On Easter Monday we were feeling a bit restless, so Susu, Sandra and myself (the 3 S's!) took a little trip down to the Dandenongs. A long drive works up a big appetite, so we started off with lunch, at Pie in the Sky.


Pie in the Sky
43 Olinda - Monbulk Rd
Olinda Vic 3788
(03) 9751-2128
Website

As an Aussie, I love a good meat pie. However, for some reason I cannot understand, Sandra hates meat pies! So when she suggested we try Pie in the Sky, I jumped in there quick smart. It seemed as though half of Melbourne had the same idea as us - it was super duper crowded! We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table, but it wasn't that bad as we could see that the line was moving and the waitstaff were doing their best to move everyone through as efficiently as they could. (Although they did seem a little understaffed for what must be one of their busiest days of the year!)

See what I mean? The people facing the left are waiting for take-away, the people on the right are waiting for a table.

Sandra had (gasp!) a chicken schnitzel (minus the salad, plus sweet chilli sauce). The chicken was thick and the crumbs were crispy, not greasy. A good schnitzel!
Premium Chicken Schnitzel - $16

The pies are divided into "Aussie Meat Pies" and gourmet, with the gourmet ones costing 1 dollar more.

Su's plate of artery-clogging goodness:

Mushroom pie with steakhouse chips - $13.90

Hehe, this picture, with its lack of colour and huge pile of chips reminds me of a story that Ricky Gervais tells in his Animals stand-up show, about a morbidly obese woman who ate 10 pie & chips a day. How did she do it? We were struggling with just one!!

I went for one of the gourmet ones, a beef and kidney pie. (Mmm... kidneys. I made a steak and kidney pie once, yum yum!)
Beef and kidney pie with steakhouse chips and salad - $14.90

I'm glad I got the salad with my pie, not because it's healthier (haha!), but because I needed something light on that plate full of stodge.

The pastry was light and flaky, and the filling was tasty and had good texture. It had decent sized pieces of kidney in it too, which I loved! I had a small taste of Su's mushroom pie, and the gravy tasted totally different. It's interesting to see that they don't use the same sauce for each pie.

The chips, as you can see, were the thick steakhouse style, and were soggy. SCORE! I love soggy chips! I'm sure I can't be the only one who prefers fat soggy chips to french fries, right guys?



After we rolled out of Pie in the Sky, we drove across to Sassafrass, and had a walk around all the shops, before heading to Miss Marples!

Miss Marples
382 Mt. Dandenong-Tourist Road
Sassafras Vic 3787
(Melways Reference: 66F9)
(03) 9755-1610

Being a long weekend, Miss Marples was crazy busy! When we got there at 3, they said we couldn't get a table until 4:15. D'oh! Su put our names down, and we started waiting. We almost decided to go home, but Su figured that lots of people who'd put their names down wouldn't bother waiting the whole time, so we'd probably get in a little earlier. She also did a bit of schmoozing, saying to the waitress, "We know you're really busy, but if anyone before us cancels we'll just be waiting outside".

We waited about 10 minutes in total before they called us in. Good work Su!!!

Su and I shared scones (one plain, one fruit), and a pot of Yorkshire Gold tea.

I know these scones look like sponge cakes and not scones, but trust me, they are scones! I assume they're cut from one big square scone out the back. Oh wow, imagine how awesome that giant square scone would be!

I love the generous portions of cream and jam they give.
Mmm...

They had a special of waffles with cream, ice-cream and berries, which Sandra couldn't not order! Yummmmm...

So fun! But we were so incredibly full after all of this! We wanted to go for a walk around William Rickett's sanctuary, but by the time we got there it was about to close so we had to give it a miss. I suppose a detox is in order now?

(I now realise this was almost an exact copy of Thanh's daytrip a few weeks ago, but without the exercise and hiking, haha. Great minds!)

Friday night's dinner of pochachoes was so terribly low-brow that I wasn't even going to post about it. Of course I took pictures of it, but then felt that no-one would possibly be interested and decided not to blog it. But after I mentioned it in my previous post, and on Facebook, people kept asking me, "What are pochachoes?"

So here goes. Let's just not tell the cool kids, ok?

Drumroll please....

Pochachoes = NACHOES + but with POTATO WEDGES instead of corn chips.

*Ta Dah!*

I got the idea when Sandra & I went for dinner at Taco Bill a couple of months ago, (again, let's not tell the cool kids!), and I saw "Pochachoes" on the menu. I was most intrigued, but it seemed just a bit too heavy as a starter, especially with enchiladas to follow!

Finally on Friday night I satisfied my pochacho curiosity.

Oven-baked wedges... covered in grated cheese...


And on the side... sour cream, hot salsa and 1/2 a muushed up avocado.

It was really, really delicious. Pocha....choes!

So, who hasn't done some Easter baking this year? This year I haven't had a single Easter egg, but I sure have eaten a lot of hot cross buns! In the past few weeks I've been wolfing down the Bakers' Delight choc chip ones, and we got some free no-name brand hot cross buns at work yesterday. Score!

