Have a great new year! 

With love,

Alex, Lisa, Jin, Mich and Ted

How was your Christmas?

As for me, I shared it with some friends. We started off with some home made shandy, a recipe from Nigella's, followed by many others which I stopped snapping photos of. =) I absolutely adore the glass.

Thought I'll post this up too, our table display.  

Another recipe of Nigella's, Parmesan and Breadcrumbs coated Lamb Cutlets, as well as a 1kg turkey breast at the background. We also had a large bowl of salad which again I thought wasn't significant enough to be photographed. Haha.

For desserts, plum pudding served with brandy custard and vanilla icecream. I just had to make myself an Affogato. The meal lasted us hours, from lunch to dinner with breaks in the middle.

We planned a bit too much as we weren't able to

X build our gingerbread house and decorate it with lollies

X cook our chicken wings

X finish our chips

X make brandied cherries.

But, who wouldn't love amazing times like this? I've

✓played board and card games. 

✓watched a comedy

✓played more games on the Ipad

✓had a quiet rest on the couch. One of us had a nap.

✓listened to Christmas carols. One of us actually sang Christmas carols really loudly at the neighbourhood, I had to run away in embarassment.

✓had bunny ears around the neighbourhood while others had bumble bee ears or reindeer ears and nose.

The list goes on...but all I can say, I have had an amazing day bonding with friends my way. SLACK. clinks glasses with Jin. 

Hope your Christmas has been just as amazing, in your way.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

...unfortunately it is hot and sandy in WA without a sign of snow! But the Christmas spirit is definitely in the air! Let's keep it simple and less materialistic. =)

Merry Christmas from all of us at Food Obsession! Have a fabulous Christmas, holiday and a wonderful new year ahead! ^_^

Christmas lunch with the team!

I really have to apologise for the lack of updates recently. It has been an extremely busy and crazy few weeks. This includes random Christmas lunches back to back!

My first work lunch was with the 'family' from work. I say family because I spend who knows how many hours per day with the team and we look forward to this one afternoon every December to unwind and destress.

This year we decided to dine at the Belgian Beer Cafe. What can I say? It was delicious!

There is no better way to kick start the summer with a glass of cold **vodka** lemon and lime bitters!

My colleague and I regretted for not ordering mains that came with hot chips. So we decided to get some on the side anyway.

Yum! We were just taken away by the presentation.

For mains, I had the pan-fried salmon. I rarely order seafood thanks to my pickiness but I did not have any regrets with this one. It did not taste or smell fishy (if you know what I mean). That's my kind of seafood!


In summary, even though it is slightly on the expensive side, I recommend this place if you fancy good quality pub meals.

Belgian Beer Cafe
Corner of King and Murray Streets
Perth WA

Felix Navidad!

Ted: "One more sleep till Christmas" 

and so do we. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012.

XX,

Alex, Lisa, Jin & Mich



A not-so-cheap noodle bar

From L-R: Szechuan noodles, chargrilled chicken

Dinner at Madame Wu's. Always thought they were a bit overpriced but some food can be pretty tasty. This meal, however, was disappointing. The chicken looked and tasted nothing like chargrilled chicken. The noodles, well, were possibly fried with ready made paste.

I am still apologising for the lack of posts. It doesn't help that Christmas functions have been weird and almost crazy. Imagine Indian take-away as mains with Nigella's grasshopper pie served after. =P I promise we will make it up SOMEHOW.

Madame Wu's Noodle Bar
195 The Parade
Norwood SA 5067.

Carnivores we are!

We just HAD to go to the Hahndorf Inn, only because a friend of ours who has been here for 3 years has never step foot and eaten any of their awesome goodness meat.

One girlfriend of mine doesn't like pork meat but loves these pork ribs. I have to say I do not like ribs all that much just because bits get stuck in between my teeth.

