Nutella pretzel brownies

I think a lot of people can agree on one thing; Nutella is life. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but spreading some Nutella on toast, or just eating a spoonful of it? Who could resist! We have to thank the Italians for this wonderful creation :) 

Queenstown eateries part II

Lunch at Amisfield winery and bistro

 Did my Queesntown eateries part 1 look good? Well take a look at this post!

We had one of the best lunches at Amisfield winery and bistro. The setting is beautiful, and the food is pretty darn great too!

Top left: Coudy bay clams with linguini. Top right: Potato gnocchi with basil pesto. Bottom left: Lamb sausages, saffron couscous and tzatziki. Bottom right: Butterfish

I had the potato gnocchi with basil pesto, which I really liked. I normally don't like gnocchi as a main dish, since I find it usually too rich, especially when there is a huge quantity. But this was just nice, and I loved the basil pesto, along with the other vegetables as well. My eldest sister had the linguini, my other sister had the lamb sausage, and that was alright, not my favourite. My parents both had the butterfish and thought that it was well cooked and delicious. The food had perfect portions, not too much to make us feel bloated afterwards.

Four fruit smoothie.

 One of my all time favourite breakfast beverages, is a fruit smoothie. Back in middle school, I would get a Boost smoothie after school on Fridays each week.  I've always particularly liked their smoothies, because of their thick consistency. However, I realised after a while how much money I was spending each month on a smoothie, something I could easily replicate at home.

Making your own smoothies at home are so customisable. Add whatever fruits you love: mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi. My favourite all time combination are mangoes, strawberries, blueberries and banana. I'm taking advantage of the mangoes and strawberries, since they're in season right now. 

If you want a thick consistency, add less liquid. Also add a lot of ice to make it very icy! Nothing beats a cold smoothie on a hot summer day. 

You can either use milk, or some sort of fruit juice. As I said, you can customise it yourself. However, I'm posting my own favourite smoothie recipe. Enjoy. 

Four fruit smoothie

Ingredients:

. 1 banana 

. Handful of strawberries (about 10), sliced

. 1 mango, diced

. 1/2 cup blueberries

. 1/3 or 1/2 cup milk, depending on your desired consistency

. 1 and a half cups of ice

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients together in a blender and process until smooth.

2. Serve immediately 

Things to do in Queenstown

In Queenstown, there are endless possibilities for 'what you should do'. Especially during the summer, the entertainment sector, companies are competing against each other.

I forgot to mention earlier about how beautiful it is in Queenstown. The water is crystal blue, and you know the lake has good water, when it is clear and you can see the bottom with the rocks. The pine trees on the mountain are my favourite. It reminds me of Lake Tahoe. And it looks like what I've seen in those typical American movies, where families go for a holiday or for camp near the lake (Parent trap and Cheaper by the dozen). Picturesque!

Horse riding

Horse riding is my personal highlight of the trip! We went twice, and we really did love it. I really loved the first time, but I even loved it even better the second time in Te Anau, which I will be posting about later. My mum decided to stay at the hotel.

We went to Moonlight stables, near Arrowtown. We were taught how to control the horses, so how to go forward (kick them in the belly), turn right and stop. I rode on a horse called Sayla (not sure of the spelling) and he was pretty comfortable to ride on. Not too tall, and behaved. Except when it wouldn't stop eating grass.

 
We even got to canter (seriously scary) and trot. It was really scary at first, and you're holding on for your dear life. But it's fun! We got to do it a few times.

 Yii-May described her horse as 'temperamental', as it specifically didn't like one of the white horses. I find horses amusing, how some of them have attitude and how there's one particular bossy horse that has to be leader.

We saw a lot of deer, so pretty! Except, at that time, they had their antlers off. 

Botswana butchery and Patagonia

 Botswana butchery is one of my favourite restaurants in Queenstown. Patagonia has some really good ice cream.

Botswana butchery

My whole family loved the steak at Botswana butchery.

This classy, hip restaurant, whatever you describe it, delivers elegance and excellence. The food we devoured was so delicious.

We came here to celebrate my mum's birthday, and my eldest sister had already booked the restaurant one month in advance. We even had our own little private room upstairs!

The backlight when a bit berserk.

Mum, I love you heaps, even though you stalk my blog, quite literally 24/7.

You can see the debris being washed up. Queenstown and many other places in South Island, have been experiencing huge amounts of rainfalls and floods.

It also has a stunning location, near the pier in Queenstown. The restaurant itself looks like a cute house. My dad actually mistook the whole restaurant as a house. "Huh? Isn't this a house?"

Both my parents had French onion soup as starters. They both liked it. They thought it was very rich and had the good consistency for an onion soup. 

