Shan Noodles (Shan Khauk Swe)

Shan is one of the states in Burma. Their regional food has a lot of noodle dishes that are well known throughout the country. Shan noodles can be eaten with broth or without. This version is without, allowing you to taste all the flavours of the gravy and appreciate it a lot more. However, the broth version, although the gravy flavours are not as intense, it's perfect when the weather is colder.

So here's the receipe. 

Shan Khauk Swè (Shan Noodles)

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
For Gravy
2 pounds Tomatoes – slit a cross-shape just through the skin with a sharp knife, at the bottom of each tomato and diced
1 teaspoon Salt
1 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (can also use minced chicken or vegetables if you are vegetarian)
3 tablespoon Soy Sauce (adjust to taste)
3 tablespoon Oil
8 cloves of Garlic – crushed or finely chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
1/8 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
4 teaspoons Red Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
2 teaspoon Fish Sauce (adjust to taste)

Black Bean sauce

(you may also use/add fermented soy beans along with the black bean sauce)

Other Ingredients:
  Rice noodles (the skinny flat ones)
Fried Garlic flakes (adjust to taste)

Spring Onions (adjust to taste)

Directions:

1. In a pot big enough to fit all the tomatoes; fill it with 1 cup of water and add salt. Stir and add the tomatoes, cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Once water comes to a boil, cook for about a minute or two, just to loosen up the skin but not to cook the tomatoes.  Remove from heat, pour out the water and leave the tomatoes to cool uncovered.
2. Meanwhile, chop the chicken into as small as you can or about less than 1/4 inch pieces. It will look almost like minced chicken. Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce mix well and keep aside. (I find that partially frozen chicken is easier to work with when chopping it.)
3. When the tomatoes are cool, remove the skin and discard. Cut the tomatoes in half and remove as much seeds as possible without removing any pulp. Discard the seeds, chop the tomatoes finely and keep aside.
4. Heat a pot with oil over medium heat. Once hot, add garlic, turmeric powder, chili powder, black bean sauce (and if you want fermentated soy bean) and cook for few seconds till fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
5. Add chicken, increase heat to high and cook stirring frequently until all chicken pieces turns opaque and it starts to release water. Stir for few more seconds and add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, fish sauce and the remaining 1 tbsp of soy sauce.
6. Stirring occasionally, cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes until all tomatoes are crushed and the oil starts to separate from gravy. You should not need any water but if it is too dry, add some water. Turn off the heat and is ready to be served.

How to serve:
Have all ingredients ready before serving. You will have to work with one serving batch at a time.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. And cook the noodles.
2. Place the cooked noodles into bowl/plate. Ladle couple scoops of chicken gravy on top. Top it up with fried garlic flakes, crushed chili and spring onions and serve immediately.
3. Mix everything before eating. 

Note: 

• Make gravy spicy enough so that you don’t need to add more chili at the time of serving. If not, serve with toasted crushed red pepper.
• The one that was made at home is with minced chicken.

Meeka

The monthly dinners with my group of friends are always an excuse to try new cuisines and places we've been meaning to try but never got around to it. One of those was Meeka.

Meeka is located on the upper end of Rockeby road in Subiaco. It serves Modern Australian dishes with flavours of the Middle East/Morocco. There are a range of  tajine dishes along side  eye fillets, duck and pork.

The service at Meeka was friendly and warm, although I must admit the waitress was rather flustered. We figured she must have been new. She was however, very patient considering we were too busy trying to catch up that we kept forgetting to look at the menu, and when we did, we had trouble deciding what to get.
In the end Wells, MM and I shared a bottle of red from South Australia and we opted to skip the entree as we were more interested in trying dessert. Except V who had the gozleme filled with pumpkin, spinach saffron, Persian feta and lemon.

It smelt absolutely divine and the warm gozleme with the sweet pumpkin, the salty feta and the when the half lemon was squeezed onto the gozleme the variety of flavours worked so well together.

A few of us had the taijines all of which filled our table with amazing aromas of spices and herbs. It's really hard to describe. Each taijine is served with labneh and Israeli couscous or quinoa. I didn't get a chance to taste any of the dishes because I was a little full from my meal. But everyone that had the taijines said it was pretty amazing, with a rich, diverse blend of exotic flavours and textures. I had a bit of food envy.

