin and Jo. I just felt like eating Indian food and Namaskar India popped into my head. We arrived there at about 8pm without a booking. The restaurant was half full, but as usual all the tables had Reserved signs on them. Luckily for us, there was one table left upstairs exactly for three people. I kid you not, the table was set up with three chairs only.

We sat down and turned our attention to the Bollywood movie that was playing on the big plasma screen on the wall. Jo was utterly entranced while Kin and I hummed along to the music. From what we could tell, the guy was trying to get the girl back. This involved dancing and signing throughout the whole movie. There was hardly any dialogue at all, just heaps of songs and group dancing. We kept looking back at it every once in a while during the meal.

For entree we got the Chicken Manchurian. The entrees are my favourite. I have tried a lot of them and they're all to my liking. The Chicken Manchurian was fiery, with a chilli rating of 1 (maximum rating of 3 with a minimum of no chilli). The shallots and spring onion gave a lighter hint to the chicken which was coated with a brown aromatic sauce.

For mains, we shared a Butter Chicken, Lamb Roganjosh and Dahl Tadka. Kin loved the dahl. I found it not to my liking. It tasted coarse and generally I'm not a fan of any type of beans. The Lamb Roganjosh was hot hot hot. The spicy sauce coated some very tender lamb pieces. My favourite was the Butter Chicken. This butter chicken is not overly rich like at some places. The chicken piece are cooked in the tandoori as they have charred black edges and that smokey flavour.


Breads at Namaskar are plentiful in choice. There are so many varieties of Naan, Roti and Dosa. I love the Butter Naan and Garlic Naan the most. The naan is crunchy but still has some moistness in the centre.


For dessert, Jo and I shared the Gulab Jamun and the Zauk-E-Shahi. The Galub Jamun was good, but too sweet. The syrup was way too sweet. The Zauk-e-Shahi is bascially a Gulab Jamun soaked in condensed milk with pistachio nuts. The description on the menu was a creamy reduced milk. I didn't think it was going to be condensed milk. This again was too sweet. This gulab jamun was not up to the standard that my Pakistani friend Tafazal's wife does. Her gulab jamun are fantastic, with the actual gulab jamun having a better taste and texture. Her syrup is also superior, being lighter with hints of rose water and nuts.


Overall Rating: 14/20, The food is still good, with the restaurant being packed out with Indians vouching for their authenticity. Prices are still great value for money.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Banana, Honeycomb Butter and Maple Syrup

I first saw Bill's Granger's recipe for Ricotta Hotcakes over at Kitchen Wench. I had already decided that I would give them a try as I love pancakes. Before I even got round to making them, I saw them again at Totally Addicted To Taste. Well considering two of my favourite dessert blogs in Kitchen Wench and Totally Addicted To Taste had made them, I immediately made them the next day.

So here is the result.


As you can see, I styled my pancakes more like Adski's at Totally Addicted to Taste. Ellie at Kitchen Wench put a slight twist on it and wanted a lighter combination so omitted the butter and served the pancakes with strawberries. Her presentation is amazing and much more superior to mine.

So what do I think of the pancakes? They're fantastic. I didn't think ricotta would work, but it does. The pancake is light and fluffy and there isn't a strong cheese taste at all. My favourite part is the combination of flavours. I was going to be lazy and not make the honeycomb butter since I didn't like honeycomb that much. But then I decided I should taste what the original recipe is like before I go changing it. I'm glad I did that since the honeycomb butter tastes beautiful. I use the leftover on generic Coles pikelets and toast and it just lifts those things so much. Maple syrup and banana always go great with pancakes and the whole thing just blends so well. I recommend you make them for a special breakfast or brunch. I wouldn't want to be making these every weekend as they are a bit more involved than the usual pancakes. I had about three large bowls going since the whites and yolks needed to be beaten separtely.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Banana, Honeycomb Butter and Maple Syrup

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cups ricotta
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g butter

To SERVE
banana
honeycomb butter, sliced (below)
icing sugar for dusting

HONEYCOMB BUTTER
250g unsalted butter, softened
100g sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin
2 Tbs honey

METHOD

Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of butter and drop 2tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don't cook more than 3 per batch).
Cook over a low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble the other ingredients.

Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack three hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar.

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours.

