Baking - 3, Studying - 0

I just couldn't help myself when I saw that Clara on http://www.iheartcuppycakes.com/ had posted up a new cupcake recipe - eek! I have been traversing her site (and others) daily just as a way of procrastinating and just yesterday I said to T that no one had posted up any new cupcake recipes in aeons!! And to that he wisely said "There'll be something sooner or later, it all comes and goes in waves doesn't it?" to which I glumly nodded my head. And then this morning, ta-daa!! A post on Angel Food Cupcakes!! The only problem was.. I had no strawberries left :(

When T went out to run some errands for work, I asked him to get me a punnet of strawberries if he came across any (highly unlikely, of course) and then later on, I saw Y online and because I knew she was coming over to pick something up, I tried my luck to see if she had any strawberries lying around that she didn't want. Sadly, she said she didn't but a few minutes later, I got a glorious SMS from her saying that she'd bought me some on the way over to my place!! Woo-hoo!! Bless her little heart, within 15 minutes I had my strawberries! (T got back a few minutes before Y got here and of course, HE didn't get me any strawberries, hmpf!) J/k! :)

So I made the cupcakes with much zest and zelousness, partly because I had an excuse not to study and partly because these cupcakes sounded VERY promising indeed! In total, I used 8 egg whites and my right arm ached from all the beating I had to do with my handheld beater but the cupcakes turned out very pretty (they were all puffy when I first took them out of the oven but upon standing, shrunk considerably!!). However, the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream frosting turned out to be runny so I couldn't pipe them onto the cupcakes! I tried putting the bowl of frosting in the fridge so it would harden up but in the end I just couldn't wait anymore and spooned a dollop onto each cupcake.

Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Now I have 8 egg yolks left over and I gave T the choice of me making creme brulee or a chocolate tart tomorrow and you know what he said? "QUICHE!!" Haha.. He eventually settled on the chocolate tart so we will be shopping for some ingredients for that as well as ingredients for the quiche and salad that I will make tomorrow.

You can see the numerous ways that I have been procrastinating and wasting my time NOT studying the last few days - multiple blog entries a day, baking, planning for baking the next time and also.. I've been dreaming about getting a GREAT standing mixer. All of the bakers whose blogs I follow seem to be using Kitchenaid so I googled it and because it's Breast Cancer Awareness month, they've got a special PINK one!!!! Of course, it costs like AUD$800 but a girl can dream right?

Sigh.. love love love it *stares off in space dreamily* Oh, I also need a huge-ass food processor for making the pastry for the quiches! More dreaming.. until next time everyone!!

Cha Cha Char Wine Bar & Grill Review

Continuing on in my theme of being a bad girl.. that same Sunday night, T and I went to Anise for their newly started Sunday Supper REALLY craving for some of their awesome oysters and crab crepes but when we sat down, we realised that their Sunday supper menu was a condensed version of their normal menu and that the oysters and crepes were not on it (totally understandable because it's the kitchen's only day off so the owner wanted to keep it sweet and simple) sooo.. we were brats and we left to go to Cha Cha Char, shame on us!

We've been to Cha Cha Char many many times and I've always only tolerated going there because T loved their Highly Marbled Wagyu ($95 for 150g) and everything I had tried was just alright. The desserts varied, they had changed their menu 3 times since the first time we dined there. The first time, I didn't like any of the 2 desserts I tried. The second time, I loooved their orange creme brulee and since their third menu change, I've tried the honey creme brulee and didn't enjoy it because I don't really like the strong taste of honey. T thought it was pretty good though! As for their entrees and mains, the first two menus didn't quite cut it for me but on the new menu, I tried the Crisp Duck Leg Confit with parmesan polenta, pickled cherries, poached prunes and mustard cress ($34) and fell in loooooooove. I am SUCH a big fan of crispy skinned duck leg confit AND polenta. The texture of the polenta was smooth and creamy with just the right amount of grainy-ness (is that even a word?!) and the cherries and prunes brought a nice sweet punch to the whole dish.

So back to Sunday!! For entrees we ordered 6 oysters ($22) - 4 kilpatrick and 2 mornay (3 kilpatrick for T and the rest for me) as well as the Prosciutto Wrapped Quail baked with porcini mushroom & pistachio nut farce, braise of leek, caramelised fig and goats cheese ($26.50) which I've had a couple of times before as a main.

