Chocolatesuze - Sydney Food Blogger

A Feast For the Senses, Food Bloggers' Dinner at Bistro CBD

30 July 2010, 07:29

Last night Merivale turned the tables and put four food bloggers into Bistro CBD’s kitchen to cook a dinner for 70 expectant guests. Billy, Fouad, Karen and Linda took up the challenge to cook one course each and what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t immediately book our places? Our group of 16 hungry food bloggers are bright and early and take our seats at our dinner table. Also a shout out to Sarah & Junior!


Cheers! A glass of sparkling is included in the $60 5 course dinner and we toast to our friends in the kitchen.


First course is a Sashimi of kingfish, avocado, wasabi, lime and soft herbs by Simun Dragicevich, Bistro CBD. Beautifully presented, the paper thin slices of kingfish are topped with dollops of avocado and wasabi puree and the zing of lime awakens my taste buds.


Second course is Shish Barak – a Middle Eastern- style dumpling by Fouad. The deep fried dumpling shatters into crispy flakes as I hungrily attack to get to the meaty lamb innards and dip into the yoghurt sauce.


The lighting is pretty dark at Bistro CBD that the industrious Yas whips out his iPad for an external light source haha


Third course was ‘Pork you!” twice cooked pork belly by Billy. The vivid pink paint stroke is the first thing to catch my eye followed by joyful glee that is crisp pork crackling and wobbly soft pork belly. I would’ve liked more of the apple gel mainly because I think I could’ve eaten a bowlful of the stuff. It was tasty oh yes. Give me moar! Moar!


Between courses we duck over to the pass to spy on the chefs hard at work


Deep in concentration


Fourth course was Braised beef in Pedro Ximenez sherry by Karen and it made me weep with happiness (sometimes when you cook i weep), the beef so tender that it practically fell apart with but a nudge from my fork. It was rich, comforting and Karen, it was SENSUAL I want your babies!


Dessert was ‘This and That’ by Linda, a chocolate brownie base with a super light chocolate mousse centre covered in chocolate ganache and topped with a sprinkling of salt; a scoop of smooth lemon olive oil ice cream on crumble and rhubarb jam and topped off with a brandy tuile. What can I say but awesome! Ice cream recipe please Linda!


Oh look humans!


Congrats dudes! You guys were absolutely fantastic and we can’t wait until your next adventure in the kitchen!

 

 

Arlene and Michael's wedding, lunch reception at Ottoman

28 July 2010, 10:18

On Saturday I had the privilege of being Arlene’s bridesmaid along with the awesome Shirley and Lisa and we had an absolute blast! It was pretty crazy in the morning getting to Westin hotel to do our hair and makeup and some photos on the super sexy level 6 but unfortch no photos of us running around getting ready haha


We arrive at the Garrison Church to the sounds of bells ringing and get ready to enter. It was my first time being a bridesmaid and let me tell you walking down the aisle first is insanely terrifying especially walking in shoes that weren’t sneakers!


Erm I was more happy than I looked but was concentrating too much on not falling over haha


Made it to the altar without falling over woohoo and now the moment everyone is waiting for… Arlene and her dad!


Squeee


Apparently there was a no photo rule during the ceremony but there was an awesome candle lighting and the beautiful Amazing Grace was sung and I just about teared up when Michael and Arlene said their vows. I’m so happy for you guys!


Hullo family


Baulko crew- Soph, Jess, Kev, Ev and me


After some photos around the Rocks area the bridal party make our way to Ottoman (Pier 2/13 Hickson Rd, Dawes Point) where the sun streams through the entire restaurant and candles/lights are suspended in vases above our heads.


Instead of a well wishes sign-in book there was a mini chest of drawers filled with awesome old skool postcards to leave a message in the birdcage.


Each guest had a gorgeous sprig of flowers with name card at their seats and the bonbonniere were books of recipes provided by some of the guests


Michael and Arlene make their entrance


Arlene’s mum made her wedding dress and it was so freaking beautiful!


There was a tea ceremony for the family


BAHAHA I couldn’t resist!


My pretty bouquet


Aaand another shot


And now time for da food! Baskets of piping hot, fluffy pide bread arrive


Entree of King prawn with shitake mushrooms & baby spinach; salmon, cray & prawn wrapped in vine leaves and lightly battered; zuchinni flowers stuffed with goats fetta (not shown cos they came later). I loved the lemon and yoghurt sauce that was drizzled over the prawn and could’ve licked the plate clean that stuff was gold! I loved the zuchinni flower which was crisp, light and not at all oily.


