Good Life..Good Pizza

Bonjour! It has been over a week since I last posted now! Things are getting a bit busier as it gets closer to the end of the year.

Last week, my friend, LT, and I went to Glenelg to buy some sports gear, but then I was feeling rather peckish from the money spending! As we haven't had pizza for a while, we decided to try out Goodlife Modern Organic Pizza - a lot of people have been talking about them, giving rather positive feedback. There are 3 different locations in total; one in Glenelg (which is the one that this review will be based on), one on Hutt Street and the other one in North Adelaide.

The first time around, we actually walked right past the restaurant without realising where it was. The tricky thing about this particular joint is that it is located on Level 1 (so that yes, there are stairs involved ~ I guess it gives you a slight workout before reaching there =P) and the name isn't that particularly obvious. The bottom of the stairs is quite dark so you really need to keep an eye out, otherwise you will miss it.

As we weren't  overly hungry, we decided to order one large pizza (a 2-person pizza, i.e. 12-inch) to share. Unfortunately, they don't do half-&-half pizzas (i.e. two flavours on one pizza) - there were a couple of different ones I definitely wanted to try. We ended up ordering a duck pizza:

Free-range roasted duck with shitake mushroom and spring onion ginger jam

It was absolutely mouth-watering and delicious! The smell wafting from the pizza as it was brought to our table already awaken our tastebuds, sending them to overdrive. The duck was really nice ~ soft and tender. The crust on the pizza is done very well; it was thin and the outer crust was very crispy and has a very nice texture contrasted to the soft delicious centre-filling. My favourite thing on the pizza though was the spring onion ginger jam! If any of you have tried Hainanese Chicken Rice before, the jam reminds me of the flavours of the spring onion and ginger dip that comes with the rice, except the one on top of the pizza is slightly sweet, making it very nice. After having one bite, it leaves you wanting more.

Overall, the service was good - the waiter and waitress came back often enough, checking orders, drinks and asked how everything was. I definitely recommend that you try this pizza joint out; I will certainly be back to try the others.

Saturday at SQ

Good evening mesdames et messieurs. I recently went out with a group of people for a dinner on Saturday night and I've come to realised that it is in fact very challenging for such a big group of people to go out to a very decent and nice place without alterations to the menu (in total, there was around 20 people).

This review was going to be about Culshaw's Grill at the Majestic Hotel on Frome Road but because of the change to a-la-carte menu, I decided to change the venue of the dinner gathering. I was just browsing around for different places, trying every single site or book I could find, from Google to Entertainment Book to the papers for places to go. At the end however, I managed to find SQ Restaurant (part of Mantra Hotel in Hindmarsh Square in Adelaide's CBD).

The staff were very nice and the service was definitely top notch. It is a nice little hidden place, yet still located right in the heart of the city. From the start, the tapas and the starters menu looked very intriguing, but I was not extremely hungry so I did not order any. My friend LK however, did decide to order bread which came with an olive oil dip and dukkah (the typical) - the only let down was the bread; it would have been a lot nicer if it was warm.

Most of us went straight into the mains. Being such a huge crowd meant that there were a variety of dishes, but I unfortunately could not take a photo of all of them. So here are the ones that I did manage to snap up:

Duo Beef served on Vegetarian Risotto

This dish was part of the specials on for the evening. The combination of beef was cooked beautifully. The Wagyu brisket was absolutely amazing - so tender and literally a "melt-in-the-mouth" moment. The steak was a bit over-done on the edges, but the middle is cooked to perfection (I like them medium-rare). The risotto on mine was cooked very nicely as well - creamy, yet not very gluggy (the way it is supposed to be done!). The platting could be a bit nicer though, but the food was good at least.

Side dishes: House Fries with Lemon Salt and Roast Onion Aioli and Rocket, Pear & Parmesan Salad

The fries weren't crispy which was a bit disappointing (double-frying could crisp them up) and there wasn't enough lemon salt in the chips, but the aioli made up for it - very addictive dip.  The salad was as expected, nothing too grandeur; it was just as it should be, a rocket, pear & parmesan salad. 

