Watch our foorlittlefoodlings video, interviewing various people across Macquarie University about their own personal FOODLING FIASCOS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiL0Ytra9Ts&feature=youtube_gdata
With the end of our blogging looming, this post will not review any particular resturant, or give you a recipe to try out for yourself, but will inform you about my belief that the celebration of life can be seen through food.
Food is something that we all live by and need for survival, but it is also something that we communicate through.
Food brings each of us together to socialise with friends and family and even with strangers alike. So why not cook or bake one of our recipes, or go to one of our resturaunts that we have reviewed and invite some friends to build your own memories and explore your own unique passions for food.
Below is a list of food quotes that I thought you would enjoy as you build your own food memories and passions
I hope you have enjoyed our blog to date.
Foodling 1.
TO OUR FOODLING FOLLOWERS…
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well"
Virginia Woolf
Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like
and let the food fight it out inside.
- Mark Twain
One should never ever Trust a skinny cook.
I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.
- W.C. Fields
One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends.
—Laurie Colwin
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”
- James Beard
Hong Ha Hot Bread is a local favourite in the Eastern Suburbs. It’s located in Mascot right near Sydney Airport. It is famous for their Chicken and Pork Vietnamese rolls, also known as Bὰhn mi.
You may know the franchise Red Roll which also sells Vietnamese rolls which are good but the Hong Ha Bakery rolls are to die for!
Around lunch time you often see a 30metre line up snaking along the footpath in front of Mascot shops of people waiting to order their rolls. People come from great distances to get their hands on one of these rolls, one of my friends lives in Bondi Beach a nearly 40 minute drive to Mascot and without fail she makes her weekly trip to Mascot to feed her craving for a Hong Ha chicken roll!
My usual order is a chicken and cheese roll. This comes with a crispy fresh long white bread roll, mayonnaise, seasoned chicken, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, cheese, coriander, chilli and Maggi sauce. You are probably thinking it sounds like your standard chicken roll, but you need to try one and you will understand how much better they really are! They are made fresh so you can alter your order if necessary.
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| chicken, cheese and chilli roll |
My Mum and Dad’s favourite is the Pork Roll which includes. 3 types Vietnamese pork roll meat, pork pate, pickled carrots and white radish, cucumbers, coriander, spring onions, Maggi Seasoning and chopped chilli all placed on the freshest and crispest bread roll.
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| Pork Roll |
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| Half eaten Pork Roll |
I also can’t forget to mention the cheap cheap cheap prices of these rolls. They range from about $3.50-$6.00 (the same size as a subway foot long sub and half the price! And they taste better too!)
I often wonder while I’m lining up ‘that they can do so much more with their shop front looks tired and jaded around the edges but I suppose they are too busy to notice and it obviously doesn’t stop people from going.
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| This was the shop at 4:30pm! People even get rolls for afternoon tea |
Next time you are out at the airport or in the eastern suburbs, quickly stop at the Hong Ha bakery at Mascot you will not regret it!
Enjoy your Rolls!!
Foodling 4 :)
Enjoy your Rolls!!
Foodling 4 :)
Hong Ha Hot Bread
1151 Botany Rd
Mascot 2020
Sydney Australia
Ph: (02) 9667 2069
Parking: There is parking in front on the shop on Botany Road, as well as a car-park at the back .
So on a cold, wet and rainy Saturday night; I was in the mood for an Italian feast so with our kitchen still in renovations I decided to drag my family out to a local favourite restaurant- Olivos an Italian woodfired pizza and pasta place located in Castle Hill. The service was great with the friendly waiter seating us immediately in a corner booth. The seating is spread our quite well and so everyone had their own space even though the restaurant was quite packed.
For entrees we ordered the Moroccan chicken and our customary tomato bruschetta. I had never had the chicken before and it was definitely a pleasant surprise, a very tender and juicy dish, with a lovely complementary salad on the side and a small portion of spiced yogurt sauce. The bruschetta was however a little bit too much on the crusty side and the tomato was slightly dry and lacked flavor; however it was still a decent starter and is usually of a higher standard.
