Daiso review: Japanese camembert + cheddar cracker

My friend Nghi has just started blogging about snacks from Asian groceries. Naturally, I got really excited because Asian snacks just taste so good. His reviews are good fun and it reminded me of when I reviewed Daiso candy last year. By chance, I stopped by Daiso to buy a pillbox for my dog and got distracted by the beautiful colours in the Japanese snack and candy section. I decided to buy some of the snacks, rather than the candy because the last time I did that, I just felt really awful from the sugar crash. I don’t get sugar highs so my energy levels just plummet after sugar.

I bought two snacks but for the sake of my waistline, I’ll only review one for now (EVERYTHING IN MODERATION, RIGHT?).

I don’t know what this snack is called but this one caught my eye because it’s a camembert and cheddar flavoured snack. Cheddar is the implied flavour of most cheese-themed snacks so adding camembert to the mix certainly aroused my curiosity. I love my soft cheeses (but nothing goat, please) and was interested to see how they’d make the snack camembert-specific. Cheddar usually overpowers the more nuanced cheeses.

As soon as you open the packet, the strong stench of cheese punches your nose. It’s unpleasant at first but once you’re able to recognise the smell, it mellows. A thick yet airy rice cracker is individually wrapped, dusted with an orange powder. It is crunchy but chewy, so the cracker might not be very fresh. The flavour is excellent: It has the sharpness of cheddar but hints of the musty camembert. Its strong unami flavour works well with the cheese, but part of me wants this snack to be saltier. When I finished one cracker, I wanted another cracker just to sate my salt expectations.

Overall, it’s a very nice snack. However, due to the somewhat stale condition of some of the crackers, I probably wouldn’t buy them again unless I wanted to suck the flavouring off each cracker, which is what I kind of want to do right now.

I have a salt problem.

Recipe: Upside Down Mango Cake

I'm feeling a bit disappointed in myself. I don't know how it's even possible but I've physically gained quite a bit of weight over the short Christmas and New Year period. Yes, you can eat a lot, but usually it's gone the next day. For me, the bloatedness just stayed with me and now I possess an embarrassing belly. It juts out awkwardly! I'm trying to do some more exercise so hopefully this tub will go away.

I did some baking over the holidays. I spent some time with my partner's family. He has a 2 year-old nephew and we baked banana bread together and it was bloody awesome. I went home, keen on baking some more banana bread but we had no bananas. Instead, we had loads of mangoes so an idea was formed.

I give you...

Upside down mango cake

Adapted from this banana cake recipe

Ingredients:
1 large mango or 2 smaller ones
175g of butter
3/4 cups of sugar
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1.5 cups of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk

Method:
1. Preheat Oven to 170C
2. Peel the skin off the mango and slice mango in half. Slice one half of the mango into neat slices and set aside. Mash the other half of the mango in a large bowl.
3. Melt 50g of butter in the microwave. Pour melted butter into a cake tin. Sprinkle in the brown sugar and arrange mango slices in some kind of pattern of your choosing and set aside.
4. Melt the remaining butter, sugar and vanilla extract in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl or pyrex jug.
5. Add butter mixture, flour and milk to the mashed mango. Stir until incorporated.
6. Spray the cake tin with some canola spray and pour in the mixture
7. Put it in the oven for 40 -50, or until ready. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, then it is ready.
8. Once the cake is ready, take it out of the oven. Cool for a little bit then flip it onto a plate.
9. Gently remove the cake tin and voila, it’s an upside down mango cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream

Apologies for the crappy photos! I find cakes rather difficult to photograph because some are rather flat. This cake turned out really delicious. You can make all kinds of variations with apple or pineapple.

Catching Up + Scone Recipe

I hope everyone had a great holiday break! I go back to work tomorrow, which I am sad about. A few days off is just not enough but oh well, what can you do. I spent Christmas day with my dad and brother. We never make a big deal out of it so it was just like any other day off, except I did lots of cooking and ate so much. I baked scones in the morning (recipe below) and made a roast.