The oysters were yummy! Not much I can say about kilpatrick and mornay oysters but these ones really hit the spot. The quail was good as always, perfectly cooked and wrapped in salty prosciutto, yum! I loved the fig and T loved the braise of leek - it was a wonderfully tasty dish. After we'd finished our entrees, we guiltily ordered another half a dozen oysters, this time 4 mornay and 2 kilpatrick - more mornay for mee!! Mmmm..

For our mains, of course T ordered the Highly Marble Wagyu but the new menu serves it with Green Tea Soba Noodle, Wasabi Leaf & Enoki Salad, Yamato Raw Woy, Pickled Ginger which T absolutely hated when he first tried it. He didn't think it went well with the steak at all so this time he had it served with the sides that came with the T-bone which was Baked Chorizo, Squid, Red Pepper & Tomato Salsa, Lemon Vinaigrette which he really liked, except for the chorizo. He also ordered a side of Double Cream Mash ($6.50) and I forgot to mention, T gets TWO serves of the steak so he gets not 150g, but 300g of steak!! No, I am not kidding - there has been a waiter who mistakenly thought that they were for the both of us and moved to remove our menus before I had ordered my food! He did a double take when he realised they were both for T. Yes, we are a couple of piglets hehe. No prizes for guessing what I had for my mains - the duck of course!! And shock shock, horror horror.. I DID NOT have any dessert *gasp* Not that I was too full or anything, just waiting for them to change the dessert menu again to better suit my liking!

Cha Cha Char is a great place to dine, it has an extensive menu and most things are done extremely well. The wait staff are pleasant and effcient, there is also an abundance of them. The place is very well managed and it has that informal yet classy feel to it. No wonder it is always packed on Fridays after work and late at night. T and I are there many a late night when every other restaurant's kitchen has closed so when it's 9.30pm and you're hungry and desperate for some good food and great service, pick up the phone and call Cha Cha Char! :)

Rating: 8/10

Cha Cha Char Wine Bar & Grill
Shop 5, Plaza Level,
Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane

Phone: 07 3211 9944
Website: http://www.chachachar.com.au/

NED'S Cafe Review

On Sunday I was a very bad girl.. I didn't do an ounce of studying and went to the Gold Coast with T, Y and Cocoa instead! It was sort of T's belated birthday present to Cocoa since we didn't do anything special for her and she's been acting bored and moping around the house a bit (maybe because she just turned 4!!). We really didn't feel like having fish and chips at the coast again as we usually do because that's one of the only places we can take Cocoa for lunch, so I remembered that the Brisbane News had a little write up on a little place called Ned's Cafe in Yeronga and suggested it to T. I bulldozed into the pile of old Brisbane News's that we had lying on the floor and lo and behold, actually FOUND the write up and proceeded to read it out to T. It was a fairly glowing review with no negatives whatsoever although they did give it an average rating of 7.5 so I called up to make a booking for a table outside so we could have Cocoa there with us.

To my delight, I discovere that they had milkshakes so I ordered a chocolate one of course, while T got a mocha and Y got herself a skinny latte as she always does. The chocolate milkshake was quite good, although still not up to par with the one ones at Pearl Cafe. I didn't bother asking T and Y what they thought of their beverages, sorry!

All of us ordered from the breakfast menu even though the lunch menu did sound quite enticing. T got NED'S famous gourmet eggs with bacon, onion, garlic, parmesan, spinach, mushroom & tomato tossed through creamy scrambled eggs served with toast ($16.50) with a side of hash browns and sausages ($2.50 each), Y got the Potato leek and parsley rosti with smokey bacon, parmesan rocket served with tomato creme fraiche ($16.50) while I got the Eggs Benedict with salmon ($16.50).

NED'S famous gourmet eggs looked haphazardly thrown together, the toast looked a little burnt and unsightly and as T said, "I don't know what's so famous about these eggs". He thought the whole dish was a bit bland and wasn't a fan of the sausage. Y liked her rosti but commented that it was a little on the dry side whereas T deemed it tastier than his own meal. I enjoyed my Eggs Benedict - the sauce and the spinach were good but the toast could've been better and one of the yolks in my poached eggs was cooked through.