Simple peanut butter cups

I remember the first time I had a bite of Reese's peanut butter cups. I was 12, and my eldest sister, had just come back from her trip to New York. She bought 2 packets of the mini cups. Guess who finished a whole packet in one day?

They sell Reese's at some candy shops like Sweet As in Australia, but they aren't the best buy. 2 bucks for 1 packet, containing two peanut butter cups.

So today's recipe, I say, could be just as good as the original. Actually, I might even like this one better.

Apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies

This combines all of my favourite things into one cookie; hearty oats, cinnamon, apples, walnuts and raisins. All hail, the oatmeal cookie!

  Crisp around the edges, and chewy in the middle. The apple comes out soft and tender, the crunch of the walnuts, along with brown sugar and cinnamon; these are especially best eaten when warm.

Here and there

This is a bit of a messy post, but I just wanted to do some quick reviews of food around the city and also Pappa Rich in Chadstone.

Guzman and Gomez

I tried some soft shell tacos with spicy chicken guerrero at Guzman and Gomez on Swanston street. About 2 minutes away from Melbourne Central if you walk there. The tacos were quite nice.

Mini honey buns

I could not believe the texture I achieved from these buns. Crisp on the outside, and light and fluffy in the inside.

You can use either a mini muffin pan or a regular-sized muffin pan. I used both! I was able to make 24 mini honey buns and 8 regular honey buns.

Hearty banana pancakes

Let's kick off the new year, starting with banana pancakes for breakfast.

Adiós 2012

Reflecting on my travel adventures, just one year ago, I was wandering (not really actually, since I had to follow a tour group) around the streets of Istanbul and walking across the snow covered grounds of Cappadocia. I was seeing the sights of an ancient city, Ephesus, looking at Roman and Greek building structures. I was drinking pomegranate tea, apple tea, travelling literally from the European side to the Asian side via a boat.  Turkey, I really miss you.

So, it's the end of the year, and I have mixed feelings about 2012. I got to meet some new people this year, I discovered different things about myself, and well, 2012 was in a way surprising. To be honest, it didn't turn out the way how I wanted it to be. But things don't always go to plan. And in a way, I'm ready to say goodbye to 2012.

Basics: Pesto

Pesto. I fell in love with pesto a few months ago. I hadn't tried it before, believe it or not.

Christmas in down under

I'm in denial. I'm in denial that Christmas is over. I don't want to take down the Christmas tree and put away the decorations for another 12 months.

I think this Christmas has been one of the best. Last year, I was in Turkey. The year before, I was in Malaysia. This year, I'm back in Melbourne.

I stuffed myself like a turkey during my party, Christmas eve and on Christmas day. It was so much fun to listen to Christmas songs, decorate the Christmas tree, wrap presents, and everything!

Christmas eve was at Aunty Soo Suang's. We had all these small appetisers, chicken cacciatore, prawns, smoked salmon, and we also had a lot of dessert! I made Japanese cheesecake which tasted quite yummy! The only thing was, it was a bit crumbly. I have a suspicion that it is to do with  my frozen cream cheese. My mum always freezes cream cheese, because we never use all of them in time. And sometimes, I've found that, even though I let the frozen cream cheese defrost, there is a bit of a crumbly texture.

Aunty Soo Suang also made some mango pudding, double chocolate cookies and fruit cake.

On  Christmas day, my second sister was pretty much the head of cooking!


Our menu consisted of:

Turkey breast (not the whole turkey) with cranberry and I think it was chestnut stuffing?

So I forgot to take a picture before they already started cutting!

Succulent turkey! Perfect with cranberry sauce.

My famous mash potato! 

  

Roasted vegetables

I've never been a fan of zucchini or eggplant, but after I saw this cheat ratatouille recipe, I decided to try it. Roasted vegetables are just so yummy! The combination of the vegetables works SO well!

 Prawns, made by my second sister!

  4.5 kg of HAM

This was only PART of the ham we had.

 My second sister's boyfriend bought that. And it was more tasty than your average ham from the supermarket. SO, so, so tasty. It's near the bone, and the flavour gets even better when you carve the ham around the bone. 

Green tea macarons with white chocolate ganache filling. I also made some green tea ice cream with my ice cream mixer, using David Lebovitz's recipe , and oh-my-goodness! I had a GREAT turn out. Extra creamy with a punch of green tea flavour. Unfortunately, it was all devoured too quickly, I wasn't able to get a picture of it!

 And we finished off with a cake (sponsored by my first sister hehehehe) from Laurent. We ordered the Le canotier, which did not disappoint anyone! It reminded us of Ferroro rocher. It had chocolate mousse, flourless almond sponge, another sponge and feuilletine. Everyone loved the feuilletine especially, since it gave a really nice crunch to the cake.

