Every year when I go to Taipei, a visit to the local breakfast stall near my Grandparents house in Ximending is essential at least once. There, we usually get a few scorching sweetened soya bean milk in large paper cups or in clear plastic bags to go, Chinese Fried Doughnut sticks (YouTiao) and fried egg pancakes, all made fresh to order. I've gotten my husband hook on these local delicacy as well that he reminds me if we are close to the end of our trip in Taipei and we haven't gone to the stall yet.

 

In Melbourne, you can get these in Taiwanese cuisine cafes but they are not the same... somehow the Taiwanese ones are more fluffy and floury. I've watched them cook it a few times, and I believe the fluffiness comes from adding a little surplus egg mixture into the pan while the pancake is cooking.

 

My version is not as authentic as they make the thin pastry from scratch. I use the widely available plain roti bread from Asian grocery stores. The important thing here is to take the roti bread out of the fridge about 30minute earlier so that they soften. Also unfold them to get as thin a roti slice as you possibly can so you're getting more egg than pancake per serve.

 

 

 

 

Neatly disguised inside Punt Hill Apartments

 

Beef Brisket with White Radish, Ginger in a Clear Broth

 

Baby Spinach Stir-Fried in Chilli and XO Sauce

 

Salt and Pepper Calamari with Deep Fried Spinach

 

All great dishes...

 

Ratings

Food: Quality authentic Japanese food

Top Dish: Salmon belly sushi

Service: Generally okay especially the drinks maestro. It used to be better when turnover was lower.

 

 

 

Thanks Ed for mention "A Gastronomical Voyage in Melbourne" in the "Reasons Why Melbuorne is the Top Food Blogging City in the Southern Hemisphere". The world is so small....

 

Trackback: Tomatom

For dinner, Ito is usually crowded with students and families whom have made their home in the city. Surprisingly, it wasn't that full yesterday and we had the whole of the back upper floor to ourselves.

First off – drinks! I love their variety of drinks ranging from frothy iced macha, Grape Calpico, to Tsunami – a sparkling lycee sake cocktail. For entree, we ordered a large plate of sashimi. This time it was better, more variety, more radish, and seemingly fresher produce. There was tuna, mackerel, squid, octopus, and prawns for the eagerly awaiting bellies. Each of us also ordered our own mains, which were the standard Japanese fare. The standout dishes were the Nabeyaki Udon – a traditional winter dish of prawn, chicken, vegetables and egg with udon noodles in a dashi clear soup, served in a iron hot pot; and the Tempura Soba – Mixed tempura accompanied by cold soba noodles. The tempura was crunchy and buttery and the light batter made the seafood and vegetables taste so good. Unfortunately, my Salmon Foil Bake (Salmon fillet and with onions, tomatos, lemon and carrots wrapped in foil and grilled in its own juice, served with a green salad with ponzu sauce) was not as flavoursome as I had hoped.  It would have been better if it was baked in dashi or stock. However, it has given me an idea to try to replicate the dish and improve it at home.

Oh my goodness, I just remember that we forgot to have dessert there! Oh well… my friends' children were a bit tired so we had to leave…Ito’s variety of dessert is extensive. They have the simple Macha ice-cream that any decent Japanese restaurant should serve, but they also have the Ogura ice cream (vanilla ice cream with red bean paste), black sesame ice cream, ice platter (which is a sample selection of the ice creams) and the delicious Mitsumame (with mixed fruits, green tea ice cream and red bean paste) – this is my favourite.

Mind you, the service is not great, and you tend to have to wave down the speeding waiters and waitresses but the food is not bad for the price. You could happily have a three-course meal for $30 J And don’t forget to order your Tsunami!

Trackbacks:

Your Restaurants 

 

 

Ito Japanese Noodle Café Melbourne

122 Bourke St, Melbourne, 3000

Telephone: (03) 9663 2788 

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

 

Tipbits: They own GoGo Sushi on Swanston Street too… The sushi at this sushi train restaurant isn’t bad and it’s a healthy fast eat and run type of place. Last order 9p.m.

 

THAI CULTURE AND FOOD FESTIVAL 2007 The 4th Annual Thai Culture & Food Festival is being held on Sunday 18th March 2007 at Federation Square. The event will begin at 10am with a traditional blessing with Monks from local Temples followed by the Thai drum parade through the CBD to Federation Square. The opening ceremony will be held at noon with dignitaries from Thailand and Australia. Enjoy live performances on the stage all day and taste a range of Thai delicacies on the River Terrace. For full program details, visit www.thaifestvic.com.au.