I spent Christmas day catching up on Gossip Girl. I started watching the show back in 2008 and my, how things have changed. The show grew more over the top with each season and I stuck by it out of loyalty even though it sometimes got incredibly tiring, especially all of Blair’s antics. I’m glad I did and I’m glad it has ended. I now need to find a new show. Any recommendations? And no, I don’t want to watch Vampire Diaries, no matter how “good” it’s supposed to be. I just refuse.

House sitting has been going well. I’ve had to come back home a few times so it hasn’t really felt like I’ve been living out of home for two weeks. The cats are lovely; Bear is really warming up to me. He even climbed into bed with me one morning and proceeded to purr like a snotty child. I found a local pub that does trivia on Tuesdays and Sundays so I’m pretty excited about this. The local Savers has proven to be quite fruitful: I found a very 80s floral dress that has been helpfully altered to suit my short legs. I might head back there this week to look for some more things. I need more summer dresses.

Mum had her surgery this morning. She’s had to remove all of her reproductive organs. We skyped for a bit after her surgery, even though she was incredibly tired. My uncle had to hold the ipad horizontally so we could see her. It was a bit freaky: she had all these tubes coming out of her nose and she wasn’t allowed to lie on a pillow. Nonetheless, everything seems to have gone very smoothly. We’ll contact her later tonight. My uncle and aunt are in the hospital to look after her so that’s good. My uncle took a photo of her reproductive organs. They were rolled up into a ball and perched on top of a yellow biohazard bin lid. Her bits looked like a pig’s heart.

It’s been a slightly sombre holiday period but I’m trying to be positive. I’ve been reading a lot this month, thanks to an awesome Christmas gift from Liam. He got me a kindle and he loaded it with Agatha Christie novels and Harry Potter. It’s been great because I’ve noticed I’ve been watching less TV and reading much more. I want to keep this up.

I mentioned earlier I made scones for Christmas. I’ve never properly made scones before. I remember in primary school, we made them at camp and they were hard and gross. In high school, we made pinwheel scones, loaded with tomato paste and cheese. However, I’ve never made the classic scone. I found a recipe online and tweaked it very slightly. It’s very easy so do try it out.

Scones
adapted from Janelle Bloom’s recipe on the Ready Steady Cook Website.
Makes 6 - 8

Ingredients:
2 cups of self-raising flour
200 ml of cream
150 ml of milk
1 dash of lemon juice
Plain flour, for dusting
Whipped cream and jam, to serve

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC (I use a fan force oven)
2. Stir lemon juice into milk
3. Sift flour into a large bowl and add milk mixture and cream. Use hands to combine mixture. Do not over mix.
4. Spread dough onto floured surface. Make sure the dough is of 4cm thickness
5. Cut out the dough using a cookie cutter and place on a tray lined with baking paper
6. Put the scones in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes
7. Enjoy with whipped cream, jam and a cup of tea

My Notes:

- The scones came out really well. They were very fluffy and perfect.
- My friend, whose grandmother made scones for soldiers in WW2, told me you need to use milk that’s been curdled. Adding a dash of lemon juice to the milk does the trick and they turned out great!
- Don’t over mix the dough. My dough mixture was sticky but not wet. I think that’s a good consistency.

What did you get up to these holidays?

Dinner at Bistro Guillaume

Last weekend, Liam and I celebrated our four-year anniversary. The past four years have absolutely flown by! In the past we’ve never really celebrated anniversaries, but I wanted to celebrate this year. My friends are always celebrating milestones of their relationships so we decide to have a special dinner. Since Liam has the holy Entertainment book, we decided to take advantage of the 25% off voucher and have dinner at Bistro Guillaume.

If you don’t know, Bistro Guillaume is a French restaurant, owned by chef Guillaume Brahimi. Brahimi owns a bunch of restaurants in Australia, including the very famous Guillaume at Bennelong, which is at the Sydney Opera House. Fans of this year’s Masterchef will remember the contestants had to cook for 60 people at Guillaume at Bennelong, and the multi-talented Kylie was booted off. SO MUCH SAD FACE.

