Travelogue Adelaide Day 1: AnYeong!

First of our series, Adelaide! We did our homework and it brought us here to Seoul Korean. They are really popular for their bento boxes during lunch hours. I ordered some Korean tea but Jin decided to stick to the basics of green tea.

Despite being ''famous'' for well-presented bento boxes, we went for the seafood pancake. Jin was greatly disappointed, while I tried to ''hunt'' for seafood. I briefly remembered the squid bits and that was it.

And now for the fusion dish-Korean fried rice with cheese! Reminded me heaps of my college years when cheesy fried rice was ''The Thing'', however I would have much preferred this dish with more kimchi.

We gave it much thought and wondered if we would ever come back again to Seoul Korean. Jin was definitely not interested. I thought I would, but for the bento boxes, after all the great reviews on them.

Seoul Korean (City Centre)
65 Hyde Street
Adelaide SA 5000

Malaysians' new hang-out joint at this point

I do not have to give captions to these pictures, do I? *laughs* If you do not know it, just read along. Roti canai and teh tarik [pulled tea] are the two items which come to mind when people think of mamak or specifically mamak food. Seriously, people would go crazy over mamak food but I was never one of them.

Having said that, my friends and I persisted one random late night [well, I merely followed the crowd]. One of the staff told us they were already closed for the night but we managed to score ourselves a table [thanks to connections, yay!]. They agreed initially to only hot drinks, but we ended up with roti canai, roti telur [egg roti?] and roti planta [margarine roti?]. I did not take pictures of everything because rotis just look like rotis regardless.

This place is really popular with many international students as it is not expensive. However, it is a small ''corner'' which literally translates itself to ''limited places available''. I see the food served as a healthier version of mamak food as the roti planta was the only one which tasted much like home. *hints oily* I do not think I would initiate meals at Mamak Corner only because I am not a big fan of Asian food outside home but would enjoy the place with my peers as we think of home. Note to self, I have to go there with Malaysians and maybe, Singaporeans too.

Mamak Corner
8 Bank Street
Adelaide SA

Junkie Friday #5

I had a go at another of their safer new flavours, the Crispy Bacon as I previously reviewed the Pizza flavour. The other weird combinations I did not bother trying were Sunday Roast and Meat Pie & Sauce. They sound really weird and manly [thanks to the footy]. To be honest, it might be my last review on chips for some time being. Having said that, I saw Vegemite Smith Chips in Coles today! [according to Jin, it totally screams my name!]

Back to the Crispy Bacon, I was extremely excited when I saw Coles having these limited flavours on the shelves. However, it certainly lacked flavour despite all the flavour enhancers. It being in crinkle cut doesn't really help too. Anyway, crispy bacon isn't a new flavour to start with and I'm definitely not sure why it was labelled as a 'limited edition'. They have been in the markets off and on, and have been constantly repackaged.

To accompany a pack of chips is definitely a good can of beer. I have never tried Murphy's Irish Stout as Guinness somewhat takes all the limelight among my peers. I do love the creamy texture of this stout and found myself totally amused by the little nitrogen widget in the can [yes, I am aware that these cool widgets originated from Guiness]. Being an avid youtuber, I also managed to search for some Murphy adverts from those days.

I thought THAT was pretty cool, and THIS pretty awesome too.

If I have not said this before, Junkie Friday is getting trickier and almost impossible with my new personal commitment. There will minor tweaks but the blog will remain commited to posting Junkie Friday [if not mine].

I *heart* pink.

It's the start of a Looonggg weekend! #4

Things have been hectic lately and planning for dinners has been rather difficult; what more to plan for Junkie Friday? Normal weekday dinners have been instant ramen or rice crackers, as if it has been a huge junkie week.

Pizza always does it for me. =) And this time, it is Dr. Oetker's Pizza Quattro Formaggi! [Honestly, it has always been Dr. Oetker's] A perfect cheat dinner; it is a combination of 4 cheese pizza, a blend of mozzarella, edam, emmentel and blue cheese. With all the cheeses, it made the pizza really creamy.

I am honestly no big fan of blue cheeses but I do not mind this one. The flavour wasn't as intense as certain blue cheeses I have tasted previously. Having said that, my girlfriend once told me the good blue cheeses are the ones with a strong intense taste or flavour to it.

A frozen pizza which doesn't taste frozen, it was a dinner totally worth the money- AUD $3!

