Bear Head Soup

Ginataang

2011-06-12T12:35:00.002+10:00

I first tried ginataang at Footscray Market, at Lutong Pinoy in the food court.

It is a sweet Filipino dish, a coconut soup. I loved it. It is sweet and liquidy with coconut milk, cubes of starchy vegetables, tapioca pearls, fruit and softy pillowy dumplings made of glutinous rice. The purple yam really stood out in the dish and I was curious to find out more. I'd been scouting around the internet and found a recipe at Busog Sarap. This seems the closest to what I ate at Footscray. The recipe called for yams. I wasn't so sure what a yam was, so I started more searching on the net and find out about yams, sweet potatoes and taro.

In the ginataang recipe at Busog Sarap, she uses purple yam (ube) taro (gabi) and sweet potato (kamote). I found all my vegetables at Little Saigon Market. I didn't use the orange sweet potato. I also found a place that stocks frozen ube as it is not available fresh all year round.

Top Left, purple yam (ube), Top Right, purple or Okinawa sweet potato
Bottom Left: taro (gabi), Bottom Right...a yam? of some sort

close up of the purple yam (ube)

Ube is not available fresh all year round, I found some frozen yam (ube) at an Asian grocer at Footscray Market,
the shop faces Footscray Station carpark,

Tapioca pearls

glutinous rice flour dumplings, getting these into a neat round shape
might take a bit of practice I think!!

Tastes a bit like a cross between papaya and lychee, and is a firmish fruit.
Quite nice tasting, given it is canned fruit.

I found the recipe reasonably easy to follow. Next time I make it, I would halve the amount of glutinous rice dumplings, at least double the tapioca pearls (and maybe use some large ones too, which Lutong Pinoy did), and probably increase the jackfruit too. That of course if just to suit my taste and close to what I ate at Footscray. The dish is similar in some ways to che chuoi chung, a Vietnamese dish I made last year. Both of which contain my favourite dessert ingredients of coconut milk, tapioca pearls and banana. This was a perfect brunch dish for a cold winter morning.

Ginataang

I'm sending this over to Weekend Herb Blogging. Yasmeen at Health Nut is hosting WHB #287, here is her recap of the event.

Wee Jeanie, Yarraville

2011-06-08T16:24:00.000+10:00

Wee Jeanie is the newest kid on the Yarraville block. The owners of The Cornershop (opposite The Sun theatre) have opened this smart little eatery. It is right next to Yarraville station. I decided a midweek visit was best, I find the weekend crowds at cafes just a bit too much.

To beat the wintery chill I chose the rice pudding for my breakfast and an excellent choice it was! Warm creamy rice, topped with pistachios, a sprinkle of sumac and the most divine poached strawberries. They were topped with some rosewater. A perfect balance of flavours and textures. The crunch of the pistachios was a great contrast to the soft rice and sweet strawberries and rosewater. I could happily eat this again.

Rice pudding with pistachios, sumac and poached strawberries
$9.00

The bill is left at your table and items are added to it and at the end of you are ready to leave, you take the bill to the counter to pay.

On my second visit, I got a seat at a bench overlooking their courtyard. A lovely wintery view while I drank my very good coffee and waited for my lunch.

Courtyard

Lunch for me was the baked eggs with eggplant kasundi (relish) topped with chorizo and fetta. It was an unusual mix of flavours, the Bengali relish with the Mediterranean chorizo. But it was very tasty I have to say. A beautiful warming dish.

Baked eggs with chorizo, fetta and kasundi
$12

Wee Jeanie does a great coffee and the food I've had so far has been excellent. The staff are helpful and friendly. A great addition to the Yarraville food landscape.

Wee Jeanie

50 Anderson Street

Yarraville

Ph 96987 7187

Open Monday to Saturday, currently

7.30am to 4.30pm

Dinh Son Quan, again

2011-06-05T13:46:00.000+10:00

Dinh Son Quan at Little Saigon Market is my comfort zone. I keep going back, the food is always tasty, the staff are obliging (I ask questions about the food, a lot!).

I have been trying to work my way through the specials board. This has worked okay to a point. There are two duck dishes on the menu, but they don't have duck at the moment. One day they will get duck again, I hope, or I will have to find these dishes somewhere else. A small problem though. I've had their banh xeo before, a rice flour and turmeric and rice flour pancake filled with salad, pork, prawns and bean shoot. It is not too bad.

I have started to venture into dishes that I have no knowledge of.

I tried the mien xao cua. This is a relatively simple dish comprising noodles, bean shoots and crab and/or shrimp paste. It was quite strongly flavoured and quite fishy. I don't think I would order it again, but I am glad I tried it.

Mien xao cua (glass noodles with crab and shrimp paste) $8.50

I found mi quang to be a tasty but very busy dish. It is a soup made with turmeric noodles (which I have seen sold dried in the Asian grocery stores). The soup comes out with fried rice and black sesame crackers on top. The mi quang is topped with a prawn, pieces of fish stick, pork belly, pork ribs, some pork loaf (cha lua) and two soft boiled quail eggs. It was like a banquet in a bowl...all food groups were covered. I would say I liked it rather than loved it, but I would like to order it again.

Mi quang (turmuric noodles) $8.50

The bun moc is by far, my most favourite dish at Dinh Son Quan. A lovely lightly flavoured broth with thin vermicelli noodles, slices of pork loaf (cha lua) and small meatballs of pork and shiitake mushrooms. The dish is topped with fried shallots and spring onions. This soup was such a surprise, the pork and shiitake meatballs were soft and flavoursome. I could eat this soup every week.

Bun moc ($8.50)

Bun moc pork dumplings

The bun bo la lot was a pleasant surprise too. I have had some okay renditions of this dish around town, but I was very happy with this version. Fat fingers of juicy beef with betel leaves wrapped around them. Super tasty with plenty of salad leaves and dipping sauce. This one is a keeper too.

Bun bo lat lot $8.50

Bun rieu was another soupy noodle dish that I haven't tried before. It had thin vermicelli noodles, crab balls, pieces of tofu, cha lua and wedges of tomato cooked in the broth. The tomatoes reminded me of the thai soup tom yum, interestingly, there is tom yum on the menu which I keep meaning to try. It was quite a strong crab flavoured dish as well. I'd like to order this one again too, a very interesting dish, not my favourite but worth a second look.

Bun rieu $8.50

This is the specials board. I have given up attempts to pronounce the names, the poor staff having to try to understand my mangled Vietnamese! I just point now.

Menu board...at the bottom is kinh moi=invite or welcome

Dinh Son Quan

Little Saigon Market
Nicholson Street
Footscray

Open every day for breakfast and lunch

Lunch at Quang Minh Buddhist Temple

2011-05-18T19:36:00.001+10:00

I first heard about Sunday lunch at Quang Minh Buddhist Temple in Braybook, when my friend M invited me. His partner T is Vietnamese. They have returned in recent months from a nearly year long stay in Vietnam. M worked as a volunteer teaching English.

Bowls of vegetarian bun bo hue can be purchased. The queue below is lunch that you don't pay for. This lunch includes rice, sometimes noodles, and usually two vegetarian and tofu dishes. You also receive a small bowl of soup. The first time I went, it was a delicate melon and tofu soup. The second time was a sweet and sour soup, as you would find in canh chua, with slivers of bac ha (lotus stem) in it. Delicious!

Vegetables and rice

Melon and tofu soup

On our most recent visit, near the bun bo hue queue, there were containers of fried mushrooms with a little chili that you could buy for $5. I'd like to get them next time.

At the front of the temple, there is an outdoor market under a large shed. There are about a dozen stalls. Some sell, clothes, there is a fruit and veg stall, one selling Buddhist decorations, another selling rolls of fabric and another selling containers of food to take home. My two favourite stalls are the one that sells the che, three colour and four colour drinks, basil seed drinks and longan drinks. The other sells desserts to take home or eat there. This is my favourite.

Pandan waffles (banh kep)

Three colour drink (che ba mau) $2.50

Longan seaweed drink (che sam bo luong) $2.50

Cooking chuoi nep nuong

Eating chuoi nep nuong with coconut milk and

roasted peanuts $3.00

Chuoi nep nuong is sticky rice parcels wrapped around (in this instance) red bean paste (they can contain banana or mung bean paste I believe). They are fried, then cut up and served with coconut milk sauce with tapioca balls and toasted peanuts. I have had this on each visit. Serious comfort food! M and I get our food and sit on benches outside and soak in the atmosphere. For M it just makes him more eager to return to Vietnam and for me, it increases my desire to visit.

Update: Lunch seems to be from 12.00 to 1.00. I went once, closer to 1pm and some of the market stalls had begun to run out of tasty stuff. I think getting there at 12.00 is the optimal time. You can have lunch, then wander about the little market at the front.

Hopetoun Tea Rooms, Melbourne

2011-04-30T22:11:00.000+10:00

Tucked away in the Block Arcade in Melbourne, is the Hopetoun Tearooms. It is a quaint Victorian-looking place that is a step back in time.

Vanilla Slice

Chocolate passion fruit brownie

Cream-filled lamingtons

Lemon tart

Besides cakes, there are breakfast options, eggs and bacon, and raisin toast. Lunch options include soup, toasted croissants, stuffed zucchini flowers and fish.

Pavlova and wild berry sponge cake

Strawberry sponge cake

It took a good while to decide on a cake. I was going to select something modest, but I rarely get down to this part of town, so I thought, 'time to lash out!'.

