Pho Minh

This is my second installment regarding my pho-nomenal week on a budget. If you have been following my blog, you may notice that I have posted about this place quite a few times. Service here is quick and efficient and if that has already grabbed your attention, how about affordable? At about $10 for a small bowl of pho (which is more than enough to keep me filled, taking into account that I have a huge appetite!), this is definitely the place for the budget-conscious consumer!

As usual, the waiting staff will ask what type of noodles you prefer (go with fresh!) and if you want your beansprouts cooked or fresh (also go with fresh!) and this is pretty standard regardless of what pho variation you have in mind. I have also realized that some of the staff speak very basic English and have a thick Vietnamese accent so do make sure you speak clearly to them. You may have to repeat yourself but I find that pointing out what you want on the menu helps.

On every table lies a basket of sauces for customers to mix and match according to their preference. I like having an extra kick of chilli in my pho and hence, always make sure I have at least 2 teaspoons of dry chilli, 1/2 tsp of fresh chilli and a good splash of fish sauce to unite all the individual components together.

Three bean sweet - I am a huge fan of red beans and this is my must have at every Vietnamese restaurant. The bottom layer consists of a chunky red bean paste, the middle layer is made of slices of green jelly and the top layer is shaved ice. You do need to mix everything in the drink together before slurping it up. Trust me, you will not be disappointed with the end result. A very cooling drink to have during summer!

There are a decent selection of fruit smoothies available and although I have not tried all the flavours, I find that the ones I had sampled did not taste too bad at all.

I like ordering a bowl of pho with beef balls and fresh beef meat in it but if you are an adventurous foodie, you can try out the other types of pho toppings available such as ox tail, intestines, tongue etc etc. From memory, the same soup base is utilized for every bowl that hits the table.

No bowl of pho is complete without additional garnishes such as Thai basil leaves, sprigs of mint, a handful of beansprouts and a good tbsp of sweet onions. I find that these extra garnishes gives the soup extra flavour and aroma. Best part is that you can personalize the pho by adding your own preferred quantities of each garnish. There is no limit to this at all!

A steaming bowl of beef stock, infused with a traditional Vietnamese blend of aromatics served with fresh flat rice noodles that absorbs every molecule of flavour, topped with fresh vegetables. What more can you get for a $10 meal?

Zen Kitchen

Over the past few weeks, I have been heading to Vietnamese restaurants for lunch and dinner as my wallet decided to go on a diet. I am saving up for a few items, of which, shall remain a secret until I can actually get them! I find it near impossible to stumble upon a really horrible Vietnamese shop in Adelaide as most of them are pretty good and probably have similar price ranges. Hence, a safe option for the budget foodie. I am aware that some outlets fare better than others but I'm not too fuss as long as I get my tummy filled without any unwanted hassle.

Zen Kitchen has been opened since I started my uni life back in 2008 and it is still as busy despite a few new restaurants mushrooming around it. I was fortunate enough to head here for lunch one day and was advised to order a chef's special dish that is not on the menu because it is a limited edition item! Yes, this is no longer a secret!

Have I got your attention yet?

The interior can accommodate a medium sized lunch crowd and thankfully, they do have a fast turnover of customers, mainly due to their fast service. Always good to know that you can grab a quick bite before heading back to classes/ work.

So this is the chef's special roast pork with broken rice dish. The roast pork here has a crunchier consistency compared to the other versions that I have sampled and if you think the meat would be dry after a prolonged time in the oven, you may have to make an exception for this time. I have theorized that the meat remained moist and succulent throughout the cooking process, because the fat layer underneath the skin provided the much needed insulation from the scorching oven heat.

As usual, a broken rice dish would not be complete with a side of sunny egg, pickled vegetables and a bowl of good ol'fashioned dressing which I like to drown my rice in.

Dorayaki recipe

Dorayaki refers to a Japanese pancake with red bean filling and it is one of the ever-popular cartoon character, Doraemon's favourite snack. I often ponder on why was Doraemon so addicted to it and last weekend, I discovered the answer.

The pancake mixture is not too runny and once it sits on a hot pan, the added honey begins to brown, of which, gives the overall pancake a nice, browned appearance. It was a bit difficult to control how much tanning the pancake received but I got the hang of it towards the end (when I was running out of batter!).

I've got this easy recipe from Just one cookbook and I find that this is quite a reliable website for Japanese recipes.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
140g sugar
2 tbsp honey
160g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp water
A packet of red bean paste for spreading

Mix the eggs, sugar and honey together in a bowl until it is well-combined. Sift in the flour and baking powder before placing the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes. Incorporate 2 tbsps of water to the mixture, to loosen it, do not add this if it is already runny.

