Beautiful Burgers – Lunch – Chippendale

After finally dragging myself out of bed on Saturday arvo, I was really craving a burger, so off I went to Beautiful Burgers. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall place, the kind of place where the owners like to know your name.

Very friendly & relaxed, a perfect way for me to start the day with breakfast/lunch. 🙂

The sun was shining (although it did go to the dogs later in the day) and they had a quaint little courtyard out back where I could chill.

I decided to go for one of the specials as, in the words of my sister, you can get the regular menu any day of the year.

Cypriot lamb with rocket, grilled tomatoes, red onions & feta

RECIPE – Pasta Carbonara – My way

My “healthy” carbonara – it has veggies dun it?

I don’t know why, but I don’t like to add cream to my pasta sauce – probably because I can get the same creamy sauce without it.

You can really add whatever veggies you want to give this the appearance of healthy food. The only ingredients I wouldn’t want to go without are onions, mushrooms & bacon. 🙂 (and pasta, obviously)

Oh, and the sauce is a combo of egg yolk, parmesan & pepper – weirded out my housemate a little when I first cooked it – but don’t knock it til you try it.

RECIPE – Tiramisu (“Pick me up”)

“pick me up”, I sure will Tiramisu

Italian food is my passion, one of my first forays into cooking when younger was the making of tiramisu. When I first attempted it, I made it more mocha than coffee because I wasn’t at an age where I liked coffee. It’s very easy to make.

Now is a different story. 😀

Panda Ice Cream – IGA – Haymarket

Just a little bit of shopping silliness, something to make you smile. 😀

So I was wondering around Central & decided to browse Haymarket. Haymarket is an asian area which is awesome because you can buy things that you can’t seem to get anywhere else & in greater variety. E.g. (exhibit A below) so many more ice cream choices at the supermarket (IGA).

Panda Ice Cream Bar

A vanilla & chocolate paddle pop in the shape of a panda – how could I say no? I was with some younger family members so I justified the indulgence by saying I was just keeping the kids happy. It wasn’t my fault there were enough bars for everyone & I got one as well.

🙂

However, all the pandas came out with some sort of deformity.

Assiette – Friday Lunch Set Menu – Surry Hills

Assiette is a hatted restaurant in Surry Hills with a Friday lunch set menu of $35 for 3 courses – of course I had to give it a try. The chef there also recently opened a bistro call District Dining if you want a more casual scene.

This was accompanied by a bottle of Escarpment Pinot Noir Martinborough, NZ. I’m not normally a red drinker, but it was a little cold & dreary & I really wanted something that would warm my insides. This red didn’t have the acidic aftertaste that I normally experience & it had a clean, crisp taste which made it the perfect addition to my lunch.

Bread, warm & toasty from the oven

I love fresh baked bread, there’s nothing finer than the simplest of staples fresh from the oven & still piping hot. This bread was simply wonderful, and I consider myself to definitely be a bread/carbs person.

RECIPE – Xiao Long Bao (Chinese soup dumplings)

Having never made dumplings before (nor done much Chinese cooking), I decided, if I’m only going to make dumplings once in my life, I might as well go for the holy grail.

So how about a dumpling with meat/prawn filling & soup inside?

There were a few firsts for me, first time making dumplings, first time using a wok & first time using a bamboo steamer.

Mmm… tasty

The question is: how do you get soup inside your dumpling?

Pho Pasteur Vietnamese Restaurant – Haymarket

Just a quickie during my lunch break. Not so quick due to service though.

Whenever I go to a Viet restaurant, I always have try the beef rice noodles (pho) because if they can’t get their signature dish right, I doubt they could get anything right.

Pho Pasteur – George St Sydney

RECIPE – BBQ Beer Butt Chicken (BBQBB Chicken?)

Yes, there is a beer up its butt

All vegetarians/vegans, avert thine eyes…now? Err… probably better to avert before coming to this page if possible. 🙂

If you’re looking for a laugh while cooking, this is the recipe to make. I couldn’t stop cracking up through the whole prep time.

This really is a very simple recipe – it just takes a while as you have to slow cook your chicken to keep it succulent & moist.

Sushi Suma Japanese Restaurant – Surry Hills (Wretch!) :(

😦

Two thumbs down from this place because they (allegedly) gave me food poisoning.

This place is always busy when I go by so I thought I’d stop in after doing my Thursday sports. There was actually a line up when I got there, about 5 people (2 groups) were there when I got there about 9pm.  The food was…not fantastic and I was definitely disliking it 3am that night when I had to go purge my system. 😦

Just in case it wasn’t the sashimi, this is my opinion of the place before I was ill.

RECIPE – Zumbo Chocolate Mousse Cake (From Masterchef)

My attempt VS Adrian Zumbo’s Masterpiece

This is a recipe I did about a year ago (again I had a bit of a career break which I was enjoying) 😀 It is a multi-layered chocolate mousse cake that takes hours of preparation to make.

This is something from Masterchef Australia and the evil maestro Adrian Zumbo with his delightful, yet painstaking creations.

The full recipe can be found on the Masterchef Australia website at http://www.masterchef.com.au/chocolate-mousse-cake.htm

This is NOT for the faint-hearted – it’s a very long, complex recipe… I spread this over 3 days due to time & the massive clean-ups required.

The layers (top to bottom)

1. Chocolate blackberry sabayon mousse
2. Salted caramel layer
3. Biscuit jaconde
4. Chocolate blackberry sabayon mousse
5. Texture apple tatin insert
6. Biscuit jaconde
7. Chocolate blackberry sabayon mousse
8. Pate sable cinnamon