Just Desserts

A lazy person's meal ideas

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:12:06 +1000

Following on from my previous post, the Vicious Cycle of no exercise, sadly my attempted health kick lasted for a grand total of two days before I went back to the wine and Pizza Hut (on days I went home) or client event canapés (featuring free champagne!!!!). So that was a bit of a fail, as was my giant hangover which rendered me unable to get out of bed until 4pm the next day.

I think one of my biggest problems with committing to such a health diet is being time poor and being incredibly, super lazy. If I can’t make it in less than two minutes, I won’t bother and will just buy it. If you are also time poor and lazy, I hope some of my easy meal ideas will help you out.

Porridge
I had some bad experiences with porridge and used to have the Uncle Toby’s 90 second oats sachets, but it tasted like cardboard slushed in water. Luckily, I recently discovered Be Natural Porridge which has been a breakfast staple ever since. It’s pretty good for winter where you don’t want to eat cereal because of the cold milk (even though it takes no time at all to ‘make’).

The lid operates as a measuring cup, you just need to add milk, microwave it and add some cinnamon and honey.
Prep time: 30 seconds. Cooking time: 90 seconds. Win.

Packet noodles
Who doesn’t love packet noodles and there is so much variety these days - you can do Asian with mi goreng, Tom yum and even pho flavoured or some classics in the form of Maggi or Fantastic Noodles. For a super degree of laziness, purchase the packet noodles already in a cup as to save with washing up and having to find some bowls.

Prep time: zero. Cooking time: 2 minutes (may be longer if you need to drain the noodles).

Canned tuna
For a super degree of laziness, just eat the tuna out of the can!
Prep time: zero. Cooking time: zero.

Canned soup
Again on the winter theme, this one is good for a warm, hearty meal. Problems can be encountered if you don’t have a can opener or do not know how to operate the can opener, but this can be overcome by buying one of those soup cans with that tab thing that just lifts up and can be pulled back to open the can. Again, there are so many flavours - you can go Italiano with minestrone or a bit classy with the pumpkin soup. Really, there’s a flavour for every meal of the week that you cannot possibly go wrong!

Prep time: 10-30 seconds to open can. Cooking time: 90 seconds in microwave and then 30 seconds to rest.

Lean Cuisine (or other frozen meals)
I used to ridicule anyone who brought lean cuisine into the office. It was just so funny that the people on ‘Lean Cuisine’ or ‘Weight Watchers’ were the skinniest people in the office. Now, slowly, I am becoming that person (and subsequently have to hide my lean cuisine or label it with an alias in the communal freezer). It kind of tastes like moosh (all of it, the pasta, veggies, rice, meat) but sometimes I just want whatever the picture is (some amazing gourmet meal) but CBB going to any effort. Frozen meals are a good compromise between what I what to eat and the effort I am willing to expend to get there. The variety is also very good (you can get Indian, Asian or Western food) and sometimes there’s two for $6 specials at Coles.

Prep: Leave out to defrost for a few hours. Cooking time: 5 minutes on high.

Do you have any other lazy people meal ideas?

The vicious cycle of no exercise

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:41:35 +1000

Full time work is becoming an occupational hazard to my health.

Although there are free gym memberships, yoga classes and firm netball/soccer/basketball teams; I’m not sure how anyone has any time to attend any of the above if they are actually getting any work done.

Similarly, when I get home from work at 9-10pm, I briefly think about exercising - before realising I haven’t eaten since lunch at 1pm, then becoming overwhelmed by hunger and proceeding to eat the entire contents of my fridge. Once I eat the meal, I can’t exercise because it needs to digest (and I need to further binge on some tv shows). And by the time my dinner finishes digesting, it’s time for bed again.

Adding to the fact that the only exercise I do is walking from my desk to the kitchen (hello, scotch fingers!) is the amount of alcohol intake has exponentially increased (hello, friday night drinks), as has the amount of unhealthy crap I’ve been eating.

(I’m starting to sound like a contestant from The Biggest Loser).

An accurate depiction of me, every night.

It’s a common theme around Sydney - that in the initial stages of joining a law firm, you get sucked into the (delicious) bi-weekly birthday cakes, don’t have time to exercise and just eat weight watchers frozen meals for dinner because you’re too fried to make any other food. Some firms affectionately called it the (insert law firm name) Five, after the five kilos you gain from working there.

This week, I’m going to get my shit together; start running again and slowly work my way back to a decent fitness level. I’ve also steamed some veggies to eat with my red rice and chicken.