Heat a pan with oil and scoop a ladle of batter into the pan. Flip the pancake once it is beginning to brown and when it is done, spread some red bean paste and sandwich it together!

My red bean paste wasn't as intense flavoured as I would like it to be...will experiment with other brands the next time I am in Chinatown. I can't seem to find a good recipe to make this myself, unfortunately :/

Bon appetit!

Chimichurri Grill Mobile Food Truck

Over the past few months, Adelaide city appears to be beaming with weekly/monthly events, of which, is a lovely initiative from both the Adelaide council and event organizers. Aside from the popular "Fork On The Road" (a gathering for local food trucks to showcase their unique delicacies) , we Adelaide folks are lucky to have a fortnightly night market, hosted by Splash Adelaide. This is not a large scale project, but rather, a moderate sized happening that features handcrafts, music and most importantly, food.

I have seen this event pop up at North Terrace a few times and if you are a first-timer, you should definitely head over to have a look. We slowly browsed the stalls and the photographer in me was excited with this rare opportunity to practice some street photography. I still think my food photography ranks superior though, unfortunately.

Pedestrians, shoppers, passer-bys...you name it...just about everyone was curious and could not resist stopping by to order some food. The wafting scent of cooked food was too irresistible and if there's a queue, you know you are in for a treat!

Admittedly, there was one stall that I was dying to visit since I first read about it. Toasted ciabatta, grilled chorizo, piping hot and crunchy chips, chimichurri sauce...Yes, you guessed it. It is the notoriously delicious Chimichurri Grill Mobile Food Truck!

Pricing wise, it was not too bad for a well-prepared sandwich that is about the size of a foot long Subway. We were still a little filled from lunch and opted to try just one sandwich variation along with a cup of freshly fried chips and Chimi mayo dipping sauce.

The menu is not extensive but yet, all the options available sounded so finger licking good and that made the decision process a tough one!

There is also a very hip looking car that has a television screen on play and sells alcoholic beverages. Pretty neat, ey?:)

Chimi chorizo~ spicy chorizo sausage served on a long roll with roasted capsicum, rocket, provolone cheese and chimichurri sauce. For an extra $3, we added a side of their beer-battered chips which were simply delicious. It was a bit messy to tackle this big fella and I enjoyed every minute of it. The chimichurri sauce was very flavourful and when mixed with the already robust tasting chorizo sausage, it was heavenly. Highly recommended, especially on perfect weathers!

Another interesting food truck that I would love to try would be this Hungarian chimney cake station. The lady behind the counter would immediately work her fingers on the dough and cook them in what appears to be an open oven before proceeding to dust the cooked cake with cinnamon infused sugar. From memory, the a loaf of chimney cake costs about $6.80 each but it was a popular item among visitors. Have to try it out next time!

 

Linzer cookie recipe

One of the magical characteristics of cookies/ biscuits is that they can transform into any shape you desire, just by refrigerating the cookie dough for an hour. I have bought a cookie cutter set that comes with various fun shapes and decided to try it out when I was baking these linzer cookies. And since Mother's Day is just around the corner, how about giving this recipe a crack for an inexpensive but yet thoughtful present that is made from love? :)

Ingredients:
200g butter, softened
100g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
250g plain flour

Mix all the ingredients, except the plain flour together until well combined. Fold in the flour and place the bowl in the fridge for an hour. Roll out the dough until you get an even thickness of about half a centimeter and then use your favourite large and small cookie cutter!

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at 150C. If the cookie shape gets distorted slightly in the oven, quickly use the same cookie cutter ring to reshape it (the cookie is still soft once it exits the oven but you will have to work fast!).

Place half a jar of jam (strawberry/apricot/blueberry/apple etc etc) in a saucepan and place it over low heat. The jam will slowly transform into a semi-solid/liquid state and when that happens, remove from heat. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before spreading on one side of the baked cookie.

For decoration purposes, dust some icing sugar on the cookies before sandwiching them together.

Easy, inexpensive, yummy and most importantly, thoughtful! :)

Do not get overexcited and cut hearts out of all the cookie pieces! Remember, you need a few pieces as the base. Overall, I have made about 15 pairs of cookies. Not too bad at all:)

Rosegarden Thai Restaurant

When I step into a restaurant that I have previously had a good encounter with, I would definitely go back for a second bite. This Thai restaurant is fairly new to me but after an impressive dining experience here a few weeks ago, I wanted to sample more dishes from their menu and this visit requires back up. Yes, I mean sibling support, the kind of assistance that knows no barriers. All you need is someone to bear the cost of the expenditure, which, in this scenario, was...can you guess?