I let the photos of the taijines speak a little about the dishes, although it wouldn't do much to portray the flavours or the enchanting, mouth-watering aromas.

The rest of us who didn't have the taijine opted for the following;

Bf, had the eye fillet with za'atar sweet potato fondant, vadouvan olive butter, kataifi wrapped asparagus with jus.

Truth be told this to me just tasted like any other fillet, but it did seem to have been marinated in spices before being cooked. 

I had the twice cooked spiced duck leg, roasted carrot almond puree, sauteed spinach, asparagus, dukkah crusted gnocchi and sour cherry glaze. 

 

The duck was beautifully cooked to the extent that it fell right off the bone. The roasted carrot almond puree had such wonderful flavours of saffron with hints of masala. It want so well with the duck. The dukkah crusted gnocchi was just fried little potato balls. Nothing too special, but it did add a different texture to the dish.  

CR and MR choice the slow baked eggplant stuffed with freekeh, prunes, spicy red pepper sauce, house made soft cheese, candied walnuts puffed quinoa and herb salad. (Except MR opted out on the house made soft cheese as she couldn't have diary).

 

The above dish had very intense flavours. It's almost curry like and I wouldn't have minded a bit of rice on the side. I would think if you had to eat this it will get a little too much.

Then the best part of the night... DESSERTS! 

MM, SH and her bf had the Meeka's dessert tasting plate (which I really wanted but bf wouldn't share and I guess it really was a little two much for two people and I was stuffed). So the tasting plate gets you a mini Turkish delight stuffed doughnuts, yoghurt orange blossom panna cotta, candied saffron orange, date and nut filo cigar, nut dust cardamom coffee syrup and coffee date ice cream and raspberry peach liqueur sorbet. So basically it gets a little bit of the other dessert plus bonuses. It looked pretty amazing. 

 

I shared my dessert with bf . The Turkish delight stuffed doughnuts, spiced chocolate sauce, cardamom sugar and substituted the pistachio ice cream for chocolate with chocolate flavoured fairy floss. The Turkish Delight stuffed doughnuts were nice and warm, but I don't think there was enough Turkish delight stuffed in it or at least I didn't get anything, and all I got was doughy doughnuts. But then I'm always disappointed by doughnuts and I rather not get them for dessert. MW's bf had the original version with the pistachio ice cream, which I think would have worked a lot better with the dessert, because it would have gave it a little bit of dimension with the nutty flavours from the ice. Otherwise it felt like eating Turkish delight chocolate.

MW and bf had the spiced dark chocolate white mulberry tart, mulberry syrup, chocolate rose mousse and choc pops. The dark chocolate tart was heavenly. While the chocolate rose mousse was a little lighter and cut through the richness of the tart.

If it wasn't for bf who wanted to share desserts, this would have been my choice - Meeka's Pav with orange honeycomb baby fig cream, orange blossom curd, peanut brittle. This was amazing. It was refreshing, zesty yet sweet. A pleasure to eat.

Overall, Meeka's provided a lovely evening. Although I would have to comment that it took almost 45 minutes for our mains to come out, which meant that we almost missed the movie we were planning to see in Innaloo and also meant that we were starving, considering we had no entrees. In terms of food, if you are looking for something a little different to eat, Meeka provides a good choice. The aromas are enticing, the flavours are rich and variety of textures makes it for exciting eating.

Oggies Ice Creamery

 

Spring is here! And what better way then spending the day through the wineries of middle swan!Especially as it's not too hot yet and the flies haven't come out in full force. The sun is out but there is a slight breeze so it's just perfect!

 

 Anyway, one of the biggest perks of Perth is that you drive about 30-40 minutes from the city and you have reseached the Swan Valley and wineries, breweries, norgout, chocolate, cheese and honey farms!

 

So after having a lovely lunch at Sittella's Winery and stocking up on my wines at Sandalford (who knew I was a VIP member there? Because I didn't!) we went to Oggie Ice Creamery for some dessert and to cool ourselves down.