Have you gained (insert law firm name) Five? How do you deal with this healthy work-life balance conundrum?

Story of my life

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:46:51 +1000

http://lookmumimalawyer.tumblr.com/

Post-poo drops

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:59:10 +1000

Sometimes my friends and I have some (what we think are) really awesome ideas. One such idea came from living in a sharehouse with four other people and with only one bathroom.

We decided everytime someone needed to use the bathroom for “vigorous bathroom activity”, we would give the others a time warning after we were done. For example “bro, I wouldn’t go in there for 10 minutes”. Depending on the “vigour” of the bathroom activity, we would adjust the time accordingly to 15, 20 or 30 minutes.

If only we know about APC’s post-poo drops.

Apparently these post-poo drops effectively neutralise any weird smells and no timer system is needed.

What a great idea!

Do you have any home procedures or policies around the use of a bathroom?

Office Politics

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:59:00 +1100

As a person working in an office environment, amongst people prodominantly in their late twenties and early thirties, I have noticed that the conversations that we engage in all revolve around:

House-hunting (or house renovations);
Engagements;
Wedding planning (see also: honeymoons);
Pregnancies/Babies; and
Children.

For someone who doesn’t have their shit together at all in any of the above areas, I really have nothing to contribute to these conversations. Whilst all of my work-mates are doing all of these awesome things with their lives, I’m getting home after work and eating a bowl of cereal or packet mi goreng for dinner.

Similarly, I always feel like I need a really awesome response to the Friday question “What are you doing on the weekend!?” or the Monday question “how was your weekend?!”. Whilst other people have really great stories (mainly revolving around the abovementioned topics house-hunting/engagements/weddings/kid stuff), I feel the need to say more than “recovering from my Friday night hangover and sleeping all the way until I have to come back to work on Monday”.

On the few occasions I actually got my shit together and rolled out of bed on the weekend, I had breakfast at Bills in Surry Hills.

Coffee

Breakfast fried rice.

I definitely understand why Bills is such a Sydney institution now. The breakfast was amazing. I had the corn fritters which I forgot to photograph but it was so packed full of fresh corn, it felt like that McCain ad “the rain’s are ‘ere!” (geez I hope people know what I’m talking about) and the fried rice was just jam packed with flavour.

Anyway, let me know what the conversation is like at your workplace? Are you the only youngen amongst the “elders”? Or am I the only awkward freak who struggles with conversation?

Enjoy the Easter break!

The Grounds of Alexandria, Alexandria

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:02:41 +1100

In anticipation of impending doom (read: full time employment) next week, I’ve spent the last few weeks catching up on things that probably will be eradicated from my life such as:

Eating breakfast (not in car, on train or in elevator up to office);
Eating lunch (not at desk);
Absorbing vitamin D from actual sunlight; and
Reading stuff that doesn’t have citations.

One of those breakfasts was at The Grounds of Alexandria. We circled the block for about 30 minutes, as there was no parking down Huntley St, the adjacent and parallel streets and the carpark. Luckily, someone left and we quickly stole the spot and made it just in time before the breakfast service ceased (11:30am).

We ordered the breakfast board ($19), some coffees ($3.50) and got a brioche ($13) on the house because they ran out of banana bread.

The coffee was amazingly smooth yet strong - probably one of the best coffees in Sydney and as a bonus all of them came out with pretty love hearts (I’m a sucker for gimmicks).

The breakfast board (top) consisted of toasted bread, double smoked ham, poached eggs, feta, pesto, cherry tomatoes and avocado. Although it seems simple, it burst with flavours and everything on the board was so fresh that I probably couldn’t replicate its awesomeness at home.

The brioche (bottom left) too was nice, if you are after something sweet. I think the pistachios really made it extra special to eat. It was such a nice gesture that it was on the house, after they ran out of banana bread (what we wanted to order), even though we were happy to pay for it.

Outside, there is outdoor seating, areas for the kids to play, gardens and even some pigs and chooks (I was mighty glad I didn’t order any pork or chicken before venturing outside). There’s even a research facility and markets every first Saturday of the month supporting local businesses. It’s a strange feeling that amongst the industrial warehouses of Alexandria and being so close to the CBD, there is such a wonderful place to relax, absorb the sun and have a really nice breakfast.

The Grounds of Alexandria

7A/2 Huntley Street, Alexandria, NSW

Opening Hrs: Weekdays: 7am-4pm, Weekends 7:30am-4pm

Juice, juice baby.