Macaron Attempt 1 - Disaster

I think I might be writing quite a few more disaster attempts at the macaron before I get a successful one. I always thought a macaroon was that coconut biscuit thing. The first I heard and tasted the "diva" macaron (one o please people) was when Duncan from Syrup and Tang brought some to the Blogger's Banquet. They were delicious, and when he said that he might post the recipe, there was a buzz in the Melbourne food blogosphere. Everyone was interested in learning how to make them, and we pestered poor Duncan via his blog commnets to give us the recipe sooner. Vida was the most vocal about getting the recipe early. I just jumped on her cue and also requested that Duncan post the recipe early than his outlined date. But being the perfectionist that he is, he held firm and would not give us the recipe any earlier until he tested it all properly.

Firstly, he teased us all with a great introduction about the macaron and explained all its glory. Again I pleaded for the recipe. So before Duncan posted his actual blog post with the recipe and detailed instructions, he emailed me a sneak peek of the recipe so I could try. And try the recipe I did, the very next day.

This first recipe is the supposedly "easier" version but also the unreliable version. Results could vary greatly without knowing why. So here is the results of my first attempt ever at making a macaron.



If you refer to any of Duncan's post of how a macaron should look, mine is the ugly sister of those Cinderellas. I was thinking it would be easy. I mean what could go wrong. Four basic ingredients, one piping bag and one oven. Well, it was all going great until I started piping it. Since the mixture looked too runny, I added more almond meal. It was then rather thick and hard to pipe. Then I bake it and its looking all nice and white in colour. A minute later and its slightly burnt.

I was so disappointed at the start and really upset. I had too much anticipation and was let down big time. I emailed Duncan my result and he said not to worry, that he has made many failed batches before getting it right. Also, the next recipe to come is more reliable. That made me feel better and I'm ready to attempt the macaron again.

After seeing Duncan's final post with photos, I know that I have over beaten the batter, as Duncan suggested to me in a reply email. Next time I will be more careful and gentle with mixing the almond meal and icing sugar to the egg whites.

I ate quite a few of the biscuits when they were hot and they weren't nice at all. However, after leaving them for a few days now, they've become more crumbly and the flavours have really come throuhg. My sister said that they were a really nice "biscuit". She is spot on. They do taste really nice just as a biscuit. I haven't bothered to sandwich them with any filling since I was so disappointed. But they taste really nice as is. So I'm thinking if I make them properly, they'll taste even better, especially with a filling.

So now I wait for the next recipe and hopefully those will turn out better. My idea to give them out as Christmas presents is still intact. Time is running low though so hopefully Duncan will post the next recipe soon.
*** Hint hint Duncan if you're reading this ;-) ***

Hwaro BBQ

Hwaro BBQ is located on Little Bourke Street. Dennis had stumbled across it one time and said the food was good. A previous attempt to go there without a booking meant we were left disappointed. This time, we smartened up and made a booking. Luckily we made the booking a bit earlier on in the week, as another friend tried to book and was told it was all full. After a confusion with the staff who had the booking name as Janice instead of Dennis, we were seated at a communal table that was separted by a bamboo curtain.

The interior is rather dim in lighting and spacious. Luckily, each table has its own lighting so its bright where you are eating. Otherwise, I can see a lot of fingers getting burnt on the BBQ. The BBQ at this place is better than every other Korean BBQ I've been to because it's an actual coal fired BBQ. A waiter wearing some strong gloves brings out a BBQ with flaming coals. It's really hot and you can definitely feel the heat from it. He then pulls down the extraction system to remove all the fumes. The extraction works very well, and we leave with the smell of BBQ meats in our clothes, but our hair and skin isn't all oily.

The menu is very simple, just a selection of meats, some soups to share and some side dishes. We decide on the meats and soup we want. We asked about the BBQ selection A and B and what those were. After some very confusing back and forth, we think that you can order 3 meat dishes for a slightly reduced price. Some of the waiters and waitresses seem to have very limited English. We resort to hand signals sometimes or they would call someone else over. We tell the waiter our order, which he doesn't write down. We end up getting the wrong meats, but weren't too fussed as all the meats were good.

