China Spice restaurant review

China Spice is a new Chinese restaurant offering Sichuan style dishes. It is located at the ground floor of the new Melbourne Star apartment. What a convenient dining place for the new tenants! Well, after passing by this restaurant a couple of times seeing scrumptious dishes on the tables, we decided to check it out on a Saturday night. We arrived at 6:30pm and were seated straight away. However, the queue started to build up at around 7pm.

The decor and lighting of the restaurant is quite pleasant. It's a common design where the kitchen can be seen via windows. However, the chairs and tables are pretty basic and the design of the menu is very ordinary too.

We ordered spicy grilled fish and seafood tofu with 2 bowls of rice. For the fish, we requested it to be less spicy. The fish was served quite quickly. The dish looked pretty and very spicy! Rather than grilled, I reckon the fish was fried before immersed in the spicy sauce. Well, it tasted great anyway and it was no doubt quite spicy. I was glad that we had asked for reduced spiciness. By looking at the other tables, the fish seems to be a popular dish in this restaurant.

Next came the seafood tofu. The tofu was silky soft and the sauce was nice. The only comment is that there weren't much seafood. In fact, there were only prawns, fish balls and crab sticks. I don't consider fish balls and crab sticks as seafood though. It could be better if there were actual fresh seafood such as squids and probably fish fillets other than just prawns.

Overall, the dishes were good and the portions were big. I was particularly impressed that brown rice was served instead of white rice. I will certainly return for more when I'm craving for spicy Sichuan food!

Mama's Buoi (Melbourne) restaurant review

Mama's Buoi is a new modern Vietnamese restaurant situated at GPO where Ramen Ya was formerly located. It's owned by the business owners of Roll'd to offer home-cooked style Vietnamese cuisine. So we decided to give it a try after our shopping at H&M.

The design of the restaurant is quite unique. It has the old style hawker street look and yet stylish. The food offered on the menu is quite different from the usual Vietnamese fare. It has more Vietnamese dishes instead of the usual pho and rice paper rolls.

At the end, we decided on a curry chicken with banh mi (Vietnamese baguette), grilled pork vermicelli salad and a small beef pho to share. The small beef pho is only $7. It's good for small eaters. Unfortunately, I'm not one.

We were quite impressed with the curry chicken. It has all the right flavours. Besides that, the curry sauce wasn't too thick, so it went pretty well with the baguette/bread. It's like having baguette with soup. Furthermore, there was a generous serving of ingredients.

I especially like the grilled pork salad. The pork was tender and the light dressing together with the fresh greens and vermicelli was so refreshing.

We are actually not a fan of pho, but we found that the beef pho was not bad.

Overall, the food was good and the service was extremely good. Thanks to the waiter for constantly refilling my glass with water without asking after the first refill. I'm just one thirsty person when it comes to dining. ;)

Steamed silken tofu with dried shrimps recipe

Tofu aka bean curd is a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. There are many types of tofu but I particularly like silken tofu mainly because of its texture which is soft and smooth. Besides that, it is light in flavour too if you're not into soy milk.

Tofu can easily be turned into a quick dish. It just needs to be steamed and topped with some meat and sauce. In this simple recipe, dried shrimps are used as the toppings.

Recipe:

1 block silken tofu

4 cloves garlic

2 shallots

A handful of dried shrimps - soak dried shrimps in water for 10 mins, rinse twice and finely chop.

A bunch of chopped spring onions and corianders

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 tablespoon light soya sauce*

1 tablespoon oyster sauce*

Drizzles of sesame oil

*adjust the soya sauce and oyster sauce accordingly as dried shrimps are naturally salty.

1. Steam silken tofu in a steamer until cooked.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Stir fry garlic and shallots, follow by dried shrimps until they are lightly brown.

3. Add in spring onions and corianders, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix well.

4. Pour dried shrimps and sauce onto the steamed silken tofu and serve while it's hot.

Homemade char siew or BBQ pork recipe

Char siew aka BBQ pork can easily be found at any chicken rice and wonton noodles stalls in Malaysia. There are even some restaurants specialising in making char siew as their signature dish. However, over in Melbourne, I can hardly find char siew from the Malaysian restaurants. Here, char siew appears to be more commonly found in Hong Kong and Chinese restaurants.

Anyway, I decided to make my own char siew by asking the recipe from my mother in law. Apparently my hubby's late grandma made the best char siew. I was a little bit disappointed to find that the recipe doesn't come with the exact portion of each ingredient except that the rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou) is a must. Looks like the secret recipe didn't pass down precisely to the next generation. Oh well, that means I have to follow my instincts and taste buds, again! Because of that, I actually modified the recipe by adding honey as my instinct was calling for honey. Haha, just like Pooh bear!