It's the end of the week. Junkie Friday #3!

In a span of a week [or less], I went through a 'journey' on Kettle's Multigrain Chips. I thought I'd go wild with the chips by tasting the Honey BBQ [photo not taken], Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream as well as Sour Cream & Chives.

In short, these little ones are 'Grainwaves' wannabes but totally fell short of it. Are those ''flavours'' you can see? [steals quote from Arnott's]. Sour Cream stood out a lot more with citric acid listed as an ingredient. Having said that, Honey BBQ had citric acid listed too! So it was a lemon-y BBQ flavoured packet of chips.

I discovered this interesting website which also had the author's personal "Chips Rankings''. Totally inspiring! Despite that thought, I might actually be staying away from my foes [or friends?]; the flavour enhancers [just naming a few; 621 and 625] for some time. This is a horrible love-hate relationship!  

The next question is "How is all these related to Junkie Friday?'' Well. the binge began on a Friday.

Have a great weekend! We, on the other hand, are very occupied for the upcoming weeks but will definitely try to keep up with the posts. 

It has begun! Junkie Friday #2

Yay! And the night is still young. *dances*

If you could not tell the new flavour of Smiths' from the picture, it is their limited edition of Pizza (or pizza flavoured) chips. It tasted just like any other pizza flavoured snacks and it definitely reminded me of Arnott's Pizza Shapes. It appeared as if it was marketed in accordance to the footy finals happening this weekend too (it is written at the back of the packet after all) and yes, we are least excited for the footy finals. I have to say I am not as adventurous as I thought I would be because I could not bring myself to buy their other limited edition flavours such as Meat Pie & Sauce as well as Sunday Roast (o_O) Pizza and Crispy Bacon are just much safer flavours and I quite enjoyed eating the whole pack of chips with the stout *note: I am still drinking the same bottle while writing this.

I have to justify myself here, I am not a drinker of stout but for personal reasons, I am drinking it now warm (literally means at room temperature). I thought it was an easy stout to drink and took it as a light beer. I always remembered bitterness as a strong character of stout (thanks to Guinness!) but 4 Pines definitely has balanced its bitterness along with its other flavours. Having said that, Guiness has now changed their recipe and has a much preferred smooth finish too (ooo...and also less alcohol percentage).

And did I say the night is still young? Bring on more junk. =D

Courtesy of animecrazy.net

No, I'm not thinking of mapo toufu, although I do love that dish a lot. It is just going to be a weekend I commit myself to 'Chūka Ichiban!', also known as Cooking Master Boy. I've watched the anime series a gazillion times now really, after all it's more than 10 years old.

My special delivery...

“Specially flown all the way from Melbourne for you…” ^^

I caught up with my friend over lunch last Friday, and he gave me a box of these delicious macarons – a souvenir from Melbourne (and no, I am not kidding).

Clockwise (from top right): Strawberry, with a delicious creamy filling and strawberry bits; pistachio flavoured with a bits of real pistachios in the filling; salted caramel which has that perfect burnt caramelised flavour and not overly sweet; black sesame, which is surprisingly not too sweet and just perfect.

My plan to ‘slice’ open and capture the 'innards' of each macaroon on camera failed. The delicate shell just crumbled with each attempt (even the strawberry macaron just barely survived the journey to Perth); hence, my long winded descriptions of each one.

The macarons were yummy. I *hearts* the pistachio and black sesame flavours. Actually, I loved all of them.

This special gift made the perfect end to a very long week. Thank you. =)

The Cupcake Family
Shop 22 Red Cape Lane, QC Centre
Melbourne VIC 3000
http://thecupcakefamily.com.au

Friday night binge

While Mich was having her Junkie Friday night, I was having a drinking session with the visiting family. The night revolved around life, travel (including handy tips about places to visit) and, ultimately, work. The most important part of the night was the munchies, of course!

Prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, crackers, brie and apricot & almond cheeses, and roasted honey cashews

*I only drank the two wines in front - a sweet on the left, a red on the right*

I love sweet dessert wines, and am extremely picky with my reds, but this one was quite nice. Both wines weren’t as yummy as the ones during my visit to Penfolds in SA last year, but were still good enough. Wine, cheese, crackers and nuts – what more can I ask for?

The sparkling pop

Image from Wiki- Sorry!

I felt obliged to balance out my posts a teeny weeny bit- especially in our category of wines.