Venue: Square, Swanston Street & River Terrace Date: Sunday 18th March Time: 10am to 9pm Ticketing: Free Entry Visit: www.thaifestvic.com.au

Mucking Around Part II

 

I was craving for hainanese chicken rice... but I don't like the ones served in the restaurants because I actually don't like to eat chicken still on its bones and skin on. I bought a bottle of hainanese chicken rice mix just for this purpose. The mix is for adding to raw rice and water in a conventional rice cooker... It will give the rice a oily ginger and chicken flavour. I found the mixture a bit salt so I reduced the quantity to add in my rice...

 

 

You can get this and similar products from any good Asian groceries.

 

  

 

Following roughly the recipe on the back of the bottle, I used the pressure cooker to cook my Lilydale organic chicken breasts in.. It took less than 10 minute and the meat was falling about. I then soaked the chicken in cold boiled water.

 

I mixed 1 part sesame oil to 3 part sauce sauce together and added some cropped spring onion as the sauce to add to the chicken pieces. Experiment with the sauce to taste. Break up the cooled chicken into bite-size pieces... pour the sauce over and serve it with the rice I had it for lunch the next day.

 

 

 

Then what to do with the filtered chicken soup??

 

 

I cropped up one onion, two carrots, and two potatoes.

 

  

 

Soaked a few dried shitake mushrooms and put the soup and all the vegetables back into the pressure cooker to make a chicken and vegie soup... When it's boiled and the vegies are all soft. Add salt to taste...

 

 

My Impromptu Chicken and Vegetable Soup.. look at the chicken oil  Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been doing a bit of this and that these few weeks.... Mainly stressing about a dinner party in Hampton last Sunday. I was in charge of the dessert, and I decided to use the pannacotta and crostoli recipes from Maurizio Terzini: Something Italian. The pannacotta recipe is not easy as I found out.... My first attempt, without any proper measurement and not all the ingredients... came out too creamy and little stiffer than I wanted. I even wasted cream because I whipped it too hard with a hand beater and turned the cream to butter... I had to send M out for another tub. Likewise, the crostoli had a bitter lemony taste to it.... Armed with the right ingredients, I was suppose to prepare the dessert on Saturday ready for Sunday but had been so busy doing other things that I remembered at 12am Sunday that I needed to make the pannacotta for it to set properly in time!

 

So in my pajamas, I made the pannacotta...while waiting for the pannacotta mixture to cool, I hand-whipped the cream.... I think this is really the only way to whip cream.. it takes a lot of effort but the result is worth it - smooth soft cream at just the right consistency. I actually changed the recipe a little - decreasing the sugar, adding one 1/2 more vanilla sticks and instead of 8 gelatine leaves I used 7. I also put the Bortylis in the cooking part rather than at the end. I read an article in Epicure today about the Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato 2006... I might make a pannacotta with lots of that... as it sounds delicious... "A naughty pale pink with sweet grapey, apple flavours, seductively presents as a subtle, low 6.4% alcohol, mouth tingling, crown sealed fizz. Drink this summer when young and fresh. Yummy with strawberries and ice cream or just to sip on around the pool."

 

OH yes, the pannacotta and crostoli were a success... (I served chilled thin slices of riped mangoes with it) even after a multi-course dinner they was a refreshing dessert and helped us slow the absorption of some very delicious red wine that night. Anna and Dave made fantastic side dishs and slow cook mains... My favourite was the roast duck where the meat just fell off the bones and melted in your mouth. Second was the dumplings modified from a recipe from Harumi Kurihara: Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking... Of course third was the pannacotta!

 

Here is the official menu from Sunday:

 

*We didn't make the linguine because we decided that there was too much food already.

 

No pictures from the night, sorry... we ate everything too quickly...

