garden mystery

 can anyone tell me what this plant is? I'm trying to decide if it's a weed or not. it was here when we moved in, growing among the garlic chives and mint...it smells very strong, sort of like basil but it's not the regular basil.

 i want to know what it is before I decide to mow it down in case it's something good!

 this last week I'd been thumbing through a martha stewart magazine and decided to try making these chicken sausage quesadillas. they're essentially a toasted sandwich made with flat breads. I used these prepackaged naan breads from coles coz they were on special.

 and filled them up with roasted sweet potato pieces, mushrooms, sliced cooked chicken sausage and shredded mozzarella [although i think tasty cheese would've been nicer]

 and served them up with some tomato salsa, guacamole an salad!

these I got from sweet envy - raspberry, nectarine and plum. very nice.... they were quite huge so these lasted me 3 days [a macaron a day!]

Kelantan and...Launceston

Kelantan Delights in Kingston

 Our first time at this Malaysian restaurant/takeaway at Kingston shopping centre did not disappoint. At first, I always wondered why it was always empty, but later found that it's bcoz most of its business were from takeaway customers. Apparently the locals don't think its ambience is eating in for but that's never bothered us! After all a true Malaysian would rather eat food freshly off the wok in a less than perfect "environment" rather than put it in a container to take home, where it would've cooled down/gone soggy/lost a bit of its crispness. the place is not horrible or anything...I found it quite nice, clean and pleasant. besides, the most important thing is the food! on to the food. above, the fried kueh teow [flat rice noodles] which, for $9.50 was a very generous serving [i couldn't eat it all and had to give it to hubby] the noodles were well wok-tossed, you can tell by its caramelization. generous bits of chicken and egg were scattered around it. this place is advertised as being "halal" so it's not completely authentic [no lap cheong or sea ham [cockles!] and instead of garlic chives, it had shredded lettuce and carrot on top! but it's the closest i've ever come to the real thing here in Hobart.

above, the Cantonese style noodles [kung fu chow] which is what hubby orders at every Malaysian place to test its chef's skills. It's basically wok fried flat rice noodles in an eggy sauce with meat and vegetables strewn about. He gave it the thumbs up as the noodles really were so well fried up, there were crispy bits of it where it caramelized properly, and that coated in the steaming fragrant egg sauce was just delightful. we'll definitely come here regularly I think! Again, chicken was used instead of the traditional pork, but that's to keep it "halal" I suppose! I noticed that the fried rice was a popular takeaway choice as well, so might try it the next time. The chef's wok skills appear  to be of a high standard. Although the restaurant's named "Kelantan" [which is a Malaysian state] I can't say I noticed any traditional Kelantanese dishes on the menu...like Nasi Kerabu, Nasi Berlauk, Nasi Tumpang, Laksam or Solok Lada, which would probably have been too "specialized" or "niche" anyway, so it's just a general Malaysian takeaway.

 If anyone's interested in what Kelantanese food is, have a look here. I haven't had most of that stuff myself, not having been there since i was...9!

This is our room at Adina Place motel in Launceston. It was quite nice except that they were doing renovations the whole time we were there so the noise from drilling/hammering/construction punctuated our stay.

 At morty's food court, we had these dishes from D'Sakura Japanese Teppan stall. below, the Japanese curry which isn't a real teppan dish, but just served on a teppan! [iron plate] i've always liked Japanese curry so I enjoyed it. the set comes with miso soup, chilled green tea and a carbohydrate [either rice or pasta]

 it had generous bits of tender beef [how do these takeaway places make their beef and chicken so..unnaturally tender?] potatoes, peas and carrot.

 Hubby had the beef teppanyaki something else with a dark sauce which he liked as well. It came with generous serves of veggies which is always good - gotta get your 5 and 2 a day you know!

I like this food court - it's open till 9.30pm! wish we had a similar thing in Hobart... where it's nearly impossible looking for food most nights...and on weekends without a booking your only hope of eating out is at macca's or KFC! but then you might get pelted with chips by badly behaved hoodie clad teenagers... [believe me - it's happened!]

eating out in Kingston

We've just moved to Kingston! One of our favourite restaurants here is Namaskar, an Indian takeaway/eat in place at Channel Court shopping centre. The food has never failed to be extremely tasty and just right balance of flavours and always very generous portions. We had the Goan fish curry, below which had juicy pieces of white fish in a fragrant, thick slightly tangy sauce.

 the lamb briyani,below which was very nice as well with tender chunks of lamb in seasoned rice.

 the tandoori chicken, below which was much nicer than any i'd ever had in Malaysia in that it was juicy, crisp on the outside and flavourful to the core.

 the naan bread was slightly underdone, but still alright.

 and my favourite, the baigan bharta [eggplant curry] below which was such a nice tasty blend of mashed up roasted eggplant with tomato, spices, ginger and other tasty bits!
the service was excellent except that one of the servers can be a bit too efficient and whisked away our dishes before we'd finished on 2 occasions!
We'd definitely make this one of our regular eating out places.

 The next night we went to Pep pizza at Kingston Beach [opposite Liberty] where we had really good pizza made with really good dough.
we started off with what appeared to be garlic bread, made with pizza dough which was nice.

cant rmbr which one this was but it had bits of spicy sausage in it which i really liked. the pizza base was the best part of it though!

above, the angus beef one which was really really nice too.

 a rose from the garden

and look what one of our new neighbours brought! how nice of them. I feel so welcome already.

eating out..

 we've been in the midst of moving house lately so cooking every meal was not possible in the last few days.
so we've had to eat out a bit! which is expensive! we've been using the entertainment card/book a bit for that.

above, the "big" breakfast at ZUM salamanca [ a trendy cafe at the trendy spot] bacon, mushrooms, poached eggs, tomatoes, sourdough toast and rosemary lamb sausage for $19.95. Everything was perfect except that I didnt like the sausage very much... nothing wrong with it, perhaps I just dont like sausages in general! Loved the oozy egg though.

 the pecan croissant $4.30 which was so decadent with flaky bits of buttery croissant enveloped in a rich toffee like sauce and crunchy pecans. I couldnt eat it all at one go coz after just 1/4 of it i felt SO full! it probably sent my blood sugar through the roof too.... I'd recommend sharing this with someone as there's no one anyone could eat the wh0le thing at once.

 I finally went into sweet envy in North Hobart one morning for breakfast. They open at 8.30am. It was always hard getting into here if you work office hours as they don't open in the evenings for after dinner dessert, and only half a day on saturdays, and not at all on sundays. so I wonder who gets into here! people who dont work perhaps? anyway i've always admired the beautiful shop display. Above is the caramel macaron $2 which was absolutely divine. [crispy fragrant shell, chewy interior, creamy butter icing and oozy caramel centre]

the beautiful display of cakes, nougats, rolls, cookies and macarons. beautiful shop, beautiful display and beautiful sweets! They also have ice creams and coffees, sandwiches and pies so it's a good place for a quick lunch.