Moonah treasures

 We love going to the Moonah Island markets - especially if you go early, the fresh veggies from this stall are plentiful and beautiful! We love getting our kailan, coriander, choysum, bokchoy, kangkung and daikon radishes from him.

 this roasted pork belly piece from the Vietnamese stall $2 was yummy. even comes with 3 hot chips!

At the Sawak cafe stall [next to Churros] this is the best char kueh teow in Hobart at $7.50 - stir fried by a Penang boy!  He's always very cheerful and helpful. Great customer service, great food, great price - what more can you ask for? Every serving comes with big juicy prawns, slices of chicken, bean sprouts and wok- fragrant noodles.

some of the fresh fish on sale.

 The prices here are definitely much cheaper than Coles or Woolies.

 We had lunch at Kawasemi at Dickenson’s Arcade off the main street in Moonah. This place is so nice and cozy with interesting Japanese decor like bonzais, noren curtains, Japanese paintings and ikebana type flower arrangements.

 above, the tonkatsu with rice. Very nice and at just $10.50! could that even get you a greasy fish n chip takeaway box at flippers?

this bento box at $15.50 was gorgeous - there were so many little elements to it that it keeps you interested right till the last mouthful. It had salmon and tuna sashimi, some tsukemono pickles, tempura-ed prawn, capsicum, onion, broccoli and eggplant, sweet tamago omellete, simmered sweet potato sticks, cauliflower and an octopus tentacle, a bundle of smoked salmon slices wrapped in nori, a mound of creamy potato salad, a generous piece of breaded tonkatsu [pork], a little beefburger, some coleslaw, 4 pieces of sushi each with different fillings including smoked salmon, avocado, cucumber, seaweed, omelette and ikura, and bits of salad and wasabi as garnishes. also it came with a delicate bonito stock soup and dipping sauce for the tempura. Both our meals came with a pasta salad starter that I didn't much more.

The star of the meal for me was the dessert - an elegant green tea pancake filled with custard served with green tea ice cream and slivers of apple and grapes [$4.50]- but alas i didn't  take a photo!

I would definitely come again and try the other items. Service was great and they provided a high chair for the baby. It was very popular for lunchtime takeaways so I'd recommend coming in at 10.30am if you're after a quiet meal.

Kawasemi Japanese Tea House

Dickenson’s Arcade 109 Main Rd
Moonah TAS 7009
(03) 6278 1322

zucchini

this week, i cooked up a quick "Jeyuk-bokkeum" [Korean pork stir fry with chilli bean paste]

to have with kimchi and kangkung.

 we got given a huge zucchini [above!] so i used it in a quiche below. We also had zucchini rice porridge, zucchini pizza and zuchinni slice.

 below, some of the mush that Jo gets for dinner - pureed apple, pureed chicken with tomatoes and oats, and mashed raspberries in greek yoghurt. He refuses to drink from his sippy cup so i feed him water using a spoon.

shortcut char siu

 The maple syrup scone recipe from this book is awesome! also i love this book's photography. They were so buttery and crumbly, it was almost like eating shortcrust pastry.

 We usually buy a pork leg roast then divide it into 4-5 portions to freeze. The fatty parts from this one we made into char siu. The seasoning was from a packet from Thailand.It was quite good! tasted as good as any char siu i've ever had in malaysia. perhaps better coz I sliced ours more generously! 

Very easy as well - mix the powder with some water and marinade the pork for at least 3 hours. [I just left it in it overnight] then roast it and slice it up.

a typical night's dinner  -  rice with a vegetable dish, a meat dish and soup.

special fried rice at Kelantan Delights

Every time I come here there are people waiting for their takeaway orders of the special fried rice ($11.50). I generally don't order fried rice when I'm out since we often make it at home using whatever leftovers we have, but I finally decided to see what so great about it. I was not disappointed! It's freshly stir fried after the order is taken and arrives at the table smoking hot, with a fragrant omelette on top with crisp browned edges. Each bit of chicken, rice or vegetable is nicely "wok caramelized" and I had no trouble polishing off the whole plate.

I asked the chef why their roti canai was so popular, he says it's because each serve is freshly made after the order is taken, not cooked from a frozen state.



Kingston Plaza Channel Hwy  Kingston TAS 7050, Australia

chinese new year

We managed to recreate a Chinese Malaysian Lunar new year feast quite well I think...! the only things we didn't have were firecrackers and bad karaoke.

even this little man got dressed up in red!

summer

 I made this light, refreshing "creme caramel" using agar agar instead of eggs. really nice without the guilt! of course it's not as rich and creamy as the real thing but good for a change.

This is a japanese inspired dinner for the hubby- rice, with stir fried greens, fried chicken, simmered radish and vegetable soup.

crab dumplings

A package of wonton skins had been sitting in our fridge for months now and I thought i really should do something with them - so i stuffed them with some canned crabmeat mixed with shredded carrot and seasonings and steamed some, and stuffed some with the same filling and shredded cheese, sprayed them with olive oil and baked them. The steamed ones turned out alright but the baked ones were too dry. Canned crabmeat does not taste like crab at all! It was just..like flavourless flakes of crab meat. I suppose you get what you pay for! Still, I thought they were yummy enough.