I’ve never had proper French food before so this was very exciting for me. I don’t really know much about French cuisine. I know country style French food is very hearty – think beef burgundy and lamb navarin. In general, I feel french food is very simple and almost rustic in its essence.

We decided to plunge ourselves in French cuisine by ordering an entree of escargot persillade, which is snails cooked in a sauce made of parsley, butter and bread crumbs. They came with crunchy fingers of toasted bread. I think persillade might even be the French version of pesto. Despite my aversions to lamb, offal and pork, eating snails is easy, probably because I eat a lot of seafood and I just associate the texture of snails with mollusks. The waiter presented us with two of these ceramic dishes. For a moment we thought they accidentally gave us two servings of escargot, but we realised that was one serve. The snails were very tender, not at all chewy. The persadille sauce was piping hot and very rich. The parsley almost had a grassy flavour while the bread crumbs gave it some texture. I felt the serving was too big. Liam and I would have been happy to share half the serving.

Liam ordered the barramundi with carrot and ginger puree, coriander butter, topped with “pomme allumettes”, which is meant to be potato batons, but the ones Liam had are much finer and longer. Liam chose this dish because he loves coriander. In fact “love” doesn’t even touch on how into coriander he is. Maybe this image will help. I didn’t try this one but it looked yummy and light and Liam seemed happy with it, even though he thought it could have had more coriander.

I spent all of last week trying to decide what to order. I had my eyes set on the steak frites BUT the roast chicken with paris mash and chicken jus also sounded amazing. After a week of agonising, I settled on the steak and fries. It just sounded too good to pass up. It was a big meal: the steak was charred nicely on the outside and juicy on the inside. The bernaise sauce was buttery with an acidic punch. The fries were fantastic. Liam said they tasted like pringles, which they kind of did! They were delicious. I really liked my dish. I guess the only criticism I have was the steak had some grisly bits.

We also ordered a side of broccolini, to fool ourselves into thinking we are being healthy. The broccolini was bathed in butter and topped with toasted almonds. Yum.

Liam and I also took some nice photos of each other. I look terrible and old; it's like I don't know how to smile. However, Liam looks great! I posted that photo on facebook and he got like a gazillion "likes".

We were really full but we (OK, I) felt obligated to try the desserts. We originally set on ordering just the chocolate delice with coffee sorbet and praline. Then the waiter told us about the specials and I could not pass the opportunity of sampling a giant raspberry macaron with filled with actual raspberries. The chocolate delice was rich and heady with the earthier flavours of coffee and chocolate. Liam adored the sorbet because it tasted like it was made out of espresso. My favourite was the raspberry macaron. The sweet macaron shells were sandwiched with a tart raspberry sorbet, chantilly creme and juicy raspberries. The macaron was delicately laid on top of a pool of berry coulis. The sweet to tart ratio was spot on; it was just bliss.

How beautiful is it?

It was a wonderful evening, made even sweeter with the entertainment book voucher. It set us back $149 altogether, which is pretty good value in my opinion. I’d love to come back to Bistro Guillaume, whenever my wallet permits!

Do you have a favourite French dish?




Bistro Guillaume

Crown Entertainment Complex,
Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria

03 9292 4751

http://bistroguillaumemelbourne.com.au/

Photo Blog: Chicken Pad Krapaw + Thoughts on reviewing

Being a former film student, there are a lot of “classics” I have not seen. This list includes Titanic, ET, Schindler’s List, The Shawshank Redemption and Fight Club. For me, I can’t just sit there and watch film after film; I need to be in the right frame of mind. I tried to watch Anchorman the other day and I just couldn’t get pass the first 5 minutes, even though the film is meant to be hilarious.

I’m currently going through the Alien Quadrilogy. I have Alien Resurrection left to watch. Once that’s done, I’m going to put on my reviewing cap on and review all four films. I’m enjoying them a lot. I thought I’d hate them because I’ve never been that into science fiction. Although, I did enjoy Sunshine, but I don’t know if that’s just me being enamoured by Cillian Murphy.

