Snapping Kangaroos

Chives & Cheese Scones, originally uploaded by serenie.

We first tried chives and cheese scones when we were in NZ, South Island and we really took to it. I was surprised that I actually didn't mind chives in scones as I am really particular with spring onions and coriander in my food.

This is my first attempt at baking scones and it was a combination of a couple of recipes and some make do. I am really happy with the final product as its light and fluffy :-) Can't wait till I make some plain ones to go with jam and fresh whipped cream *sinful*

Veg Out St Kilda Farmers' Market, originally uploaded by serenie.

Two weeks ago we bought a punnet of cherries from Smiths of Taminick at the Gaswork Park farmer's market and they were so good that we were craving for more. So this morning we decided to head down to the Veg Out St Kilda Farmer's Market just to get the cherries. We ended up with 2 punnets of cherries (1kg/punnet), 2 kg of Tree Riped Yellow Peaches, 2 punnets of big juicy sweet strawberries and some roses. More photos here

Christmas Dinner 08, originally uploaded by serenie.

Wishing everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

On Christmas eve, Serena baked a Fruit Cake. It still remains to be completed as we have to wait till the supermarkets are open tomorrow in order to get the ingredients needed for the icing.

This is what we had for dinner. We decided to keep our Christmas dinner simple this year. Check out the other photos here.

Siew Yok aka Roasted Pork. Finally after 2 tries, we managed to get it right. The thing is to get the right cut of meat (pork belly) and also to monitor the grilling to ensure it is perfect. Nice crispy skin with a layer of fat just beneath it and nice succulent meat that is cooked well through. Would anyone like to order a plate of it?

I love my baby back... baby back... baby back ribs... Well not exactly baby back ribs but good enough. The nice juicy and succulent meat covered in deliciously sweet tomato sauce seasoning and a whiff of charred burnt meat. Served with a side of toasted garlic bread, baked sweet potatoes and lettuce. For dessert, we have a gorgeous Chocolate mud cake that Serena had baked. Rich chocolate cake covered with a layer of ganache and a generous sprinkle of chocolate powder topped with strawberries and lined with almond flakes. Taste as good as it looks! Mmmm..... no wonder both of us seem to be putting on weight. :P

Alright we now return to our routine transmission. As you will always expect from us, we post photos of Singaporeans favorite topic. FOOD! These are pictures accumulated over the past few months and are just some of the dishes that Serena whipped up. International buffet anyone?

Getting back to what we do best. Taking pictures of FOOD! Our second round of Sukiyaki. Have a hearty time everyone! More of it here Sukiyaki

To celebrate Serena's big day last week, we decided to have Sukiyaki. We bought 4 big prawns, thin beef slices from the Japanese supermarket, mushrooms and a whole lot more and had a wonderful feast. What's a bid day without the all important cake. Instead of having the usual 1 cake, I decided to get 2 smaller ones for her so we have a variety, one of its is a white forest cake and the other is Tiramisu. Will just let you all feast over the pictures.

Recently, we drove to Great Ocean Road when Serena's friend Audrey made a trip down from Sydney. She was here over the weekend to catch Phantom of The Opera with Serena and stayed over with us. Besides the G.O.R, we also brought her to Brunetti (they have an amazing selection of cakes and delicacies) Definitely a must try when visiting Melbourne! Some pictures of the trip and also of the both of them making pancakes for breaky and of course dinner at Sophia's. Enjoy :)

We finally manage to get our new "toy" 2 weeks ago and we have been playing with it ever since. Anyone up for a cup of cuppacino or latte with fresh home baked cookies or hot cross buns (seasonal item - only applicable during Easter).