 

 

LET'S TANGO TO SAMBA AND SALSA TO BAMBA - LATIN AMERICAN FESTIVAL Immerse yourself in the ancient cultural traditions of Latin America. Get to know the art and handicrafts, experience hundreds of years of tradition and skills. Participate in free dance workshops for the whole family. Learn the origin of tango and samba. Try some capoheira (Brazilian martial arts). Encounter the festivities of Peru. The Let's Tango to Samba and Salsa to Bamba Festival is a celebration of Latin American dances and traditions. Come along for a great day with something to suit everyone! Program:  10.00am Opening with music by Rosamel Burgos   10.15am A journey through Latin American dances  11.30am Salsa workshop with the Cuban Salsa Academy  12.15pm Hat Dance workshop with Fiesta Mexico  12.45pm Cueca workshop with Grupo Raices  1.15pm Capoheira workshop with Afro Brazil Capoheira  2.00pm A journey through Latin American dances  3.00pm Workshop with the Peruvian Folkloric Group  3.45pm Tango workshop with Argentinian Fringe Tango  4.30pm Samba workshop with Rio Samba   5.15pm Let's Tango to Samba and Salsa to Bamba

Venue: BMW Edge Date: Sunday 11th March Time: 10am to 6pm Ticketing: Free Visit: www.fedsquare.com

8 days of US and we're back in Melbourne again! Where did all the time go?!?!

 Los Angeles was fantastic, eventhough I didn't get to do all the things I had planned for Michael and I. But we did get to do some touristy things the first day we arrived, i.e. the Hollywood Sign, Gauman's Chinese Theatre, Avenue of The Stars, Bel Air, Beverly Hills etc.

   Outside Gauman's Chinese Theatre

 Outside Kodak Theatre

In Hollywood, we found one of my favourite American fast food joint - Popeye's and ate there for lunch. Dodgy people coming in and out, I was a bit scared but loved the food. In my opinion, better than KFC .

Travelling around visit the gorgeous houses of Beverly Hills and Bel Air, you can imagine what a life! It was a pleasure just to "OOhH" and "AHHH" outside their magnificent houses and beautiful cars. We saw two SLRs - can you imagine!

On Rodeo Drive, don't know how but we managed to enter Harry Winston, as it is normally by appointment. The gentlemen in there were very polite and allowed us to try whatever we wanted. I tried on a 6 carat cherry red ruby with pave diamonds around it and on the band worth USD250,000. I really didn't want to take it off... So beautiful! Lucky M took me to have dessert at Beverly Wilshire The Blvd, then I calmed down a bit.

 

Beverly Wilshire Hotel

 

Voss Norwegian Water and Dessert at The Blvd, Beverly Wilshire

We ate a lot in US. I still can't believe the serving size. Our brunch at the popular The Cheesecake Factory on Colorado Avenue, Pasadena was no exception.

 Look at my latte! Brunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Old Pasadena

Vietnamese food in LA is definitely better than anything that I have tasted to date.

  

7 Course Vietnamese Beef Banquet

Hama Sushi in Little Tokyo

  

Francis Ford Coppola's Sofia Mini Blanc de Blancs Champagne

6 Flags Magic Mountain was fantastic. I definitely would get the Flash Pass again, which gives you priority access to the front of the queues of rides. This allowed M to ride Tatsu (the newest ride in the park) 4 times within 30 minutes.

  Tatsu - The Ride. You start and finish with your head facing the floor

 Our Lunch at the Mooseburger Lodge in 6 Flags

 Snacking in 6 Flags

 

Chiu Chou Noodle Soup (Noodles are from my Uncle's Factory) 

This trip, I got to try the "Best burger in LA" - The In and Out Burger. We couldnt' believe that there was only three different burgers that they serve - Hamburger, Cheese Burger and the Double Burger. The beef patty is cooked fresh and not made from frozen beef, the french fries are real pieces of chopped potatoes that still has the skin on it. All you can drink soft drinks. I didn't have enough that I had to have it again on our last day in the US. YUMMM!!! (Apparently there are "Secret Menus" that you can order, including the Protein style burger, Animal style burger, sauce on fries etc.)

Vegas trip was surprising easy... pretty much a straight road once you hit San Bernadino Hwy. Do not bother going to any outlets but the Fashion Outlets at PRIMMS.. save your money and shop there... Do make sure that you have a full tank before you head out... As petrol at one of the petrol station on the way cost USD$4 a gallon! Highway robbery I know. But it was funny that some guy in an Audi was getting upset over the price and questioning a resting policeman whether it was legal to do that.....

  

Our GPS called "Never Lost" - Yeah Right / Beautiful scenery along the way

Lucky that we arrived two days before my conference started, so that we could go to a nice meal at Picasso, The Bellagio; Grand Canyon light plane tour and some gambling! 

   

Our Light Plane / Grand Canyon / Hoover Dam

While I was working hard at the conference, M was also working at.... at the golf courses.

