MESS HALL

It was 35C yesterday, couldn't resist of not ordering the usual mocha and had this instead

Made a little note of what I'll probably cook for my cousins :)

Fave spot at Mess Hall: by the window front. Good coffee and good book..bliss!

SERADELLA

cravings. enough said.

AUSSIE DAY OI OI OI

Boy Bruynzeel - The Video Yearmix 2011 from Boy Bruynzeel on Vimeo

Yesterday we celebrated Australia Day with a really fun lunch with good food, good music, good weather and a lil splash at the Suzukawa's in Sandringham! I cooked beef & vege springrolls, vege samosa (recipes will be posted soon) and apple crumble. We prepared the rest of the dish there. It's a really beautiful house slash ceramic studio...so you could find beautiful ceramic table, cute plates and bowls through out the house. Spent the afternoon eating and eating, swimming, played with the dog (sorry for my unrequited love, Buddy!), and of course watching the Australia Open semi final. STOKED!! :)

The beautiful ceramic studio..should've snapped a pic when the sun was shining through

Lovely blue ceramic coffee table

Summer !!!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!

COOKING UP A RAINBOW TODAY

Before I knew it, I found myself humming the jingle when I was making my lunch today...well, talk about successful marketing, huh?

Lurpak - Lightest from Blink on Vimeo.

EAT.MOVE.LEARN

from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

SATE KLOPO ONDOMOHEN

I've craved for this satay since last July. Sadly I just got the chance to make this almost 6 months later. And this 6 months later, I'm proudly standing in the land down under knowing that I could make my own sate klopo. So proud that I feel like putting this under 'achievements' in my resume (note to self: stop blogging and finish resume!!)

I told mom I had severe cravings over this satay that is originally from my hometown, Surabaya in East Java and she gave me the recipe. Some people said that the word 'Ondomohen' means 'bon voyage'. I reckon it's a Dutch derivative word that people used to bid each other when Indonesia was still ruled by them. Hmm, maybe their early customers (yes, the stall has been passed on to 3 generations or so) used to say this to the owner when they left the stall and that's how they got the trademark.

The real Ondomohen satay uses fresh finely grated coconut, but since I was lazy it's hard to find in Melbourne, I just used the desiccated coconut as it is from the package. If you prefer finer texture, then just finely chop the desiccated coconut.

Sate Klopo Ondomohen

(Ondomohen Style Coconut Beef Satay)

makes around 25 skewers

INGREDIENTS
500 gr tender diced beef
1/2 of freshly grated coconut (you can replace this with 2-3 heaped tablespoon of desiccated coconut)

Ground Ingredients
3 shallots (if you can find regular Asian shallots, use 5)
3 cloves garlic
3 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon ground corriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
2 tablespoon shaved Javanese brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried chilli
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Peanut Sauce
250 toasted peanut
2 tablespoon shaved Javanese brown sugar
5 chillies or 2-3 teaspoon dried chilli
salt to taste
250-300 ml warm water (depending on how thick you want the sauce to be)
1/2 tablespoon tamarind paste dissolved in 50 ml water
5 tablespoon sweet soy sauce

Pair this dish with
Rice cubes / steamed rice
Fried shallots
Serundeng


DIRECTION

Ground all the spices and mix the paste with the grated coconut. Marinade the diced beef thoroughly with this mixture for at least 30mins in the fridge.

Meanwhile, prepare the peanut sauce by mixing all the ingredients in a food processor. Add water gradually, so you'll know how thick you want the sauce to be. Set aside.

Warm up the grill by setting it up to medium-high heat.

Take out the marinated beef and stick 5 pieces for each skewer. When you're done with the skewers, grill them for about 10-15mins each side.

Best served warm.

