foodie.tv

Yesterday..Ohhh...yesterday!  Well, it was my mom's 60th birthday party which we turned into an all day shopping jaunt, starting with hot Chinese style breakfast at Glen Waverley, and flowing into a 4 hour tour of Springvale's many delights, followed by a further 2-3 hours at Cheltenham DFO (direct factory outlet - fashion, gifts etc) then the big birthday dinner at a Chinese restaurant.   Not a bad way to spend a birthday really :-)

Foodie highlights - hmm...

1. Has anyone had Taiwanese savoury pancakes?  That's a new one for my gastronomic dictionary.  Worth trying if you meet it although not something to go hunting for. 
2. Also had a good version of crunchy pig's ear.   (That's right.. and hands up who likes pig's ear!!  Check out Dumpling King's version too!)
3. Jackfruit smoothie (can of ripe jackfruit, ice, water...blend until smooth, enjoy!  Use as sorbet stand-in between courses, or dessert, or party drink, or snack on the run, or just because.  Yum!)
4. Dinner at East Empress in Ringwood (Eastland Shopping Centre)

Foodie lowlights - hmm..

I thought I'd share the challah recipe I was doing on Saturday...As most of you will know, it's the braided sweet loaf of Jewish origin.  The nice thing here is that either it's a ridiculously easy bread to make anyway, or that Charmaine Solomon has managed yet again to find the easiest way to make any given thing (As me about her beef rendang recipe!)

For the interested, her recipe comes from "The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002Z0HRO/qid=1130727885/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0580310-8167111?v=glance&s=books and goes roughly as follows: 

Meaning, this blog entry has come about due to the Omnivoribus which is itself a monthly compilation of the top foodie blog posts as submitted by fans of thefoodpalate.com :-) Sheesh. Must find originality. *grin* Went on an exploring trip yesterday following the "Omnivoribus":http://www.thefoodpalate.com/2005/10/blog-in-dont-wait.html links and found lots of amazing stuff. Which leads to the real thing I wanted to say - Euge and I had an exciting session creating a new vision for foodie.tv... this is huge and I can't wait to unveil it :-) *happy sigh*

I think I'm onto a theme here. No no's.

Last night I decided we really needed to go use some Hoyt's vouchers that my clever hubby won for filling out some feedback/survey thingy.

(We watched Wallace & Gromit) (Did I spell that right?) (Hmm..they've polluted claymation with digital effects. grrr.)

Then I decided we needed to eat out for dinner as moi was starving. Lucky we had our trusty Entertainment Book with us! Decided to try Thai Garden on High St road just up from Glen Waverley Shopping Centre.

Hmm..can I tell you all that I think it's a bad idea to show the waitress your book and discount voucher at the start? We ordered two dishes: a seafood curry stir fry thingy (Chiu Chee seafood I think) and a green curry chicken.

Hello again everybody! Thought I'd log in briefly to tell you about my brave move last night (although it was preceeded, or in fact, necessitated by) a not-too-smart move. What on earth am I babbling on about?.. at least, I think I hear some of you *thinking* that hehe..

Well, I was staying in Moama last night because of work. Some of you may know that I audit food factories, among other things, and yesterday and today I was due to visit the factories located in Echuca and Tongala. Anyway. come dinner time on such a beautiful spring evening, I felt that the oysters on the motel menu looked too attractive to pass by. A small voice whispered (but was ignored) that it might not be a good idea to order oysters this far from the sea - but then, they were offering them!! So perhaps they knew what they were doing??

Those of you who followed the chocolate cake experiment (in reality, a sequel to the orange cake experiment) will know that the chocolate was well finished...but the most astute of you may have noted that a 3/4 block of Copha continues its lonely existence in a kitchen somewhere in Glen Waverley.. What happened to it?  Did it meet a noble end? 

This is the story of that block of Copha.. (3/4).

Ok, let's put in some background first!  Some of you may remember Sharini from that amazing weetbix video.  Anyway, she mentioned that she makes a good date scone off the recipe on the back of the self raising flour packet (don't ask me which brand hehe..) ..so I bought some flour when we went shopping.

Hi everybody, Wish I had some photos for you, because tonight we had a meal that I wish you could eyeball. 

On the other hand, perhaps it's all for the best.  It might put some off although I'm confident most foodies are pretty open-minded people. 

One of the things I love best is an impromptu good meal, and tonight is all about that.  As it happens moi's family has been getting together a fair few times in the last week as a member of the family has come down from Canberra for a brief holiday en route to a much anticipated career stint in the UK. 

So, I hardly expected a phone call today to ask if I happened to be planning anything for dinner, as a few of the family were thinking of going out for dinner the night before said person's flight out?

Ok - if you haven't read episode 1, I suggest you go down one entry and start at the proper place. However, if you, like my sister (You know which one you are!) like to read the endings first, then...well, there's no help for you anyway hehe..

When we left our story, the chocolate had been lovely and warm and might have been good for making hot chocolate (almost!)  Anyway, a couple of days later it wasn't looking so good.  I'll spare you the details.  And I'll also spare you the details of how Euge tried to eat some of that stuff, but just between you, me and the rest of the world, he is one funny guy *grin*

Before I start I should warn the more sensitive among you that there the following contains moderate violence.

Well.. perhaps I should qualify that the violence in this case was perpetrated on two innocent blocks of Lindt dark chocolate. (The foodies among us can now flinch hehe..)

The story is that Eugene's birthday was coming up and for his special birthday meal request, he asked for curry and that special vegan ultra-orange cake which I discovered in that American tome...the Joy of Cooking. (I should add that if you want to dish up a dessert, American cookbooks are a very good place to start)

My first blog on an awesome cuisine - the amazing, the unique, the mighty, the one..the only.. Vietnamese! In fact, it's so good that you may not be a foodie if you don't know about it. Outrageous claim, I know. Even arrogant. But hadn't you better find out why I'm making it? Anyway, a good place to start (if you're acquainted with Asian food) is with pho, which is what I had for dinner tonight. Mmmmm- stalks of floppy basil balanced on a 'bean shoot mountain' ..brim-ful bowl of slippery white noodles and mystery meat products plus coriander and rings of spring onion. The secret of course, is in the broth. Simmered with meat, bones and spices, it comes in the chicken or beef versions. Beef pho broth includes coriander, cinnamon, star anise etc.