Drunken noodles~ we decided to stick to our preferred type of Thai carbohydrates and this was something we were fond of once upon a time. Fat rice noodles cooked with lovely sweet and sour sauce, loaded with heaps of vegetables and chicken pieces. This was a delicious noodle this indeed.

Pad Thai~ after sampling a few pad thais from various restaurants, it may be concluded that different restaurants serve up different versions of these noodles. We found this dish to be a little sweeter and injected with a tinge too much tomato essence in it. Nevertheless, we did not have any problems polishing off the entire plate.

Thai fried rice~ we had high hopes on this dish but it fell short of our expectations. It was slightly bland and as the picture shows, it probably needed a few extra ingredients to bring it up a whole new level. However, we did use the rice to soak up all the curry gravy from the other dishes so no wastage was experienced that night.

Pandan chicken~ chicken fillet wrapped in pandan leaves before being fried and served with sweet chilli sauce. This is a tasty dish but I would prefer if the chicken bits were bigger. Oh wells, one has to compromise quality for quantity, no?:)

Seafood tom yum~ each of us (there were 3 of us hungry monsters) had about 2 prawns each and were still puzzled as to why were there still prawns swimming in the soup! The chef is generous with his/her seafood portions and we couldn't disagree more. Sure did made up for the smaller portion of pandan chicken.

Green curry chicken~ not too spicy and loaded with unique spices. Delicious, moist chicken bits drowning in a coconut milk based curry. Another dish that we did not have problems finishing off!

Red duck curry~ admittedly, I have not ordered many duck dishes in the past but I do know when a duck is perfectly cooked. It seems that you can not go wrong with ordering duck curry in many places as the duck meat is usually succulent, flavourful and plentiful? Our dishes gradually made its way to our table so by the time this bowl hits our table, we had wiped off more than half a plate of rice! It was a struggle to finish this without much rice to soak up the gravy!

Overall, we were filled to the brim and the entire dinner meal costs about $90, inclusive of their special fish dish which I did not have a clear picture to post up here. We left very satisfied and intoxicated with joy.

Chinese New Year eve in Malaysia

Chinese New Year (CNY)is a very significant celebration for us Chinese peeps as it represents the beginning of a new year/chapter in our lives. I was fortunate enough to head back home to celebrate this event with my family and what better way to usher in the New Year with good food and company? CNY was a few months ago but I can still vividly remember the fireworks popping, Chinese songs playing and neighbours wandering about in the apartment corridor!

This would be the first installment on CNY 2013, so stay tuned for the second part, which, hopefully, I would be able to post up very very soon! For now, let's talk about CNY eve. I didn't get to snap many pictures of my trips to the local malls, purely because the malls were overcrowded with patrons, making it difficult to get nice "street" shoots. Will give it another crack when I get back!

Salted chicken~ something dad usually prepares for CNY and I have heard from friends that this is a very Hainanese dish. Is it really?

Braised chicken in Chinese mushroom~ this is one of our weekday dinner dishes.

Chicken chop~ I can't seem to recreate the exact replica at my aussie house, no matter how much I tried. I am pretty sure I have used the exact same ingredients/methods of preparation. However, I have this strange gut feeling (or theory) that food always taste better when it's prepared by someone else. Do you agree?

This is a dish that I would think twice before digging in when I was younger. Reason? My parents used to tell me that the fine strands of "hair" belongs to my grandma. The things parents tell you....

Dad attempted to whip up a fancy vege dish.

Steamed fish with coriander and soy sauce~ From memory, you would need to fry this fish before putting it in the steamer to cook. When I left home to study in Australia, this was one of the easiest methods that I have learnt for cooking a fish. Very easy and goes well with most types of fish. You are allowed to modify the garnishes.

Another easy method of cooking prawns that I have picked up from home. Fry some garlic, toss in your prawns and a few minutes before the prawns are ready, add appropriate amount of soy sauce. There's your sauce and marinade, all ready in under 15 minutes (or less!).

I was playing around with food styling at that time and hence, the random orange placements on the table.

CNY dinner would not be complete without a bowl of lotus root soup. Dad uses dried cuttlefish to inject a seafood scent and sweetness into the soup.

All in all, I was very very stuffed to the brim for my CNY eve dinner. Us Chinese people do believe that one must always have too much of something rather than too little at all and this applies to your fortune in the coming year!