Raspberry and pistachio cheesecake $9.50

I decided on the raspberry and pistachio cheesecake. A fine choice it turned out to be! A creamy cheesecake with a soft biscuit crumb base, crunchy pistachio edge and a soft layer of raspberry jelly. A cute decoration on top was a candied wild hibiscus flower.

Top left - raspberry pistachio cheesecake (slightly better photo)

Hopetoun Tearooms stock Serendipitea teas. I had a cup of black Darjeeling tea which was a perfect foil for the creamy cheescake

Table decorations

Queue at Hopetoun Tearoom

I waited about 10 or 15 minutes to get in. I generally don't queue for places, but I will make an exception for this place...I must find a reason to be down in this part of the city again very, very soon!!

Hopetoun Tearooms

Block Arcade

Shop 1 and 2, 282 Collins Street

Melbourne

Ph 9650 2777

Open Mon to Sat 8am to 5pm

Sunday 9am to 5pm

The Victoria Hotel, Footscray

2011-04-26T12:37:00.003+10:00

The Victoria Hotel (also has a sign saying Hart's Hotel) is on Victoria Street, just near Middle Footscray Station. I have been past it a million times and wondered about this place. It is a lovely old building that doesn't seem to have been altered much over time. My hopes were raised when I saw some specials on the chalkboard outside that mentioned lentils, a diverse menu perhaps?

The Thursday before the long Easter break, The Bloke gets home from work and suggests dinner at the hotel. Nice work.

The dining area is a pleasant wood-paneled room, neat and tidy.

On each table, slim white ceramic vases hold carnations. They look sweet and old school, very comforting.

I order the rissoles with mashed potato. The dish comes with a gravy boat so you can decide how much, if any, gravy you want. The rissoles are large, moist and tasty...and filling. I have two. The mashed potato is okay, I want it to be brilliant, hopefully just an off-mash night. The side of steamed vegetables is great. Perfectly steamed broccoli and a chunk of baked pumpkin under the vegetables with some cinnamon on top, divine!

Rissoles and mash $9.00

Steamed veges

The Bloke orders the T-bone steak with chips and salad. (I am too busy eating and forget to take a photo pre-eating of the steak). I have a taste of the steak, very nice and the chips are crisp; The Bloke is happy. The salad is excellent, crunchy salad vegetables with not too much dressing. Complimentary white rolls are served with our meals too.

T-bone and chips $16.00

Salad

The Victoria Hotel feels like it is a million miles from the city. It felt like one of the country pubs I went too when I was a teenager. We had warm and friendly service from the women at the bar and in the dining room. There is a kids menu too. A little girl was wandering around with a silver dish filled with a scoop of ice-cream and some chocolate topping. There are vegetarian options also. The night we went there was a pumpkin lasagne with pesto sauce ($11) and some vegetarian minestrone soup with garlic bread ($6). The menu is quite large and such good value.

As it was the night before Easter, the usual Friday night karaoke was being held on Thursday night. After eating our meal, we moved into the bar to watch the football on the TV. We also got to see the karaoke master "Macca" get the night going. Glen Campbell, Elvis and Roy Orbison got a fair work-out. Macca came over to us later later in the evening to encourage us to participate, maybe next-time and maybe after a few more beers! Thanks also to Luke and Jack who successfully beat us at the pool table, a number of times!

The Victoria Hotel is a surprise packet. A friendly local pub, with good food.

The Victoria Hotel

43 Victoria Street

Footscray

Ph 9687 7581

Coconut and palm sugar agar agar

2011-04-20T20:16:00.000+10:00

I found some agar agar being sold in an Asian grocery store in Melbourne's CBD that was closing down. It was quite cheap, not too much to lose if my cooking experiment failed! I've used agar only once before, in powder form; a chocolate flavoured powder. It was okay, but didn't inspire me to try that again. Seeing the packets of agar agar threads gave me cause to retry.

I searched the Internet for some recipes using agar agar threads. There are plenty using agar powder, but not so many using the threads. I eventually found a recipe, and close to home too. The recipe I used comes from "Poh's Kitchen" which was on ABC TV. I used to watch her show, but cannot remember seeing this dish being made. Coconut and palm sugar agar agar is a Malaysian dish and there are quite few versions of it on the Internet.

It is a pretty easy recipe. First you wash the agar agar threads, then squeeze as much moisture out as possible. You boil water in a saucepan and then add the agar agar, stirring until it dissolves. This seems to take some time. When it is dissolved, you add the white sugar and dark palm sugar. You stir to dissolve the sugars, then you add coconut cream. This is when I discovered quite a few threads of undissolved agar agar! Maybe I've mucked this up!! I was too far in to stop.

I poured the liquid into a tray (26cm x 17cm, 3cm deep, which was a perfect size). You then leave it to set at room temperature. A very mysterious product. Having grown up using gelatine and jelly and having it set in the fridge, this room temperature business is so interesting. When it sets you put it into the fridge.

Soaked agar agar

Palm sugar

The agar agar set despite bits of undissolved threads. It actually looks interesting with the threads in the bottom and adds some nice chewiness. I will have to work on timing the dissolving process next time!

A word on agar agar (for non-Asians) it doesn't have the melty softness of jelly. Poh describes it as splitting when your teeth sink into, which is a pretty accurate description. It takes some getting used to. If you have never tried an agar agar dessert, then I would recommend this one...a dessert using coconut cream and palm sugar is a heavenly place to start. The palm sugar gives the agar agar a lovely treacle/butterscotch taste.

Sonido, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

2011-04-17T18:37:00.000+10:00

Sonido is a South American breakfast and lunch place that opened in Gertrude Street Fitzroy last year. I went once, closed on Mondays, I went again, they only take cash not cards. Finally got there, actually I have been twice now. It is a cosy homey place, with great South American music playing and easygoing gentle service. The food, according to the menu is typical of Colombia and Venezuela.

Frijoles con feta - arepa $11.50 with salad $2.50

For my first visit, I tried the Frijoles con feta - arepa with some salad. The arepa, a firmish disc of corn bread was unfilled, and topped with frijoles (black beans). The beans were cooked in a little tomato and topped with some feta. A small dish of guacamole and a dish of picadillo (a fresh tomato salsa) came with the meal. It was a light and tasty lunch, the beans weren't mushy. I felt pretty healthy after my yummy food.

My next visit and I ordered the Arepas de queso, bread filled with melty cheese, the ultimate in comfort food.

Sonido serves up a mean Colombian hot chocolate. It is served in small jug (ollectica) with a wooden stirrer (molinillo).

Hot chocolate $4.50

Sonido also serves coffee, which I haven't tried yet, and soft drinks. Most of the menu is gluten-free. There are gluten-free sweet eats to have with coffee such as brownies, muffins and shortbread. Other arepa-based dishes are on the menu as well as some empanadas, with either chorizo, beef or spinach and cheese. There are sooo many things to go back and try!

Sonido!

69 Gertrude Street

Fitzroy 3065

www.sonido.com.au

Open Tues to Friday 8.30am to 4pm

Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm
Payment is cash only, no cards

Paschal lambs, marzipan fruit and dead man's bones

2011-04-13T19:31:00.000+10:00

Lambs have been appearing in the window of T Cavarello and Sons in Hopkins Street in Footscray. They are a prevalent at Easter time in Sicily. I'm not sure if they are in other regions of Italy.

I first read about Paschal lambs in "Bitter Almonds" by Mary Taylor Simeti. The first half of the book is the story of Maria Grammatico and her life in an orphanage, working in the convent kitchen, baking bread, biscuits and making the marzipan lambs and marzipan fruit. The food was sold to enable the convent to survive financially. The second half of the book contains recipes for marzipan, biscotti and other Sicilian specialities. I also found an interesting interview and article about Mary.

The only other place I have seen the Paschal lambs in Melbourne is at Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria in Smith Street in Collingwood.

Aquilana is a very old school Sicilian bakery. I have never really felt too tempted to enter. But I have to say, I should have. The business has been in existence for about 40 years, not quite so long as T Cavarello and Sons. Mum, Dad and a daughter work in the business. The daughter, in her twenties or thirties, was so very helpful. She answered my questions very graciously. I was just going to look, so I bought a hot chocolate and sat near the display so I could take some photos (and delicious chocolate it was too!).

Marzipan chillies and corn

Marzipan fish and slice of marzipan watermelon

Marzipan peaches

Marzipan apple, pear and loquat

Inside the marzipan fruit

I bought some marzipan fruit, they are sold by weight and four pieces cost me $16.60. They are beautiful hand-painted sweets. Traditionally available for All Souls Day but now all year round and for special celebration days. They were a bit sweet but not too much and the marzipan was reasonably soft. I will be slicing of pieces of marzipan for a few more days!

Ossa dei morti (dead man's bones) biscotti

Ossa dei morti (dead man's bones) biscotti are new to me too. I have never heard of them and they looked intriguing so I bought three of them ($3.00). The girl I spoke to said they are firm and you dunk them in your coffee. They are kind of firm and bread-like with a crisp white shell of icing over part of the biscotti (looked a lot like bones). I made my coffee at home and started dunking. Surprisingly tasty, so much so I managed to dunk all three! (not at once though)

I also sampled a lamb from T Cavarello. The small lambs are made of marzipan and are slightly hollow. They are $10, $12 and $20. The larger ones both here and at Aquilano are filled with fruit and chocolate and covered with butter cream icing and they seem be around the $20-$30 for the smaller filled ones and can be quite expensive the bigger they are.

