New Shanghai restaurant (Emporium Melbourne) review

I was so excited that I wanted to blog about New Shanghai restaurant immediately after the meal. It was super awesome! A must try if you're into Shanghai cuisine such as xiao long bao (steamed mini pork buns) and dumplings.

Located at Emporium Melbourne, New Shanghai is a modern Chinese restaurant serving Shanghai style cuisine. They have a chain of restaurants in NSW but this is the only restaurant in Melbourne for now. I'm glad that we were early. Although there was a queue, we were seated not long after a short wait. The decor of the restaurant is modern yet full of Chinese character. It is vibrant with cozy lighting. I was quite surprised to find out that it is actually a big restaurant despite the entrance looking like it is just part of the food court.

There were so many tempting choices that at the first glance of the menu, I found it hard to decide my order. We finally settled with New Shanghai xiao long bao, pan fried pork dumplings as well as stir fried Chinese rice cake with XO sauce and shredded pork. The food came amazingly quick especially for the xiao long bao.

The xiao long bao looked really good with thin skin. You can almost see the broth through the 'semi transparent' skin! It was indeed perfect on the first bite. The scrumptious broth was tasty with a balance of flavours that a xiao long bao should have. The pork was soft and tender with just right amount in each xiao long bao.

Next came the pan fried pork dumplings. They were actually quite big as compare with those from the normal dumplings shops. The pork dumplings were pan fried so evenly that every pieces looked almost the same. Guess what? There's actually broth in the dumplings too! This was the first pan fried dumpling I have had with hot broth inside. It was again so yum. The pork was as tender as the xiao long bao's and the thickness of the skin was just right.

Lastly, our stir fried Chinese rice cake arrived not too long after the first two dishes. It was quite unique as it wasn't the traditional style but with XO sauce. Needless to say, it was good. I was particularly impressed that they actually used fried shallot in this dish. It's not usual to see fried shallot used in traditional Chinese restaurants but it is widely used in Malaysian restaurants.

Well, overall the food was two thumbs up and the price was pretty good for such a location. New Shanghai has overtaken Hutong Dumplings Bar to top my list of xiao long bao/dumplings restaurants.

Website: http://www.newshanghai.com.au/

Green tea Hokkaido sponge cupcakes recipe

While exploring the sponge cake world, I bet one would never miss the green tea sponge. I reckon it's one of the must have sponge in the sponge cakes baking journey. Besides that, green tea is full of nutritional benefits and is widely used in food, health products and even cosmetics! How can we not make a good healthy sponge cake out of it?

As usual, there are many green tea sponge cake recipes around. I have actually tested a few. Most of them are okay. Some recipes are almost gluten free as they use so little flour, thus making the cake super light and airy. Well, nice sponge indeed but too airy for me. After a few experiments, I think I still like the Hokkaido cupcake sponge that I used in making the blueberry Hokkaido cupcakes. Hence, I modified it further for green tea. Guess what?! It turned out to be my favourite green tea sponge so far. Of course, I made them into cupcakes to save baking time!

Recipe:

(12 cupcakes)

60g egg yolks

25g castor sugar

50g corn oil

80g milk

5g green tea powder mixed with 4 teaspoons of hot water (about 20g) just enough to dissolve the green tea powder into thick green tea mixture. Let it cool before using.

90g cake flour

180g egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

55g castor sugar

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until pale and thick.

2. Add corn oil and whisk to combine.

3. Add milk and stir to combine.

4. Add green tea mixture and stir thoroughly.

5. Sift in cake flour and mix well. Leave the batter aside.

6. Beat the egg white in a mixing bowl.

7. Add cream of tartar as soon as the beaten egg white starts to foam.

8. Gradually add in the sugar when the egg white starts to thicken. Beat until stiff peak stage.

9. Add the egg white mixture onto the egg yolks mixture in 3 batches. Mix until they are almost combined on each addition. Lastly, scrape down and fold until every thing is evenly combined. Bang the batter on the table for a few times to release the big air bubbles.

10. Pour the batter into the cupcake cases, about 3/4 full each.

11. Bake in the preheated oven at 165c for about 25mins on the lower rack.

12. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool on the wired rack.

Easy Thai basil chicken (Gai Pad Grapow) recipe

Thai basil chicken a.k.a Gai Pad Grapow is a common dish in Thai restaurants. It is a dish where chicken is stir-fried with Thai basil leaves. I love this dish particularly the aroma of the Thai basil leaves. Please note that Thai basil is different from the usual basil. It is stronger and more distinctive in flavour. Thai basil is not hard to find in Melbourne. You can literally get it from Woolworths supermarket.

Well, this is another quick dish you can cook when you’re too busy to serve up a feast! Just serve it with rice and some salad vegies and you’re done – quick and easy!