After walking in and seeing the wood fired pizza made fresh right behind the counter we were very keen for a pizza. So for the mains we ordered the Chef special pizza of the day which was an interesting mix of smoked salmon, prawns, bacon, sour cream and wait for it… avocado? Now I thought this was quite a strange combination, but I’m always up to trying something different and I was not let down, with the different flavors definitely stimulating my taste buds, it turned out to be a bit of a party in my mouth :p. Also for the mains we shared a chili prawn and snow pea linguine, and a chicken and pumpkin risotto. The linguine was quite nice, cooked to al dente, however the chili flavor was slightly too mild for my liking and the dish was kind of drenched in olive oil. The chicken and pumpkin risotto was a pleasant dish, however it was too bland to be anything more than pleasant, something you would eat on the couch while watching greys anatomy. Other traditional pasta such as Spaghetti Bolognese and Fettuccine Carbonara were also available. Prices for mains were also quite reasonable ranging from about $20-$30 for a good portion size of pizza or pasta. 
Ok so my sister and I are major dessert fans and especially saved that last bit of space in our stomachs for a sweet treat at the end. I swear my sister must have tasted the chocolate cake in every restaurant we have ever been to so it was the Mississippi mud cake for her and I always love my gelato so I just had a scope of hazelnut gelato. The deserts aren’t particularly special at Olivos but they are defiantly satisfying treat , the mud cake was surprisingly light and fluffy and I think my sister was hoping for something more rich, however she did completely devour it. As for the gelato, the hazelnut flavor was to my liking and it was rich and smooth so I was very satisfied. 
All in all I felt we made the best of a rainy night, and I would definitely recommend Olivos for anyone with a love for Italian food, especially woodfired pizza.
For more information on location and opening hours check out their website http://www.olivorestaurant.com.au
Buon Appetito!!
Foodling 2
Foodling 2
What could be better than spending a beautiful weekend at The Rocks enjoying a delicious high tea with friends and family?
One of my favourite high tea places of all time is situated right in the heart of The Rocks just next to The Rocks Weekend Market which is pleasantly enjoyable to walk through and immerse yourself in all the wonderful exotic stores.
When walking past the row of shops parallel to the weekend markets, you will see an inconspicuous shop house The Irish Design Shop with a sign saying "Freshly Baked Scones", if you love scones, this is the perfect place for you to go to and have a delectable afternoon tea.
When you walk into the shophouse, you would immediately feel like you're walking into a homely and warm little cafe with little teapots lined up by the sides of the staircase. The front of the shophouse is a small Irish store that sells traditional Irish gifts, tea sets and celtic jewellery.
The Tea Cosy is all the way at the back of the shophouse where it is beautifully decorated with a very traditional Irish feel and lovely little accessories.
I absolutely love their decor! It makes me feel like I'm in a totally different place altogether! Don't you think?
The thing about The Tea Cosy is that it only sells scones and that's that! So it makes it so much easier to decide what to eat! They have a fairly wide choice of tea to choose from to pair it with the scones.
The great thing about The Tea Cosy is that they change the scones selection every month so you will never get bored with the selection! The last time I visited The Tea Cosy, the scones were Apple Strudel, Plain, Cheese and Onion, Date and Apricot.
The scones for the month of October are plain, spinach and feta, currants and white chocolate berry!
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| This is the tasting basket for 2, it has 4 scones, 2 jam selections. The tea comes seperately |
The tasting basket for 2 which we ordered comes with 2 selections of jam, if I remembered it correctly, we ordered raspberry jam and triple berry jam which is my favourite jam from the teahouse! The clotted cream is really smooth, light and fluffy and we could not stop spreading generous portions of cream on our scones! I heard from the waitress there that they make their own jam and cream which makes the scones even more delectable.
My family absolutely loves their scones and on one occassion I wanted to take their scones away and the scones were priced at $1.50 per scone which is really much more affordable than I expected!
Delicious and fresh scones at such affordable prices and with such a homely and comfortable ambience, what more can you ask for?
FYI: The Tea Cosy is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays while The Irish Design Shop is open on all days.
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| The shop has vibrant posters all around, they are absolutely gorgeous! |
The Tea Cosy
Address:
33 George Street,
The Rocks, Sydney,
Australia 2000
Opening Hours:
| Fri: | 10:00 am | - | 4:00 pm | ||||||||
| Sat - Sun: | 10:00 am | - | 5:00 pm |
Telephone: 02 92473233
Website: http://www.irishdesign.com.au/g/4145/the-tea-cosy---tea-room.html
Or you could visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tea-Cosy/178079518915595
Hope you guys have a great weekend!
