The Lobby - Wedding Reception (Lunch)

As most of you might know from the previous post that i haven't been updating this blog in ages! I do apologize for that but October has definitely been a hectic month for me. Things are getting better since i have just submitted my book as part of the Nuffnang August Competition and finished my friend's 21st birthday cake (a post coming soon)

During the busy month of October, i had been able to witness a beautiful wedding that took place at the Gold Creek Chapel followed by a lovely lunch reception at The Lobby (King George Terrace, Parkes). It was such a marvelous day that everything was just so perfect - beautiful day, beautiful chapel, stunning bride and groom, nice restaurant and food! I haven't been to a great deal of weddings but i reckon that The Lobby serves great (wedding) food, if not the best so far, of all the weddings that i've been to.

They had an alternate service menu but i still managed to taste almost all the dishes. We started with a round of entrees which were the Togarashi tiger prawns with a citrus and summer berry salad and Beetroot cured ocean trout with snow pea and caper puree, potato crisps with orange sabayon. I got the ocean trout entree and it was simply beautiful. The skin was crispy and the fish was cooked just the way i like it - simple but still moist and flavoursome. The beetroot added a subtle sweetness to the fish and the puree enhanced the ocean trout's delicate flavours. The prawn was cooked nicely but i think the togarashi overpowered it.

Togarashi tiger prawns with a citrus and summer berry salad

Beetroot cured ocean trout with snowpea and caper puree, potato crisps with orange sabayon

After some touching speeches we started having our mains which were: Herb crumbed eye fillet with a panache of vegetable, caramelized onion vol au vent & mustard cream and Gingered pork cutlet with sweet potato puree, apple sage compote & English spinach. I had the eye fillet and it was nice and lovely with the mustard cream and the vol au vent was alright. In regards to the pork dish, I have to say that it was very delicious and the portion was very generous. The pork cutlet itself was tender and moist, and every component of the dish complimented each other well.

Herb crumbed eye fillet with a panache of vegetable, caramelized onion vol au vent & mustard cream

 Gingered pork cutlet with sweet potato puree, apple sage compote & English spinach

After our mains, we were greeted with some beautiful desserts: Lemon curd tartlet with warm nectarine salsa, vanilla marshmallow & mint syrup and Espresso and Tia Maria semi freddo with baby macarons & choc mint slice. I didn't try the latter one as it contained alcohol (at least it seemed to from the name), so i had the lemon curd tartlet dessert. I immediately loved the colours of the dessert, the yellow colour from the lemon curd looked lovely next to the white marshmallow and pink-ish nectarine salsa - such a pretty spring dessert. The tartlet was good and not too sweet, and marshmallow was very light and fluffy. The sweetness and acidity of the nectarine salsa together with the minty syrup held the entire dish well, making it deliciously refreshing. I didn't try the semi freddo but i heard that it was delicious too!

 Espresso and Tia Maria semi freddo with baby macarons & choc mint slice

Lemon curd tartlet with warm nectarine salsa, vanilla marshmallow & mint syrup

What is a wedding without the wedding cake? Of course they had one!

The wedding cake looked very cute and fun with two little teddy bears and hearts on the top tier. The cake was dense but moist and i especially liked the base!

The pretty and cute wedding cake

Forgot to mention about the restaurant but it is lovely and elegant place with tall glass windows all around and stunning views to the beautiful gardens. The meal was lovely, the speeches were touching, the dancing was sweet and most importantly, the bride and the groom were both gorgeous. SMB wishes the best to the both of you and may you two live a happily ever after life, just like in fairy tales!

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

Sorry for being a tad slack about the posts here but October has been and will continue to be a busy month for me. Despite of all that i still managed to bake a Mini Earl Grey Chiffon Cake as part of my friend's birthday present. I've been wanting to make something with Earl Grey for a while and when i remembered that she mentioned about wanting to have Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, i decided to go ahead with it.

I tried looking for some Earl Grey powder but having failed to find any, i ended up settling for some Earl Grey Tea Leaves from T2 - they were so kind to provide me with some samples for Earl Grey and Earl Grey Royale. I used the latter one as it has a stronger flavour.

It was my first time making this cake and i think it turned out alright even though the Earl Grey flavour was quite subtle. It's best eaten on the same day because it loses a bit of that softness if left for a few days. It's a great treat for an afternoon snack as it's light and not too sweet =) Don't forget to have it with a cup of tea!

