Eating Out: Meals On Jacksons, Jackson Court, Doncaster East

Been wanting to come here for 2 months now, ever since Steph told me it was alright. The name sounds pretty weird (kinda like meals on wheels) but it's far from that. It's actually a little Malaysian and Chinese Restaurant in a local shopping strip/area (Jackson Court). Wasn't particularly busy although many just buy take away as they do have a lunch special.

We ordered 3 dishes to share between the 4 of us.

  Got bored waiting for food so played with the camera.

Curry Laksa $8.80

Not bad. Contained two types of noodles, chicken, char siu, fish cake, tofu puffs, spring onion and fried shallots. The soup was very creamy, in my opinion too creamy and not fragrant/spicy enough. Also it was not chilli enough for my liking.

Ipoh Combination (滑蛋河）$9.80

Very average. Everyone complained there was not enough eggy sauce. My family loves their sauce when it comes to noodles. Also the noodles were really narrow/thin for some reason, I'm used to wide rice noodles for this dish. Didn't taste exceptional because the ingredients weren't as fresh as they could be. 

Combination Fried Noodle $11

Quite disappointed with this one. Dad ordered since it was the most expensive he thought it would be good. It turned out to be pretty much all the stuff in the Ipoh combination just with fried noodles instead and the addition of cauliflower and broccoli. But crispy noodles are nice =)

Should have gone with Hokkien Mee instead =.="

Food: 7/10 it would have really helped if the food was served hot not warm

Service: 7/10 one lady waited all the tables in the restaurant so you can't expect her attention constantly. She does do a very good job though. 

Environment: 7/10 Everything is relatively clean and modern. Surprisingly spacious given the amount of space. Good lighting though.

Verdict? Not too bad. Pretty average. I think the only other malay restaurants around would be Rasa Malaya and Straits Cafe, I can't compare because I haven't been to either for quite some time. I wouldn't mind coming back here to try their curries but I probably wouldn't order what I ate today, there are a lot of other options on the menu. I think I had my hopes up too high for this place. But it's not a bad chinese restaurant, probably one of the better ones around in that price range. 

Update!! New Petaling Street soon to be opened at Box Hill as La Porchetta closed down. I want to try all the Petaling Street restaurants around. So far I've only tried the Glenferrie Rd one, where I found out Assam Laksa is definitely not the dish for me. It's an acquired taste =.=" Also got to try the one at Glen Waverley, except that every time I go down to Glennie, I always end up at my uncles restaurant.

EPIC FAIL ROTI

Had this awesome idea of making roti today as it was on Rasa Malaysia recently. The roti was destined to fail from the start. Used rough measure measurement, had no ghee, the dough wouldn't come together so I added like 4 times the amount of liquid it told me to, couldn't be bothered cracking 1/8 of an egg. It was just horrible. Rested it for 6 hours. Went to stretch it out. It was not elastic like it was supposed to be. I had this soft pasta dough looking ball. Persisted because I couldn't just chuck it out. Put it into the fry pan and ended up with something a lot like pita bread that wasn't cooked in the middle. Furthest thing from roti ever.

So I think I won't make roti again for a very long time. Until someone actually teaches me. Sorry K仔. Can you teach me?

But things like this happen in the kitchen. Not everything works out. Better luck next time.....

Sorry no pic, it was just so fail.

Cooking- Garlic and Chilli Focaccia with Curry Pork Filling

Had a sudden urge to make focaccia but at the same time wanted curry. So why not make both?
The focaccia didn't rise for some reason but because I put so much oil on top of it it came out super crunchy.
The curry pork was pretty much stir fried mince pork with curry powder, how lazy.
An alright sandwich, soooooo filling though. Eating it whilst I type out this post as there happens to be nothing interesting on tv.
It's getting very chilli. Chilli on the focaccia, curry powder and added fresh chillies.

Super full now

Cooking: Japanese Cheesecake

Finally got to make this. Very fun to make.