Recipe: 

(3-4 servings)

450-500g of minced chicken

5 cloves garlic

3 shallots

6 bird eye chillies

A bunch of Thai basil leaves

2-3 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3/4 tablespoon Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

3/4 tablespoon oyster sauce

Salt and pepper 

1. Chop garlic and shallots finely. Cut the chillies.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan or wok. Add garlic and shallots. Stir fry until lightly brown.

3. Add in chillies. Briefly mix.

4. Add in minced chicken; follow by fish sauce, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry and mix thoroughly.

5. When the chicken is almost cooked, add in Thai basil leaves and stir fry until the Thai basil leaves are cooked.

6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. Serve with rice.

Oven steamed chicken 白斩鸡 recipe

Chicken rice is a popular dish in Malaysia. It can easily be found in any hawker centre or food court in Malaysia. The traditional style is using poached chicken and served with oily rice and dipping sauce. Timing is very important to produce a good poached chicken as it should be tender and smooth. Hence, it is not an easy dish as it looks. In fact, it consists of multiple steps and ingredients to bring out a great poached chicken.

Don't worry, I'm not going to create a complicated dish. Instead, I'm sharing a simplified version of steamed chicken that could be served as chicken rice using an oven. Besides that, your kitchen would remain clean after cooking.

Recipe:

1 whole chicken

1 piece of ginger

A bunch of spring opinions/scallions

Seasoning for chicken:

Sesame oil

Shaoxing cooking wine

Salt

Pepper

1. Cut ginger into slices and spring onions into shorter stems.

2. Rub salt and sprinkle some pepper on the chicken including the inner part (stomach of the chicken).

3. Brush shaoxing cooking wine on the chicken. Follow by sesame oil.

4. Lay enough aluminium foil on the kitchen top or table where you're going to wrap the chicken. Lay sufficient parchment paper on top of the aluminium oil. Bear in mind that there will be chicken stock after cooking. Make sure both the aluminium foil and parchment paper are big enough to wrap the whole chicken and contain the stock.

5. Put 2 slices of ginger and 2 stems of spring onions on the parchment paper. Arrange chicken on top. Put another 2 slices of ginger and 2 stems of spring opinions on top of the chicken. Stuff all the remaining ginger slices and spring onions into the stomach of the chicken.

6. Wrap the chicken with the parchment paper, follow by the aluminium foil.

7. Baked at 190c for 1 hour 35 mins. The baking time depends on the size of the chicken. In this recipe, a 1.1kg chicken is used.

8. Rest the chicken in oven for 5-10mins when it's done.

9. Cut the chicken and serve with rice and dipping sauce.

Note: The stock produced from the oven steamed chicken can be used to cook oily rice.

Dipping sauce:

1 tablespoon oil

8 cloves garlic

4 shallots

3/4 jar of Masterfood fresh ginger or you can mince a piece of ginger

A bunch of spring onions and corianders

Light soya sauce

Sesame oil

1. Chop garlic and shallot finely.

2. Chop spring onions and corianders.

2. Heat oil in the frying pan. Add garlic and shallot. Stir fry until lightly brown.

3. Add ginger and stir fry until mix well.

4. Add spring onions and corianders and mix well.

5. Add light soya sauce and sesame oil to taste.

Shizuku Ramen and Craft Beer review

It was last year when I last eaten at Shizuku on Abbotsford St in Richmond. Hence, I decided to drop by the place again when I was on my way to IKEA. While driving past the restaurant, I noticed that the restaurant signage has changed to 'Ramen & Craft Beer'!? It used to be Shizuku! My first thought was that the business has changed ownership. After seeing that they are still serving ramen, I stayed on my original plan to have my lunch there. Luckily, it was just a rebranding of the restaurant.

Okay, a number of changes I observed when I stepped into the restaurant after so long. First the signage. Later I found that there are a lot of wine/alcohol bottles around the register counter as well as at a corner of the restaurant. There's also a beautiful used alcohol bottle on each tables which is used to store plain water for the customers. Looks like they are serving various alcohol drinks nowadays. Besides that, they also have new menu which has a lot more choices than before. Well, I'm glad that they still offer the lunch menu.

There are five choices on the lunch menu. Each options comes with a combination of food. I ordered shoyu ramen, fried rice, gyoza and pickle set. It is quite usual to find similar combinations where a bowl of ramen comes with a small bowl of fried rice in the ramen restaurants in Japan.

As far as I could remember, the food still taste as great as before. The shoyu soup was almost perfect except that it's a bit oily. The noodle has the right texture and the char siew was soft and melts in the mouth. I particularly love the fried rice. It is one of the tastiest Japanese fried rice I have had in Melbourne. The gyoza and pickle simply made this a complete meal.

In my opinion, the lunch menu is very good value for money. I will certainly visit Shizuku Ramen & Craft Beer again whenever I'm craving for ramen.

