Korean

Went to Oriental Spoon for a work lunch. I ordered the spicy chicken which was pretty good. Big portions!

Movida

Went to Movida with friends to see what all the fuss was all about. Since there were six of us we had the banquet, where you get the 10 best dishes of the day. I'm the biggest fan of single bite size dishes so I was quite looking forward to this meal. We were concerned that we might not be full, but its not called a banquet for nothing. The restaurant is dimly lit so my photos were pretty ordinary. I've picked my favourite four dishes out of the ten.


Anchoa - Anchovy with smoked tomato sorbet on crouton. Very salty, but delicious.

Croqueta - Croquette with a creamy cheese filling. One was not enough.

Jamones - Cured ham. Thinly sliced, eaten with pan catalan (like bruschetta). Awesome.

Viera - Scallop with an amazing buttery potato foam.

We had a limited time to complete our banquet, and even on a Monday evening the place seemed to be completely booked. They were considerate enough to cater for expectant mothers with dedicated dishes while the rest of us had cold dishes (such as the Caballa Ahumado, a smoked mackerel with a pine nut gazpacho sorbet). We were quite full by the end of it. It was an expensive meal, and looking at the website now, I've noticed that the price has gone up since we visited, so it was good timing for a sampler of spanish tapas :)

We also had dessert:

You can't go to a Spanish restaurant and not have churros! I still prefer the ones at Vic market, but these were crispy and still very delicious.

This was the special for the night. I didn't have it but it looked nice :)

Now THIS is what I had. Hot chocolate ganache pudding with vanilla icecream and nougat. You had me at pudding. Deliciously decadent, and the nougat was yummy. I was so full at the end of it.

Aloi Na

Went to Aloi Na for an impromptu Thai Birthday Dinner. I ordered the "Gado Gado", which was recommended by the Birthday girl, and which turned out to be chicken in peanut satay sauce with coconut rice.

The sauce was rich and sweet so I was very happy :)

Vietnamese Sweets

I have no idea what this Vietnamese dessert is called, but my grandmother used to make it and it was freaking awesome. The green stuff is some sort of jelly, which is dipped in a sugary coconut sauce. So delicious.

Home made: Banana Cake

I had 3 bananas that were getting far too ripe. Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients needed for banana cake (according to a quick google search) - butter, sugar, self raising flour and vanilla essence, and bananas of course :)

An hr later I got this:

It was very moist. I was very happy with my first attempt, but the cake was huge. I took most of it to work where it was promptly consumed. Everyone showed up to work the next day so I consider this a success :)

Home Made: Risotto

I have meaning to try cooking risotto for quite some time now. I knew that it was a lengthy cooking process, so what better than to attempt this during my holidays.



I used half a cup of arborio rice, and about 3 cups of chicken stock. It took almost an hour to get the rice to the correct texture. All recipes seem to think it only takes half an hr so maybe there was something I didn't do right. This is definately a very rich dish. I had onions and mushroom sauteed in butter, and topped the finish product with parmesan. Very filling and tasty! I will need to cook this again (next holidays perhaps) :)

Food Safari - High Tea

Well lar dee dar, for our latest food safari we decided to go all schmancy and have high tea at the Langham Hotel. We ordered the tiffen afternoon tea as well as the chocolate afternoon tea. Both were delicious, and beautifully presented.

Sandwiches were very yummy, but the standouts were the salmon, egg and chicken pate ones.

But enough of that. Lets check out the desserts!

For October, high tea came with extra macaroons (for the normal tiffin afternoon tea) and chocolate soufflé for the chocolate one. Macaroons were quite disappointing as they were rock hard, but the soufflé was amazing. It was so light and fluffy, and the chocolate pouring sauce was not overbearingly sweet. It was perfect.

Oh, and of course we had tea :)

Although it was supposed to be afternoon tea, we made this our first point of call for the day. Good thing we did, as it took us 3 hours to finish everything. We were absolutely full afterwards. As usual.