Noods was given a vegetarian entree cos he can’t eat prawns and by the time I took a photo of my entree he’d managed to eat everything on his plate WITHOUT SHARING tsk tsk no love!


Alternate servings of Char grilled Wagyu beef served on potato puree, black cabbage and king brown mushrooms. Usually I dread getting the beef at weddings with more than 100 people but was pleasantly surprised that it had not been killed. The beef was cooked a little more than medium but was well rested, super juicy and pretty damn tasty. Wish there was more of it though cos Noods was very reluctant to part with half haha


Char grilled Kingfish served with olive oil braised leeks, carrots and preserved lemon mayo. I wasn’t a huge fan of the mayo and would’ve liked to have more of the lemon & yoghurt sauce from the entree haha but the kingfish was a pretty huge serving


Dessert was a quivering rectangle of kazandibi, a caramelised rice pudding; baklava drenched in syrup and a stretchy dondurma (Turkish ice cream).


Quick snap with my fav photographers in the world- Trish (and Vic) from Tealily Photography


The beautiful wedding cake was made by Shirley and isn’t it a beauty! It was a carrot cake with layers of cream cheese icing oh baby so good


Cutting da cake


Getting ready for the bouquet toss


Ribbons ribbons everywhere!


A cup of tea to end the night and our slice of wedding cake to take home


Uh no photo of Michael with us haha but congrats you guys! I <3 you both and hope you have a fantastic time in the states!

 

 

Masuya, Sydney

26 July 2010, 06:18

I <3 aburi salmon. Helen, Dave and I are at Masuya (Basement Level, 12-14 O’Connell St) and there’s just something about the smokey burn-y taste that makes me want to eat platefuls of this super delicious seared salmon. Though at $3.80 per piece it does make my soul cry. But the aburi is awesome. Go now.


The Misoyaki Oysters ($18.80) are baked and smothered in a layer of creamy miso sauce. They were also deceptively piping hot so resist the urge to shuck the whole oyster in one go or find out the hard way ahem Dave…


There is currently an ala carte tuna menu until 31st July and there is a slight pause as Helen and I glance at Dave after spying the otoro and chuutoro on the menu. Again the $50 pricetag for 6 pieces made me wince but fatty tuna! And medium fatty tuna?! I’d never had before and was surprised at the thickly cut slabs of tuna that arrived. Not sure if I got a dodgy piece but my otoro was surprisingly difficult to eat and I had trouble biting a bit off my slice. I was much happier with the chuutoro which had a more melt in the mouth texture


The Nasu Miso (large, $8.80) arrives and has Dave wondering where the other half of the eggplant went. He loves his eggplant and this is a hit with the table


The Beef Tataki ($13.80) are a bit dry but a dip into the ponzu sauce and all is good


The Jewfish Masuya’s Way (mulloway) ($23) arrives in all its spectacular golden glory, the fillet of jewfish wrapped in thin shards of potatoes and oven baked until crispy. I reckon this would be even more awesome if it were on a stick.


The Wagyu Beef Miso (230g) ($32.80) is a bit of a let down, the slices of beef a bit chewy for a marble score of 6.


By the time the Kingfish Wing Nitsuke ($16.80) arrives we are nearing explodey point. The kingfish is fantastic with sweet delicate meat and I wished I could’ve fit more in


Luckily there is a brief pause between our plates being cleared and somehow we decide to order 4 desserts to share because we can’t decide


The tofu and cream cheese cake ($6.80) is as intriguing in taste as it sounds. The cake is unbelievably light and fluffy, a slightly sour edge is all that i can detect of the tofu.


Zenzai – sweet red bean with rice cakes ($4.80). I am not a fan of red bean so I leave this dessert for the others.


The homemade green tea brulee ($6.80) was awesome with a nice layer of caramelised sugar that we gleefully broke into to reveal a smooth vivid green custard


I love green tea ice cream ($4.50) and Masuya doesn’t disappoint. Smooth and creamy it is a perfect end to the meal. Super thanks to Dave for dinner it was great to catch up and hope to see you again soon!

 

 

alphagetti

22 July 2010, 00:31

The one thing I never ate as a kid was alphabet spaghetti and when I saw this teeny tiny can on special at the shops I lol’d and chucked it into the shopping trolley to save for a rainy day.