Shoyu ramen

Japanese fried rice

Gyoza and pickle

Website: http://shizuku.com.au

Tokyo Maki @ King street review

Don't be confused by the name of this restaurant. Looks like Tokyo Maki is managed by Koreans. Although it was branded as a Japanese restaurant initially, it has started to serve more Korean dishes nowadays. In fact in my opinion, they are better at Korean food. Well, I have been dining and ordering take away numerous times from this restaurant since a few years ago.

Located at the junction of King St and La Trobe St, Tokyo Maki is a small restaurant with about 10 tables serving Japanese and Korean food for dine in as well as take away. During the day, they have a number of ready made sushi rolls and finger food which are quite convenient for a take away. The sushi rolls are usually sold out by the end of the day. On the menu, they have quite a number of Korean dishes one can find in a Korean restaurant such as bibimbap, dukbokki, various stews, wide selection of bento or don with Korean dishes, Korean soup such as ginseng chicken soup as well as a few 'table cook' dishes where the food is cooked in front of you. As for the Japanese dishes, they have various don and bento meals, udon, ramen and some Japanese entrees like tempura, takoyaki ball, agedashi tofu etc.

I have tasted a number of dishes from Tokyo Maki. I reckon their Japanese food is not up to my expectation but their Korean food is not too bad. While most of their Korean dishes are pretty average, their stews especially kimchi and tofu stews are something I would recommend. Other than that, their huge portion of the bento is quite value for money. However, the quality of the cooked rice was not consistent (it's too dry sometimes).

Spicy Pork / Pork Bulgogi bento

I took away spicy pork (pork bulgogi) and chilli karaage bentos on my recent visit. Each bentos came with a main dish and rice accompanied by seaweed and sweet potato tempura, 3 Korean side dishes and a piece of fried chicken wing (tesabaki). The spicy pork or pork bulgogi was average as compare to other Korean restaurants. The quality of the rice was good on that day and I was quite contented with the side dishes and the tempura. However, the chilli karaage and fried chicken wing were a tad hard.

Chilli Kara-age Chicken bento

Overall, there is nothing much to say about the food in Tokyo Maki. However, it will still be one of my take away places after a busy day. Decent food, convenient location, what more one could ask for?

Easy Nasi Lemak 椰浆饭 recipe

Nasi Lemak is another Malaysian delicacy. You can find it in most Malaysian restaurants in Melbourne. It's basically coconut rice serve with sambal, fried ikan bilis (dried anchovies), peanuts, cucumbers, egg accompanied by a protein dish such as fried chicken, fried fish or curry chicken. Do you know that the recent winner of UK Masterchef 2014, Ping Coombes, actually won the title by serving this dish? Naturally, she brought this dish to the next level. Her Nasi Lemak was very pretty.

To really cook this dish with all the side dishes from scratch is very time consuming. I called it an easy recipe because I am using some ready made ingredients which I think is just as good if not better! More importantly, it saves a lot of time if you're a busy bee like me.

Well, first of all I use a ready made sambal. After trying a few brands, I reckon Singlong brand Nasi Lemak sambal chilli is the best. It is available at Laguna at QV and Hometown Asian supermarket on Elizabeth Street in the city.

Instead of making my own chicken dish, I choose Lilydale's free range chicken wing nibbles. They're marinated with lemongrass and ginger. The flavour is very suitable to eat with Nasi Lemak. Besides that, it's grilled instead of fried which is much healthier. Moreover, it is super tasty!

Besides that, the ikan bilis is baked in the oven rather than fried. It is again healthier and oil free. You can always bake the crispy ikan bilis in advance and store it in a jar. It comes in handy when you need it later as it can be used for garnishing on other dishes too such as pan mee or mee hoon kueh.

Recipe:

(4-6 servings)

For the rice: 

3 cups rice

3 pandan leaves

1 box of 200ml coconut milk

Water

Salt to taste

Side dishes:

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion

2/3 jar of Singlong brand Nasi Lemak sambal chilli

Handful of Ikan bilis

1 Cucumber

4 eggs

1 packet Lilydale free range chicken wing nibbles

1. Wash the rice and put it in the rice pot. Add coconut milk, follow by water until it reaches the level for 3 cups of rice as indicated on the rice pot. Add pandan leaves and salt to taste. Cook the rice using the normal rice setting.

2. Boil eggs in the water until hard boiled. Removed the shells when cooled and leave them aside.

3. Wash ikan bilis and pat dry them using paper towel. Spread them evenly on a baking tray. Bake at 180c for about 10-15mins or until brown. Leave it aside.

4. Slice cucumber and leave it aside.

5. Slice onion. Heat oil on frying pan. Stir fry onion until slightly soft. Add in Singlong Nasi Lemak sambal chilli, mix well and cook until the onion is cooked. Leave it aside.

6. Follow the instruction on the packaging and oven grill the Lilydale chicken wing nibbles.

7. Assemble the rice and all the side dishes (sambal with onion, ikan bilis, egg, cucumber and chicken) on a plate and serve.