Sate Klopo Ondomohen

Jl. Walikota Mustajab 36, Surabaya Utara/Genteng,

Indonesia

COFFEE

"...It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend." via here

pictures taken at Market Lane Coffee from some time ago :)

SHAKSHUKA

i forced 2 eggs into fitting in this small bowl, resulting none of them to be visible in the picture..haha. so check out Smitten Kitchen's blog for better visualisation...anw, still have a long way to learn the composition :P

Shakshuka is one of the staple dishes in Israeli breakfast menu. I found the recipe when browsing through Google, hoping for an epiphany to come as I’ve reached a point where I’d lose appetite just by thinking of cereals and toasts for breakfast again (I know, first world problem…Astaghfirullah!). So I was surprised when uncle Google led me to one of my fave food blogs: Smitten Kitchen. Apparently I've missed this post from back in April.

The thought of eating bread as a companion to a heart-warming dish got me jumping up and down in the kitchen (yes, sometimes I’d stand for hours browsing through recipes on the kitchen counter). Anyway, I just knew that I’d fall in love instantly with this dish. However the original recipe from Smitten Kitchen didn't call for turmeric, while almost in every other recipe I found includes turmeric...so I decided to add 1tsp. I also substituted parsley with coriander leaves...just because I liked them better. And I was glad I did, because I knew it would've tasted incredible with the spicy sour tomato sauce.

This dish has the most amazing combination of flavours, given how incredibly easy and incredibly tasty it is! So far I've cooked it for three times...in a week. Yep, that good.

Shakshuka (Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce)
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup olive oil

5 Anaheim chiles or 3 , stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped (if you're nervous about the spicy level, you can always decrease the number of chiles but gradually add cayenne pepper powder according to taste)

1 small yellow onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained

Kosher salt, to taste

6 eggs

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled (optiona)

1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

Warm pitas or turkish rolls, for serving

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and coriander leaves and serve with your choice of bread for dipping.

LENS

Got the chance to try out my friend's fancy toy: a 24-70mm f/2.8L while he's trying out his new fancier lens. That evening we went around city snapping pictures like two jobless nuts (well technically, I was). Here are some of the photos :)

Melbourne, I'm in love with you!!

LAWSON GROVE SHOP

Upon finding out that Melbourne was voted as the most liveable city in the world in 2011, I couldn't be aaaany more thankful to be here..you can read the news about the survey here. Well anyway, I was lucky enough to live here, and now I found out that South Yarra, the suburb I'm staying at, is apparently Melbourne's most liveable suburb. Awesomeness :)

Well this cafe might be another reason why South Yarra is really awesome (I pray to God that the people of South Yarra will not label me as the blabber mouth by spilling the secret). It's called Lawson Grove Shop...it's South Yarra's best kept secret from what I heard..that's why I've been wanting to go here maybe since a year ago, but my lazy bum prevented me for doing so. Well, to be fair, it was quite a walk from home. Me and V finally went there on one lazy Sunday morning, dragging our arses away from Rosco, which is like a minute away from home. Well it was quite a nice walk though. Maybe our inappropriate jokes along the way made us forget how tiring it could have been.

I've never been to this part of South Yarra before, but yeah it was worth the walk. Such a beautiful neighborhood..with posh houses, shabby chic flats and everything. No wonder it's the most liveable neighbourhood in Victoria.

Some of the things that I saw during the lengthy walk to Lawson Grove

Lawson Grove Shop is neatly hidden under an old art-deco-ish flat, it feels like entering a friend's basement...the kind that has a lot of food supplies along the walls...the kind of basement that you wouldn't mind to be stuck at when the Zombie Apocalypse broke out. Just kidding, so this cafe lives up to the word 'shop' at the end of its name, as these stuffs on the shelves are actually for sale. They also have pre-packed meals in their big fridges, along with some organic veggies, eggs and other staple stuffs in your grocery list.

You wouldn't mind, would you? :P

I love the coffee here...the mocha was great (sorry, I could be super biased at times, any awesome cafe could have been reviewed badly if the mocha was not nice lol). I think ended up V ordering 2 cups of flat white. I couldn't recall the name of the dish that he ordered but I managed to snap a pic of it.

Such a nice place to have brunch, but expect the queue and get prepared to the challenge of finding it. SO challenge accepted? :)

Lawson Grove Shop

1 Lawson Grove Melbourne VIC 3141
(03) 9866 3640