Thursday, March 22, 2012

Vietnam restaurant

Having stayed in adelaide for close to 4 years, I have never really developed a craving for Vietnamese food until early last year when I caught the adventurous bug in me. Strangely enough, I was never introduced to this award-winning Vietnam restaurant. Upon listening to so much positive feedbacks from friends, I have decided to finally venture into the Vietnam part of Adelaide to satisfy my craving:p

Coconut juice~

Deepfried softshell crab~ juicy, soft pieces of crabs. A must have:)

Quail~

Vietnamese cold roll platter~ I'm not too sure what are some of the individual ingredients of the dish are made of (except for the banh, mint and lettuce leaves), but I am quite sure it's made of meat. Uber delicious as well, probably one of the restaurant's best selling dish:)


The platter comes with a few sheets of rice paper which needs to be softened in water prior to folding


Alas, combination fried rice. By the time we got to this dish, we were too filled up to appreciate it:( What I would do just to have this in my tummy again :((

Overall, fast service, large portions although abit more expensive and a great place to bring large groups of people as most of the dishes have fairly generous helpings:)

Vietnam on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Camera experiments

So, I was recently upgraded to a real DSLR camera. Camera settings, button locations and focusing abilities were so different from what I was used to. All in, took some time to play around (and still am, actually) but here's some snippets of March:D

Cooking alone at home is also a sad occasion~ I get reruns for most of the week day! -.- Here's a chicken fillet, marinated in dijon mayonnaise with thyme and dusted with breadcrumbs. Fried them and ate them in my sandwich and salad. Gotta be creative with my meals otherwise I might just end up in Subway lolXD

Asparagus~ something different as it was only $1 in the supermarket. Easiest vege to cook :p

Tomato pasta with runny egg and blanched asparagus~ whoever told me that canned spaghetti tasted good must be crazy. Quite difficult to adjust the sweetness level :/

Cooking my chicken pieces with Asian ingredients :p

The steak challenge my friends decided to go for~ massive!!

Coconut banana slice with caramel and citrus sorbet~

Green tea chocolate pudding~ not bad although it could do with more chocolate oozing from the middle :p

Still experimenting on my camera and hopefully, would be able to bake something this weekend. My hands are itching to finger some butter and flour!!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Back to the past

So what happened during my previous trip back to Adelaide city?? Scroll down and have a look into my daily food routines:)

Sugar and colour~ important components of my life as not only does it sweeten up my bitter days but it also brightens it up. And that's why you would seldom see me donning monotone colour clothes:)

Roast duck rice at Nanyang~ my Asian habits still lives on. Must have rice or something Chinese when I'm in the city:)

Bimbimbap~ my adventurous personality is also reflected by the food that I eat. I like to try new cuisines (minus the offal and other interesting bits) as well as experience different cultures:D


And now, I shall bring thee to my past years....

Beehoon noodles with minced chicken, onions and taugeh~ Despite it being a simple and non-luxurious dish, I still prefer having a plate of beehoon noodles anytime of the day (except when I am sleeping durh) #michelle fact of the day

When my primary school lessons are done for the day, I would usually start preparing lunch once I get home. Nothing fancy or extravagant. Just your simple tuna or egg sandwich (tomatoes or onions or just omelette) with your choice of peanut butter or jam. On certain days, we could have "mouse trap" (boiled eggs mashed with mayonnaise, cheese and seasoned with salt and pepper before grilling) or grilled sardine sandwich.

My favourite among all the lunch treats would be having beehoon noodles with thin slices of omelette, cabbage, mushrooms and shrimps. And the best part would be eating it with tomato/ chilli sauce whilst watching cartoons. I can still recall those noodle-slurping moments followed by a good afternoon nap.

*After the nap (sometimes less than 1 hour?!!), I would be snoozing in tuition classes. The most hilarious sadistic part would be hoping that the tuition teacher's motorcycle would breakdown or something happened to him on the road. Fortunately, none of that happened *

Bolognese pasta with minced chicken, cubed pumpkin, tomatoes and sliced onions~ This dish never fails to remind of how I spent my Saturdays at home #another long @$$ story

Saturdays are known to be Western food days (we have to be Asian on other days haha). It was practically the best time of the week (other than fast food days..rare occasions indeed!!) as we don't have to go to food courts to feast on them.

If I remembered correctly, bolognese pasta was the first western food to be introduced on Saturday nights, before my dad started to experiment with roast beef, roast lamb, roast chicken, salmon and potato pie, beef stew etc. Ahhh...the joy from having well-prepared western food in conjunction with catching up on family members' day is irreplaceable. No funny bitter gourds or pink-coloured pork dishes..

I still do have my dad's pasta when I go back to Malaysia in summer but I rarely had beehoon noodles for lunch since I started college (and hence, that would explain why I stock up on beehoon noodles up here lol).

Alas, after reading thru my boring post, I shall reward thee with some of my current photos from around Adelaide..

I will forever be gazing at dessert counters~


This is the largest macaron I had so far..

Flavour infused tea~ not my usual thing to do but experiments are good:)


Pandan chiffon cake with strawberry ice cream~ not the best chiffon cake so far but it does satisfy my craving:)



Apple tart 3 ways: French, frangipane and classic with crumbles on top. Mostly the same ingredients but just different cooking time and slight alterations to recipe measurements.

Have a lovely weekend, peeps!!:)