Snapper (I think) and seafood cous cous served with wakame

This was another dish which was on the specials menu. I am not too sure in regards to how the fish was done. The wakame addition to the top of the seafood cous cous is interesting - two people ordered it and one definitely did not like it, whilst the other thought the combination as odd. I quite agree that this was an odd combination; instead the wakame should be served on the side, almost as a starter if it was going to be utilised in the dish.

Angus Coorong Sirloin Steak on Shallot and Roast Garlic Rousti and Cabernet Jus
Side dish: Potato Mash with White Truffle Oil

My friend, TN, said that it was done perfectly (I'm pretty sure he wanted it medium-rare as well), and the meat did look extremely tender, beautiful and juicy. I think it is quite safe to say that it was a winner.

From the overall experience, it was quite positive. The let-down for the evening was actually the plating of the dish. The same dishes were plated inconsistently. For example the snapper which was ordered by a couple of people looked extremely different - the cous cous wasn't plated in a round circular manner and the size of the snapper were extremely different. The Duo of Duck, another popular dish for the evening was again plated extremely inconsistently - some plates had more duck pieces, whilst others had a mixture of big and small pieces. For the amount you have to pay for each dish, you would be expecting them to be plated very similarly, if not, exactly the same. However, it was still an enjoyable evening with lovely food and wine (I can't remember the exact one but it had a combination of Shiraz/Grenache/Viognier — highly recommended). 

Dinner for Three, Four, or Just...Moi

Bonsoir! Hope you all enjoyed the previous few posts on Sunday evening - it was a posting spree that night considering the amount of food I cooked during that beautiful day.

I haven't been eating out as much for these couple of weeks as I have been rather busy (and I actually forgot to take photos at a couple of the places that I did go...) but I will promise to do my best. For tonight's late post, it will be about home cooking.

There is nothing better than strolling a day in the markets, tasting the fresh local produce that is available, as well as eating food from other countries. That is one thing I absolutely love about Central Market in Adelaide. I really could have been in numerous countries today with the amount of food I tasted today ranging from the cheeses (France) to mettwurst (Germany), Sicilian olives (Italy), piroshki (Russia) and so much more (not forgetting to mention the number of local fruits I was trying before buying!). Tonight's ingredients will basically all come from today's expedition to the markets.

Dinner doesn't have to be complicated, whether it be cooking for 3 people, 4 people, 10 people, or only yourself. It is all about proportions and how you plate up the dishes - you can make it as complicated as you want it to be, or as simple as you would like. I had quite a slow night at work, and the last thing  I really wanted to worry about when I got home was dinner, but I decided that healthy eating was definitely the way to go. So for dinner, I decided to cook sausages - if you thought that it wasn't very healthy, well, I am here to prove you wrong!

Sun-dried tomato organic beef sausages with onion chilli jam and salad with roasted capsicums and Sicilian olives

Dinner tonight really could have been split into two or three dishes (absolutely great idea if you have lots of guests to cook for): entree as Sicilian olives, main dish as the sun-dried tomato organic beef sausages with the onion chilli jam, and the side dish as the salad with multiple different varieties of lettuce, roasted capsicum and eggs with a light raspberry vinegar. 

The sausages were made from organic beef and contained sun-dried tomatoes as well - you can really taste the difference from these sausages compared to ordinary sun-dried tomato beef sausages; they are produced from the Barossa Valley regions, but I managed to buy them in Central Market. When I went to the Lucia grocery store in the markets, I also managed to pick up a bottle of raspberry vinegar and onion chilli jam. They are both amazing accompaniments and dressings to ordinary dishes. The vinegar I used tonight in the salads transformed it into a beautiful light dish to go with the sausages - the raspberry was definitely evident. The onion chilli jam is a definite MUST for the pantry do go alongside the other common condiments such as tomato sauce; it just gives it that extra little edge of gourmet and uniqueness to the foods that you are cooking everyday. 

Onion chilli jam

This jam pretty much goes with any of the meaty dishes - I think you can actually also have that very easily by itself on a piece of toast. The sweetness of the onion and the heat from the chills is a wonderful combination (not forgetting to mention the spices exploding on your tastebuds). I have included a photo above as to what the bottle of the onion chilli jam looks like in case you are interested in obtaining a bottle. 