Mini Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

4 egg, separated100g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, room temperature
50ml strong earl grey tea
30ml milk
¼ tsp salt
100g cake flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp earl grey tea leaves

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree C.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, 20g of caster sugar, butter, earl grey tea, milk and salt until combined.

3. Sift together cake flour and baking powder, then add into (2) and mix well. Set aside for later use.

4. In another large mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks. Add in the remainder of the caster sugar and cream of tartar and continue to beat until stiff.

5. Take ¼ of the meringue and mix with (3) until well mixed. Gradually add in remaining meringue, and lastly stir in tea leaves. Stir until just combined.

6. Transfer batter into 2 mini chiffon pans and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

7. Invert the cake immediately after taking out from oven, and cool on rack completely before turning out from mould. Bon Appetit~

Okonomiyaki

After having a bad Okonomiyaki during the Nara Festival (a post about it coming soon!), i had the urge of making one myself. I've never made one before but i was convinced that as long as i didn't end up burning it, the results would better than the one i had at the festival. I looked up for some recipes online and found one that turned out quite well...i ended up making a Banana Prawn Okonomiyaki, Beef Okonomiyaki and Marinara Mix Okonomiyaki.

Out of all the Okonomiyakis that i made, my favorite one was the Banana Prawn Okonomiyaki. The beef one and the marinara one didn't have as much taste. So i do suggest that you season them before making your Okonomiyaki.

A small tip: adding slices of bacon does make the Okonomiyaki taste better.

Okonomiyaki Recipe

Ingredients
- 1 cup of Plain Flour (or Okonomiyaki Flour, if possible)
- 160ml of Water 
- 2 Eggs
- 4 cups of Cabbage, cut into strips
- 2 stalks of Green Onions, thinly sliced diagonally
- 3 strips of Bacon, cut into 6cm pieces

Optional
For Prawn Okonomiyaki:
- 10 Fresh Prawns cut into approx 1cm chunks

For Beef Okonomiyaki:
- 10 Thin Slices of Beef

For Marinara Okonomiyaki:
- 300g of Marinara mix, cut into small chunks

Toppings
- Kewpie Mayonnaise

- Okonomi Sauce (if you don't have the store bought one, you can simply make the sauce by mixing 3 tbsp of ketchup, 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and 1 tsp of Soy Sauce together)
- Katsuobushi (Bonito Flakes)

Preparation:
1.In a large bowl, whisk together the plain flour and water until smooth
2. Add Eggs, Cabbage, Onions, Shrimp (Beef or Marinara mix) and mix, but don't over mix.
3. Oil a frying pan and add 3 pieces of bacon. Then, add Okonomiyaki mixture into the frying pan.
4. Using a spatula flatten and form pancakes until around 1.5cm thick and approximately 20cm
5. After about 3 minutes, flip over pancake and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
6. Flip pancake again and cook for another 3 minutes or until firm and well browned.

7. Remove the pancake into a plate and drizzle with Kewpie mayonnaise, okonomi sauce and sprinkle with some Katsuobushi. READY TO SERVE!

HK: Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Specialty Shop

- Visit Tim Ho Wan.

Ticked.

There i was (with my lovely auntie and grandma) waiting outside Tim Ho Wan along with another 30 or so people on a hot and humid Saturday in Hong Kong. Docket 173 seemed to take forever to be called although the lady at the tiny counter did tell us to come back after an hour or so. Acting in disbelief, i refused to leave hoping that somehow we wouldn't have to wait that long to be seated. I was wrong, we ended up waiting an hour and a half to be seated in a minuscule table for two (yes, the three of us).

Why all the fuss?

If you are not aware, Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Specialty Shop (Shop 8, Taui Yuen Mansion Phase 2, 2-20 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok) has been awarded a Michelin Star and it is the World's Cheapest Michelin Starred restaurant. The shop is humbly decorated with a few Chinese calligraphy writings hanging on the wooden walls and a few awards that the restaurant has won. The shop is tiny and only fits 20 people comfortably but on the day that i went, there were a total of 30 people in there. Our table was so small that i barely had space to take photos and eat - my chopsticks would literally touch the wall as i ate. Was it worth it though?

We got a few dishes including the must-order Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns, Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow), Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings (Siew Mai),  Liver Rice Rolls, BBQ Pork Rice Rolls, Mango Pudding and 杞子桂花糕 (Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly). I didn't manage to take photos of all the dim sums as they were arriving too quickly and we had to finished them quick to make room in our tiny table.