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:02:00 +1100

There’s a few weeks of vacation that I have left, and it feels like I have nothing left to do. When I got back from traveling, I fryed my eyeballs watching the AusOpen for 12+ hours of the day for two weeks; but now that that is over, I feel increasingly bored and restless immediately after I wake up.

So, I decided to get around to things I’ll yearn to do when I am working full-time and don’t have the time to. One of those things is getting a juice machine and juicing the crap out of everything!!

My first juicing attempt just involved ‘juicing carrots’ (from which I understand is the term supermarkets use for uglier carrots as opposed to the good looking table carrots). The carrot juice was nice by itself but was even nicer with rockmelon and honeydew. My favourite combination was carrots and watermelon which so healthy tasting and refreshing especially when ice cubes are added.

Another juicing attempt involved celery, broccoli, cucumber and carrots. Celery and broccoli by itself tasted really strong and you really need some fruit e.g. apples to cut the flavour. I added some blueberries, honeydew and rockmelon just to sweeten the juice. Also: beware - when mixing green and orange colours, the juice might come out as an unappetizing brown colour (Whoops, I must have skipped that class in year 1 on the colour wheel).

The great thing about juicing is that you require (practically) no skills whatsoever, you get a refreshing beverage after all your hard work and you get to feel pretty smug afterwards. Win-win!

Anyway, do you guys have any ideas on what I should do to occupy myself over the next two weeks? Also - do you guys juice and what are your favourite recipes? Let me know below, I’d love to try them!

End of uni trip!

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:10:30 +1100

After two months of trekking around 15 countries in Europe then New York and Canada, I’m back in Sydney! It’s taken almost a week to recover from jetlag [sleeping at 7pm and waking up at 3am] and the internal wretchedness of not wanting to go home to keep traveling. It was a good two months of eating and exploring and here’s a snapshot of my favourite food I had overseas.

Paris, France

I over-romanticised the idea of Paris and was shocked to encounter vast amounts of poverty, pick-pockets and an impolite amount of racism to any outsider. What made up for it? The food, of course. The daily baguettes, croissants and pain aux raisins for breakfast from boulangeries which flooded the city were amazing. Then, who can forget the patisseries; filled with zumbo-esque tarts, eclairs and macarons. Last but not least, I loved the hearty French meals including steak tartare, steaks and roast ducks glazed with wonderful cream based sauces and an unhealthy amount of butter which would even scare Iain “Hewy” Hewitson.

Barcelona, Spain

12 euros can buy you different amounts in each country. In Spain, it can buy you a frigging HUGE 3 course lunch. This paella was our entree shared between 2 people. It could have fed a starving country! We also got a gigantic mains (calamari and chips), flan for dessert and sangrias. It was a struggle to walk (read: roll) home that day.

Berlin, Germany

Currywurst is a must eat in Germany. It is steamed and fried pork sausage with tomato sauce and curry powder on top. It’s mainly served from food trucks and can cause hypertension because it’s so frigging awesome. We alternated between currywurst and Germany’s other national dish: the falafel kebab.

Budapest, Hungary

Kurtoskalacs (or chimney cakes) was something we discovered at the Budapest Christmas Markets. Essentially, it is dough wrapped around a wooden stick and then toasted on the coals until golden brown. Then, you can choose flavours such as chocolate, coffee, cinnamon or vanilla which is dusted on top along with sugar. It is sweet, half crunchy, half soft but is essential to blizzard like temperatures along with a cup of tea.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Denmark aka. the home of candles. Everywhere we went, there were always candles lit up (even at breakfast) and it was explained to us that people spend a lot of time indoors and light candles to create a cosy environment. Denmark is also the home of some awesome food. We had an outstanding meal with super fresh produce at Cafe Paludan - a bookstore/cafe in the university area for around 20AUD.

New York City, USA

I loved every single meal in New York, from the wonderful variety and healthiness of Wholefoods (especially the shelves and shelves of dairy free ice-cream, yoghurt and milk), to Five Guys burgers, Panera and Absolute Bagels, gyros and lamb on rice from the food vendors, yum cha in Chinatown and pastrami sandwiches from Kat’s.

Montreal, Canada

Last but not least is my obsession with TIM HORTONS in Canada. It is a coffee store chain which has more stores in Canada than McDonalds, with one every few metres or so. The thing that kept me coming back every day was their amazing French Vanilla Coffee, super cheap prices and that they are frigging everywhere in Canada. When I got back to the states, I sought out another 3 Timmy’s because my cravings for the coffee was so bad.