Dinner is of course not complete without dessert, and so the finale to complete the triage is the following:

Fruit'n' yoghurt with warm raw honey

That was just a random name I decided to name the dessert but really it contains (from the bottom upwards) dark grapes, strawberries and navel orange pieces. As I have decided to go healthy tonight, I was against using cream or ice-cream; instead I changed to something even more flavoursome - plain yoghurt mixed with equal proportions to mascarpone and added vanilla paste to provide that rich flavour without being overly sweet. It is however topped off with warm organic raw honey to give it that extra bit of sweetness and warmness to complete the taste sensation of the palate. 

If you are interested in making any of the dishes or have any queries about the products I have mentioned, feel free to send me an e-mail, comment on the post or ask whenever you see me next =) 

Au revoir until next time ...

The Proof is in the Pudding

Last post for the night! Puddings :D One of my favourite things to enjoy, especially in Christmas, or on cold wintery nights, those rich sauces to go with the warm gooey pudding.

There are so many different varieties, depending also on the occasion or the weather as well. Christmas puddings are full of spices and fruits (reminding me almost of a fruitcake), and after coming out fresh from the oven or boiler, topped off with warm brandy custard or finished off with vanilla gelato... makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

Tonight however, this post is about a different type of pudding. Something a lot simpler... self-saucing puddings. I was about to post a butterscotch self-saucing pudding up a couple of nights ago, but I was too tired. Today I actually made a chocolate self-saucing pudding and it would be a better idea to have a comparison between the 2 of them.

The ingredients for the self-saucing pudding isn't extensive. I have listed below the required ingredients for the chocolate self-saucing pudding. Just searching on Google will enable you to find extensive listings of the different recipes of puddings.

Ingredients:
Cake

• Self-raising flour
• Cocoa Powder
• Dark brown sugar
• Original Baileys liqueur
• Butter
• Milk
• Egg

Sauce

• Brown sugar
• Cocoa powder
• Boiling water

The first time I made a self-saucing pudding, I thought that the dish was absolutely destroyed when I added the running watery sauce on top. However, there is no need to fear as the liquid actually thickens up quite dramatically and sinks to the bottom upon baking.  Below are the photos of the 2 types of self-saucing puddings:

Butterscotch self-saucing pudding

Chocolate self-saucing pudding with a hint of Baileys

The chocolate version looks slightly burnt at the top — it is actually not burnt (the cocoa powder sprinkled on top makes the top appear extremely dark). Both puddings are extremely rich and I highly suggest serving small portions with plain vanilla ice-cream.  Some people aren't extreme fans of chocolate based desserts (rare, I know, but there is always at least one!), so the butterscotch self-saucing pudding would be a good alternative to the chocolate version.

The puddings are best served warm, and because of that, the sweetness of the puddings is also quite evident. Remember to serve it with ample amounts of ice-cream to balance the flavours out. It is a fantastic dish to whip up on a cold winter night after a hearty home cooked meal. Try making them for yourself and let me know how it turns out =)

Note: different alcoholic liqueurs can be substituted, e.g. Amaretto (if you like that almond flavour - serve it with almond and rosewater-infused ice-cream), Kahlua, Frangelico, etc. or if you wish to make a child-friendly version, omit the alcohol altogether. 

Adieu pour aujourd'hui 

Roast My Vegetables For Me Please

Bonsoir! This post will follow the healthy streak of the night (the post subsequent to the current one will break all conventions of healthiness).

This will be a good read for all the vegetarians out there. Many of you will be thinking, roast vegetables...how boring? Well I challenge you to change the way you think about roasted veg in the future. Vegetables are terribly GOOD for you. However, there are lots of movies and other types of media which portray children hating veges as they taste horrible, etc. I personally think that children should learn how to eat everything at a young age when their tastebuds are developing - this will assist in building up a large repertoire for their palate.