Fast forward a coupla weeks and the boy requests a snack of ‘something that doesn’t require much chewing’ hohoho your wish is my command! Dump the cans contents into a bowl and nuke it for 2mins and voila! Uber lurid red soup with floaty pasta letters!


Of course what’s a can of alphagetti without some playing around with edible letters. Taste wise it was pretty not tasty hurhur but it was fun for something less than $2!

 

 

Hi I'm a food blogger! And yes I'm Asian!

21 July 2010, 20:50

OH HAI! Like my tshirt? It’s from the awesome Billy. And look I’m Asian and holding a giant camera! So about the title of this post… I’ve decided to close both the post and the comments cos things were going crazy and people were attacking each other left right and center. Time out guys! Everyone chill! Food should bring people together so move on!

 

 

Christmas in July dinner with food bloggers

19 July 2010, 07:01

I <3 Christmas. The colourful decorations, the food and the gathering of happy humans makes this eating fest my second fave eating holiday all year (Easter being my most fav). The awesome Billy and The Pom invited a whole bunch of happy food bloggers to eat and be merry at their place on the Central Coast with the theme of Christmas in July. Although we mainly communicate with each other online it is always a blast to get together in real life.


After our drive up from Sydney we take a quick detour for some fish and chips for a late lunch and arrive to find Billy’s kitchen overflowing with worker bees putting the last touches on their food. A menu has been pre planned and each blogger has brought along a dish or two to save Billy from cooking non stop. Though that doesn’t stop him from going all out and creating a meat feast!


While the food is being plated up Minh wraps her Secret Santa gift


The Captain and Billy strike a pose in their finest daggy xmas jumpers


A platter of cheeses materialises from Shez including home made labna!


Billy has baked a beautiful bread wreath and what is even more beautiful is the tub of truffle butter oh baby


Helen’s salad is filled choc a block with huge chunks of roasted pumpkin and crumbly fetta and a sprinkle of almonds


Minh’s sweet corn veloute made from Etch’s recipe is smooth and tastes like 100 corn cobs have given up their souls to create this wonderfully fragrant soup


Behold the classic antipasto hedgehog! Shez and her VTB bring this spiky creation to the table with wide grins and we chortle with glee as we pull out skewers spiked with triple cream brie, olives, melon, tasty cheese and cabanossi


Karen’s oven-roasted mushrooms with garlic and thyme is a mushroom bonanza!


Billy’s caramelised onion and fetta tarts are so freaking moreish especially with the homemade buttery pastry that just melts in the mouth


The Pom likes his brussels sprouts plain and with vinegar but he has also very thoughtfully made another bowl filled with bacon bits. Helen says they’re like eating a mini cabbage and since it was my first time eating brussel sprouts I nod warily and spear a sprout. I don’t mind the taste and find the slightly bitter taste interesting but I have issues with the layers of leaves and have to eat them like Minh- pulling off each leaf layer by layer


Helen’s chicken liver pate is smooth and velvety and I sneakily load up each slice of bread with a huge splodge of the pate and butter. Recipe please!


There was a pause in the incoming of food so it’s time for a photo with humans!


Meatballs from Karen and Shaun elicit immediate calls of balls! Ballllllls! Yep this was the alcohol talking but they were tasty balls indeed


Simon has crumbed and pan-fried angel fish fillets which are golden and crunchy and disappear immediately


Jacq and Sir D serve slices of country chicken and mushroom pie made from Maggie Beer’s recipe. The pastry is golden and buttery, encasing soft chicken and mushroom innards


And finally the moment we have all been waiting for…


Billy’s sexy glazed ham! There was also fan-freaking awesome roast pork and duck fat roast potatos but I uh seem to not have taken their photos erm i am fail.


With stomachs at explodey point we push onto dessert and The Pom brings out one mother honking Christmas pudding and then sets it alight.


Woohoo fire! Flames! So pretty! Burn it baby yeah!


Steph’s strawberry trifle is creamy but light, the sponge layer melding happily with the strawberry jelly on the bottom


Shez’s eggnog bundt cake sparkles not like a certain sparkly vampire hurhur but with the glory that is sugar. The cakes innards are dense and studded with ruby red cherries


What is Christmas without playing Secret Santa?


It’s party time!


