the Rootmaster in London

When I think London - I think red double decker buses! This charming restaurant tucked in the corner of the Old Truman Brewery off Bricklane has converted your typical 'routemaster' to The Rootmaster - London's Original Vegan 'Bustaurant'. The bottom level is their kitchen and we were led to the top level, where there were several cosy tables and chairs. It was surprisingly roomy for a 'Bus'taurant, and since we had already eaten, we ordered two glasses of mulled wine and an icecream dessert plate.



Too bad we didn't try anything else on the menu, it looked really good (we were hungrily devouring our next-door diner's food with our eyes).

Anyone know of creative restaurants in Sydney?

Food Halls At Harrods - London!

I'm not dead - hooray! After two exhilirating months in Europe and China, I bring you my food adventures from all corners of the Globe aaaand first stop: London. Though London isn't known for it's amazing food (bangers and mash, anyone?) we went to visit the food halls at Harvey Nichols and Harrods.

One word.

Amazing. A-MA-ZING!

I'd like to think it was what Food Heaven would look like. They had everything you could think of- seafood bar, oyster bar, bakery, patisserie, chocolatier. . .etc, and we were there just in time for everyone's Christmas Shopping. To get some idea of the sheer mindblowingness of Harrods food hall, think of our pitiful imitation; the David Jones food hall in the city, but times a thousand, and mixed with a cocktail of steriods and pure luxury. Below, was a chocolatier carefully glueing on chocolate stars to a chocolate ball in the midst of hundreds of bustling Christmas shoppers - now that is some killer concentration.

So I was wandering around, awestruck, and feasting with my eyes and not my stomach (since the price range was something ludicrous) when I stumbled across this jar of vegemite. Though excited to see Australian Food being represented, the price made me very very sad. Yes. $7 for a jar of vegemite.

And now that I'm back in Australia, I'm feeling pretty good with myself for buying a $3 jar of vegemite twice this size, as opposed to $7 dollars for some salty goodness (great with western star butter and cruskits .... In fact, I'm eating one right now :) )

In addition to ridiculously priced vegemite, there was also the debut of $10 Arnotts Cheese and Bacon Shapes (another favourite munchie), starring alongisde the $8 packet of TimTams. And honey, not surprisingly is expensive all over the world. So moral of the story: bring your own timtams, shapes and vegemites overseas - especially China, where you can't actually find them.

Also, in danger of being extremely blasphemus, the food halls did give me pause for thought. As you may have gathered, I am a foodie. Possibly even a food whore. I know, shocking, considering I'm writing a food blog :). But I felt like these food halls were so luxurious, possibly even too luxurious, because even though I am deeply in love with food (yes, we have a torrid relationship and often argue about whether of not it has a place in my life - namely, my hips), it almost seemed like it was such a waste. That people with too much money were spending so much on delicious, granted, but expensive and unnecessary food - which lets, face it, is consumed and later forgotten about. Though to be unashamedly honest, I remember almost everything I eat.

You may be shaken at the thought, but if we could take all the money and wastage that this insanely luxurious food hall was generating - we could even stop world hunger. Yes, I'm a bleeding heart. But isn't it better to have children eat food in destitute countries, then have 20 different kinds of handmade chocolate counters?

... and let me tell you, this is huge, because I LOVE my chocolate.

Oh, and as a disclaimer; this could be stemming from the fact that I wasn't able to eat/afford any of the food and was thus, unconciously bitter. Had I actually tasted the food, I may very well be singing a completely different tune, something along the lines of ... 'wow.'

Anyhow, barring all that, if you do happen to visit London and even if you aren't a foodie, definitely go visit the Food Halls in of Harrods, and in Harvey Nichols, Fortnum and Masons and even Selfridges. You won't regret it :)

Geoff and Tiff's Wedding!

So after three days of baking and decorating I finally made 180 cupcakes! (Yes I know the original aim was 200, but I may have eaten, one or two . . . or several :P)

It was actually really tiring, but also really fun and thanks so much to Michelle who helped me bake, and Amanda and Ally who helped to decorate! By the end, I was so tired, that some of them turned out really quite dodgy, but ah well :P I'm still learning, which is what counts! While I was baking them all, I was thinking though, if this was what it was like for professional cake decorators. Do they have to stand all day and make hundreds and hundreds of cupcakes? Or cakes? And I realised how tricky it was trying to make a perfectly square cake, which is still didn't really manage, but oh well.

Visual Arts. Sigh. The bane of my existence. Yes, the HSC LIVES ON. Speaking of which, does anyone know when nominations for Art Express come out? I'm rooting for you Janette!

And also! It's official! I'm headed to Europe to meet up with my sister mid-december :) I timed it well, so I can miss out on all the hoo-haa when ATARs come out hopefully :P If all goes to plan, I'll be leaving Sydney on December 15th arriving in London on 16th, travelling around Paris, Spain, Italy before going to HongKong and flying back to China to visit relatives and then getting back to Australia in FEB 17th! 2 months, hurrah!

Korean Pancake!