Soooooo...here it is.

I had a go at Passion Pop Mixed Berry on my Junkie Friday night. Apparently, it's an iconic Australian wine but gosh, I had a sip of it and all I could say is "It tastes like cough mixture"

What did my mate say? "It's yummy (he introduced me to this)."

And the next question was "What cough mixture have you been drinking?"

Chunky kit kats

The photos were taken on two different occasions AND it took me a while (its embarassing but I realised they were different till the third and last piece) before I discovered the different textures on the chunky chocolate bar. Hence, the photo did not do any justice to Kit Kat Chunky Chocolate when they have breakable chunks of chocolate fudge, chocolate crisp and chocolate sauce! I love the chocolate sauce bit best!

This photo is a clear effort of amendments but it did not appear as presentable as the previous. From left to right chunks: cookies crunch, vanilla fudge and cookies cream. I love the cookies crunch the most.

After all the ''I love"s, these products aren't the best for weekly indulgences or even monthly due to the high contents of fat and the obvious overload of sugar. It is clearly written 3 servings per pack- but who is going to stop just after one chunk! I wouldn't and obviously didn't *naughty in Jin's words*. They did, however, give me the best satisfaction after the three humongous chunks.

Where will I meet you?

The best way to celebrate another public holiday is a day out with girls, with food and shopping. =D Although I have to say, I can only shop for the necessities now.

As if oily goodness of crumbly flaky egg tarts and fried salt and pepper squid weren't sufficient, we adjourned for coffee and sweets after a good dimsum brunch.

Sorry for the horrible picture, but I was a bit self-conscious while taking the picture. And The Coffee Club has always been so popular among the locals, goodness knows why. Well, they do promote themselves as ''Good food, great service, excellent coffee"

On top of all the cappucino and lattes we ordered, we had a blueberry chessecake which I personally found it 'pretty-looking'. I am still contemplating if I liked the idea of them cutting the cheesecake into half but it definitely made my photo presentation here easier. It irritates me when waiting staff in the restaurants 'destroys' an almost perfect looking object or to be exact, I was irritated when a staff flattened my portion of rice in a restaurant I dined not too long ago.

This is the chocolate brownie I ordered. The chocolate topping smelt so heavenly when it arrived at the table. Having said that, the brownie was a bit dry.

And the german cheesecake. I never knew the difference between cheesecakes, or at least between a normal cheesecake and a german one. But a german cheesecake is meant to be lighter, so I believe its TIME to read more on cheesecakes. =D Haha, not a big fan of cheesecake but the comment on this cheesecake was ''It's good"

With that, my awesome long Easter weekend has just ended and its back to work tomorrow.

The Coffee Club
100 Rundle Mall
Adelaide SA 5000

the weekly indulgence

Searched through my photo collections and found this shot- however, I am currently drinking it while typing this post. I possibly have drank this countless times (a weekly calorie intake and I do not remember when it started), I can't be bothered to snap every single bottle I drink.

'Discovered' Pirramimma's wines late last year, it must have been just my bad. I have always been a fan of D'arenberg and stayed loyal. However, Pirramimma was rated a 5-star winery by James Halliday in the Australian Wine Companion 2011. Alike many other McLaren Vale wines, we could taste the chocolate in it. I do love the fruitiness in this bottle. So I have just read, this collection is bottled late Oct 2010 and is ready to enjoy or kept to develop for another few years.

I have officially added Pirramimma on my list of McLaren Vale's wineries, but my personal favourite of theirs is the Petit Verdot. Enough said, that quote has just told you how much I enjoy their wines.

Bracegirdle's

By now, all South Australians should know about Bracegirdle's. It is absolutely the best chocolate place in town =)

Until recently, I discovered more of Bracegirdle's rather than merely slurping away my favourite hot drink. Proudly owned by Sue and Gary Bracegirdle, they are now managing three cafes in South Australia, one in Glenelg, another along Greenhill road as well as one in McLaren Vale (yes I do know about these facts beforehand).

It intrigued me when I read about Gary's previous career path- he was previously a high school physical education teacher. In last year's Royal Adelaide Show, the team has proudly won 15 golds and 16 silvers.

I have never tried any cakes of theirs- but I needed something solid to keep me contented before work. Carrot cake with a side serve of cream and half a strawberry. Aud$6, if I was not mistaken.