The lamb had a lovely almond taste and was not as sweet as the marzipan fruit. I will be nibbling away at that too for the rest of the week!

Inside Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria

The window at the front of Aquilana

T Cavallaro and Sons

98 Hopkins Street

Footscray (opp Footscray Market)

Ph 9687 4638

Open 7 days a week, close 3pm Saturday and 12.30 Sunday

Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria

297 Smith Street

Collingwood

Ph 9419 4351

Open 7 days a week, from 8am

Hot cross buns in Seddon

2011-03-29T17:51:00.000+11:00

In Seddon now, we are spoilt for choice with our bakery situation. We have old school Waldies in Victoria St, with their chocolate eclairs, vanilla slices and Boston buns. A few doors down, we have Sourdough Kitchen with their sourdough rye, casalinga and pizza slices.

Both the bakeries have hot cross buns. So, how do they compare?

Waldies, left, $1.00, Sourdough Kitchen, right $2.50

Waldies left, Sourdough Kitchen right

Waldies bun was soft, fruity and a good amount of spice, which I like. Sourdough had a crusty, chewy shell with a soft centre. It had similar amount of fruit, and citrus peel. The spice was a little more subtle.

Six Waldies hot cross buns will set you back $5.00 or they are $1.00 each. Sourdough Kitchen buns are $2.50 take-away and $3.00 eat in.

I could happily eat both. I'm just happy to have the option of eating bread baked fresh in Seddon.

MissChu, Exhibition Street, Melbourne

2011-03-22T21:37:00.000+11:00

MissChu is a newish Vietnamese style cafe in Melbourne. The first MissChu is in Darlinghurst in Sydney. Lunch hours can get a bit hectic. No table service here, you order your food at the counter (the outside counter). If you do try and order from the inside counter, most times you will be directed outside, depends who is on front desk duty.

The menu is a 'tuckshop' order form. The food is mainly Vietnamese, with a twist, but there is also steamed dumplings, char sui bao and Peking duck pancake.

My first visit, I figured if I got there right on 12 midday, I'd beat the crowd. No, I was just part of the crowd. I stood at the bench to order my food, trying to look for somewhere to sit. You have to have a table before you order your food, that's if you are eating in, first lesson learnt.

I boldly went for Wagyu Beef Pho. The broth was okay. There seemed to be cooked sliced beef and uncooked beef added. There were a few bean sprouts and some Italian basil leaves. I'm a bit spoilt living near Footscray, where there is plenty of great pho options. It was interesting to see MissChu's take on the pho. I was interested to try it, but I wouldn't order it again.

Wagyu beef pho $13

To go with the soup, I ordered some deep-fried pork Hanoi spring rolls, mini versions of cha gio that I have eaten in Footscray and they were really tasty! Crunchy crispy morsels filled with pork and some cubed vegetable of some sort. The perfect thing to have with beers after work I would think.

Deep-fried Hanoi spring rolls (cha gio) $5

On my second visit, I opted for their twist on the Vietnamese vermicelli salad or bun. MissChu has beef and vermicelli, chili prawn and vermicelli as well as chicken and some other options. I toyed with the idea of getting something similar to a true Vietnamese bun, but followed my heart and ordered the vermicelli salad with shitake, enoki and shimeji mushrooms (which is a vegan dish, according to the menu). The bowl arrived filled with vermicelli noodles, fried mushrooms, some cubes of fried tofu, some flecks of fresh chili and morsels of crunchy fried shallots. I was a little disappointed to begin with as there were no herbs to be seen. The beauty of this dish is it is kind of like an upside-down bun. The bean sprouts, mint, coriander and perilla leaves are under the noodles, so as you eat you get bursts of flavour from the herbs. At the bottom of the bowl as you finish, is the soy sauce mix that the mushrooms have been cooked in. The chili leaves my mouth quite warm. I would order this dish again, and again. This was a really successful twist on the Vietnamese vermicelli salad.

Vermicelli salad (bun) with mushrooms $12

I like the idea of this place, the fitout is simple and industrial looking. At the bench seat, you are up close and personal as the chefs work away at the woks. There are signs announcing that no MSG or garlic is used. I'm not sure why the no garlic is a good thing, but there you go.

MissChu looks like it would be a great place to meet after work for drinks and some very interesting snacks. Of my two visits to MissChu, two of the three dishes I ordered were really, really good. It is a great addition to Melbourne's CBD for interesting and tasty food and for meeting friends for drinks.

MissChu
297 Exhibition Street (between Little Lonsdale and Latrobe Sts)
Melbourne
Ph 9077 1097
Open 11am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday

Mooncakes and hungry ghosts

2011-03-05T18:47:00.000+11:00

Today, I learnt how to make mooncakes, dzung (zongzi) and offerings to the ghosts, as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. The event "Mooncakes and hungry ghosts" is on at the Chinese Museum in Little Collins Street.

The session began with a small Chinese musical ensemble.

Elizabeth Chong hosted the event.

We were served Chinese tea as the session began.

Anita Lau taught us how to make mooncakes.

Mooncake pastry rolled out

Salted eggs, uncooked on the left, cooked on the right

Lotus bean paste, the olive coloured ball, is wrapped around a cooked salted egg.
The pastry is rolled out and wrapped around the lotus paste and salted egg.

Mooncake ready to cook

A platter with cooked mooncakes was passed round, I got so caught up in the mooncake moment, I forgot to take a photo! Mooncakes are served when the moon is at it's fullest, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.

This is what the inside of the salted egg mooncake looks like, this is a photo of one I bought last year, just to give you an idea. It is cut up into slices and you have a small piece with some Chinese tea. I however, like big pieces, because they are so delicious!

If you want to buy some mooncake molds, I bought one last year from Chefland, 272 Victoria St, Richmond, near the corner of Church St. They sell wooden and plastic molds.

The next dish we learnt about was Dzung. I couldn't find anything on the internet by that name, but they do seem to be called Zongzi. It is served as part of the Dragon Boat Festival which is on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar. Magie Wu taught us about this dumpling. It is a sticky rice dumpling filled with, in today's case, pork, shiitake mushrooms and fresh chestnuts (which are traditional apparently) they are then wrapped in bamboo leaves, wrapped in string and steamed for two hours.

Magie preparing the rice to go into the bamboo leaves.

She ties the string to a clothes rack and then sits down to wrap the bamboo leaf parcels in string. This looked reasonably easy. However, I had a go and I can assure you, it is a tricky procedure!

Dzung or zongzi with steamed and string removed

Dzung or zongzi, ready to eat. Delicious!!

At the front of the Chinese Museum, a group of people were making glutinous rice flour dumplings, with pink and green coloured dough.

At our session, the dumplings were explained to us. The green ones are filled with a salty fish filling, which was quite nice. The red ones were filled with sweet red bean paste.

Elizabeth Chong prepared the third dish, a stir fried pumpkin and lup yook which she called Chinese bacon. It is cut into strips and fried off with the vegetables.

Stir fried pumpkin with lup yook

The stir fried pumpkin is one dish used as an offering for the Hungry Ghosts Festival. This festival is observed on the 15th night of the 7th lunar month. I have not heard of this festival before. It involves serving food offerings as a sign of respect to family ancestors.

I'm not quite sure about the red and green glutinous rice flour cakes/buns. I had a bit of information overload. They could have been food for the Hungry Ghosts Festival or they may have been part of a festival on a Hong Kong island called Cheung Chau Bun Festival (the white buns with the red writing on them are a feature of this festival). This festival is on the 8th day of the 4th lunar month. There was a tower of plastic buns at the front of the Chinese museum today. On the island of Cheung Chau, young men race to the top of a tower of buns (real I think) and grab one, the first person to reach the top, has a year of good fortune.

Elizabeth Chong explained that there are so many festivals and food associated with them in Chinese culture. She said Chinese people celebrate from 'the womb to the tomb with food.'

Armadillo Eggs

2011-02-26T20:44:00.001+11:00

I was reading Homesick Texan's food blog, one of my favourites and found this recipe for Armadillo Eggs. Hmm, intriguing.

Turns out, it is jalapenos stuffed with a mix of cream cheese, tasty cheese, garlic and cumin. Minced meat is wrapped around the jalapenos. They are then baked and cut in half and the cheese mix is supposed to look a bit like an egg yolk. My efforts were not quite up to Homesick Texan, but a reasonable effort.

I also don't know anything about jalapenos. I didn't even know how hot they were. I hunted around Queen Vic market during lunchtime last week, but no jalapenos. I then checked out Prahran Market, which is really good for hard to find/get items. I eventually found my chillies at Damien Pike's stall (no. 116). Ironic really as I thought he was a mushroom specialist only. Evidently not. He also stocks chillies which I hadn't been aware of. There is even a 'chilli index' on one wall of his stall. Apparently jalapenos are 5 out of 10 in heat (according to his index). I figured that was do-able.

Jalapenos

Halved jalapenos, they are then filled with the cream cheese and tasty cheese mix
(forgot to photograph that part of the process!)

Meat is rolled out into a circle, then jalapenos placed on top and wrapped

If the meat around the jalapenos is not sealed completely, the cheese oozes out a bit, as illustrated above!

In Homesick Texan's pics the mix of the cream cheese and tasty cheese looks like an egg yolk,
mine not so obvious, oh well.

