WHERE'S MY DREAM?

This was a birthday present from my aunty and I've been using it as a reward for completing homework. I know you shouldn't reward yourself with food but this box will be all gone if I don't. Anyways I was choosing one today and I felt like having a Dream (white chocolate) since its my favourite!! But there WASN'T even ONE in the box!!!! I tipped the entire box out to try and find one but there wasn't any =[ Unless someone ate them all without me knowing....can't believe it. Very upset.

Cooking: Scallops

Back to father's day. Wanted to make scallops because my dad loves seafood. I guess it's probably because he rarely got to eat it as a kid since it was quite expensive. Unlike mum who ate more seafood since grandpa was a fishmonger. Asked bro to buy some scallops in shell after uni at Vic Market. He gave me a choice of two different types, a larger one without the roe and a smaller one with roe. The larger was almost double the price of the smaller. Since I wanted the roe we went with the cheaper smaller one and boy was it a bad choice. I didn't realise how small he meant until he came home. And after cooking them.....about the size of a 5cent coin.

Lets play spot the scallop =P

Anyways, just steamed them asian style with some ginger and spring onion. Then some hot oil on top once they finish cooking.

Also made some with hot bean paste. 

The scallops were small and flavourless unfortunately. 

Lesson learnt, you get what you pay for.

Oh and size does matter ;p

Update: TAKOYAKI machines in AUSTRALIA

A bit behind in blogging due to the crazy amount of school work being crammed in before the end of the term. Only 3 weeks of high school left 0.0
Yesterday I had a very very special experience and I must thank my friend Mat for everything. Owe him one big time now. Not supposed to talk about it so I'll just give you a hint, don't ask me anything though.

When I thought my day couldn't get any better, I came home to this

My brother has been looking far and wide for a takoyaki machine for my birthday. I saw pretty much the exact same one at ALDI a month or so back AND though to myself, "I wonder whether I could make takoyaki out of that" only to find out later when bro was looking them up online that it was actually a takoyaki machine except sold as a "Dutch Pancake Maker". AND IT WAS ONLY $15!!!!! So bro found out the company that makes the machines sells them at other places other than ALDI and he went looking at ALDI and BIGW stores trying to find one but there were none left. The company said they only import so many each year or something along the lines of that. So he went looking for dutch pancake makers in general and supposedly target had the ones he was looking for. He went to many stores (like every aldi, big w and target store in the city) and he finally found one!!! AT OUR LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE!!! a minutes drive away from our place =.=" $30 at target.
So how do I know its a takoyaki machine?

Can you see the octopus down the bottom? Suggests that it has something to do with takoyaki. BUT the octopus is actually holding a TAKOYAKI therefore I conclude that it is a takoyaki machine =] Can't wait to try it out, except I'm super busy with work unfortunately.
I'm a tad takoyaki obsessed as seen here. Only eaten it a few times in my life, and none of them were in japan. First recall trying them at Samurai Burger at Box Hill, then in Taiwan in the night markets (cheapest I've had, like AUD$1.20 for 6, then in HK twice in a day, then at Yuki jap restaurant in Malvern on my birthday. Best being Gindaco in HK and Yuki here.

Cooking: Steak Sandwich

For fathers day I didn't make breakfast for dad because I was too lazy to get out of bed. Made steak sandwiches for lunch instead.

Ingredients: Sliced tomato, sliced onion, avocado, gerkins/pickles, cheese, whatever else you want in your sandwich, some sort of steak, sauce of your liking (I used HP sauce which no one seems to know about), some sort of bread (I used a focaccia like bread).

Method: Cook the onion with some sugar and salt until soft and caramalised. Meanwhile slice the tomato, gerkins. Set onion mix aside. Flatten steaks until they are about 1/4-1/3 bigger than your bread (as they will shrink when you cook them). Heat a grill pan till smoking hot and cook steaks for about 30 seconds a side. Slice avocado whilst steaks are cooking (have to bea ninja to do this). Place a slice of cheese ontop of the stead and rest the steaks. Place bread onto the pan. Lightly toast (keep you eyes on them because they burn quickly). Spread the sauce onto the bread. Top with everything and eat =]

Pretty simple and quick. Tastes awesome!

Cooking: Wonton noodles

A honkie favourite. If you go to hong kong, this is something you should try. The most popular version is the noodle soup unlike the Malaysians/Singaporeans which prefer the dry version. I've actually never tried a dry version before. In HK, the price of a bowl of wonton noodles can vary greatly. The cheapest and most authentic are found at sidewalk hawker stall places (大排檔) for a couple of dollar(aussie) a bowl. My uncle told me, the way to eat wonton noodles is to eat all the noodles first otherwise they will soak up all the soup and taste soggy. Also some people like to add vinegar to their wanton noodles as sometimes the noodles have an alkaline taste.