 

Oggies Ice Creamery has a range of ice cream ranging from classic rum and raisin and honeycomb to a wide range of sorbets.

 

 

 

Apart from the ice-creams they also do banana split, waffles, sundaes and spiders, along with stocking 'ole school sweets and lollies like whizz fizz, jaw breakers and red skins.

 

 

argh what a dodgey photo of me I look half dead! haha

 

I got half scoops of blood orange sorbet and ginger and something (i forgot! oh how bad of me!!) ice cream. And the half scoops was so generous in serving! The ginger-something ice cream tasted like gingerbread man and it actually went really nice with the blood orange sorbet. The blood orange sorbet - the flavours of the blood orange was such a nice refreshing hit on a warm day. It wasn't too tangy and it wasn't too sweet. Perfectly made sorbet!

 

Bf on the other hand got spider with sunkist. He was like a little kid making his spider. How cute!

 

 

Oggies Ice Cream is definitely worth going if you are ever up Swan Valley way, just because their range of ice creams is pretty impressive and they make it all there. Try getting the sorbets because the flavours are pretty intense and just perfect to take the heat off.

Piano man

As part of the Awesome Festival for the school holidays there are random pianos (and out of tune) scattered all across Perth and the Cultural Art Centre. You are encouraged to jump on one and twinkle the ivory keys.

I took a photo of this ole business man sitting at one of the Pianos in the middle of Murray street mall. He looked rather shy and awkward when jumping onto the seat at first, but then one he started to play he was rather relaxed and seemed almost like a kid.
It was a pity that the street performer near him was making such a horrible racket with some toy DJ machine and his laptop.

I sneaked in a photo, because for some reason, seeing this after work, after I got off the bus and away from the peak hour traffic horror, it made me smile.

Subiaco Hotel

A group of us went to Subiaco Hotel for dinner on a weeknight, half for a birthday and half for a catch up. Subiaco Hotel pub and brasserie is one of the landmarks of Subiaco and is located on the corner of Hay street and Rokeby Road. It is a modern and splendid architecture with contemporary decor inside. Polished jarrah flooring, designed pieces of furniture and floral sculptures creates warmth and sophistication. 

It's a pity that it's past it's hey-day considering it has a lot of potential. 

Our drinks were ordered promptly and I opted for the red wine -  an Argentina Malbec, only to be told that they have sold out of the bottle of wine (there is a liquor store next door.. how is it possible?) and instead was offered the chianti, which was actually very nice. Nicely made up for the lack of the Malbec. It was velvety, smooth and rich in flavours I can't remember. 

Anyway, Cam wanted to start of the night with a 3 dips, marinated olives and char-grilled turkish bread, but were informed that they have ran out of this.. (how is that possible?) so we decided to get the warm ciabatta, olive oil and balsamic. 

Warm ciabatta, olive oil in balsamic vinegar

 

The warm ciabatta was toasty on the outside and warm and fluffy on the inside and seemed fresh. The balsamic and olive oil on the other hand seemed a little old, slightly off olive oil, which was a bit of a pity.

But I suppose good bread still wins out. 

 

As for the mains, they weren't bad, just a little over-priced. I ordered the catch of the day which was a barramundi papperdella pasta in creamy sauce with pasley shaved on top. The fish was beautifully cooked, moist and not too dry with a soft, melt in the moment pasta. Having said that though the serving size was small and it got rather oily at the end thanks to the creamy sauce.

 

Barramundi Papperdella pasta in creamy sauce

K, decided she didn't feel like a heavy meal, seeing as she's been stuffing herself on wonderful foods during her holidays settled for a salad. Which I have to say was a moutain of leafy healthy goodness with poached chicken protein.

balsamic poached chicken salad with peppers, spinach, reggiano

Few of the boys wanted the twice-cooked pork belly rojak style with caramelised pineapple, scallops and puffed rice, only to be denied it because for the third time (on a week night) the kitchen sold out. This caused some rather quick scrolling through menu to find their second choice. 

Bf settled for specials - slow cooked beef cheek with handcut fries with bearnaise sauce. I had a couple of bits of his dish and the beek cheek was very tender and the marinate was sticky, sweet goodness, however, the serving was small and for the price you pay, it wasn't to-die-for.