And the perfect drink to order when I need a boost of coffee before work but can't give up their oh-so-famous chocolate on a warm day- Iced Mocha =D Your choice if you preferred milk, white or dark chocolate. On a note of caution, their chocolates are too sweet for me and 10/10 visits I pick dark chocolate.

Your choice (again!) if you would like to drink it with their slightly segregated layers of coffee, chocolate then icecream or them altogether to enjoy. I did them both ways.

To be honest, I couldn't get through the drink and the cake in a sitting of almost two hours. I loved it but I would stick to my usual option of just one drink per sitting.

Other fun things to try in Bracegirdles (as mentioned in first post) include the Ice Cream Fondue, Ice Cream Bomb (go for Baileys out of the given choices vanilla, chocolate and baileys) and another yummy Ice Coffee.

Bracegirdle's Glenelg
31 Jetty Road, Glenelg
Bracegirdle's Toorak Gardens
389-391 Greenhill Rd,
Toorak Gardens

Cookies & Cream? No, it's Cookies & Cadbury...

The Limited Edition Cadbury Cookies

When Mich told me about the new limited edition Cadbury chocolate was on the shelves of the confectionery aisles, I was ecstatic. With my sweet tooth, I totally adore cookies and cream, chocolate, or, even better, a combination of both. Sure enough, within a week of its debut, I guiltily purchased the purple block of Cadbury Cookies.

The 'cookie' pieces in the bar and evidence of my guilty pleasure

Honestly, I was expecting bits of Oreo cookies covered in Cadbury's finest milk chocolate. Well, I was wrong, wasn't I? Its cookies looked like white Rice Puffs and dark Coco Puffs, but only crunchier with slight saltiness to complement the chocolate. And my verdict? Apart from leaving finger prints on the melting pieces, I think it was a good treat. However, if you are expecting it to taste like cookies, you will be in for disappointment.

You have been forewarned.

My sugar-filled day

Ingredients for a supposedly 'foolproof' chocolate fondant recipe (taken from womans&home)

Serves 2 jumbo texas muffin pan (or 3 ramekins)

70 g   dark chocolate

56 g   unsalted butter

100g  caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

     50 g   sifted, plain flour

    1tbsp  apple chocolate liqueur

Melt chocolate and butter before adding sugar, liqueur and vanilla extract, if preferred. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Whisk in eggs, a little at a time and then, fold in sifted flour. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C  (160C fan forced) for 10 minutes.

These are obviously shots from two different times, one during the day and one at night. I am still mastering how to use my 'not-so-savvy' digicam. It didn't hold up the way it should be but it definitely had the ooze any chocolate fondant should have. But boy, was it too sweet for my liking especially when I'm not one with high tolerance for sugar (so Jin said)

Was it a fool-proof chocolate fondant recipe? For now, I have to disagree but I will certainly attempt a fondant again. Not for some time, as the sugar is getting to me! 

A short review on the Christmas product of Cadbury's, the Magical Elves. Both Jin and I tasted this product for the very first time today. Both of us found it to be extremely sweet, with popping candy in their usual Dairy Milk. As listed in the ingredients, popping candy is just more sugar and glucose! 

I thought the popping candy was an interesting bit for that mere one second, merely because I miss the popping sensation in the mouth. All I need is one fun size Magical Elf.

A blue background was attempted to see how the image goes =) Anyway, I think I will be bouncing off walls tonight!!!

"note: to be eaten away from the company of others, unless you want to explain the suspicious explosion from the corners of your teeth" Jin said

High tea at Stamford Plaza Adelaide

An 'outdated' experience early Dec 2010. Thought it would be a good food post =D Most important of all, it was a memorable experience with a bestie.

My first experience of a 3 tier high tea =)

Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir- the first variety of Jacob's which I approve of.

Assorted tea sandwiches- I can't remember all of them but one of them was with smoked salmon and the other with cucumber and mustard. The third one could have been with ham. We thought it was good.

The very disappointing sweets- Belgian chocolate tears, raspberry and lime chiboust and fresh fruit tartlets

Raspberry jam, fresh cream and apricot jam

This was included in our Girls getaway package in Stamford Plaza Adelaide- a standard high tea with a complimentary sparkling. As we were disappointed with the sweets, we had to head to Bracegirdles for their 'fun' icecream fondue. We had a great view, however, facing the awesome blue sea. =)

Stamford Grand Adelaide
Moseley SquareGlenelg, SA 5045
Australia