Coming back to the original intention of this post, roasting vegetables. One of the easiest things to cook. Most basic roast consists of potatoes, oil, garlic, butter, salt, pepper and...DONE. That's how simple it can be.  You will unfortunately get sick of that if you do it continuously, so I recommend slight variation and tweaking. It can be as small as adding some paprika, or ground cumin seeds, or perhaps using different types of vegetables such as butternut squash, carrots, onion, few varieties of potatoes, parsnips... the combination is just endless. Have a try of the following recipe (which I've done for today) ~


Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Lemon
• Garlic
• Butter
• Virgin olive oil
• Honey
• Sea salt
• Dry mixed herbs
• Basil (fresh or dried)
• Chilli flakes

Wash the potatoes, and cut them into small pieces (similarly with the butternut squash). Then cut the lemon in half, and gently squeeze some juices, then tuck in the middle of the pan to be roasted. Smash some garlic and roughly chop them into the mix. Melt butter with some honey and olive oil (prevents the butter and honey from burning) and then drizzle onto the vegetables. Season with salt, herbs, basil and chilli flakes as you desire. That's all you need to do. Roast them in a 220 degree-celcius oven (200 degrees in fan-forced) for around 40 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remember to rotate the tray and toss the vegetables half-way through (around 20 minutes in). Squeeze the lemon juice from the roasted lemons and they are ready to be served. The end product will look something similar to this:

Roasted tender potatoes and butternut squash seasoned with lemon juice and herbs

There are so many ways to tweak roasted vegetables which will prevent them from being 'boring veges'. So start eating your veges today stop playing around with them ;)

Nuts About Nuts

Hey there readers! Special mention to the Adelaideans out there today ~ hope you enjoyed this beautiful Sunday (before the rain hits in as of tomorrow!).

First article for the night, NUTS! There are many myths about nuts out there, with a very classic one being the following: nuts are bad for you; they are full of fats, high in calories and they cause pimple outbreaks. This statement has elements of both truth and fictional characteristics in it. Nuts are "generally" not bad for you, depending on how they are cooked OR how you purchase them in the first place.

So, I've tried to obtain some figures from websites (not too sure on the validity, but it gives a general idea). 50g dry roasted almonds = 298 calories; 50g dry roasted cashews = 287 calories; 100g raw brazil nuts = 328 calories.

The amount of calories may seem quite high in comparison to the nuts that I have chosen, but they have other additional benefits, such as cholesterol-lowering benefits, additional essential vitamins (very high amounts of zinc in brazil nuts). There are also lots of myths out there in regards to nuts assisting with weight-gain; it is in fact the other way around ~ moderate intake of nuts (according to an article, approximately 30-50g) could actually assist with weight loss due to one of its properties of increasing 'satiety hormones' into the gut, or in plain English terms, hormones which make you feel fuller for longer.

Hopefully this has helped shed some light on some of the health benefits from nuts. Try and avoid pre-roasted and salted nuts as they are extremely high in salt content (which is not good for your blood pressure, so beware!). Eat the nuts either raw, or if like them roasted, I recommend you dry roast them yourself.

Below are a couple of pictures of nuts I dry roasted myself:

Dry roasted almonds

Dry roasted cashews

All you need is to preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius (160 for fan-forced), then spread the raw nuts onto one layer and heat for 7 minutes. Toss the nuts around and heat for another 7 minutes, then its completely done. Let them cool completely before storing them in a tight air-sealed container. Extremely simple and good for you!

If you really want to add some flavouring, spray some water onto the nuts and then sprinkle small amounts of sea salt (or herbs if you're more adventurous and want to create some unique flavours) - the water helps the salt (or whatever else you are adding) to stick onto the nuts. What are you waiting for then? Go and get yourself some ~ enjoy them (as JW says, nom nom nom).

Nothing Like a Good Ol' Breakky to Break the Fast

Bonsoir!  Recently (i.e. on Saturday), I have finally decided to take a day off — no work, no worries, just friends, retail therapy and nice food; it has been a while since I last had a proper day break. It was a nice cool day, where the sun was shining bright in the morning even though it is still winter. So the morning was started off with breakfast with a couple of friends at ETC (East Terrace Continental) on East Terrace - see address below.



First thing is of course, coffee.

Left to right: Cafe latte, flat white, cappucino 

The service wasn't slow (which was good as we were starving). A few minutes later, the mains started arriving. I was feeling rather peckish that morning, especially after my gym workout so I decided to order 2 dishes to really break the fast and satisfy the hunger.

