Second Attempt at Pandan Cake

My second attempt at making pandan cake turned out much better than the first. It was a different recipe to begin with. The cake was lighter, sweeter and more flavourful. The top did not crack too much either. I still haven't been able to find cake flour in the shops so I used plain flour and corn flour instead and sifted the flour 12 times!

Barley, Ginkgo and Bean Curd Dessert

Barley, ginkgo and bean curd dessert soup is a favourite in my family. It can be drank hot or cold and is cooling for the body system especially after eating lots of fried stuff. Back home in Malaysia, my mum would make my brother and I crack the shells of the ginkgo nut, remove the outer skin layer and bitter centre core. We did not mind it one bit as we love ginkgo nuts.

However when I boiled the dessert today, I used pre-packed ready peeled ginkgo nuts. It was so much easier and quicker. All I had to do was remove the centre core.

Here is a picture of my 'tong sui'. I usually put in the bean curd at the last minute so that it'll be intact and in bite size pieces. I decided to do a different style today by letting it boil longer and disintegrate into tiny flakes.

Ham Choy Tong or Sour Mustard soup

I have been wanting to make ham choy tong for about 3 weeks now and only got to doing it today. I am surprised by the end result! It tasted like a proper ham choy tong soup on my first attempt.

Here is what I used.

500gm of pork spare ribs, scald first in a separate pot of hot water to remove the dirt, blood etc.
2.5 litres of water
5 slices of ginger
2 cloves of unpeeled garlic
4 tomatoes quartered
1 box of soft tofu
Salt to taste
350gm of pickled mustard or ham choy

I soaked the pickled mustard in water for about 20 minutes, changing the water about 6 times or so. Meanwhile, I put the scalded spare ribs, ginger and garlic to boil on high for about 30 minutes.

Slice the pickled mustard into smaller pieces and add in to the soup. Boil on high for a further 20-30 minutes. Put in the quartered tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and season to taste. Cut the soft tofu into square cubes and simmer for 5 minutes. Ready to serve. It goes well with a plate of steamed rice.

My work place

I took photos of my work place and my beloved desk. My work station is so close to the vending machine and cafe which makes it convenient. I also get a gorgeous view of the bay from my desk but I did not take a photo of the scenic view. The office looks pretty empty because I took the photos at 7am.

Bak Kut Teh

We had Bak Kut Teh served with yam rice for dinner tonight. Bak Kut Teh literally translated to English means pork bone tea. The soup is brewed with a mixture of herbs and spices together with pork bones for hours to bring out the flavour.

It is a very popular dish in Malaysia and the best can be found in Klang where it originated from. Lots of KL-lite and PJ-ians would travel over an hour to Klang just to have a good hearty Bak Kut Teh. They would bring their own special Chinese tea leaves to drink while having the meal as it aids digestion and makes the meal less fatty. Bak Kut Teh is usually served with white rice but I am used to having it with yam rice.

Frying the dried shrimps, yam and rice before going into the rice cooker

Cooked yam rice. Sorry for the mess, took the photo half way through eating :P

Bowl of Bak Kut Teh with spare ribs, mushrooms, bean curd and tofu pok.

Shark Fin House

Shark Fin House in Melbourne Chinatown is well known for its dim sum. It is 3 storeys high but still pack to the brim and near impossible to get tables especially on weekends. There are 3 seatings at most Chinese restaurants here that serve dim sum with the first one at 11:00am, second at 12:30pm and last at 1:30pm.

We decided to try their dinner last Saturday and were handed the chinese menu. This made no sense to us as we cannot read or write mandarin so the head waiter gave us an English version instead. The English menu was somewhat lacking as we could not find any claypot tofu dishes on it. So when we ordered, we asked the waitress whether they serve claypot tofu with salted fish and she said yes. We asked why it was not in the menu and she said it was in the Chinese menu. Anyway, our second dish we ordered was venison with XO sauce from the English menu.