By the way, rose wine can be found in a well stocked Asian supermarket in Melbourne. I bought mine from Hometown Asian supermarket on Elizabeth St.

Well, the result turned out quite nice although I'm sure it can't beat grandma's! If you like to follow the recipe below, feel free to modify the portion of each ingredients according to your liking, you could even omit the honey. If you ever find the secret combination, don't forget to share with me ;)

Recipe:

500g pork rasher/pork belly strips without the skin
1 tablespoon oil
Oil to brush the pork

Marinade:

1 1/2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon dark caramel sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 2/3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou)*

* Mandatory ingredient

1. Marinate pork rasher/pork belly with the marinade in a zip lock bag. Store in the fridge overnight.

2. Scrape off the marinade from the pork rasher strips and keep it for later use. Brush each pork rasher strip with oil.

3. Line the pork rasher strips on an elevated rack on a tray.

4. Grill in a pre heated oven at 200c for 8-10mins. Flip to the other side and grill for another 3-5mins. Note that the cooking time depends on how thick the meat is, so you need to adjust accordingly. Over grill would result in dry and hard meat.

5. Cut the char siew or BBQ pork into slices when it's cooled.

6. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add in the marinade and simmer until the sauce is thickened.

7. Pour the sauce over the char siew or BBQ pork and serve.

Suggestions: char siew goes well with rice or you could use it for wonton noodles/egg noodles. It would be just as nice if you have it with a bowl of green salad!

Hooked @ Fitzroy review

It's been more than a year since I last dined at Hooked in Fitzroy and it remains the best fish and chips that I have had in Melbourne!

I first discovered Hooked when I came across a list of top 10 fish and chips in Melbourne on news.com.au a few years ago. After trying out fish and chips from a number of restaurants on that list, I found that Hooked is the best so far.

There are 3 Hooked restaurants in Melbourne. The Hooked in Fitzroy is located on the busy Brunswick St where heaps of cafés and restaurants are. It is a simple yet cozy restaurant fitted with wooden tables and chairs. It looks like one of those beachside cafés/restaurants. I particularly like the take away menus which are printed in the style of traditional newspaper. How creative!

Hooked offers a variety of food on their menu as compared to the traditional fish and chips shop. There are standard fish and chips as well as seafood, salads, burgers and even taco & burritos! There are lunch box specials too. Oh, by the way, their chips and potato cakes are hand cut and freshly made instead of frozen.

Grilled house fish with superfood salad

 During the recent visit, we had grilled house fish with superfood salad and light tempura battered house fish with Asian salad as well as some calamari. The house fish is blue grenadier.

Light tempura battered house fish with Asian salad

Both the grilled and light tempura battered fish were cooked to perfection. The fish were tender, juicy and very fresh (as if the fish were freshly caught from the sea)! The tempura batter was crispy too.

As for the salads, I prefer the superfood salad. It is not only nutritious but delicious! The light yoghurt and garlic aioli dressing together with the fresh green produce made it a perfect salad. However, I don't really like the Asian salad as I'm not a fan of raw Thai basil because it tasted a bit bitter.

Calamari

There was nothing to brag about the calamari as it was pretty average.

The lunch specials are a good value for money. You could get grilled or battered fish with chips or rice and Asian greens for $10.95. Or fish with salad for $12.95! More importantly, there's no compromise on the quality of food.

I reckon Hooked is one of the best fish and chips restaurant in town. It's always my first choice when it comes to fish and chips!

Green tea Hokkaido cupcakes with green tea cream filling recipe

It's Hokkaido cupcakes time again! My all time favourite cupcakes. This time, I baked the green tea version and piped the cupcakes with yummy green tea cream filling. It's heavenly! The green tea flavour balanced out the sweetness just right so the cake is not too sweet. It's a good choice if you don't have a sweet tooth.

I used the same green tea sponge cupcakes recipe which I modified from Hokkaido cupcakes to produce the light and soft sponge. I reckon I am getting the hang of baking Hokkaido cupcakes after baking them so often. And I never get bored of them!

Recipe:

(12 cupcakes)

The sponge cake:

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 everything 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.

Green tea whipped cream:

300ml whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons green tea powder

A few drops of vanilla extract

Note: adjust the amount of sugar and green tea powder according to taste.

1. Pour whipping cream onto a chilled mixing bowl over a bowl of ice water. Add in sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until the cream is at soft peak stage.

2. Add in green tea powder and beat until stiff. You can always adjust the sugar and green tea powder from time to time. You might want to refer to the video tutorial from Joys of baking on how to make whipped cream.

To assemble the cupcakes:

Icing sugar (for dusting)

1. Pipe the green tea whipped cream into each cupcakes.

2. Dust the cupcakes with icing sugar.