A round of alcohol fuelled Pictionary brings out our drawing skillz


While some have piked early


Karen brings out her selection of petit fours- rich and boozy rum balls, uber light passionfruit marshmallow squares and chewy buttery caramels topped with chocolate. The sugar rush sparks some 80’s music karaoke


Richard has brought a wheel of Fromages des Clarines and infused it with garlic, thyme and white wine and baked it until warm and gooey and oh so very melty and tasty. Oishii!


My contribution to the weekend is waking up early and making breakfast though I managed to rope in Simon and Richard to help out hehe thanks guys! We made ricotta pancakes with berries, creamy scrambled eggs and uber crispy bacon rashers. There was also a litre of butterscotch sauce and a bottle of maple syrup floating around because hey why not have some more awesomeness with your breakfast? It’s the most important meal of the day!


And I’ll end this post with a pic of me in my beanie holding some bacon. Mmm bacon. Super thanks again to Billy and The Pom for having us over! I <3 our family!

 

 

malteser cake

16 July 2010, 05:53

Why hello sexy cake! I <3 anything malt - Ovaltines, Milo, Horlicks and most definitely Maltesers and when I saw this Nigella Lawson malteser cake here I knew I had to make it. All dolled up and ready to hit the town this cake may look fabulous but unfortunately the time and amount of stuff I had to wash just did not measure up when trying the final product. I mean, it was tasty and all but I would have liked more of a malt taste and um less washing haha


Ingredients: 150g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175ml milk
15g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks powder (or ovaltine)
175g plain flour
25g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda


Preheat the oven to 170C Whisk together the caster sugar, brown sugar and eggs until light and frothy.


Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. See the amount of Horlicks there? Yeah I kinda misread the recipe and somehow managed to double the amount haha it was a bit hard to dissolve so much powder but I’m glad I did because the cake didn’t have that much of a malt taste even with the doubling of Horlicks.


Beat the milk mixture into the egg mixture a little at a time.


Sift in the dry ingredients and fold thoroughly. Split mixture into 2 sandwich cake tins and bake for 25 minutes, by which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. (I found there wasn’t enough mixture for 2 tins and that it didn’t rise too much. Maybe double the recipe if you’re planning a super awesome high cake?)


I made a circle cake but also wanted to play with my heart cake tin


Time for da icing! Sift 250g icing sugar, 1 tsp cocoa, 45g Horlicks and beat with
125g soft unsalted butter until smooth. Add 2 Tbsp boiling water to the mixture if it’s not smooth and spreadable. Cut the cake in half and ice the middle, sandwich them back together and ice all around. If you plan on putting Maltesers on the side of your cake make sure the icing is thick enough so the Maltesers don’t fall off.


Mmm Malteser time! So I thought my cake would look awesome with Maltesers chopped in half but erm watch your fingers when chopping em! Once you’ve chopped a whole bunch of Maltesers go nuts and stick them onto the cake.


So the heart shape was probably not the best idea after I covered the sides with Maltesers halves lol think I went a little overboard…


Woohoo layer upon layer of Maltesers


The Malteser halves go soggy after about a day so try (!) and eat the cake on the same day or decorate it on the day. Not too happy about the recipe I reckon I’d try making a normal chocolate sponge cake and substitute the cocoa powder with Horlicks next time.

 

 

Christmas in July - Löwenbräu Keller, The Rocks

14 July 2010, 03:55

Lowenbrau Keller (Corner of Playfair & Argyle St, The Rocks) is my happy place previously posted about here with outdoor seating that’s perfect for people watching and a cavernous bier hall within. I have a particular fondness for the Mango Weizen- a Franziskaner wheat bier with mango juice that is both refreshing and so very easy to drink :D


Thanks to Darcie we are gathered here today to take a sneak peek at Lowenbrau’s Christmas in July menu. The night is a little blurry for me as there were several rounds of schnapps. Mmm schnapps. edit: ok it’s 3am and I can’t sleep what’s with the crazy rain? Post may sound a little loopy thanks to my sleep deprived state.


Baskets of golden garlic bread are placed before us, the heady smell of buttery garlic fills the air


And then giant bowls of mushroom soup appear. Seriously dudes I could bathe a small child in that bowl! The soup was so intense (ahem double rainbow!) and tasted like 100 mushrooms had given up their souls to create this uber rich soup and yes creme fraiche makes everything taste more delicious


Table of awesome! Tree stumps are Lowenbrau’s alternative to those wire serving frames and are a cause of much amusement to the girls who can’t help but chortle “I am chopping wood” (Oh Mr Perfect keep on practicing your listening face)


Attack!