I had gone inside to have a look at the deserts offered in their display cabinet and made my choice pretty quickly! I had to have the Chocolate Velvet Tart ($5.50) after my mains and it was the main reason why I didn't have the buttermilk pancakes for breakfast ;) The tart was indeed velvety and rich and although I thought it was a little too "dark" for my liking, once you mix it with the cream that it's served with, it was beautiful - worth every penny!

The waitstaff were generally pleasant although we did get the sense that again, the place was understaffed and there was an undercurrent of tension and flurry. When we were done with our meals, a waitress even came out with the exact dishes that we had ordered and consumed and when we shook our heads in bewilderment, ran off back  inside, no doubt to an irate chef that had to prepare 3 meals twice for nothing.

Overall, a nice place for a quick bite and we appreciated that we could have Cocoa with us while we ate. They might want to get a manager in so that everything runs smoothly (there was also an issue with booking the table and with a muffin that Y got to take away but I won't get into that).

Rating: 6/10

NED'S Cafe
Shop 3.4, The Village
Cnr Fairfield Road and Kadumba Street
Yeronga

Phone: 07 3848 4406
Website: http://www.neds.com.au/

Sono Portside Wharf Review

I have no idea why T suggested going to Sono Portside Wharf Restaurant as he'd been there about half a year ago with his friend and said it wasn't that great. I guess he wanted to give it another chance and having never been before, I decided to give it a go. The word 'posh' springs tomind when I try to describe the ambience and decor of this japanese restaurant. We were seated immediately and the good thing was that there didn't seem to be a shortage of waitstaff like alot of other restaurants nowadays. T noted that there were waitstaff coming at us at all angles providing us with food and water haha! He had no intention of having more than one beer at dinner as we had a movie to see right after but upon seeing 'Sancere' on the wine list, he pounced and proceeded to get intoxicated glass by glass.

The menu was VERY extensive and again, this worried us a little. We settled on Ebi Tempura ($26), Yakitori ($15) and a large Sashimi Moriawase ($48) to share and a California hand roll ($12) and Prawn Tempura large sushi roll ($15) for me. I'll cut a long, repetitive story short - EVERYTHING was pretty mediocre. Nothing that we couldn't get from Ginga Restaurant in Southbank and for half the price too! We felt that the sashimi was B grade and not that fresh. I had to stop after a few slices. The ebi tempura and yakitori were similar to what we've had at cheaper restaurants and the sushi didn't even match up to those that are found in sushi trains!

Oh, and I almost forgot.. T ordered the Scampi Springrolls ($18) as an afterthought and they, too fit the theme of the evening of blandness, mediocrity and poor value for money (2 measly pieces!!).

For dessert, I just HAD to order the Chocolate Terrine ($17.50) to see what a japanese restaurant would come up with and also a hot chocolate, while T ordered a macchiato to try to sober up for the movie. I waited in nervous anticipation and the hot chocolate was surprisingly very good! It was very rich and chocolatey, yum.. The chocolate terrine, however.. was ghastly. Just looking at it, you knew it was going to be bad. It was poorly put together and crumbled into dry chunks of chocolate when we tried to cut into it with our spoons. It also had a bit of a weird taste.. made me wonder what kind of chocolate they used. Needless to say, we couldn't finish it. I guess it's our fault for daring to order a dessert like that in a japanese restaurant, we should've stuck with the green tea ice cream, yes?

Soo.. the verdict is: DON'T BOTHER. It's all the way out at Portside (for West-side locals like me), it's waaaaaaaaay overpriced for below-average food AND the desserts are crap. The only good things about this restaurant are the decor, the ambience and the great, ample service and let's face it, you can do better than Sono - you know it.


Rating: 4.5/10

Sono Japanese Restaurant, Portside
Level 1, Building 7, Portside Wharf
39 Hercules Street, Hamilton
Brisbane

Phone: 07 3268 7765
Website: http://www.sonorestaurant.com.au/

Closed on Mondays

Oops..