Fresh ingredients = Beautiful food. We try to use the freshest ingredients to create simple dishes full of flavours that we enjoy. Our taste-buds vary throughout the week and we try as much as possible to have different dishes everyday. As such, this week's à la carte menu will differ from next as we try to have a variety, much like what you would get in an international buffet. Sounds like some restaurant menu? Sometimes I do wonder if both of us are in the wrong profession. :P Anyway I guess there aren't many interesting things/events for us to blog about since we do not go to the city that frequently. (the number of times we head to the supermarket and grocery store far outnumbers the time we are in the city) So besides the odd event coverage or so you see here, all you will see is food and more food. So if any of you are on a diet, I hope we did not whet your appetite too much till you have to give up on it. So this is what we present to you guys this week. A'LA'CARTE MENU Pasta We will start off this week's series with a couple of Italian dishes. First up, Tortellini Carbonara. Tortellini with fresh button mushrooms and chicken in a cream sauce sprinkled with italian herbs.
Tortellini Carbonara
Next we have Spaghetti Marinara (Seafood). Al dente spaghetti with succulent scallops, prawns, squids and mussels in a tomato-basil sauce sprinkled with cheese, herbs and chilli flakes. Mmmm... Mama Mia!
Spaghetti Marinara
Mains I think this next one should classify as a Mediterranean dish. Baked Scallops coated with bread crumbs and Swordfish Kerbab. Marinated (lemon, capers, olive oil) swordfish with bacon, mushrooms, capsicums, grape tomatoes and onions. The aroma and taste of the marinated swordfish is enhanced further with the jucies absorbed from the bacon, making this a mouth-watering simple dish that is full of flavour.
Working hard before eating	Ready to be grilled
A dollar each	Perfect Entree
Desserts This should be the part of the menu where everyone goes ga-ga over. Desserts always seem to make anyone drool and never fail to put a sparkle into anyone's eye. Some people actually flipped to this section first before deciding on what to have for their entree or main. Are you one of them? Since we are able to get strawberries pretty cheap now (3 punnets for A$2) , Serena decided to try her hands on a Strawberry Shortcake (Biscuit) recipe. This was a recipe that Ellen taught Serena when we were visiting them in Beijing. A really nice dessert dish to serve and I guess its healthy too since wheat flour is used to make the dough. Some other desserts we had were, Raspberry Rapsady (smoothie), Raspberry Swirl and Peach Delight.
Strawberry Shortcake
Frozen Raspberries	Raspberry Swirl
Rhapsody	In motion
Peach Delight
Other dishes that we had during the course of the week were sashimi and california roll, caesar salad, rindless bacon with eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, and baked kingfish wrapped with middle bacon.
Sashimi - Hapuka, Tuna, Tamago-yaki, Avocado, Cucumber	Caesar Salad- Lettuce, Cherry Tomato, Cheese, Ham & Croutons
Fish - Meat	A hearty breaky
Did you know? According to a study from Indiana University, USA, "Four hours after that high-fat meal (eg. bacon & eggs), your arteries look just like those of a person who has heart disease." This is due to the fact that a high-fat meal causes your arteries to lose their ability to expand in response to an increase in blood flow and this may lead to cardiovascular disease in the long-term.

Fifteen (Melbourne) seems to be THE PLACE to check out for everyone who has watched Jamie’s Kitchen Australia which premiered in September last year. Although it has received a few bashings online, we decided to take the opportunity to experience it ourselves to see what the hype and media hoopla is all about. We had made a reservation months in advance, before we left for our trip to China and Singapore. A good day (as it was our second wedding anniversary) or rather we have the excuse to indulge in a nice meal :). Serena had Roasted Berkshire pork with fennel seed and rosemary, Mt Zero lentils, baby chard, crème fraiche and pan juices for mains and I had the Grilled Wagyu Beef (medium rare) with rosemary potatoes, large leaf rocket and swiss chard. The pork was perfectly roasted to such a tender texture that the meat and fat literally melts in your mouth. With the soft tender meat infused with all the flavours from the herbs and pan juices it was absolutely lip-smacking. An absolute bonus was the layer of crisp pork skin roasted to perfection and intense flavour. Although the Wagyu Beef was grilled just right and the slices were succulent and juicy, it just wasn't gastronomically satisfying somehow. For desserts we had Chocolate and star anise tart and Vanilla Panacotta. The chocolate is thick, rich and luscious and the Vanilla panacotta has just the right tinge of vanilla infused into it. Simply divine! Mmm.... All in all the food is excellent but it doesn't scream "I want more and I will be back soon!". I guess the expectation shouldn't be too high since most of them are still trainees learning their trade. Value for money wise, there are other restaurants in Melbourne that can offer much more. As some people put it, "Fifteen is a dining experience for the curious."
Entrance to Fifteen	Stairway to gastronomy haven
The Wine Bar	Main Dinning
Plating Area	Action in Kitchen
Roasted Berkshire Pork	Grilled Wagyu Beef
Star Anise Chocolate Tart	Vanilla Panacotta