 Slow cooked beef cheek with handcut fries

 Aged porterhouse with bearnaise sauce and fries

KT and C ordered the aged porterhouse with bearnaise sauce and fries. Cooked slightly on the side of well-done than on medium the porterhouse was satisfying on all accounts of being a "man's dish". Bf had major case of food envy.

D had the pasta - the bucatini with smoked pork knuckle, leek, tomato stock and regganio. He polished of his plate. And seemed rather content with his meal. He said it was tomato-ey and the pasta was well-made.

Bucatini with smoked pork knuckle and leek 

The dessert menu at Subiaco Hotel were pretty amazing. However, I must admit that we were all a little scared to choose, fear that our choice will not be available anymore for a Thursday night. Luckily, that was not the case, the desserts were not sold out! HURRAH!

  I settled for the sticky date pudding, which was beautiful to start of with, carmel, sticky goodness with this warm moist pudding with the dab of vanilla ice-cream cutting through the sweetness of the carmel perfectly. After a while though the sweetness got way too much and the carmel got sickening. This one is definitely for the sweet tooths!

 Sticky Date Pudding

K and KT opted for the pannacotta with strawberry sorbet and liquorice sauce. The liquorice sweetened sauce was drizzled over the sorbet and pannacotta. I must admit this dessert was very freshing and a stark contrast to the sticky date pudding I ordered. It was tangy, zesty with sweetness through it. Balanced dessert and one which I wouldn't mind getting again.

Pannacotta with berry sorbet in liquorice sauce

 

 C got the apple crumble, which had huge hints of cinnamon through it but boy did it make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. An indulgence of yesteryears at grandmothers.

CH on the other hand got the decadent chocolate cake with a dab of cream and custard-like sauce. It was like a cross between a brownie and a mudcake and the lovely dark chocolate didn't make it too sweet at all. Definitely one for chocolate addicts.

Then the last dessert had by D, I really can't remember what it was. But it's very berry themed. Obviously not too memorable at all.

Overall the food at Subiaco Hotel is pretty good. Although, I did find all the dishes too be too salty. It's like the chef's hand couldn't keep off the salt, or was on a salt-restricted diet so decided to salt everything! It's a pity like that, because you couldn't taste any other flavours other the salt over the course of attempting to finish your main. The desserts on the other hand were delicious and was a definite highlight of the meal. 

The service? They were very busy and very much understaffed, but the waitress that looked after our table was rather accommodating and profusely apologetic, especially when many of our first choices were not available. The fact that 3 of our choices were not available from the wine the entree (DIPS AND TURKISH BREAD COME ON!!) to the main not available on a Thursday seems like a lack of insight on whoever did the shopping list that week. Disappointing with regards to that.

Will I go back? Probably, it seems like a casual enough catch up venue, although a little loud (mainly thanks to the bar attached).

 

Perth Fashion Festival 2012 - OnWilliam Popsicle Festival

One of my favourite events in the Perth calendar is the Perth Spring Fashion Festival. I particular love participating in the OnWilliam Popsicle fashion festivities. OnWilliam Popsicle allows local up and coming designers to show case their work of art, clothing, jewellery and design. 

Last years was a massive event with lots of pop-up stores, entertainment and vintage sales. To make it even more fun for those participating and exploring they usually have magnets to collect, but last year was the first year for the pins/badges (along with the magnets) to collect,which I only managed to get a handful. They are now displayed on my pin-stripped hat. 

 

This year was a little more tamed in terms of events being held, (but there were definitely more fashion shows on) but nonetheless, the talent that's out there is still pretty impressive. I was likely to free up some time on the opening night of the Fashion Festival and venture into Northbridge to celebrate the start of Popsicle. The streets and all participating stores (that were open) were packed with people. Each store handed out italian wines, italian distilled water and San Pellegrino drink - the blood orange is a good thirst cruncher. They also started the pin and magnet collection.

I managed to grab all 15 pins, proudly pined on my Shelock Holmes hat.

The Grill Restaurant at the Duxton Hotel

 

Please excuse my lack of postings, again blame it all on the fact that I have never ending workload and in between all that trying to enjoy life!