I really liked the Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns. They came out pipping hot and the thin layer of sweet buttery topping was perfectly crisp. The Honey BBQ Pork filling was delicious and the three of us just loved the buns. Highly recommended.

The Shrimp dumplings were a bit of a disappoinment as the skin wasn't as thin as i was expecting but the shrimp filling was still good and fresh. The Siew Mai was alright but not outstanding.

We also ordered the Liver Rice Rolls and BBQ Pork Rice Rolls. The rice flour sheets were thin and soft but  unfortunately there wasn't much filling in the rolls. It was the first time that i 've had liver filling rice rolls and i have to say that it was interesting (okay) but i still preferred the BBQ Pork rice rolls, which was lovely.

Liver Rice Rolls

As a sweet treat we ordered the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly and the Mango Pudding. The Mango Pudding was too sweet for me and it didn't have a nice and smooth texture. On the other hand, i S-I-M-P-L-Y loved the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly because they had the perfect level of sweetness and were deliciously refreshing. This is probably the best Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly that i've ever had (we ended up ordering 2 more servings to take-away) - please let me know if there is another place with awesome Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly too!

All the dim sums from Tim Ho Wan range from HKD12 - 20 (AUD1.71 - 2.85) and that is a bargain for a Michelin Starred Restaurant. As a whole, the quality of the dim sums are good with some being more outstanding than others. I highly recommend ordering the Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns, BBQ Pork Rice Rolls (or Liver Rice Rolls for a change) and the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly. I would definitely go back for more of those buns and also to try other dim sums. Was it worth it? For me, yes...despite the wait and the crammed table, we all ended up enjoying some delicious and cheap dim sums!

Thirst Wine Bar & Eatery

Thirst Wine Bar & Eatery (Melbourne Building, 20 West Row, Civic) is a relatively new addition to the eateries in Civic offering a Modern Thai menu (owned by the former owners of Anise Restaurant). As its name suggests, it does have a bar area where you can enjoy a few drinks and some snacks. Alternately, you can just head to the restaurant area to enjoy a meal. The place looks modern, simple with small and big drawings of fire adorning the walls of the restaurant. The menu is not extensive but it offers both traditional and non-traditional dishes, such as the Green Curry with Trout Dumplings.

We ordered a Crispy Fish Salad as a starter and i quite liked it. The dish consisted of small deep fried whitebait with slices of green mango, coriander, roasted peanuts with a hot chilli dressing. It's light, refreshing and packed with flavours that just makes you wanna keep on eating it.

As mains, we decided to order the Chiang Mai Noodle and Green Curry with Trout Dumplings. Chiang Mai Noodle is the equivalent of laksa in Northern Thailand and it uses a curry broth. The broth is flavoursome and the chicken was nice and tender. The crispy noodles at the top definitely added a nice touch to the whole dish.

The dish that i was really looking forward to was the Green Curry with Trout Dumplings because i've never tried something like this. The so-called dumplings are actually minced ocean trout fillets mixed with garlic, ginger & coriander root shaped into balls (like meatballs) and cooked in a classic Thai green curry. The curry was light and matched with the delicate flavours of trout dumplings quite well - worth trying for its uniqueness.

Chiang Mai Noodles

Green Curry with Trout Dumplings - can't see the dumplings as they are all submerged in curry

And what is a meal without desserts? *especially when they look tempting...

We ended up ordering a Coconut & Pandanus custard with a caramelised sugar top. Glad that they caramelize the sugar upon order so that it is still hot and ready to make that beautiful cracking sound when it arrives at the table. The custard itself was lovely and fragrant and had that nice green colour too. And ohn yeah...i had the honour to crack it! *winks

On top of the custard, we also greedily ordered two scoops of sorbet. It was a must because the flavours were so different and we just HAD to try them. We got a Pineapple & Ginger Sorbet and a Lime & Kaffir Lime Sorbet. Loved the lime one as it was so refreshing and the kaffir lime added that edge to it - warning: could be sour for some people! If you prefer something sweeter, then the pineapple & ginger sorbet should be nice - fruity and 'gingery'.

Dinner was enjoyable and it was nice to try something different such as the Green curry with Trout dumplings and to savour new and exciting sorbet flavours. Not to forget that cracking the custard was a highlight too...love doing that!