First things to arrive is the Panchan. I love kimchi. I even made my own but found it too much hassle. Just go buy it from a Korean grocery and theirs is much better anyway. The kimchi here is very good. It's spicy enough but the marinated flavours just taste right, with enough sourness, saltiness and a hint of ginger. There are other panchan that we have never seen. There was the marinated bean shoots, that Dennis really like. The marinated onions, marinated spring onions and sugar coated soy beans were all different. There was also a bowl of complimentary sour soup to cleanse the palate. Patrick said it tasted like vinegar. However, when he retried it at the end of the meal, he said it was nice and took away some of that richness of the meats we had been eating. I totally agreed.


We ordered the Prime Beef (of which apparently only 3 pieces are obtained from a cow). It's the thinly sliced meat on the block in the far back. We also ordered Beef Ribs marinated in sweet sauce (right), Pork marinated in spicy sauce, Chilli Chicken but instead got Pork unmarinated. Finally we got the extra Chilli Chicken that we wanted, but it was the dish that pushed us over the edge. There was only three of us after all and we still had a soup and steamed rice.


The Pork Soup with Potato was quite spicy with the aromas of lots of herbs. With the flavours from the pork, it was a delicious soup that I had four bowls of. We all picked out the meat from the pork bones and put them into the soup, making for a very hearty soup.


Here we are cooking the meats on the BBQ. Despite our insistance that we cook our own meats to one waiter, every other waiter that walked past kept taking the tongs from us and started to help us cook it. Maybe that's how it works in Korea but it was a bit strange. Every time a waiter would stand there, we would stop talking. It's just not how we are used to dining. They all did a great job in keeping the meat from burning and cutting stuff from bones and into smaller pieces. The one time a waiter didn't come and do it, we ended up burning the pork. So it's probably a good thing, but maybe if they just come by less often. It was weird and we kept stop talking each time. Maybe if we got used to it, we would continue talking next time.


If you are going to eat Korean BBQ, this place is definitely the place to go. The ambience is good and service very attentive. Some other lame Korean BBQs aren't even run by Koreans (not that there is a problem with that) but the food doesn't taste as good in terms of the marinade and cooked on a gas hotplate. At A Ri Rang for example, they didn't even give us kimchi for free. At this place, we got 3 refills of kimchi.

The cost is good. For all the food that the three of us had, it woked out to $40 each which included a tip. I would go back to this place if I want to eat Korean BBQ.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Korean BBQ done at its best. Ambience and service is good.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Sydney Road Food Tour

It started off when I read an article by John Lethlean about Mediterranean Wholesalers. It sounded like a place full of great stuff, so I thought I might go there and have a look. Inspired by Vida's dedication to bakeries and the tour that she had taken us on last week to the Chilean and Argentinean bakeries around Noble Park and Clayton, I thought I would visit some of the bakeries in Sydney Road that I had been wanting to go to. So here is the wrap up.

First stop was at Mario's in Brunswick Road. I've heard about this place before but have never actually ate in it. I've ever eaten at Don Vincenzo right next door to it, but not at Mario's. I think I know the reason why know, it doesn't have a sign hanging above the footpath so unless you are looking for it, you just walk right past it. I was looking for it and still walked past it a few times. A desperate call to my friend John to ask him exactly where it was helped me find it finally.


I had the Eggs Benedict and a fruit cup. The fruit cup of juice and fresh chunks of fruit was very refreshing for a hot day. I tucked into my brunch of eggs benedict. The egg yolks were still runny when I burst them. Bright orange yolk streamed all over my plate like a small lava flow. I mopped it up quickly with my lightly toasted muffin. It was delicious, and the Bernaise sauce made it even richer.


First stop was Mediterranean Wholesalers, since they closed at 2pm, the earliest of all the places I wanted to visit. I don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting a huge supermarket style shop with aisles of everything. I started to walk the aisles and then decided I better get a basket after all as I probably couldn't caryy all the stuff I wanted.


So many interesting things that I had never seen before. I wanted to grab everything but stopped myself and told myself I could always come back. I ended up getting those famous anchovies that Lethlean bought. I love anchovies too but normally just buy the Coles ones. I want to see how much better these ones are. I also grabbed peach nectar the I love. Limoncello since it was about as cheap as making it myself. I grabbed cocoa, I don't know why, it looked good. Some peach jam and dried figs rounded out my shopping. I must come back just to buy the cured meats next time. Oh and be earlier so I can get my hands on the bread too.