 

On one of my many stressed out nights I was picked up by a friend and we ventured into the city to try something a little nice and doesn't require booking and has a wine list because I was in need of wine.. and one that was in the gold entertainment card, because you know I'm broke and he's broke but we still love food. So we decided to go to the Duxton Hotel and try out their Grill restaurant. It was an early dinner so we were one of the few people eating at the Grill.

 

I don't know how full this place gets, but on the night we went we were looked after enough. After choosing a bottle of red JJ settled with a hearty sirloin steak with red wine sauce and I opted for the fish, barramandi with kimchi sauce.

 

The steak was cooked medium rare, the way it was ordered and the wine sauce was delicious. Paired with the steak it was match made in heaven. JJ commented how much more he wanted more of the sauce.

 

 

My barramandi had crispy skin with moist silky fish that melted in your mouth. It was paired with a very Korean like dish with this kimchi style sauce and almond flakes through it. The textures of the fish with the crunch of the almond flakes made the dish rather interesting to eat (and at times almost confusing). The kimchi sour and chilli sauce actually paired rather nicely with the fish, maybe because I like kimchi? It was definitely different and worth trying. I actually enjoyed the dish it was rather different but in all the good ways.

 

 

For dessert, I opted for the creme brulee with almond brittle and blue cheese. I was a little disappointed because the crack wasn't there and the almond brittle was a really thick and hard and couldn't really eat it. (I wonder if it was made a while ago?) I wasn't impressed by the brulee. However, I've discovered the creme brulee actually works when eaten with blue cheese. The sweetness of the brulee complements the salty and sharpness of the cheese.

 

 

I can't really remember the dish that JJ had but all I know is that it was not what we expected. We expected a little tart pastry but what we got was a plate full of this yummy custard/pudding like thing with pastry slapped on at the top of the pudding with a dub of ice cream. Surprisingly the custard/pudding thing was yummy as and dipped with the pastry it was delicious, to the point where we could have licked the bowl. But that was probably it. The pastry seemed as though it was reheated so it had that "soggy" sort of post-heat taste and feel to it.

 

 

The Grill restaurant isn't bad, but it wasn't worth the price tag. They do steaks well and exploring their flavours in their dishes and making sure it works is a plus. I think their breakfast buffet is probably better. Yes, I've been to their breakfast buffet, but that's another story. At least the restaurant is calm and quite so allows you to just chat in peace without having to raise your voice so much. The staff is pleasant enough. But as Perth restaurants expand if this place doesn't lift its game then it's nothing more than a place for people staying at the hotel to dine in.

 

The Gate Bar and Bistro

So I caught up with bf, bf's bro and bf's bro's friend (confused yet?) for a Friday night dinner at the Gate Bar and Bistro in Success. Yes, what was I doing there?! God knows, but it's good to get out of my comfort zone.

Anyway, the ‘Gate' Bar and Bistro was the winner of the 2008 & 2009 AHA De Bortoli/6PR Perth Pub of the year. The architecture and the interiors of the pub and the restaurant is rather impressive. Nice and bright, streamlined, neat deco and of course plasma screens mounted on the walls.

Bf's brother's friend and bf's brother ordered the steak and rib (which I think is a ridiculously large meal and may explain why our country is obese). They seemed to have enjoyed the meal but bf's bro did comment that it wasn't the best and his medium-rare was overcooked to well-done. But the sauce was sticky bourbon goodness.

Bf grabbed the pork cutlet which was most definitely overcooked and rather fatty. The sauce it came in was rather dense and viscose. The mash was great though. I wasn't a huge fan of the pork cutlet and neither was he.

I regretted my choice - I had the pasta. I probably should have stuck to something pub friendly and something a pub can't stuff up (hopefully) - the chicken pami, but instead I opted for fancy pasta with feta, chicken in pesto sauce. The pasta wasn't cooked properly, the chicken looked as though it was steamed and I daren't eat it as it looked slightly pink. Basically, it was bad.

The vibe at the pub was of course loud and it was packed and the waitstaff were off their feet. Forgetting the drink order. But really, disappointing pub food. I've had better pub food. In fact it's probably more satisfying eating at Hungry Jack's.