There are urban legends that there are drugs (nicotine/cocaine) in the coffee. That would explain why it’s always so packed and why I can’t stop craving it! ;)

The only thing worse than coming back and craving all these things that Australia doesn’t have is suffering from travel withdrawal syndrome, looking and feeling like an out of shape athlete and being depressed from looking at my card statements.

Welcome back to reality!

Momofuku Noodle Bar, East Village

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:46:13 +1100

Over the Christmas/New Year break we were in New York City and stayed in an apartment in the East Village. There were heaps of really good restaurants (e.g. Momofuku and Ippudo) nearby and we decided to check out Momofuku on New Year’s Day.

I get a little bit excited for anything David Chang(!) and almost shit myself when we got there at 9pm. There was an hour wait for a table of three, but one of my mates decided she didn’t want to wait and walked back home. When she left, the remaining two of us were immediately seated at the bar. The lesson here is, go in groups of two people!

Looking around the restaurant, it was filled with a lot of hipster looking people and/or aspiring models. Even the waitstaff and chefs weren’t immune and instead of a uniform, the waitstaff were identifiable by their hipster clothes and caps.

We ordered some soju slushies before ordering Chang’s famous Pork Buns. The pork is thick, melt in your mouth goodness and accompanied with green onion, cucumber and the familiar taste of hoisin sauce (the dipping sauce for pho). I could sit in front of the tele and gladly devour another 5 of those pork buns with a cold beer. Yummmmm

Next up was the momofuku ramen with pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg. Although my ramen was good, the broth was lacking a bit of flavour. I much preferred my best friend’s spicy miso ramen with smoked chicken, green onion and sesame. That ramen was packed with flavour and was so addictive.

The internet is heavily divided with some people thinking that the noodle bar is “overhyped”, “underwhelming” and “full of hipsters”. Although I agree that it is packed with hipsters, I thought the noodle bar was great and would definitely go back again.

Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Avenue, NYC

Farewell UNSW!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:33:00 +1100

Going through the final stages of uni with absolutely zero motivation to finish my take home exams, a thought creeped up on me - that after I hand in this last final exam - that’s it for my university career! 5 years of my life will have elapsed (and I would have nothing to show for it)!

It then got me thinking of all my ‘last’ events that have occured:

My (first and) last UNSW Oktoberfest; no more dressing up as a skanky beer maid (or in my case, a giant beer bottle) - no more dancing to terrible music that sounds like an evacuation alarm on repeat (Beep. Beep. Beep. Whoop! Whoop!) - no more people getting thrown out onto the Village Green.

My last enrolment for semester 2/2012; enrolment is usually the time that MyUNSW decides to fall to shits. If you come into uni to enrol, you’ll notice 90% of people throwing their keyboard/mouse/themselves at their computer screen in frustration whilst glaring at that one dude in the corner *somehow* gets to enrol.

My last unibar beer; I always thought I’d be clever and rock up to that evening class after having a beer but looking back, I was so obvious - not only because my cheeks were bright red and I had drunk, sleazy eyes but I was also half falling asleep from alcohol poisoning. Real smooth.
My last coffee at uni; this one gets me really nostalgic. Back when I first started uni, there was no such thing as the Bar Navitas in the Tyree Building or the Village Cafe (that makes me feel super old). We all had to drink watery powder from the monopoly that was Coffee Republic. I’m really going to miss the familiar faces making my coffee whilst my eyes are glued together and I’m struggling to stand up.
My last Vietnamese Pork Roll from Tropical Green; this was also the last time I could complain about how “un-Vietnamese” the Pork Roll is (I mean, who puts lettuce and tomato in a Pork Roll?!? This isn’t Subway!) and how un-authentic all the other “Vietnamese” options are. Even so, I’m going to miss those westernised Pork Rolls in their overload of soy sauce glory.
My last sleep in, thinking I CBF going to class today, I’m just going to roll over and watch more episodes of The Office. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive full time work next year. (Hello future employers who are reading).
My last bus ride to uni on the 891 from Eddy Avenue. Boy, I’m going to miss trying to dip my bus ticket into the machine whilst holding a textbook, my breakfast, my phone, wallet and three bags in my hands. I’m also going to miss being crammed on, with the 200 other students standing on the bus rushing to a 9am class.
(To occur) - my last assignment/exam submission. Oh Student Services Counter on level 2, how I’m going to miss running upstairs like a maniac to meet the 4pm submission deadline. I’m going to take so much joy in slam-dunking my final exam with the yellow cover sheet into the submission slot and then running out and giving the finger to everyone whilst yelling ‘see youse later suckazzzz!!!’