After much frustration, hair tearing, and general wailing about formatting and deleted posts, I've finally learnt to upload pictures first, BEFORE writing anything.

Ah. All is right with the world.

Anyhow, my Aunt and Uncle came to Australia on Wednesday to hopefully collect their visas. They're staying at our house at the moment, which has actually turned out to be quite interesting ;) (I often emerge from my room and notice that suddenly parts of the house seem a lot cleaner xD) Everyone knows that studies in China are krazeh, and in a country with that many people, getting into university is one step closer to job security and a happy lifestyle. They have university final exams that go for a whole three days that basically determines the rest of their lives. So you can imagine, everyone gets pretty stressed out.

Once they heard that I was doing my HSC, they shoo'd me away from doing anything. It was basically, 'Go study! Go study! GOOOOO study!' Which was kinda nice at first, cause they'd bring me fruit and water and do all the chores. But then, I realised I didn't want to study, and so I was basically confined to my room. Damn.

But teehee, I snuck out into the Kitchen at 11pm and stealthily prepared ingredients to make . . . (dun dun dun) KOREAN SEAFOOD PANCAKE!

Korean Seafood Pancake

Ingredients:

Korean Package Flour Mix (The yellow thing in the picture it tells you how much water to add on the back, but in Korean :P )

250g Pancake Mix

420 ml Water

Seafood: 2 prawns and 2 octopi (clearly, I didn't have a lot of supplies)

Your Choice of Vegetables:

Shallots/Spring Onions

Carrots

Capisicum

1. Mix the flour and water until combined.

2. Stir the other ingredients in.

3. Add oil into a griddle/pan and fry each side on medium heat for a minute or so

4. Serve with YUPPIE mayonnaise, and Okonomiyaki sauce (optional, but makes it ohsoyummy)

:) Can you spot the sideways smiley? (still doesn't know how to rotate pictures D: sigh.)

TADA!!! Pancake :)

5 days and 24 cupcakes!

4 DAYS TO GO! And still not studying properly. (And Back on blog and baking, even after a super long hiatus) It's like the amount I get done is inversely proportional to the square root of the amount of time to exams (teehee, see if you can figure that one out! and apologies in advance for nerdiness.)

Yesterday was the first day I stayed home for the whole day in a long time. I think, during these holidays I've managed to go to every library in a 10mile radius. Carlo, Penno, Castle Hill, Parra, Epping, Eastwood, West Ryde, Hornsby ... and even Dundas (which really, is just one large room). So today also gave me the perfect opportunity to make cupcakes for Richard's 18th birthday! Spent three days doing this, baking the cupcakes, ganaching the cupcakes and then decorating them :)

Check it:

I know pink and yellow are a bit girly, but I thought it was a suitable match for his *ahem* bright shirts. And really, how can you make cupcakes manly anyway? It was also a good excuse for me to test run making cupcakes for Tiff and Geoff's Wedding :) (200 cupcakes in 2 days baby :P It's gonna happen)

Yes. A wedding. They weren't going to have a cake, so I offered to make them one. I was fully ready to make a three tier and gorgeous cake, but realised that making three huge cakes and fondanting them without any prior experience AND during my HSC was just asking for trouble, so instead I settled for wedding cupcakes. And forgoing the opportunity to make wedding cupcakes in order to study for HSC ? Nonsense :P What HSC? What is this HSC of which you speak?

Also, the picture quality is pretty shoddy, because I took them with my mobile phone, since Jen still has the camera in Europe. (sigh). However I'm really excited because I might be going to join her in January! EUROPE! Can you imagine? Think of all those lovely pastriesss :P Maybe I can run away to pastry school and not come back.

Anyhoo, though it's too late for me, STUDY HARD EVERYONE!

AZA AZA FIGHTING! (:P Just rewatched full house - great for procrastination)

P.S. Cupcake designs were also shamelessly ripped off from my idol Su Yin, (http://www.cookingismypassion.blogspot.com/) who incidentally, after finishing a bachelor degree in Sydney, went to America and did a pastry course before returning to her home in Malaysia and starting up her own designer cake business. Neat, huh?

Mmm... shoes?

Mm. I love cake. And I love shoes. Have you seen those pretty babies at Peeptoe? I popped by Castle towers today, and man are they just the most beautiful things I've seen! Too bad they're $250 each :(
But normally, cake and shoes don't mix. I mean, how many times have you dropped that gorgoeous cream sponge cake on your shoe? (Actually, I don't think I've ever done that . . . yet)
Anyhoo, I present to you cake in a shoe
This was my first foray into fondant, and I have to say, it was really fun! fondant = playdough for aspiring chefs. It was a late birthday present cake for a friend who loves her converse, and I was pretty pleased with the result. I wanted to make the converse shoe box, but I ran out of fondant




(The cake was a rich chocolate cake covered in ganache)

dinner

I made dinner today for the first time in a looong time and probably the last time too, (darntrials). Massaman curry, Chicken Stirfry, Stuffed bitter melon and Stirfried vegetables, mmm yumm. TOok the whole day though, it always takes me forever to cook ;P I'll never make it to masterchef at this rate.