I had a really good Christmas. It was such a great way to end the year. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful and supportive family, as well as caring friends. I'm also so thankful for how my blog has come around this year. My friends have told me how tantalising my blog looks (food) and my parents have forwarded me emails from their friends, commending me on my blog! I hope that this blog will eventually grow into something big. Hope you all had a really great Christmas. I hope the next one will be just as good. Hey, I'm hoping I'll have a white Christmas? Maybe I'll be in the northern hemisphere, who knows?

Past few days of Christmas festivities

It's Christmas eve! I'm getting ready for a good two days of celebrating Christmas with family and friends.

Last Friday, I hosted a Christmas party. I was busy cooking (with the help of my friend, Olivia!) and baking. I made some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chicken pie, lasagne, oreo and red velvet truffles and mango ice cream.

My famous chicken pie! 

Not sure who took this, but these are red velvet and oreo truffles.

Olivia's mum made this! 

Mango ice cream I made!

 Yesterday,  I went out to Crown with a few friends to celebrate my friend, Yvonne's birthday. We went to Kitchen workshop buffet. Boy, did I eat like a cow!

 Since it was the weekend lunch, we were able to get seafood passes. One each. So, we could each get a plate of oysters or prawns.

 There wasn't much savoury, I'll be honest, BUT the dessert was amazing! I grabbed a full plate (or 2 which I will not admit) of desserts, a couple of small plates and bowls of different desserts like pistachio panna cotta, mango mousse and sago (which tasted absolutely horrible. Aside from that, everything was great!) and even a bowl of soft serve chocolate AND vanilla ice cream. They also had the most amazing brownies ever!

The aftermath of five girls eating at a buffet.. I felt sorry for the waiters.

Excuse my lovely friends. 

 Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you have a fun time, gaining holiday weight and spending quality time with family.

Le petit gateau

I am going to tell you about one of Melbourne's gems. This is the most amazing cake shop. My sisters' have brought home the cakes from there cakes before, but I've never been to the actual shop. I went to Le petit gateau in the city with my friend, Anika and we felt like we died in heaven.

 Le petit gateau; small cakes. Small, delicate, beautiful cakes.

We kind of got lost in the city... A lot of times. And we had to take the tram to Little Collins street. But, we eventually found it!

 We tried four cakes: black beauty, black forest, brownie passionfruit and hazelnut millefeuille.

Black beauty

 I know what you're thinking. What in the world is on top of that cake? I can't even answer that myself. It looks like a brain. Or a mop. I can think of 10 other different decorations you can put on top of that cake instead of some gluggy weird-looking brain stringy thing! COME ON! Anyway, despite its weird looking appearance, I decided to choose that because I had read reviews on that cake. It sounded pretty positive. I'm glad I chose that cake. It has some kind of chocolate mousse and raspberry filling, I don't know! But it was very creamy. The glaze outside: PERFECT. It balanced out the sweetness of the inside. I suspect the glaze is probably around 70% cocoa? I don't know. But I highly recommend this one!

The inside

And then we had the black forest cake.  I'm not really a fan of black forest cakes, but I really liked this one! Except, for that cherry. Oh. My. Goodness. The worst cherry I've ever tasted... Anika and I were discussing "Why don't they just use REAL, FRESH cherries?" You notice with every cake shop, they always use these weird sickly-sweet cherries. 

 The next cake, the hazelnut millefeuille (thanks Anika, for picking this one out! I don't think I would've picked this one.),literally blew my mind.  It reminded me of Ferrero rocher. The base was so crunchy, I think maybe it was a kind of wafer or praline thing? But so delicious, words cannot explain my love for that cake.

 We also tried the brownie passionfruit. It also had the praline or wafer-thing, and the brownie was very rich and delicious. I don't normally fancy passionfruit, but it was a nice touch with the brownie! Fruit and chocolate, hello!

 Going at $8.50 for 1 cake, it is certainly not cheap, but I think it is most definitely worth it. I do not think that it is easy to replicate any of these, I'm not even going to dare try. These require so many hours of work, and are finicky to work with, you have to be a pastry masterchef! So I guess that's why it's not cheap.

They also sell the bigger versions of cakes, like the brownie passionfruit, cosmopolitan and also the lemon tart. Last year, my eldest sister had the lemon tart for her birthday cake. I liked it, but I could only have a bit. It was too sweet for my liking. I'm not really into lemon tarts.

Brownie passionfruit in the small and large version. 

 They also sell chocolates.

 They also have hot chocolates (in milk, dark and white! Which I've never seen around Melbourne.) and I'm quite curious to try that. They have an afternoon tea special, if you buy one cake, you can get it with coffee, tea or a hot chocolate. For $9! Only available after 2:30. But worth it! I'll try that next time. Their cakes aren't too sweet, so I'm definitely coming back!