Eggs Napolitana - still beautifully runny upon cutting in

Single serving of banana pancake served with cream

Eggs napolitana was an absolute simple dish to wolf down - the light tomato sauce goes very well with the poached eggs (perfect for post-workout) and the toasted bread seems to go nicely too. The banana pancake was light and fluffy; obviously I would have liked more bananas in the pancakes but due to the current circumstances with banana shortages and ridiculous prices, it is understandable that they are not extremely keen on overloading with bananas. Although the pancakes may be deemed 'unhealthy' after a workout (especially with the caramel-y butter-y banana sauce), I justified it by saying that bananas are healthy...

Anyways, my friends ordered a couple of different dishes which seemed really nice as well:

Eggs Florentine

Fruit muesli with seasonal fruits

The poached eggs with the Eggs florentine were also beautifully cooked on lovely pieces of English muffins. The radiant colours given off by the fruit muesli was enough to get the salivary glands working - it was a visual colour overload along with the fragrance of fresh fruits in the air. 

That's all for this post and remember, its not always about the quantity, rather it is the quality that you should seek ;) 

Au revoir!

Four Seasons in One Day...Ending at the Aviary

Bonsoir mesdames et messieurs.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, experiencing all four seasons in one day. It started off with an early sunrise, beautiful and warm, springlike weather, then developing towards a warmer afternoon - it did reach a top (of 25 degrees I think), then by late afternoon, clouds were coming in and we definitely enjoyed some light showers with some lightning shows in the sky.

So overall, it was a very pleasant day. What else could be better? Catching up with an old friend (haven't caught up for a good number of years since high school!). So the night was enjoying strolling down Norwood Parade with a slight tinge of coldness in the air, reminding us that it is still indeed winter.

We enjoyed some dinner, but then the night just ended off beautifully at the Aviary. To start of with, a couple of warm drinks to warm us up:

Chocolate chai

English breakfast - a classic all-year-rounder tea

After we got started on the teas, the main desserts arrived and we were definitely ready to tuck in:

Orange and almond cake with slice of ice-cream topped with pistachios

Sticky-date pudding

This was a very lazy visit, really just a catch-up with a good old mate of mine, so it is not a true review per se, but rather, just a lazy night out with a quick dinner, finished off with warm desserts. I mean the orange and almond cake was nice - perhaps do with a bit of orange syrup drizzled on the cake, a bit of vanilla specks in the ice-cream with the pistachios candied lightly in caramel (chocolate crumbs don't really need to be there). The sticky-date pudding wasn't too heavy which is good (the serving size was very generous) - to make it a bit more unique, perhaps date-infused butterscotch sauce (though the sauce was quite nice) or ice-cream churned with dates, and to make it really rustic, include roughly chopped dates in the actual pudding itself. 

However, like I said, this wasn't really a review, but just a lazy post about four seasons in one day with the night concluding at the Aviary dessert kitchen ;) 

à toute à l'heure... 

Cibo.... Lovely Place for that Coffee and Gelati too!

Bonsoir. It has been a few days since I last posted, and I do have a few posts accumulating so I better get started.

This post is about one of my favourite coffee places, Cibo found all over South Australia. On few weekdays when I'm in town or weekends when I'm on the Parade at Norwood, it is more than likely that you would see me lounging around with my usual coffee order (if I'm not ordering any desserts, i.e. cakes or gelati) - grande skim cappuccino with an extra shot (yes, that IS 3 shots of coffee - if I'm really tired, I often double the shot having FOUR in total), OR my new favourite is grande soy cappuccino with an extra shot =)

So on a cold wintery Saturday night, a friend of mine and I decided to have a coffee with gelati. Ice-cream is actually one of my favourite things to eat in winter, don't know why!

Dark chocolate gelati and white chocolate with dark chocolate pieces (and hazelnut flavoured ones as well)

The small cups were actually really big! Should have ordered the tiny ones instead. The dark chocolate is very rich and sweet with strong bitter-sweet cocoa running through; the white chocolate is really nice with the chocolate pieces flavoured with hazelnut (really reminds me of Baci). Having such huge amounts of them individually can be a bit sickening, but having them both together is almost like a match made in heaven =) Normally, I don't really fancy white chocolate gelati, but this flavour was definitely different to the ordinary white chocolate.

Espresso!

There is nothing better on a cold winter night, other than sitting by the window upstairs in Cibo on Rundle Street, having creamy gelati with a nice espresso to wash down the sweetness - the artworks displayed is also a great point of conversation in case you run out of topics to discuss ;)