CNY abalone!

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Bondi Massive brekky on a wet day!

 

Home Thai - 299 Sussex Street, Sydney CBD/Chinatown end

As you know Sydney is filled with an abundant array of Thai restaurants. My first post was about "House" Thai which served different traditional food from the north eastern part of Thailand. But this post is about "Home" Thai, serving up more well known Thai dishes but served up in a cracking deliciously awesome way, so that's why we chose this place to catch up with our visiting friend who has really missed good Thai food after living in London for the past 3 years.

Home does take bookings, but it books up fast so if you missed out, you just rock up, write your name on the list and the number of people you have, which is stuck to the glass door and then rip off your paper number and wait for it to be called. We had 7 people and waited for about 10 minutes aftter arriving at 6:20pm on a Friday night. There were lots of people rocking up by then but it seemed to move fast. At first I was like where are the waiters . . but then I realised that the bags across their bodies were ipad holders which was how they took all the orders! Service is fast and efficient. Open kitchen for the people waiting, a very good idea.

Ok, so I totally forgot to take photos of all of the entrees. Pictured is the last piece of the Thai sausage and the steamed dumplings. This is what we ate:

 

 

　

FRESH SPRING ROLL $8.90 Fresh spring rolls wrapped with crab meat, cucumber, tofu, bean sprouts, egg, Chinese sausage served with sweet tamarind sauce: The freshness was there and all the inside ingredients were good but the sweet tamarind sauce was overpowering and made it all too sweet. If you order this I suggest asking for the sauce to be on the side. 5.5/10

 

PLA HED (FISH CAKE) $7.90 Deep fried red fish blended with red chili paste and herbs served with cucumber, peanut, onion and chili sauce: Was a great fish cake, nice and spicy and not too rubbery. 8/10

 

KUI CHAY (4 PCS) $4.90 Steamed dumplings stuffed with garlic chive: Ok a bit soggy, leave the dumplings to the Chinese :) 6/10

 

SAI GROOG ISAN $10.90 A homemade Thai sausage traditionally from the eastern part of Thailand grilled and served with fresh ginger and vegetable: I never had this before and it was very tasty especially with the crispy sheet of pastry wrapped around it. 8/10

For mains we had:

LARB NAM TOK BEEF $10.90 Grilled medium  cooked beef with shallot, coriander, mint, long leaf coriander, grind rice, chili powder and chef’s dressing: The waitress told us it was quite hot, so we asked for mild. But it was still quite hot. Tasty nevertheless, one of the better beef salads I've had. The beef was cooked to perfection and not chewy at all. 8.5/10

 

PAD PIK KHING $13.90 Stir fried crispy pork belly with chili, lime leaf, green bean and pik khing sauce: I chose this one as I wanted to compare it to Spice I Am's version. It was really good and bursting with the chilli hotness and fatty pork goodness! This version is a saucier, not as dry as Spice I Am's, so really it is up to personal taste. The pork is still really crunchy but the pieces are smaller so on that point only it loses out to it's competitor! 9/10 (Spice I Am's = 10/10)

 

PAD THAI WOON SEN $10.50 A traditional Thai wok tossed noodle dish with vermicelli, chicken, egg & a tamarind sauce. Served with fresh lemon, peanuts & bean sprouts: We had the chicken version and it was a pretty good Pad Thai. Not to wet or dry and I really liked how they put the peanuts on the side, I don't like it when they are in the noodle already. 7.5/10

 

PAD SEE EW $10.50 Fresh rice sheet noodles wok tossed in a soy sauce with prawns. This was a friends dish, I didn't taste this but it looked great, the prawns were nice and big.   For some reason this pic uploaded portrait and I can't rotate it!

 

GANG DANG $12.90 Red curry paste with coconut milk, cherry eggplant, apple eggplant, basil, lime leaf and long red chilli: We had chicken gang dang and it was a solid hot curry, like Panang but probably less sweet which I like. There were small boneless chicken bits, not chicken with bones, so therefore a little less flavour. But I guess you will always have that seeing as this is a curry where you can choose your protein. It's still a great tasting curry, so I give it 9/10.

There was definitely no room for dessert! Maybe next time.

Dress code: Casual, anything can go here. From corporate Chanel, to vintage dresses and havies.

If you love Thai, you've probably already eaten here but if you haven't and you're craving Thai flavours this is one place you have to try.

 

　
　

　

I must, I must, make this cake one day!!!

Ok, so here is the recipe for "LEMON CHEESECAKE" from Mrs Short, not Berry Cheesecake as I have been calling it! Haha, name shmame, it's so good! So a delcious cheesecake recipe for all who actually bake. Maybe one day I will be not be lazy and actually use my brand new cake tin with spring thingymijig to make this, it's been sitting in my kitchen cupboard from,well, say the xmas sales of 2009???