So after lugging my stuff back to the car, I drove to the next stop, Balha's. I had read about Balha's on Sarah's blog, Sarah Cooks. Balha's is definitely big and bright like Sarah said. I looked at the tiny tiny pamphlet that they had stuck on one of the windows. The descriptions were so small I couldn't even read them. I walked up to the counter and asked one of the ladies what she suggested. She said that everything was good and that I should try a bit of everything and next time I'll know what I like. So I took her suggestions and started to point at things that looked good, with no idea what was in them at all.


So this is what I ended up buying from Balha's for $9.50. I've eaten at least a bite from all of them now and I can say that some are good, but there are more misses than hits. The white round thing on the right is good, with custard sandwiched between the pastry sheets. The two white baklava type things at the bottom is also good, but not as good as the next shops that I will talk about. The round brown thing is ok, tasting as it looks, a little burnt. The two blocks on the left, with the stringy stuff on top tastes very heavily of rose water and it doesn't work that well with the nuts. The big blocky thing at the back tastes like bland ricotta or something and is the worse of the lot.


The next shop I visited was El Fayha (or El Faiha) depending on which sign you look at. The shop front and skirting board above the shop say El Fayha but the neon sign says El Faiha. I had visited this shop once before when my friend John showed it to me. I had already wanted to come back to this shop. Sarah also found it purely by chance and said how good she thought it was too. It's a really small shop with the blinds closed on the window, so you don't even know if it's open. Here is what it looks like from outside to make finding it a bit easier.


John had been giving me baklava from this place occasionally which I thought his mother in law had made. When he told me it was bought, I asked him to show me the shop. We went there and bought a mixed tray, 12 pieces for $10. It was fantastic and I was hooked already. Well after this time, I'm addicted. Everything is still good after my second tasting, so it wasn't just the initial liking of something new.


The old gentlemen was there again, slightly hunched over with a fairly serious look on his face. I asked him how things were sold, which probably didn't translate well into Lebanese. He said they are sold by the piece. I then asked him who much each cost. He told me it was 12 pieces for $10, so I said I would get that. Here is what I bought for $10 from El Fayha.


Once again, I have eaten a bit of everything from El Fayha. I have to say that I liked EVERYTHING. Ok lets start from the far back left. The round thing you can just see contains cashews I think. It tastes the most nutty out of all the pastries and is more dry. It tastes more like a biscuit but is still good. The lady fingers come in a couple of varieties, with different nuts and slightly different textures and taste. Both the pistachio and almond ones are good. The baklava looking ones again come in different flavours. I like the traditional pistachio one the best, but the cashew one is very very close. Finally though the square parcel things are my favourite. They are unbelievable. The pistachios taste so fresh with the honey and pastry. I like all their pastries and will go back for sure. I think this was better value than Balha, mainly because I like everything and some of Balha's I didn't like. I will still go back to Balha to see what other gems they might have. They have much more variety whereas this is almost everything El Fayha has to offer. But when its this good, less is more sometimes.


Last stop was A1 Bakery. I had been to the Dandenong branch and wanted to see what was different about the Brunswick one. It turns out that the Dandenong branch is way better. This Brunswick store was smaller and didn't carry as much grocerys. What was worse though was that they didn't have any pastries at all (well there was a tiny tray under a cake holder). I had wanted to buy their tube things with custard which are unbelievably good. I also wanted to pick up some dulce de leche, but they didn't have that either. So instead, I was feeling a bit hungry so got a sausage pizza to have there. Only when it arrived did I remember how huge the pizza was. I ate it slowly and managed to eat it all. What a pig I've become!


By that time, I was getting really tired walking in the sun all day. I thought it would be hard to find parking so hiked it everywhere. It was also getting late and I had a dinner to get to that night. Hence, I called it a day, totally contented with everything I had got. Till the next trip out from the burbs to Brunswick. In the mean time, I have to bribe my friend John to help me buy more pastries from El Fayha.

Mediterranean Wholesalers - 482-492 Sydney Road Brunswick Ph:9380 4777
Balha's - 761 Sydney Road Brunswick Ph: 9383 3944
El Fayha Sweets - 648 Sydney Road Brunswick Ph: 9386 6974
A1 Bakery - 643-645 Sydney Road Brunswick Ph: 9386 0440

Houndstooth

I had wanted to go to Houndstooth ever since I read Michael's review on Where's The Beef. One other time that I tried to go fell through. Hence, this time when a group of us were going to watch Beowulf 3D at IMAX (the 3D is spectacular, movie is probably just worth watching to see that but otherwise movie storyline was terrible) on Rathdowne, I suggested that we go to Houndstooth for dinner. Michael had written how he had walked past it for months without going in. Well Houndstooth probably isn't such a secret anymore since they got reviewed in The Age.