Don't exactly have a recipe. Done according to mum's "feel". 

Only thing missing is deep fried fish skin. Sooooo yummy but you can't seem to get it here.


The following day we decided to finish off the other packet of noodles and also the rest of the wontons.

This time I attempted to make a dry noodle. Mixed the noodles with sesame oil, soya sauce, fish sauce, and kecap manis to get the dark colour. With some homemade sambal on the side. Pretty good, except the noodles were stuck together.


To be honest I think I like the dry version more. I always struggle to finish a bowl of wonton noodles in HK, and the bowls are quite small. However I can eat a lot of soya sauce noodles for some reason...

Eating Out: Red Lantern Chinese BBQ 327 Doncaster Road, North Balwyn, 3104

Ate lunch here with mum yesterday. Since they're extending/expanding one would assume that they are doing quite well which means that they serve decent food. And in my opinion, my assumption was right.

Char Kway Teow $9.50

Full of ingredients, however the only seafood present were these extremely crunchy prawns (with no flavour). Is CKT supposed to have fishcake and lap cheong? Because neither were present. Lots of crunchy beansprouts. Hardly chilli at all. Some egg, some char siu like stuff and little tiny pieces of something which I assumed to be pork fat but didn't taste like it...not sure what they were. Capsicum and carrot were some unusual additions. It was slighty brown but not as dark as what I'm used to seeing. Altogether it tasted pretty nice but not really like char kway teow, tasted a bit like singaporean noodles (星洲炒米) with hor fun(河粉/wide rice noodles) instead of rice vermicelli(米粉).

Roast Duck and Soya Chicken Rice $10.50

Just one selection is $9.00 but I couldn't decide between the two so we got combination. The soya chicken was alright, used to be better. Large pieces of meat, smooth elastic skin with soya sauce flavour. The roast duck on the other hand was surprisingly good. Also large pieces of MEAT, not just bone like some stingy places. The skin was crisp but there was only a thin layer of fat. Good for the health conscious, bad for the fat lovers like me. However encountered the same problem as we did for the take away roast pork last week, the BBQ meats were cold. 20 secs in the microwave won't do any harm right?

Food: 7.5/10 Pretty good, one of the top places around my side of town for Chinese BBQ meats. Extremely generous servings, Mum and I had trouble finishing both plates. A tad on the oily side.

Service: 8/10 No complaints about this. Waitress was nice (she had blue eyelashes o.o) Food came really quickly. And you are left to eat in peace.

Environment: 7.5/10 Contemporary Chinese furnishing. Not sure whether the open kitchen really works. Looks organised but cluttered at the same time. Though the ducks hanging in the kitchen to dry look pretty cool.

Verdict? I'd come back. Since they are so quick and serve decent food. Also it's along the way back from school so it's convenient. 

Look at that skin!

Drooling yet?

Update: Yum Cha Inn 269 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley

Last weekend family decided to go yum cha. Hadn't gone to Yum Cha Inn in a while so disregarding the fact that I had a mountain of work/study to do, I still went.

Prawn Dumplings

Malaysian Fried Noodles

Deep Fried Stuffed Eggplant

I thought this dish was already really good last time I went. This time they've made a bit of a batter and its even better =]

Taro Football Dumpling?

Forgotten a lot of the exact names of the dishes =.=" Sad because I wrote the menu.

Really like this picture I took.

Eating IN: Red Lantern Chinese BBQ (327 Doncaster Road, North Balwyn)

Decided to grab some chinese roast pork on the way home from a school excursion on a SATURDAY all the way in whoop whoop landBALLARAT!!!!

The rice and vegies were cooked at home. The roast pork here is alright. We managed to take the last piece for the night. It was cold and I was too scared to microwave it because I didn't want the crackling to go soggy. Good layer of fat on the pork =] AND there was a lot of meat. Though some had bones they were big enough to not choke on. The skin was crunchy but slightly burnt unfortunately. Altogether it was an awesome dinner. Who doesn't love roast pork?!

Red Lantern (also the name of Mark Jenson's restaurant and the one cookbook I've actually read pretty much from page 1 to the last page, totally irrelevant =]) has recently taken over the shop next door and expanded. So I'm guessing their dine in food is pretty good. Last time I went was last year and I found it alright. Maybe I should visit again soon. Look out for the post.