The armadillo eggs can be served as an appetiser. I found the chilli quite hot, more like a 7 or 8 out of 10. If I was making this for a mixed crowd, I might try using capsicums (bell peppers). The jalapeno version was pretty good, but definitely had a kick. Well, that's another food first for me...I can tick jalapenos off the list.

Wok Noodle Cafe and Restaurant, Seddon

2011-02-20T22:18:00.001+11:00

A cafe on Charles Street in Seddon had closed. Within a short period of time a big red sign went up across the front of the shop, Wok Noodle, Malaysian. There may have been more words, I couldn't remember, I just saw Malaysian and the world was already a happier place.

The Bloke and I dropped in to check out the newest addition to the Seddon food-scape. Wok Noodle Cafe and Restaurant. It has been open less than a week, but appears to have plenty of folks checking out the food. The main guy, who does front of house, was a great host. He is one of three owners of the place. He was friendly, jokey and welcoming. Thankfully, the food was just as good as the service!

The Bloke ordered some beef rendang with rice, which was on the 'specials' list, and a serve of roti. A tasty meal he concluded. It seemed a bit light on for meat, but after he'd eaten the meat, rice and a decent amount of roti, he was getting full.

Beef rendang and rice $10.50 (discounted price)

Roti $3.50 (discounted price)

I ordered the curry laksa. A fantastic tasting soup loaded with noodles and containing chicken, tofu, fishcake slices, aubergine and green beans.

Curry laksa $10.50 (discounted price)

I will definitely be back to try more things off their menu! The owners have applied for a liquor licence, but have been told it will be about six weeks off, so don't BYO your alcohol just yet! They have a coffee machine and have cans of soft drink available.

On their menu they have a deal,

"Grand Opening Special, all noodle and rice dishes are 30% off till the end of Feburary 2011"

Wok Noodle Cafe and Restaurant

1/92 Charles Street

Seddon 3011

Ph 9689 9882

Open Tues to Frid 10.30 am - 10pm

Open Sat and Sun 11am to 10pm

Closed Monday

Spice Bazaar Cooking School and Spices

2011-02-16T22:27:00.000+11:00

Every weekday morning when I walk to Footscray railway station via Victoria Street to go into the city, I pass Spice Bazaar. They sell spices but they also have a cooking school. The Bloke knows the foody things I lust after and for my birthday towards the end of last year, he bought me a voucher for the cooking school. Happy days!

I finally booked in for the "Moroccan and Middle Eastern Cooking" class. The website has all the details of the classes and where to buy the spices.

When you enter the venue, there is a table set to eat dinner. There is also a workbench set up with a chopping board and knife for each person and platters of herbs and vegetables as well as jars of their spices.

Jill and Pat own the business. Jill ran the class until about the last hour when Pat turned up, just in time to point out the finer details of using a tagine. The night I went, there was a group of five people, with some of that group having been to three or four previous classes, which is a pretty decent recommendation, plus myself and another guy there whose wife had bought him a voucher for his birthday too. Jill split us into two groups (I was in a group of three so she joined us).

We were given a recipe booklet and set to work producing entrees. One girl in our group was a vegetarian. Jill had ingredients prepared to make all the meat dishes with vegetarian versions.

Two hours in, we sit and eat our entrees with a glass of wine, then we press on with the mains and a dessert and another glass of wine. Four hours of fun! Jill and Pat sat down with us and we ate and shared stories. A very fine way to spend a Friday night. Thanks to The Bloke for my pressie and thanks to Jill and Pat for a great class!

Berbere chicken pastry

Chicken Tagine with Ras el Hanout

Bread with zatar spice, minted green pea dip

Prawns in chermoula paste (one of my favourite dishes of the night)

Cous cous with currents, pine nuts and Tunisian spices

Tucking into our feast, part two.

Fatouche salad

Pears poached in spices

Spice Bazaar Cooking School and Spices
79 Victoria Street
Seddon 3011
Ph 03 9687 2659
www.spicebazaar.com.au

Sticky Date Puddings

2011-02-06T17:27:00.000+11:00

My mum rang to invite us over for a family dinner, my auntie (dad's sister) was staying for a few days. She lives in Gippsland and comes down from time to time. I volunteered to make dessert. Usually I like to go a bit overboard and make something a bit fancy. This time I went for comfort food.

The recipe I use is Karen Martini's Sticky Date Pudding. She made it on Better Homes and Gardens a few years ago. I found a copy of the recipe here. I stashed a cutting of it somewhere and haven't seen it since! I have a lifelong goal to manage all my recipe cuttings and there are just a few cuttings!!

I've made this pudding a few times and usually in a large rectangular ceramic dish. This time I decided to make individual puddings and used large muffin tins, just under a cup (250ml) volume. I had 8 puddings but needed 9, so just did a bit of judicious scooping and managed to make 9. You could also use normal muffin/cup cake tins. If I were to make them for me and The Bloke, I'd freeze the rest. With the caramel sauce, I would halve it because I'm not sure it would freeze or how long it would keep in the fridge.

Butter, cream and brown sugar melted together for caramel sauce

Caramel sauce

I had instructed The Bloke to remind me to take a photo of the pudding when it was ready to serve, with the lovely caramel sauce on top and dollop of whipped cream, but I only remembered when I'd finished eating it!

Sourdough Kitchen, Seddon

2011-02-01T19:37:00.000+11:00

I've been on a sabbatical from blogging. The truth is, I lost the love and it felt like a chore. I was too worried about what people thought of my blog or I would compare myself to other bloggers. You know the ones...some have brilliant photos (I'm happy if my photos aren't blurred!) or they have really snappy dialogue or alternately they have floaty lyrical words. Then there are the bloggers who post so frequently...how do people manage that? My one year blog anniversary and came and went, uncelebrated. I even gave up reading other blogs.

I have a very random approach to food and go off on tangents. Sometimes I'm into cooking, other times I'm into a particular country's food, recently it has been Vietnamese food. Other times I'm into food markets or grocery shops. I want to enjoy the fact that my food interests are varied and eclectic. It's my food and eating journey and I can only write about what lights my fire.

Funnily enough, the blog drought has been broken by fire. A bakery to be exact.

As I walk along Victoria Street in Seddon every day to get the train to the city, I have been passing a shop undergoing a refurb. There seemed to be some fridges and counters going in so I figured it was going to be food place of some sort. One day as I passed I saw huge bags of flour being carried in....maybe a pizza place? A hand-written sign appeared on the window one day, 'Sourdough Bakery'. Now I was getting excited. I then began seeing loaves of bread on a table or people walking out with a loaf under their arm. Lucky friends!

This morning I walked past and saw people tidying and cleaning. Each day I have been waiting for it to open. As I was getting ready to leave work this afternoon, I received a text message from The Bloke, 'the bakery is open.' When I got home from work, the bakery was still open, yay!!

The bakery is called 'Sourdough Kitchen' but there is no sign yet. I chatted to the owner (the baker) and his wife. There were two kids sitting in the doorway munching on some bread, 'they're Quality Control' I was informed. Well, someone has to do it.

Sourdough Kitchen is open from 7am 6 days a week. They do coffee, so I am going to test that out. They had about 6 or 8 types of bread in the window and plain bread rolls and fruit rolls. I figured if I bought a loaf of bread I would probably demolish it, so I got a fruit roll instead, much less temptation! They are going to bake cakes eventually too.

The photo gives you a rough (very rough) idea of the place. I'll get a better photo soon.

A delicious light roll with just the right amount of fruit, thank goodness I only bought one!

Two doors away is Waldies Bakery. I don't know how long it has been there, but it is a great local old school bakery, with sausage rolls and pies baked on the premises, and all sorts of cakes, like chocolate eclairs and vanilla slices.

Hopefully our two fabulous bakeries in Seddon will co-exist for many years to come!

Waldies bakery
168 Victoria Road
Seddon 3011
Open 6 days a week from 6.30am

Sourdough Kitchen

172 Victoria Street

Seddon 3011

Open 6 days a week from 7am

Grilled fish with turmeric and dill (Cha Ca)

2011-01-10T11:38:00.003+11:00

I first ate this dish at Dong Que, in Footscray, across from the Footscray Market. I was totally smitten with it, the combination of the fish, the turmeric and the dill. I was surprised to find dill used in Vietnamese cuisine.

I researched some recipes and found that the fish used is catfish, a Vietnamese freshwater fish, also known as Basa. I haven't cooked too much fish because I've never been too sure how to cook it and have had some pretty ordinary results. I found some Basa fillets at Little Saigon Market. I've also seen Basa fillets in the major supermarkets. The other main ingredient, dill was a little difficult to find. I walked around the market and to a couple of stores in the area that sell fresh vegetables, it was Sunday so Footscray Market wasn't open. In my hopeless Vietnamese I mentioned the dish I was cooking and found out that dill is call thi la. That helped, a lot. I was directed to a lady at the back of the market unpacking a box of herbs and there was my thi la.

Cha Ca
(adapted from The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le)

300g (approx two fillets) Basa (catfish)

Marinade:
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon minced or grated galangal (some recipes suggested ginger or galangal powder)
2 tablespoons ground turmeric
1 tablespoon chopped dill
Salt and pepper to taste

Rice flour
Oil for frying
Bunch of dill

Stir fish sauce and sugar together until dissolved. Add the remaining marinade ingredients. Add fish, cut into 2 or 3cm pieces to the marinade and leave for about 20 minutes.

Tip rice flour into a shallow dish, then dredge the pieces of fish in the flour to fully coat.

Add oil to a pan, heat and fry the fish pieces. When cooked, top with dill.

