Archive | February, 2012

QVM Night Market

25 Feb

QVM Night Market!

Queen Victoria Suzuki Night Market (Wednesday nights, 5:30pm onwards, mid November – February)
513 Elizabeth St,
Melbourne
(03) 9320 5822
Visit Website

Ohhh how I love the Night Market!! I love the Queen Vic Market at the best of times, but the night market just takes it to a new level! There are hundreds of people around, for the food, the drinks, the shopping and the live music. It’s an incredibly lovely atmosphere, everyone’s smiling, and it’s just a fantastic way to spend a mid-week hump day night! Of course, my favourite part of the market is the food, so here are my find from my last visit to the night market – highly recommend you head over next Wednesday night and try some for yourself!!

First up, gozleme! A hand made, Turkish pastry filled with ricotta and spinach this time around, theses are fried and delicious! Sadly, there wasn’t quite enough filling in this one, but other than that, beautiful delicate pastry.

Next up, a very highly stacked arepa – a traditional Colombian, ground corn cake, topped with sausage, cheese, salsa, refried beans and guacamole. Little bit disappointed in the arepa itself – it was honestly a little flavourless, but the toppings were delicious and very plentiful!

The prawn pizza – wow! It was only a little pizza, but the prawns were enormous, fresh and soft, with loads of melty cheese, caked onto a fresh, thin base. Loved it!

Chicken and chorizo paella. Just got the one chunk of chicken drumstick, which wasn’t enough to share, and there wasn’t a heap of chorizo, but the flavour was absolutely flawless. This plate was literally licked clean.

Onto my favourite part: dessert. First up, Lebanese honey dumplings. Well, they were meant to be covered in honey. Once I got to the start of the line though, I discovered chocolate was an option as well. Without Sous-Jeff next to me to supervise, I went with the chocolate, plus some. These were the best things I ate all night, they were soft and doughy inside, and golden and crisp on the outside, smothered in delicious, melted, creamy milk chocolate. Will gladly forfeit dinner and just order 4 bowls of these next time.

And finally, the cupcakes – I am physically unable to leave the night market without one, but this time there were quite a few I wanted to try. Sous-Jeff, in his wisdom, suggested a few minis so I could try a bit of everything – great idea! While there are heaps of flavours to choose from, the bases are all the same, just a standard chocolate or vanilla. It’s the frosting that makes them special, and the frostings really are something to behold.

If you haven’t been to the night market recently, do yourself a huge favour and head in this Wednesday, the last one for this year’s season!!!

A foodie does Thailand!!!

24 Feb

Hooray!!! I finally have my internet back!!! Wow I didn’t realise how much I relied on it… it’s a little scary actually! But now that I’m back online, I can finally share my food experiences in Thailand over my 8 days in Phuket and Bangkok. I was astounded by the amount of street food on offer – all fresh and delicious, and selling like hotcakes! Here’s some of the best of what I found…

Tender, fresh teriyaki chicken skewers at the Chatuchak Weekend Market

Mango sticky coconut rice at Chatuchak - absolutely incredible!

Food cart on Patong Beach, Phuket

The pad thai from the food cart - without a doubt, the BEST pad thai I've EVER eaten!

Restaurant eating in Phuket - prawns, beans, cashews, onion and pineapple in a tomato based sauce... oh my...

The fantastic little food carts that lined the street opposite our hotel in Bangkok

Deep fried crispy pork on rice, courtesy of one of the vendors pictured above! Tasted amazing, and cost the equivalent of AUD$2.00!!!

The lovely ladies of BaiPai Cooking School, who taught us to cook real Thai!

My massaman curry that I made at the cooking school!

Aaaand my stir fried chicken and holy basil on rice! Great cooking class!

Well, there’s my very quick, whirlwind food tour through Thailand – it was an amazing experience, I met some wonderful people and saw some truly incredible things, and am very thankful for my time there :) Already can’t wait to go back and get some more of that pad thai…

Over to you – favourite food you’ve ever eaten on an overseas holiday that you just can’t get or make at the same quality at home?!

Huxtaburger

23 Feb

Multicultural Cuisine of…

America

Huxtaburger
106 Smith St,
Collinwood
(03) 9417 MEAT
Visit Website

I’m baaaack!!! Well, sort of… you see, I’ve been back from Thailand for a few weeks now, but have no internet connection at home at the moment :( which obviously makes blogging a little difficult! I have some amazing Thai food photos to share, but having some problems getting them uploaded at the moment, so they will hopefully be coming soon! Big apologies for the extended break, and huge thanks to everyone who’s still reading and waiting for me to return!

Upon my return to Melbourne, I decided that after all of the healthy(ish) vegetable and meat packed stir-fries I ate in Thailand, it was time to get back to basics, to my absolute favourite food of all, the humble hamburger. Sous-Jeff and I ventured out a couple of weeks ago with every intention of dining at Gasometer, reputed to do a delicious burg, but arrived at lunch time to find it closed.

After a play with the shake function on my Urban Spoon app, I realised that in my excitement for my Thailand trip, I’d totally forgotten about the opening of Huxtaburger! Sister restaurant of the popular Huxtable on Smith St, it’s an old fashioned, American diner type set up, complete with black and white checkered walls, and sit-at-the-bench dining options.

We were out and about to find food for Sous-Jeff’s birthday, and he was easily lured in with the promise of cold beer, and the incredible smells wafting through the door…

We took our seats (stools) at the bench, with the little old air conditioner dripping away over our heads, placed our orders and waited in excitement, as we saw other burgers making their way off the grill. I went with the Huxtaburger (beef pattie, mustard, mayo, tomato sauce, tomato, cheese, lettuce, pickles), while the birthday boy went with the Theo (huxtaburger with bacon, double pattie, double cheese, bbq sauce), both accompanied by a bucket of chips…

Oh my… delicious. Absolutely incredible! Greasy, melted cheese, a very nicely flavoured pattie, and the tanginess from the mayo and mustard… it really was sensational! I know I said before that the Beatbox Raph burger is my all time favourite burger ever, but the Huxtaburger definately gave it a run for it’s money, sitting at a very close second. If you too are a burger lover, you really need to get on down to Huxtaburger and give this one a try.

Would rate it 9.8 out of 10.

Huxtaburger on Urbanspoon

A Birthday Cake :)

5 Feb

Well, I’m back from my amazing Thailand holiday with some great photos! Unfortunately, I also came home to a busted Internet service :( so it will be a little longer before I can post those, but in the mean time, we just celebrated my husbands 30th birthday, and I was in charge of the cake. His only requests were a white chocolate mud cake and a Chicago Bulls logo. I made the mud cake as per the recipe I used for mum’s birthday cake, covered it with royal icing, & painted the logo on. Here’s what we ended up with..

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