kiri aluwa - sri lankan milk toffee

I've never been successful at candy making but I succeeded this time! i'm quite pleased with myself, this being my first try at this recipe. I got my first taste of this a few weeks back from a sri lankan grocery shop in Cheltenham and was hooked. I knew I had to try it myself. it's basically a fudge flavoured with cardamom and vanilla.I used this recipe. instead of a buttering the dish, I just sprayed it with canola oil. Make sure it turns a caramelly brown colour and is really thick before taking it off the heat or else it'll just taste like hardened sugar. I didn't have a candy thermometer so knowing when to take it off was tricky for me but as long as you see that it's thick and takes awhile to come back to the edge of the pan when you stir it, it should be okay. fingers crossed!

after cooling awhile in the pan, I saw that it had hardened so I turned the whole thing out onto a chopping board and cut it with a cleaver [being chinese].

namaste at bundoora square

We heard rave reviews about this place from an indian friend so we knew it would be good. it's right next to psarakos market at bundoora square. we came on a lonely monday night and was greeted by a very warm and friendly waiter. there were non oily papadums and yoghurty sauce for starters.
here're the samosas- crisp and warm just hot off the oil. the crust was yummy and the insides were a tasty yellow potato and pea mash. served up with a sweetish red sauce.
the lamb vindaloo came with a lot of tasty sauce. we asked for it to be "hot", being given 3 choices of mild, medium and hot. gav said we ought to have asked for "Extra hot" but this was already at my limit. the lamb pieces were tender and the sauce was very good except that it was a tiny bit too salty.
we had it all with the yellow basmati rice.
this was my favourite dish of all, the tomato bhindi. the sauce was very good, sweetish, sourish, spicy and complex. and saucy. the pieces of ladies fingers were cooked just right not mushy or overly tough. I would go back again to have this.

sparkling lemonade

i keep getting free lemons from friends whose trees are fruiting. these local lemons are not the sort you'd get from the supermarkets, their skins are so thick. I had a few big ones that I thought would be nice and juicy, only to cut them open and find that their skins were 2cm thick!
here's a nice refreshing drink to have on a hot [ish] day. melbourne appears to have regressed and gone back into winter mode for this week...
must be in mourning for its st kilda team!

boil 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, stirring, till all sugar dissolves. let cool. mix in
1 cup lemon juice and about 1L soda water, taste a bit before adding it all to make sure it's not getting too dilute or too sweet. stir well and add ice. if it's too sweet, add more soda water.

dhal curry from scratch

after seeing how the restaurants charge $9.95 for a bowl of dhal I decided to try making my own. The ingredients are so cheap and it just doesn't take much effort. Just fry up some spices in oil, add the dhal and water and boil it till soft. I used fennel seeds, mustard seeds and cumin seeds, garlic, onions, chilli, curry powder, turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala, salt, pepper and tomatoes.
with some nice crisp hot roti, it's a great and filling breakfast!
or lunch or dinner or supper

village square Greek tavern - Heidelberg

we came here at Burgundy St for dinner last night. it had rave reviews from the Heidelberg Leader so we thought we'd check it out. There was a belly dancer but I'm not really into that sort of thing, plus this being a family restaurant I didn't think it appropriate. would you like your 4 yr old having a sexy belly revealing hip shaking cleavage bearing girl waving her hair at him? scary i'd think! anyway, i liked the wall decorations made to look like we were on a greek island. everything was blue and white. service was a bit slow but maybe it was bcoz it was a weekend.
the saganaki [grilled kefalograviera cheese] was excellent, esp with a squeeze of lemon on top - I'd have this any day over a steak! the outside was crisp and the inside oozing.

of course greek salad is greek salad - but this was a nice refreshing crispy acompaniment to the heaps of meat we had. the fetta was nice and creamy.
i adored this bread. it probably had a lot of butter in it because it was so tasty.
this is the seafood platter at $53. a whole deep fried flounder, grilled shrimp, grilled scallops, battered calamari and some other fillet of fish that I don't know. the calamari was excellent, and cooked just right, the fish was a bit salty but cooked just right so it was nice and tender. everything had lemon in it! we also had the meat platter with grilled lamb, chicken, gyros and some other things. it was tasty but way way too salty! I was so thirsty the whole meal because of this.
we were pleasantly surprised when we asked for the bill to be brought this instead. dessert on the house. baklava, watermelon and galaktoboureko. I would come again but ask them not to be so generous on the salt. perhaps the greeks like their food salty?

Angus Beef

we had to try this new burger at Macca's since seeing its ads everywhere. [their marketing really IS very affective..] we had the "migthy angus" which was a thicker, juicier beef patty compared to their normal beef burgers, with 2 cheese slices, onions, relish, bacon and sour cream on sourdough bread. absolutely nothing healthy in there.
I liked it a lot. I'd give it a 9.5/10 [because the bacon slice was so tiny] else it would've been a 10/10

meaty

i was trying to create a "biscuits with bacon gravy" variation so here i used english crumpets [bacon flavoured! can you believe it?] and chopped bacon with this carbonara sauce in a packet that turned out too salty!

last weekend we had dinner at this malaysian restaurant "lazzat" on lygon street and had fried noodles. it wasn't terrible but a bit too sweet for my liking.

gav ordered this rendang nasi lemak, the rendang was very good and tender and tasty. i wish i'd had that instead! but i ordered this laksa lemak below which wasn't terrible but not that good either. the soup was quite nice but i didn't like how there were so many chunks of raw veggies in it. raw veggies just don't go well with this kinda laksa. it would for assam laksa.
anyway, it's nothing like what we'd get in Malaysia! i wouldn't recommend it.
strolling along Acland road in St Kilda, deandra just had to get into san churros coz of the hype about it so she ordered their classic churros with melted chocolate. the whole little shop had a mexican theme going on it, with warm earthy tones and oranges and browns all over.
of course, the churros and chocolate were completely delicious with the crispness of the pastry and the creamy hot chocolate melting sauce going very well together.

everything else at san churros looked delectably fattening

this is what i had for brunch at a cafe in St Kilda. forgot the name of it. I don't usually order steaks but the description of this dish on the menu looked too tempting. and it was absolutely delicious except for the uncooked bits [which some people like] the peppery rocket just goes so well with the meat and cheese and chutney and sourdough bread. the chips were so buttery and creamy on the inside and crisp on the outside. i'd go back there again!