Marinading fish

Fish pieces coated with rice flour

Cha Ca ready to eat!

I cooked some noodles and made a salad platter to have with my Cha Ca, but not pretty enough to photograph, plus by bun needs some tweaking I think. I will definitely make this again. Really delicious, really easy and what I couldn't eat for dinner was perfect eaten cold the next day!!

This is my entry to Delicious Vietnam #9, hosted by Indonesia Eats. Thanks, as always to Anh from A Foodlovers Journey and Hong and Kim at Ravenous Couple who devised this event. Read Indonesia Eats round-up to see other entries.

More about Delicious Vietnam.

Dinh Son Quan, Footscray

2011-01-02T15:19:00.003+11:00

A good people watching and street watching place!

I have been to Dinh Son Quan so many times and finally have got organised to write about it!

Banh Cuon

Whenever I passed Dinh Son Quan and their bain marie, I would see these soft noodle rolls. Eventually I found out that it was Banh Cuon. I had it for the first time at a Thanh Tam in Richmond. At Thanh Tam it was served with Banh Cong, so at Dinh Son Quan, I ordered the Banh Cong too.

Banh cong

Banh Cuon with banh cong (mung bean cake) and cha lua (pork loaf)
($8.00)

Moving the salad reveals Banh Cuon

As with most dishes I have eaten at Dinh Son Quan, this was delicious. Over the Banh Cuon was a great lush salad of shredded carrots and cucumber, mung bean sprouts, mint, coriander, perilla and fried shallots. The dish was served with dipping sauce to tip over the salad. A bargain at $8.00!! This place is a keeper, inexpensive food and only one dish so far that I probably wouldn't order again.

Lots more things to try!!

I have tried the Banh Xeo from Dinh Son Quan which was okay (Dong Que has a really tasty version of Banh Xeo). I have had Bun Bo Hue at other places but not here, so am keen to rectify that. Tom Yum I've had at plenty of Thai places. Just need to do some research and find out what the remaining dishes are...and try them!

See more reviews here:

Lauren at Footscray Food Blog

Kenny at Consider the Sauce

Dinh Son Quan
Little Saigon Market
Nicholson Street
Footscray

Open every day, breakfast and lunch.

Tacos Panchos, Point Cook

2010-12-19T09:18:00.000+11:00

On a recent rainy in Melbourne, and there have been a few in recent times, The Bloke and I were getting a bit stir crazy at home. We headed out west towards Point Cook.

Tacos Panchos is an eye-catching tenant in a food court at Point Cook Town Centre, a newish shopping centre in the west, past Altona and just before Hoppers Crossing. It is an unexpected surprise amongst a few franchised eateries.

The graphics and fitout appealed as much as the prospect of some half decent Mexican food. The wrestler is the "Blue Demon", a famous figure in Mexico and the greatest wrestler of his time.

Jose, who owns Tacos Panchos, is from El Salvador. He tells us that he has a relative from Mexico and also mentions that he lived a bus ride away from Mexico, he didn't mention if it was long ride or a short ride!. Jose explained the shop fitting details to us, the benchtop representing the concrete footpaths of the street food sellers in Mexico, the tiles are from Mexico and found in the the kitchen's of many Mexican homes.

He explained the light-fittings..."I just like beer."

I ordered the chorizo and bean quesadilla.

Chorizo and Bean Quesadillas $8.90 for 2

The chorizo was grilled and tasty, it was pretty heavy on the cheese, but I kept eating it!

The Bloke ordered nachos (he swirled through before I got a shot!). I don't know how authentic nachos are, but we ate all that too!

Nachos $5.50

Also on the menu are tacos and burritos. It is not the fastest fast food, but it is some of the most delicious food-court fare. Jose is friendly and hospitable and keen to share about his food. He suggested we try the burritos next time we're out that way.

This is the only Tacos Panchos so far, Jose has been approached to open more but he needs to sell more quesadillas first. I for one will be happy to head back to help him in his quest!

Tacos Panchos

Point Cook Town Centre Food Court

Ph:9395 5746

Open 7 days a week

Mon - Wed 9am to 6pm

Thur & Fri 9am to 9pm

Sat 9am to 5pm

Sun 10am to 5pm

Delicious Vietnam #8 - The Recap

2010-12-13T18:58:00.001+11:00

A great range of posts for Delicious Vietnam, thank you for your contributions!

Mai from Flavour Boulvard, Berkley, California, has a great story about the origin of bun (vermicelli noodles).

"The creation of rice vermicelli (“bun”) would not have happened in Northern Vietnam then, had the kitchen boy not been drowsy, the chef not sympathetic and creative, the servant not curious, and the king not open-minded. And so it goes the story of bun xeu."

Jeremy from The Unskinny Cook, in Singapore reinvents bun cha after a long term stay in Vietnam.

"After coming back home, I kept having cravings for bún chả and when my godmother asked me to cook a dinner for her, I decided it was time to get the charcoal fire going. I tried capturing every detail I could remember to make an authentic bún chả, even using wire mesh meat holders I brought back from Hanoi. I even considered setting up the grill next to my car's exhaust pipe to capture the real street food flavour."

Swathi from Zesty South Indian Kitchen, in the United States, experiments with green papaya salad.

"For a long time I was planning to make Thai green papaya salad Som tum or Som Tam, which is popular in Laos and Issan region of northeastern Thailand. Whenever I buy green papaya I end up making thoran/stir fry and curries with them. As a result I never happened to make a papaya salad. Green papaya salad is consumed in Thailand as Som Tam, where as in Cambodia it becomes bok l’hong and in Vietnam it is Gỏi đu đủ."

Julia from Beginner Mom On The Run, in USA made a layered tapioca cake ban da lon.

"In these care packages he (future husband) would send things like Roman Noodles of different kinds, rice cakes, and Tapioca Layered Mung Bean Cakes. I’d share these goodies with my housemates and as I always do, try to unravel the mystery of how this Tapioca Mung Bean cake- so Non-Western was made."

Hong and Kim (Delicious Vietnam co-founders) from Ravenous Couple make a dessert called Coco-Bliss using a Vietnamese staple, agar agar.

"Vietnamese desserts often have 3 key ingredients or layers, for example che ba mau (three color dessert) or thach rau cau (3 flavor agar of coffee, pandan, and coconut). Here we take this concept and use fresh coconut water from the young coconut to make a coconut water gelatin.From the milk, we make both a gelatin and a coconut cream."

And I discovered a new soup called Mein Ga that uses cassava noodles.

"The noodles used in the recipe are called cassava or tapioca noodles. I haven't heard of them before and finding them in Footscray proved quite tricky."

Delicious Vietnam was created by Anh at A Food Lovers Journey and Hong and Kim at Ravenous Couple to celebrate Vietnamese Food.

The host for Delicious Vietnam #9 in January will be Pepy from Indonesia Eats and entries are due the second Sunday in January.

Mein Ga - Delicious Vietnam #8

2010-12-12T13:42:00.000+11:00

I found a great Vietnamese cookbook on Amazon earlier this year, The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le.

It has recipes that seem reasonably easy for a non-Asian, such as myself. The other great thing about the book is that it has a really helpful glossary at the end of the book.
I was flicking through to find something to make for my Delicious Vietnam entry. I found a soup called mein ga, a chicken noodle soup. The noodles used in the recipe are called cassava or tapioca noodles. I haven't heard of them before and finding them in Footscray proved quite tricky. I eventually found them in a shop in Little Saigon, next to packs of rice papers, not near the noodles. I went back to the first shop I tried and showed a lady the noodles I had been looking for and she said they are used in dessert not soup. Hmm, now I was getting a little concerned.

I hunted about for the publishers details for the cookbook and sent an email to the author, Anne Le. She very kindly emailed back with a little more information about the noodles and that the recipe does indeed use cassava noodles but you could use any noodles. She said she had not heard of the noodles being used in dessert but thought the lady may have meant tapioca pearls, which I had suspected also.

I stuck to Ann's recipe and made the mein ga I didn't take a photo of the soup because it was a chicken soup with noodles and some coriander on top and my photography skills prevent me from creating a new and exciting photo. I did however take a photo of the cooked noodles.

Lauren at Footscray Food Blog reviewed Dong Ba, a Vietnamese restaurant in Footscray. In her review, she mentioned mien ga being on the menu. I was curious to see what it was served with and to try some more cassava noodles.

The salad platter came out first, lettuce, a little finely sliced red cabbage, mung bean shoots and some herbs, mint and basil.

This was followed by a dressing to add to the soup. The dressing had fresh ginger in it. I found out when I went to pay that it also contained fish sauce.

So, here is my mein ga with vermicelli noodles instead of cassava noodles. I was a bit sad about that. But, the soup was really delicious, light and fresh tasting, which I would happily order again.

mein ga $8.50

If anyone knows where I can find mein ga in Melbourne that uses cassava noodles, I would be very thankful for the information.

Where to buy turducken

2010-12-06T19:36:00.003+11:00

The last episode of Poh’s kitchen this year featured two butcher’s demonstrating how to make a turducken; a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. It’s pretty mad really, but it looks like heaven for your hardcore carnivore.

I saw something similar a few years back on an English food program. Englishman Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall showed how to make a ten bird roast. The Observer also has an article about the ten bird roast.

Making his ten bird roast, according to this account, will set you back 160 pounds (UK) (about $250 Australian) and take about 5 or 6 hours to cook!