The must-order at most time, a Taste of Germany platter. Having said that, I did not order this platter once. Jin was involved. =) This platter supposedly serves 2, as stated on the menu. How is that possible- 4 different sausages, smoked pork kassler chop, pork knuckle served with sauerkraut, Rhine potato and 2 pretzels.

We wanted to order some vegies. So, we asked for vegies sufficient for 7 people. We had to laugh so hard because this plate which serves 7 is possibly my usual ONE portion of salad. The photos couldn't justify it enough. Not my point anyway, it was just blanched vegies of zucchini, corn, carrot and some rocket leaves.

One more visit to Hahndorf Inn before the year ends! And before I forget, they have a 1 metre long hotdog with Bratwurst sausage challenge!

The Famous Hahndorf Inn

35 Main Street

Hahndorf SA 5245

08 8388 7063

Golden boy a.k.a Kintaro

Sorry for the MIA. December has been truly crazy in terms of personal life as well as work life. And I shall say that it has been the same for all of us.

L-R: Avocado roll, chicken karage, tempura prawn with an extra slice of salmon [personal touch]

Anyway, the focus has never been on US but on the blog despite all the procrastination and lack of posts. So here it is, another review but a disappointing one indeed.

My favourite little girl and I went to this fairly new sushi place around my area, Sushi Kintaro. She loves it there because she gets to sit on the high chairs and watch the sushi train. I can't trust her taste in sushi all that much because she eats only sushi rice. Having said that, good sushi rice is the foundation of it all.

I remembered taking the avocado roll first. Then, I waited. And waited. There was a distinctive lack of choices available to the customers. A customer next to me asked for sashimi tuna and there was none. It was on the menu but the staff merely said ''We do not have tuna yet. We only have salmon''. I actually thought of leaving after a plate but my girl was with me. She will happily eat sushi rice; which she did. Speaking of that, the tempura prawn sushi had its personal touch because she wanted only the rice and gave me the salmon instead. =)

Friends who have visited the place were also greatly disappointed by the choices available. They truly did leave after a plate. I have also read somewhere else where it lacked vego options. Maybe someday, they will pick up their game. For now, there is no way I'll walk through those doors again.

Sushi Kintaro
147 The Parade
Norwood SA 5067.

Kick start summer with a jug of margarita!

The title of this post is almost a bit too long but I just had to do it. And I'll do it again! Kick start summer with a jug of margarita!!! It took us 3 attempts, week after week [It is the busy month of the year after all], before we could finally dine at Grace the Establishment.

It was one of their Thursday specials where a jug of margarita costs only $15 instead of the usual $25. We are mindful that margarita is served with salt at the rim of the glass, however, our first word was ''Salty''. The whole jug did last us the entire sitting.

Fried chicken with buttermilk dipping sauce $9.50. We were disappointed. Chicken wasn't cripsy hot and the buttermilk dipping sauce also did not bring the fried bits to life.

Boston Bay Mussels with chorizo, lemon thyme and cider $24. Interesting flavours. If you do not know me by now, I get sucked into dishes with chorizo on the menu. =D

Slow-cooked pork belly with pickled daikon heirloom carrots $27. We thought this dish was a little overpriced and we weren't particularly impressed by the flavours. We were impressed with the presentation but I guess we do pay for that effort. The rhubarb was left on the plate only because we discovered we did not enjoy it cooked this way.

For the finale, Chocolate bar salted caramel and peanut nougat $7.50. Again, it wasn't what I had imagined. For some reason, I was expecting three separate distinctive elements on the plate. Having said that, we were glad we ordered a dessert to share as it was truly rich and satisfying to end our night.

I have to say we went to Grace with a different set of expectations. We were not allowed to order food from the bar, it does not help that the menu does look a lot more interesting at the bar. Live music was again not up to expectations and the place was loud, even at the restaurant itself. Nevertheless, I did have fun and will most definitely return to dine at the bar.

Grace the Establishment
127 The Parade
Norwood SA 5067.
0883331007.