We got there around quarter to eight and all the communal tables were already filled. There was one empty table, which had been booked. Luckily for us, the kind waitress said that we could squeeze in and might have to scoot together a bit when the other diners arrived. It turned out that by the time the booked patrons arrived, the couple at the end of our communal table left so we just stuck the booking note over there instead.

I like the look and feel of the place, small and cosy. The noise level is buzzing without being so loud that you can't hear your own friends. There is fairly low mood lighting but still retains enough lumination for you to see your food.


The menu is very simple, consisting of a few items written on the chalk board. These items change constantly so you never know what you will get. There are a few options for entrees, mains and desserts. There are also side dishes such as chorizos I saw. It costs a extremely cheap $10 for two courses, and $15 for three. You can choose between any two courses, entree and mains or mains and dessert. Everyone went for two courses, but being the ever diligent food reporter that I am, I went for three.

As Michael wrote in his post, the beer list is impressive indeed. They had heaps of ale, which I like. They even had the Leff Blonde beer that I just sample a week ago at Belgian Beer Cafe. I thought that beer was exclusive to that cafe, but I guess not. I choose the Pale Ale in the end. The other guys went for various ales as well. Kin went for a lemonade, which the waitress poured into a glass for him. There was a bit left in the bottle, but instead of giving it to him, she put it away. That was a bit strange, and probably the only small niggle I had.

Despite Kin's constant questioning of "Where's the food, I'm hungry", the food didn't take that long. It was a bit longer than I expected considering how few choices they had, but it looked like the whole place has that relaxed attitude.

I choose the Scallops on Spinach for entrees. Two scallops sat beautifully on their shells above a bed of spinach. The scallops were dressed with a lime type dressing, simple but delicious. I dipped the spinach in the tangy sauce of the scallops as well.


For mains, I got the Osso Bucco. The osso bucco was served with some potatoes. The large chunk of meat I got also included the bone, with the soft marrow being dug out by me quickly. The meat was very tender and feel apart when I went to eat it.


Finally for dessert, I wanted the Pecan Tart. However, they ran out of that, so instead I got the Lemon Cheesecake. I ate the cheesecake before remembering to take a photo, so use your imagination and picture a thin slice of cheesecake, lightly kissed in colour by the yellow of a lemon. It contains an outer shell of crumbed biscuit and is served cleanly on a white plate, with a small dollop of white cream waiting for the cheesecake to swim in. (Ok that's as best I can do with my description, do the rest with your own minds). The cheesecake was soft and fluffy and contained the tang of lemon, very nice.

The service was good. Things were served fairly timely, after each subsequent dish was finished. The waitress apologised for not having the pecan tart and was the one who seated us despite not having a reservation.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food is simple but good and exceptional value.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

The Power of The Pen

The world of food critique is a very small world indeed. Food blogs are slowly rising and may be competing with traditional media in some areas. Ed over at Tomato has discussed this topic quite a few time, here's one post. However, traditional media, and those wielding the pen behind them are still a major force to be reckoned with in the world of food critique.

Unlike movie reviewing, where a professional movie reviewer will still wield some power, food reviewing is another tale of power altogether. With a movie review, there are many more sources to choose from to begin with. There are a few reasons why movie reviewers opinions aren't as powerful.

1) There are only a certain number of movies released at one time. Your friends or family will most likely have seen it and can give you their opinion as well.
2) Movies are relatively cheap so you can go and even if it is bad, it's only a few dollars.
3) You can watch a trailer of a movie and get an idea of what it is roughly about. The trailer can sometimes give a false impression, but at least it's a guide.

Hence, a movie reviewers opinion is diluted. I know I still read their reviewers beforehand, but even if they write it is bad, I will still go watch sometimes.

A food reviewers power is totally undiluted. It will be rare that you can turn to a friend and say "Have you eaten at ....." and get a positive response. Therefore, it's hard to gauge whether a restaurant is good or not. With so many restaurants, the options are very hard to choose from when you have no idea about them at all.

A meal at a restaurant is usually a bit of an occasion, so you really want something good. A bad meal can ruin the whole occasion. It's usually not that cheap to eat at a fancy place, hence making the decision even more vital.