My friend A asked me about turducken and where to buy one. Never one shy away from a challenge, this is what I found:

The butchers featured on Poh's show are from Southern Cross Meats. I tried to call them, unsuccessfully so far.
Southern Cross Meats

111 Diagonal Road

Warradale SA 5046

Ph: 08 8295 2008

If you want to order a turducken in Melbourne, you will need to contact Peter Bouchier Butchers by 15th December if you want one in time for Christmas.

Peter Bouchier Butchers

551 Malvern Road

Toorak Vic 3142

Ph: 03 9827 3629

Also located at David Jones City Store and Chadstone Store

If you want to order a turducken in Sydney, you will need to contact Victor Churchill Butchers by 13th December.

Victor Churchill Butchers

132 Queen Street

Woollahra NSW 2025

Ph: 9328 0408

Cheese Kit Kats from Japan

2010-11-29T22:06:00.000+11:00

One of the girls from work has just come back from two weeks in Japan with her family. As she ran out the door on her last day of work, I yelled out, 'can you bring me back some Japanese Kit Kats?'

This is what she brought back...

When you open the pack, it definitely smells of cheese, a kind of parmesan smell. The cheese Kit Kats look and taste like white chocolate Kit Kats.

I offered some cheese Kit Kats to some of my other workmates. Wholesale screwing up of faces at the thought. I didn't mind them, which is just as well, because no-one else shows any inclination to eat any of them!

HaikuGirl has a website called MyKitKats and she has also tried these cheesy chocs.

If you want to see what other unusual Kit Kat flavours there are, check some of them out on Flickr. Earlier this year when I first heard about the enormous and unusual range of Kit Kat flavours, I got a bit carried away and bought some Kit Kats from Japan on Ebay.

African Taste, Seddon

2010-11-24T10:43:00.000+11:00

Everyday when I walk home from West Footscray train station after work, I pass African Taste. It is a curious looking place in that it is the only African place in/near Seddon. Most others in the area are in Footscray.

The Bloke went to a mid-week soccer game to see Victory play. I dropped him at the train station and then headed out for some food of my choosing. I checked out the menu and decided on a gnocchi type dish.

Genfo African fufu (gnocchi with chicken) $15.95 (without chicken $10.95)

The gnocchi made with toasted barley flour was soft and nutty, the sauce had a decent hit of chili but not too much and the yoghurt on top swirled through the dish was delicious. You can have the dish with just the gnocchi or with extras, such as the chicken or lamb or fish or spinach/ricotta. The extras are $5.00.

In Africa, fufu is also made from other carbohydrates such cassava, yams or rice and is served in a dish and people roll balls of it to eat. Serving it as gnocchi is probably a bit more manageable I guess.

I got talking to the lady who served me. She and her husband own African Taste. They are Eritrean, though the menu has dishes from different parts of Africa. The husband and wife both cook. The service was so helpful and friendly. I had mentioned it was my first time to African Taste so they were very helpful explaining the menu and were very welcoming.

I couldn't eat all my meal so I took some home in a takeaway container. It was delicious cold later that night...I was too tired and lazy to reheat it.

They also have breakfast from 10am on the weekends. When I was arrived the next Sunday, it was getting on for 10 minutes past 10am, before they arrived. I went for a walk for 10 or 15 minutes while they got themselves set up.

I chose the ful or (ful medames), a dish of beans cooked till they are soft. It is a popular dish in north African countries. It was one of the tastiest inexpensive breakfast dishes I've had for some time. The ful was served on a thin and fluffy omelette with chopped parsely in it (could have been other herbs, but I could just taste parsley) The dish was topped with chopped fresh tomato, a little fetta some red chili sauce which the lady (from the previous evening I was there) said was Berbere and you stir it through. Now that is quite a hot sauce. I don't mind some chili, but if you're not chili fan, it is proably best not to stir the sauce through.

Ful ($10.00)

The dish was quite filling, I left about 3 pieces of pita bread and ate the rest. I was really eating because it was there and so delicious. I would happily order this one again!

The coffee was pretty good too ($3.00).

I am looking forward to going back again. It is a great local place with food that is delicious and great value and the owners make the dining experience so good.

African Taste

124 Victoria Street

Seddon

Ph: 9687 0560

Closed Tuesdays

Open from about 5 on weekdays

Open from 10am on weekends

BYO corkage $5.00

When you order after 7pm there is $1.50 surcharge.

City BBQ, Chinatown, Melbourne CBD

2010-11-18T21:53:00.001+11:00

My first visit to City BBQ was due to an orange-coloured squid hanging in the window amongst the BBQ ducks, chickens and pork.

In the November 2010 issue of Gourmet Traveller, there is an article by Wilson Chung on page 106 that '...answers all your Chinese barbecue questions.' Wilson talks about roast duck, soy-sauce chicken, white-cut chicken, barbecue pork, quail, pigeon, squab, roast pork, suckling pig, Chinese sausage and 'the other stuff.' The other stuff includes offal and seafood. What particularly intrigued me was the orange cuttlefish or squid (muk yiu). I've seen it occasionally in the windows of Chinese bbq places. I decided that I needed to try this cuttlefish.

I wandered around the Chinatown precinct in Melbourne past the bbq places that I could vaguely remember. Mid week and City BBQ was the only place I could see with a squid in the window. When I went back later in the week, there no squids, so I don't know if they only cook a few, or they sell out, not sure.

The waitresses were very helpful. I asked about the squid and that I'd like to try some. They suggested having with rice and vegetables. I ordered some roast duck to go with it.

Roast duck, squid, rice and bok choy $9.80

The warm duck was soft and delicious. The squid, served cold, was surprisingly tender. I would order the squid (muk yiu) again.

Tea in a tall glass

My second visit was due to a sudden urge to try century eggs. During my first visit, I had seen on the menu a dish, congee served with sliced pork and century egg. When you see century eggs cut in half, they look like agate gemstones cut in half, quite beautiful.

The congee was not too bad, needed a touch of salt and pepper. It had fine shreds of ginger through it, which seems fairly typical for congee. The pork was soft and mild. The pieces of egg were okay. The outer part of the egg didn't have too much taste, the yolk was quite rich. I read somewhere that it is kind of like blue cheese. After tasting it I would agree. If you don't like blue cheese, you may not go for the century eggs. I didn't mind it and would eat it again if it crossed my path.

Congee with pork and century egg $9.80

My third visit was to try some pork ribs and lotus root. I'd seen a recipe for something similar on the internet so I was curious to try it.

Pork ribs with lotus root $9.80

The lotus root was my main reason for trying the dish. It was tender with a bit of crunch, but the pork ribs were a revelation. The meat was tender, juicy and tasty on the bone in a very flavourful sauce. It was one of the tastiest dishes I've had in some time.

Che chuoi chung - Delicious Vietnam #7

2010-11-14T18:06:00.002+11:00

Che are the sweet desserts or puddings of Vietnam. Wikipedia has an extensive list of che. At Little Saigon Market in Footscray, there is a pretty decent range of che available to buy. I try a few from time to time, trying to figure out what is in them. There are also desserts using sticky rice (xoi). Xoi can also be used in savoury dishes.

I found a recipe for Che Chuoi Chung in the cookbook 'Secrets of the Red Lantern' by Pauline Nguyen with recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen. The recipe contains two of my favourite dessert items, tapioca pearls and coconut cream. Here is a link to the recipe. There are quite a few versions of che chuoi chung recipes on the net.

The recipe involves cooking tapioca and diced cassava in some sugar, water and coconut cream. Towards the end of the cooking time, you add some salt and some sliced bananas and top with roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds.

Tapioca pearls

Cooked tapioca

Peeled frozen cassava

Diced cassava

Cooked cassava

Sugar bananas

Roasted peanuts

Toasted sesame seeds

Che chuoi chung

Che chuoi chung ticked all the boxes! Creamy and coconuty with lovely crunch of peanuts and toasted sesame seeds. The cassava has the taste and texture of a mix of potato and parsnip. When I make it again, I will add more tapioca pearls and add banana for only a few minutes at the end. I put the leftovers in the fridge and reheated it in the microwave the next night. Equally delicious reheated.

I bought a tub of che chuoi chung from To's at Little Saigon Market (To's have a bakery on the corner of Leeds Street and Hopkins Street). They make it Thursday, Friday and Saturday and you can get it warm from the bain marie. I bought mine on a Sunday and it was cold in the fridge. I got home and tucked into it. This che is delicious cold too. I preferred my home made version, but if I am out and can't be bothered making it, would definitely head back to To's again.

My Malaysian friend C mentioned a version of this dish he cooks. He adds a handful of cooked adzuki beans at the end and uses no banana. He serves the dish cold and adds diced mango to it. From what I have read, I think the dish is a version of Bubur cha cha or pengat pisang. Will be trying those variations too. So many desserts to make/eat!!

This month's Delicious Vietnam is hosted by Miss.Adventure@Home. She has done a round-up of all the entries here.

Delicious Vietnam was created by Anh at A Food Lovers Journey and Hong and Kim at Ravenous Couple to celebrate Vietnamese Food.

Banh cuon at Thanh Tam, Richmond

2010-11-05T20:15:00.004+11:00

In some Vietnamese cafes at Little Saigon Market in Footscray, I have seen plates in the bain-marie loaded with thick soft white rice paper rolls filled with something. I tried asking what the dish was, but with the staff's lack of English and my lack of Vietnamese, I hit a dead end.