Bain taitneamh as do bhéil!
Foodling 3
I love baking, and in fact baking is not as difficult as you think it is! One of my favourite recipes of late is this orange chiffon cake which is really light, fluffy and delicious and most importantly, really really easy to make as well!
This recipe is a hit among our family! Everyone loves it and have it really often!
If you love eating cakes, the citrus fragrance of oranges and have a sweet tooth this is the absolute perfect recipe for you!
Let's just jump right to it then!
Orange Chiffon Cake
Ingredients:
5 egg whites (at room temperature)
½ tsp cream of tartar
75g caster sugar
5 egg yolks
7 tbs coconut milk
5 tbs vegetable oil
75g caster sugar
5 tbs orange juice
1 tbs orange zest
150 g self raising flour, sifted
400ml full cream
2 tbs icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
150g hazelnuts
Procedures:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced mode or 180 degrees regular mode
2. In a mixing bowl, seperate the egg whites from the yolks.
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| I always loved my little egg seperator, it really comes in handy if you aren't a pro at cracking eggs right down the middle, saves tonnes of time as well! You can easily get them in Target or Big W or here! |
3. Beat egg white and cream of tartar with an electric mixer till soft peaks. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time & beat thoroughly after each addition till you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with caster sugar till fluffy.
5. Add coconut milk, vegetable oil, orange juice, zest and self raising flour and whisk until combined.
Health Tip: If you feel coconut milk is too rich, you could substitute it for milk, the cake would be lighter and not as rich
6. Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture in 3 batches.
7. Pour into a 25 cm baba cake tin. Bake at 160 degrees or 25 min fan forced or till skewer come out clean
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| Heh, apologies for the messy cake tin, I was rushing (: |
8. Place hazelnuts in a shallow baking tray and roast until the skins flake off easily when rubbed.
Cooking Tip: If you do not have hazelnuts at home, you could substitute it for any other nuts you have at home!
Cooking Tip: If you do not have hazelnuts at home, you could substitute it for any other nuts you have at home!
9. Chop the hazelnuts to your desired texture.
10. For the filling, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla till stiff but do not overbeat as cream will split. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
11. Once cake has cooled, remove it from the tin and with a serrated knife, slice the cake into 3 equal layers.
Sorry for the lack of photos, I was way to excited assembling the cake and forgot to snap a few photos ):
12. Spread a layer of the cream on each layer and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts. Stack the cake layers above each other and cover the entire cake with the remaining cream.
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| Mum didn't like too much hazelnuts in the cake so I added them sparingly, you can always add as much as you want! |
And voilà there you go! Your cake is ready to serve and enjoy it with your family over a nice cup of tea!
Hope you guys enjoyed today's post!
Happy baking!
Foodling 3
Sushi has been a favourite of mine since I have been very young. I have eaten in many Japanese restaurants and sushi bars in Australia and overseas. I am a real sushi lover sometimes having it up to four times a week!
Even though I often order nori-maki (seaweed rolls) and nigiri sushi (commonly known as 'ships') when eating out at a Japenese restaurant, one of my favourite dishes is 'Chirashi-zushi' translated to 'scattered sushi'.
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| My Home-Made Chirashi Sushi |
Each restaurant produces their own art piece and I will always order a Chirashi-zushi if it is on the menu and compare these edible masterpieces.
I am no sushi master but I did try to create my own Chirashi-zushi 'masterpiece' at home the other night for the family.
Buying the ingredients
- Purchase a variety of sashimi grade fish and seafood at your local fish markets. I purchased salmon, tuna and kingfish sashimi, seaweed and and a jar of salmon roe at the Sydney Fish Markets in Glebe. (If you havent been to Sydney Fish Markets it really is worth the visit!)
Preparing the Rice
- Cook sushi rice as per instructions on the packet. Once cooked, place in a non-metalic bowl and sprinkle over Japanese powdered vinegar onto the rice, fanning and turning until rice reaches room temperature. Cover until ready for use
Preparing Seafood
- Using a very sharp knife, cut fish into even sized strips and place on a board ready for assembly.