Anyway it's so creamy with the lemon tang but not the tangy tang that makes your left eye wink a bit and twitch for a second, but the mmmm sort of tang with a lot of yummy sweetness! The berries are just extra goodness, just to make it more healthy! :)

Ingredients:
500g original Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup condensed milk
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 cup thickened cream
Extra cream to decorate and sprinkle of nutmeg
Biscuit crust:
20cm springform cake tin
225g Arnotts Nice biscuits
110g butter
Method:
Place Arnotts Nice biscuits in a food processor until biscuits become fine crumbs
Melt butter, place in biscuit crumbs and mix well then press firmly onto side and base of cake tin
Place in oven to lightly brown, cool thoroughly
Bring cream cheese to room temperature then beat with heavy beaters until smooth
Add condensed milk, lemon juice and vinegar. Beat until creamy. Fold in whipped cream, pour into crumb crust
Refrigerate overnight
Decorate with extra cream and sprinkle with nutmegWallah!

When dinner just wasn't enough!

I hate it when you're lying in bed and you can't sleep because your stomach just isn't quite full enough and making those slight gurgling " feed me" noises. It's really annoying, so I've found the best 2 min vermicelli stomach killers at Coles. Only 60c too! Crab is the way to go, well, they only sell this flavour, but its tasty as! You should try it.
Ok, got to eat and then sleep. So tired! Hope I can after these. Mmmmm!

Festive Food!!!

Christmas!

I hope everyone had a happy xmas and looking forward to an exciting new year ahead!  The holidays are nearing to an end and after having a very bloated stomach over the last 2 weeks, it is time to relive eating but by photos only haha. . .  2012 will involve healthier eating and maybe more home cooking too , I hope anyway!

Ok so it has been a while since I feasted on these delicious dishes and I am about to relive it!  So this xmas dinner was put on my friends the Gilberts who do a yearly xmas dinner that is always yum!  Although I totally had my nights mixed up and missed it the xmas before!  Damn!  Thanks for this years one though!  It was great!

Anyway lets get into it.  Here it is, again sorry for the bad photos. . .

Spuds (boiled) with chives and butter!

Curried prawn and mango salad - recipe below

Recipe for curried prawn and mango salad:

12 medium cooked king prawns
1 small chicken cooked
2 medium mangoes sliced thinly
1 red onion finely sliced
1 medium cucumber finely sliced
half cup bottled mayonnaise
half cup of sour cream
2 tablespoons mango chutney
2 tablespoons mild curry powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
200g punnet snow pea sprouts

1. Shell and de-vein prawns
2. Remove meat from chicken and discard skin. cut chicken meat into strips
3. Combine prawns and chicken in a large bowl along with mango, onion and cucumber
4. In a medium sized bowl mix together mayo, sour cream, chutney, curry powder and mint
5. Pour mixture over salad vegetables and toss well to coat 
6. Serve the salad on a bed of snow pea sprouts

  

Green salad with almonds - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/great-green-salad/

Watermelon salad with chilli and lime dressing http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2492/watermelon+salad+with+chilli+lime+dressing
Bread from Arthur's Bavarian Bakehouse in West Pymble/Gordon - sun dried tomato and feta (in first photo)
 

The star was BBQ roated pork loin, stuffed with cranberry and pistachio - courtesy of http://www.craigsbutchery.com.au/ (also local to West Pymble)

 Berry cheesecake – Mrs Shorts recipe, tbc!  

 Then for actual xmas day food this is what we had at the very holidayee home at  Bribie Island.  Thanks in-laws! 

First course: Seafood platter of lobster, oysters and crab!  Yummo!

Second course – Wok cooked prawns with chorizo!  Double yum!

Third course – BBQ’d salmon with salad!  Delish!  Was getting a bit full here . . .

Dessert – Pudding was offered but opted for vanilla ice cream with berry coulis!  So good!    I know a pic of this is a bit plain, but it's part of the day! Lol!  Oh it had smashed ginger biscuits on top for a bit of crunch!  The mother in-laws finishing touch!  Nice way to end the xmas lunch!

And wait for it for dinner we had BBQ cooked whole duck marinated in soy and hoisin sauce!  Cooked to perfection by my father in law!  Was in a food coma and didn’t take a photo of the plated up duck, but yeah it was awesome!  He also made 2 dipping sauces, hoisin with garlic and then another one with a chilli and citrus tang!  

Aaaah food glorious festive holiday food!  Glad it's only once a year! Otherwise . . .