  

On the last night in Vegas, we were able to walk around the Strip and watch the Bellagio Fountain.

    

The Venetian / The Mirage / Vegas Traffic

Balley's Paris

Great ending to a wonderful journey.

 

 

I rushed out and bought a copy of the Cheap Eats 2007 after reading The Age's article - "Bargain hunter-gatherers". The editor of Cheap Eats,  Nina Rousseau named 10 of the best and most innovate dishes for $15 or less, which included Horoki's Daikon salad with sashimi for $11.50 and Cookie's mussel cakes with green mango salad for $14.50. These dishes are probably not filling enough on their own and they tend to be entree size, which you would expect cost around $15. Never the less, the book has some quality recommendations, such as Horoki, Bar Lourinha, and Pellegrini's (of course). There are many that I haven't been too and am keen to try. Having to save for my honeymoon this year, I'm going to reserve my Good Food Guide 2007 for special occasions and have Cheap Eats as my bible!

 

 

 

After devouring the latest on the Obachan's Kitchen and Balcony Garden blog, I decided to click through her large food blog list and found some gems, which I have added to my own list:

 

1) Bento News / Tokyo Food Page - The Tokyo Food Page is a complete guide to Japanese cuisine and eating in Japan. With great recipes, tours of Japanese markets, and tips on the best places to eat in Tokyo and Yokohama.

2) Blue Lotus - A Canadian girl eats her way around Tokyo and showcases her daily meal(s).

3) Kuidaore - Beautifully pictured and wonderful culinary creations by Joyce Lyn in Singapore.

4) Nordljus - This site is just breathtakingly beautiful. Keiko's photos of her life in UK is art. Her culinary creations are imagination.

5) Ono Kine Grindz - Detailed reviews and pictorials of mainly Hawaiian eateries.

The weather has been really humid and hot these past few weeks in Melbourne. Last week, a few of us had set a date to go out and dine somewhere that we’ve never been to and I suggested Kobe Jones or Rockpool.

Everyone had a look at Kobe Jone’s website and voted for Kobe Jones.

Kobe Jones is as chain of Californian Japanese fusion restaurants in Sydney, Bangkok, London and Melbourne. (Funny that they don’t have one in Los Angeles.. hmm…)

From the website, it looked to be ideally situated on the banks of Waterfront City (fancy name for an area in the Docklands) looking out to blue skies and blue waters. I thought, that it would be a great place for a hard day of work. You can feel like you are miles away.

Since booking the restaurant, a friend that I was catching up with for lunch also recommended Kobe Jones. She was going there for Valentine’s Day...

On the day, luckily we had Chris with us. Otherwise, we would have gotten lost in the Docklands. We parked in a large open air car park in Waterfront City and walked out to the boardwalk. There was a large function at The Beach Club and we found Kobe Jones right door next to it.

Arriving at the restaurant, two friends were already there spread out across the waiting couch - frowning. “They don’t have a booking for us” sarcastically declaring that “We won’t be able to get a spot”. The place was not very full… we easily got a table facing the water.

The waiters were very giggly and couldn’t really help us with any recommendations, but pointed us to The Kobe Jones Signature Dishes. We ordered mostly from that and ordered mostly entrees, two rolls and two mains. Standout dishes were the Mushroom Medley Tobanyaki (Oven Baked Assortment of Exotic Mushrooms in a Cream Sauce) and the Number One Special (Crab Salad with Avocado Wrapped in Snapper and Baked with KJ’s Cream Sauce). The Mushroom Medley Tobanyaki was everyone’s favourite, we just couldn’t get enough of it. It was creamy, juicy, sweet and flavoursome. I suspect that there was either Ponzu sauce or Balsamic vinegar in it that surprising enhanced the flavours of the mushrooms.

The dessert menu looked fantastic too, ranging from trifle, pannacotta to more traditional Japanese dishes like Yokan. We couldn’t decide, so we had the Ama Ozen (A Tray of a Sample of Each of the Desserts). The dessert tray came with a mismatch of small ceramic and glass bowls filled with colourful desserts. Resting on one of the bowls were a pair of giant chocolate chopsticks. At first I thought they were real chopsticks for us to use, odd as the desserts were mostly in cream form.

We could eat no more.. and were very satisfied after dessert.

Even better still, Kobe Jones was having a 25% off the total bill for The Entertainment Book members. So it ended up being a very reasonable and delicious meal, under the warm orange sun.