Ok so I know I should be posting more often but I guess I was just back to my old LA boy. Anyway, over the past few weeks, both of us had cravings for different types of food after reading ieatishootipost. So what do we do when we have cravings and not many places to savour what we want? We cook them ourselves (or rather Serena cooked them :P). So first up we had Tandoori Chicken with Yellow Rice and Kachumber (something like a cucumber salsa). Too bad it ain't the mango season else we would even add Mango Lassi to the menu :)
Tandoori Chicken	Tandoori Chicken with Yellow Rice and Kachumber
Next on the menu is Rivoli Carbonara to satisfy our Italian tastebuds. Cheese & ham rivoli, fresh button mushrooms and bacon with carbonara sauce = Squisita!
Rivoli Carbonara
Tuna Cannelloni was a dish that we saw on TV on one of Jaime Oliver's program. It made us drool so we decided to try it out since we had the recipie too and the ingredients needed. The cheese was a little burnt on one side but overall it was pretty good for a first attempt. Cannelloni stuffed with smoked trout, tuna, capsicum, chives , ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt.
Tuna Cannelloni	Smoked Trout & Tune stuffing
Besides 'real' food, we all need our comfort food from time to time. So Serena decided to bake some cookies. Its much healthier then potato chips or even cookies bought from the supermarket as she has a say of what ingedients to use. Flour, nuts, raisins and cereal. The final result? Crunchy, tasty, can't-stop-eating cereal cookies!
When we found out that the Japanese Supermarket near our place was having a 3 day 20% off sale on everything in the store, we decided that we will drop by just to get the stuff we need. As usual, we end up buying more than we should. The both of us just love buying and stocking on food so the total amount we spent in there was almost 3 times what we had originally wanted. Slightly higher than the amount we spent last year when they had a sale. :P But this time round we bought frozen Wagyu Beef! Here's what for dinner that night.
Steamboat Spread
I had cravings for Prawn Noodle (Hae Mee) after reading ieatishootipost (it's an "evil" blog to visit if you are on a diet :P ), so we decided to buy some prawns and pork ribs when we were at Queen Victoria Market. We wanted to boil our own stock for the prawn noodles but alas looking at the small amount of prawn shells and heads, we were afraid the taste would be very bland. So we thought it will be wiser to get the prawn noodle paste from the chinese grocery store to supplement the taste. Too bad the prawn noodle paste had chilli in it and the spiciness overpowered the natural tase of the succulent sweet prawns. The first round (we had enough stock for 3 rounds) of prawn noodles tasted more like a spicy hot pot with noodles. We left the remaining stock in the fridge so that we could have another round for lunch the next day. We manage to discard the chilli oil before boiling the soup base again, so the second round of prawn noodles tasted so much better. The last round (we had it again for dinner) was the best as it was as close to the kind of prawn noodles that we wanted. Take a look at the picture, does it look like what you will be having for lunch tomorrow?
Pork Ribs, Fish Cake, Prawns, Beansprout & Noodles