Schnapps! Peach! Sour Apple! Butterscotch! Too many exclamation points! I think there was also a blueberry but I have issues with blueberry flavoured things so I passed on that flavour. But yay schnapps makes everyone jolly and um blurry hoho how awesome is the paddle? That wench is strong aye.


Wine marinated roast beef cheeks is my favourite of the night and sadly the most difficult to photograph because I am a noob. But the beef cheeks! They were so very awesome! Fall apart tender, each meat chunk exploded with beefy, wine-y juices.


Slow roast beef short ribs. Mmm saucy and tasty in all its meaty awesomeness. Roasting is magical. The mash is also magical and is buttery smooth. Like clouds. Of mash.


Venison stew with sautéed mushrooms and servietten knoedel steamed bread dumplings. I can’t recall much about this aside from… liking it… Did I mention there were schnapps?


Braised lamb shanks on mashed potato. Good stuff. Not as mind blowing as the beef ribs but still good stuff.


Franziskaner bier goulash. Giant flavourful carb nubbins atop a sea of meat nubbins in gravy. And while my stomach was nearing the cusp of explodey point, Darcie asks us if we would like a pork knuckle. Each. Uh. Maybe just one to share with the table?


Schweinshaxn- Oven roasted pork knuckle with sauerkraut and mashed potato. Oh baby lookit! That’s one big chunk of pork that is mostly uber crispy skin hiding a tender pork layer oh yes.


There was also salad. Hello colourful vegetable matter.


(Photo from Helen) And then somehow I managed to get pulled on stage to play with the cow bells haha Darcie is also roped in to play the tuba and a chicken dance later we are soon freed


Lisa is nominated and peer pressured into a beer drinking comp skull skull skull!


Little tea cups filled with cinnamon ice cream arrive


Along with a giant platter of Lowenbrau kaiserschmarrn, a splodge of pancakes topped with icing sugar, raisins, toasted almonds and drizzled with syrup.

Stomachs full and with the crazy sounds of Backstreet Boys ringing in our ears we roll out the door. Christmas in July is on at the Lowenbrau all month, with a different selection of traditional dishes served each week.

Chocolatesuze dined a a guest of Löwenbräu Keller and Zing Australia.

 

 

i <3 candy

11 July 2010, 23:51

Couldn’t resist and had to buy this necklace mmm i less than 3 candy :D Sorry short post today it’s been a crazy hectic week! But hey if you’re not already following me come find me on twitter or my facebook group and i’ll be back with a new post on wed!

 

 

easy banana cake

9 July 2010, 12:09

I love banana bread. Especially the edges which get nice and toasty when you stick a slice under the grill with some butter oh baby. But I love banana cake too with soft as a pillow banana innards. So usually I make a banana cake recipe and bake it in a loaf haha so much win! Also made a mini bundt cos I have a thing for bundt cakes lol I used this recipe which is awesomely easy and best of all you only use 1 bowl to mix everything in (plus a plate to mash the banana)


Here’s your ingredients: 3 super ripe bananas, 125g butter, ¾ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 ½ cups self raising flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, ¾ cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon milk


Whack in your brown sugar and softened butter into a mixer and cream until light and fluffy


While your sugar and butter are mixing smoosh your bananas and smoosh em good


When sugar and butter are fluffy-fied add in the eggs one at a time scraping sides of the bowl after each egg. Yes I use a Sunbeam. (You are my Sunbeam, my only Sunbeam)


Stir in smooshed banana. Stir in half the sifted self raising flour and bicarb with half the combined sour cream and milk then stir in remaining dry ingredients and sour cream mixture, stir until smooth. (Not sure if it affects the recipe but I’m always super lazy and just chuck in everything all in one go and haven’t had any probs yet)


Pour mixture into greased pan. Bake at 170C for 1 hour. If you’re making the mini bundt too take it out at 30mins


Mmm hello bundty! So usually I would make cream cheese frosting if I made a banana cake but since I made a loaf I wasn’t keen on making frosting just for the tiny bundt so I uh poured condensed milk haha mmm sweetness


Best part of bundts is that there’s a well of icing in the middle just waiting to ooze out oh baby! Sorry no pic of the loaf i kinda started eating it before remembering to take a photo haha fail