Previously, the only place to get an indication of what a restaurant is like is from reading restaurant reviews. What a reviewer says can literally make or break a restaurant. I know that before food blogs were more common, I really did take the advice of the reviwer and only go to places they liked. I realise that they are only one man/woman's opinion, but their opinion is one more than I have.

Hence, restaurant reviewers are held in the highest regards. They are the Anto Ego's (from Ratatouille) who command a restaurants undivided attention as one meal can change a restaurant's fortunes. Reviewers probably get preferential treatment more often than not, which must affect their judgement. Their task which they are getting paid to do, is to write something that will grab the readers attention. This either means a very glowing review, or a scathing one. Something in the middle of the road won't really retain people's interest. This is at odds with the usual dining experience, which is usually just average. The extremes of excellence and mediocrity are the minority rather than the majority. Therefore, I don't know how accurate their reviews will be, but still, it is an opinion that you can access.

Food reviewers are an enigma in that they are rarely seen by the general public. They are a powerful beast that you know of but don't really know. They are like the little man behind the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. From the outside, they are all powerful, but really they are just normal people. They have their own opinions, as do all of us. This point was brought home when I read Adam of The Amateur Gourmet's post about meeting the New York Times food reviewer, Frank Bruni. Adam, with his blog, is starting to wield a lot of power in the food arena. However, he was still awestruck to meet Frank. Slowly though, he realised that Frank is just another person who likes to eat and gets to express his opinions to a larger audience. That's actually comforting to know, that food reviewers do enjoy their jobs and are doing it because they love it. If they are doing it purely for the money, then their review will be a lot less reliable for me personally. I have found that I turn to a lot of blogs nowadays for an "average" person's point of view. The "average" food blogger is a lot more knowledgeable about food but still, all write from the heart as we have nothing much to gain from it.

Finally, back on home turf, there was a sighting of a couple of Wizards recently by Ed and Neil.

Tin's Birthday BBQ

Although Tin's birthday is actually next week, more people were free this week so we had a BBQ this week. I suggested that we do a whole lamb on a spit as that is easy and everyone loves it. Hence, I sent out invites (virtual ones in this day and age) and confirmed that everyone was coming. I organised with everyone to bring something different to share. Tin ordered a whole lamb to pick up on the day.

Despite no one really knowing how to do a spit, we did great in the end. I dropped by Tin's house earlier in the day and we decided that we would light the coal about 3pm. By 4pm, it didn't look like the lamb had cooked much so we lumped on more coal. Things really started to heat up and the coals were flaming a little. People started to arrive in a trickle from 4pm. We went and got beer and ice. Upon returning, 10kg of ice didn't look like much, so a call was made out to people who hadn't arrived yet to buy ice. 20kg more of ice would arrive.

There was lots to eat and drink and it was all delicious. Bascially it was like any other BBQ, people mingling with each other and eating the whole time until the point of bursting. Below is a photographic journey with some editorial comments inserted for comedic emphasis.

Is that a lamb or a large dog?


Tin: "I hunted this lamb myself..... at the butchers."


John: "Wow, that is hot. Yup!"


Keiran: King of the home brew beer. The home brew was really popular and finished before we resorted to "commerical" brands.


Wei: "Hubby is drunk so I'll drink on his behalf."


Master of the knife, Trung.


After Trung with done with the lamb, this is all that remained.


Jessie: "This lamb is great, but where is the dumplings Wei?"


Thanh: "Esther, is that real cream?"


Emmanuel, a knowing smile.


Mafia? Or society for the blind.


John: "What are you looking at?". Ummm, look behind you John.


Thanh's tasting platter. Yum yum.


Tin with son Tim and cake number one. You look great for 74.


The Addams family.


Cake number 2.


Cake number 3. How many cakes does a man need? Apparently, 3 is the answer.


Who turned out the lights?


My birthday card has a hole in it. I demand a refund.


Lets karaoke the night away.

Chilean and Argentinean Bakeries

I had seen a comment by Vida on another blog about all these wonderful Chilean and Argentinean bakeries, in Noble Park and Clayton, right near my house. So being the devoted dessert lover that I am, I quickly email Vida to ask if she could give more detailed locations. Vida gave me the rough locations but that didn't help me too much. Finally, she decided to give me a whole tour instead, how generous of her. I had mentioned this bakery tour when I met up with Ella and Furry for dinner at Proud Peacock. Ella said she was interested to come as well, so we all met up to visit these bakeries.