UNSW, I’m going to miss you!

Now if you’ve finished uni or your HSC, or even just finished a semester - go on and proceed to part-ay! ;)

Laduree, Westfield Sydney

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:12:00 +1000

I’m not the girliest of girls. Heck, I’d normally have to suppress punching ya in the face if you attempted to talk to me about ‘hair’, ‘nail polish’, ‘shoes’ or ‘flowers’. But when I walked past Laduree on Monday night, it was like someone drugged and/or possessed me to queue up for 30 minutes and pay for a box of macarons at almost $4 each. That’s the only reason, people. The only reason. Otherwise, I blame the seductive pretty pinkness, the bows and boxes and everything screaming Gaye Paris! (Damn you Laduree!!!)

$23 for a box of 6 macarons

I got a mixed box with flavours such as pistachio, rasberry, almond, salted caramel (x 2) and coffee. After reading some of the reviews which said people were underwhelmed and the quality of the macarons weren’t that great - I found them to be quite nice and I actually liked them. They were probably better than the Zumbo and Baroque macarons. They weren’t as sweet as some macarons and the salted caramel was probably the most perfect salted caramel macaron I’ve ever had. Likewise, the pistachio and the almond were really balanced and not overly sweet.

So, overall, the macarons were quite nice but I probably wouldn’t come back due to the long wait and and the price was a bit of a rip.

Have you tried Laduree? What did you think?

Laduree, Westfield Sydney

100 Market St Level 3 Westfield
Sydney, NSW 2000

Ju Ju Japanese Tavern Restaurant, Kings Cross

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:54:00 +1000

Thanks BFF AA for inviting me out to use your Ju Ju Groupon voucher for Dudesday Tuesday! The Groupon deal consisted of all you can eat sushi for 2 for $35 also including unlimited edamame & miso soup and one drink (wine/tea/soft drink each).

First up, when you enter the restaurant you need to take off your shoes and put them into a plastic bag. BFF AA gave me no warning of this in advance, so I’m going to warn you - don’t wear your socks with holes in them / give your feet a good scrub because no one wants to have foot odour ruining their night ;)

The booths

We ordered the sushi nigiri styled [where the fish is partially grilled and partially raw] (entree and main) and they plated up on the same plate pictured above. I enjoyed all of the sushi EXCEPT, the squid one which tasted a bit too rubbery for me.

Rainbow roll!

Also enjoyable were the spider (soft shell crab) and prawn sushi rolls!

Overall, we thought the sushi was nice (although not as good as Sushi Tengoku), the service was polite and attentive and the food came out pretty quickly. It’s a lovely restaurant!

Additionally, the Groupon voucher was pretty good value, considering the rainbow roll would have normally set us back $18.80 and the nigiri styled sushi main and entree would have set us back $25 and $15 respectively!

Ju Ju Japanese Tavern Restaurant, Kings Cross

Kingsgate Shopping Centre/Shop 320 Bayswater Rd
Sydney, NSW 2011
Ph: (02) 9357 7100

N2 Extreme Gelato, Chinatown.

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:17:00 +1000

Some readers might know that I embarked on a ‘no-sugar’ diet a while back. As a result of the no-sugar diet, I noticed I felt fresher and didn’t feel as gluggy. However, this ‘no-sugar’ diet has fallen apart - between Moochi Mondays and Dudesday Tuesdays, my sugar intake has just increased exponentially.

For yesterday’s Dudesday Tuesdays, AA and I decided to check out N2 Extreme Gelato, in Chinatown - of which check-ins have been spamming our Facebook newsfeeds for the last few weeks.

The first thing that catches your eye with you get there is the cool lab coats the staff wear, the conical flasks (hello year 10 science!) and quirky icecream flavours. You choose your flavour and they mix in liquid nitrogen and viola, you have your icecream.

We got the geisha juice consisting of green tea and pepper and rosemary and honey ($6 each). For the geisha’s juice, a pepper mill was actually cracked and it just tasted 100% like pepper mixed in an icecream. Or some sort of pepper steak mixed into an icecream. The one on the right hand side wasn’t any better - the rosemary and honey somehow tasted very savoury and gluggy as hell. We thought it tasted like a falafel mixed in with icecream.

After grimacing with each lick, we had to leave the icecream and leave pretty disappointed. A positive I could find is the icecream was super silky smooth (smoother than any icecream I’ve ever had)… but other than that, it was a struggle.