Preparing Omelet
- Mix three eggs with some salt, sugar and mirin. Beat eggs well. Cook omelet in a non-stick pan. Fold the egg as it sets. Once cool slice into thin strips.(The Japanese use a special rectangular pan for this).
One more ingredient
- Heat a sheet of Nori over a gentle flame, this will make the nori nice and crisp! Cut into thin strips. At this stage all your ingredients for your Chirashi-zushi should be ready for assembling.
Creating my 'masterpiece'
- The trick to Chirashi-zushi is to have a balance between fish and rice. There should be a good combination of flavours, textures and colour. I placed the vinegared rice in the bottom of each bowl and topped it with a combination of the fish, seaweed, egg and finally topping with the luscious looking salmon roe and crispy nori.
Serve with Japanese soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi.
And we can't forget Sencha 'Japanese green tea'.
Hope you enjoy
Foodling 4!
Most of my family live overseas, scattered across different islands and areas of Greece. My grandmother is a very inspirational and wonderful woman. I don’t get to see her much except through the occasional Skype dates that we try to set up. Last year, however I was able to go to Greece to visit her and spend some time with my distant relatives.
This was an experience in itself, not only because of the beautiful scenery and ancient landmarks that are there, but the moments that I shared with my family. For example my grandparents would sit around late in the afternoon telling me stories of their youth as we sat looking into the afternoon sun over the beaches of Greece; but one of the most memorable parts of my trip was having my grandmother teach me the traditional ways of making spanakopita (spinach and cheese pie).
She showed and taught me all the basics from what to put into the variety of types of pitas that exist e.g. meat, cheese and macaroni etc and how to make and roll out the filo pastry. Trying to roll the filo pastry out together was one of the moments that I will never forget, as it is something I will always remember as “something that my grandmother taught me to do”. I remember her teaching me, so patiently saying (in Greek of course), “start in the middle, and roll and push it out ways…harder…harder…be a little firmer with it…its ok…it wont stick together…”
(the video below is my grandmother demonstrating how to role filo pastry)
Although rolling the filo, making the filling and layering it all up, is quite a long process, the end product is well worth the wait. Every time I make it and eat, it always reminds me of my grandmother and the experiences I had in Greece.
Although I would love to give you all her spanakopita recipe, I honestly cant. As we made it together, I would ask her what to put in it, “how much of this and how much of that” her answers literally were “just put some salt, pepper, feta….” As you can tell not very informative…no exact measurements or quantities…typical Greek style!!! J
So, instead, I have provided you with an alternate and easier recipe, (that doesn’t involve you making filo pastry J) that tastes almost as good as my grandmothers (except the flavours of her love behind her cooking)...
INGREDIENTS 3 bunches of fresh spinach 1 onion (chopped finely) 6-8 spring onions (chopped) 150g feta cheese 35g freshly grated parmesan  1 tablespoon fresh dill (chopped) 1 generous pinch of nutmeg 1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped) 12 sheets of filo pastry (thawed) 3-4 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted) + some olive oil |
METHOD 1. Trim the stems of spinach and clean them well in cold water. Drain. Roughly chop them and place in a steamer. 2. Steam for 5-8 min or until the leaves are wilted 3. Drain. Squeeze out the excess water from the spinach. 4. Take a skillet and heat 1 tsp of olive oil and sauté the onion until tender. 5. Add the spring onion and cook for another 2-3 min. 6. Remove from heat and then add spinach, herbs, cheeses and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper if required. 7. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the 3 sheets of filo at a time. Mix the butter and 2 tbsp olive oil in a small bowl. Brush each sheet with the butter mixture and lay on top of another. 8. Cut into equal thirds lengthwise. 9. Spoon a little filling on an angle at the end of each strip. 10. Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling to form a triangle. 11. Brush the top lightly with the butter mixture. 12. Place triangles on a baking tray to bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown |
The recipe makes approximately 20 smaller individual spanakopitas you can either bake straight away or freeze for a later day. These are perfect for a light lunch with a fresh Greek salad, as a small afternoon snack, or as an entrée to go with your dinner.
I hope you enjoy making and eating these and taste the Greek culture behind our food.
Kali Orexi,
Foodling 1.