Food Archives | Page 18 of 68

Christmas Dinner with Girlfriends at Saigon Bowl

18 December 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Food, Restaurants

Started Christmas celebrations on the first week of December. Met up with my girl friends Meds and Charyn for dinner at Saigon Bowl.

Saigon Bowl (is well-known Vietnamese restaurant in Strathfield. Although Strathfield is known as Sydney Metro’s biggest Koreatown, they still have other restaurants other Korean restos. Since we’ve already had dinner at a Korean resto before, we decided to try Saigon Bowl. Thanks to Charyn’s recommendation, we had delicious rice meals of beef and pork with Vietnamese flavour.

Their meats are marinated so well it’s so tasty and flavourful. The beef and pork are soft and easy to chew.

I had the Pork Chop rice meal and it was good. The breading was thin but crunchy and not too oily.

After dinner, we had coffee and hot chocolate at My Sweet Memory Cafe. As we caught up with stories and plans for the Christmas holidays, we look forward to a blessed year ahead for us all…and more dinner dates and coffee klatches too.

As we leave Koreatown, we saw a big Christmas Tree all lit-up making our night brighter and our hearts warmer.

Saigon Bowl
3 The Boulevarde, Strathfield NSW
Phone: 02 9746 7632

Boon, The Chocolate Experience at Darlinghurst

13 December 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Food, Restaurants

For years, I’ve known and heard of Boon, a chocolate cafe in Darlinghurst owned by a Filipino brother and sister tandem. What took me so long to visit? I don’t know.

As a food blogger, I’m grateful for friends, blogmates and restaurant owners who message me of recommended restaurants to try, an “it” food to taste or a recipe to create. Such things are very helpful and always appreciated. I keep all messages, include all recommendations in a list I have which I go back to often. I visit a restaurant or cafe mostly based by chance. I like unplanned visits as it adds hunger (not the physical kind!) and excitement to a foodie like me.

Yesterday’s after work meet-up with girl friend Pen turned into a wonderful chocolate experience. The plan was to get a bag of fresh Cherries from her (picked from the orchards of Orange, NSW) but we found ourselves walking the streets of Darlinghurst towards Boon‘s doorstep.

Oh what joy to finally visit Boon and to meet one of the creators, Alex Chan!

While getting our orders, Alex spent a moment talking about Boon. He mentioned that other than making chocolates and managing a business, her sister, business partner and chocolatier, Fanny, have partnered with Opportunity Australia (an NGO supporting countries such as India and the Philippines) by saving a portion of their earnings to a trust fund that will aid those people earning less than two dollars a day.

Right now, their website also shows a link for those who would like to make donations for those affected by typhoon Pablo and tip bowl inside the cafe which all money will also donated to survivors of the typhoon.

While meeting successful Filipino entrepreneurs in Australia makes me always proud, I became more in awe of Alex (and Fanny) when he mentioned that in every interview and feature, they always request that it’d be mentioned that they are Filipinos. It’s great to know that they are proud of where they came from.

They try to incorporate something Filipino thru their creations. Alex showed us a bag made of chocolate which they called “Harana Bag“. They also make a Calamansi praline, which was unfortunately not availably yesterday. One of their must-try chocolate drinks is the Tskolate Ala Negros, inspired from the 19th Century sugar fields of Negros Occidental, Philippines.

Pen and I ordered a Tsokolate Ala Negros each which comes with mousse and our choice of praline. Since we wanted to try a few more pralines, we got a Chocolate Teaser Plate which consisted of four pralines of our choices.

The Tsokolate Ala Negros is made up of 80% chocolate with muscovado sugar. I’ve never experienced a chocolate that was as thick and strong as this one. I literally jolted when I had my first sip. It gave the right kind of kick that can only come from real cocoa. The mousse was a wonderful partner to the chocolate as it was sweet and light. The praline I chose was the Arabica (freshly roasted coffee praline).

I can’t remember all the pralines we chose for our Teaser Plate but we did have the Kurobiko (roasted sesame with rice crispies), a mandarin flavoured one, a coconut flavoured-one and one that had a pine nut (I’m not really sure of the kind of nut). They’re pretty to look at and tastes as wonderful.

They’ve got packed chocolates so I bought 3 pieces of Negros chocolate bars to bring home to the Husband (whom I will be bringing to Boon soon because he’s the chocoholic between the two of us).

Chocolates wrapped in Christmas cheer are available in store. They’re the perfect gift to the chocoholic.

A little afternoon adventure, thanks to Pen, where I got to finally walk the streets of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross and have a great chocolate experience at Boon.