I know I said no more baking till I'm back in Brunei but... I sorta made buttermilk pancakes today *sheepish grin* In my defense, it's not REALLY baking!! They hardly took any time to make and I didn't have to use the hand-held electric beaters for them at all! Except I made strawberry puree and whipped cream that wasn't in the original recipe and had to use the electric beaters AND the food processor but overall the whole thing probably took me about half an hour and that's pretty good. I just really wanted to use up the buttermilk and heavy cream that I had left over from the Kupcake Kabobs so I looked up Buttermilk Pancakes online and voila! A really simple recipe came up and I just added the strawberry puree and whipped cream (stolen from other previous recipes I've come across) to maaaaake:

Tried to be creative and present it artistically but as you can see, the puree just look like hastily placed globs! Pretty happy with the way the pancakes turned out, very nice and fluffy BUT will probably use more sugar next time! Must... be... SWEEET!! At least I accomplished my mission of using up the buttermilk and cream but I have to say, it was a little to early (9am) to be having such a humongous breakfast.. Cocoa ended up having some of mine, tee-hee!

No more baking...

Until I'm back in Brunei!! I just spent aaaages making Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes for a potluck dinner party tomorrow night. I was really excited about making these cupcakes because let's face it, who doesn't like orange creamsicle?!

Anyway, I was halfway through making the actual cupcake and realised that my fave cupcake blogger had said something about putting in the salt somewhere and some sugar somewhere else but didn't include salt and sugar in the ingredients so I didn't know how much to put in! I guessed that it was 1/4 tsp of salt but I really had no idea how much sugar to put in (I'm not creative, I just follow recipes) so there I was, in the middle of making the cupcakes, all my ingredients spread out on the bench and I was stuck, at a total roadblock. Then I had a brilliant idea! IHCuppycakes is always on Twitter (yes, I followed her because I'm obsessed) so I logged on and checked when her last tweet was.. 44 minutes ago!! There was a ray of hope and I tweeted to her pleadingly, asking her about the salt and sugar. I waited... and waited.. 20 minutes went past and I sighed in frustration, decided to just put 1/2 a cup of sugar in and leave it at that. After mixing that in, I refreshed my Twitter page and lo and behold, a reply from her!!! She advised me on the correct amount (1 cup sugar, the salt was correct yahoo!) so I thanked her profusely and added another 1/2 cup of sugar. That went in the oven and then I had 2 other parts to make - the orange buttercream and the marshmallow filling.

I made the orange buttercream without any drama but halfway through making the marshmallow filling (the marshmallow fluff part I had to make from scratch because Brisbane doesn't SELL it - go figure), I realised that I needed a measly 1 cup of icing sugar!! Aaaargh!! Jumped on the scooter, zipped up the road to the convenience store (so convenient haha) and got it and made the filling which turned out to be 10 times more than I actually needed. It's now sitting in a bowl in the fridge, I guess I could use it to make homemade fluffer nutter sandwiches soon :) 

After the cupcakes had cooled down, I had to cut out little wells in each cupcake to fill with the marshmallow filling. That caused a crick in my neck, I can tell you! I also stupidly made 24 mini cupcakes and had to make tiny wells for them and they were oh so hard to fill! THEN I had to pipe on the buttercream icing. But I stuck it out and now I have beautiful cupcakes to bring over to A&G's tomorrow.

That being said, this will be the last baking distraction I will go through for the next 6 weeks because I should SOOOOO be studying for my upcoming finals!!! I promise not to bake a single thing until I'm back in Brunei. You heard it here. Peace out.

Les Amis Review

Last night we decided to try having dinner at Les Amis after I read a little mention about it in the Brisbane News. I don't know why, but I was pleasantly surprised by the decor. It was casual, chic, cosy and modern - just the way I like it. The colours were warm and soothing, the single chandelier provided class and it was very 'french' indeed. The venue is small and it is pretty much alfresco as the inside opens up to the outside. Once the weather warms up, sitting outside would be beautiful.

It was 8.15pm when we arrived and there were a few tables occupied. T and I guessed that it would be pretty packed during the day because of all the offices in the building. We were presented with the menu and the two specials of the night were explained to us. Les Amis is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday except Monday and their menu was pretty big which made T and I a little nervous, being avid watchers of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. One of the things he repeatedly says is "You want to do a few things and you want to do them right".. and then he drastically downsizes the menu!