I sometimes struggle with how much I reveal in my reviews. I read a bit of AV Club and while I enjoy them, I would never read them before watching something I’ve been looking forward to because I find they reveal too much or assume the audience has already seen whatever it is they’re reviewing. This is all fine because they want to generate discussions and interact with their readers. Sometimes to go into a bit more detail, you need to assume the audience you’re writing this review for has seen the film. If it’s merely to express if people should see it then, it really restricts you. When I review shows for artsHub, it’s for creative consumers who read reviews to gauge whether a show is worth going to (a balanced mixture of opinion and light analysis) and I find that kind of review to be quite tricky to write. I guess it’s all about practice.

I’ve never reviewed films before so this is going to be interesting. I mostly review comedy and theatre shows. I think reviewing a film or a TV show takes a lot more time. Some of the “how to” guides I’ve read on film reviewing recommend we watch the films more than once if possible, but I guess that just depends on how deeply we want to go into it.

On a completely different topic, I’m going to post up a recipe. My partner’s brother in law is Thai and ever since Liam and I started dating, I’ve taken on a keener interest in Thai cuisine. It's now my favourite type of food.

Since I’ve got a luscious bunch of basil growing in the backyard, I thought I’d use it today. The problem with growing basil in an Asian household is Asian cooking rarely uses basil. The only Asian cuisine that uses basil (that I know of) is Thai. They use holy basil, which is a bit different to the sweet basil we have here, but holy basil is so hard to find so sweet basil is a good substitute.

The recipe below is for a chicken pad krapaw, which is a chicken stirfry with basil. It’s very easy to make and when made well, it’s absolutely delicious. The one I made today was not as nice as the ones Liam makes, but I think I know where I went wrong with this one so the next I make it, it will be uh-muh-zing. A lot of restaurants offer this dish with random vegetables in it, which I absolutely hate because it’s not meant to have any vegies in it. If you wanted to be healthy and add vegies to it, it should either be some capsicum or string beans, not a medley of carrots and broccoli.

Chicken Pad Krapaw
2-4 serves

Ingredients:

6-8 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped (the more the better)
2 red chillies, thinly sliced (I used dried ones today, which didn’t have enough heat)
1 onion, thinly sliced (I used spring onions today)
2-3 chicken breasts, cubed (I sliced them into strips but cubes soak up flavour better)
1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
2-3 Tbsp of fish sauce
2-3 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 bunch of basil (the more the better)
Steamed rice, to serve

Heat up some oil in a pan or wok. When it’s hot enough, add the onion, garlic and chilli. Fry them until onion has softened and the garlic is starting to crisp. Add the chicken. Stir for a bit and then add oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce. Make sure to coat all the chicken. Have a taste of the sauce and add more oyster/fish/soy sauce if required. You can add a bit of sugar if you want it to be sweeter. Add some water if you think it looks a bit dry. Once the chicken is cooked, turn off the stove and stir in the basil. Voila! You have a delicious stir fry. Serve with some steamed rice.

Like I mentioned before, I used dried chillies instead of fresh ones. I’d recommend fresh chillies as the dry ones aren’t spicy enough. Fresh chillies also add a bit of colour. I also used spring onion instead of onion. I’d recommend you use onion for a bit of texture. I picked a few basil leaves from the backyard, and I wish I used more. Basil is such a fragile herb. It has a subtle yet distinct flavour and it doesn’t keep well. If you add the basil during the cooking process, the basil flavour will disappear. It must be added at the end, and make sure you add lots of it!

What is your favourite cuisine?

Photo blog: red velvet cupcakes + herb garden

Momo chilling out after a haircut and bath.

Today has been a decent day. I went to yum cha with my mum, had a good chat with her about moving out, my career prospects and traveling. I've told her I'm pretty keen to go traveling for six months and just be a bit more independent. I just need some change and do some really pretentious activities like "work on myself". Places I've been thinking about going to include San Fransisco, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, but nothing is definite. I'm not sure if I should go alone or go with people.

I will be house sitting in December, which I am very excited about. My old tutor from uni is going away for the Christmas holidays so I'll be looking after his house. I'm actually just really excited about looking after his cat. He's such a cutie! He's the same breed as the I Has Cheeseburger cat. This will be a good opportunity to taste test the whole "living alone" thing, albeit a bit more comfortably than most "living alone" situations.