(Last photo from N2 Extreme Gelato)

Afterwards, I went home and read a lot of reviews of N2 and a lot of them seem to be positive. So, I don’t know if I’m completely missing something, chose the wrong flavours or just got a bad batch.

Let me know what you think!

N2 Extreme Gelato

43/1 Dixon St
Sydney, NSW 2000

Rule(r) of Law

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:28:00 +1000

Not like I’ve used a ruler in 7 years but this made my nerdy heart jump with glee.

That, on top of some free open day fairy floss, popcorn and good ol’ pad thai at the Spot topped off my last Saturday class at uni.

Hurrah, no more waking up early on Saturdays! Yayayayayayayay!

The Cake Merchant

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:04:41 +1000

After my birthday, I developed a slight obsession for baked cheesecakes. Luckily, I stumbled upon the Cake Merchant (Liverpool and Bonnyrigg) for the best cakes I’ve ever eaten in my life. This post might sound like an infomercial, but it is not and am just overly excited because I love them.

There always seems to be a massive queue of people at the Cake Merchant and everyone buys 2-10 cakes each because they are both so frigging delicious and so frigging cheap. I also love the lovely packaging, the really happy service and extended opening hours which is handy when picking up cakes after work (particularly when you forget someone’s birthday!!!!).

Whole cheesecake: $24.90 for a baked cheesecake. Other cakes vary from $22.70 to $23.70 each.

Half peanut butter New York style baked cheesecake (Half: $13.50) and half blueberry New York style baked cheesecake (Half: $13.50).

The peanut butter one is currently my favourite, but I am also enjoying the blueberry. I was worried that the peanut butter would be too sweet, but it definitely was not - there were bits of peanut, some gooey peanut butter and some chocolate in there but it was never too rich. Boy, it perfectly complimented the frigging amazing cheesecake; perfect amount of cheese, richness and base. Mmmm. Everything about it was so good, as evidenced by my family of 4 demolishing the cake which is supposed to serve 16 - 20 people.

Other baked cheesecake flavours include: Caramel, Ricotta Almond Crumble, Memphis, Butter Scotch & White Chocolate, Wicked Chocolate Swirl, Berry, Tiramisu and the original baked cheesecake. They also have chilled cheesecakes, mudcakes, tortes and various other cakes like pavlova, sticky date pudding, chocolate tiro delice, coffee hazelnut gateau and my next one I’m going to try: red velvet…! (OMG! Delish!!!)

The Cake Merchant

Shop 1 72-78 Hoxton Park Road
Liverpool NSW 2170
PH: (02) 9822 7155

Shop 1 1 Rigg Place Bonnyrigg
NSW 2177
PH: (02) 9822 1111

www.thecakemerchant.com.au

Moochi, Westfield Sydney

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 15:18:48 +1000

Frozen yoghurt (or ‘fro-yo’) as it is called amongst the youngens, is the newest craze to hit since the Happy Cup, Lucky Cup and Easy Way bubble tea craze. Apparently it isn’t that new, as according to my younger sister, I am two years late on this one. She proceeded to ask me whether I was kidding that I hadn’t tried it (not even in Strathfield?!?!), before continuing to laugh at me.

So, in order to restore my street-cred, I headed out on a Friday afternoon in order to get the ‘scoop’ on this mysterious ‘fro-yo’ at Moochi’s recently opened store, in Westfield Sydney. The concept is simple; choose your fro-yo flavour (original, watermelon, green tea or pomegranate), size and then add some toppings (50c per topping).

Can’t miss the bright pink sign

I ended up grabbing the pomegranate ‘fro-yo’ and topped it with some watermelon and kiwi fruit. The fro-yo kind of has this kind of sour taste which gets quite addictive but I kind of regretted not getting a topping with more crunch e.g. crunchy nut cereal because the fruit and frozen yoghurt was so mooshy.

I much preferred the pomegranate fro-yo topped with pomegranate and moochi! The sourness of the fro-yo combined with the pop of the pomegranate was really addictive.

So in the end, I did really like fro-yo but found it to be a bit hyped up and overpriced for what it actually is. Also, the non-existence of seating in the Westfield Sydney store is a bit annoying (although you can find random Westfield seating nearby). However, it was quite refreshing dessert. For that, I’ll come back, that’s ‘fro’ sure ;)

So, what are your favourite fro-yo places?? What are some good flavours and toppings? Let me know below!