I tried Googling 'rice noodle sheets' on Google Images and found out the dish is called banh cuon. I have seen recipes for banh cuon but making the noodle sheets is very low down on my list of cooking attempts! I wanted to try banh cuon cooked to order for my first taste, if at all possible. It proved a bit elusive because it is not on a huge amount of menus. In my searching of the internet I also found out that the dish is more prevalent in the north of Vietnam.

It was time to Google again; 'banh cuon review Melbourne'. This search led me to a review of Thanh Tam (172 Victoria Street, Richmond) by Kat at Spatula Spoon and Saturday. Kat also reviews a few other dishes at Thanh Tam.

This is the dish that greeted me at Thanh Tam:

Banh cuon $9.00

The rice noodle rolls are filled with cooked minced pork and what could have been black fungus mushrooms too, as that seems to be a usual filling. You can also order the banh cuon with prawns, or pork and prawns.

The salad was a pile of mung bean spouts, julienned cucumber, mint and basil leaves. A Vietnamese dressing is served with the dish so I sluiced it over the salad and the rolls. The dish is topped with some fried shallots.

Surrounding the banh cuon and the salad is slices of pork loaf (cha lua) and another loaf called nem chua, which is made up of pork skin shredded and mixed with salt and flavourings and cured. It also has peppercorns in it. It is quite brightly pink on the plate so I was a bit unnerved by that. As it turns out, it was really lovely, a very mild taste with the peppercorns.

Also on the plate was something that looked like a potato croquette, it had a potato taste and a prawn inside.

This is a cracking dish and will be back for more.

I tried to find out what the croquette thing is called or what is in it, but had no luck. If anyone is able to tell me about this tasty fried bit of deliciousness, I'd be very grateful!

UPDATE: I think the croquette thing is called Mung Bean Cake. but there was something else besides the mung beans, maybe taro and it could be called banh cong?

Red quinoa and roasted capsicum salad

2010-11-03T22:01:00.001+11:00

I saw this recipe for Red Quinoa Salad with Bell Peppers (capsicums) at Chocolate and Zucchini a while back and filed it way, because it sounded so good. I've cooked with quinoa before. There is loads of info about this seed on the net. Good old Wikipedia had some info and I found some more interesting quinoa info at Stone Soup.

Quinoa comes in three colours, white, red and black. White is the most common available. Health food stores and some supermarkets stock it. I found some at the healthfood shop in Williamstown along with some smoked tofu I used in this salad. I love quinoa because it is super easy to cook with. You rinse it in a sieve (apparently it has 'stuff' on it and you have to rinse it). Then for one cup of quinoa you use two cups of water and it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to cook. It freezes well too.

Rinsed quinoa

Cooked quinoa

The recipe also uses roasted red capsicums (bell peppers). I have always wanted to roast peppers but it always seemed a bit hard. I followed the directions at Chocolate and Zucchini and I had perfect roast capsicums. Will be doing that again, they were delicious!

I mixed the quinoa and roasted capsicum together and divided the mix into three. The first time I had the salad, I added the dressing (olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a dash of chili powder) some chopped parsley, cubed smoked tofu and some chopped roasted pistachios.

The second time I ate the salad, I used crumbled feta instead of the tofu. I prefer the feta much more. I felt that the smoked tofu was a bit too strong for the dish. The third version I tried, I ditched the chili. That is just a personal thing. I liked it equally with or without the chili.

Final ingredient list: red quinoa, roasted capsicums, oil and vinegar dressing, parsley, feta and roasted pistachios. A simple tasty salad that would work with any type of quinoa.

Carlton lunch time food trail

2010-10-26T19:50:00.002+11:00

A sunny day and I was in need of foody inspiration. My pride had been dented by TWO failed cooking projects at the weekend! One of my failed cooking projects was cooked perfectly by some precocious child on Masterchef kids on Monday night. My humiliation was complete!

As a treat, I planned a lunch time food trail in Carlton. I had in mind three stores, La Latteria for cheeses, Gewurizahaus for herbs and spices and La Parisienne Pate for a baguette to take back to work for my lunch.

La Latteria is in Elgin Street in Carlton (near the corner of Rathdowne Street). I was interested in a couple of items here. Salted Ricotta (ricotta salata) which I have previously only been able to get at Meditteranean Wholesalers and only in a half kilo block, some fresh ricotta and a cheese I had read about called caciocavella, which I have never seen or tasted.

Baby smoked provolina

Buffalo mozzarella

Caciocavello con porcini

I had the opportunity to taste the caciocavello with porcini through it. The cheese is a table cheese or can be used for cooking. I liked the idea of porcini. It was quite tasty. I had a plan for it, so bought a small slice.

Treccie with casalingo salami, crumbed olives, crumbed bocconcini

Diavoletti (smoked mozzarella)

I bought a small tub of fresh ricotta for $5. I was going to buy some ricotta salata but it won't be available for another month or so. The staff were so helpful, answering my questions. It is a great place. As soon as figs are in season, I'll be back for some buffalo mozzarella...a match made in heaven.

Gewurzhaus is fairly new on Lygon Street, opened by two sisters. There is more info about the store at That's Melbourne. I walked past it a few weeks ago with plans to revisit. It is loaded with flavoured salts, sugars, spices, herbs, mixed spices and herbs, vanilla beans and saffron. There is so much more here. It is a treasure trove of goodies.

Spice blends

Cardamom pistachio sugar

When I got home I could have a taste. This sweet mix is beautiful. I'm thinking I might use it on cupcakes or cooking apples with it.

Merlot salt

The merlot salt smelt quite merloty in the shop, but when I got it home to taste, there was more salt taste than wine. It is a pretty rose colour though. I was wondering about using it on a beetroot, rocket and feta salad or with some berries maybe, not sure yet.

More merlot salt

La Parisienne Pate has been in Carlton for many years but in recent years the business moved to Lygon Street. I've had a look a couple of times, but haven't bought anything. I think there is probably too much to choose from! My plan was to buy a baguette on this visit. I got to check out the mouthwatering fridges while I waited for my lunch to be made. They also have take home meals such as cassoulet, duck confit and duck rillettes. If you need to get in touch with your inner Francophile, this is the place.

La Parisienne Pate - meaty goodness

Terrines, mousses and pate

Lunch - chili pate, cornichons and lettuce baguette with lemonade from France.

I lashed out and bought some French lemonade to go with my baguette. It wasn't a sweet as our Schweppes, but tasty nonetheless. The baguette was nice. But the bread was a bit too crusty for me, I like thin crust.

I was reminded of a phase I went through when I lived in Canberra a long time ago. I used to go to a deli lunch place in a shopping centre and order a cheese topped roll (very unposh) and have it filled with pate and lettuce. It was such a great food memory from the past and I remembered it today for the first time. Might have to try and replicate that tasty lunch.

Caciocavello on toast for after work snack...mmm

After a long day at work, I got home and unloaded my grocery goodies. I cooked some toast and loaded up with caciocavello. How good is something simple like cheese on toast?

La Latteria

104 Elgin Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9347 9009

Gewurzhaus

342 Lygon Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9023 1028

La Parisienne Pates

290 Lygon Street

Carlton 3053

Ph: 9349 1852

Black-eyed pea, ham, hominy and okra stew

2010-10-19T20:10:00.000+11:00

A blog post at Homesick Texan caught my eye, green chili hominy casserole with chorizo. I've read about hominy a few times and have seen canned hominy at Aztec Products, Casa Iberica and USA Foods. I checked out some more recipes using hominy and found this interesting recipe called Dixie ham stew over at Food.com. The recipe uses other ingredients that I have never cooked with such as okra, black-eyed peas and collard greens.

Collard greens are another mysterious vegetable. Fresh collard greens are not available in Australia (there are canned ones available at USA Foods, but I wasn't keen on using canned greens). So it was back to the internet to find something else I could use to replace the greens. The options available seem to be, kale, kohlrabi leaves, bok choy, turnip leaves, spinach, swiss chard, silverbeet or mustard greens. Mustard greens came up quite a bit in my search. I was also thinking of spinach but at the markets the spinach wasn't looking so great. I went to Little Saigon Market in Footscray to get my mustard greens (gai choy) and okra.

Mustard greens (gai choy)

Okra

I grabbed a can of hominy from Casa Iberica. The recipe calls for a 15oz (425g) can but the smallest can they had was 29oz, so I drained the hominy and wrapped half in plastic and put it in the freezer for another time.

Hominy

Black-eyed peas

Spice mix

Shredded ham

Ready to cook

Mmm, stew.....

It turned out to be a winner! I had a friend staying for the weekend, so she helped me eat the stew and went back for seconds, as I did. The Bloke headed off to the soccer and left us to our stew.

I will be making this again. It's a creamy warming stew with a hint of heat from the cayenne pepper. I might try and experiment with a vegetarian version one day too. I've put some stew in the freezer for work lunches so hopefully that will be okay!

Black-eyed peas, hominy and ham stew

adapted from Dixie Ham Stew

1 and a half cups dried black-eyed peas

4 cups of water

2 cups (300grams) shredded ham

15 oz (425gram) can white hominy, rinsed and drained

285 grams fresh okra, cut into half

1 large onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons Creole spice mix (recipe below)

1/4 tsp pepper

4 cups chopped greens, I used mustard greens

400g can chopped tomatoes

Creole spice mix

adapted from Gumbopages

Mix together:

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

(Makes more than you need)

Method

Rinse the peas and drain well.
Place peas and four cups of water in a pot. Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Drain.
Add to a large pot, the cooked peas, ham, hominy, okra, onion, garlic, spice mix and pepper. Add six cups of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour.
Add chopped greeds and tomatoes and cook for another 10 or 20 minutes.
Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Zara Astrop and her honey crackles

2010-10-12T20:03:00.000+11:00

As is my usual routine, I was reading Epicure in The Age this morning. On page five, there is a great article about cookbooks that discusses why we enjoy them and how few recipes we actually use from each book…among other things! The article is written by Rachel Cooke and it first appeared in the Guardian newspaper in August this year.