Boon (The Chocolate Experience)
251 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst
Phone: 02 9356 8876
Tuesday to Friday: 10:00am-7:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am-8:00pm
Sunday: 11:00am-6:00pm

Recipe: Real Corned Beef

12 December 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 4 Comments Category: Food, Recipes

For me, the best and healthy corned beef is the one made at home. I learned how to cook real corned beef from one of my aunts a few years back. This recipe is easy and simple. All you need is to buy Silverside Beef, a cut of beef from the hindquarter of a cattle just above the leg cut, from the butcher or you can find packed silverside beef in the supermarkets. The packed silverside beef from the supermarkets usually comes with instructions on how to cooke corned beef.

What you need to prepare:
Silverside Beef
1 tbsp Sugar
1 Onion, peeled and sliced
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 cup Vinegar
Cold water to cover the meat
Salt and Pepper to taste

For the gravy: I buy Gravox. 2 tbsps of Gravox, mix it with beef stock from the saucepan (where you boiled your silverside) and a bit of butter.

What you need to do:
1. Place meat in a deep sauce pan.
2. Add all the ingredients in.
3. Stir and then cover the sauce pan.
4. Slowly bring liquid to boil and reduce heat until liquid is just simmering.
5. Simmer, while covered, until meat is well done. Allow approximately 40 minutes per 500grams.
6. Once cooked turn off heat and keep meat in it liquid (to avoid dryness) until ready to slice.
7. Serve with gravy or other preferred condiments.

You can easily pair this up with rice, vegetables or salad. This would also make a wonderful and healthy sandwich.

Recipe: Kimchi Rice

11 December 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Food, Recipes

I started cooking Kimchi Rice a few months ago and thought not to share the recipe because it can easily be searched in Google anyway. However, I’ve been getting requests to share how I do it. So last night I looked for my first Kimchi Rice photo and decided to write down my Kimchi Rice Recipe.

What you need to prepare:
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 medium-sized Onion, chopped
1 tsp Garlic, chopped
1 tsp Ginger, chopped
3 tbsp of Kimchi
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup of Cooked Rice
1/4 cup of Shallots, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 fried Egg

Tip: You can lessen or add rice and kimchi, depending on your appetite or whether you are serving a number of people.

Optional: You can add meats like bacon, beef or chicken to this dish.

What you to do:
1. Fry egg in sesame oil and then set aside.
2. Using the same oil, saute onion, garlic and ginger.
3. Add kimchi and stir for a few minutes until transparent.
4. Pour soy sauce.
5. Mix in rice until well-combined with kimchi. Throw in a dash of salt and pepper.
6. Stir for about 4-6 minutes and then add the shallots.
7. Serve with fried egg on top.

Below is a photo of the Kimchi Rice I had for dinner last night, shared on instagram.

Enjoy and happy cooking!

CQL Mini Pot (Burwood, NSW)

9 December 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Food, Restaurants

Plans to dine hot pot style did not push thru during Winter but since we’re still having cool (and rainy) days until now, my dream of a hot pot style meal came true three weeks ago.

Got a tip from Suze (thanks Suze!) about a restaurant that serves mini hot pots and it seemed to be the perfect kind of dining experience for the picky eater. CQL Mini Pot is the latest restaurant in Burwood which offers a hot pot buffet for AUD$29.90. Individual hot pots containing the soup base of your choice and your choice of meats/seafood/veggies are placed on a little induction stove on your table is such a cute and delicious idea.

Once seated we were asked to choose our orders from an iPad where we can see the names, photos and prices of their offerings.

Two from our group chose the hot pot buffet while the others ordered a la carte. The moment we were given a tray, we walked to the buffet table and grabbed our choice of meat, seafood and vegetables for our hot pot. Towards the kitchen area is another buffet table of cooked food and rice to partner with your hot pot. A table laden with a variety of food condiments are available to help create more flavour for your food.

I got myself the beef soup for my base. I was tempted to order the chili soup but was told it was really hot. So what I did was mix a few condiments: chili, ginger, garlic and sesame oil and added it to my beef soup as I was going for a Korean stew. Some of the meats I chose included beef, lamb and fish balls.

Such a comforting dish on a cold day.

Not in the mood for hot pot? They also serve plated dishes. On our first visit, we tried their BBQ Spare Ribs and Seafood Noodle Soup. Both were great-tasting and full of flavour.

A 2-hour time limit is given for the hot pot buffet and it was enough time to catch up with friends over good food.

CQL Mini Pot

117 Burwood Road

Burwood NSW 2134

Phone: 02 9745 4039