Of course, there is nothing like HCB's fresh out of the oven, and what better time to bake your own HCB's than on the first day of a 4-day weekend? (Is there a sweeter phrase in the English language?) For some reason, last year I only made a half-batch, but this year I went all out and made 2 batches - one regular, one choc chip. Again, I stuck to the fab, classic recipe from Cookery the Australian Way.

Kneading the dough...


Kneading the chocolate dough...

Shaping the dough into buns before the 2nd proving...

Shaping the chocolate dough into buns before the 2nd proving...

Piping crosses on the dough with a flour-water mix.

Piping melted chocolate onto the buns with melted dark chocolate. (And yes I may have melted slightly too much chocolate which meant I had to eat the rest. Muahahaha. And BTW, salty pretzels dipped in melted dark chocolate are AWESOME).

As you can see, I baked the normal HCB's in a rectangular tray, and the chocolate ones in a 25cm round cake pan.

They only take 15 minutes to bake! But I gave them an extra 10 because it was a double batch and the plain HCB's weren't browning enough for my liking.
(The crosses kinda melted off, I possibly mis-measured the flour, whoops).


It's important to remember the glaze! This glaze includes water, sugar, mixed spice and gelatine, which you whisk together and boil over a high heat.


Brushing the glaze over the buns gives them an irresistible sheen.

Let's all take a moment: Ooooooh.... Aaaah...

Freshly baked hot cross buns with tea. What a fabulous afternoon treat!

I know I've been baking with yeast for a while, but every time it anything turns out that looks like proper bread I'm always surprised, and super proud of myself!

I served the fruit HCB's thickly with Lescure unsalted butter. Mmmmm yum yum.

The rest of the day has been devoted to some serious relaxing: a How I Met Your Mother marathon (Barney rules!), cracking open a bottle of pinot noir, and a big bowl of pochachoes. Wooo!

Hope y'all are having a fabulous Easter weekend!

My darling chocolate fudge cake, it has been a while, hasn't it?

Nigella Lawson's chocolate fudge cake, from Nigella Bites, is my favourite chocolate cake of all time. Moist, rich cake, slathered with light-tasting, fudgy chocolate icing. Heaven. I made it (in triple quantities!) for my 21st birthday, and I've made it a zillion times for my buddies Allstar and Liam, who happened to do my 21st b'day speech. What legends!

Yesterday, I baked it for a rather massive house party we had to celebrate my bro's bday. I baked the cake in the morning, iced it in the arvo, and we all ate it in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

The recipe is here, so I'll just give you the gist of it.

So, in short: you mix melted butter, oil and cold water, then pour in the dry ingredients. (Flour, cocoa, sugar etc etc.) Finally you add a mixture of eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract, and beat gently until smooth and glossy.


Those of you who have been with me for a while will know that I usually bake this in 2 x 20cm round sandwich pans, making an epic double-decker cake of decadent deliciousness. However, in the interests of sharing it amongst many friends, this time I baked it in a 30cm square tin. It took 1 hour at 180C to cook through.


It smelled so good! Once it had cooled down a bit, I roughly hacked off the domed top to smooth it out. And we also got to eat the delicious crunchy offcuts, muahaha.

Of course, I say "once it had cooled down a bit", but when I removed the top there was still steam coming out of it. Hahaha, I guess we were really keen to get stuck in!

The icing is quite easy to make - beat butter until soft and smooth, add icing sugar, melted chocolate and vanilla essence. I always beat the butter and vanilla together; many years ago I had an incident with the chocolate seizing on contact with the vanilla. I passed it off as "choc chip icing", but it really wasn't the same.

I love buttercream icings so much more than ganaches, which tend to be too dark and throat-clogging for my liking.

I iced the cake very simply, just like one of those slab cakes you used to get at school afternoon teas. Another trick I use is to avoid putting it in the fridge, so the icing stays voluptuously soft and creamy. If you refrigerate it, it tends to get hard and a little grainy. (Of course, this advice only holds if you plan on eating the cake on the same day! If you're keeping it for longer, then of course keep it in the fridge.)

A simple decoration belies the utter fabulousness of this cake.

Here is my bro cutting the cake!


And some random shots of partygoers eating cake:
I noticed that everyone does the same "cake-eating" face: mouth open, chin pointed slightly.

It's also been a while since I've put quotes in my blog! So here we go!

Chrissie F: That chocolate cake was AMAZING!
Kristine P: mmmm that was some good cake.. i wanted to have some time alone with that cake and show it a good time!

Some of you who recall the How to Eat project, will recall my chocolate-cake-loving friend Liam, (aka King of Pork). Here's a shot for the fans:

The next morning, I gratefully awoke to a quiet and empty house, and saw this on the kitchen bench.


One small square of cake!!! SCORE!!!

Happy Birthday Daniel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linguine alle vongole is one of my favourite suppers, which I first made in 2005 during my How to Eat Project, and I don't cook it nearly as often as I'd like. Despite it taking a grand total of 15 minutes to make, I don't have a nearby supplier of fresh clams. But, last Saturday I had a nice outing to the market, and thought I'd pick up a small amount of clams for my dinner. 150g was about $4, which seems expensive, but considering all the other ingredients are so cheap, it turned out to be a tidy little dinner.