Service in Shark Fin is just average, it is always hard to get the attention of the waiters. Luckily the food came out quick. The claypot tofu was a winner. It had lots of salted fish in it and the sauce was well balanced with the chicken, ginger, tofu and salted fish. As for the venison, it was a different story altogether. The ginger and spring onion was lacking, the meat had too much corn starch and the XO sauce did not make its presence felt.

I have a high suspicion that the venison dish has been tweaked to the Aussie taste buds whereas the claypot tofu has remained a traditional Chinese dish. We will be more mindful in future not to order from the English menu and to just order dishes we know in Cantonese. I did not take any photos of the dishes this time as there were too many people sitting close by. I personally think I should just patronize Shark Fin House for its dim sum as it is best known for that.

Kun Ming Restaurant

We headed to our favourite Chinese restaurant, Kun Ming for dinner on Sunday night after the flower show. I love their double boiled soup as it is very nutritious, tasty, healthy and reminds me of a good home cook soup. They have 2 different types of double boiled soup everyday and it costs $5 a bowl. Keith and I will always have a bowl each and swap half way through.

We ordered vegetables with oyster mushroom and pan friend toothfish as our main dishes. The dishes were done to perfection. The vegetable was cooked just right, nice and crunchy while the oyster mushroom lend a delicate flavour. As for the toothfish, the skin was crispy while the flesh was moist, very smooth and soft. The snow peas presented with the toothfish received a thumbs up from me. You must try toothfish if you have not, it is quite similar to cod fish.

Pandan Cake

I attempted to make my first pandan chiffon cake on my day off today. Unfortunately it did not rise enough and did not turn out soft and fluffy. It was rather moist, flattened and a tad heavy. Taste wise, it had enough pandan essence and coconut milk but it could have done better with a bit more sugar.

I am a bit disheartened at how the cake turned out. I suspect it had to do with the egg white mixture and folding in steps. It is also recommended on google that an aluminium tube mould pan be used over a non-stick one. Unfortunately, I could not find any that were not non-stick ones.

Anyway, we have to learn from mistakes so hopefully I will persevere and come up with a better pandan cake next time. I won't be posting the recipe until I master it. I have googled a whole heap of different recipes for the pandan cake, will see which one works best. On the upside, I had the cake with some kaya and it tasted delicious.

I could not resist taking photos of my failed pandan cake so here goes. Forgive the looks, as I had a hard time getting it out from the pan. I wiggled it too hard until part of it broke and dropped off. So please ignore my baking and presentation skills.

Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show 2008

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was held in Carlton Gardens over 5 days with entry fee of $19.50 per adult. We went on Sunday expecting to see rows and rows of flowers but were disappointed. Instead we got rows and rows of stalls selling their products and massive crowd everywhere.

We then made it into the Royal Exhibition Building, a world heritage site. I loved the interior design and architecture of the building with the domes. In the building, there were exhibitions of floral arrangements by students, florists and creative art schools. Some of the designs were interesting as you can see from the photos.

Winner of the mannequin competition

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is a Malaysian specialty and is also known as the unofficial national dish. It is coconut rice served with egg, cucumber, roasted peanuts, sambal ikan billis or chilli baby anchovies. It can come with chicken curry, beef rendang or chilli cuttlefish as accompaniments. In Malaysia you can buy a basic takeaway nasi lemak for just RM1 (approximtely A$0.35) minus the extras. It is usually wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper or brown paper shaped in pyramid style. It's the quickest way to satisfy ones craving for nasi lemak.

I usually get my nasi lemak from Sambal Kampung in Melbourne Chinatown as it is pretty close to the real deal. Last weekend, we decided to get it from a different place ie Banana Palm Curry House. I regretted that decision as the nasi lemak was a bit dissapointing. The coconut rice didn't have enough flavour and aroma while the chicken curry and beef rendang tasted bland. They both tasted like they were made from the same curry base. Price wise, it was pricier than Sambal Kampung. It is highly unlikely that I would return for the nasi lemak.