Moochi, Westfield Sydney
Shop 1023 Westfield Sydney
(Where Diva used to be)
Cnr Pitt St and Market St
Sydney, NSW 2000

Chinese Noodle Bar, Haymarket

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:59:30 +1000

I’ve been craving Northern Chinese food for ages. So I thought I’d pay a visit to my go-to Northern Chinese: Chinese Noodle Bar on George Street (near Railway Square) formerly Kung Fu Ramen and before that Lanzhou Noodle House.

So what is the difference between Northern Chinese food and the food you get at your Mr Ko’s or your Chan’s Lucky Happy Happy Chinese Palaces, you might ask?

According to wiki, Northern Chinese dishes are more hearty because of the harsh climate consisting of blistering hot summers and cold dry winters. This means the flavours are strong, bold and salty. Given that most of the dishes consist of 10000% meat (sorry vegos); it’s pretty great and makes geographical sense that Northern Chinese food is influenced by Islamic culture (loads of lamb and beef) and that this restaurant is Halal.

Personally, I crave Northern Chinese food everytime it’s raining, freezing and I feel like I’ve been through a typhoon. Not only is it the ultimate comfort food, it’s also hearty in the sense of the bloody huge portions. That night, two Caucasian blokes ordered some dumplings and a plate of beef and potato stew, emphasing they only wanted a small portion. The stew required the strength of two (normal sized) waitresses to carry it out. You could hear the guys say “strewth, this is the small?!?! WTF!!”

We made the same mistake of over-ordering and ordered the following between two people;

All of the food struggled to fit onto the table (and into our stomachs!): Shallot pancake, beef noodle soup, noodle with beef/chicken/lamb and garlic shoots. (Also unpictured: lamb skewers).

We went for the handpulled noodles with lamb here and there was seriously a lot of garlic shoot action happening. The noodles were super tender and the sauce was extra spicy. Although these noodles were tasty, they could never match my favourite - the beef noodle soup!

Beef noodle soup.

The beef noodle soup never fails to satisfy. Always get this WITH chilli, even if you are chilli-intolerant like myself; otherwise the clear soup will have no flavour and will taste hella bland. The handpulled noodles are so tender and the beef is a nice complement to the dish. To spice up the dish, I usually get a few lamb skewers ($2.50) - which are spicy and are stacked with cumin to knock your socks off. These skewers take me back to the street markets in Beijing, which had the locals and tourists alike queuing for them.

Lamb skewers $2.50 each or 5 for $10. Again, one of the must orders.

Cong you bing! (aka. shallot pancakes). This is another one of my favourites (yes, pretty much everything in this post was a favourite). Not sure how the simplest of ingredients of flour + shallots + olive oil can equal some much awesomeness, but it does. There’s the softness of the inside combined with the crunch of the outside - it’s pretty much like a thicker gozleme!

Not only did the food knock my socks off, the waitress was exceptionally proactive and service orientated. That’s another major tick in my book.

I tried to fit in as much food into my body as humanly possible, but ended up getting two containers of food takeaway. Chinese Noodle Bar has ruined “ordinary” Chinese food for me, because sweet and sour pork will never live up to this Northern Chinese awesomeness.

Chinese Noodle Bar
800 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Citi Super, Town Hall.

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:43:00 +1000

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been going through a massive Asian phase. No, I haven’t reverted back to my year eight teeny bopper ways (if you’re lucky not to know what that means, don’t urban dictionary it). I haven’t started going to Capital photo booths, started wearing black flare pants and listening to Jay Chou, even though I had no idea what he was saying… again (thank goodness).

I am however getting uber obsessed with Asian beverages especially teas again. I stopped by Citi Super after work to pick up some teas that they had including:

Soy green tea latte. The Japanese, like me are obsessed with everything green tea and matcha. It was pretty easy to make, just open the satchet in the belowpictured box, boil some hot water - add 100 ml of water and some milk. There’s the usual green tea flavour but mixed with a hint of sweetness. Highly addictive stuff.

20 green tea latte satchets ($4.95 - behind the counter, not in tea section).

Also behind the counter at their extensive green tea range was another one of my favourite drinks: brown rice tea or genmaicha. This was manufactured in the USA which probably reflects its $6.39 for a pack of 20 teabags, price.

Essentially it just tastes like a hearty mix of brown rice producing a rich and nutty like flavour. I was craving this tea which I normally have to accompany sushi. According to wikipedia, it also fills you up - so it was used by religious folk when fasting.

Then there were the usual Chinese tea you get in Chinese restaurants - the fragrant Jasmine and (to me tastes like nothing) Oolong.