So, here's how you make it.

Soak 200g of clams in a bowl of cold fresh water.


Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. When the water comes to the boil, add salt and 100g of linguine. Nigella suggests 150g, but I feel that is too much for one person. Cook for the length of time specified on the packet. This is usually about 12 minutes, which gives you just enough time to prepare the rest of the dish. If the pasta is cooked before the clams are ready, just drain it and pour over a little olive oil to prevent it from sticking.

Meanwhile, slice up 1 clove of garlic and crush a dried red chilli.


Add the garlic and 2 tbs olive oil to a pan, and cook on a low heat until softened. (Don't let the garlic burn). Add the crushed dried chilli and cook for another minute. Drain the clams, giving them a rinse to get rid of any excess grit. Turn up the pan to medium-high and tip the clams into the pan. Pour in 80 ml of white wine, which should bubble up vociferously.


Clamp on a lid and let the clams cook for 2 - 3 minutes, or until they all open up. Give the pan a shake every now and then to help the heat distribute evenly.

You will have to throw away any that refuse to open up. Turn off the heat and tip the pasta into the pan, giving it a good stir to mix the clams through evenly, and to make sure all the pasta is coated with the sauce. Add a small sprinkling of chopped parsley, give it another stir, and you are done! There is no need to add cheese (heaven forbid!), and I find it salty enough without adding salt, but taste and see how you go.

It is hard to describe how simple and delicious this meal is. Even though I reduce the amount of pasta from Nigella's recipe, I leave other quantities unchanged, as I just love the salty garlic liquid. There is something about the briney clam liquid, combined with the garlic, chilli and fresh parsley that is just wonderful.

So, Sydney was great, but I am truly, madly, deeply a Melbourne girl. On Saturday night we went out to celebrate my bro's girlfriend Su's birthday. First stop, a dingy laneway bar, followed by late-night Chinatown supper! You can't get more Melbourne than that!

Berlin Bar
16 Corrs Lane
Melbourne, 3000
Ph: (03) 9639 3396

Well, it was only going to be a matter of time before I made my way to the new German-themed bar in Melbourne.

Berlin Bar is on Corrs lane, right next to Eurotrash, and you have to climb some stairs and ring a bell before someone lets you in. Our waitress was super-nice and friendly, but apparently the guy who let Su in had a bit of an attitude. Incidentally, we found that lots of the waiters were French, and we didn't spot any Germans. (Not a big deal, obviously, just interesting to note).


The bar is split into East and West Berlin, with appropriate decor. We sat in "East Berlin". Our table was a bathtub, there were bunk beds and ammo boxes around, and The Great Dictator was (rather anachronistically) projected onto one of the walls.

It was table service only, and for some reason the drinks list that we got was much more limited than the website. Either way, there were some cocktails, and a good selection of German beers. (Sadly, the Feuerzangenbowle didn't appear to be available).

Unfortunately the cocktail list isn't available on the website, so I am going from memory here. Apologies if I've missed any ingredients!

Top Left: Funkturm - Cocktail with grapefruit juice - $18
Top Right: Checkpoint Charlie - Hennessey & Chambord, some juices and a pepper-rim - $18
Bottom Left: Pear & Muscovado Julep - $18
Bottom Right: Love Parade - Can't remember the alcohols, but it had muddled strawberries - $18

Of the cocktails we ordered (most of us were drinking beer), my faves were the Love Parade and the deliciously grapefruity Funkturm. However, I can't say that the cocktails blew us away - there are heaps of bars in Melbourne that do a larger range of cocktails, at similar prices, but better quality. (Match, Toff's and Polly spring to mind, although I'm sure there are many more). I also prefer Champagne or vodka-based cocktails, and they didn't have too many of them here.

I was going to go to Berlin Bar for my birthday this year, but I'll probably choose somewhere else now. Although, if they start serving German-themed bar snacks, I'd be back in a flash!

The bathtub table.

As usual, all that drinking makes you hungry, and at around 2:30am we were feeling peckish. Luckily for us, it was a very short walk down to Ling Nam for supper.


Ling Nam
204 Lt Bourke St
Melbourne 3000
Ph: (03) 9663-2347

We always seem to end up at Ling Nam after a night of drinking (which actually doesn't happen that often for me; I'm a responsible adult now!) It's my favourite CBD supper place. Yes, I like it more than Supper Inn - gasp! And, it's open til 3:30!

Here's what the 10 of us ate:

Clams in XO sauce with Crullers - It's a house speciality, I think. Every table seems to have a plate of these, and I've never seen this dish at another restaurant.

Double serve of deep-fried chicken ribs with salt and chilli. Crazy-strong with the MSG but still tasty!

Massive bowl of plain congee to share.

Sweet and Sour Prawns. Yes, we teased Justin that he was being really Aussie ordering sweet and sour prawns, but by god these were good!

Stir-fried spinach. Because green vegetables will cancel out all the alcohol and fried food, yes? Delicious.

Double-serving of salt and pepper calamari. Oh yes.

And that, my friends, is one of the reasons why I love Melbourne.