My herbs, photosynthesising. They've been doing really well! I made salad with mint and basil from the garden the other day. It was very exciting. The coriander is still quite "young" so I'm waiting for them to bloom a bit more before I start using it.

 I made a batch of red velvet cupcakes today. They turned out all right, although can I just say icing cupcakes takes some serious skill! I would have liked them to be a little redder. I'm thinking next time I make this, I might actually use beetroot juice instead of milk, or do half milk half beetroot juice. I read on wikipedia red velvet cake was sometimes made using beetroot juice, which enhanced its red colour. My vegan friend says vegan chocolate cake sometimes has beetroot juice, which makes it very moist.

I used the recipe from taste.com.au because it didn't require a mixer. I also halved the frosting mixture and used apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar because I didn't have any vinegar at home.

Rustic icing on cupcakes! I think it might be because I didn't beat the cream cheese frosting enough. On a different note, I'm looking forward to the public holiday on Tuesday! I don't have anything planned yet, but just the thought of sleeping in makes me happy.

What plans do you have this week?

Cambodian Wedding Part 2

The second day of the wedding was split in two. The first half of the day was the rest of the traditional Khmer wedding stuff: more blessings from the monks and exchanging of vows. The evening was dedicated to the reception. At most weddings, you hire out a function room for the reception. But when two very wealthy families unite in matrimony, they hire out all the function rooms.

Guys, I’m talking about 4000 people attending the reception.

Yeah.

I was told I had to wear a gown to the reception. I don’t own gowns. All gowns are longer than I am. I stood next to a tall guy the other day and I was the same height as his elbows. HIS ELBOWS. That’s how short I am. I ended up borrowing a dress from Liam’s sister, who bought the dress at some op shop. It was such a plunging neckline I had to wear a boob tube underneath. Paired with my over the top hair and the clashing eyesore of turquoise and lime, I looked pretty awful. But it was OK. I was having fun.Al looked gorgeous in her cobalt gown, which apparently cost her $300!

There were some stunning dresses on display, and sadly I didn’t take any photos. My camera is shocking in low light situations (as you can tell by these atrocious photos). The dresses the younger women were wearing were much more westernised. Think tight-fitting fishtail gowns dotted with sequins and $80K emerald necklaces. Pretty fancy stuff.

The reception was a boisterous yet contained affair. There was lots of dancing, singing, eating and drinking. The lights were so dim I couldn’t take any photos great photos. Some of the food presented that night included a curry, prawn and mango salad, scampi and suckling pig (I should say, a suckling pig at EVERY table) and ABALONE! It was pretty amazing. Al and I made the mistake of stuffing ourselves with the entrees and we could barely finish all courses, which was a shame because all the good food came at the end!

I can't remember what else we did. All I remember was we drank a fuckload of scotch (18 year-old Chivas, actually), and enjoyed good conversation with everyone. I also got to witness some Khmer traditional dance. It is such a contained and orderly dance, very poised and uniform. The dancers softly move their feet to the beat while their fingers delicately arch backwards. It’s fascinating to watch and impossible to mimic.

Later on, when everyone reached a state excessive drunken stupor, some brave young souls jumped on the gigantic stage and belted our some Khmer songs. I am super partial to karaoke so was half keen to sing but also not drunk enough to not care if I was dreadful. One of the groom's friends coaxed me to come on stage with him and we screamed something into the mic along with some of his other friends and the bride and groom. 

All in all a good night. I think by this stage, we were pretty exhausted by all the wedding activities. I can only imagine how exhausted the bride and groom must be. The next night was the last night of the wedding. We were told it was going to be a very chilled out affair at the groom's house so I was looking forward to a chilled out Khmer BBQ of some kind with close friends and families.

Oh, how wrong I was! But I'll talk about it in the next post.