After some initial confusion over whether it was happening this Saturday, I got an sms from Vida saying she was on her way. I quickly get changed (I'm never up before 11pm on Saturdays usually) and go to Haley's Bakery to meet the others. I still had a bit of a headache from all the beers I drank at the Belgian Beer Cafe the previous night, but how could I miss out on cakes. You can read Vida's account of the day here and Ella's account of the day here.

Haley's Bakery is our first stop, a Chilean bakery. Vida was an excellent guide. She tells us about all the specialities and which one each shop did best. She was explaining about ingredients and history and how to eat things. Being the first stop, we were all ultra excited and I went a bit overboard, buying lots and lots of cakes. Here is Ella photographing the cakes while Vida chats to the staff about all their baked goods.


Second stop is Empanadas las Penas, a place I could never have found even if I was seraching for it purposefully. It's located in some little street nestled amongst all these houses. The shop front is so non-descript, you couldn't have guessed what is inside. From the exterior, it could have been a laundry, an accountants office or some seedy establishment if you didn't know what empanadas were. Luckily for us, Vida had done a dry run and actually talked to the laundry place next door to find out where this shop was. Such a dedicated tour guide.


Although all shops seem to be family establishments, this one had that feeling the most. The interior was this cramped space that fit only about 6 people. We were crowding around looking at everything whilst the smell wafting from the ovens was so good, I could taste the food already. When other customers came in, we had to shuffle along a bit to make space.

We bought empanadas from this place as Vida said they did the bests one. They were boiling hot still as they had just come out of the oven. My meat empanada was so yummy, I burnt my mouth a little eating it too quickly.


The fabolous Ella and Furry helped drive me around all day to minimise my hangover pains. They, along with Vida, are my new best foodie friends. Seeing as I live so close to Ella and Furry, it's easier to catch up with them for meals and other food related events.


Third stop was Monica's, an Argentinean cake shop this time. Again the smell was what hit me first. Mmmmmmm. The smell of freshly baked goods is divine.


Again, Vida distracted the staff while we stole....... glorious food porn shots of the food. The petit fours here looked amazing, and also a bargain at $28 for a whole kilo. I wanted to get everything, but we still had other stops and I didn't want them to all melt. Hence I will go back next week to buy one of every petit four.




Our last scheduled stop was Marciano's, a Chilean shop in Clayton. I don't know if I was starting to feel the weight of all the food in my stomach or I was getting even more dehydrated, but Marciano's impressed me the least. The baked goods didn't look as exotic as the other places, nor have that authentic ethnic feel. It was more professional and slightly more sterile feeling. Still, I bought some desserts to take home.


This was suppose to be our last stop, but Vida squeezed in one more stop just for us. We went to the Clayton Road Deli. For the n-th time, Vida went to the counter and started her spiel "We're a group of foodies and I'm taking these guys around showing them different places. We're going to take photos of your shop and put them up on the web and encourage people to come and visit". It was so funny. I was saying to Vida that we had to qualify ourselves and our cameras and reassure the owners that we weren't either a)crazy b)health inspectors c)competing rivals or d)crazy.


Again, I have to go back to the deli and slowly explore to pick up some of my favourite cured meats. The limoncello also looked good. I'm torn between making my own limoncello, which actually won't be cheaper, or buying it. When the limoncello was $10 for 100ml at Dan Murphy's, it was worth it to make my own. But for $30 for 700ml, that's about the same cost as buying the vodka to make my own.

Here was my haul for the day. I'm slowly working through them and noting down which ones I like. There is no photo of the empanadas as I already finished those off before getting home even.


Thanks to Vida for driving all that distance to show us around. Thanks to Ella and Furry for giving me a lift all day. Till the next tour, happy eating.

Haley's Bakery - 11 Elonera Road Noble Park Ph: 9792 5754
Empanadas las Penas - 40 Alfred Street Noble Park Ph: 9558 4600
Monica's Cake Shop - 14 Hosken Street Noble Park Ph: 9562 4699
Marciano's Cakes - 1481 Centre Road Clayton Ph: 9543 5967
Clayton Road Deli - 397 Clayton Road Clayton Ph: 9544 1968