Along with the article, there is also a mini interview. Justine Costigan asked four people about the cookbooks they treasure the most. One of the interviewees, Zara Astrop (chef de partie, The Langham, Melbourne) mentions Edmonds Cookery Book (a

New Zealand

book) that she grew up with. Her mum bought the book for her when she was quite young. It reminded me of the McAlpins book I grew up cooking with. In the article, Zara mentions a recipe for honey crackles. By 11am this morning I had purchased a copy of Edmonds Cookery Book online. Honey crackles…here I come!

In a fit of gratitude, I filled in an online feedback form at the Langham Hotel website, thanking Zara for the info and that I’d bought the book on her recommendation. The Langham is certainly 10/10 for customer relations! I received an email to advise me that the customer relations manager had forwarded my email to Zara. Later on in the afternoon, Zara kindly took a few minutes out of her day to ring me with the honey crackles recipe. Apparently the new edition of the Edmonds Cookery Book doesn’t have the recipe in it. I was blown away by her helpfulness!

Honey Crackles

(via Zara Astrop and Edmonds Cookery Book, edition unknown)

Ingredients:

125g butter

125g sugar

4 tablespoons honey

4 and a half cups Rice Bubbles/Rice Crispies

Line a tray with baking paper. 20cm x 30cm or a 15cm x 25cm if you like it a little thicker.

Melt together the butter, sugar and honey. Bring to the boil and turn heat down to medium cooking for about 5 minutes. The mixture will darken a bit.

Turn off heat. Stir in the Rice Bubbles into the honey mixture.

Press mixture (quickly as it hardens in almost no time) into the tray and leave to set, which only takes about few minutes.

Cut into squares or rectangles; whatever your preference.

The Bloke came home from work and walked into the kitchen.

"We can both take some of these to work in the morning," I suggested.

"I'll take some to work, but they're staying in my desk drawer. I won't be sharing them with anyone."

Thanks for the recipe Zara!!

Banh mi chay - Delicious Vietnam #6

2010-10-10T18:34:00.001+11:00

Javaholic is hosting Delicious Vietnam #6, a blog project from Ravenous Couple and Anh at A Food Lover's Journey profiling Vietnamese cuisine. Here is a round-up of the other contributers.

I've been eating a few banh mi lately. I usually order it with the pate and some pork sausage. I wondered about a vegetarian version. I found loads of information about all sorts of banh mi fillings, including vegetarian, at Battle of the Banh Mi. Some banh mi vegetarian options they suggest are cubed tofu, shredded tofu (mixed with jicama and vermicelli noodles) and wheat gluten (seitan).

I decided on some precooked tofu from the supermarket. I used this one, there are several types to choose from.

I decided I would make a mushroom pate to go with my banh mi chay. After some searching I found a recipe for mushroom pate at Vegan Cooking.

Mushroom pate

(adapted from Vegan Cooking)

1 tablespoon olive oil

500 grams sliced mushrooms

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup yeast flakes

Salt and Pepper

Fry the onion in the oil until soft. Add sliced mushrooms and fry for a few minutes on medium, add garlic and salt, put lid on pan and fry for a few more minutes until cooked.

Put cooked mushrooms into a food processor with the sunflower seeds and yeast flakes. Blend until quite smooth.

Add salt and pepper (I found I needed to add quite a bit of salt). Put in the fridge.

Makes about 2 and a half cups of pate.

(I am thinking of using a mix of fresh mushrooms and dried shiitake mushrooms next time for a deeper flavour)

Mushroom pate

Do chua

(I searched around for a recipe for the pickled carrot and daikon and there are plenty out there. I put mine together using this ratio.)

1 cup white vinegar

A quarter of a cup of caster sugar

A heaped teaspoon of salt

1 cup carrot, julienned

1 cup daikon, julienned

Add sugar and salt to the vinegar and stir until dissolved.

Mix vinegar with carrot and daikon and put in the fridge for at least an hour before using.

The amount of time it keeps for varies in the recipes, but it looks like maybe five days or so? I'll get back to you on that! I might reduce the sugar a little next time too.

Do chua

My banh mi chay ready to eat!

Banh mi chay

I found some small banh mi rolls at To's Bakery (122 Hopkins Street, Footscray). I added my mushroom pate, do chua, tofu pieces ( I will julienne the tofu next time) and finished off with some coriander. I meant to use some cucumber and fresh chili as well but that will be for next time too.

I was pretty happy with my first attempt at banh mi. Looking forward to more experimentation!

Hawaiian Jellied Salad

2010-10-03T11:22:00.003+11:00

I bought this book, Heirloom Cooking via Amazon. It is an American cookbook containing some traditional family recipes. I bought it because it had some interesting cake recipes that I will get to soon. There is also an Heirloom Baking cookbook too, which is on my to-buy list.

When I was flicking through the book, I saw this picture. The recipe is 'Dot Luke's Hawaiian Jellied Salad'.

The ingredient list intrigued me, lime gelatin (which I figured out is what we would call jelly crystals, I thought it might be some special gelatin), pineapple, orange and lime juice, canned pineapple pieces, canned mandarin pieces, cream cheese, cream, mayonnaise, marshmallows and pecans.

I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be sweet or savoury.

After several visits to that page of the cookbook, I decided I would just have to make it. I was so intrigued by this dish. The history of Dot's recipe was interesting as well:

"Liane grew up in Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu. Dot (her mother) passed away in 2006, at the age of 84. When Liane went through her mother's papers, she found her recipe for a jellied lime salad, which brought back fond memories of a refreshing treat on hot afternoons. Dot often made if for potluck dinners and large family gatherings. Family and friends always ate this salad with chopsticks."

I went about converting the amounts from ounces to grams. The only ingredient issues were tracking down canned mandarins, which I eventually found. I bought a pack of mini marshmallows, which were pink and white coloured. I figured white only would be best, so sifted through the pack...one pink marshmallow for me, one white marshmallow for the recipe, and so on!!

I heated the pineapple juice then added the lime jelly, stirring to dissolve then added the other citrus juices and some water. then it goes into the fridge till nearly set.

When the jelly is nearly set, you add the whipped cream, soft cream cheese and mayonnaise.

Next, you add the pineapple, mandarins, marshmallows and toasted pecans.

The mixtures goes into a mold that has been sprayed with vegetable oil.

Not so appealing as the picture because, (a) I had bits of undissolved jelly, (b) my mold not quite so pretty as the one used in the picture, and (c) perhaps my photography skills need an upgrade!

The first time I tried it was with some iceberg lettuce and tomato with a viniagrette, and it clashed with flavour of the jellied salad. The next time I tried some with some iceberg lettuce, no dressing, which worked much better. I used a fork rather than chopsticks too! The jelly was quite sweet, I would probably try a sugar-free jelly next time. The salad was quite tasty with the creaminess and the texture of chunks of fruit, marshmallows and nuts. I would cut the mandarin pieces into smaller pieces next time.

The Bloke looked at it, "it's very green" he announced. He had no desire to eat it. I had about a quarter of it (had some with lettuce each night after work, for three nights) then I was done. It would be interesting to have at a gathering of friends and family and see what they made of it.

I will revisit it I think. I found it a most fascinating dish. I Googled the salad to find out a bit more of it's history. I searched on Food.com (formerly Recipezaar) and it appears there as lime jello salad (44 versions of it). I like this site, because recipe contributors usually write a little story about where the recipe comes from or when they make the dish, eg, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Christine on her blog Christine Cooks has a version of this salad and a history of the dish in her family.

Lorraine at Not Quite Nigella has also made a version of this salad. She used a recipe from Barbara at Barbara Bakes.

Eating scones at the Royal Melbourne Show

2010-09-26T11:44:00.000+10:00

The Bloke and I had a day off in the middle of the week for a day-trip to the Royal Melbourne Show.

One of my favourite things to do at the Show is to have scones in the CWA (Country Women's Association) pavillion. The show helps the CWA raise funds for projects such as educational grants. Each year they also raise money for two different groups. In 2010 it is the Skin and Cancer Foundation and the Compassionate Friends Victoria.

Queuing for CWA goodies

When you buy your food, scones in our case, your tea or coffee, or milo, you are given your cups and you wander over to a table and add your tea or coffee. It reminds me of old school functions in the country, where I grew up. Social events in the local town hall or church hall.

Next stop is the urn for some hot water.

The Bloke and I were saving ourselves for lunch, so we only had one scone each, but I could easily have had two. They were light and fluffy scones. Absolutely delicious with jam and cream.

There is a stall in this area also, behind where I am taking this photo. There are teatowels and cookbooks for sale. Last year I bought a CWA cookbook, 'The A to Z of cooked and uncooked slices' for the modest sum of $8.50. They also sell all sorts of handmade craft items such as potholders, coathangers and the teatowels with the crocheted tops. You can buy items such as cookbooks and teatowels from the CWA headquarters in Toorak and have them post the items to you, but you can only pay by cheque.