Cambodian Wedding Part 1

So I’ve realised a post about the rest of my trip to Cambodia is long overdue. Just to remind you, I went to Cambodia in May this year to attend a wedding. Al, my boyfriend’s sister-in-law (his brother’s wife) is half Cambodian and one of her half sisters was getting married. Al urged me to come to Cambodia. At first I was really hesitant to go because I’d be a stranger at the wedding. I mean, even Liam wasn’t going to be there because he couldn’t take time off work. But after some convincing, I said yes and I’m so glad I did.

The wedding was a 3-day epic. Think of the fanciest wedding you’ve ever been to and multiply it by 100. The night before the wedding, we went to visit Al’s family. Their house was still in the middle of construction – adding exquisite drapery and chandeliers to the house etc. By the next day the whole street was transformed into a dining hall, decked out with round tables, plump chairs and a red carpet. The street was tented in PVC, zipped up to trap the air-conditioning (yes, there were about 12+ air-conditioners!).

Earlier that day, Al and I went shopping for a dress. She wasn’t keen on wearing her traditional dress but she couldn’t find anything she liked. I looked around and found this black dress, which had a pleated skirt. We also got our hair and make up done professionally at a salon the hotel receptionist recommended. It cost me roughly US$12 to get my hair, makeup and nails done, including tips. The lady who did my hair was wonderful and I tried to tip her well. I LOVE my hair! My fringe is so bouncy!

The first day was a bit like a “giving away the bride” ceremony. This ceremony actually went for 1.5 days! The bride and groom were blessed by the monks, exchanged vows and the prime minister of Cambodia and his wife even made it to give them their blessings!

One of the highlights of going to the wedding was seeing the Khmer dresses. There were some amazing silk dresses. Khmer dresses are almost like the Chinese qipao, except it’s a top and a skirt, not a dress. Al had a custom-made lilac number on. The styles of dresses were roughly the same, some of the older women had more elaborate details and decals on theirs

It was a very long process, lasting several hours. It wasn’t necessary for people to be there for the whole ceremony. In fact the tables outside were set up with food for any hungry patrons. There were people there whose jobs was to offer drinks to everyone while they wait. The actual room where the ceremony took place was tiny so flat screen TVs were hooked up in the dining areas, streaming the ceremony.

Here are some shots of the wedding food. Not great photos because I was too busy eating everything. The food below was the spread for the whole 1.5 wedding ceremony. The food we had wasn’t exactly fine-dining, but there was so much of it! Think tables brimming with tasty traditonal, home-cooked dishes. I find Khmer food has a lot of Chinese influences. Think soy-based stir fries with ginger.

Pickled vegies. Its salty-acidic flavour is very addictive.

Some sweet egg rolls, probably made with lots of coconut cream.

Something wrapped in banana leaves. I didn't get a chance to eat that one.

Deep fried fish drenched in a sweet and sour sauce. Very tasty but nothing too amazing. It was a very tasty piece of fish. It actually reminds me of the fish my mum makes at home, except she makes a chinese salt and pepper version with allspice and lots of onion and garlic. 

Roast duck in some kind of soy-based sauce. I don't remember this one too well.

Steamed dish of prawns, squid and pork, topped with a mop of coriander. I felt this dish seemed quite Chinese. I had a bit of the prawns and it was nice but nothing exciting.

Deep fried battered bits of pork. Al really liked this. She said it went really well with the dip (pictured below).

Spicy fish sauce with bean sprouts. This was a very addictive dip that went really well with the meats. It wasn't too sickly sweet and packed a decent garlic punch. The bean shoots gave it some texture. I could have eaten it on its own.

Some kind of omelet. I think it had minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. I didn't have any.

Standard spinach stir fry with garlic.

This nasty piece of fish was so yummy. Speared with lemongrass, its flesh was so tender and sweet. I think it must have been grilled. Its tough skin acted as a steamer. It went so well with the dipping sauce with the bean shoots.

The full spread.

These are a dessert. It was a bit like lotus seed paste encased in agar agar. Very delicious. All the photos I took of the insides of the dessert were too blurry. Damn my amateur camera skills!

Anyway, I feel this post is getting quite long. It might be time to end it. I'll post a few more about the other wedding ceremonies and all the touristy stuff I get up to. I hope you enjoyed this!