We were immediately sucked into the entrees and the charcuterie (cured meat) and weren't too impressed with the meats/mains SO, typically of T and I, we ordered a whole heap of entrees - the soup of the day (cauliflower soup) with fresh bread roll and butter ($10.90), twice baked goats cheese souffle ($14.90), confit pork belly ($16.90) and the Les Amis salad ($14.90) - and the assiette de charcuterie ($27) which is a tasting plate of all on the charcuterie menu. I ordered a chocolate milkshake as an afterthought and I have to admit, it wasn't as good as Pearl Cafe - might've been the chocolate they used but nevertheless, I didn't finish it (which says alot).

Almost immediately after ordering, we were presented with an amuse bouche of scallop and pea soup which T liked but I definitely didn't because, if you didn't know already, I am NOT a fan of vegetables. I only started eating veggies this year and I'm still getting used to them. I don't know what half of them are called/look like, I still hate peas, broccoli and probably many more. Anyway, this soup was extremely green and pea-y so T had mine :) yay!

The cauliflower soup was for T but I had a few spoonfuls and it was good! Creamy with just a hint of cauliflower (which is probably why I liked it) BUT the winner waaaas *drum roll* the BUTTER that came with the bread roll. Why, you ask? Because, finally someone had the sense to soften the butter so that we, the starving customers, could immediately and easily spread it on our fresh, warm bread roll!! *Hallelujah music* I mean, how hard can it be? T and I have been waiting and waiting for someone to do that and finally, on the night of the 1st of October 2009, we were granted our wish. Yeesssss!!! NB: If you're reading this and you work for a restaurant that serves bread rolls with bread, pleeeeze suggest softening the butter for customers, pleeeze!

I thought the twice baked goats cheese souffle looked incredible, just sitting there on top of a smear of fennel puree on the plate instead of being in some ramekin or other. It made me just want to dive into it! A spoon cut into it oh so easily, it was fluffy and light with a good taste of goats cheese and the line of tomato and black olive mini salad was delicious too!

T wasn't too keen on ordering the confit pork belly, probably because we've had it to death in the last few months (on an apple puree, no less) but I insisted because come on, I just have a thing for pork belly okay?! The dish was beautifully presented (again), the skin crispy, the meat succulent and the apple and vanilla puree, the dried apple cracker and the marinated slice of pumpkin delicious. After having a bite, T just had to nod his head in satisfaction and there we were nodding our heads like a couple of donkeys.

The Les Amis salad consisted of haloumi cheese, roasted fennel, crispy speck, mixed leaves and balsamic dressing. I thought that the haloumi cheese was dry and not cut thinly enough but the crispy speck was tasty! Everything else was pretty average, don't think I would get it again.

The assiette of cured meat had foie gras and duck liver parfait, Toulouse sausage, confit rolled chicken thigh with artichoke, prosciutto and truffle mash and lastly the pork rillette. I didn't have any foie gras this time but T said it was good, the sausage tasted really nice and porky (some people may not like that but I do) and the winner was the confit rolled chicken thigh. It was juicy and tender and morsels of delight, really. The pork rillette was interesting, a scoop of shredded pork molded together and a heap of celeriac remoulade to pile onto a mini toast which suprisingly worked really well and tasted cold and fresh.

For the part that everyone's waiting for (or maybe just me) - dessert! I got the white chocolate creme brulee with raspberry compote ($9.50) and we shared that. The white chocolate was prominent in the creme brulee and it tasted wonderfully rich and velvety and of course, the classic partnering with raspberries never goes wrong!

All in all, it was a wonderful dining experience. The wait staff and even the chefs were pleasant and friendly. The food went down a treat and we are already planning to go back to try the breakfast and lunch menu! Les Amis takes bookings, is licensed but accepts BYO. It also has a display cabinet that offers the daily specials of pastries and sandwiches. They also do caterings and functions and seems pretty well run for a place that has been open for only 4 months.


Rating: 8/10

Les Amis
Shop 1, Green Square North Tower
515 St Paul's Terrace
Fortitude Valley

Phone: 07 3852 6100
Website: http://www.lesamis.com.au/