Jasmine tea $1.45

Oolong tea $1.95

And finally, I tried to find the tea that my uncle used to make every day throughout my childhood. I called dad to ask what it was and he said the tea is made of something that looked like “a carrot”. He also said “red!”, “gold!” and “not lotus!”. Thanks dad, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But that actually, turned out to be a very helpful description and we found Korean Ginseng tea.

Image from google

My sister and I only had happy memories getting to drink this tea. We essentially got to break up the ginseng and put it into a full on tea maker that looked like a rice cooker. When you pressed the button, this sweet and light tea came out. It is the first thing I remember when I think about my childhood because it was so delicious!

Image from google

Do you have any Asian beverages you love? And do you have any memories vividly linked to a beverage? Let me know…!

The weeks that were...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 21:50:00 +1000

The beautiful Sydney (summer-like) weather over the past few days…

Pictured: Ontama terriyaki chicken (large sized bowl), with a potato skewer from Oiden, next to Pepper Lunch at Town Hall. Oiden, a rice bowl bar is next door to it’s sister Mappen, the noodle (mainly udon) bar - are quaint cafeteria styled restaurants which are packed all the frigging time.

It’s hard to see why it’s so popular - the terriyaki chicken was marinated perfectly and the soft runny egg with the shallots and tempura flakes just made it that more frigging awesome. Essentially, you choose your type of rice/noodles, then you can add different types of tempura or kim chi (if you want), your shallots and tempura flakes and then pay at the end of the line. You can also grab some matcha milk slushy or some ginger iced tea along the line. Be warned - this is a fast moving line with lots of people, so be decisive or make your decisions by looking at the poster prior to entering the restaurant, unless you want to experience the wrath of a line full of hungry people. Also, don’t overfill your plastic cup with matcha / tea because you are thrifty (read: cheap) like me, as it will take a shitload of balance to carry your near overflowing drink and bowl on a tray along the queue and to a table. D’oh!

Finally, don’t forget to return your tray to the kitchen peephole shelf thingo at the end (like a real cafeteria)!

Oiden
537-551 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

The Japanese theme continues, when I had lunch with Esjay at Makanai on Bligh Street in the CBD. We had the abovepictured udon - terriyaki and tempura, respectively which were completely delicious. They also had a large variety of fresh looking sushi in the counter which we wanted to try. Makanai seems like a nice place to go if you want to get away from the hussle and bussle of the food court type lunch time crowd for a reasonable price ($13.50 for udon). Makanai is also opposite to Chifley, so it’s in a pretty central location and is accessible for lots of office folk.

Makanai
37 Bligh Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Finally, I think the people at Citi Super, Town Hall are figuring out whether or not to get a restraining order against me. I’m there all the time. For excessively long periods of time. So… what is Citi Super?

Citi Super is literally an humungous Asian supermarket combined with a $2.80 discount store (like the 100 yen store) combined with a dessert bar (with random teas, waffles and danish pancakes) and an Asian deli. The grocery side is pretty impressive because it has ingredients and food from most of the Asian countries, rather than just specialising in one. So it’s literally all of my favourite things (grocery shopping, cheap stuff and desserts) rolled into one. We’ve come out with tea, travel bags, a travel foot rest, laundry bags and icecream!

But the thing I keep coming back for is the $1 macarons (buy 10, get 2 free!). I got tiramisu, strawberry (the best flavour in my opinion because they had fresh strawberries cut up inside), white chocolate and their most popular, green tea. They are baked fresh every day and are super cheap for something which has been overpriced ever since Zumbo did ‘em on Masterchef. Yum!

Anyway, enough about my unhealthy attachment to this supermarket, I hope you all have a great weekend and happy eating!

Farmer Jo's Muesli

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:18:00 +1000

Thanks a bajillion to BFF Tom for buying me some Farmer Jo’s Muesli for my birthday! (Not sarcasm). Muesli, is something I get strangely excited about (I clearly need to get out more / get new hobbies or interests).

The verdict: my tastebuds are just begging to eat this every day, forever. I didn’t think it was possible to completely fall in love with muesli, but I have. Unlike the muesli you get at Coles which has like one nut in every half a kilo and 3000% oats, this had a super generous proportion of almonds and fruit. In essence, every mouthful was heaps crunchy and nutty. This was such a perfect combination with the fig and cinnamon. Textures FTW!

Breakfast: Sourdough and avocado, burnt fig and cinnamon almond Farmer Jo’s muesli with golden kiwi and apple and green tea.

In essence, the people from Farmer Jo’s are sitting on a muesli (gold)mine. Not sure why there hasn’t been a stampede to their Surry Hills store, Eveleigh Markets or David Jones.