Am i weird? I like to watch egg whites get beaten to stiff peaks and make pretty patterns at the edges of the electric mixer bowl.

After the cheesecaked was baked.

Was a bit burnt.

Everything looks better with icing sugar :)

Didn't actually turn out like I hoped, not as fluffy unfortunately, but it's extremely dense and yummy.

Cooking- Pizza

Since mum had the flour and yeast out to make hot cross buns, I decided to make pizza for lunch. It was good fun, kneading dough is somehow fun. I guess it's like playing with playdough. The topping was, tomato, pesto chicken, spanish onion, pineapple, corn, garlic and cheese.

Studded the entire pizza edge with corn in hope that the crust would taste better and less boring...wasn't as great as I thought it would be.

Finished product

I'm not a fan of heaps of topping and a pizza covered in cheese.

Pizza 1: Rolled out the dough, resulted in a thin crispy bottom.

Pizza 2: Used hands to push the dough to the size of the pan, resulted in a very fluffy bottom.

Both pizza's baked together and on pizza trays. 

(Sounds like a biology experiment, garrrrrr school)

Cooking- Hot Cross Buns

It's almost Easter so this year mum decided she wanted to make hot cross buns. I know it's a week early but she was too eager to try out the recipe in the food liftout in Tuesday's Herald Sun.

She woke up earlier than me (i probably woke up earlier just that I was on my laptop in bed) and decided to make it before I got downstairs. So pretty much I only helped her knead it and roll them into balls.

Before they went into the oven.

After they came out. Looks like a slab of fruit bread XD

Hopefully they taste nice =)

5 of My Favourite Things

Xiaowei posted his an hour or two ago. And seeing that I'm just cleaning my desk tonight, I decided to do my own =) Everything is from my room.

1. A gift from K仔. Looks pretty and means a whole lot more.

2. Made these over a year ago I think. Paper Air Force Ones. They look awesome but they are so fiddly to make.

3. My Leehom Wang Poster. Wake up to him everyday as an alarm clock and when I open my eyes =) Alex is awesome too.

4. My Food Pics on my walls. Just a portion of the wall. My inspiration.

5. Juggling Balls. Yes I can juggle, but I never do anymore because I simply forget I have the skill.

Eating Out: Sushi Izakaya (Doncaster Westfield) and Pancake Parlour

FINALLY OUT OF SCHOOL

so happy =)

And to celebrate I went out with friends after school.

Off to shoppo

Japanese Dinner:

At Sushi Izakaya outside Myer. It's a little restaurant if you can call it that. They sell brown rice sushi which is pretty unique. And their handrolls and similar items are stunning, they look really pretty. 

(Chicken Katsu Bento $9.50)

I originally ordered the tonkatsu bento however they couldn't make any tonkatsu so I changed to Chicken Katsu which essentially was the same. The tofu sat in some light soy with bonito flakes on top, very light taste. They used a short-medium grain rice which was good, funny shape though. The salad was weird, looks like aeroplane food. But the Chicken Katsu was the best, soooooooo crunchy, although quite thin and a slight lack of flavour, I was amazed at how crunchy it was and how the breadcrumbs stayed on. I must learn the secret to their crumbing. 

Ngoc had some handrolls and prawn sushi. 

All the sushi looked really appetising and professional. 

Food: 6.5/10

Service: 5/10 (told me there was no tonkatsu about 5 mins after I ordered)

Environment: 5/10 it's literally in the middle of the shopping centre

Verdict? Alright I guess if you really want Japanese food. However don't expect anything spectacular with their bento's. Their handrolls cabinet/case looks very very appealing. However there are two other Japanese Shops at the food court, both aren't bad either. Hard to choose between them.

Then we went to watch Bounty Hunter (which I thought was pretty average) then headed to Pancake Parlour. 

Pancake Parlour: 

Yummy Pancakes. I don't get how they can make them sooooo fluffy.

Lemon Squash Spider

Weird combination, I don't know what to say about it.

It was just weird. Not bad but not particularly good either.

Pancake parlour is great for just hanging out